Lingling only stopped slowly when the two suspicious people were no longer in sight.

Chaochao's little mouth was open, and she was breathing slightly. Yogurt dripped onto her sweatshirt as she ran, making her look like a child who had crawled out of a white paste.

Lingling pulled out tissues from her backpack and tenderly wiped the milk paste off the little dumpling's face and clothes. Chaochao obediently let her wipe him, then realized, "Why did we run away?"

Lingling said in a muffled voice, "Because those two might be bad guys who specifically target cute little kids like you."

"Huh? Did they catch us and eat us?" Chaochao's eyes widened, and she immediately thought of the scene of Tang Sanzang being captured and taken to the demon's cave. She felt a wave of fear. "Luckily, Sister Lingling, you're smart. Chaochao didn't know anything about it."

Lingling, who was still blaming herself, was amused. She looked at the sky and then at the two people's money-making pouches. "Let's call it a day. We can definitely make a lot of money from selling all these bottles!"

Chaochao asked curiously, "How much money is that?"

"Maybe... I can buy my mom's favorite bag!" Lingling guessed.

Chaochao's eyes lit up. Then she could buy several truckloads of vegetables for her dad!

Chaochao counted on her fingers; she wanted to buy tomatoes, celery, meat...

But the next second, a problem arose.

Lingling: "Do you know where to buy bottles?"

Chaochao honestly shook her head: "I don't remember."

"Then what should we do?"

Lingling was planning to find an adult on the roadside to ask.

Suddenly, an empty plastic bottle rolled to Chaochao's feet, and then an elderly woman came running after it.

Chaochao picked up the bottle and handed it to her. The elderly woman in the sanitation worker's uniform looked surprised. She took it and said with a smile, "Thank you, kid."

You're welcome!

Chaochao turned her head and saw bags of bottles tied to the wooden handle of the winnowing basket behind the old woman. "Grandma, do you also want to sell them to buy bags and vegetables?"

At this moment, Lingling also came over and looked at her curiously.

The old woman paused for a moment, then looked in the direction the child was pointing before realizing what he meant. She smiled and said, "No, it's because summer is coming, and I want to buy my grandson an electric fan to keep him cool."

Lingling: "Why buy a fan? Air conditioning is much cooler!"

The old man waved his hand and smiled easily: "Air conditioners are too expensive, our family can't afford one, a fan is enough."

Lingling fell silent. She realized she had said the wrong thing; not every family could enjoy the coolness of summer without any burden.

Looking at her hunched-over mother-in-law, Chaochao was reminded of her own grandmother whom she hadn't seen in a long time. She looked down at her bag, then looked up and exchanged a knowing glance with Lingling.

"Grandma," Chaochao said sweetly, holding up the snakeskin bag, "Here, take this. Go buy a fan!"

"Here's mine too." Lingling handed over her bag as well.

The puzzled old woman glanced inside and saw it was full of bottles—a dozen or so, roughly counted. She quickly refused, saying, "Oh, you can't take these! You two little ones must have searched for a long time..."

“No problem, we’ll pick it up quickly.” Lingling, being an action-oriented girl, quickly tied the bag to the winnowing basket. Her mother-in-law didn’t stop her, and Chaochao tried to do the same, but her little hands just couldn’t figure it out. In the end, her mother-in-law laughed helplessly: “Let me do it, little one.”

After she finished tying them up, she kindly instructed the two children, "Wait here for a moment, little ones."

A minute later, the mother-in-law came out of the convenience store and handed them two popsicles, saying, "Are you hot? Have a popsicle to cool down."

The two children were surprised to receive popsicles in return for giving away the bottle. However, they couldn't refuse the old man's kindness, and since he had already bought it, the little girl accepted it shyly and sat down by the roadside to eat it.

The old woman watched them eat happily, her gaze kind as if she were looking at her own grandchildren. "Why are you two children out here? Where are your father and mother?"

"Uh... Dad, Father and Mother are at home..." Lingling answered somewhat awkwardly, she couldn't very well say that she had sneaked out.

The old man, a man of the world, immediately became serious upon seeing the children's guilty expressions: "You two little girls didn't sneak out, did you?"

Chaochao's lips, which were licking the popsicle, froze.

How did my mother-in-law find out?!

Mother-in-law: "Go home after you finish eating, okay? Don't make your parents worry. There are a lot of bad people out there."

Seeing Chaochao and Lingling nod repeatedly, the old man's expression softened. After the two finished eating, he insisted on escorting them to a safe section of road with less traffic and watched them leave.

Chao waved goodbye to the old lady at the intersection, then skipped and hopped along, holding Lingling's hand.

When they ran away, they were empty-handed, and now that they've gone back, they're still empty-handed.

But she got to eat an ice pop, and Chaochao was very happy.

However, Chaochao felt regretful because she couldn't bring her father vegetables today.

The system comforted us: "Don't be discouraged! There are countless ways to make money; we can try a different one!"

In other words, let's give up on the path of garbage collection.

Chaochao cheered up: "Okay! I'll collect cardboard boxes tomorrow!"

system:"?"

When kids are engrossed in their activities, they lose track of time. Several hours passed in the blink of an eye. Wei's mother found it strange that the children had been playing in the park for so long. When she went out to check, she found that there was no one there at all!

Security in upscale residential areas is always very strict, so the only possibility is that a child ran out.

Panicked, Madam Wei rushed to the security office, her brows furrowed as she meticulously reviewed the surveillance footage frame by frame. Suddenly, a security guard pointed to the live monitor in front of her and said, "Madam, is this your child?"

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