When Lu Shiying saw that he had suddenly stopped struggling, he thought he must have hit him too hard and hurt him, so he immediately stopped. He even gently rubbed the back of his head with his palm.
“Did I really hit you hard enough to put you to sleep? Or are you trying to make me take your pants off and spank you?”
Jiang Ci immediately sat up. “No! It still hurts a little, okay?”
Lu Shiying had never been particularly obsessed with the child’s grades. As long as he passed, that was enough.
But lately, his math teacher had been messaging him every few days. At least Jiang Ci had managed to score a little over sixty on the midterm last semester but this time he had dropped straight down into the thirties. The difference was far too great.
Jiang Ci lay over the armrest of the sofa, resting his chin on his arms. He tilted his head and secretly peeked at him. “Big brother……”
“Where did everything I usually tutor you on go?” Lu Shiying tossed the test paper onto the table and the pages spread open with a sharp slap. “Today, copy all these questions you got wrong one hundred times.”
“Huh? One hundred times is way too many!” Jiang Ci immediately scooted over and rubbed himself against his arm. “My tooth hurts. I just lost one the day before yesterday and it still hurts.”
Lu Shiying lowered his head and glanced at him, his tone calm and matter of fact. “A toothache is a problem with your mouth. Copying homework uses your hands. It doesn’t interfere.”
Jiang Ci’s lips immediately drooped and his head hung down. The amount of homework given by an elementary school was not much to begin with but his brother was adding even more on top of it. Just thinking about it made his whole body feel miserable.
“Go stand facing the wall and reflect on what you did.” Seeing him sitting there in a daze, his mind obviously wandering elsewhere, Lu Shiying sighed inwardly. He felt that he really had been indulging the child too much. If this continued, he would spoil him sooner or later. The rules that needed to be enforced could not be lacking.
Jiang Ci was obedient enough. He climbed down from the sofa, rubbed his sore bottom and slowly made his way to the corner of the room before crouching down.
Lu Shiying said, “Stand.”
Jiang Ci stood up again, straightening his back as he faced the wallpaper. He stared blankly at its slender patterns and muttered softly under his breath, as though he were counting the little squares.
He silently repeated to himself: Lu Shiying is an evil big bad wolf who specializes in bullying this harmless little rabbit.
Lu Shiying picked up the test paper and began looking through it again. The more he looked, the tighter his brows drew together. Many of the answers were correct but the steps used to solve the problems made absolutely no sense. It was obvious at a glance that he had simply guessed.
Ever since the little boy had become addicted to games, his academic performance had become increasingly uneven. He would have to make time to tutor him every day and help him catch up.
Or……maybe the problem was with him.
If a child was not taught properly, the adults were responsible too.
He pressed his fingers against his temples. His eyes continued moving back and forth over the test paper but his thoughts had already drifted far away.
Jiang Ci stood obediently in the corner, his back to him, without moving an inch.
Lu Shiying stared at that small figure for a long while before beginning to seriously reflect. Had he been spoiling him too much normally? Had he indulged the child so much that he had stopped having any sense of limits, always believing that no matter what trouble he caused, his brother would eventually soften and let him off?
“Xiao Ci, come here.”
Jiang Ci froze. Was it over already? He turned around and ran over, only to see at once that his math test had been crumpled in several places from being rubbed and handled, while a deep red mark had been pressed into the web between Lu Shiying’s thumb and forefinger by his fingernail, almost breaking the skin.
His brother was genuinely angry.
“Do you think I’m too good to you, so it doesn’t matter if you do badly on a test?”
Jiang Ci shook his head frantically, then rushed forward and wrapped both arms tightly around his brother’s waist, burying his face against his chest. His voice came out muffled as he pleaded, “Brother, please don’t be angry anymore. I’ll definitely do well on the next test. I just… I really don’t like math. Looking at all those numbers makes my head spin. I’m not blaming you for hitting me. I’ll study properly from now on. I’m sorry.”
Lu Shiying rubbed the top of his head and pulled him a little closer into his arms. “I have a part in this too. Did I hurt you just now?”
Jiang Ci lifted his head and flashed him a wide, toothy grin. “If a child isn’t taught properly, then it’s the father’s fault?”
Smack!
“Ow!” Jiang Ci clutched his butt and hopped once, having earned himself another slap for running his mouth.
What on earth had his brother eaten growing up? How could his hands be so strong? That slap had made his bones go numb. Had he been a mighty bull in his previous life or something?
“Learned your lesson?”
Jiang Ci obediently nodded. Whenever Lu Shiying hit him, it hurt even more than if he had been hit himself. His little brother had been raised entirely by him, someone he had cherished in the palm of his hand since childhood. Even the slightest scrape on him was enough to make his heart ache terribly, let alone having to be the one to lay a hand on him.
Jiang Ci had thought that acting spoiled and cute would be enough to muddle through the whole matter but when evening came, he still ended up being held down in the study and made to copy out the questions.
For the first few repetitions, his handwriting was still fairly neat. By the twentieth copy, however, his strokes had already begun to slant and twist. By the fortieth, his handwriting had completely abandoned all restraint. Horizontal lines were no longer horizontal, vertical strokes were no longer vertical and the characters looked like rows of waves drifting aimlessly across the paper.
Lu Shiying sat beside him, dealing with the company’s accounts. His fingers tapped away continuously against the keyboard, while the glow from the screen illuminated his face, his expression focused and intent.
Jiang Ci secretly glanced at him. Seeing that his brother was too occupied to pay attention to him, he quietly slipped a hand beneath the coffee table and felt around until he found a packet of dried mango.
He carefully tore open a small opening in the packet, pinched out a slice and stuffed it into his mouth. Then he shoved the packet back into its original place and continued copying while chewing, his cheeks puffed out adorably.
In reality, Lu Shiying had noticed it long ago. Several times, the corner of his eye swept toward Jiang Ci and his heart was both annoyed and amused.
This kid. Every time he did his homework, he had to dig out some kind of snack. Could his mouth really not stay idle?
When Jiang Ci reached his third slice, he suddenly felt a sharp jolt of pain in the back molar on the right side. The pain was so sudden that he sucked in a breath.
No way?
When he was little, he’d eaten dried mango until he’d loosened a tooth. Was it happening again today?
Did dried mango have some kind of personal grudge against him?
He covered his cheek and rubbed it gently. That tooth had actually been hurting on and off for half a month. It had finally settled down last week, only to make a comeback now.
He hadn’t wanted Lu Shiying to worry, so he had never mentioned it. He had even refused to let Doctor Nie examine it but the pain was simply too much to bear this time, so he had no choice but to put down his pen and walk over.
“Brother.”
Lu Shiying looked up. The moment he saw Jiang Ci clutching one side of his face, his complexion pale, he immediately stopped what he was doing. “What’s wrong? Finished copying?”
Jiang Ci shook his head, then climbed straight onto his lap and settled himself there. He pointed toward his mouth, his voice carrying a hint of grievance. “This tooth really hurts. It was fine last week but it started hurting again after I ate something just now. My tooth fell out the day before yesterday without any bleeding, so I didn’t let the doctor examine it.”
Lu Shiying’s expression changed instantly. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? If there’s anywhere on your body that feels uncomfortable, you have to tell me immediately.”
He turned on the flashlight on his phone, supporting Jiang Ci’s chin with one hand and gently making him open his mouth as he leaned closer to examine it. A visibly swollen, reddened area could be seen above the gum and it looked as though the primary molar had been damaged.
By the age of nine, a child had already lost and replaced most of their baby teeth. Jiang Ci was currently still in the process of losing his lower canine teeth. Normally, even when he lost a tooth and there was a little bleeding, it could be stopped without much trouble but having a tooth extracted was not something to take lightly.
“I’ll have Doctor Nie come over and take a look. You may need to have the tooth extracted.”
The moment Jiang Ci heard that, his entire body stiffened. “E Extract my tooth? Wouldn’t that cause massive bleeding and then, ”
Lu Shiying immediately covered his mouth, his expression turning stern. “You are not allowed to say that word. Your brother is right here with you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Jiang Ci froze for two seconds before obediently nodding.
The next day, Doctor Nie invited the director of the dental department over for a consultation. After taking an X ray, they confirmed that the damaged baby molar was affecting the development of the permanent tooth bud underneath it. From the perspective of conservative treatment, extracting the tooth was the better option.
“Does it absolutely have to be extracted?” Lu Shiying asked worriedly.
The dentist nodded. “Yes. Otherwise, this rotten tooth will continue to interfere with the permanent tooth developing underneath it. If the permanent tooth bud develops abnormally, it will be much more troublesome to deal with later. I’m confident about this procedure. This kind of situation occurs in quite a few children.”
In the end, there was no other choice. Jiang Ci had to temporarily stop attending classes so that his tooth could be treated.
The tooth could not be extracted while the inflammation was still present, so the doctor stayed at their home and monitored him at all times. Sometimes, even when there was only the slightest trace of blood seeping from his gums, it had to be stopped immediately. They endured seven whole days like that before the inflammation finally subsided.
After going to the hospital for another X ray and completing the admission procedures, the surgery was scheduled for the following day.
Jiang Ci had never undergone surgery before. Usually, as long as he was by his brother’s side, he felt that even if the sky came crashing down, there was nothing to fear. This time, however, he was a little frightened.
When he was little, Lu Shiying had practically stayed by his side twenty four hours a day. Thick carpets had been laid throughout the house, so even if Jiang Ci took a tumble, he would not hurt himself.
But at school, if he accidentally bumped himself against something, a large purple bruise would immediately appear on his skin and the pooled blood would continue spreading outward. Everything depended on the school doctor treating him promptly. Even the tiny puncture left by an injection could easily swell into a blood blister. The medicines used for him were all top of the line yet no matter what they did, there was always a tendency for things to become dangerous.
Jiang Ci’s life had practically been pieced together and sustained little by little with money. If even one step went wrong, if the wrong medication was administered, something serious could happen.
Lu Shiying stood at the doorway of the hospital room as the director of the dental department explained Jiang Ci’s condition.
“Young Master Lu, the success rate of the surgery is ninety five percent. He has hemophilia A and was born with a deficiency of factor VIII, so his blood clotting function is poor. As you can see from the X ray, this baby molar has already come into contact with and interfered with the developing permanent tooth yet it still hasn’t fallen out. He’s still at the stage where he’s losing his baby teeth and it looks like it’s been a while since his last follow up examination, hasn’t it? But based on my experience, we can extract it without much trouble. There shouldn’t be any major problems. It’s only a minor procedure, so don’t worry.”
After hearing this, Lu Shiying’s expression remained heavy.
He was nervous and uneasy. Even a five percent risk was enough to frighten him.
Jiang Ci was afraid of injections and afraid of examinations, so he had always avoided going back for follow up appointments. That tooth had been aching faintly for quite some time but every time he felt it, he would simply push against it with the tip of his tongue. More often than not, the pain would disappear after a while, so he never paid much attention to it.
When Lu Shiying returned to the hospital room, the inflammation in Jiang Ci’s tooth had just subsided. The tooth no longer hurt and he was lying comfortably on the bed eating something.
Lu Shiying took one look and immediately recognized what Jiang Ci was holding.
It was unmistakably that damn packet of dried mango.
He strode over in a few steps, snatched the dried mango out of Jiang Ci’s hands and raised it as though he intended to throw it straight out the window. His arm remained suspended in midair for two seconds before he slowly lowered it again and gently placed the packet back against Jiang Ci.
Jiang Ci: “……Brother, what are you doing?”
He firmly believed that this matter had absolutely nothing to do with the dried mango.
“Your tooth is being extracted tomorrow. It’ll hurt afterward and there’s even a risk to your life yet you still have the mind to sit here eating.” Lu Shiying’s brows drew tightly together, his voice calm and faint.
………..
Author’s Note:
Lu Shiying was basically like this: My baby.
Every single day, little Lu wished he could tear that dried mango into a thousand pieces.
Dried Mango: What did I ever do wrong?
But dried mango really was so damn delicious!
【I have two wisdom teeth and both of them have been extracted. I have six cavities and I’ve had six root canal treatments. I’ve also had fillings done on eight to twelve teeth.
The dentist told me that he had never seen someone so young with so many bad teeth. He said that if there were black lines on the surface of a tooth, it meant the tooth needed to be filled. That’s what he told me.
And then the very first tooth I ever had a root canal treatment on went bad again. All together, I have more than a dozen bad teeth in my mouth.
Mine is hereditary. I hardly drink milk tea or eat sweets and over the past ten years, I’ve basically been to the dental hospital around ten times. My teeth seem to be getting worked on every single year.
So I know a tiny bit about dental knowledge but I’m by no means a professional. If there are any misconceptions or inaccuracies, everyone is welcome to point them out so I can make corrections. Please don’t use this as a reference!】
【Everyone really needs to take good care of their teeth! My teeth have already driven me completely crazy. Every time, I feel like I want to pull every single one of them out!】
【I finished writing this during the day today, so I’m updating early. Everyone doesn’t have to wait until midnight anymore.】
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
You read the chapter. They wrestled with the words. Seems fair, no? (￣▽￣)
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Even He, an outsider, couldn’t stand itChapter 2 · DaddyChapter 3 · Thank you for the gift!Chapter 4 · Do You want to sleep with your brother?Chapter 5 · Smart BabyChapter 6 · Life in a Wealthy FamilyChapter 7 · Genius BrotherChapter 8 · Brother’s giftChapter 9 · Xiao Ci was injured.Chapter 10 · ThoughtfulChapter 11 · Treat as treasureChapter 12 · Only recognized oneChapter 13 · Lu family coupleChapter 14 · A closed heartChapter 15 · Understanding my brotherChapter 16 · Reluctant to hitChapter 17 · UneasyChapter 18 · PossessiveChapter 19 · Teenage RebelChapter 20 Part 1 · The car accidentChapter 20 Part 2 · The car accidentChapter 20 Part 3 · The car accidentChapter 21 · My heart is racingChapter 22 · Physiological Knowledge