Xia Mian turned around and saw the child huddled in a corner of the sofa, trembling with fear, a pair of clear big eyes looking at her anxiously. Xia Mian suddenly couldn't move her legs.
She walked over, hugged the child and said, "Don't be afraid, baby, your aunt is here."
The child shivered in her arms.
Xia Mian just remembered that the child must have injuries on his body after being beaten, so she quickly let him go and checked carefully. She saw a red spot on the child's forearm, and then looked at the broken cup on the ground. What was there to understand? The child broke the cup because the water was too hot.
She picked him up carefully and couldn't help but feel a sore nose. She couldn't even feel the weight of a child who was only four or five years old.
Walking into the bathroom, she kicked something and felt a sharp pain in her calf going straight to the top of her head. Xia Mian couldn't help but let out a hiss and stood still.
It took me a long while to recover. I looked down and saw that it was the aluminum basin that the child had just used to wash clothes.
The child obviously knew what was going on. He was so scared that his whole body stiffened. The hands around her neck loosened in fear and twisted together nervously. His voice trembled slightly, "Auntie."
Xia Mian was almost made to cry by his shouting, so she immediately hugged him tightly and stroked his back again and again, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. It's my fault that I didn't look at the road. It's not your fault."
"It's amazing that the baby can wash clothes."
The child still didn't relax until Xia Mian used cold water to rinse the red areas on him, held him in his arms and applied toothpaste on him to prevent bubbles. Only after he noticed the little body hesitated for a moment did he tentatively lean towards Xia Mian.
That cautious dependence made Xia Mian sad. If it weren't for her, how miserable would this child be...
Having said that, this dream is too real. It feels great to deal with the beast, but I can't let go of this kid.
Xia Mian always felt like he had overlooked something, but he couldn't remember it for a moment.
Forget it, let’s ignore it for now. I’ll take it one step at a time and hurry up to help the kid clean up.
Xia Mian lifted up the vest that was so dirty that the color couldn't be seen, and immediately clenched his back teeth: I really didn't hit you lightly just now!
The child's small, skinny body was covered with shocking bruises.
Xia Mian's eyes were sore. She took a clean and soft towel, wet it, and carefully wiped the child's arms and face. When it came to other places, she didn't know where to start. It is no exaggeration to say that there was really no intact place on the child's body.
Xia Mian stood up suddenly, her thumb unconsciously pressing on the base of her index finger, the joint making a "click" sound. She didn't know how long it would take for her to wake up from the dream, and she hoped that it would support her in beating up that black-hearted woman again.
The moment Xia Mian took a step, the familiar feeling of pain attacked the top of his head again. Xia Mian looked down at the aluminum basin that he kicked for the second time, and realized what he had overlooked: Can the pain in a dream be so real
Just as she thought of this, her head suddenly started to ache, and some memories that did not belong to her flooded into her mind. That was the sixteen years of Zhang Yufeng's aunt's life.
What was going on? Xia Mian hadn't figured out whether this was a dream or reality when she heard Huang Xiaojuan sobbing through the small window connected to the bathroom:
"It's said that being a stepmother is hard. That kid is always sloppy. I treated him as my own child and took care of him. Who would have thought that after just giving him a few scoldings, his aunt would beat me up like this..."
Her legs felt tight, and Xia Mian looked down, only to see the child's small hands tightly tugging at her pants, his mouth pursed nervously, his big eyes filled with worry and fear.
Xiao Feng knew how powerful his stepmother was. He was worried that his aunt would be scolded. He was even more afraid that after his aunt left, his stepmother would get even more angry and beat him. It would hurt so much that he would not be able to stand up.
The child who should have been carefree seemed to live in perpetual fear.
Looking at those eyes, Xia Mian temporarily ignored the confusion in her mind. She leaned over and held the child's face, looked into his eyes seriously and said, "Don't be afraid, baby. Auntie will not ignore you."
Not sure whether it was a dream or reality, she would take the matter seriously and at least leave a way out for the child.
There was a slight light in the child's eyes. He looked at Xia Mian and said softly, "I'm not a baby. My name is Xiao Feng. My mother gave me this name."
"Well, Bao Bao is a nickname, and Xiao Feng is a real name." Xia Mian reached out and threw away the tattered vest, and asked, "Let's change clothes. Where are your clothes?"
Xiao Feng pointed to the aluminum basin next to him and looked at the two pieces of clothes soaking in it, the color of which could not be made out clearly. They were a vest and an adult's shorts. These were the only clothes the child had for changing.
Xia Mian couldn't help but press her index finger again, making a soft sound, and asked softly, "Do you have anything else to wear? Where are your things?"
The child pointed to a small room facing north.
The layout of the family housing estate in the early years was not reasonable. It had three bedrooms and one living room in an area of more than 80 square meters, with the living room being the largest area, followed by the two bedrooms, and the north-facing room being extremely small.
Even though she had prepared herself mentally, Xia Mian's tears instantly fell after she opened the door...
Xiao Feng panicked, "Auntie..."
"It's okay, it's okay." Xia Mian leaned over and hugged him, unable to hold back her sobs. "Don't be afraid, baby. Auntie will definitely protect you!"
Xia Mian wiped her eyes, stood up, picked up the phone on the chest of drawers and dialed 110...
After hanging up the phone, she returned to the guest room, found a soft T-shirt from her original suitcase, came out to put it on the child, and took out a few biscuits from the kitchen and handed them to him.
Xiao Feng touched the clean clothes on his body, pursed his lips and looked somewhat happy. When he saw Xia Mian holding the biscuits, he was startled and said timidly, "This is for my brother."
Xia Mian stuffed the biscuits into his hands and said, "From today on, you don't have a brother anymore. Everything you want is yours!"
Holding him, she sat on the sofa and said, "Eat it obediently and wait for Auntie to come back."
Xia Mian pinched the base of her fingers one by one, and the joints made loud cracking sounds. She didn't believe Xia if she didn't beat Huang Xiaoxia up today so that even her parents wouldn't recognize her!
The staff quarters of the 19th Bureau of Huagang are very large, with more than a dozen buildings, thirty or forty units, and at least a few thousand people. It is now the time for people to get off work at noon, and it is very busy with people coming and going.
Huang Xiaojuan usually has a good reputation and is quite popular in the family compound. Now she is sitting on a stone bench and crying, "You all know that child, he is naughty and filthy all day long, who in the compound wants to play with him? I want him to be good, but am I wrong to discipline him?"
"She also said that it was her sister's child and I was not qualified to discipline him." Huang Xiaojuan seemed to have her sincerity betrayed and cried even more sadly, "She actually attacked me directly." While saying this, she showed several red marks on her arm. Xia Mian's attack was not gentle and now the marks were swollen.
"Mr. Zhang from our family was thinking about the old relationship. He thought that the parents of his ex-sister-in-law's family were gone, and the little girl was very pitiful and no one wanted her. The conditions in the city were good, and if he took her in, she would be able to go to a good school and get into a good university like her sister. Unexpectedly..."
As he said this, he started to sob, looking like a poor person who had been let down.
Someone finished the rest of her words for her, "What an ungrateful person! If it was really a stepmother, she wouldn't care. It takes so much effort to discipline a child, who would be willing to do that?"
The old man in the unit next door shook his head and sighed, "It seems that if the top beam is crooked, the bottom beam will be crooked, and it's all rooted. No wonder you said that child is difficult to discipline."
The old lady next door tapped her cane angrily and echoed, "Isn't it? Look at that girl, she acts like a bull demon every day. Since she came, I dare not let my grandson go out to play."
Huang Xiaojuan's close friend also sighed, "It's really not easy to be a stepmother, but you are too kind. She is Lao Zhang's ex-sister-in-law. Seriously speaking, she is not even related by blood. Her own relatives don't want her. Why did you go to the trouble of taking her in?!"
Huang Xiaojuan was about to show off her kind personality when she heard a clear female voice with a strong nasal tone, but the tone was unfriendly, "Looking for trouble? Didn't you trick me into coming to the city just for the savings and property my mother left for me?"
When everyone turned around, they saw the "Bull Demon King" they had just discussed walking towards them aggressively, with his red hair flying arrogantly and his eyes red, as if he had suffered a greater injustice than Huang Xiaojuan.
Before everyone had time to digest the meaning of her words, she strode up to Huang Xiaojuan and asked coldly, "What did you just say? The child is naughty, sloppy, and disobedient?"
Huang Xiaojuan had felt a little guilty when she heard her talk about the savings, but now that she only mentioned the child, she immediately became confident and said, "Isn't it?"
With the intention of showing everyone how arrogant Xia Mian was, she said with a hint of provocation, "You are sloppy and dirty all day long, and you don't listen at all. Your brother-in-law is his biological father, but he doesn't care. I...ah!"
Huang Xiaojuan didn't finish her words when Xia Mian kicked her in the stomach and angrily said, "Why is he so dirty? Have you ever washed his clothes? You let a child under five years old wash his own clothes. How can he be clean?"
Thinking of the child washing his own clothes, Xia Mian's eyes became red again. He leaned over and grabbed Huang Xiaojuan by the collar and punched her in the stomach. "The kids in the yard don't want to play with him? Have you ever let him out? The only two clothes he has are his father's vests!"
She turned around and asked the neighbors, "Has anyone seen him running out wearing normal children's clothes? No matter how naughty the child is, how can an adult not wash the child's face? This is in the city, and the child doesn't go out, how could he get so dirty?!"
Everyone looked at each other, this was indeed not the case. The child was always dirty and timid, which was annoying to look at, so no one wanted to pay attention to him.
Xia Mian thought of the small dark room that looked like a pigsty again, and the wild power in her body could no longer be suppressed. She held down Huang Xiaojuan and beat her while sobbing, "How dare you call him naughty and discipline him? When you came back from going out and asked the child to pour you hot water, he accidentally hit the cup because he burned his hand, and you beat him to death!"
The more he talked, the more uncomfortable he became. Xia Mian shouted with red eyes, "Your son is as fat as a ball, while our child is just skin and bones! You have the nerve to say that you discipline him!"
Huang Xiaojuan lost her voice after being kicked in the stomach. She screamed now and dodged left and right while holding her head. “You, you lunatic, help, help!”
The others also reacted and rushed over to mediate. After all, they were friends with Huang Xiaojuan, and of course they favored Huang Xiaojuan more than Xia Mian, the outsider and non-mainstream Bull Demon King.
"What's wrong with me? Does it hurt now?" Although Xia Mian no longer had the height and strength, he was still as skilled as ever. He dodged several middle-aged women's extended hands and kicked Huang Xiaojuan hard a few more times.
"You beat children even harder than this. You beat our children so hard that they didn't even dare to cry? How can you be worse than a child?"