CH 48

Chapter 48 – Nostalgia

Master Bai also felt sorry for Bai Er Lang. He thought his son and his two pals had been beaten again. He had the boy taken for a bath and a full body check-up while he questioned the servant who brought the boy home.

Bai Er Lang’s two pals were also taken for a bath and a change of clothes.

The servant directly knelt on the ground, lowered his head, and narrated everything he saw in full detail.

Master Bai grew angrier while Madam Bai (Master Bai’s mother) and Mrs Bai who had rushed over didn’t know how to face Madam Liu.

Fortunately, Madam Liu was as steady as a rock. She, in turn, encouraged Madam Bai and Master Bai, “All kids are noisy. They are both of the same age. This is normal.”

How can this be normal?

It’s fine if they were just fighting and quarrelling, but this kid wants to put a sack over someone’s head!

The enraged Master Bai stomped into his second son’s yard.

When Mrs Bai saw her enraged husband, she was so frightened that she hurriedly went forward to support her mother-in-law.

Madam Bai also didn’t care to placate Madam Liu anymore, she immediately chased after Master Bai, and shouted, “Just gently smack him twice, don’t beat him up…”

Madam Liu also hurriedly followed the Bai’s. However, they were slower than an angry Master Bai, and from a distance, they could hear Bai Er Lang’s wails and screams.

Madam Bai was so terrified that she almost kneeled on the ground. Madam Liu couldn’t be bothered about etiquette anymore and quickly walked pass her, chasing after Master Bai and shouting, “Bai Li, if you beat up the child, we wouldn’t be able to live here anymore!”

Master Bai who had his son laid over his lap and smacking his buttocks, threw his crying and howling son on the ground, and pointed his finger at him angrily, “Cry! If you don’t cry to death today, you will cause me to die from rage!”

Madam Liu hurriedly grabbed the quilt on the bed to bundle up the child. Bai Er Lang was caught by Master Bai in the middle of his bath. Therefore, the slap marks on his buttocks were particularly obvious, making them the worst bruises on his entire body.

Madam Liu cried while holding the howling Bai Er Lang and said, “Seven or eight-year-old children are annoying. Weren’t you naughty when you were a child? Did your mother and I beat you like this too? Children need to be taught properly. If you beat them like this, you will ruin any good child!”

“Let him (Master Bai) beat him (Er Lang)!” Madam Bai finally reached her grandson’s yard with her daughter-in-law’s support.

She held on to the door frame and gasped, saying angrily, “Let him beat him! Once he is dead, all troubles will end. Then, let him live alone in this mansion. Younger sister, I’ll leave with you, so we won’t be an eyesore!”

Madam Liu got angry, “My older sister, he doesn’t know how to teach children, so teach him. What’s the point of getting angry with him?”

She touched Bai Er Lang’s buttocks and saw that it was swollen, but it was not serious. She was more afraid that he was frightened and would have a high fever at night. That would be fatal.

She told Mrs Bai, “Don’t cry anymore. Your mother-in-law is getting older. You should take charge more. Let the servant find his clothes, let the child wear the clothes and make a bowl of calming soup. Don’t frighten the child.”

Madam Bai raised two children. She understands why these steps are necessary, so she quickly asked her daughter-in-law to follow Madam Liu’s instructions.

So, all the kids had to drink the calming soup and subsequently, Bai Er Lang’s two naughty little pals were sent home.

The chaotic Bai residence finally calmed down.

Then, the exhausted Madam Liu told Master Bai, “We need to send some gifts to apologize to the Zhou family. I heard the little girl was also quite badly injured.”

Master Bai nodded repeatedly and turned around to instruct his steward.

The two children were brought together. Bai Er Lang had just been smacked, and his eyes were still red. Bai Shan Bao also knew his cousin was punished. He pretended to be a good child, and lowered his head, but he kept peeking at Er Lang. When the adults were not paying attention, he took taking advantage of situation by sneering at his cousin.

The provoked Bai Er Lang was very angry and stared at him when the adults were not paying attention.

But how could the adults not pay attention?

The adults were somewhat silent when they saw that the two children had not learned to get along amicably.

Madam Liu thought, it seems that she has to hurry up and build the house, and it is better to move out before the year is out. After all, distance makes the heart fonder. Perhaps when these two children live further away from each other, their relationship would improve.

Madam Bai also sighed and said to her son when Madam Liu took Bai Shan Bao back to rest, ” You used to get along quite well with Qi’er. Although you were not really brothers, the relationship was exactly like real brothers. How come this generation’s boys can’t get along with each other?”

“Wait for Da Lang to come back, let Da Lang and Shan Bao get along.”

Mrs Bai couldn’t help saying, “Da Lang is so much older than Shan Bao. The two children can’t fight, but he is not suitable to study in the school anymore. Didn’t Master say you’ll find a way to enrol Da Lang in the county’s school?”

“Then he has to be able to get in. Mr Zhuang studied in the government school. I would like him to guide Da Lang.”

Mrs Bai actually didn’t understand why her mother-in-law and her husband wanted the children in the family to befriend Bai Shan Bao, who is just a child.

When Madam Bai noticed her daughter-in-law’s downcast eyes and silence, she guessed what was on her mind. In fact, ever since Madam Liu and her daughter-in-law brought Bai Shan Bao to live with them, her daughter-in-law had not been very happy.

Madam Bai sighed again and said to Master Bai, “Your brother Qi is gone, your aunt, her orphan grandson and widowed daughter-in-law were bullied by the clan. They can only rely on you now. Our two families are naturally different from other families.”

Madam Bai’s words were not just for Master Bai, but were also directed to Mrs Bai, “Those days when your father entered the clan school, he was a mud-legged boy from the countryside. Although he was from the Bai clan, he only has very distant blood ties with the clan. If it wasn’t for your grandfather’s ability to take good care of the family business and donated a lot of money to the clan school, your father would not be able to go to Longzhou to study.”

Madam Bai stroked her grandson’s head, and continued to say to Master Bai, “That was why he was often bullied. At that time, your fifth paternal uncle took care of him.”

Master Bai blushed and knelt down on the ground and said, “Mother, don’t worry. I will take good care of my aunt and raise Shan Bao like my own son.”

Madam Bai helped him up and said, “Mother didn’t mean that.”

So, what do you mean?

Madam Bai kept looking at him, “You know the friendship between our two families, but the children don’t necessarily know this. If you don’t tell them, they will assume that your aunt and the rest of them are here to sponge off us.”

Now Madam Bai looked at Mrs Bai and her grandson, and said, “Back then, your father-in-law was close to your fifth granduncle. Your father-in-law was not as clever as your granduncle, and he only became a magistrate. He had a foul temper, and after his superior officer scolded him twice, he simply hung up his seal and went back to the countryside to farm.”

Mrs Bai …She knew all about this. Nowadays, there are still a few people in the county who said that her father-in-law was a man with average abilities.