The young lady threw a tattered jacket onto his face. “What am I doing, what am I doing. You only know to sleep all day! Get up to get rice!”
The woman coughed twice before speaking up to mediate, “Yingchun, don’t treat your younger brother like this. Cong’er, your sister said there are people giving handouts on Xiluo Street today. Let’s go take a look.”
Once the skinny lad heard that there were handouts, he scrambled up speedily. He then randomly threw on a jacket and rubbed his dirty face while he was at it. Afterwards, he strolled out of the rundown temple.

  How were the people who lived in this kind of rundown place able to pay particular attention to washing up? It was already great if they could take a bath every year or so.

  The family of three exited the rundown temple together and ran toward the beginning of Xiluo Street.

  It wasn’t until they stepped out that they discovered everyone swarming toward the same place. The lad promptly found the handout to be more believable.

  He rubbed his shrivelled tummy and licked his lips. It had already been a long time since he had eaten a full meal, and his eyes would turn green whenever he saw food these few days.

  The trio mixed in with seven to eight beggars of various ages as they moved with a portion of the crowd to the beginning of the street.

  Today’s sun rays were particularly bright and warmed up the body. Qiao Mu had rewarded the junior eunuchs and royal maids with food and drink in advance, treating them to a big feast last night. Because they had eaten and slept well, everyone was very spirited.

  Even after busying about for half the morning, they were all beaming, and neither did anyone complain of hardship or fatigue.

  The young lady, who was dressed in gray clothes and had wrapped her head with a blue and white cotton cloth, frantically tugged at her mother’s hand while rapidly moving forward with the crowd.

  Every person was holding a cloth sack with which to hold rice as they stretched their necks to peer forward.

  As soon as they thought about how they would be able to bring a lot, a lot of rice back and would not need to go hungry that night, the elderly and the children smiled even more widely.

  “Hey, isn’t that Xiao’gou’zi who bunks next to us?” The thin and frail lad called Cong’er caught a glimpse of a dark and skinny boy who was in line ahead of them. He raised his eyebrow and started walking toward the latter.

  “That’s right, let’s line up where he is. Xiao’gou’zi!! Xiao’gou’zi!”
“Sister Yingchun?” The dark and skinny boy was startled, but he didn’t say anything when he saw that Cong’er wanted to cut in line before him.

  Miss Yingchun supported her mother as they walked over quickly. However, before the trio could cut into the line, they heard a series of shouts behind them. “What are you doing? They’re cutting in line!”
“Someone’s cutting in line!!”
“They’re too shameless, we’ve also been waiting here for a long time!”
“Sir Soldier! Sir Soldier, someone’s cutting in line here!! Come handle this!”
The crowd’s shouts drew over a minor commander of the royal guard. He raised up the dagger-axe in his hand and roared, “Everyone quiet down! You!”
He pointed at the ashen-faced Miss Yingchun. “Go to the back!”
Miss Yingchun’s pretty face instantly darkened from embarrassment.

  “Yingchun, don’t cause trouble, don’t cause trouble. We’ll be able to get rice no matter if it’s sooner or later, so let’s just go line up in the back.” The woman was afraid of stirring up trouble since the three of them would be at a disadvantage. She hastily tugged Miss Yingchun’s hand and pulled her and her son out of the throng and to the back of the line.

  However, because of this delay, their original spot in line had been taken up by seven to eight people, so the trio could only indignantly line up at the end.

  The minor commander of the royal guard cast them a look.

  #