Chapter 717: No One Is Most Pitiful, Only More Pitiful

Who could sleep through this?

Shi Youxuan could bear it no longer; she sat up from the bed and said, "I can't take it anymore. I'm going down to tell them to keep it down."

Sheng Hanyu said, "I think you should just endure it. If it comes to an argument, you might not be able to out-argue those people."

Shi Youxuan said, "I'm not going to argue. I'm going to reason with them."

She put on her coat and went out, and Sheng Hanyu, worried, followed her out.

……

The sky was still completely dark, but the sides of the road were already occupied by all sorts of things.

Bricks.

Rags.

Snake-skin bags.

Some people were even just sleeping right on top of them, snoring away.

When Shi Youxuan exited the unit, she almost stepped on someone and was given a fright.

The others were fine.

Under their window, four or five people were playing cards, and they were the ones making all the noise.

"Can you keep it down? People upstairs can hear you; it's too noisy," Shi Youxuan protested.

No one paid her any mind.

The card players continued playing: "Two Kings."

"Four 3s, bomb."

"Hahahaha, pay up!"

"Pay up, pay up."

Whether it was intentional or on purpose, these people's voices grew even louder.

"Hey, are you all deaf? I'm talking to you; can't you hear me?"

Shi Youxuan took a step forward: "There are children in the house; could you please keep the noise down? It's only four in the morning, and we need to rest."

This time someone chimed in, but with a sarcastic tone.

"Yo, who doesn't have kids? I've got two, and they're sleeping soundly, aren't they?" He gestured with his mouth toward the side.

Shi Youxuan looked in the direction he indicated, and sure enough.

Behind the few people playing cards, several large vegetable crates were placed side by side.

The crates were covered with burlap sacks, and some contained vegetables.

In some of the crates, people were sleeping.

Two boys, one seven or eight years old, the other looking about the same age as Sheng Zichen.

The two children were huddled together, wearing the adults' filthy cotton-padded jackets, and were also covered with burlap sacks.

The crates weren't long enough; the small one was fine, but the big one had to curl up their body to fit!

The two children were sleeping very soundly; when the flashlight shone on their faces, they just used their hands to block it, then adjusted their sleeping positions and continued snoring away.

Shi Youxuan's full-blown anger vanished instantly.

Her throat felt as if it were stuffed with cotton, unable to go up or down.

They sent their child to the best kindergarten and moved into an "old, broken, small" place, thinking they had already done so much for their child.

Sheng Zichen had to leave his comfortable, luxurious home to come here with them, and Shi Youxuan had thought the child was already very aggrieved!

Yet some children were sleeping in vegetable crates outside in the heavy dew of the autumn wind.

"The children are too pitiful; why not let them sleep at home?" Shi Youxuan took off her own coat and covered the two children with it.

Burlap sacks used to cover children?

She couldn't bear to watch.

"Oh, no, no, don't get your clothes dirty..."

Shi Youxuan had come seeking reason in a righteous manner, but they were indifferent.

But when she took off her own clothes to cover the children, the few people felt embarrassed.

"Let's break it up."

And so the card game broke up.

Someone went over and poked a child: "Xiao Qiang, stop sleeping. Your snoring is too loud; the tenants upstairs have come down to complain."

The child grabbed that hand and bit down on it: "Liar, don't try to fool me. I heard them; they were complaining that you were noisy."

"Ouch, let go, you little brat, it hurts."

"Hahahaha..."

A burst of laughter erupted all around.

Yet in the next second, the child miraculously continued to sleep, completely undisturbed.

"See that? They're all children; who is more precious than whom? We also want to sleep at home in the middle of the night, but we can't, sister. Life forces us to come out."

"Look at these crates; they all have to be laid out on the ground. If we didn't play cards and slept like them, they'd all be gone by dawn without even needing to be sold."

Shi Youxuan explained patiently: "I'm not asking you not to sell your goods, just to keep the noise down."

The man with the bushy beard said: "You're new here, aren't you, sister? You don't understand the situation here. We're used to our loud voices; we can try to be quiet, but we'll forget after a while."

"So it's better not to promise you at all, so you won't say we don't keep our word when we can't do it."

The two went back upstairs, having returned without success.

In all her life, this was the first time Shi Youxuan had lost an argument.

She didn't feel very good inside.

The scene of those two children curled up sleeping in the vegetable baskets kept flashing before her eyes; it was too pitiful!

She thought of the past.

When she was little, to hide from her foster mother and sister's bullying, she often had to hide away, and the place she liked best was the wardrobe.

At the time, she felt she must be the most pitiful child in the world, and the wardrobe must be the most cramped space.

However, she never could have imagined.

That one could also sleep in a vegetable basket!

And the two children were sleeping quite soundly, without the slightest appearance of feeling wronged.

Sheng Hanyu put his arm around his wife's shoulders: "Are you feeling uncomfortable?"

"Mm."

"Don't think about it anymore; there are many pitiful people in this world, you can't help everyone."

"Husband, could you plan out an area and build a market?"

Shi Youxuan had been to markets; they were clean and tidy.

Fresh vegetables and fruits were arranged neatly and placed on shelves.

Furthermore, markets have set opening hours, which ensures they wouldn't come out too early just to "occupy" a spot.

"We'll talk about this matter after we go back," Sheng Hanyu said evasively.

That's right, it was an evasion.

His wife had a kind heart, but she had been detached from society for too long.

She didn't know the rules of life at the bottom of society and was taking it for granted that they should build a market.

It wasn't that building a market was impossible, but market stalls were paid for by the month, and the costs were not low.

If they were willing to pay such expensive fees, open-air markets wouldn't exist.

But these things couldn't be explained in a sentence or two.

He had to go to the company for work at daybreak, and now he just wanted to go back and sleep a little longer.

"Mm."

Shi Youxuan also wanted her husband to rest a bit more and didn't press him further, but this matter had taken root and sprouted in her heart.

Day broke.

A red sun rose slowly from the east; Xiao Ya had already gotten up, boiled porridge, and made scallion pancakes.

She took a large pickled radish out of the pickle jar, sliced it into thin strips, rinsed it several times, then mixed it with chopped scallions and sesame oil, and brought it to the dining table.

"There's nothing delicious, please just make do with a bite." Xiao Ya wasn't as reserved as yesterday, but she was a little embarrassed.

He hadn't planned on eating breakfast at home; the company's buffet breakfast was much more sumptuous than this.

Sheng Hanyu sat down: "Thank you, this is already very good."

He drank two bowls of porridge in a row; it was indeed very delicious.

The porridge Xiao Ya cooked didn't have many fancy tricks, nor did it have precious ingredients; she had added shredded pumpkin to the millet porridge, which had a faint sweetness.

The steamed buns had no filling, just pure water and lye-leavened dough; they were steaming hot right out of the pot and smelled very fragrant.

"So fragrant, Grandma, what delicious food did you make? Baobao is hungry..." Sheng Zichen rubbed his sleepy eyes and came out of the room.

The little guy was three years old, and this was the first time he had taken the initiative to get up early.

"Grandma steamed some buns, come, you have a piece." Xiao Ya smiled as she broke off half a bun and handed it to Sheng Zichen.

The buns steamed at home were large, bigger than Sheng Hanyu's fist; how much could such a tiny child eat?

She had underestimated the little guy's combat power.

Sheng Zichen took the bun and ate half of it in a few bites: "Delicious, want more."