“This isn’t the first time something like this happened here. This has been happening every day these days. Families cannot raise their children, so they want to throw their child to someone who doesn’t seem to be poor.
“You found the child in your basket. That’s not the worst. Some would stuff their child into another person’s arms and run away. This happened a few times yesterday. There was even a child who fell and hit his head. His parents didn’t even turn their heads.”
An Jiuyue was silent.
Is the world in chaos? How can such a thing happen?
“But this is a boy,” she said.
Aren’t boys more important than girls in this day and age? It may be normal to abandon girls, but that’s not normal for boys. Aren’t boys supposed to carry on the family line?
The old man replied, “Precisely because he’s a boy! If you give a girl away, no one will say anything if they starved her to death. But if you give a boy away, they will at least give him some food so he won’t die. The people receiving the child will be afraid that their parents will come looking for them if the child dies!”
An Jiuyue was extremely shocked.
Please forgive me for not being able to adapt to this situation.
Sighing deeply, she looked at the quiet streets.
Alright, I’ll take care of this child from now on. There’s no other option. Let’s just pretend I’m grazing sheep—a flock of five sheep!
However, if his parents dare to appear again, I’ll refuse to return him to them. Why should I do his birth parents a favor? I raised this boy.
“I’d better go.”
She was afraid that she would find a cart full of children if she did not leave now.
“Wei Na, did you see who placed this child on my ox cart?” she questioned Wei Na while driving the ox cart.
She did not think that Wei Na was unaware. Was it trying to rebel against her by not alerting her about this?
However, Wei Na was not to blame. It wanted to alert her, but the man, who had left the child behind, fled so quickly that it did not have time to react.
“Master, I was stunned too!”
It had no idea that such a thing would happen in ancient times. Abandoning one’s children and fleeing at top speed… It was stunned for a long time before it regained its composure too.
By the time it regained its composure, An Jiuyue had already noticed the child on the ox cart.
“I think this child is quite pitiful. Master, why don’t you raise him too? You’re already raising four anyway. One more isn’t a big deal, right?”
An Jiuyue was silent.
Did I transmigrate to this ancient era to raise children? How is one more child not a big deal?
“Forget it. I can’t return him anyway. I’ll just raise him.”
What else could she do? She had just earned over 100 taels of silver. It was not like she could not afford to feed this child.
…
“What… Sister Jiuyue, what’s going on?”
Qian Yiyun’s eyes widened as she looked at the child in An Jiuyue’s arms. Her eyes looked like they were about to pop out.
Why did she return with a child after making a trip to town?
“I bought him for a hundred copper coins,” An Jiuyue replied.
Qian Yiyun’s mouth fell open as her large eyes seemed to roll around in their sockets. “Huh?”
You can buy a child with 100 copper coins? That’s too cheap!
No, this is not about price. My sister-in-law already has four children, but she bought one more! What is she trying to do?
“Sister Jiuyue, don’t you have too many children?”