She fumbled around in it for a long time, her movements almost desperately slow, and finally pulled out an equally worn coin purse made of floral fabric.
The wallet was flat and looked like it weighed nothing. She opened it tremblingly, revealing a few small-denomination banknotes, neatly folded but clearly counted, and some even smaller coins.
She lowered her head and counted the coins one by one, her movements extremely slow, her fingers trembling slightly due to nervousness and exertion.
The air seemed to freeze, and only the slight but clear "ding-dong" sound of coins colliding filled the silent space.
She counted carefully, over and over again, as if hoping to have a few more, but in the end, the total amount of the change seemed to be just a little short of the price of the bowl of vegetarian noodles on the wall.
The old lady's face turned pale in an instant, and her cloudy eyes were filled with great shame and helplessness.
She clutched the change tightly, her knuckles turning white, her head drooped even lower, almost burying it in her chest, and her body trembled slightly.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. The great embarrassment almost suffocated her.
In this suffocating silence——
A slender, bony, and exceptionally clean hand reached out.
It’s Chen Yanxiu.
He held a clean rag in his hand and wiped the table in front of the old lady naturally, as if he was just cleaning it.
As the rag brushed across the table, he very discreetly stuffed a folded, brand new hundred-dollar bill into the old lady's open floral cloth coin purse, which still contained change.
The movements were as fast as lightning and as smooth as magic. If you didn't pay close attention, you would never notice them.
"No need to look for it." Chen Yanxiu's voice was still calm, as if he was just stating a fact.
After wiping the table, he stood up and looked out the window calmly, as if he had done nothing just now.
The old lady shuddered and subconsciously looked at her coin purse.
When she saw the abrupt, brand new hundred-yuan bill inside, she froze! She looked up in disbelief and looked at Chen Yanxiu.
The latter just turned sideways to her, concentrating on watching the boiling noodle soup in the pot. His gold-rimmed glasses reflected the cold light, and the lines of his profile were stern and distant.
The old lady suddenly turned her head and looked at Chen Yanbai.
Chen Yanbai was still leaning against the window, his profile beneath his silver hair delicate yet indifferent, as if he had no interest in anything happening here, his fingertips just tapping unconsciously on the windowsill.
A huge current of warmth and an even stronger sense of sorrow instantly overwhelmed the old lady's heart.
She understood. She understood everything. How could this not be enough? Clearly… Clearly…
She could no longer hold back, and turbid tears burst out, flowing freely along the deep grooves on her face.
She hurriedly wiped it with her hands, but the more she wiped, the more it came out.
She choked and wanted to say something, but she couldn't cry. She could only bow deeply in the direction of Chen Yanxiu, her gray hair trembling.
Chen Yanxiu didn't look back, as if he didn't see it.
The old lady wiped her face vigorously with her sleeve and tightly grasped the coin purse containing the "extra" hundred-yuan bills, as if she was holding a life-saving straw, or as if she was holding a huge warmth.
She bowed again in the direction of Chen Yanbai, and then hugged her tattered cloth bag.
With staggering steps but with an indescribable strength as if injected with new life, he slowly moved out of the door of "Chen Ji" noodle shop, step by step.
Under the dim light, her hunched back gradually blended into the gloomy twilight outside the door.
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