Chapter 110: I’m Not a Motherless Stray
The child cried pitifully, tears streaming down his face. Liu Yuzhi’s heart ached, but she didn’t stop her daughter-in-law from disciplining her grandson.
Unlike some women in the village who would scold their daughters-in-law for disciplining their precious grandsons, leading to the children no longer fearing their mothers and becoming even more unruly, Liu Yuzhi understood the importance of a mother’s authority.
Seeing the child crying so hard, Yun Qinghuan’s expression remained unmoved. “If you hit someone for a reason, if it was their fault, even if it wasn’t right for you to strike first, Mom would forgive you. But if you don’t tell Mom what happened, how can Mom forgive you?”
Even though she intended to be stern, the child’s heartbreaking sobs softened her tone involuntarily.
Perhaps sensing encouragement, the little guy choked back his tears and recounted what had happened in the afternoon.
At that time, he was wearing the new clothes his mother had bought him, feeling incredibly happy. He was also quite bored at home, having finished his reading and writing homework. So, he told his mother and went out to find Wa Dan to play.
He went to Wa Dan’s house, but Aunt Wang said Wa Dan had already gone out and told him to look for him in the village.
An An knew the village well. Most of the children liked to play by the small stream on the west side of the village.
The stream was shallow, only reaching An An’s chest, and the current was gentle, posing no danger. Therefore, many boys in the village liked to play there, also digging in the mud by the stream to make little clay figures.
The adults in the village didn’t mind them playing there, as the water was indeed not deep, only reaching an adult’s calves.
When An An arrived, he indeed saw Wa Dan and happily called out to him.
Wa Dan was also very happy to see him and ran over immediately, pulling him towards the group of children they usually played with.
Because An An was wearing new clothes, he was immediately surrounded by the other children, who chattered excitedly about his new outfit.
In the countryside, even these boys rarely wore new clothes.
Especially since An An’s new clothes were a small uniform that Yun Qinghuan had specially chosen to resemble a military outfit, which looked exceptionally good to these children.
An An was also very happy, feeling like a white swan. He straightened up, standing very properly, and honestly told everyone that his mother had bought him the new clothes with her manuscript fees.
His words may have contained some boastfulness about how special his mother was to him.
Somehow, this pricked the hearts of a few boys.
A chubby troublemaker in the village directly scolded him, “What’s so great? My mom said your mom will remarry sooner or later and won’t want you anymore. You’ll be a child without a mother then!”
“An An’s mom doesn’t want him anymore!”
“That’s right, my mom also said An An’s mom will remarry and will have other younger brothers and sisters for An An, and definitely won’t love him the most anymore!”
Because the chubby boy spoke up, the other children, who had initially envied An An for having new clothes, started chattering all at once.
This made An An’s eyes turn red with anger, but he stubbornly held back his tears.
Wa Dan couldn’t stand it anymore. He had always treated An An like his own younger brother, and seeing the chubby boy bully him naturally made him angry.
Back and forth, he started fighting with the chubby boy.
Unfortunately, the chubby boy was fair and fat, older than Wa Dan, and much stronger. Wa Dan quickly lost ground. While hitting Wa Dan, the chubby boy provocatively cursed that An An would become a motherless stray in the future.
An An became enraged and directly went forward to fight the chubby boy.
While fighting, he shouted, “I’m not a motherless stray! Mom said she loves me the most!”
Don’t underestimate An An just because he was smaller than the chubby boy. When he fought, he was particularly fierce. The chubby boy couldn’t beat him at all and screamed from An An’s punches.
Of course, An An was definitely not unscathed. He was kicked in the stomach by the chubby boy, who had fallen to the ground, leaving a mark.
There were also some marks left on his legs and arms.
An An’s clothes were also dirty. When he came back in the evening, he was covered in mud and soaking wet. Bai Naihan didn’t think much of it, assuming he had fallen while playing in the water, so he told him to change his clothes, as wearing wet clothes was very uncomfortable.
Then the man washed the clothes and hung them in the yard. The weather was so hot that they would dry quickly.
After listening to her child’s words, Yun Qinghuan was very angry.
Liu Yuzhi’s expression was also unpleasant. “Isn’t this chubby boy bullying others? An An is so young, what does he mean by saying those things?”
An An had already suffered enough from losing his father and felt insecure. Now, for others to say in front of him that his mother would also abandon him was outrageous.
Although it was a fact that her daughter-in-law would remarry in the future, it wasn’t now.
Liu Yuzhi was very angry. “I’m going to find that chubby boy’s mother tomorrow to reason with her!”
Then she lowered her head and lovingly touched her grandson’s head. “You’ve really been wronged. Don’t worry, others are talking nonsense. Don’t take it to heart, An An.”
Yun Qinghuan also said, “Mom, I’ll go with you tomorrow.”
It was obvious that a child as young as the chubby boy wouldn’t say those things on his own. Someone at home must have said it, and he had learned it.
In this village, it was impossible for An An to avoid playing with these children. If they were allowed to say such things to An An, the consequences later on would probably be even more serious.
An An was already somewhat insecure. She had finally managed to make the child a little more lively, and she couldn’t let him revert to his previous state overnight.
Moreover, what Chubby Bao and the others did could easily lead other children to isolate An An.
She had to take this opportunity to get angry and let people know that they shouldn’t instigate children to say such things.
Yun Qinghuan’s eyes flashed with coldness. When she looked down at the child, her gaze softened a little. She touched An An’s head and said gently, “This time, Mom will let you off, An An. But you need to know that you were also wrong this time. After all, you were the first to hit someone. Although Chubby Bao hit Wa Dan and scolded you, and you wanted to protect Wa Dan, all of that cannot cover up the fact that you struck first.”
An An lowered his head, his expression sullen.
She changed her tone, “Also, there were only two of you, and you two are smaller than Chubby Bao. If you angered Chubby Bao and his friends, and so many of them hit the two of you, could you have beaten them?
“What if something happened? Didn’t Mom tell you that there are many ways to solve problems, and fighting is the worst?”
Yun Qinghuan never doubted that some children were inherently malicious.
If Chubby Bao had been enraged at that time, who could guarantee that he wouldn’t have done something outrageous?
After all, the ignorant are fearless.
Even if they later helped the child vent his anger, the loss had already been suffered, and the harm had already been done.
Seeing An An looking thoughtful, Yun Qinghuan breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that her usual efforts in teaching him hadn’t been in vain.
The little guy suddenly looked up at her. “Mom, do you mean I shouldn’t have hit Chubby Bao then? I should have gone to find an adult and let them see with their own eyes how bad Chubby Bao was, bullying a child smaller than him and hitting so hard.”
After all, Mom often said that if you say someone is bad, you must have evidence. At that time, when Chubby Bao hit someone, he should have first pulled an adult over to witness that Chubby Bao was hitting too hard and he couldn’t bear it anymore, so he went to help his good friend.
Yun Qinghuan: “…Right.”
Something felt a little strange.
PS: Advance chapters [111-129] are available on my Ko-fi shop (70% discount on ALL shop items for supporters!)
[Chapters 111-119] – https://ko-fi.com/s/44965d9677 are scheduled to be posted here on June 15th
[Chapters 120-129] – https://ko-fi.com/s/00c45cce08
PS 2: I’m so so so excited about the new series I’ll be picking up!!! Sneak peak on my Ko-fi page!
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Translated with love by _ ꕤ🌼Yourheartbeat🌼ꕤ
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