After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 15

The monster bore the brunt of the unearned misfortune, getting pummeled into the sand by Xiao Qiu.

Xiao Pang, clutching his sand-covered Ultraman, walked to the edge of the pit. Once on dry land, he circled around Xia Yaozhou, scratching his head. “Are you Chuan-chuan?”

Since when did Chuan-chuan wear such new clothes?

Xiao Pang looked around and didn’t see the mean old granny who always glared at “Little Boat” (Chuan-chuan) with a face full of wrinkles. He let out a huff and suddenly pointed at the silent Xia Yaozhou as if realizing something. “I know! You’re a fake!”

“You must have used a fake face to make yourself look small and turn into Chuan-chuan! You’re a bad guy! Humph!” Xiao Pang held his delicate features in a serious expression, pointing his Ultraman at Xia Yaozhou. “You baddie, where did you hide the real Chuan-chuan? If I find her, I’m gonna tell my mommy to launch you into outer space!”

Xia Yaozhou: “…”

Yaozhou opened her mouth but suddenly didn’t want to admit she knew this playmate anymore.

“My name isn’t Chuan-chuan, I’m Zhouzhou!” Yaozhou corrected him for what felt like the hundredth time, but clearly, it was in vain again.

“Oh,” Xiao Pang muttered, his round eyes wide. A few grains of sand fell from the Ultraman he was swinging. “So you fake kid are called Zhouzhou. That sounds bad—not as good as Chuan-chuan! Humph!”

“…”

Yaozhou was completely done talking to the little fatty. She huffed and walked around him, only to see Xiao Qiu emerging from the sandpit as well.

“Is that mean nanny of yours gone?” Xiao Qiu patted the sand off his hands. His soccer jersey was so dirty you could no longer see the original blue and white.

He wasn’t as silly as Xiao Pang; Chuan-chuan was Chuan-chuan, whether she called herself Zhouzhou or not.

“My mommy kicked her out!” Yaozhou said proudly the moment he asked. “My mommy is super, super amazing! She kicked the mean Auntie Lin out, humph! Mommy smells nice, she doesn’t scold me, and she tells me stories! She’s the best mommy!”

Xiao Pang stomped over with his Ultraman and huffed. “Well, does your mommy let you play in the sandpit? If she doesn’t, isn’t she just like that mean old lady?”

Yaozhou looked down at her new clothes. Her T-shirt featured a 3D kitten curled on a piece of cheese that was soft to the touch. To match, Xia Shibai had picked out black shorts and light-up shoes that twinkled with every step. She looked exquisite and beautiful.

Yaozhou looked at herself, then at the filthy Xiao Pang and Xiao Qiu.

She chose to politely decline.

“No, I don’t want to play today.” Yaozhou pulled the candies her mother had bought from her pocket, wanting to share them with her friends. Even though Auntie Lin used to force her to share, they were the only kids in the neighborhood who played with her and didn’t mind that the person looking after her was the terrifying Auntie Lin.

“These are for you. We bought so, so many yesterday. Eat up!”

Xiao Qiu waved his hand dismissively. “It’s fine. That mean lady isn’t here anymore, you don’t have to give us snacks. If you eat too much sugar, your teeth will get ‘bad-bad’.”

Xiao Pang, standing nearby, immediately reached out his dirty hands and happily took them all as usual. “Zhouzhou, if he doesn’t want them, I do! I can eat all of these! I’m not afraid of bad teeth!”

In an instant, seven or eight candies vanished from Yaozhou’s hand. Not only that, but her fair arms were now smudged with sand.

A wave of disappointment hit Yaozhou, and her voice cracked. “Why did you take all my candy?”

“Huh… but… wasn’t it always like this?” Xiao Pang stared at the pile of candy, confused as to why she was crying. “But you always gave us all your snacks before! Xiao Qiu didn’t want them, so doesn’t that make them all mine?”

“Hey, don’t cry! Fine, I’ll give them back. I just won’t eat them, okay?”

Hearing this, Yaozhou cried even louder. She didn’t even want to look at the sandpit anymore; she turned around and ran toward home, sobbing as she went.

Xiao Pang, seeing Yaozhou cry so hard for the first time, couldn’t wrap his head around it. He looked at his friend in confusion. “She’s a fake Chuan-chuan, right? Why give me candy and then cry? If she didn’t want to share she should’ve said so—it’s not like I had to eat them!”

Xiao Qiu: “…”

I shouldn’t have been hitting the toy monster; I should have taken the chance to pin this fat idiot in the sand.

Xiao Qiu let out a mature sigh, putting his hand to his forehead. “It’s because Zhouzhou wanted to share with you, not let you take it all for yourself! You’re acting like a monster. Who would think you want to be her friend? Of course she’s sad!”

Yaozhou treated them as friends; Xiao Pang treated her like a snack vending machine. Of course she was upset.

“I swear, are you a total dummy?!”

Xiao Pang blinked, looking hurt. “Then why didn’t she just say so? I don’t understand all that back-and-forth. I’m just in the middle class of kindergarten!”

Xiao Qiu grit his teeth, his fists tightening.

“If you don’t want your brother to spank your butt, you better go catch up to Zhouzhou and apologize. Now that her mommy is back, she’ll definitely go complain to your house.” Young Xiao Qiu understood—a real mommy wasn’t biased to the extreme like a mean nanny.

Aunties who favored boys over girls were truly annoying. If Zhouzhou’s mom saw her crying, she’d definitely come knocking, and the fire might even burn him too. Xiao Qiu wasn’t having any of that.

Xiao Pang flinched. He didn’t even care about his favorite Ultraman anymore; he ran after Yaozhou barefoot, clutching the candy, sand falling off him as he went.

“Chuan-chuan! I’m sorry! Don’t tell my brother on me!”

“Chuan-chuan!”

Having been burned by Auntie Lin, Xia Shibai was overthinking finding a cook. After all, it wasn’t unheard of for a wealthy household to attract a predatory nanny. The agency that recommended Auntie Lin had claimed to be professional, too.

Xia Shibai was now genuinely wary of the word “professional,” especially since the author of this world seemed to harbor malice toward every female character who wasn’t a protagonist. She couldn’t afford to gamble.

She was flipping through nanny profiles when she heard her daughter’s crying voice calling for her. Xia Shibai jumped up and saw a “little bomb” crashing into her arms.

“What’s wrong? Why are you crying so hard? Did one of the kids bully you?”

Yaozhou shook her head, her face covered in tears. She stammered between sobs, “I… I never, ever want to be friends with Xiao Pang again! He’s not my… my friend at all!”

“Waaaaah…”

Even the wisest judge finds family matters hard to settle. Xia Shibai couldn’t reason with a toddler whose logic was all over the place, so she just focused on soothing her before digging for details. After all, Yaozhou wasn’t dirty, so it likely wasn’t a physical fight—just some hurtful words. A bunch of kindergarteners trying to express themselves; they couldn’t even talk straight, but their desire to vent was overflowing.

Besides, kids fight one second and make up the next. Intervening too much wasn’t always a good thing.

Xia Shibai coaxed her to stop crying. Yaozhou wiped her eyes and tugged at her mother’s hem, looking up at her with a mix of anxiety and uncertainty.

“What is it? You cried, but I didn’t scold you, so why do you look so worried?” Xia Shibai led her to the garden tap to wash her face. “Tell me, what happened?”

“Xiao Pang… humph… he doesn’t treat me like a friend. I won’t play with him anymore.”

“Did he hit you?” Xia Shibai asked.

“No.”

“Did he call you names?”

“No.”

Xia Shibai reached into Yaozhou’s pockets. This outfit had two deep pockets, and she estimated the girl had taken about a dozen candies out. There were still some left. Xia Shibai unwrapped one and popped it into Yaozhou’s mouth.

“If he didn’t do those things, you should just explain yourself to him clearly.” Xia Shibai pinched the girl’s cheek and pointed at her tightly shut, candy-filled mouth. “What is this?”

“Mouth…” Yaozhou mumbled.

Xia Shibai sighed. “It’s a mouth. You have one so you can express your thoughts.”

“I know,” Yaozhou nodded, crunched the candy, and slowly said: “Auntie Lin said good friends share. She said if I didn’t give all my snacks to Xiao Pang and the others, they wouldn’t play with me, because no one likes girls and playing with girls makes you a dummy.”

“She said I had to give them good things for them to be my friends.”

Yaozhou sniffled and looked up anxiously. “But Mommy said I share if I want to, and if I don’t, the thing is mine and no one can take it.”

“And then?”

“I wanted to share my snacks, but not all of them. I wanted us to eat together. But Xiao Pang said they were all his! Friends aren’t like that!” Yaozhou grew indignant again. “I won’t be his friend anymore! I’ll never play with him! I will absolutely, absolutely never forgive him!”

Xia Shibai was relieved that her “grand philosophy” hadn’t fallen on deaf ears. At least the girl understood that sharing didn’t mean being endlessly exploited. Although the weird ideas Auntie Lin had brainwashed her with were still lingering, as Xiao Nuo had said, kids this age forget quickly. Change the environment, and they change too.

Xia Shibai didn’t take sides or offer a solution. She led Yaozhou to a parasol and sat her on her lap, opening the nanny profile book. There were plenty of home-cooked dishes listed; whatever Yaozhou pointed at, they’d order as takeout tonight. Easy and stress-free.

They hadn’t flipped two pages when more crying was heard.

Xia Shibai looked up to see a “white jade dumpling” standing outside the gate, holding out candies in both hands, sobbing and screaming with every breath. She felt short of breath just listening to the poor kid.

Xiao Pang had some self-awareness; he was covered in sand, so he didn’t enter the yard. But seeing that chubby face covered in tears and sand, Xia Shibai couldn’t help but clench her fist.

The brat had delivered himself right to her door—her blood pressure was rising.