Chapter 47: The Brawl
The morning sun, though not yet dazzlingly bright, still cast a layer of bright light upon the earth.
Because the temperature had risen sharply these past two days, Nuonuo’s clothes had been changed to a short-sleeved shirt. Sunlight danced lightly on his fair little arms, which made him feel a little itchy, and he reached out to scratch them.
Nuonuo stood in the sunlight, looking at the few children opposite him. His pupils seemed to have captured the sparkling sunlight, beautiful and translucent.
The leader of the children, Brother Dong, glanced at Nuonuo and pointed at his face very rudely. “None of you know him, right? Is he some servant’s child? His eyes are quite pretty. You guys hold him down for me later!”
Brother Dong was a king of destruction. At home, he liked to stomp on the flowers his mother carefully cultivated or destroy the oil paintings his sister had painted. The more beautiful something was, the more he hated it and wanted to destroy it. And he was quite smart. He never picked on children whose parents were more powerful than his own, always taking his little followers to find the children of servants.
If he went too far, he could just smooth things over with a little money.
This time, it was because Brother Dong had a feud with the child of the family Gu Ze worked for that he had involved Gu Ze. After all, besides that little fatty, only Gu Ze was a child in that family. At the end of the day, they were just a group of children, so they couldn’t go looking for trouble with adults.
The other children had never seen Nuonuo in this area before, so they thought he was probably a newcomer and all shook their heads. “We’ve never seen him.”
Being pointed at by Brother Dong, Nuonuo pouted angrily and widened his eyes. “You… you’re a bad kid!”
Hearing this little one dare to scold him, Brother Dong’s already narrow eyes widened slightly with anger. He put his hands on his hips and walked over, posturing as if he were about to hit him.
Unfortunately, before Brother Dong could get close, his waist was hugged by Gu Ze, who, with a clever use of force, directly knocked the twice-as-large Brother Dong to the ground.
Brother Dong’s stomach was round and chubby. Being pressed onto the road full of small pebbles, his belly began to ache. “You… Gu Ze, get off me!”
Being knocked over by a servant, and a child two or three years younger than him at that, Brother Dong’s face turned green and then red. He gritted his teeth, wishing he could just jump up and bite Gu Ze! “You wait ’til I get up, see if I don’t beat you to death! You’re just a poor trash-picker. Believe it or not, I’ll make you get out of here tomorrow!”
Brother Dong’s voice cracked as he shouted in anger. He took a couple of deep breaths and, seeing his little followers standing to the side, quickly shouted, “You guys, hurry up and pull him off me!”
The little followers, who had been stunned by the sudden turn of events, finally came back to their senses and quickly went over, grabbing Gu Ze with their seven or eight hands.
But with so many children, one stepping on another’s foot, one grabbing another, the group assault inexplicably turned into a free-for-all.
It was unknown who had kicked Brother Dong in the face, but he let out a pig-like squeal, blood streaming from his nose. Unable to bear being hit, his eyes, so red his pupils were invisible, he had just gotten up when he charged back in with his fists raised.
Nuonuo blinked. Before he could react, a brawl had already broken out in front of him. From time to time, a child would be thrown out from the group, then, with a howl, they would dive back in. At this point, it was probably impossible to tell who was hitting whom.
Nuonuo’s little mouth was open. He was a little slow to react that he was also supposed to take advantage of the chaos to do bad things. He held up his little hands and, with a little “ya,” lunged forward.
But in less than two seconds, he was squeezed out and fell on his bottom, sitting there in a daze for a long while.
His dark, round eyes darted around. Nuonuo slowly got up again, walked over, and, taking advantage of the fact that no one was looking, stomped a couple of times into the fray.
“Ow! Who stepped on my nose again! Gu Ze, was that you? I’ll kill you!”
Brother Dong’s nosebleed was now even worse.
Nuonuo, having done his bad deed, didn’t even notice who he had stepped on and quickly turned and ran away.
006 let out a couple of “haha”s. Seeing Brother Dong and Gu Ze fighting inextricably, it couldn’t help but give Nuonuo a thumbs-up with its little doggy paws. “Nuonuo, you’re amazing! Not only did you make Gu Ze and that bratty kid fight, but you also took advantage of the chaos to kick someone. That was so satisfying! Serves him right for being so arrogant, he deserved to be stepped on!”
This time’s mission, Nuonuo had completed it beautifully!
006 even felt a sense of pride, as if its own child had finally grown up! Finally, little Nuonuo could stand on his own and complete the mission of bullying the male lead.
Hearing the praise, Nuonuo’s eyes, which were already filled with specks of sunlight, shone even more brightly, and he couldn’t help but purse his lips in embarrassment. “I… I’m not that amazing.”
Nuonuo, his little face flushed red, ran forward. But when he reached the place where he had tripped before, the once-bitten Nuonuo deliberately stopped, took a big step, and tried to step over the two stone slabs.
Holding his breath and using all his strength, Nuonuo, who still hadn’t recovered from the excitement of the fight, was tripped by this stone slab again halfway through his step.
“Aiya!”
Lying on the ground, Nuonuo’s head was dazed from the fall. He couldn’t understand why he had tripped again, even though he had been so slow this time.
Seeing the cub fall in the same place twice, 006 didn’t think it was Nuonuo’s problem. Instead, it wondered what was wrong with this stone slab. Maybe the two stone slabs are too far apart and too high, 006 thought.
“Nuonuo, are you okay?”
Nuonuo shook his little head, slowly sat up, and found that the hole in his pants had gotten even bigger. But fortunately, he had a muddle-headed personality. He rubbed it himself, then slowly stood up and limped home.
Inside the villa.
Auntie Wu, who had searched the entire garden and front yard and still couldn’t find Nuonuo, was now anxiously on the phone, reporting the situation to Fei Zhiyan.
“I’ve looked everywhere, the small garden too… It’s all my fault. Before, when Nuonuo said something about his friend ‘Tengteng,’ I should have been more vigilant. Could it be that some dirty thing took Nuonuo away…”
“Auntie Wu, watch your words.”
Fei Zhiyan’s slightly cold voice came through the receiver, the chilly tone instantly making Auntie Wu shiver and forcing herself to calm down. “I’m sorry, Mr. Fei. I was too anxious. I just turned my head to put something away, and Nuonuo was gone…”
Auntie Wu, having gotten used to being around people, would unconsciously ramble a little when she spoke, always repeating what she had said before. It wasn’t a big flaw, but at this moment, Fei Zhiyan was already a little anxious, and hearing this, he couldn’t help but frown slightly.
But in the next second, Auntie Wu saw Nuonuo, holding a ball and with a dusty face, walking over from outside the fence. She let out a couple of surprised “aiyo”s and quickly ran over, hugging Nuonuo in her arms. “Nuonuo, where did you go? I looked for a long time and couldn’t find you. You really scared Auntie.”
Nuonuo was hugged tightly, his little face squeezed red. When he was finally let go, he couldn’t help but cough a couple of times. “I… I went to get the ball.”
At 006’s signal, Nuonuo did not tell her what had just happened.
Auntie Wu saw that Nuonuo’s pants also had a hole in them and her heart ached. She rubbed Nuonuo’s little head and then quickly replied to Fei Zhiyan. “There’s a piece of wood missing from the wooden fence behind the garden, so there’s a gap just big enough to squeeze through. Nuonuo’s ball probably rolled out, and he ran out to get it himself.”
The cold pressure from Fei Zhiyan had already dissipated when he heard that Nuonuo was back, which made the assistant standing next to him, handing him documents, let out a sigh of relief.
But hearing this reason, Fei Zhiyan still couldn’t help but speak. “Nuonuo, you’re not allowed to run out by yourself next time. Do you know how dangerous it is outside?”
Hearing Fei Zhiyan’s cold tone, Auntie Wu’s heart trembled. She looked at Nuonuo with concern and found that the little one was staring blankly, not having recovered yet. “Mr. Fei, Nuonuo definitely knows he was wrong. His pants are even torn. I’ll take him back to change his clothes first.”
Fei Zhiyan was still worried, otherwise his tone just now wouldn’t have been so stern. Hearing Auntie Wu’s words, he took the opportunity to back down. “I know. I’ll have someone go and fix the fence later.”
Fei Zhiyan was an extremely smart person. Hearing that Nuonuo’s pants were torn and thinking about how long he had been missing, he knew that the little one was definitely not telling the truth.
Only then did Nuonuo recognize his papa’s voice on the phone. He quickly stood on his tiptoes, tilted his little face up to the phone, and asked, “Papa, are you coming back, ya?”
Hearing the little one’s carefree, milky voice, the stuffiness that had just risen in Fei Zhiyan’s chest was instantly punctured.
With a bit of helplessness, he rubbed his forehead and sighed lightly before saying, “I can only come back after work. You be good and listen to Auntie Wu. Don’t run around, you know?”
Nuonuo nodded seriously and answered very obediently, “I’ll be good. I’ll wait at home for Papa to come back.”
These words directly hit Fei Zhiyan’s heart. He thought of the little one sitting on the steps at the door every night, waiting for him with pleading eyes. The last bit of coldness in his tone completely softened. “I know. If you can’t wait, then go to sleep obediently. You can’t lie on the sofa and fall asleep.”
This is a very bad habit. Children won’t have energy the next day if they don’t sleep well.
After hanging up the phone, the assistant next to him saw that Fei Zhiyan’s dark expression had turned from cloudy to partly cloudy and took the opportunity to mention, “Mr. Fei, your little son is very close to you.”
Fei Zhiyan’s lips curled up slightly. He propped his chin on his hand and coughed lightly before saying, “It’s alright. But it’s indeed rare for a little boy to be close to his father. Nuonuo is a bit special.”
The assistant nodded in deep agreement. “Yeah, my kid doesn’t pay much attention to me. The first thing he says when he sees me every day is ‘Dad, where’s Mom?’ It almost made me die of anger.”
The coldness in Fei Zhiyan’s eyes and brows instantly faded a lot. He took the assistant’s documents, signed them, and then shook his head lightly. “You can’t be like that. You’re being a bit of an incompetent father.”
The assistant smiled awkwardly, thinking to himself, Why does Mr. Fei’s expression make me feel like he’s showing off?
But for the sake of his job, the assistant still dished out a string of rainbow-like praises and then got a raise buff. And even the documents with data errors today were not thrown back at him with a cold face by Mr. Fei.
The assistant, walking out of the council president’s office, touched the signed documents in his hand and suddenly had an epiphany.
So Mr. Fei is a ‘son-con’!
At the same time, the few people who were brawling were still at it.
Gu Ze was the thin and small one in the group. Taking advantage of the fact that they were in the heat of the fight, he secretly found a gap and slipped out from between them.
But just as he got out, he looked up and saw his grandfather with a chubby little child, rushing towards them.
