Taming of the Shrew Part 2

  That night, Aunt Gu slept with her son for the first time in a long while and spent an exciting sleepless night. The next day, she went to work with panda eyes, but her mood was particularly good, smiling at everyone she saw, and even being teased by other colleagues in the office, asking if she had stayed up all night studying the lottery numbers. Aunt Gu just smiled and didn't say a word, thinking that she couldn't tell them about this good thing, so she kept it to herself and enjoyed it secretly. Of course, another thought was that if she told them that Lin Peipei helped her discipline her son well, then whenever the child had problems, they would all go find Lin Peipei for help, wouldn't that be causing trouble for the child?

  In the evening, Aunt Gu brought her son to the Lin's house. Pei Shitao made a bow to Lin Peipei, who accepted it calmly. It's only natural, why wouldn't she accept? She was also with me through the day and night, no shame in accepting!

  Aunt Gu pulled Lin Peipei's hand and told her what Pei Shitao said to her last night, as she spoke, tears couldn't stop flowing out again. "Peipei, Auntie doesn't know how to thank you! You don't know, after hearing that kid's words last night, I was so moved that I wanted to die immediately, and I would have died contentedly..."

  "Auntie, are you satisfied now? What if Shidao performs even better in the future? Will you die and come back to life again? Shidao is a clever good kid, I regard him as my younger brother, I believe he will be outstanding in the future."

  Aunt Gu was amused by Lin Pei's words and burst out laughing, "Auntie is so excited that she's talking nonsense...Peipei, how did you think of this method? It's great! Effective! Why didn't I think of it early in the morning? If I had thought of it earlier, I wouldn't have had a headache for so long."

  "This method wasn't thought of by me, but rather inspired by a story I read. The story said that in ancient times, there was a wealthy family's old master who didn't want his son to become like other families' young masters, indulging in all sorts of vices. So he decided to educate his son himself. When the son was 8 or 9 years old, despite opposition from family members and gossip from others, he took his son to places of ill repute. But the purpose wasn't for them to indulge in wine and women, but rather to observe others doing so, and even encouraged his son to make friends with those women and listen to their stories, letting him understand the tragic lives behind the scenes. Afterwards, the old master took his son to a gambling den, to see the faces of the gamblers, following both winning and losing gamblers home, seeing how they looked after leaving the den, letting his son understand the coldness of human relationships in this world. The old master even spent a lot of money bribing prison guards, taking his son to live in jail for a few days, listening to prisoners tell their life stories, letting his son understand the harsh realities of this world. When the son grew up, he became an honest and capable official. Actually, this old master's method is similar to today's shock education. It's not that you can't think of it, but rather you're unwilling to use such extreme measures. As the saying goes, 'if it doesn't hurt, it won't work', if it doesn't make sense, one will be curious, and curiosity leads to obsession. The reason why Shitian is obsessed with playing video games is because he's curious about them. I thought of letting him play until he's had enough, so that there's nothing more for him to be curious about, adding on the extreme method of starving his stomach, making his body produce a conditioned reflex, so that when he plays video games again, his body will react with the discomfort of hunger, and he'll feel nauseous and want to vomit. His interest in playing will greatly decrease, and soon he'll find it boring and tiring. Actually, I was inspired by others training dogs using this method to stop them from eating things they shouldn't. As for whether it's effective or not, I'm not sure, haha!"

  Aunt Gu was stunned by Lin Peipei's story, and in the end, she even said that this method didn't work for herself either. She thought to herself, "It turns out my family's Shitou has become a guinea pig." However, the effect is indeed surprisingly good, so it doesn't matter if he's a guinea pig or not. At this point, Lin Peipei's previous words had a thoughtful aftertaste.

  Lin Pei saw Gu Aunty deep in thought and shifted her gaze to Pei Shitao, who was sitting beside her, completely absorbed in a painting album.

  "Shi Tao, sister promised you that she would teach you Taekwondo and she will keep her promise. When do you want to start learning?"

  "Sister Peipei, can I not learn Taekwondo and learn something else?"

  Pei Shitao lifted his head from the album, his eyes sparkling with stars, and a flush of excitement on his small face.

  "Of course, as long as it's something Sister knows, what do you want to learn?" Lin Peipei was somewhat surprised that Bae Se-tae had suddenly changed his mind.

  "This, I want to learn painting!"

  Bai Shidao picked up the painting book in his hand, which was a collection of Lin Peipei's usual practice drafts. Unexpectedly, Bai Shidao became deeply fascinated with it after reading it and decisively abandoned Taekwondo like a worn-out shoe. In his little brain, he thought that Taekwondo was just a fancy move, and there wouldn't be many opportunities to use it. Even if he showed off a few moves in school, the teacher might mistake him for bullying his classmates. Painting was different; if he learned well and painted a good painting, he would be impressive in school, and his classmates would envy him. The teachers would also look at him with admiration, which would be a very prestigious thing to do. Only an idiot would still want to learn the silly Taekwondo.

  Lin Peipei didn't mind at all, it was just a small effort, so every weekend and holiday, Bae Seo-tae would appear at Lin's house, carrying a small painting board, following behind Lin Peipei to draw from life. After Jin Ge left, he took his place and became Lin Peipei's little tail. Lin Peipei also taught him like a younger brother, not only teaching him to paint but also subtly instilling some of her ideas about life, such as: respecting elders, remembering their wise words; helping the weak and punishing the strong, having the demeanor of a great general, staying calm when faced with things you can't handle, seeking help from adults; reading more books, understanding knowledge you don't know, memorizing things you don't understand to ponder later...

  In this way, Pei Shidao followed Lin Peipei for two years and respected her as a sister from the bottom of his heart. Her status was even higher than that of his mother, until Lin Peipei went abroad to study. Pei Shidao's personality had completely changed, and after entering middle school, he became one of the top students in his grade, becoming a model for all parents in the compound to educate their children. Not only did Gu Ayi have face in front of people, but she also felt proud in her heart, and her gratitude to Lin Peipei was beyond words, wishing she could take out her heart to repay her.

  When she received the instruction from Governor Lin to help Lin Peipei with the matter, it was as if she had put herself in the position of a mother to scrutinize the people who came to ask for paintings. The severity was no less than that of customs inspection, and her eyes seemed to be equipped with X-ray vision, wanting to see through the intentions of each person who came to the door. Even so, she still felt that it was not enough, fearing that there would be loopholes, and this nephew of hers had come up with such a thing. On the one hand, he had accepted such a great favor from others and didn't know how to repay it, on the other hand, he had also offended them, making her feel ashamed and not knowing how to face their children. Aunt Gu was so angry in her heart that she wished she could have cut off Gu Quanzhi's flesh a thousand times.

  A sleepless night, every two days early in the morning, Gu Auntie got up before dawn and stood at the door of the Lin family's house, waiting to find someone as soon as they woke up. Today, Lin Peipei also got up as usual to watch the sunrise, and as soon as she stepped out of the door, she saw a figure wandering under the streetlights, looking very surprised, and hurriedly walked forward, "Gu Auntie? What's going on so early..."

  "Pepe, I..."

  Aunt Gu had a thousand words in her heart, but she couldn't say a single sentence, and didn't know how to start. Lin Peipei saw the guilt and entanglement on her face, and understood that it was because of yesterday's little red hair incident. Pei Shitao said that he was his cousin, and should be Aunt Gu's natal family member. Aunt Gu came at this time, presumably looking for her.

  "Auntie, you're here looking for me, wanting to plead on behalf of Shi Tao's cousin?"

  "No, Peipei, don't misunderstand me, I'm not here to beg for mercy. That little brat is my big brother's son and they've spoiled him rotten. What he did isn't worth me pleading for him. I came just to ask you how you want to deal with that little scamp. Even if you want to chop off one of his hands, Aunt Gu, I'll go help you do it! As long as you can calm down..."

  Gu Auntie heard Lin Peipei's words and, fearing she would be misunderstood, hastily explained her stance in a flurry of words, finally looking at her with a pleading expression.

  Lin Pei understood that Aunt Gu was worried that Xiao Hong Mao was from her husband's family and feared she would get angry and take it out on her, so she smiled at Aunt Gu with a hint of meaning and said, "Auntie, Shi Tao is surnamed Pei, not Gu, right?"

  "Ah, of course it's the surname Pei, he is your Uncle Pei's child, so his surname is Pei, not Gu..."

  At first, Aunt Gu didn't understand what Lin Peipei meant and continued to explain along with the conversation. As she spoke, she suddenly understood that Lin Peipei was saying that Shi Tao's surname is Pei, not Gu, and what does the Gu family have to do with him? She is Shi Tao's mother, not Gu Quan's mother. Even if she were a member of the Gu family, the Gu family is the Gu family, and she is herself. Gu Quan has nothing to do with her. Lin Peipei used only two sentences to resolve the problem that had been troubling her for an entire evening. She felt relieved in her heart and smiled somewhat awkwardly, thinking to herself: "I've lived a useless life for half my years, not even as clever as a child."

  "Alright, Auntie understands, nothing more to say, it's really self-inflicted trouble... You're going out so early for a morning exercise? Auntie will go with you, this old body hasn't been active in a long time. Since you returned to the country, I haven't even brought Shidao to your place to visit you yet, today we sisters can have a good chat!"

  Gu's aunt, who had opened up her heart knot, was relaxed and suggested going up the mountain to watch the sunrise with Lin Peipei, even calling herself "sister". Lin Peipei saw that she had let go of her entanglements and naturally wouldn't pick on her words, so the two walked shoulder to shoulder, chatting as they headed up the mountain.

  The horizon gradually reveals a pale white, grayish-blue clouds begin to dye a layer of light orange, from shallow to deep slowly becoming orange-red and then golden red, a red sun like a peeled egg reveals the bright yellow yolk, rushing into people's eyes.

  The red sun shines in the sky, today is another good day.