Dog Egg covered his cheeks that were red from being slapped with tears in his eyes. Wang Xifeng folded her arms and pressed-on ruthlessly, “There’s seriously no manners in this kid. He’s denying responsibility after breaking someone else’s things.”

"The child is still young!" Pingzi consoled.

"Small? Seven or eight years old is still considered young? My friend's child is very educated at this age. They’re nothing alike. He’s just too annoying to even look at!”

Old Lady Liu couldn’t keep the smile on her face. She looked very embarrassed and carefully chose her words to reconcile. “We can go out and buy a new one for you!”

"Buy a new one? You think you can just randomly buy a new one anywhere you go?"

"Niece, I'm really sorry..."

"Why did you guys even come to the city? You can’t even go anywhere properly. Just because we’re relatives? We have lots of things to do as well. Do you know how much it affects us when you suddenly just pop up like this? Can’t you notify us before you come next time?”

Mrs. Liu lowered her head, her ears burning red.

Wang Xifeng had a triumphant expression on her face as she glanced at Dog Egg. Dog Egg looked at her with a fierce glint in his eyes as if he was a puppy that had been kicked. Wang Xifeng said in contempt, "The child is already so big. He should really be disciplined. If he breaks things and then lies about it while he’s young, what kind of wicked things will he do when he grows up? To bring such an uncultured thing to someone’s home, aren’t you deliberately trying to give trouble to others?”

"Yes, yes, what you are saying is correct." Old Lady Liu could only agree. Judging by the other party’s attitude and tone of voice, it seemed like they weren’t going to pursue the broken antique compensation any further. As long as that was the case, it didn’t matter what kind of venom was spat at her, she’d gladly suck it up.

Dog Egg couldn’t hold it in any longer and yelled, "I didn’t do it!"

"Dog Egg!"

Old Lady Liu tried to pull him back by his clothes, but she couldn’t hold on. Dog Egg ran toward Wang Xifeng with gritted teeth, fire in his eyes, and his fists clenched so tight that his knuckles turned white and his nails cut the palms of his hands.

Wang Xifeng stepped back in fright and raised her voice sourly, "What do you want to do, little bastard? You want to kill and set fire here? You sure are promising!"

"Don't say that about me again!"

Dog Egg swept a bone china tea set on the small table next to the ground, then turned around and ran away. The sound of the door slamming echoed heavily in the room.

"Dog Egg! Dog Egg!" Old Lady Liu was anxious to catch up.

"What?!" Wang Xifeng widened her eyes in fury, "Trying to run away?"

She grabbed the collar of Old Lady Liu who had yet to go very far and said, "Old fart, you need to pay for that! I bought this tea set from Russia for thousands of yuan!"

"Niece... I..." Old Lady Liu had tears welling in her eyes as she desperately tried to break free and get to her grandson.

"Forget it, she can't afford it." Pingzi mediated.

"You only know how to pretend to be a good person!" Wang Xifeng was also angry with her and pushed Pingzi away with a single palm. Then, she said to the old lady viciously, "Why didn’t you just stay in the countryside. Why did you come to the city anyway? You think people in the city just enjoy blessings day after day and can lend you a hand? Oh please. Dream on! We don’t have an easy time either. We struggled many years just to have a place to live! I’m telling you now. If you don’t pay me for this tea set today, I’ll call the police!”

"If you could just let this slide for the face of my younger sister..." Old Lady Liu begged while holding her palms together.

"Stop mentioning her! Whenever she gets mentioned, I just get so angry! She irresponsibly gave birth to me and didn’t look after me properly. When she grew old and nobody wanted her, she came back to me and begged me to take care of her and treat her sickness. Did I owe it to her? All of you in the Liu family aren’t good people… Don’t try this trick on me. Pay me my money!”

Old Lady Liu was already so anxious that she took out her handkerchief and threw all the change in it to the ground, saying, "I’ll pay! I’ll pay!"

When Wang Xifeng looked down at the money, Old Lady Liu broke free of her hand and shouted "Dog Egg" and chased after him. Pingzi picked up the money, counted it, and handed it to Wang Xifeng, "It’s less than two hundred yuan."

"Broke old fart! They came to the city just to harm me!” Wang Xifeng angrily grabbed the money. "Don't come into my life again! It’s better if they get killed by a car when they leave!"

"That’s a bit too evil, right?" Pingzi smiled awkwardly.

Wang Xifeng was still angry and slapped her in the face. "Damn bitch. Stop trying to pretend to be a good person here. If you want to play pure, go do it in front of your man. You think I don’t know what you’re like? You’re a bitch as dirty as your heart!”

Pingzi covered her face and did not dare to speak anymore. She just bent down and picked up the debris.

Dog Egg was crouched beside the trash can downstairs weeping. Old Lady Liu rushed to him, hugged, and cried with him. She beat his bum while crying. Of course, she was beating him lightly. “Couldn’t you be a good boy without me watching you? Tell me, where granny can put her face now?!”

"That’s not the one I broke! They're lying!" Dog Egg argued.

"Stop talking. Stop talking."

"I want to go home!"

"We'll go back tomorrow morning, okay?"

Dog Egg nodded and wiped his tears.

Old Lady and Dog Egg began walking on the lively, unfamiliar street and eventually found a motel. Old Lady Liu took a hundred yuan out from her sock and tried to open a room.

"Two hundred yuan deposit," informed the front-desk operator who was chewing on some seeds.

"I only have a hundred on me. Can you please let it slide?”

"That won't do. Who would pay if you were to break something?”

"Is there a hostel nearby?"

"Don’t know!"

It was getting dark and Dog Egg saw a shop nearby. “Grandma, I want to drink Coca-Cola.”

"No, you can't. If we spend too much, we might not have enough money to get home.”

"Coca-Cola is not expensive."

Taking a look at the store, Old Lady Liu said, "Okay, we’ll buy a bottle and change the money into smaller notes and coins."

After old lady Liu paid for the bottle, the store worker said, "Cash? We don't have fifty yuan here. Can we give you nine ten-yuan bills?"

"That’s fine. Small change is more convenient."

The store worker took out nine bills and counted them in front of Old Lady Liu. He smiled. “Keep it safe!”

"Can I please ask if there’s a hostel nearby?"

"If you continue forward, turn left and walk a hundred meters, there are a lot of hostels in that alley."

"Thank you!"

The two walked there and finally found a hostel that did not charge a deposit. It was 20 yuan a night. After taking away 30 yuan for the car ride, there should be enough to have a meal.

As she was paying, Old Lady Liu suddenly found that something was wrong. She should have had ninety-eight yuan, but she only had fifty-eight all of a sudden. She counted three times in cold sweat and checked her pockets again as the front desk urged, “Hurry up!”

"We’re not staying here! We’re not staying! Sorry."

"What a waste of time!"

When she dragged Dog Egg to leave, Dog Egg asked, "Grandma, why aren’t we staying there?"

Old Lady Liu did not speak and was still distressed about the missing money. Was the money stolen? Impossible. The money was placed in the inner pocket of my jacket. Even if a thief were to steal it, they wouldn’t have left a few bills behind.

She couldn't figure it out no matter how much she thought about it. In the end, she could only attribute it to her accidentally losing them. She was pained to her core.

After eating a meal of beef vermicelli soup, Old Lady Liu continued to walk around with Dog Egg while looking for a place to spend the night. She found the scenery in front of her a little familiar after walking around. It read “Red House” on the door and the security guard at the door saluted a car driving out of the community. The car honked a few times and Old Lady Liu hurriedly pulled away from the car.

It seemed to be Pingzi in the car, talking and laughing with a man. She didn't notice that it was her when they drove past.

"Grandma, I hate it here!" Dog Egg complained.

"Don't say that. This is all because of you.” Old Lady Liu sighed. This trip to the city was not worthwhile.