Chapter 141

"Sister?"

Just as the two siblings embraced warmly at the front door, silently vowing in their hearts to always be each other's harbor, a round, chubby little head popped out, curiously asking:

"So big brother's back! So are you still beating Mélanie today?"???

With this highly informative question, Li Ang felt the person in his arms suddenly stiffen, and beside his ear came the unmistakable sound of grinding teeth.

"Beat her! Absolutely beat her!"

After pulling her arms free from Li Ang's waist, the frail girl stomped her foot hard, gritting her teeth and snarling:

"Even if big brother comes back, it won't help—today, even if Mom and Dad show up, she's still getting beaten!"???!?!

Huh?! Is it really that serious?

Seeing Anna—who almost never mentioned their parents—angry enough to start babbling, Li Ang feared a family bloodbath and quickly hugged his furious sister tighter, pleading:

"No no no, don't rush to hit her—education first, education first!"

"I'm beating her to educate her! Brother, let me go! Let go!"

Reminded by William, Anna's anger flared anew; the girl who had just moments ago been gentle as water now struggled fiercely, shouting in resentment:

"It's all because you keep stopping me! Don't you know what they did?"

"Um… what did they do?"

"In their first week of school, they teamed up with the noble kids, chased away the teachers, and set up some kind of class council!"

"It's the Class Parliament."

Correcting his sister's wording, William, still buttoning his pants, explained seriously:

"We're learning the kingdom's bicameral system: kids from noble families go into the Upper House; those from especially wealthy families, or who study exceptionally well or fight exceptionally hard, join the Lower House.

The Upper House drafts class rules, but those rules must be voted on by the Lower House to pass, then enacted by the class monitor elected by the Lower House, who also handles negotiations with the principal and teachers—the system's very strict."

"…."

Holy hell, it's a perfect replica. Are today's kids just too wild? When I was their age, I was arguing with my desk mate about whether the girls' bathroom had urinals!

"How can you even say that!"

After hearing William's grown-up correction, Anna struggled even harder in Li Ang's arms, shouting:

"Mélanie asked me for two packs of sweet biscuits, saying she'd share them with classmates—but she used my baked cookies to buy votes, won support from that damn House, and became class monitor!

Brother, do you know what her first class rule was after taking office? She got every kid in class to chase away the Religion and Home Economics teachers!

Those two teachers were nearly a hundred years old combined—when I went to visit, one was pointing at my nose yelling, the other was clutching the Baozhu Sect scripture and bawling his eyes out—I didn't even know how to apologize to them!"

"…."

Ah… that really is going too far. They definitely need proper discipline.

Frowning with a headache, Li Ang carried the still-wriggling sister inside, glanced at the closed inner door, then turned to William beside him, his expression grave:

"Never mind the rest, but why chase away the teachers? If your reason isn't valid, don't blame big brother for not shielding you."

"The reason? Those two teachers really were terrible."

Little William tilted his head, thought for a moment, then answered:

"The Home Economics teacher is the homeroom teacher's cousin-by-marriage. She cooks horribly, always favors noble kids, and treats us regular kids like dirt.

William and Mélanie were always stuck with washing potatoes, gutting fish, scraping scales, then eating the noble kids' failed dishes—it was awful."

"The Religion teacher was the same—he just made us shout-read the scripture, then quizzed us on memorization. If we couldn't recite, he'd smack our palms and call us faithless little brats who'd go to hell and be dragged off by demons.

Mélanie and I had just transferred in a week earlier, didn't know the scripture like the others, so we always got smacked.

Mélanie got furious, found some tricky questions in the scripture that stumped him, then asked if he was also faithless and deserved a smack for not answering—and he kicked her."

Melanie couldn't stand it, so she dug up some tricky questions from the church canon to stump him, then asked him if he wasn't devout either and deserved to be slapped on the palm—and ended up getting kicked by him instead."

So that's how it was…

After hearing William's explanation, Li Ang and Anna both froze slightly; Anna's eyes flickered with regret, and she lowered her voice:

"Then why didn't you tell me when I asked you?"

William stayed silent, hesitating slightly as he glanced at Li Ang. From the boy's expression, Li Ang vaguely guessed why they hadn't spoken up before.

Knowing her children had been wronged, Anna would've stormed over immediately—but her health wasn't fully restored yet; she still needed months of medicine. And Li Ang had been away all these days. They figured telling him would only make things worse, so better to just take the beating.

Also, most kids would assume parents could always fix things—but these two knew well that their brother and sister weren't all-powerful. If a beating and a written apology could settle it, they'd rather just take the beating.

These two kids… so responsible it broke your heart, yet so stubborn it gave you a headache…

These two little rascals really are... sensible enough to tug at the heart, yet foolish enough to give one a headache...

"Maybe they're growing up and don't want to tell you everything anymore."

Worried the truth would upset Anna, Li Ang gave a vague answer, then turned to William:

"Hold on a few more days. I've been swamped with work lately and haven't been able to look after home—but once this phase ends, I'll go straight to your school."

Releasing Anna, who had stopped struggling, Li Ang crouched down, patted William's head, and solemnly promised:

"Big brother promises you—if it's really as you say, those two teachers will be replaced, and they must apologize to you and all the other kids.

But next time you face something like this, don't take matters into your own hands and team up to chase teachers away—tell home first. If you're in the right, big brother will stand up for you!"

But from now on, if something like this happens again, you're not allowed to take matters into your own hands and round up classmates to drive people off. You have to tell the family first. As long as you're in the right, your big brother will definitely see justice done for you!"

As long as we're in the right?

Looking at Li Ang's serious face, William tilted his head, thought it over, then nodded vigorously.

"Okay! Next time we'll make sure we're in the right first!"

"Alright! Next time we'll definitely make sure we're in the right first!"

The words made sense… but why do I feel like you've completely misunderstood what I meant to say?

With a helpless smile, Li Ang ruffled William's ever-unconventional little head, then stood up and patted his back.

He smiled helplessly, then tousled his brother's always-imaginative little head, after which Hearing Li Ang stood back up and patted him on the back.

"Alright, call Melanie out, and tell her she doesn't need to take this beating."

"Mm!"

Relying on his outstanding eloquence, he successfully dissolved a family war into nothing, then William hurried into the inner room and knocked hard on the locked door.

"Come out, it's fine now!"

"No!"

Hearing the knocking, a wary shout came from Melanie inside the room.

"You definitely took your beating and now you're back to trick me into opening the door for another one! Give up—before dawn I absolutely will not come out!

If I go out now I might get beaten for an hour, but if I can hide until school tomorrow, Sister Anna, so I won't be late, will only beat me for ten minutes at most!"

"Come out quick!"

After knocking for a long time without getting an answer, William was clearly getting impatient, and shouted directly:

"Big Brother is back, Sister doesn't have time to beat you right now!"

"Not coming out, you're lying, don't even think about dragging me into getting beaten with you!"

"Then don't blame me!"

Seeing she was so lacking in loyalty, William couldn't help narrowing his eyes, turned his head, and said to Hearing Li Ang and the other:

"I'm reporting—Melanie stole my pocket money, bought roses, and was going to send them to our housekeeping teacher's house to make her husband think she was having an affair!

Yesterday she also wrote a report letter to the Holy Church, reporting that the theology teacher was too unfamiliar with the scriptures, and suggesting the Holy Church investigate his clergy qualifications to see if they were bought with money!"