“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?”

I glanced at Harvey, whose face was practically glowing with arrogance.

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

The other end of the line went silent.

Even the sound of breathing disappeared.

“You’d better hurry.”

No one in the office said a word.

After a while, Ms. Carter suddenly burst out laughing.

“Sir, you’re already this old. How can you still say something so childish?” Ms. Carter shook her head.

Ms. Zeller looked at me with the same speechless expression.

“You’re an old man in cheap slip-ons, yet you’re claiming the richest man’s grandson only got into this kindergarten because you helped him? Are you losing your mind?”

I ignored their mockery.

Soon enough, they would understand exactly how stupid they were.

I took Nina to the side and sat down, waiting in silence.

Ten minutes later, hurried footsteps sounded in the hallway.

They came closer and closer.

At last, the office door was pushed open.

The man who walked in carried himself with great importance. He wore a dark navy suit, a gold watch on his wrist, and his hair was combed neatly into place.

It was John.

Ms. Carter quickly got up to greet him, smiling so hard her face almost split.

“Oh, Mr. Harris! What brings you here?”

Ms. Zeller also rushed forward and bowed deeply in front of him, bending so low her head was almost touching the floor.

“Mr. Harris, don’t worry. We’re handling the matter right now. It’ll be settled very soon.”

But John didn’t even look at them.

His eyes swept quickly over Harvey before finally landing on my face.

Then his expression shifted from confusion to realization, and finally to complete despair.

“You... you hit Mr. Spencer’s granddaughter?”

John looked at his grandson. His legs went weak, and his voice shook so badly it nearly changed pitch.

Harvey lifted his chin, looking smug.

“Yeah, that little brat. I took her stuff, and she actually dared to refuse me. Of course I had to beat her up! Heehee!”

Ms. Carter cleared her throat twice and stepped forward to stand in front of Harvey.

“Oh, Harvey was only defending himself. Mr. Harris, please don’t worry. We will deal with the child who hit him very seriously.”

“Exactly!” Ms. Zeller hurried forward too, desperate to make herself useful.

“Our kindergarten will never allow any unfair treatment. We’ve already decided to expel that badly behaved child!”

After hearing them, John’s face looked worse than if he had been crying.

He stumbled over to me.

“Mr. Spen... Mr. Spen...”

I looked at him coldly, sitting on the sofa without moving an inch.

“John, I haven’t seen you for a few days, and you’ve already replaced me as the richest man in the city?”

His lips trembled as he tried to explain.

“You don’t need to drive today,” I said, giving him no chance.

His eyes widened.

“Actually, you won’t need to drive for me ever again.”

I nodded to myself.

Ms. Carter still had no idea what was going on. She stepped forward to support John, whose legs were going weak, and pointed at me as she snapped.

“What driver? What do you mean, drive? Show some respect to the richest man in the city.”

“You... shut your mouth!”

John finally turned and slapped her hard across the face.

Then, in front of everyone in the office, he dropped heavily to his knees before me.

Under everyone’s stunned gaze, he cried out and begged for mercy.

“Mr. Spencer, please forgive me!”