Chapter 176 The Magic Match and the Little Girl
The silver whirlwind surged, the surrounding scenes changed and flowed, and countless colorful blocks finally settled into a clear scene.
Aurora looked carefully and found that she and her teacher were in a town she didn't recognize. Judging from the appearance of the buildings, it should be one of the countries in the Western Continent.
Snowflakes were falling from the sky, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of snow. The trees on both sides of the street were covered with silver yarn. The cold wind blew on the girl's face. Occasionally, a few pedestrians wrapped tightly passed by in a hurry.
Aurora exhaled, and a cloud of white mist came out.
"Now, let's try and gain a wish power in this town."
After saying this, Rhine flipped his hand, and the magic lamp he had obtained from the treasure house appeared in his hand.
He handed the lamp to Aurora.
"I don't have any use for this magic lamp anymore, Aurora. You can use it from now on."
Aurora nodded.
She knew that for a long time, her magic would not be strong enough and she would have to rely on the power of the magic lamp.
She walked out onto the street, closed her eyes, and tried to feel the so-called power of wish.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, she felt a faint surge of hot energy in this cold winter day.
"Yes... this direction!"
Aurora opened her eyes and felt the power of burning desire coming from the two luxurious villas in front of her.
She walked over quickly.
When she got closer, Aurora discovered that the source of the power of wish was not in the two luxurious villas, but in a shivering girl in the gap between the villas.
It was a little girl in ragged clothes, with no shoes on her feet, and her skin was frozen purple in this cold winter. She hid in this corner, as if to avoid the biting cold wind.
She crouched down, holding a pair of frostbitten feet, hiding them under her ragged clothes, like a wounded hedgehog. However, no matter how the girl hid her young body, it was useless. It was too cold here, and it was the same everywhere.
The heavy snow kept falling, pressing on the girl's beautiful hair, making her look even more beautiful and pitiful.
The moment she saw Aurora coming around the corner, the girl raised her head with shining eyes.
"Sister, would you like a box of matches?"
The girl stretched out her trembling hand, pulled out a large ball of thick paper from her torn pocket, tore open the paper, took out one of the matchboxes and handed it over.
"Uh, I don't need it..." Aurora regretted her words as soon as they came out of her mouth.
She really didn't need a box of matches, but she could take this opportunity to help the little girl.
The little girl lowered her head in disappointment and did not bother Aurora.
"Why are you here? Do you have a home?"
Aurora asked with concern, not forgetting her mission.
The little match girl answered tremblingly: "I, I have a family.
"But, I, I don't dare go home. I haven't sold a single box of matches till now. Dad will definitely beat me when he finds out!"
Aurora suddenly felt sorry for the girl.
She tried to find out about the girl's family:
"But it snowed heavily today. There are few people on the street and no customers at all. Will your father listen if you explain this to him?"
The girl shook her head and trembled, her purple face showing fear.
"No... No, Dad will definitely not listen to me. Before I left, he...he said that he was waiting for money to drink. If he knew that I had no money and didn't make any money, he would definitely beat me to death!"
The girl finished her series of words tremblingly.
Apparently, the girl's father was a vicious alcoholic, Aurora thought.
A clear bird song sounded in the air, and a snow-white bird circled in the sky.
Rhine transformed into a flying bird, wanting to see what Aurora would do.
The most direct way is to give the girl money.
Of course, it is hard to say whether the money will fall into the hands of her alcoholic father.
"Sell me a box of matches," said Aurora.
She had been planning to buy all the matches and give some extra money, but just now she had a better idea.
"Thank you...thank you, sister."
The little girl knew that the other person didn't need matches at all, but bought one out of pity for her.
She carefully selected the best-preserved and most beautiful matchbox from the ones wrapped in thick paper, gently wiped off the dust on the matchbox, handed it to Aurora, and took the money from Aurora, constantly expressing her gratitude.
Aurora took the box of matches, turned around and left, disappearing around the corner.
"I sold a box of matches, but I still can't go home." The little girl thought and shuddered again.
She leaned her head forward and watched the occasional people appearing on the street, wondering when someone would pass by and buy another box of matches.
Aurora walked into an alley and gently rubbed the magic lamp.
Clouds of mist poured out of the magic lamp's mouth and gathered into a huge monster. The monster's lower body was a turbulent cloud of mist, and its upper body was covered with white cloth.
"My Lord, what can I do for you?"
Aurora took out the box of matches.
"I want to give these matches some magical powers..."
The little match girl felt that she couldn't stay here any longer to avoid the wind. The snow was getting heavier and it would only get colder.
She should go to a farther road to see if there were any customers, so that she could sell all the matches and go home earlier.
The girl walked out of the gap between two luxurious villas, and a biting cold wind blew towards her, like a knife cutting into her bones, making the girl shiver with cold.
As she was about to continue walking forward despite the cold, she suddenly found a box of matches left on the ground on the deserted street.
The matchbox had fallen apart and all the matches inside were scattered on the ground.
The little girl recognized the matchbox at a glance. It was the one she had sold to the kind and beautiful sister before. She had wiped off the dust and snowflakes on the matchbox with her own hands.
"Did that sister drop the matchbox? Uh, she didn't need the matchbox anyway..."
The little girl picked up the matchbox with heartache, picked up the matches one by one, and put them all back into the matchbox.
Selling this box of matches would earn her some money. If not, she could use it to keep herself warm. She couldn't waste it! The girl felt that these matches were different from before. They were faintly glittering with beautiful light, like little stars twinkling in the sky.
"Is this a star falling from the sky?" The thought just flashed through the girl's mind and was dispelled. The girl remembered that her grandmother told her that when a star falls, a life will end.
The girl carried the matches with her as she walked through streets after streets. However, the snow was so heavy that there were few people on the streets, and the occasional passerby did not need a box of matches.
The girl could only shrink back between the two luxurious villas. It was also very cold, but it did block out some of the cold wind compared to other places.
The aroma of roast duck wafted from the villa next door. You also heard the cheerful voices of people in the house, knowing that they must be enjoying a pleasant and sumptuous dinner.
At this moment, the girl's whole body was frozen in the merciless snow, and she was almost unconscious. Her frozen hands touched the matches in her tattered pocket, and the matches were as cold as she was.
"It's so cold, let's have a flame to warm our hands."
The girl thought about it, hesitated for a long time, and finally took out a precious match from the box.
There were tiny dots of light on the match - it was one of the matches in the box that Aurora had "lost" before.
The girl put the match against the wall and rubbed it gently, and the match started to burn.
She smelled the aroma of roast duck in the air, looked at the flickering flame on the match, and couldn't help thinking: "There must be a warm fireplace in that villa. It would be great if I had a warm fireplace here with a blazing flame. It would definitely be warmer than the fire of this match."
At this moment, the girl suddenly saw a warm fireplace reflected in the flickering light of the match. The fire in the fireplace was burning, dispelling the coldness around.
She rushed forward and stretched out her frozen hands, trying to grab the flame.
She was vaguely aware that this was her hallucination, but she was too cold to care.
It was not until the heat of the flames forced the girl to drop her hands that she was surprised to see that there was actually a furnace in front of her.
At this moment, the match in his hand had gone out, and the twinkling stars on it had also disappeared.
But the stove in front was still there, emitting waves of warmth and driving away the cold.
The girl rubbed her eyes and looked carefully for a long time, feeling the long-lost warmth, and finally confirmed that there was indeed a stove here! "Where did this stove come from?"
"I just wanted a warm fire and this happened?"
The girl was surprised and curious, and she went to the fire to warm herself.
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The flames in the stove seemed to never go out, constantly emitting warm and soft light, warming up the girl's entire body which was almost unconscious from the cold.
She felt so happy to have such a warm stove on such a cold winter day!
"But where did this stove come from?"
The girl wondered.
In the air, Aurora and Rhine, who had turned into flying birds, were observing this scene at the same time.
"The girl will soon discover that each of these matches has magical powers that can make a one-time wish come true and turn into something she wants," said the bird that Aurora had turned into. "Only she can use the magic of these matches."
"So, you want to see how she will use this supernatural power? How will she actively make a wish instead of passively accepting your gift?" Rhine asked.
"Uh. About the same." Aurora said, "I always feel that it would be weird if I showed up in person and showed her sympathy from a superior position. I want to see what wishes she would make, how she would solve her own predicament, and whether she would do evil."
The bird Aurora turned into suddenly laughed and turned to Rhine: "Just like before, didn't the teacher also give me a chance to solve the problem by myself?"
Aurora waited patiently, waiting for the girl to rub and light the second match and truly discover what these magic matches did.
Just then, a swallow flew past the two birds.
The swallow flew to the girl with a beautiful sapphire in its mouth and gently placed the sapphire in her hand.
The little match girl took the sapphire and was stunned.
"So many magical things happened today - first a warm fire helped me keep away the cold, and then a bird gave me a beautiful gem!"
Because of the new miracle, the little girl did not connect the sudden appearance of the stove and the lighting of the match.
"Grandma said that such a beautiful gem must be very valuable, maybe more than what we get from selling several boxes of matches!" The little girl thought excitedly, "If I give this sapphire to my father, he will definitely not hit me."
In fact, what the girl didn’t know was that the value of this sapphire was greater than even the matches she sold for her entire lifetime!
The girl went home happily holding the sapphire.
Aurora was stunned as she watched the girl holding the sapphire, walking further and further away until she disappeared down the street.
"Teacher, did you direct the birds to do this?" she turned her head and asked.
"No." Rhine replied calmly.
"Then why would a swallow suddenly fly over and give her a gem?" Aurora was very surprised.
"You can try to explore it yourself." Rhine replied.
He did not use prophetic magic to find out the reason, but he vaguely guessed the truth.
"Now that the girl has this sapphire, she doesn't need to make a wish to the matchstick for the time being. But it doesn't matter, because she can finally go home."
Aurora, who had turned into a bird, flapped her wings, landed on the ground, and turned back into human form. She took out the sand table and performed a simple divination, and found out the location of the girl's home.
Aurora then walked towards the girl's home.
As soon as she reached the door, Aurora heard a fierce noise coming from inside.
"Tell me, you little bastard, where did you get this gem? How did you get such an expensive gem?"
It was a fierce man's voice, probably the little girl's father. He sounded like a man with a bad temper.
"A swallow flew over and gave it to me." The little girl's voice was trembling, and she was obviously very afraid of her father.
"Swallow gave it to you. What kind of story are you making up? Did you steal it from somewhere? No one will come to your house, will they?"
This was followed by the father's harsh reprimand, followed by the sound of furniture colliding violently.
Just as Aurora was about to force her way in, she heard the sobbing girl explaining to her father that the beautiful sapphire was really given to her by Swallow.
"Dad, everything I said is true, how could I lie to you!"
The intermittent sobbing sound of the little girl could be heard.
"Okay, let's just assume what you said is true. I guess you picked it up somewhere."
The father believed that the gem would not bring trouble to his family and reluctantly accepted the girl's explanation.
"This thing looks just like the sapphire on the eye of the sculpture in the center of town. If it's real, it would probably be worth a lot of money!"
The father happily accepted the gem, believing that he could exchange it for a few more bottles of good wine, or even some chips on the gambling table.
"Until now, the little match girl hasn't discovered the magic of matches." Aurora thought, "But, that gem looks quite valuable. Can it change their family's life from now on?"
Late that night, the little girl's father went out in the snow and pawned the jewels to a pawn shop, exchanging them for money for drinking and gambling.
The greedy merchant who collected the gems, taking advantage of the man's lack of education, deliberately lowered the value of the gems, describing them as imitations of exquisite goods, and only paid a small amount of money for them.
The next day, the girl's father lost all the money he got from the sapphire at the gambling table. The remaining change was exchanged for a bottle of fine wine to comfort his father for his bad luck that day.
In the evening, the father drove the girl out of the house again and ordered her to sell all the matches she had before she could go home.
The little girl cried and described how cold it was outside and asked her father to let her stay home tonight.
But what greeted her was only the clang of the broken wooden door closing and a cold wind that was even colder than last night.
In the distance, Aurora quietly sat on a rooftop, watching all this.
"What a pity. That sapphire did not bring any change to her fate at all."
Aurora felt a little sad.
She was also somewhat glad that she did not simply give the girl some money at the beginning - otherwise the money would only become empty wine bottles and chips on the gambling table.
The girl walked tremblingly to the street, but she didn't sell a single match until the sun had completely set and the bloody setting sun disappeared over the horizon.
The cold north wind blew like an ice knife cutting through bones.
In order to avoid the cold wind, the little match girl once again came to a remote corner between two luxurious houses, squatted down, and smelled the aroma of roast duck in the cold wind.
She was hungry, cold and tired, and she tremblingly took out a match from her tattered clothes.
There were twinkling stars on the match.
(End of this chapter)