After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 8

When Xia Yaozhou was carried back home and placed on the bed, she opened her eyes dizzily, reaching out to grab Xia Shibai’s hand. But her drowsiness was too deep; her movement was nothing more than a slight curl of her fingers before she drifted back into a deep sleep.

Xia Shibai sat downstairs and found a blank notebook. She wanted to recall the plot points related to Xia Yaozhou, only to realize that she had arrived far too early—they hadn’t even crossed paths with the two female leads yet.

Now that her arrival had already altered the early story, whatever happened when Xia Yaozhou eventually met the protagonists was anyone’s guess.

Even though the plot points she could barely remember weren’t very useful now, Xia Shibai noted down a few major events anyway. she worried that living here for a long time might cause her to be assimilated by this world’s logic, leading her to forget the original story entirely.

After recording the important milestones regarding the adult Yaozhou, Xia Shibai tucked the notebook away and went upstairs to sleep.

Worried that little Yaozhou might wake up at night looking for someone, Xia Shibai chose the room right next door and left her door wide open. She had her assistant install a motion-sensor nightlight in the hallway that afternoon; it lit up at the slightest movement. She tested it, found it satisfactory, and left it on.

The Next Day.

Xia Shibai’s culinary skills only extended to making plain white porridge. She rummaged through the food she’d bought yesterday and found some pickled mustard greens and soy sauce, deciding to make do for now.

She went upstairs to wake Xia Yaozhou, unpacked the colorful little toothbrush they’d bought, squeezed on some children’s toothpaste, and handed it over.

“Do you need me to watch you brush?”

“N-no.” Xia Yaozhou shook her head while covering her mouth. She shuffled back to her room in her slippers and dragged the small stool from her children’s desk set into the bathroom.

Lacking strength, she struggled to drag it. Her entire face looked like it was in a fierce battle with the chair. Xia Shibai stood by, holding her own toothbrush and watching the tiny human do her own things. Since there was no danger, she didn’t step in to help.

With an “A-ha!” of effort, Xia Yaozhou finally lugged the solid wood chair into the bathroom. With obsessive-compulsive precision, she placed it exactly in the center of the sink. Then, she braced her stomach against the seat, swung her legs to kick off her slippers, and scrambled up using both hands and feet.

Xia Shibai: ?

Breaststroke-climbing onto a chair… that’s a first for me, daughter. Eye-opening.

Yaozhou stood up, patted the non-existent dust off her clothes, and reached out toward Xia Shibai with her small “milk teeth” bared.

“Alright, watch your step. Come downstairs once you’re done.” Xia Shibai left the bathroom. Out of a bit of guilt, she rubbed the tip of her nose and said extra softly, “This morning we’re having plain porridge with pickled greens.”

Yaozhou nodded with the toothbrush in her mouth, saying nothing. Bracing herself against the edge of the sink, she began to battle her teeth with all her might. After cleaning them, she cupped her hands under the faucet to catch water, splashing her face with a whoosh-whoosh sound—and that was her “wash.”

The wetter her face got, the wetter the front of her pajamas became.

After dragging the stool back to its original spot, Yaozhou looked at her soaked pajamas, stood on her tiptoes to find clean clothes in the large wardrobe, rolled her pajamas into the laundry basket, and held the railing as she carefully walked downstairs.

The porridge had cooled to a lukewarm temperature. Fearing the pickles might be too spicy, Xia Shibai placed a bowl of water nearby and used chopsticks to give Yaozhou a tiny sliver to try. Once she confirmed the girl could handle it, she added a bit more to the small bowl for Yaozhou to mix with her porridge.

When the two of them were nearly finished, Xia Shibai spoke: “The police station called just now. They want us to go over. Does Zhouzhou want to go?”

Yaozhou covered her mouth with a tissue and let out a small burp, her expression clearly reluctant. To her, it was best to never see Auntie Lin again.

But she had Mommy with her now, and there would be police brothers to protect her, just like the other night when that usually terrifying woman could only roll on the floor and wail. She didn’t look scary at all like that.

Yaozhou shook her head. “I… I don’t know.”

After speaking, she peeked cautiously at Xia Shibai, gauging her reaction. she was deeply worried that her answer might make her mother angry. Yaozhou thought her micro-expressions were subtle, but Xia Shibai saw every bit of her conflict, hesitation, and fear.

Xia Shibai couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy. “Is Zhouzhou still afraid she’ll hit you or yell at you?”

“…” Yaozhou sat across from her, silent, but her hands restlessly picked at the edge of the wooden table.

If she could, she hoped never to see Auntie Lin again. She wanted to be with Mommy and wished the police could be like superheroes, defeating the “Bad Auntie” and making her disappear from the world forever.

But that thought made Yaozhou feel like she was a “bad person.” On TV, bad people were like that—wishing for someone to disappear—and because of that, they were “pitiful bugs,” all alone forever. Bad people had no friends and no family.

Yaozhou didn’t want to lose the Mommy she had finally waited for. She didn’t want to be a “pitiful bug” again, lonely and friendless.

The mere thought made her sniffle. Tears began to well up, and before Xia Shibai could react, they were already pitter-pattering onto her clothes.

Xia Shibai quickly set down her bowl, ran to Yaozhou’s side, and knelt. She reached out to wipe away the “free” tears.

“What’s wrong? Did you remember how that bad guy bullied you? Don’t be afraid, Mommy is here. Didn’t Mommy beat her up and have the police take her away last time? If Zhouzhou is scared, we’ll go to the station and tell the police uncles all the bad things she did, and let them get revenge for us!”

“N-no…”

Yaozhou pouted and reached out for a hug. Once she was in the familiar embrace, she buried her head in Xia Shibai’s shoulder and sobbed. Her thin frame shook with every hiccup; even if Xia Shibai wanted to ask more, the girl couldn’t have answered.

Xia Shibai held her quietly until the girl had vented her emotions. Once she calmed down and the crying subsided into occasional hiccups, Xia Shibai patted her shoulder and asked again.

At first, the girl remained silent, half her face buried in Xia Shibai’s shoulder, a mess of tears and sweat—pitifully fragile. Xia Shibai held her for a long while more, waiting for Yaozhou to explain.

Finally, a bit embarrassed, Yaozhou wiped her own tears and peeked her head out. Seeing that she had soaked the shoulder of Xia Shibai’s clothes, she used her small hand to gently wipe it, as focused as if she were performing a high-tech operation.

“Can you tell me what’s wrong now?” Xia Shibai used a tissue to clean the “little calico cat’s” face.

Yaozhou cooperated, turning her face left and right for the tissue, then hugged Xia Shibai’s neck tight. “I don’t want to be a big bad guy… b-b-because then Mommy will disappear… no friends… have to pick up trash to eat…”

“Don’t want to be a big bad guy.”

“What?” Xia Shibai couldn’t follow the logic. “What bad guy has to live on the streets? Mommy isn’t going anywhere. Didn’t I tell you? I’m on vacation now; I’ll be home with you from now on.”

Xia Shibai assumed this was some threat Auntie Lin had used. Her disgust for the woman in custody deepened. How did someone like that ever become a live-in nanny? Xia Shibai planned to sue the agency that recommended her later. What a joke—taking a huge commission without even doing a proper background check.

Yaozhou poked Xia Shibai’s shoulder timidly, her voice tiny. “No… I hate Auntie Lin. I want her to disappear.” Her brow furrowed. “But thinking like that makes me a bad person, because only bad people want the people they don’t like to disappear! If I’m a bad person, I… I won’t see Mommy again…”

“I’ll be a pitiful kid.”

Xia Shibai stared into Yaozhou’s incredibly earnest eyes, momentarily speechless. She didn’t know how long this trauma would linger in the girl’s heart and body, but she knew that if she didn’t intervene correctly, her coming to this world would have been meaningless. Yaozhou would just end up on her original tragic path.

Yaozhou was taking what she had seen and learned and pushing it to the most pessimistic conclusion. The answers she found were always full of worry and negativity. She was fundamentally different from a normal, happy child.

When Xia Shibai remained silent for a long time, Yaozhou began to panic. Maybe I was born a bad kid, a kid who wasn’t wanted. Otherwise, why am I so bad and all alone?

Just as Yaozhou was anxiously imagining which street she would be wandering on, picking through trash to survive, Xia Shibai carried her to the sofa and sat down.

“Zhouzhou, do you think the police uncles are the good guys or the bad guys in TV shows?”

“Good guys!” Yaozhou thought of the officer with the deep voice who had shouted at Auntie Lin. She nodded emphatically. “The police who scolded Auntie Lin are good guys. Just like the ones in cartoons!”

“Well, the police uncles think the same as Zhouzhou. They also want the people who disrupt the world and hurt others to ‘disappear’ from society. Does having that thought make them bad people?”

“The righteous heroes in cartoons want the villains to disappear, too. Does that make them bad people?”

“No, it’s different,” Yaozhou shook her head. “They are good guys. Wanting bad guys to disappear is just…”

Without even a kindergarten diploma, Yaozhou didn’t know how to express her thoughts. She anxiously sat up and gestured wildly, wanting to tell everyone: “Good guys are good guys! They don’t become bad just because they think that! But bad guys are just bad!”

“Then how does Zhouzhou judge who is good and who is bad?” Xia Shibai knew the girl couldn’t grasp grand philosophies or the complexity of human nature, so she used simple examples. “Does Zhouzhou hit people? Does she scream at people like Auntie Lin? Does she steal things from home without telling Mommy?”

Yaozhou didn’t understand why the conversation had turned back to her, but she answered obediently, “N-no. Zhouzhou is super good!”

She wouldn’t scream at people or say hurtful things like Auntie Lin. And she didn’t like hitting people—mostly because the kids who played with her were taller than her, and she couldn’t win anyway…

“Exactly. By that standard, Zhouzhou is a good person to Mommy. Is it not perfectly normal for a good person to want a bad person to disappear?”

“How could you ever end up on the streets, all alone?”

Yaozhou thought carefully about her mother’s words. She looked at her uncertainly. “I… I’m a good person?”

“Of course. Zhouzhou is a good baby, isn’t she? Good babies are good people!”

“!” Yaozhou’s rainy mood turned to sunshine instantly. She lunged into Xia Shibai’s arms with a brilliant smile. “I’m a good person, so I want Auntie Lin to disappear, and I won’t go pick up trash on the streets, right?”

“Right…” Xia Shibai was amused by the girl’s leap in logic. She couldn’t help but laugh. “Could Zhouzhou even support herself picking up trash?”

“I can! I can even support Mommy! I’ll pick up trash to support Mommy!” Yaozhou was so afraid her mother wouldn’t believe her that she accurately quoted the price list from the property management for recycling cardboard. “And plastic bottles! You have to twist off the caps, pour out the water, and crush them flat to sell to the uncles.”

Xia Shibai’s smile vanished, replaced by a serious expression. Afraid of scaring the child, she took a moment before gently digging for the truth. She discovered that Auntie Lin had actually taken Yaozhou to the community dumpsters to scavenge.

“Taken” was an understatement. Auntie Lin would stand by while Yaozhou—who wasn’t even as tall as the dumpster—had to stand on a small stool to find plastic bottles. The money earned from this labor was all pocketed by Auntie Lin; Yaozhou didn’t even get a single lick of ice cream.

Xia Shibai was so furious she regretted being restrained earlier. A woman like Auntie Lin deserved to be beaten to death!

She carried Yaozhou upstairs to change. “We have something very important to do.”

Xia Shibai said with absolute certainty: “Before we live our good life, we have to make sure the bad guys have a very bad one.”