Chapter 6

Translator: Amber.es

Editor: merahmapple 🍁

Tracing back to Du Yongjin’s earliest childhood memory, was from the time he was bullying others. Such a beautiful child, brutally beating down the little fat child in the yard. This little fat child cried with his tears and snot falling as the bunch of children nearby shouted and boo-ed. It was true that the heart of a child is like white paper. Indeed, snow white is easy to be dyed. From words uttered simply by the adults in the family, sensitive children know who can be bullied and who cannot be provoked.

Du Yongjin was the child leader of course. Never the weaker one, he was the mightest little bully of them all. Whoever had good food and fun must first give him tribute. There were two or three other unlucky ones in Wannian, either for being ugly or had a Backpfeifengesicht face 1 A German word for a face that should be slapped hehe , attracting bullies.

What’s more, Qu Zhengyan belonged to Xiaoyao school. He and Du Yongjin were not in the same kindergarten. Most of his winter and summer vacations were spent visiting his grandparents’ house with his mother. The two children didn’t meet much. It wasn’t until that year’s summer vacation that the homebody Qu Zhengyan really experienced Du Yongjin’s’s arrogance and bad temper for the first time.

The reason why the little fatty was beaten was because of the precious property he was showing off – a set of newly bought storybooks was favored by the little overlord. He was told to offer it. Little fatty was reluctant. He refused, angering the little overlord. Anger. At first, Qu Zhengyan was taken aback by the sudden violence. He stood and watched for a while, and finally couldn’t help but rushed home. He found a similar set of books, running back to the group of children as he hugged it.

At this time, the fight was still raging. The beaten little fatty was covered with dust on his face and body. He was struggling – waving his hands and feet randomly – and caused some wounds and troubles for Du Yongjin.

Qu Zhengyan finally managed to open his mouth, “…Well, I’ll show you my book. Don’t hit him anymore.”

Du Yongjin panted. He raised his head fiercely and stared at him. As soon as he relaxed his arm, he was scratched by the little fatty with his backhand. A few blood marks appeared on his face. Du Yongjin was furious and he punched back until the little fatty’s face was twisted as he cried.

Qu Zhengyan felt the pain. His face wrinkled, unsure who he was feeling the pain for. He stepped forward and pulled Du Yongjin’s hand hard, trying to persuade him. “Don’t fight anymore.” Unfortunately, the persuasion was not successful and on the contrary, he was almost pushed away by Du Yongjin. Du Yongjin stood up from the little fatty in anger. He approached Qu Zhengyan and threatened, “Do you want to be beaten too?”

Qu Zhengyan shook his head honestly, and passed the book in his hand, “For you.”

Du Yongjin looked down at the book, then looked up at the boy in front of him. He suddenly pulled at the first few pages of the book. “Hiss”, the sound of tearing into half.

He slammed it back at Qu Zhengyan’s hand. A stack of pages fell onto the ground, fluttering in the wind like a layer of clay clothes.

Looking at Qu Zhengyan who was dumbfounded, he laughed maliciously. “Who wants to read your broken book?! Nosy parker!”

Qu Zhengyan was speechless. He looked at Du Yongjin blankly, and quickly reached out to touch his face. Unsurprisingly, his hand was smacked away with a “pop”. Du Yongjin beautifully and fiercely demanded, “What are you doing?”

“… Your face is bleeding.”

The little bully rubbed his face with his hand and hissed under his breath. He turned to leave, and thinking about it, kicked Qu Zhengyan’s calf hard. He deliberately stepped on the book pages a few times, muttering “You better be careful. You’ll be next!” With such words, surrounded by a crowd of party feathers, he left.

Qu Zhengyan pulled up the little fatty who was still sobbing and watched melancholy at the beautiful little boy leaving. His original intention was to establish a friendly relationship with him, why… does it seem that they have become enemies?

As a result of the incident, his mother flicked Qu Zhengyan’s forehead and gloated, “You dare make the birthday gift your brother gave you become like this. I won’t care if he comes back angry!”

What’s more, during dinnertime, he heard a noise from the little fatty’s house downstairs, mixed with an angry and shrill female voice.

His father, who went down to take the evening paper, mentioned that the little fatty downstairs hit the Du’s family Xiao Jin, and Mdm Du brought her grandson to the door to get an explanation.

Hearing the Du’s family Xiao Jin’s name, Qu Zhengyan sneaked into the corridor and looked down through the railing. The little fatty was beaten by his parents while apologizing, and started crying again. Du Yongjin frowned as he was held in the arms of the senior Mrs. Du, face staring at the wallpaper and then to the ground, full of impatience.

Throughout the summer vacation, Qu Zhengyan witnessed several times how little Du Yongjin lost his temper because of a little dissatisfaction caused by his friends. Unruly behaviours like hitting with his hand, kicking with his foot. Qu Zhengyan didn’t tire of it and devoted himself to resolving the incident several times. He failed repeatedly.

“Play mine instead…”

“I give mine to you…”

“Let me follow you…”

“……”

In this short summer vacation, Qu Zhengyan’s damaged books and toys, as well as the large and small wounds he got, were more than those combined from when he was one to six years old. His mother solemnly issued an order: “Yanyan, you better stay at home and play obediently. You are not allowed to go out anymore.”

After a brief period of melancholy, September arrived.

Qu Zhengyan was surprised to see Du Yongjin in the classroom of the second grade of the elevator primary school. What made him even more pleased was that Xiao Jin happened to be sitting next to him – he took a seat in the front row.

On the first day of class, classmate Du Yongjin forgot to bring his textbook. Qu Zhengyan hurriedly pushed his textbook over and said kindly, “I will show you mine.”

Du Yongjin raised his chin slightly. Tilting his head, he frowned and stared back unhappily, looking disdainful. But in the end, he rolled his beautiful eyes and dragged the book over.

Little Qu Zhengyan laughed happily.

1

A German word for a face that should be slapped hehe