As Ding Yun walked out of the wet market, her hands full of vegetables, her younger brother and his deskmate Xiao Xi had already dropped off their things and gone to school. The wet market was bustling with activity.
At this moment, Ding Yun was quite certain.
She sensed another spatial fluctuation.
It was coming from the public restroom not far from the wet market. Clearly, if nothing unexpected happened, this should be the teleportation point for the two youngsters her brother had mentioned. Compared to the person Ding Yun had encountered yesterday, who had appeared directly on the street corner, these two youngsters were clearly luckier, their arrival being more discreet.
Moreover, they might have figured out the pattern of entry and exit, which allowed them to easily evade the rescue efforts of the Public Security Bureau.
They were probably slowly, on their own, coming to terms with this world.
The other one, thanks to Ding Yun’s kindness, had been delivered directly into the sight of the Public Security Bureau. Professional personnel would likely help him understand this world.
It remained to be seen if he would have a chance to go back.
As Ding Yun pondered this, two youngsters, still in ragged clothes and thin frames, soon emerged from the restroom and slowly made their way to the trash cans. People nearby saw them but said nothing, nor did anyone approach. They were allowed to easily approach the trash cans and take the things placed beside them. When the two children saw the plastic bags containing hot meals, hot dishes, hot steamed buns, and even clean clothes by the trash cans, their eyes visibly reddened.
They felt utterly unfamiliar with this era and the people around them. At the same time, they strictly remembered their parents’ dying instructions: never to be abducted, as it would be worse than death, and thus they were more cautious.
But these things did not mean.
They couldn't distinguish between good and evil in people’s hearts.
The experiences of the past day had already frightened them, and they were still a bit uneasy about coming here today. If they hadn't been starving, they would have been reluctant to come. Now, seeing what they had discovered recently, knowing it was by the trash cans where others discarded unwanted items, piled with things that clearly shouldn't have been thrown away, likely placed there out of pity, but deliberately stacked so as not to startle them when they found them.
How could they not be moved, how could they not sense the kindness?
However, out of caution, the two of them did not dare to do anything extra. They merely gathered the items into their hands, bowed their heads to the left and right, and then, with the things from beside the trash cans, they hurried away.
The onlookers were also deeply moved. Some who had placed steamed buns and pastries felt a pang of guilt, thinking that what they had given was not worth a special bow. After all, in current times, even beggars wouldn't specifically bow for money.
Most importantly, these two children were not like beggars. Anyone with eyes could see that they were genuinely pitiful, not pretending to be pitiful for money.
Nowadays, when giving money to others, most people would have their doubts. Is this person a scammer, or pretending to be pitiful? But when giving some items or food, most people with the means would not refuse to show a little kindness.
At the same time, although Ding Yun’s physical body had not followed, her spiritual power had specifically followed them.
She personally witnessed that when the elder of the two boys pulled open the door of the second stall from the left in the men's restroom, a surge of spatial power immediately emerged. After he opened the door, it was clear that on the other side was not the restroom, but the world they belonged to.
In an instant, Ding Yun could clearly feel that the spiritual energy in the world on the other side was more abundant than here, but it was mixed with extremely dense malevolent energy, yin energy, and resentful energy, and the aura of a declining imperial court. To put it bluntly, it was likely a world akin to "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio."
The court was chaotic, the dynasty was in its final years, and demons and monsters ran rampant.
Warfare erupted, natural and man-made disasters occurred, and the common people suffered.
No wonder the clothes of these two youngsters were more like ancient costumes. It seemed their world was still in the feudal dynasty stage. It was just that they were poor, and what they wore were simple, short garments that were also tattered. Everyone only saw their ragged clothes and didn't pay much attention to the style of their attire, thus failing to discern these issues.
At this moment, considering that the two brothers would likely return, Ding Yun confidently severed a wisp of her spiritual power and attached it to them, intending to understand the world on the other side through them.
After all, judging by the current situation, even if the two worlds didn't completely merge, it was highly likely that stable spatial channels would appear more and more frequently in the future. They would inevitably be exposed to each other, potentially leading to communication or even conflict. In any case, knowing oneself and the enemy was always the wisest course of action, regardless of what happened.
A few seconds later, the two brothers closed the restroom door again, and Ding Yun severed her connection with that wisp of spiritual power.
She could only head home with her groceries.
...
At this time, the wisp of spiritual power that Ding Yun had severed clearly saw the two brothers finally appearing in a mountain cave, and the restroom door they had closed had transformed into a simple wooden fence at the entrance of the cave.
Clearly, this was a stable spatial node.
The connection point here was the wooden fence at the cave entrance.
The connection point on the other side was the restroom door.
"Brother, so many things! Was the place we just went to the imperial palace? The people there are so rich! Not only did they throw away so much edible food, but today they even threw away so much steaming hot food and intact clothes.
If only Dad and Mom were still here.
They never even ate their fill before they died..."
While happy to receive so much food and clothing, Tian Xiao'er soon thought of his parents. Although their parents didn't starve to death, but were killed by bandits when their village was razed, it was true that they had never eaten their fill. After all, with continuous natural disasters and increasingly heavy taxes, some places had taxes collected for more than ten years in advance. It was already fortunate if ordinary farmers didn't starve to death, let alone eat their fill!
However, despite Tian Xiao'er's words, his hands were already quickly opening the plastic bags, intending to fill his stomach first. Tian Da Shuan quickly stopped him:
"Wait, don't eat yet. Later, I'll take a bit of each and put it by the small spring. Let's see if the animals that come to drink there every day have any issues after eating it. If they're fine, then we'll eat. Although those people should all be good people, it's better to be safe than sorry. If our village's only sweet water well hadn't been poisoned, we wouldn't have been so easily overrun by those bandits, and Mom and Dad wouldn't have died such a tragic death.
Have you forgotten what Mom and Dad told us when they protected us in the cellar? We must be extremely careful.
"We ate vegetable leaves the other day and it was fine..."
"Are you stupid? Those vegetable leaves were things they truly threw away and didn't want. How could these things be truly thrown away and unwanted? They were clearly given to us intentionally!"
"But if they kindly gave it to us, would they still poison it?"
"It's hard to say. Even if most people are genuinely kind, what if one of them put in some knockout drugs or something, and wanted to sell us? Our father told us that we must be extremely cautious about anything we ingest.
Don't worry, we'll be quick.
We should be able to eat soon.
Hurry up and help me. Tear off a piece of each dish and put it into this transparent soft glaze box. I'll test it for poison later. Until you get my definitive confirmation, don't you dare sneak a bite! It's not that I'm reluctant to give it to you, it's that I'm afraid of any possibility!"
"Got it, brother..."