🍒 Chapter 49: Extra 4
After lunch, Teacher Xiaohua began arranging nap time for the children.
The place for sleeping was also an old classroom, fitted with large shared sleeping platforms. The children slept on rows of small beds. For ease of management, the beds were not assigned by age. Instead, older and younger children were mixed together.
As the newest arrival, Shen Shuyi was naturally assigned to a corner.
The corner spot was not good at all. It caught no breeze from the fan and was close to the window. Even though thick blackout curtains had already been drawn, waves of heat still seeped in.
There was no air conditioning. Cooling relied entirely on fans. Sleeping in this spot was going to be hard.
But Shen Shuyi had not yet realised this problem, because he noticed that the person sleeping beside him was the big kid who had sat next to him in the cafeteria at lunch.
Shen Shuyi’s eyes lit up.
Big brother!
Great!
At least he would not have to sleep with those big kids he really disliked.
However, that big brother was indeed very distant. Ever since Teacher Xiaohua brought Shen Shuyi to the bed, the other party had not given him a single glance.
It was as if, in his world, no one existed except himself.
Shen Shuyi did not dare greet him either. He quietly reduced his own presence.
He did not care whether the other person paid attention to him or not.
As long as he knew that the other person was not a bad person, that was enough.
This feeling of both knowing the other existed, yet not disturbing one another, felt to Shen Shuyi at this moment like the most suitable and comfortable way to get along.
Of course, this was probably only Shen Shuyi’s one sided belief. He had no idea how that big brother actually saw him.
Shen Shuyi carefully took off his shoes, carefully climbed onto the bed, carefully copied the big brother’s movements to shake out the blanket, and lay down.
Then he realised something was wrong.
His bedding was wet.
Shen Shuyi frowned, rolled over and climbed up, silently looking at the patch of bedding beneath him that had somehow soaked through.
What should he do?
Should he tell Teacher Xiaohua?
Shen Shuyi was too young and did not really have the concept of reporting problems to the teacher. For children this age, problem solving usually leaned more toward pretending the problem did not exist. After thinking about it, Shen Shuyi decided to lie back down like this.
Before lying down, he turned his head and subconsciously glanced at the big brother on the neighbouring bed.
Unexpectedly, the other person had also sat up, just like him, frowning as he stared at the bedding beneath him.
Seeing that most of the children had already lain down, Teacher Xiaohua turned off the classroom lights and quietly left.
Not long after, Shen Shuyi saw several big kids suddenly sit up from their beds, exchange glances, climb down, and then gather together with trouble seeking expressions as they walked over.
“Ha… Xie Xiaozhou wet the bed!” one big kid suddenly raised his voice.
The other children who had fallen asleep were quickly woken by the noise and climbed up to look over.
“So old already and still wets the bed?” another big kid said.
“Haha! You wet it yourself, so you wash it yourself!”
“Shame on you, eight years old and still wetting the bed!”
They made mocking gestures together.
Then Shen Shuyi saw the big kid beside him named Xie Xiaozhou get angry.
His expression darkened. He suddenly did something, and several younger children in the classroom began wailing loudly.
The big kids who had deliberately come over to mock them for wetting the bed also suddenly turned pale, with a few of them dropping to their knees.
“I’m telling the teacher! You’re releasing pheromones randomly! You’ll kill people! You monster!” one big kid who could not bear it anymore shouted.
The big brother beside Shen Shuyi suddenly exploded into motion, jumping off the bed and fighting with that group of big kids.
“He’s gone crazy, he’s gone crazy! Xie Xiaozhou’s gone crazy again!”
A child whose bed was closer to the classroom door jumped down and ran out to tell Teacher Xiaohua.
Not long after, Teacher Xiaohua rushed in with the welfare home’s security guards and separated the children tangled together in the fight.
In a physical fight, no one came out unscathed.
But for some reason, the big kids who had stirred up trouble were injured more badly than Xie Xiaozhou. More importantly, some of them looked mentally drained, even on the verge of fainting. Meanwhile, some of the children who had not been involved in the fight were also crying loudly.
Shen Shuyi himself felt nothing.
He guessed it might have something to do with Xie Xiaozhou’s pheromones.
Soon, those who had fought and caused trouble were taken out of the classroom.
Teacher Xiaohua separated Xie Xiaozhou from the others and brought them to an empty classroom.
“Tell me,” Teacher Xiaohua asked the boy called Xie Xiaozhou. “Xiaozhou, why did you fight with these children?”
“Teacher!” a Beta child beside them jumped out proactively. “Xie Xiaozhou wet the bed, and we laughed at him a bit and told him to wash his own bedding. Then he started hitting us!”
“Yeah!” someone else added. “He probably just didn’t want to wash the bedding!”
“Heehee.”
“Hahaha.”
They laughed among themselves, completely forgetting how they had just been pinned to the ground and beaten black and blue by Xie Xiaozhou.
“Xiaozhou, is that how it was?” Teacher Xiaohua turned to look at him again.
Xie Xiaozhou said nothing.
His eyes were pitch black as he quietly stared at Teacher Xiaohua.
Teacher Xiaohua felt uncomfortable under his gaze and awkwardly looked away. “Xiaozhou, no matter what, hitting people is wrong. And what you did just now, randomly using pheromones to attack others, is extremely dangerous. I believe the headmaster told you before you were admitted that your pheromone level is very high. Releasing pheromones recklessly can easily harm others.”
“And the welfare home has rules. If you hurt other children, you must be punished. I can’t help you with that. This afternoon, you won’t attend class with everyone else. You’ll stay here and face the wall to reflect.”
After saying that, Teacher Xiaohua stood up, then crouched in front of Shen Shuyi.
“Shuyi, I know this matter doesn’t concern you, but the welfare home has rules. If you wet the bed, you must wash your own bedding. I heard that you, like Xiaozhou, also wet the bed. In a moment, Teacher Xiaohua will take you downstairs and teach you how to wash blankets.”
She was about to take Shen Shuyi and the other children away when she suddenly saw Shen Shuyi lift his snow white, delicate little face beside her feet.
“Teacher, no,” he said. “This wasn’t Brother Xiaozhou’s fault. Those people were lying.”
Shen Shuyi gathered his courage and told Teacher Xiaohua what he had seen. He also explained that neither he nor Brother Xiaozhou had wet the bed. The bedding had already been wet before they lay down.
After hearing this, Teacher Xiaohua personally went to check the sleeping classroom. She discovered that there was indeed no urine smell on Shen Shuyi’s and Xie Xiaozhou’s bedding. The wetness was likely just from water being poured on it.
Teacher Xiaohua then went back and scolded the big kids again. However, because they were more badly injured than Xie Xiaozhou, she could not punish them too harshly.
That afternoon, they still attended class with the other children.
Xie Xiaozhou, however, was given a task by Teacher Xiaohua. He was to take Shen Shuyi downstairs and teach him how to wash bedding.
The cleaning auntie at the welfare home helped Shen Shuyi remove the wet sheets and place them in a washbasin, then sent them downstairs to the water pool.
As for Xie Xiaozhou, because he was a strong big kid, he had to do everything himself.
At the water pool, the tap was turned on. Water rushed down with a whoosh, soaking the sheets in the basin.
Shen Shuyi had never washed bedding before.
Once the sheets were soaked with water, they became very heavy. The basin was also very large. With his short arms and legs, he simply could not manage it.
Beside him, Xie Xiaozhou had already taken off his shoes and stepped directly into the basin.
The soaked sheets were trampled underfoot, making squelch squelch sounds.
So this worked too?
Shen Shuyi quickly copied him, took off his shoes, and stepped his little feet into the basin.
Squelch squelch. Xie Xiaozhou stepped hard.
Squish. Shen Shuyi had little strength and light weight. Stepping on the sheets was like a kitten kneading milk.
After a while, when it was about done, Xie Xiaozhou turned off the tap, poured out the water in the basin, then lifted the sheets and twisted them dry bit by bit.
This was hard labour.
A basin full of water was heavy. Sheets soaked through with water were also heavy. Shen Shuyi could not lift the basin to pour out water, nor could he wring out the sheets with his bare hands.
He tried to imitate Xie Xiaozhou, twisting from the corners little by little to squeeze out the water.
But for some reason, what looked easy in Xie Xiaozhou’s hands became extremely difficult for him. Before long, the tender skin on his small hands rubbed raw, his entire palms turning red.
All the grievances Shen Shuyi had accumulated over the past few days reached their peak at this moment.
He missed Third Brother, Second Sister, and Big Brother.
He also missed Dad.
His eyes filled with tears. Soon, he could no longer see anything clearly.
He whimpered softly, completely at a loss, occasionally puckering his little mouth to blow on his aching palms.
When he finished crying and opened his eyes again, Brother Xiaozhou, who had been washing sheets beside him, was gone.
Now Shen Shuyi truly panicked.
He looked around blankly and found that, aside from himself, there was no one else by the water pool.
It was as if the world had abandoned him again.
He opened his mouth and cried loudly in despair.
Although the water pool was set under tree shade, summer afternoons were stifling. As Shen Shuyi cried, he began to feel dizzy. Just as he felt he was about to lose consciousness, a shadow suddenly fell over him.
The shadow blocked all the fierce, dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves.
“Hurry up.”
It was Brother Xiaozhou.
He had returned.
And at this very moment, he was talking to Shen Shuyi.
“At the welfare home, no one will help you do things. Crying won’t solve anything either.”
As he spoke, he walked over to the water pool, reached out to lift the basin, helped Shen Shuyi pour out the water, and began wringing out the sheets for him.
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