Chapter 8: The Little Frog of Justice
Huo Beixing held the two balloons he had just bought in his hand and looked down at the group of little bean-sized kids on the ground. Very patiently, he said, “I’m not stupid.”
He looked so serious, as if he were teaching them how to count one, two, three, four.
He had not immediately realized that the children’s words were malicious, because he did not think he was stupid, and no one had ever told him that he was.
The little boy leading the group immediately pulled a face at him. “If you’re not, then who is? You are stupid!”
Then he egged on the other children behind him. “He’s stupid! He’s a big idiot who can’t do anything! Big idiot!”
He had overheard his dad talking to another uncle before. His dad had said that a fool lived near Grandma’s house, and there was even a photo of him in a book. His dad had specially taken it out to show the uncle, pointing at the person in the picture and saying he had gone stupid and was now an idiot.
The uncle had been really shocked at the time. Curious, the little boy had looked at the photo too, wanting to see what a fool looked like, only to realize that he had seen this person before.
Right there at the swimming center where he took swimming lessons—he looked exactly the same as the man in the book.
So there really were fools in this world.
Fools were useless people. They could not do anything. Nobody wanted to play with fools, and nobody liked fools. Ultraman definitely would not like them either. Right now, he was going to destroy him on Ultraman’s behalf, so that he would never come to this park again.
Huo Beixing was a little unhappy from being called that. His sharp brows furrowed slightly. He did not like people talking about him that way. “I’m not stupid.”
But the little boy would not let it go. His bratty-child skill level was maxed out. “You are! You even admitted it! You’re not just a big idiot, you’re a big liar too!”
Huo Beixing retorted solemnly, “I’m not!”
The little boy shouted at the top of his lungs, “You are, you are, you are, you are!!!”
As he shouted, he grabbed a pebble from the ground and got ready to throw it. The other children, seeing someone take the lead, immediately joined in and started pelting Huo Beixing with little stones too.
Huo Beixing was caught off guard and was directly hit in the forehead by the pebble the boy threw. The rock bounced off and hit one of the Dobermans on the head too.
Doberman: !
Someone actually dared hurt a cute little dog!
Looking at the group of little brats in front of them, both Dobermans curled their lips slightly, low growls rumbling in their throats as their teeth chattered together.
“Woof! Woof woof!!!”
“Woof!!”
The Dobermans were huge, with sharp teeth, and some of them were even bigger than the little kids. They barked and roared furiously, claws digging into the ground as they lunged forward again and again. If Huo Beixing had not been holding them back, it looked as if they would have rushed over the next second and knocked those children flat.
Faced with the Dobermans’ open jaws and fierce, vicious eyes, quite a few of the children were frightened into running backward. Several of them tripped and fell along the way. Looking back at the dogs in horror, they scrambled back to their feet and ran farther away.
“Ahhh! Mommy! Mommy!!!”
Huo Beixing held the dogs tightly and soothed them, “No barking now, no barking.”
One of the Dobermans lunged forward so hard that the little boy who had taken the lead fell straight onto his butt. Huo Beixing glanced down, bent over, and lifted both dogs into his arms. Only he could do something like that—if it had been anyone else, either they would not have been big enough, or they would have been flattened under the weight. But Huo Beixing held both Dobermans steadily in his arms.
The dogs, who had already been roaring like evil dragons, did not quiet down in the slightest. In fact, they barked even more enthusiastically.
As if to say, who isn’t their owner’s precious baby?
They were bringing “using your human as backing” to its highest artistic form.
The little boy sitting on the ground stared at Huo Beixing in terror as though he were looking at a monster. “Y-you idiot! Big idiot! Big idiot! Next time I see you, I’ll definitely destroy you!”
Then he ran off, dragging behind him the snot he had cried loose from fright.
And just like that, Huo Beixing’s good mood for the entire day was completely ruined. The big man visibly wilted on the spot. Even with the balloons he had just bought still clutched in his hand, he was no longer happy.
He was not a big idiot.
After seeing Huo Beixing in sportswear, An Yi suddenly felt a flash of inspiration. But not long after he started sketching his design draft, that tiny sprout of inspiration withered away again. So he pulled out his treasured macho-man magazines and began flipping through them for ideas.
He wanted to go downstairs to get a drink of water, but the moment he opened the door, he was met face-to-face with a giant frog outside.
Big Frog: Hello.
An Yi: …
“Wife, I bought this for you.” Huo Beixing’s smiling face appeared from behind the frog balloon. Then he stretched out the hand holding it, and the little frog and the big frog ended up pressing cheek to cheek in an intimate kiss.
An Yi: How rude.
For a first meeting, this was a bit too much.
“Do you like it?”
An Yi took the big frog balloon off and hugged it in his arms. It was so light and floaty. It was his first time owning a hydrogen balloon that could fly up into the air. When he was little in the mountains, he had never seen anything like it. After coming to the big city, he had seen them many times by the roadside, but always felt there was no need to buy one, so he would only look.
He had never expected Huo Beixing to go out and buy one for him.
An Yi did not hold back his gratitude toward the other man’s goodwill. “I like it. Thank you.”
Seeing that An Yi liked it, Huo Beixing gave a silly grin twice. In his heart, he was already thinking about whether to have nine children or ten children in the future.
How many people were there in a soccer team again?
Feeling delighted with himself, he led his giant panda into the room. Then, like a peacock spreading its tail, he yanked off his shirt and entered exposed mode yet again.
An Yi hugged the big frog and let his gaze fall on Huo Beixing. Only then did he notice that the corner of Huo Beixing’s forehead was red.
“What happened to your forehead?”
Huo Beixing immediately became flustered. “N-nothing.”
Then, clutching his giant panda, he hurriedly ran away.
At dinnertime that evening, the corner of Huo Beixing’s forehead, which had only been a little red in the afternoon, had already started to swell.
An Yi asked him about it, but he would not say anything. Butler Zhong shook his head too, clearly having asked before and gotten nowhere.
While Huo Beixing was watching TV, An Yi took two eggs and sat down beside him.
He had just peeled one and was about to use it to press against Huo Beixing’s forehead when Huo Beixing suddenly saw the egg, opened his mouth, and bit off half of it.
An Yi stared at him in confusion. “Why did you bite half the egg?”
Huo Beixing chewed the egg in his mouth while keeping his eyes fixed on the runaway bride on the television. “The other half is for you.”
An Yi: …
The property distribution was very fair.
The first egg ended up being split between the two of them. When An Yi started peeling the second egg, Huo Beixing pursed his lips. “Wife, don’t peel it anymore.”
An Yi: ?
Huo Beixing said, “I’m not eating anymore. It’s kind of dry.”
An Yi: …
You’re pretty picky, aren’t you?
“It’s not for you to eat.” An Yi pressed the peeled egg against Huo Beixing’s forehead. “It’s to reduce the swelling.”
As he spoke, he rolled the egg gently over the swollen spot.
Huo Beixing thought of the little boy who had thrown stones at him at noon. A trace of sadness appeared on his face, and he looked at An Yi several times. “Wife, do you think I’m stupid?”
An Yi’s hand, which was holding the egg, paused.
He had never expected Huo Beixing to ask something like that so suddenly.
Ever since Huo Beixing’s accident, the Huo family had protected him very well. Even though Huo Beixing had become foolish, the power and capital behind him had not fallen.
He had originally been a rich playboy, a famous good-for-nothing dandy in the capital who knew nothing but eating, drinking, and having fun. Whether Huo Beixing was foolish or not, his position in the social circle had never changed. People outside still had to show this “fool” respect.
And as for the words are you stupid—if Huo Beixing had not heard them from someone else, he would never have asked that question himself.
Because that matter was equivalent to the Huo family’s reverse scale. No one would dare call Huo Beixing stupid. Even though most people outside knew he had gone stupid, in public they still had to respectfully address him as Second Young Master Huo. The Huo family had even thrown aside tradition and face just to marry him to a man in hopes of curing him.
In other words, whoever called Huo Beixing stupid was basically dancing on a minefield, shovel in hand, digging their own grave while they danced. By the time the mine exploded, the burial plot would already be ready too.
Looking at the hurt expression on Huo Beixing’s face, An Yi could also feel just how much damage the word stupid had done to him.
No one wanted to be called stupid by other people.
Even if they really had become stupid, it still would not do.
No wonder Huo Beixing had eaten one less bowl of rice than usual today. Normally he started with three bowls at the bare minimum.
“What stupid? You’re not stupid at all. Who said that?”
Huo Beixing muttered sadly, “After class today, someone at the park said I was stupid.”
An Yi said, “You’re not stupid. Don’t listen to other people’s nonsense.”
“Really?”
Huo Beixing looked at An Yi expectantly.
When that little boy had called him stupid today, not a single person had told him he was not stupid.
An Yi was the first.
At that moment, the little frog seemed to sprout magnificent wings, soaring shoulder to shoulder with the sun together with the giant frog helium balloon.
An Yi said, “Of course. You have so many strengths. How could you possibly be stupid?”
“Really? What strengths do I have?”
An Yi’s gaze was firm. “You’re rich in both wealth and money.”
That one point alone was enough.
After being comforted, Huo Beixing regained his confidence and turned back into a happy big dog. His wife was simply too good to him. Silently, he made a decision in his heart:
He would let his wife have one more child for him.
Three days later, Huo Beixing once again carried his sports bag and went off to his swimming lesson. Just as the driver was about to go pick him up, An Yi opened the car door and naturally got in.
He wanted to see exactly who had such big guts that they dared say things like that about Huo Beixing.
Actually, after An Yi had comforted Huo Beixing, the matter should have been over. The only reason he was doing this now was because the last time Huo Beixing went out, he had brought back that big frog balloon—his frog relative.
So he decided he ought to find out who had bullied Huo Beixing.
Mission code name: The Little Frog’s Repayment.
At the same time, the two Dobermans were also in the car.
The dogs looked extremely imposing, with glossy black fur and sharp claws. Even while sitting in the back seat, they still held their heads high and chests out. No one would have been able to tell that they were the same idiot dogs who had twisted the wrong hose pipe.
The two Dobermans did not reject An Yi either. After all, one of them had once shared a little water-play bond with him.
An Yi: What was dark in the past need not be revisited.
Looking at the two Dobermans, An Yi suddenly became curious about their names and asked the driver, “Uncle Li, do these two little dogs have names?”
Little dogs?
Where did their family have any little dogs?
The driver glanced in the rearview mirror at the Dobermans in the back, who together looked capable of tearing a whole person apart.
Driver: …
“They do.”
An Yi asked, “What are they called?”
Surely something very fierce and majestic.
The driver answered numbly, “Summer Sweetheart and Princess Lily.”
An Yi silently turned his head to look at the two Dobermans. “They’re both girls?”
Driver: “No. They’re both male.”
An Yi: …
So they were both Daddy’s little sweethearts after all.
This must be what people meant by a tiger in the heart, sniffing roses delicately.
When they arrived at the swimming center, An Yi got out of the car holding the two dogs on their leashes, and the rate of people turning back to stare at him was no joke.
An Yi’s appearance leaned toward delicate and refined, without much aggression. Yet in his hands he held two giant dogs, and the contrast was intense.
When Huo Beixing came out carrying his sports bag, he spotted An Yi at a glance. Surprised and delighted, he ran right over, waving happily. “Wife!”
A lot of people on both sides of the street turned to look at Huo Beixing. It had to be said that the scene really was extremely pleasing to the eye.
But An Yi wished he could drill straight back into the car.
Now even more people knew that a fine young man like him had married someone.
Huo Beixing came over to An Yi’s side and took the dog leashes from him. “Wife, did you come pick me up after class?”
An Yi hummed in acknowledgment. “Let’s go. We’re going to the park.”
The moment Huo Beixing heard they were going to the park, he was clearly a little resistant. Remembering how the last time some child had thrown stones at him there, a troubled look appeared on his face.
What if they went this time and that kid showed up again?
If they hit him, fine. But Huo Beixing looked at An Yi. His wife was smaller than him—what if he got hurt?
Still, seeing that An Yi wanted to go, Huo Beixing lowered his head and brought him along anyway.
He had always remembered one sentence in his heart:
He had to treat his wife well.
If anyone dared throw things at his wife, then he would throw them straight into the trash can!
Once they got to the park, An Yi sat on a bench watching Huo Beixing walk the dogs not far away, while at the same time keeping an eye out to see who exactly had called Huo Beixing stupid.
It did not take long for the culprit to arrive.
He yelled at Huo Beixing in a shrill voice, “Big idiot!”
An Yi looked down at the little bean-sized child standing by Huo Beixing’s feet, probably only six or seven years old.
One sit of his butt would be enough to crush one.
Seeing the kid bend down to grab a stone, the little frog of justice made a flash appearance, lifted his foot, and kicked away the stone the boy was reaching for.
It flew cleanly into the drain.
Goal!
The little boy saw the stone get kicked away and glared unhappily at An Yi. “What are you doing?”
An Yi crouched down to meet his eyes. “What are you doing?”
The little boy puffed himself up arrogantly. “I’m going to hit the idiot with a stone.”
As he said that, he moved as if he were going to shove An Yi aside. But before he could even touch him, a voice came from behind.
“Xiaoyi, what are you doing?”
The moment the little boy heard his grandma’s voice, he instantly changed his face. “I’m playing with big brother.”
An Yi silently looked at him.
At such a young age, and already more capable of pretending than a piggy bank.
The woman looked to be around fifty, dressed elegantly, with a kind and gentle face. “Really?”
Following the little boy’s words, An Yi stood up and said, “Yes, we just became friends.”
Seeing that An Yi looked fair and clean and seemed rather approachable, the woman smiled. “Our Xiaoyi just loves playing with people older than him.”
Then she lowered her head to the little boy. “Xiaoyi, are you hot? Grandma will go buy you some ice cream, alright?”
The little boy’s eyes immediately lit up. He had just opened his mouth to answer when An Yi suddenly said, “It’s going to rain this afternoon, and it might get cooler. Ice cream wouldn’t be very good.”
The woman said, “Ah, I see. Then we definitely shouldn’t let him eat any.”
If her precious grandson got chilled and ended up with diarrhea, that would be bad.
The little boy turned around and glared angrily at An Yi.
An Yi smiled at him.
There was absolutely no rain forecast for that afternoon.
Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh~
The woman said, “Then I’ll go buy some water instead.”
Seeing her grandson happily playing, the woman entrusted the little boy to An Yi for the moment. There were bodyguards watching not far away anyway, so he would not get lost.
An Yi waved goodbye as he watched the woman leave.
The little boy looked unhappily at An Yi. “Why won’t you let me eat ice cream?”
An Yi replied, “Of course it’s for your own good.”
As if.
The moment the woman left, the driver came over and delivered ice cream to An Yi and Huo Beixing.
An Yi deliberately opened the wrapper and started eating it right in front of the little boy.
Little boy: …
Grinding his teeth, the little boy snapped, “I don’t even care!”
An Yi kept eating his ice cream without reacting.
The little boy tugged at his Ultraman shirt and pointed at An Yi. “Ultraman is the strongest! I’ll make Ultraman destroy you.”
An Yi looked down at him for a few seconds.
Then he said, “Huo Beixing, cover your ears.”
Huo Beixing had no idea why, but since An Yi had said it, he obediently did as told.
The next second, An Yi leaned down and whispered in the little boy’s ear like a devil:
“Ultraman isn’t real.”
Author’s Note:
Little boy: Are you the devil?
An Yi: I’m a little frog, hey hey!
