CHAPTER 389: CHAPTER 389: THAT’S MORE LIKE IT

Xu Xiuxiu brought back a freshly shaven Song Chengguang home. The boy and girl twins could barely recognize their brother, staring at him with their big, round eyes for quite a while: "Silly, I’m your brother." Song Chengguang said without any warmth to Little Moon, who even after staring for so long still wore a confused expression, while also taking the opportunity to tease his little brother.

Little Moon innocently understood.

"Brother." Little Baby, upon hearing that the little bald boy in front of her was her brother, and that his voice sounded just like brother’s, immediately revealed a few small white teeth and babyishly called out "Brother," looking endearingly cute.

"Sister is good, sister is smart." Song Chengguang immediately praised Little Baby with a beaming smile, his tone vastly different when interacting with his siblings. Is it really okay for a brother to have such a glaringly different treatment?

"..." Xu Xiuxiu silently watched from the side without making a sound.

"Mom, can I go see Little Huang now?" After greeting his brother and sister, Song Chengguang’s gaze fell on Little Huang, his tone inquiring.

"Go ahead!" said Xu Xiuxiu with a nod, "Just don’t touch Little Huang’s wound, okay? It would be very painful if you did."

"Mm." Song Chengguang obediently nodded his head and then walked up to Little Huang with a look of apology on his face, carefully rubbing Little Huang’s cheek: "I’m sorry, Little Huang." Holding Little Huang, Song Chengguang looked at his injured front left leg and apologized with a very solemn tone.

"Woof woof." The injured Little Huang was still very enthusiastic towards Song Chengguang. Clearly, Little Huang, the dog with a human touch, didn’t mind being wounded today in his loyalty to his owner.

Seeing Little Huang’s enthusiastic response, Song Chengguang’s sadness finally eased.

Although Shi Yu and Song Chengguang had won against the five children with justice on their side, Xu Xiuxiu still personally took Song Chengguang and Shi Yu to apologize to the parents and children after dinner. Most of the parents, as Yuan Shixiang had said, were quite accepting of their children fighting, probably because they were part of a military school environment and accustomed to its strictness and bravery, knowing that children fighting wasn’t a big deal.

But most doesn’t mean all felt the same, and there were still some parents who were very unhappy about today’s incident. One of them was the parent of a child younger than Song Chengguang. The child was more delicate and shy in nature, and even though he was a boy, he had been scared to tears by the morning’s fight.

After having visited several other homes, Xu Xiuxiu came carrying two pounds of fruit to apologize, but was immediately met with the displeasure of the hostess: "Your child bullied my Xiangxiang didn’t he?" she demanded aggressively, scanning Shi Yu and Song Chengguang, who were standing beside Xu Xiuxiu, with a look of disdain.

"I’m sorry, because my child didn’t know better this morning, he might have scared your Xiangxiang, so I’m bringing them over to apologize to you," Xu Xiuxiu didn’t follow the word ’bully’ that the other mother had used but instead chose ’scared,’ changing the entire direction of the issue.

"Bullying is bullying, what use is an apology, do you know how long my Xiangxiang cried when he got home, who knows how those two brats hit him!" Using a sharp tone and a manner that wouldn’t let the matter go, it sounded like she was even keen on making a bigger issue out of it.

Xu Xiuxiu had dealt with her share of people and knew the world was full of all sorts with whom it’s difficult to get along; as for these sorts of unreasonable married women, you just flip the page and then ignore them in the future.

"Auntie, we didn’t bully your Xiangxiang, we didn’t even touch him, it was Xiangxiang who started crying on his own when he saw us fighting," Shi Yu angrily retorted, wanting to defend herself.

The little guy was always hot-blooded and hated nothing more than those kids who start crying at the slightest issue. It was bad enough not liking that behavior, but Xiangxiang’s mother had this expression as if they had committed murder, and he simply couldn’t swallow that indignation.

"Hey, what’s with this child? Is this your sincerity in apologizing? Then forget it, our Xiangxiang doesn’t need your apology. You see, I think it’s this little bastard who bullied my son. You see, you see, standing in front of an adult like me, still looking like he wants to fight, and you dare to stubbornly claim you didn’t bully my son. If you didn’t bully my Xiangxiang, why did he run home crying, and I, as his mother, couldn’t console him no matter what?" While speaking, she pointed and scolded Shi Yu on the head.

"He’s still young and thoughtless, please don’t mind him," Xu Xiuxiu immediately protected Shi Yu behind herself, then with a smile, she said, "This is the fruit I bought for the children, it’s not worth much, consider it a little compensation for startling the child." Xu Xiuxiu then handed over two pounds of apples—after all, it’s said that you don’t hit a smiling face, especially not one holding bright red apples.

The woman originally had a sharp retort ready, but after glancing at the fruit in the bag, seeing the full-colored large red apples, her demeanor softened a bit. Even though people living at the military academy generally weren’t too poorly off and would have fruit occasionally, those large red apples were a few bucks a pound outside, and the bag was clearly several pounds.

"This is more like it," she softened her sharp attitude a bit after taking the apples and then, leveraging her authority as an adult, she lectured, "You better keep a closer eye on him in the future, you’re lucky our family is easy to talk to, otherwise who knows what trouble could have happened!"

"Of course, I will take good care of teaching the children," Xu Xiuxiu had no intention of getting into a spat over pride. Face to face with such a woman, you don’t take her words seriously, "Well, let’s leave it at this for now, I’ll take the kids back, and perhaps we’ll come by to disturb you again when we have time."

"Sure, come by when you’re free!" After receiving the apples, Xu Xiuxiu took the children and left directly. The woman’s attitude notably changed, even telling Xu Xiuxiu to visit her home sometime when she had the chance. Xu Xiuxiu nodded with a smile.

After leaving the child’s home, Shi Yu was fuming. The little guy was striding ahead with furious steps, clearly discontented with what just happened, whereas Song Chengguang might have been slightly unhappy too, but obviously, more well-behaved than Shi Yu, following along beside Xu Xiuxiu, looking up at her now and then.

"Auntie, how could you act like that! I always thought you were a cool and pretty aunt, but just now you...," Shi Yu, annoyed after walking for a bit, suddenly stopped, turned around, and questioned Xu Xiuxiu, unable to articulate exactly what was wrong with what Xu Xiuxiu had done. He just felt very aggrieved; they hadn’t even touched that darn kid, yet they had to apologize and be scolded, which felt extremely unfair to him.