Put away your magical powers now!.

Chapter 267 [The Strange Child] (6200)

Chapter 261 [The Strange Child] (6200)

The child looked very thin—Chen Yan had often read the phrase "pale and emaciated" in books before.

But in this day and age, in the environment of China, especially in the cities, it's rare to see children who are struggling to make ends meet, unable to afford food, and with sallow complexions and muscular bodies.

But this child, it was obvious at a glance, was malnourished.

With her thin arms and legs, and a thin neck, her head seemed a bit big. Even with such a thin neck, it looked like it couldn't support her head, as if it might sway at any moment.

Chen Yan could tell at a glance that the clothes he was wearing were all old and ill-fitting, with outdated styles and a strong sense of patchwork.

To put it simply, Chen Yan remembered that he had a similar children's jacket when he was a child—the sleeves were already frayed.

The pants on the lower body look somewhat like women's pants, with small pink flowers printed on them.

It's just a bizarre and incongruous thing.

Because the child was malnourished, had very short hair, and wore clothes that were both unisex, Chen Yan couldn't tell whether the child was a boy or a girl after taking a couple of glances.

The person Zhao Shanhe grabbed was a man, around thirty or forty years old. He didn't look wealthy; his face was oily, he was rather thin, his hair was messy, and his eyes were somewhat cloudy. He had a resentful look on his face.

However, the unfriendly gazes from those around him made the man subconsciously less arrogant, but he still stubbornly stared at Zhao Shanhe with his eyes slanted.

"What are you doing! Let go! This is none of your business, why are you getting involved? Are you with this little beggar, trying to scam him? Are you trying to extort money from him?!"

Zhao Shanhe glared, about to say something, when the assistant narrating the scene shouted, "Don't make false accusations! We couldn't stand by and watch you go too far, bullying a child like that!"

Chen Yan glanced at his assistant. This girl had been polite and hypocritical at the dinner table. He thought she would protect herself, but he didn't expect her to be so loyal. Of course, it was also possible that she had misjudged his and Zhao Shanhe's identities and backgrounds and was trying to curry favor with them.

However, these are not important.

Chen Yan grabbed Zhao Shanhe's wrist with one hand and gently pulled his hand away, while pressing down on the man's shoulder with his other hand: "What's all the fuss about? Everyone can see and hear whether you're in the right or not. Are you feeling guilty for shouting so loudly?"

The man wasn't alone; he had friends at the table, a man and a woman who came over together. They seemed to be friends, dressed casually. One of the men looked a little embarrassed, as if he didn't know what to say, but the woman shrieked, "Who's guilty! You're the ones who're holding onto us! Are you looking for trouble?"

"What's going on?" Chen Yan ignored the woman and looked at Zhao Shanhe and his assistant.

Zhao Shanhe slowly said, "I just came downstairs to buy a pack of cigarettes after I finished using the restroom, and I saw this man bullying a child. This big man pushed the child down, cursing and swearing, and even broke the child's box."

Chen Yan raised an eyebrow. Several diners at the nearby tables were watching the commotion. Some were indifferent, but others looked indignant. Someone said, "That kid was selling popsicles. He sold them to several tables in the store, but when it came to this guy, he ate the popsicles and deliberately didn't pay."

"At your age, you have no shame whatsoever. You ate a kid's popsicle and then refused to pay for it? Are you so desperate you can't afford to live anymore?!"

The speaker was an older woman; judging from her accent, she was probably from northern China.

"Who said I'm not paying!" the man immediately retorted loudly. "I can't afford a one-yuan popsicle? I wanted three popsicles, but he didn't have any, only two. So I'm one short!"

As he spoke, he glared at the child squatting on the ground and shouted fiercely, "Kid! Tell me, do you owe me an ice pop?"

Chen Yan slapped the man aside.

He had a strong hand, and with one slap, he made the man stagger and almost fall onto the table.

Seeing the man's face contort with rage and his struggle to get up and curse, Chen Yan glared at him, pointed at him, and shouted, "Don't move if you don't want to get beaten up!"

He had already spilled a lot of blood, and even though he didn't want to cause trouble in the real world, his stern shout made the man tremble. His face showed a mixture of fear and anger, but he finally dared not utter a sound.

Chen Yan took a breath, walked over to the child, squatted down, and asked in a gentle voice, "Little friend, are you hurt anywhere?"

“…No.” The child raised his head, his big, dark eyes looking at Chen Yan. His tone wasn’t afraid, but rather carried a hint of stubbornness. He slowly said, “I didn’t extort money.”

"Hmm, what exactly happened? Tell me... Don't worry, I don't want to hear what he said, I just want to hear what you said!"

"Don't rush, I won't listen to him, I'll listen to you"—these words brought a glimmer of light to the child's eyes, and he stared at Chen Yan with wide eyes.

Finally, the child spoke, his voice not loud but steady and firm: "I'm here to sell popsicles. We buy them wholesale from the market by bike. Cream popsicles are one yuan each. Mung bean popsicles are two yuan each."

We rode our bikes for over an hour to bring these back in bulk.

When I sold it to this person, he asked for three popsicles, so I rummaged through the box and gave them to him.

I gave him two first, and he tore them open and ate them right away. But when I continued rummaging through the box, I found that the popsicles were all sold out. They had already finished the two I gave him.

I said I'd pay for two, but he said no, he insisted on three.

I said I didn't have any more, and he told me to figure it out myself. He said he would only pay for the third one when I got it.

It's so late, where am I supposed to buy popsicles for him wholesale?

I suggested we try something different, but he said no.

He just wouldn't give me the money for the two popsicles we ate!

The child's voice wasn't loud, but his clear, childlike voice was clear enough for everyone watching nearby to hear him perfectly.

After hearing this and seeing the scene, several people who were nearby immediately became indignant, and one of them pointed at the man's nose and cursed him.

"Damn! How can someone so grown up be so shameless? Is your family so poor that you can't afford to eat? You're even trying to renege on your debt for a kid's popsicle?"

"You're saving that two-yuan popsicle money to buy an urn, aren't you?!"

"Damn! This guy doesn't even look like a local! We don't have anyone this shameless around here!"

"Yes! They must be tourists from out of town!"

"Give me the money!! You're shameless for trying to steal money from someone else's child!"

"Such a young child, selling popsicles from shop to shop late at night, must be from a poor family. You must have a heart full of dog shit to do such a disgusting thing!"

"You're just a damn good-for-nothing, you're worse off than a dog, you had a couple of drinks and you're trying to get tough on a kid, huh! Trash!"

"Give me your money! Or I'll beat you to death!!"

Of the three, the man who refused to pay and the woman who had just been shouting looked terrified. They had clearly angered the crowd, and some of the male diners who had been drinking were already itching to fight, some even rolling up their sleeves...

The woman screamed, "What do you want to do! You want to hit me! I'm calling the police!!"

The third person, the man who hadn't spoken a word, kept his head down. He probably still had some sense of shame and knew what shame was, so he silently retreated to the side, trying to minimize his presence.

Chen Yan reached out and pulled the child up from the ground, then bent down to pick up the broken styrofoam box in front of him...

There were originally seven or eight popsicles in the box, but two or three of them were broken.

The others look unusable... The insulated foam boxes are all broken, and these popsicles will probably melt in no time.

Chen Yan casually moved the broken box aside, and to his surprise, it was Lin Xianyu who took the box from him.

Chen Yan patted the dust off the child's pants: "Your pants are torn."

The child lowered his head, instinctively wanting to say "no," but in the next instant, Chen Yan secretly exerted a subtle force, and a tear silently appeared on the child's thigh.

The child was taken aback, a strange glint flashing in his eyes, but he kept his mouth shut.

Chen Yan stood up and looked at the man: "Alright, let's resolve this matter."

"What do you want?!" the man was still bluffing.

"Not good at all. You ate two of their popsicles, broke their box, and there was something else in the box..."

“Eight sticks, there are still eight sticks in the box,” Lin Xianyu quickly interjected.

"Yes, two popsicles are two pieces, eight mung bean popsicles are two pieces each, that's sixteen pieces. A total of eighteen pieces."

In addition, you damaged someone's styrofoam box, pushed their child over the edge, and tore their pants.

You'll have to pay for the suitcase and the pants too.

"So, even with the popsicle and compensation, you just need to pay 100 yuan, and we'll let you go."

"One hundred dollars! You're robbing me!" the man and woman screamed simultaneously.

Chen Yan looked at the two of them and smiled.

That's great. Two shameless people. The woman is even protecting the man like this. They look like a couple. It's true that you can't sleep in the same bed with two different kinds of people.

"If you eat someone else's popsicle without paying, doesn't that count as robbery?" Chen Yan laughed.

"Nonsense! Who said I wasn't paying! I wanted three! He owes me one! If he gives me the other one, of course I'll pay! Can't I afford an ice cream?"

"Alright, enough of this nonsense. Here's a hundred yuan. Pay up and you can leave now. If you don't..."

Chen Yan glanced at Zhao Shanhe, who walked directly to a table watching the commotion and said to a customer with an indignant expression, "Friend, can I borrow a couple of your empty beer bottles to play with?"

The man was taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered and laughed loudly, "Take whatever you want!"

As he spoke, he handed over two bottles, then, after thinking for a moment, he picked up a beer bottle himself, stood up, and stood behind Chen Yan and Zhao Shanhe.

"Look, you see." Chen Yan's expression remained calm, smiling gently, but his eyes were coldly fixed on the man.

"Boss!" Zhao Shanhe suddenly shouted, "There are no security cameras in the alley behind your shop, right?"

“…No.” someone in the crowd answered.

Zhao Shanhe gave a malicious grin and stared at the two men fiercely: "Didn't you want to call the police? The nearest police station is three kilometers away from here. It's so late, it will take at least ten minutes for them to get here."

"Ten minutes should be enough for me to loosen your skin." Suddenly, five or six male diners in the shop stood up, glaring angrily at the three men.

at last……

The man silently took out his phone, glaring hatefully at Chen Yan. The woman next to him seemed to be out of her mind and about to shout something, but the man shoved her away, saying, "Shut up!"

He took a deep breath, his face displaying a fierce expression like that of a wild dog, both timid and baring his teeth.

How will the money be paid?

Chen Yan turned to look at the child, who silently took out a cell phone.

The phone is very old; it looks like it's been used for several years, and it's one of those cheap, low-end phones for the elderly.

This thing, how should I put it, even opening WeChat for a long time makes it lag.

The child skillfully pulled out the payment code, and the man scanned it to pay 100 yuan.

He looked at Chen Yan angrily, as if he were the victim, with a hint of resentment and grievance: "Is that enough?"

"Wait a minute." Chen Yan checked the payment notification on the child's phone and smiled kindly. "It's fine now, you can go. Wouldn't it have been better if you had done this earlier? You've embarrassed yourself and lost money."

With that, Chen Yan loudly laughed to the people around him, "Alright, alright, this guy has paid up! Everyone, let's let him go!"

The diners were only acting out of momentary indignation, and seeing that the matter was resolved, naturally no one held a grudge.

To Zhao Shanhe's surprise, Chen Yan actually went over and patted the man on the shoulder, and then patted the woman's arm as well.

As if speaking with a kind and benevolent expression: "From now on, when you go out, act like a decent person. Don't get drunk and act recklessly. And you, keep an eye on your man. Don't let him do such shameful things in public..."

The two men dared not speak out in anger, and were pushed out of the restaurant by Chen Yan, who seemed to be patting and hitting them but was actually pushing and shoving them.

Unbeknownst to the two, while Chen Yan was pushing and shoving them, seemingly trying to drive them away, he was actually secretly delivering two slaps and two "Fate Interception Techniques" to each of them.

Chen Yan rarely used the Intercepting Fortune Technique. The last time he used it was when he first started cultivating, when he was still renting a house and used it on his disgusting roommate.

The consequences... well, that roommate later ran into Gu Xiaoniang and supposedly ended up eating a whole toilet full of vomit...

Chen Yan's cultivation level is now vastly different from what it used to be, but he doesn't want these two to die; he just wants to teach them a lesson and make them suffer a little.

This kind of person isn't exactly a heinous villain—but they're definitely a bad person.

They are not extremely wicked, not because they have a conscience, but because they lack the ability to do even worse things.

The two of them didn't look rich or powerful; they were probably just ordinary people.

Perhaps they harbored resentment in their lives, but were cowardly, bullying the weak and fearing the strong, and dared not provoke those stronger than themselves, so they vented their resentment on those weaker than themselves.

Shameless piece of trash.

After leaving the store, the two of them didn't even say goodbye to their friend who had come with them, and quickly walked along the street.

Their friend, head bowed, quickly departed in another direction.

This person isn't a good person either. He sees his friend doing disgusting things and doesn't stop him at all, pretending to be dead and blind. But since he didn't do anything evil, Chen Yan couldn't be bothered to pay attention to him.

After the others left, Chen Yan turned around and saw that Zhao Shanhe, Lin Xianyu, and their assistant had all come out as well.

Behind them, the thin child stepped out, looking at Chen Yan with a strange expression in his eyes: "Um... thank you."

"Yes." Chen Yan accepted the child's thanks without hesitation.

Lin Xianyu sighed, "How old are you? Coming out to sell popsicles so late? How much money can you make selling popsicles? Don't your parents care about you?"

The child pursed his lips: "I'm... from Sunflower Welfare Home. The money for the phone and the popsicles I bought wholesale was borrowed from the director. I wanted to sell some popsicles after school every day to save money for my sister to buy a schoolbag."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xianyu couldn't help but open her mouth, paused for a moment, and then looked at the child with a softer gaze. She squatted down and touched the child's head. The child seemed to turn its head away, but ultimately did not move.

"how old are you?"

"Eleven years old."

Lin Xianyu frowned—this child seems to have had a hard life. Looking at his physique, he doesn't look like an eleven-year-old at all; he looks more like a seven or eight-year-old.

She has done a lot of charity work in recent months, donating money, schools, and buildings; I don't know how much she has done.

Having witnessed firsthand the suffering of humanity, the little fox, who was already kind-hearted, had developed a compassionate heart after seeing so many pitiful people over the past few months. She sighed and asked softly, "What's your name?"

My surname is Shen.

Just as the child was about to answer, a messy little head popped out from behind a tree by the roadside and timidly called out, "Brother."

This time, Chen Yan saw clearly that it was a little girl, about the same age as the boy named Xiao Shen. She also had little color in her face and was dressed very simply.

Xiao Shen immediately went over, grabbed the girl's hand, and frowned, saying, "Didn't I tell you to wait for me at the convenience store at the intersection and watch our bicycles? Why did you come here?"

"I... I'm a little scared because you haven't come for so long," the girl replied timidly.

Xiao Shen nodded and led the girl to Chen Yan and the others: "My surname is Shen, and my name is Shen Shiqi. This is my younger sister, Shen Shijiu."

After saying that, he glanced at the girl and said, "Nineteen, thank these older brothers and sisters with me!"

He pulled the girl along and bowed to Chen Yan and the others. The little girl didn't understand why, but she obediently bowed along with him, saying thank you along with Xiao Shen, but her eyes clearly showed curiosity.

Seeing that the girl was fair-skinned and much prettier than the sallow-faced, thin boy, Lin Xianyu couldn't help but feel even more pity for her and asked in a low voice, "Is your orphanage very harsh?"

Shen Shiqi slowly said, "Before, an organization donated money to the welfare home, and we were doing alright. But... last year that organization went bankrupt and dissolved. The director approached the government, but government funding is limited, and the director has also recently fallen ill..."

Lin Xianyu nodded and gave a wink to the assistant next to her.

The assistant, who followed Lin Xianyu, knew that the employer she served had been obsessed with charity work for the past few months. Judging from the current situation, she guessed that he was planning to follow up on this matter.

The assistant got the boy to leave his phone number, the name of the orphanage, and its address.

Chen Yan saw this but didn't say anything—he didn't interfere too much, just waiting for Lin Xianyu to follow up.

Although Chen Yan also wanted to help the two children, and even their impoverished orphanage, and although he had money.

But... isn't there a guy right next to me who's just there to farm merit points?
I spend my own money to help people.

It would be better to let Lin Xianyu spend the money, and I can also earn some merit and cultivation points along the way.

Suddenly, Chen Yan had a thought: "By the way, Shen Shiqi, your name is Shen Shiqi, so why is your sister named Shen Shijiu?"

“The children in the orphanage all share the surname Shen with the director. Seventeen and nineteen are nicknames the director gave us to make it easier for her to remember us. I am the seventeenth child she adopted, and she is the nineteenth.”

"Seventeen, nineteen... um, what about eighteen?"

"Eighteen years ago, he was adopted by a family." Shen Shiqi's tone was very cold.

On his youthful face, however, a complex expression appeared that was not commensurate with his age. He slowly said, "Families that adopt children also prefer to choose those who are healthy, cute, and good-looking."

He paused, then shook his head and said, "Someone came to adopt her before, and Nineteen had a chance, but she happened to be sick those few days, so she wasn't chosen."

These words came out of the little boy's mouth, but his tone was very cold. Chen Yan nodded silently. He could understand where the stubbornness and toughness in the boy's eyes came from.

Afterwards, Shen Shiqi and Shen Shijiu bid farewell to the group. Shen Shiqi then took his sister's hand and walked towards a convenience store with its lights on at the intersection. He then unlocked an old women's bicycle parked in front of the convenience store, and with his sister on the back, they slowly rode away.

The group watched the child walk away, then turned and went back to the restaurant together.

What the others didn't know was that after riding his bike for a few hundred meters, Shen Shiqi stopped, sat on the bike, and looked back towards the restaurant. His dark eyes revealed a thoughtfulness and curiosity that was completely incompatible with his age and status, and a surprised smile appeared on his lips.

(Interesting, they're not ordinary people after all... That man knows the art of intercepting fate. And the one wearing the mask has a demonic aura about him...)
Then, he chuckled softly, shook his head, and continued riding away with his sister.

·
Back in the restaurant's private room, Lin Xianyu was still holding the broken styrofoam box. She picked out the intact popsicles from it, tore them open, and put them in her mouth.

This top-tier actress, known for her glamorous looks and flamboyant style, was cracking popsicles and even picked out two more to hand to Chen Yan and Zhao Shanhe.

"You're planning to go to that orphanage tomorrow, right?"

"Click click click... That's right."

"I'll go with you tomorrow."

"Click click click... Okay, okay."

Well, Chen Yan sighed. He had almost forgotten that this little fox was a real glutton.

"Teacher Chen, why are you interested in getting involved in this? Crunch crunch crunch..." Lin Xianyu had already quickly finished one popsicle, and then quickly tore open another one.

Chen Yan smiled but didn't say anything.

The little boy named Shen Shiqi had a kind of temperament that Chen Yan was very familiar with.

and……

I look a lot like myself more than ten years ago.

Indifference, stubbornness, and... loneliness.

Distrust the world, and... treat the world with indifference.

·
(End of this chapter)