TGCF || Heaven Official's Blessing Novel Extras [8]🏮

Ch4pter 245 - Extra - Lanterns & Riddles, Yuanxiao Night

After ascertaining that he was not dirty, he felt slightly relieved, and asked, “What is it?”
He thought, if the stall-keeper did not like that he had brought that sack in, he would
just place the sack outside. But the stall-keeper gave him another look, and shook his head, saying, “Pitiful. How pitiful.”

Xie Lian said, “Ah? What did you say?” The stall-keeper said, “On Yuanxiao Festival, a single person sitting at an outdoors stall
in the cold, eating yuanxiao, is too pitiful, surely.”

“……”

Xie Lian said, “Don’t be like that. Aren’t you making a business……”

The stall-owner did not speak to him further, but started collecting bowls. After sitting
for a while, Xie Lian felt that the people around him were studying him, or rather, studying him and that extraordinarily and unexpectedly large sack beside him.

The stall-owner’s daughter came over furtively, crouching down to poke at the sack, as though curious about what the bulky items in it were, and only going back after her mother had called a few times for her.

At this time, Xie Lian had yet to cultivate the thick skin which even knives and spears
could not penetrate [3], that he would have in the future. He could not help but use his
leg to kick the huge sack under the table, hoping to stuff it in a place where the passers-by would not be able to see it.

Alas, the stall was small, and its tables and chairs and benches were also small, such that it was simply impossible to hide such a thing. Xie Lian had no choice but to cough lightly, and do his best to ignore the gazes of the people around him.

He would get used to it. It was no big deal.
Suddenly, he remembered something, and hurriedly reached his hand into the chest of his robes and felt around. His expression changed as he thought, “Now this is even more pitiful! Not only am I sitting alone at an outdoors stall in the cold, eating yuanxiao, on Yuanxiao Festival, I don’t even have enough money!!!”

He had intended to slip away hurriedly, but just at that moment, the stall-owner came
over with a large porcelain bowl, and set it down on the table, saying, “Five bits of money.”

“……” Xie Lian felt faintly as though he was unable to breathe, as he said, “Uh……
I……”

He coughed a few times, his fist raised before his mouth, as he heard the stall-owner say, “Is it that you don’t have any?”

Xie Lian was just about to thicken his skin and stand up and scram, when he saw the large porcelain bowl being put on the table before him with a thud.

He froze, and heard the stall-owner say, “Forget it. Seeing how pitiful you are, I’ll give
you a bowl. I’ll need to close up the stall after you finish this, so hurry up and go
back. It’s Yuanxiao Festival today, you should be together with your family!”

“……” Xie Lian sat down again, and although he remarked to himself that he had nowhere to go back to after he finished this bowl of yuanxiao, he said out loud in a soft
voice, “Thank you.”

The stall-owner also said, “It’s so late out, and to go back this late on Yuanxiao
Festival is improper!”

His wife said, “He looks like he’s worked hard too, and will be leaving soon, stop scolding
him in the meanwhile. Miao-er [4], Miao-er, stop bustling about. Always having you come
over to help, it makes us feel bad. Come here and eat with us.”