079, Two Little Beggars
079, Two Little Beggars
On the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, all the braised food at their stall was sold out before noon. Many of them were pre-ordered by customers who came to pick them up in the morning.
All the items on the stall run by Lu Mingfei were sold out in the morning, and customers who came later could not buy anything.
"Any more sausages?"
"Sorry, it's sold out. It won't be available until after the New Year."
When he was closing his stall, a customer came to ask about it. Lu Mingfei told the customer with a slightly apologetic look that all their sausages, bacon, meat sauce and pork jerky were sold out.
Over the past two days, he has moved out all the salable inventory from his home and cleared it all out. He still has some sausages and bacon left in the store to use for making clay pot rice, and those sausages and bacon cannot be taken out and sold separately.
The next batch of sausages and bacon can be sold after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Because freshly made sausages and bacon are not edible and need to be kept for at least twenty days before they can be eaten, they cannot sell sausages and bacon that are not ready to be eaten to customers.
Boss Lu knew that Yizi had sold all the goods he could sell. When he saw Yizi coming back from cleaning up the table, he asked him, "Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something?"
"I'm not hungry yet. I'll eat later." Seeing that his adoptive father was still busy, Lu Mingfei came over to help.
"You are not needed here. Go to the back and see what Mingcong and Mingrui are doing." Boss Lu asked his adopted son to take a rest and not to come to help him with the work.
Seeing that there were several people in the store and he was indeed not needed, Lu Mingfei said hello to his adoptive father and mother and went into the backyard.
As soon as he entered the backyard, he saw his mother and several hired aunts washing dishes in the backyard. He came over and greeted his mother and the aunts, then went into the house to look for his two younger brothers.
Sure enough, as soon as I entered the house, I saw two boys building a house with building blocks.
As soon as they saw him come in, the two little guys piled up the building blocks in their hands, each holding one of his legs, and shouted at him to take them out to play.
Finally, Lu Mingfei couldn't stand the two brats' pestering, and after he told them to listen to him and not run around when they went outside, he put on coats, scarves, hats, and gloves for the two younger brothers, and went out holding one child in each hand.
Before going out, he did not forget to say hello to their mother and his adoptive parents before bringing his two younger brothers to the street.
"elder brother."
"Um?"
When they were halfway there, the child he was holding hands with suddenly grabbed his hand and called out to him.
Lu Mingfei also stopped and followed his brother's gaze. He saw a half-grown child begging on the roadside with a younger child. The two children looked young. The older one was about eleven or twelve years old, and the younger one was probably only five or six years old.
The two children were wearing thin autumn clothes in the middle of winter, and they were walking on the road in a pair of shoes that were worn out and their toes were exposed. The older child was holding the younger child with one hand, and with the other hand holding a broken bowl, they were begging along the road.
If he hadn't encountered it, he could pretend not to know, but since he had encountered it, he couldn't be so heartless as to pretend he saw nothing.
"There's a stall selling buns over there. Let's go buy some for them." There happened to be a stall selling buns on the road, so Lu Mingfei said to his two younger brothers.
"Okay." Lu Mingrui, who had just grabbed his brother's hand, responded.
Lu Mingcong is the kind of person who does whatever his older and younger brothers tell him to do.
Lu Mingfei brought his two younger brothers to the stall and spent twenty coins to buy a large bag of steamed buns. He brought them to the two little beggars and gave the buns to the older boy. "Take it and eat it. It's for you."
The two little beggars were dirty, and their faces were so gray that their appearance could not be seen.
Facing a pair of distinct black and white eyes, Lu Mingfei immediately thought that someone with such beautiful eyes couldn't be ugly. Of course, he didn't care too much about other people's appearance, it was just a thought in his mind at the moment.
"Thank you, thank you." The little beggar was stunned for a moment before he reached out to take the big bag of steamed buns and held it in his arms, as if he was afraid that the other party would regret it in the next second and ask for the steamed buns back.
"You're welcome." Seeing that the little beggar said thank you to him, Lu Mingfei guessed that the little beggar must have been a well-educated child by his family.
Seeing an old beggar looking towards them not far away, he thought that no matter where one is, the law of the jungle will prevail. Worried that after they left, the steamed buns in the hands of the two little beggars would be snatched away by other beggars, Lu Mingfei had no choice but to say to the two little beggars, "Come with us and sit over here to eat."
The older beggar also noticed that there was an old beggar not far away staring at them. He immediately understood what the little beggar meant, so he took his younger brother and followed the little beggar.
Lu Mingfei did not take the two little beggars far away, but took them to the eaves of a teahouse. He let the two little beggars squat under the eaves to eat, and then he went to the waiter of the teahouse to buy a bowl of hot water and brought it to the two little beggars.
When he saw the two little beggars grabbing the steamed buns, swallowing them quickly without even having time to chew them, and then quickly taking a second bite of the buns, he knew that the two children must be very hungry.
"Drink some hot water and eat slowly." Lu Mingfei gave the hot water in his hand to the older beggar.
The little beggar took the bowl, looked at the person who gave them the steamed buns and hot water, thanked him, took a sip of the water himself, and when he found that the water was a little hot, he did not immediately feed it to his brother.
"Are you brothers? Where are the adults in your family?" Lu Mingfei half-knelt down and asked the two little beggars.
"...They are all dead." When the little beggar said this, his eyes dimmed.
The younger beggar understood the word "death" and grabbed his brother's hand in a panic, calling out "Brother."
"Sorry." Lu Mingfei also realized that he asked something he shouldn't have asked.
Seeing the two children's skin exposed outside their clothes turned purple from the cold, in such a cold winter, without an adult around, he didn't know if two children of their age could survive the winter. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
There are bound to be beggars even at the feet of the emperor, not to mention other places outside Kyoto, where there are countless beggars.
If they really didn't care, the two little beggars might not survive the winter. These were two lives. But these two children weren't just kittens or puppies. If they were just picked up and taken home...
Just when he was hesitating about what to do, his brother pulled his hand again, "Brother."
Lu Mingfei looked down and found that the little guy had been crying for some time. His eyes were red with tears in them. He looked so pitiful. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"Brother." Lu Mingrui threw himself into his brother's arms, hugged his arms with his two small hands, and cried, "They are so pitiful."
"Wow, wow..." Seeing his brother crying, Lu Mingcong rushed over and hugged his brother, and burst into tears.
"Why are you all crying?"
Before he could comfort one child, the other one started crying again. Lu Mingfei held one child in each hand and comforted the one who was just joining in the fun before he comforted the one who was really crying. "Okay, okay, don't cry anymore. If you have anything to say, just tell your brother. Don't cry."
"Brother." Lu Mingrui looked at his brother with a pair of big eyes that were still red from crying.
In fact, Lu Mingfei had some idea of what his brother wanted to say to him. The child probably also knew that he couldn't just take two people home casually, so he clearly wanted to take the two little beggars home, but he didn't really express his inner thoughts, so he could only use crying to express his anxiety and uneasiness.
He was a little hesitant at first, but in the end he had to follow his inner thoughts and let the two little beggars go with them. "You two come with us, I will take you to find some warmer clothes for you to wear." He wanted to go back and ask the adults at home for their opinions, so he didn't dare to say anything about taking them in now.
In order to avoid the situation where the adults in the family are unwilling to take in the two children, he would give others hope now, but then extinguish that hope with his own hands, which would be a blow to others.
The older beggar was a little more sensible. After he understood what the little brother meant, he silently stood up with his younger brother and followed the three of them.
After walking only a few steps, Lu Mingfei stopped, took off the scarf from his neck, and wrapped the scarf around the younger beggar's body. He said to the two beggars, "Let's go. We're just a little ahead."
Knowing that two little beggars were following them, he walked in front with his two younger brothers and led the two little beggars all the way to the side door of the pancake shop.
"Wait for me here for a while." Lu Mingfei asked the two little beggars to wait at the side door and took his two younger brothers into the yard.
As soon as he came back and saw A Niang, Lu Mingrui ran towards her, "A Niang!"
"Why did you come back so soon?" Liu Sanniang hugged her youngest son who was running towards her and looked at her eldest son who had brought people back.
"I encountered something on the road." Lu Mingfei told his mother about the two little beggars he met on the road. They felt sorry for the two little beggars and were worried that they might not survive the cold winter.
He also knew that his parents had worked very hard to raise them, so he didn't dare to ask his family to take in the two little beggars. He just discussed with his mother: "Mother, why don't we keep them at home for the winter? Then we can ask if they have any relatives at home. After the New Year, we can help them find their relatives and ask if they are willing to adopt them."
"If only relatives would take them in, they wouldn't be begging on the streets."
Liu Sanniang had experienced a lot of things and knew that if the two children had relatives willing to adopt them, they would definitely not be wandering and begging on the streets.
The two children looked at her nervously and anxiously, and she knew what they meant. Since both children had brought others back, she couldn't ask them to ask them to leave, so she said, "Take me to see them first."
"They are waiting outside the door." Seeing that his mother was willing to take in two little beggars, Lu Mingfei took his mother out.
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