Can I still be saved? [Transmigration] - Chapter 6

When Fu Hanzhou looked up, the violent impulse in his heart had already been suppressed. His dark eyes were distant and indifferent, devoid of emotion.

In the end, he didn’t take out the pencil sharpener blade.

As he reached for the dumpling, Su Yunjing suddenly pulled his hand back.

“What’s on your hand?” Su Yunjing asked, noticing the small hand was smudged with black powder that looked like graphite from a pencil.

Su Yunjing had washed his hands beforehand. He stood on tiptoe, leaning forward, and brought the soup dumpling up to Fu Hanzhou’s lips.

“You’ve got pencil marks on your hands, they’re not too clean. Just eat it with my hand.”

Fu Hanzhou was a clean freak, and his hands really were dirty.

But he didn’t like this person in front of him, he just didn’t want that chubby kid to benefit from it.

So he reached out with his other hand, took the dumpling, and bit into it.

That hand had taken over a dozen hits from the ruler; his palm was red and swollen.

Fu Hanzhou was used to beatings. He was tough and didn’t think much of minor injuries.

Su Yunjing saw it and couldn’t help but sigh.

He really hoped Fu Hanzhou’s father would come soon, take the kid home, and take proper care of him.

Of course with a better life, Fu Hanzhou could even see a therapist.

Fu Hanzhou was clearly hungry, but he still held himself with pride and ate with impeccable manners.

Su Yunjing had brought six soup dumplings, and Fu Hanzhou ate them all. He even finished the soy milk.

With the feeding mission complete, Su Yunjing didn’t stick around.

He went to the store, bought some bread and yogurt, and delivered it to the kid who’d fought with Fu Hanzhou.

It was the same chubby boy who kept asking him for candy.

The chubby boy was also put in confinement, but he didn’t get beaten much. After hitting him five or six times, the orphanage aunt stopped when he started begging for mercy.

He hadn’t had dinner either, so when he saw Su Yunjing, it was like seeing family.

“Can you stop picking on Fu Hanzhou from now on?” Su Yunjing asked as he tore open the bread packaging.

The chubby boy was starving. He grabbed the bread and started devouring it.

“I didn’t pick on him. He hit me first,” he mumbled through a mouthful of bread.

“You called his mom crazy. Of course he got angry.”

Somehow, word had spread, and now the whole orphanage knew about Fu Hanzhou’s background.

The chubby boy looked up and said self-righteously, “Well, his mom was crazy. I heard she was very fierce and used to beat him all the time.”

Su Yunjing looked at him, helpless.

Kids could be innocent, yes—but it was exactly that kind of ‘innocent ignorance’ that made some words especially hurtful.

He asked, “If someone called you a kid with no mom or dad, would that make you angry?”

The chubby boy stopped eating. His nostrils flared, and his eyes turned red.

“I do have a mom and dad! The director mama said that only the Monkey King didn’t have parents—he’s the only one who popped out of a rock!”

He got more and more upset, wiping away his tears with the back of his hand.

“My mom gave birth to me. I didn’t come from a rock!”

Su Yunjing patted his head. “See? It hurts to hear stuff like that. So don’t say things like that to others.”

“Otherwise, I’m not bringing you candy anymore.”

Hearing that threat, the chubby boy raised his eyes and looked at him for a long moment before asking in a serious tone.

“Are you gonna look after Fu Hanzhou from now on?” he asked with extreme seriousness.

Su Yunjing: …

Was this some kind of kids’ secret lingo?

Su ‘Cold and Ruthless’ Yunjing said, “Yeah, I’ll look out for him from now on. Tell the other kids—if anyone bullies him again, no one will get candy.”

He, the cold-blooded candy king, swore: if Fu Hanzhou got bullied again, the orphanage would never see another piece of candy!

The chubby boy snorted and took a fierce bite of his bread.

“You hear me?” Su Yunjing poked his chubby cheek.

The chubby boy is determined not to succumb to candy tyranny, unless…

“Give me one more sausage and I’ll agree.”

Su Yunjing did have a sausage in his pocket, but it was the cheap kind he bought for the stray cats—loaded with starch, and too much of it would upset the stomach.

“I’ll get you the Wang Zhong Wang brand tomorrow.”

Only then did the chubby boy happily resume eating.

Su Yunjing handed over the yogurt. “Eat slowly and drink a little of this.”

“You’re the best, Boss,” the chubby boy said, teary-eyed.

Su Yunjing: …

He only ever planned to recruit Fu Hanzhou as his one little bro.

But the chubby boy was determined to be his lackey, constantly calling him ‘boss’ all the time and completely surrendering to the power of sausage, bread, and yogurt, with no dignity left.

After he finished eating, Su Yunjing apologized to him. “You do have a mom. I was talking nonsense earlier.”

The boy looked up at him with big eyes. “Then where is my mom?”

“…I’ll bring you two Wang Zhong Wang sausages tomorrow.”

He didn’t have an answer to that painful question, so he offered sausages as an apology.

“Yay!”

“And you need to apologize to Fu Hanzhou too,” Su Yunjing said firmly.

Seeing how serious he looked, the chubby boy took a bite of his bread sullenly and muttered a reply.

After soothing the chubby boy’s longing-for-mommy crisis by using a promise of two top-tier sausages, Su Yunjing hugged his thermos and started heading home.

Passing by Fu Hanzhou’s room, he accidentally met a pair of pitch-black eyes.

Startled, Su Yunjing’s 23-year-old soul nearly jumped out of his 8-year-old body.

Holy crap, that scared the hell out of him.

The orphanage staff had not locked him and the chubby kid in the same room, most likely to prevent another fight, but the rooms were not far apart.

Now, caught red-handed by Fu Hanzhou while recruiting his enemy as a little brother…

Su Yunjing felt doomed.

This was a kid who held grudges. A little cool cub who only responded to reverse psychology and refused both kindness and force.

If he found out Su Yunjing was hanging out with the chubby kid behind his back, he’d probably label him an enemy too.

The rules of childhood survival were harsh and unforgiving. There was no room for a smooth-talking adult like Su Yunjing to mess around!

He was about to explain himself when Fu Hanzhou gave him a cold glare and turned away.

Su Yunjing: …

Even being a good guy is hard these days.

True to his word, Su Yunjing bought two Wang Zhong Wang sausages and secretly gave them to the chubby boy before going to find Fu Hanzhou.

It was almost the Dragon Boat Festival. The original host’s aunt had made a big batch of zongzi and brought some over to Song Wenqian’s place.

Su Yunjing brought Fu Hanzhou a small, neatly wrapped pork zongzi.

As a northerner, Su Yunjing preferred red date zongzi. The savory kind always felt weird to him.

The zongzi was just a snack. At night, Song Wenqian also made small wontons, served with pickled cucumber and fried rice cakes.

The wontons were bite-sized, their snow-white wrappers revealing the pale pink meat inside.

The fritters were golden and crispy, and when paired with tangy pickled cucumbers—chef’s kiss.

Su Yunjing even brought a soup spoon and kid-sized chopsticks.

With all the food laid out in front of him, the little cold cub stayed calm as ever.

“Not hungry?” Su Yunjing pretended to start packing up the dishes. “Then I’ll bring this to Chubby instead.”

“Go ahead,” Fu Hanzhou said coldly.

Su Yunjing: …

Since the usual bait didn’t work, he sat down and got

serious.

“I was just trying to talk some sense into him yesterday, so he’d stop giving you trouble. I’m definitely on your side.”

Su Yunjing said it with full confidence.