Chapter 213

"My god, what's the situation? Since when does a father kneel to his daughter?"

"She dresses quite decently, look at her dad dressed so shabbily, a smell of poverty, didn't see that she's quite good at pretending usually."

"What to do, should we call the counselor?"

Qiao Suisui heard the volume of the surrounding discussion getting louder and louder, her brow not moving a bit.

She looked faintly at the kneeling man, as if looking at a stranger. She thought she would feel embarrassed or panicked, or even sad, but she found she had no emotions at all.

If Qiao Songfan had found her privately and politely asked her for help, she might have considered it. But she knew this cowardly and cunning man too well; he thought that by using this way of kneeling in public to put pressure on her, she would directly take him to see Guan Weizhi.

Qiao Suisui sneered.

Gu Mengze, behind the crowd, saw the scene in front of him, frowned, squeezed to the front, and used his hand to block the mobile phone of a student who was recording.

"What are you filming? Is it interesting?"

Although Gu Mengze was a handsome guy, when he had a cold face, people didn't dare to provoke him. Therefore, several students silently put away their phones.

Qiao Songfan kept kowtowing to Qiao Suisui, as if worshipping the Guanyin Bodhisattva, every kowtow extremely devout. That appearance was beyond miserable and pitiful, and many people's sympathy overflowed, saying to Qiao Suisui: "Hurry up and help your dad up."

"Yeah, yeah, are you just going to watch like that?"

Some even stood on the moral high ground and questioned: "He's your dad after all, how can you be like this?"

Qiao Suisui watched coldly, just accepting these bows from him, not afraid at all, turning a blind eye to the surrounding questioning.

She asked calmly: "Have you kowtowed enough?"

Qiao Songfan was stunned, then continued to pretend to be pitiful: "Sui Sui, you haven't been home for a long time, I'm worried about you. Come home with Dad."

Once these words were said, it misled everyone; the situation in front of them was an earnest old father begging his rebellious and ignorant daughter to go home.

Instantly, discussions erupted in the crowd, and even Gu Mengze frowned with some hesitation.

Qiao Suisui was unhurried, waiting for the scene to quiet down, brewing some emotions, and tears came as soon as she wanted them to.

She lowered her eyes, a helpless, miserable smile on her face, and said in a volume clear to everyone's ears: "Come find me when you stop gambling."

'Whoosh—'

The crowd exploded again.

The students who were just standing and talking without back pain turned around one after another, saying: "Holy crap, turns out he's an old gambling dog."

"My god, to have such a dad, it's really a bitter life."

A flash of unbearable emotion crossed Gu Mengze's eyes.

Qiao Suisui didn't give Qiao Songfan a chance to open his mouth, and said with a crying voice: "I can't go home yet, because I have to work part-time in my spare time. You go, don't come to me for money again..." As she spoke, she took a step back, pretending to cover her bag, crying like rain: "I don't have money, and even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you. This is all money for Mom's medical treatment and medicine, and my younger brother's tuition. I really can't give it to you."

"No, you..."

Before Qiao Songfan could finish his words, someone in the crowd couldn't stand it anymore and let out a roar: "Call security!"

College students are a group that is extremely easy to incite and utilize, because at this age, they haven't seen too much of the world's malice, their values are black and white, they haven't been beaten by society, and it is the period when their sense of justice is bursting.

So the students who were just questioning Qiao Suisui had already spontaneously held hands and blocked in front of her.

Gu Mengze walked over, grabbed her wrist, and took her out through the back door. Qiao Songfan explained desperately, but he had already been surrounded by a bunch of students, and even if he wanted to chase, he couldn't get past.

The two ran out of the teaching building and hid in a patch of greenery behind the school playground.

"Are you okay?" Gu Mengze asked.

Qiao Suisui shook her head, pulled her hand back, and thanked him. Gu Mengze responded, his eyes darting elsewhere, then looking at her, his hands and feet not knowing where to put them.

"That..." he organized his language, trying to comfort: "Don't be too sad, if your dad comes to trouble you again in the future, you can call me."

Qiao Suisui looked at him strangely, her eyes turning, and she lowered her eyes and smiled.

"You want to give me your phone number?"

"No, I didn't mean that, I really want to help..." Gu Mengze explained, then felt that maybe this wasn't bad either. He paused for a moment, then took out his phone, unlocked it, brought up the dial pad, and handed it to Qiao Suisui, his eyes looking elsewhere.

He said: "Enter your number."

Qiao Suisui laughed, thinking that he lived up to being a handsome guy, indeed very inexperienced in actively pursuing girls.

She pushed his phone back, didn't leave her number, but thanked him earnestly, saying: "Thank you for your concern, but I can solve it myself."

The crisp and appropriate refusal made Gu Mengze startle. He looked at the slender girl in front of him, not understanding why she was different from other girls. If it were anyone else, they would have screamed with excitement, or shyly done as told. But she just calmly and frankly refused him, which made him feel an indescribable sense of loss in his heart.

"Then... then what if your dad comes to trouble you again?"

Qiao Suisui corrected: "He is not my dad." Then she brushed the leaves off her skirt, stood up gracefully, and said: "And there won't be a second time."

Because she wouldn't let this situation happen again.

Some things, she should make a clean break.

That night, Qiao Suisui returned to the Qiao family.

She didn't have a word of nonsense, directly slapping a bank card and an agreement on the table.

The bank card contained what she had earned from odd jobs over the years. Before, it was to save for her own tuition, but now that she had received investment from the Zhonghe Fund, she was much better off, so she took this money out as child support returned to the Qiao family.

"There are 30,000 in here, although it's not much, I will continue to deposit money into the card as a return for your support of me over the years. Until it's paid off."

Then, her fingertips tapped on the agreement on the table, and she said to Qiao Songfan: "Don't you want investment? I will explain your situation to Guan Weizhi, but I don't guarantee that I will definitely help you."

A look of joy appeared on Qiao Songfan's face, and he went to hold her hand to express his gratitude, but was mercilessly dodged by Qiao Suisui. Mother Qiao also glared at Qiao Songfan from the side.

"You're thanking me too early. I haven't finished yet. It's okay to get to Guan Weizhi through me, but I have one condition. Sign this promise letter, and from now on, I have no relationship with the Qiao family. If you become successful, I won't come to ask for a penny, and likewise, if you fall on hard times, I won't reach out. Let's have nothing to do with each other for the rest of our lives."

Qiao Jiming raised his eyes to look at her, an irrepressible secret joy on his face.

Mother Qiao's face changed drastically, and she asked in disbelief: "Are you crazy? What crazy talk are you saying? We are a family, listen to what you're saying, does it sound right?"

Qiao Suisui smiled, and with one sentence, she directly asked Mother Qiao as if she had fallen into an ice cellar. "Mom, you've acted as a Qiao family member for so many years, have they really accepted you?"

"Whether you want to continue acting, I don't want to care, but I'm not playing this 'family' game with you anymore." Her tone was very light, as if discussing a trivial matter.

For a time, the entire living room fell into silence.

Qiao Jiming walked up, handed the pen to Qiao Songfan, and said: "Sign it, isn't it that compared to the three of us, you want the company more?"

Qiao Songfan's old face was red, as if a silent slap had landed on his face. He looked at Mother Qiao, who was still in a daze, gritted his teeth, and took the pen to sign.

The last stroke fell, also symbolizing that Qiao Suisui had truly gotten rid of this family from now on.

She packed her things, left behind the words "I'll notify you of the time regarding Guan Weizhi," and turned and left directly. When leaving the unit building, Qiao Jiming chased after her.

"Sister, I want to tell you one thing."

Qiao Suisui turned back, just about to ask what was wrong, but when she saw the familiar phantom behind Qiao Jiming, her pupils shrank sharply, and she subconsciously called out: "Lanze?"

(End of chapter)