Chapter 157: Child, a Debtor’s Rival
After exiting the fifth municipal hospital in Huacheng, turning left and crossing the street via an X-shaped pedestrian bridge, there was a small shop that had been open for many years.
The shopfront was small and somewhat worn down, blending in with the numerous storefronts along the street, so it was rather inconspicuous. People passing by wouldn’t spare it a second glance, just like they wouldn’t notice the little girl sitting on the steps in front of the shop, eating ice cream, nor the young man beside her.
Qing Ji and Wang Ying eventually came to the hospital and meticulously checked their bodies.
After all, Wang Ying had looked incredibly frightening at that time, and the kindergarten teacher and the middle-aged woman didn’t dare to underestimate the situation.
In simple terms, it was a successful con!
Although Qing Ji’s understanding of modern society was still superficial, he was far ahead in terms of scamming others by hundreds of years.
You see, back when he was eighteen, he had already scammed all the elders and disciples of Dachunyang Palace multiple times, not to mention the time he spent traveling down the mountain.
At that time, in the turbulent lands of Z Country, one couldn’t survive without employing skills that would now seem a bit despicable and shameless; even spiritual ability users found it hard to get by!
Qing Ji opened the packaging and handed the ice cream to Wang Ying, saying, “Here, the strawberry-flavored ice cream you wanted.”
After saying that, a gentle smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
This scene reminded him of a long time ago when he took Luxue Bo out to buy popsicles on the street.
Back then, the popsicles were still hand-cranked, and the ingredients consisted only of syrup and a little bit of fruit…
Eventually, the father and son stopped going to the street to buy popsicles because they were too expensive; it was easier to use a spell formula at home, where a quick rub would yield dozens of kilograms of ice, making Luxue Bo the coolest kid on Mudan Street for several summers.
Wang Ying reached out her little hand, taking the ice cream with both hands, took a sip, and wrinkled her face in disgust before looking up at Qing Ji and complaining, “This is not what I wanted… I wanted that one… um, the twelve-yuan one.”
“We had a deal; we said that lying is for puppies!”
With a seriously cute expression on her little face, it was clear how much she was fixated on the twelve-yuan priced ice cream.
“Hey, little one, don’t frame me!” Qing Ji gently patted Wang Ying’s small head and said, “We agreed that you would pretend to be sick to scare that old hag, and after it’s successful, I’d reward you with an ice cream. But you almost gave yourself away just now, do you understand?”
“I’ve heard of people getting internal injuries, but I’ve never heard of someone being hit and developing rheumatoid arthritis and fatty liver.”
Thinking back to the expressions on the middle-aged woman and the doctor when they saw the test results, Qing Ji felt a pang in his head; if he hadn’t reacted quickly and swapped the test results, this incident might have ended up on the evening news in Huacheng.
Tsk, Luxue Bo was much easier to trick, Qing Ji thought.
“……” Wang Ying blinked her watery big eyes, staring at Qing Ji for a few seconds, then shook her head and said, “I don’t understand.”
“But, Grandpa Li and Uncle Ma have the same illness; why don’t they… spiral?”
“It’s ‘giving yourself away,’ not ‘spiral!’” Qing Ji pressed his forehead, “How old are they, and how old are you? Is that even comparable? Which four or five-year-old child would get rheumatoid arthritis and fatty liver?”
Wang Ying, “……”
Although she still didn’t understand why children couldn’t get those two diseases, she stopped quarreling with Qing Ji.
She stuffed the ice cream back into Qing Ji’s hand, then stood up and ran to the ice freezer in the small shop, tiptoeing against the glass, eagerly watching the “handmade strawberry cheese carnival” ice cream inside, licking her lips, until the shop owner came over to inquire.
“Little friend, are you looking to buy ice cream?”
Wang Ying looked up, staring blankly at the shop owner, silent.
“Little friend?”
It was only after the shop owner spoke a second time that Wang Ying stretched out her hand, pointed at the “handmade strawberry cheese carnival” ice cream in the freezer, and asked, “Auntie, have you eaten this ice cream?”
“Sure, little friend, do you want to buy this one?”
“No, my family doesn’t allow it.” Wang Ying shook her head and continued to ask, “Then Auntie, is this ice cream tasty? Is it especially sweet?”
“Uh… it is quite sweet.”
“Oh.” Wang Ying nodded and said seriously, “Then you must be very happy, being able to eat such sweet ice cream…”
From the way she said it… are you not happy? The shop owner hesitated, glancing at the expressionless young man not far away, then looked back at the adorably sculpted little girl in front of her, suddenly feeling a voice in her head yelling.
“Sell it to her! Sell it to her!”
However, when she looked back at the young man not far away, preparing to express her thoughts, her eyes widened in shock.
He ran away, not looking back, with an indifferent expression.
As if the little girl at the entrance of the shop had nothing to do with him.
Seeing this, the shop owner was taken aback for a moment and shouted at the young man’s back, “Hey! Your child is still here!”
“What? She’s not my child; I don’t know her. Don’t come to me about this; if you need to, call the police.” From a distance, Qing Ji’s voice came.
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Ying’s eyes quickly filled with tears, and before the shop owner could react, she burst into tears.
In an instant, passersby stopped in their tracks, turning their gazes to comment.
The shop owner, “？？？”
————
Meanwhile, on the other side, seeing the whole scene through the familial mark, Luxianbei expressionlessly raised his hand and rubbed his slightly swollen temples.
Although it wasn’t a good thing to get a child everything they wanted, wasn’t it a bit too much for the ancestor to directly leave Wang Ying on the street?
What if it left the child with a childhood trauma?
Wait, when did I start treating Wang Ying like an ordinary child?
Realizing the focus of the matter, Luxianbei’s tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly, suddenly feeling much more at ease regarding Wang Ying’s safety.
However, she still insisted on her opinion, thinking Qing Ji should buy that kind of ice cream for Wang Ying.
Not for any other reason, but because the Inheritance Beast, which originally had no restrictions on race or material and could eat anything, had now become fixated on eating a slightly more expensive ice cream; that was indeed a huge improvement.
That being said, it appeared that there was no communication barrier between the two; Wang Ying seemed to be less like the “silly child” she had imagined…
With that in mind, having Wang Ying help convey her thoughts should work!
Luxianbei thought to herself as she got up to check on Nanling Yaohua’s status, then returned to her bed, focusing on establishing a connection with Wang Ying through the familial mark.
“Wang Ying, Wang Ying…”
She softly called out through the familial mark a couple of times, waiting a few seconds until she heard Wang Ying’s voice.
“Eh? Is that Xiao Bei?”
Luxianbei, “……” That name was probably learned from the ancestor, right?
“What Xiao Bei, you should call me dad… uh, I mean, master. Do you understand? Call me with respect!”
“Oh oh, got it, Xiao Bei master!” Wang Ying replied, “Xiao Bei master, where are you? Why can’t I see you? I miss you. The ancestor didn’t buy me ice cream.”
If possible, it would be better not to add weird prefixes in front of “master”… Luxianbei thought internally, but hearing Wang Ying’s aggrieved yet reliant tone, she didn’t correct her, instead patiently explaining, “It’s a long story; I’m in a very far place right now…”
“Did you d*e?” Wang Ying suddenly asked, “Hmm… Wang Zichen’s mom in our class died, and then his dad told him that his mom became a star and went to a faraway place.”
“Did you also become a star?”
“I…” Luxianbei was momentarily at a loss for words.
She suddenly realized a serious issue, which was that while Qing Ji could communicate without barriers with Wang Ying, she might encounter some obstacles in communicating with Wang Ying.
Fortunately, this level of obstacle was still manageable.
“I didn’t d*e, nor did I become a star; I’m just trapped. I need your help to get out, and once I’m out, you’ll be able to see me; so… will you help me?”
“No!” Wang Ying replied seriously.
“Why?” Luxianbei was taken aback and asked, “Don’t you want to see me?”
“Hmm…” Wang Ying thought for a moment and said, “If you did something wrong, you should be punished!”
“Did something wrong?” Luxianbei asked in confusion, “What did I do wrong?”
“I don’t know.” Wang Ying muttered, “But only if you did something wrong would you be trapped, and then someone would have to come to get you, right? I did something wrong at kindergarten, and that’s how it was.”
“You need to be a good child and stay there; don’t run away, or the ancestor will spank you. Last time, when I was left in the office by the teacher and snuck away, I got spanked when I returned home.”
“So, you just be a good child and persist a little! I can see you later. I’ll go home and wait for you now, bye-bye!”
“……”
In silence, Luxianbei temporarily cut off her connection with Wang Ying.
She felt the need to pause and collect herself before continuing to communicate with Wang Ying; otherwise, the pent-up feelings inside her wouldn’t subside.
She suddenly understood why there was the saying, “Children come to collect debts from their past lives,” because if one isn’t careful, it could really drive one to d*ath, even if they aren’t biological children.
And the occasional cuteness children display is just a half-time break to avoid being stressed to d*ath all at once.
————
A little over ten minutes later.
Wang Ying merrily ate the “handmade strawberry cheese carnival” ice cream she had essentially scammed, returning to Lu Family Manor with light steps.
Holding a half-eaten ice cream, she tiptoed and pushed open the large door, only to widen her eyes at the scene in the small courtyard behind the door.
In the courtyard, “Luxianbei” was tied up, as if someone had doused her with water, drenched and with her head hung low. Her slightly pale cheeks revealed traces of tears, and her eyes were puffy as if she had just cried a lot.
After observing for a few seconds, she suddenly seemed to understand everything and patted her little head.
No wonder Xiao Bei said she was trapped and wanted my help.
So it turned out she really did make a mistake and was locked up!
Thinking this, Wang Ying looked at “Luxianbei” in the center of the courtyard again, then lowered her head to look at the half-eaten ice cream in her hand, hesitated for a moment, then jogged over and held the ice cream up to “Luxianbei”’s mouth.
“Here, eat this, but don’t tell the ancestor, okay?”
Although she couldn’t help “Luxianbei” escape for her mistake, she was still very willing to share her ice cream.
After several consecutive meals without proper food, and after being “tortured” by Ji Yunpei in an almost perverse manner, Gu Qiqi was in a daze and nearing her breaking point.
In this situation, with a cool touch against her lips, and the sweet scent of ice cream wafting into her nose, she didn’t think much about it and swallowed the remaining ice cream in one go.
The next moment, a thunderous cry erupted.
Following the sound, Gu Qiqi saw Wang Ying rolling on the ground, crying and making noise, and tilted her head, frowning slightly.
Where did this little brat come from? So annoying!
