OFTLHFRO C25

Chapter 25: An Apology is Necessary

Although Luo Mingchen’s heart ached for them, he still had to clarify, “So they snatched your food, and you fought with them?”

All of this over just two bowls of rice pudding?*

That didn’t sound like something Huo Yuhui would do.

In Luo Mingchen’s mind, Huo Yuhui was someone who could endure far more than most, someone who avoided trouble whenever possible. There was no reason for him to strike back over two bowls of pudding.

“It wasn’t like that…”

Huo Xiang sobbed uncontrollably. “They stomped and ruined our pudding, said we were born from a man’s belly,* and they cursed at Little Daddy! That’s why big brother fought them. I wanted to help, but they were too strong—I couldn’t beat them. Big brother shielded me, but they even smashed a chair at him. Uuuhhh… brother lost so much blood…”

Holding him close, Luo Mingchen pursed his lips tightly. Huo Yuhui, just bandaged by the physician, kept his head bowed and said nothing.

“Which four of you were the ones who did it?”

As he spoke, Luo Mingchen turned his gaze on the five boys.

The pudgy youth silently shuffled away. He couldn’t help thinking that the smiling handsome “older brother” from noon looked like a twin to the threatening figure before them now.

Although Luo Mingchen’s glare was terrifying, the ringleader sneered, “We did. So what? They’re just a pair of mud-legged peasants. Even if they died, we’d just pay you a few dozen taels of silver!”

These words infuriated Teacher Mo. What kind of students had he been teaching?

Luo Mingchen actually laughed in rage. “So you’re saying your family is rich, is that it?”

The boy puffed up proudly. “My father is a landlord!”

As he spoke, several people rushed in from outside, each hugging their own child and fussing over them.

The landlord’s son, the one so proud just now, immediately pointed and wailed, “Father! Mother! That poor brat hit me—he even struck my face!”

He tilted his face deliberately so his father could see.

The man, a burly fellow with a fierce look, glared and demanded, “Who dared to strike my son?!”

“Forgive my bluntness, but with such home training, even if your child were beaten to death, it would only be a service to the people.”

“What did you say?!” The man whipped around to glare at him.

“I said your child was born of a mother but raised with no father’s discipline—grown into a pest. If he were beaten to death, he would deserve it. Why, do you have an objection?”

“You were born of a mother with no father’s teaching!” the boy shot back angrily.

“My family education is still better than yours—at least I wasn’t raised to hurl insults at other students’ fathers, to steal food, and to bully while outnumbering the weak. You’re nothing but a cowardly soft egg—picking on two younger boys, one half your size, two years younger. If you have any guts, why don’t you pick on someone taller? Do you even deserve to be called a man? Better to be castrated and thrown into a pigsty—your fatty meat might fetch a good price!”

Huo Yuhui stared at Luo Mingchen in shock. So did Huo Xiang.

But Huo Yan, holding Huo Xinyue, looked on without surprise. If not for the teacher’s presence, he might have scolded even more viciously—or simply gone straight to beating the boy’s father.

“You—!”

The boy nearly choked with rage. His tongue wasn’t sharp enough, so all he could do was tug at his father’s sleeve, yelling anxiously, “Father! Look at him!”

Before his father could speak, Luo Mingchen cut in again. “What’s this? You start the insults, but when you lose at it, you run to your father? Haven’t been weaned yet? Haven’t learned the simplest truth—that if you do something, you must bear the consequences? Maybe you shouldn’t even be in an academy. With your ‘talent,’ you could memorize every book in existence and still never grasp what those words mean. Your very existence is a waste—of food, of air, of the empire’s resources.”

“You dare say—” the landlord started furiously.

“Did you not understand what I said—or did you not hear it? A father who raises a son to bully the weak and gang up four on two is no better than trash himself.”

“You—”

“You what? Is ‘you’ the only word you can manage?”

That pushed the man over the edge. “I’ll kill you!” he roared, swinging a fist at Luo Mingchen.

And Luo Mingchen was waiting for exactly that—if he couldn’t beat the son, he could damn well beat the father.

But before he could make a move, Huo Yan stepped in front of him, catching the man’s wrist mid-swing. “So when you can’t win with words, you resort to raising your hand against my husband?”

Agony shot down the man’s arm. Though tall and thickset, he howled in pain like a child. “It’s breaking! Let go! I won’t—I won’t hit again!”

Only after hearing that did Huo Yan release him. “Gentlemen, it was your sons who beat our sons. Your sons who provoked them, destroyed their food, then ganged up to pummel them till they were covered in wounds. Everyone here can see this.”

At first, Huo Yan had meant they could prove it via a physician’s report. But suddenly, another timid voice spoke up—it was the withdrawn little boy, stammering, “I—I’ll testify. It was Liu who hit first. He stomped on the Huo brothers’ pudding. But the Huo brothers didn’t respond. They said they would report it to Teacher. Then Liu cursed their Little Daddy, calling him a catamite,* saying he flaunted himself for men—that’s when the Huo brothers couldn’t hold back anymore. I saw it was getting dangerous and went to find Teacher…”

Teacher Mo blinked in surprise. That boy was normally the most timid and sluggish student in class. The very fact that he had run for help was shocking enough—but speaking out like this as a witness was truly unexpected.

The biggest reason, however, was simple: that rice pudding had been delicious. If his classmates were beaten to death or expelled, their father would surely stop selling it. So he had no choice but to speak up.

Another mother muttered, “My child normally behaves well. Teacher, surely someone else goaded them into this.”

The other two sets of parents quickly chimed in, “Yes, that’s right!”

No one dared confront the landlord’s son. And as for the witness—he was the grandson of Grand Tutor Ming,* someone even more untouchable. For the others, escape was all they wanted.

Even Teacher Mo, still smarting from Luo Mingchen’s sharp tongue earlier, was surprised. “I called you here today to discuss how to settle this matter. Look at Huo Yuhui—multiple wounds, even internal injuries from a chair blow to the back. The physician said his health was already fragile. Now it will take months of medicine to rebuild his strength. You have no case to stand on.”

One parent caught the hint and said, “Then what if we pay some silver in compensation?”

Teacher Mo turned to Luo Mingchen and Huo Yan. “What do you two say?”

Luo Mingchen replied coldly, “We don’t want compensation. We want accountability. All four of them must give my sons a serious apology.”

If they simply took money this time, wouldn’t that mean his children would become easy prey at the academy from then on?

To their tormentors, money was nothing. If they believed hurting others only meant paying afterward, what would stop them from beating again?

Teacher Mo was frankly surprised. For a poor family, normally silver would be everything. Yet Luo Mingchen rejected it outright without a moment’s hesitation.

Footnotes:

 

 

• Catamite (小倌, xiǎo guān) – Pejorative term for a male prostitute or boy-toy kept by men. In this context, used as an insult against their father.
• Grand Tutor (太傅, tàifù) – One of the highest-ranking officials in imperial China, serving as a teacher to the emperor or princes; immense prestige and influence.