Chapter 24 24 Dad's fist as big as a sandbag
The neighborhood playground is always packed with children on holidays, and unless absolutely necessary, Pei Yiyan would never set foot there.
Among the parents, his overly youthful face always attracted a lot of scrutiny and speculation. Everyone was curious about his identity as the father of a high school student who was a world apart from them, so much so that every time he appeared, he inevitably became the focus of the parents' group.
Because of her daughter, Pei Yiyan added the WeChat accounts of her close friends' parents, and her once quiet contact list suddenly became lively.
"XiXi's dad, I never expected you could make cakes. These days, many young people can't even cook rice. You're really something else."
"It's not easy, taking care of the child and going to school at the same time. I heard from Xixi that you have excellent grades, you're a top student, and you're going to be a scientist in the future."
"Excuse me, which university are you planning to apply to?"
Pei Yiyan was at a loss for words and had no interest in small talk. He gave a few perfunctory replies and then fell silent.
His gaze was fixed on the group of little ones, watching them tirelessly climb up and down, polishing the slide until it shone brightly, and watching as a black bottom mark gradually appeared on Xixi's pants.
If Zhou Yi were here, she would definitely scold him.
He was very rough with the kids. Before Zhou Yi came, Xi Xi's braids were never symmetrical. The clothes he dressed her in were either freezing cold or sweltering hot. If it weren't for Xi Xi's treasure and his own little ginseng spirit, an ordinary child would have coughed and had a fever hundreds of times over.
The child likes to roll around on the floor at home, and Pei Yiyan is too lazy to hand wash his clothes when they get dirty. He just throws them into the washing machine and doesn't care whether they're clean or not. He hangs them to dry and continues to wear them.
Zhou Yi noticed several times that Xi Xi's cuffs were covered in black stains, and no matter how hard she rubbed them, it was no use. They were clearly old and stubborn stains.
Pei Yiyan obediently accepted the scolding. After that, his eyes were often glued to the cuffs and collar of his clothes. When he was too lazy to wash them, he simply threw away the clothes and bought a new one.
Xixi was wearing her new clothes for Chinese New Year when she went out today, and they got filthy in just half a day.
Pei Yiyan thought to himself that the money had been wasted again.
Who is crying?
After coming down the slide, Xixi stood still with her hands on her hips, listened intently for a while, and then ran forward two steps.
The other little ones quieted down as she moved, and followed her without understanding why.
"What is this little rascal planning to do now?" Pei Yiyan thought alertly, raising his foot.
In the quiet environment, the sounds of arguing carried by the wind were amplified many times over, and the little ones all stood on tiptoe to see.
Not far away, downstairs in an apartment building, a man and a woman were arguing heatedly. Suddenly, the man raised his hand and pushed the girl, who stumbled and fell to the ground.
"Oh my god, someone's being hit! Someone's being hit!"
The little ones turned their bottoms and ran back to their parents in perfect unison.
Little Bean #1: "Mommy, that looks like Sister Peipei!"
Little Bean #2: "Uncle, listen, isn't that Sister Peipei's voice?"
Overwhelmed with a sense of justice, Xixi swung her short legs and charged forward: "Damn it, that bad guy is bullying my sister! I'm going to help my sister!"
Pei Yiyan was prepared. As soon as he saw the child turn his toes, he immediately caught him, easily and effortlessly.
Why are you running?
Xi Xi struggled: "Daddy, let me go! I want to go fight the bad guys!"
Pei Yiyan scoffed and looked her up and down: "What are you going to use to hit me? Your little pink fists? Stay put, I'm going to take a look."
After saying that, he put the child down and strode forward with great speed.
"You are clearly the owner of this dead cat. It scratched me, so you have to compensate me, or you're not leaving!"
"Little Huang is very well-behaved and affectionate. How could it scratch you? You must have bullied it first. Besides, I didn't even see it scratch you. Why should I compensate you?"
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be an acquaintance. The girl was Lu Peipei, who lived upstairs from Pei Yiyan. He often bumped into her on his way to and from school, and they became familiar with each other over time.
Pei Yiyan didn't ask any questions, but he understood the gist of it just from their conversation.
"Do you need any help?" he asked.
Lu Peipei and the man turned their faces at the same time. Lu Peipei's face was still wet with tears. She hurriedly said, "Please call the police for me. This man stole my phone."
The man frowned and immediately said fiercely, "Don't talk nonsense. If your cat hadn't scratched me first, do you think I would care about your crappy phone? It's just because I'm afraid you'll run away and I won't be able to find you!"
He then said to Pei Yiyan, "Hey, brat, don't meddle in other people's business. This is our own dispute, and you don't need to play the good guy."
"Unfortunately, I love meddling in other people's business." Pei Yiyan said expressionlessly, his tone indifferent, completely ignoring the man's warning and threat as he slowly approached. "You'd better let her go, or don't blame me if your head gets blown out later."
The boy was tall and broad-shouldered, with sharp eyes and a fierce aura that was more imposing than the winter wind. The 1.7-meter-tall man looked like a chick next to him, and his chatter was annoying.
The man assessed the difference in strength between himself and Pei Yiyan, and retreated in fear, cursing resentfully:
"Are you out of your mind? Don't think I won't hit you just because you're young. Is there no justice in this world? It was clearly her cat that scratched someone and she didn't want to pay compensation. You helped cover her mouth, so you're an accomplice!"
The more the man cursed, the angrier he became, and he hurled a string of foul language.
"Uncle, stop arguing! The scratches on your body weren't from the kittens here, they were from cats outside the neighborhood. You're lying to my sister on purpose!" Xi Xi stormed out angrily.
She had already inquired about what had happened from the surrounding flowers and plants.
The job market has been tough these past two years. The man was fired today for failing to meet his performance targets. With nowhere to vent his resentment, he decided to catch a stray cat to take home and vent his anger. But the cat came up and scratched him, then disappeared in the blink of an eye.
He was unwilling to give up. Knowing that there were kind-hearted people in the community who would feed stray cats, he deliberately waited near the apartment building, hoping to extort money from them.
Just then, Lu Peipei came down to feed the cat. Being a single woman, she perfectly fit the criteria of being a sucker.
Lu Peipei was completely unaware of this.
Whether stray cats and dogs can survive depends on luck. A brave furry friend managed to adopt a human being by being persistent and persistent for ten minutes before winter, and then lived a life of luxury and comfort.
The remaining furry friends have to rely on kind but limited humans like Lu Peipei to occasionally feed them, helping them gain weight and withstand the cold winter.
Who knew that as soon as she opened the cat food can, that bastard jumped out from behind the tree next to her, yelling and demanding compensation.
Lu Peipei was terrified. She was prone to crying uncontrollably, and before she could even finish arguing, she burst into tears, which led to the scene that everyone witnessed.
"Uncle, didn't your parents teach you to be honest?" Xi Xi said with heartache. "How could someone your age do such a thing? It's so shameful."
They're not as daring and responsible as those demons.
The man was taken aback, then gritted his teeth in anger: "Where did this little brat come from? What nonsense are you spouting? Do you have the right to interrupt adults? Get out of here!"
Pei Yiyan's expression darkened, the coldness in his eyes replaced by anger, and he clenched his fists silently.
Lu Peipei jumped up: "No wonder you popped up as soon as I opened the cat food can! So you've been lying in wait here all along, trying to scam me!"
“That’s right, that’s exactly it.” Xi Xi said indignantly, pointing her little finger at the man. “Uncle, you’re always doing bad things, your heart has turned black, you’re completely beyond redemption. Remember to be a good person in your next life.”
From afar, Xixi could see a thick purple aura swirling around the man's liver.
The dark purple aura indicated that this person was burdened with karmic obstacles and of low character, and even the thickest ginseng root could not cure them.
Heaven wanted to take him away, and even the kind little demon could not help him.
The man immediately flew into a rage: "You brat, how dare you curse me? I'll teach you a lesson!"
If he can't discipline adults, can't he discipline children?
The man, his face grim, reached out to grab Xixi, but unexpectedly bumped into a fist the size of a sandbag. The little chick, hit by the punch, saw stars, staggered a couple of times, and fell to the ground with a thud.
"You dare touch my daughter?"
The boy's father's voice, squeezed out through clenched teeth, was chilling and crashed down like a thunderbolt.
The man was dizzy and barely managed to support his upper body, his expression filled with fear.
What did this person eat to grow up like that? They have such strong hands, are they a professional boxer? Ouch, my nose hurts.
Xi Xi stared blankly up at the huge tree canopy behind Pei Yiyan, which was formed from black mist.
Xi Xi placed her small hands helplessly at her sides, bit her lip, and looked at the disbelief in her eyes with a hint of uncertainty.
He tentatively called out, "Dad?"
The little girl's calls were as soft as blown bubbles; they were almost inaudible unless you listened carefully.
However, the tree canopy furthest from her seemed to respond, trembling and making a rustling sound that only Xixi could hear.
Then a thin branch stretched out from the tree canopy. Xi Xi paused, and as if sensing something, slowly raised her hand.
The moment the branch approached Xixi's finger, the black mist suddenly dissipated, turning into firefly-like specks of light that enveloped the little girl's fingertips, warm and cozy, as if she had been gently kissed.
[Baby]
The deep, gentle male voice was so familiar. Xi Xi's long eyelashes trembled, her eyes suddenly reddened, and her small mouth pursed down.
Little pearls fell all over the ground without costing anything; it was the voice of the Tree Spirit Father.
Xi Xi wouldn't mistake it; it was the voice that had been with her for over three hundred years.
But after that sound, no matter how anxiously Xixi called out in her heart, it was as if her Tree Spirit father had never appeared; it was all her imagination.
The little girl was terrified and frantically tried to grab the fading light spots with her hands, but the light spots still disappeared little by little.
After all that effort for nothing, Xixi burst into tears.
Pei Yiyan, who was in the middle of the standoff, was taken aback. He quickly turned around, frowned, and asked, "What's wrong?"
The little ones shook their heads in unison.
"No, that's all."
"What's gone?"
Xi Xi's misty eyes looked towards the spot behind Pei Yiyan, but it was empty. The black mist was gone, and the tree canopy was gone too.
Xi Xi choked up: "Daddy's gone."
"I am here."
Xi Xi cried and hiccuped, her words slurred, and Pei Yiyan could only hear her intermittently, unable to understand her for a moment.
He thought the little girl was frightened, so he decisively picked her up, gently patted her back and touched her head, trying his best to soothe her emotions.
The series of actions reminded Xixi of her tree spirit father. When she was scared to tears by the monster uncles in the mountains, her tree spirit father would comfort her in the same way.
She hugged Pei Yiyan's neck tightly, her tears and snot covering her little father's neck, and Pei Yiyan finally understood what she was saying.
"Dad, Tree Spirit Dad is gone."
Pei Yiyan's expression changed slightly, his eyes fixed intently on the child, a vague unease creeping into his heart.
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