The actions that the youth performed were rather astonis.h.i.+ng to the eyes of the group. When Bai Yunfei started to walk toward the two, everyone else realized what was happening and followed behind.
On the way, Bai Yunfei’s eyes wandered around the area before finally settling back on the two figures in the corner. Then his body made a sudden whirl to the left.
“Eh? Brother Bai, aren’t you…”
His sudden turn confused everyone. Tianming’s words seemed to be ignored by Bai Yunfei as he disappeared into the crowd. Tianming stopped dead in his tracks to look back to Jing Mingfeng and the others, unsure of what to do.
“Brother Bai… is he not going to help those two? Shouldn’t we… follow him then?” Tianming asked.
Tang Xinyun looked off to where Bai Yunfei disappeared to with furrowed eyebrows. There was a disappointed look on her face as she looked to the old and young pair. Soon a sympathetic look overcame her face. After biting her lower lip in indecision, she finally decided to walk over to them.
When they reached the youth, he started with fear and paranoia. As he subconsciously shrank away, he pursed up his lips, and his frail but determined body immediately moved to protect the elder woman behind him.
There was a pained look in Tang Xinyun’s eyes at that sight, but she managed to give a small smile filled with warmth. “Little brother, don’t be afraid. We won’t harm you. We’re here to help.”
She then looked at the frail woman behind the youth, “Is that your grandmother?”
The youth seemed to loosen up just a bit when he saw the honest goodwill behind Tang Xinyun’s eyes. With some hesitation, he replied with a nod of his head, “Yes.”
Giving it some thought, Tang Xinyun shook her right hand, and three gold pieces came out of her s.p.a.ce ring. Handing them to the child, she said, “Take these coins. Your grandmother is very ill; take this to go buy medicine and have her eat it. She’ll get better soon.”
When she took out the three gold, Zhao Mancha looked as if she wanted to say something. However, she changed her mind when she saw the earnest look on Tang Xinyun’s face. Thus, she closed her mouth.
“Xi-Xiao Hu, don’t… don’t take it…” A frail voice could be heard from behind the youth as the woman behind him struggled to speak.
“Ma’am, please don’t decline it. Just take it. It’ll help your future.” Tang Xinyun spoke to the elder woman with the same warm-hearted smile.
Dazed, the youth took the gold pieces from her while seemingly ignoring the voice of his grandmother behind him. Taking the coins ‘fiercely’, he then stuffed them into his clothes so that no one else would see.
Falling to the ground with a ‘plopping’ sound, the child kowtowed his head to Tang Xinyun to give his thanks. Hurriedly moving to pick him up, Tang Xinyun shook her head, “Don’t be like this. Hurry, go help your grandmother. You’ll be able to take care of her with more care later, okay?”
For a few seconds, the young boy stared at Tang Xinyun as if trying to burn her image into his mind. He finally said with an honest voice, “Thank you!”
Revealing a happy smile, Tang Xinyun replied, “Haha, there’s no need to thank me. This is something I should ha-”
“What are you all doing here?” Before she could even finish, a sound from behind interrupted her. Turning around, Tang Xinyun saw Bai Yunfei with two items in his hand as he stared at them curiously.
“Brother Bai? Didn’t you leave?” Tianming asked in befuddlement.
“Leave? Where would I go to?” Bai Yunfei was equally confused, but then a smile appeared on his face, “I only went to buy something, didn’t I tell you all to wait here for a second?”
“Where did you go? None of us heard you say anything.”
“Eh… forget about it. The crowd probably drowned out my words.” Bai Yunfei shook his head before walking to the young boy. He opened up one of the oil paper bags he was holding. Inside were several steaming-hot steamed buns for the young boy to eat.
“Have some to eat first. It’ll fill your stomach and give you energy to take care of your grandmother.” Bai Yunfei explained before handing the other bag over, “This is some medicine that is used to treat common illnesses. Find a place to boil it and then feed it to your grandmother.”
Seeing the vacant look on the youngster’s face, Bai Yunfei laughed before handing several copper coins strung together. Hiding them into the folds of the boy’s clothes, Bai Yunfei quietly said, “Take this money and take of your grandmother, got it?”
It was only at this point that the youngster realized what was happening. His reaction was even grander than when he had received the three gold coins. He put down the items he had been given before he immediately fell to the floor once more. He kowtowed his head thrice while saying with a quavering voice, “Thank you… thank you…”
Bai Yunfei did nothing to stop him, allowing him to finish his actions. Then helping up his grandmother, the two of them slowly hobbled to the left side of the street before ultimately disappearing from sight. With the same smile on his face when he was talking to the child, Bai Yunfei addressed everyone, “Well now that everything is done, we should continue on our way.”
With everyone continuing on the roads, not a single one of them were as happy as before. Instead, there were subdued looks on each one of their faces.
“Tianming, do you treat your grandmother with the same piety as that child?” Bai Yunfei suddenly asked Tianming.
“Wha? How could I? My home isn’t like that, and my grandmother has plenty of servants looking after her…”
“Then, when your grandmother is sick, do you take care of her?”
“Are-aren’t there other people for that? Even if I went, it’d be…”
“Do you ever attempt to have a conversation with her?”
“I…”
For a good while, Tianming was silent. Finally turning to tilt his head to Bai Yunfei, his next words were said in a low voice, “Brother Bai, I-I think I understand now…”
“Then all is well.” Bai Yunfei smiled. “When you go home, remember to treat your mother and grandmother with the piety they deserve. I can guarantee that if you do as you should, then life will be drastically different for you…”
“Got it!” Tianming nodded before a smile reappeared on his face. “Brother Bai, when you left back then, we all thought that you weren’t going to help those two! None of us thought that you’d come back with medicine and food!”
“Haha, when I saw them, there was no way I couldn’t help them. I could only give them what they need for now, but… their future is completely up to that kid. We can only help them temporarily, but our money should help them for a few days or so. When he eats his fill, he should be able to find the energy to find a way to earn some money…”
Giving a small laugh, Tianming answered, “Yeah, before you came back, miss Xinyun had already given them three gold pieces! That should be enough for them to live for an even longer amount of time…”
Bai Yunfei felt so astounded at those words that he came to a standstill, “What did you say!?”
The abrupt reaction scared even Tianming. He was at a loss for words. “I…I said that miss Xinyun gave them three gold pieces. It should be enough for them for a while…”
Bai Yunfei’s eyes immediately swiveled to look at Tang Xinyun.
“Yes? Mister Bai, did I… did I do something wrong?” Tang Xinyun was at a loss as well. She didn’t understand what was happening.
Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows narrowed together in anger before he turned to Zhao Mancha and Jing Mingfeng right next to her.
When Bai Yunfei looked to the two, both of them were unable to meet his gaze. They both s.h.i.+fted their eyes away, and on their faces was… embarra.s.sment?
“Hmph!!”
Bai Yunfei let out a cold snort, but no words came out after that. It was with quick steps that Bai Yunfei started to walk in the direction where the child and his grandmother had headed.
“But… aunty Zhao, why is mister Bai acting this way? Was there a problem?” Tang Xinyun was completely bewildered by Bai Yunfei’s reaction.
There was some hesitation on the older woman’s face as she sighed. “Young miss… You’ll understand in a moment if you follow him…”
Not even a minute pa.s.sed before Bai Yunfei had reached one of the alleyways of the streets with great haste. With his soulsense spread out to track down the two, he started to comb the area for them.
A sudden movement caused his eyes to light up, but then his joy turned into fury the next moment. Frost entered his eyes briefly before his body flickered away. He headed down a narrow pathway with a gust of wind trailing behind him.
Within this alleyway, four fiendish men were kicking and punching at a small, frail figure. Several steamed buns and medicinal ingredients could be seen scattered around. An extremely frail-looking woman had been pushed to the side where her body was quivering nonstop, unable to move. It seemed like someone had forcefully pushed her down.
“Pl-please! Don’t hit — don’t hit him anymore. Xia — Xiao Hu, give them the money…” The woman let out a pleading whimper to their a.s.sailants. The young child hugged at his chest to prevent the coins from being taken.
“No! I won’t give them up!” The young child was curled in a ball with his hands across his chest as if he was resolved to protect the coins to his death.
“What was that? You won’t give them up? Then we’ll beat you to death!” One of the men landed a vicious kick against the child’s stomach while swearing at him, “You little beggar! Just a few copper coins would be enough for you. What use is there for gold coins!? You’d only buy some measly steamed buns and rotting vegetables! Don’t be an idiot. Hand them over or we’ll beat you to death and pry the coins from your dead body!”
The elderly woman finally managed to s.h.i.+ft herself over to one of the men. With a trembling hand, she held onto his trouser legs and began to beg. “Please — please don’t hurt him anymore. You’ll kill him! We’ll give you the money! We don’t need it! Please… don’t hurt him anymore…”
“Disgusting old crone, let go of me!” The man viciously glared at her. A single kick was enough to separate the two of them, but as if he was unsatisfied with just that, the man’s leg wound up for another kick as if he was unsatisfied.
“Hmph!”
A sneer suddenly made itself known. The next moment, the man suddenly felt a stinging pain originate from his leg. When he looked down, all he could see was a thumb-sized thing come flying out from the side of his leg, and what appeared to be blood flew off of it…
“Aah!!” It only took half a second for the man to suddenly come to his senses. He clutched at his bleeding right leg before collapsing to the ground. Before he could fall down, Bai Yunfei struck at his belly with a kick of his own. He sent the man flying ten meters away.
At the same time, three separate slamming sounds could be heard as the other three men were sent flying by Jing Mingfeng, who stood protectively over the young boy with a grim expression.
At the entrance of the alleyway, Tang Xinyun stood dumbfounded from start to finish. With how things were unfolding right in front of her, she had absolutely no idea how to react…