Disciplinary Guidelines

The two of them were arguing too loudly, Xiao Tong downstairs heard something vaguely, felt uneasy, and couldn't help but come up to have a look.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Tong stood in the middle of the stairs on the second floor, holding on to the handrail and looking up at the two of them: "Have you had a fight?"

Due to the family environment, Ji Yao would never turn his anger on his elders. He took a deep breath, and forced a smile at Xiao Tong: "It's okay, auntie, I just had a few words."

Xiao Tong looked at the expressions of the two of them, didn't say anything, just smoothed things over, and said, "Then let's go downstairs for dinner?"

Ji Yao hummed, in front of Xiao Tong, he couldn't argue with Jiang Heng again, so he took the initiative to say: "Go down?"

After a quarrel just now, Jiang Heng was afraid that he would feel uncomfortable facing himself in front of Xiao Tong, so he shook his head, and asked Ji Yao to go down first on the excuse that he had some work to do temporarily.

Ji Yao frowned, and was about to say something when Xiao Tong quickly interrupted him.

"Forget it if he's busy, Yaoyao, let's go downstairs." Xiao Tong said, "I just fried golden shrimp balls, you go and taste one."

The small building is a stone brick building with good sound insulation. Ji Yao was not sure whether Xiao Tong had heard the specific content of their dispute, so he didn't want to be stubborn, so he obediently followed Xiao Tong downstairs.

The dining table on the first floor has been set up, Chinese and foreign mix and match, steak and braised chicken, looks messy, but integrated, it is indeed Xiao Tong's style.

Xiao Tong took Ji Yao to a seat, and then took a golden shrimp ball from the plate for Ji Yao.

Ji Yao picked up the chopsticks and touched the slightly burnt fried shrimp ball, feeling a little unappetizing.

He couldn't eat and was not in a good mood, so he hesitated for a while before putting down his chopsticks.

"I'm sorry, Auntie." Ji Yao said softly.

No matter what, he and Jiang Heng had no problem fighting behind closed doors, but in front of his own mother, he really shouldn't quarrel with Jiang Heng.

"It's okay." Xiao Tong looked at him quietly, and finally said suddenly: "Actually, Yaoyao, you and Xiaoheng are not lovers, right?"

Ji Yao was taken aback, and subconsciously wondered what he had missed—the quarrel was too loud, and she heard it?Ji Yao thought.

Xiao Tong seemed to know what he was thinking, she smiled slightly, and said: "I have seen it for a long time. Xiao Heng is my child, I know him well, the two of you get along very well, but you are unfamiliar - I Guess, broke up?"

Ji Yao: "..."

At this moment, Ji Yao finally realized belatedly that Jiang Heng was able to grow up like this is not without reason.

Xiao Tong usually looks carefree, thinking about it, but her eyes are so bright, and she does have Jiang Heng's demeanor in a few words.

"Yes..." Ji Yao could only admit, "I'm sorry, Auntie, I shouldn't have deliberately lied to you."

"It's nothing." Xiao Tong shook her head. She picked up a shrimp, peeled off the shell and put it on Jiyao's plate. She said softly, "What is it, can you tell me?"

It is obviously not right to talk about this kind of topic in front of the elders, but for some reason, looking at Xiao Tong's expression, Ji Yao confessed by accident.

He is not very good at talking about his emotional experience, he stammered about how he and Jiang Heng met, fell in love, and finally broke up.

Xiao Tong listened very seriously at first, until Ji Yao mentioned the last "catch the rape in bed", Xiao Tong frowned almost invisibly.

"Yaoyao." Xiao Tong paused, and said seriously: "I am Xiaoheng's mother, maybe you will feel that my heart will be biased towards him, and I will speak for him—"

"Auntie, I didn't mean that." Ji Yao said quickly.

Xiao Tong shook his head, patted the back of his hand, and signaled him to be calm.

"This is a very normal state of mind, it doesn't matter if you have it or not." Xiao Tong said, "But I still want to tell you something fair, based on what I know about Xiao Heng, he would never do such a thing——"

"Auntie, you don't know." After Ji Yao finished speaking, he felt as if he was suing in front of his own mother, and hurriedly added a sentence: "Actually, I know, he thought we broke up at that time-it is very difficult to find someone else after breaking up. It's a normal thing. I calmed down and thought about it afterwards, and I didn't think it was cheating."

Ji Yao has long been able to look at this matter objectively, but Xiao Tong shook his head, his attitude was still very firm.

"That won't happen." Xiao Tong said: "According to Xiao Heng's temper, if you didn't go back that day, he wouldn't have anything to do with others. After he calms down, he will break up with you first."

Ji Yao was genuinely puzzled this time, after spending time together, Ji Yao also had a better understanding of Xiao Tong.She is not a person who does not distinguish between right and wrong, and she rarely makes such a clear assertion on a matter, unless she really knows the inside story.

But even Jiang Heng himself couldn't explain this matter clearly, how could Xiao Tong be so sure.

"Why?" Ji Yao couldn't help asking.

"Because of his father." Xiao Tong said.

Jiang Heng's father seemed to be an absent shadow in his life.If Xiao Tong hadn't mentioned it, Ji Yao seemed to have forgotten that there should be such a place beside him.

"Xiao Heng's father and I are young couples, and we started working hard together when we were young." Xiao Tong said, "But unfortunately, I have a bad eye and picked the wrong person."

Jiang Heng's father, Jiang Yi, was a poor boy when he was young.Xiao Tong fell in love not long after he met him, and later married him regardless of his father's objection.

A few years before they got married, they had a hard time, but Xiao Tong had a wide vision and Jiang Yi had a good brain, so they quickly got on board with the development of the times and started a business.

When Jiang Heng was five years old, the Jiang family's business officially stabilized and flourished.But also in the same year, Jiang Yi gradually became dissatisfied with the monotonous family and Xiao Tong, and began to have fun outside.

At first, he was the female secretary who cheated on her, but later she became more and more playful, until a few years later, Xiao Tong even caught prostitution once.

Xiao Tong is a very proud woman in her heart, she doesn't want to beat the mistress like other women and win over her husband, so she simply ignores Jiang Yi and develops her career on her own, ignoring him.

So Jiang Yi intensified and brought different women home in front of Jiang Heng.

At that time, Jiang Heng was still very young, and he was only in elementary school.At first he accused Jiang Yi sternly, but after Jiang Yi drunkenly beat him twice, and after he found out that Xiao Tong didn't care, he gradually stopped talking and just watched silently.

"He hates his father very much." Xiao Tong said softly: "Yaoyao, in fact, Xiao Heng is a very precocious child. When other children dream of careers as astronauts and scientists, he wanted to study law—— Do you know why?"

This story is a bit sad, and Ji Yao's mood became even worse.Emotionally, it is difficult for him to match the powerless and weak child that Xiao Tong talked about with the current Jiang Heng, but intellectually, he knows that all this is true.

"Why?" Ji Yao asked.

"He is for me." Xiao Tong's eyes were a little red, she let go of Ji Yao's hand, looked away, and stared at the silver candlestick on the dining table: "He said at that time, all this is wrong, his father It is not worthy of forgiveness, so when he grows up, he will seek justice for me."

Ji Yao suddenly thought of Li Linghua, the woman who was betrayed and hurt by the person next to her bed.I don't know if he thought of himself a little while working on that case.

He remembered that he asked Jiang Heng at that time, if there was no perjury by Liu Qiang, would he sue himself for bankruptcy.At that time Jiang Heng didn't answer him directly, but at this moment, Ji Yao seemed to know his answer.

"...How old was he at that time?" Ji Yao asked.

"Fifth grade primary school." Xiao Tong said.

In the fifth grade of elementary school, maybe around ten years old, Ji Yao thought.How would such a young child feel when he watched his father drunkenly bring different women home every day, making love in every corner of the house in front of him.

Mom is so driven by Dad's excesses that she won't come home, so he's left alone, facing either an empty home or a misbehaving father.

——What was Jiang Heng thinking at that time.

He was angry, resentful, and felt that everything was wrong, but there was nothing he could do.No one helped him, and no one listened to him, so he could only pin his hopes on the future, hoping that he could grow into an upright person.

In fact, Jiang Heng did it too.

"So he won't do that." Xiao Tong said softly: "Yaoyao, trust me. I'm not making excuses for him, but this is really the shadow of his life. Even if he really wants to do this, he will Impossible - because it disgusts him and reminds him of his dad."

Ji Yao believed in Xiao Tong, and Xiao Tong would not make up such nonsense in order to restore Jiang Heng's image in front of him.

Ji Yao himself is a person who has been shackled, so he doesn't think this is an excuse.He clearly knows what it feels like to be involuntary - human beings are constructed by character and environment, and all choices in life are not arbitrary, and many things may "flee away" when they come to them.

For Ji Yao, he understood intellectually that when Jiang Heng found someone else, he had already tacitly agreed in his heart that they had broken up and it was over.But emotionally, he still remembers the feeling when he walked in with the cake that day.

Now that Xiao Tong gave him the truth from another angle, Ji Yao should be happy, but when he thought about the reason behind it, he couldn't feel relieved.

Why didn't Jiang Heng talk about it himself? Ji Yao suddenly thought, when he was working on the case, it was the same for this matter. Why didn't Jiang Heng talk about so many things himself.

"Actually, I have been very guilty for so many years." Xiao Tong said: "I am not a good mother. In Xiaoheng's life, I have never been responsible at all. Even after careful calculation, it is he who worried about me. many."

The circles of Xiao Tong's eyes were red, and there was a faint sob in her voice. It could be seen that this sentence had been held in her heart for a long time, and it was only now that she had the courage to say it.

"No... no no no." Seeing her like this, Ji Yao was a little flustered, and couldn't care less about thinking about himself, so he hurriedly pulled out two napkins for her.

"He...he didn't think so." Ji Yao said bravely: "He told me a lot of fun things about you before, and he also said that when he was eight years old, he had his birthday and you accidentally put his chocolate chips It was broken. His father is not good, he must think that the time with you is happy, otherwise he would remember everything so early. "

Ji Yao originally wanted to comfort Xiao Tong, but unexpectedly it backfired. Instead of being comforted by him, Xiao Tong seemed even more sad.

"But... that was the only birthday I spent with him." Xiao Tong said.