The Boy with Eight-Pack Abs

The next day, knowing that Professor McGonagall would be coming for a home visit, Jerry got up early.

After receiving his Hogwarts acceptance letter yesterday, he had taken a rough tour of the entire orphanage.

According to the information in his mind, this orphanage called Edward Orphanage had been funded and established twenty years ago by a businessman named Edward before his death.

It had originally been built to help poor orphans abandoned for various reasons.

Unfortunately, after the old man died, things had changed somewhat.

It was not especially terrible, though. The orphans' meals and benefits had merely been greatly reduced, and the orphanage staff were no longer as kind and friendly as before.

Jerry felt that this was only human nature. In this era, an orphanage like this having no child abuse was already fairly decent.

After all, some places called orphanages were secretly illegal organizations of unknown purpose.

As the saying went, "All the hustle and bustle under heaven is for profit; all the coming and going under heaven is for gain!"

Other than great sages, no one was absolutely selfless.

Was he not the same? Aside from those he cared about, he would not do thankless, exhausting things without some benefit to himself.

Before this, he had always worked hard to do good deeds and actively help others, but his original purpose had only been for the Little Red Star.

Without the Little Red Star, he probably would not have taken the initiative to help strangers he did not know.

When he was in school, if he saw someone fall on the street, he would go over and help them up. After working for several years, if he saw someone fall, he would only choose to walk around them.

After all, the price of stepping forward might be a year's worth of his hard-earned salary.

But having been reborn in this life, honestly speaking, all the good deeds he had done to earn Little Red Stars had indeed affected him somewhat.

Because he had discovered that when he received someone's sincere gratitude, it truly brought him an inexplicable sense of happiness, though he really did not want to admit it.

After lining up to finish his simple breakfast, Jerry went to the large courtyard in front of the orphanage's main gate.

He remembered that Professor McGonagall was an Animagus. When she came to the Muggle world, she liked to transform into a tabby cat. If he waited in the front courtyard, perhaps he could witness the magical sight of a cat turning into a person.

Half an hour later, Jerry, who had been hiding in a corner and watching to see whether any cats appeared atop the surrounding walls, frowned and looked toward the right side of the courtyard.

There, three boys around thirteen or fourteen were laughing as they shoved an eight- or nine-year-old boy to the ground and relentlessly mocked him.

From his memories, Jerry knew that these three thirteen-year-old boys were currently the oldest children in the orphanage. They loved using their greater size and strength to bully younger orphans.

If any orphan refused to listen to them, they would likely suffer their bullying for a long time, perhaps even fists and kicks.

Thus, all the children in the orphanage feared these three boys greatly. Even as they watched the little boy being shoved down and ridiculed, none of them dared step forward to stop it.

There had actually been victims before who told the orphanage staff about this, but the staff did not take it seriously. They only gave the three boys a verbal warning. Instead, the victim who tattled suffered retaliation from them for a long time.

As far as the orphanage staff were concerned, so long as the orphans did not suffer serious injuries, they basically would not interfere. In their eyes, fights between children were not a big deal.

As for the little boy currently being beaten, he had only recently been transferred to the orphanage, which was why these three boys had targeted him.

After thinking for a moment, Jerry did not step forward. He felt that even if he helped the boy now, once he left the orphanage for Hogwarts, the little boy would still be bullied.

Besides, there was nothing in it for him. If a fight broke out and the visiting Professor McGonagall saw it, she might form a bad impression of him.

However, when he heard the arrogant laughter of the three boys and saw the stubborn little boy surrounded in the middle, likely about to receive a beating, he finally sighed and stood up.

I'm not softhearted. I just want to test whether doing good deeds in this world can also earn Little Red Stars. That's right, this is merely a necessary experiment!

Muttering to himself, Jerry strode forward and shouted:

"Stop!"

At Jerry's shout, the three boys involuntarily stopped. Then they turned to look at him as he approached, surprise appearing on their faces.

They had not expected that among the orphanage children, someone would dare yell at them—especially someone like Jerry, who was usually quiet and reserved.

"Looks like you want to end up like this newcomer too?"

The three temporarily let go of the little boy, whose eyes were already brimming with tears, and walked toward Jerry with ill intent.

It was understandable for a newcomer to be disobedient. But someone like Jerry, who had already spent five or six years at the orphanage, still daring to resist them? He needed to be properly punished.

Otherwise, how would they intimidate the other orphans?

"We're all orphans. None of us have it easy. Why do something like this?"

Looking at the three boys, each a full head taller than him, Jerry tried to keep his tone calm.

Except for a small minority, most children who grew up in orphanages had some psychological issues.

Those who merely felt inferior were not much of a problem. The worst were those who felt inferior but wanted to gain a sense of accomplishment by abusing and bullying others weaker than themselves.

"Wrong. In my eyes, you're all just trash. Being able to amuse me is your greatest use!"

The fattest and tallest of the three looked around, his eyes filled with mockery.

"Although I don't really like bullying children, if I don't teach you a lesson, you might cause trouble later!"

Jerry understood it then. He still had to stay at the orphanage for another month before school began. With the personalities of these three, even without what happened today, they would eventually clash with him anyway.

Since that was the case, he might as well beat them into submission in one go and save himself some trouble in the future.

Shaking his head, Jerry casually took off his jacket and T-shirt and placed them on a nearby platform, revealing his lean body.

Although Jerry was only eleven years old and not yet one meter forty tall, his muscles were exceptionally firm.

They were not the large muscles built by fitness enthusiasts, but compact muscle groups like steel cables.

That was why he looked somewhat thin while clothed, yet seemed like a completely different person once he took off his shirt.