"Officer Mo, please wait!"
Hearing this appealing voice, Mo Liancheng turned around in surprise to see a beautiful young girl dressed in a gorgeous outfit, smiling at him.
"Miss, are you calling me?"
Cai Wei laughed and said, "Is there another Officer Mo in this alley?"
Mo Liancheng still looked puzzled: "Miss, why are you calling me?"
Cai Wei stepped forward and pulled out a shiny, silver ingot from her bosom (actually from her space). It was a pure, finely-threaded, fifty tael patterned silver.
Seeing the silver, Officer Mo was scared and reflexively put his hands behind his back, took a step back and said: "Miss, what are you doing? The so-called ’no reward without merit’, we are strangers, I can’t take so much money from you. Why are you giving me this silver?"
Cai Wei handed the silver forward again and said, "Now you are in urgent need of money, and someone is giving it to you, just use it. Why bother asking these pointless questions?"
However, Mo Liancheng was still unwilling to take it and said seriously: "Even though I am down on my luck right now, I am not a completely unprincipled person. I definitely won’t accept money from an unknown source."
Cai Wei rolled her eyes and was both moved and frustrated by his magnanimous and stubborn nature. He has fallen into such a dire situation. Someone is giving him silver for free and he should immediately, hastily accept it. Why care about principles?
With this in mind, Cai Wei somewhat exasperated, somewhat amused, said: "Rest assured, I want to help you and your mother because I heard about your situation. Just assure yourself and take the silver. Even if I have any ulterior motives, you neither have wealth nor good looks, so there’s nothing worth me deceiving you about!"
When he heard her underlying sarcasm, Mo Liancheng blushed. After thinking for a moment, he seemed to consider that Cai Wei made sense and reached out to accept the silver, whispering, "I am grateful for your generous gift, Miss. Someday, I will certainly repay this with interest."
Cai Wei straightforwardly said: "You still need to buy a piece of pork for your old mother on credit, with what will you repay me? Before you can be sure of your own ability to become stronger, don’t make promises to people randomly, in case you embarrass yourself when you are not able to deliver."
Mo Liancheng pressed his lips together and whispered: "Thank you for your advice, Miss. You’re absolutely right, I will remember this."
His willingness to learn and adapt made Cai Wei very satisfied. If he had been obstinately proud and refused to take the silver, she would have turned away, no longer caring about his life or death. If he had, on seeing the silver, happily accepted it, she would have been disappointed in him. His character and attitude just happened to meet her wishes.
"Stop trying to thank me; take me to see your mother right away! In fact, I have some medical skills so maybe I can help treat your mother’s illness!"
Cai Wei laughed and said to Mo Liancheng.
"Really, thank you, Miss!" Mo Liancheng exclaimed in surprise.
"Pfft, there he goes again..."
Cai Wei laughed and followed Mo Liancheng into a shabby little courtyard.
The small courtyard was truly tiny, divided in the middle by a fence made from sorghum stalks. According to Mo Liancheng, the courtyard was rented for forty-five copper coins a month.
There was only one room in the house, with the kitchen built inside it. The stove had been smoked black, and the walls were full of mottled cracks everywhere. It looked rickety and seemed as if it could collapse at any moment.
At this moment, Mo Liancheng’s mother was lying on the kang, her body was so thin that it was just skin and bones, her pallid sleeping face bore a pained expression, covered with a torn quilt that showed the cotton inside and she had not yet woken up.