Chapter 486: Chapter 168: The ’80s Drama Queen Is Forced to Become a Top Student (3)

Her dry, yellowish hair was a mess of natural curls, looking like a bird’s nest.

The other passengers were inwardly disgusted. Someone even shouted, "Conductor! Conductor! Don’t you need a ticket for the sleeper car? Where did this little beggar sneak in from?"

"She’s so filthy! Who knows if she’s carrying fleas or lice. Germs go in through the mouth, and we’re all trying to eat here..."

Another person started shooing Sheng Leyun away. "Go on, shoo! Get out of here, you little beggar. There’s no money or food for you here. Come any closer, and I’ll throw you right out the window. You believe me?"

Not everyone was overflowing with sympathy. In that era, plenty of people couldn’t afford to eat, and families were barely scraping by. Even with the family planning policy in effect, it wasn’t uncommon for a household to have two or three children.

People weren’t always well-mannered, and some women were especially fond of taking advantage of situations. The adults wouldn’t dare to beg themselves, so they’d send a pathetic-looking child to play on people’s sympathy.

The problem was, if you let them get away with it once, it was like stirring up a hornet’s nest. The next time you didn’t give them what they wanted, you’d be subjected to a torrent of moral condemnation.

They were all people who cherished their reputations and were conscious of their status; naturally, they didn’t want to get tangled up with someone like that.

Sheng Leyun smiled and said, "Mister, don’t you know that murder is against the law?"

"You’re openly plotting to murder me. I’m going to get the railway police."

"And I won’t let you off the hook for less than a hundred yuan or so, you know!"

The man who had spoken almost bit his tongue. This little girl was surprisingly sharp-tongued, and her words were quite intimidating.

"Hah! I was just joking. As for you, I could say you’ve been staring at my pockets, eyeing my wallet!"

Sheng Leyun’s eyes widened in feigned surprise. "Mister, my hands may be covered in calluses from hard work, but that’s because I’m an honest laborer. I’ve supported myself through my own work since I was little. I don’t do sneaky things like stealing."

"It’s wrong of you to falsely accuse someone. It’s an insult to all laborers! I may be young, but I’ve been self-reliant ever since I was old enough to understand things!"

While Xiao Xuezhen and Ren Xingchen were still struggling with their denial, refusing to accept this troublesome girl as their daughter, Sheng Leyun had already exchanged several sharp remarks with the man.

Xiao Xuezhen quickly stood up and said apologetically, "My apologies, everyone. This is my comrade-in-arms’s daughter. I’m adopting her and will raise her as my own. The little one was just over there taking a nap."

"Please excuse her if she’s caused any offense."

The other passengers listened, glancing from the little girl to Xiao Xuezhen.

By explaining that she was his comrade’s child and that he was adopting her, Xiao Xuezhen effectively distanced himself from Sheng Leyun’s current grimy state. After all, he had only just become her father; how could he be expected to have her all cleaned up and presentable in an instant?

Many soldiers came from the countryside, and children who grew up there often started school late. They would run wild all day, getting tanned as dark as charcoal, and their personal hygiene and manners often left much to be desired.

At the same time, Xiao Xuezhen’s explanation allowed him to present himself as a man with a strong sense of responsibility and justice—someone who would go so far as to raise his fallen comrade’s child as his own.

It was something an ordinary person would almost never do.

His and Ren Xingchen’s impression of Sheng Leyun was still stuck on the idea of her being an honest and quiet girl, hardworking but a bit simple.

The commotion of the morning had already made him subconsciously forget how she had outsmarted them in the waiting room.

Sheng Leyun smiled and nodded. "That’s right. My father sacrificed his life to save Mr. Xiao, so Mr. Xiao brought my father’s wife and daughter to the Capital City to take care of us."

The girl’s simple sentence was packed with so much information that the other passengers found it hard to process.

"Mom, I didn’t just make those meat zongzi. I also made a lot of pastries that would keep for the trip. Did you give all of those away for everyone to eat, too?"

"I worked so hard to make those for you and Mr. Xiao, and you just gave them all away?"

"If I’d known you were going to do that, I would have just let Mr. Xiao buy something instead. It would have saved me the trouble of making things just to give them away to these snobs who only respect fine clothes and not the person wearing them."

"And you’re all supposed to be important people from the Capital City? You don’t have a shred of compassion. Ganging up on a little kid with nasty words—what exactly are you trying to prove?"

The little girl spoke in a soft, quiet voice, her eyes shining brightly. But her words were like a series of loud slaps—SLAP! SLAP!—striking the faces of these people who hadn’t been so publicly humiliated in a very long time. Their cheeks burned with shame.

The previously lively atmosphere instantly dropped to a freezing point. All of Xiao Xuezhen’s painstaking efforts had gone down the drain.

He had put in all that effort to make a good impression on these people. His hope was that in the future, if he needed to ask for a favor, they would be willing to lend him a hand, as long as it wasn’t too much of an imposition.

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