The light from fireworks and streetlights reflected in the light snow.
When Bai Shu came out of the military compound, the street was deserted.
Ding.
When the bracelet is turned on, various messages come in.
Cheng Youyue asked when he would arrive and if he wanted to make dumplings first.
The rest are some business-related emails, and there is also a blizzard warning.
Bai Shu replied to the message first, and just as he clicked [Send], he saw something flying quickly from the corner of his eye.
With a twist of his wrist, he almost instinctively blocked it with an umbrella.
A hard object hit the umbrella with a thud and fell to the ground.
It's a sharp stone.
Bai Shu moved his umbrella and looked towards the alley where the stones were thrown, narrowing his eyes slightly.
After throwing stones in the alley, the girl ran away and turned several alleys deeper into the alley before walking slowly. After confirming that no one was chasing her, she turned around and continued walking.
"Why are you running?"
The sound is close at hand.
The girl's pupils suddenly dilated and she turned around to run away. Bai Shu quickly reached out and grabbed her.
The girl seemed to have found out something. She turned her head and opened her mouth to bite. She was as fierce as a wild little wolf. Her sharp teeth just happened to bite the side of the ring finger of Bai Zhu's right hand.
empty.
The girl was startled.
Half a finger missing from the glove?
Before the wanderer could calm down, Bai Shu clamped the back of her neck with his other hand and pushed her against the wall.
The girl smashed her face against the wall. She felt pain and released her clenched teeth.
"Kid," Bai Zhu freed his hand to hold the gun, and put the muzzle of the gun against the girl's chin, smiling half-heartedly, "Are you looking for death?"
"Even a street boy doesn't have the right to throw stones at others at will. I don't object to you throwing stones, but if you are caught, you will be beaten."
There were other children turning around in the alley. When they saw this, they panicked and exclaimed: "Sister Meng Ya!"
Meng Ya shouted: "Run!"
Children are about to run away.
Bai Zhu raised his eyebrows, turned the muzzle of the gun and pulled the trigger.
boom!
The sound of gunfire was masked by the sound of explosive fireworks that followed.
The child who was about to run screamed and collapsed to the ground in fear. Even Meng Ya, who was holding her down, turned pale at the sound of the unsilenced gunshot.
"Don't run, I don't mean to kill anyone," Bai said in a gentle tone, "but it would be too rude to run away when you see me."
"Come here, kid, and be obedient."
She said, seeing the fearful look in the child's eyes, she smiled and put away the gun.
"Something is coming at me! It's the stone I threw at you." Meng Ya struggled and said harshly, "Everyone is responsible for the work, so don't embarrass him! He is just a beggar without a father and a mother!"
"Oh, really? A beggar without a father and a mother? That's such a coincidence, I have neither a father nor a mother."
Bai Shu replied nonchalantly, with a smile in his words:
"So, you want me to think you are pitiful? There are so many pitiful people in this world, why do you have to throw stones at people who don't look pitiful? When you do it, why don't you think about whether you will implicate your companions? ?”
Meng Ya held her tongue and said nothing more.
"Come here kid, I won't hit you, I keep my word."
"Don't……"
Meng Ya wanted to speak out, but there was no movement as soon as the words came out of her mouth.
Bai Zhu's expression remained the same, and he waved to the child in a friendly manner, without any sign of the person who had just fired.
The four or five-year-old child looked at Meng Ya at a loss and found that the latter did not respond, so he had to move hesitantly to Baizhu's side, raised his head and stumbled:
"Please, please, beautiful sister, can you let Sister Meng Ya go? You, you are a good person."
"Don't worry, I won't do anything to her, I'm just asking a few questions."
Bai Zhu took out the chocolate candy that the one-eyed cat had given her before leaving from her pocket, and put it into the child's hand, which was a big handful that filled her hands.
Even if the situation is wrong, the wanderer can't help but show his greed.
"Eat. Let me ask you: do you know how many street kids like you are around here?"
Without Meng Ya as the backbone, the child hesitated for a few seconds and finally succumbed to the sugar-coated bullet:
"Yes, there are many."
"Approximately how many people are there?"
The waif showed confusion, shook his head pitifully, and repeated: "There are many."
He doesn't know how to count yet.
Bai Zhu touched his head and stopped asking: "Don't be afraid, you eat the candy first."
She looked at Meng Ya again and let go of the hand that was tightly holding her throat.
"Cough cough cough..." Meng Ya coughed violently, and her red face softened slightly due to the brief suffocation.
Just now, Bai Shu almost strangled her to death in order to ask questions.
"Sister Meng Ya, are you okay? Eat some candy, sister, eat some candy..."
The wanderer comforted him unskilledly. Meng Ya waved her hands, calmed down her breathing and looked at Baizhu who was watching the show: "Why do you ask? If I throw stones at you, at worst you will shoot me. Is it possible that you will kill everyone?" ?”
Bai Shu ignored her indignation and asked:
"Why don't you go to a shelter? Even if you don't go to the official one, I remember that there are many private shelters in the outer city of this place, especially south of the Agate River. Didn't Dis's boss also build a lot of shelters? Today there are still Distributing food.”
"So what? That's all the food is. Children will be easily beaten by those homeless people if they go there."
Meng Ya sneered: "Besides, we have hands and feet, how can we just stay there and not leave? The one-eyed cat boss is just helping out, not helping the poor."
Bai Zhu: "You can go to work and exchange for some food."
"The empire strictly prohibits the employment of child labor under the age of 14." Meng Ya said sarcastically, "What? Don't the rich understand these basic labor regulations? Besides, the most indispensable thing now is cheap labor. Why hire child labor?"
Too.
I almost lost track of time. The lifting of the ban on child labor will happen in the future.
Bai Zhu pondered for a moment: "Take me to where you gather and see how many people there are."
Meng Ya sneered: "Why should I take you there?"
Bai Shu smiled, reached out and touched the wandering child's head, and lowered his voice:
"You don't want to implicate this lovely child, right? Besides, if I want to look for him, I can search him without you, but I won't be able to talk to him as easily as he is now."
Meng Ya gritted her teeth: "You——"
The child was concentrating on eating sweets and looked up at the two of them without knowing why.
"If you dare to do anything, I will fight you to the death."
Bai Shu chuckled: "Don't worry, I have no bad taste in killing people at will."
Meng Ya snorted coldly, took the child's hand, turned around and left.
Bai Zhu followed with steps.
…
The distance is not too far.
When you turn into the abandoned carport behind the garbage dump, you can hear the chirping sounds of children.
Bai Zhu stopped and stood not far from the carport.
A group of children in shabby clothes gathered around a fire, burning some hay and garbage. The smell of burning plastic was unpleasant and pungent, but they kept moving closer to the fire for warmth.
When Meng Ya saw her stopping, she also stopped cautiously and tucked the child behind her.
"Winter is here, can spring be far behind?"
I don’t know what they were talking about, but a six or seven-year-old child next to the fire suddenly read a poem loudly, causing other street children to respond.
"Spring comes soon! I just hope I can get through this terrible winter safely!"
"That's right, my shoes don't work anymore in the winter, and my toes are already exposed. I'm so cold at night that I can't sleep, so I can only huddle together. The leftovers in the trash can also get cold quickly, and it's hard to eat. Like snow.”
"But during the Chinese New Year, we can find leftovers in rich people's trash cans! But I still like spring. There is no street kid who doesn't like spring!"
After another response, Meng Ya suddenly sneered, her voice still full of yin and yang:
"Spring, ah, I like spring too.
"Because our frozen friends will flow out with the melting snow so that we can see them again."
Her cold brown eyes were mixed with hatred, staring straight at Bai Zhu, almost gritting her teeth:
"This rich man from the high-ranking official's family area, do you like spring?"
