Bai Gu was drinking water next to him, listening to the two of them talking about some daily and inconsequential business matters.
These Bai Gu understand it, and they are very willing to listen.
There's just one bad thing about it.
They like to chat and suddenly pop up one or two famous quotes from the book, and then smile knowingly, or stay silent in pairs, or raise a glass to drink together, or chat about it.
Anyway, Bai Gu was really overwhelmed by this part of the content and could not understand it at all.
The key is that the two of them were still chatting energetically.
It was like when Mrs. Bai took him out when he was a child, and when he met an acquaintance on the road, he would stand at the roadside corner and chat. As soon as they started chatting, they couldn't stop the car and talked endlessly, which made Bai Gu very bored and impatient when he was a child.
Bai Gu felt bored and habitually took out two weeds from his arms and started to weave them.
I still owe the old beggar a few frogs, so I'll make it up first and I can "pay off the debt" when I meet him later when he comes back.
Just because he was making it up, something didn't feel right.
It seems like someone is watching me?
Bai Gu looked up and met two eyes.
Tang Tu was holding a tea cup, looking at him and the semi-finished weed in his hand with interest.
Liu Caizi, on the other hand, held his chin with one hand, leaning on the chair, staring at Bai Gu with evil eyes, which made the latter's scalp tingle.
"You guys, you guys talk about yourselves, continue, look, why are you looking at me." Bai Gu was so frightened by the sight that he couldn't help but stutter.
Tang Tu smiled and said: "Xiao Bai, what are you making up? Can you let me see it?"
Bai Gu didn't say anything, just handed over the semi-finished product in his hand.
Tang Tu looked left and right, only to see a little bit of the prototype from the semi-finished product with half of the body knitted together, "Are you knitting a bird?"
Bai Gu smiled reluctantly, "It's a frog."
Tang Tu's face was a little embarrassed, but he immediately returned to normal and handed the half-finished product back to Bai Gu, "It's pretty good, continue."
Liu Caizi's eyes were still unkind.
Tang Tu took a sip of tea and said, "Who is this made up for? Is it a meeting gift for Liu Caizi?"
Bai Gu suddenly became nervous and murmured: "This... this is not true. Do you need to prepare something when you come here? If I had known, I would have bought some cakes on the way."
Tang Tu burst out laughing, "That's not necessary, Liu Caizi is a very nice person. You think so?"
After saying that, Tang Tu glanced at Liu Caizi.
Liu Caizi snorted and looked away.
"Then you gave this to me?"
Bai Gu was a little embarrassed and said: "Mr. Tang, if you want, I can make one for you."
"Oh? Even if this is not for me? Then who is it for?" Tang Tu couldn't help but asked curiously.
"An... old friend of mine. He invited me to eat wontons before and promised to use them to pay off the debt, but now he ran away."
"Old friend?" Tang Tu touched his chin, "Have we known each other for a long time?"
"No, only in the past few years. To say he is an old friend is simply because he is older, and there is no other meaning."
Tang Tu couldn't help but laugh, "Then you... old friend, must be very interesting, right?"
Bai Gu thought about it seriously and tried his best to maintain the image of the old beggar in front of Mr. Tang, but found that this seemed to be a bit difficult.
Then Bai Gu simply stopped pretending, "That guy is disrespectful and disrespectful, so he has no integrity."
Tang Tu was stunned, not expecting Bai Gu to say such an answer.
After thinking for a while, Tang Tu slowly said: "Xiao Bai, you have to know that there are many people in this world who are not as simple as they appear on the surface. Their hearts may be different. People who are indifferent on the surface may have something different. A warm-hearted person. A person who looks fierce on the outside may be kind on the inside. A person who cares about others may be generous to others in unknown places."
Bai Gu listened thoughtfully to Tang Tu's words.
Speaking of people who are indifferent on the surface, Bai Gu thought of Old Liu Tou, a man with a sharp mouth and a soft heart.
Speaking of people with vicious appearances, Bai Gu thought of Brother Peng, A Guang and others. They were indeed very nice people.
Speaking of people who care about everything, Bai Gu thought of the old beggar, who was both stingy and generous. Although he is old and dishonest, it does not prevent him from being a good person.
Bai Gu asked with a serious face: "Mr. Tang, will you tell dirty jokes and sing dirty songs to teenagers like that old friend of mine?"
Tang Tu was drinking water and choked on Bai Gu's sudden question.
Bai Gu quickly stepped forward and helped Tang Tu pat his back.
Tang Tu coughed several times and finally stopped.
When Liu Caizi saw Tang Tu slumped, the corners of his mouth seemed to rise.
Tang Tu smiled helplessly, "Xiao Bai, first of all, I am definitely not the kind of person you said, and I definitely would not do such a thing. Secondly, I now agree with what you just said."
He was talking about what Bai Gu had just said to describe the old beggar.
Who is a good person who tells dirty jokes and hums dirty songs to children? It would be an understatement to say that he is old and crooked!
What a waste, what a waste!
Bai Gu nodded, "I know that Mr. Tang and that old guy are definitely not the same person. The old guy looks wretched and does a lot of sneaking around. He also does things like digging through other people's walls in the middle of the night, often just by chance. .”
Tang Tu was interested in what Bai Gu said and silently took note of it so that he could use it in his story telling later. "Then since you know that he has a bad attitude, why do you still associate with him? Aren't you afraid of being led astray by him one day?"
"Although that guy looks unreliable, he is still a very nice person. There are only two people left in my family: me and my sister. I used to have to work hard and think hard just to eat every day in order to get such a good result. A little bit of food will keep your stomach from being so empty. Sometimes you can’t get anything in exchange for it, so you have to starve. And this sometimes happens often. So Mr. Tang, you shouldn’t have thought that I am sixteen years old now, but I have grown so tall. Not as tall as an eleven or twelve year old child." Bai Gu smiled bitterly.
Tang Tu was stunned.
He originally thought that Bai Gu was just a junior and liked to run around, which was why he was short and had a sallow complexion.
It turns out that I often don’t have enough to eat and am malnourished.
It was really hard to imagine that a sixteen-year-old child would have to work hard every day because of the problem of eating, and that he would grow so thin because of the problem of eating.
Now I see and hear it with my own eyes.
Sure enough, the sages were right.
Reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles.
Bai Gu continued: "It was at that time that that guy appeared. Yes, yes, he did like to talk dirty words, sing dirty songs, climb people's walls, sneak around, and was not serious. But he was so nice! I often don't He would eat, wandering on the road hungry, lying on the ground looking for food, and even rummaging through the garbage, just for a bite to eat. One time he saw this and took me to the porridge shop in the north of the city for a drink. Porridge. Do you know? I drank so much that day that I wanted to cry. Not only did he point out a way to survive for me, but also because he was willing to share this way of survival with me. Because the porridge shop has a limited amount every day, and the porridge shop has a limited supply every day. There will be no more, so if you can go earlier, you will have more chances to give up the porridge, and one less person will reduce the competition. He gave me this way of living, which means that he has one more person to give up the porridge. Come and share. Although I later learned that he could still eat without drinking Nashe porridge, I am still very grateful to him."
Tang Tu frowned, "Isn't that Shazhou Porridge Shop in the north of the city closed for a long time?"
Bai Gu nodded: "Yes, my sister and I had been drinking She Porridge for several months. The She Porridge shop was closed inexplicably, and my sister and I lost our source of food again. At this time, He came to help again. He gave me a few copper coins and asked me to buy food by myself. You know, I had been hungry for three days at that time, and my sister at home had been empty for more than a day and could no longer find anything to eat. I really didn’t know what would happen. I was only thirteen years old at the time. As a child, I could just take those few copper coins without feeling grateful or having any other concerns. I didn’t have to think about what he would do to me in the future. You can repay him with whatever you ask for. It doesn't matter, they are all people who are starving to death, so what else should they care about? Being able to survive is the most important thing."
Bai Gu took a deep breath, his voice was a little choked, but he tried his best not to let Mr. Tang and Mr. Tang hear anything strange, "But I don't want to, I don't want to live on other people's mercy and charity. I will need it in my future life." It depends on other people’s faces. This kind of life is not happy, uncomfortable, and not what I want. So I refused the money.”
Liu Caizi suddenly interjected at this time, "Since you don't want to live on charity, why do you want to drink alms porridge?"
Bai Gu smiled softly: "The porridge was distributed by the government, but the copper coins belong to that guy alone."
Liu Caizi nodded, understanding.
The porridge provided by the government benefits the group, while the copper coins benefit individuals. If you want to repay the favor in the future, the nature and consequences will be different.
To repay the favor, the government might donate a small amount of money and be done with it. But repaying a favor to an individual is not just a simple matter of paying a sum of money.
It all depends on the other person. People can be good or bad, but you can’t tell for sure.
Bai Gu continued: "When the guy saw that I refused the money, he didn't say much. He just took me to buy a few sesame seed cakes and asked me to take them home to eat quickly. He also said that he would let me owe it first and keep the account. , I can just pay him back when I have money. Only then did I dare to accept the sesame cakes and run home to share them with my sister. In the next few days, I tried my best to earn the money for those sesame cakes and repay him. . Later, there was an unwritten agreement between us, that is, if one of us borrows money or things from the other party, then we will keep the account, and then we can just repay the debt directly with money or something of equal value. No need to do more. Say what you said. I have been keeping this agreement from three years ago until now. It’s just that he mostly helps me.”
Tang Tu pondered for a while before speaking: "Then have you ever thought about asking him to be a little more restrained and less...dissolute?"
Bai Gu knew what the words Tang Tu wanted to blurt out, but he didn't show it, "I've thought about it. But who has given me and my sister a way to survive time and time again, who am I qualified to point fingers at him?" Wouldn’t that be the person who stands by the well drinking water and still complains about the depth of the well? Also, if he restrains his personality and stops talking dirty words, singing dirty songs, and climbing on the walls, then will he still be himself? ?I don’t play with him because of his money, or because he once gave me a way to survive. I play with him because he has a fun personality, loves to joke and can joke, and can talk about anything, so I am willing to play with him. He plays. If he changes and his personality becomes more serious, not to mention becoming very serious, even if he is not as serious as he is now, I will feel uncomfortable. Of course, some of the things he does cannot be put on the table. As for whether I'm afraid of being led astray, I don't care."
Tang Tu was a little confused.
Bai Gu just smiled and laughed at himself: "For example, Mr. Tang, Liu Caizi and you are like a glass of clean water. If you accidentally fall into a few drops of sewage, it will naturally be stained. As for I am just a cup of mud, sewage or not. Is there any difference between a few drops and a bucket? In other words, is there any difference between a drop of sewage and not?"
Tang Tu sighed lightly and said nothing.
There is no support and no rebuttal.
Liu Caizi put down the tea cup in his hand and pointed at the semi-finished product in Bai Gu's hand, "Knit one for me."
Bai Gu didn't react.
Tang Tu's eyes were warm and his tone was soft, "It's what you are knitting in your hands now. After you finish knitting, just knit another one of the same kind and give it to Liu Caizi."
"Okay, Liu Caizi, please wait a moment."
Bai Gu took the semi-finished product and continued to compile it on his own.
Not long after, a frog appeared in Bai Gu's hand.
"Liu Caizi, here it is."
Liu Caizi did not reach out to take it, "Didn't you just say that you were just going to use it to pay off debts? Why did you just give it to me?"
"Ha, that guy has gone somewhere else now. I don't know when he will come back, so don't be in a hurry. Liu Caizi, you want it now. In terms of time, you are more urgent than him, so I will give it to you first."
Liu Caizi then stretched out his hand and took the frog woven from weeds.
Gee, that's a bit prickly.
Tang Tu patted Bai Gu on the shoulder, "Xiao Bai, I still have something to talk to Liu Caizi. You should go home first, so as not to go home in the dark and it will be unsafe to be alone."
"Okay." Bai Gu nodded, "Don't worry, Mr. Tang, I look very safe."
Tang Tu was helpless and smiled.
After Bai Gu left, Tang Tu turned his attention to Liu Caizi, who had been leaning on the chair. The latter was playing with the weed frog made by Bai Gu with a nonchalant expression.
"Liu Caizi, Xiaobai's knitting skills are pretty good, don't you think so?"
"...It's just make-do."
