ISBH - Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Making Money
"No one will hit you again! I'll try my best to protect you!"
"Mo Sheng, wake up! Don't be afraid, you're dreaming..."
Han Tian did not dare to touch Mo Sheng and could only speak words of comfort from the side in helpless confusion.
It seemed the soothing words of Han Tian had some effect, for Mo Sheng did grow quiet, though her cheeks were still flushed red.
Seeing Mo Sheng in this state, Han Tian felt extremely anxious, yet she had no physical form and was confined to within ten meters of the house, so she had no way to take Mo Sheng to the hospital.
Han Tian could only keep placing a wet towel on Mo Sheng's forehead, hoping the heat there would come down.
At some unknown moment, Mo Sheng opened her eyes.
The little girl's eyes were dark and covered with a thin mist of water as she curled up pitifully in a ball, and the sight filled Han Tian's heart with both ache and sorrow.
"Will you go to the hospital, all right?" Seeing that Mo Sheng seemed dazed with fever and had not noticed the towel on her forehead, Han Tian sniffled and softened her voice without thinking, "Turn your head and look. You have money now. Don't be afraid. If that Sixth Aunt of yours comes to bully you again, go tell her husband. She... she was with someone by the garbage dump at night..."
The pair of illicit lovers Han Tian had run into by the garbage dump in the middle of the night were the Sixth Aunt Mo Sheng spoke of and a worker from the construction crew.
Han Tian thought for a long time but still could not bring herself to say the words 'fooling around,' so she sighed, rubbed her reddened eyes, and said, "In any case, don't be afraid. Go get treatment without worry. If that Sixth Aunt of yours comes again... I'll help you find a way to deal with her..."
Han Tian chattered on for a long time, yet Mo Sheng showed no reaction at all, just as Han Tian had imagined.
After thinking it over, Han Tian felt that leaving the money beside the pillow where Mo Sheng slept looked too deliberate, so seeing that Mo Sheng looked dazed, she secretly dropped the more than 200 yuan in the corner...
After dropping the money, Han Tian tilted her head and crouched beside Mo Sheng, hoping Mo Sheng would get up and find it.
"Pick up the money and go to the hospital!"
"Hurry to the hospital..."
Anxious at heart, Han Tian could not help muttering aloud.
...
As if sensing the wish in the heart of Han Tian, Little Mo Sheng finally moved.
Mo Sheng lowered her long eyelashes, and the towel on her forehead fell to the side. Without noticing the towel that had slipped from her forehead, she swayed as she climbed out of bed and stumbled to the toilet.
Han Tian quickly hid the towel and kicked the money into the middle of the path.
Mo Sheng came out of the toilet.
Yet she seemed not to see the money on the ground and lay back down on the bed once more.
Han Tian was speechless.
Mo Sheng lay back on the bed and closed her eyes.
Han Tian had no choice but to bite her lower lip, pick up the money again, and place it beside Mo Sheng's dirty sneakers.
Surely Mo Sheng would notice it this time?
Yet Han Tian waited a long time, and Mo Sheng still did not open her eyes again...
Seeing Mo Sheng's tightly knitted brow and deep sleeping look, Han Tian blinked and finally could not hold back inner worry as she quietly laid her hand on Mo Sheng's forehead.
That familiar faint feeling of an electric shock came again, and Mo Sheng's forehead was frighteningly hot...
Perhaps feeling something, the little girl turned over lightly, as if about to wake up!
...
Han Tian jumped in fright and quickly pulled her hand back.
Fortunately, Mo Sheng seemed to have noticed nothing and turned over without waking.
...
Han Tian did not dare to touch Mo Sheng again and could only secretly pick up the wet towel that had fallen aside, soak it again, wring it out, and place it on Mo Sheng's head...
The furrow between Mo Sheng's brows eased little by little, and her breathing grew steady...
Mo Sheng slept for a whole afternoon.
The entire afternoon, Han Tian kept changing the towel on Mo Sheng's forehead.
Mo Sheng truly had a fever. At first she had only meant to pretend to sleep, but later she really fell asleep.
While asleep, Mo Sheng felt her body turn cold and then hot by turns, and her dreams were full of tangled and painful images.
Mother pried loose the hand clutching at her clothes. Her eyes were full of tears, yet her gaze was utterly resolute. "Mo Sheng, do you know why you are called by this name? Back then I sat out my confinement alone and had to do all the washing and cooking myself, while your Father spent every day lost in what he called his research... Mo Sheng, I truly wish I had never given birth to you, for then I would not have wasted so many years with your Father!"
"Shengsheng, I am sorry. Mother really cannot go on living like this..."
Then came her father with tears covering his face. Her father watched her gnaw on bread that was black on one side and shed tears of pain. "Shengsheng, I am sorry. It is Father who has failed you. Father will surely work hard to earn money and provide for you from now on..."
...
Then came the year Mo Sheng turned nine, when she ate birthday cake for the first time and tried making a wish for the first time, and she shouted aloud, "I hope Father will always stay just as he is now!"
At that time her father stroked her head with kindness. "Silly child, wishes must not be spoken aloud, for they will not come true once spoken! Still, it does not matter that you said it. Once the machine research of Father succeeds, it can make all the wishes of my Mo Sheng come true..."
"Even if Father vanishes one day, five years later I will surely come back to stay by the side of Shengsheng..."
Yet what Mo Sheng waited for in the end was blood gushing out across the main road...
No matter how she wiped, the blood would not come clean, and suddenly it turned into a huge whirlpool...
The whirlpool rushed toward Mo Sheng.
Mo Sheng gave a sudden shiver and opened her eyes.
...
"Grandmother's cradle sways and rocks, in dreams a train rumbles along, a kitten wears a bell on its neck..."
That female ghost was humming that song again!
Mo Sheng had no grandmother and had never seen a train. She had once tried to hold the little black cat at the garbage dump, only to be scratched hard by it...
This song could not stir even a trace of lovely fantasy in Mo Sheng.
Besides, the female ghost really sang this song terribly...
The lyrics were the same, yet the tune sounded nothing like what Mo Sheng had heard the day before!
If this were ancient times, her singing could never lure a handsome scholar in a ruined temple!
...
Yet as the gentle voice of the female ghost went on, the panic in the heart of Mo Sheng faded away little by little...
Was this the power that the female ghost possessed?
...
Mo Sheng pressed her lips together. She had thought this female ghost had no ability beyond chattering on and sniffling, and only now realized she had underestimated her...
...
Still, since such a female ghost existed in this world, did that mean her father had not lied to her? In a few more months it would be five years since her father died, so would her father come back as he had promised?
...
"Mo Sheng, now that you're awake, will you go to the hospital? If you don't want to go to the hospital, getting some medicine would be good too!"
"It's already half past seven at night. If you don't go out now, the pharmacy will close..."
"You're still a little girl, and your health matters a great deal. Otherwise you won't grow tall..."
...
The female ghost had started nagging again!
...
Still, was it already half past seven?
Mo Sheng blinked and only then realized the sky had already darkened...
It was time!
Mo Sheng took a deep breath and put on her shoes. She knew there was money by her shoes, but there was a part she had to play.
From the corner of her eye, Mo Sheng noticed the female ghost stir, as if torn over whether to move the money...
Mo Sheng pressed her lips together, lit the candle, and walked to the bedside pretending to tidy the quilt.
"How can there be money under the bed?" Mo Sheng asked in a hoarse voice, feigning surprise as she cried out, and finally picked up the money on the ground.
Mo Sheng herself felt her acting was exaggerated, yet that female ghost clearly believed it!
The female ghost smiled with eyes curved, a small dimple showing on her cheek, her eyes seeming to hold stars!
The female ghost really was rather pretty!
It seemed no one besides herself could see this female ghost.
But how could this female ghost be so foolish?
Mo Sheng bit her lower lip, truly unable to understand how such a female ghost had lived until now without being swallowed by bigger ghosts...
"Good child, go to the hospital early! It's dangerous outside with bad people about, and I fear they'll bully you again..."
...
Watching Mo Sheng walk toward the door, the female ghost clearly breathed a sigh of relief. She moved close to Mo Sheng and instructed her with easy familiarity.
Mo Sheng lowered her eyes and pretended not to see the female ghost, yet she tightened her fists slightly. Only this silly female ghost would think she was in danger! She looked like a smelly little beggar to outsiders, so who would set eyes on her...
Still, perhaps because the fever had muddled her, Mo Sheng found she did not really dislike the concern of this female ghost...
Mo Sheng blew out the candle and went out the door.
The sky had turned completely dark, and every household was eating dinner, so no one noticed the tiny figure moving through the buildings slated for demolition.
Mo Sheng did not go to the hospital first.
She spent 1 yuan at the corner shop on a pen, then picked up a sheet of paper from a garbage pile and wrote with her left hand the words "Someone saw Huang Juan fooling around with another man at the garbage dump," and quietly slipped to the window of the house where Sixth Aunt lived.
Huang Juan was the name of the Sixth Aunt who had kicked and beaten Mo Sheng.
That female ghost had stolen money, but there would be trouble later. Sixth Aunt would surely come back looking for it, and once she found the money, Mo Sheng would surely face a beating.
Another piece of news the female ghost had let slip gave Mo Sheng an idea. To keep Sixth Aunt from coming back, something else had to distract her!
Although the female ghost had not spoken plainly, Mo Sheng had spent years among the lowest ranks and knew both what she should and what she should not, so she naturally understood what the female ghost meant.
When Mo Sheng crept over, the husband of Sixth Aunt was cooling off in the yard.
Mo Sheng found the right angle and tossed the note over...
Sixth Uncle opened it with a dark face...
He was a man with a fiery temper and at once rushed into the house with the note, burning with anger...
Hearing the sounds of weeping and quarreling rise from inside, Mo Sheng finally felt at ease and took a side path to the pharmacy with peace of mind.
"Auntie, I have only 29 yuan and want to buy some fever medicine and wound medicine..."
After setting aside the small change for the pen, Mo Sheng did not plan to spend more. The remaining 200 yuan was a huge sum for Mo Sheng, enough to feed her for a year, and she meant to save it and spend it slowly.
An old lady was on duty at the pharmacy. Her granddaughter was about as old as Mo Sheng, and seeing the little girl in such a state, the old lady felt pity. She gave Mo Sheng a large pile of medicine and patiently explained its use, yet only took 10 yuan as a token and told Mo Sheng to come back to her when ill in the future.
Mo Sheng knew she had gotten a bargain, so she pressed her lips together and bowed earnestly to the old lady.
...
On the way back the night breeze was pleasant, and a few stars twinkled in the sky. Mo Sheng carried the medicine home, looking up at the sky, and for the first time her heart did not feel as gloomy and heavy as in days past...
Mo Sheng quietly curved her lips, for she had money now and would not starve in the coming months and would surely live to see her father return!
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