How can someone travel through time and space and become a beggar?

Jia Qingwu looked at the trembling child in Xia Chu's arms, and her heart became more determined, "I want to take all those children back."

"Take them all back?" Xia Chu glanced back and roughly counted about ten of them. The family wouldn't be too small to accommodate them. But with so many children who couldn't work, would the Jia family be willing to support them? After all, the Jia family wasn't just Jia Qingwu; there were also brothers.

Moreover, when we bring children home, we not only need to feed and clothe them, but also educate them. We even have to plan their future. The responsibility is too great.

"Yes." Raising a few children is not a big deal. Once trained, they can become shopkeepers, accountants, and clerks. Raised from childhood, they'll be more loyal. If Xia Xia really doesn't want to get married, these will all be helpful to her in the future. The more Jia Qingwu thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. "I have a farm. I can send them there and assign someone to teach them. They'll be useful in the future."

"Don't you need to ask grandma?" Xia Chu glanced at Old Lady Jia who lifted the carriage curtain and looked over here.

"I can make the decision," Jia Qingwu instructed the servant, "Go and bring back all the young children, starting at eighteen."

"Yes." The servant ran away.

Soon they brought back a group of little beggars, thirteen of them. Jia Qingwu asked Madam Xu to go with them and arrange for them to stay at the farm.

"Nini, do you want to take all those children back?" When Jia Qingwu approached, Mrs. Jia asked.

"Yes, mother. These children are not very old. Teach them well and disperse them to various shops and farms in the future. They will be useful there." Jia Qingwu explained.

Madam Jia clasped her hands together and chanted a Buddhist prayer. "Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. He can help with housework when he grows up. It's a great deed. Our family doesn't need him, so just take him back."

Jia Qingwu knew her mother wouldn't object, so she nodded. They all got back in the car. Xia Chu held the beaten child in her arms, called a doctor on the way, and headed home.

After examining her, the doctor said, "The little girl's arm wasn't broken, but dislocated. It's been reattached. She'll be fine if she's taken good care of herself. However, she's had a lot of injuries. Years of being underfed and constantly beaten have damaged her health. She needs to be taken good care of, otherwise it might affect her health later in life."

"It's a girl?" Xia Chu was extremely surprised. She remembered that the beggar just now clearly shouted "I beat my son". It was a son?

"It's a girl. I won't be wrong." The doctor shook his head. "I'll prescribe medicine for you to take for seven days. Apply it externally and take it internally. I'll come back after seven days and modify the prescription based on your recovery."

Jia Qingwu thanked him and asked Cuihua to pay the doctor's fee and send him back.

"My mother said that if I were a girl, my father would sell me, so she lied to him and said I was a boy. Before she died, she made me swear not to tell my father." The little girl explained the matter to them.

"Can this be kept secret?" Xia Chu was extremely surprised. Wouldn't the midwife or doctor tell her when the baby was born?

"I heard that some poor families can't afford a midwife, so they give birth at home." Aunt Xu sighed, dug out some old clothes and changed the little girl into them.

The girl was only a little over seven years old, but she looked like a five-year-old. She didn't have a single piece of flesh on her body, which wasn't quite right. She had almost no flesh on her body, her skin wrapped around her thin frame, making her look pitifully thin.

But she was very resilient and could get out of bed after eating. Even with one arm in a sling, she still looked for work to do.

Unfortunately, there was not much work for her to do at home. She could only raise chickens and ducks, cook, wash clothes and sweep the floor. When she still had a family, she would go up the mountain every day to collect firewood and dig wild vegetables.

But how could the Jia family have such work?

She always felt guilty when she was idle, and with red eyes she begged the maids to find her something to do.

Xia Chu asked her if she missed her parents. She said she didn't miss her father, but she did miss her mother, but her mother was dead. The family couldn't pay the grain that the master wanted, so the land was taken back.

Her father only knew how to farm, and without land, there was no food. The family couldn't afford food, so her mother took her out to beg. But she couldn't get much, and she had to give the food to her father. Her mother eventually starved to death, and she went out to beg, but she was too young. The food she did get was often snatched away.

If she didn't bring home any food, her father would beat her. But beating her didn't help. Later, her father wanted to sell the house, but he couldn't. Their house was too run-down; no one would buy it.

Later, her father took her to beg for food. When she begged for food, her father would grab it and eat it. Sometimes there was a lot, so she could get a little, but when there was less, she would starve and could only drink water.

Xia Chu frowned as she heard this. This was different from what she remembered. So, how did Xia Tian support them all?

Jia Qingwu and Aunt Xu wept bitterly as they listened. Jia Qingwu, putting Xia Xia's feelings into her own, felt a pang of pain that stifled her breath. Was her Xia Xia like this too? How much suffering must she have endured? Thinking of this, she felt even more grateful to the Wangs. If it weren't for them, would she ever see Xia Xia alive again? Would they, mother and daughter, ever meet again?

"Mom, don't cry." Xia Chu wiped her tears with a handkerchief. "Big brother took good care of us when we were little. I don't know how he did it. But I had something to eat every day. Although not very full, I had something to eat every day. Later, I met Dad and Mom, and I have never been hungry. I have never had to worry about food and clothing until now."

"I didn't thank him properly when Xia came last time." Jia Qingwu regretted it deeply.

Xia Chu smiled and said, "Brother doesn't care about this."

"When I get to Lin'an, I'll definitely thank him." Jia Qingwu looked at her. "What does your eldest brother like? Is there anything he lacks? Is there anything the Wang family needs?"

"Everything is fine. You'll see when you go there. We lack nothing at home." Xia Chu thought of that home with a faint smile on her face. "Although our family is not as wealthy as the Jia family, we have never lacked anything since we were young. Even if my brothers lack something, they will get it on their own. Our yard is not that big, but there is a place for my father and brothers to practice martial arts, a place for me to grow flowers, and a place for my mother to grow vegetables. We also have a small pond in our yard. When my mother finds cheap live fish, she will buy some and raise them in the pond. We can catch them whenever we want to eat them. There are also lotus flowers in the pond. After enjoying the lotus flowers, there are lotus pods to eat..."

As Xia Chu continued to narrate, Jia Qingwu's mind slowly sketched out a small courtyard: the father and the boy practicing martial arts in the courtyard, while the mother and the girl watered the flowers and planted vegetables.

In fact, this place doesn’t need to be very big, as long as it can accommodate the whole family.

It must be a place full of warmth and comfort, a place that makes people envious and comfortable.

Jia Qingwu was even more eager to see the small courtyard and the daily life of the Wang family that Xia Chu was worried about.

The little girl had no name. Her mother called her Xiaobao. When her father was nice, he called her "little thing" or "little brat." When he was not nice, he called her "little beast." He never gave her a name.

Jia Qingwu listened and asked, "Do you know your mother's last name?"

"My mother's surname is Bai." Xiaobao said.

"Then you'll be called Bai Xiaobao from now on." Jia Qingwu touched her head. "Your mother gave you this name. You're her treasure, so let's call you Xiaobao."