The Silver Boat darted through the turbulent currents of spacetime. With every flicker, it changed course. Though its path seemed chaotic and disorderly, it faintly followed a route that had long since been predetermined.
On the boat, Su Yi answered the First Lifetime Heart Demon's question without hesitation. "I wouldn't call it hatred."
"Not hatred?"
The First Lifetime Heart Demon said, "I helped you several times before and never once refused. Yet now, over a matter concerning Lu Hongpao's life and death, I refused you. You truly don't hate me at all?"
After a pause, he continued, "I can tell you plainly: if I had been willing to help, Lu Hongpao would never have died. But this time, I chose not to. That means Lu Hongpao is certain to die. You..."
Su Yi shook his head and interrupted, "I understand what you mean. A bowl of rice earns gratitude; a bucket of rice breeds resentment, right?"
When someone was starving and freezing, on the brink of death, giving them a bowl of rice saved their life. If you kept giving them rice, they would grow dependent and come to see it as only natural.
Then one day, if you suddenly stopped helping them, they would bear a grudge and resent you simply because you no longer helped!
In the past, the First Lifetime Heart Demon had repeatedly taken the initiative to help Su Yi, and he truly had helped him.
If all of that came to be regarded as natural, or as the kind of debt so plentiful it no longer weighed on one's shoulders, then what would Su Yi think when he suddenly took the initiative and was refused one day?
That was what it meant by a bowl of rice earning gratitude, while a bucket of rice bred