A crescent moon hangs diagonally in the night sky.
The night sky is very clean, with no clouds blocking it, and only a few stars sparsely dotted in the night sky.
The fire on the north city wall has not yet been extinguished. The fire has blocked thousands of ghost-striped red ants outside the city. The stone walls on both sides of the city wall are still flooded with large numbers of ghost-striped worker ants. 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-striped worker ants gathered in piles.
After the city defense guards kill some of the ghost-striped worker ants that rush to the city, the corpses will be thrown into the fire wall outside the city. These oil-rich ghost-striped red ants will be roasted in the fire until all the moisture in their bodies has completely evaporated.
, the oil is squeezed out and turned into new fuel, becoming part of the fire wall.
The guards on the city wall were fighting bravely, but the town was very quiet at night.
There was soft light in the closet of the shop facing the street. Without the support of the garrison camp cavalry and city guards, the tavern in the town looked very deserted.
The tavern owner was sitting on 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 walked from the east side of the town carrying lanterns, lighting the street lamps on the main street as they went.
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 clerks in the shop have gone to the military camp to work as helpers, where hundreds of fire wolves are peeled off every day.
Leather, and some high-grade Warcraft leather, so much so that the owner of the leather shop has not had time to come to the tavern for a drink recently.
The tavern and tannery shop are located at the busiest intersection in the town. There is also a very busy bakery in the other corner. Every afternoon, residents will line up in front of the bakery to buy bread.
Every morning, a temporary free market is formed at the intersection.
The market will automatically disperse before ten o'clock in the morning.
In the center of the intersection is a circular flower bed, with a sculpture standing in the center. It is said that the sculpture is engraved with scenes of the hard work of the original town builders.
…
Nika was wearing a floral dress and stood on the cement steps of the circular flower bed at the intersection.
She had a money bag slung over her body, which was heavily filled with copper coins. She looked around from time to time, watching the children walking out of the alley around her.
Two aboriginal children hurriedly ran out of an alley, each holding a bundle of sticks in their arms, and ran to Nika in no particular order.
Their thin chests rose and fell violently, their foreheads were covered with sweat, and their bronze arms held a bundle of eyes 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 requires these aboriginal children to obey order.
In the past few days, he had visited all the alleys in the slums of the town and established some prestige in the hearts of the aboriginal children. She took a bundle of arrow shafts, opened the rope, and took out an inspection tool to inspect the arrows one by one.
Rod.
These arrow shafts are all cut from some hardwood in the woods outside the town. They are very hard and have some weight in the hand.
She threw out an arrow shaft that couldn't fit into the slot of the inspection tool, frowned and said:
"This one is not qualified. It's too thick. It can be sharpened again. It should be as thick as the one in my hand."
The aboriginal boy's face turned slightly red and he nodded repeatedly.
After picking two, I picked out another curved one.
This time she raised her delicate eyebrows and said somewhat rudely:
"This one is a bit crooked. I asked you, should you just take the branches off the tree and add them to the count?"
"What I need are standard arrow shafts, and each one must be exactly the same."
"Not this kind of fire stick that is only suitable for making fire."
As she spoke, she threw the bent arrow shaft on the steps at her feet and asked with a questioning look on her face:
"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 for a hunter?"
A series of questions left the aboriginal child speechless.
The companion next to him saw Nika's somewhat harsh look and even wanted to shrink back on the spot.
She was meticulous in her work, holding inspection tools in her hands. Each arrow shaft should be as thick as her little finger, uniform and straight, and her fingers should be placed in the center of the arrow shaft. The arrow shaft should be in a balanced state, and the arrow shaft should be ground very smooth.
Some that are not sharp enough will be thrown underfoot and used as firewood.
Only those hardwood poles that are straight and thin will be put into the box by Nika.
…
At the beginning, Nika saw that local aboriginal children were unwilling to buy cheap bread from the bakery in the town.
She thought it was probably the aboriginal children who didn't know there was such a bakery in the town.
So, she visited almost all the slums during that time, just to let the indigenous people know that the bakery in the town was 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 still look at the bakery eagerly every day, just like wandering beggars, waiting for the rich to walk out of the bakery and get something from the paper bag.
Break a piece of it and give it to them.
Sometimes those people, like feeding stray dogs, would even throw the broken bread on the ground and watch several children fighting for it at the same time, causing the female companions around them to laugh.
Many rich people in the town regard this behavior as a kind act and think it is a kind of care for the plane world from the civilized world.
The unabashed banter on their faces was like the jack of spades.
After Nika learned about the situation, she 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 indigenous people.
She asked Selena, who had 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, change must be mentioned here." She pointed to her head again.
Nika thinks Selena’s words mean 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 thought this was a good opportunity, so she prepared to let the aboriginal children sharpen the arrow shafts. She was willing to buy these hardwoods at the price of one copper plate for every two arrow shafts.
of arrow shaft.
The materials for making arrow shafts are everywhere in the woods at the foot of the mountains outside the town. The aboriginal children do not need to spend a penny, they only need a sharp hatchet.
Many children from aboriginal families have fathers who are hunters and are good at making hardwood bows and arrows.
With their familiarity, sharpening arrow shafts should not be difficult for them.
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 a day, you can get two copper plates and a complete whole wheat bread.
Nika did not give the thirty-six copper coins to the two aboriginal children. She was worried that they would buy other children after getting the copper coins. She directly led the two aboriginal children across the street to the door of the bakery.
The bakers here work until very late every day, and the bread consumed in the entire town every day is calculated in terms of wheat flour pockets.
The waiter in the bakery knew Nika and knew that she lived with Ms. Selena. He probably thought that she was Ms. Selena's maid, so he respected her very much.
Nika took out a handful of copper coins and exchanged them for two bags of whole-wheat bread, which the two aboriginal children received from each loaf.
When they saw that they had earned so much bread, their eyes widened, and the two children cheered and hugged each other.
Nika pulled their ears, dragged them out of the bakery, and said viciously to the two children who were holding cloth bags and looking intoxicated: "Tomorrow you call more people to sharpen arrow shafts for me... I want
All the friends you know come to sharpen arrow shafts for me! We will still be trading here tomorrow night..."
"I know, see you tomorrow night! Nika."
The aboriginal children carried cloth bags and slipped into the alley and were nowhere to be found.
…
At night, in Selena's rented house.
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 didn't like the oatmeal that smelled like wheat.
He likes to make wontons with meat fillings wrapped in dough. The meat fillings are also filled with onions, carrots, etc. The soup is a thick soup made from the backbones of maned animals, and some rosemary is added to the broth.
Incense and basil leaves.
Signa wrinkled her little nose and scooped out some soup with a wooden spoon to test the saltiness...it was okay.
Chop the tomatoes on the chopping board and add them to the pot.
Xigna felt that the broth tasted much better.
She felt that Surdak had some requirements of one kind or another every day, especially regarding food, and he didn't look like a Wall villager who had everything to offer.
Why doesn't the milk oatmeal taste delicious? You have to cook the noodles with broth... and you also have to wrap some meat fillings in the noodles. It's so troublesome!
Selena came back very late all day long.
Nika has been running outside all day recently, otherwise Nika is a good helper.
Now, the task of cooking dinner fell on her, which made her somewhat dissatisfied, especially when faced with Surdak's pickiness.
Xigna even wanted to bring back some chestnuts and grains, cook him a pot of grain porridge, and let him seriously recall the days of Wall Village.
Maybe his appetite will improve...
There is also a magic notebook on the counter. Celia Cooper is in the pages of the book. Her thin cheeks have no flesh, her withered hands are holding on to the railings, and she is looking out from time to time. She is constantly giving Xigna some advice.
.
However, for a space black magician, her cooking skills are not very good. Apart from boiling potatoes, her best skill is probably making tea.
In comparison, Xigna's cooking skills are still very reliable, at least they won't produce any weird taste.
However, in this pot of broth, Xigna still let herself go and showed her freedom.
Xigna tasted the sweet and sour soup and felt that the taste of tomatoes was really good.
"Xigna, I think last time Suldak proposed cooking this kind of wontons, he didn't say to add tomatoes... Regarding the ingredients, I have some records here." Black magician Celia Cooper flipped through the magic notes.
, reminded Xigna.
"Listen to me, you're right, this soup is very sweet."
Xigna looked very confident.
She wiped her hands on her apron and looked at the night outside. When she got here, Selena hadn't come back yet...
"That's right...but..." Celia Cooper also wanted to put forward some opinions of her own.
Signa reached out and closed the magic note, pouting and said: "I know he is a very picky person about food!"
…
The first one to come back was Nika.
She dragged a large wooden box and moved it little by little from outside the yard into the yard. She didn't know what was in it. It looked very heavy.
Selena recently gave Nika some pocket money, so Nika has to run outside every afternoon.
This made Xigna very envious.
Signa wore a small apron and stood at the door of the house with a wooden spoon in her hand. She asked the aboriginal girl in the yard: "Nika, what is in the alley?"
Nika knocked on the wooden box and said: "Arrow shafts, I heard that a very large amount of crossbow arrows are consumed every day on the north city wall. The inventory in the warehouse at the military camp cannot last for a few days, so I tried to find a way to get them from outside.
Come back a little bit."
Xigna said enviously: "You really have a way!"
"No, these arrow shafts were purchased from the aboriginal children in the town. I paid for them!" Nika whispered.
"Do you need my help?" Nika followed Xigna into the small building and asked as she walked.
"You can wash your face first and then take a rest. If you are hungry, there are baked wheat cakes on the table. Selena and Suldak haven't come back yet, so dinner will have to wait for a while!" Xigna said to Nika.
said.
Not long after, the carriage carrying Selena stopped at the door of the small building.
Selina stood at the door, not forgetting to explain some things to the two clerks. After a long time, she heard the sound of the carriage driving away.
Then the courtyard door was pushed open, and when Selina walked into the courtyard, Signa and Nika had been waiting at the door for a long time.
Selina walked up, hugged Xigna and Nika to her side, and said, "Sorry, the military camp has to deal with the beast tide in the canyon recently, and there are many things waiting to be dealt with."
"You two should be careful these two days. There is no guarantee that there will be ghost-striped red ants entering the town from other places. When you encounter danger, you must first protect yourself. If you are able to help others, then help them...
"
Selena warned Xigna and Nika.
…
No matter how busy he is, Suldak always takes some time to return to the small building every week.
Everyone sat down to have dinner together, and after dinner, they paid attention to Xigna's recent study status.
Then I worked out with Selena...
He felt that only in this way could this place look like a home.