Read Novel Full Chapter 134 Part 2 – Your Father Was Someone Worthy of Deep Respect (III)
Chapter 134 Part 2 – Your Father Was Someone Worthy of Deep Respect (III)
Not long after, a short, elderly woman came rushing into the station, out of breath. “Sisi? Is my Sisi here?”
Her forehead was slick with sweat. “Why is she at the police station? Officer, what happened?”
Ding Sijin ran to her immediately. “Grandma, I’m here. I’m okay.”
The old lady looked her over with concern. “The police came to the house to ask for your father’s martyr’s certificate. Did something happen? What did you do?”
“Ma’am, the girl didn’t cause any trouble,” the officer explained. “Someone tried to bully her, and we arrested them.”
The old woman froze. “Arrested them?” Her voice was filled with worry. “Then… then will they come after us again?”
The officer said, “No. They won’t dare.”
The old woman’s eyes suddenly turned red. “Then… then no one will be able to bully Sisi anymore?”
The officer replied firmly, “That’s right. From now on, no one can bully her. And if anything happens, you can come to us. We’ll help however we can.”
“Thank you. Thank you.” The old woman’s words were jumbled with emotion. “I’m sorry for troubling the government.”
Suddenly, Ding Sijin said, “Mister, can you arrest my uncle?”
The old woman’s face changed instantly. “Sisi, what nonsense are you talking about?”
Ding Sijin said, “I know he stole my dad’s compensation, that’s why Grandma can’t afford medicine. He bullied Mom, too. That’s why she left!”
The officer frowned slightly, and the old woman hurried to explain, “She’s just a child—she doesn’t know what she’s saying. Her uncle just borrowed money. Borrowed, that’s all…”
Clearly, this was a family matter, and the police couldn’t easily intervene. Neither could Xia Mian.
Knowing Ding Sijin had trustworthy people watching over her, they quietly took their leave.
Just before they left, Xiao Feng carefully slipped another milk candy into Ding Sijin’s hand. This time, the little girl didn’t refuse—it was even accompanied by a quiet “thank you.”
Xiao Feng’s eyes instantly curved into a smile.
By the time they left the police station, it was completely dark. On the drive home, Ning Shaobai suddenly chuckled.
“What is it?” Xia Mian asked.
Ning Shaobai glanced at the Three Musketeers in the back seat. “You used to come here alone. Now you’re bringing the kids too. Give it a few more years, and I bet you’ll be on first-name terms with the entire police station.”
Xia Mian burst out laughing. “What else can I do? When you run into people who have no sense of reason, the only thing left to rely on is the authorities.”
She thought that was the end of it. But the next morning, Xiao Feng finished breakfast, shouldered his little backpack, and went straight over to Chenchen’s place across the street.
A little while later, he returned with a pile of paints—clearly borrowed from Ning Shaoyun’s studio.
Xia Mian was puzzled. “Don’t you already have paint? Want Auntie to buy you more?”
Xiao Feng shook his head. “These are special paints that don’t fade. We don’t use them often.”
He neatly sorted the paints, then fetched his brushes and palette from his own art studio. Finally, he ran over to the snack cabinet, grabbed milk candies and cookies, and divided them into three piles.
“Are you going out for sketching?” Xia Mian teased.
Just as she finished speaking, Chenchen and Mao Huizhu came running in with their own little backpacks. They each took a pile of Xiao Feng’s sorted items and stuffed them into their bags.
Seeing that they were getting ready to leave, Xia Mian quickly said, “It’s the weekend. You don’t have school today.”
Xiao Feng looked up. “I have the key to the classroom.”
Chenchen chimed in, “Yeah, yeah. It’s because there’s no school that this is the perfect time.”
“We’re going to the classroom to paint for Ding Sijin!”
“Paint for her?” Xia Mian asked.
Xiao Feng said, “Ding Sijin’s desk got messed up.”
“So you’re going to repaint it for her?” Xia Mian guessed their plan.
Tsk tsk, these kids really have big ideas!
Finding it both touching and amusing, Xia Mian grabbed her DV camcorder and camera. “Alright, Auntie’s coming with you.”
Chenchen asked, “Aren’t you going to see my uncle?”
Xia Mian flicked his forehead. “Your uncle’s out—he’ll be back this afternoon.”
Rong Xin and Tang Miaomiao’s wedding had been finalized, and Ning Shaobai had gone to help. He’d be back later in the day.
So Xia Mian followed the three little ones to Longcheng Elementary.
To her surprise, the “Three Musketeers” were actually pretty well-connected at school—even the old gatekeeper recognized them.
Xiao Feng leaned on the iron gate and called, “Grandpa!”
The old man’s face lit up when he saw him. “Well, if it isn’t Xiao Feng! No school today?”
“Nope,” Xiao Feng answered sweetly. “Grandpa, we need to go to our classroom. Can you unlock the gate for us?”
The old man didn’t ask a single question and let them in right away.
Xiao Feng took the key hanging around his neck and opened the classroom door. The moment it swung open, Xia Mian immediately noticed a desk near the middle of the last row.
The desk stood out starkly—for the worst reason possible.
The kids must’ve been pulled straight to the office after yesterday’s fight, so the scene remained untouched. Books were scattered across the desk, many of them torn. And up close, the sight was even more shocking.
Just like something out of the school bullying dramas she’d watched in her past life, the desk was scrawled all over with pencil, pen, and red marker:
“Pighead Girl,” “Bastard,” “Unwanted,” “Go die”—a string of childish insults, but each one sharp as a knife, capable of cutting deep into a young child’s heart.
At the very bottom of the desk, someone had poured a whole bottle of ink. It was so stained that no amount of wiping could clean it.
A battered pencil case had been thrown on top. The fountain pen inside had a broken nib.
This semester was the first time the school had required the use of fountain pens, and to these children, a fountain pen was a precious item—most of them would only ever own one during their entire elementary school years.
Xia Mian hadn’t expected the bullying to be this severe. No wonder Ding Sijin had bristled with thorns like a little hedgehog.
And thinking back to what kind of parents Fu Peng had…
No wonder the child had turned out so cruel.
She should’ve kicked Fu Peng’s mom a few more times yesterday! That small beating wasn’t nearly enough!
Xia Mian took a deep breath and gently patted each of their heads. “You guys are amazing.”
Xiao Feng smiled, eyes curving, then started pulling paints out of his backpack. Mao Huizhu and Chenchen helped him.
Xia Mian watched the little boy’s small hands move methodically. As she set up the DV camcorder, she asked curiously, “Are you sure this is enough to cover it all?”
Xiao Feng nodded seriously. “It’ll work.”
Xia Mian had assumed he was going to just slap on a thick layer of base color like painting over a wall, but quickly realized she had underestimated him. If he were just going to repaint the whole thing, how would that be different from just using regular paint?
Instead, the child took up his brush, leaned over the desk, and began painting along the natural grain of the wood.
Xia Mian witnessed firsthand the raw talent of a budding genius. He had no sketch or layout, just painted whatever came to mind. Yet those filthy, cruel scribbles and lines were seamlessly transformed into something warm and beautiful.
The child hunched over the desk, even stood on the chair toward the end, painting for nearly two hours. The area stained dark by blue ink became a shimmering lake.
Above the lake, there was sunlight, grassy fields, flowers, and a beautiful little deer…
His technique was still immature, but the childlike innocence in the artwork radiated a warmth that was impossible to resist.
While he painted, Chenchen and Mao Huizhu busied themselves cleaning the messy desk compartment. At one point, a dead mouse fell out, startling Xia Mian.
Mao Huizhu didn’t flinch—she calmly tossed it out.
They tidied up the books, replaced the broken stationery, and finally stuffed the milk candies and cookies Xiao Feng had prepared into the drawer.
Watching them, Xia Mian couldn’t help but smile. She truly believed this desk could heal the wounds in that little girl’s heart.
But the children didn’t seem to think that deeply. They simply wanted to do it, and so they did. And it was precisely that kind of purity that made it so heartwarming.
Seeing Xiao Feng’s finished work, Mao Huizhu and Chenchen suddenly lit up with enthusiasm.
“I want one too!” Mao Huizhu said. “Xiao Feng, paint me a night sky—with stars and the moon.”
“I want blue skies, white clouds, and a plane!” added Chenchen.
Xiao Feng glanced into his bag. “Not enough paint.”
“Let’s go get more from my mom! We’ll come back this afternoon.”
Xia Mian couldn’t help but laugh. She ruffled each of their heads. “This was a one-time exception, okay? You can’t just go around painting everyone’s desks. If everyone follows your lead, the whole classroom will be a mess.”
Mao Huizhu looked crushed. “Really?”
Chenchen said, “I’ll ask the teacher on Monday. If she says yes, we’ll do it.”
“Then I’ll ask too,” said Mao Huizhu.
Xia Mian smiled, “Sure, if the teacher says yes, you can do it.”
Though obviously, she would not.
Sure enough, Monday evening, while Xia Mian was on the phone with Xiao Feng, he brought it up.
Xiao Feng said, “Teacher said we can’t paint the desks anymore.”
“What about Ding Sijin’s desk?” Xia Mian asked.
“Teacher said hers is okay,” Xiao Feng said cheerfully. “She really liked it—she smiled today.”
Xia Mian could easily picture him on the other end of the line, beaming and bouncing with joy.
“Really? That’s great. Xiao Feng’s painting is beautiful.”
From the side, Mao Huizhu chimed in, “Lots of kids want that desk now, but no one dares bully Ding Sijin anymore.”
“They just sneak over and sit there while she’s at the bathroom—but today she held it in and didn’t go all morning.”
Xia Mian burst out laughing. Kids really did have the strangest logic.
Ever a little gossip queen, Mao Huizhu continued, “Yesterday, one of her dad’s comrades came by. He brought her new clothes and new school supplies.”
“Her uncle doesn’t dare bully her anymore.”
From Mao Huizhu’s account, Xia Mian roughly pieced together the truth: after Ding Mingjin’s death, his compensation money had indeed been taken by his younger brother under the pretense of “preventing Ding Sijin’s mother from running off with it.”
In reality, he used it to buy a house for himself.
Ding Sijin’s mother was a very beautiful woman, but with a soft, timid nature. Life had already been hard for her with Ding Mingjin away from home most of the time. Then she had to endure bullying from her brother-in-law. To make matters worse, the elderly mother-in-law clearly favored her younger son. So after her husband’s death, she left Ding Sijin behind and went to remarry.
The grandmother wasn’t someone with a strong will, either. After her eldest son died, her youngest became her only support. No matter what he did, she felt she had to put up with it.
She genuinely wanted to protect Ding Sijin, her eldest son’s only child—but she simply didn’t have the strength or means. In the end, it was just the two of them being bullied together.
All in all, it was the kind of messy, tangled family dispute that even the most righteous official would struggle to resolve.
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