Guan Baiyu could feel that his health had improved a lot during this period.
He used to often have pain in his legs, especially his knees. Sometimes the pain was so painful that he couldn’t sleep, and cramps were common.
This started before his grandma passed away, but he never told anyone.
Neither his grandma nor his adoptive parents would take his knee pain seriously.
What was more, he wasn’t the only one who had leg pain. Others in their school also had leg pain, but it was not as serious as his.
After meeting Shi Zhen, he didn’t tell Shi Zhen.
His brother was already very busy and he didn’t want to disturb his brother.
Then… miraculously, his legs gradually stopped hurting.
He thought that this might be because he had been eating well recently.
He used to have pain in his legs, which must be due to lack of nutrition. Now he ate meat and eggs every day, and his legs naturally didn’t hurt anymore.
Even his running had become more powerful.
Guan Baiyu ran very fast, and soon he reached the village where Yan Jiangtao’s family lived.
He wasn’t like Qian Qilai, who had friends everywhere, went around everywhere, and who knew several nearby villages well… He used to only hang out in his own village.
Guan Baiyu found an old lady sitting at the door to bask in the sun, and asked her if she knew where Yan Jiangtao’s house was.
The old lady didn’t even ask him what he wanted with Yan Jiangtao. She gave him directions and explained the location of Yan Jiangtao’s house.
Their family lived in the only three-story house in the village, which was easy to recognize.
Guan Baiyu quickly found the place.
The overall environment in J City was relatively humid, and living on the ground floor was very uncomfortable. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, people had tried to build two floors.
All the old houses in town had attics.
After rural people saved some money in the past few years, as long as they could afford bricks and tiles, they would build a house. Whenever a house was built, it had to be built with two floors.
The new house could occupy a small area. It could also be like Guan Baiyu’s adoptive father’s house where they couldn’t finish building the back of the second floor, but it had to have two floors.
However, although there were many two-story houses, three-story houses were still rare, not to mention that Yan Jiangtao’s house covered a large area.
Most people’s houses at this time only occupied about a hundred square meters. There might be a shed at the back to raise pigs, but the houses people lived in were not big.
The three-story house of Yan Jiangtao’s family was different. It covered an area of at least two hundred square meters and was surrounded by a large courtyard. The walls were also covered with beautiful mosaic patterns.
Although it was surrounded by a wall, the door of the house was wide open. There were some branches of old mulberry trees piled next to the courtyard wall, along with a rice bucket, a stone mortar and a cart. It looked no different than the houses in the surrounding area.
But there was something different. From this house, there was an unpleasant roar of machinery.
The loom machines should be on the ground floor of the house, while people lived on the second and third floors. This sound should be made by the loom machines.
Although the loom machines were weaving here, people were not prohibited from entering and exiting. Guan Baiyu went in and saw Yan Jiangtao’s father at a glance.
Yan Jiangtao’s father often drove his motorcycle to pick up Yan Jiangtao, so Guan Baiyu recognized him.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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In addition to Yan Jiangtao’s father, there were other people here, including workers who were watching the loom machines with him, and villagers who came to chat and watch the excitement.
Seeing someone coming in, everyone looked at Guan Baiyu.
Yan Jiangtao’s father knew Guan Baiyu. He had been to the school before to attend a parent-teacher meeting and chatted with Guan Baiyu. Now he put down the stainless steel rice bowl in his hand and said to Guan Baiyu, “Hey! You are Guan Baiyu! You came to find Yan Jiangtao to play? He is watching TV upstairs. Go up quickly!”
Father Yan was particularly enthusiastic. Guan Baiyu looked at him with red eyes. “Uncle Yan, I’m not here to see Yan Jiangtao. I’m here to see you…Uncle Yan, Yan Jiangtao is always bullying me in school.”
When Guan Baiyu said this, he wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and tears fell down in a flash.
He didn’t like to cry. He was crying now because he had garlic slices hidden in his sleeves.
Father Yan had a good impression of Guan Baiyu, and now that Guan Baiyu came to his door and started crying… He was a little confused and felt even more embarrassed.
Father Yan also knew what his son was like, so Guan Baiyu’s statement that Yan Jiangtao bullied him was probably true.
“He and I have been deskmates for more than half a year. He scolds me every day and always kicks me… And yesterday, he asked me to help him cheat in the city’s unified examination. I didn’t dare, so he threw a paper ball on my desk and told the invigilator that I was cheating… I was suspected of cheating by the invigilator and almost got zero points.” Guan Baiyu spoke in a very organized manner without sobbing, but his tears kept flowing, which made him look even more pitiful. “Yesterday at lunch, he also poured vegetable soup on my schoolbag, and all my books were damaged… He also stepped on my books before, and even tore up my homework…”
Guan Baiyu knew that Yan Jiangtao was afraid of his father.
And Yan Jiangtao’s father was not a good-tempered person.
If he made trouble in school and insisted on getting justice from the teacher, it was actually useless. On the contrary, it might make the teacher have opinions about him and affect his recommendation to No. 1 High School.
But looking for Yan Jiangtao’s father was different.
Now was a perfect time – there were a total of six people around to watch!
Since he cried like this, causing Yan Jiangtao’s father to lose face, Yan Jiangtao would definitely be taught a lesson.
In fact, it might be better to have his family members come to the door, but he didn’t want to trouble Shi Zhen, and he didn’t want Shi Zhen to know that he was being bullied in school.
Father Yan was indeed very angry.
His son actually hit his classmates, cheated, and bullied others in school… What a brat!
Guan Baiyu was still crying. “Uncle, you also know that my parents are not blood-related to me. No one cares about me, and sometimes I don’t have enough to eat… Yan Jiangtao also always says that what I eat is pig food and wants to throw away my food…he even tore my clothes…”
Yan Jiangtao despised the steamed and rotten vegetables he ate every day. He said that what he ate looked like pig food or like feces. He also said that he would throw away what he ate, but he never really did so.
Yan Jiangtao was not willing to touch his very worn enamel food container that had been repaired in some places.
Yan Jiangtao had actually torn his clothes before. After all, his clothes were already very tattered and tore easily.
“I went to find the teacher, but the teacher didn’t care. I really don’t know what to do…” Although Guan Baiyu had recovered a little during this period, today he was wearing shabby clothes and crying. He looked very miserable.
The most important thing was that Father Yan knew about his family’s affairs.
Father Yan would often tell Yan Jiangtao to learn from Guan Baiyu, saying that Guan Baiyu’s family was poor and had nothing, but he could study well. Yan Jiangtao didn’t cherish his good fortune and didn’t know how to study hard.
He asked Guan Baiyu to be his son’s deskmate because he wanted his son to learn from Guan Baiyu. As a result, his son didn’t care about studying, and even bullied Guan Baiyu?!
Father Yan’s dark face turned red.
At this time, there were people around who recognized Guan Baiyu. “Is he the one from Guan Guangguo’s family? The child that Guan Guangguo’s mother brought back?”
Guan Baiyu’s life experience was quite bizarre, and many people knew his origins. Another person said, “Then he is quite pitiful. I heard that Guan Guangguo didn’t want him from the beginning, and he hasn’t taken care of him all these years.”
Everyone sympathized with Guan Baiyu, and then felt more and more… that Yan Jiangtao had gone too far.
It was already pitiful for a child to have no father or mother, but Yan Jiangtao still bullied him!
Father Yan had to make his position clear at this time.
He could make money because he had some skills, and he also understood the ways of the world.
“Little student, I’m so sorry. I will definitely teach that brat of mine a lesson! Since he damaged your things, I will pay for it!” After Father Yan finished speaking, he rummaged around his pocket and took out a roll of money. The money was directly put into Guan Baiyu’s hands as he said, “I’m going to beat that kid now!”
The roll of money that Father Yan took out was quite large, including two hundred-yuan bills and some scattered bills, which added up to at least three hundred yuan.
When Guan Baiyu came, he had already expected this. He knew Father Yan would give him some compensation, but he didn’t expect Father Yan to give so much.
His brother had a lot of things he wanted to buy. Could he buy them now?
Yan Jiangtao’s family was really rich!
Guan Baiyu lowered his head, suddenly feeling enlightened.
Sometimes it was really useless to just endure it. If he wanted something, he had to work hard for it.
Why didn’t he think of looking for Yan Jiangtao’s father before?
While Guan Baiyu was thinking this, Father Yan rushed upstairs to find Yan Jiangtao.
Yan Jiangtao knew that he definitely failed the exam yesterday, so he was unusually well-behaved today. He did not ask his father for money to go out to play, but stayed at home and watched TV.
He was lying on the leather sofa on the second floor, watching cartoons with his feet up, when his dad rushed in. “Yan Jiangtao!”
“Dad?” Yan Jiangtao felt a little guilty – could it be the teacher came to look for his dad? That shouldn’t be the case… the results probably hadn’t come out yet.
“You little brat, I sent you to school so you could study. What did you do? You actually bullied people in school!” Father Yan stretched out his hand and dragged Yan Jiangtao up from the sofa.
Although Yan Jiangtao was very arrogant in school, in front of his father, he was as well-behaved as a mouse in front of a cat. He didn’t dare to resist, so he was dragged downstairs by his collar by his father.
Yan Jiangtao’s father was very poor in his early years and had a hard time marrying a wife. After giving birth to Yan Jiangtao, because the family had little money, he was not in a hurry to have a second child.
Then within two years, the state instituted family planning*.
He only had one child, Yan Jiangtao. Usually, no matter how much he scolded him, he was reluctant to beat him, let alone do anything else to his son.
But today was different – his son’s deskmate came here to complain!
Father Yan also became angry. After going downstairs, he picked up a broom from the corner and slapped Yan Jiangtao on his buttocks and thighs*. “You brat, who told you to bully your classmates! Who told you to cheat! You stand still for me!”
Father Yan wanted to hit someone, but Yan Jiangtao wouldn’t just stand and let him hit him. He ran around and hid.
Father Yan chased after him.
There were loom machines in the house, so they ran outside and chased each other on the drying field.
Yan Jiangtao didn’t know why his father was angry at first. When he went downstairs and saw Guan Baiyu, he knew the reason. While avoiding his father, he couldn’t help but curse, “Guan Baiyu, you son of a bitch…”
Guan Baiyu didn’t mind being scolded like this before, but since Shi Zhen’s arrival, he couldn’t stand it when someone scolded his mother…
“Uncle Yan, please stop hitting him… I’m afraid he will hit me when he gets to school.” Guan Baiyu wiped his eyes with his sleeves, and the tears flowed even more. “He is rich, and many people in the school are his followers. No one dares to go against him…”
When Father Yan saw this, he struck even harder. “You brat, you still do mischief with my money! Don’t think about me giving you so much money in the future!”
Now Yan Jiangtao didn’t dare to scold anymore.
Guan Baiyu didn’t leave, but just watched Yan Jiangtao being beaten. Later, Yan Jiangtao couldn’t bear it anymore and ran away along the road in front of his house. Father Yan was exhausted and couldn’t catch up, so Guan Baiyu said to Father Yan, “Uncle Yan, I’m really afraid of Yan Jiangtao and don’t want to sit with him… Can you ask Yan Jiangtao to tell the teacher to change seats?”
In fact, the fact that he had to sit at the same desk as Yan Jiangtao even though Yan Jiangtao bullied him so much, was all because of Father Yan, but Guan Baiyu didn’t mention this.
He also wanted others to help stand up for him.
When Father Yan heard this, he was a little embarrassed and said quickly, “I will definitely tell the teacher about this.”
Father Yan was now complaining about the teacher in his heart.
He asked the teacher to arrange a good deskmate for Yan Jiangtao because he wanted Yan Jiangtao to study hard. Now Yan Jiangtao didn’t study hard at school and even bullied his deskmate so badly… Why didn’t the teacher tell him and change his son’s seat?
During all the fuss just now, many people in the village had gathered around to watch the fun. Father Yan felt like his face had been ripped off and stepped on.
People around him were also a little gloating – so what if Old Yan made a lot of money? If his son was not decent, he might lose his entire family fortune in the future!
There were always many people who couldn’t bear to see others living well. From now on, whenever someone brought up Father Yan making a lot of money, someone else would definitely mention how unsightly Yan Jiangtao was.
Shi Zhen returned home with two coal stoves and discovered that Guan Baiyu was not there.
There was a pot of rice in the pot with a large bowl of steamed eggs steamed on top.
The so-called steamed eggs were made by beating eggs and then adding water and mixing well.
People here put salt in steamed eggs and poured some soy sauce on top after steaming to serve as a dish.
Two eggs could make a big bowl of steamed eggs. It was delicious and inexpensive.
Shi Zhen didn’t know where Guan Baiyu had gone. He scooped up the rice in the pot, fried some green vegetables, and added the pig head meat. After he finished eating, he filled Qian Qilai’s enamel food container with rice, added some dishes on top, and prepared to take it to town to give it to Qian Qilai to eat.
Just as he was about to leave, he saw Guan Baiyu coming back, his eyes red.
“Xiao Yu, where have you been?” Shi Zhen asked immediately. “You cried?”
“I went to see grandma.” Guan Baiyu didn’t show anything strange on his face.
Shi Zhen had no doubts and just said, “In a few days, when it is the Qingming Festival, I will go with you to visit grandma’s grave.”
In his previous life, Guan Baiyu would go to visit his grandmother’s grave every year during the Qingming Festival. However, he had to go back to his home village to visit his mother’s grave during the Qingming Festival, so he never accompanied Guan Baiyu.
Now…he could accompany Guan Baiyu to visit the grave this year.
***
T/N: I hope no one finds it unacceptable that Baiyu took the money. If he didn’t take it, it would seem as if he’s holding a grudge or unwilling to accept Father Yan’s apology. This is normal in Chinese culture when you offend someone – if they accept your apology gift/money, it means the matter is over. If they refuse to accept, it means they’re holding a grudge and can lead to a feud between two families.
*Family planning – referring to the one child policy in China.
*Spanking children on their butts or lightly hitting them with a broom, slipper or your hand is common in China. It’s not seen as abuse and is viewed as a way to educate your children.
Thank you for the chapter 😍 ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
He should have taken the money, if nothing else to replace what was damaged
I’m all for guan baiyu taking that compensation money!! The amount of abuse and bully he endured from yan jingtao could never be repaid with just money!!