Chapter 201
Chapter 201
Jiang Yunsui searched around at random. Along the way, she stumbled into a cat-and-dog brawl and nearly got bitten when she tried to break it up. Then she picked a fight with a flock of huge white geese strutting around as if they ruled the world, and got pecked several times – especially on the bottom.
Finally, after joining a group of little brats in blowing up someone’s outhouse and fleeing with their hands over their heads while the owner cursed them, she found the person she was looking for inside a crumbling, abandoned house.
More precisely, while running this way to escape the scolding, she heard someone trying to suppress a pained sob and stopped.
She clung to the doorframe and carefully peeked inside.
There were several little beggars in the ruined house.
“I didn’t bring back any food.”
“It’s all right. We can go find bugs. I know which ones aren’t poisonous.”
After listening to them, Jiang Yunsui thought for a moment. Instead of going inside, she left to buy some steamed buns, then returned with the bundle in her arms.
“Can I come in?”
The moment she appeared, every beggar in the house became wary.
The Little Beggar who had stolen her purse recognized her. His pupils contracted, and he ducked behind one of the older children.
Jiang Yunsui stood in the doorway and stared at the huddled beggars. Her hair was slightly disheveled from fighting the geese.
Red sores covered the exposed skin of their arms, legs, and necks.
They were not very pronounced yet. They looked almost like insect bites, only redder and more swollen.
“Don’t come in.”
When Jiang Yunsui took two steps forward, the oldest beggar anxiously barked at her.
“Don’t come in! You’re not allowed. It’s dangerous. Leave…”
His voice trembled with tears.
Jiang Yunsui thought for a moment, then tossed over the oil-paper bundle of steamed buns.
“These are for you.”
The children were starving. They swallowed hard at the sight of the buns.
One little beggar could not endure it any longer. She threw herself forward, snatched a bun from the ground, and stuffed it into her mouth.
“Don’t eat things people give you! What if they’re poisoned?”
The boy who had stolen Jiang Yunsui’s purse tried to take the bun away. He did not believe she would kindly buy them food after he had robbed her.
Those other people had looked kind too. They had given him a stuffed bun, and he had passed out after eating it. When he woke, they had forced all kinds of strange things down his throat.
“But I’m so hungry,” the child eating the bun sobbed. “I’m going to starve to death. If I have to die, I want to die with a full stomach. I don’t want to die hungry.”
Her words silenced every beggar.
Jiang Yunsui pouted when she heard them.
“I didn’t poison anything. I’m a good child.”
No good deed went unpunished. Little Mushroom glared at them indignantly.
Once the others saw that the starving girl was fine, they began eating in a desperate rush as well.
Jiang Yunsui sat cross-legged on the doorstep, her chin propped in both hands, and watched them.
“What are those things growing on you?”
The little beggars nervously tugged at their clothes, ashamed as they tried to hide the sores.
“W-we don’t know.”
The oldest child was about twelve and spoke far more clearly than the others.
“It might be contagious. All of us got sick, and all of us grew these things, so… so don’t come near us.”
Jiang Yunsui said, “But she already went all around the streets.”
The beggar she pointed at lowered her head.
“We… we were too hungry.”
“If we didn’t eat soon, we were going to die.”
Jiang Yunsui did not blame her for stealing.
For a group of orphans with no strength and no skills, theft was the only solution they could imagine.
Even if they wanted to work, no one would hire them looking like this.
Jiang Yunsui knit her little brows, wondering how to take them to Ji Yan’an and Shen Qingzhu.
She was certain the sores had something to do with Wushan Cavern.
Someone silently landed behind her. Jiang Yunsui noticed nothing, but the beggars stared past her with huge, terrified eyes.
Jiang Yunsui blinked in confusion.
What was wrong? Had they seen a ghost?
As she turned, her feet left the ground and someone picked her up.
Jiang Yunsui looked overhead. “Si Si~”
Ji Si tapped her on the forehead with measured force.
“Don’t run off.”
Jiang Yunsui recalled that she really had wandered away again. She stuck out her tongue in embarrassment.
“Si Si, look at their sores. Are they the same as the ones on those people in Wushan Cavern?”
Ji Si looked over and nodded.
“Well, Little Yunsui found Ji Si, I see.”
Someone descended upside down from the top of the doorway and folded his arms as he looked at her.
“You really are biased.”
Jiang Yunsui muttered, “You were the one who didn’t show yourself.”
Ji Lu burst out laughing. “What happened to your hair? It looked fine when you came out.”
“A flock of big, bad geese bullied me, but I beat them back. I grabbed their necks and went bam, bam, bam! But their pecks really hurt.”
Ji Lu nearly died laughing. What a pity he had not witnessed that battle himself.
He jumped down and leaned an elbow on Ji Si’s shoulder, only to be shoved away in disgust.
Ji Lu raised an eyebrow. “Fine. You two watch them. I’ll find the Young Master. These children may be connected to the missing beggars he’s investigating.”
With that, he quickly vanished.
The beggars inside the ruined house watched them warily.
“Are… are you here to catch us?”
Ji Si was a man of very few words. He occasionally spoke a little more to Jiang Yunsui, and he delivered reports to Ji Yan’an in a rigid, methodical manner. The rest of the time, if he could avoid talking, he did.
So communicating with the beggars fell to Little Mushroom.
“We’re not here to catch you. We want someone to look at your illness.”
“We’ve seen these sores before. If you don’t get them treated, you’ll go mad and run around biting people.”
Every child’s heart tightened.
The oldest beggar seemed to recall something. Fear entered his eyes.
“I… I’ve seen it.”
His face twisted as terrible memories returned, and he began scratching neurotically at his arms and face.
“It was horrible. They… they were monsters. They bit people. They ate human flesh.”
He shook his head hard. “No. I won’t become like that. I don’t want to become like that.”
The boy clutched his head and began to cry.
“I was… I was caught by one of those monsters. Then these things started growing on me.”
One of the monsters had grabbed him. He had been lucky enough to escape before it bit him to death, but over the next few days his body had begun to itch. Then these ugly sores appeared and refused to fade.
Jiang Yunsui hurried to comfort him in her soft voice.
“Don’t cry. Shen Qingzhu is really amazing. Maybe he knows how to cure you.”
Hope flared in the beggars’ eyes.
“But… but we don’t have anything.”
They had thought of seeing a physician before.
“The doctors chased us away as soon as they saw our sores.”
“And we don’t have money for treatment.”
Jiang Yunsui patted her chest. “That’s all right. I have money. I’ll pay for you.”
Her little treasury held quite a lot now. It should be enough to have them treated, right?
She would ask Shen Qingzhu when he arrived.