Sickly Wife, Childhood Sweetheart Raises Her - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Pleading for Mercy (First Published on Jinjiang)

“Big brother is not a bad person!”

Hearing the shouting outside the door, Su Tang was dazed for a moment.

Who was Li Xingchuan, and why would someone come to his house looking for Li Xingchuan?

Grandpa’s name wasn’t Li Xingchuan either.

Wait, why did this name sound so familiar? Wasn’t this that… philanthropist?

Only at this moment did Su Tang somewhat regain his senses, raising his face with his eyes soaked full of astonishment: “Big brother, are you Li Xingchuan?”

Li Xingchuan looked down at Su Tang.

In Su Tang’s damp eyes, he saw an undisguised look of adoration.

Li Xingchuan hesitated for a second.

An unfamiliar thought suddenly seized him—he suddenly didn’t want this foolish little thing before him to know so quickly that the three characters “Li Xingchuan” represented by no means any philanthropist, but rather that “wolf” which caused his grandpa to work overtime and made him so terrified upon hearing it that he didn’t dare approach the other side of the bridge.

Su Tang took small, hurried steps to open the door, but was suddenly grabbed by the wrist by Li Xingchuan.

Li Xingchuan said, “I’m leaving.”

“Shut the door properly, you are not allowed to come out.”

Without a word of explanation, Li Xingchuan pulled open the door and shoved Su Tang, who was curiously peeking outside, back into the room.

With a creak, Su Tang was shut back inside the house by Li Xingchuan’s backhand.

Li Xingchuan’s sudden, almost mysterious behavior made Su Tang’s heart leap up all at once.

He couldn’t help but crowd up to the door seam, holding his breath, carefully aligning his eyes with that thin crack of the door.

The scene outside the door made his already tense breathing abruptly tighten.

It wasn’t what he had imagined: a kind father coming to pick up a child who was late coming home.

He saw—

Seven or eight men in black, tall and robust, standing like silent sculptures, neatly and oppressively surrounding his house.

And directly facing the wooden door was a middle-aged man leaning on a cane, with a noble bearing yet a visage as cold as ice.

His expression was extremely ugly, radiating a chilling low pressure all around him. By his side, another uncle who looked much weaker in presence was bowing at the waist, urgently whispering into his ear with a face full of anxiety and pleading.

The air seemed to freeze, heavily pressing down on people’s chests.

This atmosphere abruptly reminded Su Tang of Animal World which he had watched on the small television—that deathly silent, hair-raising freeze before a beast launches its fatal strike.

Right at this moment, the middle-aged man swung his hand and fiercely delivered a slap across Li Xingchuan’s face.

With a crisp “crack” sound, it was exceptionally clear even through the wooden door panel.

Li Xingchuan was slapped so hard that his whole person violently tilted his head to the side, stumbling heavily for several steps, swaying multiple times before barely managing to stand steady again.

Su Tang’s entire body suddenly began to tremble, a familiar yet icy fear instantly seizing him.

Big brother got beaten?!

What to do, what to do, could he do something to help big brother?

Su Tang was so anxious that he spun in place, like an ant trapped in a hot pan.

Yet he could only see Li Xingchuan’s back striving to straighten up, hearing him speak in a tone of almost numbed calmness: “Change the place.”

Hearing this, the middle-aged man raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping without much temperature past the closed wooden door. Su Tang subconsciously shrank back, his spine pressing tightly against the cold wall.

That gaze quickly fell back onto Li Xingchuan, finally fixing on his knees, his voice bone-chillingly cold: “If family rules are applied today—”

“I’ll have people break one of your legs.”

“However you broke someone else’s, that’s how I’ll return it to you.”

Li Xingchuan had originally been numb.

Yet this sentence was like a red-hot iron rod, unexpectedly piercing through a certain spot deep within his heart. Suddenly, as if possessed by a demon and suffering a relapse of madness, he out of control kicked over the idle small coal stove outside the house.

Stove ash billowed up with a harsh, clanging loud crash.

Regardless of everything, Li Xingchuan shrieked toward the middle-aged man: “Kill me then!”

“Do you think I still want to live, damn it?”

“The year my mom left, I was already dead. Don’t you know that?!”

Su Tang widened his eyes, his heartbeat almost crashing out of his throat.

He looked as if he were frightened to death, or as if something had heavily slammed into his tiny heart. His breathing grew increasingly hurried, bringing on a wave of dizziness and a faint urge to cough. He endured it, his small hands trembling slightly as he tightly covered his own mouth.

He saw the middle-aged man frowning and waving a hand.

Two men in black immediately rushed forward, forcefully pressing Li Xingchuan down onto the ground and covering his mouth.

The middle-aged man’s face was dark as ink, and he asked the man standing beside him who had been bowing all along: “Dr. Chen. Is he having another episode?”

His gaze fell back onto Li Xingchuan, his tone sounding like self-talk, yet also like a cold interrogation: “Is it really necessary to send you into the sanitarium, tied to a bed, before you can learn to act like a ‘normal person’?”

On a freezing winter night, the cold sweat on Dr. Chen’s nose never stopped flowing. Having been called out by name, he hurriedly lowered the hand wiping his sweat, bending his body even lower with a voice carrying careful flattery: “Mr. Li, you flew into such a big rage today, I understand it all… You are pitying my good-for-nothing son whose leg was broken by Xingchuan.”

He paused, biting the bullet to continue: “Yet can my son really be entirely without fault for taking this beating from Xingchuan?”

“You know Xingchuan’s situation is special, his temper… is a bit irritable, and he didn’t measure his blows.”

“But that puppy of mine also provoked him first, didn’t he? Xingchuan can also be considered to have extenuating circumstances. Besides, didn’t the hospital X-rays come out? It’s just a fracture, not that serious.”

His voice grew lower and lower as he spoke, yet he tried his utmost to make it clear: “Children making a fuss and losing their sense of proportion—how could it ever reach the point of an ‘episode’? Xingchuan merely has psychological barriers, I am his psychological doctor, I know better than anyone. If he is truly forced into that kind of place, it will completely ruin him!”

Dr. Chen read his expression: “Please, don’t scare him anymore.”

“He’s still just a child.”

“If you really scare him into something bad, the one who ends up heartbroken later won’t it be yourself?”

Su Tang was never clever, at least that’s what his parents always said.

Yet at this moment, anxiously burning with impatience, he was suddenly enlightened by something and abruptly realized—this was the best opportunity to protect big brother.

His small hand anxiously reached for the wooden latch, and when pulling the door open, he nearly tripped over the threshold. He hurriedly rushed to Li Xingchuan’s side, squeezing himself hard between him and Li Xingchuan’s father. Although his aura was timid, he lifted his small face, mustered up his courage, and stuttered out:

“Un-uncle, big brother is not ‘abnormal’.”

“He would never b-beat people without reason.”

“I can vouch for it! He just helped me earlier!”

He spoke incoherently: “He is not a bad person.”

“So please, d-don’t hit him, okay?”

“Or hit me instead, I’m willing to trade places with big brother!”

Big brother had helped him, so of course he also had to help big brother.

This was only natural and right!

It was just taking a beating from an adult anyway.

Just enduring it.

He had endured so many beatings from his dad before; one more wouldn’t make a difference.

With his back facing Li Xingchuan, Su Tang couldn’t see the astonishment on Li Xingchuan’s face.

Li Xingchuan’s mouth was still tightly covered, revealing only a pair of fierce and icy eyes. When those eyes heard “he is not a bad person,” a flash of extremely brief light had swept across them, but the instant “please” came out, they abruptly plunged into gloom.

He began to struggle violently under the hands of the men in black, kicking and fighting in an attempt to stand up—yet it was all in vain.

After speaking, Su Tang felt his entire person grow weak in the legs and feet from tension, his body trembling slightly.

Yet he still tried hard to straighten his tiny frame, refusing to back away.

Li’s father, Dr. Chen, along with the crowd outside the door, all lowered their heads to look at this small figure that had burst out from the ruined door, terrified to death yet stubbornly blocking in front of Li Xingchuan.

Li’s father lightly raised an eyebrow.

Dr. Chen also narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing closely.

He thought to himself: This child’s looks are truly exceptionally pretty, why hasn’t he seen him before? Whose child is this?

He looked precisely like a yet-to-mature ragdoll cat, milky and soft, daring to run out trembling to shield another “large animal” in front of him.

Dr. Chen was just about to speak when he heard Li’s father ask first:

“Little friend, how did he help you?”

Su Tang’s voice was obedient and soft: “He helped me scare away bad people.”

Li’s father lowered his eyes to glance at Li Xingchuan, who was still futilely struggling on the ground.

Then he looked at Su Tang again.

As if appraising, yet also like scrutinizing.

Then his gaze drifted past the empty doorway behind Su Tang: “Where are your adults?”

Su Tang pouted his little mouth: “Grandpa is still working overtime.”

Li’s father said: “Uncle wants to go inside and take a look. Is that okay?”

Su Tang squatted down, his small hands anxiously clawed at those pairs of large hands pinning down Li Xingchuan, looking up at Li’s father with damp eyes: “Okay… but, can you let go of big brother first…”

“If you keep covering his mouth like this, he’ll suffocate.”

Mimicking Dr. Chen’s persuasion rhetoric from just now, he pleaded timidly.

There was no softening on Li’s father’s face.

He raised his hand to signal, and Li Xingchuan’s mouth was released. But the moment it was released, a sharp shriek burst out: “Li Shenglan!”

“The one who is sick in the head is you, not me! If you have the guts, then—Mmph! Mmph!…”

Li’s father’s gesture fell, and Li Xingchuan’s mouth was once again tightly covered.

His gaze fell upon Su Tang, calm with a silent explanation—

Now you understand why he is treated this way.

Su Tang clutched his trouser legs, anxious to the point of not knowing what to do. Unable to think of any more pleading words to say, he could only gaze longingly at Li Xingchuan.

Li Xingchuan’s tyrannical gaze met Su Tang’s damp, wide eyes, and the magnitude of his struggle suddenly lessened somewhat, even slowly quieting down.

This change had a buffer and a transition, extremely natural, and the dull-witted Su Tang didn’t notice it.

Yet it couldn’t escape the eyes of Li’s father and Dr. Chen.

Li’s father said in a flat voice: “Take him away.”

Thus Li Xingchuan was dragged away by the men in black, mumph-mumph-mumphing as if cursing and swearing as he left.

“Dr. Chen,” Li’s father said, “come inside with me.”

Watching Li Xingchuan being carried away and disappearing into the night, Su Tang stretched out his small hand to sorrowfully rub his eyes. He sniffed his cold-aching nose and silently followed the two adults into the house.

Inwardly, he couldn’t help muttering: How come this uncle only heard me say “okay,” but didn’t hear the condition I brought up afterward?

“Such a heavy medicinal smell.” As soon as Dr. Chen stepped into the house, he slightly furrowed his brows.

With sharp eyes, he looked toward the earthenware pots and medicine packets piled in the corner, asking, “Little friend, is your grandpa sick?”

Su Tang’s pretty face blushed: “Not grandpa. Those are all my medicine.”

Dr. Chen wanted to ask a few more questions, but noticing that Li’s father was staring at the two enamel bowls on the table, his attention was instantly drawn over as well.

He raised an eyebrow, his gaze lingering on that old dining table for a moment, disbelief filling his tone:

“Little friend, did Li Xingchuan eat here?”

Su Tang’s pretty, wide eyes abruptly lit up. He nodded vigorously, a small excitement uncontainable in his tone: “He ate three whole bowls!”

“Big brother even praised that the food I made is ‘alright’!”

Li’s father looked toward those two simple dishes of food, his expression turning extremely subtle.

Dr. Chen drew in a sharp breath of cold air: “Good grief!”

—Li Xingchuan actually ate here?

Everyone knew that Li Xingchuan never ate obediently at home. He was hard to serve.

To make him open his mouth, Li’s father was practically one step away from tying the person up and pouring food down his throat.

Mountain delicacies, exotic dishes—whatever was expensive, good, or rare—Li’s father would have people make them in changing varieties, placing ten or so different dishes before him every meal, hoping he would take one more bite.

Yet he either wouldn’t touch his chopsticks, or if pushed into a rush, would casually grab a couple of bites before slamming his knife and fork down and walking away, or simply overturning the table and smashing bowls. Li’s family’s dining table was simply more headache-inducing than a battlefield.

Yet the child before them said—

Li Xingchuan was right here, chowing down three full bowls of porridge alongside these two plates of grass roots and tree bark?