The Girl We Depend On

Chapter 35: The Girl They Rely On

"Big Brother?"

Hearing that incredibly familiar voice, Little Bean Sprout quickly raised her head, looking at the figure in front of her. She blinked her big eyes, then, with a hint of disbelief, raised her hands and rubbed them.

"Hahahaha..."

"Little Bean Sprout! It's us! We can come out to the street to play today!"

"Little Bean Sprout, we're so happy to see you're okay!"

"Yeah! Little Bean Sprout, are you guys doing alright now?"...

Li Dingguo had just hurried over to Little Bean Sprout, and before he could even greet her, a flurry of footsteps sounded behind him, accompanied by excited voices.

It turned out to be Tang Guangqiang, Cao Yongxiang, and the others, who had all run over, laughing, and were shouting at Little Bean Sprout one after another.

"Ah!"

Seeing the dozen or so friends she used to live with at the Earth God Temple in the east of the city all greeting her, Little Bean Sprout finally believed she wasn't dreaming.

She stared intently at Li Dingguo, whose build and skin color had completely changed, and looked at that face she would never forget. Immediately, she could no longer hold back her excitement, and tears instantly welled up in her eyes.

"Big Brother!"

Her lips trembled slightly, and her body shook. "It's so good to see you're okay!"

As she cried, her tears turned into a smile. "Ever since you were called away by the soldiers under the Eight Great Kings, I've been so worried."

"It wasn't until a few days ago, when those friends came back one by one, but I didn't see you, that I quickly went and asked them."

"They said that the Eight Great Kings thought highly of you, that you were getting very good treatment, and that you had become a Martial Artist. That's when I finally felt relieved."

"But I was still very worried about you in my heart..."

Little Bean Sprout's thin, dark little face was covered in tears, but she was smiling very happily, which inexplicably caused a pang of heartache for Li Dingguo.

He had met this little girl three years ago outside the city, when he was holding a wooden stick and fighting a wild dog for a steamed bun it had picked up from who knows where.

At that time, Li Dingguo had just luckily survived his journey from the nearby countryside and wandered into this county town.

After driving away the wild dog and snatching the steamed bun, Li Dingguo immediately discovered Little Bean Sprout, who had fainted from hunger by the roadside.

At that time, he was innocent and kind, so he broke off half of the steamed bun, crumbled it with his hands, and slowly fed it to the unconscious Little Bean Sprout.

This Little Bean Sprout was also lucky; she came back to life because of it.

From then on, she became Li Dingguo's most loyal little follower.

Of course, later she also saved Li Dingguo's life in a way. The two of them truly relied on each other for survival, closer than real siblings.

"Little Bean Sprout, it's okay now."

He reached out his slightly trembling large hand and stroked Little Bean Sprout's dirty little head, comforting her. "From now on, Big Brother will take care of you and won't let you go hungry."

"Big Brother has learned a lot of skills from the Great King now, and he's very powerful."

As he said this, Li Dingguo looked at Little Bean Sprout, who was still trembling slightly in her ragged and worn clothes. A strong wave of sadness surged uncontrollably in his heart.

"Mhm mhm..."

Little Bean Sprout was overjoyed now, nodding her small head repeatedly. Then she said happily, "I already asked the friends who were kicked out of the Wang Family Courtyard, and they told me that since Big Brother is so tall and strong now, you must have become very powerful."

"And there's more!"

Little Bean Sprout had already stopped crying. She tilted her small face up, looking at Li Dingguo, who was a full head taller than her, and said, "During the time you were gone, because the Eight Great Kings ordered the cleanup of most of the hooligans and gangs in the city, no one came to bully us, and instead, we could eat our fill every day."

"I really hope the Eight Great Kings never leave here. Then we friends will have good lives."

"Ever since the friends who were eliminated from the Martial Artist selection came back a few days ago, all the beggars in this city know that the Eight Great Kings think highly of Big Brother, and they don't dare to bully us anymore. In fact, the adult beggars avoid us from a distance as soon as they see us..."

Little Bean Sprout was even happier now that she saw the greatly changed Li Dingguo and saw that he was wearing a very proper and clean Martial Artist's outfit. Once she started talking, she couldn't stop.

However, one of her small hands was tightly gripping the corner of Li Dingguo's clothes, as if she was afraid he would disappear again, which made people feel a little heartache just by looking at it.

At this moment, the fifteen young Martial Artists who had just greeted Little Bean Sprout, and the friends who had just received a bowl of thin porridge at the gruel stand and were walking over, were laughing and joking around.

The difference was that those beggar boys had been eliminated from the selection.

Looking at how Li Dingguo and the others were now, they were both very envious and seemed to feel inferior, deliberately keeping a little distance from the young men who had already become Martial Artists.

The reactions of the more than twenty little girls were completely different.

They were all incredibly happy. After quickly finishing the bowl of thin porridge in their hands, they put their bowls aside and surrounded the fifteen young Martial Artists, chirping and jumping, clearly overjoyed.

After everyone's excitement subsided and they became quiet again, Li Dingguo thought for a moment and said to Tang Guangqiang beside him, "Aqiang, take a few people to the market and buy everyone some new clothes and shoes."

"They don't need to be fancy, just some coarse cloth clothes and straw sandals that fit well."

"Also, go to a nearby eatery and buy two baskets of steamed white buns so everyone can eat their fill first."

"Oh, and one more thing, remember to buy a few bars of soap and a few large water buckets."

"Then, have everyone go back to the Earth God Temple in the east of the city where we used to live, and go to the old well where we used to get water. Separate the boys and girls, and have everyone take turns drawing well water to wash themselves clean and change into new clothes before anything else."

Looking at these ragged and dirty little beggars in front of him, Li Dingguo, who came from the 21st century, was very unaccustomed to it.

Leaving aside their current attire, which was somewhat off-putting to look at, just in terms of hygiene, it needed to be taken extremely seriously.

As the saying goes, illness enters through the mouth.

The vast majority of diseases humans contract throughout their lives are essentially caused by not paying attention to personal and dietary hygiene, or by eating food that isn't fully cooked or is toxic and harmful, which then breeds various illnesses.

The reason people in ancient times didn't live long and had very short average lifespans was partly due to excessive labor that depleted their vitality.

Another reason was a lack of attention to hygiene and often not having enough to eat, combined with a constant stream of natural and man-made disasters, which led to this abnormal situation.

Actually, the quality of food people ate in this era was far better than in the 21st century of his previous life!

If ordinary citizens in the 21st century of his previous life could eat these pure, natural, and pollution-free good things every day, who knows how much medical expense every household would save.

Of course, the prerequisite is that you don't trust those so-called experts and doctors, letting them fool and brainwash you into getting injections and taking medicine at the drop of a hat, or even undergoing those so-called internal surgeries, ruining your perfectly healthy body, and ending up losing both money and health.

In reality, as long as you pay attention to personal hygiene and dietary health, and don't indulge in harmful habits, the body's own immunity and recovery ability are enough to cure most diseases without medicine and without leaving sequelae.

"Alright, Boss!"

Tang Guangqiang immediately accepted the order loudly, promising, "I'll take ten Martial Artists to handle it! I was just wondering how to spend the money the Eight Great Kings gave us!"

Then, he excitedly and casually selected ten ordinary young Martial Artists beside him, took the sixteen strings of cash everyone had pooled together, and quickly turned to leave.