123 He Seems to be Altruistic
Luo Wangcai didn’t expect Lu Jiao to help him out this much. Tears filled his eyes and this grown man started to cry.
“Yunjin’s wife, even after all my schemes, you still treat me so well. You’re such a good person.”
When Luo Wangcai started to cry, Luo Xiaocao also began to cry.
This startled the other kids in the yard and they looked over in horror.
The four little ones dashed over and formed a wall before Lu Jiao.
“What are you doing!”
“Don’t hurt my mommy!”
“We are going to protect our mommy!”
The Fourth Born fiercely frowned at Luo Wangcai and Luo Xiaocao, like a ferocious baby wolf.
Lu Jiao quickly patted each of their heads, “Enough, they aren’t hurting me. Luo Xiaocao simply wants to learn from you all.”
The quadruplets glanced at Luo Xiaocao. Once they recognized her to be Shen Xiu’s daughter, they refused to teach her.
Because they remembered the time her mother tried to become their dad’s concubine. No way! They had no plans of teaching an evil woman’s kids.
“Mommy, we don’t want to teach her.”
“Yeah, her mother wanted to be daddy’s other wife. She even wanted babies with daddy. I don’t want to teach her.”
Luo Wangcai blushed immediately – ashamed.
Beside her, Luo Xiaocao hid behind Luo Wangcai out of fear.
Lu Jiao pulled on the children’s hand and started to lecture, “Babies, you cannot decide she is a bad person just because her mother isn’t a good person. Bad parents can have good children. Similarly, good parents can have bad children. Her mother may not be the nicest, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t nice. Why don’t you give her a chance and judge for yourselves whether or not she is nice? If she isn’t, then you don’t have to teach her.”
The four little ones deeply pondered Lu Jiao’s words. In the end, they understood the logic.
The First Born, in an all-serious manner, said to the other three, “Mommy is right. For example, our grandparents are bad, but our daddy and mommy are good kids.”
The other three thought about it and nodded in agreement, “You’re right.”
At once, the quadruplets dropped their defensiveness against Luo Xiaocao. Lu Jiao said to Luo Wangcai, “Okay, let Luo Xiaocao stay and learn from the quadruplets.”
Luo Wangcai, with tears in his eyes, looked at Luo Xiaocao, “Xiaocao, stay here and learn from your older brothers. I will come and pick you up later.”
The pile of boys here made Luo Xiaocao anxious. She pulled on Luo Wangcai’s clothes.
Luo Wangcai bent down to comfort her. Though when he saw how terrified she was, it made him want to bring her home.
But he knew how good of an opportunity this was. Given his current situation, he couldn’t send Luo Xiaocao to a private school. Plus, private schools didn’t accept girls. This was Xiaocao’s one chance.
“Xiaocao, be good. I will give you candy after.”
The mention of candy made Luo Xiaocao let go of her dad’s clothes. Luo Wangcai said to Lu Jiao, “Thank you, Yunjin’s wife.”
He then turned around and left. Behind him, Luo Xiaocao started to wail. The boys in the yard all exchanged glances and mumbled.
“Women are so troublesome. They cry so much.”
“She’s just like her mom. Her mom cried a lot too.”
Lu Jiao coughed and looked at the dozen or so children, “As boys, you need to be polite. You cannot talk about girls like this.”
She then ordered the quadruplets, “Okay, you’ve had enough fun now. Take your friends to the living room and start teaching them the ‘Three Character Classic.’”
The quadruplets opened up their chests and answered strongly, “Yes, mommy.”
The children took their little stools and squeezed into the Xie family’s living room. The room filled up quickly. Out of the quadruplets, the First Born was the first to go up and start teaching.
“People at birth are naturally good. Their natures are similar, but their habits become different…”
Lu Jiao poured Xie Yunjin a bowl of sugared water and brought it to the east bedroom.
“Are they disturbing you? I can ask them to study outside.”
Xie Yunjin shook his head. He grew up in this kind of atmosphere and the sound of children reading brought him peace.
“It’s okay. I’m used to this.”
Lu Jiao gave him the water, “Have some.”
Xie Yunjin drank all of it before he spoke again, “I promised to teach you ‘Three Character Classic’ but I haven’t had the time. Let’s fit that into the schedule. Now that my legs don’t hurt anymore, I can teach you how to read.”
Lu Jiao originally wanted the quadruplets to teach her. Since Xie Yunjin offered, she didn’t decline. With a smile, she nodded. However, she had planned to go into town tomorrow so she informed him, “I need to go into town tomorrow morning.”
Xie Yunjin asked caringly, “Are you going in to buy things?”
“Other than buying things, I’m going to pick up the woks from Baohe Tang. I asked Dr. Qi to get me some steel woks, which he managed to get from the prefectural city. Earlier when he brought in Master Chen. he told me I could pick them up tomorrow. Also, I asked him to get me a sheep.
Look at the four little ones, they’re so frail, small, and short. Most of the boys their age are taller.
They were born premature and have been malnourished their whole life, which is why they are shorter than other kids. We need to be mindful of this. Or else they’ll always be shorter than others.”
Lu Jiao then looked toward Xie Yunjin.
Xie Yunjin may be bedridden, but he wasn’t short. She estimated him to be around 175 cm. In this day and age, that was considered tall.
Xie Yunjin noticed her peeking and subconsciously straightened his legs. When he caught himself doing so, he silently mocked his own actions.
However, something felt wrong about Lu Jiao asking Dr. Qi for help over and over again.
Xie Yunjin meaningfully looked up to Lu Jiao, “Dr. Qi seems to be rather altruistic towards you. Are you sure he is that nice of a person?”
Lu Jiao thought about it and smiled, “It’s because I promised him something.”
Tension filled Xie Yunjin’s body as coldness emerged, “What is it?”
Last time, she agreed to help Baohe Tang treat seriously ill patients, what did she agree to this time?
Lu Jiao giggled, “In the future, whenever there is a rare medical case, I agreed to investigate and research with him.”
Though Lu Jiao didn’t plain out reveal that she had taken him in as an apprentice, she did leak some information.
Xie Yunjin was not happy to hear this. He stared at Lu Jiao, “No wonder Dr. Qi is so nice to you.”
Suddenly, he had an outrageous thought, “Could it be that Dr. Qi only agreed to do my surgery given those conditions?”
If that were the case, he would be even more indebted to Lu Jiao.
Lu Jiao thought about it. It was true that she agreed to take Qi Lei as an apprentice during that time.
She didn’t expect Xie Yunjin to be so sensitive and realize this. She had no plans on telling him the truth.
This was her own business, completely independent from him. All she wanted was a peaceful and clean separation. She wanted to avoid drama at all costs.