A Gambling Father, a Weak Mother, and His Tragic Life

The tattooed man spat, weighed the iron pipe in his hand, and glared fiercely at Yu Fuli: "Pretty boy, looking for death, huh? I'll take care of you too!"

"Discipline me?" Yu Fuli seemed to chuckle lightly, her voice tinged with regret. "That's a bit difficult. I don't really like being disciplined."

He had barely finished speaking, and without even seeming to exert any force, he simply flicked his wrist casually.

The broken piece of rusty iron flew out of his hand, turning into a blurry shadow. With a clatter, it precisely pierced into a crack in the concrete floor less than an inch in front of the tattooed man's feet, penetrating several inches deep. Its tail vibrated violently, emitting a buzzing sound.

The power and accuracy were extraordinary.

The expressions of the thugs, including the man with the tattooed arm, all changed.

This is a move that ordinary people can't pull off.

Yu Fuli patted non-existent dust off his hands and slowly took a step forward.

It was just a normal gait, but it made the thugs blocking the alley instinctively take a half step to the side.

"He owes you money?" Yu Fuli gestured with her chin towards Lin Xun lying on the ground. "Can I see the IOU?"

"Who do you think you are?" the blond-haired man shouted, his voice trembling with fear, but he dared not step forward.

"Me?" Yu Fuli tilted her head, her eyes crinkling into a smile. "I'm his teacher. It's not unreasonable for a teacher to inquire about a student's debts, is it?"

teacher?

The tattooed man's eyes darted back and forth between Yu Fuli and Lin Xun with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.

A teacher from Saint Laurent Academy? What are they doing in a place like this? And dressed like that?

Before he could react, Yu Fuli's gaze swept over Lin Xun's disheveled appearance, and when it landed on the tattooed man's face, the smile faded: "Loan sharking is illegal, and violent debt collection is even more so. You can leave now, and I can pretend I didn't see anything today."

"Bullshit!" The tattooed man was enraged by his attitude. He glanced at the still-trembling iron bar at his feet, his ferocity rising. "Who does a schoolteacher think he's scaring! Brothers, let's include this busybody..."

Before he could finish his harsh words, Yu Fuli suddenly moved.

He didn't rush towards anyone; he simply raised his foot very quickly and kicked a small pebble away.

"Whoosh—smack!"

A pebble struck the lampshade of an old wall lamp that was already rusted but still hanging precariously on the wall next to it.

The already precarious lampshade fell with a crash, landing at the feet of the tattooed man, sending shards of glass flying and startling him into jumping back.

Yu Fuli had somehow gotten past them and stood in front of Lin Xun, blocking him from the group of thugs.

He crouched down, reached out to help him up, and asked in a low, gentle voice, "Can you get up, Lin Xun?"

Lin Xun stared blankly at the profile so close to his face, at the strand of black hair that slipped out from under the hat brim, and seemed to smell a faint, refreshing scent of soapberry, so different from the surrounding filth.

His Adam's apple bobbed, and he said in a hoarse voice, "Teacher Yu...?"

"Yes, it's me." Yu Fuli responded, already supporting his arm to help him half up, but her eyes were still warily watching the movements behind her.

The tattooed man's expression shifted as he watched Yu Fuli's seemingly effortless movements, then glanced at the iron bar stuck in the ground and the broken glass at his feet. His heart began to pound.

This teacher is weird! And it seems like he's really going to protect that kid.

"Fine...fine! You've got guts!" The tattooed man weighed the pros and cons, finally gritting his teeth and pointing at Lin Xun, "Kid, you're lucky today! But this isn't over! Let's go!"

He and a few of his henchmen disappeared into the other end of the alley, cursing and swearing.

The alleyway fell silent again, with only the sound of flowing sewage and the faint noise from afar.

Yu Fuli then turned around, carefully examining Lin Xun's injuries and muddy body, her brows furrowing slightly: "How badly are you injured? Besides your face, where else does it hurt?"

Lin Xun managed to stand up with the help of Yu Fuli's arm.

My whole body ached, my cheeks burned, and my knees and elbows were bleeding from scrapes on the rough ground, mixed with mud and water. I looked a mess.

But he shook his head, his voice hoarse: "...It's just a superficial wound, nothing serious."

He looked at Yu Fuli with complicated emotions, the shock and confusion still lingering: "Teacher Yu, you... how did you get here?"

Yu Fuli did not answer immediately.

He quickly scanned his surroundings to make sure the thugs had indeed left before he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just passing by," Yu Fuli said casually. He reached out and lightly touched Lin Xun's arm. "Can you walk? Let's get out of here first."

Lin Xun pursed her lips.

Just passing by?

In this place, at this time, a Saint Laurent teacher was passing by the most chaotic corner of the downtown area, and happened to be passing by the scene where he was being beaten up.

This is even more bizarre than the coincidences in his own life.

But he didn't ask any further questions.

He simply nodded silently, tried to take a step, but stumbled.

Yu Fuli immediately steadied him, saying, "Don't push yourself. Let me help you out and find a place to treat your wound."

His gaze fell on Lin Xun's swollen and bleeding cheeks and the obvious abrasions on her body, and his brows furrowed even more. "Do you live nearby?"

He asked, then immediately rejected the idea, "No, don't go back yet. Those people might not have gone far, or they might come to your house to wait for you."

Lin Xun twitched the corners of his mouth into a mocking smile. His so-called "home" was completely unsafe.

Just like his so-called parents, they would immediately disappear when the debt collectors came, leaving him to face it all alone.

Yu Fuli glanced at his pale face and drooping eyelashes, and sighed inwardly. "Come with me."

He didn't ask any more questions, and half-supported, half-carried Lin Xun, towards the alley entrance, down a relatively cleaner path in the opposite direction from where he had come from.

The night wind blew by, carrying the murky smell unique to the lower city.

Lin Xun leaned almost all his weight on Yu Fuli. He could smell the clean scent on his teacher, which seemed out of place with everything around him.

His mind was in turmoil, a mixture of pain, curiosity, confusion, and profound questions about the appearance of Yu Fuli.

"Teacher..." Lin Xun lowered her head, her voice so soft it was almost carried away by the wind, "Why...why did you help me?"

Yu Fuli did not stop walking, her gaze fixed on the dimly lit street ahead, her profile somewhat blurred by the scattered lights in the distance.

"Because," he paused, his voice clear and calm in the night breeze, "I am your teacher."

"Really?" Lin Xun asked softly, and Yu Fuli almost didn't hear her.

"Of course it's true!"

Lin Xun lowered his head, his eyes filled with extreme coldness.

The teacher's words were so beautiful, it's a pity...

He didn't believe it.

When Yu Fuli saw that he stopped talking after asking the question, she felt a little guilty, though not entirely because she was his teacher.

The main reason is that you are the most tragic protagonist in this ridiculously sweet romance novel.

Yu Fuli silently added a sentence in his mind.

As he successfully rescued Lin Xun, the system seemed to unlock more background information about this world, especially Lin Xun's detailed past.

Yu Fuli quickly finished browsing, and only one thought remained in her mind—

awful.

It's really miserable.

If you were to summarize Lin Xun's early life in one sentence, it would be an absolutely perfect tragic template: a father addicted to gambling, a weak and incompetent mother, and a man struggling in the mud, already broken beyond repair.

Lin Xun was born into a very ordinary and typical family in the Xiacheng District.

Ordinary to the point of poverty is the underlying tone, and struggle is the daily routine.

The father is an empty shell hollowed out by alcohol and gambling addiction; domestic violence and demands are the only remaining expressions of "fatherly love."

The mother was a woman whose back had been bent by life, who had become accustomed to accepting whatever came her way, and whose only weapons were tears and silence.

Young Lin Xun not only had to endure physical abuse from his father, but also mental torment from his mother.

Whenever her father, reeking of alcohol, raised his fist, her mother would never step forward to stop him; she would simply shrink into a corner and weep silently.

When the storm subsided, she would go to Lin Xun, who was curled up on the ground, and wipe the dirt and blood from his face with trembling hands, repeatedly murmuring, "Your father wasn't like this before... He used to be so good to me..."

When he finally managed to save up a few meager coins by collecting scraps and doing odd jobs, harboring the humble hope that he might be able to buy an old textbook or some medicine for his mother, his father would always accurately find these coins hidden in the cracks in the bricks and the old shoe shells, snatch them away, and plunge into the gambling den or tavern without looking back.

His mother, still weeping, stroked his back, which was taut with despair, and tried to "comfort" Lin Xun with her feeble words: "Don't blame your father... He used to be very family-oriented and responsible... It's just that the world is so bad..."

Thus, little Lin Xun was trapped in this torture chamber called "Family".

The father inflicted physical punishment that tore at the skin, and plundered material hopes by crushing them time and time again.

And his mother, with her weak and helpless tears and her ramblings about the illusory past, wove another fine and invisible net, gently and continuously strangling any glimmer of hope in his spirit that tried to break free.

Both their bodies and minds were subjected to a double and endless torture.

In this barren, cold, and hopeless soil, Lin Xun, this seed, was destined to bloom into a "resilient little white flower" to withstand the even more outrageous sweet and pampering storms of the future.

It's so absurd it's laughable.