Chapter 193: Tremble, Scumbag 2
Author: 打字机
“What’s wrong with you, Hu-zi? Did someone bully you?”
Seeing her son cry so miserably, Bai Lan was heartbroken. If there was anyone she owed the most to, it was her two children. In this life, being able to start anew, she had already figured out how to make it up to them. She swore she wouldn’t let them suffer even the slightest bit of injustice.
After all these decades, although Bai Lan remembered that her husband had caused trouble and was injured, leading to their separation, she couldn’t remember whether her son had suffered any injustice during that time.
In the Jiang family, only Jiang Liu was Jiang Miaoshi’s favourite. Other grandsons had to give way to him. Besides favouring Jiang Liu a little, Jiang Miaoshi treated all her grandchildren equally. Jiang Dahu didn’t receive any preferential treatment just because he was Jiang Liu’s son.
But the other two branches of the Jiang family didn’t feel the same way.
The Jiang family now had four grandsons and three granddaughters. The eldest grandson, Jiang Daniu, the second grandson, Jiang Erniu and the youngest granddaughter Jiang Meihua were the children of the first branch. Jiang Lanhua, Jiang Hehua, and the third grandson Jiang Sanniu were the children of the second branch.
Bai Lan had only been married for a few years and had only one son, Jiang Dahu.
According to the naming system of the Jiang family, Jiang Dahu should be called Jiang Siniu. However, “fourth” and “dead” sound the same in Chinese, and cows have a special status in the eyes of rural people. Jiang Miaoshi thought the name was not good and decided to name the fourth grandson Jiang Dahu instead.
When naming Jiang Dahu, Jiang Miaoshi didn’t think much about it. But because of this name, the people in the first and second branches were more convinced that she favoured the third branch’s child by intentionally giving him the name “big tiger” to suppress his three cousins.
The elders muttered about it, and the young children naturally heard it too. Therefore, at only two and a half years old, Jiang Dahu, who was learning to walk and call for his parents, became a punching bag for his older cousins. Not only did no one want to play with him on normal days, his cousins often bullied him.
Bai Lan also blamed herself. She was too cautious and subservient, working like a white baozi (dumpling) maker in the Jiang family. She even taught her son to be patient, leading to his timid personality. Subsequently, he was bullied by the widow and her illegitimate child, who had been pampered to death by Jiang Liu.
The way they lived in the previous generation was so miserable. Bai Lan recognized that besides the malicious hearts of Jiang Liu and Meng Guafu, she, as a mother, also had some responsibility to bear.
Fortunately, at this point, her son was still young, and her daughter had not yet been born. Bai Lan had enough time to teach these two children and change their personalities.
“Mom, it’s cold…”
Jiang Dahu cried loudly, but unfortunately, he was too young, and his tongue was not under control, so he could only say single words and could not express his grievances to his mother.
Since he joined the army, Jiang Dahu has not shown his emotions like this again, except when his comrades died.
He had suffered the same fate as Bai Lan in the past. His sister was sold by his deadbeat father and Meng Guafu to a matchmaker for money to support the illegitimate child. His mother, who had died from exhaustion, was buried in a shoddy coffin, not the Jiang family’s ancestral grave. Meng Guafu wanted to be buried in the same place as his deadbeat father.
After the Jiang family separated, the two mu of land given to their house was all cultivated by his grandmother and mother. When Jiang Dahu grew up, the burden of work fell on his shoulders. In the past, he was the busiest person in the family, but when the illegitimate child raised by the deadbeat father became a scholar, Jiang Dahu was the first to be kicked out. His stepmother falsely accused him of peeping at her bathing, and he was chased and beaten by her brother, which caused him to fall down the stairs and die.
Jiang Dahu couldn’t understand why Jiang Liu, as a husband and a father, could be so heartless to them while being so kind to Meng Guafu.
He wanted to wait in the underworld and ask his father when he crossed the Naihe Bridge, but when he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the body of a nineteen-year-old man and arrived in a completely strange country.
That world is so strange, where men and women are equal, couples can divorce if they don’t get along, and children can choose to live with their father or mother…
Many of the rules in this world challenge Jiang Dahu’s worldview. While he thinks that people in this world are going against the natural order of things, he also feels that they are extremely happy.
Jiang Dahu has an extremely weak personality, but the person whose body he occupies is a newly enlisted soldier. In the army, Jiang Dahu learned many qualities he didn’t have before, such as passion, strength, and bravery.
Jiang Dahu is grateful to God for sending him to such a wonderful country and even more thankful for sending him back to this world.
Now he is no longer the cowardly and timid Jiang Dahu of the past. He believes that he can support his mother and sister. After getting used to seeing women in the previous world divorce and live freely, he doesn’t think it’s shameful if his mother divorces his deadbeat father. However, he still doesn’t know what his mother thinks of him. According to the rules of this era, if his mother divorces his deadbeat father, he and his sister can only stay with the Jiang family because his father is still alive.
Jiang Dahu was resentful when he thought about his scumbag father, who would soon be hooking up with the widow. He thought it might be better just to kill him, and then all their troubles would be over. Unfortunately, the current him was only a two-and-a-half-year-old child, and the integrity he had learned in the military in his past life prevented him from punishing his scumbag father before he committed any wrongdoings. Yet, Jiang Dahu felt that even if he were to start again, his scumbag father would still end up on the same path.
“Sniff, hiccup!”
Jiang Dahu was too agitated, and coupled with his tiny body, which was not yet under control, he started to hiccup as he cried.
“Be good, little baby. Mommy made you something delicious.”
Bai Lan lifted her son, stroked his back with one hand, and after surveying the activity outside the kitchen, she lifted the lid of the clay pot and scooped the top layer of rice soup with a spoon to feed her son.
This pot of porridge had been cooking for a long time, and because Jiang Miaoshi was unusually generous, the porridge was thick and was slowly simmered over a wood fire. It had already been cooked to a soft, sweet and fragrant consistency, and the floating layer of rice oil on top was the most essential part of the porridge.
In her past life, Bailan had been a cook in the Marquis’s mansion and had learned many skills. Even the most basic white porridge could be made incredibly delicious without a hint of paste.
She blew on the spoonful of rice porridge to cool it down and then carefully fed it to her son.
“Mommy drinks.”
Jiang Dahu had just returned from outside and had expended a lot of energy, so he instinctively drank the spoonful of rice porridge. After all, he was an adult who had lived for two lifetimes, and being fed porridge by his mother made him feel embarrassed.
Moreover, Jiang Dahu remembered their current situation as mother and son and knew that thick white porridge like this was not something they could drink often.
Bai Lan was moved by her son’s filial piety and thoughtfulness and became even more regretful about her tolerance and cowardice in her past life.
The mother and son took turns drinking the pot of white porridge. Jiang Dahu’s body was still that of a child, and he was already half-full after only a few sips. Bai Lan, on the other hand, just wanted to satisfy her craving. After seeing that the pot was only half full, she added a spoon of water and stirred the thin porridge in the pot.
Now the pot was full again but not as thick as before.
Bai Lan told her son to play in the yard and took the pot to her and Jiang Liu’s room. She didn’t want her son to get close to that heartless man. She knew how much her son longed for this father to care more about him, but Jiang Liu could not give him that.
That man’s conscience belonged to the woman and child outside. Rather than letting her son be hurt, it was better not to let him get close to that man from the beginning and prevent her son from having any feelings of admiration for him.
“Mother asked me to cook porridge for you.”
As she walked into the room, Bai Lan changed her facial expression again. The smile disappeared and was replaced by a timid and fearful look. It seemed as if she was afraid of being stopped by Jiang Liu to feed him porridge. Hence, without waiting for Jiang Liu to speak, Bai Lan quickly made an excuse about feeding the chickens and ran out.
Despite Jiang Liu preparing a lot of words to apologize to this woman who he owed in his previous life, it seemed that in her heart, he was nothing but a vicious beast. It was unlikely that she would believe him in the short term.
Jiang Liu picked up the hot porridge and couldn’t help but salivate at the smell of the plain white porridge. He didn’t mind the bland taste and picked up the spoon to comfort his internal organs.
As for the change he plans to implement, it would have to come slowly.
Just as Jiang Liu was drinking his porridge, Jiang Dahu couldn’t resist the urge in his heart and sneaked over. He wanted to see the face of his despicable father and deepen the hatred that had lasted for decades.
Jiang Liu’s gaze met the gaze of his thin and small son outside the house, who was staring at him intently. Jiang Liu thought he was craving porridge and wanted him to feed him a few spoonfuls.
“Dahu, come over–“
His wife and children were all people he owed in his past life. Since Jiang Liu has come over, he doesn’t plan to continue mistreating them like the original body. He remembers that the son of the original was the most filial, but the previous owner did not reciprocate his filial piety.
Jiang Liu waved to his son, intending to ask him to come over and feed him porridge. However, he saw the skinny child give him a fierce glare and then run away.
Having just arrived in this body, he was slapped by the original body’s wife with the excuse of killing mosquitoes. Now, his two-year-old son gave him a fierce glare. Jiang Liu keenly realized that there was something abnormal about this situation.
He had an inexplicable intuition that he had been tricked by the system again.
The ad revenue supports this website. You do not need to click on any. I would appreciate it if you could turn off the ads block for this site. If you like things that I translate, do consider fueling me up with lots of bubble tea to pump me up |▽//)ゝ