Enjoying Poverty

As Michael came out of the forest, he saw a young boy in shabby clothing and a haggard statue running towards him. "Mister, you are back!" he yelled, but his eyes widened in shock at the sight of the huge animal draped over Michael's back. "A tiger?! One of the strongest beasts in the forest? Mister, how did you kill it?" he asked excitedly while looking at the exhausted Michael.

At the same time, he pulled out a big piece of cloth to hide the beast so that it would not catch the eyes of greedy people.

Michael let Kaishi put the cloth over both halves of the tiger and continued to carry it. "It was actually very hard to catch any animal. In the end, I got lucky and found the already injured tiger on the edge of the forest. It died just as I passed by, so I took it back with me."

"You found an injured tiger? It must have been the Tier 1 spirit beast who injured it." Kaishi exclaimed. "How did it survive long enough to get to the edge of the forest? It is literally split in half," he questioned Michael. In his mind, whoever split the tiger in half had killed it. There was no way Michael found it injured.

"Don't sweat the details." Michael said, deflecting the question. "I found it injured, and it died. Now we got food for you and me. Just don't think about it and be happy," 

Kaishi wanted to know more about the unbelievable story Michael told, but looking at the exhausted Michael, Kaishi disregarded the idea. He already suffered enough to get the tiger. I shouldn't question him.

"It's not just food Mister." Kaishi instead said. "It's the fur, the tooth, and everything else. We can sell all the animal parts, and maybe we might even be able to live in the commoner district within the main city," he said excitedly. But suddenly he realized that he was just talking about taking Michael's "hard-earned" wealth. "I'm sorry, mister. It is all yours. You hunted it after all," he said while being ashamed of his own greed.

Michael, someone who had even less than him and his sister, and he wanted to take his self-hunted food and money away. Kaishi truly felt ashamed of himself. But suddenly Michael started talking again.

"What are you talking about, boy?" Michael patted Kaishi's head once again. "I just got lucky and found the tiger. I didn't do anything at all. This animal belongs to you and me. We are a team now, remember? I will give this tiger to you and your sister, and you can sell all the animal parts. I only want to eat the meat with you. Don't worry about leftovers, I can eat a lot. We only need to find someone who can cook this meat, so it doesn't go to waste, and then we can look for a new place to live if you make enough money." Michael said. 

Kaishi couldn't believe it. "Mister, is that really all for us? Am I dreaming? We will be forever grateful to you."

He is sharing everything with us? He is truly an angel for us. I can't wait to tell sister about him, Kaishi thought.

"Let's head home to my sister and tell her the great news! And you don't have to worry about cooking. My sister works at a small restaurant. She can handle whole animals and cook the meat. You will see, the taste will be delicious," he said.

Michael and Kaishi decided to head to Kaishi's place right away. As they walked through the slums, Kaishi nervously looked around. He never had anything worth as much as the tiger on him after all. Kaishi noticed several glances and gazes onto the big cloth piece, hiding the tiger underneath it. Although his nervousness was amplified by the curious stares of the passing people, he somehow had an unconscious feeling of trust towards Michael. It felt like with him around, even if someone wanted to take away the tiger, it would be just fine. Luckily, they reached Kaishi's house closely after without getting into any trouble on the way.

As they walked closer, Michael took a look at his new home. Although it was called a house, it looked more like a poorly built wooden shed. There was dirt all over the unstable-looking wooden walls, with small holes everywhere around the house. One could imagine that there would be little resistance to wind coming in and out. Everything made a creaking noise the second you used it. Doors, windows, and the floor were all in rough shape. Surprisingly though, it had enough space to sleep and even some sort of kitchen and bathroom.

"Not bad, right? The old restaurant owner my sister works for gifted her this house. He said that to work at his restaurant, she needed a decent place to rest. At first, she didn't want to accept the gift, but the restaurant owner said that if she didn't take the house, she would not get the job, so she had no choice and took it. My sister seems to still be at work. She usually comes back in the late evenings, exhausted from cooking and taking care of the restaurant." Kaishi said.

So this is considered a good house within this part of the city. It seems like everyone who is living here is poor. Her boss thankfully gave them a house but is still seemingly working Kaishi's sister to the bone. Furthermore, they can't even afford food from her hard-earned wage. It seems like in this place nothing comes for free. It somewhat reminds me of Earth.

Kaishi and Michael talked for a bit and started to skin the tiger as Kaishi's sister returned home. She was a little bit smaller than Kaishi and looked exhausted. She had a small frame but clean clothing. With long brown hair and a cute-looking face with striking purple eyes, she looked like someone one couldn't refuse. Although she looked cute, she, just like Kaishi, seemed more grown up than the children Michael had seen.

As she walked into the shed and saw Michael, she quickly turned around and started running without the slightest hesitation or panic in her eyes.

"Sister wait!" Kaishi shouted and ran after her. After hearing Kaishi's voice, his sister turned around abruptly. Kaishi couldn't stop in time and ran straight into her, resulting in both falling to the ground together, while Michael watched the spectacle with a wry smile on his face.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Mr. benefactor. I thought you were a bad guy who broke into our house," Kaishi's sister bowed and said after hearing the full story. "I'm Tianfu, but people call me Fufu or little Fu. You can decide for yourself what you want to call me. I'm so grateful to you, benefactor. Please let us know if you need anything from us," she bowed again.

"No need to bow, and I don't want to decide what to call you. Just say what you want to be called. You also don't need to call me benefactor, Mister, or any other name. Just call me Michael. Your brother wanted me as a teammate after all, so we can just call us by our names," Michael said smilingly.

The little girl looked up at Michael surprised. She needed some time to realize that he was serious. "Benefac... Michael, since you want me to decide what to call me, I like my own name Tianfu the most. My brother gave me this name, and I gave him his. It is the name I treasure most. Also, I'm already grown up. There is no need for cute nicknames," she said, while looking so cute that Michael couldn't resist pinching her cheek.

"I will call you Tianfu, but don't lose your childhood. I can't imagine what you both have been through, but try to enjoy your time growing up," he tried to convince them.

"No!" they said in unison, and Tianfu questioned, "What is so good about being a child? You are smaller and weaker than everyone. You don't get taken seriously, and everyone can exploit you. You live in fear of everyone, and you can only try to hide or submit. I wish I would grow up and be strong enough to work and protect us."

"Yes. I want to grow up as well and have enough power to always be safe and protect us," Kaishi added.

Michael sighed as he couldn't say anything against their wishes. They were children, but nobody ever protected them or took care of them. They were trapped without any way to escape their situation, so it was natural it would be better for them to grow up quickly.

"Since we are a team now, of course I will protect you, so try to be more childish from now on. You are children after all. More importantly though, I heard you can cook Tianfu. Can you cook something delicious out of the tiger flesh?" 

Michael didn't want to talk too much about his help, he only wanted to make the children happy and finally eat some meat. 

"Michael, will you really protect us for only teaching you reading and letting you live here?" Kaishi asked.

"Stop talking about it. Can you cook it or not, Tianfu?" 

"Yes Michael, I can cook it and will start right away. Thank you for protecting us," Tianfu answered, noticing that Michael just wanted them to accept the fact that he helped them and will help them in the future.

And just like that, all three of them started preparing and cooking the huge tiger together. 

"Michael, you don't need to help us. Brother and I are more than enough to prepare a delicious feast," Tianfu said as she saw Michael starting to gather the leftover vegetables to cook some side dishes.

"Don't worry about me. I only need help with the meat. The rest will be prepared by me. Don't worry, I'm not a bad cook. The only thing I can't cook is meat. So you guys only need to focus on the meat. Make sure it is good, and I take care of everything else," Michael said without leaving room for much discussion.

A chef who can't cook meat? Tianfu wondered. Is that even possible? Well, I don't care whether what he cooks is good or bad. As long as he doesn't waste food and overexerts himself, I will be happy.

Tianfu and Kaishi tried to convince Michael to let them do the cooking, but Michael still refused and repeated that they should make sure the meat is delicious and disregard everything else, leaving both of them speechless at Michael's obsession for meat while not being able to prepare it.

Soon everything was ready. Tianfu cooked an entire tiger half since Michael asked her to, while Michael made side dishes out of the remaining vegetables they had.

A huge feast was ready for the three of them to enjoy. While Michael only had eyes for the meat, Kaishi and especially Tianfu were a lot more stunned by the dishes Michael prepared.

What are these dishes? Tianfu couldn't help but ask herself. We only had some semi-rotten vegetables, and he made something like this out of them? From presentation alone, these dishes even put the dishes served in the main city into the dirt.

Tianfu's purple eyes sparkled as she saw what Michael had cooked. She had a huge urge to ask him everything about these exotic looking dishes, but after seeing Michael's fixated and even almost crazy look on the meat, she decided to ask him after trying the dishes first.

As they started eating, the two children were immediately blown away by Michael's dishes. Both of them felt like they got a taste of heaven on earth.

They were so engrossed in tasting every dish Michael prepared that they didn't see that Michael had an even more extreme reaction to tasting the food.

Literal tears were streaming down his face after he took the first bite of his long-awaited meat. It has been an uncountable amount of years since the last time I tasted the deliciousness of meat. Only plants for this amount of time, but I'm finally back. Right now, I'm truly alive.

As he was lost in eating meat while unknowingly crying, he heard the voice of a young boy.

"Mister ähm sorry, Michael. Are you okay, Michael? You are crying. Is the meat sister made not good enough?"

Michael got pulled back into reality by Kaishi's voice and looked at the siblings for a moment. Kaishi was looking at him nervously, while Tianfu was still engrossed in Michael's dishes. Michael quickly realized that he must have cried the whole time while eating almost the entire tiger half by himself. He quickly wiped his tears away and ruffled Kaishi's hair.

"No, Kaishi. You are wrong. This is more than good enough. This is the best meal I have ever eaten. This is exactly what I wanted. In fact, it tasted so good that I was nervous about repaying you. That's why there was so much sweat in my eyes that it looked like I was crying, which I definitely wasn't."

"No Michael, you don't have to repay anything. We should pay you for your delicious side dishes. See, sister is still immersed in tasting them." Kaishi said, unconvinced by Michael's story of sweating but not wanting to dig deeper.

They ate the rest of the feast together in a joyful mood. After Tianfu came out of her own world of trying Michael's dishes, she bombarded him with questions about every single dish, which Michael answered patiently.

"Michael, you have to come with me to work tomorrow. You are the best cook I have ever seen. My boss knows some people from the inner city. If you show him your talents, he might even be able to introduce you to a more famous restaurant where you can earn a lot of money." Tianfu said, full of enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I would like to earn some money. Let's head there tomorrow after my first language lesson," Michael agreed.

As time passed, Michael and the kids ate, laughed, and sang together. They had a great time, and the children could finally relax a little bit in their otherwise tough life.

The children went to bed shortly after cleaning the table. As they slept, Michael also laid down on a makeshift bed and thought about the day. That meat was the best thing I ate since the first drug I took. This is how life should feel like. New impressions and things to look out for every day instead of an empty, ever-repeating, day-by-day cycle.

He was sleeping within the outskirts of Yungyue City in a small wood shed. Some dirty cloth on the floor served as his bed. The sound of the wind was heard through the countless cracks in the wall. Every movement made the wood creak. Michael had no money or anything of value. He was in complete poverty, but for Michael, right now there could be nothing better than exactly this shed in this part of the city. Michael was truly enjoying poverty.