Chapter 83 (1/2)

Chapter 82: Slaughtered Pig For The Child As Promised (2)

Originally, Yue Qiang thought that Ai Qian was going to keep talking about his survival story, but he didn't think that he would say that the 'child helped him raised his Heart skill by one level'.

This was a Heart skill! The most mysterious and confounding Heart skill!

Yue Qiang himself had accrued many strict requirements before he finally self-learned a Heart skill, and now Ai Qian was telling him that his Heart skill leveled up just because of a skinny kid?

Moreover, judging from his description the kid was obviously an original inhabitant of this world at the bottommost level of society no less, incapable of even feeding themselves to full. From Ai Qian's use of adjectives such as 'worn out' and 'skinny', he could imagine just how difficult the mother and son's lives were.

Yue Qiang did not type anything. He listened quietly to Ai Qian.

”I was very cold and very hungry, but I still have some strength in me. I did not possess the money of this world, and my thoughts were basically to walk over and threaten them with the knife so that they will give me some dry and comfortable clothes to wear, and some meat to eat. However, when I sneakily walked closer to them, I overheard their conversation.”

”To the side several dozens of meters away from the mother and son, there was a butcher slaughtering pigs. The pigs' cries were very terrible, and so the child asked his mother, 'What is the butcher doing?'.”

”The mother was busy spinning cloth, and she answered without thinking, 'he's slaughtering pigs and cooking some pork for you to eat'.”

”The child was very happy after he heard this. His limbs were thin and small, but his stomach was a little swollen. It was obvious that he had been malnutritioned for a while. So when he heard his mother say the words, 'cooking some pork for you to eat', his eyes lit up so brightly that even his tall cheek bones did not appear as sharp any longer.”

”However, the mother's face looked bad when she finished saying the sentence, 'cooking some pork for you to eat'. At the time, she had answered without thinking because she was busy with work. There was no way the butcher would cook pork for her child, and the poor mother did not have the money to buy pork from the butcher either.”

Ue Qiang asked, ”But what does it matter? If the mother said something wrong, then she can just randomly make up another reason and deceive the kid.”

”They key is that the mother did not lie to her child. She put down the work she was doing and walked before the slaughtering butcher, saying, 'please give me some pork. I would like to cook them for my child. However, I do not have the money to buy your pork, so please accept my loom as the collateral.”

Ai Qian repeated every word the mother said slowly.

From the moment she heard of the mother and son and the loom, Yin had been wearing a pondering look on her face.

At first, Yue Qiang didn't quite understand the point of the story. But when he slowly and carefully thought through the story once more, he eventually figured it out. Then, shock and heartfelt respect rose from the bottom of his heart.

This mother's actions were very difficult to comprehend, but also very impressive!

She had said the wrong thing, and her child believed it to be true and was now waiting happily to eat pork. In order to not break her promise with her child, she had used a worn out wool to exchange for the meat!

Was this what the proverb 'one must be a man of his word and resolute in his work' meant?

To a person of this world, or should he say to this mother, was 'promise' such an important thing?

Was it more important than even the worn out wool that was the livelihood of the whole family?

Or was her actions not for the meat, and much less for some sort of personal 'moral fastidiousness', but only to educate her child using the right method?

Yin frowned slightly when she had heard the story. She seemed to have thought of a different matter.

Ai Qian paused for a moment before he continued to talk what happened next.

”I was holding a knife, and I had walked very close to the duo, ready to charge out at any moment. I did not think that the mother would actually use a worn out wool in exchange for meat just for the sake of not breaking her promise with her child. Perhaps the two of you deemed her actions to be highly admirable, but to me it was just a good opportunity.”

”Fresh pork; delicious pork…”

”Having starved for a whole day and night at the wild, covering myself with naught but a wet white cloth, experiencing the kind of cold and suffering that no man or woman who never experienced it could possibly imagine…”

”A bowl of meat… a bowl of meat that could fill my stomach, and warm my body… forget a 'promise', I would use anything I have in exchange for that!” his voice was still deep and calm, but Yue Qiang could hear a most primal and unconcealed desire to live from his tone. It was a kind of desire that could push one to kill anyone in order to ensure their own life.

”This was a good opportunity. This was a very good opportunity to me. I was not in a hurry. I was patient.”

The mother had exchanged a very, very large piece of pork using the worn out wool. Then, she took the kid and left the market, returning to her own shabby straw house. I stealthily followed them from behind, watching their skinny bodies walking slowly back into their house. I waited patiently until the pleasant aroma of meat came from inside. The mother had gone out to do something after she finished cooking the pork. I knew my opportunity had arrived, and so I walked into the house while wielding my surgical knife.

”My thoughts were very simple. I want meat, and I want clothes. The child's mother wasn't around, and the child was the only person in the house. I had strength, and I had a knife. If he isn't willing to give me the bowl of meat that represented his entire family's wealth, if he isn't willing to scour me some clothes, then I would kill him.”

”I would kill him! I would kill him directly! That was what I thought when I went in.”

Ai Qian then smiled self-derisively at this point, ”But G.o.d seems to have made a joke at my expense.”