After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 3

By the time the family doctor and the lawyer arrived, Auntie Lin had already been carried down to the first floor by the property management staff and Old Wu. The tears on Xia Yaozhou’s face had dried into streaks, matting her hair. She clutched her quilt tightly, huddled in a corner of the sofa like a cornered animal. Her breathing had leveled out, but her body still trembled involuntarily. Whenever someone approached, she would look up with the sharp, guarded gaze of a startled bird.

The family doctor entered and assessed the scene. The message Old Wu had sent was: “President Xia is unwell, come to the ancestral house immediately.”

From the current situation, President Xia—who was sitting there tying up her hair—looked perfectly healthy and energetic.

Money from the wealthy isn’t earned easily. The doctor clutched her medical bag and decided that between the two adults and one child, the smallest took priority. She headed straight toward Xia Yaozhou, who was wrapped up like a triangular rice ball on the sofa.

However, as soon as she neared the sofa, the little girl stared her down, trembling violently and full of wariness. When the doctor tentatively took another step forward, Xia Yaozhou pulled the quilt over her head entirely, fiercely resisting the doctor’s approach.

“This… President Xia?” The doctor looked helplessly at Xia Shibai, who had finished tying her hair, blinking as if to ask: Don’t just sit there, who am I supposed to treat first?

Under the quilt, Xia Yaozhou was shrouded in darkness. She couldn’t see the movement outside and could barely hear anything; the only thing she felt was the sofa dipping beside her.

As soon as Xia Shibai moved toward her, the girl went rigid and tried to retreat further into the corner.

Just as she ran out of room and the tears were about to spill over again, a hug filled with a hint of dampness and cold air enveloped her. Her trembling didn’t stop, but the terror in her heart suddenly lessened.

Through the quilt, Xia Shibai unerringly found and held Xia Yaozhou’s wrist.

“It’s okay, Mommy is here. No more bad guys will bully Zhouzhou.” Xia Shibai’s clothes were still dripping. She had worried about passing the chill to the girl, which was why she’d sat further away initially. But seeing the child’s fear, she didn’t care about the rules anymore. She held Xia Yaozhou gently, not daring to pull too hard for fear of a reactive struggle.

The situation was better than she expected. Xia Yaozhou initially resisted, her hands pushing against Xia Shibai through the quilt, but when she couldn’t budge her, her tear-stained lashes flickered. She remained silent, her lips pressed tight, allowing Xia Shibai to hold her.

Xia Shibai patted the girl’s back, cradling her small frame and humming softly.

In the vast living room, the only sound left was the low humming of a mother comforting a child. As for Auntie Lin, who lay on the floor with a bruised face and a chorus of moans, no one spared her a glance—until the police arrived, led in by the property manager.

Two patrol officers arrived on duty. Outside, the rain was torrential; as they entered, water cascaded off their raincoats like waterfalls, leaving a trail of puddles. The lead officer was young and dark-skinned; even in the brightly lit house, his expression was hard to read, but his stern, glaring gaze radiated the authority of the law.

“What’s going on here? Why is she beaten like this? Who called the police?”

Old Wu had made the call, but Xia Shibai was the first to speak from the sofa.

“I did. I had my man call,” Xia Shibai responded. She held the pitiful little girl in her arms, not daring to speak too loudly, but her eyes were cold as she glanced at Auntie Lin “playing dead” on the floor. She sneered, “I called the police because this woman lying there stole from my house and abused my daughter! If I hadn’t come home today, the one lying on the floor would be my child!”

“Understood. we will investigate this. But first, let’s get her to a hospital,” the officer said, his brow furrowed as he warned Xia Shibai sternly. “However, the nature of this changes once you resort to violence. You may have been in the right initially, but you cannot take the law into your own hands and beat someone to this extent!”

Furious, Xia Shibai’s hand trembled as she held Xia Yaozhou, whether from the cold or pure adrenaline. “As a bystander, it would be hard to stay calm seeing an adult beating a child—let alone as a mother!”

“Today she was yanking my child; what about yesterday? The day before? I paid her to look after my daughter for three years. In all those nights and days, who knows what she’s done?!”

“What right does she have to hit my child? She takes my money, lives in my house, and mistreats my daughter? Does she think I’m dead?! Not beating her to death today was me showing mercy to that old witch! If you want to play ‘peacemaker’ and brush this under the rug, go do it somewhere else.” Xia Shibai’s anger was irrepressible. She had only hit Auntie Lin where it hurt; the woman didn’t even need bed rest—she’d be fine in a few days.

But what about what Auntie Lin did to Xia Yaozhou? Years of verbal abuse, belittling, and physical mistreatment of a three-year-old had caused deep-seated psychological issues.

Xia Shibai felt she had been restrained. With the Xia family’s power—even a “starving camel is bigger than a horse,” and they weren’t starving—she could have made Auntie Lin disappear in minutes.

But she didn’t want that. She wanted the old woman’s beloved son to lose his job; she wanted the complicit daughter-in-law to live in shame; and she wanted the precious grandsons to fail every background check and be restricted in everything they did, becoming outcasts of society.

By ruining Xia Yaozhou, Auntie Lin had struck at the roots of the Xia family. Xia Shibai intended to uproot the woman’s entire family and toss them into the gutter to face a slow, social death.

The officer, Qin Wang, didn’t argue. He knew better than to provoke an angry, red-eyed “mother beast.” Moreover, looking at the tiny thing hidden under the quilt—the child who wouldn’t stop shaking even as the woman patted her—Qin Wang felt a pang of sadness.

Liu Tong, who had come with Qin Wang, was a contract worker who did the grunt work. He was numb to the chaos. When Qin Wang said to take everyone to the station for questioning, Liu Tong didn’t object.

Before leaving, Xia Shibai specifically had the family doctor examine Auntie Lin. After confirming there were only bruises and no internal damage, she raised an eyebrow and told Qin Wang to record the findings. “Lest she uses her foul mouth to slander me later.”

With that, Xia Shibai picked up Xia Yaozhou, whispering comforts as she walked out. Her movements were so careful it was as if she were carrying a priceless gem rather than a child.

Qin Wang watched them, nodded to Liu Tong, and followed them out. As they left, no one noticed Liu Tong’s envious gaze as he looked around the house at the expensive ornaments. A single item there was worth more than his entire family’s assets.

“Officer? I need to lock up,” Old Wu said, standing at the door and nodding politely until Liu Tong, looking embarrassed, hurried out.

Throughout the trip, Xia Shibai held Xia Yaozhou tightly, never trying to pull the quilt away. To Xia Yaozhou, the quilt was more trustworthy than any person present.

At the police station, Auntie Lin—who had been silent and dazed—suddenly became “reanimated.” She wailed and rolled on the floor. Whether it was genuine grievance or crocodile tears, she hammered her legs, screaming that Xia Shibai had no conscience.

“I worked myself to the bone every day taking care of that kid, cleaning, and cooking! I didn’t expect a thank you, but who just comes home and starts beating an old woman?!”

“Where is the justice?! Where is the law?! If everyone acted like this, wouldn’t an old woman like me just be bullied every day for trying to earn a living?!”

“I raised that child with my own sweat and tears, changed her diapers, did everything! And this is how the employer treats me?! I don’t want to live anymore! Just let me die!”

Auntie Lin rolled from left to right, her voice booming through the station. Her body still ached from the golf club, and she refused to take this loss lying down. The Xia family owed her! Did they really think that “little bit of money” was enough to raise a brat? There were times she wanted to strangle the kid just to stop the noise. 50,000 yuan a month as a live-in nanny? Who were they kidding!

The station wasn’t quiet; many people were reporting incidents due to the storm. Auntie Lin’s racket drew everyone’s eyes to Xia Shibai’s group.

Qin Wang, peeling off his wet raincoat, tried to pull her up. “Stop shouting! You think this is a vegetable market? Be quiet!”

Auntie Lin went limp, nearly pulling Qin Wang to the floor with her. The young officer felt a flash of annoyance. If it weren’t for professional ethics, he wouldn’t spend a second on this unreasonable old woman.

Qin Wang’s mentor, who had just returned, saw the scene and rubbed his temples. “Get her inside. It’s embarrassing.”

Qin Wang and Liu Tong dragged Auntie Lin into an interrogation room and signaled for Xia Shibai to follow. Qin Wang sat down, clutching a pen. “Both sides—who wants to go first?”

Auntie Lin clutched her chest, gasping for air as if she were about to have a heart attack. Qin Wang looked at Xia Shibai. “You first?”

“Fine,” Xia Shibai said, sitting down with the girl in her arms.

Xia Yaozhou still wouldn’t show her face, but she felt Xia Shibai’s kindness. She leaned into the woman’s embrace through the quilt, her ears straining to hear the voices outside, her small body feeling the vibration of Xia Shibai’s chest as she spoke.

She didn’t understand the words, but she could feel that Xia Shibai was protecting her. This strange, hazy feeling made her instinctively trust her.

She had seen Xia Shibai before. On TV.

When she was younger, Auntie Lin hated taking her out in the rain. Auntie Lin would sit on the sofa watching TV while Yaozhou played with blocks on the floor. Yaozhou’s hair was always a mess. At age two, her coordination wasn’t great; she would stack the blocks only to knock them over with the next one.

Most kids would have cried. Yaozhou didn’t—partly because she feared Auntie Lin’s hand, but mostly because of her nature. If it failed once, she’d try again.

Sometimes, when she succeeded, she would look up at Auntie Lin with a grin, silently seeking praise. Auntie Lin would only look at her with suspicion and mutter, “What a freak. No wonder your mother doesn’t want you.”

Mother. A woman Yaozhou often heard about from Auntie Lin but had never seen.

Since her earliest memories, she had lived in that big “maze” of a house. Besides Auntie Lin, there were only the neighborhood boys like Xiao Pang. Every other kid had a mother. Even the characters in her favorite cartoons had mothers.

Whenever her mother was mentioned, Yaozhou would press her lips together and say nothing. But a child’s expressions are transparent. Auntie Lin would purposely find financial news channels; if they were “lucky,” they’d catch an interview with Xia Shibai.

Pointing at the elegant, sharp professional on the screen, Auntie Lin would sneer maliciously, “Look, that’s your mother. Pretty, smart, and rich. Too bad she doesn’t want you. Do you know why?”

“Because you’re just a girl. You have no value. You’re the stain on her life. If she took you, she’d be stuck at home being a nanny!”

Xia Yaozhou would stare at the beautiful woman on the screen, clutching a dirty doll.

Mommy. A very pretty mommy. Much prettier than the other kids’ moms.

Once she had seen her, there was hope. Yaozhou began to dream of her return. Xiao Pang had stolen her chocolate and told her “Mommy likes good children.” So she was good—so good she would stay silent even when her stomach ached from hunger, just to be a “good child” for Auntie Lin.

Xiao Qiu had said “Mommy doesn’t like kids who are bad at school.”

Yaozhou had tilted her head, offering him a milk candy while licking her lips. “Xiao Qiu, what is ‘school’?”

“It’s English, Math, Physics. If you’re top of the class and the teachers praise you, you’re a ‘good child’ in every parent’s eyes. They’ll all love you! If everyone loves you, your mommy will too!”

Xiao Qiu was the most “cultured” kid in the neighborhood because he was in the middle class of kindergarten and had a brother who was first in his middle school. Yaozhou didn’t fully understand, but she nodded obediently.

When she tried to give a candy to the silent boy next to them, Xiao Yi, he looked at her with his buzz-cut head, dropped his toy truck, and used a wet wipe to clean both their dirty hands. He didn’t eat the candy; he put it in Yaozhou’s mouth instead.

Xiao Yi had said: “Mommy is just busy. When she stops working, she will come for you.”

Yaozhou didn’t understand, but the candy was sweet.

At first, there was anticipation. She thought if she was good enough, she would see Xia Shibai. But as time passed and Xia Shibai never appeared, she stopped mentioning her.

But now…

Mommy had saved her from Auntie Lin. Mommy was holding her.

Mommy was soft and real. She carried the chill of the outside world, but she whispered comforts and told her not to cry. She protected her.

Mommy…

Xia Yaozhou carefully reached out a hand and pressed it against Xia Shibai’s stomach. First, she felt the damp quilt, and then the gentle rise and fall of her mother’s breath.

“Ma… Mommy.”