Chapter 192 The truth about the disappearance of the beggar
Early the next morning, the men sent out yesterday came back and gave the news.
They checked some things that happened to Boss Xiao after he arrived in Jiangnan. Except for these workers and children from private schools, he seemed to have no similar behavior.
It neither transferred workers from other places nor recruited workers locally in Jiangnan.
Qin Rushuang frowned, how is this possible?
Since Xiao's Trading Company came to Jiangnan a year ago, its business has been booming, and the manpower and material resources required are also different. How is it possible that the number of workers has not changed.
"Keep checking and don't let go of any clues!"
"Yes!" His subordinates handed over and left.
Xie Xun, who was on the side, saw Qin Rushuang frowning, so he whispered: "This matter cannot be rushed. You have been anxious and angry all morning in the house. Let's go out for a walk in the afternoon."
Seeing Qin Rushuang waving her hands to refuse, Xie Xun advised: "Just think of it as if we went out to find out something, okay?"
Qin Rushuang nodded and relaxed, "Okay, just walk around."
The group of them walked around and finally went to the teahouse they had visited before and sat down to rest.
Qin Rushuang ate some cakes with tea, worried about the safety of the workers and children. They were obviously good cakes, but they were tasteless.
Qin Rushuang was lost in thought when she suddenly felt the clothes around her legs swinging.
Qin Rushuang lowered her head and met a pair of big watery eyes.
"Auntie is hungry, I am hungry..."
Qin Rushuang was surprised. He turned out to be a beggar who was only four or five years old.
The little beggar had disheveled hair and it was hard to tell whether he was a boy or a girl. However, he was very thin because he had not been able to eat for a long time, so his eyes looked particularly big.
He just held Qin Rushuang's clothes with one hand, raised his head high, and kept shouting that he was hungry.
Qin Rushuang found out about the private school yesterday and she felt very sorry for the children. Now she saw a little beggar who was only four or five years old. She felt really sorry for him and quickly took a few cakes from the table to him.
"Eat slowly."
Qingzhi on the side saw that the little beggar was pitiful, but he was dirty. He was afraid that he would stain the princess's clothes, so he wanted to go over and drive him away.
Qingzhi's movements were stopped by Xie Xun.
"Forget it, let her go. She has been sad about the children in private school these days, so let her do other things to divert her attention."
Qingzhi nodded and thought about the same truth. The child was really pitiful. If the princess's clothes were dirty, she would just wash them with the maids.
At the other end of the table, Qin Rushuang took a pastry and was about to hand it to the child when a dirty little hand suddenly rushed out and knocked the pastry out of Qin Rushuang's hand!
At the same time, a young boy's clear voice came to Qin Rushuang's ears, but this voice was full of vigilance.
"How dare you eat what others give you? Don't eat it! Come with me quickly! The shopkeeper will come later, be careful he hits you!"
Qin Rushuang looked up and saw a boy of twelve or thirteen years old, also dressed as a beggar. He was dressed in rags, unkempt, and as thin as a bamboo pole.
Seeing Qin Rushuang looking at him, the young man suddenly glared at Qin Rushuang.
"What are you looking at? We won't eat your food. Xiaojiu, hurry up and don't eat their food. Be careful that people will disappear after eating!"
The young man appeared suddenly, and even made a move with Qin Rushuang. The two of them looked pitiful. Qin Rushuang didn't want to pursue the matter, but when she heard what the young man said, she suddenly remembered something.
When I looked up, I saw that the young man had already brought the child to the door of the teahouse, so he shouted loudly: "Stop, don't leave!"
The young man turned his back and heard someone shouting from behind. He thought it was this noble person who wanted to deal with him. After all, he had just hit her hand, so he quickly picked up the child at his feet and whispered, "Xiaojiu, hold me tight."
neck, let’s run quickly!!”
Qingzhi was a little dazed by this turn of events. Qin Rushuang hurriedly said: "These two children may know something, stop them!"
Qingzhi nodded quickly: "Okay, okay!"
Compared to Qingzhi's slower reaction, Xie Xun had already gotten up and chased after Qin Rushuang when she made a sound.
If you asked about running fast, it would definitely be Xie Xun who ran fast, but the two little beggars were more agile because they turned right as soon as they went out and entered a complicated alley.
It took Xie Xun some effort to catch the two of them, carrying the earth in one hand and the small one in the other, and brought them both to Qin Rushuang.
The bigger one stood aside with his arms folded and his face looked very disgusting, "Humph, if I hadn't brought Xiaojiu with me, you would definitely not be able to outrun me!"
"Okay, okay," Qin Rushuang hurriedly came over and asked, "Were you hurt anywhere just now? Why are you running so fast? I just have something to ask you."
The little beggar protected Xiao Jiu behind him and said warily, "What do you want to ask? Ask quickly! We will leave immediately after asking!"
Qin Rushuang thought for a while and asked, "When I gave Xiaojiu something to eat just now, why didn't you let Xiaojiu eat it? And why did you tell Xiaojiu that people who eat something will disappear?"
The child had now seen clearly that these two people who looked like a couple should be good people. The man was afraid that he would fall when he was chasing him, so he never used all his strength and reminded him from time to time.
He was careful about falling.
And the woman was the first to care about whether they were injured after he was caught. The little beggar secretly considered, maybe these two people are really good people?
But it was a fact that they had caught me, so I thought I was still a little unhappy, and said with a smile: "You are so stupid, I have made it so clear, and you still don't understand, haven't you noticed? There are too few beggars here.
.”
"This..." Qin Rushuang was about to open her mouth when the little beggar interrupted.
"I know, you look like a foreigner at first glance. You foreigners will definitely say that Jiangnan is rich, so there are few beggars? In fact, that is not the case. The richer the place, the more beggars, because all the money has been taken away by others~"
The little beggar told a joke that he thought was funny, but when he saw that no one else was laughing, he closed his mouth and touched his nose.
"Okay, let me tell you, last winter when the Chinese New Year was approaching, weren't there kind-hearted gentlemen everywhere giving out porridge? It was the same in previous years, but this year many beggars disappeared after drinking the porridge."
Qin Rushuang and Xie Xun looked at each other and suddenly thought that Mr. Du and several merchants had said before that Boss Xiao once opened a warehouse to distribute grain to the poor during the Chinese New Year, and the array was bigger than Du's. Is it true?
Is it related to the Xiao family...?
So Qin Rushuang quickly asked, "You said that everyone else disappeared after drinking the porridge, but what about you and Xiaojiu? Have you drank it?"
But the little beggar said bitterly: "We didn't drink. We were too small and couldn't squeeze through them. By the time we squeezed past, the porridge vendors had all closed their stalls!"
"And the most hateful thing is that it snowed and the weather was cold during the New Year days. When we returned to our usual sleeping place, we found that it was already occupied by other adults, so we had to sleep on the street corner for one night.
I almost froze to death!”
Then he added, "But luckily we slept outside, because the next day we found that all the beggars in the shabby thatched hut where we usually slept were gone! Not only that, there were also a lot fewer beggars on the streets.
!”
"Oh, that's right," at this point, the little beggar seemed to have remembered something, and added, "Although there were fewer beggars during the Chinese New Year, we all thought it was snowing that froze people to death.
They were thrown into a mass grave, but when the weather cleared up after the Chinese New Year and during the Lantern Festival, a kind person gave out porridge again, but this time more beggars disappeared!"
