"Huo Xiaolong! Who taught you to cause trouble like this? Huh?"
The little dumpling had never seen her mother so angry before, and she grabbed a feather duster, trying to find a place to spank her bottom. Huo Xiaolong's intuition from his past life still lingered; sensing an unprecedented danger to the woman, he knew his bottom might be in danger today. He quickly tugged at He Yi's sleeve, trying to buy some time, even if it was just to have someone come! Her father would do.
The kang (heated brick bed) next to He Yi was covered with eight or nine pairs of cotton trousers that were exactly the same in color, style and pattern. They were all in the Northeastern red and green floral pattern, with dense stitches that were hard to spot unless you looked closely. One of them even had a big black hole in it, which must have been burned when someone was drilling into the kang.
"So many cotton-padded pants! You've got some money in your pocket, haven't you!?"
"Oh dear, Mother~~~"
The little dumpling ran around, trying to whine in a trembling voice, but it wasn't working today. If she lay on the ground and cried, wouldn't she get a beating? Huo Xiaolong's brain felt overwhelmed for the first time.
"Dad~~~~~~"
Where are the foreign players?! Foreign players!
Huo Shuwen, standing at the door, trembled upon hearing the word "Father," took a deep breath, lifted the curtain, and said...
“Ayi…”
"Look at the mess your daughter is making! What's wrong with the house? Why are you buying so many pairs of cotton pants at such a young age!"
Huo Xiaolong finally managed to stop and peeked his little head out from behind Huo Shuwen to look at his mother.
"My dad bought it for me!" the little dumpling said.
The man hurriedly pushed his daughter towards the door. "Can't you see your mother is coming right away? Why aren't you running? Are you stupid?"
The little boy received a hint from his father and ran out the door.
"You're still running!"
He Yi chased after him with a feather duster in her hand. When she passed Huo Shuwen, the man tried to stop her.
As a martial artist, he was heavy-handed and knew that if he used force, his wife would definitely get hurt. So, he just grabbed He Yi's arm lightly.
“Ayi…”
Before he could finish speaking, the woman rushed out. Huo Shuwen looked at his hands.
Border town is a nurturing place; with wives around, everyone's strength seems to increase.
"Mother!"
As Huo Xiaolong ran, he called out to his godmother, occasionally letting out a few hums.
She heard Er Gouzi next door groan like that when he was being beaten, so what if it worked?
Er Gouzi was terrified; he ran while whimpering, and his whimpers even sounded a bit like crying.
In contrast, Huo Xiaolong's two humming lines sounded forced, like a poor imitation.
"What's wrong? What's going on?"
Er Ya had already heard at the door that Huo Xiaolong had been beaten, and Er Hei had come to her place to avoid trouble, so the girl quickly called Cen Ang from the front hall.
"What's wrong, little sister? It's the New Year, don't hit the child."
Huo Xiaolong nestled in Cen Ang's arms, glancing at his mother every now and then, and wiping away the snot that had run out of his nose.
"Sister, you can't stop me today. Go to my room and take a look at the kang (heated brick bed). I've tricked her dad into buying her nine pairs of cotton-padded trousers! Nine! If she can even fit into one of them next winter!"
Cen Ang straightened Huo Xiaolong's body and asked...
"Long'er, why did you buy those cotton-padded pants?"
She answered somewhat shyly.
"Wear it."
"Wear nine stripes."
"Her pants always have stitches on them, and they're sewn quite well; you can't even tell unless you look closely!" He Yi chimed in.
"What kind of stitches?" Mrs. Cen asked.
"It's those things she usually asks us to mend for her. I was wondering why she hasn't been asking us to mend her pants and clothes lately. Well, this time, she just bought new ones, huh?"
Hearing this, Cen Ang roughly understood that every time Huo Xiaolong played outside and ruined his clothes, he would ask her or He Yi to sew them. In order to help her remember her gender and run around wildly, her two mothers would make her stay in the house for two or three days each time.
This child bought nine pairs of cotton pants just to avoid being nagged and locked up.
Why nine? Because He Yi washes most of the clothes at home, and you can tell the difference as soon as she washes them. So whenever the cotton-padded trousers get dirty, Huo Xiaolong buys new ones and hides the old ones in the gap behind the wooden box on the kang (heated brick bed).
"Wow, this is sewn really well, look how close the stitches are!"
Mother Cen carried Huo Xiaolong into the main room, picked up the cotton trousers on the kang (a heated brick bed), and said...
"Who sewed it for you?"
Huo Xiaolong glanced at the tree outside the window, shifted his body a couple of times, and said somewhat embarrassedly.
"It smells so good!"
"Sister Long'er, you betrayed me!"
Hou Xiangxiang was enjoying the commotion when she suddenly heard those words coming loudly from the inner room!
"Better to die for your fellow Daoist than for this one!"
The little girl remembered He Yi's fierce attitude earlier and quickly ran home.
"Long'er, quickly apologize to your mother and say it won't happen again," Cen Ang said, pushing the little girl forward twice.
"Mother...I'm sorry, I won't do it again."
He Yi put down the feather duster, still angry, and grabbed the child and slapped his bottom twice.
Cen Ang and Huo Shuwen, who were behind her, winked at her simultaneously, saying, "Go ahead and cry, just cry a couple of times and it'll be over."
The little dumpling, having received the hint, howled a few times, the same number of times He Yi hit her. Seriously, not a single extra howl, and it was all bark and no bite.
"The matter of hitting you today is over, but the matter of these cotton-padded pants is not. Huo Xiaolong, you must dispose of these cotton-padded pants without wasting them, otherwise you won't get any pocket money next year."
"Ah? Mother, something else?"
What should we do? She doesn't know how to alter pants, and neither does the girl. If they did, we wouldn't have needed to buy nine pairs, right?
"About three miles east of the county seat, there's a group of beggar children hibernating in a dilapidated temple. Go and give them some tomorrow," Cen Ang suggested, unable to bear seeing Long'er's pitiful look.
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