Yun Su pushed the office door open and immediately saw Gu Yan standing in the corner, clutching his backpack.
A heavily made-up middle-aged woman sat on the sofa talking to the teacher.
“Who exactly are you saying should kneel down and apologize?” Yun Su’s gaze swept toward the woman who had just spoken, her voice filled with anger.
At the sound of her voice, everyone in the office turned to look at Yun Su.
The teacher, seeing Yun Su arrive, looked as though she had spotted a savior. She quickly stood up and introduced both guardians.
“Mrs. Shao, this is Gu Yan’s guardian,” the teacher said. Then, turning to Yun Su, she continued, “Miss Yun, Gu Yan had a conflict with his classmate Shao Jun. This is Shao Jun’s mother.”
The woman on the sofa immediately flared up.
“What do you mean they had a conflict? He hit my son! Can’t you see how swollen my son’s face is?” Mrs. Shao jumped to her feet, pointing accusingly at Gu Yan while comforting the chubby boy in her arms.
The Shao family had their son late in life. For over ten years after their marriage, they had been unable to have children.
When Shao Jun was finally born, he became the treasure of the entire family. They doted on him endlessly, afraid he would suffer even the slightest hardship, indulging his every whim.
After finally having a son, they couldn’t bear to scold him themselves.
Yet now, he had been hit at kindergarten.
Mrs. Shao simply couldn’t swallow her anger. She strode over and grabbed Gu Yan, trying to force him to his knees.
“You little brat with no manners, hurry up and kneel down to apologize to my son!”
Yun Su rushed over, snatching Gu Yan away from Mrs. Shao and pulling him protectively to her side.
She had already noticed that something seemed off about the way Gu Yan had been walking. She had no time to deal with the unreasonable woman making a scene.
Yun Su crouched down and gently touched Gu Yan’s left leg.
Gu Yan flinched in pain.
“Xiao Yan, what happened to your leg? Let Sister take a look.”
Yun Su quickly rolled up his pant leg.
The front of his calf was covered in an alarming patch of bruises.
Yun Su sucked in a sharp breath.
“What happened?” Her gaze shifted toward the woman holding the chubby boy.
Seeing Gu Yan’s injury, Shao Jun’s eyes flickered with guilt.
Yun Su immediately understood what had happened.
Gu Yan’s injury was no less serious than the swelling on Shao Jun’s face.
Instead of feeling ashamed, Mrs. Shao snapped, “He deserved it. He hit my son, didn’t he? If you ask me, he wasn’t beaten hard enough.”
Yun Su almost laughed from sheer disbelief.
Turning to Gu Yan, she asked gently, “Xiao Yan, tell Sister what happened.”
“Sister, he dirtied my backpack.”
Only then did Yun Su notice the little bear backpack in Gu Yan’s arms.
It was the brand-new backpack she had bought for him.
She had personally helped him put it on that morning and had even praised him for how adorable he looked wearing it.
Now, the backpack was wrinkled and covered with several dirty footprints.
“Xiao Yan, if the backpack gets dirty, we can wash it. At worst, Sister can buy you another one. Tell me how your leg got hurt.”
“He kicked me while trying to take the backpack. Then he stepped on it and made it dirty. I got really angry, so I punched him once.”
After explaining everything, Gu Yan anxiously apologized.
“I’m sorry, Sister. I caused trouble for you.”
As always, Yun Su reached out and patted his head reassuringly.
Then she turned toward Mrs. Shao.
“Did you hear that? Your son snatched someone else’s backpack and kicked him first.”
Mrs. Shao opened her mouth to argue, but Yun Su didn’t give her the chance.
“You said earlier that he deserved to be hit. Since your son hit someone first, doesn’t that mean he deserved it too? If you ask me, he wasn’t hit hard enough.”
Mrs. Shao’s face alternated between red and pale, furious at having her own words thrown back at her.
“Just because he says so doesn’t make it true! Junjun, tell them what happened!” Mrs. Shao nudged the son, still crying in her arms.
Shao Jun stared blankly for a moment before bursting into tears again.
“Waaah! Mommy, my face hurts!”
Mrs. Shao immediately cupped his face in concern.
“My precious Junjun, let Mommy take a look.”
Yun Su rolled her eyes inwardly and said sarcastically, “If you wait any longer, it’ll heal on its own.”
Mrs. Shao’s expression darkened with embarrassment and anger.
Yun Su was worried about Gu Yan’s injured leg and had no intention of wasting any more time here.
“Teacher, there should have been plenty of students present when the argument happened. Why don’t we ask some of them what they saw?”
The teacher thought it was a reasonable suggestion and returned to the classroom to bring back several children who had witnessed the incident.
The children lined up in the office, looking nervously at one another without speaking.
Yun Su walked over and bent down to their level, her voice soft and reassuring.
“Don’t be afraid. The teacher is here, and she’ll protect you. Can you tell us what you saw?”
The teacher stepped forward as well.
“That’s right. You can tell me what happened.”
Xiao Xue glanced at Gu Yan, then at the still-sobbing Shao Jun, before stepping forward.
“Shao Jun was the one who bullied the new classmate first. We all saw it.”
The other children quickly nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, Shao Jun hit him first.”
“He stole the new student’s backpack and stepped on it.”
“He kicked the new student’s leg first.”
“He bullies people all the time,” a little boy in the corner added quietly.
The teacher looked genuinely surprised.
No one had ever come to her to report being bullied before.
Had the children simply been too afraid to tell her?
Mrs. Shao’s expression became increasingly strained.
“Don’t talk nonsense. There must have been a reason my Junjun hit someone.”
Yun Su couldn’t be bothered to argue with her any further.
She needed to take Gu Yan to the hospital as soon as possible. His injured leg was the priority.
“Mrs. Shao, keep indulging him if you want. One day, when your son hurts someone badly enough, he’ll have to explain himself to the police. I don’t want any compensation for the medical expenses, but make sure your son apologizes to Gu Yan tomorrow.”
After saying that, Yun Su ignored Mrs. Shao completely.
She requested leave from the teacher for the afternoon and left the school with Gu Yan.
Yun Su drove straight to the hospital.
After the examination, the doctor reassured them that the injury wasn’t serious.
A few days of medication would be enough for him to recover.
After applying the medicine once at the hospital, Yun Su collected the prescription, paid the fees, and took Gu Yan home.
On the drive back,
Yun Su focused on the road while Gu Yan sat in the back seat, hugging his backpack.
Glancing at him through the rearview mirror, Yun Su noticed how dejected he looked.
His fluffy little head drooped downward.
Raising children really wasn’t easy.
“Xiao Yan,” Yun Su said gently, “you can’t let yourself get hurt over a backpack in the future, okay? No backpack is more important than your health.”
Gu Yan lowered his eyes and answered softly,
“But you gave me that backpack. You said I looked really good wearing it.”
Yun Su’s heart softened.
She realized she needed to explain things properly to him.
“I said the backpack looked nice because you were the one wearing it. Xiao Yan, you’re more important than the backpack. If you like them, I can buy you as many as you want. But there’s only one you.”
She paused before continuing.
“To me, you’re the most important.”
Yun Su watched as the fluffy little head in the back seat perked up again.
Even the stubborn little tuft of hair on top of Gu Yan’s head stood upright once more.