After Being Scummed – Chapter 6
by Little PandaI’m Done For, This Is Big Trouble!
Maybe it was because Yin Bai had scared them that one time, but when the commotion drifted over from next door again, it wasn’t nearly as cheerful.
Leaning on her cane, she went upstairs to the second floor. Yin Bai stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing at the two children playing next door, and tucked away her faint twinge of guilt. She gave a soft snort, sat back on the swing, and picked up her phone to send a message to Jin Xiangyu.
Yin Bai wasn’t a heartless boss. She’d promised Zhang Yu time off, so she wouldn’t drag her back during her vacation. Instead, she had Jin Xiangyu arrange a relatively light-duty secretary to come over, pack her luggage, and sort out the itinerary, so she could set off for a private island abroad the next day.
Jin Xiangyu was efficient. The following morning, the new assistant arrived, packed her belongings, arranged the schedule, and drove her to the airport.
By a little past eleven, the secretary carried the luggage downstairs and brought the car around to the villa’s entrance. Yin Bai, her mobility limited, came down the stairs slowly, leaning on her cane.
But the moment she stepped outside, a buzzing sound drifted over from nearby. Yin Bai raised a hand to shade her eyes and squinted toward the source. A miniature toy airplane floated over the wall from the neighbor’s villa, smacked into the pomelo tree in her yard, and got stuck in its branches.
Yin Bai watched, dumbfounded. Those kids were really pushing it. She’d told them no badminton, so today they were playing with toy airplanes instead?
Clearly, she needed to teach those two a lesson.
Leaning on her cane, Yin Bai took out her phone to call the secretary over while shuffling toward the back garden.
The call connected. Yin Bai said to the secretary on the other end, “Come out to the yard. I need help with something.”
She had to get her hands on that toy airplane as leverage before having a “good talk” with those two children.
Yin Bai hung up and hobbled to the back garden, reaching the pomelo tree. She stood beneath it, leaning on her cane, tilting her head up at the dense canopy, carefully searching for the toy plane caught in the branches.
Just then, fragments of conversation and rustling sounds reached her ears.
“Tongtong… Tongtong… are you up yet?”
“Almost, almost…”
“Be careful, okay…”
Hearing the two children talking, Yin Bai turned instinctively toward the wall. At that moment, a small child with her hair in a bun was climbing over the wall using the vines, into Yin Bai’s side of the yard.
Yin Bai stared at the wavering silhouette on the wall, her pupils contracting, her heart stopping.
Oh my god! Were all kids this wild these days? The wall between the two properties was at least two meters high. True, she hadn’t installed any safety measures on top for aesthetic reasons—just the vines both households had planted—but weren’t these children afraid of snakes, ants, mosquitoes, and bugs?
Yin Bai’s heart pounded. She didn’t dare breathe, terrified of startling the wobbling child on the wall.
Then the unsteady child on the wall looked up and saw Yin Bai standing in the yard.
Their eyes met. The little girl gasped, recoiled in fright, and toppled off the wall with a thud.
The moment the child’s silhouette vanished from the wall, a scream erupted from next door.
“Tongtong!”
The scream seemed to snap Yin Bai out of her daze. She felt her heart about to leap out of her throat.
I’m done for. This is big trouble!
Gripping her cane, Yin Bai quickly dialed the secretary. “Hurry, hurry, hurry! Go next door—a child fell off my wall! Go check how badly she’s hurt!”
The secretary rushed over to handle the situation.
Yin Bai walked slowly. By the time she got there, the child had already been picked up by the household auntie.
The four- or five-year-old girl nestled in the auntie’s arms, scrapes visible on her forehead, hands, and feet. She kept crying, saying her foot hurt. The older girl next to her was crying even louder.
She was wailing that it was all her fault, that if she’d known, she wouldn’t have let Tongtong go over.
The children’s crying made Yin Bai’s head ache. Beside them, the auntie was wiping her own tears. “It’s all my fault. I was busy cooking and looked away for just a second, and they went and got into mischief. Professor Sun isn’t home today either. What do we do?”
Yin Bai was anxious too. What else was there to do but rush to the hospital?
The secretary, helping check the child’s injuries, turned to Yin Bai. “Boss, the little one’s foot looks like it might be sprained. We need to take her to the hospital for X-rays.”
Yin Bai watched the child cry, guilty and flustered. “Then let’s go right now! Call 120, get an ambulance!”
Then, panicking, she corrected herself. “No, no, no—an ambulance will be too slow. You drive. Drive them to the nearest hospital!”
The secretary hesitated. “But this way, getting you to the airport will run late.”
How could Yin Bai think about the airport right now? She’d scared the neighbor’s child into falling off a wall. They’d probably come after her for it, ruining the neighborly relationship. Yin Bai urged, “Alright, alright, forget all that. Take the child first.”
“Cancel my trip. I’m not flying. Just handle this first.”
The secretary understood. She turned to the auntie. “I’ll drive and take the child to the hospital.”
Reassured by the secretary’s words, the frantic auntie calmed down considerably. Yin Bai told her to get in the car with the child, then took the front passenger seat herself and rode along to the hospital.
On the way, the little one kept crying. The younger girl lay in the auntie’s arms, tears streaming from the pain, biting her lip to hold back sobs. The older one leaned against the auntie, blowing on her little sister’s scraped spots, murmuring, “Pain pain fly away, pain pain fly away.”
Yin Bai glanced back and saw the children had settled down. The auntie in the backseat had taken out her phone, calling the adults at home one by one.
She kept saying things like, “The kids were playing and climbed the wall and fell. The neighbor next door is driving them to the hospital right now.”
Yin Bai’s heart was in her throat, terrified the truth would come out—that because she’d scared the children, they hadn’t knocked on the door but climbed the wall to retrieve their things instead. She listened for a while and realized she hadn’t been sold out. She let out a breath of relief.
The auntie wiped her tears and apologized to whoever was on the phone. “It’s all my fault. I didn’t watch Tongtong properly. She’s very good—she’s stopped crying now. Let me put Tongtong on… yes, yes, yes…”
The auntie held the phone to Tongtong’s ear.
The moment the little girl heard the familiar voice, she burst into tears. “Waah… Mommy… it hurts so much… Mommy, it hurts…”
On the other end, the woman’s heart ached at the sound of her child crying. She hurried to comfort her. “Don’t cry, Tongtong. It doesn’t hurt anymore. Pain pain fly away.”
“Mommy will be right back. Just be brave a little longer and listen to Grandma Zhou, okay?”
Tongtong wiped her tears and answered obediently. “Mm, okay. I’ll be good.”
Yin Bai pricked up her ears, listening to Tongtong’s broken replies from the backseat. Her mother must have been coaxing her, promising to take her somewhere fun. The distraction worked—before long, Tongtong was smiling through her tears, answering in agreement with a sniffle.
Yin Bai, terrified of being accused, listened for a while and realized the child had no time to report her. She relaxed a little.
After all the chaos, the secretary finally pulled up to the hospital.
The auntie carried the child to the emergency department. X-rays, wound treatment—it was a busy afternoon. The doctor’s verdict: the child needed to stay overnight for observation.
Yin Bai had someone arrange a private room for the child and told the secretary to settle all the bills. The auntie was deeply grateful, thanking her over and over, which only made Yin Bai feel guiltier.
Perhaps all the rushing around had convinced the auntie that Yin Bai was a decent neighbor. By now, the children hadn’t eaten all day and were starving. Seeing that Yin Bai had trouble walking, the auntie didn’t want to make her run around more, so she asked Yin Bai to stay at the hospital and watch the children while she went home to fetch the lunch she’d already made.
Yin Bai, too guilty to refuse, agreed and had the secretary drive the auntie home to get the food.
Once the secretary and the auntie left, and the doctor who’d treated the wounds departed too, only Yin Bai and the two children remained in the hospital room.
Yin Bai stood at the doorway, leaning on her cane, looking at the child on the bed, and felt deeply awkward.
Tongtong’s scrapes had all been treated. The larger scrape on her forehead was bandaged with gauze, making her look pitiful. The slightly older Wenwen leaned over the bedside, gazing at Tongtong’s injured foot, and said sadly, “It’s all my fault. When will you get better, Tongtong? Does it still hurt?”
Tongtong shook her head. Her pink little face still bore tear tracks. She frowned. “The doctor lady said it’ll heal in a few days. It just hurts a little.”
Wenwen immediately blew on it again. “Huff huff huff… pain pain fly away, pain pain fly away. Tongtong doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”
Tongtong smiled through her tears. “Mm-hm… Mommy blew on it for me too just now. She said she’d come over soon. I’m not hurting anymore, or else Mommy would worry.”
The two little girls huddled together, chattering away, as if the two who’d been wailing their eyes out moments ago were entirely different people.
Yin Bai felt a wave of relief seeing this. She looked at the two children, tightened her grip on her cane, and gave a light cough. “Um…”
The moment she spoke, both children turned to look at her in unison.
Yin Bai felt a twinge of guilt. Looking at the tears still in Tongtong’s eyes, she said with some remorse, “Your name is Tongtong, right?”
Tongtong nodded. Her soft little face still glistened with teardrops. She looked at Yin Bai with surprise and confusion. “Did Fairy Sister call me for something?”
She was still calling her “Fairy Sister” at a time like this. Didn’t she think she was some kind of devil?
Yin Bai pressed her lips together, glanced at Wenwen—who was shrinking back and eyeing her with fear—and sighed. With a note of self-reproach, she said, “From now on… if you want to come to my yard, don’t climb the wall.”
“Even when I’m not home, I’ll leave the gate open. You can just walk right over.”
Yin Bai paused, then went on. “Climbing the wall is very dangerous. You’re still little. Don’t do something so dangerous.”
For someone like Yin Bai, saying that much to people she barely knew was actually quite difficult. Tongtong looked ashamed at her words, tilting her head up to gaze at Yin Bai pleadingly. “I’m sorry, Fairy Sister. I caused you trouble today.”
Beside her, Wenwen lowered her head and said awkwardly, “I’m sorry, Sister…” Wenwen knew, too, that Tongtong had fallen because she’d suggested climbing the wall, and Tongtong had followed her lead.
Both children had apologized. Yin Bai felt their account was settled.
Yin Bai pressed her lips together, somewhat awkward. “Um… it’s fine… I was in the wrong first. Just don’t climb the wall anymore…”
Yin Bai smiled, gathered her courage, and walked over. “By the way—do you want to watch TV? You can watch TV here. Want me to turn it on for you?”
The two children exchanged a glance and cheered in unison. “Yes!”
I don’t understand why she’s feeling guilty. She was just standing there. Standing in your own yard is a crime now? What a weird person.
lollll shes so akward with the kids
lollll shes so akward with the kids