I Won't Let Go of My Sister

He never carried children, especially little girls—definitely not in this lifetime. But he found it a bit strange: how did this little girl know his childhood nickname? "Diandian" was a name only his mother, Lin Jun, called him when he was small. Had some old folks in the factory told her? It was just that Lin Jun didn't want him anymore, and he didn't want to keep that nickname either; hearing it only brought him vexation.

He asked, "Deputy Secretary Shen? Shen Sibao? I recall his family only has one chubby son."

That boy was Jin Shuai, Qin Xiu's neighbor. He replied, "This little girl was actually raised in the countryside before and was only recently brought back."

"Someone should report this to the Women's Federation. Qin Xiu is abusing her child; they need to give her a good scolding," Gu Fadian said as he picked up his bag, intending to go play ball. But at that exact moment, the little girl suddenly leaned forward and crawled into his arms.

Fearing she would fall, he instinctively reached out to hold her. She immediately buried her head in his shoulder. Her small body was soft, clinging tightly to his chest, her head resting against his shoulder without moving.

"This kid... our Fadian is most afraid of dirt, don't you..."

"Qi Kai, take your hands off, she's afraid of pain!" the two boys spoke at the same time.

The little girl was as thin as a small lizard, yet she held him very tightly. The wind blew up her loose shirt. Gu Fadian intended to help pull it down, but the moment he reached out, his gaze turned icy.

Qi Kai also noticed something unusual and was about to reach out when Gu Fadian barked, "She's a girl, can't you see? All of you, turn around!"

Among these kids, Gu Fadian was the boss. The moment he gave the order, the children immediately turned around in unison. Taking a deep breath, Gu Fadian gently pulled up her sleeve, and he nearly stopped breathing from shock. The child in his arms also let out a soft whimper.

"Does it hurt?" Gu Fadian asked softly.

Ban Xia took a deep breath and replied, "I can bear it!"

Gu Fadian carried her to the shade and pulled her shirt back from behind. The red, dense wounds were crisscrossed and layered over one another, some even oozing blood. Just looking at them made the little girl shrink into a ball from the pain.

Gu Fadian didn't know what else to do, so he started a conversation to distract her. "What is your name?"

"Grandmother called me Ni'er, and Mom calls me Ban Xia," the little girl replied calmly.

Gu Fadian asked, "Why does your mother beat you?"

Ban Xia originally wanted to tell him everything she had seen, but she suddenly remembered her grandmother's words before she died. Her grandmother had told her to go see her parents herself, saying they would come to pick her up, but her uncles and aunts not only disbelieved her but also invited a Taoist priest to exorcise ghosts, forcing her grandmother to drink so much bitter medicine. If she spoke of those things now, would he also think she was possessed by a ghost and force her to drink bitter medicine to drive it away?

The child weakly sobbed, "I didn't steal anything, boohoo..." She burst into tears. To this child, Gu Fadian seemed to have become an entirely different person.