CHAPTER 18.2
A job opening notice was posted in front of her store. On the 18th day of the first lunar month, the children officially started school, and she hired three employees. Shen Haiyang also started working, and she had an overall view of the store.
After the porridge was cooked, it was placed in a soup bucket in a corner of the hall, with a bowl next to it. A piece of paper on the wall said “help yourself”. Two people in the kitchen were making dumplings and one was frying dough sticks. Li Xia went wherever she was needed.
The three women hired were all very capable. After closing the stall, they made pickles from cabbage, radish, etc. and provided them for free. The porridge was served with fried dough sticks, steamed buns and pickles. The good quality and low price attracted more and more diners, and the business was very hot. Many people came in and took away their lunch boxes when they saw that there were no seats.
Yi Yi was picked up by Fang Zhongcheng after school started. Li Xia wanted to talk to Fang Zhongcheng about the custody issue, but the little guy just pulled the man away and she didn’t even have a chance to say anything. She didn’t know what her son was thinking.
Yes, could it be that he can’t bear to part with Fang Zhongcheng? I’ll ask him next time.
Li Xia didn’t see her son over the weekend. Huihua went to her grandmother’s house to look for her brother, and heard that her brother had gone to her new mother’s home with her father and mother. After asking around, she found out that her new mother’s home was in the same courtyard as Murong Danling’s. Shen Hui spoke immediately.
”Come on, I know where it is and I’ll take you there.”
Shen Hui took Huihua to his grandmother’s house. They heard Yi Yi’s shouting in the alley and hurried to pick up their pace. Yi Yi was fighting with two little boys in the alley. The two were the sons of Shen Hui’s uncle, both older than him.
”Hey, how old are you two? Why are you bullying your little brother?”
Shen Hui shouted from a distance, and the two boys looked back at him with disdain. They grabbed the small train and rubbed it back and forth on their palms as if to provoke.
”Who do you think you are? You are asking for trouble if you meddle in other people’s business.”
The two started the fight, so Shen Hui had no choice but to fight back. Huihua ran to her brother and used a handkerchief to press the blood on his forehead. She was anxious to ask for help to treat her brother’s wound first, but there were only children around and no one paid attention to this.
”Stop fighting, stop fighting,”
The kids didn’t care about that at all. The two brothers pinned Shen Hui down and beat him up. While beating him, they kept muttering, “It’s all because of you, you little brat. We were going to buy a TV but now we won’t. You big idiot, you have to compensate me for my TV. I can’t watch my cartoons anymore. The Hu family doesn’t turn on the TV during the day.”
”That’s right, it’s all your fault. It would have been great if you had followed your mother. Your mom even said she would buy you a big house. But now the big house is all enjoyed by your stepmother.”
Shen Hui let his two cousins yell without saying a word, stubbornly protecting his head and fighting with them. Two fists are no match for four hands, not to mention that the two were bigger than him. He was at a disadvantage, and the two’s fists rained down on him, making him feel pain all over.
Huihua, who was standing by, was anxious. She asked her brother to cover his forehead, and she joined the fight without caring whether she could win or not. The little girl got the courage from nowhere, picked up a half-brick, took a running start and jumped up to hit the highest one on the forehead.
Blood immediately flowed out, this was much more serious than knocking one finger at a time. The bright red blood flowed down the fingers and all over the cheeks. The children were all terrified, and many of them had already run away.
”You, you little girl…”
”run.”
Huihua was so frightened that she was stunned. Shen Hui reacted and dragged her away, taking the little one with him when he passed by Yiyi. The three children ran all the way home, scaring Li Xia who was out to pick up vegetables.
”what happened?”
”Mom,” Huihua cried and said, “I’m in trouble.”
Putting down the bucket, she carefully checked the children. Shen Hui had a cut on his face and many bruises. She lifted his clothes and saw bruises on his lower back. Huihua was not injured, but Yiyi had a cut on his forehead. He covered it with a handkerchief and it was no longer bleeding.
She was furious and asked Huihua what was going on. Huihua calmed down and told her mother what happened.
”I didn’t mean to do that. I was just anxious. Who knew I would hit him on the forehead?”
“Great shot.”
”Ah? Mom…” Huihua was stunned. Didn’t her mom always tell her not to fight with others? Why was she praising her? She had actually gotten someone’s head slashed. “Will they come and ask for compensation?”
”Don’t worry about that. You have a mother. If you encounter something like this next time, you should go fight sooner. If you delay, you will get beaten up many times.”
”Who got beaten?”
As they were talking, Shen Haiyang came back and saw the children, taking them to the hospital first. He rode two wheels and Li Xia rode three wheels to take all three kids to the hospital.
Outside the pediatrics department, they happened to see Murong Danling’s brother and sister-in-law taking their child to treat the wound. His wound was quite deep and needed stitches. The other party rushed over immediately.
”Okay, I just happened to meet you. Come on, come on, explain it to me clearly.”
Seeing that Li Xia was about to argue with someone, Shen Haiyang gently pushed her and asked her to take the children in. He suppressed the matter with a few words.
”Keep your voice down. We can talk later. This is a hospital. Don’t you see the word ‘quiet’ written everywhere?”
When he said this, the nurse next to him pointed at the wall and agreed: “If you have anything to say, please go out and solve it later. Don’t do it in the hospital. “
In this way, the two families treated their children’s wounds. After leaving, Shen Haiyang didn’t wait for the other party to speak, he spoke first.
”How much did this cost your family?”
Now there is no CT scan, so he just treated the wound. “Eighty cents. But the doctor said I have to pay attention to the child and feed him good food.”
Shen Haiyang said, “What a coincidence, my family said the same thing. Yiyi is still young, and the injury to his head is serious. Huihui has bruises all over his body, and soft tissue damage, so he needs to rest well. Oh, yes, my family spent 1.13 yuan on these two. More than 30 cents more than yours.”
”This, your cheap daughter used a brick to break my son head…”
”Your two sons are older than my children, and they ganged up on them. Also, watch your mouth.”
Before he could finish, Shen Haiyang interrupted him. He worked in the procuratorate and was still in uniform. He looked serious and argued with reason, giving people a sense of being a bureaucrat. The other party’s arrogance was beaten down to pieces. As a relative of Shen Haiyang for many years, he knew that this seemingly gentle former brother-in-law would not give in at the critical moment.
”So, then let’s just leave it at that?”
”If you insist on compensating my son, I have no objection.”
”I…” The man turned around angrily and pulled his son up, “Let’s go. You little bastard, you’re always causing trouble for me.”
The woman next to him looked back, her eyes somewhat unconvinced. “Husband, are you just going to let this go?”
”What else? Would you be happy if you had a fight and let Shen Haiyang catch you?”
”I…, his uncle seems to be even more powerful than before. My sister-in-law is really something, she doesn’t know how to pester him. It would be great to remarry him…”
The woman’s words drifted in the wind, and Shen Haiyang suddenly felt embarrassed when he and Li Xia looked at each other. “She is just talking nonsense.”
Li Xia smiled. She didn’t say much about this matter from beginning to end, and just let him handle it. She thought he was going to fight, and she was ready for a fight. She didn’t expect him to just drive him away. He is indeed a government official, and his way of doing things is different from that of an old farmer.
”It’s okay.” She smiled and asked the children to get in the cart, and whispered to the man: “Actually, I think she is right.”
Shen Haiyang blushed at what she said, and shook his head and laughed at her back. This woman was very wild, but she really respected him at home and outside. He saw her carrying a bag just now, and she had put bricks in it. But when he opened his mouth to solve the problem, she just waited quietly by the side without saying anything.
He rode his bike and went away, while Li Xia got on the tricycle with the three children. Just as she was about to leave, she saw Fang Zhongcheng and his new wife coming from a distance, and she immediately jumped off the bike and rushed over.
Before anyone could react, she raised her hand and slapped Fang Zhongcheng in the face. “Is this how you are as a father?”
