The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 310 Beggar (Part )

An Youyou obviously still wanted to persuade Jiang Weiguo to return to begging, a more stable job, but Jiang Weiguo no longer wanted to listen.

He chose to start cooking.

The beggars’ cooking utensils were simple: two fires, two clay pots, and three wooden spoons.

Because An Youyou is an excellent beggar, she can still buy some things to improve her quality of life after supporting her 13 younger brothers.

Under An Youyou's management, the dilapidated temple didn't have any valuables to protect, so pottery jars and other things could be hidden in the straw. Usually, there was no need to keep anyone to watch over the dilapidated temple, as all 13 brothers had to work and go out to beg for food every day. There were many weeds and dead grass in the suburbs, and leaving fire sources could easily cause fires, so matches were used to start the fire.

Qin Huai could tell from the younger brother's cautious movements when using the matches that their begging team might only have this one box of matches.

There was one pottery jar, one new and one old. The newer pottery jar belonged to An Youyou, and was exclusive to the boss. Jiang Weiguo poured all the beans that An Youyou had begged for, the rice and salted fish that the errand boy had bought into the new pottery jar, and lit the firewood to cook.

The old pottery pot was a hodgepodge, with all the food that everyone brought in, as long as it was not moldy or rotten, thrown in. Black beans, wild vegetables, rice bran, cornmeal paste, black flour paste, sweet potatoes, potatoes, meat in broth, rotten cabbage leaves, and even a finger-long fish that some kid had caught from the river. It could barely be considered a hearty stew.

Halfway through the stew, Jiang Weiguo dug out a small bag of coarse salt from the straw pile and sprinkled some in. This act of sprinkling salt aroused strong dissatisfaction from An Youyou.

"Why isn't there any salt in my portion?" An Youyou asked.

"There is salted fish in your porridge. Salted fish is pickled with salt and has no shortage of salt. These are the cheapest coarse salts, which are bitter and salty. The salt on your salted fish is of much better quality than this bag of coarse salt." Jiang Weiguo explained helplessly.

An Youyou was satisfied: "Of course, this salted fish of mine is a high-end product that costs only one copper coin, much better than those that cost only one or two copper coins!"

Jiang Weiguo: ...

Jiang Weiguo cooked silently without saying anything. An Youyou squatted beside the two pottery jars and waited. The other brothers did not dare to get as close as the boss, so they could only squat far away, holding the beans in their hands and eating a bean from time to time, staring at the pots and swallowing silently.

As time went by, the aroma of the food cooked in the two earthenware pots became stronger and stronger. Qin Huai found that Jiang Weiguo's cooking skills were indeed quite good, and he had some skills to be able to work as a handyman in a restaurant.

The clay pot that belonged to An Youyou was actually salted fish and bean porridge. The wood fire under the clay pot was very strong, and the boiling water and porridge separated the salted fish. The originally disgusting fishy smell was completely wrapped up by the rice porridge. Both the beans and the white rice were cooked very soft, and almost every grain of rice was cooked to bloom. The strong rice aroma was mixed with the aroma of beans and miscellaneous beans, and the light smell of salted fish made it smell a bit like seafood porridge.

This level of heat is quite outstanding.

At least it's much better than Qinhuai.

The other hodgepodge didn’t look as pretty as the salted fish porridge, because there were too many ingredients and none of them were good. The rotten vegetable leaves that the beggars picked up were truly rotten vegetable leaves in the physical sense, the kind that couldn’t even get into the door of the vegetable market, plus the coarse salt that hadn’t been purified much, so this hodgepodge was considered a success if it could be swallowed by modern people.

Of course, being picky is something that belongs to modern people. Everyone present, including An Youyou, was already drooling over the clay pot.

An Youyou tried to control her drooling. After all, she was the eldest and couldn't be as useless as her younger brothers.

"Thirteen, are you really planning to work as a handyman in that Fu Ji?" An Youyou stared at her salted fish porridge, wishing she could have a few bowls to taste the saltiness first. "You really don't want to beg with me?"

"You are the smartest among all the people I picked up. They didn't cooperate with me well and they held me back. If we work together, we might be able to beg for food in the concession if we're lucky."

Speaking of the concession, An Youyou took out a cloth bag from her bosom and took out a white British pound to show Jiang Weiguo: "Today a young man gave me this thing, it seems to be a coin but I don't recognize the words on it. Can you help me take a look."

Jiang Weiguo glanced at the British pound, did not take it, and said, "This is British pound."

"Pounds? British money?" An Youyou picked up the pound and looked at it against the firelight several times. "It should be worth a lot of money. If I had known I would have cried harder and asked that young man to give me more."

Jiang Weiguo: ...

"How much is this worth?"

"Two pounds should be worth more than 20 dollars according to the black market conversion." Jiang Weiguo said.

An Youyou took a deep breath and looked at the British pound in her hand as if she had seen the God of Wealth. She almost offered the British pound up: "Twenty or so dollars, I'm going to be rich!"

"How do I change money? Where is the black market? How do I get there?"

"I said begging is the best way to make a living. You only make one dollar a month, but one day's meal from me is equivalent to two years' work from you!"

Jiang Weiguo calmly stirred the salted fish porridge with a wooden spoon, ignoring An Youyou. He took out two sticks of firewood to make the fire a small fire before he said slowly, "Now that you've made a fortune, shouldn't you consider renting a house?"

"It's fine to sleep in a dilapidated temple in the hot summer. At most you'll get bitten by mosquitoes, or snakes if you're unlucky. Now it's autumn, the weather isn't too cold, and you can barely survive by covering yourself with straw at night."

"It will be different when winter comes. Let's not talk about the two of us for now. Xiaoshi is only 4 years old and she's a girl. She will definitely not survive this winter with just a single piece of clothing and straw. I know that the winter in Shanghai is not as cold as in Beijing, but I also know that people in Beijing dare not go out without a cotton-padded jacket in winter. Even if the whole family shares a quilt, they may still freeze to death at home."

"If a beggar doesn't go out to beg for food one day, he may starve to death the next day. If we still live in this place in winter, we will either starve to death or freeze to death."

An Youyou frowned when she heard this: "Why is it so expensive to raise a person?"

"Last time, Xiao San and Xiao Er had their legs broken. I spent a lot of money, but Xiao Er still died. I had to pick up a new Xiao Er."

"The Thirteenth before you, I told him not to eat rotten and smelly food, and that he wouldn't die if he went hungry for two meals. But he didn't listen and ate secretly, and ended up having diarrhea and dying."

"The previous Xiao Shi couldn't speak when he was begging for food. He was kicked in the chest and vomited blood and died on the spot."

"And the first few I picked up, Xiaoyi, Xiaosan, Xiaosi, Xiaoqi, Xiaoba, Xiaoshi, Xiaoyi, and Xiaotwelve, all died of illness or were beaten to death. And you mentioned that they died of cold in the winter. In fact, winter is not that cold. They can survive by making a fire."

"If you really count it this way, it seems that Xiaojiu is the only one who survived from the beginning."

Jiang Weiguo listened expressionlessly, silently stirring the hodgepodge in the earthenware jar.

"I've also thought about renting a house. It's really uncomfortable to sleep in this dilapidated temple. Who wants to sleep on the floor when they can sleep on a bed? But renting a house is too expensive. For these houses in the suburbs, if you want to accommodate so many people, I'll have one room and you'll all sleep in it. The rent will cost at least one dollar a month!"

"A dollar!"

"Do you know how much salted fish and rice you can buy?"

"The rickshaw drivers only make one or two dollars a month. It's better to eat better than renting a house."

"The porridge is ready." Jiang Weiguo said.

An Youyou was ecstatic. She took out a bowl from her arms, waved to a younger brother, and motioned him to go to the river to wash the bowl. Then she took out the steamed bread that she had not been willing to finish and continued to eat it with the hot porridge.

After the younger brother finished washing the dishes, An Youyou handed the bowl to Jiang Weiguo, who filled her up with a bowl of salted fish porridge. Almost all the salted fish that could be found went into An Youyou's bowl, which shows An Youyou's status as the boss.

Jiang Weiguo took out his broken bowl and filled himself with half a bowl of the remaining porridge. Then he motioned for the other brothers to come forward, and everyone lined up in an orderly manner to get their meals, each with a spoonful of hodgepodge and a little salted fish porridge.

Everyone ate the food with relish, not afraid of the heat.

An Youyou was the eldest brother, so he restrained himself from licking the bowl. He told his younger brothers to wash the bowl, and the other younger brothers started to sort the straw in the broken temple. The softest straw and the best windproof position were left to An Youyou. An Youyou sat by the fire that had not yet been extinguished, watching the younger brothers busying around, and watching the 4-year-old Xiao Shi patting the straw hard, trying to make it softer so that An Youyou would be more comfortable when sleeping at night.

"Is renting a house really more cost-effective than buying a quilt directly?" An Youyou asked, "If you buy a quilt in winter, you can use it in spring. It doesn't cost much."

"There's a bed in the house." Jiang Weiguo gave An Youyou a reason that she couldn't refuse. "And if you're willing to spend a little more money, you can rent a house with a kitchen. There's a stove in the kitchen, so you don't have to eat boiled porridge or salted fish porridge every day. You can eat stir-fried dishes."

"The boss of Fok Kee is indeed very stingy. He would rather throw away the leftovers than give them to beggars, and he doesn't allow the waiters in the restaurant to take them home. But this is actually a means. Although this practice has been criticized, it has made Fok Kee famous in a short period of time. Many dignitaries like to eat at Fok Kee."

"So although the boss of Fok Kee seems very stingy and strict, his strictness is only directed at the waiters. He usually turns a blind eye to the chefs and handymen in the kitchen. Fok Kee's head chef, Chef Ding, is a very honest person. As long as I can please him, I believe I can become a butcher soon."

"By then, I will not only have a salary of three yuan a month, but also two meals a day, and you will most likely be able to bring back any leftover ingredients that were not used up in the kitchen that day. Then you can eat stir-fried dishes every day."

An Youyou looked at Jiang Weiguo very unhappily: "I obviously don't want to rent a house, why did you have to tell me? I want to rent it now just because you said so."

"I have to spend money again, the money I saved with great difficulty."

"I beg for food seriously every day. Every time I finally save up a little money, I have to spend it on various things, either medical treatment, medical treatment, or more medical treatment. Why are people so hard to feed? Why do we need to live in a house?" An Youyou complained loudly in great dissatisfaction.

"I should have known not to pick up so many. Just picking up 6 would have been enough."

Jiang Weiguo asked: "When do you plan to look at houses?"

"Tomorrow." An Youyou said unhappily, "I'll go to that crappy black market to exchange some dollars first, then beg for food for half a day, and then go look for a house."

"The stir-fried dishes you're talking about, are they the ones sold in restaurants?"

"Yes." Jiang Weiguo nodded.

"So is your cooking the same as the one in the restaurant?"

"Unless it's a big restaurant like Fu Kee, I am confident that I can do better than them," Jiang Weiguo said.

An Youyou rolled her eyes: "Just brag, you are so good at speaking, why can't you think of going to work in a restaurant? It would be great if you could beg for food with me."

"Look, you are just like me. You can read, count, fight, and have crafts. Although you don't talk much, you can still speak when you need to. The most important thing is that you can read the eyes of the nobles and are not easily beaten to death."

"You are better than me. I can't write but you can."

"With such good conditions, you should beg with me!"

Jiang Weiguo: ...

Qin Huai could see the deep speechlessness on Jiang Weiguo's face.

"I don't understand it either," Jiang Weiguo said. "Why are you so obsessed with being a beggar when you can read, do math, speak well, and fight well?"

"Even if it's hard for you to make a living as a woman, you look like this every day and outsiders can't tell your gender. You should be able to find a lot of better jobs than begging. Even if you find a random shop and work as a cashier, it will be more respectable than now."

An Youyou opened her eyes wide and said angrily, "Can settling accounts be compared to begging for food?"

"Being an accountant is a fixed salary. You sit in the shop and count on an abacus day and night. Your eyes will go blind. You only make two or three dollars a month."

"Don't look down on begging. If I didn't beg, how could I feed you? Look at those people besides you, who can beg for anything?"

"Why don't you go ask around? Among all the beggar bosses, which one has a better reputation than me? I have so many subordinates under my command. I don't ask you to pay tribute, and I don't force you to cheat. How many of you can support so many subordinates without stealing, robbing, trafficking women, or joining the gang as thugs?"

"Only me!"

"Although my subordinates changed hands too quickly, their deaths are not my fault. There are always beggars and refugees dying in Shanghai. If I were an accountant, could I support these dozen people?"

"Then why do you want to support us?" Jiang Weiguo asked.

"Because I'm the boss!" An Youyou raised his head proudly, "You don't know that before me, I had more younger brothers!"

"I'm the boss. How can I live up to my name if I don't have 10 or 8 younger brothers? Of course I have to support my younger brothers. Do you think I was a beggar from the beginning? I also thought about robbing."

"Isn't this because I can't win? How can I fight back when they have guns?"

"Besides, it's not useless to have younger brothers. Although none of us can do anything except you now, what if we can still beg for food in a few years? By then, if each younger brother gives me one dollar a month, I can make a net profit of 13 dollars a month without doing anything."

"If I just ask for some food, I'll be rich."

Jiang Weiguo: ...

Qin Huai:......

No, sister, what race are you? Why are you so wild?

Jiang Weiguo said nothing and simply thought that An Youyou was mentally ill.

Anyway, there are a lot of people with mental problems these days, not to mention An Youyou.

"We have to go to Fu Ji tomorrow, so I'll rest first." Jiang Weiguo said.

"Don't go to sleep yet. Tell me where the black market is. I need to go there to exchange money tomorrow."

"With you."

"Aren't you going to Fu Kee?"

“The black market opens early.”

"I'm afraid you'll go to the black market and get tempted by the money... That's the territory of the Green Gang. If you mess with them, even 13 of our lives won't be enough to pay you back."

“Do I love money that much?”

"You have."

"Well I do."

(End of this chapter)