In the southern part of Lishui City, there is a veritable slum.

Although the scale is not as large as Qinglan City, the living environment is even worse.

Under the leadership of Gongsun Qi and his son, the city of Lishui did become rich and prosperous, and the promotion of the Dingtian distribution system also allowed the limited resources to be distributed more fairly.

But as long as there are people living together, there will inevitably be a hierarchy gap, just like although the Ding Tian system guarantees fairness, but now all Ding Tian chiefs have almost all been occupied by those nobles in the upper class.

These Ding Tian chiefs have decided who can give priority to working in the ore veins and who can do business in their respective regions, and their power is so great that they can be said to control the life and death of the people.

Ordinary people who were ostracized or unable to suggest that they would pay taxes to Ding Tianchang were either forced or found it difficult to survive, and they eventually left the area where they lived.

Gradually, these abandoned people gathered in the south of the city, an area with poor living conditions, forming what is now known as the Lishui Slum.

Li Mu and the others followed the little beggar through the muddy paths, which were a microcosm of the life of the slum people compared to the very smooth bluestone roads in other urban areas.

"Qingzhu, come, give me your hand, I'll pull you over. ”

When crossing a ditch full of sewage, Li Mu also turned around and saw Lin Qingzhu holding the hem of his clothes with both hands, and hurriedly reached out to pull her over.

"Brother Mu, people can walk by themselves, don't worry, we all walked this kind of path when we were children, and I am not one of those delicate young ladies of the family. ”

Lin Qingzhu took Li Mu's outstretched hand, jumped over the canal, and looked at Li Mu with a smile after landing, it seems that although Xiao Nizi said that she was a woman, deep down she still wanted to be taken care of by Li Mu.

The little beggar and the three of them walked for about a stick of incense, and finally stopped in front of a room, and then pointed to the wooden shack that could barely be called a house.

"Brother, sister, here, this is my home. ”

I saw that this shack was completely made of broken wood, and the roof was made of some broken tiles.

Such a harsh living environment formed a sharp contrast with the smile on the little beggar's face at this time, which made Li Mu's heart flutter.

In his previous life, what he couldn't see the most was the news about the left-behind children in the rural and mountainous areas, the clear eyes were the same as the eyes of the little beggar at this time, poverty may make them hungry and desperate, but it will not cover the innocent hearts of these children.

"Gua Dan'er, where did you go, my mother has been looking for you for a long time, do you know? Didn't you tell you not to run blindly? I don't know if the guards are ......?"

Just as Li Mu's eyes were a little moist, a woman dressed in burlap came from behind them, the anxiety on her face and the joy of seeing the little beggar were palpable.

"Look, I've got something to eat for you. ”

When the little beggar who was called a melon egg saw the woman, he also greeted her happily and stuffed the two generations of food he was carrying into the woman's hand.

"This ...... These are ......"

The woman was also a little stunned when she saw so much food, and it could be seen from her emaciated figure that eating a full meal, which Li Mu had never considered, was the biggest luxury of this little beggar family.

"Gua Dan'er, you tell Wei Niang honestly, did you go to the shopping street to steal? How did Wei Niang educate you since childhood? We can be poor, but we must not steal things, have you forgotten?"

The woman put the two sacks of food in her hand on the ground, grabbed the little beggar and was about to spank him, and the question ended with a crying voice.

Even though she is hungry and tired, this mother is still teaching her children to be upright.

"This aunt, he didn't steal these, we bought them for him, don't beat him. ”

Lin Qingzhu was the first to stop it, the girl at this time was already in tears, looking at the little beggar mother and son, and then at Li Mu, her eyes were clearly saying that she hoped that Li Mu would help this poor family.

Finally, under Li Mu's explanation, the woman finally understood that the little beggar had indeed gone to the market to steal food, but it was all so that she and the child and his father could not starve, and the two bags of food were indeed sent by Li Mu.

The woman who learned the truth hugged the little beggar and burst into tears, this woman was only in her early thirties, but she had already endured too much pain from life, and at this time, seeing that her son had paid so much for himself, he could no longer control his emotions and cried loudly.

It was not until the father, who had also gone out to look for the little beggar, returned home that he comforted the good woman and thanked Li Mu and the three of them repeatedly, and it was almost evening, and the man warmly invited them into the house to sit down.

This is also a simple man, his upper body is naked, when he saw Lin Qingzhu standing next to Li Mu, the man rummaged in the room for a long time to find a piece of clothing to wear, but he couldn't find it anyway, so anxious that his face was flushed.

This family was so poor that they didn't even have a blouse to cover their bodies, which really made Li Mu a little unbearable, so he directly took out a few robes from the warehouse system and handed them to the man.

He gave the worst clothes in the warehouse system, but in the eyes of the little beggar's family, it was already luxurious to the point of luxury, and the simple family couldn't say any words of thanks, so they could only smile at Li Mu.

"Uncle, when we met Guadan in the market today, there were two people with him, but then I don't know why they were arrested by the pro-guards, and the melon dan'er was excited, so they escaped, do you know why the pro-guards arrested them?"

Li Mu first chatted with this honest man for a long time, and then said the question he wanted to ask for a certificate.

As soon as the man wanted to speak, he saw the woman on the side holding his hand, and her eyes showed a deep fear.

The man gently patted the back of the woman's hand, as if to comfort her not to be afraid, and then looked at Li Mu and spoke.

"Actually, we don't know why the guards arrested us, but in fact, in the past two years, the guards have come to the slums from time to time to arrest people, and at first they would make up some reasons, saying that the arrested people had violated the law, and then they would even have no reason to arrest them. ”

"The people who were taken away said that they had arranged to work in the fine iron mines, but according to a neighbor who had escaped by chance, a group of them were taken to a cave where screams were heard everywhere, and it was like an underworld. ”

"But the neighbor hadn't been into the cave either, so he didn't know what was inside, and the next day he was killed by the guards when he fled the city, so I don't know if what he said was true. ”

The man spoke very slowly, his words were also very heavy, and the things he expressed also surprised Li Mu and the others, it turned out that this Gongsun Qi had already started to arrest the people of these slums for no reason.

"When did this kind of arrest begin? Isn't it always rumored that Gongsun Qi is a good city lord who loves the people like a son? Now it seems that he looks like a big devil who does all kinds of evil. ”

Lin Qingzhu keenly grasped the key from the man's words, and combined with Li Mu's previous speculation about Gongsun Qi's breakthrough, she also had some bad premonitions.

"About three or four years ago, the arrest lasted for a while, and then the city lord said that it was a retreat, and then recently it has become more frequent, and a lot of people have been arrested, so we will be so anxious when Gua Dan'er runs out this time. ”

The man's words made Li Mu's hearts sink, and it really coincided with the time when Gongsun Qi closed the death and then broke through, if it was really not a coincidence, the secret hidden behind it was a little creepy.

"Who!"

Just when Li Mu and the others were a little confused about this suddenly confirmed fact, Fang Yan suddenly shouted outside the door, and then the blood-colored energy churned all over his body, and shot out directly.

Li Mu and Lin Qingzhu were also shocked, they didn't feel anything, but as the most powerful of the three, Fang Yan must have found someone who would react like this.

"I'll take a look, Qingzhu, you stay here and protect them. ”

Li Mu calmly instructed Lin Qingzhu, and then he also dodged and chased out, and the Absolute Shadow Sword was also unsheathed at the same time, he didn't dare to slack off, the enemy who could make himself and Lin Qingzhu unaware of it must be the strength of the Dan Realm Dacheng or above.