Chapter 51: This Child Is So Sensible It’s Heartbreaking!

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: This Child Is So Sensible It’s Heartbreaking!

The security guard was astonished to hear that Yun Zhen had also brought pork for his colleague. His first reaction was that the staff at Sister Zhang’s charity had arranged for her to deliver it. He simply couldn’t believe that a teenage girl would understand such social niceties.

But on second thought, that seemed unnecessary. Collecting scrap wasn’t exactly an official job. Sister Zhang’s charity had plenty of resources and could easily arrange suitable work for the children under its care.

When Granny Qin first spoke to him, she had mentioned that Yun Zhen already had two jobs at the vegetable market arranged by the charity. Collecting scrap was something the girl wanted to do on her own, which was why Granny Qin had asked him to make an exception and let Yun Zhen scavenge in their residential complex. The charity probably didn’t even know she was collecting scrap, so why would they orchestrate a pork delivery?

Did she really win a raffle?

What shocked him even more was how adept the child was at social etiquette. Perhaps growing up without parents had forced her to mature early, making her far wiser than any child he had ever met. A wave of spontaneous sympathy welled up in his heart.

Looking at her, the security guard let out a hearty laugh. "Child, you sure have good luck, winning two hundred catties of pork in a supermarket raffle! You’re clearly destined for wealth. I can help you deliver Teacher Qin’s share to her home. As for the other two bags, take them back and eat them yourself, or sell them to save up some money. My colleague and I don’t need any."

He truly couldn’t bear to take things from an orphan. As for his colleague, who had never even met Yun Zhen, he surely wouldn’t feel right accepting a bag of pork either. So, he politely declined on behalf of them both.

Yun Zhen thought this wouldn’t do at all. Reaching past the guard, she placed all three bags of pork on the long table at the entrance of the guardhouse. With clear, innocent eyes and a stubborn tone, she insisted, "Sir, I already brought the meat all the way here, so please just accept it. When your colleague arrives, please give him his share and tell him it’s a greeting gift from me."

What a good kid! She was so sensible it made his heart ache.

The guard wanted to persuade her to take the pork back, but Yun Zhen was already carrying her mesh bags through the gates to collect scrap. She had a lot to do today. Not only did she need to collect scrap for money and work her two jobs, but she also wanted to go to the "Da Xue City" Li Mei had mentioned to sell her crocheted dolls.

Once she made some money, she needed to buy two or three shovels. The accumulated snow in her village had to be cleared out. Otherwise, if the snow got any thicker, it would bury people alive. Or, when the snow stopped and melted, the water would flood the entire village. Clearing the snow was an imminent priority!

Like a busy little bee, Yun Zhen buzzed up and down, rummaging through over a dozen trash cans. Although she hadn’t come yesterday, there weren’t many extra aluminum cans or cardboard boxes. She guessed someone probably cleared out this type of trash every day.

Aside from cardboard and cans, she also found many lightweight, crystal-clear bottles. Each bottle was wrapped with a label featuring brightly colored pictures of fruit and other vibrant designs. She had seen them in the hands of pedestrians quite a few times before, usually filled with variously colored liquids.

"I wonder if these can be sold for money," she murmured.

Her intuition told her these hard yet light bottles were also worth something. After collecting the cardboard and cans, she gathered the strange bottles as well. If they could be sold for money, great; if not, she would just throw them away. Regardless, the bottles were practically weightless and wouldn’t cost her much effort to carry.

While Yun Zhen was inside scavenging, the security guard stared at the pork on the table with mixed feelings. He shouldn’t be taking things from such a pitiful child, yet he was afraid that refusing would hurt her pride.

He let out a sigh of compromise. He might as well accept it. After all, it was a token of the child’s goodwill. He would just have to tell his stiff, aloof partner to treat the girl better in the future.

Pulling out his phone, he first called Teacher Qin.

"Hello, Liu Qiang," Granny Qin’s voice came through the line.

The guard relayed the story of Yun Zhen’s pork delivery. "Hello, Teacher Qin. I have something to tell you. That little girl you asked me to look out for brought over three bags of pork today. She said she won two hundred catties in a supermarket raffle. Aside from what she sold, she kept three bags—one for you, one for me, and one for Chen San."

Chen San was his colleague who rotated shifts with him weekly; Granny Qin knew him as well.

"What?" Granny Qin asked in surprise. "Yun Zhen brought us pork?"

Liu Qiang rubbed the side of his head, sounding a bit distressed. "She sure did. I tried not to accept it, but she just dropped off the meat and left. I wanted to refuse, but I was afraid of hurting her pride. She knows you won’t be back for a week," he added, "so she asked me to drop the pork off at your house."

"That child, really!" Granny Qin was soft-hearted to begin with. Hearing that Yun Zhen had gifted pork to her, as well as to Liu Qiang and Chen San, left her feeling both touched and heartbroken for the girl. She let out a sigh. "Since she’s already given it, just accept it. From now on, treat her like she’s your own family and look after her a bit more."

Liu Qiang nodded in agreement. "That’s exactly what I was thinking."

Such a sensible child deserved to be treated well. From now on, he would consider her his surrogate niece. Granny Qin was in the middle of chatting with her old friends, so after a few more words, she hung up the phone.

Liu Qiang then called his old buddy. "Hey, Chen San! Remember Yun Zhen, the girl I told you about? Teacher Qin asked me to look out for her, and I told you to let her into the complex to collect scrap from now on."

"I remember. What about her?" Chen San’s intuition told him there was more to the story.

"She brought us pork!" Liu Qiang said excitedly. "And there’s a share for you, too!"

Chen San was stunned. Once Liu Qiang explained the whole story, Chen San sighed with emotion. "Kids without a family tend to mature early. Let’s look out for her as much as we can from now on."

Yun Zhen emerged, lugging three bulging mesh bags. "Sir, I’m heading off!"

"Alright!" Liu Qiang called back. "Can you carry all that, kid? Do you want me to give you a hand?"

"I can carry it, it’s not heavy!" Yun Zhen was incredibly strong. Even while dragging three massive mesh bags, her breathing remained steady.

She dragged the cumbersome bags forward step by step with a relaxed gait. She really didn’t look like she was struggling, but the sight of her still evoked a sense of sorrow.

"Chen San was right," Liu Qiang muttered to himself. "Kids without a home mature early. Yun Zhen is completely different from those pampered children."

Yun Zhen dragged the three large mesh bags to the scrapyard.

The young owner weighed her haul. "Seventeen yuan for the cardboard, and sixty-five yuan for the aluminum cans." He then noticed one of the bags. "You collected plastic bottles today, too?"

Yun Zhen saw him staring at the strange bottles she had brought back. "Can these not be sold for money?" she asked.

"Of course they can," the young owner said. "Plastic bottles are ten cents each. Ten of them make a yuan."

What? These could actually be exchanged for money?

Yun Zhen was ecstatic, realizing she had just found a new source of income. Ten cents each, ten for a yuan? Just ten bottles could buy a catty of refined rice!

The young owner held up a bottle to demonstrate. "In the future, when you collect plastic bottles, remember to crush them flat just like the cans. Tear off the label paper and unscrew the cap. They sell better that way." He sighed in resignation. "Since you’re a minor and were originally brought here by Granny Qin, I’ll let it slide. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even accept them when they’re brought in completely intact like this."

"I’ll definitely remember to tear off the labels and unscrew the caps from now on," Yun Zhen quickly promised.

The young owner nodded. "There are forty-nine plastic bottles in total, which comes to four yuan and ninety cents. I’ll just give you five yuan."

Holding the five-yuan bill, Yun Zhen let out a joyful laugh. "Thank you!"

She had earned eighty-seven yuan collecting scrap today. Once she sold her crocheted dolls and received her wages from her two jobs, the very first thing she would do was buy those shovels.