The child was sallow and scrawny, his thinness making his head look oversized. The toffee between Lin Hanzhi's fingertips soon had him utterly enthralled, and he spilled everything Lin Hanzhi asked about like beans from a sack.
"The village chief's house is at the very eastern end of the village, across from the pond, with several fruit trees by the entrance. Their house is the prettiest. You'll recognize it right away." His eyes, frighteningly large in his thin little face, remained fixed on Lin Hanzhi's fingertips.
"Thanks. Here's your payment." As he spoke, Lin Hanzhi solemnly placed the candy in the child's filthy palm.
"Payment?" the child asked. He looked seven or eight, old enough to be in elementary school.
"It means wages."
"What are wages?" he continued asking.
"It's the money your mom and dad get after they work. That's called wages," Mu Xingchen interjected from beside them.
"But my mom and dad don't work," the child said.
Everyone froze, and the child had already run off clutching the candy.
"Not everyone in this village is like Juanjuan's dad. There are some genuine layabouts, too," Fang Heng said. Having once volunteered as a teacher in the village, he clearly knew more about rural life.
[Their kid's this skinny and they still won't work. Tsk.]
[Some people-and I mean certain people-really deserve to be poor.]
[This village is so poor, but the village chief's house is pretty big...]
[Used to it. Our village is like that, too.]
Watching the child run off, Lin Hanzhi suddenly reached into his pocket and took out another toffee. He offered it to Qi Gu on his upturned palm and asked with a smile, "Want one?"
Qi Gu felt that Lin Hanzhi was coaxing him like a child, but he also felt that this feeling...