After Being Scummed – Chapter 6

It’s done, this is a big problem!

Perhaps it was when Yin Bai had that incident, but when the clamor once again emanated from the next door, it wasn’t as cheerful as before.

Leaning on her cane, Yin Bai ascended to the second floor. She stood by the French window, gazing at the two children playing next door, tucking away her subtle sense of guilt. She let out a soft hum and returned to the swing, picking up her phone to send a message to Jin Xiangyu.

Yin Bai wasn’t the heartless type of boss. If she promised Zhang Yu a vacation, she wouldn’t call her back while she was on holiday. Therefore, she had Jin Xiangyu arrange for another secretary to assist her, to pack her luggage, organize her itinerary, and depart for a foreign island vacation tomorrow.

Jin Xiangyu was efficient, and the next morning, the new assistant came over to pack her luggage, arrange her itinerary, and pick her up to go to the airport.

Around eleven o’clock in the afternoon, the secretary carried her luggage downstairs and parked the car at the villa’s entrance, waiting for Yin Bai. Yin Bai, with her leg discomfort, slowly descended from upstairs, leaning on her cane.

As soon as she stepped out of the front door, she heard a buzzing sound coming from the sky not far away. Yin Bai raised her hand to shield her face, squinted her eyes, and looked towards the source of the noise. She only saw a miniature airplane drifting over the wall from the neighboring villa and, with a thud, it collided with the pomelo tree in her yard, hanging on its branches.

Yin Bai was left in astonishment, thinking that these two children were really going too far. They were told not to play badminton today, and now they were flying a small airplane, weren’t they?

It seemed she had to teach these two kids a lesson.

Leaning on her cane, Yin Bai took out her phone to call her secretary while slowly making her way to her backyard.

Once the call was answered, Yin Bai said to her secretary on the other end, “Come to the backyard; I need your help with something.”

She needed to first use this small airplane as leverage and then have a “good talk” with these two children.

Yin Bai hung up the phone and walked unsteadily to the backyard, arriving beneath the pomelo tree. She stood beneath the tree, leaning on her cane, gazing up at the dense canopy, carefully searching for the hanging airplane.

Just then, a faint exchange of words and rustling noises reached her ears.

“Tong Tong… Tong Tong, did you go up?”

“I’m almost there…”

“Then be careful…”

Yin Bai heard the conversation between the two children and instinctively turned her head to look at the wall. Just then, a child with a bun hairstyle was climbing the vines on top of the wall, approaching Yin Bai’s side of the yard.

Yin Bai watched the swaying figure on the wall, her pupils constricting, her heart skipping a beat.

Heavens! Are children nowadays so adventurous? The walls of both houses were at least two meters high. Although she hadn’t installed any protective measures on top for aesthetic reasons, both families had vines planted. But weren’t these children afraid of snakes, ants, or mosquitoes?

Yin Bai was filled with fear, afraid to make a sound, for fear of startling the wobbly child on the wall.

As a result, the child sitting on the wall happened to raise her head and saw Yin Bai standing in the yard.

Their eyes locked, and the child let out a startled cry, causing her whole body to tilt backward and fall from the wall with a thud.

The moment the child’s figure disappeared from the wall, a scream came from the neighboring house.

“Tong Tong!”

This scream seemed to awaken Yin Bai, and she felt like her heart was about to jump out of her throat.

Oh no, oh no, this is a big problem!

Yin Bai, leaning on her cane, quickly dialed her secretary’s phone and hastily instructed, “Hurry, go to my neighbor’s house; a child has fallen from my wall! Please go check how badly the child is injured!”

Shortly after, the secretary rushed over to handle the situation.

Yin Bai walked slowly, and by the time she arrived, the child had already been picked up by the auntie from the neighboring house.

The child, who was only about four or five years old, nestled in the auntie’s arms, had noticeable scrapes on her forehead and limbs, continuously crying and complaining about her hurting foot. The older child beside her cried even louder.

She wailed, saying it was all her fault, and she shouldn’t have allowed Tong Tong to go over.

The children’s crying gave Yin Bai a headache, and the auntie beside them was still wiping tears, saying, “It’s all my fault. I was busy cooking, didn’t pay attention for a moment, and let them run wild. Professor Sun isn’t at home today. What should we do?”

Yin Bai was equally worried, thinking about what could be done – the only solution was to get them to the hospital quickly.

The secretary was helping examine the children’s injuries and turned to Yin Bai, saying, “BOSS, it seems like the child has twisted her foot. We should go to the hospital for an X-ray.”

Seeing the children cry, Yin Bai, feeling guilty and anxious, quickly said, “Then let’s go, call 120, and get an ambulance!”

She was in a hurry, but then she reconsidered, saying, “No, no, calling an ambulance might take too long. You drive, drive them to the nearest hospital!”

The secretary seemed hesitant, “But this way, it might delay your trip to the airport.”

Yin Bai wasn’t concerned about the airport at all right now. She had scared the children, causing one of them to fall from the wall, and who knew they might come after her for it, affecting neighborly relations. Yin Bai urged quickly, “Alright, alright, don’t worry about that. Just take the children first.”

“Cancel my schedule, I won’t fly there anymore. Let’s deal with this matter first.”

The secretary understood her intentions and turned to talk to the auntie from the neighboring house, “I’ll drive for now and take the child to the hospital.”

With the secretary’s assurance, the panicked auntie regained some composure. Yin Bai asked her to hold the child and get into the car, while she sat in the passenger seat. They then headed to the hospital together with the secretary.

On the way, the children continued to cry incessantly. The younger one lay in the auntie’s arms, tears flowing due to the pain, gritting her teeth to stifle her sobs. The older girl was beside the auntie, constantly blowing on the injured area and saying something like, “Hurt, fly away, hurt, fly away.”

Yin Bai glanced back and saw that the girls were feeling much better. The auntie in the back seat took out her phone and started calling the adults at home one by one.

She said things like, “The children were playing around, climbed the wall, and fell down. Now our neighbor is driving them to the hospital.”

Yin Bai was on edge, afraid that she might have scared the children and that they would reveal the incident of someone climbing over the wall to pick something up instead of knocking on the door. She listened for a while and realized she hadn’t been betrayed, which relieved her.

The auntie wiped her tears and apologized to the person on the other end of the phone, saying, “It’s all my fault for not watching Tong Tong closely. She’s very well-behaved and isn’t crying now. Let Tong Tong talk on the phone… Alright, alright, alright…”

The auntie spoke and placed the phone next to Tong Tong’s ear.

As soon as the child heard the familiar voice, she started crying, saying, “Wuwuwu… Mom… it hurts so much… Mom, I’m in so much pain…”

On the other end of the call, the woman, hearing her child’s crying, felt her heart wrenching and quickly comforted her, saying, “Tong Tong, don’t cry, it doesn’t hurt anymore, hurt, fly away.”

“Mom will be back soon, Tong Tong, just endure it a bit longer, be a good girl, and listen to Grandma Zhou, okay?”

Tong Tong wiped her tears and obediently replied, “Okay, I’ll be a good girl.”

Yin Bai perked up her ears and listened as Tong Tong in the backseat responded intermittently to the words on the phone. Perhaps her mother was soothing her, saying some things about taking her to play. The child’s attention was diverted, and in no time, her tears turned into smiles. With a lingering hint of crying, she obediently agreed.

Yin Bai, fearing she might be accused, listened for a while and realized the child was too distracted to report anything. She began to relax.

After a chaotic journey, the secretary finally arrived at the hospital.

The auntie carried the child to the emergency room, where they underwent X-rays and wound care. They were busy until the afternoon when the doctor made a diagnosis and recommended the child be hospitalized for observation.

Yin Bai arranged a private room for the child and had the secretary handle all the financial matters. The auntie from the neighboring house expressed her gratitude profusely, saying thank you repeatedly, which made Yin Bai feel quite guilty.

Perhaps this whirlwind of busyness had made the auntie see Yin Bai as a good neighbor. At this point, the children were hungry since they hadn’t eaten yet. Seeing that Yin Bai had difficulty moving around, the auntie didn’t want to trouble her further and asked Yin Bai to stay at the hospital to look after the children. She volunteered to go back home and bring over the prepared lunch for the kids.

Feeling guilty, Yin Bai agreed and had her secretary drive the auntie back home to fetch the lunch.

Once the secretary and the auntie left, and after the doctor finished tending to the wounds, the hospital room was left with only Yin Bai and the two children.

Yin Bai, leaning on her cane, stood at the door of the hospital room, looking at the child sitting on the bed, feeling very awkward.

The areas where Tong Tong had been injured had all been treated, and the larger part on her forehead was bandaged with gauze, making her look pitiable. The slightly older girl, Wen Wen, sat on the edge of the bed, anxiously staring at Tong Tong’s injured foot and sadly saying, “It’s all my fault, Tong Tong. When will you get better? Does it still hurt?”

Tong Tong shook her head, her tender face still bearing tear stains, and she furrowed her brow as she said, “The doctor auntie said I’ll be better in a few days, and it still hurts a little.”

Wen Wen quickly blew on the injured area again, saying, “Huff huff… Hurt, fly away, hurt, fly away. Tong Tong, you’re not hurting anymore.”

Tong Tong, with tears in her eyes, smiled and nodded, “Yeah yeah yeah… Mommy just did it for me earlier, she said she’ll come over soon. I’m not hurting anymore, or else Mommy will worry.”

The two children huddled together, chatting away as if the two sobbing children from before were not the same people.

Seeing this, Yin Bai couldn’t help but feel relieved. She looked at the two children, tightened her grip on her cane, and cleared her throat, saying, “Um…”

As soon as she spoke, both children turned their heads and looked at her.

Yin Bai felt a bit guilty and, looking at the tears in Tong Tong’s eyes, said, “Your name is Tong Tong, right?”

Tong Tong nodded, her tender face still adorned with glistening tears, and she looked at Yin Bai with surprise and curiosity, “Does the fairy sister have something to tell me?”

Ah, she still calls her a fairy sister at a time like this. Doesn’t she think she’s some kind of demon?

Yin Bai pursed her lips, glanced at Wen Wen, who was crouched by the bed, looking at her with both fear and apprehension, sighed, and said with some self-reproach, “In the future… when you want to come to my yard, don’t climb over the wall.”

“I won’t be home, but I’ll leave the yard gate open. You can just come over directly.”

Yin Bai paused and then said, “Climbing over the wall is very dangerous. You’re still young; don’t do such risky things.”

It seemed that for Yin Bai, speaking such a long sentence to unfamiliar people was actually quite challenging. Tong Tong, upon hearing this, showed a guilty expression. She looked up at Yin Bai with a pitiful look and said, “I’m sorry, fairy sister. I caused you trouble today.”

Seeing this, Wen Wen also lowered her head and said awkwardly, “I’m sorry, sister…” In fact, Wen Wen knew that the reason Tong Tong had climbed the wall and fell was because she had suggested climbing the wall in the first place.

Both children apologized, and Yin Bai felt that they had settled their differences.

Yin Bai pursed her lips and said somewhat awkwardly, “Um… it’s okay. It was my fault in the first place. Anyway, just don’t climb over the wall anymore…”

She smiled and gathered her courage to approach them, saying, “By the way, would you like to watch TV? There’s a TV here. Would you like me to turn it on for you?”

The two children exchanged glances and enthusiastically cheered in unison, “Yes!”