Mu Jingzhe continued to talk about Little Bei. “If we encounter such a problem again in the future, Little Bei, we can use some clever methods, but they have to be appropriate.

  “If there’s a problem, we can just say so directly. If you want to take revenge, you can do it openly. Even if I’m not around, you can speak bravely if you’re in the right. If you felt that something was wrong with the slap, you could have just spoken out and Tian Xiaoxiao would have restrained herself.”

  Little Bei nodded. “Mommy, I understand. I’ll speak out in the future.”

  Mu Jingzhe looked at the obedient Little Bei and then at her swollen face. She carefully touched it. “Most importantly, Little Bei, you have to protect yourself at all times.”

  Little Bei was stunned. “Protect myself?”

  “That’s right. Protecting yourself is the most important thing. I said so much just now, but this is the most important thing I want to tell you. Your counterattack this time was successful, but I don’t like it. The reason I don’t like it is because you paid by scratching your skin and bleeding.

  “Little Bei, you hurt yourself, and even then, you didn’t even manage to hurt your enemy. Tian Xiaoxiao was merely scolded a little because of you, but your wounds are still there.

  “It seems to me that it would be better for you to slap her back directly than using this method. If you slap her back, you might not be in the right, but at least you won’t have to suffer through this. You’re making our hearts ache.”

  Little Bei hadn’t expected this to be the most important reason. Initially, she had felt that it was not a big deal to suffer a little bit of pain. At least this way, she wouldn’t cause Mommy trouble. This would also show everyone Tian Xiaoxiao’s plans and bad intentions.

  In the past, when she had been bullied by Fu, Lu, Shou, and Xǐ, she would use some methods to gain the sympathy of the villagers and get through those difficult times. At the time, she had gotten used to feeling pain.

  Now, Mu Jingzhe had said that her heart ached and that she had failed to protect her.

  Little Bei, who had been trying hard to tell herself that it didn’t hurt, suddenly couldn’t take it anymore.

  It was as if the pain that she’d said didn’t hurt suddenly did. Even though those wounds had healed long ago and the pain was long gone, she remembered everything now.

  In the past, she used to look down on the children who would run crying to the adults after falling. She had wondered why they loved to cry so much.

  It was only now that she realized that they liked crying so much because someone doted on them.

  “Then I won’t do it again. Next time, I’ll slap that person back, Mommy. I actually wanted to slap her back yesterday because it hurt so much…”

  \r \r \r

  For the first time, Little Bei didn’t say, “I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt.” Instead, she said what she truly felt.

  “She slapped me so hard that my face went numb, and then my ears started ringing, but I held back because I was afraid of trouble. I didn’t dare cry. If I’d known you would say that, Mommy, I would have hit back…”

  Little Bei cried and finally let down her guard. She finally dared to voice her true thoughts.

  In the past, her older brothers had protected her. She knew how good they were to her. Knowing that their hearts would ache for her, sometimes, she didn’t dare say anything out loud. Also, she was afraid of getting into trouble. From a young age, she had learned to endure.

  Later on, when Shao Qihai had come back, he’d also taught her not to cry and unintentionally caused the five of them to lose many of the rights that children should have. She had always been timid.

  Compared to Shao Dong and Shao Nan, Little Bei was the most naive. She had been the first to accept Mu Jingzhe, but she also had her own wounds in the depths of her heart.

  It wasn’t until Mu Jingzhe stood in front of her time and again, boldening her up, that she finally spoke her mind.

  Seeing Little Bei cry and say that she was in pain, Mu Jingzhe wiped her tears and asked, “So you have to protect yourself in the future and never get hurt again, understand?”

  “Mm.” Little Bei nodded. “Mommy, will you blow it for me?”

  Whenever other children fell or broke something, their mother would blow on it. She wanted to know if blowing on it would stop the pain.

  “Okay, I’ll blow on it for you. It won’t hurt anymore.”

  Mu Jingzhe blew on her wound, and Little Bei really felt that it wasn’t that painful anymore. Even though her face was full of tears, she laughed.

  Shao Nan stared blankly at Little Bei’s smile from the side, feeling terrible.

  They had tried their best to protect Little Bei, but Little Bei didn’t even dare tell them the truth. Previously, he had kept Little Bei company, but she’d kept reassuring him and saying that it didn’t hurt.

  He had always thought that he was protecting Little Bei, but now he knew that Little Bei was also protecting him and her other older brothers.

  What he had done was far from enough. Little Bei didn’t even dare speak the truth. Yesterday, Little Bei’s ears had been ringing from the beating, but even then, she hadn’t made a sound.

  If Mommy hadn’t come today, he might not have found out the truth his whole life. He might even have thought that he had done well.

  “I’ll blow on it for you too.” Shao Nan went forward and blew on Little Bei’s wound. “You have to tell us when it hurts in the future. Let’s not be afraid, okay?”

  Little Bei nodded obediently. “Okay, Brother, don’t be sad. I really like you, Big Brother, Second Brother, and Xiao Wu.”

  “Okay.” Shao Nan nodded. “Next time, we’ll do what Mommy said. If it hurts, we’ll shout out. We’ll do everything openly, alright?”

  Actually, Little Bei wasn’t the only one. When had the few of them ever cried out in pain?

  None of them had, as there used to be no one for them to complain to before, even if they were in pain. Now, there was. If it hurt, they could now tell their mommy.

  They weren’t afraid that they wouldn’t have anyone to back them up anymore. In the past, they didn’t dare do it openly because they didn’t have parents and no one had cared about them. Everyone had belittled them. Now, they had Mu Jingzhe.

  “In the future, if anyone dares to bully you during filming, don’t be afraid. Just say it out loud, okay?”

  “Okay, got it.”

  Little Bei giggled and raised her arm. “Brother, blow on it again.”

  Shao Nan puffed up his cheeks and blew on her wound.

  Mu Jingzhe watched the siblings interact and simply let them be. However, seeing that they didn’t stop after a while, she quickly stopped them.

  “Little Bei, that should be enough. If your brother continues blowing, his cheeks will hurt.”

  Due to the ruckus that took place that day, the production team stopped working for a day, much to the dismay of Director Lu. However, he didn’t dare rush Little Bei and the rest the next day and could only film other scenes. Although he couldn’t fire Tian Xiaoxiao right now, everyone’s attitude toward Tian Xiaoxiao had changed.

  Tian Xiaoxiao and Mother Tian had really kicked an iron plate this time. Their reputation in the production team was completely tarnished. Although communication wasn’t as well-developed as in modern times, when they could easily get news, everyone liked to watch celebrity gossip. If the media and reporters knew about this and reported on it, they would be in trouble.

  If word got out that their reputation was bad, many people would be afraid and would stop seeking them out to work together.

  Mother Tian knew the severity of this. Although she felt extremely disgusted, she still had to put on a smile in order to ease her relationship with the crew so that they wouldn’t speak of the incident around outsiders.

  Because of this, she even went to buy some things for everyone and said that she would treat everyone to a meal after filming today.

  Although she hated Little Bei and Mu Jingzhe to death, when Mu Jingzhe and Little Bei arrived, she greeted them with a smile as if nothing had happened.

  Tian Xiaoxiao was also completely quiet in the production team. She was quietly filming and was no longer causing trouble or putting on the airs of a child star.

  Little Bei didn’t want to care about Tian Xiaoxiao, and once filming started, she would forget about all this and put her whole heart and soul into the process. The filming schedule finally got on track, and the process went smoothly. Director Lu heaved a sigh of relief.

  However, from this point onward, he paid more attention to protecting Little Bei. Mu Jingzhe was watching from the side like a tiger watching its prey. This made Director Lu feel extremely pressured, especially while filming the crying scene toward the end.