Chapter 20 – Heidi
TL: Milaryn
Edit: Fireclaws
TL Note: Bold text is spoken in English.
Turning the street corner, he saw that little girl again.
Every day, after Jiaming finished his homework at Lingjing’s home, they would watch some tv before leaving around ten at night, to return to the Huang villa. For the past few days, Jiaming had seen this black-haired biracial little girl in tattered clothing watching him hesitantly from behind a streetlight.
The first time he saw the little girl was during the evening three days ago.
Jianghai City was a large town and even though this street was close to the suburbs, when it was evening, it still could not be considered empty. There were several shops that were still open and there was also a street food cart nearby that stayed open until late. This was because construction crews worked around this area and they would come out in groups of two and three for a late-night snack. It was also at this food cart that Jiaming and the mixed-race girl had met each other by chance.
She did not have the doll-like appearance from a month ago; her current outfit was dirty and shabby – Jiaming realized her clothing were the ones Shasha had gifted them. There were traces of dirt across her face and she was still not wearing any shoes. She had cupped both hands in a begging pose in front of her, carefully wandering back and forth in front of the food cart. She would peek at the food cart occasionally and when she saw Jiaming, her nose twitched. A look of suspicion appeared and she put some distance between them before turning back to observe him carefully.
Her pale sparkling eyes had not changed from when he first saw her.
Jiaming did not know how the little girl had come to this circumstance. The first time he had seen the mother-daughter pair, he assumed that they were relatively well off because of their expensive clothing and the number of bodyguards they had. Because they were foreigners, they could have requested for aid at their embassy. Shasha had also given them some money which should have been enough for an overseas call. So how did they end up in this situation? Another question was… Where was her mother?
Jianghai City had been rapidly expanding for the past few years and on this particular street, there were several construction sites. There was one building site that was in the middle of being rebuilt, but it was currently stuck in limbo. Now, it was a haunt for homeless people and beggars; seeing the state of the girl’s clothing, Jiaming deduced that it was probable that she and her mother were currently living there.
He was not thinking about them out of the kindness of his heart. When he was an assassin in his previous life, he knew early on what kind of world this was. There were many people that needed help and sadly, he was just one person. However, when he met the little girl’s eyes, Jiaming could not help but feel a trace of compassion. She looked to be only around nine or ten years old – the same age he had been when he was taken in by the assassin group.
Over the next two days, whenever they saw each other, the little girl always timidly watched Jiaming from afar. Then, Jiaming stayed at the Liu family villa for the weekend. On Monday night the week after, Jiaming had played until late with Lingjing, so it was nearly midnight when he left to return to the Huang villa. The street was quite deserted and the street food cart was also preparing to close. The little girl was standing in front of the street food cart, both hands cupped together and attempting to talk to the boss with some difficulty.
Even if one was a genius, it was not possible to learn a new language in a month, especially since Chinese was considered one of the more difficult languages. The little girl could only stutter several sounds and the boss of the food cart was getting impatient with her. He loudly said, “Get lost, girl. You’re bumming around every day and I’m not running a charity here. Get lost, shoo…”
The two struggled with communicating before the little girl finally understood that she was not getting through to him. She turned and squatted in the ditch on one side and start sobbing, her hands hugging her knees to herself tightly. She glanced up at the street once in a while, but Jiaming was hiding in the shadows so she could not have seen him. Even though it was already summer, the heat had not arrived yet, so it was still quite chilly during the night. The little girl occasionally rubbed her feet to keep herself warm as she sniffled.
Jiaming watched her for a while before he finally sighed and grudgingly walked up to her.
Someone suddenly appearing out of nowhere caused her to raise her head in response. A look of recognition flashed across her face, but she did not run towards him in the end. In her heart, she believed that the boy was the person that had saved her and her mother that night, but Jiaming had always denied it.
Jiaming went up to the food cart and said, “Boss, are you still selling fried noodles?”
“Oh, yes, yes. Take a seat, it’ll be ready in a second. You came at a good time, I was about to pack up for the night.”
“Ok,” Jiaming nodded. “I would like three portions, one to go, thank you.”
He then waved at the little girl to come over. She hesitated, before her eyes brightened and she ran towards him, saying in English, “Mister…”
“Sit down,” he responded in English and pointed at the seat next to him. He took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders; then he gently wiped the stains from her face without saying anything else.
After a moment, the first plate of fried noodles arrived and Jiaming pushed it towards the little girl. Seeing her inhale the food, Jiaming gently stroked her back and chatted with the food cart owner, “Boss, does this little girl come by every day?”
“Eh, she’s been coming for the past few days. She looks foreign and it seems she’s waiting for someone every day. Yesterday night she didn’t wait though and just came to bother me directly without leaving. She was crying the whole time. Ugh, it’s a pity but I’m only running a small business, y’know? I can only do so much. Kid, do you know her?”
“Ah, I’m her distant relative. She actually just came from America, but she had wandered off and gotten lost a few days ago. We’re very relieved now that she’s been found.”
“Oh America huh, it’s a good place…” As the boss continued talking about how great America was, Jiaming absentmindedly nodded along as he poured a cup of water for the little girl. She had choked as she was wolfing down the food and he quietly said to her, “Slow down, the food is not going anywhere.”
“Mmm… thank you… mister…”
“Don’t choke again… What’s your name?”
“I… Heidi, my name is Heidi Tang.”
“Heidi Tang…” Jiaming repeated and nodded to himself; so she really was a biracial child.
After a little while, the other orders of fried noodles arrived and Jiaming split it up accordingly into takeout boxes. Heidi continued devouring her noodles like her life depended on it until she was satisfied. Afterwards, under Heidi’s lead, Jiaming followed her to the abandoned building which was what he had deduced.
In the last two years, a lot of homeless and beggars did stay there. But over the past year, Jiaming did not know that several floors had collapsed, so fewer people dared to stay there now. As the two of them arrived at the third floor and entered a dark corridor, there was a slight glimmer of light at the end of it. The little girl was just about to speak, when Jiaming suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth.
The faint sounds of a struggle and the weak cries of a woman could be heard…
4 / 5 chapters of the week (next release is tomorrow, Feb 10). Y’all get an extra chapter this week because it’s a “cliffhanger” ending XD
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