Sanwang was frightened out of his wits. It’s over, it’s over, he was going to become an extremely stupid idiot.
He slapped his head, got a headache before writhing around on the ground. He tried hard to think of the texts and poems that were taught by his teacher, but his mind went blank and he couldn’t think of any.
The whole family was woken up once again by his cries, “What are you doing, Sanwang?”
Sanwang grabbed his ear, distraught, “It’s over, it’s over! I’ve really become a fool, I’ve really become a fool!”
The entire family got up one after another and Han Qingsong touched the child’s head relentlessly. It was warm, but he wasn’t having a fever, so he ignored him.
Lin Lan was relieved to see that he wasn’t sick, but she didn’t want to talk to him right now, lest he started to push even more buttons.
When Dawang looked at him, the eldest brother’s eyes were cold. Erwang and Maisui had dark circles under their eyes, wanting nothing more than to be able to beat him up.
Only Xiaowang looked puzzled, “Little Third Brother, how have you gone stupid? Why don’t you put a bit of my eye drops, then? You’ll get better.”
Lin Lan, “Kid, don’t worry about him. You have bad eyes, not a bad brain. Your Third Brother has his brain locked up.”
Upon getting excited, she used a dialect from her previous world.
Xiaowang, “What do you mean by his brain being locked up?”
Lin Lan hurriedly laughed and said, “I heard on the radio this referred to one whose mind is confused and deserves a beating.”
Xiaowang looked at Sanwang sympathetically, “Mother, Third Brother is confused. It’s so sad already, so don’t hit him.”
Lin Lan nodded, “Okay.”
Xiaowang immediately went to hold Sanwang’s hand happily and said in a coaxing tone, as if he was talking to a child, “Little Third Brother, let’s go, I’ll take you to play. Slow down, don’t be knocked down by the threshold.”
He sniffed, “I’m going to read,” He had to see if he really forgot all about everything.
Hence, the family started to see Sanwang studying during the coming of the New Year.
Lin Lan intentionally left him alone. He didn’t make it obvious that he was uneasy and it didn’t look like there was any real issue, so she let him remain that way. Plus, having him read every now and then was a good thing.
As for Sanwang, the more he worried that he would become stupid, the more he read. From there, he found that his family looked at him with more compassion and tenderness.
And when it came to the notion of ‘drinking away his worries’, those claims could shove themselves since there was no such thing.
He was just afraid of being beaten.
Therefore, he had to play a full set of acting.
Han Qingsong really didn’t hit him, but he chalked up 3 canings to be done later on. Plus, there was an additional 2 canings added from the last time he was late to his morning exercise session, accumulating up to a total of 5.
Sanwang thought that his parents would not beat him since he was young and all this ‘chalking it up for later’ was for show just to scare him.
Naturally, when he was actually punished for it, he found out that his father really was a Dark Lord and that the pain his Eldest Brother went through was no small matter.
However, many people in the village also knew about Sanwang singing some parts of a big play in the middle of the night. With how he howled and wailed, it was honestly horrific to listen to.