Song Zhaodi scoffed, “Bringing his gang of brothers? If he had such a gang, he wouldn’t need outside help.”
“Wait, really?” Zhong Jianguo had only been speaking casually, but now he was surprised. “Zili and Gengsheng have learned how to fight? Not bad, not bad.”
Zili was speechless.
Gengsheng felt like he was hallucinating. He looked at Zhong Jianguo in disbelief, was Uncle Zhong so confused that he was actually praising them for fighting?
Song Zhaodi chuckled. “Unexpected, right? I didn’t expect it either, Zili and Gengsheng actually got into a fight.” As she spoke, her smile gradually faded. “Zhong Dawa, tell your father why you fought.”
“Why did we fight, wait a minute, Zhaodi, you already know?” Zhong Jianguo quickly asked.
Song Zhaodi: “Do you want the short version, or should I start from the beginning?”
“Of course, start from the beginning.” Zhong Jianguo noticed a basket of steamed buns on the chair with a pair of chopsticks resting on top. “Let me go relieve myself first.” Then, he went to wash his hands, returned, grabbed a bun, and got ready to eat while listening.
Zhong Dawa swallowed hard.
Song Zhaodi glanced at Dawa, then also grabbed a pair of chopsticks and a bun before starting to explain, “This morning, Dawa told me that it’s been a month since we last had braised pork, and he wanted to eat it again. Since today is Saturday and I had nothing urgent to do, I figured we were almost out of cooking oil anyway, so I needed to buy some fatty pork to render lard. I bought three pounds of pure fat and two pounds of pork belly.
“After rendering the lard and making braised pork with dried string beans, the kids still weren’t home. That’s when I knew something was wrong because I had told them to be back by 5:30 for dinner.
“I locked the door and asked the nearby kids if they had seen Dawa. Before I even got close, that child, Lin Zhong, came running over from the fishing village, shouting that Dawa was in a fight.”
“What was the fight about?” Zhong Jianguo pointed at the braised pork. “Zhong Dawa, if you don’t come clean, your mother and I will eat all of it.”
Sanwa suddenly spoke up, “Dad, I’ll tell you.”
“Zhong Xiangnan, are you asking for a beating?” Zhong Dawa glared at his younger brother.
Sanwa quickly covered his mouth and stood obediently against the wall.
Zhong Jianguo laughed. “If you don’t want Sanwa to speak, then let your mother continue. But if she tells the story, none of you will get any of the food.”
“Honesty brings leniency, resistance brings severity,” Song Zhaodi added. “I already told you before, if you admit your mistakes, the punishment is eating vegetarian for a week. If you refuse to admit it, you’ll stand against the wall for an hour and go straight to bed. Next time, if you repeat the mistake, you’ll eat vegetarian for two weeks.”
Zhong Dawa protested, “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Then tell me what the other kids did wrong,” Zhong Jianguo challenged.
Zhong Dawa looked at Zhong Jianguo. “If I explain, can we eat the braised pork?”
“If I think you’re in the right, you can eat the meat,” Zhong Jianguo said. “If I think you were wrong, but you admit your mistake and promise not to do it again, you can still eat the meat, but you’ll have to eat vegetarian for a week next time if it happens again.”
Zhong Dawa frowned. “So, right or wrong is just up to you?”
“Yes,” Zhong Jianguo said matter-of-factly. “My son isn’t stupid. Now, keep standing.”
Zhong Dawa was momentarily speechless. He turned to Song Zhaodi. “Mom, do you think we were wrong?”
“If I think you weren’t wrong, but your father thinks you were, then it’s a tie, one vote each,” Song Zhaodi said. “That means your punishment will be reduced by half.” She paused. “Zhong Dawa, you only get one chance.”
Zhong Dawa felt someone tug at his pants. He looked down and saw Erwa silently mouthing, “So hungry.”
After thinking for a moment, Zhong Dawa relented. “Fine, I’ll talk. Last time when Mom and I brought a pack of candy to the Qu family, they gave us a lot of things in return. Mom said the Qu family was generous. Today, when we were out playing, we ran into some of the Qu kids. They invited us to their house to play jump rope, so we went.
“Why does it sound like he’s saying today’s incident was caused by you?” Zhong Jianguo asked Song Zhaodi.
Song Zhaodi’s lips curled. “Let Dawa finish speaking.”
“While we were playing in front of their house, one of their family members brought out a big bowl of shrimp and offered some to us.” Zhong Dawa licked his lips. “At first, we didn’t want to eat because Mom was making braised pork. But the Qu family said they had plenty of shrimp, so we ate with their kids.
“Then, some other kids showed up. When they saw us eating shrimp, they asked me to grab some for them. I told them the shrimp weren’t mine and that they should ask the Qu family.
“The Qu kids refused to share. Those other kids got mad and deliberately knocked over the bowl, spilling half of the shrimp onto the ground. I told them to apologise, but they said, ‘Who do you think you are?’ and told me to mind my own business… so we fought.”
Zhong Jianguo nodded. “So it wasn’t Dawa looking for trouble, trouble found Dawa.”
“Exactly,” Zhong Dawa said. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Song Zhaodi smiled. “Zhong Jianguo, do you know how old those kids who said ‘Who do you think you are?’ were?”
Zhong Jianguo suddenly had a bad feeling. “What do you mean?”
“Two were thirteen and one was fourteen,” Song Zhaodi said. “Among your five sons, the oldest one hasn’t even turned ten yet. Five little kids fighting three teenagers, do you still think Dawa was right?”
Zhong Jianguo opened his mouth but hesitated. “That does sound like they were asking for a beating. If they wanted to fight, they should’ve at least picked kids their own age.”
Duan dasao staggered in shock. “Xiao Zhong, is that how you educate your children?”
Zhong Jianguo shivered. He turned and saw Duan dasao looking furious, standing next to another woman. Quickly, he stood up and said, “Head Nurse Liang, you’re here too?”
“I was taking a walk after dinner and happened to run into Duan dasao heading your way,” said a tall, slender woman in her fifties. As she spoke, she couldn’t help but glance into the house. “I heard your five kids beat up three older boys. I was curious, so I came along to see.”
Zhong Jianguo knew she wasn’t just here out of curiosity. “Come in.”
“I’ll come in, but I still have to call you out on this,” Duan dasao said sternly. “What do you mean by ‘if they want to fight, they should pick kids their own age’? Xiao Zhong, is this really how you teach your children?”
Zhong Jianguo felt a headache coming on. Why had he forgotten to close the door today?
“Auntie, I was just upset with them,” Zhong Jianguo explained. “Dawa’s at that age where kids are mischievous and prone to trouble, my wife and I understand that.
“But look at Sanwa, he’s only three years and five months old. Even he got involved in the fight. What kind of trouble will he cause when he grows up? If they had been in the wrong today, I would’ve already punished them.”
Duan dasao was shocked. “Sanwa fought too?”
“If he hadn’t gotten involved, I wouldn’t have let him stand there. When I arrived, that kid was holding a pair of scissors, pointing at the child that Zili and Gengsheng had knocked to the ground, saying, ‘Don’t move. If you move, I’ll cut up your face.’” Song Zhaodi sighed. “That child was ten years older than him. If I had been a little later, he would have been scared to tears.”
Duan dasao was stunned. “Where did Sanwa get the scissors?”
“Erwa gave them to him,” Song Zhaodi said confidently.
Duan dasao opened her mouth to speak but then suddenly realised, “Where did Erwa get the scissors?”
“He borrowed them,” Song Zhaodi said, pointing at Erwa’s pants. “A few days ago, I made each of them a new pair of pants. Dawa, Zili, and Gengsheng haven’t even worn theirs yet.
“But Erwa loves showing off. As soon as I finished his, he put them on. He’s only worn them for four days, and there’s already a hole on the thigh. I’m sure he borrowed the scissors to cut a hole on purpose so I’d sew a little animal patch on it for him. Zhong Erwa, be honest, what were you planning to ask me to sew?”
With others present, Zhong Erwa was embarrassed and weakly muttered, “I wanted a cat.”
Duan dasao and Nurse Liang exchanged looks.
Song Zhaodi chuckled and asked, “Auntie is surprised? Dawa, tell Grandma, besides the one Sanwa had pinned down, how did the four of you manage to pin down the other two kids, who were several years older than you, and beat them up?”
“We kicked their knees first. When they were unsteady, we all pounced on them, knocked them to the ground, and then pinned them down and started hitting,” Zhong Dawa explained. He sneaked a glance at Zhong Jianguo, trying to gauge his reaction, but couldn’t tell if he was angry or not. His heart started to feel uneasy. “Dad, I won’t do it again next time.”
Before Zhong Jianguo could speak, Nurse Liang asked, “Was anyone injured?”
“Scraped their hands,” Song Zhaodi answered. “I put iodine on them.” She paused before continuing, “Zhong Dawa, I’m going to ask you one last time, were you wrong or not?”
Zhong Dawa didn’t want to admit he was wrong, but he also felt that if he kept refusing, his mother would be really mad. “I was both wrong and not wrong.”
“Standing up for a friend wasn’t wrong,” Song Zhaodi said. “But when you were fighting, did you ever think, what if the other side had kicked your brother away? What if Sanwa had fallen and become permanently brain-damaged? How would he live the rest of his life?”
Zili quickly interjected, “Auntie, that wouldn’t happen! I would protect Sanwa.”
“And what if Sanwa’s scissors had stabbed the other kid’s eye and blinded him? Would you gouge out your own eye to make up for it?” Song Zhaodi asked.
Zili was speechless. He had never thought about that.
Song Zhaodi took a deep breath. “Zhong Dawa, I never told Zili and Gengsheng this before, but I did tell you, roughhousing is fine, but you must never use objects as weapons. You promised me you wouldn’t. How do you explain what happened today?”
“Mom, I gave Sanwa the scissors,” Erwa admitted. “I wanted to return them, but those kids showed up at just the wrong moment.”
Song Zhaodi chuckled. “Oh, so now it’s their fault?”
“No!” Zhong Erwa shook his head repeatedly.
Song Zhaodi continued, “Dawa, did you see Erwa give Sanwa the scissors?”
“Mom, I was wrong,” Zhong Dawa admitted. “I just wanted to teach them a lesson. I didn’t think about anything else.”
Children have to be taught patiently, Song Zhaodi reminded herself. Don’t rush, don’t lose your temper. “Have you learned your lesson now?”
“I have,” Zhong Dawa said. Now that Song Zhaodi had pointed it out, he felt a wave of fear wash over him. “I won’t fight with anyone again.”
Song Zhaodi didn’t want to raise her sons to be overly sheltered. “And what if someone bullies Zili and Gengsheng?”
“I’ll listen to Mom and Dad,” Zhong Dawa said after thinking for a moment.
Song Zhaodi burst into laughter. “Jianguo, your turn.”
Zhong Jianguo said, “First, let’s eat.” He paused. “None of you five are getting out of this. Don’t even think about coordinating your stories or covering for each other. Before you go to bed tonight, think carefully about how to handle conflicts in the future.
“If I think you’ve thought things through properly, we’ll let today slide. Otherwise, you’ll continue standing in punishment tomorrow. It’s the weekend anyway, no classes. You all finished your homework, right?” He turned to Song Zhaodi as he spoke.
Song Zhaodi said, “All done. They can stand in peace for a whole day.”
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