Along with the ringing of church bells in the city center, another gentle drizzle fell, filling the sky and earth with fine velvet-like rain.
The brilliance of the sun has not weakened at all. The rain clouds parted the cracks, and the light beams like sword steps fell down to the earth and the sea one after another, intersecting and shining.
In the courtyard of a single-family stone house on a coastal street, a little boy with white hair is squatting in the corner of the yard, watching the ants with interest.
The boy was about three or four years old, with smooth white shoulder-length short and medium-length hair. His purple eyes stared at the insects crawling on the ground, and the corners of his mouth were raised, looking very happy.
The boy's ears are slightly pointed at the top, which is a characteristic of elves, but if it must be said, he is a pure-blooded white people in a certain sense.
On the continent of Terra, there are many tribes. The people of chalk, the people of red sand, the people of gold, the people of black iron, elves, dwarves, sea-born and demi-humans, halflings and insect-men... we must detail each one.
The number, plus the branches under each major clan, is probably enough to write a book.
However, no matter who they are, whether they are orcs or elves, bugs or golden people, all races can intermarry and give birth to offspring that can be reproduced normally.
However, children of different ethnic groups cannot give birth to mixed blood in the true sense, but can only breed pure blood with some characteristics of the other ethnic group.
There may even be a strange situation where a demihuman marries an Iron Folk and gives birth to twins. The elder brother has animal ears and the younger brother is an Iron Folk.
According to scholars' research, the ancestors of various races can even be traced back to almost the same group of ancestors. The initial ancestors known as the "original people" are the common ancestors of the Terran races and even the civilizations of the previous era.
The boy stared at the ants intently, not even noticing that it was raining lightly outside.
Grass ants in the Baisen Mountains are smaller than ordinary land ants, only less than one centimeter long. They generally do not appear in cities because there are no leaf rot fields for them to 'cultivate' in human cities.
They feed on fungi, and the decaying leaves of grass and trees are their natural farmland. It is said that there will be huge cities of grass ants underground in some deep mountains and old forests, where there will be extremely rare spiritual fungal flora, which are worth far more than
Royal jelly is the best nutritional product.
But even so, some colonies of grass ants occasionally appear in the city. Perhaps the huge urban fringe of grass ants has spread here, or there is a colony of immigrant ants that decided to develop their homes here. In any case, this is a heart-stirring story.
A grand story, a legendary epic.
It’s just that most people can’t see it and won’t pay attention to it. Adults always think about things that are too grand and ethereal, while children are always keen to find these small pleasures.
"Ants are hardworking and cute."
Muttering in a low voice, the boy did not touch the grass ants, not because his brother had told him to do so, but simply because he did not want to disturb the lives of these little creatures.
In this way, in the drizzle, the boy quietly watched the ants carrying leaves and cut weeds into a pothole not far away.
Between the interlacing clouds and light, slow footsteps sounded and then stopped.
Hey, hey, hey.
A figure stood by the courtyard, the sound of iron boots hitting the stone path stopped, and a man looked at the young child with interest.
The man wore a black full-body heavy armor with golden-red lines on the edges. The bright eyes of the sun were engraved on both arms and shoulders, and a helmet with the same emblem on his forehead was held in his arms, revealing a
Zhang Junmei's face.
The rather decadent-looking man with pure black seaweed-like hair squinted at the boy, and the boy was also staring at the ants with all his attention.
"child."
After a while, it was confirmed that the child was indeed concentrating on observing the ants, and did not even notice the man approaching the courtyard. He squatted down and said through the wooden railing, "Are you looking at the ants?"
"Uh-huh."
Realizing that someone was talking to him, the purple-eyed boy responded with a big smile. He said happily: "Ant, you are very responsible! Admired, cute!"
"...Is this so?"
Noticing the strange way of speaking of the young child, the man lowered his eyes and said thoughtfully: "But all the actions of the ants obey the queen's orders. It is not so much responsibility as blind loyalty."
"Is it really cute to be a creature that works all day long and has no thoughts or dreams of its own? It has no purpose and only exists for the continuation of the queen and the race."
The boy obviously didn't fully understand this, but he thought about it and said seriously: "Loyal and very cute!"
"and……"
Then, he looked at the ant and smiled slightly: "The ant doesn't have it, but I do!"
"Haha, why are you comparing yourself to ants?"
The man laughed dumbly: "Really...you are so young, do you know what thoughts and dreams are?"
He didn't laugh at it. Instead, like a very bored person, he simply sat down cross-legged in the rain and asked patiently: "Then what is your dream?"
He originally just wanted to appreciate the child's distress or slurred expression, but he didn't expect that the boy actually thought seriously and then gave an answer.
"Change your stuttering."
The pointed ears trembled slightly, and the boy raised his fingers with a serious expression on his face, counting them one by one: "Learn, math."
"Help, brother."
"When you're older, take care of me, uncle."
"Become a big shot!"
"It seems that it's gone... By the way! And! My brother said..."
At first, the man just wanted to listen to the fun, but later his expression became more and more serious, while the boy was still wringing his fingers happily: "Let there be peace in Nanling!"
"Go everywhere and look at the stars!"
"Let's all eat a lot of meat together!"
"Build a huge ship that can fly!"
Several times, the man wanted to speak and said 'enough'. He already knew very well that this child might have a stutter, but he was actually very smart. Even if he didn't understand it, he could express so many concepts, which proved that the other person's thinking ability was not
Ignorant child.
But he remained silent, listening to the child happily counting to ten: "Finally! Finally!"
"Let's go to the end of the world together!"
"Yes!" The boy nodded seriously, and the boy was very happy: "This is the wish. Brother, told me!"
"...very clear, very clear, very passionate."
"Your brother is a good brother. You are also very good."
Standing up slowly, the man raised his head silently and stared at the blue South China Sea in the distance.
His gaze went straight to the bottom of the distant deep sea, the deep shadows, and then he shook his head slightly: "Unfortunately... I don't dare to look forward to it."
Raising his head, the man glanced at the dark clouds in the sky, then stretched out his hand, touched the white-haired boy's head, and urged: "Go back to the room quickly, the rain will get heavier soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, a bolt of lightning branched out in the sky, thunder exploded, and the rain suddenly became heavier.
"Yeah! Brother, I said it too."
Seeing that the rain was getting heavier, the boy also stood up and waved goodbye to the man who also smiled and waved goodbye!: "Goodbye! I don't know you, big brother."
"Goodbye. You should call me uncle."
The man smiled and watched the boy trot back to his home.
He stopped where he was. In the heavy rain, the smile on the man's face slowly faded and became expressionless.
He stood there in silence, thinking for a long time, then squatted down and looked at the ants on the ground.
The heavy rain washed away the grass ants' team.
Some returned to the cave early, some drowned in the water, some were separated from the team, and some were still rowing desperately in the impact of the water.
Those ants that had been saved a long time ago naturally disappeared, and those that had died long ago were washed away.
What can be seen are those who are still struggling.
"Hey……"
He stretched out his hand and picked up one of the ants that was submerged in the water. The man looked at the grass ant that was constantly waving its antennae and forelimbs, opening and closing its mouthparts, and whispered to himself: "We are very similar, aren't we?"
He crushed the ant and tasted its taste.
"bitter."
The man stood up and put his helmet back on.
The imperial messenger stepped away, and the sound of heavy footsteps sounded again.
This time, the direction he headed towards was the city center, where Viscount Grant's Mansion was located.
"I'm back...Elan, you didn't sit in the rain and look at ants stupidly today, did you?"
In the evening, after returning from extra lessons with Elder Puder, Ian heard a cheer on the spot, and then saw a white shadow rushing into his arms.
Ian's body shook slightly, neutralizing the force of his younger brother's charge. Although he was only ten years old and his body had not grown yet, under Hilliard's two years of intense training, even a wild boar's charge was enough for him.
Can it completely reduce the strength, let alone a four-year-old Terran cub?
"No, I'm very good!"
"Oh? Well, he's very well-behaved."
Ellan said cheerfully, rubbing his head against his brother, while Ian quietly reached out and touched his brother's hair and clothes. Well, it wasn't very wet, and it probably only lasted a while if it really got wet.
Although the Terran people don't care about this little rain, it is almost impossible to catch a cold...but what if? There are no antibiotics and antipyretics in this world.
"Go and play by yourself. After dinner, I will continue to teach you literacy and arithmetic."
Patting his brother's head, Ian motioned to Ellan to continue taking care of the potted plants in his room. Oddly enough, Ellan usually liked to watch ants and grass sprouts. He could stare at a plant with pleasure.
Xiaocao didn't move around all afternoon.
Initially, Ian thought that this might be an aftereffect of sleeping powder, but after listening to Hilliard's prompts and thinking of 'elf blood', the boy couldn't help but understand.
You know everything, elves.
Although he still had no idea what the elves were in this continent of Terra where there were inexplicably super beasts, etheric weapons, and genetic modifiers per capita, but looking at it now, it probably wasn't too far off the mark.
Since Elan likes it, Ian will let him go, especially after he realizes that this happy mood can heal some of Elan's sensory impairments.
Especially this little guy's singing is pretty good, much better than him.
"Teacher has also become more energetic recently. After the disguise work is over, he will go directly to the outer sea to explore."
After predicting for a while, Ian planned to cook. He felt that there was a high probability that Hilliard's portion would not need to be prepared today. The other party must have finished solving the problem outside and then came back the next morning.
But after thinking about it, he still shook his head: "Forget it, let's keep some meat and wheat cakes. It's a pity that we can't bake bread at home, otherwise it would be really easy to make a cod burger."
Thinking this, Ian's eyes lit up with a water-colored light.
This is his daily routine. Every day when he comes back, he will habitually use his spiritual power to investigate the surroundings. It is considered as a precaution and as a practice. It has not been interrupted for a day in the past two years.
Ian thought that today was the same as every day in the past, that life was like this, day after day, no different, and there was nothing commendable about it.
However, the boy who was preparing to chop the meat suddenly stopped what he was doing.
He frowned, turned his head, and looked in the direction of his brother.
A warm light cyan light flashed in Ian's eyes, like dimly shining fireflies in the dim room.
But now, extraordinary colors are reflected in the fireflies.
"broken."
He murmured to himself: "I haven't seen it in two years, the bloody mist..."