Chapter 108 Beggar
Jiang Shu and Tan Yu turned around and were surprised to see Zhuiyun Yu Zheng and the others.
"Why are you here?"
Yu Zheng stepped forward and said, "We came here to do something, why are you here?"
"Tan Yu's wallet was robbed by a little beggar, and we followed him here." After Jiang Shu finished speaking, he caught a glimpse of Zhao Manying behind Yu Zheng.
This was the first time Jiang Shu saw a woman with Yu Zheng, and he couldn't help but feel curious.
Especially this woman has a graceful figure and a beautiful face, she is a rare beauty.
His almond eyes darkened, and Jiang Shu suddenly felt a little blocked in his heart.
"I didn't expect that the prince has friends in Lin'an Prefecture, but just listening to the accent, he is also from Shangjing?" Zhao Manying also looked at Jiang Shu curiously.
After following Yu Zheng for several days, this was the first time she saw Yu Zheng talking to someone in such a friendly manner.
The relationship between this person and Yu Zheng must be special.
This person has delicate features and a slender figure, and combined with Zhuiyun's voice of "Miss Jiang", Zhao Manying already had a guess in her mind.
"It has nothing to do with you." Yu Zheng glanced at Zhao Manying with cold eyes, and his words contained a warning.
This one sentence showed his relationship with the two people.
It made Zhao Manying understand the importance of Jiang Shu, and also made Jiang Shu understand the unimportance of Zhao Manying.
Zhao Manying was bored and said no more words.
At this time, the guards who had been investigating came back: "Boss, there are five deserted houses in the alley, and they are all inhabited by beggars."
"What?" Jiang Shu was surprised.
Lin'an Prefecture is really strange. Not only are there beggars everywhere, but they also live in the same alley.
Yu Zheng and his friends were equally surprised and decided to go and find out what was going on.
They walked into the alley and looked inside through the open door. Those sitting, standing or fighting in the yard were all beggars between a few years old and more than ten years old.
Jiang Shu was shocked and asked in confusion, "Why are there so many beggars in Lin'an Prefecture?" It
was also Yu Zheng's first time in Lin'an Prefecture and he didn't know much about this matter. The group looked at Zhao Manying.
Zhao Manying sighed, looking at the scene in the courtyard with an expression of pity, and said: "Floods occur almost every year in Jiangnan. They are all children who survived the floods but unfortunately lost their parents and relatives, and can only make a living by begging."
"I heard that there is a beggars' lane in Lin'an Prefecture. It used to be a residential lane. Later, a tragic case happened in this lane. People living in it said that it was haunted, so they all moved away."
"Later, these homeless beggars gathered here and turned the ghost lane into beggars' lane."
Although Zhao Manying had heard about it before, it was the first time she saw it today.
The shock of seeing it with her own eyes was completely different from the understatement of hearing about it.
The abandoned house was dilapidated, and the yard was overgrown with weeds. The hungry children who couldn't bear the lack of food pulled some weeds and put them in their mouths to chew, trying to relieve their hunger.
These children were half-dressed, unkempt, and some even had no shoes, running around barefoot.
But they knew how to huddle together for warmth and snuggle with each other. The older children took the initiative to take care of the younger ones, bought food with the money they begged, cooked it into porridge and shared it together.
"They are so young, and they are disaster victims. Doesn't the prefect of Lin'an Prefecture care?" Jiang Shu's eyes were red, and he couldn't bear it.
"Of course, of course you should." Zhao Manying said sarcastically, "This Beggars' Alley is where the prefect gives them a place to stay, and they also give them a bag of disaster relief grain every month."
"One bag of grain every month?" Tan Yu suspected that she had heard it wrong.
How many days can one bag of grain last for so many children? No wonder they have to beg and rob.
Zhao Manying smiled sneerly, "For corrupt officials, giving them a bag of grain and a place to stay is already a great mercy."
Even if it is moldy and stale grain, even if it is a deserted house haunted by ghosts, it is a life-saving straw for these beggars.
Jiang Shu walked to the deserted house at the end of the alley and saw the little monkey who teased him in front of Lingyin Temple, and the little beggar whose bowl was broken by her stepping on it.
She walked in and called out softly, "Little monkey."
The little monkey, who was cooking porridge over a fire, was startled and jumped up like a frightened bird. The little beggar who was sitting on the ground counting money was also frightened and quickly put his purse into his arms and protected it tightly.
"What are you doing here?"
The little monkey used his skinny body to block the group of children and stared at Jiang Shu and his group with vigilance.
There were few people in Beggar Lane on weekdays, but now Jiang Shu and his group were so big, combined with the little beggar who just ran back in a hurry, the little monkey already knew what was going on.
He knew it was wrong, but he had no other choice to survive.
Seeing the little monkey and the others panicking and scared, Jiang Shu tried to soften his voice and said, "I'm not here to embarrass you, but there are valuable things in the purse, you have to return it."
The little monkey found this very funny. The purse was full of money, how could it not be valuable? Looking
at the clothes of Jiang Shu and the others, the little monkey said angrily, "You are all from wealthy families. That little money is nothing to you. Why don't you let us go?"
"I told you that there are important things in it. Don't you understand?" Tan Yu is not as good-tempered as Jiang Shu.
It is true that she sympathizes with these little beggars and can give them all the money, but she must return the earrings her mother left for her.
"Chase the clouds, chase the wind." Yu Zheng ordered.
The two men immediately stepped forward and took back Tan Yu's purse from the little beggar who was protecting his chest with a guilty conscience.
"What are you doing? A group of adults bullying a child, how shameless! Give it back to us..."
A group of little beggars were upset and angry when they saw the purse flying away. They tried to snatch the purse back from Zhuiyun with red eyes.
Zhufeng pulled out the tiger-head hook on his waist helplessly and threatened fiercely: "Don't blame me for being rude if you make a move
again!" The group of beggars were frightened and huddled together, not daring to move.
Zhuiyun handed the purse to Tan Yu: "See if the things are still there."
Tan Yu poured out everything in the purse, and picked out a silver earring and a few silver bills from a pile of copper coins and silver coins.
After putting the earrings and banknotes back into the purse, Tan Yu gave all the money in her hand to the little monkey.
"The earrings are relics left to me by my mother, and the purse was embroidered by my sister. I can't give it to you. And the banknotes, do you know what they are? You can't exchange them at all, they are just a piece of waste paper."
The little monkey and others were less angry after hearing this, but they still stared at them vigilantly.
"Although your behavior is pitiful and excusable, it is wrong to steal from others." Jiang Shu advised earnestly.
It was their bad luck that they encountered it, otherwise they would definitely be beaten again.
But the little monkey and others didn't listen at all, and said unconvincedly: "We just want to survive, what's wrong with that."
Jiang Shu opened his mouth, not knowing how to reason with a group of children who had no relatives, no one to protect them, no one to teach them, and who spent all their efforts just to fill their stomachs.
They were indeed right. It was the world and the corrupt officials who were wrong.
She originally wanted to remind them not to do dangerous things, otherwise they might lose their lives.
But then she thought, they couldn't survive anyway, so why bother talking about right and wrong or danger?