The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 311 Beggar (Part )

At night, for fear that sparks would fly and ignite the straw, the beggars would put out the fire before curling up together and sleeping wrapped in straw.

An Youyou occupied the best position and lay down on her back with her legs spread out. After everyone had fallen asleep and their breathing had gradually calmed down, she suddenly sat up with an unhappy look on her face and glanced at the bright moon through the almost nonexistent roof.

Then she took out her precious cloth bag from her bosom, looked at the pound carefully in the moonlight, held it in her hands, sighed deeply as if she had made some kind of decision, and wrapped up the pound.

Finally, An Youyou lay down in a huff, rolling from side to side in dissatisfaction, making some noise, and finally glanced angrily at Jiang Weiguo who was some distance away from her.

She stood up, walked to Jiang Weiguo and kicked him, but it didn't wake him up. Jiang Weiguo just turned over. An Youyou felt relieved and went back to sleep.

Before closing his eyes, Qin Huai heard An Youyou's soft sigh: "My money!"

Early the next morning, just as it was daybreak, the beggars woke up one after another and went to the water's edge to dig mud, waiting for An Youyou to wake up.

In fact, An Youyou had woken up a long time ago. Qin Huai had been squatting beside An Youyou until she woke up. Her eyelids began to move when the first beggar woke up, and her breathing was no longer as even as before. But perhaps for the sake of her dignity as the eldest, An Youyou insisted on being the last one to wake up, and she wanted Youyou to wake up.

When Xiao Shi brought the last handful of mud to the side of the ruined temple, An Youyou opened her eyes and slowly sat up.

"Boss, you're awake!" Xiao Shi ran to An Youyou with mud in his hands in surprise, "I just dug this mud from the river. I picked up all the stones and branches in it!"

"Yeah." An Youyou nodded, grabbed a handful of mud and smeared it on her hands.

After wiping the mud off Xiao Shi's hands, An Youyou stood up and walked to where the mud was piled, and continued to touch her face, then her neck, shoulders, and arms. She applied the mud to all exposed parts, and she had to apply it thickly, but not evenly, otherwise one would know at a glance that it was applied intentionally.

Finally, she didn't forget to grab a handful and rub it on her hair, making it even more messy.

A beggar who was so dirty that no one dared to approach him within 5 meters was born.

After An Youyou finished applying the mud, the other brothers started to apply mud on their bodies, imitating An Youyou's way of applying mud. Obviously, the brothers were not as professional and skilled as An Youyou, and they didn't apply mud where it should be thin or thick where it should be thick.

For some people who are not very good at applying mud, An Youyou has to personally guide them on how to apply mud.

Professional guidance, trustworthy.

Soon, An Youyou's team became twelve beggars and one Jiang Weiguo.

An Youyou took a cloth bag and prepared to go to the city to beg for food. When she turned around, she found Jiang Weiguo standing beside her in an unscrupulous manner. She immediately became angry, and her face was full of "my little brother actually betrayed the class."

"How come you are so clean?!" An Youyou said angrily, and then she realized that Jiang Weiguo had found a job and no longer had to beg for food. Her tone softened immediately, with only a hint of dissatisfaction, "Oh, you don't have to wipe it."

Then An Youyou stared at Jiang Weiguo, trying to use her eyes to influence him to get along with others and put some pressure on his face.

Jiang Weiguo: "...As a handyman at Fu Kee, cleanliness is very important."

An Youyou then gave up.

Before setting off, An Youyou arranged partners and begging areas for the younger brothers, and divided them into groups of two, so that they could look after each other when begging and cooperate when acting.

"Go early and come back early. When you see the sun is about to set, run back. Don't be like Xiaoyi before. Watch the road when you run. If you get hit by a car, you won't be compensated."

"Okay, boss!" the younger brothers answered in unison, carrying rag bags and going into the city to work.

An Youyou led Jiang Weiguo to the black market in a heroic and high-spirited manner. Before entering the city, An Youyou led the way in front.

As the eldest brother, An Youyou would walk in front and lead the way even if she didn't know the way.

After entering the city, Jiang Weiguo led An Youyou. The black market was in a remote place in the city. It was called a black market, but it was actually just a few shops on a street. There were thugs guarding the door of the shop. The words "money exchange" were written directly on the door of the money exchange shop, which was simple and clear.

An Youyou wanted to go in by herself, but Jiang Weiguo was afraid that An Youyou would be tempted by money and become too bold, so he asked An Youyou to give him the pounds and he would go in to exchange them. An Youyou hesitated for five or six seconds, but finally decided to trust her younger brother and gave the money to Jiang Weiguo.

Perhaps because Jiang Weiguo’s clothes were relatively clean and he looked like an ordinary poor man, the thugs at the door did not stop him and let him in.

Qin Huai followed him in and took a look. He found that it was a shop similar to a pawnshop. Not only could he exchange money, but he could also pawn various things. In front of Jiang Weiguo, someone was pawning antique jewelry and bargaining with the shopkeeper. Jiang Weiguo was also very considerate and did not go to the front. Instead, he stood at the back and lined up silently. No one in the shop cared about him.

Qin Huai took a quick look and went out. As soon as he went out, he found An Youyou working.

Working on street corners.

I have already asked the rich young master for food.

This rich young master who was targeted by An Youyou was obviously a naive person. He was completely at a loss when faced with An Youyou's crying.

Because of the young master's kindness and An Youyou's excellent acting skills and sense of propriety, she knew that she should not disturb the audience during the performance, so she rolled at a very safe distance. As a result, the bodyguards around the young master did not know what to do for a while, and the two sides were in a stalemate.

In the end, the young master threw down two dollars and ran away in a hurry. When he left, he asked the bodyguard guiltily if he had thrown away too little money. If he had known, he should have brought more money this time.

An Youyou was so moved that she almost shed real tears. She wanted to follow the young master to see where he lived and then beg for food at his doorstep.

By the time Jiang Weiguo came out after exchanging the money, An Youyou had already ordered three rounds of food.

She got two silver dollars, two large cakes, a barrage of insults, and a beating in which the man tried to punch and kick her but failed.

Seeing Jiang Weiguo coming out, An Youyou dusted off her clothes, gave up on the fourth rich lady she had obviously set her sights on, and ran towards Jiang Weiguo.

"How much did you change?" An Youyou's words were filled with uncontrollable excitement.

"Twenty-three dollars." Jiang Weiguo whispered.

An Youyou was ecstatic: "I've made a fortune!"

Jiang Weiguo stuffed a large sum of money into An Youyou's pocket and said, "Don't beg for food today. Run quickly to avoid being targeted. Walk around the city a few more times and remember to look for houses."

"I know." An Youyou pocketed the money and said, "This place is really nice. People passing by are all rich. I want to beg here in the future!"

Jiang Weiguo glanced at An Youyou speechlessly, then looked at the thugs at the doorsteps of several shops: "It's better not to do that. It might be okay for you to stay here for a while, but it won't work for a long time."

Just as An Youyou was about to say that she was good at dodging and wasn't afraid of being hit, Jiang Weiguo added, "They all have guns."

An Youyou shut up.

After separating from Jiang Weiguo, Qin Huai discovered that someone had indeed followed An Youyou. At this time, the advantage of the spirit's superb physical fitness was reflected. The person who followed originally wanted to rob, but then found that he could not keep up at all.

An Youyou might not be able to defeat eight adults alone, but she was definitely faster at running away. Moreover, she had been begging in the city for such a long time that she was very familiar with the map. She knew all the dark alleys and corners, and also knew where to climb over the wall.

After a wonderful parkour, An Youyou shook off all the little tails behind her, and then carefully circled two more times before starting to look for houses.

An Youyou only looked at the houses outside the city.

Although it was outside the city, there were still differences in locations. The closer the house was to the city, the better. An Youyou didn't even look at those brick and tile houses that were obviously built with bluestone bricks. She preferred the older wooden houses, adobe houses, and houses with bricks and tiles but obviously very old.

Because she didn't know which house was for rent, An Youyou chose the dumbest way to ask one by one, but basically all she got was rejection and disgust.

It is absurd and ridiculous to hear that a beggar wants to rent a house.

After being turned away for the entire morning and afternoon, An Youyou, who originally had no strong desire to rent a house, became angry. She even stopped eating and started asking questions without caring about anything.

Then she actually asked me.

Qin Huai spent a day looking for houses with An Youyou and understood clearly why An Youyou couldn't rent a house.

Disliking beggars is one thing, disliking 13 beggars and a handyman is another.

There are many people in An Youyou's place, so it's impossible to rent just one room. The best way is to rent an independent compound, a bungalow with a yard. But this kind of house is considered a good house even in the suburbs, and it's basically two-story with a yard. The normal monthly rent is not less than three dollars.

Some landlords might be willing to rent to An Youyou in order to make money, but because they despise An Youyou for being a bunch of beggars, they will deliberately raise the price to 4-5 yuan. This price is too expensive and is not within An Youyou's consideration range.

If you don't rent an independent yard, you can only share it with others. This kind of shared renting also existed in the Republic of China, where several families shared a yard or the same well. This kind of renting is cheap but at the same time there are other contradictions.

No one wants to live with beggars.

Even though everyone is at the bottom of society and is poor, civilians are still higher in status than beggars. Moreover, beggars in this era are definitely not positive characters. They are usually associated with fraud and are basically equivalent to thieves.

An Youyou originally thought that she could easily rent a house for 1-2 yuan a month, but reality gave her a heavy blow. Not to mention spending - yuan, even spending yuan would not let her rent the house she wanted.

An Youyou kept running around until sunset, with an empty stomach, but still hadn't found a house she liked.

Seeing that the sun was about to set, An Youyou could only walk towards the dilapidated temple sadly. On the way, she met a salted fish seller and bought two pieces of salted fish. She also bought a lot of rice. Maybe because she was particularly sad and wanted to spend money, An Youyou also spent a huge amount of money to buy 2 cakes.

All these things combined didn't cost a dollar, which shows the purchasing power of the dollar.

When An Youyou returned to the ruined temple, all her brothers except Jiang Weiguo had returned. Xiaojiu was waiting for An Youyou by the river like he did yesterday, and cheered when he saw that An Youyou brought back so many things.

"Wow, boss, you are so awesome!"

"Boss, today I got three copper coins, a piece of osmanthus cake, three big sweet potatoes and a bowl of black bean rice. I ate the black bean rice in the afternoon because I was too hungry. Here is the money. The osmanthus cake is in the temple. Boss, do you want to eat it now?" Xiaojiu handed the money to An Youyou and asked.

Seeing the return money, An Youyou felt a little better. She nodded, gave all the food to Xiaojiu and asked him to take it first. She squatted by the river to wash them before returning to the dilapidated temple.

The younger brothers didn't dare to make a fire until the boss came back.

"Is Thirteen not back yet?" An Youyou asked.

"Boss, Thirteenth Brother said that he won't be back until dark, and he has to work very late at Fu Ji." Xiao Jiu explained.

"What's so good about being a handyman? I can only come back after dark." An Youyou muttered, motioning Xiaojiu to give her the cake.

Xiao Jiu quickly handed over the cakes. An Youyou took out three and pointed to the remaining three: "These are yours. Leave some for Thirteen."

"I'll cook the rest when Thirteen comes back. None of your food tastes as good as his."

The younger brothers nodded obediently.

An Youyou lit the fire with a match, ate the osmanthus cake, and then nibbled on the pancake.

After eating three large pancakes, Jiang Weiguo had not returned yet. An Youyou threw another sweet potato into the fire and roasted it randomly. It was unknown how long it took before Jiang Weiguo came back with a cloth bag.

An Youyou stared at Jiang Weiguo in extreme displeasure: "You came back so late, I won't have to eat at this time every day in the future, right?"

Jiang Weiguo didn't say anything, but silently opened the cloth bag, which contained a few vegetable buns.

As usual, the eldest brother ate half. An Youyou enjoyed 2 for himself, and Jiang Weiguo didn't eat the remaining 2, so he shared them with the others. Everyone got a small bite, some ate the skin, some ate the filling, and Xiao Shi ate the filling and tasted the oil, but he didn't eat enough, so he ate a piece of straw.

There is still the taste of vegetable buns in my mouth, and this straw also tastes like vegetable buns.

Jiang Weiguo began to cook salted fish porridge and stew in silence, while An Youyou sat by the fire and counted money. Jiang Weiguo glanced at her and was surprised to find that An Youyou had not spent all the money.

"I thought you would go to a restaurant in the city for a meal." Jiang Weiguo said.

An Youyou opened her eyes wide: "The restaurant is so expensive. Half of my money is gone just for a good meal. Isn't this just cutting my flesh and sucking my blood?"

"What are you going to do with all this money?" Jiang Weiguo asked, "If you don't rent a house, eat or buy clothes or quilts, what are you going to do with it?"

"Of course I save it!" An Youyou said, "Money is for saving, not for spending!"

"If I wasn't so fragile, I would have saved a lot of money. Before I found you, every time I saved a little money, I would spend it for various reasons. I haven't saved money for a long time."

Jiang Weiguo: ...

Jiang Weiguo obviously didn't understand the train of thought of being a beggar and a miser at the same time. He was silent for a while and asked, "I didn't find a house."

An Youyou got angry when she mentioned this, and she was a little frustrated: "No."

"All those landlords are crazy. They are unwilling to rent their houses to me because I am a beggar. What's wrong with being a beggar? Isn't begging also a job? They may not even earn as much as I do."

"It's either that they don't want to rent it, or they want to raise the price. It doesn't matter who I rent it to. I have to wash off the mud on my face and body after meals every day. Besides, my clothes are dirty, but aren't those people's clothes clean? Aren't they all afraid of washing clothes too much and ruining them? Who doesn't have rotten clothes and who doesn't have an unpleasant smell? Why do you look down on us beggars?"

"Is it shameful to be a beggar? Being a beggar is much better than being like them!"

Jiang Weiguo: "...People are like this, they respect the clothes first and then the person."

"What clothes?"

"unimportant."

An Youyou sighed and used a wooden stick to pull the sweet potato out of the fire. She found that the sweet potato was half-cooked and a little burnt. She could only throw the sweet potato to Jiang Weiguo, who threw it directly into the stew.

Looking up at the moon, An Youyou asked, "Does that mean I won't be able to rent a house?"

"I found out about one." Jiang Weiguo said, "A farmer who delivers vegetables to Fu Ji moved here from Shu at the beginning of this year. It is said that he knows a big shot. In order to please this big shot, Fu Ji charges 30% more for his vegetables than other farmers."

"The house he lives in now is in the suburbs, which was also given by that great man. The house is big and has a yard. The farmer wants to send his eldest son to school in the city and is short of money, so he wants to rent out half of the house."

"But because I was unfamiliar with the area and had no trusted tenants, and there were no other able-bodied men in my family, only my wife and three children, I was very cautious when choosing tenants."

"I work as a handyman at Fu Kee, so he knows me pretty well. He doesn't mind beggars, as long as they are of good character. But the monthly rent is a bit expensive, three dollars a month."

"If you think it's expensive, I can give you my monthly salary now. When you become a butcher in the future, I will give you two dollars a month."

As soon as Jiang Weiguo finished speaking, An Youyou's eyes lit up.

"What kind of house is theirs?" An Youyou asked.

"A bluestone brick and tile house."

"Rent this! Rent this!"

"I'm so angry today. Some people laughed at me and said it was wishful thinking for a beggar to want to rent a house. I'm going to show them that I not only want to rent a house, I also want to rent a bluestone brick and tile house!"

“We’re moving in tomorrow!”

"When the time comes, buy four quilts. I'll use two and you can use two!"

"Buy 10 more pancakes. I'll eat 5 and you guys can eat 5!"

"Buy 20 more buns. I'll eat 10 and you guys can eat 10!"

Seeing that his brothers didn't react, An Youyou shouted, "Why are you still standing there? Don't you know that people in the city have to applaud when they give speeches or watch performances? Clap!"

The younger brothers quickly clapped their hands, and the applause was thunderous.

Amid the loud applause, Jiang Weiguo couldn't help but complain: "Can you finish all those buns and pancakes?"

"Don't worry about it, I'm the boss, I can finish it!"

(End of this chapter)