Chapter 1296: Promises made must be kept, even if it's just a child

"Mom, I was wrong. It was my idea. I wanted to eavesdrop on Uncle and Aunt, but Big Brother and Sange wouldn't go with me; only Second Brother went with me."

He was honest now and dared not lie again, but he also betrayed all his brothers; not one of them escaped.

Zichen and Zirui had not joined in the mischief.

But they still counted as "accomplices" because they knew about it and neither told on them nor stopped them.

"Zichen and Zirui will each write a five-hundred-word self-criticism, and Litian and Zihan will write one thousand words."

"Got it!"

Zihan thought that was the end of it and happily prepared to leave.

It was just writing a self-criticism; based on his experience writing love letters to girls, one thousand words was a piece of cake!

"You come back."

He was happy a bit too early.

Zihan was called back, and his mother said to him: "Your master said to arrive at her house at five o'clock tomorrow morning and start by practicing the Horse Stance."

Zihan corrected her: "Mom, it's not my master, it's Second Brother's master. I'm not becoming an apprentice, and I'm not learning martial arts."

"You're not learning? Can you get away with not learning? You must keep your word. Do you want to go back on it? Is this how I usually educate you all?"

"It's not like that, it's not like that, Mom! Please don't be angry, I'll learn, I'll learn, okay?" Zihan said with a bitter face, barely squeezing a smile onto his face that looked worse than crying.

Just now, when they were caught, Litian was becoming an apprentice, and Zihan had a flash of inspiration and said they were both just testing Liu Min's skills, which was why they attacked from behind.

To Liu Min, a sneak attack was easier to forgive than eavesdropping!

To bluff his way through, Sheng Zihan had said that both he and his second brother wanted to become apprentices and learn the craft.

Now that the crisis was averted, he wanted to renege on the deal?

There was no such cheap deal.

The next day.

Four o'clock in the morning.

"Thump, thump, thump!"

Sheng Zihan's room was being pounded with a "thump-thump" sound.

Shi Youxuan called out from outside the door, thick with sleepiness: "Sheng Zihan, get up!"

"Not getting up, annoying."

He muttered, covering his head with the quilt.

Shi Youxuan continued from outside: "Sheng Zihan, don't forget your promise from yesterday. It's four o'clock now. You need to wash up, eat, and it takes another half hour to get to Uncle Wang's house. Time is very tight, don't be late."

"Four o'clock in the morning?"

"Get up for what? Seems like she's got some serious illness."

Sheng Zihan rolled over, covering his ears with both hands and acting like a rascal: "Not getting up, not getting up, just not getting up! My bed is pulling me and won't let me get up!"

There was no sound outside, and just as he was secretly pleased, thinking his mother couldn't do anything about him, the door lock turned, and his mother used a key to open the door and come in.

Shi Youxuan twisted his ear and pulled him upward: "Come on, let's have a tug-of-war! Your bed won't let you get up, huh? I'm letting you get up. Let me see who is stronger, me or your bed!"

"Ouch, Mom, Mom! You're stronger, you're the strongest, it hurts so much, don't twist it anymore, my ear is going to fall off."

He only said that, playing the victim in hopes that his mother would let him off the hook, but he had no intention of getting up immediately.

Shi Youxuan had a way to deal with him; she said slowly: "It's fine, you keep sleeping, I'll PK with your bed, it won't affect you!"

It won't affect you!

Could this possibly not affect him?

No matter how many tricks Sheng Zihan had, he was still too young and simply couldn't fight against his resourceful mother.

He admitted defeat: "I'm getting up, getting up right now."

Sheng Zihan, unwilling, still crawled out of bed and was pushed into the bathroom by his mother to wash up, his eyes still bleary with sleep.

Washing his face with cold water, he finally felt a bit more energetic.

Zihan came out of the washroom, and his mother was still there. She smiled like a flower and reached out her hand: "Hand it over."

"What?"

"Playing dumb, are you? The self-criticism, what else!"

"Oh, oh, I wrote it."

A self-criticism was not a problem for Sheng Zihan; he had even written two copies!

One was his own, and the other was prepared for his second brother.

After all, he was the one who implicated his second brother; he couldn't live with his conscience if he didn't do something for him.

But his good intentions led to a bad outcome; he had intended to help his second brother write a self-criticism, but before he could show it to him, he had groggily handed both to his mother.

"No, only this one is it, that one isn't."

Too late.

He tried to snatch it back, but his mother had already seen it.

His mother teased: "Not bad, your writing is quite good."

She accepted both self-criticisms, and unexpectedly, she didn't lecture her youngest son about how having someone else write it was wrong; she only urged him to hurry up and eat breakfast, then leave once he was done.

The two children finished eating and left.

Sheng Zihan was yawning incessantly in the car, leaning on his second brother's shoulder and dozing off.

Litian, however, was incredibly excited, wiggling his bottom on the seat and talking non-stop.

"Zihan, did you not sleep well last night? Me too, me too, I was so excited I didn't sleep all night."

"I was just waiting for dawn, but the sky just wouldn't get bright..."

"Shut up."

Sheng Zihan was incredibly annoyed.

In his view, this was just a form of suffering, and his second brother was actually excited—excited about what, for heaven's sake!

He arrived at the destination in a daze.

Greeting them were Wang Yong and Liu Min, both dressed in athletic gear.

Wang Yong was dressed all in white, and Liu Min was dressed all in red.

Sheng Zihan curled his lip and muttered, "What the hell? Do you even have to wear couple's outfits for training clothes? People who flaunt their affection die fast..."

"What did you say?"

Although the distance was far, those who practice martial arts have sharp ears, and Liu Min still heard a little, though she didn't hear it clearly.

"I didn't say anything, I said... you two are so loving, I wish you a hundred years of harmony and an early birth of a child!" Sheng Zihan said with a cheeky grin, his reaction super fast.

But soon, he couldn't laugh anymore.

Liu Min made him start practicing from the basics: Horse Stance!

Not even three minutes later, he felt his legs were aching unbearably, and beads of sweat kept popping out from his head.

"I can't do it anymore, I'm not practicing."

Sheng Zihan rubbed his legs and stood up, preparing to go to the side to rest.

"Snap!"

A crisp sound of a whip rang out, and a silver flash swung toward his face.

Sheng Zihan was so scared he let out a howl and crouched on the ground, covering his head with both hands.

The whip didn't hit him; it was just to scare him, and she succeeded—Sheng Zihan was trembling with fear and burst into loud sobs: "Ahhhhhhh..."

"You're bullying people, abusing a child... sob..."

He cried so miserably that anyone who didn't know better would really think Liu Min had bullied him.

Liu Min was stunned.

She had always been one to yield to soft tactics rather than hard ones, and she especially couldn't stand seeing others shed tears.

"Don't cry, can we talk this over properly? Don't cry, don't cry!" She was even more at a loss than Sheng Zihan.

"Mm, I won't cry..."

He said he wouldn't cry, but he was still sobbing, tears welling up in his eyes, biting his lower lip hard, looking completely aggrieved.

When the two brothers went home in the evening, they were both quite happy.

Litian was happy because he had learned something, and Sheng Zihan was happy because he felt more at ease at Uncle Wang's house than at his own—he could eat whatever he wanted, play however he liked, and after eating and drinking his fill, he even took a long nap.

When the two children arrived home, Shi Youxuan called the brothers in front of her, but she only asked Sheng Zihan: "Are you going again tomorrow?"

"Yes, I'm going. One must keep their word; that's what Mom taught me."

"Good, I'll go with you tomorrow."

Sheng Zihan:...

He didn't even think about it and immediately refused: "Mom, you're so busy every day, you don't need to go. Second Brother and I can just go; Second Brother will supervise my martial arts training to strengthen my body."