Live Stream: Overly Pampered Education Creates Three Superstars in One Family

The sun at two o'clock in the afternoon was so scorching that it felt like it was going to melt you.

There wasn't a breath of wind on the construction site; the air was still, and heat waves rose from the ground, distorting everything in the distance into blurry outlines.

As Xu Ziang picked up the brick, his vision suddenly blurred.

It was as if someone had quickly drawn a veil over his eyes and then lifted it, blurring his vision for a moment before it became clear again.

He paused, blinked, shook his head, and picked up a brick again.

But after taking a couple of steps, the dizziness returned, and it was even worse.

He felt the ground beneath his feet was soft, and he couldn't get a firm footing with each step. The sun overhead was like a giant incandescent bulb, buzzing loudly.

Sweat kept streaming down his forehead and into his eyes. The salt stung his eyeballs. He raised his arm to wipe them, but his arm was covered in sweat, and the more he wiped, the blurrier his vision became.

Foreman Uncle Wang, carrying a bundle of steel bars, passed by and stopped, squinting at Xu Ziang.

The child's face was deathly pale, his lips were chapped and peeling, and his eyes were glazed over. He stood motionless, clutching the brick in his hand, looking as if he had been turned into a string about to snap by the sun.

Uncle Wang put down the steel bars on his shoulder, walked over, and stopped him with his hand: "Alright, stop moving them. Go sit in the shade over there for a while."

His tone wasn't pleasant, carrying the gruff, commanding air typical of a foreman, but his movement to take the brick from Xu Ziang's hand was very gentle.

He saw Xu Ziang's worn-out gloves, the blood and sweat mixed together, staining the grayish-white gloves dark brown.

Xu Ziang opened his mouth, wanting to say that he could still do it, but before he could speak, Uncle Wang had already pulled him into the shadows next to the prefab house, pressed him down to sit on an overturned cement bucket, unscrewed a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Water and handed it to him: "Drink this."

Then she squatted down in front of him, frowned, and asked, "Didn't you eat properly at noon?"

Xu Ziang lowered his head and said in a very soft voice, "...It was too hot, I couldn't eat much, I only ate a little bit."

"Nonsense!" Uncle Wang's voice suddenly rose, filled with a frustrated exasperation. "Working under this blazing sun, how can you keep going without eating? You're just causing me trouble!"

But he pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket, inside which were two soft breads that he had brought from home that morning to have as an afternoon snack.

He shoved the bread into Xu Ziang's hand: "Have something to eat first, then you can work a little harder."

Xu Ziang held the two breads in his hands; the plastic bags were still slightly warm.

He looked down at it, about to tear open the packaging.

A person walked by.

Xu Danian stood to the side, having arrived at some unknown time.

Looking at Xu Ziang, he said sarcastically, "What's wrong? You don't like the food you brought from home, but you prefer these weird and strange things?"

"That's true, how can homemade food compare to the taste of food bought outside?"

"Our young master is not used to simple meals."

Xu Ziang's outstretched hand froze in mid-air.

He looked at the bread in his hand and slowly withdrew his fingers.

Uncle Wang stood up, blocking Xu Ziang's way, and looked at Xu Danian: "Old Xu, say less. The child didn't eat well at noon, and it's hot outside. Let him eat something and rest first."

Xu Danian didn't look at Uncle Wang; his gaze went past Uncle Wang's shoulder and landed on Xu Ziang: "Looks like we've got a young master in our family. He doesn't like the food at home and has to come out to buy bread."

Xu Ziang sat on the cement bucket, head down, sweat dripping from his chin, spreading into a small dot on the dry ground before quickly evaporating.

He put the bread back in Uncle Wang's hand, his voice very soft: "It's okay, Uncle Wang, I can still do it, I'm fine."

Uncle Wang looked at him, opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end he just sighed.

He stuffed the bread into Xu Ziang's pocket, turned and walked towards the pile of steel bars, then turned back after a couple of steps: "Rest when you're tired, don't push yourself."

Xu Ziang nodded. He stood up again and walked towards the pile of bricks.

Different opinions began to emerge in the live chat.

【Seriously, they won't even let the child eat bread? That's going too far!】

[What's so excessive? Is it that you're not letting him eat? It's his own fault for not eating, not his father's. He wouldn't eat lunch, so who's to blame now that he's hungry?]

[Exactly, people have to pay the price for their actions. If you don't eat properly at lunch, you'll learn your lesson after a day of hunger and will know to eat on time next time.]

【You make it sound so easy. In 40-degree heat, could you even eat? Even if you could, what good would a little cold rice and vegetables do?】

In the studio, Zhao Shuilan looked at the screen and slowly said, "Children do need to eat regularly. They can't just eat when they want and not eat when they don't. Spoiling children like that isn't loving them; it's harming them."

Zhou Zhenyang did not respond this time.

He watched as Xu Ziang put on his worn-out gloves again, bent down to pick up a brick, and remained silent, his brows slightly furrowed.

Three o'clock in the afternoon is the hottest time of day.

The meteorological department issued a red alert for high temperatures; the surface temperature at the construction site had exceeded fifty degrees Celsius. Xu Ziang's vision began to blur.

He blinked, trying to refocus his vision, but everything in front of him seemed to be seen through a shimmering layer of water; the distant tower crane, the nearby pile of bricks, and the soil beneath his feet were all distorted and swaying.

He stopped and tried to grab something to steady himself, but when he reached out, he found nothing.

He heard his own heartbeat, fast and loud, like someone drumming in his ears. Then the drumming grew farther and farther away.

The last sound he heard was Uncle Wang's shout, coming from a great distance, as if muffled by a thick layer of cotton: "Zi'ang!"

Then he felt the ground moving towards him.

He didn't fall down on his own; the ground suddenly rose up and hit his face.

Uncle Wang dropped the steel bars he was holding and ran towards him. Several other workers nearby also put down their work and gathered around the fallen figure.

When Xu Ziang opened his eyes again, he saw a white ceiling and white lights.

The smell of disinfectant filled his nostrils, and an IV drip was inserted into his hand, with cold liquid dripping into his veins.

His memory is still of the sun-bleached ground at the construction site.

He tried to sit up, but his head was spinning and his limbs felt as heavy as lead, so he fell back onto the pillow.

"Awake?" A mocking voice came from the side.

Xu Ziang turned his head away.

Xu Danian sat on a plastic stool beside the hospital bed, his expression indifferent: "This is the consequence of not studying hard. If you study hard, you can work in an air-conditioned room in the future and won't have to suffer like this."

Xu Ziang remained silent.

He lay on the hospital bed, staring blankly at the fluorescent light tubes on the ceiling.

Xu Danian muttered a few more words, the gist of which was to teach him a lesson, to make him realize how comfortable his life was, and not to take his blessings for granted.

But Xu Ziang did not respond. He lay there quietly, blinking his eyes, with only the medicine dripping silently from the IV tube.

Xu Danian said a few words, but seeing that Xu Ziang remained silent, he became somewhat annoyed. "This time, the medical expenses will be deducted from your salary."

"Since you won't listen to me, then you can pay your own medical bills and don't ask me for money!"