Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

"Damn! Who's making all that noise? Can't anyone get some sleep around here!" Xu Qingfan irritably removed the black clothing that was covering his eyes and opened the bedroom window to look down at the courtyard below. In the courtyard on the first floor, groups of neighbors stood watching the drama unfold. A woman he didn't recognize was kneeling on the cement floor with two children by her side. Each child clung to one leg of a middle-aged man, while the woman kept bowing her head repeatedly. "Please give me the invoice. I will pay you back the money for the electric scooter. The lawyer said, without the invoice, we can't sue the seller!" After she spoke, the woman bowed her head a few more times. "How shameless can you be, stealing my electric scooter and now shamelessly asking me for the invoice? I'm telling you, take it up with who you got it from, or else I'm calling the police!" As soon as Xu Qingfan came downstairs, he saw Uncle Li furiously scolding the kneeling woman. "Wuwuwu~ I'm begging you. My husband was severely burned, he's a Level 9 burn, and the hospital has already issued a critical condition notice. If we can't gather the money... wuwuwuwu..." "Enough, Uncle Li. It's not easy for a widow and her orphans either. She even said she'll pay you back the money for the scooter. I think just give her the invoice!" "Yeah, you're not losing out anyway. Just consider it as buying a new electric scooter." "Stop kneeling already. The floor is so cold; you'll make yourself sick!" "It's tough for everyone!" "The children are innocent..." "..." After the onlooking neighbors understood the whole situation, they all started playing peacemaker. Uncle Li began to waver a bit, as after all, whose heart isn't made of flesh. Seeing the woman with her family kneeling and begging, it was hard for anyone not to be moved. Except for Xu Qingfan. Because there was a follow-up to this incident, he remembered it particularly well. In fact, every household in Lianhua Courtyard remembered it well. The plot was straightforward. The woman had stolen Uncle Li's newly bought electric scooter from the sixth floor, and a month later the scooter had caught fire, severely burning her husband. The lawyer had suggested the woman sue the manufacturer of the electric scooter. However, the lawsuit required the invoice of the scooter's purchase. Having no shame, the woman came to beg Uncle Li for the invoice. Perhaps out of pity for the mother and child, or maybe wanting to get the money back for the scooter, he eventually gave it to her. Everyone thought that should have been the end of the story. Uncle Li had provided the invoice, got his money back, and it should have led to a narrative where good deeds are rewarded. However. The woman's lawsuit against the manufacturer of the electric scooter ended in failure because Uncle Li had privately linked an additional set of batteries to the scooter after purchasing it. Ultimately, the woman, whose conscience was eaten by dogs, sued Uncle Li in court. With the invoice and bank transfer records in hand, she naturally won the lawsuit. In the end, the court ordered Uncle Li to compensate the woman 200,000 yuan, and the incident caused him to lose his family. Seeing the woman cry her eyes out right now gave Xu Qingfan a chill, as these tears were nothing but crocodile tears! "Fine, I'll go upstairs and look for it, but I'm not even sure if it's still there," Uncle Li finally softened, patting his trousers' leg that the two little boys had wrinkled. "Thank you, thank you!!" The woman again pulled her two sons and bowed repeatedly. With such a commotion in the neighborhood, Xu Qingfan naturally wouldn't just stand by. He ran upstairs ahead of Uncle Li. When he arrived at Uncle Li's place, his son Li Da was sitting on the floor in front of the TV, watching television. "Xu Qingfan? What are you doing here?" Over the past year, Li Da had heard plenty about Xu Qingfan from his parents and showed hostility upon his arrival. "Huff, huff, huff~ That woman who stole your family's electric scooter came to ask your dad for the invoice. He said he'd rather burn it than give it to her, and told me to hurry up and burn it so when they come up, we can say it got lost!" Xu Qingfan explained breathlessly. "Damn it! How can people be so shameless! The invoice is in the nightstand in my parents' bedroom; I'll go get it right now!" Li Da slapped his thigh, stood up angrily, and dashed into the room. Xu Qingfan returned to the hallway and looked down. Uncle Li and the woman had already reached the second floor. "Quick, they're up to the second floor!" Xu Qingfan urged. "I found it! My parents keep all the important documents like the household registration in here." Li Da emerged from the bedroom holding a kraft paper bag. "There's no time, let's burn it in my place!" Without a second thought, Xu Qingfan grabbed the kraft paper bag and ran towards his apartment. "Hey, wait up for me!" Li Da also hurriedly put on a pair of slippers and chased after him. "Why are you heading to the rooftop? Weren't we going to your place?" He caught up to Xu Qingfan at the stairwell and was quite puzzled to see him going upstairs. "Your dad and the others have already gone up to the fourth floor, if we go down now, won't we run right into them!" Xu Qingfan glanced back at him, dropped a remark, and continued to run. "Oh, right!" Li Da scratched the back of his head and followed him. Once they reached the rooftop, Xu Qingfan dumped everything from the leather bag onto the ground: property deeds, birth certificates, TV set receipts, washing machine receipts, you name it. After searching for a while, he finally found the electric scooter receipt, confirmed it was the right one, and stuffed it into his pocket. "Take the leather bag back home. I'll burn the receipts for you. Remember, if your dad asks, you just say you don't know. Don't let your dad slip up in front of that thief, or else he'll lose face and you'll have to buy a third feather duster." Xu Qingfan handed the leather bag back to Li Da, patted his hand, and then turned to go downstairs. Doing good deeds is best kept simple, expected nothing in return, and sometimes, better not done at all. Xu Qingfan had done what he could to help Uncle Li's family, and he wasn't about to come forward and clarify the convoluted details. If doing so made that woman hold a grudge against him, it wouldn't be worth the loss! After all, that woman had done such malicious things in her past life, who knew what she might do to him after learning the truth. Xu Qingfan certainly wasn't willing to gamble with his own safety. Back in his third-floor home, Xu Qingfan found a lighter to burn the receipt. Having done the deed, he vanished into obscurity. ... Li Da entered his home in a daze, bumping right into his equally dazed father coming out of the bedroom. "You little rascal, why were you rummaging through my bedside drawer? Made me search everywhere!" Uncle Li raised his hand and smack his son on the back of his head. Li Da remembered what Xu Qingfan had said on the rooftop: act like the receipt doesn't exist. Dad hitting me must be part of the act to help me out! [My dad's acting skills are unbeatable!] "Mom asked me to get it for her," Li Da said, sounding wronged. "Go do your homework. You only ever think about playing! Wait, the receipt is in there," Uncle Li glared at his son, then turned and spoke to the woman. Li Da silently went back to his room, and as he shut the door, he gave the woman an annoyed look. "Wuwu~ Thank you." Three minutes later. "No, wait, I'm sure I remember... You little scamp, where's my electric scooter receipt?" Uncle Li yelled towards his son's room. [Here we go, my turn to act. Don't worry, Dad, I won't let you down!] Suppressing his excited expression, Li Da took a deep breath and opened his door. "What electric scooter receipt? I don't know what you're talking about?" "Smack!" "You don't know! Did the receipt grow wings and fly away by itself?" Uncle Li hated lies the most and smacked the table in anger. [Such acting skills, Dad. It's a shame you're not in the movies!] "I really don't know!" Li Da stood tall and looked straight at his father. "Looks like you're itching for a beating again!" Uncle Li looked around and quickly found a worn-out feather duster. [What the heck, Dad, what are you doing, don't come over here, you're not really going to hit me, right!!!] "Ah!!!" "Tell me, where did the receipt go!" "I don't, ah! Know, ah!" "Ah!!!!!!" Hiding at the stairwell corner, Xu Qingfan silently crossed his chest, "May there be no domestic violence in heaven, amen."