Rebirth in 1980: The Farm Wife Makes a Comeback
Chapter 199: Kindness

Chapter 199: Chapter 199: Kindness

When she bought the small Siheyuan, she was short of US$ 20,000. Jian Zhiqing didn’t hesitate to give it to her; she felt that even if she had initially asked for US$ 50,000, he would have given it to her.

US$ 20,000 is a considerable amount in this age, enough to build a two-story house in the countryside.

Around nine o’clock, it was time for her to close up her stall. There were a few unsold scallion pancakes left, although the vegetables were sold out. There was also a burnt one, which she decided to take home to eat. Mounting her tricycle, she prepared to head home.

Exiting the park’s gate, she unexpectedly noticed more beggars around.

During this period, there weren’t as many frauds. If possible, who wouldn’t want a home, perhaps not rich, but with a roof to shelter from the rain and enough food for three meals a day, that would be enough.

Qin Xiangnuan remembered the leftover scallion pancakes she had, including the burnt one which was still edible, originally meant for her own consumption.

After thinking for a bit, she got off her tricycle, packed the remaining pancakes into a bag, then walked over to the beggars, squatting down next to them. They were quite elderly, their faces dirty and thin, their bodies nearly all skin and bones. They were indeed starving.

"I have some leftover pancakes, they’re a bit cold, would you like some?"

The beggar nodded desperately and said in a barely intelligible local dialect, "Having something to eat is great, thank you," as he tearfully accepted the pancakes from Qin Xiangnuan. Qin Xiangnuan opened her mouth, not sure why, but she felt a tinge of sadness in her nose.

"I sell pancakes over there," she pointed inside the park, "I start my stall at 5:30 in the morning. If you’re hungry, you can come over. I won’t charge you, or just wait here for the leftovers. There are only two of us in my household," and as she said this, she inadvertently thought of another person, who also seemed to count.

"Thank you," the man’s hand, holding the pancakes, trembled lightly, his skin like dried tree bark, making Qin Xiangnuan’s eyes slightly sore.

She remembered, in her past life, she was like this too. If it wasn’t for her determination to live like a human rather than a dog, a beggar, maybe she would have ended up the same way.

A lifetime of loneliness, a lifetime of hardship, all leading to such an end.

She closed her eyes, exhaling a murky breath from deep within her lungs, and when she opened her eyes again, the gloom inside them had also dispersed.

A lifetime had passed; really, let the past be past.

And she never felt so liberated, realizing that indeed, taking a step back opens up vast new horizons.

Really, she didn’t want to harbor hatred anymore, living well is better than resenting others.

She climbed back onto her tricycle, looking complicatedly at the grandfather and grandson. The grandfather feeding the pancake to his grandson who was not young, about eighteen or nineteen, resembling brother Hua Jun, probably with some mental abnormality, always smiling naively at people and devouring food eagerly.

Actually, she felt brother Hua Jun was much happier; at least he had a house to shelter from the wind and rain, at least his family owned some farmland, at least they had enough to eat.

She did not have the ability to save many others, but in the future, she thought, she wouldn’t take leftover pancakes home anymore.

When she returned home, she unloaded everything from the tricycle. The basin and vegetables needed to be cleaned, the pot too. Doing business, she thought, shouldn’t be arduous for herself nor others.