Promise!

Chapter 1, Two Worlds

Daqian, Cangzhou, the capital city of southern Yunnan.

Between the densely packed streets and houses, the spacious bluestone road is bustling with traffic and pedestrians, mixed with various hawking sounds.

A beggar was wearing white clothes with holes in them, but they were clean. He looked to be no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, and his frail figure could barely hold up his clothes. He stopped three feet away from a young couple and said, "Good luck to you, my husband and my wife. I wish you both a son soon and a long life together!"

The husband of the young couple was a scholar. When he heard the little beggar calling him "husband", he felt a little happy and looked at the other party more favorably. In addition, they had just been married for a short time, and the other party's words were auspicious. Thinking that it was just to ask for good luck, he took out a few copper coins from his pocket and threw them into the other party's broken bowl with a hole in it.

"Thank you, my husband and my wife! Thank you, my husband and my wife!" Zhuang Jin bowed with an apologetic smile, thanked them repeatedly, and watched the couple leave. He thought to himself that begging is also a science!

He loves what he does. For several months, he has been studying begging as a science, and it has indeed been effective.

Let me pick out one or two experiences to share, for example: when begging, you don’t have to be very clean, but at least you can’t have a pungent smell, so that people will stay away from you. But you can’t be too nice either, with fewer holes and patches on your clothes than those of passers-by, so how can people pity you and give you money?

Besides, being taciturn is not acceptable either. You must be brave enough to speak. But if you just say "Good luck to the master and the lady" and then kneel down and kowtow, competing to see who can kowtow louder and harder, there is no future for you. You must learn to read people's expressions and not be flowery when talking to people who are obviously illiterate. You must speak plainly. When you see a pregnant woman, wish her a big fat boy in her belly...

Zhuang Jin's favorite beggars are pregnant women, young couples like this, and...

At this moment, he saw someone and, with an idea in mind, he quickly walked forward. When he reached the entrance of the casino, he bowed to the person and said loudly, "Greetings, young man. Your face is beaming with rosy red today. This is an auspicious sign of great fortune and abundant wealth!"

"Well said, reward!" The gambler was a rough man, but he also yearned for culture. He had won money and was in a good mood. When he heard this, he immediately reached into his arms, paused slightly, then laughed and threw something down, which landed in the broken bowl with a crisp and pleasant tinkling sound.

That's a dime!

……

"Silver change! This dime of silver is worth at least dozens of coins!" Not far away, another thin and short beggar with small ears was peeking out, his eyes turned red when he saw this scene.

This little beggar was called Little Ear. The day before yesterday, he happened to see Zhuang Jin begging for money several times in a row. Thinking of how he was looked down upon when begging, and how it took him ages to get even a few coins, he quietly followed him and tried to learn from him. He thought to himself, "Good boy, what did I say? You haven't been crowding with us at the vegetable and rice markets these days, and you've learned this skill!"

"I didn't expect that this usually silent guy would be so talkative when asking for money!"

Immediately, he was secretly excited again: "I learned it! I learned it! With this trick, I will definitely be able to make a lot of money!"

Xiao Erduo's heart was burning with excitement. Seeing Zhuang Jin still at the entrance of the gambling house, he went to the other side of the street, intending to try out the auspicious words "give birth to a son soon". However, he saw several women in succession. When he approached them, they covered their mouths and noses and walked away in disgust.

After a while, a woman came over. Xiao Erduo's face lit up with joy. He wanted to say hello and ask for money as usual, then kneel down and kowtow to ask for money. But when he remembered what he had just learned, he stopped and took two steps forward. He smiled and said loudly, "Madam, may you have a baby soon! May you have a baby soon!"

Widow Wang saw Xiao Erduo and thought of her own orphaned son. She was about to offer him a couple of coins, but as soon as she got there, she heard him offer her blessings for a son. Her face immediately turned green. How could a widow like her have a son? There was only one possibility: adultery. This was a betrayal of her chastity, a death sentence. She was so angry that her mouth twisted and she threw the basket at him.

After the little beggar finished speaking, he slightly raised his head and looked at the other party with anticipation. He was happy in his heart, thinking that if the other party was happy to hear what he heard, he would give him a lot of money. However, he did not expect a basket to hit him on the head. He jumped up like a mouse in pain.

……

Zhuang Jin didn't know that his little ear was imitating someone else's, but had only made things worse. He continued to walk the streets looking for kind people until evening. He calculated his income for the day and estimated his total net worth, thinking to himself, "I've finally saved enough money."

At this moment, he suddenly saw a man in yamen uniform passing by not far away. He squatted down silently, lowered his head, pushed the bowl forward, and said in a muffled voice: "Sir, please be kind, passing by!"

"This is the uncle from my previous life." Zhuang Jin glanced over and saw the man leaving with the crowd, thinking to himself.

Zhuang Jin was not a person of this world. According to her previous incarnation's memories, several months ago, the Shen family and the Medicine King Gang in the city fought each other. That night, the city was in chaos, and her father was killed. Her uncle and younger uncle set their sights on her family's property and wanted to sell her and her mother out. Her mother was a cautious person. After realizing their intentions, she feigned compliance and tricked her predecessor into escaping. To protect her innocence, she herself jumped into a well...

Before his predecessor escaped, his mother disguised him by changing his clothes and using grease and mud to make moles on his face, which prevented him from being found by his uncle and younger uncle. Later, his predecessor spent all the money he had taken with him and died of hunger and cold, which led to his arrival.

"The name and appearance of my previous life are exactly the same as mine. Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly? Butterfly dreamed of Zhuang Zhou?"

Zhuang Jin couldn't understand, so he shook his head slightly and stopped thinking about it, returning his thoughts to his previous life: "Generally speaking, with my father dead and a sixteen-year-old boy like my previous life, my uncle and younger uncle wouldn't be so careless about their eating manners... There's another reason. My uncle and younger uncle were born to the same mother, and my father was born to my grandfather's other wife. My grandfather gave my father a share of the family property, which made my uncle and younger uncle feel resentful. That's why he suffered such a fate after my father's death."

"Perhaps there's another reason. The chaos a few months ago was a disaster, but it was also an opportunity. After all, with so many deaths, there were naturally more vacancies. My predecessor's uncle was in the government office, and my younger uncle was in the Medicine King Gang. If they wanted to get ahead, they naturally had to use connections, and that required real money, which is why they targeted my predecessor's family."

"Having said that, regardless of the reason, I have accepted this karma from my previous incarnation." There was no real choice. If Zhuang Jin didn't accept this karma, would his previous incarnations, uncle and younger uncle, let him go? He wasn't that naive.

"My former uncle and younger uncle were just government clerks and ordinary members of the Medicine King Gang. To the truly powerful, they were just ants slightly larger than ordinary people, but to a beggar, they were as heavy as a mountain. Therefore, even if it is for self-protection, the Shen family must recruit martial artists for the third time tomorrow!"

In the memory of his predecessor, the Shen family had dominated the city for hundreds of years, and the King of Medicine could not help the newly emerging challenger. As long as he passed the Shen family's martial arts assessment and became a real warrior and entered the Shen family, his predecessor's uncle and younger uncle would no longer be a threat.

"A warrior!" Zhuang Jin felt a surge of hope. While begging on the street, he once saw a warrior take action. With a single, light palm strike, he sent another man flying several feet away. He knew that in this world, there were truly extraordinary powers: "It's better to have it yourself than to have it from your parents. This is the true path to heaven!"

As he was thinking this, he was holding a dog-beating stick in his hand as he passed by a stall. He paused slightly and looked at the sesame cakes, buns, steamed buns, and cornbread on the stall. Finally, he asked for two white flour steamed buns and then hurried towards his home. Passing through a remote street, he suddenly noticed something and stopped.

Ahead, a group of people blocked the road.

……

(End of this chapter)