Chapter 2

However, the Buddha clearly did not know them.

After just two meals, the rice in Jiang Sheng's little sack was gone.

Jiang Sheng worriedly looked at the little young master, wondering where on earth they could find more food to eat.

Zheng Ruqian misunderstood, having just experienced being abandoned once. He clenched his legs together and trembled, "I can eat a little less."

As long as he wasn't abandoned again.

"I've got it!" Jiang Sheng clapped her hands. "Let's go to the market to pick vegetable leaves to eat."

The vegetable market on the east side of town was where the wealthy households bought vegetables, often discarding several layers of vegetable skins and only taking the tenderest hearts.

The poor families couldn't bear to buy vegetables, so they came to pick up the vegetable skins that had been thrown away. Although wilted, they were still edible.

Jiang Sheng also picked through the discards, but her cooking skills were poor. She could only hastily boil the leaves, barely making a meal.

"Actually boiled vegetable leaves aren't bad, but if we could sprinkle on a little salt, they'd be even more delicious," Jiang Sheng whispered to Zheng Ruqian. "Later you have to be quick and grab them, or we won't get any leaves."

Zheng Ruqian's eyes went wide.

How could even rotten vegetable leaves need to be grabbed desperately?

Later he realized that in the world of the poor, even rotten vegetable leaves were precious.

After going through a storm, the two children emerged from the crowd, faces smeared with dirt but holding armfuls of vegetable leaves.

Jiang Sheng's little braid was askew, and Zheng Ruqian's clothes were wrinkled.

But fortunately, they had both gotten a full harvest - a good two armfuls of leaves.

"Tonight we'll eat the most wilted ones, and we can still eat for two more meals with the rest..." Jiang Sheng was delighted.

But she wasn't happy for long before a teenage boy suddenly darted out from the side and grabbed away more than half of the leaves in her arms.

Then he turned and fled swiftly.

Zheng Ruqian was nearly in tears, those were leaves that they had painstakingly grabbed.

But Jiang Sheng was used to this. She touched her little braid with a sigh, "Auntie Zhang specially plaited it for me." "Jiang Sheng," Zheng Ruqian pouted. "Our vegetables."

"You'll get used to it," Jiang Sheng said as she picked up the remaining leaves. "They're a group of little beggars who roam around here. We can't beat them so we can only avoid them when we can."

And when they couldn't avoid them, they just had to take the loss.

In the world of the poor, the law of the jungle was pure and simple.

Zheng Ruqian's tears pooled in his eyes as he was speechless for a long time.

The two of them staggered along towards the ruined temple.

Along the way they heard people shouting "The Great Lord of Heaven and Earth has been locked up in prison" and "The retribution for the magistrate's framing has arrived," as well as cheers and applause from the crowd.

Jiang Sheng didn't understand why people were cheering. Although she didn't know the magistrate, Auntie Zhang had said the magistrate of Xieyang County was a good man, so why were people so happy that a good man had died?

Zheng Ruqian was even more confused. He just frowned at the rotten vegetable leaves, wondering if such ugly vegetables could really be eaten?

Jiang Sheng was almost back at the ruined temple.

She was excitedly looking forward to the green vegetable leaves that would soon fill her belly.

But when she turned her head, she heard faint whimpering.

Jiang Sheng wanted to pretend not to hear it, but Zheng Ruqian grabbed her. "Jiang Sheng, there's someone there."

Jiang Sheng couldn't keep pretending. She wrinkled her brow, "With just you here, I won't get full. If there's another person, we'll starve."

"It won't be like that, Jiang Sheng," Zheng Ruqian reassured her. "What if he has family who will bring us food as thanks?"

Jiang Sheng didn't believe that at all. The surroundings were desolate, who would be willing to leave their family member lying here?

Unless, there was no one left in his family.

Jiang Sheng's heart softened. In the end she put down the vegetable leaves and quietly crept over.

Pushing aside the dried reeds, she saw a boy in gray robes lying on the ground with his eyes closed, faint moans coming from his mouth.

There was blood on him, and his legs were bent at odd angles, a little like the kitten at Uncle Zhou's house that had eaten a poisoned mouse.

Jiang Sheng's heart ached a little. Uncle Zhou's family all disliked her, only the kitty was willing to curl up next to her and chat with her. But later the weak little cat had quietly passed away, and after that no one was willing to talk to her anymore.

Thinking of this, Jiang Sheng worked up her courage, brought over her water flask, and carefully fed him a mouthful.

Zheng Ruqian was worried he would choke, and laboriously propped up his head.

The boy suddenly sucked in a cold breath and cried out in pain, "It hurts!"

Jiang Sheng didn't know what to do.

If there had been an adult present, they would have taught the children to lay the patient flat, find a cart to take him to a medical clinic, and give him hemorrhage first aid.

But neither child knew any of that. They could only hold back tears and carefully feed him water, mouthful by mouthful, like feeding a dying kitten.

After a long time, the boy finally woke up. He looked around blankly, with stabbing pain in his legs. The unfamiliar surroundings and children reminded him of the accident. The boy whimpered as tears fell.

Jiang Shen thought she had hurt him again, and quickly told Zheng Ruqian to let go of his head.

With a thud, the boy fell back to the ground.

Eyes wide, for a moment he didn't know whether to cry or get angry.

"Big brother, does it hurt a lot?" Jiang Sheng asked in a small voice.

She remembered that a teenager in the village had gotten his foot caught in a trap. When the medicine man had removed the trap, the teen had shrieked in pain the whole time. In order to make him more comfortable, the doctor had knocked him out with a punch.

If this big brother was also in great pain, she would just have to reluctantly sacrifice her fist.

"You..." The boy eyed Jiang Sheng's raised fist and swallowed hard. "My legs are broken."

Jiang Sheng nodded solemnly. That definitely needed her fist even more.

Luckily Zheng Ruqian held her back and carefully suggested, "I've seen the aunties at Yihong Courtyard whose legs were broken. They all had to be taken to the doctor."

The boy inhaled sharply and looked at Zheng Ruqian gratefully.

But how could someone with broken legs be taken to the clinic?

Jiang Sheng discussed with Zheng Ruqian for a long time before finally deciding to "borrow" Uncle Zhao's cart.

Uncle Zhao had a bad temper, but he had a cart that was tied to a post at the village entrance.

Zheng Ruqian would keep watch while Jiang Sheng went to get the cart.

The seven-year-old girl had never eaten well, and her shoulders weren't much higher than the cart. But she put the rope over her shoulders and stubbornly pulled it forward, really looking the part.

With the two children's combined strength, the boy was loaded onto the cart.

The two seven or eight-year-olds used all their strength to pull and push the cart until it stopped in front of the town's only clinic.

"Doctor, doctor!" Jiang Sheng knocked on the door with hands red from rope burns. "My brother's legs are broken, could you please help treat him?"

The door opened, and a middle-aged man with a beard smiled.

Suddenly Jiang Sheng felt embarrassed. She mumbled, "But we don't have any money."

She had originally intended to trick the doctor into treating him first, then avoid paying through stubbornness. But the doctor's eyes were so kind that she couldn't bear to continue deceiving him.

"His legs are broken?" The doctor looked at the boy on the cart and immediately frowned. "Don't move, let me take a look."

First he carried the boy to a bed, then carefully examined the wounds before getting medicine and splints.

"Broken legs are serious." The doctor sighed. "He'll need at least three months of rest, change the dressings every half month, and try not to move him otherwise, but still prevent bedsores."

Then he carried the boy back to the cart, and added medicine packets for half a month to the end of the cart.

"Doctor," Jiang Sheng bit her lip. "We really don't have any money."