64 Petty Thief (2/2)

Since when did I become the bad guy? I lowered my head in surprise, and found a little girl around the age of four or five with big eyes staring at me. Her face was full of tears, and had kept hitting me with her pink and tender little fists.

From the house, suddenly came a hoarse voice, ”Who has come this time? Diu Diu, did you steal other people's stuff again?”

”No! I didn't steal, so don't fret mother.” The youth hurriedly shouted, and did not stop trying to free himself from my hands.

This…..how did this happen? We were all perplexed at this current development, did the 60 plus years old woman really give birth to a child?

Shao Zhong walked forward, approached me, and made the me who was still in a daze to release the youth. The young boy named Diu Diu immediately layed on the ground and stared at the medicine with a face full of pain. Tears also began to roll down his face and onto the ground.

I didn't know what to do, so I embarrassingly opened my mouth, ”That…..I…..how did this happen…..”

Diu Diu wiped his reddened eyes and cleaned his face from his tears. His face had a smile as he touched the little girl's head and said, ”Douzi be good, Gege is alright, it's just friends that came to look for me, so go and play with Xiaohu Zi off to the side.”

Douzi was a bit skeptical and turned her head to stare at us. Shao Zhong and Jian Nan immediately nodded, ”We came to look for your Gege for some stuff.” Thus she happily ran out the door.

Diu Diu did not make us wait and lead us inside the house. I quickly went inside to take a look, and was surprised that in this small little house, there was a flat wooden bed on the ground, and on that wooden bed was a wrinkly and old lady. This old lady had tears in her eyes, and with trembling and shaking hands, she pointed at Diu Diu's nose and scolded, ”You child, where did you get the money to buy medicine? You must've stole it from other people, right? Speak!”

Shao Zhong and the others also came over to take a peek, but were only able to see Diu Diu fixing the old lady's quilt. He said, ”Mother, what kind of words are those? This money was bestowed upon me by the lords earlier, Diu Diu is filial, so he went to buy medicine with it.”

”Then…..how come I heard a ruckus from the outside?” The old lady was skeptical.

”They were just joking with me, it's alright, it's alright. See, there's no more ruckus, right?”

”It's my fault that I have dragged you with me, if I had died earlier, then wouldn't it be better?” The old lady was unable to put her finger down, she half-closed her eyes and stared at the ceiling, and then fell into a deep slumber under Diu Diu's coaxing.

Seeing that she had peacefully fell asleep, Diu Diu finally came out, brought us to a small room, and whispered, ”Lords, even if you guys want to take back that money, it's not possible. I took the money to buy medicine, and right now, it's all on the ground, so can you guys please let me off the hook?”

”Why is your mother so old? And why is the child so young?” Shao Zhong asked the thoughts that were bottled in everyone's hearts.

”This…..so it was for this…..” Diu Diu let out a sigh and told us about the whole matter. That old granny, surname Chen, was a detached widow, and her husband had died long ago. She normally lived off of doing needlework. Diu Diu and Douzi were orphans that were kindly picked up and raised by her, they had long since regarded her as their biological mother.

”Mother was paralyzed and started coughing up blood half a year ago. To treat her illness, all of our savings were spent, and because we really didn't have any choice, we started stealing…..” Diu Diu explained to us, ”I really didn't trick you guys, and I've never once said that Douzi was my child…..so please just forgive me, and if you aren't willing, then you can beat me once, but please don't send me to the government office (yamen), the two of them still need me to take care of them…..”

After he finished speaking, he lowered his head in silence. Jian Nan and Luo Luo appeared to be familiar with these sort of things, but Shao Zhong and I who have never experience what it was to be in poverty were forced into being quiet, not knowing what to do…..