What child?
What child?
Xing Chun had heard him too and looked at Mei Chengyu with a strange expression.
Mei Chengyu asked without changing expression, "A boy or a girl?"
Nian Qiuyan answered, "A boy. I'll let him talk to you."
A moment later, Mei Chengyu heard a boy's quiet voice from the other end, humble and urgent: "Brother Meimei, please, please save my mother. My father took the money to the gambling house again."
When Xing Chun heard this, he suddenly went, "Oh," understanding. He gave Mei Chengyu a meaningful look. "That kid from last time?"
Mei Chengyu listened expressionlessly, then cut off the transmission.
Xing Chun scraped up the last two bites of rice in his bowl. Looking up at Mei Chengyu, he said, "If his father refuses to mend his ways and keeps gambling away their money, and then the boy comes to you again, this cycle can't go on forever."
Mei Chengyu walked over to the Armillary Sphere and pointed out several stars corresponding to the known forces. As he did, he said, "Then what should I do? Have the gambling house chop off both his hands?"
"Even without hands, a gambling addict will still find a way to gamble. First he'll figure out how to get money to have fake hands made, then he'll go right back to gambling."
"Look for a pattern first. Help me figure out what Heavenly Secrets Technique this is," Mei Chengyu said. "I'm going to the Outer City."
Xing Chun had finished eating by then. He waved Mei Chengyu off, staying behind to keep watch.
On the way, Mei Chengyu received a message from Nian Qiuyan asking about the matter, so he briefly explained:
The boy was named Xiao Tu and lived on East Island in the Outer City. His