Chapter 1 — Hoa Ky in the middle of Hoe Hoa Alley

The night the Luc family was confiscated, Doctor Luong stuffed the three-month-old young lady into my arms and forced me to escape through the dog hole. I rely on a load of wontons to feed her. Not long after, I saw my mother-in-law and the eldest lady of the past being hanged for eight taels of five taels in the human market. I only have eight taels of silver in my hand, and in my heart I still have the only evidence of the Luc family hidden. The trafficker stared at the silver lock I took out: "If you add this, you two will belong to you." Hand over the key, the two lives in front of you can live. Keep it, maybe the Luc family still has one day to turn the case over. The human trafficker didn't give me much time to think. But what she didn't know was that I had already taken out the thing hidden in the lock and stuffed it into a greasy rolling pin. 1 The night the Luc family was confiscated, Doctor Luong stuffed a breastfeeding baby into my arms and told me to crawl through the dog's hole. "Run. Don't turn back." Outside the hospital walls are full of torches. The sound of shoes stepping on green tiles sounded like the sound of a beating. Third Miss Tue Ninh was awakened, opened her toothless mouth and cried. I covered her mouth with one hand and grabbed Doctor Luong's sleeve with the other. "Where is the lady? Where is the eldest lady?" “You can't save that many people.” He removed my hand and pressed a small silver lock into my palm. “Save this child first.” I'm just a fire girl in the Luc family, everyone calls me Hoa girl. When I was eight years old, I encountered famine and my mother used two buckets of old rice to sell me. Lady Co Y Nuong did not criticize me for being skinny and only had skin and bones, so she ordered the kitchen to give me another bowl of meat soup. When I was twelve years old, she even erased my slave registration, saying that a woman must have a piece of paper that belongs to herself. That liberation paper is always sewn into my old cotton shirt. When the fire reached the backyard, I didn't bring anything else with me, just stuffed cotton shirts and Tue Ninh into the firewood basket. I remembered that bowl of soup for seven years. So we don't run away right away. I stuffed Tue Ninh into the firewood basket under the stove, smeared his face with pot ash, and then rushed to the feet of the mandarins escorting him. “Mandarin, there are two chests of silver in the back yard!” The leader suddenly stopped. I led them to the western warehouse and intentionally knocked over the oil lamp. The fire immediately caught on the curtains. The officials were busy fighting over each other to steal things, so I turned around and crawled into the kitchen, carried the firewood basket on my back and crawled out through the dog hole. The cave entrance was too narrow, tearing half of my dress. Tue Ninh stopped crying, her small hand grabbed my hair tightly. I crawled down the foul water ditch south of the city and turned around to look back. The Luc family sign is being knocked off the main gate. I bit my sleeve, not making a sound. Doctor Luong is right. I can't save that many people. But I can save one person first. 2 I hugged Tue Ninh and hid in the ruined Thanh Hoang temple for three days. She was so hungry that she gnawed on her fist, and I was hungry too. On the morning of the third day, I could no longer cook a drop of rice water, so I could only hug her and knock on Uncle Dang's door. In the past, Uncle Dang once gave vegetables to the Luc family. Seeing the child in my arms, his face immediately turned pale. "Are you crazy? The government is looking for the escaped Luc family members." “She just turned one month old.” “For a full month, it still has the last name Luc.” The door gradually closed. I knelt down and placed my forehead on his doorstep. "Let me borrow a pot. Pots are not illegal." Uncle Dang scolded me for a long time, scolded me for being stupid, scolded the Luc family for being unlucky. He was so tired of scolding that he pulled me into the yard. “First of all, I'll just lend you the pot.” He gave me a chipped iron pot, half a bag of old flour and a wheelbarrow with all its paint peeling off. I used the last two hundred dong to rent a dilapidated side room in Lieu Diep alley. There is only one plank bed in the room. At night, the mouse poked its head out of the crack in the wall, and Tue Ninh even smiled at it. I turned her little face around. "That's not a cat. Don't see everyone being close." The girl didn't understand and spat all over my hand. The next day, before dawn, we pushed the cart to the ferry station to sell vegetarian wontons. The dough shell is thick, the filling inside is only green vegetables and salt, five coins per bowl. Tomb

The boatman opened the lid of the pot, looked at it and said: "If you don't have a drop of fat, you still dare to sell it for five dong?" “Hot soup, eat to fill your stomach.” “Hot water is also hot.” He left. In the first few days, we didn't sell many bowls in total. On a rainy day, we waited until the wharf stopped boats but still couldn't earn a penny. I don't know how to raise children. At night, when Tue Ninh cried, I immediately thought she was hungry and kept putting spoonfuls of rice water into her mouth. The girl vomited all over her body. I hugged it and sat until morning, wishing I could pat it so I could produce milk. Tran selling tofu next door got so angry that he stood behind the wall and scolded: "The child's stomach is bloated and you still feed him? Pick him up and walk around!" I hugged Tue Ninh and walked back and forth until my legs were numb. The baby let out a loud burp and was indeed not crying anymore. In the morning, a small package of dried tangerine peels appeared in the crack of the door. When I thanked him, Tran just rolled his eyes. "Thank you for what? If he cries any more, our tofu will break." I can't bear to use that many packets of tangerine peel, cook a small piece over and over three times. Later, every time he saw me, Tran scolded me for being poor to the point that I even regretted it. When I returned to the room, Tue Ninh was so feverish that his face was red. I picked her up and ran to the hospital. The doctor sat down to examine and prescribe medicine, then held out his hand and asked for thirty dong. I rummaged through my side pockets, placed all the coins on the counter, but was still a few coins short. He looked at me, I looked at him. Finally, I took off the silver lock and placed it on the counter. The doctor picked it up and looked at it, his face suddenly changed. “Where did you get this lock from?” 3 I immediately snatched it back. “Picked up on the road.” The doctor smiled coldly. "The back side is engraved with the crane-cloud pattern of the Luc family's three rooms. You really know how to pick it up." I hugged Tue Ninh tightly, my eyes looking towards the back door. But he pushed the food package towards us. “Luong Minh Vien told me to wait for you.” It turned out that one day before the Luc family was confiscated, Doctor Luong once came to find Doctor Chu and asked him to pay attention to a skinny girl carrying a baby girl. If people come, just treat the disease first, don't ask for money. My nose is stinging but my mouth remains firm. “I will pay later.” "Luong Minh Vien still said, surely you will say so." The doctor, surnamed Chu, speaks slowly but inserts the needle very quickly. After Tue Ninh's fever subsided, he picked up the silver lock to evaluate it. "Don't take it out again. There are dual compartments inside." I was stunned. He used the smallest silver needle to pry the lock, pulling out a scroll narrower than a fingernail. On the paper were written densely the names of medicinal materials and numbers. I can't read and understand a word. “Is this a method?” Doctor Zhou watched for a long time. “Not the same.” He rolled up the paper. “Remember, the key can be lost, but the paper cannot be lost.” "Why?" “The more you know, the faster you die.” I hate people who read books and only say half a sentence. But he refused to explain, so I hid the thin roll of paper in the double layer under the sole of my shoe, stepped on it and walked back. Tue Ninh was sick for a few days, so I had to stay home to take care of her and couldn't go out to sell. When she could smile, I used my last sixteen coins to buy a small piece of lard. We chop the pork rind into pieces and mix it with chopped vegetables. Pork bones are something the butcher shop doesn't need, so we replace them with two bowls of wontons, stewing until the soup turns milky white. That night, I watched the pot of soup and felt so sad that I couldn't sleep. The day we resumed selling, a street vendor on the street at night sat down, drank soup first, and then took a bite of wonton. He raised his head. “Little lady, do your wontons have meat?” My heart is tense. “A little.” “Two more bowls.” He actually ate three bowls. Before leaving, he turned towards the pier and shouted loudly: "The soup here is so delicious that it sticks to your tongue!" That day, we sold out the first pot of wontons. After that, the boat owner at the wharf also came to place an order. Every time the boat docked, a group of porters left work at the same time. I didn't have time to carry each bowl, so I told them to bring their own rough porcelain pots to hold them. During that time, before dawn, I kneaded the dough, counted copper coins at night, and then slept. The palm of the hand was torn by the handle of the car, then scabbed over. One day, we cleaned up

g, there was a man wearing a hat standing at the beginning of the alley, staring at the red mark left by the silver lock on Tue Ninh's neck. 4 I pushed the cart into the fish market, using the fishy smell to cut off the other person's tail. When I got home, I buried the silver lock in the kitchen ash, and sewed the scroll into Tue Ninh's small bib. After sewing two stitches, I removed them again. Children will grow up, clothes will be thrown away, it is not safe. Finally, we insert the paper into the wooden knot of the rolling pin used to roll the wonton wrappers. Who would steal a greasy rolling pin? A few days before I was satisfied, the rolling pin had disappeared. Not long after, the salesman returned and the door was wide open. The bed board was upturned, kitchen ash was all over the ground, even Tue Ninh's diaper was ripped open. The rolling pin is no more. My legs are weak, I have to hold on to the door frame. Uncle Dang crawled out from behind the wall. “Don't scream, you're with me.” During the day, he saw two strange faces wandering around the house, so he climbed in through the window first and took the rolling pin that looked most like a hiding place. “Just what kind of disaster are you holding?” "Don't know." “I don't know, but you hide it under the sole of your shoe, bury it in kitchen ash, stuff it into a log?” “I really don't know.” Dang Ba glared at me for a long time then threw the rolling pin back. "From today, Tue Ninh is at my house. You bring it with you when selling, it's like holding up the Luc family sign for others to see." I refuse. “I'm afraid of implicating you.” “You are already involved.” Having finished speaking, he reached out and picked up Tue Ninh. She was very obedient in my arms, so when he reached his hand, she immediately grabbed her beard. Dang Ba was in so much pain that he bared his teeth but refused to let go. "I still have strength, I can't die yet." From then on, during the day I went to sell wontons, Tue Ninh slept in Ba Dang's bamboo basket. The day we sell a lot, we buy half a chicken skeleton. On the day of the sale, I ate the leftover rice flour she left behind. I have never asked for news from the Luc family. Don't dare ask. On the thirty-sixth day, Doctor Zhou came to eat wontons and said in a low voice: "You just brought a group of female sinners to the market." The punctured ladle in my hand fell into the pot of boiling soup. “Is there someone from the Luc family?” He looked at me. "Mrs. Co. There's also her eldest daughter." Lord Luc was detained in prison awaiting trial. Luc Hoai Chuong was exiled with the translation group to the north. Doctor Chu could only ask these two questions. Alive or dead, no one can say for sure. 5 That night, I counted the money over and over again, counting until the candle wick bloomed twice. Eight taels of silver, plus one hundred sixty-seven copper coins. This is my pot, cart, flour, next month's rent, and also Tue Ninh's life. If we take it all away, the next day we can only drink the northwest wind. Uncle Dang tapped his pipe on the table. “Let's pretend I didn't hear you.” I don't speak up. "You are dedicated to saving one child." "Yes." "Miss Gu is a female official, the trafficker will not sell for less than eight tael. Her daughter is young, the price is higher. That little money of yours is useless." "Yes."