Chapter 244

This situation continued until the fourth grade of elementary school, when my grandparents passed away one after another.

Not long after, the mother could no longer tolerate her father's gambling addiction, so she divorced him and lived alone with Zhu Zhixue. In order to take revenge on her gambling ex-husband, she even changed Zhu Zhixue's name to Wang Shuangmei.

Later, her mother remarried and sent her back to her father.

In fact, her mother was very nice to her at the beginning, but things started to get worse after she became pregnant, and things got even worse after she gave birth to a younger brother with her stepfather.

In comparison, her gambling father was gentler to her, although he would beat her, but he rarely beat her after her grandparents passed away, and now he only beat her when he was drunk.

If she didn't drink, her father was quite nice to her, at least he wouldn't scold her often, and he would give her living expenses from time to time. If the school asked for money, he would try to give it to her.

As far as Zhu Zhixue knew, her father had stopped gambling in the past two years because the only remaining inheritance from her grandparents was completely squandered. He was in debt outside and couldn't borrow any money. She didn't know what he usually did now, but he often came home drunk.

Zhu Zhixue didn't care about these things. She had a distant relationship with her father and always felt awkward when getting along with him. She didn't know how to be a daughter to her father, and he didn't know how to be a father to his daughter either.

The former is still okay, but the latter is basically losing the authority of "father".

Especially when the year is coming to an end, debt collectors will come to your door again. This is a regular event every year.

The night two days ago was the prelude. The debt collectors banged on the door for a long time, and Zhu Zhixue hid in the room pretending not to hear.

She was very grateful that Li Zhuangsheng gave her a BBK music phone. She put on headphones and turned up the volume of the music. Then she opened QQ and pretended to chat with Li Zhuangsheng, as if she would not be afraid anymore.

After a long time, the sound of knocking on the door completely disappeared. Zhu Zhixue tiptoed to the door, confirmed through the peephole that the person had left, and then opened the door.

As expected, the door and walls were covered with red paint and black ink.

Pay your debts!
Coward!

I wish X would not pay back the money he owes!

殺！
Looking at the eye-catching words, Zhu Zhixue quickly returned to the kitchen, picked up something to hold the door against the wall, sprinkled detergent on it, and rubbed the door and wall hard with a steel wool.

She had only one thought in her mind: wipe these things off as soon as possible! Try not to let anyone see them!

Although she knew that with such a big commotion just now, people who should know it would have known it long ago. But just like covering one's ears and stealing a bell, Zhu Zhixue desperately erased the words, as if as long as she erased the words, then everything that happened just now would not have happened.

After doing all this, Zhu Zhixue returned to the house exhausted.

The door keyhole must have been blocked, she forgot to check.

She walked to the door of her father's room, opened it and took a look. In the dark room, only the mobile phone screen was emitting a faint fluorescent light, illuminating only half of his face.

Noticing the noise coming from the door, Zhu's father quickly looked up, and when he saw it was Zhu Zhixue, he felt relieved.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"...The gate was spray-painted again, and I wiped it clean." Zhu Zhixue said.

"Oh, okay. Got it."

Zhu's father said, and then the two looked at each other in silence. Zhu Zhixue turned back to the dormitory, and Zhu's father also stared at his phone again. Was he also looking so pitiful and cowardly just now? Zhu Zhixue laughed at herself in her heart.

Why is it like this? Why do I have to hide in my room in fear, not daring to breathe. Suddenly, Zhu Zhixue envied the gangsters on campus. They were free and unfettered, fearless... No, no, Li Zhuangsheng would be unhappy if he knew she was thinking this way.

This was the situation the past two days, but no one came yesterday.

Zhu Zhixue was brushing her teeth, thinking that since no one came yesterday, someone must come today, New Year's Eve.

Zhu Zhixue once asked her father how much money he owed in total, but her father did not tell her. He just said that it had nothing to do with her and she didn't need to pay it back.

In fact, the debt collectors knew that Zhu Zhixue’s grandparents had died and no one had taken care of their precious son, but they still insisted on collecting the debt because of the house where Zhu’s father and daughter currently lived.

A house is a fixed asset. As long as the house is still there, the hundreds of thousands of dollars will still be there.

But Zhu Zhixue knew that the house had been secretly sold long ago, but the condition was that he had to rent it to him for three years, and by then Zhu Zhixue had already graduated from high school. Most debt collectors don't know the inside story, and since they see that the house is still there, they still have a little fantasy and have not completely turned their backs on him.

On the coffee table were the Spring Festival couplets that her father had just bought yesterday. Zhu Zhixue took a look at them, opened the old refrigerator, and cooked four dumplings for herself.

Four glutinous rice balls are enough, and everything will go well. She can't eat more because she wants to lose weight.

Li Zhuangsheng didn't like her because she was not slim enough. If she could be thinner, if she could be slimmer... he would definitely like her.

The glutinous rice balls were bubbling in the pot. She remembered that she didn't like to eat glutinous rice balls when she was little, so her mother coaxed her by saying that if she ate two more, it would be four, and everything would go well in the new year. After she ate four, her mother coaxed her again by saying that if she ate two more, it would be six, and everything would go well... If she ate two more, money would come from all directions in the new year...

Zhu Zhixue looked at the pot silently, the flame of the gas stove was billowing, and the crackling sound of firecrackers outside exploded in her ears again.

If only grandparents were still alive, that would be great. Zhu Zhixue thought this more than once. If they were still alive, the family would definitely not be like this now.

Of course, all this is just the last fantasy of the little match girl. When she was a child, she couldn't understand this fairy tale. At that time, she didn't know what fantasy was. She thought that the match was magical and could make anything.

Zhu Zhixue thought it was almost done, so she picked up the glutinous rice balls and put them in a bowl. She blew on them and ate them silently.

There were only four dumplings, but she took a long time to eat them by herself, perhaps because they were too hot.

After eating the glutinous rice balls, she filled her bowl with a large bowl of soup and drank it in one breath, feeling full.

She took out her cell phone and wanted to send a QQ message to Li Zhuangsheng. But she had just sent it two days ago. Would he feel annoyed if she sent it again now?

Thinking of this, Zhu Zhixue still didn't open QQ. She cleaned the pots and bowls and got up to go back to her room. Before entering the room, she glanced at the master bedroom, and the door was still closed.

My father might still be sleeping, or he might be awake and just playing with his phone quietly.

Smart phones are so great, I want one too... Zhu Zhixue suddenly thought.

She has played with her friend's smartphone, which has many more functions than ordinary feature phones and many games to play, such as protecting carrots and temple run.

She suddenly remembered that a boy had said that if she became his girlfriend, he would give her an iPhone 4S. But she refused, because she didn't want to accept anything from a boy, unless that boy was Li Zhuangsheng. Although she really wanted an iPhone 4S.

Oh, it seems that iPhone 5 is out now.

(End of this chapter)