Chapter 6

It's almost impossible to find something to shelter from the wind and rain in the city of Tokyo!

Everything here has an owner.

Even a half-rotten branch that accidentally fell outside the courtyard, if Wang Rouhua tried to pick it up, someone would immediately come out to stop her.

They would snatch the branch viciously from her hands, roll their eyes, and leave.

Everything costs money!

Wang Rouhua wandered around the market for a long time but returned empty-handed. She couldn't even find a job for mending and washing.

She bought two baked cakes to satisfy her hunger.

Yesterday, two baked cakes cost only two coins, but today she needed three coins to buy two cakes from the same vendor.

She couldn't spend her money recklessly. When Wang Rouhua woke up in the morning, she put all the copper coins into a small hole. After a deep breath, she also put the little fox in to watch over them, then she went to the market with her son to look for work.

When she passed by the slave market, Wang Rouhua almost ran away. She had never seen people being treated like livestock, with their mouths pried open to check their teeth and then bought based on their age.

Many young women, dressed in only a thin veil, stood in a tent, allowing heavily made-up madams or fat men to come in and choose.

A long time ago, Wang Rouhua knew that human trafficking in the Song Dynasty would be punished by the government, but here it seemed that no officials were managing it.

Thinking about how she almost got beheaded for just leaning against a wall last night, Wang Rouhua despised those officials in their official clothes.

Passing by a funeral shop, Wang Rouhua couldn't help but shed tears. She couldn't find her brother's body, but she couldn't let him become a wandering ghost.

After leaving the funeral shop, Wang Rouhua held a stack of white linen in her arms. She pinned a white silk flower in her hair as a sign of mourning for her brother. As for the funeral clothes, she would sew them slowly after returning to the city wall.

Tie Xin Yuan wore a white mourning cap on his forehead, which his mother had hastily sewn in the funeral shop. She wanted her brother to know that even in death, he was still remembered.

The white linen was of the finest quality, and naturally, it wasn't cheap. When Wang Rouhua bought these things for thirty coins without hesitation, without even bargaining, Tie Xin Yuan's satisfaction with his mother rose to a new level.

The prosperity of Tokyo was nothing special to Tie Xin Yuan. The only thing worth mentioning was the ancient and elegant architecture.

It was quite different from the "Qingming Shanghe Tu." Perhaps Zhang Zeduan deliberately left out the dilapidated sheds, dirty beggars, and garbage on the ground.

The ground was uneven. The emperor had toured the city the day before, and it was necessary to lay yellow earth on the road, so there were still traces of yellow earth on the ground.

But there was very little yellow earth. When Tie Xin Yuan saw an old man sweeping the yellow earth off the street, he understood why there was so little of it.

Tokyo was crowded, and everything became precious. In their eyes, there was nothing useless.

The food stalls lining the streets held no appeal for Tie Xin Yuan. Swarms of flies were breeding on the food, and this alone made him completely give up the idea of eating anything outside. Except for breast milk, he felt that eating anything else would make it hard for him to live long enough to marry and support his mother.

After buying some grain and an iron pot, Wang Rouhua also bought a small piece of osmanthus cake, carefully wrapped in a handkerchief, to feed her son when she got home...

Wang Rouhua carried her son on her chest, held the iron pot in her hand, and carried a small bag of grain on her back. She held four bamboo poles under her arms and hurried home, always worried about the money she had hidden.

When she returned to the foot of the imperial city, she sighed in relief. The road ten steps away from the imperial city was bustling with people, but there was no one at the foot of the imperial city, not even stray dogs.

It made sense. Fully armed guards stood on the city walls, and even a large crossbow was mounted on a stand in the corner. Her home was right in the corner, and not only did others dare not come near, but Wang Rouhua herself was also nervous.

The arrows on the crossbow were as thick as eggs, and the sharp arrowheads glinted in the sunlight, clearly designed to kill.

She walked nervously to the corner. The guards seemed to recognize her, just staring at her without using the crossbow. Only after she reached the corner did Wang Rouhua feel that this corner truly belonged to her and her son.

The little fox whimpered, calling out through the iron bars of the small hole. Wang Rouhua just glanced at the fox, put her son in the bathtub, and placed a piece of baked cake at the entrance of the hole. As for water, there was some inside the hole.

The sun had already risen. Once the sun in May broke free from the clouds, it mercilessly poured its heat. In no time, the air in Tokyo was steamed, and without moving, one felt as if they were in a steamer.

The imperial city was on higher ground and was relatively dry. The wind from Xiangguo Temple still carried the echo of the morning bell, which the monks were ringing to pray for the dead, hoping that the distant bell sound would guide their souls to heaven. Wang Rouhua knelt on the ground, hands clasped in prayer, sincerely praying for her brother, hoping that his next life would not be so hard, and that her son would grow up safely and without illness. A simple tent made from a bamboo pole and an oilcloth was their home. Wang Rouhua was very satisfied with their current situation. Having seen those who were sold, she felt that her life was not so bad. If she could find her clan and live together, it would be even better. Gong Liu was very learned and could certainly educate her son...

Days passed. Every day, Wang Rouhua brought back some building materials. Gradually, the simple tent had a real roof and two walls, which she had plastered with mud and straw. If she couldn't build a real house before the autumn winds came, she and her son would not be able to survive the harsh winter. The summer in Tokyo was scorching, and the winter would turn into a frozen wasteland.

Living next to the imperial city, no craftsmen dared to come to the Tie family to help build a house. Wang Rouhua knew this, but she valued her and her son's safety more. As a widow and an orphan without clan or husband to protect them, it was not easy to survive in the Song Dynasty.

Recently, people were dying in the city, and boats carrying corpses were constantly moving on the waterways. It was said that a plague had broken out in the city...

The dead were at peace, but the living desperately awaited the autumn winds. Only after the cold winter arrived would the heavens stop taking lives, and people could live safely until the next year. The wealthy, seeing the flood recede, left Tokyo one after another, knowing that more people meant more disease.

Wang Rouhua was determined to hold on. She would not look for her clan until her home was built. However, she spent five hundred coins to bribe the clerk in Kaifeng County to transfer her and her son's household registration from Xiangfu County to Kaifeng County, making them true residents of Tokyo. This way, they would receive the firewood money distributed by the government in winter, which, though only thirty coins a year, would be useful since they planned to live in Tokyo for a long time. The five hundred coins were well spent!

Actually, Wang Rouhua had a deeper plan. Once her son started school, the county school in Kaifeng would undoubtedly be the best in the entire Song Dynasty.

Everything was good. The only problem was that Yuan'er refused to eat real food. He wouldn't touch anything except breast milk, whether it was sweet osmanthus cake or golden porridge. This made her very worried.

If Yuan'er didn't eat, how could he grow into a man? Fortunately, Yuan'er was very sensible. As long as he was full, he wouldn't cry or fuss. Even when he fell and got a big bump on his forehead, he just pouted and reached out for her to hold him. This was all due to the heavens' mercy, pitying him for losing his father and making him wise early...

"Yuan'er, you can't feed the osmanthus cake to the fox." Seeing her son about to feed the cake to the fox, Wang Rouhua quickly snatched it away. It was a bit late, as the cake had already been in the fox's mouth.

Wang Rouhua sighed and put the osmanthus cake back into the fox's mouth, which was calling out to her.

Tie Xin Yuan's hand went into a bucket of water again, and Wang Rouhua pulled it out. This child loved to cause trouble, especially with the bucket. Sometimes he would knock it over, and even when he fell, he still enjoyed it.

He could now crawl around with his head held high and even stand up by holding onto things.

Wang Rouhua looked at the dirty water in the bucket and remembered that her son never touched hot water. Sometimes she wanted to give this mischievous child a small lesson, so she would put hot water aside, planning to drop a little on his hand when he touched it to teach him a lesson and break his habit of playing with water.

However, as soon as he saw the water boiling, he would never touch it, even if the hot water was right in front of him.

Wang Rouhua suddenly looked at her son and said, "Son, are you saying this water is not clean?"

Tie Xin Yuan giggled and put his wet hand on his mother's face, his big head pushing against her chest as he played with her.

PS: Continue to request recommendations and collections. During the new book period, brothers, don't stop voting!

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