Chapter 459 A Little Girl
The fastest way to travel by ground was to take a four-hour trip in a high speed train to travel from Shanghai to Beijing. Instead of taking a flight, Qin Sheng preferred to take the high speed train so that he could enjoy the scenery along the way. Chang Baji and Hao Lei sat on the row behind him. There was a little girl sitting on his right side; going by her looks, she had just enrolled in Middle School. She was enjoying movies in the iPad she was holding.
Qin Sheng thought that the little girl was quite cute. Based on her temperament and the way she was dressed, she probably came from a rich family. If so, Qin Sheng wondered why the elders of her family had so easily allowed her to travel alone. “Could it be that they are confident that nothing will take place along the way?”
The always smiling little girl may have sensed Qin Sheng’s stare. She raised her head and offered a wider and radiant smile to Qin Sheng as she said, “Hello, uncle.”
Qin Sheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he replied, “Shouldn’t you call me brother?”
The little girl, who was somewhat surprised, figured out what Qin Sheng’s words meant and immediately changed her greeting, “Hello, brother.”
Qin Sheng almost burst into laughter and thought of himself as a cheeky person. As expected, be it men or women, no one liked to be addressed as a senior once they grew older. Qin Sheng had swiftly turned almost thirty without him knowing, he didn’t know how he should evaluate the former half of his life without achieving anything big so far.
Qin Sheng, who had nothing to do, asked casually, “Are you go to Beijing alone? Why are you traveling without companions?”
The little girl replied with a quite sweet voice, “Both Grandma and Grandpa are old. Uncle and Aunt are busy with work. I can take the railway train by myself since I am a grown-up. Then my father and mother will pick me up at the railway station.”
Sensing the little girl was a considerate child, Qin Sheng asked thoughtfully, “Are you going to Beijing for fun?”
The little girl shook her head and said, “No. I study in Beijing. I came to Shanghai because of my vacation. Since the school will open the day after tomorrow, I need to go back to Beijing today.”
The little girl was quite cute. She had a moon-face and big eyes. Her hair was black and silky, which had been tied into a ponytail with a flower-embedded hair ring. She certainly would become a beauty once she grew up.
Qin Sheng teased her on purpose and said, “Did you finish all the winter vacation homework?”
The little girl blinked her eyes and replied, “Brother, we don’t have any winter vacation homework.”
Qin Sheng was speechless after he heard the little girl’s reply. It turned out the children in the current society were so blessed that they didn’t have any winter vacation homework at all, which was completely different from the time he attended Middle School and had a massive amount of homework to do. Fortunately, Qin Sheng had been skilled at handling his academic studies at that time. Sometimes, with the teacher’s exemption, he had not needed to do any homework at all, as long as he ranked among the top 10 in the whole grade when it came to the examination score.
After Qin Sheng chatted with the little girl for a while, he took out his laptop and continued studying the subject assigned by the old professor in the classes for advanced studies. The subject was related to a classical case on the domestic capital merger and acquisition, which had involved many unknown secrets.
At noon, the little girl stood up and intended to go to the toilet. However, she was almost knocked down by a middle-aged woman who was supposedly going to the toilet in a hurry. If Qin Sheng had not supported her swiftly and nimbly, she would have bumped into the front seat. Since the middle-aged woman saw it was a little girl, she directly walked forward without even apologizing to her. It was unknown whether she did so because she needed to go to the toilet as soon as possible or due to other unknown situations.
The little girl called unhappily, “Auntie, you almost knocked me down.”
Unfortunately, the middle-aged woman was far away by then, she might not have heard what the little girl said. The little girl felt so wronged that she almost burst out crying. In the end, she had no choice but to sit down obediently and pout her lips, looking unhappy.
The little girl, who could not figure out why the middle-aged woman had treated her like this, tilted her head and asked, “Brother, why didn’t she apologize to me?”
Qin Sheng replied gently, “You can ask her when she comes back. She owes you an apology.”
The little girl thought for a while, then she nodded and replied, “All right.”
A few seconds later, the middle-aged woman came back from the restroom. The little girl stood in her way and said, “Auntie, you haven’t apologized to me yet.”
The middle-aged woman replied disapprovingly, “Whose child is she? So uneducated. I just almost knocked you down by accident. You were not even injured.”
What the middle-aged woman had said indicated that she thought she was in the right and was self-confident, making Qin Sheng admire her courage. He wondered why she had been so confident since it was clear who was the uneducated one, based on the current situation. It was true that people could never expect that the people they encountered were as normal as themselves in recent days.
The little girl did not let the middle-aged woman go because of what she had said. Instead, she insisted, “Auntie, since you almost knocked me down, you should apologize to me.” According to her mother, people who committed mistakes certainly needed to apologize and admit their mistakes, which was basic courtesy to others. The little girl wondered why the middle-aged woman had acted the other way around.
It was unknown whether it was because the middle-aged woman was going through menopause or her period, since she pushed the little girl away gruffly and said, “F**k off. Don’t stand in my way. Whose child are you? Do your parents just allow you to act like this?”
After the little girl was directly pushed away the middle-aged woman, the child felt wronged and burst into tears on her seat. It might have been the first time she had traveled alone; she had no choice but to bear all the wrongdoings on her own since she had nobody to confide in.
As Qin Sheng witnessed the whole process, he felt sincerely sorry for the little girl. Although all the adults taught the children to be polite and abide by the rules, it turned out some adults didn’t follow the rules at all. In that case, Qin Sheng wondered how the children should face the world, who must feel that everything was contradictory in secret.
Qin Sheng directly pulled the middle-aged woman’s arm and said, “Sister, you almost knocked my little sister down and didn’t even apologized. Are you simply going to walk away?”
The middle-aged woman snorted and said, “Oh, you’re so annoying. I did nothing but bump her on the way. Is it necessary for you to make a mess out of this? Come on, just tell me, how much should I pay to make it up to you?”
Qin Sheng squinted and said, “Since you like to reason with cash, I will do it your way. Right now, I’m planning to break your arm and make it up to you by whatever cash amount you ask for.”
As Qin Sheng talked, he exerted all his strength with his hand in secret. The middle-aged woman felt so much pain that the look on her face slightly changed. Realizing that she might have come across a tough guy, she admitted her weakness immediately and said, “I will apologize, I’ll apologize right now. Little girl, I am sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose.”
By the time Qin Sheng made up his mind to reason with the middle-aged woman, the little girl had stopped crying. Never did it occur to her that this senior brother would stand up for her. However, after the middle-aged woman apologized to her, she replied with nothing but an “Oh”. After that, she didn’t bother with the middle-aged woman anymore. It was clear that she was still unhappy in secret.
Knowing that such a pretentious woman would certainly pay for what she had done someday, Qin Sheng didn’t plan to argue further. Qin Sheng let go of her after she apologized and happily left amid everyone’s comments and judgments in the carriage.
After Qin Sheng sat back on his seat, he asked in a low voice, “Are you still unhappy?”
The little girl wiped off her tears and nodded. She said in a low voice, “Yes. She’s not a good person.”
Qin Sheng stroked the little girl’s hair as he said, “It doesn’t matter whether others are good or bad. As long as you’re willing to be a good person, there will be one more good person in this world.”
The little girl blinked and stared at Qin Sheng with her round eyes, which were still brimming with tears. Nodding inexplicably, she said, “Brother, you must be a good person.”
Qin Sheng replied amusedly, “I had planned to be a bad guy before. However, I found out I was not gifted for that later. So I decided to be a good guy and found out it was also difficult to do that. Even so, I think it’ll be better for me to be a good person.”
At last, the little girl smiled radiantly and said, “Brother, I will be a good person.”
Qin Sheng liked the little girl’s innocence a lot. Whatever she would come across in the future, at least, she was planning to be a good person. As the saying goes, whenever people did a good deed, they would be on good terms with others. In that case, people would be less guilty and pitiful in secret.
Qin Sheng asked casually, “I wonder what your name is.”
“My name is Ke’er, the ‘Ke’ like in the Chinese pronunciation for ‘keyi’ and ‘kele’.” The little girl added happily, “What’s your name, brother?”
Qin Sheng smiled gently as he replied, “Ke’er, your name is very melodic. My name is Qin Sheng, the ‘Qin’ from the Chinese pronunciation ‘qinshihuang’ and the ‘sheng’ from the Chinese pronunciation ‘shengguanfacai’.”
Qin Sheng’s self-introduction made the little girl giggle.
For the remaining journey, Qin Sheng accompanied Ke’er to watch movies and he entertained her with jokes, making her feel happy again in the end. Fortunately, she wouldn’t be disappointed with many things in the world because of such a petty issue. Some people would little by little become disappointed about this world. Once the disappointed grew, of course, it would overshadow everything else; disappointment would be the only thing to see.
They arrived at the Beijing South Railway Station at 2 p.m. Qin Sheng took Ke’er along with him; they got off the train and walked out of the station. Nan Gong, who had gone back to Beijing in advance, was there to pick Qin Sheng’s group up. Qin Sheng planned to hand Ke’er over to her parents first so that he could feel completely at ease.
Although Ke’er had been standing at the exit for a long time, she still didn’t see where her parents were. She was so anxious that she almost cried. Qin Sheng comforted her as he said, “Don’t worry. Give your dad and mom a call first. They probably are still on the way here.”
Ke’er nodded; she took out her cell phone, and dialed her parents’ mobile number. Unfortunately, neither of her parents picked up her call, making her anxious again.
Qin Sheng thought for a while and asked, “Do you know where your house is?”
Ke’er pouted her lips and said in a low voice, “Yes.”
Qin Sheng replied gently, “I will send you home then.”
Ke’er tried to calm down and she replied, “Brother, you don’t need to that. I can order a taxi home. My mom and dad might have forgotten that I would return today.”
Qin Sheng shook his head and pulled Ke’er’s hands as he said, “It’s OK. Anyway, I need to go back to the downtown area. What if you run into a bad guy while ordering a taxi alone? Let’s go.”
Ke’er thought for a while and agreed in the end. Even so, she felt somewhat shy about doing so.
However, Qin Sheng was somewhat astounded and amused once she told Qin Sheng about where her family house was. Life was pretty interesting sometimes. It didn’t occur to him that the little girl, whom he had come across by accident, would live in the same street as the Qin Family members.