Lord Highlander

A crescent moon hangs obliquely in the night sky.

The night sky is very clean, there are no clouds to cover it, only a few stars are sparsely dotted in the night sky.

The fire on the north wall has not been extinguished yet. Thousands of ghost-striped red ants are kept out of the city by the fire. There are still a large number of ghost-striped worker ants flocking to the stone walls on both sides of the city wall. These worker ants were shot and killed by the city guards. , most of the corpses fell outside the city, and the corpses of many ghost pattern worker ants gathered in piles.

After the city defense guards killed some ghost-striped worker ants that rushed to the top of the city, the corpses would also be thrown into the fire wall outside the city. , after squeezing out the grease, it becomes a new fuel and becomes a part of the firewall.

The guards on the city wall are fighting bravely, but the night in the town is very quiet.

There was soft light in the closets of the shops facing the street, and without the support of the cavalry from the garrison camp and the city guards, the tavern in the town looked very deserted.

The tavern owner was sitting in the guardrail outside the bar, holding a glass of ale and looking at the north city wall. He was drunk and muttering something to himself.

Two night watchmen came from the east of the town with lanterns, and lit the street lamps on the main street along the way.

Opposite the tavern is a leather shop. Although this leather shop is still open, it does not accept any new orders, because the owner of the leather shop and all the shop assistants go to the military camp as helpers, where hundreds of fire wolf cards are peeled every day. Leather, and some high-level Warcraft leather, so that the owner of the leather shop has no time to come to the tavern for a drink recently.

Both the tavern and the leather shop are located at the busiest crossroads in the town. There is also a very lively bakery in the other corner of the town. Residents line up to buy bread every afternoon.

Every morning, a temporary free market will be formed at the intersection.

Before ten o'clock in the morning, the market will automatically disperse.

At the center of the intersection is a circular flower bed, and a sculpture stands in the center of the flower bed. It is said that the sculpture is engraved with the hard work of the original town builders.

...

Nika was wearing a floral dress, standing on the concrete steps of the round flower bed at the crossroads.

She had a money bag slung across her body, and the bag was heavily filled with copper coins. From time to time, she looked around and looked at the children coming out of the surrounding alleys.

Two aboriginal children hurried out from an alley, holding a bundle of wooden sticks in their arms, and ran to Nika in no particular order.

Their thin chests heaved violently, their foreheads were covered with sweat, and they held a bundle of wooden sticks in their bronze arms, and handed them to Nika at the same time.

"Come one by one, as I said before, line up!"

Even if there are only two people, Nika also requires these aboriginal children to obey the order.

In the past few days, he has traveled all over the small alleys of the slums in the small town, and established some prestige in the hearts of the aboriginal children. After she took a bundle of arrow shafts and unwrapped the rope, she took out a checker and checked the arrows one by one. pole.

These arrow shafts are all made of some hard miscellaneous wood in the woods outside the town. The texture is very hard, and they are heavy in the hand.

She threw out an arrow shaft that couldn't fit into the slot of the checking tool, frowned and said:

"This one is unqualified. It's too thick. You can cut it again. It should be as thick as the one in my hand."

The aboriginal boy blushed slightly and nodded repeatedly.

After picking two, I picked out another bent one.

This time she raised her delicate eyebrows, and said somewhat unceremoniously:

"This one is a bit bent. I said, did you just take the branches you got off the tree and use them to make up the number?"

"What I need is a standard arrow shaft, and each one must be exactly the same."

"Not this kind of fire stick that is only suitable for burning fire."

As she spoke, she forcefully threw the curved arrow shaft on the steps under her feet, and asked questioningly:

"Isn't your father a hunter? Have you ever hunted with him? . . . hunted? Are you fooling me with these sticks? Isn't making arrows a basic skill of a hunter?"

A series of questions left the aboriginal child speechless.

The companion next to him saw Nika's harsh eyes, and even wanted to flinch on the spot.

She is meticulous in her work, holding the gage in her hand, each arrow shaft should be the thickness of a small finger, uniform in thickness and straight, and the fingers should be placed in the center of the shaft, the shaft must be in a balanced state, and the shaft must be ground very smooth.

Some that are not cut up to standard will be thrown under the feet as firewood.

Only those straight and thin hard wooden poles will be put into the box by Nika.

...

At the very beginning, Nika saw that the local aboriginal children were reluctant to buy cheap bread at the bakery in the town.

She felt that it was likely that the aboriginal children did not know that there was such a bakery in the town.

So, during that time, she almost traveled all over the slums, just to let the aborigines know that the bakery in the small town is so cheap!

She hopes that the aboriginal children in the town can eat whole wheat bread and never go hungry again.

But then she realized that things seemed to be a bit too simple.

Although the price of whole wheat bread is quite low, these aboriginal children in the town are still looking at the bakery every day, just like wandering beggars, waiting for the rich to come out of the bakery, and to be able to get out of the paper bag. Break off a piece of alms to them.

Sometimes those people, like feeding stray dogs, even threw the broken bread on the ground, watching several children scrambling for it at the same time, which made the female companions around them laugh.

Many rich people in the town regard this behavior as a kind of charity, thinking that it is a kind of care for the plane world from the civilized world.

The undisguised banter on their faces is like the jack of spades.

After Nika learned about the situation, he realized that everyone was hungry because they had no money at all, not even two copper coins in their hands.

These days Nika has been thinking about how to change the lives of the local aborigines.

She asked Selena, who has been very busy every day, for advice. Selena smiled and pointed to her chest, and said to her: "The only ones who can change their lives are themselves."

"First of all, we must talk about change again." She pointed to her head again.

Nika felt that what Selena said meant to let the aborigines find their own opportunities...

...

Hearing that there was a shortage of arrow shafts in the armament warehouse in the town, Nika felt that this was a good opportunity, so she planned to let the aboriginal children sharpen the arrow shafts. She was willing to buy these hard miscellaneous woods at the price of one copper plate for every two arrow shafts. arrow shaft.

The materials for making arrow shafts can be found everywhere in the forest at the foot of the mountain outside the town. Aboriginal children do not need to spend a penny, they only need a sharp hatchet.

Many children from Aboriginal families, their parents were hunters who were good at making hardwood bows and arrows.

Based on what they have learned and seen, it shouldn't be difficult for them to sharpen the arrow shaft.

However, she has some strict requirements for such arrow shafts, and each one must be made very finely.

As long as you can cut out four qualified arrow shafts in one day, you can get two copper plates and a complete whole wheat bread.

Nika did not hand over the thirty-six copper coins to the two aboriginal children. She was worried that they would buy other things when they got the copper coins. She took the two aboriginal children across the street to the door of the bakery.

The bakers here are busy every day until very late, and the bread consumed by the whole town every day needs to be calculated by bags of wheat flour.

The waiter in the bakery knew Nika and knew that she lived with Ms. Selena. They probably thought she was Ms. Selena's maid, so they respected her very much.

Nika took out a handful of copper coins and exchanged them for two sacks of whole wheat bread, which were obtained by two aboriginal children.

When they saw that they had earned so much bread, their eyes widened, and the two children cheered and hugged each other.

Nika pulled them by their ears, dragged them out of the bakery, and said viciously to the two children who were holding cloth sacks with intoxicated faces: "Tomorrow you will ask more people to sharpen arrow shafts for me...I want All the friends you know come to sharpen my arrow shafts! I will still be trading here tomorrow night..."

"Understood, see you tomorrow night! Nika."

The aboriginal children carry cloth bags, and they can't find them when they sneak into the alley.

...

At night, in Selena's rented room.

Signa was sitting next to the fireplace in the kitchen, holding a wooden spoon in her hand and constantly stirring the thick soup in the iron pot. Dozens of wontons wrapped in dough were rolling in the boiling soup pot...

Suldak doesn't like the kind of porridge that smells like wheat.

He likes to make wontons with meat stuffing wrapped in dough, and some onions and carrots are added to the meat stuffing. The soup is a thick soup made from maned animal spines, and some rosemary is added to the broth. Incense and basil leaves.

Signa wrinkled her little nose, scooped out some soup with a wooden spoon, and tested the saltiness...it was okay.

Chop the tomatoes on the chopping board and add to the pot.

Signa thinks the broth tastes much better.

She felt that Suldak had some demands of one kind or another every day, especially in terms of food, and he didn't look like a Wall villager who gave everything.

Why is milk porridge not fragrant? It is necessary to cook the noodles in broth...the noodles must be wrapped with some meat stuffing, so troublesome!

Selena can't come back until late all day.

Nika has also been running outside all day recently, otherwise Nika is a good helper.

Now, the matter of making dinner fell on her head, which more or less made her feel a little dissatisfied, especially in the face of Suldak's pickiness.

Signa even wanted to bring back some chestnuts and miscellaneous grains, cook him a pot of miscellaneous grains porridge, and let him seriously recall the past days in Wall Village.

Maybe his appetite will improve...

There is also a magic notebook on the counter. Celia Cooper is in the pages. Her thin cheeks have no flesh, and her dry hands are holding on to the railing. She looks outside from time to time. She keeps giving Cygnus some advice. .

But for a black magician of the space department, her cooking skills are not very good. Apart from cooking potatoes, she is probably best at making tea.

In contrast, Signa's cooking skills are still very reliable, at least they won't produce any weird flavors.

However, in this pot of broth, Signa still let herself go and played freely.

Signa tasted the sweet and sour soup, and felt that the taste of tomatoes was really good.

"Signa, I think the last time Suldak proposed cooking this kind of ravioli, he didn't say to add tomatoes...I have some records here about the ingredients." Black magician Celia Cooper flipped through the magic note , reminded Signa.

"Listen to me, you are right, this soup is very sweet."

Signa looked very confident.

She wiped her hands on the apron, and looked at the night outside. By this time, Selena hadn't come back...

"That's right...but..." Celia Cooper still wanted to put forward some opinions of her own.

Signa reached out to close the magic note, pouted and said, "I know he is very picky about food!"

...

Nika was the first to rush back.

She dragged a big wooden box and moved it from the outside of the yard into the yard little by little. She didn't know what was in it, and it looked very heavy.

Recently, Selena gave Nika some pocket money, so Nika has to run outside every afternoon.

This made Signa very envious.

Signa wore a small apron and stood at the door of the room with a wooden spoon in her hand. She asked the aboriginal girl in the yard, "Nica, what's in the box?"

Nika knocked on the wooden box, and then said: "Arrow shaft, I heard that the amount of crossbow arrows consumed on the north city wall is very large every day, and the stock in the warehouse on the side of the military camp can't last for a few days, so I tried to find a way to get them from the outside." Come back a little bit."

Signa said enviously: "You really have a way!"

"No, these arrow shafts were purchased from the aboriginal children in the town, and I spent money!" Nika whispered.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Nika followed Signa into the small building and asked as they walked.

"You can wash your face first, and then take a rest. If you are hungry, there are toasted oatmeal on the table. Selena and Suldak haven't come back yet, and dinner will have to wait a while!" Signa said to Nika Said.

Not long after, the carriage carrying Selena stopped at the entrance of the small building.

Selena stood at the door, not forgetting to tell the two accompanying clerks some things. After a long time, she heard the sound of the carriage driving away.

Then the courtyard door was pushed open, and when Selena walked into the courtyard, Signa and Nika had been waiting at the door for a long time.

Selena walked up, hugged Signa and Nika by her side, and said, "Sorry, the barracks has to deal with the beast tide in the canyon recently, and there are many things waiting to be dealt with."

"You two have to be careful these two days. It's hard to guarantee that ghost-striped red ants will sneak into the town from other places. When you encounter danger, you must first protect yourself. If you have the ability to help others, then help them... "

Selena urged Signa and Nika.

...

No matter how busy he was, Suerdak would spare some time every week to return to the small building.

Everyone sits down to have dinner together, and after dinner, pay attention to Signa's recent study situation.

Then babble and workout with Selena...

He felt that only in this way could this place look like a home should be.