The children left laughing and playing with their sweets. They had come specially to collect them, and sure enough, they had received some, just as their friends had said.
Hui Mian poked his head out from behind Qi Zhongbin's collar, rather concerned about the nursery rhyme as well.
"Lad Qi, shall we follow them and ask?"
"Yes!"
Qi Zhongbin had already intended to do so. Rather than leaving, he followed the children.
The children sang their nursery rhyme as they played, then entered an alley and sat down together. They began unwrapping the oiled paper around their sweets, eagerly savoring them.
The sweets were mostly maltose, scraped off a large slab with a spatula. The shopkeeper had torn oiled paper into small pieces and wrapped the sweets so the children could carry them away easily.
"Hahaha, mine's so big!" "Aw, mine's smaller than yours!"
"Mine's all broken." "So sweet!"
"Hahahaha."
None of the children could bear to eat their sweets all at once. They licked the crumbs from the oiled paper bit by bit.
Amusingly, although they nibbled only tiny bites at a time, they were always trying to keep the large pieces intact.
Just then, Qi Zhongbin entered the alley as well, now holding a handful of hawthorns, which had naturally come from Hui Mian.
Qi Zhongbin approached and asked with a smile.
"That rhyme certainly rolls off your tongues, little ones. Where did you learn it?"
The children all looked at Qi Zhongbin. Seeing a kindly old grandfather, the more outgoing ones answered.
"From other people. We all know it!" "Yes, we all do!"
"Oh! How long have you known it?"
"Forgot." "We've known it ages, anyway!"
Unable to get a clear answer, Qi Zhongbin stopped asking. These children knew nothing of the matter; they simply thought singing