Chapter 53: Making Jackie Chan Cry with Beatings

Liu Jing didn't understand at the time, just as he didn't understand why this year was so hot.

Now he understood, and Xixi's wish had also come true.

Jiangcheng in July was simply a furnace.

By the banks of the Yangtze River, a family was out on an outing.

Under the shade of the trees and by the water, it was exceptionally refreshing.

Silver-bell-like singing echoed under the tree shade, carrying far away with the ripples.

"Our motherland is a garden, the flowers in the garden are truly bright... Wahaha, wahaha, everyone's face is blooming with smiles..."

The one singing was precisely Xixi. One could tell she was very happy.

Dressed in a little white skirt, she looked like a small white flower, singing while dancing gracefully.

Human joys and sorrows are never truly shared; when you are happy, someone is surely grieving.

Liu Jing sat on a stool with a blank expression, letting the weeping willows sway above his head. Compared to the annoying willow branches and the clamorous cicadas, the little girl's singing was even more annoying and noisy.

Yet he couldn't say it sounded bad, because the other party would just sing with even more vigor and even run right up in front of him to sing and dance.

The little girl was ten years old this year and had grown up; she wasn't as easy to fool as when she was little.

Halfway through the summer vacation, Liu Jing had returned from the United States, turning down several commercial events. This time, he prepared to register for school on time.

His recent trip to the US was also for filming. *Home Alone 3* had wrapped up in March, and the one that had just finished filming was *Just Me and Dad*.

The team arranged by Yongsheng had worked hard for a few months, producing only this single result, and was later withdrawn by the company—after all, keeping a team costs money.

Just from the title, one could tell it was also a story about children. Joshua was an elementary school student who liked Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Shortly after he advanced to the fifth grade, his beloved grandfather passed away. Joshua began to have doubts about life, and when he asked his parents and teachers, no one could give him a satisfactory answer.

Amidst the bewildered gazes of others, he stopped asking and fell silent.

Then followed a romantic yet mysterious adventure, and in the end, he obtained his answer.

The story was very cliché, but Liu Jing's performance fit it extremely well, even smoother than his performance in *Home Alone*.

Liu Jing's salary was 150,000 US dollars. The pay for the two kid-centric films was about the same, which was his going rate in Hollywood.

None of this mattered; even the financial crisis didn't matter. It had no impact on him, as he had no assets in Hong Kong.

In *Just Me and Dad*, he played a fifth-grade student.

In real life, if everything went according to plan, he should also have been a fifth-grade student.

However, how could worldly events always go as one wished? His application to skip a grade was rejected by the school. After the semester started, he only advanced from the third grade to the fourth grade.

"During the student's time in school, he has repeatedly violated school rules, failed to comply with classroom discipline, engaged in fighting and brawling... The student's application to skip a grade is hereby rejected."

The school's reply was several hundred words long, and not a single positive word could be found. Even across a sheet of paper, one could hear the principal's dissatisfaction.

If that were all, it would be fine, but classmate Xixi bypassed the sixth grade, took the junior high school entrance examination, and was admitted to the school with excellent grades.

Her wish not to be in the same school as Liu Jing was thus fulfilled without even needing to transfer.

From then on, she would never have to help the blockhead pass love letters again, and no one would ever beat up her friends again.

Liu Jing was extremely unhappy and picked up a brick, intending to smash the principal's windows. Since the application was rejected, then all of them should be rejected. If they couldn't treat everyone equally, what kind of principal were they?

He was quite familiar with the way to the principal's house; it wasn't like he hadn't done it before. The last time he smashed the windows, he had even thrown two hundred yuan inside, which was enough to buy new glass.

Sister Li was also familiar with this routine, as it wasn't the first time she had been called to school to see the teachers. Among all the children, who else had two hundred yuan of pocket money? Liu Jing became the prime suspect.

Worried that Liu Jing would stir up trouble at home, she brought the two children out to get some fresh air and experience the vast world so they wouldn't keep fixating on the principal's windows.

At that moment, Sister Li sat in a chair, watching the clouds roll and unfold, letting the breeze brush against her face, feeling quite content.

"Ugly—" Liu Jing paused and deliberated. This wasn't the time to call her an ugly girl, as it would backfire.

"Sister Li, Sister Li, come over quickly. You rotten blockhead, don't you try to hide either. Hand in hand, let's sing that song, our lives are so joyful..." Xixi was singing a cheerful song, stretching out her little hand to invite Sister Li, while also modifying the lyrics.

"Xixi, you sing so well, it's just like the sounds of nature. Even the call of the oriole isn't as pleasant as your singing." As a professional actor, Liu Jing had profound line delivery skills, and the sincerity contained within was equally deep.

His words completely stumped Xixi. She stopped her dancing steps, tilted her head, and sized him up. "Are you sick?"

"You shouldn't be singing here. There's no one around, so it doesn't showcase your excellence," Liu Jing suggested.

"Aren't you a person? Are you deaf?" Xixi asked suspiciously.

"I—" Liu Jing was at a loss for words; the little girl wasn't so easy to fool anymore.

"Besides, I can also sing to the flowers, sing to the birds, and sing to the wind. If you don't like listening, you don't have to listen. Your ears are attached to your body, and you're not lame." Xixi fired back like a string of firecrackers.

Liu Jing rolled up his sleeves, only to hear Xixi filing a complaint, "Mom, the blockhead is going to hit me, are you going to do something about it or not?"

"I—" Sister Li was speechless. Which eye of yours saw him about to hit you? I only saw you endlessly provoking him.

Ever since that night by the bicycle shed, Xixi had lost all fear of Liu Jing.

"Xixi, the ground here is uneven. Mom will take you over there to dance. Mom learned a dance before and will teach it to you now. Practice hard so you can put on a good performance at the opening ceremony." Sister Li spoke earnestly, feeling it was better to separate the two of them to spare herself some trouble.

Xixi originally wasn't willing, as she had finally found an opportunity to take down the blockhead—how could she let it go? But since it concerned the opening ceremony, that was more important than putting down the blockhead.

As for putting down the blockhead, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future, but there was only one opening ceremony.

"Confucius was right, women and small-minded people are the hardest to get along with, let alone an ugly girl who is a combination of both a small-minded person and a woman," Liu Jing muttered as he watched the mother and daughter walk away.

He took a book out of his schoolbag, activated his photographic memory, and quickly got into the zone.

The book was titled *Collation and Annotation of the Bamboo Annals of Ancient Texts, Textual Research on the Bamboo Annals of Present Texts* by Wang Guowei, which recorded historical events of the Xia, Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States periods.

Liu Jing was studying this book in order to write *Those Things About the Qin Dynasty*.

"Blockhead, blockhead, look who's here." Vaguely, Liu Jing heard someone calling.

He raised his head in a daze, and what met his eyes was a large nose curiously sizing him up.

Liu Jing was startled and threw a punch on reflex, landing squarely on that nose.

"Oof..." Jackie Chan covered his nose and squatted down, tears streaming from his eyes.

"Big Brother, are you alright? The blockhead is still just a child, please don't hold it against him," the aunt hurriedly went to support him.

Suppressing her laughter, she thought to herself that her nephew had actually managed to make Jackie Chan cry. She wondered if this incident made the news, whether it would count as a trending topic.

"Such a big person, yet he's still crying." Xixi had arrived a bit later and only saw someone crying.

Sister Li glared at the girl and hurriedly stepped forward to apologize, "Big Brother Jackie, I'm truly sorry. Are you alright?"

Liu Jing felt rather embarrassed, scratching his head with an awkward smile, "Why didn't you dodge?"

He was also puzzled. Weren't your bones supposed to be extraordinary? How did you fail to dodge this punch of mine?

If he hadn't pulled his punch back at the last second, who knew how big that big nose would have ended up.

Jackie Chan was equally depressed. If it had been a normal spar, he could have completely dodged that punch.

But he had let his guard down completely. Earlier, he had seen Liu Jing reading earnestly. Out of curiosity, he stopped the others and stepped forward to test the waters.

In his opinion, a child must be reading comic books. Who would have expected that upon closer inspection, it was dense rows of text that made even his scalp tingle.

More curious than ever, Jackie Chan had leaned in a bit closer, and then tragedy struck.

The nose is one of the most fragile organs of the human body, and a large nose is even more fragile.

Jackie Chan checked his palm, relieved that he hadn't made a complete fool of himself in front of everyone—there was no bleeding.

"I'm fine, you guys don't mind me." He waved his hand and said in a muffled voice, "Little kid, your greeting really lacks courtesy."