The sounds of slaps and children's screams rose and fell.
Hela squatted beside her, hugging her knees and quietly watching Aidan pat the child's bottom.
The little girl and the masked child next to Hela huddled together in fear.
Banana Peel, who had witnessed everything up close next to Aidan, collapsed to the ground and burst into tears.
On one hand, she felt sorry for her older brother, but on the other hand, she was afraid that after beating up her boss, he would start beating up her.
But his legs wouldn't obey him because he was too afraid, which made him even more anxious, and he cried even louder.
"Wow--! Big brother, big brother, I was wrong, please stop hitting me! I won't call you weakling anymore, you're my big brother, from now on I'll call you grandpa..."
The child cried and begged Aidan for mercy, his bottom burning with pain from the spanking, feeling as if it would split open at any moment.
Hearing this, Aidan stopped, picked him up again, and held him in front of her.
"Will you dare spit on others again?"
"I won't dare again..."
"Do you still dare to call others weak?"
"I won't dare again..."
"Are you still going to rob us or not?"
"No..."
When asked if he would still rob, the child suddenly stopped.
Biting her lip, she stubbornly turned her head to the side, "I'll still steal!"
His eyes were tightly closed, and his cheeks were streaked with tears from when he had just cried.
Aidan raised her hand as if to strike again.
The child shuddered, though he had been clenching his teeth.
"Waaah... please stop hitting my brother."
At this moment, the banana peel crawled up from the ground and tugged at Aidan's trouser leg, begging for mercy.
The other two children also rushed over to beg for mercy.
Hela just squatted down and watched the show. Anyway, the child was so small, it didn't matter whether he ate or not.
Seeing this, Aidan sensed something was wrong, gently put the child down, and squatted down to be parallel to them.
"Fine, I won't hit you anymore. Tell me, why do you insist on robbing me? What difficulties are you facing?"
"I won't tell you!" The child stubbornly turned his head away, showing no respect for Aidan whatsoever.
Aidan's lips twitched almost imperceptibly, and she grabbed the child by the back of his collar, intending to lift him up again.
This time, the child wasn't scared, but the other three were.
"I'll talk! We'll all talk!"
"We're telling you everything, don't hit the big brother..."
Seeing that things were getting out of hand, the child was about to yell at the three of them when Aidan quickly covered his mouth. "Fine, you can talk now. And tell me your names too."
The three children looked at each other, and the banana peel slowly opened.
My name is Tang Jie, but they all call me Xiaojie.
Then, he pointed to the masked child, "His name is Ruibei, but we like to call him Beibei."
And this girl's name is Aimeisha, um, she likes us to call her Shasha."
Xiaojie glanced at his older brother and finally spoke up, "He's our older Fuluolan, Floran. We usually call him Big Brother."
"Then why did you rob us?"
Xiaojie was startled, and explained with a slight tremor.
"Because we need to eat..."
Upon hearing this, Aidan trembled violently, his eyes first widening in disbelief, then filled with rage.
Just as he was about to ask who their parents were, he suddenly realized that this would be reopening old wounds.
He closed his mouth, mentally rehearsing what he would say next, and tried to speak as gently as possible.
"So you live together and make a living by robbing people?"
The four children lowered their eyes and nodded in unison. Even Fuluolan stopped making a fuss and stood still with his head down.
Aidan understood that these children were either all orphans or had been abandoned by their irresponsible parents.
Aidan fell silent, and her heart, which had stopped beating because of her symbiosis with Hela, began to beat again at that moment.
He felt sorry for the children.
'They are so pitiful, I really want to help them, but...'
Aidan turned to look at her beautiful, charming, and endearing boss.
Then the heart that was beating to help them died.
'Forget it, the boss is the most important person in the world.'
Aidan stood up, took two hundred dollars from the bag containing the money, and handed it to them.
"Try not to rob anymore. There are relief stations in this city you can go there."
Fuluolan blankly accepted the dollars he had never seen before, and nodded woodenly to Aidan.
Aidan sighed, ignored their thanks, and walked back to Hela's side.
Hela stood up, and her cell phone suddenly rang in her pocket.
She opened her phone and glanced at it; it was a message from Fulan and Tuote.
They were saying they hadn't found a suitable rental place, and then they asked Hela if she had.
Hela's hands slid across the keyboard, and she typed, "Me neither."
Aidan glanced at her, only to have Hela shove the phone right in his face so he could see it more clearly.
Aidan saw the message on her phone, but her expression wasn't overly surprised.
"There's nothing we can do about it. After all, everyone wants to come to this city, and not having a place to live is very common."
Hela scratched her head and peeked out at the four children admiring the dollars.
Fuluolan quickly tucked the money into his arms, saying, "You've already given it to me, I won't give it back."
Where do you live?
Hela ignored his words and asked a question.
This surprised all four little ones.
"We live in a big warehouse..." Xiaojie answered cautiously.
"Take us there."
Hela walked up to the four children, and her pale pink, emotionless eyes startled them.
"Okay, okay! I'll take you there right away!"
After saying that, the four children scrambled and crawled towards the depths of the alley.
Hela beckoned to Aidan and followed the child.
Aidan didn't say much and followed them. Anyway, she had nowhere to stay, and by following the children, she could at least take care of them.
The four children led the two of them to a semi-cylindrical warehouse in no time.
The entire warehouse is shaped like a cylinder cut in half and lying on the ground.
Fuluolan took out his key and unlocked the door.
Four children, splitting into two groups, grabbed the large iron gate of the warehouse and struggled to push it inside.
The gate was clearly rusted, and even with the four children straining with all their might, it could only be opened a tiny bit.
The four of them were already used to this; it always took them at least ten minutes to open the door.
Suddenly they felt the door lighten, and then it was pushed open with a powerful bang.
The children who were pushing the door all fell flat on their faces to the ground with a thud.
Hela dusted the rust off her hands and went inside on her own.
Aidan helped them up and followed them inside.
The warehouse was so spacious that Hela's footsteps echoed as she walked in.
However, the interior was far too rudimentary.
There wasn't a single decent piece of furniture, only two cabinets that looked like they'd been salvaged from a garbage dump, and four beds made of tattered quilts.
There wasn't even a table or chair.