Chapter 86: Bad Guys Deserve This Bad Luck
He pointed at Shanshan, his finger trembling violently, but in the end, he didn’t dare take a single step forward.
"We’ll see about this!"
Seeing the tide had turned and he couldn’t argue his way out of it, Cao Daqiang gritted his teeth, turned, and stormed off.
Shanshan stared at his retreating back, her eyes narrowing slightly.
’That bad dad’s luck has clearly weakened.’
She stood still, her gaze fixed on Cao Daqiang’s retreating figure.
’How satisfying!’
’Bad people deserve to have bad luck like this!’
"Shanshan, you... you were almost taken by an abductor before?"
Xiao Juan, a little girl with pigtails, slowly looked up, her lips trembling slightly.
She tugged on Shanshan’s sleeve.
"Were... were you really scared that day? How did you get away? If you hadn’t... would you have been taken really far away?"
As she spoke, her eyes began to redden.
"Whoa, Shanshan, it was you! Thank you for saving my sister!"
A slightly older boy suddenly jumped up in excitement.
"My sister was almost abducted once, too! It was over by the market! She said an older girl in a floral dress and twin ponytails rushed over, pulled her away, and shouted, ’The police are here!’ The guy got so scared he took off running!"
"I never believed her. I thought she was making it up... but you’re wearing that same floral dress now, and you have twin ponytails... so that older girl... it really was you!"
A little girl who had just joined them suddenly burst into tears, and the others quickly gathered to comfort her.
The little girl, named Xiao Jie, had been standing quietly at the edge of the group. But upon hearing those words, she suddenly let out a loud WAIL.
"Me too... I... one time... I got lost at the train station, and a man tried to get me on a train... Luckily, the lady at the ticket counter stopped him... I never dared to tell my mom and dad... I thought I was the only one something like this had happened to..."
Instantly, several other children gathered around her.
"Don’t be scared, we’re all here now!"
"As long as we’re here, no one will dare touch you!"
"Shanshan is the best! She’ll protect us!"
In that moment, their small circle grew even closer.
After hearing what Shanshan had said, none of them had the slightest doubt anymore.
The moment Cao Daqiang got home, he saw Jiajia sprawled on the bed, happily playing.
Although her clothes had no patches, they paled in comparison to Shanshan’s bright, new-looking outfit.
A simmering rage suddenly flared up, and a suffocating tightness constricted Cao Daqiang’s chest.
He stared at his daughter’s carefree expression, growing more and more irritated by the second.
’Why is it that other people’s kids get to run around freely and even be hailed as heroes?’
’While my own daughter just hides in her room, too scared to even go to school?’
He felt it was humiliating. He felt it was unfair.
But he never once stopped to reflect on who was truly responsible for it all.
He slammed his bag down on the table.
CLATTER!
A cup on the table wobbled and nearly fell to the floor.
Only then did Jiajia look up. The moment she saw her father was back, she leaped to her feet.
"Daddy! You’re back! I missed you so much! Daddy, you..."
She raised her little hands high, about to run into her father’s arms.
"What are you smiling for? You have the nerve to smile? All you do all day is laze around the house and play!"
Cao Daqiang suddenly bellowed.
"Just look at other kids! They’re already in school! They can read their lessons, do arithmetic, even dance! All you know how to do is cower at home, giggling like an idiot while hugging that stupid doll! You’re good for nothing! Useless! You’re a disgrace to me!"
He unleashed a tirade without any rhyme or reason. Jiajia was so frightened she shrank into the corner of the bed, not daring to say a word.
She slowly backed away on the bed, slumping down bit by bit.
Her fingers dug into her doll’s arm, and tears welled up in her eyes, but she didn’t dare let them fall.
Her pitiful, dejected state only made Cao Daqiang even more furious.
He strode over in a few steps and glared down at her.
"What? Cat got your tongue? Can’t speak?"
"Dad... I... *sob, sob*..."
Jiajia’s lips trembled, her face pale.
In the kitchen, Liu Yingzi was stir-frying some greens with a spatula.
When she suddenly heard sobbing from the living room, her heart clenched. She immediately threw down her spatula and rushed out.
"Why are you crying again? What happened?"
She quickly steadied her daughter’s trembling shoulders.
"Mommy... *sob, sob*..."
The moment Jiajia saw her mother, she threw herself into her arms.
Liu Yingzi’s heart twisted, and she looked up at Cao Daqiang’s dark expression.
"What is wrong with you now? You’re a grown man! If you’ve got guts, go blow off steam outside! What kind of man comes home and takes his anger out on a child? If you get pushed around at work, can’t you just deal with it? Why come home and act like some big shot? What could she have possibly done wrong to make you scream at her like this!"
Cao Daqiang was already simmering with pent-up rage.
Now, being berated by his wife, his anger exploded.
"What’s wrong with me? What else am I supposed to do? That little wild brat has nothing, and yet she’s on the fast track to success! I’m a respectable technician at the factory, I’ve worked diligently for over a decade, and in the end, I can’t even land a deputy section leader position! I’m furious! It’s humiliating!"
Their argument grew more and more heated, their voices rising over each other.
Terrified, Jiajia burrowed deeper into her mother’s embrace.
But after his outburst, Cao Daqiang gasped for breath, his body seemed to go limp, and he slowly slid down the wall to the floor.
He suddenly remembered that he was completely dependent on his wife’s family.
His in-laws had paid for the house, and his father-in-law had pulled strings to get him his job transfer.
"Yingzi... I’m sorry. I just... I was so angry I lost my head. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you two."
He lowered his head and told her about running into Shanshan at the entrance to the family compound earlier that day.
"It was that Shanshan, that orphan brat with no parents. Vice Director Ling himself came to pick her up, saying he was taking her to a key elementary school... I just stood there, watching that car drive off, and it felt like a knife twisting in my gut. Why? How does she get to be so lucky?"
After hearing his story, Liu Yingzi felt a pang of bitterness herself.
She looked at her daughter, still sobbing in her arms, and felt sharp pangs of pain in her own heart.
In her eyes, her own daughter was perfect in every way.
How could such a wonderful child lose out to some stray who just appeared out of nowhere?
"What if... we pull some strings, too, and get Jiajia into the key elementary school?"
Her words struck a chord with Cao Daqiang.
He snapped his head up, only to immediately give a bitter smile.
"Yingzi, you’re brilliant. But what connections do I have left to use? My old boss at the factory was transferred, and the new one doesn’t know me from Adam. Besides, Jiajia isn’t old enough. The key elementary school only accepts children who are at least seven. She’s only six and a half... she’s short by half a year."
"Don’t you worry about the connections. I’ll go to my dad," Liu Yingzi said.
"My dad may be retired from the district education bureau, but a lot of his old subordinates are still there. If he makes a call, puts in a good word, we might have a chance."
She looked down at her teary-eyed daughter.
"Isn’t that Shanshan about the same age as Jiajia? If she can get in, why can’t our Jiajia? Why should they make an exception for her but not let us even try?"
"But that’s the Ling family!"
Cao Daqiang suddenly clutched his head.
"How can we possibly compare to the Ling family’s influence? A single word from Vice Director Ling could shake the entire provincial capital. And us... what are we? I’m just a worthless technician, and your dad is retired with no real power. What do we have to fight with?"
He crouched on the ground, his back hunched.