Chapter 101: Three Children Begging in an Isolated City
Under the low wall made of gravel, three children in ragged clothes squatted in the corner.
These children were dirty, their bodies were wrapped in rough cloth full of holes, and there were two stone slabs on the soles of their feet, wrapped with strips of cloth as shoes.
The road was covered with yellow sand and gravel, and when the wind blew, the sand and gravel hit their faces. The children pulled the cloth from their collars and covered their mouths and noses.
In front of them, there were three sunken stone bowls. They had spent more than ten days chiseling out these three stone bowls.
A child picked up a stone bowl and begged passers-by: "Brother and sister, please, I haven't eaten for 20 days, and I haven't drunk water for 10 days. Please, brother and sister..."
A child next to him pushed down his hand and said, "You are wrong to shout like that. How can anyone go without eating or drinking for so many days? It's too fake."
The third child nodded and said in agreement: "Let's yell, Zheng Qiu, you yelled like this for two days, but you didn't get half a piece of cake. If you keep yelling, we will really starve to death."
The child who shouted just now is Zheng Qiu. His childhood memory is very vague. He only knows that he lost his parents early and became an orphan.
His level of begging is very bad, and it is common for him to be unable to get food for four or five days, but he has an advantage, that is, he is particularly resistant to hunger, and every time he eats something, he can last for ten days and a half a month.
He met the other two children while begging. The one who pressed his hand was called Earmao, and the one who echoed Earmao's words was called Ma Peng.
Ermao and Ma Pengke are both experts in begging, and the two of them cried so much that they were moved. They also chose the begging objects accurately, and they could get enough rations from passers-by every day.
In order to make Zheng Qiu no longer hungry, they tried their best to pass on the experience of begging, hoping that Zheng Qiu can learn it as soon as possible.
"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" Two big men suddenly came from the front of the road, yelling loudly, pushing the passers-by roughly.
Ma Peng hugged the stone bowl tightly, trotted back to the corner, and urged Zheng Qiu and Ermao at the same time: "Go, the villains are coming."
Hearing Ma Peng's words, Zheng Qiu and Ermao immediately picked up the stone bowl and followed Ma Peng to the alley.
The Great Desolation City is not a place where neighbors are harmonious and everyone is friendly. It is chaotic and disorderly, and people are killed almost every day.
In the eyes of vicious cultivators, a little beggar like Zheng Qiu is no different from yellow sand on the ground, which can be scattered with a wave of his hand at any time.
Zheng Qiu and the others are the only place where they can move around,
It is the circle of streets around the market. There are many people doing business here, and the pedestrians are fairly friendly.
They don't dare to go to other places. It is possible at any time that a practitioner in a bad mood will stand up and take their three little lives for fun.
Running along this small alley, you can get close to the city wall of the Great Desolation and Lonely City. The ear cat found a hole under the city wall as a place for them to spend the night.
After begging every day, they would run to the foot of the city wall, climb into the hole, block the entrance with scattered wall bricks, and rest and sleep peacefully.
The three of them ran under the city wall, put the stone bowl into their clothes, lay down on the ground, and crawled into the hole one after another. Zheng Qiu, who was the last to enter, picked up the wall bricks on the ground and carefully covered the hole.
The eared cat sighed: "Hey, I didn't get anything today, and I'm going to be hungry again."
Ma Peng smiled, as if he didn't take his hunger to heart: "Don't worry about being hungry, at least I'm alive. Let's go and see tomorrow, those wicked people don't come to the market every day."
Zheng Qiu lowered his head, looking very embarrassed: "It's all my fault. If I had a better level, I would have been able to ask for food rations, and everyone would not be starving."
Hearing Zheng Qiu's words, Ermao suddenly showed a smile on his face: "Okay, we all know that you like to take the blame. But under the guidance of the two of us, your level has improved a lot, at least you can win within three days. Once."
When there is nothing to eat, sleeping is a good way to relieve hunger. The three children huddled in the hole and dozed off against the harsh wall bricks.
In the middle of the night, Zheng Qiu was awakened by a noise, he moved to the edge of the cave, and looked out through the gap.
On the dark street in the distance, colorful lights are continuously lit up, as if someone is lighting lanterns, or setting off fireworks on the ground.
There was a big one-story house between the city wall and the place where the lights were lit. Zheng Qiu couldn't see what happened. He only knew that it was practitioners fighting.
After a while, he found that the flickering light seemed to be approaching, and the sound of weapons clashing began to come from outside. Although it was very soft, it was gradually getting louder.
Zheng Qiu hurriedly woke up Ermao and Ma Peng, and raised his hand to cover their mouths: "Shh, don't make a sound, there are practitioners beating outside, they are coming over here!"
"Really? It can't be so unlucky!" Hearing this, the eared cat suddenly became nervous, moved its body in the narrow wall hole, approached the hole and looked out.
Seeing this, the eared cat turned pale with fright: "Oh my God, they are really approaching this way. It will be a disaster if we get involved!"
Ma Peng grabbed the clothes of Zheng Qiu and Ermao, and dragged them into the hole in the wall: "Hurry up and hide in, seal the wall!"
"Yes! Seal it quickly!" The eared cat took out the stone bowl from its pocket, and slammed it on the wall of the cave. "Use this to pry off the wall bricks in the cave and fill the hole."
Pat, clack, the three children swung the stone bowl vigorously, pried out the bricks of the cave wall one by one, filled them in the hole, and completely sealed the remaining gaps.
The hole was completely sealed, and the three of them could no longer see the situation outside. They could only stick to the innermost side and listen to the sound outside the hole.
Boom, with a loud bang, Zheng Qiu felt the entire hole in the wall vibrate, and it came here so quickly!
Boom, the sound of explosion came again, louder than before, Zheng Qiu could even hear the faint shouts outside.
Giggling, the cat with the side ear was trembling with fright, and its jaws knocked against each other involuntarily.
Ma Peng grabbed Ermao's tattered clothes and stuffed them into his mouth: "Hush!"
Peng, there was a muffled sound, as if something had hit the city wall, and the bricks at the entrance of the cave trembled, showing signs of being scattered.
Zheng Qiu was the closest to the entrance of the cave, so he hurriedly crawled over to hold on to the bricks at the entrance of the cave, preventing himself and his friends from being discovered.
The fighting continued, violent vibrations continued to hit along the city wall, and waves of air rolled outside washed away the wall bricks at the entrance of the cave one after another.
This small hole in the wall, like a bird's nest in a strong wind, is in danger of being destroyed at any time.
About half an hour later, the fighting outside finally stopped, and only two men could be heard talking. After a while, one of the men cursed, and at the same time there was a woman crying.
Soon, the scolding turned into a pleading, followed by the man's scream, and the woman's cry turned into a heart-piercing cry.
The shouting stopped instantly, and the outside became silent. Zheng Qiu listened for a moment, then withdrew his hand holding the wall brick, and climbed back to the side of the hole in the wall.
()