After climbing my way up from nothing to become the richest man in the city, I got used to keeping a low profile.

Until one day, I received a call from my granddaughter’s kindergarten.

They said she had hit another child in class and told me to come in to settle the matter.

But when I arrived, I found my granddaughter covered in injuries.

The boy who claimed she had hit him didn’t have a scratch on him. Instead, he spat at me with a smug look on his face.

“You old geezer. Your whole outfit isn’t even worth as much as one pair of my sneakers. Take your broke little granddaughter and get out!”

I stared at the homeroom teacher in disbelief.

She only curled her lip.

“Kids say silly things. Besides, what Harvey Harris said isn’t exactly wrong.

“His grandfather is the richest man in the city. Our kindergarten is an elite school, after all. Ordinary families like yours should stop coming here just to embarrass yourselves. You’d be better off transferring her somewhere else.”

When I heard the boy’s name, I almost laughed.

I pulled out my phone and called John Harris, my driver of ten years.

“John, stop waiting by the car. Come to the office.

“Why? Because the grandson you begged me to help get into this kindergarten just beat up my granddaughter.”

After building my fortune from nothing over the course of decades, I had always known the value of keeping a low profile.

I owned dozens of companies, but I never showed my face in public. When I went grocery shopping, I rode an old electric scooter. The coats I wore were always bought on sale.

None of my neighbors knew who I really was, which spared me a lot of unnecessary favors and fake friendships.

Then, one afternoon, while I was at home carving a wooden toy for my granddaughter, I received a call from her kindergarten.

“Hello? Are you Nina Spencer’s grandfather? Your granddaughter bullied another child at school. The situation is very serious. You need to come over immediately and deal with it!”

The voice on the other end sounded cold and impatient, like she was just going through the motions.

My heart sank.

I knew Nina better than anyone. She was gentle and kind. Ever since she was little, she wouldn’t even step on an ant if she could help it.

How could she possibly hit someone?

“I’ll be right there.”

After hanging up, I didn’t even have time to change my clothes. I rushed out and rode my electric scooter straight to the kindergarten.

My son spent most of the year overseas working on projects, and my daughter-in-law had gone with him. Before they left, they asked only one thing of me.

Protect Nina.

That was why I had personally chosen the best kindergarten in the city for her. The tuition alone was two hundred and thirty thousand a year.

I never expected something like this to happen.

When I arrived, someone led me to the office.

The moment I pushed the door open, my chest tightened.

Nina was curled up on a small stool in the corner. The left side of her face was badly swollen, there was a cut at the corner of her mouth, and her arms were covered in bruises and red marks.

The second she saw me, her mouth puckered as if she was about to cry.

But one glare from the teacher scared the tears right back.

Anger surged through me.

I rushed over and checked her injuries.

“Don’t cry, Nina. Grandpa’s here.”

As I spoke, I looked her over carefully. The injuries on her body were clearly from being beaten. This was far beyond a normal scuffle between children.

Just then, the teacher beside me spoke.

“You’re Nina’s grandfather, right? I’m Ms. Zeller, her teacher.”

She looked me up and down with obvious contempt. When her gaze dropped to my worn black slip-ons, her lip curled even more.

“I suggest you stop feeling sorry for her and take a look at the child she bullied first.”

I turned my head and saw a chubby little boy sitting on the sofa nearby, legs crossed, making faces at me.

He was clean from head to toe. Forget injuries. Not even a strand of his hair was out of place.

“Ms. Zeller, explain this to me clearly. Who bullied whom?”

My expression darkened.

Nina was covered in injuries, while that little boy didn’t have a scratch on him.

And they were telling me my granddaughter was the bully?

“Did I not make myself clear enough?” Ms. Zeller rolled her eyes. “Your granddaughter bullied Harvey Harris. She even wrinkled his clothes!

“Now his family is demanding compensation for medical expenses and emotional distress. The total is ten thousand dollars.”

I had spent decades fighting my way through the business world, but even then, hearing something this absurd still left me stunned.

“Ten thousand? Where is he hurt?”

“Right here, obviously.” Ms. Zeller pointed at the back of Harvey’s hand.

If she hadn’t pointed it out, I wouldn’t even have noticed the faint pink scratch on his chubby hand. It was almost invisible to the naked eye.

As for the injuries on Nina, I counted at least seven.

“Then what about the injuries on Nina?”

“What about them?” Ms. Zeller said. “She bullied Harvey first. Harvey was only defending himself.”

“A five-year-old defending himself did all this?”

I stared hard into Ms. Zeller’s eyes.

Her expression darkened. Embarrassed and angry, she pointed at me and snapped, “What kind of unreasonable guardian are you? We already checked the security footage. Nina started it!”

I was already tired of listening to her nonsense.

I led Nina aside.

“Nina, tell Grandpa what really happened.”

Nina instinctively glanced at Ms. Zeller.

I gently patted her head and brought her attention back to me.

“Don’t be afraid, Nina. Tell me the truth. I promise no one will bully you again.”

Nina sniffled. Her voice was small and hoarse.

“He took the picture I drew for you. I told him to give it back, but he hit me. He hit me a lot of times. Then I accidentally pushed him, and he fell down.”

The more Nina spoke, the more hurt she sounded.

My heart ached.

Just then, Harvey jumped up from the sofa.

“You’re lying! I never even touched you!”

He spat at Nina, then raised his middle finger at me.

“You old geezer. Your whole outfit isn’t even worth as much as one pair of my sneakers. Take your broke little granddaughter and get out!”

His face was filled with a kind of malice that didn’t belong on a five-year-old child.

I couldn’t understand how a child that young could say something like that.

What baffled me even more was that Ms. Zeller actually let out a soft laugh from the side.

“All right, all right. Kids say silly things. Besides, Harvey isn’t exactly wrong.

“And his grandfather is the richest man in our city. This is a high-end kindergarten. To put it bluntly, ordinary families like yours are only embarrassing yourselves by staying here.”

Ms. Zeller clicked her tongue. Her tone sounded almost like she was giving me kind advice.

“You should transfer Nina to another school as soon as possible. It’ll be better for everyone.”

I frowned.

Other than me, was there another richest man in this city?

“Who is this richest man you’re talking about?”

“Who else could it be? Mr. Harris, of course. Mr. John Harris!”

Ms. Zeller rolled her eyes at me again.

This time, I truly laughed.

She had actually amused me.

John Harris had once been so desperate that he went through three different connections just to get in front of me and beg for a job as my driver.

And now, according to Ms. Zeller, he was somehow the richest man in the city?

Not only that, but his grandson had beaten my granddaughter.

No wonder Harvey was so arrogant.

If John dared to go around pretending to be me, was it any surprise that his grandson would act like this?

Just then, there was movement at the door.

The kindergarten principal, Ms. Carter, walked in.

The moment she entered, she hurried over to Harvey with a fawning smile and greeted him first. Only after that did she throw me an impatient look.

“You’re Nina Spencer’s grandfather, right?”

As she spoke, she tossed a document onto the table in front of me.

“The kindergarten has already made its decision, and we won’t be changing it.”

“First, you need to compensate Harvey for his medical expenses and emotional distress. The total is ten thousand dollars. Second...”

She adjusted her glasses.

“Given Nina’s repeated aggressive behavior recently, we recommend that she transfer to another school.”

I looked down at the document.

It was a voluntary transfer agreement, neatly printed and ready to go. All it needed was my signature and a fingerprint.

“You’re saying Nina has been aggressive more than once?”

I looked up and stared at Ms. Carter. “When exactly? Where are the records?”

Ms. Carter froze for a second, as if she hadn’t expected me to question her.

But she quickly put on her superior attitude again.

“We’ll organize the details later. Right now, the priority is resolving the matter in front of us. You should sign first, and then...”

“I want to see the security footage.”

“The security footage?” Ms. Carter frowned impatiently. “The cameras happen to be under maintenance today, so we can’t pull up the footage right now.”

“Ms. Zeller just said you confirmed from the footage that Nina attacked Harvey first. So did you watch it or not?”

I stared at both of them.

The office fell silent for a moment.

Ms. Carter and Ms. Zeller exchanged a look.

“I... I was talking about the hallway footage,” Ms. Zeller said weakly. “Anyway, we would never falsely accuse your child. So many children saw Nina hit him first. How could that be fake?”

Her explanation was flimsy, and her eyes kept darting away.

Before I could press her further, Ms. Carter’s phone rang.

She put it on speaker.

“Ms. Carter! Have you handled this or not? Let me tell you, our Harvey was beaten. We’re only asking for ten thousand because both children attend the same kindergarten. We’re already being considerate enough!

“If they refuse to pay and refuse to sign, I promise I’ll make their whole family get out of this city!”

Ms. Carter immediately put on a fawning smile.

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Harris. I promise I’ll take care of this properly for you.”

After saying that, she gave me a meaningful look.

The woman on the phone was Karen Lincoln, John’s wife.

Years ago, she had come to my door with John to beg me for help. Later, she had knelt in front of me and said she could never repay my kindness in this lifetime.

And now, she was threatening to drive my entire family out of the city?

Behind me, Nina suddenly tugged at my sleeve.

“Grandpa, let’s go home. I don’t want to go to kindergarten anymore.”

She nervously picked at her fingers.

But every day when she came home, she used to tell me how much she liked the children here and how much she liked the playground.

Maybe right now, she was afraid I would get angry.

Maybe she was afraid I would be bullied.

Maybe she thought all of this was her fault.

But I would never let her suffer this kind of humiliation.

I, Steven Spencer, had been through every kind of storm in my life.

Back when I went bankrupt, debt collectors blocked my front door. Business partners turned against me and held knives to my throat. Banks suddenly pulled their loans and almost drove me to the edge.

I survived all of it without my hands shaking once.

But now, looking at the fear in Nina’s eyes, I couldn’t stop my hands from trembling.

My heart ached for her.

And I was furious over what she had been put through.

Ms. Carter was still urging me.

“Can you just sign it already? Stop wasting everyone’s time.”

“I’m not signing.”

I cut her off coldly.

Then I dialed a number.

The call was picked up after one ring.

“Mr. Spencer, what can I do for you today?”

John’s ingratiating voice came through the phone, just as it had for decades.

“Stop waiting by the car. Come to your grandson’s kindergarten,” I said slowly.

“Huh? Mr. Spencer, why are you at the kindergarten?”

“Why?”