"Pah, you don't have many chances to deal with nobles, so you don't know they truly look down on us mud-legged peasants from the bottom of their hearts. With ladies among those people, how could they possibly help a dirty child?"
When the figures had vanished from sight, Defu finally opened the carriage and let the boy get out.
The boy looked at Defu, then at Daohua and Xiao Yeyang, and with a 'plop' he knelt down: "Thank you, kind souls, for saving me."
Xiao Yeyang sized up the boy, who looked to be about twelve or thirteen and so frail that a gust of wind might blow him away. He furrowed his brows and asked, "You're so young, yet you were already working in the coal mine?"
Anger flickered across the boy's face: "I was forcibly taken there."
Xiao Yeyang: "Why did they take you?"
The boy shook his head: "I don't know. My father was a minor official under Yang Baichu of the North Bay Beihu. Last autumn, my father suddenly died under mysterious circumstances."
