anwhile, Zhao Zhitong had no idea about what had just happened; she was at ho, concerned about whether her grandmother and two aunts had been injured.
Visibly, her grandmother and aunts were a ss; even Sun i’s clothes were disheveled, and their hair was a disaster. They looked quite pitiful. However, they didn’t seem to have any actual injuries, just so red marks on Aunt’s face where Xiao Wang had scratched her, though the skin wasn’t broken.
But she didn’t argue with her mother directly, as it would only confuse Zhao Zhitong about whose teachings to follow, and that wouldn’t be good for the child. So, after her grandmother left, Sun i called Zhao Zhitong to her side and asked earnestly, "Tongtong, do you rember what Mom told you before about using reason to persuade people?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Zhitong grinned. "Grandpa Bai, you think just like !"
"That’s right!" Zhao Guifen gloated with the air of soone who had just won a battle. "There’s no reason for my granddaughter to be bullied!"
"Alright, co here, and I’ll teach you."
The wheat had been harvested earlier and had been drying in the sun for several days. Once dry, it could be threshed to remove the grains. Zhao Yu and Zhao Cheng were in the courtyard, helping Zhao Dong unload the wheat they had brought back today and spread it out to dry.
"However, your mother is right. You should respond with violence or reason depending on the situation. If a bad person refuses to listen to reason and tries to harm you, you can’t just stand by. Hitting them back is what you would call self-defense in your original world." Read today on
Sun i gave a dry laugh. "Hu Zi’s wife, please don’t say such things. We didn’t take the children in because we expected them to work for us."
But Sun i was worried. Scuffles and argunts among won in the rural streets were all too common here. Her daughter, now four and a half years old, loved to imitate people and had just witnessed family elders fighting.
Hu Zi’s wife wasn’t a bad person, but her words could sotis be unpleasant. She continued, "Sun i, you too. Those two children from your eldest brother’s family eat your food and drink your water; shouldn’t they be working for you? I say, they should do a lot more. It’s what they ought to do!"
Hu Zi’s wife also saw the two boys co out. She chuckled and said, "Zhao Cheng, Zhao Yu, your Auntie is telling you, you’ll have to be more diligent in the future. Work harder, and be very filial to your Uncle and Auntie. Otherwise, your Uncle and Auntie might not want you anymore!"
Grandpa Bai hesitated before replying, "Young girl, Grandpa Bai has never t a bad person, so I can’t answer this question.
Sun i shook her head. "No, your Grandma has her own way of dealing with things. In her environnt, reasoning with people often doesn’t work. So when soone is attacking you, you can’t just stand there and take it; you should fight back hard. That’s not wrong.
Sun i replied, "This is called a chain. It’s specifically used for threshing wheat."
She pulled Zhao Zhitong close and said, "Tongtong, your Grandma wants you to know you can’t be weak. If those foul-mouthed bad people try to bully you, you should slap them right back until they don’t dare bully you anymore!"
"However, the environnt you will experience in the future will be different from your Grandma’s and mine. You’ll have an education and understand reason. The people around you will also be educated and will engage with you rationally. In such company, if you were to use physical force, you’d put yourself at a disadvantage."
THWACK!
At first, Zhao Zhitong couldn’t get the hang of it and even accidentally hit herself, but she gradually grasped the technique. Although her small strength ant she wasn’t very effective, she was still overjoyed.
She knew Sun i couldn’t have more children and that they only had Zhao Zhitong as a daughter. So, she naturally assud Sun i and her husband had taken in her eldest brother’s two sons to provide for their old age, which is why she was offering this reminder. But if the children heard these words, it would be incredibly hurtful for them.
Zhao Zhitong nodded and asked, "So, does that an Grandma was wrong when she told to fight back today?"
Zhao Zhitong sat on a stool, thinking for a while, then went to chat with Grandpa Bai. She asked, "Grandpa Bai, if you were to encounter a bad person, would you beat them up or reason with them?"
Nearby, Sun i wanted to cover her eyes, worrying they were raising a bully. Is this the difference between generations in how they educate their children?
Satisfied that her daughter had learned, Sun i fetched another chain, and they began threshing the wheat together.
She knew that Zhao Dong’s family doted on this daughter, which is why she spoke this way. Sun i glanced at her and said simply, "Children need to learn all sorts of things."
"As the saying goes, ’An adoptive mother, no matter how dear, is not as dear as the birth mother.’ Don’t you end up raising two ungrateful wretches who, once they’ve grown up and made sothing of themselves, abandon you old folks to find their birth parents!"
The THWACK, THWACK, THWACK of the chains resounded in the street, drawing the attention of their neighbors who were also drying wheat. They smiled and greeted them.
Zhao Zhitong ran out to see her mother handling a strange long pole. It had a movable wooden board at one end, and when swung down, this board would strike the wheat stalks. Zhao Zhitong found this fascinating and asked, "Mother, what is this?"
So, Sun i taught Zhao Zhitong how to use the chain, guiding her hands.
She then ran outside excitedly to share her thoughts with her mother. She found her mother threshing wheat on the street outside the courtyard.
Zhao Zhitong listened attentively to her mother’s words and began to think. Seeing her daughter in deep thought, Sun i left her alone to ponder while she went to thresh wheat in the courtyard.
Hu Zi’s wife looked at her with an air of disappointnt in her perceived naivety, saying, "You! Let tell you, those children are old enough to rember things. They know who their father and mother are. It’s not easy to raise them to be truly loyal.
As it happened, Zhao Cheng and Zhao Yu were right at the doorway and heard every word clearly. Heads bowed, they stared at their toes and murmured, "We won’t abandon Uncle and Auntie."
It was Mrs. Wang who had really gotten the worst of it, receiving several solid slaps from Zhao Guifen that caused her face to swell. Zhao Guifen was quite proud of this.
Zhao Zhitong’s eyes sparkled. She waved her little fists in the air, exclaiming in her childlike voice, "Don’t worry, Grandma! No one can bully ! I’m tough!"
Zhao Zhitong’s face lit up with curiosity. "Mother, I want to try!"
The neighbor to the east was Shi Tou’s family, and the one to the west was Hu Zi’s. At that mont, Hu Zi’s wife teased Zhao Zhitong with a smile, "Well, well, your little girl is working too, huh? Why not let Zhao Cheng and Zhao Yu, those two boys, do it?"
So, while tidying her clothes, Sun i took the opportunity to educate Zhao Zhitong, telling her not to learn such things. Zhao Guifen dismissed this. Instead, she encouraged her granddaughter to learn, saying, "I think it’s a good thing if she learns."
With a crisp sound, Sun i slamd the chain heavily onto the wheat, interrupting Hu Zi’s wife. She then faced Hu Zi’s wife seriously and said, "Hu Zi’s wife, don’t speak to the children like that. It’s not good for them."
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