The curly-haired boy turned his head and took a look. He found that the girl was still staring directly at them not far away.
... There was no chance to run.
The curly-haired boy gritted his teeth in hatred. He had no choice but to obediently buy four bottles of drinks!
It was such a bad deal today!
That girl from No. 1 Middle School had only given them three yuan. Buying drinks cost 80 cents. In the blink of an eye, there was only 20 cents left of the one yuan. Adding what he originally had, he now only had 1.2 yuan left.
If he had known this earlier, why had he bothered scaring people? It was just a waste of time.
This girl was different from ordinary female students. She wasn't afraid of them at all!
The curly-haired boy handed the drinks to Hua Qingqing. "It's okay. We're leaving first."
"Wait! Did I say you could go?"
Hua Qingqing stepped forward to block their way, and the three boys stopped in their tracks.
The curly-haired boy glared at her. "We've already given you the drinks. What do you want by blocking us?"
Hua Qingqing said, "Don't be nervous. I just want to ask you something."
The curly-haired boy said impatiently, "What is it?!"
"Who told you to stop me on the road?"
The three teenagers immediately froze. A look of guilt crept onto their faces, and their voices sounded dry.
"Who... who stopped you..."
"We just stopped you randomly. No one told us to."
"If there's nothing else, we'll leave first. My mom is waiting for me to have dinner."
Hua Qingqing curled her finger and casually opened a bottle of drink. Her movements were neat and stylish, which stunned the three boys opposite.
The hissing sound of the carbonated drink echoed in the air.
Hua Qingqing didn't rush to drink. She smiled at the three boys.
"Are you sure you don't want to tell the truth? Your behavior of stopping a female student on the road can completely be regarded as hooliganism. If I tell the police, do you think you'll be sent to reform through labor?"
"Hey, actually, I can tell at a glance that someone must have told you to come and stop me to teach me a lesson. How much did he give you? I'll give you double."
The three young teenagers were startled when they heard about the police and reform through labor. Then, the girl's tone suddenly changed, and she said she would give them double the money if they told her who the mastermind was.
Well, if they hesitated even for a moment, they would be sorry for this money!
The three boys said in unison.
"One yuan!"
"Two yuan!"
"One yuan!"
The curly-haired boy blushed to the tips of his ears.
The two little followers looked at him in disbelief: Boss, you didn't tell us to exaggerate!
Hua Qingqing took a sip of the carbonated drink. A cool feeling rushed straight to her heart. She gasped. It was quite spicy on the tongue.
"It seems that someone among you is not being honest."
The curly-haired boy glared fiercely at the uncooperative little follower.
"It's one yuan, okay? It's just one yuan. You've already spent 20 cents of it. What else do you want!"
Seeing that he showed no sign of repentance, Hua Qingqing put away her teasing thoughts and stared at him expressionlessly.
"You've been hired to commit murder, and you still ask me what I want?"
What... hired to commit murder?
How did it suddenly turn into murder?
The teenagers opened their eyes wide, full of naivete.
Hua Qingqing said, "For just one yuan, you dared to stop me on the road. What did you originally plan to do? Beat me up? Don't you know that what you're doing is illegal? Or do you think I'll just let you beat me up obediently?"
"You're not kids anymore. How can you be so stupid? One yuan can make you do something illegal at the cost of your future?"
No, they had just received one yuan to scare someone.
How did it turn into sacrificing their future?
The curly-haired boy thought it was getting more and more absurd and quickly explained, "No! We didn't want to beat you. We don't beat girls! It was a boy from your school who said you had offended him and asked us to stop you and say a few words to scare you."
Hua Qingqing said indifferently, "Oh, I don't believe it."
"You said just now that you don't beat girls, but then you targeted me for just one yuan. That doesn't sound believable at all. No, to avoid you scaring me in the future, I've decided to go to the police station tomorrow."
No, who was scaring whom here!
The curly-haired boy said dejectedly, "Then what do you want?"
Hua Qingqing smiled gently and took out two yuan.
"Let's talk it out nicely. Whoever told you to come here, you go and beat that person up. Don't worry, he won't dare to do anything to you."
The three boys looked at her blankly: "..."
Three days later.
Hua Qingqing received the newspaper sent by the newspaper office. She mailed it to Hua Jia and the people in Hong Kong that day. By the way, she wrote in the letter about her skipping grades to senior year of high school to increase her bargaining chip for asking for money.
She was currently supporting hundreds of employees, so she had to save every cent.
At the Yu family's.
Yu Jiansen was beaten black and blue and had asked for leave to go home to rest.
Seeing her eldest grandson in such a state, Grandma Fang was both angry and anxious. She shouted that she was going to the school to demand an explanation.
"How could a good person get beaten up like this at school! It's just outrageous!"
Feng Xiang was also extremely heartbroken. She kept asking who had beaten him.
But how could Yu Linsen dare to say?
He had no idea why the people he had found had suddenly turned against him and beaten him up.
They also said that if he told anyone, they would expose the fact that he had paid them to teach Hua Qingqing a lesson.
Damn it! It had cost him one yuan!
Since last year, Grandma had only given him seven yuan a month. Before, it used to be ten yuan a month!
He had saved and scrimped to save one yuan to find someone to teach Hua Qingqing a lesson. But instead of hearing any bad news about Hua Qingqing, he had ended up getting beaten up like a pig's head.
The two women were chattering and making a racket beside him.
Yu Linsen pushed them away.
"Stop making noise. It's giving me a headache. I'm going to sleep."
Just then, Yu Jianshan suddenly rushed in with a newspaper in his hand.
"Mom! Hua Qingqing is so ungrateful. She actually said such things about our Yu family in the newspaper! She's such an ungrateful wretch. If it weren't for our charity giving her a bite to eat for the past thirteen years, would she still be alive today? Would she have been able to get into No. 1 Middle School?"
And she had even become the first person in the Five-Star Production Brigade to be on the newspaper?
He had lived for half his life and had never been on the newspaper.
What did Hua Qingqing have to be so worthy of this?
It took Grandma Fang a while to understand what her son was talking about. "Ah, Hua Qingqing is on the newspaper? Why is she on it? My eldest grandson hasn't even been on the newspaper yet!"
Feng Xiang took the newspaper and looked at it. She felt a sudden dizziness.
"Mom, Jianshan is right. Hua Qingqing is going too far. She's actually smearing our Yu family like this. How will people outside view us from now on?"
Hearing that it sounded quite serious, Grandma Fang also got a little anxious. But she was illiterate. Staring at the dense words on the newspaper, her head started to ache.
She asked her son and daughter-in-law what was written on it.
Yu Linsen snatched the newspaper and read it out.
This interview didn't take up much space in the newspaper, but with the writer's embellishment, it retained the original flavor and added many story-like words.
The more Yu Linsen read, the more he felt that his family was like the bullies in a movie.
He squinted his eyes and said to Grandma Fang, "Grandma, Hua Qingqing said that our family has been treating her badly since she was a child. She also said that you made her work and didn't let her go to school. If she says things like this, how will others view us in the future?"
"This newspaper must have been read by a lot of people. If the people at school find out, how will they view me..."