In a dilapidated courtyard.
A twelve or thirteen-year-old girl with a blue ponytail is fetching water.
First, she puts down the empty wooden bucket, then uses the rope on the bucket to pull it back up.
Of course, there is no convenient pulley here, so fetching water relies entirely on the girl's hands. But that doesn't mean the girl finds the work very hard, um...
How should I put it, even though she's only around twelve or thirteen, she has great strength. Lifting the water bucket seems exceptionally easy for her, showing no signs of difficulty. Though this kind of heavy work is not unusual for children from poor families and is done almost every day, it doesn't mean that other children of the same age could easily accomplish this task as effortlessly as the girl. Even the boys slightly older than her age would struggle to match her level.
Moreover, the girl's physique is not very strong, just average. She is not exceptionally tall nor short. In other words, merely by looking at her appearance, it's hard to believe that she could fetch water so effortlessly. No, even witnessing it with one's own eyes would still be somewhat unbelievable.
In any case, due to her greater strength compared to others her age, and the fact that there is almost only this well nearby, the girl's daily work is selling water.
She fetches several buckets of water early in the morning and delivers them to the homes in need, following previous requests, in exchange for compensation. Of course, she uses a carrying pole or similar item to transport the water. The compensation is not entirely in money, because, at the end of the day, most of the people in need are also from the same slum, so basically, nobody has much money.
The compensation varies each time, sometimes a few steamed buns, sometimes other items. In short, bartering with goods is more meaningful for the girl compared to money, after all...
Money doesn't have much value here. In this place, money is almost useless, as there is virtually no buying or selling taking place. If someone wants to purchase something, they need to go a considerable distance to the city.
This place is essentially a residential area, and primarily self-sufficient, so if there's no need to buy something, there is generally no reason to go to the city.
Therefore, even in the rare cases when someone wants to offer money as compensation, the girl would insist on receiving goods instead.
Since the girl has never been to the city, money is of no use to her. It's more practical to exchange it for something to eat.
After fetching water, as usual, the girl enters the inner room, which is described as such, but is actually a very rudimentary thatched hut, so naturally...
There isn't much inside, though not completely bare, but close to it, only some essential items.
Because she sees the same things every day, when the girl enters the room, she immediately looks at a certain corner. Well, saying she looks is not entirely accurate. Given the small size of the tiny hut, even without moving her gaze, she could take in the entire room at one glance.
The place at which the girl looks is where a bed would be located, or rather, there is no actual bed, just a bedding placed on the ground, well, with a layer of mixed grasses underneath.
And on that bedding, lies an elderly woman of around fifty or sixty.
