Chapter 59.2

Less than a week into the new school term, Jiang Rou was called to the school because An An had hit another child. According to the teacher on the phone, An An had struck someone hard enough to make them bleed from the nose. The other child’s parents had come to the school.

The teacher, Yang, couldn’t explain much over the phone due to the loud and aggressive voice from the other side. Jiang Rou could only vaguely make out that a new student named Fang Jun had arrived in An An’s class this semester. Fang Jun had pulled on An An’s little braid, apparently causing him pain. In return, An An had punched him, resulting in a nosebleed.

Hearing the unreasonable complaints from the other child’s parents, and fearing that An An might be bullied, Jiang Rou took leave from the last period of the morning to deal with the situation. She also asked Ning Xin to help her with the notes for that afternoon.

When Jiang Rou hurriedly rode her bike to the kindergarten, she hadn’t even entered the teacher’s office before she heard a sharp voice yelling, “…Why haven’t they arrived yet? Don’t they want to compensate? My son is the only child in three generations. What if he gets hurt? How can a kid be so aggressive? How are his parents raising him…”

Yang, trying to protect An An, said in a calm voice, “An An’s parents will be here soon. Please calm down. Both children are at fault in this situation…”

This response only made the other side angrier, “What do you mean both children are at fault? My son is bleeding. When his mother arrives, I’ll let her slap her and see how she likes it…”

Jiang Rou reached the door and saw An An in the corner, trying hard not to cry, looking very scared and pitiful.

In the other corner of the office, the boy’s mother was pulling her son’s hand and shouting at Yang.

The little boy seemed quite smug, sticking his tongue out at An An.

Jiang Rou rushed in, hugged An An, and upon seeing her mother, the little one immediately clung to her and began to cry, “Mommy—”

She looked terrified.

Jiang Rou’s heart ached, and she held her close, kissing her, “It’s okay, don’t be afraid, Mommy’s here.”

An An sniffled a few times in her embrace then hugged Jiang Rou’s neck tightly.

Jiang Rou carried the child to the teacher, and the boy’s mother, seeing Jiang Rou approach, scrutinized her with a scowl. Jiang Rou also took in their appearance; the mother and son looked alike, both chubby, and the mother’s face looked fierce and unapproachable, possibly due to her anger.

The woman glared at Jiang Rou and immediately began to question, “Are you the mother of this child? You came just in time. Look at what your child did to my son, his nose is bleeding. How do you intend to compensate for this? Do you know that my son is the apple of our family’s eye…”

Jiang Rou ignored her and asked the teacher, “Teacher Yang, what exactly happened?”

Before Yang could answer, the other party shouted, “Your daughter punched my son and made him bleed. What’s there to explain?”

Teacher Yang looked helpless, “Fang Jun’s mother…”

“I see you just want to act like a thug. It’s true what they say, like mother, like child. If you don’t compensate my family today, just wait and see how I’ll deal with you…”

Jiang Rou’s face turned cold. “If you don’t want me to know the truth, then we’ll just leave. I haven’t seen any evidence of a punch that caused bleeding.”

She picked up An An and turned to leave.

Seeing Jiang Rou’s attitude, Fang Jun’s mother was momentarily stunned. After she processed what was happening, she yelled, “What do you mean? You’re just going to leave after injuring my child? Stop right there!”

When Jiang Rou, still holding her child, walked out, the woman quickly chased after them, turning back to yell at Teacher Yang, “You should stop her! Her daughter hurt my son, and you’re just letting her leave?”

Teacher Yang, watching Jiang Rou’s retreating figure, felt a sense of relief despite the situation.

However, she still pretended to chase after them, calling out, “An An’s mom—”

An An, in Jiang Rou’s arms, pointed at her head and said to her mother, “Mommy, he always grabs my snacks and toys and pulls my hair every day. It hurts a lot. When I told him to stop, he just pulled harder. So, today I punched him, and then he went to tell the teacher…”

“I wasn’t bullying him; he was bullying me first.”

Jiang Rou had thought it was just typical childish roughhousing, but hearing this had been going on for several days made her unable to hold back her concern. She asked softly, “Why didn’t you tell Mommy about this sooner?”

An An, sounding obedient and soft, replied, “It stopped hurting after school.”

Jiang Rou tried to stay calm but couldn’t resist stopping and turning around. As Fang Jun’s mother continued to chase and scold her, Jiang Rou coldly pointed at her, “I warn you, if your son bullies my daughter again, I won’t let it go. You can try if you want.”

With that, she turned back and walked away with her child.

Fang Jun’s mother was stunned for a moment, then, regaining her composure, she rolled up her sleeves and shouted, “Oh, you dare to threaten me? Stand still! I want to see how you won’t let my son go. Do you even know who I am?”

As Jiang Rou and An An reached the door, Li Xiao’s car arrived. Although he hadn’t answered Teacher Yang’s call earlier, he recognized it was from An An’s teacher and guessed something might have happened at the kindergarten, so he rushed over.

Jiang Rou opened the car door and got in. Seeing her distressed expression, Li Xiao couldn’t help but ask, “What happened?”

Jiang Rou, still fuming, told him about how An An had been bullied. As she spoke, she contemplated how to deal with that boy. She felt that the boy’s parents were unreasonable and couldn’t be reasoned with, so she needed to come up with a different approach.

Upon hearing the story, Li Xiao’s face darkened immediately. He looked at An An in Jiang Rou’s arms and asked, “Is what your mom said true?”

An An, snuggled in her mother’s embrace, nodded.

Li Xiao abruptly opened the car door and stormed out, slamming the door behind him with a loud “bang.”

When Fang Jun’s mother saw a car approaching, she guessed it belonged to the family. She was about to go up and stop them when a very handsome man stepped out of the car. The woman and child had already been attractive, but the man, who was An An’s father, was even better looking.

However, he also looked very intimidating. His face was dark with anger, and his gaze was icy cold, a stark contrast to the blusterous threats from earlier. It was clear from his demeanor that he was not someone to be trifled with.

The little boy, frightened, hid behind his mother when he met Li Xiao’s gaze.

The boy’s mother also felt scared and asked, “W-What are you doing?”

Teacher Yang, also intimidated by Li Xiao, tried to mediate, “An An’s father…”

Li Xiao shoved the boy’s mother aside and picked up the chubby little boy with one hand. Pointing at him, he said in a harsh tone, “I warn you if you ever dare to bully my daughter again, don’t expect just her to retaliate. I’ll deal with it personally. Do you know who I am and what I used to do?”

As he spoke, he slapped the boy’s face repeatedly, scolding, “Do you understand?”

Terrified, the boy tried to hold back his tears but only managed to nod vigorously, “I won’t do it again, Uncle. I won’t.”

The boy’s mother was also frightened, quickly saying, “Let’s talk this out. Let’s talk this out…”

Li Xiao tossed the boy back to his mother with disdain and sneered, “Next time my daughter loses a single hair, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

After giving them a final cold stare, he turned and walked away.

Once he had left, the boy began crying loudly in his mother’s arms.

Fang Jun’s mother, still shaken, muttered, “Who is that person?”

Back in the car, Li Xiao received a look of admiration from his daughter. “Daddy is so amazing. He even scared him to tears.”

Jiang Rou, redoing An An’s little braid, couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t I amazing too?”

The little one, now happy, replied, “Mommy is amazing too. You carried me so fast, even Fang Jun’s mom couldn’t catch up.”

“……”

Li Xiao laughed and shared his strategy with Jiang Rou, “To deal with people like that, you have to be even scarier.”

Jiang Rou replied with a hint of annoyance, “I am scary too.”

Li Xiao countered, “What you did wasn’t really scary, just angry.”

“Fine, you’re the scary one.”

At lunchtime, the family of three went out to eat. It was An An’s first time having lunch with both her parents during school hours, and she was particularly delighted.

After lunch, Li Xiao and Jiang Rou personally took her back to school. On the way, they bought new toys and snacks to cheer her up. When they arrived at the classroom, the little boy was there too.

When he saw Li Xiao, he ran away in fright.

Li Xiao patted his daughter’s head and told her to have fun and let him know if anyone bullied her again.

An An happily opened her snacks to share with her friends and waved to her parents with a sweet smile, saying, “Goodbye, Daddy and Mommy.”

Outside, Jiang Rou handed some food to Teacher Yang and asked her to call if there were any issues.

As Li Xiao drove away with Jiang Rou, he said, “I’ll see if we can transfer An An to a different school next semester. This one has too few teachers and can’t take proper care of the children.”

Jiang Rou nodded in agreement. Teacher Yang was great and did her best to look after An An, but with so many kids in each class and only two teachers, it was impossible to manage them all effectively.