Perhaps he was too surprised to see me here, and tried to sit up but failed. He scowled hard due to the pain on his left knee.

“My foot……..” His eyes widened. “Where is my left foot!? Damn it! Where is it!?”

His tears rolled down, and sobbed with shaking shoulders.

Now he looked like a normal ten year old instead of a mischievous and selfish bully. I didn’t want to reassure him either, because it wasn’t like I could help him to survive this place. No one wanted to care for him, and no one even gave a merciful stare over this little dark corner. After I die, he sure wouldn’t last long either.

“You! Tell me, where is Leo!” Rene screamed at me.

He was sure full of energy, which I was lacking.

“Has anyone ever taught you how to speak politely?” I uttered weakly, and lay my back against the boulder. “Of course no, right, otherwise you wouldn’t turn out to be such a brat.”

His face burst with anger. “You have no right to talk to me like this! I am asking for Leo, hurry and go find him, or you will be dead!”

I chuckled a little, and rested my eyes. “Yeah, right, even if you don’t threaten me like that, I will be dead in a few more days. By then, you will follow soon, and hopefully we won’t meet each other in the Heavenly Realm, for I don’t want to see you either. By the way, your bro Leo has never come here even for half of a second. Who knows what he’s up to now, probably enjoying his steam buns and drinking wine with the rest of the gang. If you are so curious, go find him yourself.”

Rene’s eyes sunken, and was stunned for a minute, and then returned to normal.

“Those bastards! Now I have lost a leg, I am no use to them anymore. That’s all they can do!”

Then he was silent.

I sat on the ground, smelling the steam buns in the air. It was dinner time. It sounded like there was breakfast and lunch before that, but oh no, it was more like there was no other word to describe this only meal of the day other than “dinner.”

Rene stared at the leaf in my hands, and grumbled like a mad pig, “Was that you taking care of me all this time?”

“Everyone helped to drag you out of the collapse, not just me.”

“So you did feed me water.”

He gave me a cold stare. “Such an idiot!”

Did I just hear something wrong!?

Did that brat just freaking call me an idiot, when I fed him water for two whole days!

Oh dear, I was weak, but yet, I was bursting in hot flames as well!

I held the leaf close to my mouth and gobbled every single drop of water down, then threw it on the ground.

“Now I have no strength to go to the spring. Don’t expect anyone to come save you either, guess who will get dehydrated first and dry up like a jellyfish on a seashore.”

Rene seemed to regret his words, but couldn’t lose face to a girl.

“I didn’t say anything wrong! Who would be so dumb to save a deeply injured person in the Underground? Even Leo has given me up, I am no use to anyone now. Why don’t you just let me die peacefully! Why do you save me just to suffer more!”

I was astonished by his words because I thought what I was doing was right. How could saving someone be a wrongful act? Now he reminded me of the cruelty laying in front of him. He was right, no one would come help him now, so there was really no hope.

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Still, he was a young boy, why give up so easily?

I stared at him. “Is that all you have got? I can’t believe these words come out from a little young brat like you. It’s easy to die, but it’s hard to live, so why give up so easily? You may think it’s a dead end road now, but without reaching the end, how can you be certain there are no more paths ahead?”

His eyes glittered, and quickly twisted his lips.

“You look like you are half dead already, I don’t know how the hell you can be so optimistic.”

“Then you tell me, what else can we do other than being optimistic?”

He went silent for a long moment, and then uttered quietly.

“Sorry……….”

I must have mistaken my own ears.

“What? What did you say?”

“I apologize for what I had done to you, okay? That I stole your coins and the wooden card, and gave you a tough time ever since day one. Still, don’t expect me to say another sorry!” His face was proud.

The little brat reminded me a bit of Iceberg, with that proud nature.

My stomach growled like crazy, and it hurt unbearably. Rene must have noticed my expression, and out of surprise, he pulled out a wooden card from his pocket!

Yes, a wooden card!

My jaws almost dropped to the floor, because I didn’t expect him to have a card while he was so desperate a minute ago!

“Take it, go get some buns. You can only take one, the other two are mine, alright! Don’t you dare to run away with my bread, or I won’t forgive you!”

I took the wooden card in my hands, and smiled lunatically. This little card was just so lovely, never in my life had I seen something more lovely than this!

Yes, I didn’t have much strength left, but after seeing this beautiful card, I seemed to gain a ton of energy.

Rene was saying something else, but I was already on my way to the line waiting for the steam buns. Time seemed to slow down while waiting for my turn, but it was worth every single second. It was food! Finally there will be food for my stomach!

That little brat still threatened me to not run away with the food, as if he actually had the strength to stand up with a missing leg to catch me.

The buns were snow white and steamy. They looked so delicious! When the three hot steam buns were put onto my hands, my mouth was watering like a dog sees his treat.

Oh, it smelled so good!

I didn’t know how I could eat so fast, and so mindlessly, like I was not even aware of myself devouring one whole bun in just a couple of seconds, until it felt as if a rock was stuck in my throat.

Yes, I choked myself.

I was eating way too fast, so I hurried and ran to the spring to get some water. After a while, the food finally went down. I felt alive again! Too bad I didn’t get to taste the yummy bread because I ate too fast. Maybe I should slow down for the next bun?

The devil side of me popped out, urging me to just run away with the rest of the buns. There were three in total, and I already ate one of them. Rene was injured severely, so there was no way he could chase me down. He was just a little boy and on his own, no longer a threat to me anymore. Plus they took the wooden card from me, it was my card anyways!

Still………..

Argh!

Why couldn’t I treat myself better!

I walked back to Rene to give him a steam bun. He must be very hungry too because he was eating almost as fast as me.

“To be fair, we need to split the last one.” I said.

“No way, that is mine, you already had one didn’t you?” He grumbled.

I stared at his missing leg and the bloody bandages, finally gave up and tugged that last bun in his hands.

“Fine, only until you get better, then we should talk about fairness. Slow down, or you will choke.”

Rene tried to slow down a bit.

As he was eating the buns, I was curious.

“If you have the wooden card, why be so hopeless earlier?” I asked.

He swallowed slowly.

“I don’t want to live with a missing leg. Those wooden cards won't solve everything, even if I am able to survive on them for some time, I won’t be able to survive in the long run. Plus I can’t rely on you either. You are so slow at cracking rocks, you can barely feed your own self, how can you look after me? You won’t in the long run either, unless you are an idiot. Everyone is selfish here, there is no selfless person that ever existed in this world.”

Oh, should I feel insulted or what?

This little boy sure was too pessimistic for his age. I felt mad and sad at the same time.

“Yeah, you are right, I sure don’t want to look after you, even now.” I said.

“Then why don’t you just run away with my food? Why do you come back?”