He spoke gently, "Don’t be nervous; we really aren’t bad people."
Gu Shengyin retorted, "No bad person is going to have those words written on their face."
He found the girl unexpectedly adorable and, smiling, said, "I’ll call your parents now, to see if it’s convenient for them to come over."
Right in front of Gu Shengyin, he dialed Mr. An’s number.
The familiar voice of Mr. An soon came through, and after a brief conversation with Father Song, they hung up.
Gu Shengyin heard clearly; Mr. An said he and his wife would hurry over soon.
Father Song looked at Gu Shengyin, "Now do you believe that we’re not bad people?"
After a moment of silence, Gu Shengyin apologized to them and then took out her keys to open the door and let them in.
After all, Gu Shengyin was just a student, renting a very ordinary single room. Once a bed and a desk were placed inside, there was hardly any spare space left.
Now with two adults added, the room seemed very crowded.
Though the room was small, Gu Shengyin had kept it very clean, and even the not-so-white walls had been decorated with warm stickers.
Upon entering and seeing this, Mother Song barely held back her tears: Her daughter, what kind of life had she been living these years?
Gu Shengyin took out two foldable plastic stools from under the bed, placing them next to the two of them, and said with slight embarrassment, "These are the only stools I have here."
Father Song and Mother Song quickly indicated they didn’t mind at all.
She then went to boil water, pouring hot water into disposable plastic cups for both of them.
Mother Song, holding the boiled water, blankly stared at Gu Shengyin, lost in thought about something.
Father Song, however, was quite composed. Seeing that Gu Shengyin was also somewhat restrained and nervous, he kept smiling and asked her some minor questions, such as whether she was accustomed to living alone or if she faced any difficulties with her studies, and so on.
Gu Shengyin slowly answered, gradually relaxing.
The Song Family couple observed that, although the child wasn’t very talkative, she was very polite and behaved nicely in front of her elders.
The door was knocked again. Given the recent phone call, it should probably be Mr. and Mrs. An arriving.
Gu Shengyin went to open the door, indeed finding the hurried figures of Mr. and Mrs. An.
On seeing Gu Shengyin, Mom An immediately began asking, "How can you carelessly let anyone in? Did they ask you any strange questions? You didn’t say anything rash, did you...?"
"Cough, cough!" Mr. An coughed loudly, prompting Mom An to fall silent.
The faces of Father Song and Mother Song, standing inside the room, turned rather unpleasant.
They had just witnessed Mom An’s attitude toward An Qinyu. How could this be the demeanor of a mother toward her own daughter?
It was imaginable what kind of life Qinyu had been leading these years.
The small room was clearly too cramped with four adults, so Father Song suggested they go outside to talk.
He turned back deliberately to speak to Gu Shengyin, "Yuyu, dad... Uncle has something to discuss with you, would you come out with us?"
Gu Shengyin nodded, and they went to the nearest teahouse, requesting a private room.
After sitting down, Father Song noticed carefully that Gu Shengyin chose a seat far from Mr. and Mrs. An and had returned to that cold demeanor she had when they first met.
It was clear that her relationship with this couple was not good.