Before this, Pei Xu had already learned to ignore others’ attitudes towards him. Luckily, Brother Xiao Tang would often bring Youyou over to play with him, so his time alone with the nanny every day wasn’t actually that long. When the two little ones were playing with toy cars in the room, the nanny would stand guard at the door. This was also something his uncle had told her to do: to keep an eye on Pei Xu at all times. So, Pei Qiqi accidentally overheard the nanny on the phone.
“Good? You have no idea how difficult these rich people’s kids are to take care of. Absolutely no manners. He comes thumping down the stairs before dawn, so noisy. If the pay wasn’t so good, I would have quit a long time ago…”
Pei Qiqi, his hand on the doorknob, froze. He didn’t thump down the stairs. He wasn’t rude. It was the nanny who was rude first. It was the nanny who disliked him first. His uncle had said he was a very good, well-behaved child, not difficult at all. Pei Qiqi pressed his lips tightly together, his brows furrowed in a deep frown. He hated these adults. They were very, very mean.
After that day, Pei Qiqi’s aversion to the nanny became even more apparent. He refused to eat the food she made. He would only speak when his uncle came home. No matter what the nanny said, he wouldn’t answer. He would just stare at her with his eyes, as if wondering why she had suddenly become a different person. She would smile and be gentle with him in front of his uncle, but change when his uncle was away.
Hua Zhao felt her mind explode after hearing this. She suddenly felt that firing the nanny had been the right decision. She immediately scooped Pei Qiqi into her arms and carried him to the sofa. Having seen news stories about nannies abusing children before, Hua Zhao immediately lifted Pei Qiqi’s clothes and pants to check him over carefully.
Pei Qiqi was very calm and said, “Auntie, I’m not hurt.”
The nanny wouldn’t dare lay a finger on him. Otherwise, he would have told his uncle a long time ago. For a four-year-old, Pei Qiqi had actually sought help from teachers when he was first bullied. It was just that the teachers at the full-time kindergarten were all snobs. Children whose parents didn’t care weren’t given any attention. When Pei Qiqi was ganged up on and bullied by other kids, the teachers wouldn’t protect him.
They would even say, “Why are they picking on you and not anyone else? It must be your fault.”
Over time, he lost trust in teachers as well and gradually learned to protect himself in his own way. If someone hated him, he just had to stay far away from them, and they would get bored and stop bothering him. If only one or two bullied him, he would fight back hard, hit them hard until they never dared to provoke him again. Pei Qiqi was held tightly by his aunt. Hua Zhao could no longer think about the psychologist’s advice to take things slowly. Her heart ached so much for this poor child.
“Qiqi, Auntie is very happy that you know how to protect yourself in your own way.”
Hua Zhao said, tears in her eyes, holding Pei Qiqi’s little face in her hands. Her voice was choked with sobs. “From now on, you can try trusting your uncle and me. We will always love you and protect you. We will never let you get hurt.”
Even though the nanny wouldn’t dare do anything to Qiqi in a house full of surveillance cameras, the occasional emotions and words she let slip had still hurt Qiqi. Hua Zhao was very beautiful. Pei Qiqi’s memory of his own mother was already fuzzy, but in his heart, a mother should be like his aunt; even her crying face was beautiful. He had already forgotten the last time he saw his mother. Pei Qiqi nodded solemnly, without a trace of doubt about his aunt’s words.
He didn’t cry. Instead, Hua Zhao cried almost to the point of breaking down, her tears flowing like a broken dam. She was still wearing an apron, which smelled faintly of scallions. Pei Xu was held in her arms, smelling the very fragrant scent of fried scallions on her. He knew today his aunt had made scallion pancakes for him, his favorite kind of pancake. By the time Pei Yi came downstairs, Hua Zhao, who had been immersed in sadness, had already composed herself.
The radiant-faced woman was holding her chin with one hand, looking with maternal affection at the child across from her, eating breakfast. Pei Yi was startled by her red eyes. He sat down, grabbed a pancake, stuffed it into his mouth, and asked, “Why are your eyes so red?”
Pei Qiqi felt his uncle’s tone was very bad, not caring about his aunt at all.
He put down his scallion pancake and said seriously, “Auntie got up very early to make us breakfast. Uncle, Auntie works very hard.”
Hua Zhao’s heart melted into a puddle. She put another small pancake on his plate.
Pei Yi grinned sheepishly. “Honey, you’ve worked hard. I’ll cook today. Your task for today is to play with Qiqi.”
Pei Qiqi finished three scallion pancakes in one go, pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth and hands, then jumped off his stool, politely said goodbye to his uncle and aunt, and went to the living room to look at photos. After he left, Pei Yi, who had been eating with relish, suddenly got smacked on the head.
“Eat, eat, eat! All you know how to do is eat! Qiqi was being mistreated by the nanny, and you didn’t even know!”
“What?!”
It was like a bolt from the blue. Pei Yi slammed the table and stood up, immediately reaching for his phone to make a call, but Hua Zhao pulled him back down into his seat.
Faced with his wife’s accusing glare, Pei Yi said miserably, “I hired a gold-medal nanny! The kind with no bad reviews!”
Hua Zhao had already calmed down and was now very composed.
“We can’t let this slide. Go get the surveillance footage today and gather all the evidence.
Even if we can’t send her to jail, we’ll make sure she’s completely blacklisted from the nanny industry!”
Pei Yi was awed by his wife’s domineering attitude. He nuzzled his head against her shoulder. “Honey, you’re so wonderful. What would Qiqi and I do without you?”
Just as Hua Zhao had told Pei Xu, she gave him enough patience and love. Pei Qiqi was visibly getting better. The father, in his drawings, no longer had distorted lines. When he was in the hospital’s children’s play area, if a child came up to say hello and showed him kindness, he would lift his chin and twitch the corner of his mouth at them. Consider that a greeting. Doctor Du now ‘treated’ him not only in the consultation room but would also take Qiqi to the hospital pond to watch the ducks swim, and the fish wag their tails in the clear water.
“Youyou likes ducks too. He has five ducks in his bathtub.”
His desire to express himself was increasing. He especially liked to show off his good friend Su Youli to Doctor Du. Because Doctor Du would always praise Youyou along with him, even saying he’d really like to meet that super cute little guy. Pei Qiqi thought it was a bit strange. Doctor Du seemed only a little older than his uncle. Didn’t he know how to use the internet?
“Uncle Du, Youyou is on TV. You can watch him there.”
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