Chapter Seven: The Beggar

  Shazhou is a land of wealthy merchants, where the rich come and go frequently, making it a paradise for beggars. However, the wealthy may not necessarily be willing to donate money to help you, it all depends on your begging skills.

  At the crack of dawn, Qi Xie quietly slipped out of the room. Before leaving, she didn't forget to add another quilt to her father's bed. When she woke up this morning, she found herself on a soft bed and felt a warmth in her heart for no reason, which further solidified her determination to do something big recently. As the saying goes, "If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools." Qi Xie first snatched the food bowl of the big yellow dog in front of the inn, then picked up a handful of soil and wiped it on her face several times, and finally tore the hem of her clothes. Of course, she had already changed into another set of clothes beforehand, knowing that they were going through an economic crisis and only having one decent outfit to wear.

  Feng Huang West Street is the most bustling street in Shazhou City, and it was also where she encountered the horse thieves that day. There are still many merchants passing by here, all of whom have bulging waists. Qi Mei originally chose to sit outside the busiest Yunlai Restaurant, and her choice of location was also carefully considered. It was one of the few places like a gambling den, restaurant, wine shop, or bustling street mouth. Although the income outside the gambling den would be higher, the risk is also greater. If the big shot who came out of there happened to have bad luck and lost everything, you might even get beaten up. For someone as small and weak as Qi Mei, it's really not worth taking that risk.

  No, Qi Xi really couldn't bear to see his old father still going out on the streets to perform at his age, so he came up with the idea of begging. He thought about how in his past life those beggars each had a forty-stringed phone and every year not only could they feed themselves but also send several thousand back home, it turned out that being a beggar was also a very promising career.

  But it's easy to say and hard to do, waiting outside the restaurant for leftovers is too humiliating, she can't bring herself to ask passersby for help, after all, even if she was chased by loan sharks in her past life, she had never fallen to this point. Looking at the people coming and going, Qiying also wanted to speak but stopped several times, suddenly seeing a customer who came out of the restaurant throw a bun into her bowl.

  "Hey, I'm not begging for food!"

  "Come on kid, just eat, it's pitiful for someone as young as you to be out begging for food all alone."

  Speechless, your appearance is so poor that you can't be considered anything but a beggar. The person only left these words and quickly left. It was early in the morning when he came out of the inn, and at this time, Qiuxi's stomach was already growling with hunger. Moreover, he was squatting at the entrance of the restaurant, so if that bun hadn't been thrown into Da Huang's food bowl, maybe Qiuxi would have considered picking it up to eat.

  "You're not eating? Then I won't be polite!" This wasn't a question at all. Just as Qī Xì was staring blankly at the bun, an arm suddenly stretched out from who-knows-where and snatched it away in one swift motion. Qī Xì saw this and became furious - what kind of people were these that dared to snatch things from her?! She looked up to see a shabbily dressed young man not even bothering to look at her properly, just savoring the bun with gusto. Next to him was an even more tattered little kid who looked like he was about to burst into tears: "Young Master, how can we take food from beggars?! Young Master, slow down! Young Master, please spare some for me!"

  Their appearance is no different from that of beggars, but I didn't expect that people begging for food nowadays would bring their own attendants. Seeing them eating like wolves, occasionally passersby would throw a few coins, isn't this openly competing with me for business? "I ask you two which gang are you from, do you know whose territory this is? Dare to beg here without asking me?"

  In his past life, he had seen too many villainous performances on TV, and this time Qi Mei also learned that tone of voice to be 80% similar. Those two young masters wiped their mouths after eating: "This young master just came out to travel and have fun, and it just so happens that I haven't eaten a bun in a long time. Anyway, you won't eat it either, wasting is a sin, I'm helping you."

  "Master, have we ever had such a leisurely trip? We haven't even smelled rice for a long time, let alone buns."

  "Shut up."

  This old man is really a typical hard-mouthed person, he's fallen on hard times but still pretends to be a rich young master traveling for pleasure. Anyway, after sitting here for an afternoon, there's no gain, otherwise I'd just ask them for some protection money? But looking at their appearance, they've already fallen to the point of fighting with beggars for food, I suppose they don't have much money on them either. However, even a skinny pig can still be squeezed for oil and water.

  It was unclear whether the young master had seen through Qiuxi's scheme or if it was because of Qiuxi's overly obvious sly smile, but he took a step closer to Qiuxi and whispered a few sentences in his ear. As they spoke, their eyes would occasionally flash with light as they glanced at the small servant boy, who was still squatting at a distance, adhering to the etiquette between master and servant. Now, seeing the young master whispering with that beggar, although he couldn't hear what they were saying, being looked at by them made his back feel chilled to the bone.

  The young master leaned in close to the servant's ear and whispered a few words, whereupon the servant's face contorted as if he were about to cry, and he muttered softly: "Master, please don't, Master... what if they really bury me? I have an 80-year-old mother at home, and a younger sister who hasn't been born yet, Master..."

  So, the three of them joined forces to put on a traditional play of "selling one's body to bury one's brother" in Fenghuang West Street, the most prosperous area of Shazhou City. The plot was old-fashioned, but that doesn't mean it wasn't useful; otherwise, it wouldn't have been passed down for thousands of years and be called traditional.

  Then Qiuxu and the young master who had fallen on hard times began to wail loudly: "Elder brother, you died so miserably! We three brothers came to Sha Zhou, but didn't expect that you would suddenly contract a serious illness. Our money was stolen by thieves, and now my third brother and I don't know how we'll survive. Uncle and aunt relatives who are present, we two brothers don't ask for anything else, just beg of you to give us some small change so we can bury our elder brother."

  "Hey, why are you making me pay for your little brother?" The young master seemed dissatisfied with Qiuxi's words and immediately protested.

  "Shut up and cry, what I said is right."

  Everyone likes to watch the excitement, and the more onlookers there are, the more people will be attracted. This is what they call "people coming crazy". However, among so many who like to watch the excitement, not many are willing to pay for it. They're not stupid either. The traditional performances have been seen through by the onlookers long ago. Sometimes throwing a few coins as rewards is just because those clowns' skills are not bad. Although there are many clever people, fools still exist.

  All that could be heard was a soft voice from the crowd: "Uh-uh, Prince Wang, look at how pitiful they are." The crowd then shifted their curious gaze over, and saw a slender young woman clinging to another man in luxurious clothing. Although he was dressed in fine silks, his hands and neck were covered in gold ornaments, almost as if he had even plated his teeth with gold. Despite being dazzlingly bright, it couldn't hide the fact that he was a nouveau riche. Qiuli and the prince turned their heads at the same time, letting out a vague hum: "Vulgar!"

  That slightly chubby nouveau riche walked up to the front with a beautiful woman, rummaged through his pockets for half a day and suddenly exclaimed: "Beautiful woman, today I didn't bring any change." While saying this, he was also shaking the few silver tickets in his hand. This fat man obviously didn't want to give money, but also didn't want to lose face in front of the beautiful woman. The dead fatty, stinky fatty, Qiuxi also silently scolded this nouveau riche ten thousand times.

  But the silver is someone else's, it's not good to go up and grab it openly! Who says you can't? But just now, the young man who had been following himself and acting in his own play suddenly stood up, took the silver ticket from the nouveau riche's hand, and dug into his own waist for half a day: "This is the money that Ben Shao found for you."

  The scene suddenly became very quiet, so quiet that even the sound of someone farting sounded abrupt.