Perfect

Back then, Wen Xu had been a filthy, foul-smelling child. He had no way to squeeze through the crowd, but for some reason—perhaps Heaven had taken pity on him—the wealthy merchant and philanthropist spotted him. The man took him straight to the Benevolence Hall and told the people there to take good care of him.

Wen Xu had not felt honored. He had been terrified. He could not accept kindness that came for no reason; it made his skin crawl.

So he quietly fled the Benevolence Hall that night. He did not even dare linger nearby, escaping straight to a ruined temple outside the city. Absurd as it seemed, that ruined temple gave him an endless sense of safety.

He hid outside the city until the following spring. Fortunately, that winter had not been cold, and he survived. Yet when he returned to the city, the Benevolence Hall was gone. Only after hearing the other beggars talk did he learn that it had been a "wolf's den." The merchant had not been doing good deeds to earn himself a son; he had wanted to "kill people to vent his rage."

That was the first time Wen Xu had brushed so plainly against death. If he had not escaped, he thought, he might have died in the Benevolence Hall long ago. Rootless duckweed like him could die without anyone standing up for him or shedding a single tear.

He had been so frightened that he ran back to the ruined temple. Only when hunger became unbearable did he go out to find food again.

From then on, Wen Xu often warned himself that no free meat pies fell from the sky. If one did, it would surely come with a terrible price. So...

So what?

Wen Xu looked inward, and it