William Clark walked a while, then turned back to look at the young man's figure, frowning. Little Clark said calmly, "William Clark, you're acting a bit strange today."

"Xiaoyu, if there were suddenly a lot of people in this world who were way more powerful than normal people, what would you do?" William Clark asked. If that performer really had a problem, then did the flutter in his own heart mean that... he had a problem too?

"Of course, I'd just have to be even more powerful than them," Little Clark replied matter-of-factly.

After hearing this, William Clark pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled as if he had figured something out. "You make it sound so simple, but it actually makes sense. Come on, let's go home."

Little Clark muttered to herself, "William Clark, you're so weak, you definitely can't do it. You get out of breath after playing basketball with your classmates for just five minutes. But it's fine, even if you can't, I can! From now on, I'll protect you, and you just need to cook for me!"

"Heh." William Clark said with a dark face, "Such inexplicable confidence."

William Clark and Little Clark lived at No. 4 Xing Shu Road, Luocheng, in what was once the legendary municipal party committee family compound. But that was decades ago. Now, the No. 4 compound was recognized as a slum. At this time, it was still single-story bungalows, shabby, with no gas or heating. No wonder people called it a slum.

William Clark and the others rented their place here, an 80-square-meter small bungalow. In this third-tier small city, it cost 500 yuan a month, not including utilities. The landlord had no intention of selling, just waiting for a good compensation deal when the place was eventually demolished.

They'd been saying for years that the place would be torn down, but nothing had happened because the residents were all tough to deal with.

A lot of people disliked it here, but William Clark actually liked it. Every house had a small yard in front, about ten square meters, enough to grow some garlic, chives, and the like. After all, buying those cost money too.

William Clark was short on money, because he was an orphan, abandoned at the orphanage gate as a child.

Little Clark was too.

Normally, if an orphan grew up in the orphanage and wasn't adopted by age sixteen, they had to go out into society and fend for themselves. That was the case for William Clark.

He'd always been frail since childhood—who would want to adopt a sickly kid?

As for Little Clark, she ran away on her own. The orphanage was used to it. In these times, little orphans who couldn't stand life in the orphanage often snuck out, stole, robbed, or begged. It happened so often that the staff couldn't even be bothered to call the police anymore.

The orphanage wasn't as responsible as those "model orphanages" in the movies. If a kid ran away, whether they lived or died, who cared?

William Clark had wanted to send Little Clark back to the orphanage. After all, she was in good shape and still young—someone would surely want to adopt her. But every time, Little Clark would just run away again.

Over time, William Clark got used to it.

Little Clark was a bit unusual. Compared to other kids her age, she was a little more mature. Of course, William Clark wasn't exactly normal either. It didn't show much in daily life, but that conversation with Zhiwei earlier was just a glimpse.

Their rented house was at the very end of a row of bungalows. As they passed one, a neighbor auntie was boiling Chinese medicine.

William Clark knew there was an old person in that house, tormented by illness for years. The neighbor auntie was the old man's daughter-in-law. The illness seemed hereditary—the old man was still alive, but his son had already been worn down by sickness.

The daughter-in-law was actually quite dutiful, taking care of the old man all these years. Mrs. Harris looked to be in her forties, with plenty of wrinkles, but William Clark could still see from her features how beautiful she must have been when she was young.

A woman willing to stay alone and care for her husband's father—there really weren't many like that in society anymore.

"Mrs. Harris, good evening," William Clark greeted her with a smile.

"Xiaoshu and Xiaoyu, you're back," the auntie replied with a smile.

But just as William Clark was about to pull Little Clark home, Little Clark suddenly squatted down and stared longingly at the medicine pot on the small coal stove. "Mrs. Harris, can I have a taste?"

Mrs. Harris laughed. "That's medicine, Xiaoyu."

Little Clark thought for a moment. "Then I'll just have a little sip!"

William Clark's face darkened immediately. "Come on, come on, stop making trouble. You can't just drink other people's medicine!"

How embarrassing! At William Clark's age, his sense of pride was just starting to grow, and having such a little foodie around was just too much!

That Chinese medicine didn't even smell good, okay?!

"Okay," Little Clark said, reluctantly walking on, looking back at the medicine pot every few steps, clearly still thinking about it.

From the house behind Mrs. Harris, a low cough sounded, followed by an old man's sigh: "It's good to be young."

Mrs. Harris replied with a smile, "Yes, it's good to be young."

Little Clark stopped looking back at the medicine pot and instead gazed eagerly at William Clark. "William Clark, I want instant noodles—braised beef flavor!"

Chapter 3: You're in Big Trouble!