Chapter 314: Beggar (Part II)

An Youyou clearly still wanted to persuade Jiang Weiguo to return to the more stable job of begging, but Jiang Weiguo didn't want to listen anymore.

He chose to start cooking.

The beggars' cooking utensils were very simple: two fire pits, two clay pots, and three wooden spoons.

Because An Youyou's begging level was outstanding, she could still buy some things to improve her quality of life after feeding her 13 underlings.

Under An Youyou's management, the ruined temple didn't have any property that needed protecting; things like clay pots could just be hidden in the straw. The ruined temple didn't need anyone to watch it; all 13 underlings had to work, going out to beg every day. There were many weeds and dry grass in the suburbs, and leaving a fire source could easily cause a fire, so they used matches to start fires.

From the careful way the underlings used the matches, Qin Huai could tell that this begging team probably only had this one box of matches.

The clay pots were also one new and one old; the newer clay pot was An Youyou's, exclusive to the boss. Jiang Weiguo poured the beans An Youyou had begged, the rice bought by the errand-running underling, and the salted fish all into the new clay pot, lit the firewood, and cooked it all in one pot.

The old clay pot was a hodgepodge; whatever food everyone begged, as long as it wasn't moldy or sour, was thrown in. Black beans, wild vegetables, rice bran, cornmeal mush, black flour mush, sweet potatoes, potatoes, meat from meat soup, rotten cabbage leaves, and even a small fish the length of a finger that some underling had caught from the river—it could barely be considered a rich pot of stew.

When the stew was half-cooked, Jiang Weiguo dug out a small bag of coarse salt from the straw pile and sprinkled some in. This act of sprinkling salt drew An Youyou's strong dissatisfaction.

"Why isn't there salt in my portion?" An Youyou questioned.

"Your porridge already has salted fish, and salted fish is cured with salt, so it doesn't lack salt. This is the cheapest coarse salt, bitter and salty. The salt on your salted fish is of much better quality than this bag of coarse salt," Jiang Weiguo explained helplessly.

An Youyou was satisfied then. "Of course, my salted fish is a high-end item that costs one copper coin a piece, much better than those that cost two for a copper coin!"

Jiang Weiguo:...

Jiang Weiguo cooked silently and didn't speak again. An Youyou squatted by the two clay pots and waited. The other underlings didn't dare to get as close as the boss and could only squat far away, holding the beans they had divided among themselves, eating one from time to time, their eyes staring straight at the clay pots, silently swallowing their saliva.

As time passed, the fragrance of the food cooking in the two clay pots became more and more intense. Qin Huai found that Jiang Weiguo's cooking skills were indeed okay; he had some ability to get into a restaurant as a handyman.

The clay pot belonging to An Youyou was essentially salted fish and bean porridge. The firewood fire under the clay pot was very large, and the boiling water rolled the porridge, causing the salted fish to separate. The fishy smell that was originally disgusting was completely wrapped by the rice porridge. Both the beans and the white rice were cooked until very soft and mushy, almost every grain of rice had bloomed, and the thick rice fragrance mixed with the bean fragrance, plus the faint salted fish taste, actually made it smell a bit like seafood porridge.

This level of heat control was quite outstanding.

At least much better than Qin Huai's.

The other hodgepodge didn't look as pretty as the salted fish porridge; there were too many ingredients, too mixed, and none of them were good things. The rotten cabbage leaves the beggars picked up were truly rotten cabbage leaves in the physical sense, the kind that couldn't even get through the door of a vegetable market, plus the unrefined coarse salt—it would be a success if modern people could swallow this pot of hodgepodge.

Of course, pickiness belonged to modern people. Everyone present, including An Youyou, was already drooling at the clay pots.

An Youyou's drool was very restrained; after all, she was the boss and couldn't be as unpromising as her underlings.

"Thirteen, do you really intend to be a handyman at that Fu Ji place in the future?" An Youyou stared at her salted fish porridge, wishing she could scoop a few bowls to taste the saltiness first. "Really not begging with me?"

"Among all the people I've picked up, you're the smartest. The others don't cooperate well with me and even hold me back. If the two of us cooperate, if we're lucky, we might be able to beg our way into the foreign concession."

Speaking of the foreign concession, An Youyou took out the cloth bundle from her bosom again and took out the white pound note to show Jiang Weiguo. "A young master gave me one of these today. It seems to be money too, but I don't recognize the words on it. Help me take a look."

Jiang Weiguo took a look at the pound note, didn't take it, and said, "This is a pound note."

"A pound note? British money?" An Youyou picked up the pound note and looked at it repeatedly against the firelight. "Then it should be quite valuable. If I had known, I would have cried more miserably and let that young master give me more."

Jiang Weiguo:...

"How much is this worth?"

"Two pounds. According to the black market exchange rate, it should be worth more than 20 silver dollars," Jiang Weiguo said.

An Youyou gasped, looking at the pound note in her hand as if she were looking at the God of Wealth, almost wanting to worship it. "More than 20 silver dollars, am I going to get rich!"

"How do I exchange it for money? Where is the black market? How do I get there?"

"I told you begging has a future. You only earn one silver dollar a month, I earn more in one day of begging than you do in two years!"

Jiang Weiguo calmly stirred the salted fish porridge with a wooden spoon, ignoring An Youyou completely. He pulled out two pieces of firewood to turn the fire into a small one before saying slowly, "Since you're getting rich, shouldn't you consider renting a house?"

"Sleeping in a ruined temple in the summer is no problem; at most, you get bitten by mosquitoes and insects, or if you're unlucky, bitten by a snake. Now it's autumn, the weather isn't cold, and sleeping on straw at night can barely get by."

"It will be different when winter comes. Let alone the two of us, Little Ten is only 4 years old and a girl. Relying only on a single layer of clothing and straw, she definitely won't survive this winter. I know the winter in Shanghai isn't as cold as in Beijing, but I know even better that if families in Beijing don't have a cotton-padded jacket in winter, they don't dare to go out, and the whole family sharing one cotton quilt might still freeze to death at home."

"If a beggar doesn't go out to beg for one day, they might starve to death the next day. If we still live in this place when winter comes, everyone will only have two outcomes: starving to death or freezing to death."

An Youyou frowned. "Why is raising people so expensive?"

"Last time, Little Three and Little Two had their legs broken, which cost me a lot of money, but Little Two still died, and I could only pick up a new Little Two."

"The Thirteen before you, I told him not to eat sour and smelly things, that starving for two meals wouldn't kill him, but he didn't listen, ate it secretly, and died of diarrhea."

"The Little Ten before, didn't know how to speak when begging, was kicked in the chest and vomited blood on the spot and died."

"And the Little One, Little Three, Little Four, Little Seven, Little Eight, Little Ten, Little Eleven, Little Twelve I picked up at the beginning, they either died of illness or were beaten to death, and there's the freezing to death in winter you mentioned. Actually, winter isn't that cold, and starting a fire can keep you alive."

"Really calculating it this way, it seems only Little Nine has survived from the ones I picked up at the beginning."

Jiang Weiguo listened expressionlessly, silently stirring the hodgepodge in the clay pot.

"I've also thought about whether to rent a house. Sleeping in this ruined temple is indeed uncomfortable; who likes sleeping on the ground if they can sleep on a bed? But renting a house is too expensive. For these houses in the suburbs, if we want to accommodate so many people, I have one room, you all squeeze together to sleep, the rent is at least one silver dollar a month!"

"One silver dollar!"

"Do you know how much salted fish and rice that can buy?"

"Those rickshaw pullers only earn one or two silver dollars a month. If you have that money to rent a house, you might as well eat something good."

"The porridge is ready," Jiang Weiguo said.

An Youyou was ecstatic, took out her bowl from her bosom, beckoned an underling, signaled for the underling to wash the bowl clean by the river, and then took out the steamed bun she hadn't been willing to finish earlier to dip in the hot porridge and continue eating.

After the underling finished washing the bowl, An Youyou handed the bowl to Jiang Weiguo. Jiang Weiguo filled it with a full bowl of salted fish porridge for her, and basically all the salted fish that could be fished out went into An Youyou's bowl, which showed An Youyou's status as the boss.

For the remaining half pot of porridge, Jiang Weiguo took out his own broken bowl and filled a small half bowl for himself. Then he signaled for the other underlings to come forward. Everyone lined up in an orderly fashion to get food, each person getting a spoonful of hodgepodge and a little salted fish porridge.

Everyone ate frantically, not afraid of the heat.

An Youyou finished her food at light speed. Because she was the boss, she restrained herself and didn't lick the bowl, ordered the underling to wash the bowl, and the rest of the underlings began to organize the straw in the ruined temple. They left the softest straw and the best wind-protected position for An Youyou. An Youyou sat by the fire that hadn't gone out yet, watching the busy figures of her underlings, watching 4-year-old Little Ten patting the straw hard, wanting to pat the straw soft so that An Youyou would be more comfortable when sleeping at night.

"Is renting a house really more cost-effective than buying cotton quilts directly?" An Youyou asked. "Cotton quilts can be used in spring if bought in winter, it doesn't cost much."

"There's a bed in the house," Jiang Weiguo said, giving a reason An Youyou couldn't refuse. "And if you're willing to spend a little more money, you can rent one with a kitchen. There's a stove in the kitchen, so you don't have to eat boiled mush or salted fish porridge every day; you can eat stir-fried dishes."

"The boss of Fu Ji is indeed stingy, preferring to pour out leftovers rather than distribute them to beggars, and even more so not allowing waiters in the restaurant to hide and bring them home. But this is actually a tactic. Although this practice is criticized, it made Fu Ji famous in a short time, and many high-ranking officials and nobles like to eat at Fu Ji."

"Therefore, although the boss of Fu Ji seems stingy and strict, his strictness is only aimed at the waiters. He usually turns a blind eye to the chefs and handymen in the kitchen. Chef Ding, the head chef of Fu Ji, is a very honest person. As long as I can catch his eye, I believe I can soon become a chopping chef."

"By then, not only will I have a salary of three silver dollars a month, but two meals will also be provided, and it's highly likely that I can bring back the leftover ingredients that weren't used in the kitchen that day. By then, you can eat stir-fried dishes every day."

An Youyou looked at Jiang Weiguo very unhappily. "I clearly didn't want to rent a house, why did you insist on telling me? Now that you've said it, I want to rent it."

"It's going to cost money again, the money I worked so hard to save."

"I beg for food seriously every day, and every time I finally save a little money, there are all kinds of things that need money, either medical treatment, or medical treatment, or medical treatment. Why are people so hard to raise? Why do we have to live in a house!" An Youyou complained loudly, super unhappy.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have picked up so many; I should have just picked up 6."

Jiang Weiguo said, "When do you plan to look at houses?"

"Tomorrow," An Youyou said irritably. "I'll go to that broken black market to exchange the silver dollars first, beg for half a day, and then go look at houses."

"Is that stir-fried dish you mentioned the same as the ones sold in the restaurant?"

"Yes," Jiang Weiguo nodded.

"Then is what you stir-fry the same as what the restaurant stir-fries?"

"Unless it's a big restaurant like Fu Ji, otherwise I have the confidence to do better than them," Jiang Weiguo said.

An Youyou rolled her eyes. "Keep bragging. With such good eloquence, why can't you think straight and go to work in a restaurant? How good would it be to beg with me?"

"Look at you, just like me. You're literate, can calculate, can fight, and have a trade. Although you talk a little less, you can still speak when you need to. Most importantly, you also know how to read the expressions of nobles and aren't easily beaten to death."

"You're even better than me; I can't write, but you can."

"With such good conditions, you should be begging with me!"

Jiang Weiguo:...

Qin Huai saw deep speechlessness on Jiang Weiguo's face.

"Actually, I don't understand either," Jiang Weiguo said. "Why you are literate, can calculate, have good eloquence, and can fight, yet are so obsessed with being a beggar."

"Even if you are a woman and it's hard to make a living outside, outsiders can't tell your gender when you look like this every day. You should be able to find many jobs better than begging. Even if you just find a shop to be an accountant, it would be more decent than now."

An Youyou opened her eyes wide and said angrily, "Can accounting compare to begging?"

"An accountant has a fixed salary, sitting in a shop every day facing an abacus, calculating day and night until your eyes go blind, and you only earn two or three silver dollars a month."

"Don't look down on begging, okay? If I didn't beg, could I feed you all? Look at those people other than you, who can beg for things?"

"You don't go outside to ask around, among so many beggar bosses, whose reputation is as good as mine? I raise so many underlings, I don't ask you to offer tribute, I don't force you to cheat or kidnap. How many people don't steal money, don't rob money, don't kidnap women, don't join gangs as thugs, and can still raise so many underlings?"

"Just me!"

"Although the underlings under me change a bit fast, you can't blame me for their deaths. How many beggars and refugees die every day in Shanghai? If I were an accountant, could I raise these dozen or so people?"

"Then why do you want to raise us?" Jiang Weiguo asked.

"Because I'm the boss!" An Youyou proudly raised her head. "You don't know about me before; I had even more underlings before!"

"I'm the boss, if I don't have 10 or 8 underlings, how can I live up to this name? Of course, I have to raise my underlings. Do you think I was a beggar from the beginning? I also thought about robbery."

"But I couldn't beat them, right? They had guns, how could I fight?"

"And raising underlings isn't useless. Although everyone except you is useless now, what if they beg well in a few years? By then, each underling will give me one silver dollar a month, and I'll earn 13 silver dollars a month doing nothing."

"I'll just beg for a little food, and won't I be rich?"

Jiang Weiguo:...

Qin Huai:...

Not a sister, what species are you, your path is so wild.

Jiang Weiguo didn't speak, just purely treating An Youyou as having something wrong with her brain.

Anyway, there were many people with something wrong with their brains these days, not one less than An Youyou.

"I have to go to Fu Ji tomorrow, I'm going to rest first," Jiang Weiguo said.

"Don't sleep yet, tell me where that black market is first, I'm going to exchange money tomorrow."

"I'll go with you."

"Aren't you going to Fu Ji?"

"The black market opens early."

"I'm afraid you'll see money and get greedy... that place is the territory of the Green Gang. If we provoke them, 13 lives won't be enough to pay."

"Am I that fond of money?"

"You are."

"Fine, I am."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 315 =====