Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Became a Little Beggar _1
Translator: 549690339
Chen Da heard his wife say this and became uneasy. “Won’t keeping that child at home be a disaster?”
“Who could argue with that,” Chen Dasao began to worry.
“What if we hand her over to the authorities?” suggested Chen Da.
“Hand her over to what authorities?” Chen Dasao was annoyed. “If the child was indeed kidnapped, turning her in won’t help us. We would end up offending the Han Family and your brother for no reason. Your brother might even blame you for meddling too much.”
Chen Guanglu, who was good at ingratiating himself and networking with others since his youth, had much interaction with county officials. His connections were wide-ranging. How should they say it if they just gave the child away themselves?
Should they say that the Han family sent her and that they are turning her in for fear of getting involved? They might end up with the tables turned on them by the couple, causing trouble for themselves.
“So what should we do?” Chen Da scratched his head, distressed. “This won’t work, and that won’t work, why did you agree with her in the first place?” Chen Dasao kicked her husband, irritated, “I told you, I didn’t realize it at the time.”
Chen Da was silent, burying his head and eating his porridge.
“Hmph, if the Han family isn’t letting the child out, then let’s let her get lost by accident.” Chen Dasao’s eyes sparkled, “We can’t watch her every second of the day.” Chen Da looked up from his rice bowl, “What if the child doesn’t leave?”
“If she doesn’t, we’ll make her leave.” Chen Dasao had full confidence,
“Tomorrow there is a temple fair, children get lost at these events all the time.”
In the evening, Yingbao was arranged to sleep in a small thatched hut filled with miscellaneous items and firewood.
Chen Dasao threw her a tattered hemp blanket, telling her to sleep in the pile of grass.
After they left, Yingbao entered her little nest to check the items she had gathered.
After Xiaojie’s drowning incident, she had stored many things in that little nook.
Old clothes, blankets, ropes, baskets, some grains, and flour, none of which were of use at the moment.
She lifted her wrist and looked at it. It had been cleaned, which meant the Han family already knew that she didn’t have a birthmark. That is to say, they must have already realized she wasn’t their daughter.
Even knowing that she wasn’t their daughter, they had still sent her to Zhouhe County, over a hundred miles away. This meant the Han family hadn’t given up on their idea.
So what awaited her was either being silenced or being silenced, it was just a matter of time.
If the Han family indeed had a son, or if anything else happened during this period, there’s no doubt she would be killed sooner than later.
It’s far too easy for an adult to kill a child, then find a random place to bury the body, nobody would have any idea.
Therefore, she couldn’t stay here and she couldn’t tell these people the truth.
Her best act was to pretend to be a naive child and escape when the chance arose.
Early the next morning,
The tattered blanket on Yingbao was stripped off.
Chen Dasao looked at her with a friendly smile and gave her two black buns.
“You must be hungry. Eat quickly.”
Yingbao took the two black buns owned out.
Chen Dasao said, “There’s a temple fair outside the front street today, do you want to go?”
Yingbao’s eyes brightened, and she nodded.
“Let your big sister take you then.” She said, giving a girl standing at the side two coins, “Take good care of your little sister at the temple fair. She’s your aunt’s relative after all.”
The girl happily took the two coins, held Yingbao’s hand, and led her outside.
Yingbao, with a bewildered look on her face, followed the girl outside. Looking back, she saw Chen Dasao looking at her with a heavy face.
The sky outside was gray and it wasn’t very bright. An eight or nine-year-old girl leading a toddler girl little more than three years old out of the alley didn’t attract any attention.
This dirty and dilapidated lane was a home to the less affluent people, whose outfits were ragged, even compared to the villagers of Dongchen Village.
The girl led Yingbao left and right, across two streets, eventually arriving at the bottom of a hill.
There were already many vendors setting up their stalls here, it appeared to be the day of the temple fair.
The girl took Yingbao to an old elm tree and let her sit on its roots, telling her to stay put while she went to buy some food.
Yingbao nodded, watching as the girl bounced away and quickly disappeared into the crowd.
Was she left there by herself?
Yingbao looked around, surprised. She quickly stood and started walking in a different direction.
Ahead was a large patch of evergreen shrubs, lush and green even in the piercing winter cold.
Yingbao hid among the bushes and took out a worn-out padded jacket from her bag.
The clothes were old and faded, but they were wearable still.
But just to be safe, Yingbao spread the old padded jacket on the ground and stomped on it for a while.
When she picked it up again, the outside of the jacket was hardly recognizable.
Yingbao tiptoed and looked around, seeing no one about, she quickly shed her new red padded clothes and put on the grimy, unbecoming old outfit. She then pulled her hair loose, grabbed a handful of mud to smear on her face and head, and then slyly took out a small bronze mirror to look at her reflection. She was content, she looked exactly like a dirty little beggar.
She had disguised herself as a beggar in her past life, so she knew how to pull this off.
Who would have thought she would have to play a beggar again today. But she knew she could only enhance her performance.
Dressed like this, she wouldn’t be easily captured and sold while traveling alone.
Those child snatchers wouldn’t want a filthy, smelly, ugly little beggar. They would refuse her even if she was offered to them, for fear of contracting diseases.
She carefully put away the bronze mirror and the new clothes and lowered her head to check her feet.
On her feet were half-new, warm, and lightweight cotton shoes which seemed out of place with the rest of her outfit.
However, she didn’t have any suitable shoes in her bag. She certainly couldn’t go barefoot in the dead of winter.
Oh, well. It would have to do.
Just as she lifted her head, she found herself looking into a pair of eyes.
Yingbao was startled and took a few steps back.
The person squatting across from her was a teenager, dirty from head to toe and dressed in tattered clothes that were even worse than hers. He looked at her suspiciously and asked, “Which hill are you from?”
Yingbao blinked, “No hill.”
She understood what the boy meant: he was asking if she belonged to a Beggar Gang.
The boy scratched his messy hair, stood up and looked around. “Hmm,” he asked again, “Did you see a little girl in red clothes? I saw her walk in here, but she disappeared.”
Yingbao shook her head. “Didn’t see her, she probably went that way,” she said, pointing towards a narrow path by the bushes.
The boy was about to go in that direction but then turned back and asked,
“Since you don’t have a hill, do you want to come with me?”
Yingbao thought for a moment and nodded, “Okay.”
And so, the two beggars walked down the slope and not finding the little girl in red, they turned back.
The teenage beggar took Yingbao to meet another beggar, they discussed their begging territories, and went their separate ways.
Yingbao continued to follow the boy, eventually settling down in a suitable spot along the road.
The boy beggar looked left and right, carefully inspecting his surroundings. Every time he spotted a friendly-looking woman, he sent Yingbao forward to beg.
With no other choice, Yingbao ran up to them and pitifully stretched out her hands to a middle-aged woman.
She was familiar with this kind of work, so she did it naturally and smoothly, without any embarrassment..
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