Chapter 633: Sibling Conflict 2

If he is unhappy, he won't let anyone else be happy either.

He realizes that stealing other people's things is wrong, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have other ways to cause trouble.

Sheng Zichen hugged his toy piano, marched valiantly to the door of his sister's room, and then sat down on the floor with a thud.

"Knock, knock, knock."

He knocked on the door first; courtesy before force.

"Who is it?" Shi Ran asked vigilantly from inside the room.

"Baobao."

The sweet voice sounded like a little devil calling out to Shi Ran.

"Shh!"

She lowered her voice to explain a problem to Qi Heng, ignoring her younger brother.

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Sister, Baobao, eat-eat." He meant it was time for dinner, and he had come to call them down to eat.

However, dinner time was always very punctual, and it wasn't time yet.

Besides, even if it were time to eat, it would be Zhang Ma or Grandma who came; no one would let Sheng Zichen come over to call them out.

Eating was a pretense; wanting to cause trouble was the truth.

Shi Ran ignored her brother, thinking that if he knocked on the door for a while and it was boring, he would leave.

However, he did not.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are... star, star, star, star, star, star, star..." Sheng Zichen played nursery rhymes at the door, and even held down a key without letting go.

"This is too much!"

Shi Ran stood up angrily and opened the door: "Give it here, you are not allowed to make any sound."

"No, it's Baobao's."

Sheng Zichen hid the piano behind his back, but his hands were too small and he didn't grab it tightly, so the piano fell to the floor.

Shi Ran snatched the piano into her hands before he could.

If she had taken it into her own room, perhaps none of what followed would have happened.

But the toy piano sang on endlessly: "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..."

Shi Ran wanted to turn off the music, but couldn't find the switch.

The "Little Star" couldn't be turned off; it wasn't shining in the sky, but it was making noise in her ears.

Shi Ran felt that not only were there little stars in her ears, but they were in front of her eyes too!

From anger.

"How do you turn this off?" she asked her brother.

Sheng Zichen: "No, no."

This kind of toy piano had no switch at all.

There was no need to turn it off; as long as you didn't press it, it would stop automatically after finishing a song.

Shi Ran had never played with such toys!

When she was little, she played with air force building blocks, Lego toys, and other toys that tested one's intelligence.

This kind of toy that didn't even have a switch was simply not Shi Ran's cup of tea, but now it had stumped her.

Unable to find the switch, she got angry—she raised the toy piano high and threw it onto the floor; the air suddenly went quiet.

It stopped singing completely.

Even the batteries were knocked out.

"Waa—"

The next second, Sheng Zichen burst into tears.

The two siblings stood in front of Shi Youxuan; no, Qi Heng was there too.

Shi Ran: "It's all my fault, Mom, punish me."

Qi Heng: "Auntie, this matter is also my fault; it's not entirely Shi Ran's problem. If you want to punish, punish me along with her."

Sheng Zichen: "Good."

Shi Youxuan:...

"What's 'good' about it? I'll settle the score with you later. Now go eat, don't join in the fun here."

She had the nanny take her son away, and Sheng Zichen followed happily.

Because Mom told him to go eat, and didn't tell his sister or brother to go.

In the mind of the little foodie Sheng Zichen—not being given food is a punishment!

"A Heng, you go eat too." Shi Youxuan wanted to have a serious talk with her daughter.

Qi Heng didn't leave, but said firmly: "Auntie, if you want to punish, punish me along with her."

Before Shi Youxuan could even open her mouth, Shi Ran said confidently: "Don't worry, Mom won't punish me; I didn't do anything wrong."

Shi Youxuan:...

She had always believed that her daughter was a very sensible child who didn't need to be worried about at all.

But now she discovered a problem, and the problem was not small.

"Forget it, you go eat too. Come to my room after dinner." The words Shi Youxuan was about to say were swallowed back down.

At dinner, the atmosphere at the table was very gloomy.

Shi Ran felt a vague sense of unease; she felt that her mother asking her to go to her room definitely meant nothing good, and there would be no kind words.

But she did not know where she had gone wrong.

Qi Heng was also uneasy.

He felt guilty.

Although he was only ten years old, his excessive life experiences and the current peculiarity of living under someone else's roof made Qi Heng more mature than his peers!

What Shi Ran, as smart as she was, had not been able to figure out, Qi Heng had.

He knew that Shi Youxuan was angry because Shi Ran was not loving toward her younger brother, and the root cause of all this was himself.

After dinner.

Shi Ran went to her parents' room and apologized first: "Mom, I was wrong. I shouldn't have smashed my younger brother's instrument."

"And what else?"

"Nothing else."

There really was nothing else; she had thought about it for the duration of the meal and could not come up with any other problems besides doing that one thing wrong.

Shi Youxuan asked: "Why didn't you let your younger brother go in? Can you tell me the reason?"

"I can."

Shi Ran argued with conviction: "Mom, you know our Rocket Class curriculum is very advanced. It is not easy for Qi Heng to get into the Rocket Class even if he works hard in the regular class. He is working very hard, and I also want to help him..."

"... These two days are the streaming assessment exams. The questions I predicted are key points, and it is hard to pick up the train of thought once it is interrupted, but Sheng Zichen always tries every way to make trouble!"

She said a lot, but it was nothing more than making excuses and finding reasons for herself.

If it were before, Shi Youxuan would have interrupted her words and told her daughter simply and crudely: You are wrong, you shouldn't have done that, you should have...

But now she did not.

She listened quietly to her daughter's grumbling; the more Shi Ran said and the more indignant she became, the calmer Shi Youxuan grew.

Gradually, her daughter's words became less intense, her speaking speed slowed down, and her confidence was not as strong as it was at the beginning.

"Although he is a little kid, he is too playful. If it weren't for this critical moment, I would talk to him properly..." Although not so righteous and self-confident, she was still blaming her younger brother.

Shi Youxuan continued to listen, and no emotional changes could be seen on her face.

Sheng Hanyu stood up, patted his wife on the shoulder, and then walked around his daughter to go to the Study.

The couple did not need too many words; just a pat on the shoulder, and Shi Youxuan understood!

He was letting her handle it; he would not interfere anymore.

The two had a division of labor; Sheng Hanyu was responsible for the education of the boy, and the education of the girl... was actually also Sheng Hanyu's responsibility.

Because when his wife was angry, she was prone to being impulsive, and when she was impulsive, she would hit the children.

But looking at it now, she had improved.

She could patiently listen to her daughter say so much, not only without losing her temper but even without interrupting the child's speech.

Sheng Hanyu decided on the spot—Ranran's education would be left to Shi Youxuan; a mother educating a girl would surely be more convenient than a father!

After her husband left, Shi Youxuan asked her daughter to sit beside her: "Ranran, sit here."

Shi Ran:...

"Mom, please don't be like this. If I did something wrong, tell me, I will change, I will definitely change... or you can hit me!"

Accustomed to her mother losing her temper, Shi Ran was very unaccustomed to this sudden change in attitude.

Shi Youxuan: "Ranran, don't be afraid. I won't hit you. Come sit over here, Mom wants to have a heart-to-heart talk with you."

Shi Ran was about to cry immediately: "Mom, please don't be like this, you'd better just hit me." From childhood to adulthood, she was used to being hit, and "having a talk" was not her mother's style.

When things are abnormal, there must be something strange.

The calmer her mother was, the less confident Shi Ran felt inside!

"I won't hit you. You are already a big child and can listen to reason. Let's have a good talk." Shi Youxuan wore the look of a kind mother, smiling calmly.