Foolish Kindness 01

"You need to mentally prepare yourself first," Little Hei said.

Before Fang Zhiyi could understand what that meant, the plot flooded into his mind.

Fang Zhiyi was an ordinary worker with a cowardly personality, yet he cared deeply about his reputation. To relatives and outsiders, Fang Zhiyi was a "good guy" or an "honest man." Whether it was his relatives or his friends, as long as they encountered a problem and asked for his help, Fang Zhiyi would generously assist them, even if it meant stretching himself far beyond his means just to keep up appearances.

"That's my own brother!"

"That's my buddy!"

These were his catchphrases.

He had a wife and children, a son and a daughter. In the eyes of outsiders, they were a model family, but the truth was that behind closed doors, Fang Zhiyi's relationship with his wife Liu Mei and their two children was very poor.

His son, Fang Ning, was in his third year of middle school, and his daughter, Fang Ting, was still in elementary school.

Fang Ning remembered that his uncle, Fang Zhiyi's younger brother Fang Zhiming, frequently borrowed money from his father. He would claim either that his business needed cash flow or that he didn't have enough for his child's tuition. His father never asked questions and had lent Fang Zhiming a total of eighty thousand yuan, yet the uncle never mentioned paying it back. Because of this, his mother and father had a massive argument.

"We were born of the same mother! That's my own brother! How can I not help him when he's in trouble? He'll pay it back once he gets back on his feet!" Fang Zhiyi raged, showing absolutely none of the submissive demeanor he displayed outside.

But Fang Ning had seen it: his uncle taking his cousin out for lavish meals and driving their family's newly bought car.

Fang Ning didn't dare say anything, because just before this, his father's cousin had messed up at work and borrowed money from Fang Zhiyi to pay for compensation. Fang Zhiyi had lent out Fang Ning's tuition money. When Fang Ning was questioned by his teacher and laughed at by his classmates that day, he went home only to hear Fang Zhiyi drinking and bragging, "My cousin said he will remember this favor for the rest of his life!"

He questioned Fang Zhiyi about why he gave all the tuition money to someone else, but all he got in return were two slaps across the face. "What do you know! Stay out of adult matters! That's family! That's your uncle!"

From then on, Fang Ning realized that in his father's eyes, he and his sister simply weren't that important.

Wearing shoes with worn-out soles, he asked Fang Zhiyi for money. Fang Zhiyi impatiently told him that he didn't know how to take care of his things, nagging about how hard money was to earn and how he needed to learn to be frugal. However, turning around, because his cousin scored a perfect hundred on a test and his second uncle treated them to a meal, Fang Zhiyi pulled out a thousand-yuan red envelope on the spot for Fang Ning's cousin, praising him endlessly.

When Fang Ting had a fever, Fang Zhiyi was out helping relatives, and their mother had gone back to her maiden home. Only little Fang Ning was left, frantically using wet towels again and again to bring his sister's temperature down. From that day on, the normally well-behaved Fang Ning completely changed his mindset.

Their mother, Liu Mei, was no better than Fang Zhiyi; the moment she opened her mouth, she loved to belittle her own children.

"Look at you, what kind of score is that? Look at your cousin, he gets a hundred every single time in third grade!"

"You little money-loser, can't you even wipe your face clean? You take right after the Fang family's roots!"

"What are you eating for? If you don't study hard, you'll end up doing manual labor like your dad! You compare your food and clothes with others, why don't you compare your grades?"

But the couple did share one common trait. Whenever relatives came over, both Fang Zhiyi and Liu Mei greeted them with beaming smiles, eager to bring out all their best things. When a relative's child broke one of Fang Ting's few toys and Fang Ting started crying, Fang Ning stood up for his sister, only to be yanked back by Liu Mei. She smiled at the relative and said, "They're just kids, it's normal to be a little careless." But after the relatives left, both Fang Ning and Fang Ting were punished by being forced to kneel for half an hour, simply because they had embarrassed their parents in front of the guests.

Fang Ning's temperament grew increasingly worse. He stopped studying hard, figuring he didn't even know if he could continue going to school in the future anyway. When some classmates mocked him, he resorted to physical violence. Gradually, everyone in school knew that Fang Ning was tough, and many feared him. This allowed Fang Ning to slowly find a sense of presence. He frequently skipped school, hanging out in internet cafes and arcades with local street thugs.

When he had no money, he would rob other students, imitating the gangsters in movies by collecting protection money. The school found out about this and went to Fang Zhiyi's home to complain. Fang Zhiyi apologized profusely.

That day, Fang Ning took another beating, but Fang Zhiyi didn't hit him because stealing money was wrong; it was because Fang Ning had gotten into a conflict with another student. That student came from a wealthy family, had an arrogant attitude, and disliked Fang Ning, so he gathered a few people to gang up on him. Naturally, Fang Ning didn't back down and fought back, leading the other student's parents to show up at their door.

"Our family has no money, why can't you behave? If people hit you, just endure it! If they weren't generous enough to let us off the hook for compensation, I'd like to see how you'd pay for it!" Fang Zhiyi roared.

"Exactly, why did they hit you? Isn't it because you're always causing trouble?" Liu Mei was knitting a woolen sweater for a relative's child, occasionally holding it up to check, acting as if Fang Ning wasn't even her son.

Fang Ning was thoroughly disappointed in his parents. He pushed the door open and dashed out, leaving Fang Zhiyi's roars far behind him.

Even after he left, Fang Zhiyi continued playing the good guy.

Due to money issues, the couple argued constantly. In a fit of rage, Liu Mei asked for a divorce, but it wasn't until the divorce that she found out their house had also been mortgaged by Fang Zhiyi.

"Zhiming had a project and needed money, so he asked for my help!" When Fang Zhiyi spoke of his younger brother, his eyes were full of pride.

Liu Mei pointed at him: "Your brother again! Has he ever paid back the money he borrowed from you? When he eats and drinks well, does he ever invite you? Bah! Fang Zhiyi, I was blind to marry you!"

"Say that again!"

"So what if I say it? I've wanted to leave you for a long time! Look at what you've raised, an ungrateful wolf of a son! And a mute, money-losing daughter!"

The two started fighting over the disagreement, while little Fang Ting huddled in the corner, clutching her worn-out rag doll.

Fang Zhiyi and his wife eventually divorced. Fang Ting stayed with Fang Zhiyi because Liu Mei didn't want a burden dragging her down.

However, Fang Ting's life did not improve. At her young age, she began imitating adults by cleaning the house, because Fang Zhiyi became even busier, helping this relative or moving things for that buddy, often coming home completely drunk.

Fang Ting only knew that their home wasn't saved. Fierce, vicious-looking people came to their door and kicked her and her father out because her uncle hadn't paid back the money. She trembled as she asked her father why her uncle didn't pay them back, but her father just snapped at her, saying her uncle was just going through a tough time, and told her to go to bed early and stop asking questions. Terrified of her father's anger, Fang Ting could only silently shut her mouth.

Although she no longer had to endure her mother's belittling, Fang Ting still lived in the shadows.

Fortunately, once Fang Ting started middle school, she began boarding at the school.