When Lian finally got home, his mother saw the dark bruise on his face the moment he walked through the door.
"Lian! Someone beat you up?!" she yelled right away. "It's only the first day of school! Tell Mom right now, who hit you? Why did they hit you?!"
Lian didn't know how to explain the truth, so he just mumbled and tried to make it sound like no big deal.
His father came home a little later. He wasn't as loud as Mom, but he was clearly worried and asked a lot of questions too.
His parents kept asking and wouldn't let it go, so Lian finally gave a very vague answer: "There's this new transfer student in my class. He misunderstood something about me and punched me once."
He didn't say it was a girl and just said, "It was just one punch, really, nothing more happened."
His mother became absolutely furious.
Because of his father's important position, the family had a lot of power and influence in the local area. They always kept a low profile and never started trouble, but if anyone dared to bully them, they would never just sit quietly and take it.
So right then and there, his mother decided, "Tomorrow morning I am going to your school, and I will find out exactly which little bastard dared to lay a hand on my son!"
Surprisingly, his father didn't try to stop her. He only said calmly, "Make sure you find out the full story first before you start shouting."
The next day, no matter how much Lian begged and tried to stop her, his mother still marched straight into the school's disciplinary office.
The spot where Maisie had chased and hit him was very close to the school gate, and tons of classmates had seen the whole thing.
That's why, the moment Maisie arrived at school the next morning, the teachers called her straight to the office again.
When Lian's mother finally saw the "troublemaker" who had hit her son, she could not believe her eyes at all. In her mind, the person who dared to beat her precious boy had to be some tall, scary, fierce-looking delinquent, maybe even with tattoos all over. She was fully ready to give that kind of kid a huge scolding.
But reality was completely different from what she imagined.
"A girl?" His mother blinked again and again for a long time. Only after the disciplinary teacher repeated it several times did she finally accept it.
"Um… little girl," she said after thinking hard about what to call her. "Why did you hit Lian?"
Maisie lowered her head all the way down, pressed her lips together tightly, and didn't say a single word. Tears just kept rolling down her cheeks one after another.
His mother asked the same question again, but Maisie still stayed silent.
When she saw Maisie's delicate, pretty face and all those tears, his mother's heart instantly melted.
She pulled the teacher to the side and started asking all about Maisie's family situation, listening very carefully, nodding the whole time and looking back at the poor crying girl every few seconds.
Lian stood off to the side feeling extremely nervous and worried.
He had no idea whether Maisie would keep her mouth shut or not.
If she suddenly decided to tell everything she had seen in the park that night, even if nobody believed her story, his mother would definitely become suspicious. After that, staying close with his aunt would become full of danger and trouble.
But what happened next was something Lian could never have dreamed of, even in a hundred years.
After hearing all about Maisie's difficult family, her mother was laid-off and now ran a tiny shop by herself, her father was disabled because of a work injury and only got a small disability payment, Lian's mother first made it very clear that the fight had nothing to do with their family's power or money.
Then, all on her own, she decided that a sweet and lovely girl like Maisie would never chase and hit a boy without a very good reason, and that the biggest fault was probably her own son's.
So she quietly pulled Maisie to a corner and whispered gently, "Little girl, don't be scared at all. If Lian bullied you or did something bad, just tell Auntie everything."
Maisie looked up at her with trembling lips, and then suddenly burst into big, loud tears.
His mother immediately wrapped her arms around Maisie in a warm hug, patting her back softly and whispering comforting words over and over. After a long time, she turned around and gave Lian the fiercest glare he had ever seen.
Lian just stood there with his mouth hanging wide open, completely shocked.
He always knew that a woman's tears were a super strong weapon, but he had thought they only worked on men.
Yet here was Maisie, without saying even one word, completely turning the whole situation around just by crying and she had even won over his own mother!
After comforting Maisie for a very long time, his mother announced loudly to the disciplinary teacher, "Everything is completely fine now, no problem at all." Then she walked straight to Lian and said in a cold, angry voice, "When we get home tonight, you better explain clearly exactly what you did to make this poor girl cry like that!" After saying that, she turned and left the school in a hurry.
Because the "victim's" mother had already said everything was okay, the disciplinary teacher followed the usual rule of making big problems small and small problems disappear. He only gave Maisie a few soft, meaningless warnings like "Don't hit classmates so casually" and "Everyone should get along as friends," then let both of them go back to class. There was no real punishment at all.