Li Xia asked An An: "Do you want to go with your mother?"

An An looked up from the book, thought for a moment and then said, "Mom, I want to go with you."

Even if they don't want to be friends anymore, they should make it clear face to face.

Jiang Xiaohao also lived in the staff quarters, but on the south side, which was quite far from their home. It took about twenty minutes to walk there.

There are chickens and ducks in the yard, and there is also a vegetable patch where a variety of vegetables are planted.

A woman in homespun clothes was weeding in the vegetable garden. When she heard the noise outside, she turned her head and looked over: "What are you doing?"

Li Xia smiled kindly and said, "You are Xiaohao's mother, right? I am the mother of Xiaohao's classmate Gu Shian, and this is my son."

"Oh, it's Xiaohao's classmate. Come in and sit down!" Zhao Xiulan hurried out from the vegetable garden.

Li Xia took An An into the yard. After entering, she smelled a bitter smell, a bit like Chinese medicine.

"You must be thirsty. I'll get you some water." Zhao Xiulan walked to the faucet and washed her hands before going to get some water. After a while, she came out with an enamel pot.

Looking at the enamel pot in front of her, Li Xia suddenly remembered what Sister Tao said to her when she first moved into the staff housing estate.

They are not that particular and they all drink water from an enamel jug.

Hmm... Li Xia hesitated for a moment, but still took a symbolic sip.

"Where's Xiaohao? Isn't school over? Why hasn't he come back yet?" Li Xia asked.

Zhao Xiulan said, "Before he left this morning, he told me that he had something to do and would be back later. The child is very wild, and his father is not around, so I can't control him. Let him be, and he will come back naturally later."

"What's the matter with you guys coming to our house? Did Xiaohao get into a fight again?" Zhao Xiulan looked at An An and said nervously, "Kid, did Xiaohao bully you?"

An An shook her head: "No, auntie, Xiao Hao didn't bully me."

Instead of bullying him, when a fat classmate in the class deliberately blocked his way, he took the initiative to push the fat classmate away.

Zhao Xiulan was relieved when she heard An An say this. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she said, "I remember now. Xiaohao said that there was a kid in their class who had very good grades and was two years younger than him. It was you, right?"

Most children of An An's age are studying in the Yuhong class, but he is already in the second grade and his grades are still so good. Zhao Xiulan finds it very surprising.

An An nodded a little embarrassedly: "Aunt, it's me."

"Sister-in-law, I want to talk to you alone about something." After thinking it over again and again, Li Xia decided to tell Zhao Xiulan about that matter.

"Sister Zhao, I have considered this over and over again before I decided to tell you. Xiaohao is still young now, and it's still possible to control him when he does something like this for the first time. If I don't tell him and don't let him suffer after doing something wrong, he will have a lucky mentality and may embark on the road of crime in the future."

"Xiaohao's father is a martyr, and he certainly doesn't want his child to become such a person in the future. But I think Xiaohao was mainly deliberately misled by someone. The other party is an adult, and Xiaohao is just a child of a few years old. He couldn't withstand the temptation and did such a thing. We should..."

At this moment, Jiang Xiaohao's excited voice came from outside: "Mom, I'm back!"

Zhao Xiulan could no longer hear what Li Xia said next. When she heard Li Xia say that Jiang Xiaohao stole something, her head was already buzzing.

As soon as Jiang Xiaohao's voice appeared, the time bomb in Zhao Xiulan's mind exploded.

Her face flushed as she glared at Jiang Xiaohao. She reached out and picked up a willow branch beside her and started hitting Jiang Xiaohao with it.

"Jiang Xiaohao, you've made progress. You've also learned to steal things, right? What did your father teach you when he was alive?"

"He fought bravely for his country, and sacrificed his life. But you, as his son, stole things. Are you worthy of him? Are you worthy of being the son of a martyr? I must beat you to death today. I will beat you to death before you are arrested and put in jail. Let's see how you can do these bad things again!"

Zhao Xiulan changed her previous kind attitude and started beating Jiang Xiaohao as hard as a madman.

Willow twigs fell on Jiang Xiaohao like raindrops, but he did not try to dodge. He just stood there quietly and allowed himself to be beaten and scolded.

Li Xia rushed over and stood in front of Jiang Xiaohao with open arms.

She said to Zhao Xiulan, "Sister-in-law, calm down. I came here to tell you about this not so that you can beat Xiaohao. Beating a child cannot solve the fundamental problem. What we need to do is to ask the child why he did this so that he can stop doing it again."

Jiang Xiaohao lowered his head and said silently: "Auntie, please let my mother beat me. I did something wrong and I deserve to be beaten."

Zhao Xiulan hit Jiang Xiaohao a few more times, and cursed with a choked voice:

"Why would you steal or rob when you have hands and feet? How can you take something that is not yours? Are you worthy of your father? Your father is a martyr, and you, the son of a martyr, actually steal things. Why don't you take out the money quickly! Return it to that person!"

When Jiang Xiaohao mentioned his father again, tears fell to the ground, wetting the floor.

He cried and said, "I can't take it out. I spent the money! Mom, hit me. Hit me hard!"

When Zhao Xiulan heard this, she was so angry that she slapped him a few more times: "You spent it? What did you do with it? Did your family need food or clothes? Why would you spend this kind of money?"

As she spoke, Zhao Xiulan saw that Jiang Xiaohao's schoolbag was bulging, so she went to rummage through it.

The schoolbag was in a mess and a pair of brand new rubber shoes fell out of it.

Zhao Xiulan looked at the size of the shoes, her hands holding the willow branches trembled slightly, and tears instantly blurred her eyes.

She looked at Jiang Xiaohao and asked, "Did you buy it for me?"

Jiang Xiaohao looked at her shoes and choked up as he said, "Your shoes have been repaired so many times that even the shoemaker doesn't want to repair them anymore. I just wanted to take advantage of your birthday... to buy you a new pair of shoes..."

After saying that, he knelt down directly: "Mom, I'm sorry, I was wrong! I shouldn't use this bad way to make money, please beat me hard!"

At this time, a thin little girl walked out of the house and stood in front of Jiang Xiaohao.

The little girl looked even younger than An An and her face was very pale.

But she walked in front of Jiang Xiaohao, blocked him with her thin body, and said with red eyes: "Mom, don't hit brother, brother made medicine for me, and left all the delicious food for me to eat, brother is a good brother."

When Zhao Xiulan heard Jiang Xiaohao's words, her tears burst out like a dam breaking.

Even she forgot her birthday, but the child remembered it clearly...

How could she bear to fight Jiang Xiaohao when faced with such a man?

The child did something wrong, but my motivation was also because I felt sorry for her.

The willow branch in her hand fell to the ground. She held the new rubber shoes in one hand and rubbed the red and swollen cane marks on Jiang Xiaohao's body with the other hand, trembling: "Does it hurt?"

Jiang Xiaohao smiled foolishly, shook his head and said, "Mom, I don't feel any pain at all, don't cry!"

Then he said to his sister Jiang Xiaoshan, "Shanshan, why did you come out? Go in and lie down to rest, don't worry about me. Have you forgotten that I have practiced the Golden Bell Cover White Shirt, so I am not afraid of pain?"

Jiang Xiaoshan looked at her brother's whip marks, pursed her lips, and cried, "Brother, you are lying!"

"Brother didn't lie to you, it really doesn't hurt. Mommy can't bear to hit me, it just looks painful, really." In order to make Shanshan believe it, Jiang Xiaohao patted himself a few more times to show that he didn't feel any pain at all.

Shanshan immediately pulled him back and said to Zhao Xiulan, "Mom, I will take my medicine well. Please don't hit my brother."

Zhao Xiulan nodded while shedding tears: "Mom won't hit me anymore, I won't hit me anymore..."

How could she bear to do that?

When a son is beaten, the mother feels the pain.

Zhao Xiulan looked at her two children beside her, hugged them in her arms, and said in a trembling voice: "Silly children, mommy doesn't want new shoes. Mommy just wants you and your sister to be healthy and stand up straight..."

Li Xia didn't expect that there was such a story hidden behind this.

She blinked and found that her eyes were also a little sore.

An An helped pick up the books scattered on the ground and put them into her schoolbag.

He saw a piece of paper inside, which was "Mom's Shoes" written by Jiang Xiaohao.

"Mom bought new shoes for me and my sister, but she didn't buy any for herself. My sister said Mom's shoes were broken, and she said they could be fixed. This is the third autumn she has fixed these shoes. The shoe repairman shook his head when he saw them, saying that these shoes cannot be fixed.

My mother did a lot of work while wearing these open shoes. She cooked for my sister and me in the morning and fed the chickens and ducks. She also walked a lot while wearing these shoes. She carried my sister on her back to go to one hospital after another. Every time the doctor shook his head, my mother would cover her face and cry.

Dad, Mom’s birthday is coming soon, and I want to buy her a new pair of shoes. I hope my mom’s shoes will never open again, and I hope she will never shed tears. "

Li Xia looked at these few hundred short words. There were no fancy words, but they were filled with the child's unspeakable love for her mother.

It turns out that little Jiang Xiaohao has so many things hidden in his heart.