With his words, the surroundings fell silent for a moment.

Everyone stared wide-eyed, waiting to see him cut ties with his stepmother.

He slowly said, "First, I want to cut ties with my second aunt because you distort right and wrong, deliberately causing trouble."

I had complained to my brother about this matter long ago, but Mom said I shouldn't talk about it. However, I could never hide my words in front of my brother.

The second aunt didn't expect this and was standing with her arms crossed, ready to watch the show.

Upon hearing this, she panicked and said, "Why are you talking nonsense like this..."

"I'm doing this for your own good, to repay ingratitude."

Unable to withstand my brother's gaze, she retreated in guilt, accidentally stepping on someone's foot.

"You can stop pretending," a man shouted, "When his mother was at her parents' house, you didn't treat her well. Back then, didn't you even suggest that the old man marry her to the disabled son of the village chief... Now you act like a saint, what a show!"

Laughter erupted among the crowd.

It seemed that the second aunt had made quite a few enemies with her sharp tongue.

The old man still coldly stared at my brother, not letting this incident derail him.

My brother knelt down.

Everyone suddenly stepped back.

The vacant spot of blue bricks looked like a tragic stage.

My eighteen-year-old brother was under the harsh spotlight, with nowhere to escape.

My brother looked up and said, "Grandfather, I dare not disobey you. You raised my biological mother, without you, there would be no me."

The old man's expression suddenly softened, nodding in approval.

He reached out to pull my brother up.

But my brother bowed down and knocked his head.

With his head lowered, he continued, "However, Grandfather, over these years, I've learned a lesson from books, that a drop of kindness should be repaid with a gushing spring... Over the years, during school and holidays, it was always Aunt Su Xin who rode her old electric bike to pick me up in wind and rain. When I had a stomachache, my dad said drinking hot water would do, but she rode through the snow, delivering medicine to the school gate early in the morning... Also, if she hadn't insisted on going to the school gate to take another look, I wouldn't have had the chance to attend a private primary school, pass the entrance exam to a key middle school, and eventually end up at Tsinghua University today."

The old man urgently said, "We can give her money, what she did doesn't cost much!"

My brother shook his head, "Grandfather, whoever owes should repay. If you had told me from the beginning that she was a third party and I shouldn't owe her any kindness, things would have been easier. But now that things have come to this, I can't turn a blind eye and chill the hearts of stepmothers who treat their stepchildren kindly. I can only stand on my own from today, save up enough money with my own hands, and compensate Aunt Su Xin. When the time comes, we can talk about cutting ties. I hope you won't make it difficult for her because of me, let me handle this matter myself."

He solemnly knocked his head again, then stood up, walked into the house, and put on his backpack.

Inside the bag were the study materials my mom and I happily prepared with my brother, including the shiny admission letter from Tsinghua University. We had planned to send him to Beijing together next month.

Grandfather suddenly burst into tears, wiping his eyes with one hand while reaching out to grab my brother's sleeve with the other.

My father stopped grandfather, saying, "Dad, don't stop him, let Xiao Zhe go."