197, beggar
197, beggar
It snowed all night last night. By the early morning, the snow had stopped, but there was a thick layer of snow on the ground, leaving footprints wherever you stepped.
Lu Mingfei brought Zhang Qi out of Chunxi Road and arrived at South Street. They could hear the hawkers' shouts from afar.
As the Chinese New Year approaches, there are a lot of stalls selling things on the street and a lot of people buying things. At a glance, the whole street is very lively.
Although he grew up on this street and has seen this scene countless times, every time the Chinese New Year approaches, when he sees so many people on the street and it is so lively, Lu Mingfei still likes this kind of bustle.
But his good mood did not last long. When he saw an old man and a young boy, a grandfather and a grandson, begging on the street, his good mood disappeared without a trace in an instant.
"Master, please be kind and give me something to eat."
"Sir, please be kind and give me something to eat."
"Please be kind, please be kind..."
“…”
"Get out of here! Damn old man!"
On the street, an old man was begging with a child. The old man was holding a bowl and came to a wealthy man dressed in silk, but was pushed away by the man.
The old man was pushed and fell to the ground. His grandson, who was following him, jumped on him and called him Grandpa.
"Bah, you two think you can extort money from me?" The man spat on the ground, glared at the grandfather and grandson, then swaggered away with his two servants.
The old man was angry but dared not say anything. He supported himself with one hand and struggled to get up from the ground.
At this moment, a hand reached out, held the old man's hand, and helped him up from the ground, "Slow down."
"Thank you, sir." The old man looked at the young man who helped him up and expressed his gratitude.
The little grandson followed his grandfather and looked at the strange brother in front of him.
Lu Mingfei glanced at the grandfather and grandson, took out a few copper coins from his pocket, and stuffed them into the old man's hand, "Use them to buy something to eat."
"Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir." The old man took the copper coin and thanked the young master profusely. He also pulled his grandson and asked him to thank others.
Lu Mingfei just waved his hand and left with Zhang Qi.
Zhang Qi took two steps and looked back, seeing the old man and the child still looking in their direction. He recalled a few years ago, in the same winter, when he and his younger brother were picked up by the Lu brothers and taken home.
It is also because of their good luck that the two brothers met their eldest brother, which led to their good life today.
Liu Sanniang, who was selling things in the store, saw her eldest son coming and asked with a smile, "Ming Fei is here."
"Brother." Lu Mingrui, who was working in the store, saw his brother coming and ran towards him.
"Mother." Lu Mingfei called him mother and reached out to hold Lu Mingrui's head.
As the New Year approaches, there are many people on the streets and their store is doing good business. The store is almost full of diners.
At this time, the pancake shop owned by his adoptive parents was doing very well and was very busy. Lu Mingcong also went home to help his family with work.
Although their lives have improved now, the children in the family are not spoiled. When the adults in the family are busy, the two little ones will help with the work.
A few years ago, Lu Mingfei had raised the issue of raising his two younger brothers with the parents of both families. Fortunately, the parents on both sides listened to his advice and didn't raise the two children to be little masters who didn't know how to do housework.
There are three children in the family now, including Zhang Xiaobao.
The three boys usually studied during their school days, and would often go to the escort agency to learn martial arts from their masters. However, they also had to help with housework when they returned home. Although they were sometimes naughty, generally speaking, these three boys were very sensible and hardworking good children.
When he got to the store, Lu Mingfei didn't need to do the rough work, so he helped his father and mother sort out the bills. The New Year was coming soon, and the bills for this year also needed to be sorted out.
There were also bills from the two workshops and the farm, which Lu Mingfei helped to handle, without having to pay an accountant extra.
Of course, he couldn't finish the work alone, so he also asked Lu Mingrui to work with him.
After sorting out the bills, Lu Mingfei handed the remaining work to his younger brother. "Okay, I'll leave the rest to you. I'll come over later to see the general ledger."
"Brother, isn't this a bit too much?"
"Why, don't you have confidence in yourself?"
"Who said that! I can do it!"
Lu Mingfei gave his brother a look that encouraged him to work harder, then he walked out of the house.
As soon as he came out, he saw the shop assistants driving away the beggars who came to the store door to beg.
"Go away, go away quickly. Don't disturb our business here." The waiter drove away the beggar outside the door.
"Mother, are there many people coming to the restaurant to eat recently?" Lu Mingfei walked up to his mother and asked.
"How can there not be many? There are more than ten waves of beggars coming to our store every day to ask for food. I dare not let anyone bring food to them, for fear that if I give food to one, others will also flock here. Then it will be endless and we will not be able to do business." Facing these beggars who come one after another, Liu Sanniang feels sorry for them.
But she also knew in her heart that once they started this, they would be harassed by these beggars and they would not be able to do business.
Lu Mingfei also knew this, so when he saw the shop assistants chasing beggars away, he didn't want to step forward and give them food.
Looking in the direction of the imperial city, he felt extremely ironic that there were so many beggars at the feet of the emperor, not to mention the places outside Kyoto Prefecture.
The rich and powerful live a luxurious life with gold and silver jewelry, but ordinary people can hardly even have a full meal.
However, the emperor sitting in the imperial city cannot see the suffering of the people under his rule, and those officials only exploit the people. When the superiors can treat the people as human beings, there will be hope for this country and the people will live a prosperous life.
These issues concerning the people's livelihood are national issues and should be addressed by those in power.
What could a mere scholar like him do for the people of this era? And how could he change the ills of this era?
Looking at the people coming and going on the street, all kinds of questions came to Lu Mingfei's mind.
"Mingfei, what's wrong with you?" Liu Sanniang saw her eldest son standing there in a daze, and thought he was just in a daze. "You don't have anything to do here, why don't you go back to Chunxi Road to study."
"I'm going out for a walk and may be back late. Mingrui is doing the accounts in the house. If you have anything, go to the back and call him."
"Okay, go ahead. Wait a minute, I'll call Zhang Qi out to go out with you."
Liu Sanniang asked her eldest son to wait outside for a while. She went to the backyard and called out to Zhang Qi to come out and go out with her eldest son.
Zhang Qi followed behind their eldest brother, watching him walk aimlessly down the street, and asked, "Brother, where are we going?"
"Just take a walk." In fact, Lu Mingfei was not walking aimlessly. As he walked, he observed the vendors and people buying things on the street.
There are also beggars on the street.
There were beggars on the streets normally, but he found that there were more beggars this winter.
If he met an old man or a child begging on the street, he would give them two copper coins, but if he met an adult man with all his limbs intact, he would not give them anything.
This discriminatory treatment made the two beggars very dissatisfied with him. They stopped him in the street and asked him, "Why did you give them two copper coins and not us two brothers?"
"You two are adult men with hands and feet. Instead of looking for a job, you come to the street to beg and ask me why I don't give you money?" Lu Mingfei laughed when he was asked. In fact, he couldn't help laughing when he asked the two people.
People who stopped to watch the excitement saw two beggars stopping a boy of about ten years old and asking him for money. After hearing their conversation, everyone pointed at the two beggars.
"you!"
The two beggars were so angry that one of them wanted to attack the boy.
Seeing this, Zhang Qi quickly stood in front of their eldest brother and glared at the two beggars who were about to hit him. "What are you going to do? Do you want to hit me again?"
"There are so many eyes watching us on the street. If you dare to hit anyone, we will report you to the police and have you arrested!"
Upon hearing this, the two beggars looked at each other and knew that they could not afford to offend the person in front of them, so they got into the crowd and left quickly.
Seeing this, the two little beggars who had just received money didn't want to cause trouble, so they ran away quickly.
"Brother, look at them!" Zhang Qi saw two little beggars running away. He had just taken the copper coins given by their eldest brother, but when he saw that they were in trouble, he not only did not help them, but also ran away.
"Let's go." Lu Mingfei grabbed the angry Zhang Qi, but he himself was not angry.
It's human nature to seek profit and avoid harm, so there's nothing to be angry about. They're just two little beggars you don't know, so there's no need to ask anything of them.
Little did they know that the scene of the two people on the street was seen by the Third Prince who was upstairs. The Third Prince called over the eunuch who was following him and asked him to go downstairs to invite the person.
"Sir, please stay."
"What can I do for you?"
After taking only two steps, they were blocked by someone. Lu Mingfei looked at the person in front of him and asked.
The young eunuch looked in the direction of their master and said, "Our young master invites you to go upstairs for a cup of tea."
"Sorry, I have other things to take care of. Please go back and tell your young master to thank him for the invitation." Lu Mingfei looked in the direction of the teahouse and saw a person standing by the window on the second floor.
When the other person saw him looking at him, he raised the teacup in his hand and gestured to him from a distance.
Although he was a stranger, Lu Mingfei nodded to him out of politeness, but he didn't want to have tea with a stranger.
"How bold! Do you know..." The young eunuch stopped talking halfway.
Lu Mingfei gestured to the short man who was watching them walk along the road to continue speaking.
However, the dwarf stopped talking halfway through his words, so he didn't have the patience to wait for the dwarf to finish, and left with Zhang Qi.
Looking at the master and servant who had left, the young eunuch stamped his feet in anger and turned back to the teahouse to report.
The Third Prince, who was upstairs, heard what the returning eunuch said and watched the master and servant walking further and further away on the street. He was not too angry. However, he had a premonition that they would meet again.
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