Chapter Two Isn't Alone

  Talking to sleep, Zhang Xiaobao really fell asleep. Wang Juan, on the other hand, was not in the mood, thinking of her own home, thinking of her parents and relatives, suddenly feeling a little lonely, as if the whole world had left, leaving only herself alone, until she truly felt that there was still someone beside her, which made her feel a little warmth.

  "If I had the chance to choose again, would I choose not to follow him and exchange that person? No, I must take responsibility for my own honor. Even if I chose again, I would still be unregretful. Fortunately, I'm not alone here, there's also a swindler with me, that damned swindler who didn't even give me a penny."

  The kingfisher looked at a small gray pendant hanging on the shelf, gently swaying in the breeze, thinking slowly.

  "Are you still thinking about money?" Just then, Zhang Xiaobao, who had fallen asleep, suddenly turned his head and asked in a low voice.

  "How did you know?" Wang Juan asked in surprise.

  "I've seen many people like you, who always feel that something is missing when they don't complete their tasks. Don't worry, I thought of this when I returned to the country, and I brought something with me. Inside, there's an account with $10 million, which is for your expenses. Your director is a good person, but he lacks one thing - money. The equipment is far inferior to others. Do you still want to crack the case like this?"

  Don't worry that the explosion will destroy things, I think even if it's blown to pieces, there are relevant departments that can extract what's inside, as for other money, it will all be invested in the motherland in the future, don't think about those useless things, since we've lived again, let's live a little better.

  Zhang Xiaobao continued to persuade, and also made it clear about the money, Wang Juan naturally wouldn't be foolish enough not to understand this kind of talk, stretched out her small arm from under the quilt, nodded slowly, and asked: "Don't you have any regrets?"

  "Ah, I didn't get to eat that bowl of liangfen after all." Zhang Xiaobao burst out laughing.

  "Don't tell me that, you know what I'm asking." Wang Juan made a frosty face, but this kid's face was so cute no matter what expression she made.

  Zhang Xiaobao smiled again: "Don't give me the expression of interrogating a prisoner, here I am a good citizen. If someone asked me like this in the past, I would never have given him a good face to look at. Today is an exception, and it will not be mentioned again."

  My greatest regret is that I never got to see my parents. After the big flood, I left the painful place and went on a journey of stealing things, rummaging through trash cans for food that others had discarded. Usually, I would come out at night and find a hidden corner to curl up in during the day. It's not that I liked nights better, it's just that I was afraid of days.

  Before, there was also the principal grandfather, but after the principal grandfather died, I became alone. It wasn't until then that I realized I was an orphan. During the day, I could always see adults holding hands with children to go play or eat, and my only feeling was jealousy. When those kids around my age were being disobedient to their parents, I wanted to hit them. If it were me, I would definitely listen obediently.

  But I knew that if I really went over and hit them, their parents would kill me, but I didn't have any parents to protect me. Later on, I saw them going to school, and I wanted to go too. You should understand, it was simply impossible, unless I went back to that usually cold orphanage again.

  "What's next?" Wang Juan didn't know that Zhang Xiaobao's weakest side was this, and she couldn't help but feel a little sad as she listened, asking aloud.

  Later? Later you all knew, for the sake of learning, I went to prison, theft, training, and then went in again. Here I want to thank our police system, as long as you are willing to spend money, ID cards and files can be made real, so I don't have a criminal record, and I can still buy guns, unfortunately, I only used it once, robbery, robbed an official's money.

  It's funny to say, that official had just taken 300,000 from someone else's hands and hadn't even warmed up yet when I robbed him. Your files should not have it, I knew long ago that he didn't dare report to the police. Later, I went to his house to steal again and stole a lot of money. He still didn't report to the police because I saw from his notebook that he had killed people. When we came over, he should have reached the first level of the main hall.

  "If we had arrived earlier and found that he was being hijacked, I think you wouldn't have been implicated. I would have provoked the bandit to release him."

  "This is against the law, your idea itself is wrong." Wang Juan immediately corrected Zhang Xiaobao when she heard that he had such a criminal tendency.

  "Come on, are you breaking the law? Are you telling the truth or not? We're not kids anymore, don't you know what the world is like? Did you go crazy when you were studying conducting?" Zhang Xiaobao looked at her with a gaze that made Wang Juan extremely uncomfortable.

  "Alright, never mind that. I want to know, why are you so well-informed about my affairs?" Wang Juan didn't refute, but instead asked out of curiosity.

  "You come over and catch me? Of course I want to know more clearly, this has nothing to do with me. If you have questions, ask your own people. Flies don't bother eggs that aren't cracked."

  "Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. I've found that you have a kind of radical sentiment against our country's society." Wang Juan felt that she really couldn't gain the upper hand on this issue, and wanted to change the subject, but Zhang Xiaobao disagreed, continuing to say:

  "I have never fought back, I just complained. I have never hated, even when I later found out that my biological parents were crushed in a coal mine and the compensation money was embezzled because I was just an infant. I didn't hate because I had Grandpa Dean, who held my hand to eat liangpi (a type of noodle). He also gave me hope for survival. From then on, I knew that this world is not only full of darkness and hatred, but also warmth and love."

  "What kind of person are you?" Wang Juan couldn't give Zhang Xiaobao a reasonable positioning at this time.

  "Just like you, with a strong sense of conviction in my heart, yet full of contradictions. That's the ideal and reality, I won't say anymore, I heard footsteps outside, I hope it's my family." Zhang Xiaobao said as he suddenly turned his head towards the door, and also at the girl who was still dozing off.

  "How come I didn't hear it?" Wang Juan's doubt grew heavier.

  "So you can't catch me." He replied with a sentence, but Zhang Xiaobao stared at the door without blinking.

  "Cherry, you're lazy again, I think you've got a thick skin." Along with the footsteps, Wang Juan also heard a scolding voice.

  "No, no, ma'am, I didn't slack off, the young master and mistress are asleep." The girl stood up in fear, bowing her head to explain.

  At this time, Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan simultaneously saw a woman in her early twenties wearing a pink and green dress standing at the door. Perhaps it was because she really didn't want to punish that girl, or perhaps it was because she saw two children staring over with wide eyes, changing her expression from before, smiling as she quickly walked up to them, looking lovingly at Wang Juan and Zhang Xiaobao, her smile without a hint of pretence.

  "Daughter?" Zhang Xiaobao was the first to react and asked tentatively.

  This is great! The woman immediately picked up Zhang Xiaobao and excitedly asked the girl behind her: "My baby will call me mom, Cherry, did you hear that?"

  "I heard, I heard, congratulations to the madam, the young master will call out for his mother." Cherry hastily echoed in agreement, this time finally not having to worry about being punished, the young master's single cry of "mother" could even exempt him from a death sentence, let alone just taking a nap.

  "Mother!" Zhang Xiaobao, seeing that he had indeed encountered his real mother, excitedly used those chubby little hands to touch the woman's face and gave her a big kiss, while calling out "mother" again.

  "Ah~! Xiao Bao, it's Mom. My little treasure is really sensible now. Cherry, go to the account room to collect your reward." Seeing her son like this, the woman's anger dissipated. In order to let others share in her joy, even Cherry, who was scolded earlier, can now receive a reward.

  As he spoke, he took out a string of things from his sleeve and pulled out a small wooden piece, throwing it to Sakura. Sakura hastily received it, looked at the wooden piece, and was even more delighted. This one wooden piece could be exchanged for a knife's worth of pork, enough for her family to eat well for several days. She carefully tucked it into her bosom, but didn't leave; instead, she stood guard beside him, waiting for further instructions.

  "Mother!" Zhang Xiaobao kissed the woman again with all his might, wanting to say more words to make his mother happy, but remembering his age, he could only repeat that one cry of "mother".

  Seeing this scene, Wang Juan's long eyelashes were filled with tears, and she couldn't help but shout: "Grandma."

  After shouting out those two somewhat nasal and shaky voices, Wang Juan finally came to her senses, wondering how she had been affected, and her heart was unexpectedly unguarded at that moment.

  Zhang Xiaobao saw Wang Juan so cooperative, originally wanted to shout another "wife" to make his mother happy, seeing Wang Juan's obviously somewhat regretful expression, had to shut her own mouth, he was afraid that after shouting, Wang Juan would respond with a "get out", that would be troublesome.

  The woman was no longer concerned about the attitude change between the two children, her son could call his mother-in-law, and her future daughter-in-law could also call her mother-in-law. The two children who originally couldn't speak suddenly became so sensible that she was excited and didn't know what to do. She casually took out a small wooden piece with "sheep" written on it and threw it at Cherry.

  "Take another sheep's hoof and go to the account room to collect it yourself. Did you hear something just now?"

  "Congratulations to the lady, heard that the young master will be calling his mother and the little princess of the Wang family will also be calling her grandmother. With the lady's arrival, both children have become clever." Cherry understood that she was specifically serving the two children, the more the adults were pleased with the children, the more rewards she would receive. She didn't expect that the two children who had never spoken before suddenly became sensible at the same time. Trembling, she took the wooden piece and thought about using it to exchange for some cloth to make new clothes for her father, mother, and brother.

  "Come on, I'll take you out to play and show them my precious sons, no one's children are as good as mine. Today, those mischievous kids even sent over some frogs. Mother has already had the contents cooked into a porridge for you two little ones to taste. And mother rewarded each of you with 20 eggs."

  The woman held Xiao Bao in one hand and picked up Wang Juan with the other, smiling and talking as she walked out.

  Seeing her mother reward the maid for the second time with a large number of eggs, Zhang Xiaobao finally felt the position of children in their mother's heart. He buried his head tightly in his mother's arms, forgetting his psychological age, and stretched out his small hand to touch Wang Juan's delicate nose, not feeling any pain even when he was bitten, those few small teeth had no strength at all.