Chapter 374
Si Nian smiled. "If a biological mother's worry leads her to hit her child, then I'd rather be a stepmother."
Seeing that Si Nian was not giving her an out, Fang Hui could no longer maintain her smile.
If she hadn't been in the wrong during the previous hospital incident, she wouldn't have even bothered talking so much to Si Nian.
After speaking, Si Nian ignored her and looked at the children. "Little Dong, Little Han, go inside the house."
Sensing that they might have done something wrong, the children were a bit scared. They hurriedly packed up the Gomoku board and went inside.
Si Nian closed the door.
Although she felt sorry for Fang Bowen, it wasn't her place to say much.
After all, Fang Hui already disliked her.
If she said too much, the woman would just think she was being a busybody.
It was better to mock her a little; at least Fang Hui would be too embarrassed to hit her child in front of outsiders again.
As for what happened in private, she couldn't say. She just hoped Fang Hui still had some conscience left.
Si Nian's guess was right. When Fang Hui furiously saw her son sitting on the ground playing with the other children, she was so angry that she didn't even see clearly who they were.
That was why she got physical.
If she had known they were the sons of the Zhou family, she wouldn't have been so angry.
After all, everyone knew that Si Nian had saved her son. Letting her son interact with them now might stop people from gossiping.
She might even be able to build a connection with the Jiang family.
She noticed that the little grandson of the Jiang family really liked playing with the two children from the Zhou family.
She didn't know much about the Zhou family, but Fang Hui had inquired very clearly about the Jiang family.
After all, she was a reporter. The Jiang family had a retired chief and scientific researchers.
Befriending such a family would definitely be beneficial to her.
Now look what happened. She had made a fool of herself in front of others.
When Fang Hui returned home and saw her son sitting at the desk doing his homework while trembling, she finally seemed to realize she had gone too far. She rubbed his head and smiled. "Bowen, Mommy shouldn't have hit you just now. Mommy was just too worried about you. Don't be mad..."
Fang Bowen turned to look at her suspiciously. Seeing Fang Hui smiling at him, he subconsciously smiled back. "Really? Then Mommy, can I..."
Gathering his courage, he asked, "Can I, can I play with them next time..."
Before he could finish, Fang Hui's smile instantly darkened. "No! What's so fun about that? It's a boring game. I want you to build a good relationship with the little grandson of the Jiang family, but you can't learn from them and idle your days away. The most important thing for you right now is studying. Alright, the tutor will be here to give you a lesson later. Hurry up and do your homework..."
"Mom, did we do something wrong?"
As soon as Second Child entered the house, he couldn't help but ask Si Nian.
He kept feeling like he had done something wrong again.
If he hadn't insisted on playing Gomoku with Fang Bowen, he wouldn't have caused him to go home late and get beaten by his mother.
Si Nian was also a bit surprised and asked, "Weren't you refusing to play with him before? Why did you suddenly start playing together?"
Jiang Jiu hurriedly said, "Auntie, Auntie, it's all my fault for being too stupid. Fang Bowen saw that I was too stupid and about to lose to second brother, so he helped me play. Later, second brother and I kept losing to him. When oldest brother came back, we wanted him to help us win it back, which is why we delayed his time."
He added, "Don't blame second brother."
Si Nian nodded and didn't blame them. After all, it wasn't them who took the initiative to bother Fang Bowen.
Fang Bowen was young, and he probably just saw two kids his age playing board games and couldn't resist stepping in.
She was actually puzzled. "Why did you suddenly start playing chess? You even know how to play this?"
It was one thing for Yaoyao to learn Chinese chess with Grandpa Jiang recently, but how did Second Child also become interested in playing board games?
Didn't he usually play marbles or hide-and-seek with Jiang Jiu?
Second Child said guiltily, "I thought I had some talent, so I wanted to play more."
Si Nian was speechless.
He had just said he lost to Fang Bowen.
Now he was saying he had talent.
She really hadn't noticed that this little guy was so confident in himself.
Next to them, Zhou Zedong's mouth also twitched.
Did you even need talent for Gomoku?
Right at that moment, Yaoyao ran over with a book in her arms, her footsteps going thud-thud. She held up the book and asked Zhou Zedong, "Brother, Brother, how do you read this?"
Second Child rushed to answer, "I know, I know, I know this one."
"'Three fish enter the hall'! This is too easy." He didn't even need to check a dictionary.
Hearing this, Zhou Zedong tilted his head to take a look. "...This is called 'Three eels enter the hall'."
Second Child's face turned red at a visible speed.
Chinese people always recognized words by reading half the character, but who knew it was actually the other half!
A fifty percent chance, and he still missed. He was way too unlucky!
As the college entrance examination approached, Si Nian stopped going out and buried herself at home to study hard all day.
After buying bicycles for the children, she no longer needed to specially drop them off at school, nor did she have to pick them up in the afternoon.
She only needed to take care of Yaoyao every day.
Yaoyao didn't know many words, so it took her a very, very long time to read a book.
Mainly because she started with such a difficult one. She read it obsessively but also very slowly.
Unlike the English that Si Nian took her to classes to learn all day, this was the truly profound and extensive culture of China.
Si Nian thought that after finishing this Chinese chess book, Yaoyao would add at least a thousand words to her vocabulary.
When she read quietly, Si Nian felt that this child had the aura of a talented scholar.
She could already imagine how erudite and knowledgeable this child would be when she grew up.
The incident where Second Child got Fang Bowen beaten up seemed to have passed.
But he always felt bad about it in his heart.
Although Fang Bowen's personality wasn't that great, the guy hadn't actually caused him any real harm.
Instead, it had made him see through the hypocrisy of Little Pig and his group.
So when he was eating pancakes in the morning, he deliberately ate two less, secretly put them in a bag, and then squatted at the door waiting for Fang Bowen to appear.
Fang Bowen walked to school, and occasionally his mother would drop him off. Today, he finally managed to catch him alone.
Second Child rushed over like the wind, stuffed the egg pancakes into his arms, and spoke very quickly, "For you. Sorry I got you hit that day."
After saying that, terrified of being seen, he sneaked back home guiltily.
Before Fang Bowen could even react, he just felt a warmth in his arms.
Immediately after, a rich aroma of eggs rushed into his nose.
He looked down and saw two golden egg pancakes in his hands.
It was something he had never eaten before.
He had seen these pancakes at the school gate.
He often saw Zhou Zehan and Jiang Jiu buying them, and his classmates loved eating them too. He would always smell them after class and couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
But his mother never allowed him to eat food from street stalls; she said it was junk food.
So no matter how much he wanted to eat it, Fang Bowen had never asked for it.
But right now, they were piping hot in his arms.
He was stunned for a moment, not even knowing where to put his hands.
No one had ever given him food before.
And it was from Zhou Zehan, whom he had always disliked.
He had even called him an idiot before.
And when they played chess, he had deliberately made him lose miserably.
But not only was he not angry, he even felt guilty about him getting hit by his mother and gave him food.
After quite some time had passed, Fang Bowen glanced back at his front door. Once he was certain that Fang Hui was not standing there, his face flushed and his heart raced as he stuffed the pancake under his clothes. Keeping his head down, he quickly hurried away.