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.
