âYouâve admitted to your Teacher Loulou that you started the name-calling, havenât you? When you call names, you should apologize. Go ahead and apologize, can you do that?â
âI want Daddy⦠Wahâ¦â
Liang Qing didnât just cry and wail, but also struggled to leave.
Zhou Ru finally lost her patience, raised her hand, and slapped him across the face. No longer wanting to speak nicely to him, she scowled fiercely and commanded, âGo apologize to Chi Jingchen!â
She had never felt so humiliated in her life!
Liang Qing was stunned by the slap, covering his face. Even though the slap from Zhou Ru wasnât that hard, he still felt he was being severely bullied. His cry stopped for a moment, then he started bawling even louder!
âI want to go home⦠1 donât want you anymore⦠Youâre a bad person⦠Bad motherâ¦â
Zhou Ru grew even angrier, grabbing his collar as if she was about to hit him again, she roared, âGo apologize right now, or do you want another slap?â
She was actually hitting a child in the kindergarten teacherâs office. Xu Lulu found it hard to watch and intervened, âMother Liang Qing, donât rush, let me talk to Liang Qing.â
Zhou Ru just wanted Liang Qing to apologize quickly so she could leave. Seeing that Xu Lulu was willing to intervene, she immediately let go.
Xu Lulu took Liang Qing out of the office.
Ten minutes later, Liang Qing returned with red-rimmed eyes from crying. Although he looked disheveled, he was no longer throwing a tantrum. He went up to Chi Jingchen, uncomfortably averted his gaze, and apologized in a quiet voice, âChi Jingchen, Iâm sorry. 1 shouldnât have said you have no father, and 1 shouldnât have called your mother broken shoes. 1 heard my mom cursing someone and calling them broken shoes, 1 didnât know it meant someone no one wants. If someone insulted my mom and dad, I would definitely be mad too. Iâm sorry.â
Children actually donât harbor malice, and Liang Qing wasnât inherently bad. He was just a little bully who had been spoiled by his family, and children grow up imitating their parents from behind. Unconsciously, he had picked up some of Zhou Ruâs ways of doing things. But at heart, he was just a five-year-old child with a simple mind. Sometimes he couldnât even distinguish right from wrong; he just did what he did.
Today, after being hit and scolded by his own mother, and then having Teacher Loulou kindly make analogies and explain things to him, he realized what he did was wrong.
When a child makes a mistake, they donât have as many convoluted ways of apologizing as adults do; their apologies are straightforward, addressing directly what they did wrong.
Chi Jingchen wasnât a petty child. Baby Chi always taught him to be willing to suffer loses, to be generous, in order to have many friends and for people to be willing to befriend him. Although he didnât like Liang Qing and didnât think much of him, since Liang Qing had apologized sincerely, Chi Jingchen wasnât the type to hold a grudge. He immediately jumped down from the sofa, raised his hand and patted Liang Qingâs head, âAll right, I got it. Just donât do that again in the future.â
âYeah!â Liang Qing nodded vigorously and sniffled, then mumbled, âChi Jingchen, I wonât oppose you anymore. Youâre a good person, better than my mom. From now on in kindergarten, Iâve got your back! Whoever you want me to hit, Iâll hit them!â
Zhou Ru was infuriated by him.
Chi Jingchenâs small red phoenix eyes narrowed slightly. He glanced politely at Xu Lulu, who was much more understanding than Liang Qing, and then spoke with righteous indignation, âTeacher said many times, we canât fight in kindergarten. 1 wonât let you hit others, and from now on, you shouldnât bully girls, either..â