“Pretty?”
The big-headed little girl in front of her was still holding the same shabby bowl from yesterday, completely stunned. On her thin little face, her pair of eyes shone especially bright.
“Big sister is amazing!” She had originally seen big sister being chased by bad people and had wanted to come over to check the situation and call for help.
She hadn’t expected the bad people to be defeated so effortlessly, as easily as she ate her meals.
“You’re right.”
“Big sister, where are you going? Do you want to come to my house and play? Pingping and Guoguo are very curious about you.”
“Sure.” She was free at the moment anyway.
The big-headed little girl, also known as Xiao Mi, chatted all the way, spilling everything about her family. She was truly easy to trick.
If there were traffickers around now, they’d probably succeed every time.
Before Xiao Mi even entered the house, she had already started shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Brother, Pingping, Guoguo, big sister is here!”
Ye Qingning followed her inside, found a place, and sat down without any reservation.
The main room had nothing but a dining table and chairs—utterly bare.
At that moment, two little heads poked out from the inner room. They looked somewhat alike; it was said they were fraternal twins.
That was really rare these days.
“Pingping, Guoguo, come here.” Ye Qingning waved. She quite liked children.
During the apocalypse, children had been especially precious.
Pingping and Guoguo held hands, walking while looking back repeatedly. Only after seeing Xiao Mi come out did they quicken their pace.
“Here!”
Ye Qingning opened her palm, revealing several pieces of candy.
“Thank you, big sister~”
Pingping and Guoguo took the candy and turned to hand it to Xiao Mi. Xiao Mi unwrapped one for each of them, and the two little ones squinted their eyes in satisfaction.
Ye Qingning unwrapped one and stuffed it into Xiao Mi’s mouth, who was clearly craving it.
“Is it just you at home?”
“Brother is helping Uncle pee…”
“Ahem—” The boy cleared his throat before saying, “Thank you, miss, for giving Xiao Mi so much food yesterday.”
“Brother, there’s also candy!”
Xiao Mi handed the candy in her hand to the boy.
“Thank you.” Aside from those pale and powerless words, he didn’t know how else to thank the little girl in front of him.
When Xiao Mi told him about big sister, he had thought she meant an older girl.
He wondered if she had been scolded by her family because of what she did yesterday. But judging from her appearance, it seemed she hadn’t.
“You’re Xiao Mai? Your uncle is still sick?”
“Yes. Uncle still has a bit of a fever.”
“Has he taken medicine?”
“He took some before.”
That meant they had run out of medicine.
From what she heard, he had been injured and now had a fever—it was probably that the wound had become inflamed.
Ye Qingning took medicine out of her shoulder bag and handed it to the boy. “This is anti-inflammatory medicine.”
“This…” Xiao Mai didn’t know what to say anymore. He had gone to a clinic before.
Even the doctor there had said there was no anti-inflammatory medicine available. Even if one had money, it was hard to buy, not to mention it was expensive.
“Medicine is meant to treat illnesses.”
“Brother, hurry and give Uncle the medicine! After taking it, Uncle will get better, right?”
“Yes.”
Ye Qingning stayed for a while longer, playing with Pingping and the others. When she heard their stomachs growling, she realized it was already past ten o’clock.
“Big sister, I want to drink water,” Pingping said to Xiao Mi.
“Okay, wait a moment.”
“No need for water. Come on, big sister will treat you to wontons.”
She had seen a wonton stall in the alley on her way here.
“Hurry up. If we don’t go now, big sister will get angry. Xiao Mai, you come too.”
“No. At home there’s still—”
Before Xiao Mai could finish, he stopped immediately when he saw Ye Qingning’s expression.
“Uncle, five bowls of wontons!”
“Alright, coming right up! Sit and wait!”
Not long after they sat down, the wontons were ready.
Xiao Mi took a sip of the soup first. Xiao Mai added some chili oil. Pingping scooped up a wonton and blew on it. Guoguo bit into one directly, huffing from the heat but not stopping.
“Xiao Mai, is this your relative?” The people in the alley had lived there for years and all knew each other.
Xiao Mai shook his head.
“The girl looks unfamiliar.”
“Mm, just arrived in Shanghai City.”
The shop owner wanted to ask more, but new customers came in, so he smiled and went to attend to them.
Seeing that all their bowls were completely clean, Ye Qingning felt embarrassed to leave anything behind. She had eaten quite a lot in the morning.
And now, she was stuffed.
She packed another portion for their uncle before leading them back.
“Do you have paper and a pen?”
“Yes.”
“Is there anyone at home who can read?”
“Uncle and I can.”
Ye Qingning took the pen and wrote and drew, then took out commonly used medicines from her bag and categorized them with slips of paper.
“Keep these medicines. I’ve written down their uses and how to take them.”
“Okay.”
“Big sister, are you leaving?” Xiao Mi asked, a little reluctant.
“Yes, I’ll be leaving Shanghai City.” She didn’t like leaving people with vague expectations.
After seeing Ye Qingning off, Xiao Mai opened the medicine bag and discovered there was also a total of one hundred yuan inside. He had never seen so much money in his life.
“Brother?”
“I need to go out for a bit. Xiao Yong got sick these past two days because of the rain. I’ll deliver some medicine to him. I’ll also buy some rice on the way. Stay at home and behave.”
Xiao Mai put away the other medicine and the bag before heading out again.
In the scorching summer, the afternoon sun was exceptionally harsh.
After walking only a short distance, Ye Qingning was already drenched in sweat. The street reflected glaring white light that made her dizzy and unable to open her eyes. It was far less comfortable than when it rained.
There were only a few scattered pedestrians on the road, nothing like the lively bustle of the morning.
She should probably find a place to cool off. Liu Jinting’s place was quite nice.
When Ye Qingning arrived at the shop, the door was half-closed. Liu Jinting was smoking one cigarette after another, looking extremely haggard, as if he hadn’t rested well the previous night.
“Didn’t expect you to be such a chain smoker.”
“I—cough cough—!”
Liu Jinting hadn’t expected someone to suddenly appear. Not only did he burn himself with the cigarette, he also choked on the smoke.
“Smoking is harmful to your health. Why waste money on it?”
Although Ye Qingning knew he had been startled because of her sudden arrival, she didn’t care about that at all.
She quickly moved to open the shop door to let the smoke out.
Unexpectedly, she was lifted up again.
“Little one, I thought something had happened to you!”
This time, when she was lifted high, Ye Qingning didn’t step on his face.
Well, she just thought he probably hadn’t washed yet—dirty.
After he calmed down, Ye Qingning said, “It’s too hot outside. I came to cool off.”
“You came back early?”
“Mhm~”
“Out! Get out!” Liu Jinting pretended to chase her away.
“You—” Ye Qingning wasn’t someone who would cling on. If someone drove her away, she wouldn’t stay.
She had only come on a whim anyway. If one place wouldn’t keep her, another would.
She had plenty of money; casually finding a hotel would be perfectly fine.
“You… you come back here!”
Ye Qingning continued walking without turning back.
“I’ll treat you to ice cream at a Western restaurant!”
She walked backward, stepping in reverse until she reached Liu Jinting, then turned slightly to face him. “You’re the one treating me.”
“Yes, yes!”
Ye Qingning walked back into the shop, then turned around and frowned. “It all smells like smoke. It’s too choking.”
“Go upstairs. The shop’s closed today.”
Liu Jinting pressed his forehead. He must have owed this little one something. It was just that he feared she might suffer the same fate as his younger sister. After all, she had called him ‘brother.’