After settling everything at the stall, Zhou Chenyu took the box of red bean pastries she had specially prepared and headed to the government office to wait out the crowd.
Although she had no sense of direction, thanks to that imprisonment, she remembered that the government office in Qingshui Town was located in the center of the street, and the magnificent mansion and solemn, imposing atmosphere made it easy to recognize at a glance.
It was just dawn, and there weren't many pedestrians on the street. Two government officials were sitting at a porridge stall not far from the government office.
Zhou Chenyu hid in an inconspicuous alley and watched the people from the government office come and go. After staring for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, that resolute and upright figure came into view.
Zhou Chenyu picked up the red bean pastry, smiled, and walked out, "Good morning, Chief Yang."
When Yang Xi saw her, his relaxed expression instantly turned into a furrowed brow and his thin lips pressed into a straight line.
Zhou Chenyu saw his furrowed brows; he practically had his displeasure written all over his face.
Pretending not to see, she brazenly stepped forward and smiled sweetly, "Squad Leader Yang, you helped me before, and I've always wanted to repay you, but I haven't found a suitable opportunity. I know I'm just a woman and can't help you much, so after thinking it over, I made a box of red bean pastries for you to try."
Zhou Chenyu handed over the wooden box, a smile playing on her lips: "I just made it this morning."
Yang Xi glanced down at it, then turned his face away, coldly refusing: "I've already told you, your affair with Qian Rushan is my duty, it's only right. I won't accept something for nothing, so I won't take your things. Take them."
She knew he wouldn't want it!
Zhou Chenyu caught up with him and said pitifully, "Commander Yang, no matter what, this is just a small token of my appreciation. I don't mean anything by it, so please accept it. If you really have no reason to accept it, how about we become friends? After all, we became friends through a fight, right?"
Yang Xi looked down at Zhou Chenyu, who had already shown weakness, his cold and distant expression carrying an inviolable divine majesty. "There's no need for friends." After saying that, he took a long stride up the stone steps and strode into the government office.
"Hey, you're leaving already?" Zhou Chenyu was blocked outside by the guards in front of the government office, standing alone and bewildered in the wind.
She'd never met such a difficult man in her entire life. He wouldn't accept this or that; he was completely impervious to reason!
"Is this the Waterloo of my life?" Zhou Chenyu stood dumbfounded at the door for a long time, feeling humiliated, and had no choice but to leave with the wooden box.
Watching her walk away, Xiao Qi couldn't help but mutter to herself, "Why is Miss Zhou coming to see Master again this week? It seems she's quite persistent, even more so than the previous girls..."
"What are you muttering about behind me?" Yang Xi asked him coldly. Xiao Qi put away his gossipy thoughts and caught up with him, saying, "Master, an old man was looking for you just now, and he kept calling your name."
Yang Xi immediately looked up. "Where is he?"
Seeing her master's anxious expression, Xiaoqi realized she had done something wrong. "Master, I told him you hadn't arrived at the government office yet and asked him to stay and wait. He seemed not to hear me and left on his own."
Which direction?
"The alley on the right leads to the shortcut outside the city."
Before Xiaoqi could finish speaking, she saw her master walk out quickly.
"Zhou Chenyu, Zhou Chenyu, I never thought you'd end up like this. You used to ignore all those men who offered themselves to you, and you weren't very persistent in pursuing them. Now you're getting your comeuppance."
Zhou Chenyu shook the red bean pastry in her hand, feeling hot enough to throw it away several times, but she felt bad about throwing it away, after all, it was something she had spent money, effort and thought to make.
"Sigh, I'd better not throw it away. It would be such a waste. We couldn't even afford food a while ago, and we've only just earned a few dollars. We can't forget our roots."
Zhou Chenyu clenched the wooden box between her fingers, turned into another alley, and was startled by a homeless man squatting on the ground.
"Oh my god, that scared me to death."
Zhou Chenyu cursed under her breath. Seeing that he was dressed in tattered clothes and was digging at the food that others had thrown on the ground with his hands, she could only walk close to the wall to avoid touching the filth.
But as they passed each other, she saw his thin, bony hand peeking out from under his skin, and a familiar memory flooded back. She stopped and looked at him. "Are you Zhang the Deaf?"
The man was focused on shoveling leftover food from the cracks in the rocks and didn't respond.
She walked over cautiously and waved in front of him.
The old man looked up and saw it was her. He smiled and said, "Young lady, here's some rice. Eat."
Zhou Chenyu smelled a sour odor. Rice would spoil overnight in the hot weather. Old Zhang seemed to have no sense of taste, picking out grains of rice from the cracks in the stone slab and stuffing them into his mouth.
Zhou Chenyu saw flies buzzing around nearby and almost vomited up what she had eaten that morning.
This is not food for humans.
Eating wild vegetables is better than this.
She glanced at the red bean pastry in her hand, and, suppressing her nausea, pulled him away, saying, "Uncle, don't eat it. You'll get an upset stomach and get sick."
Old Zhang couldn't hear, but he diligently scooped out every single grain of rice.
Zhou Chenyu didn't dare to pull him away rashly, so she opened the box containing red bean pastries and waved it in front of him, saying, "I have food here, don't eat those."
The old man stared at the box of red bean pastries, then stopped what he was doing. "They smell so good."
“That’s right.” Zhou Chenyu pulled him to sit on a stone bench. The old man reached out to grab some food, but stopped when he saw his filthy hands. He said helplessly, “Dirty… my hands are dirty.”
"It looks pretty dirty." Zhou Chenyu looked at it with a puzzled expression, searching all over her body but unable to find a single tissue. Finally, she had no choice but to take out the lid of the box. "You sit here and wait, don't wander off. I'll be right back."
Zhou Chenyu wasn't sure if he could understand, so she took the lid of the box, scooped some water from the river outside, and ran back quickly. Luckily, he was still sitting there.
"Here, let me wash your hands."
The old man silently reached out to catch the water, vigorously rubbing and washing away the black mud.
Seeing that he was scratching the back of his hand with his fingernails until the skin was broken, Zhou Chenyu stopped him and used the hem of her skirt to dry it for him. She smiled gently and said, "It's alright, it's clean now. You can eat."
Yang Xi, who had been following the trail, came across this scene, stopped in his tracks, and stood there quietly. His usually calm and composed eyes now held a hint of humanity.
Zhou Chenyu's attention was entirely focused on the old man, and he was completely unaware of the situation around him.
The old man looked at the box timidly, his hands secretly tucked to his sides, his whole body curled up in a ball, and shook his head.
Seeing that he hesitated to reach out, Zhou Chenyu took out a red bean pastry from the box and held it directly to his mouth, "Here, try it and see if it's delicious?"
"Hmm!" The old man smiled, as happy as a child, reached out and grabbed the red bean pastry, stuffed the whole thing into his mouth, and swallowed it whole.
After finishing one, Zhou Chenyu picked up another one, and fearing that he would swallow it whole again, she broke it in half and gave it to him first.
The old man looked at his partner, hesitated for a moment, and she smiled and said, "You finish this first. All of this is yours, don't worry."
The old man saw her smile, picked it up and ate it, saying, "Delicious."
The old man quickly finished the box of red bean pastries.
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