Chapter 19: The More You Cower, The Easier You Are to Bully

In the end, Xu Jiaojiao couldn’t argue with Ding Xiujing and agreed to let her help sew the vest.

However, she still needed to go to the county at some point.

For now, she would sew it up and wear it for the time being.

At noon when work ended, the two women walked towards the tree, one behind the other.

Before they reached it, they saw several children surrounding Dani and Erni, throwing something at them.

“Fox spirit, shameless!”

“That’s right, my mom said, if your hair is combed like that, you’re definitely not decent.”

…

“Who are you kids? How dare you bully people here?”

Suddenly, a furious shout came, the children were startled, and instantly scattered.

The two bullied little girls were left behind.

Their hair was messy, covered with burdock seeds.

Xu Jiaojiao’s anger flared.

Where did these little brats come from?

“Hey, what are you doing?” Ding Xiujing grabbed her arm.

“I’m going to find their parents and reason with them.”

“Forget it, their mothers don’t care.” Ding Xiujing pointed at Liu Zhaodi.

Sure enough, Liu Zhaodi was there with a dark face.

Not only did she not intend to find the kids, she also scolded her two daughters.

She called them shameless, said they were too young and didn’t learn well, and that they dressed like that to get married…

She said whatever insults came to mind.

The two girls seemed used to being scolded, their eyes were dull, and they just huddled under the tree, not daring to say a word.

“Liu Zhaodi, what’s wrong with you? Your daughters are being bullied, and you’re still scolding them?”

Xu Jiaojiao was really angry. Were her daughters meant to be treated like dirt?

Were they not born to her?

“I manage my own children, what’s it to you? A dog trying to catch a rat!”

Adding insult to injury, Liu Zhaodi turned her anger on Xu Jiaojiao, scolding her.

“Don’t you dare talk about my third aunt!”

Suddenly, a small figure stood in front of Xu Jiaojiao.

Looking at the thin arms stretched out in front of her, Xu Jiaojiao was instantly heartbroken.

The girl who had been bullied and didn’t dare speak up just now was now standing in front of her.

Xu Jiaojiao reached out to hug the small child.

But before she could touch her, Liu Zhaodi went crazy, raising her hand to slap Erni’s face.

“I’ll beat you to death, you ungrateful thing!”

But her hand stopped halfway, blocked by someone.

There was a “slap” sound, a hand hitting muscle.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound, and saw a large, dark hand blocking the heads of the two girls.

The man in the army green clothes was none other than Qin Shuo.

He didn’t change his expression, as if the blow had no effect on him.

“Sister-in-law, let’s talk things over.”

Qin Shuo’s voice was neither loud nor soft, but it calmed Liu Zhaodi’s agitated mind.

Meeting his emotionless face, she couldn’t help but shiver.

“I, I was just disciplining my daughter…”

Liu Zhaodi only dared to be domineering in front of women.

When she saw a man, she seemed to be naturally inferior, and she didn’t even dare to breathe.

Qin Shuo didn’t say anything, he turned to look at his two nieces, who were covered in dirt, his brow furrowed.

Then, he heard Xu Jiaojiao’s angry voice.

“What’s wrong with them? They don’t even have a single hair ornament, they just combed their hair neatly, why are you scolding them like that?”

Xu Jiaojiao hadn’t tied their hair in any complicated styles.

Dani had a simple ponytail, deliberately tied loosely, highlighting her full forehead, making her look energetic and beautiful.

It was hard to say what was different, she just looked prettier.

Unexpectedly, this could cause jealousy.

Children are innocent, but they can be cruel.

Just because of envy, they would gang up on others, bully them.

Xu Jiaojiao knew this kind of behavior all too well.

“Liu Zhaodi, are you a mother? If I were you, I would have slapped those kids a few times!”

Ding Xiujing was also disgusted, she didn’t even want to call her sister-in-law.

She had sons and daughters, but she never treated them like this.

Were sons treasures and daughters grass?

Liu Zhaodi didn’t say anything, but her heart was full of resentment.

What was wrong with her?

Her daughters didn’t do enough work, how could they marry into a good family when they grew up?

Wasn’t she doing this for their own good?

Xu Jiaojiao was too lazy to argue with her, she didn’t want to get angry.

The patriarchal mindset wouldn’t change overnight.

She pulled the two girls and walked towards the tree roots.

Sitting on the tree roots, Xu Jiaojiao saw that Erni had scratches on her body and a bump on her forehead, obviously from being pushed down.

She was even angrier.

“If they hit you, you hit back hard, don’t cower.”

The more you cower, the easier you are to bully.

Erni looked up at her third aunt, her face confused.

Xu Jiaojiao didn’t say anything else, her lips were tightly pressed together, and she reached out to help her clean the burdock seeds.

The burdock seeds had hooks, they were hard to remove from the hair.

Dani also sat down, her eyes still red.

Without saying a word, she reached out to help clean the burdock seeds.

Liu Zhaodi looked at the three people under the tree, her eyes filled with confusion.

Qin Shuo withdrew his gaze and turned to leave.

After about half an hour, Xu Jiaojiao finally cleaned the girls’ hair.

She tied their hair back up, her stomach was already rumbling.

The children’s porridge was also brought over today.

It was Xu Jiaojiao’s turn to serve the food, she followed the usual rules and served everyone a fair portion.

No one could complain.

The atmosphere was heavy, no one spoke, everyone ate their porridge in silence.

It was still pumpkin and greens.

Xu Jiaojiao couldn’t taste anything, her mind was still on what happened just now.

But if their own parents didn’t stand up for them, how could she step in and intervene?

She felt powerless.

After a while, Qin Shuo came back.

After the awkward incident that night, and because he didn’t have any missions, Xu Jiaojiao didn’t want to pay attention to him.

But whether intentionally or unintentionally, he sat opposite her today.

Xu Jiaojiao: …

She held her bowl and shifted to the side, out of sight.

“Third aunt, there are a lot of mushrooms where we collected firewood just now.”

Erni had become familiar with Xu Jiaojiao, she wasn’t as timid as before.

She leaned close to her and whispered.

“Then let’s go pick them up later.” Xu Jiaojiao also lowered her voice in response.

Hearing this, Erni’s eyes lit up.

The two of them, big and small, seemed to have reached some kind of secret agreement, and they smiled at each other.

Then, they both sped up their pace.

Soon, they both finished eating.

They put their bowls back in the basket, Xu Jiaojiao picked up her backpack and got up.

“Xu Jiaojiao, where are you going?”

Ding Xiujing slapped her son’s hand with her chopsticks, and turned to ask.

“I’m going to pick mushrooms.”

“Then wait for me, let’s go together.” Spring was the season with the most mushrooms.

They could pick some and bring them back to eat.

“Mom, I’m going too.” Dahu quickly said, afraid that they wouldn’t take him, he ate his food quickly.

“Go where? Your sisters were bullied just now, why didn’t you protect them?”

Ding Xiujing couldn’t stand her son being so useless, she couldn’t help but scold him.

Hearing this, Dahu’s expression drooped.

He cautiously glanced at his third uncle, seeing that he didn’t even raise his eyes.

He lowered his head, his whole body seemed listless.

“Get up early tomorrow and exercise with your third uncle.”

Qin Shuo said.

Hearing this, Dahu’s eyes lit up.

“Don’t be so cowardly next time.”

Dahu: …