Chapter 21 The Seething Lee

The distressed look on Mrs. Lee's face was a clear sign that something was wrong. When we had first met, I had come to know both she and her husbands were straightforward people. Everything in their minds was either illustrated on their faces or directly conveyed via words. I put aside my lunch box and went out to her, "You look worried, Auntie. What's wrong?" Mrs. Lee sighed once and said, "Aye... Is your father in, Shiyan?" She must have gotten herself into a tight spot again since she asked for my father immediately when we met, and I said to her, "Urm... My father had gone fishing with Uncle Quan. They had left even before the sun was up." She immediately asked where he had gone fishing. The matter seems to be extremely urgent, I thought, she might even had thought of going to the place where my father was fishing to ask for his help! Knowing that the matter could wait no longer, as clearly shown by her tone and the looks on the people behind her, I said quickly, "Calm down, Auntie. Pray tell me what had happened. I'll make a call for help so that he can return as soon as possible if the matter is indeed grave." Mrs. Lee sank into a seat and said, "It's my son! He's just entered middle school, you see. But he's been to school barely for a few days, and yet he's already been badly beaten and bullied! A bunch of other children had ganged up on him, pummeling him and forcing him to pay up some 'protection fees'! They had even thrown his schoolbag away. I had wanted to keep everything under wraps, hoping that everything would simmer down. This is only a quarrel among kids, see? I had spoken to his teacher, who had promised to assemble their parents to discuss and resolve the issue. But my husband, Mr. Lee, got wind of this somehow and he became so angry. There were also his friends, some of them were involved with gangsters and the ilk, had made everything worst by encouraging him to take action by threatening to cleave off the children's limbs! Some of these are the parents of the children who had come to me to apologize, but I did not dare to lead them to see my husband!" She gestured to the people behind her, and she said again, "Then I remembered, only your father is capable of calming him down, hence here am I for his help!" Some of the parents stepped over, and one of them quipped, "We'll do anything to compensate. Now that things are of such dire state, we must work together..."