Thanks for the invitation: In ancient times, people shared children

Scholars are precious these days, and precious people are naturally rich. Even the worst among them is better than many people. This is a common consensus.

Pei Xiaohai and Waiya were both poor guys. They stood there and watched for a while, then walked away.

They didn't do anything bad, they just entertained the monkey kids inside, and someone even asked them what they were selling.

Pei Xiaohai also wished he had something to sell. Those vendors could just stand there and earn tons of copper coins without even having to shout...

Thinking of this, her steps suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Waiya looked at her puzzledly.

Pei Xiaohai: "Wait for me."

She said this and ran back to the breach in the wall, squeezed in among the vendors, and asked the people inside on tiptoe:

"Anyone want some boiled eggs?"

"Eggs? What's the point of that?" someone replied.

They all eat eggs regularly, and bland boiled eggs are boring to them.

Little Pei continued to say, "There are also goose eggs and duck eggs."

"That doesn't taste good either. Do you have anything else?"

"...How about chestnuts and persimmons? Chestnuts cooked in sugar and oil, and persimmons are as sweet as honey."

"That's quite interesting. How do you sell it?"

"Chestnuts are two cents a bunch, and persimmons are one cent each." Pei Xiaohai made up a random price.

"Give us one portion each." A plump white hand held three cents.

"I want a handful of chestnuts." He looked at the almost-finished hand holding two cents.

"Isn't it a bit expensive? I want to try it too."

"You all want them? Then I want them too."

Money appears one penny at a time.

Little Pei took it and said to the pairs of eyes behind the wall, "I'll bring it to you tomorrow."

"what?!"

It was nothing. Little Pei put down his tiptoe and ran away.

Not to mention the monkey kids, even the vendors were stunned.

Pei Xiaohai's cheerful voice came from afar: "Look, I made money!"

What profit?! That's robbery!

"She... this... a robber!" A little fat boy who was confined to the academy to study every day and only knew how to make small fights, almost forgetting the sinister hearts of people outside, clenched his fist and said so. He was the first one to speak and hand over the money.

Now is also the saddest moment.

All the trust was thrown away!

A kind vendor ran over to take a look, but Pei Xiaohai and Waiya had already run away.

The monkey children, who had no one to blame, glared at the fat boy: "It's all his fault for being so talkative! How could this have happened if he had just ignored her?"

Regardless of the commotion in the academy, little Pei was very happy. She earned fifteen cents in just a few words.

She divided the money into two halves, gave seven cents to Waiya and her to buy persimmons and chestnuts, and kept the remaining seven cents for herself.

I used the extra penny to buy some candy and shared it with Waiya. It was so sweet and it made me happy.

It’s really worth the trip!

Waiya was a little angry at first because she didn't discuss it with her, but when she saw the money and candy, she had nothing to say. If she wanted it, she could take it. With the money, she could buy food.

Waiya was not thinking about refined rice or coarse grains. She was thinking about the bran and rice chaff that the Liu family used to feed their pigs.

So the money went around and around and ended up back in Pei Xiaohai's pocket.

She advised, "You can sell more persimmons. Chestnuts can also fill you up and are good to store. I want to keep some."

"it is good!"

They agreed and ran back, much slower than when they came.

Waiya's stomach was always empty, and like many people, she was relying on one breath to keep going. She ran out of energy, so Pei had to stop and drag her along, watching the sun getting darker and darker.

Waiya waved her hands: "Don't... don't worry about me. I'll walk slowly. You should go back... soon. If you're discovered, you won't be able to come out... anymore. Wait, I'll bring you the chestnuts and persimmons later."

She was panting, and the hot air from her mouth turned into mist, floating upwards. When it landed on her eyebrows, it turned into tiny water droplets, and when the cold wind blew, it turned into frost.

Pei's ears were red from the cold and her face was numb. She only listened to the general idea and was told to go first.

This is naturally good. Children sometimes don't think as much as adults, so they are more likely to make decisions. However...

Little Pei said with a tearful tone: "I dare not, I'm afraid of the dark!"

After sitting facing the wall and thinking for a long time, she was no longer so afraid at home. Pei Nangua was always by her side anyway, but what was in the white snow?

Running with Waiya, she couldn't help but have wild thoughts. Things that she was not afraid of normally became scary. How could she dare to walk alone?

Waiya: ...

"Why are you...so cowardly?"

"I'm just such a coward." Pei Xiaohai is not ashamed of it, but he is not proud of it either.

There was no other way, they could only grit their teeth and run forward. In the end, Pei Xiaohai was almost dragging Waiya forward step by step.

The posture is very strong, the steps are big, the speed... They have all worked so hard and deserve praise, so why bother with those trivial details.

Anyway, Waiya and Pei Xiaohai are very satisfied with themselves, they have tried their best.

The result was very good. No one was alarmed and the Liu family didn't notice that Pei Xiaohai was gone.

It’s hard to say about Liu Waizui’s family.

When Waiya came to deliver chestnuts and persimmons, her eyes were red.

"You..." Pei Xiaohai just opened his mouth.

She angrily said, "Don't ask anything! I hate him! When your family worships their ancestors, you can catch him and cook him too!"

Pei Xiaohai: ...

Avoiding talking about it means it's unpleasant, and being furious is probably because you got beaten. Little Pei won't let bad luck happen to him.

"I'll tell them when they want to eat people. Will you still go tomorrow?"

"Go, I'll give you a load of firewood tomorrow too!" Waiya said gritting her teeth.

Pei Xiaohai: "Then I'll steal two more steamed buns tomorrow."

"Don't let yourself be discovered." The two children said in unison, and were stunned for a moment after saying it.

"Are we really bad?" Little Pei was a little self-doubting. "My master seemed to have said that stealing is wrong."

Waiya: "When did we steal chickens and dogs? Every family keeps their chickens so closely guarded, and the dogs are so fierce. You don't want to steal them, do you?"

"Oh, it's not really stealing, it's just that stealing is wrong." Little Pei couldn't remember it clearly. The older she got, the more vague the past events became. She couldn't tell whether it was her master who said it or she heard it from somewhere else.

"Oh," Waiya nodded, "So you don't want to make money?"

Pei Xiaohai: ...

"think."

"Then don't think about it," Waiya said cheerfully. "A lot of people steal things. A handful of green onions from one family, a spoonful of manure from another. During the autumn harvest, some people even steal food from other people's haystacks. They don't think they're bad, so why should we think we're bad? Besides, how can stealing from your own home be considered stealing? That's taking. Stealing from someone else's home is stealing."

What Waiya didn't say was that she stole a lot.

For her, as long as she wasn't caught or beaten, it wasn't considered stealing.

She wouldn't say that even if she was caught. She would say she was careless. That's what she said in the fall when she picked up wheat ears in Maotou's field.

She is not a thief!

Waiya spoke with confidence, but her eyes darkened involuntarily.

The second uncle felt that it was wrong, and the child also felt that it was wrong. She didn't steal the money, she just wanted to have food to eat. What was wrong with her?

Even if it's wrong, she would still do it!

Pei Xiaohai would also say: "Go to the back door later and I'll give you the bran."

"Row!"

Just as Pei Xiaohai realized that he was increasingly wrong, he stole rice bran and wheat bran and even dug out some more.

I also made an agreement with Aunt Yu that I would help her cook chestnuts tomorrow morning.

Only after these things were done did Changsui and Shuanzi come back.

The three of them exchanged glances, none of them knowing what the other wanted to say, when they were called to eat.

It feels like there are nails growing on my buttocks.

He twisted and turned so much that Liu Renben suspected that he had been spanked by his teacher again because he had not studied hard.

Chang Sui repeatedly said no.

I was thinking to myself: He is a gentleman, not his father, he would never be so rude.

But Liu Renben and Pei Zhu still called Shuanzi to ask him about it before they were willing to give up.

Chang Sui had already told him not to talk nonsense, but Shuanzi still exposed his last lie! He even told others about him falling asleep in class!

This is a weird guy. He usually doesn't say a word, but once he opens his mouth, he can blurt out anything.

Liu Renben was so furious when he heard this that he rolled up his sleeves and beat Changsui. He beat him so hard that he couldn't twist and turn and couldn't sit down at all because of the pain.

Baifu chewed the cabbage, which was no different from watching Pei Xiaohan being beaten. Pei Zhu tried to persuade him.

As for Pei Xiaohai, she was just glad that her secret was not exposed. How she grew older was none of her business.