Chapter 123: The World of Ordinary People

"Did you also lose your mother, which is why you came here?"

The girl held her bowl, her mouth glistening with oil, her bright eyes fixed on Li Xiang.

"Uh..."

Hearing this question, Li Xiang was visibly stunned for a moment. His eyes widened, and he looked at the girl with some surprise, as if it were hard to imagine that he would be faced with such an—an outrageous question.

After a long silence, he finally spoke slowly.

"My mother is still alive; she's helping in the kitchen over there. I just came along with my father today to play."

As his words fell, as if she finally realized her question had been somewhat offensive, the girl apologized repeatedly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was being presumptuous."

"It's fine, it's fine."

After asking that question, she sat there feeling somewhat awkward, holding her bowl and eating alone, occasionally stealing a glance at Li Xiang, not knowing how to start a conversation.

Her dark, grimy little face looked slightly flushed; it seemed the earlier offense had made her very embarrassed, and her heart was beating fast.

To ease the atmosphere, the girl took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

"My name is Ping, like the duckweed. What about you?"

"Ah."

"My name is Li Xiang."

Silence.

The conversation fell into awkwardness once again.

Li Xiang shoveled down a few mouthfuls of rice, preparing to finish his meal and run off.

He had an appointment with Lu Ban and didn't plan to continue wasting time here.

As for the little girl's offense.

He didn't take it to heart regarding these poor children.

Although Ping's question was a bit presumptuous, it was also the reality.

A beast plague had broken out outside the city, and demon spirits had caused chaos inside; one thing led to another, and many people had died, leaving many children as orphans or having lost their kin.

Many of the children here ate from the "hundred-family rice," and in the kitchen, they were looked after by the women who helped out.

The girl held her bowl, scooping up porridge spoonful by spoonful, her movements unnatural.

She still seemed to be feeling embarrassed about the earlier question.

Li Xiang smiled and set down his empty wooden bowl.

"It doesn't matter, don't take it to heart."

"Thank you and Yun Niang; this is the best porridge I've ever eaten."

Li Xiang comforted Ping; he actually had a good impression of this little girl.

Although she wasn't very old, there was a kind of tenacity in her eyes, and she was a very good little thing for being here with Yun Niang to take care of these children.

"By the way, I'm suddenly curious."

"Are you only called Ping? Do you not have a surname?"

Upon being asked this, Ping shivered unnaturally.

"I used to have one."

"My father died early. My mother said that later on, she would send me to a wealthy household in the city to be a maid. My mother said that when the time came, I would have to take the master's surname, and they wouldn't let me use my own name anymore."

Ping said this, looking somewhat unhappy.

"But it doesn't matter now. My mother said that after the houses here in the South City are built, if we can make a living here and have enough to eat, I won't have to go be a maid."

"My mother said that life will always get better, and perhaps by then, we might even have a little house of our own."

"Eh? Why did you stop talking?"

Li Xiang was startled for a moment.

"Be a maid?"

"Yeah, the village is too poor, and our family has no men; it's already very hard for my mother to raise me."

"If I go be a maid for someone, they can give my mother a sum of silver. She's in poor health, and it won't be so hard for her in the future. Every winter, my mother weaves cloth at home, and her hands get frozen bright red; it breaks my heart."

"If I work as a maid for twenty years, they'll provide me with enough to eat, and both my mother and I will be able to have meals."

Li Xiang was speechless.

Looking at the dark, thin little girl in front of him, this child of about ten, his expression was very complex.

Sending a daughter to be a maid for someone else—he had only ever seen such things in novels before.

Encountering this for the first time, he suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable.

"Ping, is it the Ping for duckweed..."

"Yes! That's the one!"

"It's green and oily, and in the summer, it covers the pond in one piece; it's so beautiful."

Ping picked up on Li Xiang's words and said happily.

She seemed to have found a topic to chat with Li Xiang about and really wanted to say more to dispel the earlier awkwardness.

"My home is in Guyang Village, right over by Xie Valley. In the summer, there are so many fruit trees in Xie Valley, and the flowers bloom all over the mountains; it's so pretty. The water in the pool below reflects the shadows, it's extremely beautiful."

"What about you? Which village is your home in?"

"Shihe Village."

"Ah, I know it. There's a Qinghe Pool next to Shihe Village, and many flowers bloom around it. When the flowers bloom in the summer, there are even butterflies."

"I've been to your village when I was buying medicine for my mother."

Ping was thin, and her face was dark, but she looked very spirited.

She seemed much sharper than her peers.

She held her wooden bowl and told Li Xiang about many things.

It seemed she liked this new little companion very much.

"Big Sister Ping! Can you give me some more food? I'm not full!"

Just as Ping intended to continue chatting, several little ones nearby suddenly started shouting.

"Coming, coming!"

Ping trotted over, picked up the wooden bowl, and went to ask Yun Niang for food.

Li Xiang squatted nearby, using the firelight and candlelight to look at the children in the kitchen, his expression changing slightly.

"They are all children with hard lives."

He sighed casually.

Li Xiang shook his head, set down the wooden bowl in his hand, and slipped away quietly into the night.

He had an appointment with Lu Ban; he would come back to see these children later.

As for Lao San.

It wasn't time for Lao San to come pick him up yet. Lao San was now considered a small person in charge here and was very busy; he would just come back after dealing with the matter with Lu Ban.

Pushing open the kitchen door, Li Xiang walked out.

Looking at the bustling construction site in front of him, Li Xiang suddenly felt the night wind was a bit cold.

Novel construction machinery was set up on the site, greatly accelerating the progress. Sometimes, one could even see streaks of light passing through the sky; those were some cultivators from the prefecture city helping to build the residential area in the South City.

This was also a very unique world, but its essence was still a very cruel one.

The vast majority of people were actually not living very well.

Ping's experience made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

If his own family had also lost its men, perhaps his mother would have sent him to some wealthy household to be a servant just to get a bite to eat.

For ordinary people, this world was actually not that friendly.

But fortunately, there was always hope.

Once the construction of the South City was completed, these disaster victims would all have a decent place to settle.

Speaking of which, the houses here were originally only intended to be simple little shacks just for the disaster victims, but because of the intervention of the Mohist School, they had been improved a lot.

Once completed, he imagined they would be not much different from the North City.

"Hundred Schools."

Thinking of this, Li Xiang suddenly remembered Bian Que, whom he had seen during the day.

He heard that he had opened a free Grass Hall here to treat the poor.

"The Hundred Schools newly branched off from Confucianism seem to be more people-oriented."

"Interesting."

"I'm becoming increasingly curious."

Under the night sky, Li Xiang walked along the street.

Before long, a small wine flag came into view.

This was a small tavern in the West City, and it was here that Lu Ban and Bian Que had agreed to drink.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 124 =====