Chapter 538 - 541: Mother Was Bullied
Pressured by Li Xun’s tears, Hua Manman had no choice but to unwrap the silk handkerchief, revealing the wound on her palm.
The wound had already been medicated, but after all the recent commotion, the ointment had been rubbed off. Trickles of fresh blood were now seeping from the injury, making it look quite frightening.
Seeing this, Li Xun shot to his feet, rushed to his mother, and asked anxiously.
"Mother, how did you get hurt? Who bullied you?"
"No one bullied me," Hua Manman said. "I just fell and hurt myself by accident."
Li Xun had been falling and getting scraped up since he was little, so he was an expert on such injuries. He could tell at a glance that this wound wasn’t from a fall at all.
He yelled in frustration.
"You’re lying to me again! It’s not from a fall! Someone must have bullied you! Tell me who it was, and I’ll get revenge for you!"
Hua Manman had originally thought children were easy to fool.
But this child in front of her was incredibly sharp.
She sighed and said helplessly.
"No one bullied me. You’re imagining things."
Since she refused to tell the truth, Li Xun settled for the next best thing.
"I’ll help you put on the medicine."
He scampered out, only to return a moment later.
Jiao Gui was following behind him.
Jiao Gui was startled when she saw the wound on the Young Master’s hand.
"How did your wound get worse?"
It was too late for Hua Manman to stop her.
She looked at Li Xun and, just as she’d expected, saw an expression of self-blame on his face, as if he could burst into tears at any moment.
"It’s all my fault. If Mother hadn’t been trying to lift me down, the wound on her hand wouldn’t have gotten worse."
Hua Manman wanted to use this as a chance to teach him not to climb walls anymore, but when she saw his pitiful expression, she couldn’t help but soften her tone.
"This has nothing to do with you. Don’t take all the blame on yourself."
Jiao Gui helped Hua Manman clean the wound on her hand.
Li Xun was already standing by with the ointment, waiting.
Once the wound was clean, he immediately leaned in, blew gently on his mother’s palm, and murmured softly.
"Doesn’t hurt, doesn’t hurt. Mother isn’t in pain."
Hua Manman couldn’t help but laugh, a warm feeling spreading through her heart.
’This kid is just too sweet.’
Li Xun very carefully applied the ointment for his mother.
His movements were extremely gentle, and he kept looking up at his mother.
"Does it hurt?"
Hua Manman said it didn’t.
Only then did Li Xun continue applying the medicine.
Watching this scene, Jiao Gui had the strange illusion that the two before her were truly mother and son.
But she quickly snapped out of it, silently mocking herself for overthinking.
’The Young Master doesn’t even have a lover, so how could he possibly have a son this old?’
’Besides, the child’s biological father is the current Regent King.’
’There’s no way the Young Master could have any connection to the Regent King.’
After the medicine was applied, Li Xun remained glued to his mother’s side, refusing to leave.
It was almost time for dinner.
Hua Manman asked the child to stay for dinner.
She had someone go inform the Regent King so he wouldn’t worry.
But the next moment, she saw the Regent King walk in brazenly.
Everyone in the room was startled.
Hua Manman immediately stood up. "How did you get in?"
Li Ji: "Climbed over the wall, of course."
Hua Manman: "..."
’What could she say? Like father, like son, indeed!’
She reminded him sternly, "The Prince Mansion has a gate."
"The main gate is too far. I was too lazy to go the long way around." Li Ji’s gaze fell on her hand and froze. "What happened to your hand?"
Before Hua Manman could speak, Li Xun, who was beside her, answered first.
"Mother was bullied! Her hand is hurt!"
Hua Manman had to repeat herself again. "I wasn’t bullied."
’She would find a way to resolve the matter with the Yu Royal Mansion herself. She didn’t want to drag Li Xun into it.’
Li Xun retorted loudly, "If no one bullied you, then why are there marks on your hand from being hit with a ruler?"
Hua Manman froze for a moment, then retorted.
"How do you know they’re marks from a ruler?"
Li Xun faltered.
He guiltily averted his eyes and mumbled.
"I guessed."
Hua Manman’s heart tightened, and her expression grew serious. "Has someone hit you with a ruler before?"
As she spoke, she shot a subtle glance at the Regent King.
Li Ji clarified, "If I were to hit him, I’d only use my hand."
Hua Manman was speechless.
’What’s the difference between a ruler and a hand? Isn’t it all just hitting a child?!’
Seeing his son’s evasiveness and reluctance to tell the truth, Li Ji decided to just say it for him.
"He was causing trouble in class. Not only did he ruin the tutor’s book, but he also set the tutor’s beard on fire. The tutor was so furious he punished him with a ruler."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Xun snarled at him.
"You’re lying! I didn’t burn the tutor’s beard! He burned it himself by accident!"
Li Ji scoffed. "If you hadn’t deliberately placed a candle next to his beard while he was napping, would it have caught fire?"
Li Xun: "Well, who told him to always scold me in class?!"
Li Ji: "You didn’t write a single word of your homework. Of course the tutor was going to scold you."
Li Xun: "I hate homework! I’m never going to class again!"
Seeing his bratty son’s tantrum, Li Ji let out a delighted laugh.
Hua Manman: "..."
’This father-son duo is something else.’
It wasn’t just her; Jiao Gui was also dumbfounded by the sight.
She never would have expected that the Regent King, rumored to be all-powerful, would actually argue with a five-year-old brat.
No matter how you looked at it, the whole scene just felt wrong.
Li Xun turned and threw himself into his mother’s arms, wailing.
"Mother, Father is bullying me again!"
Hua Manman looked at the Regent King and said sternly.
"Even if the young prince did something wrong, the tutor should guide him properly, not resort to corporal punishment."
’He’s such a small child. What if he gets seriously hurt?’
But Li Ji said, "The tutor didn’t hit him. He hit the Attendant Student beside him."
Students of their background were always accompanied by Attendant Students. If the tutor wanted to punish them, it was the Attendant Student who ultimately received the punishment.
Hua Manman’s frown didn’t lessen.
’Whether it was hitting the student or the Attendant Student, it was wrong.’
’But she also knew this was a common practice of this era, not something a single person could change.’
Hua Manman looked down at the child in her arms and lectured him seriously.
"From now on, you must do your homework properly.
If you can’t figure it out, you can ask your father, or ask your tutor for help the next day.
But don’t cause trouble in class anymore, and you are absolutely not allowed to be disrespectful to your tutor.
Do you understand?"
Li Xun looked up at her, his eyes full of hope, and asked.
"Can I come and ask Mother?"
Hua Manman felt a pang of guilt.
’Although she had been a university student before, she was now in ancient times. The knowledge of this world was completely different from what she had studied.’
’Strictly speaking, she was practically half-illiterate now.’
’She had absolutely no confidence that she could help the child with his homework.’
But meeting the child’s eager eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse.
"You can."