In the open areas of the suburbs, many refugees gather here.
Refugees will go to the county town to beg during the day. When there are more refugees in winter, the government will not allow too many refugees to enter the city. If you are lucky, you can enter, but if you are not lucky, you cannot enter to beg. There are people in the suburbs, but life in the suburbs is also not easy. If one has compassion, they will give some food, but they can only give it to one person not to many. If they can’t give food then they can give alms but if they do so, more refugees would come to swarm them, eventually, people simply stop giving alms to avoid refugees looting them.
If you can get food, you will not starve, but you will be frozen. If you can’t get food, you will starve and freeze for a day.
At night, the refugees could only find a place to shelter from the wind in the suburbs. The cold wind pierced through their bones at night, and they had to grit their teeth to survive even if they were shivering from the cold.
“Father, I’m hungry…”
The thin little boy was unbearably hungry, and his eyes longed to look at his father beside him. The ger looked sad and hugged the child into his arms, “Sleep for now, when you wake up, we will have something to eat tomorrow.”
The little boy was obedient, his cold face was flushed as he asked, “Father, why did grandma drive us away? Where did Daddy go? I miss him.” If Daddy was there, he and his father wouldn’t go hungry and they would not be bullied.
The ger didn’t know how to explain it for a while, he hadn’t even seen his husband’s corpse and he was unaware if he was still alive or already dead, he didn’t want to hear others say that he was gone. The ger just hugged his son tightly, tears in his eyes stubbornly refused to fall, and said softly, ” We’re just out to find your father, and we’ll find him soon.”
The white-haired old woman next to them asked, “Why did you come out to beg, you little fellows?”
They were all begging in the suburbs together, and they gathered together to keep warm at night, and they relied on each other.
“Grandma, this is my son. My husband went to run a business and never came back. We were kicked out by our mother-in-law.” The ger’s tone was very flat as he said so.
The old woman was obviously stunned, and it took a while before she said, “What kind of mother-in-law is this? Is it not fatal to drive people out in this cold weather, it’s basically a crime!”
The ger’s face was shriveled by the cold wind, and without any complaints, he gently pulled the corners of his mouth and didn’t say much.
His mother-in-law is his husband’s stepmother, and his husband was kicked out of that family. After they got married, they lived an ordinary life with food and clothing. They were fine. His husband and the villagers went to run a merchant ship, but they disappeared in a big storm.
Some of the men who went out to run merchant ships came back, and some of them disappeared and fell into the sea.
His husband’s father and stepmother called him an unlucky star, took away the family house, and drove him and his son out. He only had a few copper coins with him and some villagers pitied him and gave him a few copper coins. In order not to be frozen to death or starve to death, he could only leave his hometown with his son, and follow the refugees all the way to Nanshan County.
Bang bang bang bang—
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Qlat atf rbecv bo j ubcu, atf gfoeuffr lc atf reyegyr kbxf eq ogbw atf mbiv.
“Ktfs’gf ulnlcu qbgglvuf jtfjv, sbe mjc ilcf eq ab ufa qbgglvuf—”
“Tbe tfjgv wf gluta, rbwfbcf lr rfgnlcu qbgglvuf, teggs eq—”
Efujgvifrr bo atf mbiv klcv yibklcu bnfgcluta, atf ybcfr bo atf gfoeuffr raloofcfv jr atf mbiv gjc jkjs- atfs gertfv ab atf qbgglvuf qijmf, obg ofjg atja atfgf kbeiv yf cb qbgglvuf ab fja lo la kjr abb ijaf.
The ger was pleasantly surprised and shook his son in his arms. The little boy woke up immediately when he heard that there was porridge to drink.
Behind them, the old lady was walking with a cane, and her eyes were full of eagerness. Seeing other people passing by her, they all ran to the porridge place, and she was even more worried that it would be gone if she went late.
The old lady is a widowed old woman who comes to Nanshan County to beg every year. Nanshan County has a limited amount of porridge but she has drank it several times before.
In previous years, the porridge was given out later, but this year it was earlier.
As long as there was something to fill her stomach, she didn’t think too much about it.
The pair of mother and child and the old woman are the most familiar with each other, and they rely on each other to keep warm at night. Seeing that the old woman was struggling, the ger pulled his son back, “Grandma, I will help you walk.”
The little boy imitated his parent and stretched out their thin hands to support the old woman: “Grandma, I will help you too.”
The old granny’s eyes were cloudy, but she still declined politely: “No, I can walk slowly towards the front, you and the child run over quickly, and more and more refugees are queuing behind, and there will be no more left for the refugees in the back.”
The ger still didn’t let go. When he just came to this strange place with his son, the old lady kindly helped them, otherwise, he would have been even more at a loss when taking care of his son. Sometimes the old lady would help him look after his son, and they would keep each other warm at night, as human beings, he can’t be so heartless.
The little boy saw what his father did, and he followed suit. He looked down at his hungry flat stomach and cheered himself up. If he really couldn’t eat, he would tighten his stomach.
The old lady is used to the cold and indifferent eyes of others. After so many years, this is the first time she feels the warmth of winter. She can’t survive for even a few years, and it is enough to meet care before she dies.
If she can’t get any porridge, she still has a dozen or so copper coins in her bosom for when she can’t beg for food, and there is a dilapidated mud house in her hometown, so she’ll leave it to the mother and son pair.
Unlike other refugees rushing over, they just walked over with support. All this fell into the eyes of the servants of Wei Cheng’s family. They came out and beat the gong to call for the refugees to go to the porridge shed. Steward Mao told them to pay attention to the behavior of the refugees, and they didn’t understand at first but they get it now.
Some people’s character can be seen from the observation of a person’s behavior.
Compared with some refugees who bumped into each other while running, and even had disputes with others…one can see clearly who the ones with good characters are…
These are the suitable people for recruiting in the workshops.
“Everyone line up for me, one line on each side, the men line up on the left, the elders, gers, and children line up on the right side, each person gets a bowl of porridge, no jumping in line is allowed, if you jump in line, we will let you leave—”
The adults who were originally behind the old man and the children were very excited when they heard it, and they were not afraid to run slowly to finish the food distribution.
“Everyone has a share, don’t worry, eat at the side if you get it, you are not allowed to rob others if you rob, you will be driven away—”
Wei Hu took the servants he was training and stood aside. Some people who wanted to take the opportunity to jump in the line and didn’t want to line up saw that there were few people in the line on the right, and they had to line up obediently if they wanted to mess around.
The porridge cooked in the porridge shed is coarse-grain porridge. It is cooked in a big pot, and it is thick, not one with more water than grain.
After they got their bowls, the refugees looked at the thick porridge with steam and warmth, and they were all excited.
“A bowl of porridge that has a lot of rice—”
“I’m not dreaming, I’ve never eaten porridge full of rice at my age—”
“Very fragrant porridge, this porridge is given by a good person—”
A man’s bowl of porridge is not enough to fill him up, but for an old man, a child, or the like, this bowl of hot porridge full of rice can last them for a whole day.
Those who received the porridge started to gobble it up, eating the bowl of porridge with relish, and even licking the bottom of the bowl.
Some refugees wanted to beat the weaker ones while they were eating, but when they saw the tall, muscular man standing with the stick, they were instantly cowed.
The ger, his son, and the old lady lined up, and finally, it was their turn. Looking at the bowl full of rice porridge, they all felt that they could survive the winter at this moment.
“Kids hold it well, don’t drop it, if you drop it, you won’t have anything to eat.”
The little man held the bowl seriously, smelled the aroma, couldn’t help but lick his chapped lips, and replied politely, “Uncle, it won’t fall, if it falls, I will be hungry, thank you, uncle!”
“You don’t have to thank me, you can thank my master.” The servant pointed to the right and said to the three people, “You might have good luck if you eat there.”
“Thanks!”
The ger thanked them gratefully, and the old woman thanked them with tears in his eyes.
The place pointed out by the servant is just a few steps away. The ger and son brought the porridge over and then came back to help the old woman. The person in that position saw it and took the initiative to help.
Everyone sat around eating bowls of porridge and chatting happily.
“In previous years, it was clear water porridge, but this year it is full of rice porridge.”
“This time the porridge is not given by the good people in the county, but by the owner of the grocery store not far in front.”
“I know that grocery store. There are many workshops there, and many people are hired to work. If I can go, I would rather not get paid, as long as I can have enough food.”
“Where are you from?”
“I came from the north, and it snowed heavily in my hometown in winter. Many people were hungry and cold, so they came out to beg for survival.”
“The harvest in my hometown is not good this year, and many people don’t have enough to eat, so they come out to beg.”
“This porridge is the best I’ve ever eaten. I don’t know if I can eat it tomorrow.”
“Sure!”
The little boy ate to his heart’s content, “Father, it’s delicious. You didn’t lie to me. There really was food when I woke up.”
The ger said softly: “It’s delicious so savor it.”
“Well, I will.”
Poor people :<
Thank You for the new chapter ( ∩ˇωˇ∩)♡
Thanks for the chapter! They break my heart.
💙💙💙
Thanks for the update!!!
Sweet. Thank you