“No need.” Chu Lui stood up. He knew deep down that there was actually no need to visit her. There was also no need to tell him her address—he already knew. Forget it, he was not going to go. If he ever dared to visit, it would have to be beaten out of him.
He was still not at the point where he could willingly stick his face out for others to hit, especially not that man.
“What is he looking for Rainy Gao for?”
Teacher Xiao Meng quietly asked the director after waiting for Chu Lui to leave.
“Compensation.” The director shrugged. “These rich people… who knows what they’re thinking about every day?”
That’s true. Teacher Xiao Meng nodded, expressing her approval of the director’s point of view. Anyway, this was none of her business. It would be better if she kept her distance. It was still as the saying goes: ‘stay away from married men’. Especially one that had had multiple wives.
“Daddy, are we going home?” Chu Xiang ran towards Chu Lui and tugged on his sleeve with a big smile on her face. Recently, she started growing and gained some weight. She looked prettier than before, however.
Chu Lui’s heart melted. He reached out his arms and picked Chu Xiang up.
“Yeah, let’s head back.” Chu Lui walked out of the school while carrying Chu Xiang in his arms. The cold wind from outside caused his brows to furrow. He stopped in his tracks and sighed lightly. After this, he lowered his head to look at the flushed face of the child in his arms.
“Let’s go; let’s head back.” He carried Chu Xiang into the car and started the car engine. The original plan was to head home, but after driving for a while, Chu Lui made a U-turn and went down another road. He stopped the car at the side of the road, then took out a cigarette, and lighted it. It was only after taking a puff that Chu Lui remembered there was a kid in the car with him.
Chu Xiang pouted. Initially, she might have wanted to say something. However, as somebody who was always good at reading people, she somehow knew that Chu Lui was rather upset at that moment. Thus, she kept her mouth tightly shut and said no more.
Not too far away, a mother and her daughter walked towards the car. The young mother held her daughter’s hand while carrying several grocery bags, each bag seemingly filled with vegetables. The little girl was very small, and when she walked, she seemed slightly unstable.
“Mommy, will there be any fish to eat today?”
Rainy tip-toed on her tiny feet, desperately trying to see if there was any fish in her mother’s grocery bag.
“There is.” Xia Ruoxin took her daughter’s hand and stood aside. Then, she opened the plastic bag she was carrying; and there was a really big fish in it. The fish flopped about in the bag and splashed some water onto Rainy’s small face.
Rainy was stunned for a moment. She wiped her face, seemingly still unaware of what had just happened.
Xia Ruoxin wiped her daughter’s face. “It’s okay, it looks like the fish likes Rainy.”
Rainy reached out her hand and poked the fish in the bag, beaming from ear to ear.
“We’re home.” Xia Ruoxin held her daughter’s hand tightly and led her in the direction of their house. Little did she know that not too far away, there was a man whose sight had never left her body from the beginning to the end.
“Daddy, that’s Rainy Gao and her mommy.”
Chu Xiang clenched her fists. She really disliked Rainy Gao.
“Xiang Xiang doesn’t like them. Rainy Gao is annoying; her mother is also annoying.”
With a ‘zhi’ sound, the car suddenly stopped. Chu Xiang was startled. Her face turned dreadfully pale, and her mouth was wide open. Suddenly, after letting out a wail, she started to sob loudly. Chu Lui’s expression was grim. He did not coax her as he used to in the past; instead, he just drove back home.
Chu Xiang was crying the entire journey home. Even as they entered the house, Chu Xiang was still shedding tears. Upon seeing her granddaughter crying, Song Wan briefly took her into her arms. She cursed at Chu Lui full blast, saying that he had no humanity left in him, bullying a child who was so young.
Chu Lui could not understand how he was inhumane. It was not as if he had not tried to coax Chu Xiang; it was just that as much as he tried to console her, she would not stop crying. He was a grown man who had never interacted with such young children before. How was he expected to know how to stop her from crying?
Song Wan kept nagging at her son even while she was comforting her granddaughter. It was only after she gave Chu Xiang quite a few presents that the child finally stopped crying. Seeing Chu Xiang’s face red and swollen like a bun from crying, Chu Lui indeed could not help but feel slightly at fault.
No matter what, she was just a child.
However, Chu Lui now kept in mind that buying gifts made children happy and prevented them from crying. He asked Du Jingtang to buy a pile of toys and send them to Chu Xiang. Chu Xiang now had new toys. For those few days, she was quite happy.
One day, when Chu Xiang went home, she hugged Song Wan and started wailing.
“What’s wrong, my lovely granddaughter? Tell Granny, who bullied you?” Once Song Wan saw her granddaughter cry, she became all anxious. Which gutsy individual dared to bully her granddaughter?
“Granny, it was Rainy Gao; it was Rainy Gao! She was the one who bullied me.”
Chu Xiang tugged at Song Wan’s hands, her mouth constantly repeating the name Rainy Gao.
“Ah Lui!” Song Wan’s expression darkened. “Are you not going to check on this? Your daughter is getting bullied by others; is the Chu family so easy to bully?”
Upon hearing Rainy Gao’s name, Chu Lui instinctively felt repulsed by Gao Yi’s daughter. Despite this, Chu Lui still had no plans of doing anything to a child. This was a feud between children; what were adults getting involved for?
However, from Song Wan’s determined appearance, he knew that this problem would not be resolved easily. He had no choice but to take out his mobile phone and head to the balcony. He called the director of the nursery to ask for an explanation.
After a while, he headed back into the room. Song Wan was still painstakingly consoling Chu Xiang, listening to sentence after sentence of Chu Xiang’s complaints towards Rainy Gao.
“Ah Lui, which family is Rainy Gao from? How did her parents teach her? At only three-years-old, how could she already be so scheming?”
Chu Lui’s line of sight landed on Chu Xiang, causing Chu Xiang to instinctively snuggle into Song Wan’s embrace.
“Mom, Xiang Xiang told you all that?” Chu Lui leaned against the sofa, crossed his leg, andseemingly inadvertently—asked the question.
“Of course, it was our Xiang Xiang who told me everything. Our Xiang Xiang is such a well-behaved kid. If she says someone is bad, then that person is definitely bad.”
“Really?” Chu Lui slightly pressed his lips together. Although he looked like he was smiling, anybody who was familiar with him would know that that was simply his usual expression, nothing more than a fake smile.
“Mom, I already know the reason.” Before Song Wan could open her mouth to nag at him again, Chu Lui interrupted Song Wan.
“Tell me about it.” Song Wan’s expression darkened. “I will not let my granddaughter get bullied.”
“Mom, you only see your own granddaughter as a child, but aren’t children from other families considered children, too?” Chu Lui reminded Song Wan. Even though he was not a very righteous guy and that his previous methods were rather underhanded—but regarding certain things, he still had his own morals.
Song Wan’s face stiffened, seemingly upset. Her expression hardened, and she started to ignore her son.
“Mom, have you forgotten about the time you ordered me to make Chu Xiang the champion of the drawing competition?”.
