After asking twice, one of the children finally said with a foreign accent: "Xiaohe Village, we are from Xiaohe Village."
Yingbao didn't know where Xiaohe Village was, but she was sure that the two children were not from Qinchuan County.
She squatted down and used her fingers to feel the breath of the person lying on the ground and found that the person was dead.
"Who is this person to you?" Yingbao asked.
The older boy looked alert and refused to speak. The girl next to him said, "It's mother."
Yingbao paused and decided to tell them the truth: "Your mother is dead."
Even in cold weather, staying with the dead will make you sick. If these two children don't find a place to stay as soon as possible, they probably won't survive this winter.
The girl ate the apple while crying, while the boy remained silent. It was obvious that they already knew the result.
Jiang Quan came over and took out a bunch of copper coins and handed them over: "Here, this is three hundred coins. You can't rob others anymore. You are lucky to have met us today. If it was anyone else, we would have broken your legs long ago. Don't stay here, find a place to stay first."
Even being a slave is better than freezing to death on the streets.
The boy immediately took the coin, said thank you, and put the money into his tattered collar.
Jiang Quan held his little cousin in one hand and Xiao Hei and Jin Tong in the other, then turned and left.
There are many beggars like this. He met several groups of them at the market today, and he didn't know where they came from.
I can help them temporarily, but not forever. Right now I can only give them some money so that they can survive for a while.
Jintong sobbed all the way, feeling sorry for the apple that was snatched away when he was halfway through eating it.
Seeing that he was still restless, Yingbao had no choice but to take out another big apple from her bag and give it to him. "Here, stop crying. I haven't asked you why you came here yet."
Jin Tong took the apple, wiped his nose with his sleeve, and instantly smiled, "I want to go to your house to play with you."
In the past, he often went to Jiang’s Specialty Shop with his elder sister, so today he wanted to go there to play with Yingbao.
Yingbao said angrily: "How old are you? How dare you run around alone?"
Jin Tong blinked and said seriously: "I will be seven years old during the Chinese New Year, of course I dare."
He has been playing in front of the shop since he was a child. When he was a little older, he would run far away to play with his friends from the neighbors. A while ago, he went to Wa City alone to watch an acrobatic performance.
Yingbao sighed secretly.
I guess this is how street urchins are made.
In fact, Jintong has already started attending a private school, but the school was on annual break recently and he has been a bit idle.
Today happened to be the day when the enemy family and the Jiang family were meeting. There were many guests at home, so it was inevitable that some omissions occurred, and no one took care of Jintong.
Fortunately, Jintong only met two little beggars and was not seriously hurt. If he had met kidnappers or kidnappers, the consequences would have been disastrous.
But then again, a seven-year-old child can already remember things, and kidnappers don't like to kidnap boys like this, but it's a different story if it's a girl.
For safety reasons, Yingbao and her second cousin sent Jintong to his doorstep before returning to the market.
After buying the things, I saw it was getting late, so I went back.
When I passed by the wall again, the two little beggars and the corpse on the ground were gone.
On the second day, Jiang Dalang and Jiang Erlang returned to their hometown with Jiang Cheng and his wife, while Jiang Sanlang stayed behind to look after his daughter and Jiang Quan. They went to the market to buy door gods and peach charms, preparing to replace the charms in their own house and their daughter's shop on New Year's Eve.
As for Jiang Cheng's house, it will naturally be managed by his father-in-law.
Soon it was New Year’s Eve.
Jiang Quan got up early in the morning and called his little cousin to load the turntable and some goods onto the carriage and transport them to a place he had chosen.
It was just dawn and there were already people moving around on the street.
Yingbao stuck her head out of the carriage and saw a row of bricks, bamboo roots, wooden sticks, or a few lumps of earth placed on the ground on both sides of the street.
This means that someone came in the middle of the night, used these things to occupy the territory, and set up the stall according to his own mark the next day.
I guess my second cousin was here as well, because I saw a dozen broken tiles placed where their carriage was, marking out an area.
"Yingbao, are you hungry?" Jiang Quan set up the turntable and prepared to go to the nearby food store to buy breakfast.
Yingbao yawned: "I want to eat wontons and meat pie." She suddenly missed her aunt's meat pie.
"Wait! I'll go buy it." Jiang Quan excitedly ran to buy breakfast.
After a while, he came over with two large bowls of wontons and an oil-paper bag under his arm.
Yingbao sat in the carriage, eating wontons and meat patties, enjoying the food.
As the sky gradually brightened, more and more people came onto the streets, most of them were vendors setting up stalls.
Yingbao looked at the big colorful turntable at home, and a sign next to it that read: Jiang's Specialties, opposite the county school, selling local specialties, honest to everyone.
Looking at the turntable again, Jiang Quan has painted various patterns on it, and each pattern corresponds to a small commodity.
The most expensive item was actually a silver bracelet.
After eating the wontons, Jiang Quan handed the bowl and chopsticks back to the snack shop, and then stood there shooting arrows to attract customers.
Yingbao was sitting in the carriage feeling a little bored. Seeing her second cousin still shooting arrows, she said, "I'm going back now. Can you stay here alone?"
"Where to go back to?" Jiang Quan was confused.
Yingbao pointed in the direction of the shop and said, "I'm going to set up a stall in front of the shop." She had taken out a lot of apples, melons, and some flowers in the past two days, intending to sell them in the shop to increase its popularity.
Jiang Quan nodded: "Okay."
Anyway, my third uncle is here, so if my little cousin is too busy, he will definitely take care of her.
There are much fewer people at the county school than at the market, and there are also few roadside stalls.
Yingbao and her father opened the shop door, lifted a small bamboo bed and placed it at the door, and placed a lot of brightly colored peonies and orchids on the bamboo bed.
The flower stems of these clusters of peonies are wrapped in cotton balls soaked in Pupil Spring, so they can bloom for several days without fading.
There was also a basket of fragrant magnolia flowers, a basket of big red apples, and another large basket of golden and green melons.
Although Jiang Sanlang was puzzled as to why there was such a thing in the middle of winter, he couldn't think of anything strange about it.
After all, some wealthy families also build greenhouses, which house many precious flowers.
But ordinary people don’t know what exactly it will raise.
Perhaps these peonies and wood peony flowers are raised by some wealthy families.
As for apples and other things, it is not uncommon. Some fruit farmers even deliberately preserve the autumn fruits and sell them in winter in the hope of selling them at a high price.
Not long after the things were put out, people gathered around to watch.
Because this bed of bright peony flowers was so attractive, even Jiang Yunniang ran over to look at it several times.
"How much are these flowers?" asked an old lady.
Yingbao: "A peony is fifty coins each, and a wood peony is one hundred coins for five."
"Wow! So expensive!" The old lady exclaimed: "It's almost as expensive as silk flowers."
Ying Bao said seriously: "Silk flowers have no fragrance. The flowers in my house are all fresh and real flowers. They can last for several days without fading."
Nowadays people love to wear flowers, and they prefer real flowers. Although silk flowers never wither, they are also inferior ornaments.
Especially in the winter when all flowers have withered, it is a very face-saving thing to be able to wear a real peony when visiting relatives and friends during the New Year.