"Mother, we don't have any travel permits. We don't need to stay at an inn; we can just find a spot by the wall," Tian Shu said quickly after hearing the innkeeper's words and seeing the troubled look on his mother's face.
When the eldest child said this, the other children understood what was going on: "Mother, you go and stay at the inn by yourself. We'll wait for you outside tomorrow morning."
Yes, if we watch which inn Mother goes into, we'll sleep on either side of the front or back door, so we won't be afraid she'll run away.
The children were very sensible, but their words didn't make Hong Xiaoduo happy. She didn't have a travel permit herself, so how was she going to get to the inn?
Even if she had the travel permit to stay at an inn, she wouldn't be able to sleep with seven children sleeping on the streets!
"Young lady, could it be that you don't have one either?" The shopkeeper asked tentatively, looking at Hong Xiaoduo's expression, expressing his guess.
Hong Xiaoduo's silence was tantamount to a response to the shopkeeper: Yes, you guessed right!
"Honey, in our remote little town, the rules aren't that strict, are they? Besides, looking at her, she's just a young woman with seven children; she's definitely not some evil fugitive or criminal."
"How about I go and sound out Granny Lan first?" The woman, looking a little anxious, stepped forward and whispered.
The woman's reaction wasn't just because she had just made a sale; she genuinely didn't see anything wrong with the group of seven children, and she wasn't really going to let them sleep on the streets.
"As you said, the accommodation issue is not strictly managed here. Granny Lan's son also has connections in the yamen. If he agrees to stay at her inn, there will naturally be no yamen checking the inn's register. Even if they do check, it will only be a formality."
The key issue is that if the young ladies don't have travel permits, it will be inconvenient for them to go anywhere in the future. These seven children, unless they change into nice clothes, don't really need travel permits at all." The shopkeeper said, looking at Hong Xiaoduo with a worried expression.
Although she's not very old, shouldn't someone traveling know about travel permits? Also, if she doesn't have one, where did she get it from? If it's nearby, why not just go home?
If she came from a long distance, how did she get here without any travel permits?
Could it really be like the rumors say, that martial arts practitioners don't care whether they have travel permits or not when they travel, because they have martial arts skills and can enter cities and prefectures without any city walls stopping them?
The shopkeeper glanced again at the sword at Hong Xiaoduo's waist, imagining the scene of this young lady leaping over the city wall, and felt it was quite exciting.
"I... no one asked me for any travel permits wherever I went," Hong Xiaoduo lied out of necessity.
What else can she do? No one would believe her if she told them how she got her original identity; they might even say she was possessed and talking nonsense.
Even now, she can't clearly explain her identity as a chivalrous woman—where she's from, where she lives. Ask her? She herself would love to know too, wouldn't she?
"Ah? But may I ask where you come from, young lady, and where you are going?" the shopkeeper asked casually.
Could it be that the young lady's home is nearby, and since there are no large cities or prefectures along the way, there is no need to check her travel permit?
"This?" Hong Xiaoduo was speechless, she really hadn't considered making up a fake one.
She had no idea what dynasty this was, and even if she did, she would be completely baffled to be asked to make up two fake place names in a completely unfamiliar dynasty!
"Look at me, I was too talkative. How could I ask the young lady these things? Since it's inconvenient to talk about, just pretend I didn't ask. Why don't you wait here and let my wife go ask Granny Lan, who is a friend of hers from the same village? One of the three inns in town is run by her son."
Young lady, you just overheard some of the details. Granny Lan's son has connections in the yamen. You should first tell him about the fact that you don't have travel permits and see what he says.
If he agrees, you can go and stay without worry.
"If that doesn't work, then we'll have to stay at Xiaofuan Hall outside town tonight. But it's quite a distance, and they're all so young; they probably won't make it by dark." The innkeeper, being sensible, didn't press further but instead offered more suggestions.
"Oh, is that so?" Hong Xiaoduo wanted to say, "Then I'll trouble you, Auntie." But then she thought about how she had beaten that villain and didn't know if he was alive or dead. She didn't want to implicate the innkeeper or the innkeeper and his wife.
"Thank you both. I'll take them to get something to eat. After they've eaten, we can walk to the nunnery. It's okay if we arrive a little late. It's not a big deal to walk at night at this time of year."
After saying that, he led the children outside.
The shopkeeper and his wife sighed and saw him to the shop door. Although they didn't know the specifics of the situation, they just wanted to help.
"Hey, was that young lady trying to coerce you into donating clothes?" A woman nearing fifty years old came running over, clutching a half-finished shoe sole, gossiping.
"Aunt Tong, what nonsense are you making up again? They bought it and paid for it." The shopkeeper ignored the famous and troublesome gossip on the street, but his wife couldn't ignore her, so she casually replied.
Grandma Tong didn't mind the shopkeeper's indifference at all, and continued to say, "What kind of relationship do you think they have? These days, even wealthy and kind-hearted people would never give money to a group of beggars to buy new clothes."
Do you think she might be a child trafficker? I saw those little beggars, and although they were dressed in rags, they were all pretty and clean-cut. Once they washed and changed into clean clothes, they were all fair-skinned and good-looking kids.
She wouldn't be kidnapping them, dressing them in clean clothes, tidying them up, and then selling them for a good price, would she?
"Hey Aunt Tong, don't think the worst of people, okay? You still have the leisure to gossip like this? I just saw your third son's wife go out. Did she steal some money from the shop to buy rouge and face powder again?" The shopkeeper couldn't stand it anymore.
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