Aunt Shi was about to ask more, but Little Tiger had already twisted off the bottle cap, and suddenly, a fragrant meaty aroma wafted out, prompting him to exclaim with surprise, "Granny, granny, it’s meat, it’s shredded meat!"
This child was so smart; even though he was surprised, he knew to lower his voice when he shouted, quietly, yet his excitement and joy were still audible.
They had all thought it might be some small candies or dried fruit, types of things that such a small bottle could only hold a few of, but when they opened it, to their surprise, it was actually tightly packed with shredded meat!
It seemed to have been cooked, and it was very fragrant.
Though Little Tiger was sensible, after all, he was just a kid who couldn’t resist, and he immediately grabbed a few shreds of meat and stuffed them into his mouth, chewing them like a little squirrel.
Then, he pinched a few more shreds and brought them to Aunt Shi’s lips.
"Granny, you eat, you eat! It really smells so good! I’ve never eaten meat this fragrant before!"
Aunt Shi wanted to say she wouldn’t eat it, but the aroma from the shredded meat was irresistible, almost making her drool.
She couldn’t help herself.
It was only after the fragrant meat had entered her mouth that she remembered herself and quickly said to Chiang Xiao, "Hey, young lady, why did you give Little Tiger meat? Take it back, keep it for yourself to eat."
To just give away a whole bottle of shredded meat like that, this young lady was truly generous!
"It’s okay, Aunt Shi, let Little Tiger eat it." She could see that Aunt Shi’s family was not well off, with Little Tiger’s clothes patched up and his face somewhat sallow. He looked to be suffering from malnutrition.
"No, no, that won’t do," Aunt Shi said repeatedly, even trying to grab the bottle of meat away from Little Tiger.
Seeing Little Tiger pouting and about to cry, Chiang Xiao proactively handed the bottle over, but immediately felt a pang of tenderness in her heart and quickly pushed it back, saying, "Let Little Tiger eat, sister has more, sister is giving it to you because she likes you."
In the end, Aunt Shi too softened her heart. She just couldn’t bear to take away the meat from the child, who had such a rare treat, and she thanked Chiang Xiao profusely.
At this point, the family really was very poor.
However, Chiang Xiao was puzzled: both she and Tyrant Meng were Supervisor Guards in the same alliance, even the same large team, so why did Tyrant Meng, the first time Zhao Xin brought her something, directly stuffed her one hundred?
Looking at Tyrant Meng, one would think their allowances were quite good. So why did Aunt Shi’s family seem to live in such bleakness?
But every family had its own difficult scripture to read, and Chiang Xiao wasn’t really good at prying into others’ family affairs, so she didn’t ask further.
It took a long while before Hu Xibing returned.
He came back alone, and by the time he arrived, the sky outside was growing light, and Little Tiger and Aunt Shi had already succumbed to sleep, leaning on each other.
They were looking to save some money by not buying sleeper tickets, whereas Chiang Xiao just disliked sleepers on trains, preferring to sit.
"Brother Hu, was there a problem with that man?" Hu Xibing had just sat down when Chiang Xiao asked softly.
Hu Xibing nodded, glanced at the sleeping grandmother and grandchild opposite him, and also lowered his voice, "We’ll talk after getting off." He was quite surprised—how did Chiang Xiao know there was something wrong with that man?
As daylight broke, the train entered the provincial city’s train station.
Chiang Xiao stood up, stretched her limbs, and prepared to pick up her things and get off, but she noticed that Aunt Shi was still fast asleep with her head drooping, and Little Tiger’s head was resting on her legs, also asleep.