The next day...
When Xiu Yuan woke up that morning and opened his door, he found that only four of his five missing items had been returned, along with a note.
"I'm sorry, Lord Sasayuri. I shouldn't have stolen your things, but the children at home were just too hungry. I'm truly sorry. I'll do my best to repay you. Please don't be angry."
After reading the note, Xiu Yuan froze for a moment, then counted the things he had left outside his door for anyone to take.
Not a single item was missing.
It seemed his words yesterday had worked. Even when he offered the supplies for free, they no longer dared to take them.
Xiu Yuan sniffed the note, then picked out two particularly nutritious ingredients and headed toward the village.
Following the scent on the note, he soon found the family who had written it.
Xiu Yuan left the two items outside their door and tucked the note in with them.
He knocked on the door, then left.
"Just a moment... I'm coming..."
At the knock, a woman's voice came from inside the house.
The door slowly opened, revealing no one outside, only two bags of supplies.
When she opened them, she discovered that both bags were full of meat, along with a familiar note.
Puzzled, she picked up the note, and her pupils contracted slightly.
"Lord... Sasayuri...?"
It was the very note she had secretly left outside Xiu Yuan's door in the early hours that morning.
She turned it over to look at the back, then trembled all over.
There was a short message written on it.
"Give the children something better to eat."
The woman's eyes immediately reddened.
"Mommy, Mommy, who is it?"
Just then, the voice of a little girl, thin as a rail,