Eileen Chang said that every man has a white rose and a red rose in his heart, but actually, every woman also has a thorn in her heart. It's very painful, yet she can't bear to pull it out. For Mu Qinglan, the mother of Mu Xiaoyao, the man who made her abandon everything like a moth to flame was that thorn. The man she married was very good to her, for seven years before marriage and twenty-three years after, adding up to thirty years, yet even a man who had been good to her for thirty years couldn't pull out that thorn, showing how deep the scars of the past were. So when Mu Qinglan saw Chen Ergou, saw his familiar eyes and posture with her own eyes, heard about his life trajectory from Zhang Xiaoxiao's mouth, her wounds were slowly uncovered, and the kind of heart-wrenching pain was very painful, yet it also made her feel a kind of perverted pleasure that she couldn't imagine or dare to admit. People are actually all masochistic.

  "I won't let you make the same mistake twice, I've made that error once and it's enough. Maybe today you'll hate me, resent me, but one day you'll know that love is just like this, at first everyone makes promises and thinks they can hold hands and grow old together, but life isn't something that can be exchanged for a few sweet words, I'm someone who has been through it all, I won't harm you."

  Mu Qinglan gazed at her daughter's pale face, speaking softly yet firmly, "Unless I die, Chen Ergou will never set foot in this house."

  Tears streamed down her face, but she didn't cry out loud, stubbornly biting her lip in silent protest.

  She walked to the bathroom, stood in front of the mirror, and mechanically washed her hands. She knew her daughter well; although she had inherited her stubbornness, she also had a warm heart like her father's. So she wasn't worried that Xiaoyao would do something reckless like eloping or cutting ties with her parents for a man. As she gazed at her slender, slightly wrinkled hands and the diamond ring on her finger, which she had worn for over 20 years, she muttered to herself: "We women, the first man we fall in love with, how many of them can put a ring on our fingers? Xiaoyao, now that you're breaking up with him, this man who gave you so many 'firsts', if he's still able to leave a good impression on you, then there's no room for regret later. Love can drive a woman to desperation."

  She didn't inherit her mother Mu Qinglan's shrewdness, nor did she inherit her father Song Jieming's high IQ that allowed him to easily become the top scorer in Chongqing's college entrance exams. She knows a little about Go, understands a bit of Guqin, and under the pressure of her grandfather, who is a Chinese professor, has read some classical Chinese literature, but still can't understand "Shan Hai Jing" and finds it difficult to comprehend "Guwen Guanzhi", which even Chen Ergou is familiar with. She has been practicing calligraphy for over a decade, but during her student years, she never won many awards, and her college entrance exam scores were the worst in her family's history. Moreover, for an extravagant childhood dream, she secretly worked at a third-rate bar in Shanghai to save money on her own. This girl, who doesn't have great ambitions or ideals, seems to be forever stuck in mediocrity.

  She fell deeply in love with Chen Ergou, perhaps this simple girl's most reckless affair in her lifetime.

  Xiao Yao's father, Song Jieming, never smoked in front of Xiao Yao's mother. Today, he went out with Chen Ergou and smoked three cigarettes in one breath. After sending Chen Ergou away, he took advantage of the gap when Mu Qinglan went to the balcony for some fresh air to sneak into the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and returned to the living room. He saw his daughter sitting on the sofa staring blankly, unexpectedly without too much negative emotions on her face. Song Jieming sat down beside her and said softly, "Not planning to give up?"

  Xiao Yao nodded slightly and sat cross-legged in front of her father with an unexpectedly calm face.

  "If you give up, then you're no longer my daughter."

  Song Jieming smiled and patted Xiaoyao's head, "I'll secretly tell you, Dad supports you. Dad isn't a feudal old conservative, won't beat up the mandarin duck, and won't look down on Er Gou's background. How far that young man can go in the future, I don't know, and I don't want to make any rash judgments, but I just want to entrust my precious daughter to a man who always has reverence for this society in his heart. Dad doesn't have a say at home, and it's even more impossible to lift his head at your grandfather's place, but as a useless man, I still want to tell my daughter that a truly brave and magnanimous man isn't one who throws money at his woman, nor is he someone who appears strong and calm in front of the people he cares about. I've said so much, Xiaoyao, Dad has to remind you one last thing: never hurt your own body, youth must be spent lavishly, that's not wrong, but don't squander it like Zhang Xixi."

  Xiao Yao seemingly didn't expect that her father, who had always been gentle and obedient to her mother at home, would stand on her side. A faint smile appeared on her delicate and melancholic little face as she picked up a pillow and held it in her arms. Song Jieming looked around and saw that his wife hadn't appeared yet, so he softly sighed: "My daughter is probably not a girl anymore, but a woman."

  Miao Xiao's face turned red on one side, looking around nervously like a thief with a guilty conscience.

  Song Jieming sighed, his eyes gentle, and smiled in a soft Chengdu accent: "If my daughter can train that rascal Er Gou into a good man like your father, then she'll be set for life."

  Mo Qinglan stood at the balcony door, gazing at the father-daughter duo's warm and intimate conversation. Her heart felt a slight pang of sourness. That man was perhaps someone who had always been looked down upon by his father-in-law, a mediocre son-in-law who couldn't even be bothered to stand up for himself. But as his wife, she knew that this husband was more worthy of her deep love than the overbearing man from back then who had been driven away by her because he had turned all those suitors into pigs. Mo Xiaoyao's surname wasn't Mo because he was a kept son-in-law, but rather because when he held their child and said "this kid looks like whoever more, let's just give them that surname, besides Mo sounds better than Song, not so common".

  She gazed at the man with a hint of white hair on his temples, sitting on the sofa, her mouth curving into a happy arc. She turned back to the balcony, leaned against the railing, took off her glasses and gazed out into the distance. In this moment, her blurred vision made her wonder if it would take her daughter getting hurt once to truly understand how to treat men and learn to be grateful.

  Two dogs.

  With a bright and cheerful expression, Mu Qinglan let out a hearty laugh. This name sounds pleasant to the ear, seemingly much more so than "Floating Life". She muttered to herself: "If you want to marry my daughter, you'll have to get past me first."

  —————————

  Zhang Xixi, female, 23 years old, Virgo, from Shanghai, ancestral home in Ningbo. From kindergarten to junior high school, she was a typical representative of excellent academic performance. With outstanding grades, she entered a key high school, and it was not unexpected that she would be admitted to Fudan University in Shanghai, which is particularly favorable to local students, three years later. However, after the first year of high school, she quickly fell into the top three worst performers in her class, and by the end of her second year, she became a strong contender for the worst performer in her grade. She entered this university with a shameful score, where food, drink, and play are far more important than academics. Her father is from Ningbo and is a well-known figure among the wealthy Ningbo community in Shanghai. He could have spent money to get her into a key university, but Zhang Xixi refused. She didn't want to, and her father, who seemed indifferent to her death, was happy to save some money. Since then, he only took care of topping up her credit card, giving her as much money as she wanted.

  The university was dissatisfied with the roommates' petty and narrow-minded behavior, so she moved out with Xiao Yao to live together. She always took great pleasure in introducing Xiao Yao to rich young men, but no matter how rich her nightlife was, she would never bring a man back to their apartment. For Xiao Yao, she had a soft spot in her heart, treating her like her own biological younger sister. Whenever she saw Xiao Yao, Zhang Xixi felt as if she were looking at her own middle school self - pure, kind, and clean, everything was beautiful. Perhaps Xiao Yao had unknowingly become the last piece of pure land in Zhang Xixi's heart.

  I am a bad woman.

  Zhang Xixi has always been self-aware and self-suggestive, so while she carefully protects Xiao Yao, she vents all her irrational anger and anxiety on Chen Ergou. She has an absurd and crazy nightlife, playing wilder than anyone else in the bar, but that doesn't mean she views sex as something insignificant, equivalent to a cheap condom.

  In fact, Xiao Yao didn't know a fun thing that was embarrassing to mention, she was almost a woman who could be called frigid. If she had to do something, she wouldn't rest until it was done, she hadn't reached the mental state of being able to keep quiet and not speak, she had to insult Chen Er Gou a few times, she had to show off her queenly pride in front of that bastard, she had to imagine Chen Er Gou being sold as a third-rate gigolo and being ravaged by fat and ugly middle-aged women to feel comfortable in her heart. After high school, she was too lazy to move that originally very smart brain, now she felt that her brain must have rusted, no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't work, so she was even lazier about using it, so she never bothered to study a complex problem, just wanting to have fun and be a bad woman who did as she pleased.

  Zhang Xixi always thought she was a very shallow, pale and uninteresting ordinary woman. When choosing a partner, she wanted someone handsome, rich, slightly smarter than her, and with some power in the family. She didn't think she had experienced anything worth writing about or making people sigh. It was just that her mother, who disliked poverty and loved wealth, ran away with a Hong Kong man when Zhang Xixi was young. Then, her heartless father had an affair with another woman behind her back and had a son with the kind but foolish stepmother. When Zhang Xixi graduated from junior high school, he announced the legitimate existence of that pair. The first stepmother's life collapsed under the triumphant gaze of the second stepmother, who was cunning and manipulative. Finally, Zhang Xixi felt disgusted when she saw her father having an affair with the maid in broad daylight while the first stepmother lay ill in the next room. It seemed like he wanted everyone in the building to hear. Zhang Xixi didn't get angry; instead, she went to the bathroom, filled a basin with water, kicked open the door, and poured it on the couple who were in a state of ecstasy. Before she turned around, she saw her father's dry, shriveled buttocks, which made her feel nauseous. She walked out of the house calmly and vomited in the garden for half an hour, throwing up everything she had eaten that day. She wished she could vomit out her heart, lungs, and liver all at once.

  Throughout her high school years, she had been carefully seducing men who already had girlfriends. She loved watching the tragic love stories of those couples and found it ugly yet hilarious. As a result, she was scolded by girls who were left heartbroken and crying, calling her a "fox spirit". A large group of boys who appeared to be uninterested in her but secretly fantasized about her thought of her as their masturbation fantasy object. She had even been slapped before. Once, the husband of an English teacher who often mocked her in class almost got divorced because of Zhang Xixi. The beautiful and elegant woman was furious and pulled out a handful of Zhang Xixi's hair like a shrew. Zhang Xixi didn't fight back but just smiled at the woman who was ten years older than her and had lost all dignity. Every time she was cursed by those losers, she wanted to laugh. In fact, she wanted to tell those stupid women that men who were so easy to change their minds were worth risking their lives for?

  But she didn't say it, Zhang Xixi felt no obligation to do so.

  Since she herself has already been regarded as a hopeless fool by the group of beloved teachers, who coldly observe her without expecting to save her, Zhang Xixi always thought that women dumber than her were thoroughly beyond salvation, and she didn't want to waste her breath.

  Zhang Xuanxuan always felt that her life was like plain water, the kind that had been left out for a few days and had lost all its heat, without any exciting or moving factors. After three dull years of high school, she came to a mediocre university, and her greatest fortune was meeting Xiao Yao, a child who made her heart flutter. Like a lotus flower rising from the mud unsoiled, Zhang Xuanxuan racked her brains and finally managed to come up with a short phrase to describe Xiao Yao: every day, he would return from the bar to help her cover herself with a blanket, accompany her shopping, drinking tea, buying clothes, shoo away annoying flies, and let her continue to live carefree like a clean lotus flower. This was Zhang Xuanxuan's greatest joy.

  Chen Er Gou

  It's said that this Northeastern farmer was nicknamed because he raised two dogs, one named White Bear and the other... forgot, anyway, it sounds like a nouveau riche, don't all rich people in the city like to raise dogs? Zhang Xixi curled her lip, she never understood why Xiao Yao would fall for this man. Nowadays, most city girls are very practical and don't care about money, but when dating, they still need some expenses, right? And who would choose someone without money if they could find someone with it? Has her brain been kicked by a donkey?

  At first, Zhang Xixi really didn't get it, she didn't have the eye to see what was special about Chen Erdou, except that he had a thick skin and wasn't like those rich kids who cared so much about their reputation. But later, at M2 bar, when she saw him stand up for himself and fight with that deadbeat, she felt a little moved. Although she didn't see how fierce or abnormal he was in the fight, and he got knocked down by the deadbeat, at least Zhang Xixi thought that Chen Erdou had some redeeming qualities besides his shifty eyes and poisonous mouth.

  Looking at him wearing a pair of worn-out white sneakers, a cheap haircut, and a set of ordinary cheap clothes, looking at him hunch over, like a mad dog refusing to back down or fall, with that stupid expression of "I'll bite you even if I die"... Zhang Xixi was unwilling to admit it, but actually thought that this time Xiao Yao's taste wasn't too bad, not unbearable. But wanting her to concede defeat? That's still far off.

  Then Zhang Xixi met Xiaoyao's parents before starting her new nightlife, an opportunity she wouldn't waste.

  She is not afraid of Chen Ergou finding trouble with her afterwards, even if he slaps her in the face, she will not regret it.

  Zhang Xixi even thought with a flattering smile, Chen Ergou, if you really have the ability, just push Ben Gege ruthlessly. But lend you ten bear hearts and leopard guts, dare you?

  Welcome book lovers, the latest, fastest and hottest serialized works are all here!