After rebirth, she became the favorite of the powerful minister.

Yuan Ge didn't know whether Xu Yi understood Wen Peiji's deep meaning, but Wen Yizhuo had obviously forgotten his father's advice in a blink of an eye. The Wen family's consideration was really too difficult to understand for such a young child.

Thus, within half a day, the entire houseboat was filled with his brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles.

He was born cute and sweet-talker, and he got along well with people. He could go out for a stroll and bring back a bunch of food and toys, and then play quietly for an hour or so without disturbing anyone. Although he looked cheerful and active, he would never step into places he shouldn't go, so that after he had strolled around twice and came back, the guests on the houseboat didn't even notice that there was a little kid on the houseboat today.

Yuan Ge just let him go.

On this day, it was dinner time. The little guy got out the Nine-linked Rings from nowhere, and sat cross-legged on the floor with a frown on his face, playing with it intently and seriously. Even the knock on the door did not make him look up. At this time, Xu Yi usually came to deliver the food. It was originally the job of a book judge, but Xu Yi took it personally, just to have more legitimate opportunities to accompany the little guy for dinner. Perhaps it was the unspeakable bond between mother and son, Wen Yizhuo was also very attached to Xu Yi, calling her "beautiful sister, beautiful aunt" all the time, and even at this time, he usually rushed to open the door before Yuan Ge.

So when Xu Yi saw Yuan Ge opening the door, she was curious, "Where is Zhuo Zhuo?"

"Playing Nine Rings..." Yuan Ge stepped aside and nodded behind him with a smile, "Zhuo Zhuo..."

Behind him, there was no one. The Nine Rings were still on the ground, but the little guy was gone.

Yuan Ge was not in a hurry. There was only one exit in the room, and people were needed. She bent down and looked under the bed. Sure enough, the little guy was crouching inside. It turned out that one of the nine rings had rolled in. But the little guy was a little strange, lying there motionless. Yuan Ge crouched down and called, "Zhuozhuo? Come out for dinner."

Wen Yizhuo still didn't move. He was already holding the ring in one hand, but he still didn't let it out. He lay there without making any movement. He only raised his head slightly and looked at a corner under the bed. After a while, he called out in pain, "Mother... Mother..."

The voice was very low and a little vague, but it was different from the childish voice of the past. Instead, it sounded like the desperate and painful murmurs of a person trapped in a nightmare in the middle of the night.

Yuan Ge was startled and looked at Xu Yi. Xu Yi had already put down the tray and crawled under the bed. She was about to take the little guy out. He inadvertently followed his gaze and suddenly he shuddered all over. It felt like someone had suddenly cut a piece of flesh and skin from his chest. He couldn't help shaking with pain, and bursts of white light and dark shadows flashed in front of his eyes.

The bottom of the bed had just been swept, so there was no chance for dust to gather, so the graffiti in the corner was particularly clear. Several little figures surrounded a little figure in the middle, who was curled up in the corner, with a barely recognizable word "dirty" written crookedly on his head.

The handwriting and style are exactly the same as those graffiti that have been disliked outside.

Wen Yizhuo lay there looking at the graffiti with confused eyes. Tears rolled down his expressionless face and his lips trembled. "Mom... is dirty, mom... they said Zhuozhuo is dirty..." He repeated these words almost unconsciously, just like the child who completely closed himself off back then.

Xu Yi's eyes almost went dark. She reacted instantly and used her hands and feet to carry Wen Yizhuo out from under the bed. Yuan Ge was also startled and called his name over and over again, but the child just kept crying, as if his soul had left his body. He shed tears expressionlessly with confused eyes. He repeated those two sentences unconsciously, and finally fell asleep under Yuan Ge's calming incense.

"The little guy is fine." Yuan Ge let go of his pulse, looked up at Xu Yi, and said softly, "It's just... he looks like he has recovered his memory."

She saw the painting under the bed. Even though she had never experienced it personally, Yuan Ge still felt despair from the almost messy and immature brushstrokes.

Yuan Ge felt distressed when she thought of a child so young hiding under the bed and secretly drawing pictures of being bullied. She looked at Wen Yizhuo who was sleeping soundly and said softly, "Sister-in-law, I'm sorry. It was me who suggested bringing him here. I didn't expect something like this to happen."

Xu Yi tucked in the quilt and shook her head. "It has nothing to do with you. Wen Peiji would have brought it even if you didn't mention it. It's my fault. I always come here to sit for the past two years, but I never discovered the secret... He was less than two years old at that time, and he liked to use charcoal to scribble all over the room. I remember that he couldn't write at that time. I think the first word this child learned was probably the word 'dirty'."

"At first, I was thankful that he was well-behaved, quiet, sensible and considerate, which saved me a lot of trouble in the early stages of building the pleasure boat... It was not until the past two years that I gradually realized that it is the nature of children to love to play and make trouble. He is lively to begin with, so how could he suddenly become quiet and well-behaved?" Xu Yi traced the child's eyebrows with her fingertips and smiled bitterly, "If I had discovered something was wrong at that time, it would have been great... But I didn't. As a mother, I have never cared about what a child is thinking."

"Until that day, it was raining heavily. I went to the first deck to look for him. At that time, he had several friends who came to play almost every day. They were a little older than him, but the oldest was only five or six years old. I thought they were very close, until I saw with my own eyes that the oldest child was sitting on the deck in the pouring rain, with his legs raised, looking at him arrogantly, while he was kneeling there, holding up a piece of paper with the word "dirty" written on it, letting the other party scold him for being a fatherless child and that his own mother was a slut who didn't even know who the father of the child was. The children around him were laughing and making a fuss, but he was the only one kneeling there, with a blank expression on his face, not crying, laughing, or making a fuss..."

"I don't know how many times similar things have happened, and I never thought that a five or six-year-old child could say such dirty and vicious words. But the fact is that my son was bullied in a place I couldn't see, and the first word he learned in his life was 'dirty'... After that, I never let those kids go on the pleasure boat again, and I left there soon, but it was too late. He began to hide in this room all day long, not seeing anyone, not talking, not crying, not making a fuss, and having no emotions."

Yuan Ge listened in a daze, looking at the child who was not sleeping well even under the soothing incense, and felt as if there was a ball of cotton in her throat, making it difficult to breathe. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She just walked forward gently and hugged Xu Yi, who looked like she was about to break.

Come to think of it, the heart-wrenching pain is just like this.