These children are mostly from the families of military officers. Their mothers either work as temporary workers in the military or stay at home to take care of the children.
Considering this remote place, there couldn't possibly be any factories. Having any work to do was already a blessing. Jiang Qiao remembered that there were several female colleagues helping out in the canteen, who were also family members, according to her.
"Alright, everyone should go home for dinner. My sister is going home too. I'll come visit you guys when I have time. Shuanzi, you should go home too. Your mom will be back in a bit."
The little guy clutched the candy in his pocket, nodded, and quickly ran home, as if afraid someone would snatch it away.
"Hey, don't run away yet. Can you tell me if there's anything for sale at the market around here?"
The little ones stopped, looked at each other, and then shook their heads. "Mom said there's nothing good left at the market. Sister, if you're going to the market, can you take us with you?"
Jiang Qiao gave a wry smile. "We'll talk about this later. There are so many little ones like you, I'm afraid I can't keep an eye on you all. How about your older brothers and sisters take you?"
The little ones pouted, "They won't let us play."
Jiang Qiao hesitated for a moment. She really didn't have the guts to take a child to the market; she couldn't afford to lose one and have to pay for it.
"After we finish eating, we'll meet here, and I'll take you guys out to play later."
However, Jiang Qiao didn't get to enjoy her lunch in peace. One of the children came home with a stomachache, and it was the kind of pain that made them writhe on the floor. You can imagine how the parents found out what their child ate; they were bound to come and confront Jiang Qiao.
Upon learning the reason for their visit, Jiang Qiao was startled, especially by what the child's mother had said, which she found extremely unpleasant to hear.
The implication was that Jiang Qiao was responsible for their child's condition, and that they needed to pay for the child's treatment and compensate for some of the losses.
Jiang Qiao snorted, "Auntie, what are you saying? I gave the child candy, how did it make him feel guilty?"
Everyone else's family is fine, so why is yours? This definitely isn't because of the candy. Let me check first. If you have any other ideas, shut up right now.
Too lazy to waste words with the woman, he immediately took the child's pulse. Seeing Jiang Qiao like this, the woman spoke even more nonsensically, "What do you know, you're just a child. Quickly call your mother out."
Jiang Qiao ignored the other person, and once she touched him, she roughly knew what was going on.
"Your child has worms in his stomach and needs to take deworming medicine. Don't bother our family members, they're all busy. Little brother, here's another piece of candy for you, and the worms in your stomach will come out tomorrow morning, and your stomach will never hurt again."
Kids don't have as many complicated thoughts as adults. When they heard there was candy to eat again, the little guy nodded happily.
When Jiang Qiao took out the candy tower, the woman tried to snatch it away, but who was Jiang Qiao? Would he let the woman succeed?
His gaze swept over her like a knife, and he snapped, "You better behave yourself. Your child has worms in his stomach, but that has nothing to do with me. If you keep making a fuss, I'm not going to take care of your child anymore. Even if you take this to the military district, I'll still be in the right."
The neighbors heard a commotion coming from Gu Zhengfeng's house and came over to check.
Upon seeing the woman standing in Gu Zhengfeng's house, the military wives all frowned. The main reason was that this woman was quite troublesome; she had only been there a short time and had already caused several incidents.
"Sister-in-law, what's wrong? The brigade commander and his wife aren't home. Why are you yelling at their child? They just kindly gave your child a piece of candy. Is it really that big of a deal?"
Some children were eager to go out and play. After eating, they ran over to find Jiang Qiao before she arrived. The children knew what had happened and repeated what the adults around them said. That's how everyone found out what had happened.
Ma Yanqiu glared with her goldfish-like eyes and launched a full-scale attack on the crowd, "So, it's not like your kids have stomach aches. You're all just talking without understanding the situation. I'm so anxious and confused. What do you know?"
While the other party was arguing with the neighbors, Jiang Qiao quickly gave the little boy the candy. The child didn't lie, and soon after the candy went into his stomach, he said that his stomach didn't hurt anymore.
"What? Your stomach doesn't hurt anymore? What happened? What did you feed our child?"
Jiang Qiao rolled her eyes. "Tatang is a special medicine for children with worms. Worms will appear in their stool tomorrow morning. Okay, your son's stomach doesn't hurt anymore, you can go now."
The child was probably addicted to candy, looking at Jiang Qiao longingly and saying, "Sister, I want to eat that candy again."
Jiang Qiao shook her head. "That's medicine. You can't take too much. Go back with your mother."
Jiang Qiao didn't even need to chase them away; the children came up one by one and started pushing the woman, saying, "You should leave now, we want to play with Sister Jiang Qiao."
Ma Yanqiu had brought the child with other intentions, but the child wasn't cooperating. Even if she wanted to throw a tantrum, she didn't have a chance. However, she couldn't just be sent away so easily.
"No, my child's stomach hurts because of you, you have to stay with my child."
Jiang Qiao sneered, "What a joke! You actually tried to extort me? This is the first time I've encountered this. If you want compensation, fine. But which part of your body did you leave me? I'll compensate you. Will you leave your arm or your leg?"
After saying that, he picked up the fruit knife from the table and held it up and down on the woman's body.
"You, you dare—"
Jiang Qiao snorted, "You'll see if I dare. If you don't leave, I will. Aunties, take the children out. I don't want them to see this."
Meng Yuzhi came over and hugged Jiang Qiao tightly. "Qiao'er, don't bother with someone like that. She's just a troublemaker. Don't pay any attention to her. It's not worth it."
"Ma Yanqiu, why don't you get out of here right now? Do you really think we're afraid of you? You even dared to go to the brigade commander's house and bully his child. Just wait and see how your husband settles the score with you."
The other military wives pushed Ma Yanqiu out, saying, "Hurry up and leave. How can you bully someone's child? You really have the nerve to think that the adults don't care. It's just that the brigade commander and his wife aren't home today. Otherwise, you'll be in big trouble."
Everyone in the neighborhood knew how much Gu Zhengfeng and his wife cared for their daughter. This Ma Yanqiu must have had a death wish to come to their house and try to take advantage of them; such a person was truly rare.
Seeing Jiang Qiao's angry expression, Meng Yuzhi quickly explained, "Qiao'er, don't be angry. Although Ma Yanqiu hasn't been here long, she's already had several fights with us family members. Nobody likes her. She's so unreasonable. It's not worth getting angry with someone like that."
Jiang Qiao sighed, looking puzzled. "Whose family is this? How can he not take care of his own family? If he can't even manage his own small family, what else can he do?"
Meng Yuzhi sighed, "Ma Yanqiu's husband is the director. This woman thinks her husband is something special and doesn't respect ordinary people. She even thinks that Wang Tianling is the highest-ranking official here. It's not worth getting worked up over someone so ignorant."
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