Looking at the shaobing that was bigger than her head by an entire ring, Gu Ye couldn’t help but be amazed at how much ingredient they put into each of them. She broke a shaobing into halves, gave half to Gu Ming and said, “This will be enough for me. Let’s save the other two for our way back.”
Gu Ming was already famished from looking for his sister all this time. He gorged himself with food until he choked and coughed and teared up.
Gu Ye, owing to the original owner’s gastrointestinal issues, had grown into the habit of eating slowly. Seeing that her brother was choking, she fished out a couple coins and said, “Ge, there are soups for sale over there. Let’s go get a bowl. The soup will so will also make us warm.”
Gu Ming finally swallowed the piece of shaobing lodged in his throat. He looked at the coins in his sister’s hand and asked in surprised, “Mei mei, where did you get the money from? You didn’t steal that from Mrs. Gu, did you? She is the most frugal of all. If she ever finds out that you stole money from her, she’d want to beat you to death!”
Gu Ye rolled her eyes proudly and said to him, “Who’d steal her money? You know that woman cradles her money jar when she sleeps. How would it be possible for anyone to steal money from her? Remember the herbs that I have picked? I hid them in the mountain and sun dried them and sold them to Shopkeeper Qian yesterday in exchange for money. C’mon! I will treat you to a bowl of soup noodle!”
“No! We shouldn’t! Look at the sun, if we leave down now, we won’t be able to find a place to spend the night and it will be dangerous. With this money, let’s look for a motel at a more remote part of town, it will beat spending the night in the streets!” If it was just him by himself, he’d just look for a place under the bridge and spend the night. But his sister is weak, he didn’t want her to get sick from spending the night in the streets.
As they were talking, their sight darkened suddenly and a piece of broken silver appeared in front of them. They looked up and saw a young man around 14 – 15 in a ice blue brocade; his face was handsome and his eyes sparkled like stars in the night sky. What a good-looking young man! There were immediately stars inside of Gu Ye’s eyes and she grinned like a kids with a new toy!
“Ugh… mister, we are not beggars.” Gu Ming’s little self esteem was bruised. He looked down at his and his sister’s clothing. They had on old, short, and patchy clothes and squatting at the side of the road eating their shaobing. They were not that much different than the beggars that was sunbathing across from them. No wonder they were taken as beggars.
Chu Mobai was stunned by the little girl’s sparkling eyes momentarily. He cheered inside of him, “What a pair of black and clear eyes, like two deep pond of water, clear and pure. He wondered what his sister was like, would she have a pair of incredible eyes just like these?
“I know! Congratulations on finding your sister!! To be honest, my brother and I are also here to look for our little sister. Unfortunately, we were not as lucky as you and we still don’t know where our little sister is!” A forlorn look crossed Chu Mobai’s face, “This money is for you to celebrate finding your little sister. The biscuit alone isn’t going to be enough. Here, go buy some wontons for your little sister!”
“Thank you, xiao ge ge!” Grinning, Gu Ye reached out her little claw and took the silver from him. “Xiao ge ge, you are such a nice person. I know that good things happen to nice people. I am sure you will find your little sister!”
Chu Mobai looked at that little face that was so scrawny that it was almost twisted. For a second there he zoned out and thought that little face looked almost a little bit familiar. For some odd reason, he felt an unexplainable sense of affinity toward it.
He must have been looking for his little sister for too long. Now all little girls looked like his little sister. She has her own brother and only looked to be around eight or nine. His sister should be over twelve, it was not possible for this girl in front of him to be their Bao-er.
