The same reason the boy had been afraid to eat the biscuit at first applied to the others: anything no one else had was a sin in itself. Even if they swallowed it, someone might still harm them out of envy, especially since they had no adults to protect them.
Now that all the children around them seemed to have eaten biscuits, the two boys didn't stand out. But they had no adults looking after them, and they were small and weak—the lowest of the low in the slums. Now that they'd eaten biscuits, they might be gutted and dumped in a trash can that very night.
If eating their own kind didn't cause a strange disease, they would probably have died long ago.
In fact, they didn't even have to wait until night. Someone had already come to steal those two biscuits. They were adults, and one of them was carrying a knife.
Knowing all too well that anything they didn't get into their mouths didn't belong to them, the boy who had brought the biscuits back had already stuffed one into his brother's mouth. "Everyone's got some. Lots of people went to get biscuits..."
Just as the boy's brother began to give in, several adults showed up, plunging him back into fear. But before they could get close, the head of the man with the knife went flying. Blood sprayed across the face of someone beside him, and the group fled in panic.
The two boys had gained a brief reprieve.
The biscuits had won the children's favor, so when Xu Huo asked where he could find water, they told him quietly.
There were several shops that specialized in selling water. Clean water was called first-grade water and cost a fortune; buyers had to go to the shop