In the Years When I Was a Father-Chapter 102: The Abusive Dad (8)

Half a year passed quickly. The once quiet and thin child had now become much more cheerful, and his appearance had changed significantly as well.
His fair, tender little face still carried some baby fat, and with his bright, dewy skin and always-smiling eyes, he looked just like a little jade child come to life.
“Daddy, aren’t we taking our furniture with us?”
At that moment, the child stood in the living room, looking around at everything that felt so familiar. His feelings were mixed—he had once wanted badly to escape from here, but now he felt a little reluctant to leave.
Qi Sheng ruffled the child’s hair and said, “Since we’re moving to a new home, we’re saying goodbye to the past completely.”
Seeing the child blink, Qi Sheng bent down to meet his eyes and said, “Yang Yang, Daddy did a lot of things wrong before. There are too many bad memories here. Let’s leave it all behind and start fresh, okay?”
Qi Yang blinked and nodded heavily. In the end, he couldn’t hold back and threw himself into Qi Sheng’s arms, hugging his waist tightly without saying a word.
Qi Sheng quietly waited for the child to adjust himself. After a long while, when the two of them walked out of the room together, Qi Yang finally spoke.
“Daddy, thank you.”
Moving into a new home naturally called for a lively celebration. Qi Sheng took on the role of chef for the day, which of course attracted a certain little foodie.
Lin Xuan munched on chicken tenders, holding a chicken wing in one hand and gnawing enthusiastically, all while exclaiming, “Yang Yang, you even got a toy display cabinet!”
Qi Yang smiled with pursed lips. “My dad made it for me. He said this way it won’t get dusty and I can see everything anytime.”
Lin Xuan nodded, thinking it made sense. He had quite a few toys himself, but he wasn’t especially jealous of this special display case. Though his friend’s room was much more spacious than his own, Lin Xuan thought of all the hardships his friend had been through and didn’t feel envious anymore.
Like his mom always said—after the bitter comes the sweet, right? Anyway, he still thought his life was better.
“Yang Yang, has Uncle Qi really not hit you even once in the past six months?”
Qi Yang nodded firmly. “My dad said he wouldn’t hit me anymore, and he’s kept his word! There were a few times I made mistakes, and he didn’t even get mad—he comforted me instead. My dad has really changed for the better.”
Lin Xuan took another bite of his chicken wing, switching the skewer to his other hand, and suddenly raised an eyebrow and whispered, “Yang Yang, should we test Uncle Qi and see if he’s really changed? What if he goes back to his old ways?”
Qi Yang frowned. He didn’t like that “what if” at all. “No way, I believe in my dad. He’s really nice now!”
Still a little skeptical, Lin Xuan asked curiously, “But what if one day you make a really big mistake—he won’t get mad then either?”
Qi Yang thought for a moment and said, “Then I’ll just try not to make mistakes and not make him angry. If I really did something wrong and got hit for it—well, Teacher Wang hit you too, didn’t she?”
Lin Xuan didn’t expect to be brought into it. He thought about how his mom looked when she got angry and was about to hit him, and nodded. “If it’s like that, then it’s hard to say who’s at fault. But what if Uncle Qi hits you once and then gets addicted again?!”
Qi Yang froze. The thought of his dad’s violent switch being flipped again… Ugh, why even think about that!
“My dad won’t. He doesn’t even drink anymore, and he’s gotten treatment too. He’s really changed for the better—hmph, worst case, I’ll just make sure I never provoke him.”
As Lin Xuan chewed his delicious food, he thought his friend made a good point. If Uncle Qi really was a sealed-off demon king, his friend would be the one to suffer. And… if that happened, he might never get to eat food this tasty again!
The two little ones reached an agreement and didn’t take the conversation too seriously. Then, as if cursed, the always-striving-to-be-good-boy Qi Yang found out the bad omens came true instead. Boo hoo…
In the corner of the teacher’s office, Lin Xuan glared at Qi Yang in frustration. He could see that his friend was not only scared but also trembling a little. He felt both helpless and annoyed.
“I told you to leave first! Why’d you have to jump in? Now you’re scared—aren’t you stupid? Those teachers are all friends of my parents. What could they even do to me?”
Qi Yang’s eyes were red, and he looked a little wronged. “But it was two people ganging up on you. I was afraid you’d get hurt.”
Lin Xuan sighed. “Well, look what happened now. You got your dad called in. When Uncle Qi shows up, don’t say anything else—just say I was the one who hit them, and you were just trying to stop the fight.”
“But I
was
the one who hit them. How can I let you take the blame? Besides, that other kid’s family is demanding money—I can’t let you pay for that.”
Lin Xuan got annoyed. “Why not? If you hadn’t hit him, I might be the one in the hospital right now!”
He finished angrily, then muttered in frustration, “He looked so proper, but turns out he’s just a scammer. He’s not even really hurt, and he still went to the hospital. We should be the ones going to check on
him
!”
Qi Yang grew tense when he heard that and asked anxiously, “Xuan Xuan, you got hurt too? Where else did he hit you? Let’s go to the hospital right now!”
Lin Xuan: “…I’m not really hurt. I was just saying. I’m not like him, acting like a thug. Hmph, what kind of guy whines after a fight? Can’t win so he cries for his mommy and frames other people. Pfft!”
“Lin Xuan, Qi Yang, you two are still whispering at a time like this?”
Their homeroom teacher, Mr. Chen, shot them a glare. Seeing them quiet down, he sighed again.
These two kids… Of all people to pick a fight with, they just had to go after the one with a troublesome parent.
Now that they were officially fifth graders, Qi Yang and Lin Xuan—thanks to Wang Qing’s deliberate arrangement—had ended up in the same class and were even deskmates.
Lin Xuan had always been a kid with a strong sense of justice. He also thought his few months of taekwondo training made him something special, so when he saw a female classmate being bullied by the school troublemaker Wang Tao, he immediately stepped in.
But Wang Tao wasn’t the type to back off because of a few words. In fact, he was even more annoyed for being interrupted mid-bullying. On one side were Lin Xuan and Qi Yang, and on the other were Wang Tao and his chubby buddy, Xie Han.
Sizing them up, Wang Tao felt confident—Qi Yang looked like a pampered pretty boy, so he figured they had the upper hand. Acting cocky, he took the initiative to attack Lin Xuan.
At first, Lin Xuan, with his shallow martial arts skills, smugly told Qi Yang to run.
“Yang Yang, don’t stay here. Watch how I teach him a lesson!”
But not even two minutes later, reality gave him a good smack—he was no match for two opponents, especially when one was a heavy-hitter.
Qi Yang couldn’t just stand by and watch his buddy get beat up. He looked at his own skinny frame, then at the chubby opponent, and very wisely ditched his backpack, grabbed a handful of gravel from the ground, and started pelting the chubby kid.
Of course, Xie Han wasn’t going to let himself get picked on like that, so he turned to attack Qi Yang. Just like that, the two-on-one brawl shifted—Lin Xuan now faced Wang Tao one-on-one, while Qi Yang played cat-and-mouse with the chubby kid.
Qi Yang, being lean, had better agility and stamina. He managed to avoid getting hit and even helped Lin Xuan out occasionally.
At first, he was quite proud of himself, thinking he was clever. Watching the chubby kid lag behind made him happy—until he realized Xie Han had only been faking weakness, waiting for Qi Yang to let his guard down so he could pounce.
The ambush nearly worked. But Lin Xuan, while fending off Wang Tao, had kept an eye on his friend. Seeing Qi Yang fall for it, he rushed over to tackle the chubby kid.
Wang Tao, who’d been getting pummeled, was thrilled. As Lin Xuan let go and turned his back to him, Wang Tao spotted a brick nearby and reached for it to get revenge.
Just as he grabbed the brick, Qi Yang—who had been running around dodging—noticed. In a panic, afraid Lin Xuan would be hit, he instinctively picked up a nearby schoolbag and hurled it at Wang Tao.
Wang Tao happened to be crouching, and the heavy bag landed squarely on his nose, causing a nosebleed.
By the time the teacher arrived, Wang Tao—who had failed to hurt anyone and got hurt himself instead—dropped the brick, wiped his nose, and started tattling. Not just to the teacher—he called his mom too.
Most spoiled brats have equally difficult parents, and Wang Tao was no exception.
His fierce, overbearing mother stormed into the office. Seeing her son’s bloody face and footprints on his clothes, she didn’t wait for explanations. Even with the bullied girl as a witness, she refused to listen to reason. She screamed like a banshee in the small office and even tried to attack the three kids—only to be stopped by Mr. Chen.
“Mrs. Wang, all four children were at fault in this fight, but your son was clearly the one who started it—”
Before Mr. Chen could finish, Mrs. Wang cut him off. “How was it my son’s fault? Look how badly he got beaten up! What kind of teacher are you, playing favorites! I’m ing you to the education bureau. You think being a teacher makes you untouchable?!”
She had just finished yelling at the kids and now started berating the teacher. Then, seeing the blood on her son’s face, she began shouting about going to the hospital for a full-body checkup and vowed to sue both the school and the teacher…
Mr. Chen sighed, feeling a headache coming on. A colleague who had gone with them to the hospital called to say Wang Tao was just fine, but his mother wasn’t satisfied and insisted on a more detailed exam.
Mr. Chen sneered internally—was she planning to fake an injury to pin it on the school?
“Mr. Chen, you don’t have to sigh. Whoever did it should take responsibility. It was clearly their fault. I’m not afraid of them!”
Mr. Chen glared at Lin Xuan. “Stand there quietly. Who told you to speak? You think you’re some kind of hero?”
Lin Xuan was indignant. He had done nothing wrong. Was it wrong to stop a classmate from being bullied? Wang Tao had thrown the first punch—was he supposed to just stand there and take it? If it hadn’t been for Yang Yang, he might have ended up in the hospital. They were the real victims, so why were that mother and son acting like they owned the place?
Mr. Chen sighed again, distressed. How was he supposed to explain to these two naive kids that reasoning with shameless people was pointless?