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Chapter 400: Chapter 390: It’s Not Our Child’s Fault
Mu Huaxin saw that both parties had calmed down and finally took a breath before saying, "This was originally just a little issue between the children. It’s common for kids to tussle with one another; it’s just that they don’t know their own strength. Chen Shuhan’s nose bled a bit, but now he’s fine. Children will still have to get along in the future, so I think an apology from Li Shichen’s parents to Chen Shuhan’s parents will suffice..."
Before Mu Huaxin could finish speaking, the old lady holding her grandchild on the other side broke down crying, and while crying sang, "Oh my dear grandchild, you’ve suffered so much. Look at this little face, beaten up like this with nowhere to seek justice, oh, this makes life unbearable..."
The young man also disagreed, "Chief, we’re not satisfied with how you’re handling this, that..."
He originally wanted to add some unpleasant words, but was intimidated by a man and a woman opposite him and thus dared not continue.
"How can it be over just by apologizing when that child has hit our child?"
"What else do you want then?" Mu Huaxin looked at these quarrelling parents with a calmness, their minds clear to everyone in the room.
"My son lost so much blood this morning. Their family must provide some compensation for our child to recover his health," the woman declared as though it were her due.
Mu Huaxin glanced over at Shen Yunfang, trying to gauge her thoughts. In his opinion, dealing with such parents, compensating them a dollar or two to get rid of them quickly was the way to go since reasoning with them was futile. He just didn’t know what Shen Yunfang would think.
Shen Yunfang had no objections to compensating for medical expenses; after all, it was her child who had hit the other. Comparatively, she would rather be the one paying.
However, she looked at the child sitting in the old lady’s lap on the opposite side. It wasn’t very clear, but she felt like the child might be taller than her own Pangpang. Had Pangpang really hit this child?
"Chief, I arrived late and still don’t understand why my Pangpang was in conflict with the other children. Could you let me understand the situation first, then we can talk about the rest," she requested.
"Oh, my oversight," Mu Huaxin actually wanted to say that he had been so frustrated by the three quarreling parents on the other side that he forgot to explain to Pangpang’s mother what had happened. "Let’s do it this way, since all the parents are here, I’ll call Pangpang in as well, and let the two kids explain what exactly happened."
Shortly after, an aunt brought Pangpang and his sister over.
Upon entering the room, Manman saw her mother there and scurried toward her with tiny steps, "Mommy, there’s a bad person, talking about Manman, wuwu..." She had barely spoken a word when Manman began to cry inconsolably.
Oh dear, this broke Shen Yunfang’s heart. Her own Manman, who usually doesn’t cry under normal circumstances, must have been bullied badly today to cry upon seeing her mother.
Pangpang also approached Shen Yunfang and quietly wrapped his little arms around his mother’s thigh.
Ma Liguo felt his temper flare with his child’s distress. Someone had bullied his children and still wanted compensation? The audacity of it.
"Pangpang, come to Uncle Ma. Tell Uncle Ma what happened. What did that child do?" This question was clearly biased towards his own child.
"Wuwu, Uncle Ma, that new kid insulted my sister, called her ’refund goods,’ said she was ugly, and even snatched her toys and snacks. I told him not to say that, as sister would be sad if she heard, but he wouldn’t listen and pushed me. I stumbled and fell, and then he also lost his balance, and his nose started bleeding," Pangpang recounted the events simply, of course omitting the part where he had tripped the other child.
After hearing this, the atmosphere among the parents shifted. They hadn’t expected the conflict between the children to be over this, and furthermore, the other child’s nosebleed wasn’t caused by Pangpang but resulted from his own fall. Most importantly, the other child was the one who started the physical altercation.
Shen Yunfang had seen the subtle expressions on Pangpang’s face just now and suspected that the story wasn’t entirely as he told it; she guessed her Pangpang was putting things rather mildly.
"Look at this, your child bullied ours, then fell and bled from the nose and now you’re demanding compensation from us. How shameless can you get?" Liguo immediately went into combat mode after hearing what Pangpang said.
"This, this, this can’t be just based on what your child said," the man was taken aback by the turn of events, though when they came over, their child had claimed he was also insulted by the other child. "Baby, tell us what really happened."
The child sitting in the old lady’s lap got intimidated by all the adults looking at him and no matter what, refused to speak up.
Seeing his son’s cowardly appearance, the man got infuriated and finally, through a mix of coaxing and threatening, got the child to talk.
"He also said I’m not really from our family, that I was picked up from a garbage lane, something about being exchanged. And then Grandma said that girls are a loss anyway, that they should always give way to me. Grandma has cake in her hand, and I want to eat it."
"Alright, alright, Grandma will get it for you, be a good grandson," the old lady readily agreed, believing it was her absolute right to give her grandson the treats.
Shen Yunfang rolled her eyes secretly upon hearing this; she knew what he meant by being ’exchanged’ because she had jokingly told the children before that they were ’earned with points.’
"Did you hear that? Their child insulted our child, said he was picked up from a garbage lane. Pushing him was letting him off easy," the woman shouted, still fixated on getting compensated.
"Hmm, whether your child was picked up from the garbage or not isn’t something we’re clear about. Our child just said something that might be true, how is that insulting? By that logic, since your family teaches that women are a loss, does that mean you are a loss, that all the female elders in your family are a loss?" Shen Yunfang said sarcastically.
"Who are you calling a loss? Watch me tear your mouth apart," the woman said, claws out, ready to charge forward. People who are crazy act like this; it’s okay for them to say stuff about others, but they can’t handle it when it’s about them.
Shen Yunfang turned around, shielding Manman behind her, and spoke, "Just try touching me and see, I will go straight to the police station and sue you, and there are witnesses in this house."
The young man quickly held his wife back.
"Alright, the situation has been made clear, the main responsibility still lies with Chen Shuhan..." Mu Huaxin, seeing Chen Shuhan’s mother wanting to interject, asked with a cold face, "Do you have any objections?" When the incident was first inquired about, he had heard Chen Shuhan’s version of events; thinking that Pangpang was young and couldn’t articulate clearly, he didn’t let him speak. It seemed he was too presumptuous, and should have questioned both children. That way, he wouldn’t have tolerated Chen Shuhan’s parents for so long.
"No, the chief said earlier, they’re just kids, it’s normal for them to fight and argue. We as parents should be more tolerant and let the kids handle these things themselves," Chen Shuhan’s father said, barely maintaining a smile on his face.
"It’s best if you can think like that. I was considering, if the conflict between Chen Shuhan and Li Shichen really couldn’t be resolved, then one of the children would have to leave our kindergarten. But now, with everyone happy, the children can still be friends and we teachers can carry out our work better, don’t you think?"
Chen Shuhan’s father quickly nodded along, understanding that if one child had to go, it would definitely be his own child, especially since his was the newcomer and, according to the child’s accounts, was the first to throw a punch, so it would certainly be his child who had to leave.
"You little brat, picking on little girls for no reason, you just wait and see how I deal with you when we get home," Chen Shuhan’s father said to his son, scolding harshly.
The old lady was not pleased to hear her son speak to her grandson like that, but she couldn’t rebuke him and instead turned in her seat so the child’s father couldn’t see the boy.
"Are we just going to leave like this?" Chen Shuhan’s mother, still somewhat reluctant, asked her man quietly.
"If not leaving, what else do you want? I’m close to being driven mad by your foolish son."
The Chen family left, grumbling.
They had barely reached the door when they heard Chen Shuhan’s cries, as shrill as a pig being slaughtered; he was surely getting a beating.
Pangpang shrank his shoulders while in Ma Liguo’s arms, and Ma Liguo, thinking the child was scared, quickly comforted him.
But Shen Yunfang saw through it—her child Pangpang, with his hand over his eyes leaving a small slit, was watching the doorway with a mischievous grin.
