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

His attitude made Xia Chu decide to buy from this store. "Uncle, I want a piece of cloth to make clothes for a child as tall as my brother. How much does it cost?"

The shopkeeper didn't expect that he came in to buy cloth. He glanced at the eldest boy and said, "Ten feet is enough."

Erwa's clothes were old and had a lot of patches on them, so there was no need to return so much. She brought new fabric, so half would be enough. "Then we'll take five feet. Do you have something cheaper?"

The shopkeeper thought she didn't have enough money and pulled a piece of cloth over to show her, "This kind of coarse linen is cheap, six coins a foot, ordinary people use it to make outer clothes."

"Can I touch it?" Xia Chu raised her hand. "It's clean. I've washed it."

The fingers were as thin as chicken claws. The shopkeeper sighed pitifully and said, "Touch it, it's okay. These are just scraps of cloth. It doesn't matter if they get dirty."

Xia Chu touched it and felt it was pretty good. "Then this one should be five feet long."

"Okay." The shopkeeper quickly cut off five feet and folded it.

Xia Chu counted out thirty coins and took the cloth. The shopkeeper actually took out two pieces of snacks and said, "My wife made these herself. Let's have one each, brother."

Xia Chu was a little stunned. The money she earned from this piece of cloth might not even be enough to buy these two snacks. But after thinking for a moment, she didn't refuse. She simply bowed and took it with both hands. "Thank you, uncle. I wish you great wealth and many customers."

The shopkeeper didn't expect that the child knew a few idioms, so he responded with a smile.

Xia Chu gave a piece to the eldest child and said, "Don't put snacks in clothes. They will get crushed and you won't be able to eat them. Let's eat them."

The eldest boy paused as he stuffed the food into his arms, but he had a question in his mind: why was it so difficult for me to beg for food in the past, but my sister always had people giving her food wherever she went?

He took a closer look at the smiling Xiaoliu and thought, "My sister is so cute. Everyone likes her. Who wouldn't like her? My sister is the cutest little girl in the world."

After buying the cloth, Xia Chu went to buy a piece of fat meat, spending fifteen coins. This was enough. As beggars, they could only afford this and no one could find fault with it.

It's lunchtime, so it's not the right time to visit someone's home, like you're just asking for a free meal. The best time to visit someone's home is in the morning, an hour after breakfast, but not too close to mealtime. First, you don't want to make people think you're just freeloading, and they're already eating, so they can't just put down their bowl to offer you a meal. Second, if someone's offering a meal, you have time to prepare it so it's not too simple and you don't feel like you've failed to entertain them properly.

But Xia Chu only had time during the lunch break, so he couldn't be so particular. There was nothing he could do.

Wang Yong's family was having lunch in the yard with the door open. They were a little surprised to see the child from yesterday running over again.

As soon as Dong Xiaohuan saw Xia Chu, she stood up and pulled him in, saying happily, "Have you eaten? Come in and eat!"

"We've eaten." Xia Chu stuffed the flowers, cloth, and meat into her hands. "Thank you, uncle and aunt, for saving my brother. He's sick and can't move, so my eldest brother and I are here to thank you today."

Dong Xiaohuan looked at the things in her hand and was stunned for a moment. "Why are you so polite as a child? You even bought all these things. This... how long did it take to save up for it? Take it away! I'll take the flowers."

"How can I let go of your life-saving favor? Auntie, please accept it. We're leaving first. I'll bring you flowers next time." After Xia Chu said that, she pulled Da Wa and ran away.

Dong Xiaohuan chased after them for a few steps, feeling both amused and heartbroken. They looked as thin as bamboo poles, and they must have barely had enough to eat. The money for the cloth and meat was a lot for them, and she and Brother Yong hadn't saved them for that.

Wang Yong stepped forward and hugged his wife's shoulders. "She's a grateful little girl. Are you really not going to consider it?"

Dong Xiaohuan slapped his hand away and scolded him, "You're touching me in broad daylight! He didn't listen to his brothers and they're close, so I'm afraid he won't want to be separated. We can't all stay together. Just take care of him if we run into each other in the future."

Wang Yong was not angry even after being beaten. He helped her walk into the house and said, "I'll do as you say. Come in and eat."

At the beginning of summer, Da Wa rushed back to the shack to check on Er Wa and Xiao Wu. Er Wa didn't have a fever today, but he had been sleeping the whole time. After leaving some food, they went to sell flowers again.

They had plowed half of the flower bed, but fortunately new flowers bloomed every day, so I felt I could still sell them for a few more days. I could use this time to save some money and find a way to rent a house and move out.

But Hangzhou has been a prosperous place since ancient times, and most houses in the city are in short supply, so the prices will certainly not be low.

Moreover, there was another major problem: they were beggars with no household registration. Without household registration, they could not even think of renting a house, and if they encountered constables or patrolling soldiers, they would run away immediately.

So the most urgent thing is to find a way to get a household registration. But how do you get one? Is it okay to just claim you're a refugee? Or if you claim you were abducted or lost, can you get a new household registration?

Can minors live independently? It seems like in modern times, if you have real estate, you can buy a house, but in ancient times, you couldn’t buy a house without a household registration, which seemed like a vicious circle.

Alas, there is still a long way to go...

These days, when she's selling flowers, she'll ask those hanging baskets from upstairs if they need her to run errands. Earning a little money for travel is a small thing, but she also wants to make him a familiar face so others can trust her. If there are no flowers to sell in the future, she'll have another way to make a living.

Da Wa liked this kind of life; he didn't have to endure being looked down upon or scolded. Just running around even gave him a sense of comfort. His hard work paid off, earning him a penny. He used to be thankful if he could earn two steamed buns after running all day.

He also clearly felt that his sister was different, which was wonderful. He had met this sister while begging. She was dumb and seemed unable to speak, hiding in a corner in just her underwear. She had been picked up for over a month before she started talking. But she wasn't in good health, and she would lie in her shack every day, not talking or moving.

Because they were afraid that others would have bad thoughts if they knew she was a girl, except for the second child, the eldest child even said to the fifth child that he was a younger brother.

The first time they became familiar with each other was after she recovered from her illness. It was completely different from before, and Da Wa felt that she had finally gotten used to the life of being abandoned.

Unexpectedly, after adapting, she turned out to be better than all of them. She was smart, sweet-spoken, and liked wherever she went. It was really a treasure.

I thought this kind of life would continue until the flowers were sold out, but I didn't expect that when I came back one day, I heard Xiaowu's sharp cry.

Da Wa and Xia Chu both felt a tightness in their hearts. They looked at each other and rushed home.

Erwa was lying face down on the ground silently, and Xiaowu was holding him and crying.

Their home, the leaky, mushroom-growing shack where they had snuggled up, had been overturned. Straw was scattered everywhere, and people from several nearby shacks were secretly collecting it. Four or five men were rummaging through it, looking for something.

Xia Chu's eyes fell on the scattered straw. Xiaowu would take it out every day to air it and dry it in the sun. He and I were young, and his two brothers thought they would get lost if we took them out, so they always left them at home alone and watched over the shack.

Xiaowu was very diligent. After drying the grass, he would pat it before bringing it back. He would straighten the handfuls and spread them neatly on the ground. Knowing that Xiaoliu was afraid of spiders, he would look up and check everywhere in the afternoon, pinching off any spiders he saw and throwing them away.

The beggars' den was always filled with an unspeakable sour odor, but in early summer, their shack wasn't stinky. Although they rarely washed their hands and faces, they washed their feet every day, though washing didn't help much. They had no shoes, and running a few steps would make them dirty again.

Xia Chu had a pair of shoes, straw sandals, that prickled her feet, but she had gotten used to them. She had also gotten used to the smell of the shack, and sometimes even thought it was quite nice.

But, it was destroyed.

Da Wa's eyes were bloodshot, and he roared and rushed forward. Xia Chu was frightened by him and quickly hugged him, "Brother, there are many of them, calm down!"

The eldest child's face turned red with anger, but he didn't dare to struggle too hard and hurt his sister. He could only roar: "What are you doing! What are you doing! Tilting your head! It's you who did this again! I'm going to kill you! Kill you!"

Xia Chu couldn't explain what she was feeling at the moment, she could only hug Da Wa tightly. People were more important than houses. "Big brother, look at the second brother! Why isn't he moving?"

The eldest child gritted his teeth and said, "Let go, I'll go see the second child."

"Brother, I don't want you to get hurt. Please." Xia Chu was not a child after all. She couldn't just rush into someone and fight with them. She weighed the pros and cons and decided that the shed wasn't worth it.

But her heart was also filled with anger. That was their home, and every straw there had been touched and dried by Xiaowu.

She wanted to charge forward and fight them, to inflict pain, to make them never dare to do it again. But she couldn't. The four of them were just children, small and frail; she couldn't possibly defeat them simply based on their size. She did have some fighting skills, but with a body barely over a meter tall, what good would any of them do?