In July of the second year of Yongchun, Guangzhou Prefecture.

On the long street, countless pedestrians, business travelers and stalls filled the originally spacious streets.

The scholars with wide robes and big sleeves, the Hus with narrow sleeves, and the civilians with short brown cloth shirts were very lively walking.

On both sides of the road, there were the Indians wearing shoulder cloth and earrings peddling his sandalwood in broken Tang dialect, the Kunlun from Nanyang walked barefoot on the street, selling pain relief ointments made of aloe vera, and some kept boasting about how fresh his lilac slices could make people feel.

There are also the Persians wearing small sleeves and floral hats, selling Persian dates for makeup and saffron pollen for perfume. Of course, the street stalls are even more popular with the Tang Dynasty: black pepper and thick mustard.

Even the vendors who sell pistachio nuts push the cart and loudly yell. The pistachio nuts can help men nourish their kidneys and strengthen their aphrodisiacs. The effect of women's comfort and happiness is so exciting that it attracts countless women for a time: Who doesn't want their man to be an Ang Zangwei husband, whether it's outside or in the bed.

Behind the stalls on both sides of the road, there is a clear river. A small stone and wooden bridge over the river. I stepped on the bridge and crossed the river. Banana trees were planted everywhere on the river bank. Behind the banana trees were the wine shops. The lingering fragrance of wine floated out from there and merged into the prosperous picture on the street.

But the living and prosperous world is ultimately not as good as the world in the paintings of books. In the paintings of books, you can erase everything you don’t need, but in the real world, there are still poor people at any time. A ragged little beggar is running barefoot at this moment, chasing two aggressive men behind.

The little beggar fled into an alley and was finally exhausted. He was caught by two strong men. He was beaten and kicked. The little beggar held his head and curled up like a puppy. He was kicked up one by one. He neither begged for mercy nor felt pain. He was not until he was kicked into the ditch beside the alley, and he fainted.

The two strong men put down their sleeves and walked away, cursing and saying, "Stink Beggar, how dare you steal something and eat, let me catch you and kill you!"

There were so many pedestrians on the road, but no one paid attention to it.

I don't know how long it took, a woman in a shabby skirt led a little girl to come from the narrow and narrow alley. The little girl saw a beggar lying on the stream. She stopped and seemed to have a small dispute with her mother. The little girl won. She carried her shabby skirt and ran quickly to the stream.

The little girl squatted down and looked at the fainting boy, then took a broken clay pot from her mother and carefully fed him the porridge. The little beggar was obviously hungry. Although she was in a coma, when the rice porridge was fed to her mouth, she subconsciously and quickly swallowed.

The little beggar woke up leisurely. When he opened his eyes, a swelling and pain suddenly came from his eyes. One of his eyes was beaten blue, and there was only a gap left. After a dizzy moment, his slightly opened eyes fixed on the little girl in front of him.

The girl looks younger than him, thin, dirty little face, and her messy hair is a little yellow due to malnutrition. She only has a pair of eyebrows that are black and thick. If such eyebrows grow on a boy, they will definitely look heroic, but if they grow on a girl, they seem to be too thick.

The little girl was wearing a moon-white short jacket, with a thread on her shoulders, and a touch of skin was faintly exposed. Her lower body was a bamboo leaf skirt with her chest. She was squatting in front of the little beggar at this moment, so two bare knees were exposed in the hole in the skirt.

The little beggar quickly understood his situation and the other party's identity. He did not thank him, but just stared at the little girl in a daze. The little girl grinned and smiled at him. Perhaps because she was changing teeth, her teeth in her mouth were incomplete and looked ugly.

The little girl tilted her head and thought about it. She took out a bun from her arms, carefully broke it in half, and compared it. She put the big half in the arms of the little beggar. She grinned at him and stood up with the jar. The woman came over and took her little hand, looked at the boy indifferently, and the mother and daughter walked away along the deep and narrow alley.

The little beggar got up with difficulty, and his bones all over his body felt aching. He pulled his torn clothes like silk, looked around blankly, and then subconsciously followed the mother and daughter.

The girl held her mother's hand and looked back from time to time. The boy who stopped not far away seemed to be more difficult than the situation of their mother and daughter. His ragged clothes could only barely cover his body, and his open collar showed his bony collar. His cheeks were thin and yellow, his face was bruised and swollen, and his new wounds were covered with old injuries.

The girl grinned at him again.

Gradually, the road became more and more remote, and a half-turned ruined temple appeared in front.

The woman led the little girl into the dilapidated temple. The little beggar stood outside the dilapidated temple for a while and followed her in.

There was not only one beggar in the dilapidated temple. An old beggar sat in the sun, took off his torn jacket, revealing his skinny body, and was catching fleas there. Another beggar was stronger, lying on a pile of firewood, crossing his legs and sanging songs.

The woman took the little girl to find a seat in the dilapidated temple. The little girl started to eat, while the woman grabbed a handful of flexible weeds and began to weave something.

The little beggar looked at everything in the temple with some vigilance, but he still leaned towards the mother and daughter stubbornly. He was rarely treated with kindness. The little girl's kindness to him made him feel very kind. He was helpless and instinctively wanted to get close to what he felt kind.

The little girl tried her best to chew the steamed bun with her mouth that had two big front teeth. She chewed for a long time until her saliva wet, and then she took a bite with difficulty. She swallowed the bun happily, looked at the boy, and asked in a soft voice: "My name is Niu Niu, what's your name?"

The little beggar seemed a little confused. After a while, a hint of bitterness flashed across his eyes. He replied softly: "My name is A Chou."

"A Chou, sit down!"

Niu Niu patted the straw beside her, Ah Chou looked at it, and sat down gently beside her.

Niu Niu bit the bun, tilted her head to look at him, and asked in a low voice: "Why are you beaten like this?"

Ah Chou replied, "Because I stole their food."

"Oh! This is not good, just beg for food, you will always meet kind-hearted people."

Ah Chou was silent for a while and said softly: "Begging, I can't do it, I... can't stretch out my hand..."

Niu Niu's two front teeth fell off. She had been left for a few days, and the steamed bun was as dry as a stone. After gnawing for a long time, she was soaked and covered in saliva. She hadn't even chewed a piece yet. Hearing Ah Chou's words, she gave up her efforts to continue eating the buns, opened her mouth in surprise and asked, "How could it be? Isn't it embarrassing to steal things?"

Ah Chou thought about it seriously and replied, "I don't know. Although stealing is also a hand,... it seems to be different. If you steal, as long as I am ready to be beaten, and begging, I can't even stretch out my hand or say what to beg..."

Niu Niu blinked her eyes, thought for a long time in confusion, shook her head and said, "I don't understand!"

Ah Chou smiled bitterly, slowly raised his head, looked at the beam of sunlight cast from the hole on the top of the temple and Qingchen flying in the sunlight, and said quietly: "Actually, I don't understand either..."

Niu Niu smiled and said, "A Chou, you are such a strange beggar."

A Chou stubbornly emphasized: "I am not a beggar! I have never beg for it!"

Niu Niu has a good temper and gives way: "Okay okay, you are not a beggar, you are a strange thief, is that okay? Hehe."

"Um!"

Ah Chou thought about it, nodded solemnly, and recognized her evaluation.

Niu Niu turned her head, pulled her mother's sleeve, begging, "Mother, is it okay to weave a pair of shoes for A Chou?"

She turned her head again, blinked and asked, "A Chou, are you willing to stay here?"

“…”

"Um?"

"Um!"

Niu Niu smiled again with incomplete teeth, looking ugly.

At this time, a pair of straw sandals gradually took shape in Niu Niu Niu's hands...

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

Ah Chou is really a strange child.

He was always stubborn and refused to beg, and would rather steal.

Because of poor stealing skills, A Chou was often beaten to the point of bruising and swollen. If it weren't for Niuniu's help, he might have starved to death.

There were more than a dozen beggars living in the dilapidated temple. They unanimously thought that A Chou should be called A Dai, and he must be stupid, but Niu Niu doesn't think so.

When A Chou was full, he never sat in the sun like other beggars. He took off his jacket and grabbed the fleas while telling jokes in a yellow voice. He always sat on the half-stone mill in the backyard of the dilapidated temple, holding his chin and staring at the sky alone. Niu Niu felt that A Chou must be thinking about something.

Ah Chou can think, can others?

Another time, Niu Niu secretly saw A Chou holding a branch in his hand and drawing something on the sand. When he walked away, Niu Niu walked over and compared it with the half-stele for a long time, and recognized that A Chou was writing the words on the half-stele. When he remembered his smooth movements like water when writing, Niu Niu was very envious.

Ah Chou can write, can anyone else?

Ah Chou also climbs up trees to dig bird eggs, uses branches to pounce dragonflies, and goes down the river to catch small fish. Whether it is bird eggs, dragonflies, or small fish, they all turn into fragrant food without exception. Although they are all roasted without exception, Niu Niu eats very fragrantly.

During those days, Ah Chou's face was always bruised, while Niu Niu's lips were always black.

During Niu Niu's childhood when she begged for a living, she suffered from the cold and hunger, the period of time she was with A Chou became her best memory.
Chapter completed!