After Being Scummed – Chapter 7
by Little PandaChairman Yin, Long Time No See.
Yin Bai walked over to the sofa with her cane, sat down, and turned on the TV for the two children. She turned to ask them what they wanted to watch.
Wenwen was still a little afraid of her. She huddled against Tongtong and stammered that she wanted to watch Peppa Pig. Yin Bai nodded in understanding and turned to Tongtong. “And you? Peppa Pig too?”
Tongtong nodded, indicating her choice was the same as her cousin’s. Yin Bai followed the children’s instructions and put on Peppa Pig.
Seeing the two children already engrossed in the show, Yin Bai took out her phone and sent a message to her secretary. The neighbor’s child had been injured in a fall — she couldn’t just walk away. That would be too heartless.
Though Yin Bai didn’t think of herself as a good person, she never shied away from responsibilities that were hers to bear. The team led by Jin Xiangyu had long grown accustomed to her constant reversals. Upon receiving Yin Bai’s message, the secretary simply replied, “Okay.”
The secretary also thoughtfully asked about Yin Bai’s subsequent plans — for instance, since she was no longer going abroad, would she like to take some time to relax domestically?
Relax? Looking at these two children, whatever mood for “facing the sea, with spring blossoms” she’d had was completely gone. She just wanted the child to heal quickly and for the child’s parents not to come knocking on her door to settle accounts.
Yin Bai replied vaguely, “We’ll see.”
She had the secretary buy some fruit and nutritional supplements that children liked, as her apology gift, and that ended the conversation.
The secretary moved fast. Before long, a delivery person brought over a pile of fruit. It arrived even before Auntie’s lunch, and the hungry children couldn’t help but cheer at the sight of food.
Seeing them happy, Yin Bai’s lips curved into a small smile. She set the fruit basket on the table and said generously to the two children, “These are for you. Eat as much as you like. Whatever you want, go wash it yourselves.”
Tongtong, sitting on the bed, said sweetly, “Thank you, Fairy Sister!”
Wenwen, standing beside her, still couldn’t quite believe it. She looked up at Yin Bai, eyes wide. “Really?”
Yin Bai, no longer minding the girl’s fear and wariness at this point, smiled and nodded. “Really. Go ahead and eat. I’m not some evil queen — the food I give you isn’t poisoned!”
Both Tongtong and Wenwen had heard the story of Snow White and the evil queen, and they laughed at this. Wenwen especially cheered. “Sister isn’t an evil queen, she’s a fairy godmother!”
She pitter-pattered over to the coffee table, opened the fruit basket, and chattered away asking Tongtong what she wanted. Tongtong said she wanted grapes, so Wenwen grabbed the grapes and trotted off to wash them.
As an adult with limited mobility, enlisting a child’s help gave her zero guilt. Seeing Wenwen run to the bathroom to wash the fruit, Yin Bai also asked her to wash an apple while she was at it.
Before long, Wenwen came wobbling out of the bathroom, carrying a plate of fruit.
She set the plate on the coffee table beside Tongtong’s hospital bed and happily peeled grapes for her cousin. Seeing the two children chatting and laughing, Yin Bai walked over with her cane and picked up a fruit knife to peel an apple.
Though born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Yin Bai wasn’t the kind of heiress who couldn’t do anything. This apple-peeling skill was one she’d secretly practiced — ruining over a dozen apples — back when Xiao Nian was in the hospital many years ago.
Of course, her technique was even more refined now. Before long, vivid little “red rabbits” began hopping out from under Yin Bai’s knife.
Yin Bai placed the little “red rabbits” in front of the children, earning an exclamation of delight. “Wow, rabbits! So cute!”
Tongtong looked up and gave Yin Bai a big smile. “Fairy Sister, you’re amazing!”
Wenwen picked up a little rabbit, examining it from every angle, delighted beyond words. “You really are amazing, Fairy Sister! Did you make them with magic?”
Yin Bai put her hand to her lips, gave a soft cough, and forced a straight face through her smile. “That’s right. These are little rabbits enchanted with healing magic!”
She lowered her gaze to the child lying in the hospital bed and said a little sheepishly, “Once Tongtong eats them, her foot will get better in no time.”
Wenwen immediately brought a little rabbit to Tongtong’s mouth, saying happily, “Tongtong, hurry and eat, eat up! Once you eat the magic rabbits, tomorrow — no, maybe tonight — we can go home and play!”
Tongtong took the apple from her cousin, cradled it with both hands, took a small bite, and said with a grin, “Okay, I’ll eat lots then.”
The way the little child nibbled at the small slice of apple looked just like a hamster — animated and adorable. Watching her, Yin Bai’s lips curved up, and she couldn’t help but laugh.
But the child sitting on the bed eating her apple hadn’t forgotten about her. While eating, she picked up a piece for Yin Bai too. “Fairy Sister, you eat too! Once you eat it, your foot will get better!”
Yin Bai was taken aback for a moment. She looked down at Tongtong, who was holding the apple, eyes shining bright. “Hurry and eat! Once you do, Fairy Sister might not need a cane anymore!”
Yin Bai stood by the bed, leaning on her cane, looking at the child’s innocent smile, and couldn’t help but laugh. “Ah… that magic doesn’t work for me anymore, because I’m a grown-up. Only cute little children receive the blessing of magic.”
Yin Bai gave her cane a little wave. “Also, this isn’t a cane — it’s my magic wand.” She looked down at the two children, her expression utterly serious. “To become a fairy as beautiful as me, you have to go through very harsh trials.”
“Want to know why my leg is lame? It’s because I used my own leg bone to make this magic wand that I became the fairy I am now.”
Facing these innocent, worldly-unwise children was far easier than dealing with adults. Yin Bai rarely talked this much, even cracking lighthearted jokes.
Wenwen and Tongtong stared at Yin Bai’s leg in shock, both gasping.
Wenwen, nibbling her apple, gazed at Yin Bai’s leg, wide-eyed. “Becoming a fairy really does take something extraordinary!”
So… so amazing! She actually used her own leg bone to make a magic wand — that must have hurt so, so much!
Yin Bai looked at the children’s shocked expressions, raised an eyebrow, and smiled. “Of course. If it weren’t difficult, how would I be the only fairy in the world this beautiful?”
She said it with such conviction that the children believed every word. Tongtong, sitting on the bed and chewing her apple, asked earnestly, “Fairy Sister, can you tell us the story of how you became a fairy?”
Yin Bai raised her eyebrows. “You want to hear a story?”
Wenwen nodded vigorously. “Mhm mhm mhm, yes yes yes!”
Yin Bai tapped her cane against the bed frame and smiled. “Then should I sit down and tell you?”
“Mhm mhm mhm!” Tongtong reached out and patted the space beside her, saying gleefully, “Fairy Sister, hurry and sit down and tell us!”
Yin Bai settled on the edge of the bed. Beside her, Wenwen eagerly offered a bunch of grapes. Yin Bai took them and peeled the grapes unhurriedly, thinking aloud. “This is a story from a long, long time ago…”
Under the children’s eager gaze, Yin Bai made up a story off the top of her head. “A long, long time ago, when I was only twelve, I lived with my mom and dad in a little castle by the sea, where spring blossoms bloomed…”
Wenwen clapped her hands at the word “castle” and exclaimed, “Wow, a castle! Fairy Sister, were you a princess before?”
Yin Bai glanced at her and said without changing expression, “Mm, sort of. Now be a good girl and stop talking. Do you still want to hear the story or not?”
Wenwen immediately clamped her hand over her mouth, watching her cautiously. “You go ahead. Keep talking.”
Yin Bai turned her gaze to Tongtong, who was listening with rapt attention. Seeing that her focus had completely shifted to the story, she continued. “Then one day, I received a letter from the Fairy Council, saying I’d turned twelve and needed to prepare for the trials to become a fairy.”
“But passing the trials to become a fairy was extremely difficult. Mom and Dad worried about me, afraid I’d get hurt, and refused the Fairy Council’s demands. But the Fairy Council had chosen me to become a fairy, and that was something Mom and Dad absolutely couldn’t refuse…”
“So one midday, Mom and Dad drove an enormous Totoro-sized carriage and took me and ran away.”
Wenwen gasped again. “Wow, what does a Totoro carriage look like?”
Yin Bai paused. “Well, that… I’ll describe it in detail later. Suffice it to say it was very, very fast, and very, very cute.”
Yin Bai continued. “Mom and Dad drove the carriage, following the wind eastward. But as we passed through the witch’s forest, we were caught in a trap the witch had set.”
“The witch’s tree spirits entangled our Totoro carriage. Just then, a pitch-black dragon with enormous wings descended from the sky, seized our carriage in its jaws, and swallowed it whole…”
“The carriage tumbled down, down, down through the dragon’s dark throat, rolling all the way into the dragon’s belly…”
Wenwen’s eyes went wide with fear. She gulped hard, and after a long moment patted her chest and said, “Oh no, so scary, so scary!”
Yin Bai smiled, turned to look at Tongtong — who was staring at her with wide eyes — and continued. “Scary, right? Do you know what was inside the dragon’s belly?”
Tongtong perked up immediately, grabbing Yin Bai’s hand. “What, what? Was it people? Did the dragon eat lots and lots of people? Fairy Sister, did you almost get eaten?”
Yin Bai reached out and pinched Tongtong’s soft little cheek. “You guessed right.”
She lowered her hand and continued with a smile. “Inside the dragon’s belly were vast fields of lava!”
Tongtong was confused. “Fairy Sister, what’s lava?”
Wenwen beside her eagerly raised her hand. “I know, I know! I know this one! It’s, like, really really hot liquid rock!”
What kind of nonsensical explanation was that!
Yin Bai fell silent for a moment, then rephrased. “You can imagine it as vast fields of blazing fire.”
Tongtong looked worried. “Was Fairy Sister going to be burned to death?”
Yin Bai shook her head. “No! Even though it was very hot, with lots of fire, Mom and Dad and the Totoro carriage protected me…”
“When the carriage overturned, Mom and Dad shielded me beneath them. Just as the fire inside the dragon’s belly was about to consume me, I heard the fairies’ voices…”
“She said: ‘Draw out your leg bone, believe in the power of love, and become a magic fairy!'”
Actually, that wasn’t right. At that time, Yin Bai hadn’t heard anything at all. Her eyes had been scorched by blinding light, her ears eroded by the roar of explosions. The only real sensation was the thick, cloying smell of blood at her nose.
That hadn’t really been such a thrilling fantasy tale. For her, it was a nightmare that had haunted her entire adolescence.
But nightmares always come to an end.
Yin Bai raised her hand, lifting her cane to point at the ceiling. “So I drew out my leg bone, chanted the spell of love, and it transformed into a magic wand…”
Just then, without anyone noticing, the hospital room’s door handle turned. A woman in high heels, leading her assistant, pushed open the door in a hurry.
The impeccably made-up woman looked up, her eyes going straight to the hospital bed. She saw Yin Bai in a white suit, standing beside the bed, cane raised high, declaring with impassioned fervor: “The magic wand grew and grew and grew, until it became the Ding Hai Shen Zhen1 — and pierced right through the dragon’s belly!”
“The dragon’s belly burst open with a huge hole, and lava came gushing out — whoosh! — and it spat me right out!”
The two children clapped. “Wow! Fairy Sister is so cool!”
Yin Bai lowered her cane and raised an eyebrow at the children with a smile. “Well? Am I not an amazing fairy?”
The children were wonderfully supportive, saying happily, “Yes yes yes! Fairy Sister is the best!”
The woman who had just entered looked at the scene in the hospital room — two small children and one adult, all laughing together — feeling utterly bewildered. Someone, please tell her what was going on here.
Just then, Tongtong, sitting on the bed, turned her head and spotted the woman at the door. Her eyes lit up and she called out loudly, “Mommy!”
Mommy?
Yin Bai turned her head toward the door and locked eyes with the woman standing outside.
Their gazes met. Yin Bai sucked in a sharp breath, gripping her cane tight.
Fuck!
It was Zuo Jingyou again!
Yin Bai thought of the image she’d just presented — cane raised high, pointing at the ceiling — and was so mortified she wanted to find a crack in the floor to crawl into! She grabbed her cane and instinctively turned to flee.
Just then, Zuo Jingyou — standing in the doorway with her assistant — reached up to smooth her slightly disheveled temple hair and offered Yin Bai a grateful smile. “Ah, Chairman Yin. I didn’t expect it to be you. Long time no see.”
Yin Bai forced the corners of her mouth up into a stiff, humorless smile. “Heh. Long time no see.”
I didn’t expect it either — this kid really is your daughter.
If she’d known it was Zuo Jingyou’s daughter, she never would have gotten involved, no matter what.
The author has something to say:
A massive social death2 scene.
Believe in the power of love, and become a magic fairy!
Trust me, this time it really is a healing story right out of a fairy tale, because there are angels!
To encourage everyone to leave more comments, I’ve decided to give out red packets3!
Leave a comment early and you can claim a red packet!
Footnotes
- The 'Ocean-Pacifying Needle,' a magical staff from the classic Chinese novel 'Journey to the West,' wielded by the Monkey King Sun Wukong. It could change size at will.
- Chinese internet slang for extreme public embarrassment or humiliation — the feeling that one's social standing has 'died' from sheer embarrassment.
- In Chinese webnovel culture, 'red packets' are small monetary gifts that authors distribute to readers through the platform, typically as a reward for engagement.
😂😂😂Okay now this a healing story unlike the other heartbreaking tearjerker story
The FL sure is interesting 😂
😂😂😂Okay now this a healing story unlike the other heartbreaking tearjerker story
The FL sure is interesting 😂
haahahahaha everytime something embarrassing happens YIN BAI’s wife is there
haahahahaha everytime something embarrassing happens YIN BAI’s wife is there