Chapter 14: Unable to Speak of the Hardships

“Mother, we don’t have those travel permits. We don’t need to stay at an inn; finding a wall to lean against will do just fine.” After hearing the shopkeeper’s words, Tian Shu looked at the troubled expression on his mother’s face and spoke up quickly.

The other children, hearing their eldest brother, understood the situation as well. “Mother, you go stay at the inn by yourself. We’ll wait for you outside tomorrow morning.”

Yes, they would just sleep on either side of the front and back doors of whichever inn their mother entered; that way, they wouldn’t have to worry about her sneaking off.

The children were very sensible, but their words didn’t make Hong Xiaoduo feel any better. She didn’t have a travel permit herself, so how could she stay at an inn?

Even if she did have a permit, she wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing the seven children were out on the street!

“Young lady, don’t tell me you… you don’t have one either?” The shopkeeper looked at Hong Xiaoduo’s expression and tentatively voiced his guess.

Hong Xiaoduo didn’t make a sound, which was as good as confirming it. *Yes, you guessed right!*

“Master, in this poor, remote town of ours, surely the rules aren’t that strict? Besides, look at her—a young woman with seven children—she’s definitely not some wicked fugitive or criminal. How about I go to Old Lady Lan’s and test the waters?” The woman standing nearby looked a bit anxious and stepped forward to whisper.

The woman wasn’t just doing this because she had just made a sale; she truly didn’t see anything wrong with this group of one adult and seven children. Could they really just let them sleep on the street?

“As you said, the rules here aren’t strict. Old Lady Lan’s son has connections at the yamen. If he agrees to let them stay at his inn, there naturally won’t be any talk of the yamen checking the guest register. Even if they did check, it would just be for show. The problem is, if the young lady and the others don’t have travel permits, it will be inconvenient for them to go anywhere in the future. As for these seven little ones, if they don’t change into better clothes, whether they have permits or not doesn’t really matter.” The shopkeeper looked at Hong Xiaoduo with a worried expression.

She wasn’t very old, but surely someone traveling away from home should know about travel permits? And if she didn’t have one, where did she come from? If it were nearby, couldn’t she just go home?

If she came from far away, how did she get here without a permit?

Could it be, as the rumors suggested, that for martial artists traveling the world, it didn’t matter if they had permits or not? Because they had martial arts skills—if they wanted to enter a city or a prefecture, no city wall could stop them.

The shopkeeper glanced at the sword at Hong Xiaoduo’s waist again, imagining the scene of this young woman leaping over a city wall, and felt it was quite exciting.

“I… no one has ever asked me for a travel permit in the places I’ve passed through,” Hong Xiaoduo was forced to lie.

What else could she do? If she told the truth about how she arrived here, no one would believe her, and they might even say she was possessed or babbling nonsense.

As for this current identity as a martial artist, she couldn’t explain that either. Where was she from? Where was her home? If they asked her, she would very much like to know the answer herself!

“Ah? May I ask where you are coming from, young lady, and where you intend to go?” the shopkeeper asked casually.

Perhaps her home was nearby, so she hadn’t passed through any large cities or prefectures, and thus the issue of checking permits hadn’t come up.

“This…” Hong Xiaoduo was at a loss for words. She really hadn’t considered making up a fake background.

She didn’t even know what dynasty this was. Even if she did, asking her to invent fake place names in a completely unfamiliar era left her stumped!

“Look at me, I’ve been too talkative. I shouldn’t have asked you these things. Since it’s inconvenient to say, just pretend I didn’t ask. Why don’t you wait here for a moment? Let my wife go ask Old Lady Lan, who is a fellow villager and friend of hers. One of the three inns in town is run by her son. You heard the gist of it earlier—Old Lady Lan’s son has connections at the yamen. We’ll tell him about you not having permits and see what he says. If he agrees, you can rest easy and stay there. If not, you’ll have to go to the Xiaofu Nunnery outside of town tonight. However, it’s quite a distance, and since the children are so small, I’m afraid you won’t make it before dark.” The shopkeeper tactfully stopped prying and offered a suggestion instead.

*So that’s how it is.* Hong Xiaoduo wanted to say she would trouble the auntie, but then she remembered she had struck that villain—she didn’t know if he was dead or alive. It would be bad enough if she implicated the innkeeper, but it would be even worse if she dragged this shopkeeper and his wife into it.

“Many thanks to you both. I’ll take them to get something to eat first. It’s better to be full before walking to that nunnery. If we arrive late, so be it. It doesn’t matter much to travel at night during this season.”

After saying this, she led the children away.

The shopkeeper and his wife sighed and watched them go to the shop entrance. Although they didn’t know the specifics, they just wanted to help.

“Hey, was that young woman just now here to force you to donate clothes?” A woman nearing fifty, holding a half-stitched shoe sole, trotted over to gossip.

“Auntie Tong, what are you making up now? She bought them and paid with silver.” The shopkeeper ignored this well-known and headache-inducing gossip of the street, but his wife felt she couldn’t be rude, so she responded casually.

Auntie Tong didn’t mind the shopkeeper’s indifference at all and continued, “What kind of relationship do you think they have? These days, even rich and kind-hearted people doing charity wouldn’t give silver to a group of little beggars to buy new clothes. Don’t you think she might be a child trafficker? I saw those little beggars—even though they were dressed in rags, they all had delicate features. Once they’re washed up and put in clean clothes, they’d be fair and pretty children. Could she be kidnapping them, cleaning them up, and then selling them for a good price?”

“Auntie Tong, can you stop thinking the worst of people? You have the leisure to gossip here? I just saw your third daughter-in-law go out. Don’t let her swipe money from the shop again to buy rouge and powder!” The shopkeeper couldn’t take it anymore.

“What? The third one went out again while I wasn’t looking? Oh, that spendthrift woman! No, I have to go find her!” Once Auntie Tong heard that, she forgot all about her gossip and hurried back in a panic.

The woman glared at the shopkeeper. “You, really. She’s an old woman; why tease her? It’ll just end up in a chaotic mess, and the neighbors won’t have any peace.”

“Hmph, there isn’t a single good person in that family. Not only do they cheat people by giving short weight and passing off inferior goods, but the women in the house, old or young, love to spread baseless rumors and disturb others. It’s truly something that such people are all in one family.” The shopkeeper said this while looking at the shop across the street with disdain.

The woman found it funny, then suddenly thought of something. “Master, the shop isn’t busy right now. Why don’t I go see Old Lady Lan?”

The shopkeeper smiled. “Go ahead. She doesn’t seem like a malicious person, and she didn’t mind them, even carrying the smallest one herself. She didn’t agree just now, likely because she was afraid of causing trouble for us.”

The woman nodded, smoothed her dress, and left.

At this moment, the shop assistant, who had been standing outside the whole time, shuffled forward. “Shopkeeper, I’ll go inside and organize the clothing racks.”

“No need. This is your pay for yesterday and today—forty wen. Count it, and then you can go.” The shopkeeper walked behind the counter, grabbed a handful of copper coins, counted them, and pushed them forward.

The assistant was bewildered. “Shopkeeper, you’re firing me just because I chased away a few beggars? Who was I doing that for? Wasn’t it to keep them from affecting the shop’s business? Why would I be the bad guy for chasing them away?”

The shopkeeper wasn’t angry; he said calmly, “Business is hard to come by these days, everyone knows that. I don’t actually need to hire anyone for this shop; I only agreed to take you on for the sake of your stepfather. Think about how you’ve acted these past two days. Yes, you’re diligent, but you judge customers by their clothes and guess their status. If they wear silk and satin, you fawn over them. If they wear plain cloth, you ignore them. If they ask a few more questions, you get impatient, and if they don’t buy anything, you mock them as they leave. I can’t afford to keep an assistant like you, no matter how clever you are. You’d better look for another job.”

Hearing this, the assistant, A-Kuan, remained unconvinced. He felt he hadn’t done anything wrong. He angrily grabbed the coins from the counter and shoved them into his pocket. “Hmph, as if anyone cares about working here.”

Watching A-Kuan leave in a huff, the shopkeeper sighed and shook his head. No matter how good his relationship was with the person who recommended him, he couldn’t tolerate such character. He didn’t have the obligation or the energy to discipline someone else’s child.

Meanwhile, A-Kuan, who had been fired after two days of work, was fuming and wanted to go home to have a word with his stepfather. He hadn’t gone far when he saw the group of one adult and seven children ahead.

*Isn’t it all their fault that I got fired?*

*Twenty wen a day isn’t much, but at least it included two meals. It wasn’t a high wage, but I could have saved it to get married.*

*Hmph, you made me lose my job, and here you are, leisurely looking for a restaurant…*