I Bacame the Mother of His Child-Chapter 47 - 46: Punishing Song Chengguang

Song Yuanhuan stood up from the dining table as soon as he saw the little guy starting to run out of the room with his short little legs and followed close behind. Then, as the little one was about to run out the door, he swiftly scooped the persistently running child into his arms, "I’ll take him out for a walk." He said to Xtreme sports, then quickly fled the dorm with the child in his arms, looking very much like someone trying to escape a storm.

Xtreme sports opened her mouth, intending to stop Song Yuanhuan from indulging Song Chengguang, but hearing Song Chengguang’s cries, which showed no sign of stopping, and seeing the little guy shrink into Song Yuanhuan’s embrace, she decided to pass over the matter silently with heartache.

With the father and son gone, Xtreme sports was left alone in the room. She looked at the food on the dining table, silently finished her meal, and cleaned up the remnants. Then she sat at Song Yuanhuan’s desk to wait for the father and son to return, occasionally pulling out military books from the desk to browse when bored.

By the time Song Yuanhuan returned to the dorm with Song Chengguang, an hour had already passed. The little guy was no longer shedding tears, and Xtreme sports’ temper had been ground down in that hour.

"Mommy." Song Yuanhuan put the little one down at the dorm entrance, and Song Chengguang, with his unsteady little steps, walked into the room and tentatively approached Xtreme sports.

Slap—

Xtreme sports glanced at the little one out of the corner of her eye, then closed the military book she was reading with a serious expression, fixing her gaze on the little one beside her leg, who was looking up and trying to please her. His eyes were still slightly red, his cheeks dirty with tear stains from crying, and his plump little mouth pouted, calling out to her.

"Do you know what you did wrong, Song Chengguang?" Xtreme sports asked, lowering her gaze.

Song Chengguang immediately brought his two little chubby hands together, puffing his cheeks, and looked at her with misty eyes.

Seeing this, Xtreme sports sighed helplessly. She knew all too well that emphasizing right and wrong to a child not yet two years old, who still spoke unclearly, was meaningless and that her words were too harsh for him. But she was determined not to let the matter slide; Song Chengguang’s habits of picky eating and temper tantrums could not be indulged. If she didn’t take control from the start, the little guy would inadvertently develop a habit of losing his temper.

"Mommy, hug." Song Chengguang stretched his thin lips toward Xtreme sports, continuing to deploy his flattery skills.

Seeing this, Xtreme sports had no choice but to bend down and pick up the plump body of the little one. As the little one felt his mother softening, his eyes immediately creased into a joyful smile, and the nearby Song Yuanhuan also quietly sighed in relief—because he didn’t really understand Xtreme sports’s temper and thought she wasn’t going to soften at all!

However, the father and son had clearly celebrated too soon.

"Song Chengguang, stand up straight. You must face the wall and reflect for ten minutes for your picky eating today," Xtreme sports said as she carried Song Chengguang to a small corner of the room and had him stand facing the wall.

"Mommy?" Song Chengguang, not understanding what "time-out" meant, agilely turned his little body towards Xtreme sports, raising his chubby little arms in search of a loving embrace.

"Stand up straight." Xtreme sports tried to keep her tone gentle but forcibly turned the little one back towards the wall. She also squatted down behind him and wrapped her arms around him.

"Mommy..." Song Chengguang, who had just cried, now had his voice filled with the verge of tears again.

Xtreme sports frowned, her arms restraining the little one’s body, but she did not pull back, stubbornly intent on carrying out the punishment.

"Xu Xiuxiu," Song Yuanhuan couldn’t bear to watch the mother and son tormenting each other. Clearly, the moment the little guy started crying, she looked heartbroken and ready to die of sorrow, and yet why did she insist on making the little guy remember today’s lesson?

"Don’t bother with us," Xu Xiuxiu had no mood to entertain Song Yuanhuan. She continued to encircle Song Chengguang in her arms and reflect on their wrongdoings against the wall, punishing herself while punishing Song Chengguang.

Xu Xiuxiu’s obviously angry words left Song Yuanhuan helpless. He touched his nose, looked down at the seagull watch in his hand, and then silently stood by and waited.

The room was very quiet, time slowly slipping by.

At first, Song Chengguang struggled a little, but after Xu Xiuxiu forcefully held him, the struggle became weaker and weaker until he finally gave up. His little body faced the wall, his head hanging so low it couldn’t go any lower, tears quietly splashing down his cheeks, falling drop by drop onto Xu Xiuxiu’s arm, scalding and searing.

Xu Xiuxiu felt as though her arm had been engulfed by flames all of a sudden, with time passing excruciatingly slow. Song Chengguang stood silently, the little person not at all clear about the reason for his mother’s anger, nor why he had to stand there motionless. Nevertheless, he obediently stood still, his original temper completely worn away in this ordeal.

Time quietly passed, and Xu Xiuxiu’s legs began to go numb from squatting around Song Chengguang.

"Time’s up," Song Yuanhuan said when he saw the cornered mother and child were about to collapse. Xu Xiuxiu immediately breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the ground with Song Chengguang still in her embrace.

"Are you okay?" Song Yuanhuan stepped forward and asked with concern.

Xu Xiuxiu shook her head and continued to hold Song Chengguang in her arms, just changing the way so that the little guy was sitting facing her on her lap.

"Chengguang, do you know what you did wrong?" Xu Xiuxiu asked softly, raising her hand to gently wipe his little face.

Song Chengguang, with red-rimmed eyes and a pouty mouth, looked at Xu Xiuxiu for a long time before lowering his gaze, the tears that had silently circled in his eyes now fell with his bowed head. "Mommy, I’m so-sorry," the little guy hiccupped, apologizing with a voice changed by crying, that heart-wrenching sad expression instantly took Xu Xiuxiu back to the first day he had come to this world, the image of the frail, pitiful Song Chengguang piercing her heart like poison.

Xu Xiuxiu’s guilt suddenly exploded, "Chengguang, don’t cry, it’s Mommy’s fault, Mommy shouldn’t have been harsh on you, shouldn’t have punished you! Mommy is sorry!" It was her inexperience that lead her to use such hard measures on a child not even two years old.

"Stop crying," Song Yuanhuan looked at the mother and son hugging and crying miserable, feeling both annoyed and amused. After holding back his emotions for a while, he stepped forward and embraced the crying mother and child, "If you two keep crying like this, the neighbors He Jingzhi and his wife will think I’m abusing my family," Song Yuanhuan said with a wry smile to comfort the two in his arms.

At his words, Xu Xiuxiu suddenly felt embarrassed. She had become a bit emotional after hearing the little guy’s trembling apology, but now reminded by Song Yuanhuan, she felt her cheeks burning with shame. How embarrassing!

"Are you tired from crying?" Song Yuanhuan asked, looking at the two of them. The big and little one in his arms tacitly held back their tears and nodded at him with their tear-moistened eyes.

Seeing this, Song Yuanhuan also breathed a sigh of relief. At least this matter was finally settling down.

That night, because of the emotional breakdown of the mother and son, Song Yuanhuan gave up the idea of going back to the dormitory to sleep. Three people crammed onto one small bed, and Song Yuanhuan, a grown man, occupied only a quarter of the little bed. Yet he felt no sense of grievance, his large palms tightly holding the large and small figures in his arms, he rarely felt so at peace.