Chapter 1909: You’re Leading Zaizai Astray
Little Taotie blinked, looking at her with a bewildered yet innocent expression.
Such an expression is very clean and clear.
But in this world, eyes that are too clean don’t last long.
The dormitory aunt lowered her gaze; she had been through the war, was accustomed to death, used to seeing deceit and betrayal, and was familiar with those cloudy pupils.
This is also one of the reasons why she is especially tolerant with young children, because their acting is so clean and clear.
Looking at those pairs of naive, innocent, clear, and clean eyes, as if they could wash away the deepest filth in one’s heart.
She is always forgiving and gentle with children whose eyes are clear, but is harsher with those whose eyes hide too much.
Punishing that girl back then, the method indeed was quite strict. After a hundred days of punishment, the child was emaciated, and many people criticized her, thinking she was too stern and impartial.
Some little boys who secretly admired the girl even tried to trip up the dormitory aunt.
But she never regretted acting that way.
Because the child’s eyes contained too many things: the desire for power, the greed for money, the hatred for worldly prejudices...
Copying Buddhist scriptures was to calm her mind.
Running was to use up the surplus "energy" in her body.
Not allowing her to eat was to reduce her desire for life.
If a person has too much desire for life, they will do many things to sacrifice in order to gain.
The dormitory aunt pushed the pink box towards Little Taotie again, "Take it back."
Little Taotie hid her hands in her pockets, unwilling to take them out.
The box was open.
She worried that as soon as she touched the box, it would suddenly produce candy in front of the dormitory aunt.
"Actually, you could have had many excuses, but you didn’t use them. You used the dumbest way: ’There are no three hundred taels here.’
The dormitory aunt sighed, speaking earnestly: "You showed fear, which makes people suspect this box is not simple."
"I... had an excuse?" Little Taotie felt as if she had long been seen through, and had no excuse at all.
The dormitory aunt laughed: "You could say there’s something in the box, but there’s a mechanism, and only by touching the mechanism can you see the things hidden beneath."
Little Taotie: "...But there’s no mechanism."
"So, you need to learn how to lie."
"You’re teaching me bad things." Little Taotie puffed her cheeks in anger, staring at the top of the dormitory aunt’s head with big eyes.
The top of the dormitory aunt’s head was opened with a bloom.
This was a bouquet Little Taotie had never seen.
Like a passionate red rose, but not quite, because the rose was tightly closed, like a bramble, but with many, many more thorns.
Like a combination of brambles, roses, and lotuses, like vines stretching long roots, with lots of backward-facing thorns.
It’s a flower, representing liking.
But it doesn’t seem like completely liking oneself, like liking with a guard up, also like keeping that liking contained.
Little Taotie tilted her head, confusion flickering in her eyes.
"Teaching you bad things?" The dormitory aunt shook her head amusedly: "Those who tell you not to lie are the ones teaching you bad things. This is the human world, not a divine world. I don’t know what the divine world is like, but I think it can’t be purely bright and friendly either."
"I don’t understand." Little Taotie’s eyes were even more confused.
The dormitory aunt put the pink crystal lid on: "I see, without the lid you wouldn’t take it, now that I’ve put the lid on, you can take it."
Little Taotie reached out to take it.
The dormitory aunt immediately took the box back.
Little Taotie wondered: "Didn’t you say I could take it?"