After Being Scummed – Chapter 6
by Little PandaOh no, I’m in big trouble!
Perhaps because Yin Bai had been stern that one time, when the clamor came from next door again, it was no longer so cheerful.
Leaning on her cane, she went up to the second floor. Standing before the floor-to-ceiling window, Yin Bai gazed into the distance at the two children playing next door, putting away her subtle sense of guilt. She lightly snorted, sat back on the swing, picked up her phone, and sent Jin Xiangyu a message.
Yin Bai wasn’t the kind of boss without humanity; having agreed to give Zhang Yu time off, she wouldn’t call her back while she was on vacation. Therefore, she had Jin Xiangyu arrange another relatively free secretary to come over, pack her luggage for her, arrange the itinerary, and depart tomorrow to vacation on a small island abroad.
Jin Xiangyu’s efficiency was very high. The next morning, the new secretary came over, finished packing her luggage for her, arranged the itinerary, and picked her up to go to the airport.
Around past 11 o’clock at noon, the secretary carried the luggage downstairs and drove the car to the villa entrance to wait for Yin Bai. Yin Bai’s legs and feet were inconvenient; leaning on her cane, she slowly came down from upstairs.
As soon as she stepped out the door, she heard a buzzing sound drift over from not far above. Yin Bai raised her hand to shield her eyes, squinting slightly as she looked towards the sound source. She only saw a miniature toy airplane drift over the wall from the next door villa, hit the grapefruit tree in her yard with a thud, and get stuck on it.
Yin Bai watched, dumbfounded. Thinking to herself, Those two kids are really too much. I told them they couldn’t play badminton, so today they’re playing with a toy airplane, right?
It seems she really must give these two kids a lesson.
Leaning on her cane, Yin Bai took out her phone to call the secretary over while slowly making her way towards her backyard.
After the call connected, Yin Bai said to the secretary on the other end, “Come to the yard for a bit, there’s something I need your help with.”
She had to first hold this toy airplane in her hand as leverage, then “have a good talk” with these two kids.
Yin Bai hung up the phone and walked haltingly1 to the backyard, arriving under that grapefruit tree. Standing under the tree, leaning on her cane, she tilted her head up, looked towards the dense crown of branches and leaves, and carefully searched for and found the toy airplane stuck on it.
Just then, a series of fragmented conversation sounds and rustling reached her ears.
“Tongtong… Tongtong… did you go up?”
“Almost, almost…”
“Then be careful…”
Hearing the two children’s conversation, Yin Bai subconsciously turned her head and looked towards the wall. Just then, a small child with a bun hairstyle was climbing the vines on top of the wall and had climbed to Yin Bai’s side of the yard.
Yin Bai looked at the swaying figure on top of the wall, her pupils contracting, her heart stopping.
Oh my god, oh my god! Are kids nowadays all this wild? The walls between the two houses are at least two meters high! Although for aesthetics, she hadn’t installed any protective measures on top, just that both families planted vines, but aren’t these kids afraid of snakes, ants, or mosquitoes?
Yin Bai was trembling with fear, not daring to breathe heavily, just afraid she would scare the swaying child on top of the wall.
As a result, the swaying child sitting on top of the wall just then happened to look up and saw Yin Bai standing in the yard.
Their eyes met. The child let out a startled cry, so scared that her whole body leaned backward, and with a thud, she fell down from the top of the wall.
The moment the child’s figure disappeared from the top of the wall, a scream came from next door.
“Tongtong!”
This scream seemed to wake Yin Bai up. She only felt her heart was about to jump out of her throat2.
It’s over, it’s over, I’m in big trouble!
Leaning on her cane, Yin Bai quickly dialed the secretary’s number and hurriedly instructed, “Quick, quick, quick! Go to my next door neighbor’s house, a child fell down from the top of my wall! Quickly go see how the child is injured!”
Very quickly, the secretary ran over to handle this matter.
Yin Bai walked slowly, and after she got there, the child had already been picked up by the auntie from the house.
The child, only four or five years old, was nestled in the auntie’s arms, with obvious scrapes on her forehead and limbs, crying and continuously shouting that her foot hurt. The older one next to her was crying even louder than the younger one.
Wailing and saying, “It’s all my fault, if I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have let Tongtong go over.”
The children’s crying gave Yin Bai a headache. The auntie next to them was still wiping away tears: “It’s all my fault, I was busy cooking and didn’t watch them for a moment, and let them fool around. Professor Sun isn’t home again today, what can be done about this?”
Yin Bai was also very anxious, thinking to herself, What else can be done? Quickly send them to the hospital!
The secretary was helping to check the child’s injuries, turned her head and said to Yin Bai, “Boss, the child’s foot seems to be twisted, we need to go to the hospital to get an X-ray and see.”
Yin Bai watched the child cry, feeling guilty and remorseful. Hearing this, she hurriedly said, “Then quickly go, call 1203, call an ambulance!”
She was also flustered, and after saying it, she changed her words: “No, no, no, calling an ambulance is a bit too slow, you drive, drive them to the nearest hospital!”
The secretary was a bit hesitant: “But like this, taking you to the airport will be a bit late.”
How could Yin Bai still care about the airport now? The neighbor’s child was scared by her and fell off the wall, they might very well settle accounts with her and affect neighborly relations. Yin Bai hurriedly urged, “Alright, alright, don’t worry about so much, take the child first.”
“Cancel my itinerary, I’m not flying there anymore. You handle this matter first, then we’ll talk.”
The secretary understood her meaning, turned around, and said to this family’s auntie, “I’ll drive first, let’s take the child to the hospital to see.”
With the secretary saying this, the flustered auntie also calmed down a lot. Yin Bai had her carry the child into the car, while she herself sat in the front passenger seat, and went to the hospital with the secretary.
On the way, the child was still crying non-stop. The younger one was nestled in the auntie’s arms, in so much pain that she kept shedding tears, gritting her teeth and holding back sobs. The older one next to the auntie kept blowing on her younger sister’s scraped areas, saying something like “Pain fly away, pain fly away.”
Yin Bai turned her head and glanced, finding that the children’s condition was already much better. The auntie in the back seat also took out her phone and called the adults at home one by one.
What she said was all about “the child was playing naughtily, climbed the wall and fell down, and now the next door neighbor is driving them to the hospital,” and similar things.
Yin Bai was on tenterhooks4, afraid that she had scared the child, leading to the matter of them not knocking but climbing the wall to pick up something being exposed. She listened for a while, found that she hadn’t been sold out, and she also breathed a sigh of relief.
The auntie wiped away tears and apologized to the person on the other end of the phone: “It’s all my fault, I didn’t watch Tongtong properly. She’s very well-behaved, she’s not crying now. Let Tongtong take the call… Okay, okay, okay…”
As the auntie spoke, she put the phone to Tongtong’s ear.
As soon as the child heard the familiar voice, she immediately burst into tears: “Waaah… Mom… it hurts so much… Mom, I hurt so much…”
On the other end of the phone, the woman heard the child’s crying and was heartbroken. She hurriedly comforted, “Tongtong, don’t cry, it doesn’t hurt anymore, it doesn’t hurt anymore, pain fly away.”
“Mommy will be back in a little while, Tongtong, bear with it a little longer, be good and listen to Grandma Zhou5.”
Tongtong wiped away her tears and obediently replied, “Mm, okay, I’ll be good.”
Yin Bai pricked up her ears, hearing Tongtong in the back seat intermittently answering the phone. Maybe her mom was coaxing her, saying things about taking her to play, and the child’s attention was diverted. Soon she stopped crying and started smiling, obediently agreeing with a tearful voice.
Yin Bai was afraid she would be accused, listened for a while and found the child had no time at all to complain, and so she relaxed a bit.
After a period of chaos and confusion6, the secretary, driving the car, finally arrived at the hospital.
The auntie took the child to the emergency department. They got X-rays and treated the injuries, busy until the afternoon. The doctor gave a diagnosis and had the child admitted to the hospital for observation.
Yin Bai had someone arrange a single room for the child and had the secretary pay all the money. The auntie from next door was very grateful for this, kept saying thank you, saying it made Yin Bai feel very guilty.
Maybe this period of rushing around made the auntie feel that Yin Bai was a good neighbor. By this time, the children hadn’t eaten yet and were all hungry. The auntie saw that Yin Bai’s legs and feet were inconvenient and it wasn’t good to have her run around anymore, so she troubled Yin Bai to stay in the hospital and look after the children, while she herself went home to bring the food she had made at noon for the children to eat.
Yin Bai felt extremely guilty, and could only agree to the request, and had the secretary take the auntie home to get lunch.
As soon as the secretary and the auntie left, the doctor who had treated the injuries also left, and only Yin Bai and the two children were left in the hospital room.
Leaning on her cane, Yin Bai stood at the hospital room door, looked towards the child sitting on the hospital bed, and felt extremely awkward.
Tongtong’s scraped areas had all been treated, and the larger areas on her forehead were all bandaged with gauze, looking pitiful. Wenwen, who was a bit older than her, was leaning by the hospital bed, looking anxiously at Tongtong’s injured foot, and said very sadly, “It’s all my fault, Tongtong, when will you get better? Does it still hurt?”
Tongtong shook her head, her rosy little face still had tear streaks, and she said, frowning, “Doctor Auntie said it will be better in a few days, it’s still a little bit ouchy.”
Wenwen hurriedly blew on it for her again: “Hoo hoo hoo… Pain fly away, pain fly away, Tongtong doesn’t hurt anymore, okay.”
Tongtong smiled through her tears: “Mm-hm… Mommy just blew on it for me too, she said she’ll come over in a little while. I don’t hurt anymore, otherwise Mommy will worry.”
Yin Bai was afraid she would be accused, listened for a while and found the child had no time at all to complain, and so she relaxed a bit.
The two children huddled together, chattering away, as if the two people wailing loudly just now weren’t them.
Seeing this, Yin Bai couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved. She looked at those two children, couldn’t help but grip the cane in her hand tightly, and lightly coughed: “Um…”
As soon as she spoke, the two children simultaneously turned their heads and looked towards her.
Yin Bai felt a bit guilty, looking at the tears in Tongtong’s eyes, and said somewhat guiltily, “You’re called Tongtong, right?”
Tongtong nodded, her rosy little face still had sparkling tear drops hanging on it, and looked at her in surprise and confusion: “Fairy Sister, did you call me for something?”
Ah, still calling me Fairy Sister at this time, don’t they think I’m some kind of devil?
Yin Bai pursed her lips, glanced at Wenwen, who was leaning by the bed, looking at her fearfully and timidly, sighed, and said somewhat self-reproachfully, “In the future… if you want to come to my yard, don’t climb over the wall.”
“Even if I’m not home, I will also leave the yard gate open, you can just come over directly.”
Yin Bai paused and said, “Climbing walls is a very dangerous thing, you are still small, don’t do such dangerous things.”
It seemed that for Yin Bai, saying such a long passage to someone she wasn’t familiar with was actually a very difficult thing. Tongtong, who heard her say this, showed a look of shame. She tilted her head up and looked pitifully at Yin Bai: “I’m sorry, Fairy Sister, I caused you trouble today.”
Seeing this, Wenwen next to her also lowered her head and said somewhat awkwardly, “I’m sorry, Sister…” Actually, Wenwen also knew that the reason Tongtong fell down was still because she had said to climb the wall, that Tongtong had climbed up.
Both children apologized, and Yin Bai felt that the score between them was settled.
Yin Bai pursed her lips and said somewhat awkwardly, “Um… it’s okay… I was the one who did something wrong first. Anyway, don’t climb walls anymore…”
Yin Bai smiled a little, gathered her courage, and walked over: “Speaking of which, do you want to watch TV? You can watch TV here, do you want me to turn it on for you?”
The two children exchanged a glance, and in unison they cheered joyfully, “Yes!”
LP: Re-translated on April 22, 2025
Footnotes
- 步履蹒跚 | bùlǚ pánshān | Describes walking with difficulty, staggering or limping.
- 嗓子眼 | sǎngziyǎn | Lit. “throat eye”; Used idiomatically to describe the feeling of one’s heart pounding intensely due to fear or anxiety.
- 120 | yī èr líng | China’s emergency medical services phone number.
- 提心吊胆 | tíxīn diàodǎn | Lit. “hanging heart, suspended gallbladder”; Describes being on tenterhooks or extremely anxious.
- 周奶奶 | Zhōu Nǎinai | Grandma Zhou
- 兵荒马乱 | bīnghuāng mǎluàn | Lit. “soldiers in chaos, horses in turmoil”; Describes a scene of chaos, turmoil, or frantic activity.
lollll shes so akward with the kids
lollll shes so akward with the kids