Chapter 72: Got Scolded

Chapter 72: Scolded

Gu Chaoning pretended he hadn't seen a thing and calmly looked away.

Seeing this, Qi Aliu's eyes got even more sulky. The guy behind him stepped up and bent slightly, apparently asking Qi Aliu what had happened.

Gu Chaoning figured Qi Aliu wouldn't send someone to grab him just because he wouldn't lend him money.

So he walked off without a shred of guilt.

Once he passed the noodle shop, the two of them were out of his peripheral vision. Gu Chaoning snapped his focus back to the stall ahead.

If nothing unexpected happens, he probably wouldn't need to return to Xiaohe Village until after the prefectural examination.

He wondered how things were back home.

...

"Xue Geer!"

"Granny Wang!" Yin Hongxue saw it was someone he knew, and a smile appeared on his face, softening his usual cold demeanor when alone.

Granny Wang was the old lady who'd asked him to do that painting. The two of them had a real connection—after that, they kept bumping into each other left and right, and before long they got pretty familiar, to the point where it felt like a real cross-generational friendship.

Granny Wang was carrying a little oil-paper bundle. "Xue Geer, done with your painting lessons? These are dried apricots I bought."

Granny Wang opened the oil-paper bundle and offered it to Yin Hongxue. Yin Hongxue didn't stand on ceremony—he grabbed one and popped it in his mouth, then grabbed another and wrapped it up in his handkerchief. When Granny Wang told him to take more, he didn't reach for another.

"Mother." A middle-aged man came over from the other side and gave Yin Hongxue a nod when he saw him.

Yin Hongxue returned the greeting.

This man was called Wang Song, Granny Wang's son and the manager of Tongfu Inn. Thanks to Granny Wang, the two knew each other, but they weren't close.

When Wang Song came over, Yin Hongxue didn't stick around. He said goodbye to Granny Wang and left.

He had to go pick up Gu Muan, and then the two of them would go find Dad, who was making a table at the carpenter's shop, and then the three of them would head home together.

As he walked, thinking about Granny Wang, Yin Hongxue couldn't help but think back to what happened that day.

It'd been days now—he wondered if they'd caught that thief yet.

Yin Hongxue was pretty sure the guy he'd drawn matched what he'd actually seen about ninety percent.

The authorities couldn't be that slow with a case, could they!

"Gu Muan!"

A sudden shout up ahead snapped Yin Hongxue out of his thoughts. Right after that sharp yell came a "bang"—the sound of something hitting the floor.

Startled, Yin Hongxue hurried over to the Huichun Hall up ahead.

He didn't even need to ask. Gu Muan was standing off to the side, looking scared stiff, the little wooden stool that had been slammed hard onto the floor up front, the furious Doctor Ding, and the little kid sitting on the ground—he could pretty much figure out what had just gone down.

Seeing Yin Hongxue arrive, Gu Muan, whose eyes were all teary, finally couldn't hold it in anymore. Tears rolled down his cheeks and went plop, plop, plop onto the ground.

"Sniffle... Xue Age."

Yin Hongxue's heart was thumping in his chest, and seeing Gu Muan all teary-eyed made his heart ache.

"Doctor Ding..."

Before he could finish, Doctor Ding shot him a furious look that scared the rest of his words right back down his throat.

Everyone there was staring at them, whether on purpose or not.

Yin Hongxue's heart was pounding even harder now. He swallowed, steeled himself, and walked in anyway, gathering Gu Muan into his arms.

The second Gu Muan was in his arms, Yin Hongxue felt his stiff little body go all soft. The little guy pressed himself tight against him, and warm tears landed on the back of his hand.

"Xue Age."

That made Yin Hongxue's heart ache even more. "Doctor Ding, my little brother is still young. I'll take responsibility on his behalf—"

"If being young means you can't take even a little bit of hardship, then you might as well go home and be the family's little treasure. Here," Doctor Ding said with a cold laugh, "we can't accommodate such precious little princes."

Doctor Ding cut him off, then bent down and scooped up the kid sitting on the floor.

Yin Hongxue often came to pick up Gu Muan, and although he wasn't familiar with the child on the ground, he recognized him.

He seemed to be called Wang Chengyin.

Doctor Ding checked Wang Chengyin all over before looking back at Yin Hongxue and Gu Muan.

"Gu Muan is the youngest, and we've always gone easy on him. He's always toting that little wooden stool around everywhere, and since we know he's little and doesn't have much strength, we've just turned a blind eye."

"But today was busy and we had a lot on our hands. He still carried that little wooden stool over and blocked the way. I told him once and he wouldn't listen, and now he's gone and tripped his friend..."

Doctor Ding paused, staring coldly at Yin Hongxue and Gu Muan holding each other.

"You're just a kid yourself. I don't want to be too harsh with you. Just take your little brother home. Think about what you did for a few days, and once you own up to your mistake and promise not to do it again, then you can come back."

Yin Hongxue instinctively shot a glance at Gu Muan and saw that he indeed looked guilty and regretful.

He quickly said yes, then apologized to everyone, and finally, with everyone in the clinic watching, he took Gu Muan by the hand with one hand, grabbed the stool that was about to fall apart with the other, and hurried off.

It wasn't until they were near the carpenter's shop that Gu Muan finally stopped with the tears. Yin Hongxue let out a sigh of relief and asked him in a low voice, "An Geer, why do you haul that little stool around every day?"

Yin Hongxue had some memory of that stool—it was something Gu Muan had asked Gu Wen to make for him back when he first started at the clinic.

He shouldn't have brought it up. The second he did, Gu Muan, who'd just been calming down, looked like he was about to tear up all over again.

Yin Hongxue, who'd been soothing him the whole way, felt his heart clench at the sight and rushed to say, "Alright, alright, don't cry, don't cry. If An Geer doesn't want to talk about it, then let's not talk about it, okay?"

As he spoke, Yin Hongxue remembered the dried apricots wrapped in his handkerchief and quickly took them out to put into Gu Muan's hands.

While Yin Hongxue was comforting Gu Muan, Gu Wen, who'd been waiting in the shop for the kids and they never showed, put down his work and ran out—just in time to catch the whole thing.

Gu Wen was taken aback and hurried over right away.

"An Geer? Xue Geer? What's wrong?"

The moment he saw his dad, Gu Muan couldn't hold it in anymore, and pretty soon he was sniffling and sobbing.

Yin Hongxue wiped Gu Muan's tears with his handkerchief as he explained things to Gu Wen.

When he heard that the little guy had been carrying that little stool around the clinic all day every day, and that today the stool had blocked the way and tripped one of the pharmacy apprentices studying under Doctor Ding, as much as Gu Wen's heart hurt, he had to admit they were a bit in the wrong here.

"An Geer, don't cry. Daddy'll buy you some meat, and we'll go home and make wontons, okay?"

Gu Muan paid him no mind, continuing to wipe his tears.

When a child throws a tantrum and wails with mouth wide open, it doesn't bother Gu Wen much. But seeing him like this—sniffling softly, eyes and face flushed, looking utterly pitiful—it felt like someone was twisting Gu Wen's heart.

Gu Wen's thoughts scrambled through his memories, then suddenly something came to him.

"I'll buy some meat, and when we get home, An Geer can tell me exactly how you want it cooked, okay?"

He remembered that last time, when Gu Muan wanted to put something in the wontons, Chen Youyan had carried him out of the kitchen since he was blocking the way, and the little guy had pouted about it for a long while.

Gu Muan stopped sniffling, and Gu Wen pressed his advantage, "Besides meat, what else does An Geer want to buy? Daddy will take you to get it."

Gu Muan had cried for a long time—though he hadn't been loud, his voice was still a bit hoarse.

The little guy said softly, "I want pork belly."

Gu Wen and Yin Hongxue both breathed a sigh of relief, and Gu Wen quickly agreed.

With the child finally calm, Gu Wen didn't dare bring up the wooden stool right away. First, he carried the rickety stool that Yin Hongxue had been holding into the shop, then led the two children to the market.

The town was smaller than the county seat, with just a market in the northwest corner. By this hour, most vegetable vendors were gone, but there were still a few meat sellers.

Pork belly always sold out fast, and sure enough, it was already sold out when the father and sons arrived. Following Gu Muan's wishes, they had to make do with a cut of front leg meat instead.

Lately, the masonry crew has been swamped, and Gu Daniu had been driving the family's mule cart. These past few days, Gu Wen, Yin Hongxue, and Gu Muan had been catching rides at the village and town entrances to go back and forth.

At the town entrance, Wang Erlin from Xiaohe Village stood by his donkey cart, hollering at the empty space, "Anyone else need a ride? I can get to Xiaohe Village and Chenjia Village, two coppers per person, we'll leave once we have enough people!"

He remembered Gu Wen and his two boys riding with him these past few days. Seeing no one coming over, he wasn't too anxious, just calling out half-heartedly now and then.

Wang Guihua was sitting on the donkey cart, drinking water. She'd come to town today to sell wild greens, and she'd done good business—the last few limp ones were snapped up at a discount.

Besides her, there were two people from Chenjia Village on the cart.

Seeing Wang Erlin's half-hearted calls, Wang Guihua couldn't help saying, "Erlin, you don't seem too keen on rounding up riders. Why don't we three just take off?"

Wang Erlin glanced at her and was about to explain when he saw Gu Wen coming down the road with the two boys.

"Hey, Dawen, over here!"

With Gu Wen and his two boys added, Wang Erlin was finally satisfied. Once everyone was seated, he gave a lazy flick of the whip and drove the donkey cart out of town.

Wang Guihua's eyes immediately landed on the oil-paper bundle in Gu Wen's hand—with that grease soaking through, it had to be fresh meat!

Wang Guihua smacked her lips, her mouth watering.

She'd eaten plenty of meat at New Year's, so why was she acting like she hadn't had meat in years? How embarrassing.

Wang Guihua quickly looked away, then noticed Gu Muan sitting with his head down, eyes red-rimmed, clearly having been crying.

"This—" Wang Guihua looked at Gu Wen in surprise, "what happened to An Geer?"

In Wang Guihua's memory, Gu Muan was always all smiles, and even when he got mad, he'd just pout in an adorable way.

This was the first time Wang Guihua had ever seen Gu Muan like this.

When he heard his name, Gu Muan looked up at Wang Guihua with a pitiful expression, called out "Auntie Guihua," then pursed his lips and lowered his head again.

That look made Wang Guihua's heart ache, and she quickly turned to Gu Wen.

Gu Wen had a helpless look on his face. "He got a scolding from his teacher."

He left it at that.

But that was enough for Wang Guihua to catch on.

In the minds of country folk, it was only natural for a student to be disciplined by their teacher—after all, isn't there a saying, "A teacher for a day is a father for life"?

Though Wang Guihua's heart went out to him, she could only offer a few words of comfort, and told Gu Muan to be good and mind his teacher.

Gu Muan grunted a couple of times in response, then slumped against Yin Hongxue's shoulder and went quiet.