Chapter 187 - 114 Li Er, Unfixed Water
In the Shabby Alley at the East Gate, many families live together; there are no wealthy households, and even those with their own courtyards share their space with several families.
In such a place, if anyone has a child at night, everyone in the courtyard can hear it; the inconvenience is real, and the poverty is even more so.
It was in such a place that the Water Worker spent his childhood.
Back then, he had a nickname, Li Er.
It was simply because he was surnamed Li, and he was the second child in the family, hence the nickname.
Li Er was diligent; every day before dawn, he would get up to clean the chamber pots in the courtyard. He could exchange these pots for quite a few copper plates from the Night Soil Man, and by the time it was fully light, twelve-year-old Li Er would have to take care of his baby sister, changing her diapers.
Li Er’s birth mother, with a big belly, had two children by her side, and two more behind her, fighting over a broken rattle.
One of the beads on the rattle had already fallen off, and the drum face had turned yellow, but it didn’t stop the two kids from fighting over it.
Inside the house with its worn and drafty door, there was hardly any household property—just some tattered quilts and worn-out clothes, and various clay pots and bowls scattered around.
The placement of these items was quite particular and purposeful: they were used to catch the rainwater that leaked from the roof.