The child stood with his hands on his hips, watching the sparrows around him happily eating, and he became even more smug.
"Remember to call me boss, understand?" He glanced around and pouted.
"'Know!"
"We know, boss." The children, eating their share of peanuts, didn't care about anything else and just joined in the greeting.
The children nodded in satisfaction. There weren't many peanuts; each child got two, and that was it. They finished them in a few bites, then looked up at their newly recognized leader with eager eyes.
The child took out a shuttlecock and said with a grin, "Now that you've eaten and drunk your fill, let's play!"
As he spoke, he covered his pocket with one hand and kicked the shuttlecock twice. Soon, he kicked it to a child about his age, who immediately caught it, and the group quickly had a great time playing.
The child distributing peanuts quietly pulled a little girl aside and whispered in her ear:
"Come with me."
The little girl's clothes were extremely worn, and she was thin and small. Her oval face was sallow, but her eyes were big and bright, and her long eyelashes were like palm-leaf fans.
Once they reached a corner, the little girl clasped her hands together and looked at the "boss" in front of her who was rummaging through his pockets, saying:
"Boss, what's wrong?"
"Hey! Just call me Brother Er Mao in private, what's our relationship?"
"Mmm, Brother Er Mao."
Er Mao, whose address had been changed again, took out peanuts from his pocket and handed them over with a grin.
"Look, what's this?" he said smugly.
"Wow, there's more, Brother Er Mao, are you giving this to me? I...I..." The little girl was a bit reserved, looking at the large handful of peanuts, and for a moment she didn't dare to take them.
Since her mother was taken to the south of the city and her father died in Huichang, she had never eaten so many peanuts.
"Hey, take it, no need to be so polite."
"I have plenty of dads, eat as much as you want!" Er Mao waved his hand generously.
Hearing this, the little girl smiled and accepted, which made Er Mao blush, and he even forgot to sniffle.
The two sat down on the steps in front of a house. The little girl was shelling peanuts, and Er Mao looked at her and said:
"Wen'er, once this winter is over, next year will be much easier."
The girl tilted her head, a peanut shell still clenched in her mouth, and asked indistinctly, "Isn't it like this every year?"
"No, it was better than it is now, before my father went to Huichang a few years ago."
Seeing that her hands, covered in chilblains, couldn't peel the peanuts and her mouth was full of peanut shells, Er Mao took the peanuts from her hands and, while peeling them himself, said:
"Things are different now, you know the prince, right?"
Upon hearing this, the girl's face changed, her eyes filled with terror, and her body trembled.
"I...I know, my mother was captured by the prince's son..."
Er Mao had his head down, but when he heard the girl's voice change, he immediately looked up at her. Upon seeing her, Er Mao immediately panicked.
The girl's eyes were already red, and her small body was still trembling.
He hurriedly explained, "No, no, no, I wasn't talking about Prince Qing."
"I'm talking about the Prince of Zhenbei, the son of General Huwei, the one who left Jinling before. I even took you with me to see him off back then."
"Back then, you even brought him boiled eggs."
He scratched his head as he said this, "No, it wasn't you who sent the boiled eggs. You don't even have eggs to eat. Was it Cuihong or Xiulian? I can't remember."
The girl's expression softened, but she was still somewhat melancholy. She lowered her head and continued to peel peanuts with difficulty. "Um, it wasn't me. I couldn't squeeze in from the outside."
"Brother Er Mao, please continue. What happened to the Prince?"
Er Mao scratched his head, somewhat regretting that he hadn't explained things clearly at the beginning. What should have been a happy occasion had turned into a sad one for Wen'er.
It's all the fault of that old beast Prince Qing for having such a beastly son. Why does a perfectly good person have to act like a beast?
Wen'er's father sacrificed his life defending the country in Huichang, but her mother was kidnapped by that beastly man, which has caused Wen'er to suffer so much now.
Damn it!
Er Mao thought indignantly, and with a "smack," he almost crushed the peanut.
"Brother Er Mao?" The girl tilted her head up and winked at him, as if to say that she was alright.
Er Mao handed her the peanuts and continued, "Let me tell you, didn't the prince start a rebellion? Then the court sent people to suppress it, and they suffered a great defeat not long ago."
"I'm referring to the imperial court, not the prince."
"Heh, these guys are overestimating themselves; they're bound to lose."
"I heard that the prince will soon be attacking the capital. Haven't you noticed that the curfew has been extended? Everyone's scared."
The girl nodded as if she understood, but there was some fear on her face: "People die in war."
"My father died fighting in Huichang."
Er Mao looked at her, his young face unusually solemn, and he said in a deep voice:
"That's different."
"No, that's not right. Your father and the prince are the same, it's just that the current court is different."
The girl looked at Er Mao, who seemed like a little adult, and bit her lip, saying, "Brother Er Mao, aren't you scared? What if later..."
Er Mao snapped open another peanut with a "snap," his tone unconsciously becoming heavier.
“I’m not afraid, and you don’t need to be afraid either. Neither of us needs to be afraid. The ones who should be afraid are not us, but the bad guys.”
"Especially the people who harmed your mother, those cowards will definitely be scared to death, hmph."
Seemingly realizing that his swear word was somewhat inappropriate, Er Mao quickly added:
"In short, everyone is saying that the Prince will probably be able to conquer Jinling this year. When that happens, hmph."
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