After Xuemei and her friends went to the toilet in batches, they took their things to the car. When they got on, most of the people in the car were already in the car, and the first six or seven rows of seats were full. Xuemei and her friends chose seats in the eighth and ninth rows.
Han Chen and Xuemei sat in the two seats on the right side of the eighth row, while Mingwen and He Wanting sat in the two seats on the left side, separated by a 50-centimeter aisle. Mingwu and He Jing sat in the ninth row, just behind Mingwen and He Wanting.
Everyone placed their bags on the luggage racks. The girls sat by the windows, the boys by the aisles, for better legroom. The backpacks were placed between them. It was a bit cramped to have two backpacks between Xuemei and Hanchen, so they planned to wait until the train departed, if there were fewer people in the middle, to place one backpack closer to the aisle.
By the time everyone had put their things away, it was already 11:40. Xuemei and the others took out the food they had brought and started to eat lunch. Xuemei handed each person a steamed bun and took out the lunch box, asking them to break the bun open and pick up some vegetables to eat together.
He Wanting also had Mingwen hand Xuemei and Han Chen a corn cake each. Xuemei took a bite and realized it was made with flour and eggs. It was obvious Wang Shuihua had made it specifically for He Wanting this morning, especially for a pregnant woman. It was still warm. Mingwu and the others were eating the corn cakes before accepting the steamed buns from Xuemei.
Xuemei reached into her schoolbag and took out a boiled egg and gave it to Mingwen, asking him to give it to He Wanting.
Mingwen refused and took out an egg from a cloth bag beside him, indicating that he had some boiled eggs. Then Mingwen peeled the egg and handed it to He Wenting beside him. After watching her finish the egg, he opened the kettle and handed it to her.
When Mingwen was peeling eggs, the two boys of a couple sitting two rows in front of Mingwen ran over and stared at Mingwen while he was peeling the eggs. They watched He Wenting finish the eggs and swallowed their saliva.
Mingwen and He Wanting were unmoved. The two boys were wearing new clothes and looked well-off, so they'd probably eaten eggs before. The older boy, eight or nine, was so clueless, running up to others and watching them eat. He even tried to snatch the eggs from Mingwen after he'd peeled them, but Mingwen glared at him, and he backed off.
The younger boy saw He Wanting finish the egg without leaving any for him, so he sat on the ground and started crying. At this moment, the two boys' father, a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance and a height of about 1.6 meters, came over and said, "Brother, my two sons haven't had eggs in a long time. Just give them one!"
Mingwen politely refused, "Brother, I'm sorry, it's not that I don't want to give it to you. My wife just ate the last one!"
The middle-aged man patted Mingwen's shoulder in a familiar manner and said with a smile, "Hey! Brother, don't be so stingy! I see your wife is pregnant. Giving my children an egg to eat is also accumulating blessings for you. I guarantee you will give birth to a boy!"
Mingwen slapped the middle-aged man's hand off his shoulder with a cold face, and then said in a firm tone: "There are eggs for sale at the station, and they are freshly boiled. You can go buy some for your two sons now."
When the middle-aged man heard this, his face immediately turned grim. He turned around and slapped each of his two sons. Then the older and younger boys both started crying loudly.
The man became even more annoyed when he saw this, and said in a veiled way: "What's the use of crying? It's not like I don't give you eggs. If you have the guts, go and get them yourself? Go now!" After saying that, he kicked the two boys.
The two boys hurried back to where they were sitting and tried to wake up their mother who was snoring and sleeping soundly.
Mingwu got angry when he heard this. Who was this person? When he was about to stand up and refute, Mingwen looked back at him and motioned him to sit down first.
Then Mingwen stood up from his seat and said bluntly, "Big brother, stop making indirect accusations. They are your sons. Why do you mind their business if you don't even raise them yourself? Does he have no parents? Everyone knows how precious eggs are. Your sons are ignorant, and you, a grown-up, are not sensible either. You're asking him to ask strangers for food. Is that begging?"
A man in the car had long been fed up with the middle-aged man's behavior and echoed, "That's right. Everyone was eating peacefully, and he was the only one who instigated the children to come out and cause trouble. No one's things were blown away by the wind. Why would he give them to someone he doesn't know?"
"Young people nowadays are even more shameless than an old woman like me!" said an old lady dissatisfiedly.
…
The middle-aged man's face flushed with anger as he heard everyone on the bus talking about him. He rolled up his sleeves and was about to confront Mingwen. Mingwen stood in front of him without a trace of fear, rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular arms, and said, "Everyone on the bus can vouch for me. He was the one who started the trouble!"
Han Chen cheered from the side, "People who are just trying to take advantage of others should be taught a lesson! If he dares to attack, just beat him up, and we will all be your witnesses!"
"Yes, if this kind of person is not taught a lesson, he will only become more rampant in the future!" Mingwu also said.
At this time, everyone in the car started shouting, demanding that Mingwen teach the middle-aged man a lesson.
The middle-aged man regretted it the moment Mingwen stood up. Now seeing that everyone was about to teach him a lesson, he ran back to his seat dejectedly and looked at his daughter-in-law who was sitting beside him, comforting his two sons and sneering at him from time to time.
The rage in his heart burned fiercely again. In a fit of rage, he slapped his wife twice and said angrily, "You bitch, you can't just look at your two sons and sleep soundly. You're embarrassing me!"
The middle-aged man’s wife was a very strong woman. She was hit so suddenly that she didn’t react. After a while, she stood up and kicked the middle-aged man to the ground in the aisle: “You bastard, how dare you hit me? My sons just told me that you asked them to go ask for food?
You loser! My sons wanted eggs, but why didn't you go get them yourself? You ordered my sons to work and you dared to hit them? I wanted to save your face and teach you a lesson when I got home, but it seems you don't need it anymore! You shameless thing, you are really putting on airs! Get out of the car now! How dare you hit me! I paid for your fare.
The other people in the car also understood that the middle-aged man’s wife was also an unreasonable person. What a bunch of weirdos.
When the two boys heard their mother helping them vent their anger, they started crying again and complained about how painful and cruel the beating the middle-aged man had just given them. They also started to curse the middle-aged man using the beautiful words they had learned from their daily interactions.
The middle-aged man heard his two sons swearing and saw that everyone in the car was laughing at him. He felt annoyed and angry, and started fighting with his wife in the car without caring about anything.
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