Mr and Mrs Xiang hastily stopped Little Xiang Ning who was again walking towards the house phone.

  Otherwise, she might really inform Xu Tingsheng, “They’ve upped the price. Are a thousand flats okay?”


  Xu Tingsheng was currently in a muddled state too. He had already been flustered beyond measure before. In his panic, he thought: What if this was actually real? Even if it wasn’t and they just wanted to take a look at his sincerity……in the off chance that it was real……

  Xu Tingsheng was unable to come up with a hundred flats right there and then. The first phase flats had already been sold, while the second phase of the project had not yet taken off……

  Xu Tingsheng called over the head of the company’s accounting department and got him to calculate approximately how many flats his shares entitled him too. He made use of this chance and also enquired about matters regarding the transfer of shares.

  The head of Accounting had only just stepped out of the office for a short time when madness overtook the entirety of the Black Horse Club.

  Everyone rushed over and blockaded Xu Tingsheng’s office. The current situation was clearly great as there was no need for them to fear anything going wrong with the land at the eastern riverbank as well as Ning Garden. Yet, they feared that Godly Swindler Xu wanted to disband the party and abandon them poor souls.

  This was currently the most severe period of the ‘blind faith’ status condition.

  “Just what did we do wrong? Why won’t you say it!” A despondent Hu Shengming exclaimed.

  “Have you met with some sort of difficulty? Tell us! Whatever it is, we’ll help you deal with it together,” Ye Qing said, “If we really can’t resolve it, we’ll bear its weight together with you.”


  The remainder of them nodded in agreement.

  “Don’t you dare stand in the way of me buying my wife,” Xu Tingsheng thought inwardly……

  “What do you still want to ask about?”


  Little Xiang Ning looked at Mr and Mrs Xiang with a ‘this young lady is definitely leaving today’ vibe.

  “There’s nothing more to ask about. We can basically understand what happened with the flat. Besides that, though, is there still anything you want to tell us? Let us properly listen and see how we have wronged and bullied Xu Tingsheng regarding any other issue besides this one.”


  “Right, what is it that made you feel so aggrieved you don’t even want Mum and Dad anymore, wanting to leave with someone else instead,” Mrs Xiang elaborated on what Mr Xiang had said.

  Sniffing, Little Xiang Ning said aggrievedly, “It’s not like I don’t want you anymore. I said that I’ll be filial and take care of you, and that I’ll come back to see you every week too……hey, isn’t that basically the same as living at school?”


  Mr and Mrs Xiang tried hard to keep a straight face as they almost burst out laughing at that.

  “Well, you do know that my revision materials were written by him, right?” Little Xiang Ning asked.

  “Yes, and we’re very grateful to him for that.”


  “Then, do you know that Miss Li Linlin is also a boss, that other people wouldn’t be able to hire her no matter how much they might offer? Anyway, without him, I definitely wouldn’t be able to make it into a first-tier senior high.”


  Mr and Mrs Xiang exchanged glances.

  “Then, do you know that he’s only so helpless in our family, that he’s actually very awesome outside?”


  “.……”


  “Then, was it ever since that incident at the park that you started treating him this way?”


  Mrs Xiang nodded. This was precisely what had mainly been gnawing at their hearts.

  “What happened that day was this……”


  Little Xiang Ning narrated how Dongdong had caused trouble, how that woman had adamantly refused to let the matter go, how Su Nannan had called some hoodlums over and caused even greater trouble in the end. She had called her parents and then Xu Tingsheng too, and then her phone had been flung to the ground and broken……

  Then, Xu Tingsheng had arrived on the scene alone……

  “He reasoned with and apologised to them, said that he was willing to pay them compensation. But they insisted on snatching Dongdong from me, wanting to beat him to death in front of me. As I started crying, he stood in front of me and shielded me from them, also asking me to turn around and cover my ears……”


  Mr Xiang was overcome by a heart-wrenching feeling as he imagined how things might have gone if it had been he and his wife who arrived there at the time, what they could conceivably have done then……the other side clearly hadn’t comprised of ordinary, law-abiding citizens at all.

  It seemed like……they would truly have been utterly helpless……

  Actually, at this point, Mr Xiang could already basically guess why Xu Tingsheng had acted in such a manner then and what had happened next.

  “What happened then?” Asked Mrs Xiang who still couldn’t get why Xu Tingsheng had done so.

  “They seemed to be hitting him, but he just refused to step aside no matter what……he also said that it was fine if they beat him, but things would get very troublesome if they laid a hand on me,” Little Xiang Ning did not properly understand the underlying connotations in this exchange as she was only truthfully narrating the events then.

  Still, these words struck right into the core of Mr and Mrs Xiang: ‘He also said that it was fine if they beat him, but things would get very troublesome if they laid a hand on me.’


  These words could touch a father’s heart very greatly.

  “He was afraid that Little Ning might be frightened,” Mr Xiang explained to Mrs Xiang.

  Despite feeling quite moved too, Mrs Xiang still said, “But it was clearly he who had superior numbers when we arrived there.”


  “They only arrived afterwards. If not for that, he may have died otherwise,” Little Xiang Ning had tears in her eyes as she said exaggeratedly, “We can be bullied by bad people, but we can’t bully them back? You have to blame him because of this? Am I still even your daughter……”


  “.……In that case, why didn’t you tell us about it afterwards?” Mrs Xiang asked.

  “He was worried that you’d be frightened and afraid.”


  Mr and Mrs Xiang could say nothing to this. From what they had heard thus far, it really was like Xu Tingsheng had done no wrong at all.

  “Afterwards, he brought me to buy a new phone. Right, where is that phone?” Little Xiang Ning asked.

  Mrs Xiang said rather awkwardly, “I got your father to return it to him.”


  This was actually a pretty hurtful thing to have done, but Little Xiang Ning ignored its implications as she said, “Well, that’s fine too. My current one’s been broken by you anyway, and I’m also going to look for him now.”


  “Dream on!” Mrs Xiang was like a kid squabbling with her daughter as she exclaimed exasperatedly at her now.

  “I’m not even done talking about you yet,” Little Xiang Ning got in the mood as well as she said, “Can you guess what you were like at the time? ……Go home first……go home first……” Little Xiang Ning stood up and imitated Mrs Xiang’s cold manner of speaking from back then as she had refused to even look at Xu Tingsheng.

  Recalling how she had acted, Mrs Xiang felt a bit awkward.

  “He vomited blood then, you know? When he sent me back, he vomited blood by the roadside. He was beaten up to the point of vomiting blood in order to protect me……and in the end, he was even bullied by you like that……” Little Xiang Ning added.

  Mr Xiang looked over at Mrs Xiang.

  Mrs Xiang looked down at the floor.

  The two were actually feeling the same way at this moment. To put it a bit more harshly, they both felt mortified.

  They could both be considered innately kind-hearted people. Yet, never had they thought that they had unknowingly treated someone like this before……

  “No wonder Little Ning says that we’ve been bullying him, that we’ve wronged him. Really, how can it be that the kid’s so remarkable outside, yet does not even dare to explain a thing in front of us?” Mrs Xiang wondered aloud.

  “Why? Because of your daughter, obviously,” Mr Xiang commented softly.

  “After that, he got angry and refused to teach me,” Little Xiang Ning complained aggrievedly.

  “It was Mum and Dad who didn’t allow him to continue teaching you,” Mr Xiang came clean as well as he said rather awkwardly, “Because we were afraid that you’d throw a tantrum at us, we even told him not to tell you that it was us who requested this……to claim that he was very busy……”


  One of Little Xiang Ning’s misunderstandings was alleviated as well, “So it was actually like this. Uncle was actually suffering on both ends. I even threw my temper at him and kicked him……oh no, what should I do? Even though it turns out it’s still my heart that’s aching more in the end.”


  Looking first at her Dad and then her Mum, Little Xiang Ning stood up and asked, “Well, I guess I can leave now then?”


  “What’re you all in a rush to leave for! You’re only sixteen!” Mr and Mrs Xiang did not know whether to laugh or to cry as they only managed to calm Xiang Ning with great difficulty.

  “Look at you, all crying and exhausted,” Mrs Xiang guiltily helped to wipe off her daughter’s tears, her heart aching as she said, “Rest for a while first. Give Mum and Dad some time to discuss things, okay?”


  Little Xiang Ning stared incredulously, “You want to up the price again?”


  “No……we don’t want the flats. We just need to sort our thoughts out. Anyway, don’t you worry. We won’t bully him anymore.”


  They only managed to coax Little Xiang Ning back upstairs with much difficulty.

  Mrs Xiang lent her her handphone and asked her to get in touch with Xu Tingsheng first……now that things were already like this, it was definitely a bad idea to prevent them from contacting each other, not that they would even do so at this stage. No, the real problem was: What should they do?

  Husband and wife remained seated in the living room. They wanted to discuss the issue, yet knew not how to start going about it. In the end, Mr Xiang turned on the television. Clicking through the channels on the remote, they chanced upon a channel that was broadcasting ……

  In the words of this television drama, this was called ‘infinite love all unto a single soul’.……

  Recalling all those past events, thinking of the constructed Ning Garden……before that infinite love, what could one do?