Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 1148 - 553: Beggar (Part 11)

Sure, here's the translated text:

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An Youyou lies weakly on a haystack, questioning life, pondering how she, the boss, has ended up in such a state, and worries whether her career and her return will allow her to boast in front of her juniors.

Little Ninth and the others sit on the haystack, contemplating whether there's food to eat tonight, and if so, what to eat.

From the talks and the physique of Little Ninth and the others, Qin Huai can roughly judge that it has been three years since the last New Year. The Chen family also encountered troubles, just as Qin Huai expected.

This bluestone brick house of the Chen family was gifted by Luo Jun.

Although the once-famous Mr. Luo went with his wife to Shu to seek relatives and has not returned for several years, the reputation was established when Luo Jun in Shanghai bloodily crushed the gang, burned the warehouse, and arranged a river-bottom seat for the threatened high official still lingered, allowing the Chen family to hold onto the house and land a decent job delivering vegetables.

Unfortunately, the situation changed rapidly. Once glorious Mr. Luo has been silent for a long time, and there are rumors in Shanghai saying that Mr. Luo went crazy watching opera, ignoring worldly affairs while guarding the grave for his late wife in Shancheng, no longer even subscribing to newspapers sent monthly from Shanghai to Shan City.

Without protection, the Chen family naturally could not hold onto the good house.

Perhaps Mr. Luo far away in Shanghai has long forgotten the Chen family, but as long as Mr. Luo's reputation remains, the Chen family can keep living in this bluestone brick house. If Mr. Luo fails, the Chen family is just lambs waiting to be slaughtered in the eyes of others.

The first to act was a local small gang.

The methods were very simple; it could even be said there were no methods—extortion, threats, and all the simple dirty tricks one could imagine.

With the help of An Youyou and Chen Shun, the Chen family endured the first wave, but then a second and third batch came.

Chen Shun's father encountered robbers on his way to deliver vegetables, resulting in his leg being broken. The high medical expenses drained the Chen family's savings, and the pain relief patches led to Chen Shun's father developing a drug addiction, followed by debts, debt collection, selling the house, and bankruptcy.

Unable to pay school fees, Chen Shun dropped out and became a clerk, but due to the low salary and the need to endure until promotion, he couldn't pay off the family's debts. Through the introduction of Master Ding at the restaurant where Jiang Weiguo worked, he went to Jinling to work, earning a decent monthly salary, but what he sent back home could barely cover the debts.

To support the remaining children, Sister in law Chen initially worked around the clock weaving and embroidering. Less than two years later, her hands shook, and her eyes went blind. Now, she can only make a living washing clothes for others.

Chen Shun's siblings, though young, could not rest at home. They either learned to beg with An Youyou or did odd jobs with their mother. Despite their efforts, the family could barely manage a full stomach.

Sister in law Chen did not originally appear so frail. During the New Year, she braved the cold wind to fetch water by the river to wash clothes and caught a chill, suffering a severe illness that drained the Chen family's last savings and even emptied An Youyou's remaining private funds. Since then, Sister in law Chen dared not eat or spend, thinning down like a straw in just half a year.

Qin Huai heard Little Ninth say that Sister in law Chen now feels she is a burden, thinking that if she can earn a bit, it's worth, and if she falls ill, she should just die rather than burden the children.

When Little Ninth said this, Little Ten echoed, saying it was good. Life was hard, begging was difficult, and gang members even competed with them for business. If he happened to be crippled by gang members one day, he'd hang himself at their entrance to extort some money so everyone could have a good meal.

Little Ninth laughed at him for living in the past. Nowadays, life is hard, and no gang would want to be extorted. If you hang yourself, it's just like being bombed to death during the war, might not even have anyone to collect your body, and might be tossed outside to feed dogs.

Little Ten said he couldn't accept that; he still wanted to be wrapped in a straw mat and buried after death. Previously, Xiao Si was robbed and pushed into the river and drowned. When retrieved, Youyou had bought a straw mat for her, and he wanted one too.

Watching these two half-grown children talk so lightly about death, Qin Huai was at a loss for words, only hoping Jiang Weiguo would return soon as he should be able to interrupt this hellacious conversation.

After nightfall, the room remained unlit, clearly showing An Youyou's current poverty, so poor that she couldn't afford lamp oil.

The juniors sat in the dry grass, nostalgia for the days when every meal sufficed, during New Year with meat, and elbow soup dipped in cornbread. Just recalling made them hungry, and when hungry, their stomachs growled; five juniors' stomachs growled in unison, making An Youyou hungry.

If it were the previous An Youyou, she'd have cursed by now, regardless of reason, she'd curse a few times to demand silence from their bellies.

Yet, the current An Youyou remained silent because she lacked confidence. An Youyou was a very self-aware boss; when she could clearly support all the juniors, she'd go all out to flaunt her boss swagger.

But when she couldn't feed the juniors, she'd consciously forsake the boss aura, lying on the haystack questioning life.

Without lighting or a clock, Qin Huai found it hard to pinpoint the time accurately. It seemed to be over ten at night when Jiang Weiguo hurriedly returned carrying a bundle.

Jiang Weiguo now looked like an adult. When An Youyou found him, he was already the oldest among the juniors, and now over three years have passed, coupled with working at the restaurant, unworried about food and drink with decent pay, he looked tall and strong, seemingly able to take down five people.