Chapter 48: Reminiscing
Old Master Bai was also pained to see Bai Erlang’s state, thinking the two brothers had been beaten again. While telling someone to take him to get cleaned up and checked, he asked the servant who brought the children back.
The other two students who returned with Bai Erlang were also taken to bathe and change clothes.
The servant knelt down, head lowered, and recounted everything he had witnessed in detail.
Old Master Bai’s face grew colder and paler. The arriving Old Lady Bai and Lady Bai didn’t know how to face Lady Liu.
Fortunately, Lady Liu remained composed, counseling Old Master Bai and his son, “Children will always cause a ruckus. The two are of similar age, this is normal.”
How was it normal? If it were just fighting and arguing, that would be one thing, but he tried putting a sack over his head!
Enraged, Old Master Bai angrily stormed into his second son’s courtyard.
Seeing his demeanor, Lady Bai was alarmed and quickly supported the old lady.
Old Lady Bai couldn’t be bothered to console Lady Liu, immediately following behind and calling out, “Just give him a light spanking…don’t injure the child!”
Lady Liu also hurried to catch up. Though trailing behind Old Master Bai, they soon heard Bai Erlang’s wails and shrieks.
Old Lady Bai was so startled she nearly sat down. Lady Liu rushed past her, shouting, “Bai Li, if you injure the child, we’ll have no face left to stay here!”
Just as Old Master Bai had his son over his lap, spanking his bottom, he paused at Lady Liu’s words and flung the still wailing boy to the ground, angrily pointing, “You cry, but if you don’t cry yourself to death today, you’ll make your father die of anger!”
Lady Liu quickly grabbed a quilt from the bed to wrap the child, who had been pulled out mid-bath, making the handprints on his bottom all the more obvious – likely the worst of his injuries.
Hugging the crying Bai Erlang, Lady Liu wept, “Old Master, he’s only seven or eight, all children act up! Didn’t you misbehave as a child? Did your mother and I beat you like this? Children need proper guidance – with your beating, you could ruin even the best child!”
“Let him beat!” Having finally arrived leaning on her daughter-in-law, Old Lady Bai panted against the door frame, angrily saying, “Let him beat him to death and be done with it, then he can live alone in this manor. Sister, I’ll leave with you, no need to offend him further.”
Lady Liu chided, “Sister, if he doesn’t know how to discipline children, then you should teach him. What’s the point of antagonizing him like this?”
Lady Liu checked on Bai Erlang, seeing his swollen bottom was not too serious, her only worry being the child getting so frightened he develops a fever overnight, which could be life-threatening.
She instructed Lady Bai, “Stop crying, you need to take charge since your mother-in-law is elderly. Have the servants fetch his clothes to get him changed, then make him a calming soup lest he gets too scared.”
Having raised two children herself, Old Lady Bai agreed, immediately relaying Lady Liu’s instructions to her daughter-in-law.
Not just them, Bai Shanbao and the other two children were also given calming soups before being respectfully sent home.
The chaotic Bai manor finally settled down.
Only then did Lady Liu wearily tell Old Master Bai, “We should send a conciliatory gift to the Zhou family too, since their little lady was reportedly injured as well.”
Old Master Bai nodded repeatedly before instructing the steward.
The two children had been brought together. Though just spanked, Bai Erlang’s eyes were still red, while Bai Shanbao, aware of the beating, pretended to behave with lowered head but kept glancing over with mocking looks when the adults weren’t watching.
Bai Erlang glared back angrily when unwatched.
But how could the adults not notice?
Seeing the two children still couldn’t get along affectionately, the adults fell silent.
Lady Liu thought she’d better hurry and build their own house, hopefully moving out before the new year so some distance might ease the frosty relationship between the cousins.
Old Lady Bai also sighed, waiting until Lady Liu and daughter-in-law took Bai Shanbao to rest before telling her son, “You and Qi’er used to get along so well, closer than blood brothers. How did it become like fighting cocks between you two in this generation?”
“We’ll have Dalang take care of things when he returns.”
Lady Bai couldn’t help but say, “Dalang is so much older than Shanbao. The two children may not fight, but isn’t he also too old to still be studying?”
“That depends on if he can test into the county school. Master Zhuang is from the prefectural academy – I just want him to guide Dalang a little.”
Lady Bai didn’t really understand why her mother and husband insisted their children befriend Bai Shanbao, who was just a child after all.
Seeing her daughter-in-law’s downcast silence, Old Lady Bai could guess her thoughts. Ever since Lady Liu and daughter-in-law moved in with Bai Shanbao, the daughter-in-law had been unhappy.
With a sigh, Old Lady Bai told Old Master Bai, “Your brother Qi is gone, leaving your sister-in-law and her child widowed and destitute. Bullied by the clan, they can only rely on you now. The kinship between our two families is naturally different from others.”
These words from Old Lady Bai were not just for Old Master Bai, but for Lady Bai too. “When your father entered the clan school as a country bumpkin, though of the Bai clan, he was far removed from the main lineage. If not for your grandfather’s capabilities managing the family business well and donating generously to the school, your father could never have studied in Longzhou.”
Patting her young grandson’s head, Old Lady Bai continued to Old Master Bai, “Even so, he was often bullied, protected only by your fifth paternal uncle back then.”
Red-faced, Old Master Bai knelt, “Rest assured Mother, I will take good care of Sister-in-law, raising Shanbao like my own son.”
Pulling him up, Old Lady Bai said, “That’s not what I meant.”
Then what did you mean?
Old Lady Bai just looked at him. “You know the bond between our two families, but the children may not. If you don’t explain, they’ll think your sister-in-law’s family just came to mooch.”
Only then did Old Lady Bai look at Lady Bai and her grandson. “Your grandfather and fifth uncle were close friends back then. It’s just a pity your grandfather was not as scholarly as your fifth uncle, only becoming a county magistrate. He had a temper – scolded by an official twice, he quit and returned to farm.”
Lady Bai: …She knew this story too. Even now in the county town, some still called her grandfather a man of quality.
