Because w.a.n.g Dahu’s head was injured, his grandma forced him to lie in bed. He wasn’t allowed to touch the ground until half a month later.
Finally, today the “little boy” was finally freed.
“Bam bam bam,” from early in the morning, grandma was busy in the kitchen, cutting vegetables and chopping meat.
“Dahu! If you’re tired, go rest in the house. Careful, don’t close the door on your finger.” The old woman looked at her grandchild sitting in front of the oven tending to the fire and spoke with a gentle expression.
“Grandma, I’m not tired, you’re the one who’s tired. You’ve been working since this morning, you should rest for a while!”
Hearing her grandchild’s words made her feel warm inside. She was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes. After the incident when he fell out the tree, this child started to be more understanding, wasn’t as mischievous as before, and even knew how to care for others. He really was an obedient child.
“I’m not tired, I have a young man here. Later we have to escort the Kitchen G.o.d to heaven. We need to prepare the offerings properly or the Kitchen G.o.d will get angry!
Hearing that, w.a.n.g Dahu helplessly smiled.
These kinds of traditional festivals were very important to the villagers in the rural areas of the North East. You couldn’t make any mistake in the preparations, compared to the city it was more interesting.
The whole day was spent under an atmosphere of busy preparation and time quickly flew by.
At 4:00 PM, w.a.n.g Dahu’s grandpa kneeled with him in front of the Kitchen G.o.d’s portrait.
According to custom, men don’t celebrate the Autumn Festival and women don’t wors.h.i.+p the Kitchen G.o.d, so there were only the grandpa and grandchild in the room.
The colorful painting hung on the kitchen wall, reeking of black smoke.
The rectangular table had four dishes of fruit and four dishes of cake.
Grandpa piously mumbled for a while and then held up a chopstick soaking in a bowl of red syrup.
“Grandchild, spread the honey for the Kitchen G.o.d.”
w.a.n.g Dahu acquiesced, stood up and accepted the chopstick, spreading it on the mouth of the Kitchen G.o.d in the painting. This was a custom in the North East, people believed that if you spread honey on the Kitchen G.o.d’s mouth, he wouldn’t be able to badmouth you in front of the Jade Emperor*.
*The supreme leader of all the Chinese G.o.ds.
Because w.a.n.g Dahu was once a ghost and experienced an unbelievable rebirth, he had a certain “respect” for the supernatural.
After using the head of the chopstick to drew a fine line, the grandpa and grandchild bowed in wors.h.i.+ped the G.o.d before leaving the room.
Grandma already finished setting up the dinner table. On the table were five or six dishes of dumplings, the savory smell made people want to swallow their tongue.
“Little Tiger, are you hungry yet? Quickly come eat, if it’s even a bit cold it won’t be delicious anymore.” The first thing grandma did was pick up a dumpling and put it in the dish in front of him.
w.a.n.g Dahu smiled but didn’t eat immediately. Instead he reached out to the jar of alcohol on the table.
In front of each grandparent, he poured a cup of alcohol, then poured himself a gla.s.s of white pear juice that cost 5 cents a bottle.
Finally he chuckled and raised his gla.s.s, saying, “Grandpa, Grandma, Dahu wishes that every day you will be happier, your bodies will be stronger, and everything will go the way you want.”
After speaking, he especially drained the entire gla.s.s of fruit juice in one go.
“Good grandson!” w.a.n.g Shoumin was very happy. Look at how his grandson spoke, his future will be very bright.
Grandma was even happier, and patted him a few times. Her precious grandson a knew how to be filial to them, how could she not be happy.
w.a.n.g Dahu lived two lifetimes. Additionally he was the type of person who knew what to do and say. He only needed a few minutes to make his grandparents’ faces burst with happiness, smiling until they couldn’t see.
When everyone in the house was happily eating dumplings, suddenly there was the sound of dogs barking loudly coming from outside.
At this time in the village, almost every family raised a guard dog, but his house’s berger was really awesome. If someone pa.s.sed by the courtyard and it would start barking.
“Let me go see, someone probably came!” Grandpa put on another jacket and stepped outside.
Only a moment later, he quickly returned.
“What happened?” Seeing the old man’s face wasn’t well, grandma quickly asked and w.a.n.g Dahu strained his ears to listen.
“Ay, Li Zhanggui is causing trouble again. He threw Xiumei into the courtyard and beat her. I have to go examine the situation.”
w.a.n.g Shoumin was Xing Ye* village’s chief. Whenever anything happened, everyone would find him first.
*I think that’s the village’s name and it’s not actually an industrial village…
“They really wants to die! They don’t want to live a normal life but cause trouble all day long. Sooner or later Xiumei will be beaten to death by that madman.” Grandma sighed, “The most pitiful one is that child Ran Ran. To have a father like that, ay.”
“Boom…” It was as if thunder struck and w.a.n.g Dahu saw stars in front of his eyes.
Ran, Ran Ran, which Ran Ran?
Without waiting for him to think, w.a.n.g Shoumin lifted the curtain, intending to go out. “I’m going to go see, you can eat first.”
w.a.n.g Dahu jumped off his chair, shouting, “Grandpa, I want to go too!!”
The old man originally didn’t agree but he couldn’t withstand w.a.n.g Dahu’s nagging, so he held his chubby hand and hastily walked outside.
The grandpa and grandson, as well as a neighboring aunty who called out to them, three people walked towards the east end of the village.
After a while, they finally saw a lonely old thatched roof cottage that was about to fall apart.
At this time, people from the village already started to surround the area.
w.a.n.g Dahu felt impatient, he let go of his grandpa’s hand and relied on his small body to push through the crowd of people quick as a flash.
He could only see a man over thirty dressed shabbily in the courtyard, in one hand he held a kitchen knife and in the other he grabbed a woman and hit her “bang bang bang…”
“Don’t hit mom, dad don’t hit mom anymore…” A young voice like a mewling cat cried out mournfully, a slender body desperately clung to the man’s pants leg, and tears streamed down the face.
w.a.n.g Dahu only felt that the world was spinning in front of him. Even if it was burned to ashes, he would still recognize that face.
The man looked insane, lifted his leg, and heavily kicked the child in the chest, making him instantly fly far away.
w.a.n.g Dahu shouted loudly, his eyes red. As fast as lightning, in the blink of an eye he punched straight at the man’s stomach, using his momentum to make the man fall.
“b.a.s.t.a.r.d, who do you think you’re hitting?!” w.a.n.g Dahu sat on the man’s neck, raised a small fist and repeatedly punched the man in the face. Although his body was small, his force was explosive. In just a short while, he beat the man into a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp. w.a.n.g Shoumin stood at one side and finally woke up, afraid that his grandchild would suffer. He ran over in two or three steps, kicked the kitchen knife far away first, and then shouted, “What are you standing there staring for, Li Zhanggui’s sick, someone go get a rope and tie him up.”
The village chief opened his mouth, everyone naturally followed his instructions. Only a moment later, they tied up the shabby man and all the aunties ran off to help the woman who was beaten black and blue to stand up.
“Ran Ran, Ran Ran, how do you feel, are you all right?” w.a.n.g Dahu’s legs lost strength and he kneeled next to the boy, hugging the bruised body that was gently shaking.
“Mom…” His chest was kicked, making Li Qingran felt so much pain he curl his body. His small face was covered in bruises, but he still stubbornly called for his mother.
w.a.n.g Shoumin glanced over, sighed, and called someone to take the mother and son to the clinic. w.a.n.g Dahu naturally didn’t pay attention to if he was being an obstruction and went along.
Sitting on the stretcher, he hugged Ran Ran’s immensely weak body and felt uncomfortable, as if someone was squeezing his heart tightly.
Obviously they were the same age, but he was all skin and bones. His clothes were full of patches and he was both small and thin. His exposed wrists and ankle were covered in red sc.r.a.ped. Why did his Ran Ran have to suffer like this, why was he so miserable?
w.a.n.g Dahu couldn’t suppress his feeling and cried.
His hot tears fell on Li Qingran’s face, who slowly opened his eyes and looked at the person holding him tightly, frowning suspiciously.
“Ran Ran, does it hurt a lot? Hold on, we’re almost at the hospital! When we get to the hospital it won’t hurt any more!” w.a.n.g Dahu hugged him, his voice gently coaxing.
Li Qingran saw his extremely anxious expression, the caution in his eyes slowly melting away.
He thought: Who is this?
The clinic in Xing Ye village was simply a three room tiled house. Inside was a middle aged doctor about fifty years old and a young nurse.
They said that one year Dr. Xu was sent here for rehabilitation. Although he recovered, he didn’t have any children and he didn’t return to the city. Instead, he stayed in the village as a doctor. His medical practice was very skillful. Not only could he give medical examinations and prescribe medicine, he had also researched herbal medicine. Last time when w.a.n.g Dahu’s neck swelled into a lump, it was Dr. Xu who smeared some herbs on the wound and after a few days, it disappeared. After that, whenever any of the villagers had a headache, they would look for him. They had the utmost confidence in him.
Li Qingran’s mother, Kong Xiumei, was hurt badly this time. When she was brought here she was already unconscious.
The entire clinic was in a chaos for a while until Dr. Xu spoke up and kicked the onlookers out. w.a.n.g Shoumin actually wanted to pull Dahu with him but it was if his precious grandchild was possessed by the devil. Whether he lived or died, he definitely had to be with that Li child. There was nothing he could do, so w.a.n.g Shoumin had no choice but to let Dahu stay. He still had to notify Kong Xiumei’s birth mother’s family.
Li Qingran lay on the hospital bed with an IV, his expressionless eyes opened widely, staring blankly at the ceiling.
w.a.n.g Dahu carried a basin of warm water over, lifted the face towel from the wall and dipped it in the water, starting to carefully help the other wipe their face.
“Brother Dahu will help you wipe your body, it won’t hurt!” He spoke while lifting a hand to remove Li Qingran’s clothes.
The child’s body suddenly shrunk back, trembling in fear like a small wild animal.
“No problem, no problem!” Dahu’s heart hurt. He stroked the other’s face, “Good Ran Ran! I won’t wipe anymore, won’t wipe anymore!”
Secretly sighing, w.a.n.g Dahu only used the towel to help the child wipe his face, hands and feet.
Seeing the bruised skin full of scabs, w.a.n.g Dahu felt miserable and startle to sniffle.
“Ran Ran…” w.a.n.g Dahu suddenly bent down and kissed Li Qingran’s forehead, his eyes overflowing with confidence. “From now on, I will take good care of you. I won’t let you suffer ever again.”
Feeling the soft kiss on his forehead, Li Qingran whole body stiffened. He didn’t know why, but in his eyes something hot wanted to leaking out.
Translator’s Notes:
w.a.n.g Dahu is a bada.s.s shota and he moves FAST. I wanted to get this out before I got on my seven hour no Internet road trip back home. My hand hurts.
Translating this makes me feel a bit depressed, so I have to go back and forth between this and White Lotus even though this has shorter chapters and less of them.
Thanks to whoever stuck on the seme protagonist tag on novel updates. I didn’t even know that was a thing. Why is it that the two novels I picked up have seme protagonists? If anyone wants me to translate another one, let me know lol.