Chapter 21 - Scare (2)

Ye Jingjing obediently walked over to Shu Yan when Ye Tianbao straight up rolled on the floor back and forth, “No way! I am not bathing! I want grandma and grandpa! I want grandma!”

Shu Yan was stunned. This was the first time she saw a kid rolling on the ground throwing a hissy fit. What did the experts say about this? Oh right, ignore the child. The more attention you paid him, the worse he would get.

She took his sister into the bathroom and let Ye Tianbao roll around outside all he wanted.

Noticing that his mother had ignored him, Ye Tianbao started to cry. He cried louder and louder and finally that turned into tearless shrieks.

“Mom, little brother is crying,” said Ye Jingjing carefully.

She was deadly afraid of her little brother crying. Every time he cried, grandma and grandpa would yell at her.

“Don’t mind him. He’ll stop on his own.” When she was washing Ye Jingjing’s hair, she noticed that they were dried and knotted and covered in little white dots. Shu Yan patted at them. They were not dandruffs. She has to pull them free through the entire strand of hair. Looking at them carefully, they were head lice eggs. “When was the last time you had your hair washed?”

From her initial assessment, she has lice on almost every strand of her hair. Some of strands of hair having more than one. Shu Yan felt goosebumps on herself, and her scalp started to tingle. She could almost felt head lice crawling on her own head.

“I don’t remember,” said Ye Jingjing after thinking for a little while and shook her head.

Well, okay. That didn’t matter now. No matter what, she needed to clean the child’s hair first. When she was washing her hair, she came across a few head lice and she grabbed and killed them. They made a crunchy sound when you did that. Then she bathed her with a simple wash, and a layer of mud came off. She must not have bathed for ten days to two weeks. This was the dead of summer. It must feel awful even not bathing for one day. One could tell how much the old Mr. and Mrs. Ye did not care about this granddaughter of theirs.

Half way through the bath, Ye Tianbao had finally stopped crying outside. He must be tired. Shu Yan stuck her head out and took a look. Seeing Shu Yan’s face, the sniffling Ye Tianbao resumed his shrieking all over again.

Shu Yan pulled her head back right away. Ah, rookie’s mistake. Never peek again in the future.

“Little brother is crying again,” said Ye Jingjing again as she looked at Shu Yan, worried.

“Ignore him. Sit here. Let me go get some clothes for you.” She had to apply soap three times in order to get Ye Jingjing clean.

Seeing Shu Yan, Ye Tianbao paused for a second and thought that Shu Yan was finally going to pay attention to him, only to find her walking around him to the chair behind him to look for clothes for his sister. Ye Tianbao plopped right back onto the ground and continued to roll around.

This kid was at least somewhat smart. He knew to pick an empty spot to roll around. Shu Yan lifted her foot and kicked him gently, “Don’t just stay in the same spot. Go roll around over there to. That will save me the hassle of having to sweep over there.”