Chapter 7

Chapter 7

By the third day, someone came to seek treatment with a fake slip of paper. Doctor Wang frowned the moment he saw it, then calmly and methodically refuted the man’s claims, pointing out that both the paper and the handwriting were different.

The man was embarrassed and anxious. He said he would pay for the treatment, but Doctor Wang still refused him.

“You won’t even earn money when it’s right in front of you? Aren’t you a doctor?”

Doctor Wang shook his head. “I was brought here by my employer. I only follow my employer’s orders.”

The man was so angry he turned to leave.

I called him back.

Xie Lanting had once told me that this man had disliked the sight of him and kicked him for no reason, then burst out laughing as if it were the funniest thing in the world.

Xie Lanting had never offended him at all, but the man had simply wanted to hit him.

He asked me if he had the kind of face that deserved to be beaten, if he looked easy to bully.

My heart ached when I heard that.

Children who are often bullied have very weak auras. Bad people can easily tell which children they can bully without suffering any consequences, so they keep doing it. It is not because the child has truly done anything wrong.

The one at fault is the bad person, not him.

I said to the man, “You kicked my son before. Let my son kick you back, and then I’ll let the doctor treat you. If you can accept that, stay. If you can’t, suit yourself.”

The man was stunned. He furrowed his brow and thought for a long while, as though he had only just remembered such a thing had happened.

“I was just joking around. You still remember such a tiny thing?”

I stared at him coldly without saying a word.

This old lady would also love to joke around by smashing your damn head in.

Seeing that I was serious, the man must have weighed the pros and cons. If he made a trip to the county town to see a doctor and buy medicine, it would cost him far more, and those doctors could not compare to the doctor from the Marquis’s Mansion.

In the end, he gave an awkward laugh. “Fine, kick me if you want. Back then, I…”

I turned away, too lazy to listen to his excuses. What was there to hear in a bad person’s excuses?

I told Xie Lanting to kick him three times, since Xie Lanting was still weak.

I was a little vengeful. When I was young, I went to a little shop to buy something. I gave the owner ten yuan, but the owner insisted I had only given him five and scolded me until I left. When I got home, my dad said I had spent the money on snacks and then lied about it, so he beat me too.

That feeling of being wronged stayed with me my whole life. After I grew up, I kept wondering why I hadn’t fought the shop owner over it back then. What would have been so terrible about fighting back? I was going to get beaten anyway.

After I grew up, I swore I would never repeat the same mistake.

I had never been in love, and I did not know how to raise a child, but I remembered the grievances I suffered when I was young.

I did not want Xie Lanting to suffer the same grievances I had.

Xie Lanting kicked the man three times. The man did not care at all. He patted the dust off his backside and went to get treated.

Only Xie Lanting remained standing there, dazed.

“He doesn’t seem to care at all.”

It did seem that way.

People who hurt others do not care what they have done. When it is brought up, they treat it as a joke and even think the victim is making a fuss over nothing.

Only the victim is left standing where they were, tormented by the pain.

Just like after I grew up, when I read some books on psychology and tried hard to reconcile with myself. I once even mustered the courage to tell my dad that he had wronged me.

But my dad had long forgotten the incident. Instead, because I brought it up, he thought I was an ungrateful wretch who only remembered his faults and not his kindness.

Those were clearly two separate things, but he would mix them together, forcing me to pretend those grievances had never existed.

After that, I no longer wanted to tell him anything. I only reported the good news and kept the bad to myself.

He would never know my true thoughts, and I no longer cared what he thought of me either.

I smiled faintly.

“That’s why many people’s opinions aren’t actually important. What matters is what you want to do. So go do it. Don’t leave yourself with regrets.”