Ai Zhiyi sighed helplessly and asked patiently, "Well, what should I do for you to forgive me?"
Chu Baiyu was intrigued. He immediately got up and ran to a bookcase containing a lot of books, then came back to his seat with a book.
Chu Baiyu opened the folded page as soon as he sat back down opposite Ai Zhiyi. He showed a picture of [1]Oriental Pearl Tower. He pointed to the picture, asking in a sulky but hopeful tone, "I want you to bring me to this tower! And buy me ice cream!"
Ai Zhiyi suddenly chuckled softly. He agreed but also warned him, "Oh, do you want to go to Pudong? Sure. Early spring, I'll take you there. But, for ice cream, you can't eat ice cream. You can get a stomachache, you know."
Ai Zhiyi was very protective of what Chu Baiyu consumed. As the boy had a sensitive stomach, he had ended up in the hospital once, and made Ai Zhiyi constantly anxious, even waking up for days to take care of him.
Though, while some children his age would be very fussy when they were sick, Chu Baiyu was a calm and patient child. He didn't even complain and became very quiet, much different from how he was usually mischievous, active, and talkative, making Ai Zhiyi worry about him even more.
Hearing Ai Zhiyi's words, Chu Baiyu's angry face immediately turned disappointed. He stared at Ai Zhiyi for a while with watery eyes and finally burst into tears.
Ai Zhiyi felt so guilty but he also couldn't let the boy eat the food he wanted, so he was feeling really depressed right now.
Ai Zhiyi shifted his body. He sat beside Chu Baiyu and hugged him while trying to calm the boy down and give him understanding, "I just don't want you to get sick. Do you remember the last time you ate ice cream? You got sick, right? It hurts me if something happens to you."
However, Chu Baiyu was a stubborn boy, he kept whining, "I want ice cream! Ice cream! Ice cream!"
His peers saw Chu Baiyu crying, looking astonished. Perhaps, it was their first time seeing a mischievous boy like Chu Baiyu cry, so they were also surprised at the same time.
As a father, Ai Zhiyi tried his best to persuade the boy until he came at a thought. He held Chu Baiyu's hand, then said to him with a smile, "Tomorrow, I will take you home to eat dumplings and stay overnight. What do you think?"
Hearing that, Chu Baiyu instantly stopped crying. He looked at Ai Zhiyi as if the look on his face wanted to confirm the truth of Ai Zhiyi's words he just heard.
Ai Zhiyi wiped Chu Baiyu's tear-filled face, reassuring the boy, "I will ask Mrs. Ling for permission. But, you have to promise, you behave yourself, okay?"
Chu Baiyu rubbed his eyes, smiled. He then nodded in agreement with such enthusiasm.
"Good." Ai Zhiyi smiled, saying, "Then wait here. I'll talk to Mrs. Ling first."
Ai Zhiyi knew clearly that it was a bad idea as Chu Weixu would never agree to this.
Nonetheless, Ai Zhiyi thought about it carefully and found that it had been a long time since they had last been together. After all, Chu Baiyu was their family, so Ai Zhiyi thought about taking care of other things later.
Chu Baiyu became obedient and waited patiently when Ai Zhiyi went to see the head of the orphanage.
As Ai Zhiyi left, Chu Baiyu glanced at a quiet boy who was sitting with a stuffed rabbit in front of him. He flashed a sharp gaze at the clueless boy, then suddenly shouted, "Hey, you, Jian Yu!"
Jian Yu was Chu Baiyu's roommate. As soon as he heard a familiar voice call out to him, the quiet boy instantly turned his face, looking at Chu Baiyu with a hint of fear, with shock in his eyes. Obviously, he was afraid of the little bully.
Chu Baiyu hurriedly got up and walked over to Jian Yu. He sat across from him, raised his eyebrows, and looked at Jian Yu with a cold smile on his face. "Did you see me crying?"
Jian Yu didn't dare to look at the little bully's face directly and shook his head without saying anything.
"You're lying!" the little bully kept urging, "Tell me, did you see me crying? I'll kick you out at bedtime if you don't want to admit it."
Jian Yu lifted his face, revealing a soft face with bright round eyes. He looked so frightened, even his long, curly eyelashes trembled. He stammered, "I ... saw you crying by accident ...."
Chu Baiyu suddenly snorted and laughed with narrowed eyes. "You're not good at lying. Why would a weak person like you have to lie when he had to admit it in the end?"
His words made several children who sided with Chu Baiyu laugh at the poor boy.
After being forced to fess up and then being laughed at, the boy's face turned red with anger. He clenched his fists, glared at Chu Baiyu, then stood up.
"You forced me, then why are you laughing at me now?" After being suppressed for a long time, Jian Yu finally revealed, "Mother Ling told us not to be a liar, I know. But, lie or not, you will always bully me, right?"
"Right! You're cute when you're scared, so I like to bully you!"
Jian Yu frowned. He was confused as soon as he heard the word "cute", but he didn't really care about it either.
Chu Baiyu got up. Due to his slightly taller posture, he also had an appearance that seemed arrogant, and quoted his father's words confidently, "My father said we have to be strong, not to be oppressed. So, it's your fault for being weak."
Although Chu Baiyu was only about to enter the age of five, he was very articulate and good at literature, since when did he learn the word 'oppressed' with body gestures that describe 'oppression' itself?
"It's not true!" Jian Yu's eyes turned red.
Chu Baiyu seriously asked, "Are you going to cry?"
The little bully realized his words were going too far, but he didn't want to admit he was wrong, even looked at Jian Yu with disdain. He tried to divert his question, "It's okay to cry. I cry too and I cried just now, though."
As was the case with Chu Weixu, Chu Baiyu was so good at persuading that he managed to stop Jian Yu from crying out of sarcasm.
However, the quiet boy didn't want to confess. As he was about to deny that he was going to cry, a hand suddenly caressed his face gently. "Don't be ashamed to cry now. But when we grow up, a man should only cry when he is truly grieving; my father said that too."
A little bully like Chu Baiyu could also feel guilty, so he tried to correct it. He turned to his friends, glaring at them all as if he was threatening, "Don't bully Jian Yu. From now on, he is our friend."
His friends nodded in agreement.
Like a boss, after saying his words, no one dared to deny. Chu Baiyu reached out, wiping Jian Yu's eyes gently using the sleeves of the hoodie he was wearing.
The mischievous boy's appearance was different now. The one who used to ridicule Jian Yu had now become very fond of him, even their friends couldn't believe with what they were watching that a person who always bullied someone else like Chu Baiyu could be so soft with Jian Yu.
[1] Oriental Pearl Tower (Dongfang Mingzhuta/Dongfang Mingzhu Dianshi-ta) is a TV tower in Shanghai.