Chapter 485 - 499: The Slums

An Ning, in the passenger seat, looked at Jiang Xia, who was driving.

"Half for me?"

"Right. Your skills are the key here. I think the higher-ups want to make use of your technical abilities, which is why I suggest you take half of my share. Whatever they give, we should take it."

Jiang Xia continued, delving into a deeper point with An Ning.

"An Ning, your intelligence is beyond question, but a lot of things can change in an instant. I like to prepare for the worst. That’s why I’m advising you to take everything you can get your hands on. At the very least, it will all become leverage for you in the future."

"Having leverage and not using it is completely different from having no leverage at all. Do you understand?"

Jiang Xia was speaking from the heart, and An Ning naturally understood what he meant.

"I get it. Don’t worry, I won’t turn away any benefits that come my way."

"Good."

Jiang Xia didn’t need to say more. After they got home, the two went their separate ways.

The moment he walked through his door, Jiang Xia was still wondering, ’When will we finally be able to live under the same roof?’

He didn’t dare confess his feelings. He really didn’t.

’Forget it. I’ll just wait a little longer.’

A night passed, and An Ning went to take another exam.

After handing in her test today, she left the campus early, planning to buy some things to take back to her old home in Shili Gou.

As she walked, An Ning mentally calculated how many people there were and what would be a suitable gift for each of them.

Tallying it up, and including her eldest uncle’s family, it was quite a lot of people.

She first bought some fabric, then some ready-made clothes and shoes. Soon, she had bought so much she couldn’t carry it all.

She left her things at the fabric store and followed the shopkeeper’s directions to find a rickshaw.

As she walked, the path became a bit remote. Just as she was about to turn back, a very faint crying sound caught her attention.

An Ning followed the sound into an alley and found a little girl by a trash heap.

The little girl should have had her hair in two buns, but now it was disheveled and caked with grime. In the dead of winter, she was wearing sandals, and her pant legs were far too short.

"Little girl, what’s your name?"

The little girl was holding a small box. She tried to hide the cardboard container behind her back and said fearfully, "I—I wasn’t stealing. I wasn’t."

"This—I found it."

The little girl looked timidly at An Ning, her eyes filled with fear and worry, but she was trying very hard to express herself.

"I know. Are you lost?"

The girl nodded.

"I was chased. I ran really far, and now I can’t find my way home."

An Ning roughly understood what the girl meant. She had been mistaken for a thief and chased, running here to hide, and now she was lost.

"I’ll take you to the police station—Don’t be scared, don’t be scared, that’s not what I mean."

The mere mention of the police station made the girl try to bolt, but An Ning grabbed her and pulled her back with one hand.

"Stay still. Don’t move."

CLATTER. The little girl threw her hands high in the air as if surrendering, and the cardboard box fell to the ground.

"No, that’s not what I meant. I’m saying you don’t have to run. I wasn’t going to take you *to* the police, I meant the police can help you find your home."

"No, no!"

The little girl kept shaking her already messy head frantically. She seemed terrified of the police.

"No police, no police."

"Okay, okay, no police. Do you know where your home is? I can take you back."

The little girl nodded vigorously and said four words to An Ning.

"The West District slums."

’Slums?’

’Does a place like that even exist in Huaxia?’

An Ning didn’t know, but she decided to go see for herself.

She led the girl out of the alley, first finding a place to call Yu Zheng and asking him to pick up the things she had bought.

After hanging up, An Ning noticed the little girl’s curious and astonished gaze and asked, "Do you know what this is?"

The little girl shook her head.

"This is called a telephone. You dial a specific number and you can talk to someone thousands of miles away. This is the earpiece, and this is the mouthpiece."

The girl nodded, her eyes wide with surprise and shock.

An Ning took the girl back to the store, told the shopkeeper that Yu Zheng would be coming to get her things, and left his name and license plate number. While there, she also asked the shopkeeper for directions to the West District.

The shopkeeper gave her directions and kindly warned An Ning, "You should wait a bit. It’s very chaotic over there. It’s too dangerous for a young woman like you to go alone."

"Thank you."

The shopkeeper wanted to say more to persuade her, but An Ning was already gone.

An Ning walked with the girl for over an hour before they finally reached an area the girl recognized.

For the first time, the girl’s tone was somewhat relaxed. "Miss, I can find my way home from here."

"If I’m going to help, I’ll see it through to the end. I’m taking you all the way home."

An Ning insisted. The girl quietly said thank you.

But before they could reach the slums the girl had mentioned, a woman with a frantic expression rushed over. She first hugged the girl and cried, then checked her over for injuries.

This went on for about twenty seconds. On the twenty-first second, the woman gave the girl a hard smack on the bottom.

"You little brat, you scared me to death, do you know that!"

"Didn’t I tell you not to go out by yourself!"

"What if you disappeared too! What would I do? You’re the only one I have left!"

After hitting her several more times, the woman hugged the girl and broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.

The girl didn’t resist at all. Instead, she hugged the woman back and comforted her, "It’s okay... I’m back. I won’t wander off again."

"I saw a pretty box and thought I could sell it, that’s why I went to get it."

The mother and daughter cried for a while before being shooed away by a shop owner.

"Get lost! What are you two beggars doing crying here! How am I supposed to do business!"

"Hurry up and scram! If you don’t, I’ll douse you with water!"

The owner wasn’t bluffing. He really had a basin of cold water ready to throw.

The mother and daughter moved quickly; it was clear they were used to this kind of treatment.

An Ning followed behind them. She was curious about the slums the child had mentioned, and also about what the mother meant when she said "disappeared too."

Just then, the woman learned that An Ning had brought her daughter back and began to thank her profusely.

"It was nothing. I just happened to see her."

"No, no, I must thank you. It’s a good thing you were the one who saw her and brought her back. Someone else might not have."

The woman spoke with sincere gratitude, even pulling a handful of money from her pocket. It was mostly small coins, with a few low-value bills mixed in. There wasn’t a single bill of any significant value.

"Thank you—"

"Put that away. I’d like to ask a few questions. You can consider that my reward."

Although the woman, a scavenger, couldn’t imagine how she could possibly help An Ning, her dire financial situation compelled her to agree.

"Can I see where you live?"

The woman instinctively refused, telling An Ning, "It’s not that I won’t let you, but our home is too run-down. Besides, that area isn’t safe. It’s full of people from the lowest rungs of society."

"I understand. You don’t need to worry. I... specialize in butchering pigs. I’m deceptively strong."