Looking at his son's smiling, still naive face, Zhang He silently took off the belt from his waist. With an almost icy tone, he said, "Come here."

Zhang Linlin was so scared that he quickly hid behind Bai Shuirong. Seeing this, Bai Shuirong's expression changed slightly. She quickly scolded, "Zhang He, what are you doing?!"

Zhang He took a deep breath, his face full of anger. "What am I doing? It's all because of him that this family has suffered this catastrophe! I must teach him a lesson today!" As he spoke, he tried to drag Zhang Linlin towards him.

Unfortunately, Bai Shuirong always stood in his way, giving him no chance. She even began to scream.

"He's your son, but he's also my grandson!" she cried. "Why are you so angry? Taking it out on a child? What kind of skill is that? The ones who made you pay were Qin Mu and the court. If you're so capable, why did you chicken out when the court was in session? As long as I'm here today, you won't touch a hair on my grandson!"

Bai Shuirong's eyes widened as she shielded Zhang Linlin behind her, simultaneously reprimanding Zhang He.

At her words, Zhang He's face flushed then paled with embarrassment. He felt incredibly humiliated.

On several past occasions when he'd wanted to discipline his son, his mother had intervened just like this, acting as if she'd die before letting him. The key point was, as a son, he didn't dare to physically force the issue with his mother. He could only let his elder protect the child.

Now that he thought about it, if he had disciplined him earlier, his son wouldn't have dared to cause such a huge disaster. Thirty-nine cars, scratched without a moment's hesitation. No amount of money could cover such recklessness. Moreover, they were just an ordinary family. After paying the compensation, they were left with nothing.

After a moment, Bai Shuirong, perhaps realizing her words had been too harsh, continued, "Zhang He, as I said, I'm going to find a lawyer this afternoon to ask about the situation. We can still appeal; we won't lose!

"Listen to Mom; hitting won't solve the problem.

"No matter what, the incident has already happened. He's still a child; just have a good talk with him.

"Right now, we should be thinking of ways to appeal…"

Upon hearing this, Zhang He's expression was impassive. He remained silent.

In his eyes, the lawsuit had almost no chance of winning. Only Bai Shuirong was still insisting. He knew all too well what kind of person his son was. As long as it was true that he'd scratched the cars, the compensation was unavoidable.

「That afternoon.」

After lunch, Bai Shuirong went out. Before leaving, she repeatedly urged Zhang He to remain calm, not to lose his temper, and especially not to beat her grandson.

Zhang He kept his head down the whole time, silent.

「At two in the afternoon.」

His wife also went out to buy groceries. He then took out his cell phone and sent a message in the homeowners' group chat:

"@Neighbors above and below the 28th floor, my son has caused inconvenience to everyone in the past. I'm truly sorry.

"Shortly, I'm going to discipline my son, and there might be some noise. Please forgive me."

The message had barely been sent when numerous owners in the Building 10 group chat started responding eagerly:

"Really? You're finally willing to discipline your son?"

"When are you going to do it? My son got a 59 again on his test. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I'm planning to give him a beating too."

"I'm on the 17th floor. My son ran off to an internet cafe to play games and didn't come back all night. I'll join you all in a bit."

"My son seems pretty well-behaved and hasn't done anything wrong, but I should probably beat him anyway. It's been a while."

"Two o'clock sharp? If we all do it together, then it won't count as disturbing the peace."

"..."

After glancing at the messages in the homeowners' group, Zhang He silently put down his phone, picked up the hemp rope he had prepared earlier, and walked into the bedroom. He woke his son, who was in a deep afternoon nap, startling him.

"Dad, what's happening?" The six-year-old child, rubbing his sleepy eyes, had no awareness of the impending danger.

Then... his feet were bound. He was dragged out of the bedroom and hung upside down against the wall, suspended half a meter from the ground.

"Dad, what... what are you doing?" The child's immature voice carried terror and panic. He tried to struggle, but at only six years old, he was completely unable to resist.

"What am I doing?" Zhang He clenched his teeth, looking coldly at his son. Tears welled in his eyes.

"'To raise a child without teaching him is the father's fault,'" he enunciated each word deliberately. "I neglected to discipline you before, letting you think you could act outrageously. At just six years old, you dared to scratch others' cars.

"By the time you're sixteen, will you dare to kill?

"Your grandma used to protect you, your mom protected you, but today, no one will protect you!

"Today, I'll show you how your grandfather whipped me when I made mistakes!"

Having said that, he picked up the belt and lashed out fiercely.

SMACK!

The crisp sound landed on his son's arms and thighs. The pain caused Zhang Linlin to emit a piercing scream. Tears gushed forth.

"Do you realize what you've done wrong?!" Having whipped him, Zhang He shouted hoarsely.

Decades ago, his own father had beaten him the same way, each lashing session ending with the same question: "Have you learned your lesson?" But only at this moment did he understand. This method of discipline, which seemed like merely venting anger, was in fact an act of utter desperation. If words alone were effective, no parent would ever resort to this. With every strike, he wanted to use his full strength, yet he couldn't bring himself to do so.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.