Chapter 5: Tricycle Uncle Auction

Around one in the afternoon, Sane wandered around Mingnuo's house with nothing to do, swinging a weed in his hand, and his mind suddenly drifted to Mingnuo.

I don’t know how Mingnuo’s father’s illness is, and I don’t know if that little blind boy Mingnuo can take good care of his father.

How about he go and help? Saen made up his mind and ran towards Mingnuo's house.

From a distance, he saw Mingnuo sitting huddled in a ball at the door. He was so small that he seemed to be shrouded in a layer of dark clouds. Saen's heart tightened and he quickened his pace.

"Mingnuo!"

Mingnuo recognized Sane's voice. He raised his head and looked around. "Sane?"

San ran up to him, and seeing that Mingnuo's eyes were not on him, he panicked and waved his hands in front of his eyes, "Your eyes..."

"I can't see it for the time being." Ming Nuo said in a muffled voice, "What about you? Why are you here?"

"I came to play with you." Sane glanced into the room and saw the urn on the table. He was stunned for a moment and then realized what had happened. "You..."

"My father died."

“…My condolences.”

After saying this, Ming Nuo buried his head in his knees again. He didn't want to talk now.

Saen pursed his lips and looked at him, sitting quietly beside him. He wanted to open his mouth and say something to comfort Mingnuo, but he didn't know how to start. In the end, he scratched his hair in vain.

"Have you...have you eaten?" Sane thought for a long time before he uttered a sentence. When he asked it, he felt stupid and wanted to slap himself.

Ming Nuo shook his head and said, "I don't want to eat."

"How can you not eat?" Saen got anxious when he heard this and grabbed Mingnuo's hand. "Your father raised you to be plump and white. He definitely doesn't want to see you become skinny. Go eat!"

Ming Nuo's stomach growled twice when he was reminded of this. He held his stomach tightly and suddenly remembered that he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday afternoon. "Don't bother me. I have food at home."

Sarn looked around his house and said, "Where is it? I'll get it for you."

Mingnuo pointed him to the place, and Sane took out a tube of nutrient solution and an apple and handed them to him, "Drink the nutrient solution first, then eat the apple."

Mingnuo sipped the nutrient solution. While he was eating, Sane glanced at the packed luggage in the room. A bad feeling arose in his heart and he asked him, "Are you leaving the dungeon?"

Ming Nuo nodded and said, "My uncle is coming to pick me up."

"...That's not bad, you still have an uncle who can take care of you." Saen looked at Mingnuo, a hint of reluctance in his eyes, "Then...then when will your uncle come to pick you up?"

"It should arrive tomorrow." Ming Nuo finished drinking the nutrient solution and started eating the apple. "But my father is very poor, and my uncle is definitely not very rich either, so he may have to ride a tricycle to pick me up, which will take a while."

In the dungeon, having a tricycle that can carry cargo is an enviable existence. Although the tricycle, an antique left over from the old times, is looked down upon by many people, Ming Nuo is not like that.

Because the hover car is too expensive, he will only buy a tricycle at most in the future.

So in Mingnuo's imagination, his uncle would come to pick him up on a tricycle, and he hoped that his uncle would pedal faster because he was very scared now.

Saen's eyes revealed reluctance, but he still hooked his arm around Mingnuo's neck and said, "Okay, but if your uncle treats you badly, come back to me and I'll protect you."

Ming Nuo pursed his lips and said, "My father said that my uncle is a very good person."

"That's not necessarily true. Some people say one thing in public and another behind the scenes." Sane, who had more social experience than Mingnuo, gave him an example. "Do you remember Xiaoyun? After her mother remarried, her stepfather was a shameless wretch. He took away the pocket money her mother gave her and didn't even give her food."

"He pretended to be a competent father in front of Xiaoyun's mother, and openly and secretly said bad things about Xiaoyun to Xiaoyun's mother."

"Ah...how could her stepfather do this?"

Ming Nuo frowned. Of course he still remembered Sister Xiaoyun. She was a clever and skillful sister who could cut plastic bottles into strips and weave them into beautiful flower crowns for him.

Sister Xiaoyun is such a nice person, but I didn’t expect her stepfather to be so mean to her.

Seeing that he had listened, Saen was very relieved. "So you have to be careful when you go to your uncle's house. You are not his biological child, and your father is gone. If he abuses you, no one will be able to help you."

Ming Nuo wanted to cry again when he heard this.

He is not even his father's biological child, so would his uncle starve him and not give him food?

Ming Nuo had become a depressed mushroom. Seeing this, Sane was so anxious that he slapped his lips and continued to try to find a topic. "Well... I heard there will be an auction tonight. There will be a lot of people going. Do you want to join in the fun?"

Ming Nuo raised his head dejectedly and said, "I can't see."

Sarn: "..."

This time, Saen thought carefully before speaking, sorting out his words before speaking cautiously, "Actually, what I mean is that you can go and listen to the sounds and feel the lively atmosphere."

Mingnuo thought for a while and nodded in agreement.

Because Z-16 lies at the border of two empires, its so-called law enforcement agencies are practically nonexistent, so clandestine transactions often take place there. Even before the dungeon auction began, the streets were already packed with people.

People of status and position have already entered, and most of those left outside are the burly bodyguards who followed the buyers, and the zero-dollar buyers who are trying to wait and see.

The two groups were wary of each other and tacitly maintained a temporary peace.

In addition, there was a group of people watching the fun.

Mingnuo was one of them. He listened to the noisy sounds around him and felt very nervous and uneasy. He clutched the strap of his lamb cross-body bag with one hand and the corner of Saen's clothes with the other.

"I heard the auction starts at 7pm." Saen looked towards the towering clock tower in the square. "There's still half an hour left."

Ming Nuo was curious, "What will be sold at the auction?"

Of course, Sane couldn't answer. He looked around, picked up a brochure on the ground, and flipped through it. "They sell everything: advanced androids, medical pods, third-generation interstellar military starships..."

Most of them are prohibited from sale, and the starting price is tens of thousands.

Sane was amazed. The most expensive one was the third-generation starship. The string of zeros made Sane count them several times before he finally decided on its price, which started at one billion.

Sarn had never even seen 100,000 star coins. When he told Mingnuo about the goods and their prices, Mingnuo was also shocked by the amount. He opened his mouth slightly and sighed, "Wow, that's a lot of money."

The two poor children squatted together, each time shocked by the prices of the auction items. Ming Nuo was a little hungry, so he took out an apple from his lamb bag and ate it while saying, "Even if I were sold, I wouldn't be worth this much money."

Sarn laughed. "There's no point in buying us. It's better to buy a working android."

"Yes," Mingnuo thought, and it made sense. He took a bite of the apple. This apple was bought by his father. There was one left, so Mingnuo washed it, put it in his small bag, and took it out.

Very sweet and crispy.

Mingnuo was concentrating on eating his apple, not knowing that not far away, a young man in a hat was staring at his small bag. The young man swallowed, squeezed through the crowded crowd, and stood quietly next to Mingnuo with a folding knife in his hand.

After a while, Mingnuo suddenly felt the strap of his crossbody bag moving. Without thinking, he said, "Saen, don't pull the strap of my bag."

"I didn't touch your bag." Sane raised his head and saw the young man next to Mingnuo secretly cutting the strap of Mingnuo's lamb bag with a knife. He flew into a rage, "Damn! Someone is cutting the strap of your bag!"

Ming Nuo was horrified when he heard this and hurriedly hugged his lamb bag with both hands, but the strap had broken. The thief pulled the broken end and pulled hard with Ming Nuo.

"Don't grab my bag! Wuuuuuuuuu don't grab it."

Mingnuo cried and hugged the bag tightly. This was the lamb bag made for him by his father, and he absolutely could not let the thief steal it.

At the same time, Ming Nuo was in tears. He was so poor, so why did a thief still come to rob him?

Saen came to his senses, cursed angrily, rushed over, and kicked the young man hard in the abdomen with such force that he almost broke several of the thief's ribs.

"Ah--!" The thief screamed, the knife in his hand fell to the ground, and he fell to the ground in a mess.

Ming Nuo didn't expect the other party to suddenly let go of his hand. He didn't react and sat down on the ground with a plop. He was still in a daze, holding his lamb bag in his arms.

"You threw him?!" Saen's eyes turned red with anger. He clenched his fists, grabbed the thief by the collar, and punched him in the face again and again. "Stealing things from a blind man, you beast!"

The thief was beaten black and blue, with a fierce look in his eyes. He bent down to grab the folding knife that was close at hand. Just as he was about to touch the knife, Sane kicked it away.

"Still not behaving?!" Saen lashed out at his face, more ferocious than a thief. "You dare to mess with me? You've hit a wall!"

No one came to stop Sane's behavior, and the onlookers were all watching with a smile.

Ming Nuo listened to the slapping sounds and the thief's wailing, and crawled up from the ground. He stroked the broken strap of the lamb bag, tears welling up in his eyes.

The lamb bag his father left for him was still broken.

Mingnuo sniffed, took a deep breath, and forced himself to hold back his tears. He didn't want to cry anymore, so he took out a sharp black-handled dagger from the lamb bag, identified the thief's location according to the sound he made, and walked towards him.

Seeing Ming Nuo pursing his lips and approaching with a knife in his hand, Sane was surprised. He glanced at the thief who was almost unconscious on the ground and stopped Ming Nuo. "What are you going to do?"

"He bullied me!" Ming Nuo looked up at him, his eyes full of seriousness and stubbornness under the white cloth. "I want revenge. Dad said that I can't let others bully me when I go out."

So Mingchuan prepared weapons for Mingnuo early on, and Mingnuo also put them in his lamb bag.

Unexpectedly, this little lamb would actually use its tender little horns to butt people. Saen felt a headache and grabbed Mingnuo's wrist. "Wait a minute, there are at least a hundred people watching. Are you sure you want to kill someone in front of them?"

Although the law enforcement agencies here are all softies, they are used to bullying the weak and fearing the strong. When facing people like Mingnuo and Saen who have no background, they will become aggressive.

"I didn't kill him." Ming Nuo said reasonably, "I just cut him because he also cut my belt."

"...Did your father teach you this?"

Ming Nuo nodded: "Yes, my father said that when you go out, you can enjoy the good things, but you can't suffer any losses. If you suffer a loss once, you will suffer many losses."

In Mingnuo's heart, whatever Mingchuan said was right, so he always took his father's words as his guiding principle and put them into practice.

Sane was dumbfounded. He didn't expect that Mingnuo's father, who looked weak, was actually so tough in parenting.

There was no way out. Mingnuo was a stubborn man and insisted on avenging his lamb bun. Saen had no choice but to bring him to the thief, lift up the thief's arm, and let Mingnuo cut it.

Mingnuo's hand was unusually steady when he swung the knife. The sharp blade cut the thief's skin, and blood flowed out of the wound and dripped onto the ground.

The thief was so frightened by Ming Nuo that he burst into tears. "I won't steal anymore... I've changed my ways. I won't steal again. Please let me go. Please."

"Okay." Ming Nuo was very honest. He meant what he said. He took out a tissue from his lamb bag, wiped the dagger clean, and put it back into his bag.

Sarn kicked the thief away and said, "Get lost."

The thief covered his bleeding wound, feeling lucky that he was still alive. He bowed to Mingnuo and Saen with gratitude and ran away crawling.

Ming Nuo sighed while holding his lambskin, "What should I do? I don't know how to sew the straps."

Sane felt guilty. He had brought Mingnuo out, but ended up causing him to encounter a thief. Thinking that this small bag was made by Mingnuo's father for him and was of great significance, Sane gritted his teeth and said, "I'll help you sew it."

Ming Nuo was stunned, "Can you?"

"...Of course I can." Sane had never sewn clothes before. He would throw away his clothes when they were torn. He felt a little guilty for a moment, but the next second he mustered up his confidence and said, "I'll help you sew it tonight."

It's just needlework. All you need are hands. At worst, you can find someone to teach you. He is so smart, he will definitely learn it right away.

Amazing! Mingnuo's azure eyes were filled with admiration for Saen. This man seemed to know everything. Not only did he know what kind of garbage could be sold for money, he could also sew. "Thank you so much."

Mingnuo fished out a bag of candy from the lamb bag and gave it to Sane, "Here you go."

"No……"

"Bang--"

San's refusal was drowned out by the loud explosion. Mingnuo was frightened by the deafening sound, but he was blind and didn't even know what was happening. He shook his head blankly, trying to figure out where the explosion occurred.

The towering and magnificent auction hall was reduced to ruins in the blink of an eye. A few dusty people crawled out of it. The sense of crisis caused by the sudden explosion made people on the street panic and anxious to leave.

The crowd suddenly became chaotic. Mingnuo was bumped several times and the white cloth on his eyes fell off. He half-closed his eyes and called Saen's name helplessly.

Sane watched helplessly as Mingnuo was swept further and further away from him by the crowd. He was anxious and panicked, trying his best to push away the people in front of him, but there were too many people. He could only anxiously shout, "Mingnuo!"

Mingnuo heard San's voice from far away. Mingnuo wanted to find him, but the adults were tall and strong, and in the crowd they didn't even notice that there was a dwarf next to them.

Ming Nuo's shoulder was hit hard, and the next second a foot was stepped on. In panic, he subconsciously grabbed the arm of someone next to him to maintain his balance.

"Catch the fur ball, who are you..." The man's angry curses stopped abruptly when he saw Ming Nuo's face. He kicked the people around him away, squatted down and looked at Ming Nuo, staring at his face.

This delicate little face seemed to be especially loved by God and meticulously carved. It had silver hair and blue eyes, and was dressed neatly. Its snow-white appearance made it seem completely out of place in this filthy dungeon.

There was a flash of surprise in the man's eyes. What a beautiful child.

He looked around, picked up Ming Nuo and ran away.