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  I spent six years in N city, thinking I was quite familiar with it, but when I got on the bus and saw the new buildings along the way, I felt like I had been away for a long time. The bus drove into the city, and the speed of urban development is quite fast. The old streets have been demolished and replaced with square-shaped commercial houses, and many large hotels have sprung up.

  The big bus passed over the Changjiang Bridge. The ticket seller stood up to introduce us to the history of the bridge. I'm afraid many people on the bus were from northern China traveling south for tourism.

  The night view of the city is quite beautiful, it's not as prosperous as Shenzhen, with lights shining everywhere, it's a bit like Bi Xiaoyu, after staying in noisy places for a long time, I appreciate the quiet and elegant beauty even more.

  My heart was originally quite happy, full of longing for the future, but an unpleasant thing happened and told me about the current situation. The ticket seller told the passengers in the bus that we had arrived at the city center and asked us to get off. I left for five years and wandered around for a day, my stomach felt a bit uncomfortable, so I didn't pay much attention and got off the bus.

  As soon as the car stopped, I saw that it wasn't in the city center at all, but rather a hotel. The people from the store ran out to ask if we wanted to stay there, and a middle-aged woman grabbed my luggage and said she would help me. It seemed like another sales tactic. Honestly, if I were a tourist, my first impression of this city would be extremely bad.

  My stomach started hurting, anyway I didn't have a choice but to follow the woman into the hotel. I asked about the price, and an ordinary single room costs 300 yuan, this hotel is not good at all, it's just cheating people!

  I currently have no source of income, so I naturally want to save some money. I asked the front desk if there was anything cheaper, and the front desk looked me up and down with a bland expression, saying "If you want something cheap, take the big bed room."

  ***, in today's society, no matter where you go, there are probably people who look down on others. Especially for employees working in restaurants and luxury stores, if you dress casually, they won't even bother to serve you, a typical case of looking down on others.

  I've seen this kind of thing too many times, if I got angry, I would have been furious to death. My stomach hurts so much, so I opened a single room. The house is very small and simple, the sheets are all dirty, it's really a black shop. I originally went up to drink a cup of hot water to warm my stomach, but found that the electric kettle was not working at all, I was so angry that I wanted to scold someone, I asked the waiter to help me change a kettle.

  The waiter dragged on for half an hour before coming over, with a terrible attitude. I really wanted to scold him, but my stomach hurt so much that I didn't even have the energy to scold him. I asked the waiter if they had any stomach medicine, and he didn't even look at me when he said no.

  I could only take out 50 yuan to ask her to help me buy stomach medicine, she said the pharmacy is far from the hotel, and the taxi fare is almost 50 yuan. Okay! I knew she just wanted to cheat me, but what could I do? I was in so much pain that I almost cried, and I had to take out another 100 yuan to ask her to hurry up and come back quickly.

  I lay in my bed thinking of Chen Sang, at least with her around, I would never have been bullied like that. All these years, my days had been so peaceful, hardly anyone dared to provoke me, all because Chen Sang was covering for me.

  I started rummaging through my bag to find my phone, wanting to call Chen Sang to let him know I was safe. However, I discovered that the phone wasn't in my bag at all. I must have hung up the phone in a hurry and left it in the pocket behind the seat, and then forgot to take it when I got off the plane.

  All I could do was pick up the phone on my bedside table, damn it, and the phone was broken. I was so angry that I wanted to smash the phone. But I didn't dare do anything, after all, I was in someone else's territory, if something happened, I couldn't even call 110. All I could do was swallow this breath, wait till another day to expose this on the internet, and then find some online trolls to make the hotel's reputation stink.

  If I don't take revenge, it would be a waste of my three years in the nightclub. Next time, even if I die, I won't enter a hotel that pulls people in, even if I die from stomach pain, I won't go in.

  The first night back in N city, I didn't feel any joy brought by the new life. I stayed in a dirty hotel, lying on a dirty bed sheet, and had stomachache all night long.

  The next day I checked out and rented a single small suite, starting to prepare for buying a house and renting a store.

  I tried every means to avoid my relatives, but they are more formidable than locusts. I went to the building to look at houses and ran into my stepmother's younger sister, who was working as a cleaner inside. She saw me and enthusiastically grabbed me to ask if I had made money in Shenzhen and was now back in the city to buy a house. She said she knew the leader of the building and that I was her niece, so she would give me the most favorable price.

  When did she become my aunt? In the past, during Chinese New Year, she would also come to my home. I called her "aunt", but she wouldn't even glance at me. She often said in front of my stepmother, "Don't be too good to her, after all, she's not your biological child. When you're old, you can't rely on her." When it was time to leave, she gave red envelopes to my stepmother's siblings, but completely ignored me.

  Only a few people knew about my pregnancy, but she was a gossipmonger who would tell anyone, and soon the whole village and even the neighboring village found out. Those two sisters were really born from the same mother.

  She just wants to make some commission from it, I'm too lazy to bother with her, so I'll just find an excuse and leave.

  What kind of person is this little sister of my landlord! I don't know how she got to my place, maybe she left her information with the building staff. She frequently comes to my door, every time it's to sell me a house, and I don't know how much commission she gets from it. If I hadn't paid three months' rent to the landlord, I really wanted to move out and never see her again.

  Let's just forget about it, she told my stepmom and dad that I had disappeared. On the fifth day, my stepmom and dad rushed over from the village. Standing outside the door, I saw two people, to be honest, I was hesitant. What my dad did in the past really chilled me to the bone, but after all, a person's heart is made of flesh, even if my dad no longer treats me as his daughter, he is still my dad! His blood runs through my veins.

  I began to understand Chen Sang's entanglement and helplessness. She hated her mom to death, but when her mom got into trouble, she still taught her mom again and again.

  My stepmother no longer puts on that icy face, she comes in smiling and praises me for getting prettier. She takes a look around the house and says I live better than my aunt. My dad has his hands behind his back, following behind my stepmother. I ask him if he wants to drink tea, he nods but doesn't really respond to me. I had just bought some green tea yesterday and head into the kitchen to boil water and make tea.

  I heard the discussion outside, my stepmother deliberately lowered her voice, but she was a loudmouth no matter how low she pressed it, and the sound wasn't funny. Plus, the wall's soundproofing effect wasn't very good, so I could clearly hear what my stepmother said.

  She is scolding my dad, saying "You smile at me, but you put on a stinky face for who? Ah Niu Ge is about to enter junior high school, Xiao Yu is going to read senior high school, the whole family is struggling, and you, an old man, only know how to drink. What's your skill? How did I blindly follow you? This time, you'd better talk nicely with her and ask her for some money for my younger brother to study.

  My dad might have run away with an older woman, and he's worried that the second wife will leave too. He listens to his wife extremely attentively, it can be described as being afraid of her. Since I was young, my stepmother has been in charge of household matters, and she also controls the family's finances. My dad is weak-willed, so he can only vent by drinking, meanwhile, he transfers his resentment towards my mother to me. My father's weakness has fostered my stepmother's sharpness and arrogance.

  I have no choice but to admit that the family is supported by my stepmother, but that home doesn't belong to me, and they never treated me as a family member.

  The water boiled, and I threw a few tea leaves into the teapot and poured two cups of tea to take out. My stepmother saw me, turned around and smiled at me, without any of the coldness from just now. My dad took over the tea, held my hand and asked me to sit down beside him, his expression was unnatural, he swallowed several mouthfuls of saliva, I had never really talked with this nominal father of mine, both of us were awkward.

  The stepmother was a clever person. She said she had to go to the bathroom, and then her hand twisted my father's arm hard before she slipped away.

  The hall was left with only me and my father, his hand tightly grasping the cup, his head also lowered. I looked at the fruit plate on the coffee table without saying a word. Actually, I didn't know what to say, really, I had nothing to say.

  Others say that daughters are their fathers' kin from the previous life, and they have the closest relationship. But I think fate might have made a mistake, my father and I were probably enemies in our past lives, which is why we're so distant, even hateful towards each other. I'm not someone who usually believes in fate, but this time I do.

  My dad is a simple and honest farmer, he doesn't understand being tactful. He looked up at me and said, "Your brother is going to junior high school now, Xiaoyu's grades are good in school, she might get into the county's key high school, we need money for that. You're making money in Shenzhen, can you give some to your sister for her education?"

  I forced my eyes wide open and didn't dare to blink, afraid that if I did, tears would flow out. I looked at my dad and asked him if he knew where his daughter's money came from.

  He lowered his head and didn't speak, I could be sure he knew I was a hostess at the nightclub because I heard from people in the village that my dad had said harsh words, saying he didn't have a daughter like me.

  He thinks it's too embarrassing, right! I'm the one who lost face as a mistress, but now he comes to me for money, what's going on? I said I don't have any money, and I don't know if my stepmother is eavesdropping. As soon as I spoke, she rushed out, pointing at my head excitedly, saying "How can you say you don't have money? How did you buy a house? I've heard from others that you work as a mistress in a nightclub and get 400-500 yuan in tips per night, how could you not have money?"

  I think it's really funny, I took a look at my dad, he was also looking at me and said in a low voice, if you have money, give some money for your younger brother and sister's tuition fees, after all they are your younger brother and sister.

  Now I have a brother and sister, but they must also acknowledge me as their sister!