Chapter 49: Bullying
The fiery red sunset rendered the sky poetic and brilliant, as if a great hand had casually smeared it, using the sky as a canvas, splashing it with various colors, and then releasing its final passion.
The evening breeze slowly blew away the stuffiness of the day, and as the sunset slowly drew to a close, it brought a long-awaited coolness to the earth.
Outside the garden fence.
A few children, with grass on their heads, stealthily peeked out from behind the bushes.
Zhao Xiaodong’s eyes were swollen. His nose, having just been hit and bled, was now stuffed with two wads of toilet paper, making his voice sound a little muffled. “Are you sure that Nuonuo lives here?”
Zhao Xiaodong squinted his eyes and looked at his little brothers, who were also wearing grass on their heads.
A little brother raised his hand, and as he lifted his head, the little wildflowers and weeds on his head fell off. “Boss, this is definitely the place! When that Nuonuo left, I saw him coming this way with my own eyes. That road only leads to this villa. There’s no way it’s wrong.”
Fei Zhiyan’s villa was in almost the best geographical location in the villa complex. It was spacious with beautiful scenery, and there were no miscellaneous neighbors around. The nearest house, Lei Xiaoyan’s, was a long walk away, so there was no possibility of getting it wrong.
Only then did Zhao Xiaodong nod his head. He lowered his body and, imitating the special forces in a TV series, said in a whisper, “This mission of ours can only succeed, not fail!”
The little brothers all tensed their little round faces and nodded seriously.
“Then, boss, what’s our mission?”
One of the round-faced little brothers scratched his head in confusion and leaned his little face forward to ask.
Zhao Xiaodong was so angry he gave him a flick on the head. “Are you stupid! Of course, we’re going in to find that kid and then beat him up!”
He had suffered a great humiliation today, being beaten into a pig’s head. Zhao Xiaodong had never been so aggrieved since he was born, so he couldn’t stand it and had to vent his anger!
That Gu Ze was with Lei Xiaoyan, and they couldn’t beat them. After thinking about it, they could only come and find this “weak and alone” Nuonuo.
In Zhao Xiaodong’s eyes, that Nuonuo was fair and tender, looking soft and weak. He was sure he could knock him down with one punch!
The confused little brother, having received a flick on the head, rubbed his forehead and had another question. “Then what do we do after we beat him up? Do we run?”
What if we get caught by the other people in the villa and they beat us up?
Zhao Xiaodong thought to himself how stupid this little brother was. He put his hands on his hips and asked angrily, “Zhou Xiaole, have you graduated from kindergarten yet? How can you not understand such a simple thing?”
When he was recruiting little brothers, he had clearly told them that they had to have at least a kindergarten education! Some of those kindergarten students were still wearing diapers. If he, Zhao Xiaodong, were to go out and do big things, he couldn’t have a group of diaper-wearing kids following him when he was fighting, right?
Zhou Xiaole swallowed and stammered, “I… I…”
In fact, he hadn’t graduated from kindergarten at all. Zhou Xiaole tugged at the corner of his clothes, his lips puckered, not daring to say anything more.
Fortunately, Zhao Xiaodong had only asked casually. Seeing the inky black night swallowing a corner of the sunset, Zhao Xiaodong frowned. With an order, the few children shot out like monkeys.
Because Fei Zhiyan didn’t care much about flowers and plants, the wooden fence behind the garden was very low. A few children, stacking themselves up like a human pyramid, could climb over with some effort.
Zhou Xiaole, who was the last one, crouched on the ground as a stepping stone. After sending the other children up, he looked up again and found that they had all disappeared! “You guys, wait for me!”
Zhou Xiaole anxiously grabbed the fence and climbed up. But the fence was still a bit high for him. When he reached the top, looking at the height below, he didn’t dare to jump down.
Unable to advance or retreat, Zhou Xiaole sniffled, his teary eyes hanging on the fence, like a piece of dried preserved vegetable swaying under the eaves.
On the other side, Zhao Xiaodong, completely unaware that one of his little brothers was missing, had crawled to the bottom of the villa after sneaking in.
Sticking to the corner of the wall, he quietly shushed and heard a faint sound of conversation coming from the open window upstairs.
“Papa isn’t back yet?”
“Mr. Fei has a meeting today. It will take a long time. Nuonuo, you should go to sleep first. You didn’t even take a nap at noon.”
“Then… then I’ll go out and wait for Papa.”
“This…”
“I’ll wait in the yard. I’ll go with my brother.”
“Alright then. Nuonuo, you have to hold your brother’s hand.”
Hearing that that Nuonuo was coming out, Zhao Xiaodong’s eyes narrowed with excitement. He had his little brothers put their ears close. “We’ll ambush in the front yard later. The moment that Nuonuo comes out, we’ll block him!”
The little brothers were still a little hesitant. One of them twisted his fingers and said, “But we’ll be discovered in the front yard. If my dad finds out…”
Zhao Xiaodong snorted, his bruised face looking both comical and angry in the shadows. “If you don’t go, I’ll beat you up first!”
With this threat, the other little brothers didn’t dare to disobey. They all bent their bodies and followed Zhao Xiaodong to the front yard.
At this time, most people were still eating dinner, and the bodyguards at home were also changing shifts, which was how Zhao Xiaodong and the others had managed to sneak in from the backyard.
Unfortunately, what they didn’t know was that the moment they appeared in the garden, the surveillance cameras with no blind spots had already captured them.
In the second-floor window, on the desk facing the window, a little doll with light-colored curly hair lowered its head slightly and also discovered the few sneaky children.
Probably understanding what the few children were saying, the little doll tilted its head. Its already large eyes now looked a little frightening.
Are they going to bully Nuonuo? That’s not allowed.
The clouds were blown away by the wind at some point, one by one winding around the sun that was about to set below the horizon. The darkness also began to gradually spread, slowly devouring the last bit of sunset glow.
Zhao Xiaodong was walking forward when he suddenly found that it was dark. It was so dark he couldn’t even see his own fingers. He looked up at the sky in confusion, thinking, How did it get dark so fast?
“Why isn’t the moon out today?”
Zhao Xiaodong scratched the back of his head. He was about to nudge the little brother behind him with his arm, but he hit empty air. “Why are you guys so far away from me?”
Feeling a little scared in his heart, Zhao Xiaodong turned his head, about to get angry at his little brothers. But when he turned, he found that there was no one behind him at all!
“Where are you guys?! Zhao Xiaocheng, Xiao Hu! What are you doing? Are you trying to scare me?!”
Zhao Xiaodong was still a child at the end of the day. He had to have a large group of people with him to do bad things. Once he was alone, he was faster than anyone to become a coward.
What’s more, he was now in such a strange environment, so dark he couldn’t even see his own hand, and he couldn’t hear anyone’s echo. He only managed to be brave for less than two seconds before he was so scared he started to cry. “Mommy, I want to go home, wuuu—”
Crying until he was out of breath, Zhao Xiaodong howled for a long time but still didn’t hear anyone respond. He rubbed his swollen, squinted eyes in despair and started to run around like a headless fly. He was so scared, his nose and tears smeared all over his face. In the end, he was tripped by something and sat on the ground, crying loudly.
The other little brothers at first just found that Zhao Xiaodong had stopped walking. The little brother behind him even poked Zhao Xiaodong’s arm with his finger. “Boss, why did you stop walking?”
But Zhao Xiaodong didn’t answer at all. He stood there woodenly, his body straighter than a steel plate, his little eyes staring blankly, which scared the little brother behind him into a cry. “Boss, what’s wrong with you? Don’t scare me!”
The little brothers behind him all gathered around, pushing Zhao Xiaodong’s body, trying to shake him awake. But two minutes passed, and Zhao Xiaodong still didn’t react at all.
“Who’s there?”
The bodyguard who had finished his dinner in the front yard came out to stand guard. Hearing a sound in the backyard, he cautiously walked over with a stick.
The little brothers were already crying in fear. The leader of them wiped his tears, whimpered a couple of times, and seeing the bodyguard walk over, he directly lunged at his thigh. “Uncle, our boss is dead, wuuu—We were wrong, we’ll never do bad things again! We’ll never hit people again!”
The little brothers, whose average education was only kindergarten, saw Zhao Xiaodong’s state and all thought he was dead. The little brothers surrounded the bodyguard, a mess of snot and tears, which made the bodyguard also confused.
Looking at a group of five- or six-year-old brats, the bodyguard thought to himself, What kind of trouble is this every day!
After listening to the children’s incoherent and whimpering words, the bodyguard took two steps forward. Seeing Zhao Xiaodong’s dazed gaze, his heart also skipped a beat. Why does he look like his soul has been sucked out?
Before the bodyguard could do anything, Zhao Xiaodong suddenly went crazy, crying and running forward. The bodyguard, seeing this, picked up a string of children with his left and right hands and quickly chased after him.
Nuonuo wanted to go to the front yard to wait for his papa to come back, so he knocked on his third brother’s door and poked his little head in. “Is Third Brother there, ya?”
Fei Luo had just finished his homework. Seeing his little brother’s cute expression, his heart felt as if it had been filled with a cup of hot water, warm all the way to the bottom. “I’m here.”
Fei Luo pursed his lips to suppress his joy and went over to hug his little brother’s lunging body.
“Brother not busy?”
Seeing that Fei Luo had put away his books, Nuonuo let out a happy “ya,” his eyes sparkling as he asked.
Fei Luo nodded. He was pulled by Nuonuo’s little hand, and they went down the stairs to the front yard to play while waiting for their papa to come back.
There were many little wildflowers on the lawn in the front yard. Nuonuo even picked the prettiest one and gave it to Fei Luo.
Fei Luo, who had previously been unhappy because Fei Jing had received a little flower from Nuonuo, now had his eyes widened slightly. “Thank you, Nuonuo.”
Carefully putting this gift in his pocket, Fei Luo’s eyes seemed to be dyed with the light of the sunset glow, revealing a bit of liveliness.
“In the gawden… there are wittle fwowers too!”
Nuonuo skipped along, pulling his brother’s hand, wanting to go to the small garden to pick flowers.
But after just two steps, Fei Luo suddenly stopped, his gaze fixed on the backyard.
After a moment of silence, Fei Luo reached out and pulled back his little brother, who was walking forward. “Let’s go the other way.”
Nuonuo, completely unaware of the good show that was going on in the backyard, foolishly lifted his little face and said, “Okay, ya,” and followed his brother around the path to the backyard.
But this path was rarely used, and there were many weeds. Nuonuo would occasionally be attracted by them, crouching down to play with them for a while.
By the time they reached the backyard, the sky had completely darkened.
Under the bright moonlight and the double illumination of the streetlights, Nuonuo lifted his little head and came face-to-face with Zhou Xiaole, who was still hanging on the fence. They stared at each other with wide eyes.
