Chapter 772 - 342: This Surprise Is a Little Too Surprising

The stall owner, a woman, had a haggard face and disheveled hair.

Despite her appearance, she seemed to be in good spirits.

She couldn’t quite understand this man, Xu Yun. He was well-dressed, yet he wanted one of her pancakes for free.

But she smiled and said, "Of course. One pancake isn’t worth much, anyway.

What would you like in it? How many eggs? Do you want some pork loin?"

"One egg and some pork loin."

"How about some vegetables and salad dressing?"

"Sure."

Xu Yun watched the woman as she started making his pancake. Behind her were two small children, a boy and a girl.

The boy was sitting in a rocker, while the little girl stood nearby, tethered by a rope tied to her mother’s waist.

He asked, puzzled, "Are those your children?"

"Mhm."

The woman seemed used to this question. She nodded with a smile and explained, "Sometimes I get too busy to keep an eye on them, and I’m afraid they might wander off. Tying her to me is just safer."

"What about the kids’ father?"

"He ran off."

The woman replied, "There’s no one at home to look after them, and I need to run this stall to earn money, so I have no choice but to bring them with me."

"Is your son sick?"

Her expression darkened. She replied helplessly, "Yes, he has a congenital heart defect. The treatment is very expensive."

"I thought the government provides free treatment for that kind of condition."

"My son’s condition is a rare type. It’s not covered by the free treatment program."

The woman said with a smile, "I just hope I can earn enough money to cure my son."

"You said yourself the surgery alone costs a lot of money. Trying to earn that by selling pancakes... that’s probably going to be difficult."

"But what else can I do?"

The woman turned to look tenderly at her son. "I can’t just let him die, can I? I’m his mother. As long as there’s even a sliver of hope, I won’t give up on him."

Xu Yun was also from a single-parent family, raised by his mother alone.

He understood that kind of struggle.

’A mother’s love is a powerful thing.’

"How much have you earned tonight?"

The woman did a quick mental calculation and smiled. "Excluding the pancake for you, I’ve made about 60 yuan."

As she spoke, she finished cutting the cooked pancake, packed it, and handed it to Xu Yun. "Here you go."

Xu Yun took it and took a bite.

She asked, her face full of expectation, "How is it? It’s good, isn’t it?"

"It’s delicious. I haven’t had a pancake this good in a long time."

Xu Yun wasn’t lying. It really was delicious.

"If that’s not enough, I can make you another one."

"No, that’s alright."

Xu Yun politely declined her kind offer. Then, he discreetly scanned the woman’s payment QR code with his phone.

He saw other customers arriving and said, "Well, you’re busy, so I won’t hold you up. I’ll get going."

"Alright."

The woman watched Xu Yun turn and leave, smiling to herself. ’What a strange young man.’

’From the moment I saw him, I didn’t believe he couldn’t afford one of my pancakes.’

’I don’t know why he did it, but I agreed out of kindness anyway.’

’Maybe he lost a bet with a friend?’

’Or maybe he really didn’t have any money on him.’

Just as the woman looked down to continue making a pancake for another customer, her phone suddenly chimed with a payment notification.

Curious, she stopped what she was doing and picked up her phone.

She saw that her account had just received a payment of 2,000,000 yuan from someone named "Young Master Xu".

Beneath it was a note.

"I hope I can still get a free pancake next time I come. It was really delicious."

The woman stared at the message on her phone, feeling as if she were in a dream. She was completely stunned.

’She couldn’t believe it was real.’

The male customer next to her, a vlogger who was recording footage on his phone, saw her staring blankly and offered a kind reminder. "Hey, ma’am, stop looking at your phone! My pancake is about to burn."

The moment he finished speaking, he saw the woman squat down and burst into tears.

The vlogger was completely baffled.

’What just happened?’

"Whoa, whoa, ma’am."

Seeing a crowd of curious onlookers gathering, he grew flustered. "I just told you your pancake was burning! I didn’t say anything else!

Fine, I’ll take the burnt one, alright? Just please stop crying. People are going to think I did something to you."

But the woman didn’t seem to hear him and continued to sob quietly.

Seeing their mother crying, the children beside her started crying too.

The crowd was getting bigger.

Facing the stares of the crowd, the vlogger explained, looking utterly helpless, "It really wasn’t me! I just told her the pancake was burning, and she suddenly burst into tears!"

Perhaps she had vented her emotions, or maybe it was because the crowd was growing, but the woman wiped away her tears. After composing herself, she stood up and said to the vlogger, "I’m sorry. It has nothing to do with you. It’s... it’s a personal matter."

"Ma’am, did something happen?"

"Yes. I met a very kind person."

The woman was now crying tears of joy, moved beyond words. "Today," she announced, "pancakes are on me! They’re free for everyone!"

The crowd was baffled.

The vlogger’s instincts told him there was a story here. After the crowd dispersed, he stayed behind and asked, still a bit puzzled, "Ma’am, can you tell me what exactly happened?"

The woman hesitated for a moment, then decided to tell the vlogger what had just happened.

The vlogger had already started recording on his phone.

When he finished listening to the woman’s story about a single pancake and saw her show him the massive 2,000,000 yuan payment she had just received, his jaw dropped in astonishment.