Chapter 43

Ma Jiayu knew that he was redundant since he was old enough to understand. His father only loved to drink and would beat his mother after drinking. One day when he was three years old, his mother disappeared. The woman finally couldn't stand it anymore and left the family.

She did not take Ma Jiayu with her when she left. Even though she was so gentle to him when they were young, he was just an extra stone on his mother's life path. When she left, the man's fists changed their target.

When he's sober, he curses and swears, and when he's drunk, he beats and kicks people. Maybe he's restrained a bit. If he had beaten Xiao Jiayu like he did that woman, Xiao Jiayu would have died long ago.

Xiao Jiayu was afraid of death, very afraid. There was an old lady opposite his house who spent all his money on alcohol and never cared whether he had anything to eat. When he was hungry, the old lady opposite would secretly give him something to eat, because the old lady was also afraid of his father, so when he ran away from home and had nowhere to go, she took him in for the night.

Three months ago, Xiao Jiayu learned the word death for the first time. The grandmother next door died and was taken away by many unfamiliar and scary adults to be burned into ashes. He has never seen his grandmother since then.

He knew about death and was very afraid of it. He was afraid that he would disappear like his grandmother and be burned to ashes. He was afraid of death, so he tried hard to live.

He knew that he would die if beaten, so he tried his best to escape from the man, even if he would be beaten even harder next time.

He knew that getting sick would lead to death. A child in the residential building next door had died of illness. He heard the gossipy people in the courtyard chatting about it. The child had died of a fever after being caught in the rain.

So every time it rained, he would find a dry place to hide himself. That villa was the secret base he found, but he seemed unable to go there anymore.

He also knew that people could starve to death. He was very hungry. He endured the beating and returned to the man. He was severely beaten and his whole body was in pain. He didn't find anything to eat in the house. He smelled the aroma of food wafting in the air and he was really hungry.

He wanted to survive, so while he still had the strength, he searched through the garbage dump for edible food.

The drizzle had soaked his clothes and he was very cold. Even a gust of wind made him shiver. He was very hungry and missed the noodles from his neighbor's grandmother.

It was not easy to find food in the stinking garbage dump, not to mention that there was a wild dog nearby competing with him for food. As soon as he dug out the hairy steamed bun from the garbage dump, it was bitten by the dog and taken away.

He wanted to pounce on it and get it back as he did before, but his whole body went limp and he was a step too slow, letting the wild dog get away.

The little man continued to rummage through the garbage. He was so hungry that he stuffed the rotten vegetable leaves into his mouth, but it was not enough. They tasted bitter, astringent and smelly.

"Hey, kid."

He used all his strength to search for food in the garbage, with the smelly leaf still in his mouth, and turned his head blankly to look at the source of the sound.

Under a very exquisite umbrella decorated with flowers, a beautiful aunt is holding a little princess. In the eyes of children, anyone with long hair can be called aunt, and they are not so sensitive to faces.

The little princess was wearing a blue sparkling dress and had an exquisite hair accessory. She looked like a doll in a window display when she was held in his arms, but she was even prettier than a doll. Her big eyes seemed to be able to speak, and she looked curiously at the child who was looking for food in the garbage dump.

Ma Jiayu just looked at the little girl in his arms for a few more seconds, then turned around and rummaged through the garbage dump. Appreciation for all beautiful things is innate in human beings, but before that, his hungry stomach was the top priority.

Liu Ze didn't know that the child thought he was a girl. If he knew, he would definitely not be as good-tempered as he is now. He looked at the child and glanced at them, then crawled back to put the garbage away.

"Kid, we have food, come with us." Liu Ze said this like a bad uncle who kidnapped a child. His purpose was to kidnap, not to sell. He thought the child would still ignore them.

Unexpectedly, the children stopped rummaging through the garbage. The shopkeeper stared at them intently and asked in a hoarse voice, "Is there really anything to eat?"

"Yes, you can eat as much as you want, so little brother, please don't throw away the garbage." This time it was the doll who answered. Her voice was clear and sweet, completely different from Ma Jiayu's.

"Okay, I'll go with you." The child staggered to his feet. His stomach was still rumbling. He couldn't think too much. He just wanted to fill his stomach, even if they were going to beat him up. He was really hungry.

Things seemed to be going surprisingly smoothly. This child looked like a wolf cub. How could he be so careless? The three of them walked in front, and the child followed behind them.

Liu Ze thought to himself, although the master only asked them to come out and inquire about the child, he did not say that they were not allowed to take the child back. They should take the child back and have a full meal first. In this era, everyone has just come out of a difficult environment, and most people really don’t have much spare energy to care about a child of someone else’s family.

【The two children in Unit 2 followed others.】

[He can’t be a bad person.]

[The person in front of me is holding a child. I can tell they are from a wealthy family.]

[I guess he felt sorry for the Ma family's child and took him home for a meal.]

【His father is really a sinner.】

Liu Ze took the child away. There were always a few people in the ruling building of this area who saw it, but they couldn't help the child. All their sympathy was just verbal, and there was even some arrogance of pity in their tone. But what did the child next door have to do with them?

The first person to notice that something was wrong was Yan Shiliu. He picked up the child following behind them. The child had a fever all over his body and an abnormal flush on his face. It was not until now that they realized that it was because the child was covered in bruises and dirt.

"The child has a fever." Yan Shiliu didn't care about the dirty smell on the child at all.

Liu Ze originally wanted to reach out and touch it to test the temperature. Seeing the forehead that was so dirty that the original skin could not be seen, he gave up: "Take it back, the master should be able to treat it."

The child was held in his arms. He tensed his body for a moment, then slowly relaxed. Unable to hold on any longer, he fainted in Yan Shiliu's arms.

Looking at the dirty child brought back by the two apprentices, the family was quite speechless: "Do you think you are picking up a kitten? You picked up a person from the trash can."

"There's no way, Master. This child is no different from those stray cats and dogs. He is sick and has a fever all over his body. Master, please help take a look at him." Liu Ze pointed at the sleeping child in Yan Shiliu's arms.

Rong Zhou pinched the child's thin wrist with three fingers and judged the child's body.

Perhaps because the light in front of him had changed, the sleeping child tried hard to open his eyes.

In the blurry white vision, a very gentle and beautiful aunt smiled at her and said in a cold voice: "Don't be afraid, you will be well soon."

The slender white index and middle fingers were placed against his forehead. A cool feeling came from the fingertips, sweeping away the coldness he had been feeling in his body, and the heaviness was also reduced a lot. The cool voice said, "Be good, go to sleep. You will feel completely comfortable when you wake up."

Because of the light in front of him and the gentle person in front of him, he was still in a warm embrace. This time he closed his eyes peacefully, relaxed his body and fell asleep.

Rong Zhou withdrew his hand. The child had serious health problems. He was severely malnourished and had various hidden injuries from long-term abuse. He also had a high fever of nearly 40 degrees due to internal bleeding after the abuse. If the two apprentices had not brought him back, the child probably would not survive tonight.

He used his inner strength to surround the child and treated the bleeding spots in his body. Now the child looked blue and purple on the outside, but it was not a big problem. Ordinary humans could not withstand too much energy when they were angry, let alone such a fragile child. He could only carefully control the energy to treat the child.

"Shiliu, take the child to clean up, and clean yourself up as well. The child has fleas." Rong Zhou said.

Liu Ze was quite realistic and took three steps back while holding Yaya, as if to say, "Don't come over here."