My Magic Age

Kong Zhen rubbed his face somewhat helplessly, and smiled reluctantly to me and Princess Ying Li, saying: "If you don't mind the simplicity of the house, please come in and have a cup of lemon tea."

She was the first to land from the boat, and then reached out to pull the boy up.

The boy had recovered from the previous shock, and felt that it was embarrassing that he had to be pulled by Kong Zhen to land at such a big age. He decisively refused Kong Zhen's help, stood up from the boat, stepped on the side of the boat, and jumped lightly to the shore. The group of poor children on the street saw Angelo coming back, squatting behind a pile of stones on the street and secretly watching Angelo.

"Xiao An, didn't you say that if you could come back early today, you would play with us?" A girl poked her head out of the pile of stones and asked Angelo.

"Where is Leah?" Angelo glanced at the group of children and asked them.

"She didn't come out!" said the girl.

"She doesn't want to play with us." Another boy added.

"She only wants to be with her dog. She won't let us touch her dog." A younger child quietly poked his head out like a mushroom after rain and complained to Angelo.

Angelo was like the leader of this group of children. He casually greeted them: "Okay, you guys go play first, don't run too far. I'll go see Liya and then come find you."

"Yeah!" The group of children cheered and ran away in a swarm.

The boatman tied the rope to a stone pillar and set up a wooden board on the shore. Ying Li and I got off the boat and looked at the civilian area here.

The civilian area of ​​Haiyinsi City still looks well organized. Although the stone pavement on the street is old, some places are occupied by shellfish and mollusks, and even some dark brown moss grows, but some damaged places have been repaired. At the intersection of the street, there is a stone trough several dozen meters long. A stream of clear spring water flows out of the stone trough and pours into a pool with a statue in the middle.

Several civilian women squatted beside the pool to wash clothes, and some men wearing shorts, revealing their dark skin, stood on the stone platform beside the pool and took a shower with a wooden bucket. Two old women sat by the pool and washed a basin of fish bladders. The wooden barrel next to them was also full of shellfish.

In Haiyinsi City, only the poor eat fish, shrimp and shellfish every day. Haiyinsi people believe that if they eat too much fish and shrimp, they will become Cana people in the next life. Haiyinsi City is a water city. The whole city is built on the sea. Whether it is vegetables or meat, they must be transported from land. This is the reason why this kind of food is expensive.

Most of the roofs in the civilian area have rooftops, and some roofs have awnings. Rows of skinned and boneless salted fish are hung on the clotheslines on the roofs, and seaweed braided like braids are hung on the walls.

Kong Zhen took us to push the door and walk into a narrow alley. One side of the stone road was covered with moss. The ground was a little slippery and the wall looked a little mottled. It was far less bright than the street outside. Ying Li stroked the stone wall with one hand and looked up at the narrow gap between the two buildings.

The boy led the way in front. He was very familiar with this place and always waited for us at the turn. Perhaps because she didn't want us to see her simple home, Kong Zhen's face was slightly embarrassed. She reminded Ying Li from time to time, asking her to be careful of the slippery road. Helena and Becky followed behind with curiosity. Although Ying Li and I had wandered in the civilian area of ​​the imperial capital before, we had only walked into civilian families so personally a few times.

This is a small stone house that looks very narrow. The whole house is sandwiched between two buildings, and the sun cannot shine directly in.

The wooden door of the stone house is inlaid with some beautiful shells and dried starfish. I don't know who painted the beach, sea and sky on the wooden door with a brush.

Kong Zhen pushed open the wooden door of the stone house and let us in. The house was very clean. The walls were covered with some light purple seaweed, and some dried scallops were strung with ropes and hung on the wall like a door curtain. Hearing the sound of the door opening, a sea lion rushed out of the house, jumping clumsily on the ground with four legs transformed into fins, but when it saw a group of people standing at the door, it hissed in fear and quickly hid under the bed in the house.

A cute little girl ran out of the house, saw Kong Zhen and the boy, held a big scallop in her hand, looked up and said to Angelo happily: "Angelo, the dog helped me catch another big shell, can I roast it for dinner?"

The little girl looked about six or seven years old, with long black straight hair like a waterfall, wearing a slightly large linen vest, standing barefoot on the unpainted wooden floor, and her black grape-like face was almost carved out of the same mold as Kong Zhen.

"Of course!" Angelo took two steps forward, pulled out the scallop that was tucked under the bed, and held it in his arms to comfort it.

Kong Zhen squatted in front of the girl, patted her rosy cheeks, and said affectionately: "Liya, guests are coming, come and say hello to Master Jijia and Princess Yingli!"

The girl asked weakly: "Ah Zhen, are they here to collect debts?"

Kong Zhen said to the girl: "They are not here to collect debts, they are guests."

The girl breathed a sigh of relief, and her face was obviously not as nervous as before. She greeted us one by one as Kong Zhen said.

I walked up to the girl and squatted down. Looking at her demure look and her big black eyes like purple grapes, I turned to Kongzhen and asked, "Is this your daughter?"

"Yeah!" Kong Zhen replied while arranging a place for us to sit down: "Before he went to Qiyan City, he happened to be pregnant with Liya."

Unlike Angelo, this girl named Liya's eyes are full of spirituality, and I think she can detect the magical whirlpool surrounding me.

I squatted in front of her. She seemed a little shy and nervous.

"She's so cute!" I said to Kong Zhen, and then turned to the girl and said, "Hey, little guy, do you stay at home like this every day?"

"Mom, don't let me run around in the streets!" The girl's eyes did not fall on me. I felt that her eyes seemed to be chasing some part of the magic cyclone on my body. Maybe this was not magic perception. It can only be said that she has a very keen sense of magical elements. Even so, it is particularly rare.

The room was not big, so Kongzhen poured a glass of water for each of us, and then said to Angelo: "Angelo, take Liya out to play for a while, but don't run too far."

Hearing Kong Zhen's instructions, Angelo cheered, and then took Liya's little hand and got out of the house.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know earlier that your life in Haiyinsi was so miserable." I sat down next to a small wooden bed. The wool blanket on the bed looked very shabby, and even had a few big holes, which had been used a few times by Kong Zhen. A piece of linen cloth was sewn together with fine stitches. It looked like it was carefully sewn. The sheets on the bed were washed very clean. The room seemed a little damp because it had not seen the sun for a long time, but the bed seemed very dry.

"Everything is slowly getting better now." Kong Zhen said to me with a slight smile.

Her eyes reveal a kind of perseverance towards life. She is a strong woman. The rough life did not crush her, but made her stronger.

She pulled the bra on her chest. Perhaps she had been working on the dock for a long time. Her skin had become a little rough due to the wind and sun. The originally fair skin turned into a shiny wheat color, and it hung around her waist. The short skirt is more like a torn piece of cloth.

I glanced at Ying Li, and she seemed to understand the meaning in my eyes and smiled lightly at me.

I took a sip of the clear cold water from the clay cup and said to Kong Zhen: "If, I mean, I can provide you with some small help in life, you can take them both back with us. If you go to the Imperial Capital, you can also stay in Haiyinsi and do some small business, such as a grocery store or a magic shop. I have opened several workshops in the Imperial Capital, so the supply of goods is not a problem, and I can provide some Starting capital.”

Kong Zhen thought for a while and then said to me: "Can I discuss this with Singer?"

"Of course, you can also invite Sister Singh to join you." I sat across from her and said, "The Kong I know has become much more mature and stronger."

When she heard what I said, a faint smile appeared on her face, but the smile was full of bitterness: "No matter what, you have to live on!"

There is a flowerpot on the window sill of the house, and a tomato plant grows in the flowerpot. This tomato plant grows very weakly, with only a dozen curled leaves, and two branches hanging between the top two branches. The green fruit the size of a thumb, the leaves of the tomato plant are constantly swaying in the sea breeze blowing in from the window. Yes, Kong Zhen is not like the plant in front of me, silently facing the sea breeze in the barren soil without sunlight. Growing tomatoes?

"Do you know where Uncle Fred and Sister Singer live? Do you still have contact with them?" I asked Kong Zhen.

In this strange city, the only people she was familiar with were probably Sister Singer and Uncle Fred.

Kongzhen nodded and said, "Of course, if they hadn't helped us from time to time, maybe my life would have been more difficult."

I guessed that the situation in Sister Singer’s family would not be much better than that of Kong Zhen, otherwise Kong Zhen’s life would not be so difficult, so I asked Kong Zhen: “Are Ambassador Fred and Sister Singer okay?”

"I can take you to their home. They will be very happy to see you." Kong Zhen didn't answer whether it was good or bad.

"Okay, let's go now." I said.

In fact, before this, I had no idea that I would meet Kong Zhen on the first day I came to Haiyinsi, and that I would also see Sister Singer soon. I thought of Sister Singer, who used to be Qige's personal maid, and of her and Frey. Uncle De took so much care of me in the caravan, I couldn't wait to see them.

Kong Zhen and I came out of her humble home and walked along the dilapidated stone road to the main street. The boy Angelo was leading a group of children who were too poor to wear clothes and ran wildly through the streets. As if he was playing a game called Pirate Ship, Kong Zhen puffed up his chest and squinted at the children on the street, trying to find Liya among the children.

"Angelo, Liya, do you want to follow me to Aunt Singer's house?"

"Ah! Are you going to Aunt Singer's house? Great, we can have lard bibimbap again, or this time Aunt Singer can make us those fragrant wheat cakes with a layer of butter..."

"Oh, let's go eat wheat cakes!"

In fact, wheat flour in the Green Empire is not expensive. Usually, three or four copper coins can buy about one pound of wheat flour. I never thought that in the Green Empire, there would be children who could get so excited when they heard about eating wheat cakes. I always thought that wheat flour was probably the cheapest food besides potatoes. Only the natives of the Yello plane would be satisfied with a wheat cake. But now I came to Haiyinsi City, which is second only to the imperial capital in prosperity. Hearing such words from a child made me feel particularly harsh.

Seeing Angelo and Liya cheering so much, Kong Zhen lowered his head a little embarrassedly.

We took a small boat and headed towards Sister Singer and Uncle Fred's home under Kong Zhen's guidance. Their home was in another civilian area, which was adjacent to the outer area where various workshops in Haiyinsi City were most concentrated.

Along the way, Angelo and Liya seemed very excited. Although Yingli had almost no communication with Kongzhen, she seemed to like Angelo and Liya very much. When everyone was sitting on the boat, Yingli took out the canned luncheon meat she carried with her. A Green Empire princess's magic waist bag could actually have such cheap things. If the Imperial Capital Magic News knew about it, it would inevitably become a topic of conversation for the people of the Imperial Capital.

However, when traveling, I like to pack some hard goods such as dried meat and canned luncheon meat in my magic backpack.

For Liya, the iron box in front of her was undoubtedly very novel. She blinked her big eyes and looked at the round iron box in front of her, and then turned to look at Angelo.

The boy was more knowledgeable because he often found work at the dock. He swore to Liya, "I've seen this thing, right at the dock. I know its name. They call it canned luncheon meat. It's said that it's filled with... I can't say the word, anyway, it's a box of food, and it tastes great."

After that, the boy picked up the canned meat with both hands, leaned over and sniffed it hard, as if he wanted to know the taste inside the box.

"Angelo, have you eaten it?" Liya asked excitedly.

"No, I've seen some sailors who like to use this kind of empty box to cook oatmeal porridge." Angelo shook his head awkwardly.

"Do you want to try it?" Ying Li asked the two children with a smile.

"..." Angelo and Liya didn't agree immediately. They all looked at Kong Zhen. Seeing Kong Zhen nodded slightly, the two children almost jumped out of the boat.

"It's okay. I have a lot of these cans here." Ying Li said gently to the two children.

Liya was full of envy and said to Ying Li: "Ying Li, you are so lucky. You can eat canned meat every day!"

"..." Ying Li was a little speechless, full of emotion. She smiled faintly and said to the girl: "Liya can also eat this kind of canned meat every day in the future..."

"Really?..." Liya's tender little face was full of disbelief.

Kong Zhen and I sat opposite each other, watching Ying Li frequently communicate with the two children, and said to me with emotion: "Ji Jia, do you know? The princess of the Green Empire you married is a great hero of Haiyinsi City. I didn't expect it! She is so easy-going."