His good hand gripped the fishing net tightly, his eyes staring blankly ahead.

He shifted his body slightly, blocking Xiuchun and Siya from view.

Da Niu was initially puzzled, wondering why they had stopped here when they were still quite far away.

Looking up in that direction, I saw a group of boys playing where they were washing clothes.

Even though the eighteen days of "autumn tiger" (a period of hot weather in early summer) have passed after the autumn harvest, the weather is still quite hot.

In addition, it was midday, with the sun directly overhead.

Girls are alright; they know shame and almost never go swimming in the river.

As for the boys, they're incredibly resilient.

It was hot, so I just took off my clothes and pants and jumped naked into the river to soak.

"Hey, I was just about to go find him, but I didn't expect to find him here?"

"Come on, Tiedan, let's go settle the score with him."

Da Niu rolled up his sleeves, ready to go and settle accounts with Fu Jianguo and Fu Jianhua, who were playing in the water by the stone slab.

"Forget it, don't go. There are too many of them now."

Tie Dan grabbed Da Niu's arm in time and tried to persuade him.

Da Niu then noticed that there were several boys from the village standing by the stone slab.

The children were of varying ages, and almost all of them brought their younger siblings to play in the water.

"Alright, I'll listen to you. I'll let those two bastards go this time."

Touching his nose, Da Niu mentally assessed his fighting strength before reluctantly uttering a harsh threat. "This way it is. I'll go down and set the net, and you drive it down from here."

Dog Egg checked the depth of the river and said to Big Ox.

Then he pulled Xiuchun and the others down to the bottom.

But they had only gone halfway when they were spotted by Fu Jianguo, who was standing by the stone slab.

"Stop right there."

When Fu Jianguo returned home that time, he was beaten so badly he was trembling with fear.

He begged for mercy, crying and pleading, before his father finally let him go.

Back in the house, his mother wiped away her tears and applied medicine to his bottom.

While wiping, he cursed Ning Jing as a short-lived ghost and Tie Dan as a little short-lived ghost.

He was also filled with resentment; after all, Fu Jianguo was already 12 years old.

A boy who's almost grown up is at the age where he cares a lot about his image.

He had lost face in front of so many villagers, and then he got a severe beating from his father when he got back.

Instead of reflecting on his own wrongdoing, Fu Jianguo harbored even more resentment towards Tiedan.

If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been beaten so badly!

However, because of Tiedan's injury, the village forcibly deducted 3 yuan from his work points to compensate Tiedan's family, and afterwards, the way he looked at him was cold.

He was so frightened that he kept a low profile for a while.

I finally managed to get out today, so I called my friends and invited them to come and play in the river.

Unexpectedly, by sheer coincidence, we ran into that person.

How does the saying go?

When enemies meet, they are especially jealous of each other.

This refers to Fu Jianguo.

He didn't care that his younger brother was still playing in the water, and ran towards Tie Dan and the others in three steps at a time.

Tie Dan was surprised that Fu Jianguo hadn't learned his lesson at all. Even though he hadn't gone to find him, Fu Jianguo still had the nerve to come looking for trouble.

"I'm your elder, who are you calling to stop?"

Tie Dan turned around and said to Fu Jianguo, who was panting heavily from running, with a stern face.

Upon hearing Tie Dan's words, the friends following behind Fu Jianguo immediately burst into laughter and joking.

Some people even shoved Fu Jianguo and shouted maliciously, "Jianguo, hurry up and call him Uncle, or he'll beat you up again."