NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9
Pei Xing carefully laid Shi Yi on the bed in their room and gently placed Xiao Liu beside him. The little kid sat there with tears silently streaming down his face.
Wen Jun, who had been busy, arrived and was shocked by the scene. He embraced Xiao Liu, comforting the child and inquiring about what had happened. Xiao Liu tearfully recounted the story, and Wen Jun couldn’t help but blame himself for not taking better care of them. He turned to Pei Xing and offered his apologies.
Pei Xing, however, shook his head and reassured Wen Jun that it wasn’t his responsibility. He didn’t want him to bear any guilt for the incident. Pei Xing also giving him clean clothes he had purchased for Xiao Liu and requested his assistance to looking after the child.
Wen Jun took Xiao Liu to another room, changed the boy into fresh clothes, and summoned a doctor. The doctor prescribed some tranquilizing medication to help the little kid after traumatizing day. After giving him the medicine, Wen Jun held the child for a while until he finally fell asleep.
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Turning his attention back to Shi Yi, Pei Xing carefully removed his clothes, only to be met with a horrifying sight. Shi Yi’s entire body was covered in injuries, with fresh wounds overlapping old scars. His chest bore both old and new bruises, and whip marks left behind a trail of purple and black on his back. His thighs were marred by dark, blotchy bruises.
Pei Xing gingerly applied ointment to Shi Yi’s wounds, ensuring that he didn’t cause the injured person any further pain. After finishing, he dressed him and dissolved a golden marrow pill in warm water, feeding it to Shi Yi mouth-to-mouth. He then softly kissed Shi Yi’s forehead and whispered gently.
“Why do you always appear before me so battered and bruised? It hurts me to see you like this.”
Shi Yi remained unconscious, and the room remained devoid of any response.
Pei Xing didn’t expect an answer, but the thought suddenly crossed his mind that every time he had encountered Shi Yi, he always had been injured.
He still remembered the first time he had met Shi Yi, shortly after he entered elementary school. During summer vacation, when his father and Aunt Song had gone back to their hometown to visit relatives, Shi Yi, who was three years older and in the third grade, had fought with other children. More accurately, he had been the one bullied, and Pei Xing had stumbled upon the situation.
When he returned home, his stepmother had given him a bath and discovered his body covered in bruises and injuries.
Aunt Song had seen the injuries and immediately scolded Shi Yi’s father, not the children who had bullied Shi Yi. Although his father was strict with his education, he had never laid a hand on Pei Xing, even after his mother had fallen ill and passed away.
Aunt Song’s scolding had opened his eyes to the concept of domestic violence. It had also been the first time he realized that there were fathers worse than his own in the world. His father, who was always busy with work and didn’t show enough love and had married another woman, which caused him to become resentful of the man.
Shi Yi had grown up in a life of violence, enduring beatings and verbal abuse, living in constant fear of being punished for the slightest mistake.
To this day, he still recalled what Shi Yi had said to him. When he had been upset with his father and refused to eat, Aunt Song and his father had tried coaxing him repeatedly.
Shi Yi had pointed at him and scolded, “You’re acting so pretentious. My aunt treats you better than my mother treats me. Your father doesn’t even lay a finger on you, and you’re refusing to eat. My father beats me for every little thing. If you don’t like your dad, let’s switch, and you can have mine instead.” Shi Yi’s words had made a lasting impression.
He didn’t want a father who beat him mercilessly every day, and from that moment on, he had never been angry with his own father again.
The second time he had encountered Shi Yi had been during middle school when Shi Yi had been severely bullied for his disability, causing him to move into their home with injuries all over his body.
The third time had been one year after his graduation, during his internship, when he had found Shi Yi waiting for him below his company. His head had been bandaged, his nose bruised, and his face swollen, all with a deeply embarrassed expression. Back then, Pei Xing had been infuriated, intentionally making him wait for several hours, in full view of everyone.
He still couldn’t understand why he couldn’t let go of Shi Yi. Shi Yi had asked him more than once, but he couldn’t provide an answer. Unconsciously, he always paid attention to Shi Yi, and by the time he realized it, he found he couldn’t let go.