The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 522 The Beggar (Part 7)

Qin Huai couldn't really judge Jiang Weiguo's cooking skills; they weren't particularly good or bad, given the limited resources. His control of the heat was commendable, but other aspects were lacking, and the presentation of the dishes wasn't great either.

But his porridge-cooking skills are quite good.

As Chen Shun said, fish offal is not an easy ingredient to handle. Fish and shrimp themselves need seasonings to remove their fishy smell, and fish offal is even more so. In an era when ordinary families couldn't afford white rice and could only eat beans, offal, and rice bran as their staple food, and seasonings were mostly limited to soy sauce and lard and rapeseed oil, adding a couple of drops of sesame oil to bean porridge was considered a treat. Handling fish offal properly was not only a matter of skill but also a matter of money.

An Youyou didn't have much money, but she was willing to spend money on food. After all, her biggest dream was to be able to eat braised pork knuckle on New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival. As long as Jiang Weiguo could cook the fish offal porridge well, An Youyou didn't care how many seasonings or sesame oil he put in the porridge, or how much the scallions, ginger, garlic, and peppercorns used to prepare the fish offal cost in copper coins.

Delicious will do.

Qin Huai could tell from An Youyou's ravenous eating and her secret act of licking the bowl clean when no one was looking that Jiang Weiguo had cooked a pretty good fish offal porridge today.

It shouldn't have much of a fishy smell, and it should smell very good.

Only An Youyou and Chen Shun ate fish offal porridge. Jiang Weiguo must have already eaten at Fu Ji, so he didn't eat anything extra. After cooking dinner for everyone, he went back to his room to rest and went to bed early.

Now that life is better, the underlings can't eat the same things as their boss. An Youyou eats fish offal porridge and stir-fried minced meat with white radish, while the underlings eat bean offal porridge and stir-fried minced meat with white radish. Each of them can also get a small piece of sweet potato, which is considered a hearty dinner.

Chen Shun ate very slowly and methodically.

"Chen Shun, are you busy on New Year's Eve?" An Youyou asked.

"It's alright. The school has been closed for a long time and will not reopen until after the Lantern Festival. Originally, I was supposed to help my mother with chores at home, but now that you're doing the chores, my parents told me to stay home and study. There shouldn't be anything else to do besides studying."

Chen Shun not only ate slowly and deliberately, but he also spoke slowly and deliberately.

Taking advantage of her younger brother's absence, An Youyou went from secretly licking the bowl to openly licking it, almost to the point of covering her face with the bowl, saying as she licked, "If you're free, come beg for food with me one of these days!"

Chen Shun: ?
“You’re a head shorter than me and look young. You can just crawl on the ground and say you broke your leg. Just whine and complain. I’ll say the rest.”

"They'll definitely ask for a lot of money, then we'll split it 50/50."

Chen Shun: ...

Chen Shun silently swallowed his porridge and refused decisively: "I'm not going."

“It really can cost a lot of money. I heard that the school you attend costs three silver dollars a month, right? If you didn’t want to go to school, your parents wouldn’t have rented the house to me. If you’re lucky, you can climb for a day and earn your monthly tuition.”

"I'm not going," Chen Shun continued to refuse.

An Youyou was a little unhappy. She slammed the bowl on the table, looking like she was so angry she wouldn't eat. Qin Huai glanced at it; the bowl was licked clean, the kind that didn't need washing.

"What's wrong with you two? New Year's Eve is such a good opportunity to beg for food. Thirteen has to go to work at Fu Kee and can't beg for food, so that's fine. You have nothing to do, so you just stay at home and read books. When is it not okay to read books? You really plan to become a scholar and go to that university to work for the government? Hey, that sounds pretty good. I heard from them that you can embezzle a lot of money if you work for the government in a year."

An Youyou's eyes lit up as she spoke.

Chen Shun asked slowly, "Why are you so obsessed with begging? You even keep trying to persuade Jiang Weiguo to quit working at Fu Ji and go begging with you. Even if you are a three-legged toad, not all three-legged toads are beggars."

Hearing Chen Shun say this, Qin Huai was certain that Chen Shun was also a spirit.

Qin Huai had already noticed something when Chen Shun and An Youyou were having dinner earlier. As the boss who always puts herself first, An Youyou wanted to eat special meals, stay in the best house, and even have two blankets on her—even though two blankets were a bit heavy on her and An Youyou wasn't afraid of the cold at all, that was just the boss's style.

But just now, when we were eating, An Youyou and Chen Shun shared the porridge in the pot equally. An Youyou drank three bowls, and Chen Shun also drank three bowls. Moreover, Chen Shun drank slowly, and after An Youyou finished her three bowls first, she didn't take the opportunity to get herself another bowl. Instead, she started silently licking her bowl clean.

An Youyou never licks the bowl in front of her underlings.

Even Jiang Weiguo, who gives An Youyou two silver dollars a month, doesn't receive such treatment.

Qin Huai couldn't think of anyone other than his own kind who could earn such equal treatment from An Youyou.

“You think I want food? I have no choice.” An Youyou was obviously much more relaxed in front of her own kind and dared to say anything. “My original plan was to beg for food to earn some money, then raise a group of followers, find a good place to occupy the mountain and become a bandit king, and live a glorious life and successfully pass the tribulation and go back.”

"My original dream job was to rob!"

Qin Huai: ? Three-legged toad, you're an auspicious beast! How could your ideals be so...criminal?

An Youyou continued angrily, "But I didn't expect it to be so difficult to recruit followers. Except for Thirteen, none of these followers are of any use. They all depend on me to support them and they are also very easy to die. Do you know how many followers I have taken in over the years? The money I beg for food is not even enough to support them, let alone become a mountain king."

"Moreover, the mountain king here is different from what I had heard before. It was said that being strong and good at fighting was enough. What is a gun? I am a three-legged toad. I am just more resistant to beatings. I can't breathe fire, create wind, spray water, or cause an earthquake when I step on it."

“When I first came here, I begged for food for two months. I thought it was too slow to make money, so I even thought about robbing someone. Do you know Director Huang who works in the government? He's extremely rich. He has a lot of gold bars at home. I scouted the area for a long time, preparing to pull off a big heist, but I almost got shot to death.”

"If I hadn't run fast, I would have died back to where I am now."

"It would be too embarrassing to die and go back like this. I'm not a plant spirit. Wherever we three-legged toads are, we have a whole bunch of followers. It's one thing if we don't become kings of the mountains with hundreds of followers, but if I die like this without knowing why, I'll be laughed to death by the other frogs when I get back."

"It was after that incident that I realized that although robbery brings in money quickly, it is too dangerous. Begging is better. Begging is stable, free, and not very dangerous. If you rob rich people, they will definitely pull out a gun, but if you ask them for food, at most they will kick you a couple of times. Guns and bullets are so expensive, it's not worth it to shoot a beggar."

An Youyou spoke sincerely and looked earnestly, showing that she was genuinely sharing her experiences with Chen Shun from the bottom of her heart.

“Chen Shun, listen to me, don’t study that book anymore. If you feel that your parents treat you well and have some affection for you, then pretend to go to school and then beg for food with me in the city.”

"What's the use of studying? Can studying make money as fast as begging? Don't be fooled by how much Thirteen seems to be earning now. Just wait until New Year's Eve, and you'll see that I'll be making several months' worth of Thirteen's wages in a single day!"

"Trust me, besides robbery, begging is the best and most stable way to make a living!"

Chen Shun refused An Youyou's recommendation and swallowed his porridge: "Impossible."

“Begging might bring in money quickly, but it’s not respectable, it’s not a proper job, and it’s very risky. My parents sent me to school so that I could change my family’s circumstances and stop being a farmer, and that I could have a proper and respectable job to help support the family. If I went begging with you on New Year’s Eve, my dad would definitely hang me up and beat me.”

“My father has been farming for decades, and he’s just as strong as you.”

“You don’t want me to be reincarnated so early in this life, do you? I know you probably don’t care, but if I’m reincarnated, you won’t even have anyone to talk to.” Chen Shun’s words convinced An Youyou on the spot, and An Youyou had no choice but to give up: “Fine, you’re out of luck.”

"If I order a lot on New Year's Eve, I'll share a bite of the braised pork knuckle from that night with you, and also the braised pork knuckle from the Lantern Festival!"

"If it weren't for the fact that Fu Kee's pork knuckle is too expensive for me to afford, I would want to buy it directly from Fu Kee. Do you think Thirteen's cooking skills can make a good pork knuckle? This big pork knuckle costs a lot of money. What if Thirteen can only make good stir-fries and porridge, but not good pork knuckle?"

"Oh dear, I regret letting Thirteen make the braised pork knuckle. I've never eaten braised pork knuckle before. I'm so miserable. I begged for so much money, but in the end, I haven't even eaten a single braised pork knuckle."

Chen Shun laughed and said, "Besides Jiang Weiguo, who else can you ask to make it? You? Me? Or my mother? My mother has never made braised pork knuckle before. You've already entrusted the task to Jiang Weiguo, so you can only trust him. His skills are not bad, and he's a steady person who never boasts. Since he dared to take on the task, it means he knows how to make braised pork knuckle. Just relax and wait to eat."

An Youyou was persuaded again and could only nod, glancing longingly at Chen Shun's bowl: "You didn't lick the porridge in your bowl clean, are you going to lick the rest? If you won't, I will."

Chen Shun: ...

Chen Shun silently picked up the bowl and licked it again.

After eating and drinking her fill, An Youyou returned to her room and fell into a deep sleep. She slept very well, but the two large quilts made it difficult for her to move, and she didn't turn over all night.

On the morning of the second day, An Youyou, as usual, first gave a speech and assigned tasks to her underlings, and then went to the riverbank to smear mud and go into the city to beg for food.

Qin Huai discovered that An Youyou's breakfast was fixed every day, while her dinner was more random, depending on what Jiang Weiguo could bring back from Fu Ji.

The reason why An Youyou became poorer as the end of the year approached was not only because her younger brothers did not go to the city to beg in winter and her income dropped sharply, but mainly because An Youyou's quality of life improved.

They spent a fortune renting a house with bluestone bricks and tiles, so they couldn't skimp on their food either. When An Youyou lived in a dilapidated temple before, as the eldest, she only got two more pieces of salted fish than her younger brothers, and the best of the best food they could get was a mixed porridge.

Now An Youyou eats millet porridge and eggs in the morning and rice porridge and stir-fried vegetables in the evening. Her quality of life has improved significantly, and her younger brothers have also started to live a good life—they have whole grains and beans to eat at every meal.

At this rate, you'd be spending money like water.

No wonder An Youyou is so obviously poor compared to the previous memory, which is only a few months later.

Qin Huai's assessment of this was: Although An Youyou was the boss before, her underlings were all beggars, and she only associated with beggars. She had never seen the world, and the limit of what she could imagine for a good meal was spending a lot of money to buy a few vegetable buns to try.

Although An Youyou is still a beggar, she has found a job as a helper at Fu Ji Restaurant, moved into a brick house, made friends with spirits, and is also familiar with the Chen family. She has clearly made a leap in social circles, and now she eats braised pork knuckle instead of vegetable buns when she has a good meal.

Qin Huai could foresee that even if An Youyou received a large sum of money on New Year's Eve, she would most likely not be able to keep it.

An Youyou might choose to have a meal at Fu Ji this time.

For the next few days, An Youyou continued her routine of begging for food.

He begged for food in a very regular way: he would give a speech in the morning, go into the city to beg for food, and squat by the wall near Fu Ji Restaurant in the evening to wait for Jiang Weiguo to get off work. He looked forward to what he would eat for dinner every day.

An Youyou's meals are different every night.

The first day was fish offal porridge with stir-fried minced meat and white radish; the second day was sweet potato porridge with stir-fried duck intestines and celery; the third day was fish head porridge with stir-fried greens; and the fourth day was cured pork porridge with stir-fried cabbage and chicken giblets. It's worth mentioning that the cured pork on the fourth day had been gnawed by rats and was slightly spoiled. An Youyou had heard that cured pork gnawed by rats would be thrown away, so she deliberately spent five minutes before bed muttering to herself hoping that the rats at Fu Ji would be more diligent and gnaw on a few more pieces of cured pork.

The fifth day is Lunar New Year's Eve.

This is a big day for beggars.

For the first time ever, An Youyou didn't stay in bed until all her underlings woke up before pretending to have just woken up and slowly getting up. Instead, she got up early before dawn and yelled at all her underlings to start a New Year's Eve begging mobilization meeting.

Still half-asleep, the underlings, bundled up in layers of clothing and stuffed with straw for warmth and protection, stood in a row listening to their leader speak.

Do you all know what day it is today?

"I know, boss, it's New Year's Day today!" Xiao Jiu answered first. As An Youyou's longest-serving and most long-surviving younger brother, Xiao Jiu was highly valued and loved by An Youyou.

“That’s right.” An Youyou gave Xiao Jiu a reassuring look. “Today is the New Year. The wealthy families in the city will be distributing porridge and vegetables. Today is a joyous and auspicious day. All of you, shut up your wailing voices and start saying auspicious words!”

"Do you remember the auspicious sayings I taught you before?"

"We remember!" the underlings replied in unison.

"Even if you have to sound pitiful, you still have to sell it. Walk with a limp, crawl if you can, and bend your backs. No matter how thick your clothes are, those young masters and ladies have no idea what beggars should wear in winter. To them, they're all the same."

"We have plenty of bowls now, so everyone should bring at least three. Today, everyone's task is to collect at least 10 bowls of food! We need to get back what we didn't get last month, understand?"

"We heard you!" the underlings shouted in unison again.

"Okay, let's shout it one last time, what's our slogan?"

"Begging is the best job in the world!"

"Alright, let's go! Whether we can eat braised pork knuckle for the Lantern Festival depends on today!"

"Pork knuckle?" Xiao Si exclaimed with joy. "Boss, I'll definitely beg for food properly so you can have pork knuckle for the Lantern Festival!"

"Very good." An Youyou was very satisfied with Xiao Si's awareness. "If the boss gets a bite of pork knuckle, you get a plate to lick. The pork knuckle plate for the Lantern Festival is only for you to lick. No one else is allowed to lick it."

Upon hearing this, the younger brothers all cast envious, jealous, and hateful glances at Xiao Si.

Jiang Weiguo, Chen Shun, and Chen's wife, who had been silently observing the whole thing from the sidelines: ...

Jiang Weiguo explained somewhat awkwardly, "That's just our boss's personality."

Aunt Chen smiled understandingly and said, "I know. She's just a child herself, yet she has to raise so many children. She's a kind and good child."

(End of this chapter)