When Father Ye saw him come home looking so evasive, he immediately stopped him. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
Nothing? Then why was he hiding? Was he afraid to show half his face?
Father Ye circled around him and saw that one cheek was bruised. Anger immediately welled up inside him.
"You'd only been behaving yourself for a few days, and now you're fighting again. Can't you stay out of trouble for even a day? The moment you have nothing to do, you stir something up. There's a typhoon coming, and everyone's scared. Nobody dares go out to sea, but you just had to go rushing off. Never seen you so hardworking normally. You'd barely been home this afternoon before you went off fighting again?"
"When did I get into a fight? I went to break one up and got hit by accident."
He was frustrated too, and hurriedly explained everything to his father so all his recent efforts wouldn't go to waste. It hadn't been easy to convince them that this prodigal son had turned over a new leaf.
Father Ye's expression eased somewhat as he listened. "That whole family's shameless. A few years ago, that boy stole pomelos from someone-a whole sackful. He couldn't carry it away and got caught. They only hit him once with a stick, but his whole family showed up demanding compensation. Even the old woman in their family sat on the ground wailing and refused to leave. They got driven out in the end."
Mother Ye spoke up for him. "All right, this wasn't Dongzi's fault. Go inside and rub some camellia oil on it."
Lin Xiuqing followed him inside to get him the camellia oil.
"Hiss... that hurts. Rub it on more gently."
"I'm already being gentle. Who told you to get