In Qin Wan's eyes, the way the little beggar couldn't use chopsticks was because his hands had been injured on the road, so he had no strength. Qin Wan reached out and held the little beggar's hand, signaled for him to set the chopsticks down, stuffed the spoon into his hand, and said softly, "It's the sa using a spoon. Don't rush, take your ti."
Qin Wan's words seed to carry so kind of magic. The little beggar put down the chopsticks, grabbed the spoon, and began clumsily eating the porridge with it.
Qin Wan had originally planned to go to her room to get so pastries for the little beggar, but seeing the state he was in while eating, she didn't quite dare to leave. Simply sitting down beside him, she just watched him eat like that.
One of them ate in big gulps, the other quietly watched, just like a mother waiting for her child to finish breakfast so she could walk him to school.
The little beggar ate very quickly, and the bowl of porridge was emptied in no ti. Just as Qin Wan was asking him if he wanted a bit more, the little beggar put down the spoon, looked at Qin Wan, and, as if making up his mind, asked very seriously, "Do you have any wishes?"
Qin Wan froze.
Qin Huai: ! It's here, it's finally here. Heaven knows how long he's been waiting for this question.
Qin Wan clearly didn't understand. She began to suspect the child might have a bit of a fever and his brain was muddled.
"Miss Qin, do you have any wishes?" the little beggar asked. "Any wish will do. As long as you want it, even if it's to be the Emperor, you can make that wish to ."
Qin Wan was amused by the little beggar's words. "There's no Emperor anymore these days, you child."
"I'm serious," the little beggar said. "I'm not human."
Qin Wan: ?
"Many years ago, before you were married, there was a year when it was especially cold outside the border. Your maid was called Chun He. On the day of the first snowfall that year, after Chun He went outside the gate to hand out black stead bun to the beggars, she told you there was a little beggar outside wearing only three thin layers. You found an old coat of your younger brother's and told Chun He to reward that beggar with it. Do you still rember that?"
Qin Wan froze again, falling into mory. One could tell she had a faint impression but not a very clear one. She asked a bit hesitantly, "Are you that beggar's child?"
"I'm that beggar."
Qin Wan was dumbfounded.
"I told you, I'm not human."
Obviously, the little beggar's words were too blunt and impactful. Qin Wan stared at him blankly for a long ti, not knowing what to say.
"The first year you married Jiang Chengde, Qin's Stead Bun Shop's Managent was poor. Your younger brother ca to borrow money, knocking on the back gate of the Jiang Family's old residence for almost half an hour. I was begging right at the foot of the wall then."
"When you were pregnant with your first child, you especially loved the sour jujubes from a shop in the east of the city. Chun He would go buy them every day. I could see Chun He going out every day."
"One year, you took Miss Jiang out, and she insisted on having candied haws. When she finally got them, she choked while eating, and you were so scared you spanked her while crying."
"When you were outside the border, there was a period when Jiang Chengde ca back especially late every day. You would always stand at the door with a lantern waiting for him, waiting until deep into the night. You caught a chill and were sick with wind-cold for half a month before you recovered."
"And, you like to…"
"…"
The little beggar rambled on, recounting one by one his observations from tailing her all these years. Qin Wan's expression shifted from initial blankness to shock, then to doubt, then to doubting life itself, bewildernt, and finally, in her shock, there seed to be a faint hint of acceptance.
Qin Wan knew that whoever could say these things must know her very well, or in other words, must have been by her side for many years.
At the very least, they had to have seen it with their own eyes to describe things in such detail.
And with the little beggar's age, it was simply impossible for him to know all this.
When the little beggar finished speaking, Qin Wan fell into a long silence. It took her quite a while to recover from the shock. When she looked at the little beggar again, there was no terror in her gaze, nor fear, only deep curiosity. "You… really aren't human?"
"No." The little beggar shook his head. "I'm a spirit, a spirit who ca to the human world for Crossing Tribulation. You can think of as a demon."
"You are my tribulation."
With that sentence, the little beggar startled Qin Wan yet again. She jumped to her feet in fright, sowhat flustered and at a loss. "I… what did I do? Did I accidentally touch so rule of yours, or sothing… should I…"
"It's just how I feel." The little beggar looked at Qin Wan. "At the beginning, I didn't want to beg. I just wanted to know how to be human, wanted to successfully pass my tribulation."
"But I also know I can't tell humans everything, otherwise I'll die in a very ugly way. Many of my seniors have been refined into elixir."
"Everyone I've seen over the years has a reason for what they do."
"Shi Tou led around begging, wanted to be my boss so he could have fight for him and give him stead buns. The other wealthy households outside the border ladle out porridge during festivals to gain a good reputation, or for their own beliefs."
"The shops along the street occasionally give leftover dishes to beggars because of a montary impulse of kindness."
"The clerks drive away beggars for the sake of business and to keep their own jobs."
"Chun He handed out stead buns to us every day because that was your order."
"I can understand why you give out stead buns to beggars, because you are a good person. The winter is bitterly cold, and every winter, many little beggars outside the border die. When you had the ans, you gave out more; when you weren't so well-off, you gave out less. You wanted, within your ability, to help these little beggars survive the winter."
"But I don't understand why you gave a cotton coat."
"Why did you, that day at Qin's Stead Bun Shop, take my hand and tell I couldn't keep begging like this? Why did you open the food box and share the white stead buns inside with —wasn't it enough to give beggars black stead bun?"
"Why did you worry about whether I'd faint at your door today, bring inside, let bathe, give new clothes, and feed porridge? Aren't you afraid I'm a bad person?"
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