Chapter 255

Hey, one‑eyed monster, wait here for me—I'll go fetch the stuff and bring it back to you! Han Duo slapped the back of my head hard, almost sending me sprawling to the ground.

Hey, one-eyed monster, wait for me here—I'll go get the stuff and bring it to you! Han Duo gave my head a hard smack, nearly knocking me to the ground.

I said discontentedly: "What one-eyed freak, you don't even have a name—what do you call yourself? My surname is Chen, I'm Hai Sheng."

Han Duo pursed her lips, didn't continue to pay attention to me, but turned around, clasping Ye Liang's hands, thanked: "Boss Ye, thank you so much, wait, I'll calculate how much the brothers and sisters have eaten at your place, and after a while I'll definitely send it to you."

Ye Liang, being so polite from her, immediately jumped up, hastily waved his hands saying: "No need, no need, that little bit of money is nothing; if I had money, you kids could come eat every day, no matter how much, you really don't need to be so polite."

"Thank you, Boss Ye," after a long silence, Han Duo suddenly broke into a smile; that smile dazed me briefly.

She turned and walked out of Ye Liang's restaurant, heading into a small path. After she had walked halfway down it, I turned around, looked at the table full of children, couldn't suppress my curiosity, and asked Ye Liang about the children's backgrounds. After all, before this, I had seen in the hospital a little Bin Bin suffering from leukemia; they also called Han Duo sister.

Ye Liang, upon my question, showed no hesitation at all, and began to tell me everything he knew in detail.

Ye Liang said, these children, including Han Duo, are all from a nearby orphanage. The orphanage has been around for a long time—at least nearly a hundred years—called "Child Affection Bay"; it was founded by a descendant of a KMT military officer who returned from Taiwan; the current director is Ji Xiang, a kind elderly person over sixty.

However, according to what Ye Liang heard, combined with my own understanding of Child Affection Bay over the past month or so, life at the orphanage seems very hard. Despite many kind-hearted people donating to society, the orphanage still runs a deficit; as a private welfare institution, without institutional support it's basically hard to sustain. The director often goes to factories to pick up odd jobs, and some of the children who grew up in the orphanage and now work outside contribute a few hundred each month, pooling it back to support the younger siblings' living and schooling.

"Ah, these kids are really sensible. When I first opened, I often saw dirty little faces sneaking glances at my restaurant. But whenever I saw them, or when I approached, they'd immediately scatter." Ye Liang looked at the children at the table, his face full of pity, saying: "Later I found out these kids often go to the restaurant to pick up bottles people have finished drinking, and scavenge bottles and cans on the street to help the orphanage. Ah, you don't know—I've seen them several times, braving the scorching sun as they dash across the street, and my heart breaks."

Ye Liang's words left me standing in silence for a long time; after a lengthy pause, I strolled over to the children's dining table. One child lifted his head to look at me; his face was grimy, with a few grains of rice around his mouth, his timid gaze fixed on me for two moments before he lowered his head again, shoveling rice into his mouth in big mouthfuls.

"Does it taste good?" I stroked the small boy closest to me; this boy's body was frail, his clothes patched all over, making him seem like a shrunken version of Ji Gong.

"It's good, it's fragrant..." The little boy wasn't shy, giving me a sweet smile; however, though he said it was fragrant, his chopsticks didn't go for the vegetables. Not just him—I noticed the other kids were the same, shoveling rice into their mouths, their chopsticks hardly touching the dishes on the table.

"If it's good, why aren't you eating more? Just eating rice won't do; you need more meat to grow tall." I picked up my chopsticks and placed some vegetables into their bowls.

"Uncle..." At that moment, the little boy lifted his head, looking at me with a somewhat timid expression.

"Hmm, what's wrong? Is the food not tasty? Tell Uncle, don't be afraid."

"Uncle, we… we want to take the vegetables home to give to Mom and the other brothers and sisters!" The little boy seemed to hesitate for a long time, then mustered courage, his face flushed as he spoke to me; after speaking, he lowered his head again, as if fearing I'd scold him.

I suddenly felt something blocking my chest, my nose sour, tears welling up wanting to spill from my eyes—I'm not an emotional person; on the contrary, my upbringing from childhood made me cold and solitary. Yet seeing these ragged, sallow-faced children, I really wanted to cry, truly, truly wanted to cry.

What kind of life do they lead? At such a young age they should be enjoying family warmth, yet they've been cruelly abandoned by their parents, some even disabled children. They don't know what toys are, they don't know what nice clothes are. Yet despite their tender age they've learned to help each other, to care for each other.

Ye Liang's older brother, the former owner of the restaurant, is a miserly tightwad. He won't even give away a few cents' worth of aluminum cans or beer bottles; seeing them, he chases them off with a broom, sets dogs after them. Customers' leftover rice and dishes, he'd rather feed to dogs than give to these kids.

"Ah, my older brother is fine in every way, just stingy and unapproachable. How could he treat such a pitiful bunch of kids like that?" Ye Liang let out another low sigh.

I clenched my fists secretly, feeling I must do something; after twenty years of cultivation, constantly teaching others to do good and accumulate virtue, I myself had never noticed this group of children nearby who desperately needed help.

I decided—I won't keep Han Duo's IOU; I'll also donate money, doing whatever I can to help them. These children are like I was as a child, losing parents at a young age. But I am far more fortunate: I met a good master, a good uncle, have books to read, food to eat, and don't have to wander about exhausting myself just to fill my stomach.

Not long after, I saw Han Duo come in from outside. She pulled me out the door, then took a box from her waist pouch and handed it to me, saying: "Here, this is for you; I know I messed up last time when I swindled you out of money. After I give you this, we'll have no more debts or delays."

I took it dubiously, opened it, and was so startled I almost threw the box to the ground.

What a joke, giving me the gold tablet from Wu Mu's last will. QingSongShu had just finished telling me over and over not to touch this thing…

"Damn… I don't want this." I panicked and hurriedly handed it back.

"Then what do you want?" Han Duo eyed me suspiciously, then… she instinctively shrank her shoulders, hugging herself, her gaze at me full of wariness.

"Damn…" I was thinking all sorts of things, but I really didn't do anything lewd to you in the guesthouse. Seeing Han Duo like this, I knew she'd gotten the wrong idea; I felt like laughing and crying at once, but I can't now tell Han Duo I'm here to collect the IOU, to demand repayment. Now I not only don't want to demand repayment, I actually want to give her extra money.

I suddenly somewhat understood why she insists on money so desperately. This seemingly frail body actually bears a burden I could hardly imagine.

"Well, actually, I don't want this; I wanted to buy it from you, after all it's a gold tablet—I can't just take it for free." Looking at Han Duo, I stumbled over my words, trying to rephrase.

Unexpectedly, Han Duo stepped back two paces, waved her hand and said: "No, even though I'm poor, I still know right from wrong; I swindled you, that was my fault, but now I'm giving you the gold tablet—consider it settlement of the money you originally gave me. From now on we owe each other nothing; we'll go our separate ways."

Having said that, Han Duo turned and left, leaving me with the words: "From now on, none of us should meet again; don't come looking for me." Smug and heartless.

"Ah, wait…" Han Duo had just taken two steps when I called her to stop. She turned, hands on hips, impatiently saying: "I say, are you ever going to finish? You're like a nagging old woman; can't you just say everything at once? You're wasting my time."

"No… listen to me!" I scratched my head, organized my thoughts, then mustered the courage to say to Han Duo: "If I'm not mistaken, your soul has been injured by my uncle's divine eye technique; you now have less than twenty percent of your power left. Are you free tomorrow to come to my place? I'll prepare some Chinese medicine for you; you need to rest more, adjust internally and externally. Also, you must absolutely not use any spiritual power during this time—otherwise you'll either die from draining your lifespan or become utterly exhausted and turn into an idiot."

I'm telling the truth; in the mausoleum, the moment Han Duo's command flag was destroyed, she was already a paper tiger. Back in Shenzhen, she again forced her spirit out to descend to the underworld; upon arriving there, her mind went haywire—clearly her soul had suffered grave injury. If she doesn't rest properly and get timely treatment, she may suffer lasting aftereffects. Moreover, the techniques she's currently using consume her own lifespan to sustain them.

This is definitely not good for Han Duo; even though her burden is heavy, if she continues like this, within two months I'm certain she will vanish completely from this world. Because internal cultivation of the soul is crucial for the Mei Shan and Yin Shan schools that command ghosts and soldiers; if her soul is injured and she still forcibly summons troops, a mishap could invite something too evil, which would seize our weakened bodies—i. e., legendary body possession. With good luck she might finally protect her body; with bad luck… she could become a raving idiot, or turn into someone else.

Perhaps… it's because Han Duo has always taken a dislike to me; I meant to advise her kindly, but she only left me a retreating back, and coldly flung down seven words.

"What the hell does it have to do with your grandmother…" Very smug, very stubborn, really asking for a beating.

However, through her silhouette I saw something called dignity, called backbone, in her seemingly humble body, like a peacock, proudly unfurling.