"Rolling around... Is it unlucky or not? Do you understand the rules? At this time of day when distinguished guests come to the door at noon, you block the door and beg for food? Are you asking for a beating..."
The boy from the restaurant rushed over and started to take action while pulling the kowtow beggar. Logically speaking, it makes sense for him to take action. There are many rules in the capital, and there are rules among beggars.
For example, if you don’t ask for breakfast, you can’t beg for food from house to house for three days in a row. You can’t give food if you are given money. You can’t ask for both food and money. Also, you can’t affect the merchant’s business.
These are unwritten rules. According to the conventions of the begging gang, among the beggars, except those who can sing happy songs and make lotus flowers fall, they can block the main entrance of the merchants and even enter the house to beg for food.
For other beggars who don't have this ability, you can only go to the back door to beg for food, or kowtow in an out-of-the-way place next to the front door without talking!
And when people's business is booming and there are many customers, you can't interfere with their business. When the boss is in a good mood and sees you, he will naturally reward you a little.
Want to go into the house and beg for food? At the very least, you have to be able to sing happy songs, singing "Lotus Falling" while beating the bones of the cow, so that the guests and the boss will be happy when they hear it. If you are so happy, you will naturally be rewarded with money.
Today, the few beggars blocking the restaurant are just like sticks. At noon, the beggars are all over the street shouting at acquaintances and familiar customers. The rich and powerful bannermen are constantly coming and going, and every one of them can be counted on.
When you are busy working, you kneel at the door to beg for food, isn't it a disappointment? Begging for a beating!
Several guys went up and were about to beat him up. At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded from the roadside, "Stop...why are you beating him? He is just a beggar...you can't beat him if you don't give him anything!"
The sound was so weird that several of the waiters shrank when they heard it, thinking that this was someone they couldn't afford to offend!
Why? Because this person spoke with a weird accent, without any human voice or four tones, you didn't have to look back to know that he was a foreigner!
Sure enough, a rickshaw stopped on the side of the road, and a big-nosed foreigner in a hunting suit walked down carrying a civilized stick.
There were many officials from the Sixth Department in the restaurant hall. Someone whispered, "The British... Delaney, the military attache of the British Embassy... This guy can't be offended, he can't be offended... The boss asked your guy to restrain himself. The British have a big nose and it's not good." provoke!"
Not to mention the big noses of Britain, big noses of any country are not easy to mess with. Nowadays, the foreign devils and Japanese devils are the most arrogant in the capital, and they walk like crabs.
The boss hurried over to disperse the workers, clasped his fists at Delani and said, "Master Yang! Master Yang, thank you for your hard work... I'll give you a thousand bucks!"
"It's not that we are unreasonable, it's just that these beggars don't understand the rules... At noon, when our business is busiest, begging for food should not block the main entrance, speak, or disturb the distinguished guests!"
"After we have served the guests, we will give him a bowl of the leftovers... How can a guest come to beg for food before he has finished eating?"
"Not to mention that it affects our business, this beggar has never heard of eating new food. Doesn't he just eat the leftovers from the guests?"
Delaney shook his head, "I don't care about your rules, I just care about my heart... give them new meals... and it will be charged to my account..."
Delaney bent down and said to the trembling beggar, "Don't be afraid... a steaming meal will be delivered in a moment! Where are you from? Why did you become a beggar..."
The oldest among the beggars shivered and kowtowed, "Thank you... thank you... foreigner... we are building roads for the Beijing-Hankow Railway..."
"I was living a good life...but I accidentally threw rocks...a few rocks rolled down from the stone pile...all of our legs were broken..."
"There are no idlers on the construction site. If we can't work, we won't have food to eat... We have no money anymore. We can't go home even if we want to. We can only live in the capital begging for food..."
"We don't know anything... we don't know the rules... these gentlemen are so arrogant..."
The people around him suddenly sighed. As soon as they said this, they knew that it turned out that the man who was building the railway was injured and disabled. He had no money to go home. Maybe it was difficult to go back home!
The boss sighed, "Hey... why didn't you tell me earlier? Since you are not a professional beggar, I don't blame you for not understanding the truth... you are a cook! Give them some food!"
"What a sin... Those who build railways and factories are indeed doing good things, but the disabled people are having a hard time!"
Some guests in the lobby said disapprovingly, "Everything is fate! A poor person will always be poor! What happened to the construction site?"
"He has this calamity in his life, so he can't escape it! If he is not injured at the construction site, he will not be injured in his hometown? Are there people who farm with sprained feet?"
"Shopkeeper, you have to be careful...I think your words are a bit offensive to the court? Are you blaming this poor man's misfortune on the construction site? Are you blaming it on the emperor?"
"Be careful of lawsuits! They can still ask for hot meals in the capital... Do you know that many mountain villages in Shanxi, Zhili University, and many other mountain villages have been closed down recently!"
"Even if they go home, they still won't be able to survive... They might as well be begging for food in the capital! They will freeze to death when they go home..."
The shopkeeper quickly smiled and slapped his face twice with his hand, "Oh...Master Sun! Master Sun, what you said...I am just a talker, talking nonsense!"
"Don't be ignorant of me. How dare I say that the imperial court is not good! The emperor is a sage. Only with the emperor can we have the prosperous business we have now!"
"Give Mr. Sun a pot of fine Huadiao... Nuerhong! It's a gift from the cabinet!"
After appeasing the critical guest, the shopkeeper looked back at Military Attaché Delani who still had no intention of leaving and said with a smile, "Master foreigner...are you ready to eat?"
"Well... I want to entertain friends. Please give me a small private room on the second floor!"
"Oh... Mr. Foreigner is here, Pengpi is shining... Please invite me to the private room on the second floor!"
"Our British guest will come soon. You can take him directly to the second floor..." After saying this, Delani stepped up to the second floor under the gaze of many Qing people.
After Delaney disappeared at the top of the stairs, the bannermen in the hall murmured, "This is not an ordinary British devil, he is a military attaché from the embassy, a high-level official!"
"He wants to treat him? Instead of going to the embassy to treat him, he comes to our place to treat him? Is there some conspiracy?"
People didn't dare to talk loudly, but they were full of doubts. After a while, the sound of horse hooves suddenly sounded at the door, and three horses stopped at the door of the restaurant against the falling snow.
People with sharp eyes suddenly took a breath of air and said, "Oh... why is this man?"
I saw two soldiers from the Xishan Camp, surrounded by a tall foreign soldier, also wearing an officer uniform from the Xishan Camp, and went up to the second floor surrounded by the boss himself.
"Oh my God...it's Gordon...Admiral Gordon...the one from the Foreign Gunners a long time ago...this is the big star in front of Banzai!"
