It is said that the Yarn family was a fisherman on the Thunder Swamp a long time ago, and later became a ferryman on the swamp. However, as times changed, the profession of ferryman was gradually replaced by steamboats and sightseeing boats.
The ferrymen who rowed small boats in the past have lost their jobs, and it is impossible for Yaen's father to become a fisherman again, because the fishing industry has long been monopolized by several chambers of commerce.
He had to go into the city to find a way to survive and make a living, and became a worker in a shipbuilding workshop.
The father of the Yaen family had always dreamed of owning a steamboat or his own transport ship, but he was unable to realize this dream until he died of illness in the workshop.
After his death, the children's mother chose to leave everything and remarry, leaving only four children in the Yaen family: the eldest brother, the second sister, the third sister, and the youngest brother.
It's still dark.
Lillian, who was only thirteen years old, was already going out to work.
She was used to getting up early and setting off at this time, so she got up quickly and packed herself up.
She put on her beloved headscarf to cover her neat short hair, put on a white-washed and ill-fitting skirt, and set off with a large rattan basket in her arms.
This is a tall, energetic girl with sharp eyes.
"gone!"
Lilian turned around and called her brother and sister in the room urgently. The eldest brother was a stable and old-looking man. His clothes looked clean, but he exuded a smell of oil unique to shipbuilding workshops.
Smell. The second sister was squatting under a cheap oil lamp, reading a thin book obsessively. After hearing Lillian's shout, she immediately put it away close to her body.
Lillian followed her eldest brother and sister to the shipbuilding workshop. The three of them walked through the dark streets and saw the lights of the river in the distance. Groups of workers had begun to appear on the square paved with rectangular stone bricks.
They walked out of the dark alleys and headed towards the workshops in the distance.
The eldest son of the Yaen family walked with his two younger sisters to a tall building with an iron sign, and then warned the two younger sisters with a serious look on his face.
"I'm going to work. You should be careful and go back as soon as you have collected your clothes." "Be careful of those homeless people. Don't take the alley after dawn."
The eldest brother wanted to say something more, but the people in the shipbuilding workshop rang the bell, and he could only rush inside quickly.
"No, no, no, no, I'm already here."
But a fat man inside pointed at the elder brother and yelled, scolding him with a cold expression.
"faster."
"Do you still want to do it? If you don't want to do it, there are many people who do it."
"Late for late, money will be deducted!"
The eldest brother, who was so majestic just now, nodded and bowed in front of the other party, looking humble.
The eldest brother wanted to step forward and apologize, but as soon as he stretched out his hand, he saw that the other party immediately stepped back three feet, as if he was afraid that his dirty hands, which were stained with oil day after day and could not be washed off, would touch him.
After he stepped back, he shouted angrily.
"Go to work, why are you still here? You lazy people deserve to be poor."
"If you delay for one minute, you will get one minute of my money in vain. Is money so easy to make?"
Everyone in the workshop became busy, and the Yaen sisters also began to work in the workshop.
"It only costs one copper cent to wash clothes."
"It only costs one copper cent to wash clothes."
This is the daily task of the two sisters, helping some bachelors in the shipbuilding workshop wash clothes. The money is very small, but it can also subsidize the family.
The two of them went back carrying two large baskets of clothes.
On the way, they encountered a drunken man who was harassing them.
The second sister was so frightened that she couldn't speak. After being grabbed by the drunk man, she kept shrinking back. Instead, her sister Lillian put the clothes frame on the man's head, picked up a stone and threw it at the man's head desperately.
.
"Kill you!"
"Kill you!"
Lilian looks young, but when angry she acts like a ferocious beast.
He beat the homeless man to a bloody head and fled away.
Lilian threw the stone and clapped her hands, feeling somewhat proud.
The two picked up their clothes and walked back.
Lilian said on the way: "Second sister, you should be more ruthless. If you are not fierce, you will be bullied."
But the second sister said softly: "People should be kind and friendly, that's what the book says, especially girls."
Lilian seemed to scoff.
The two men walked through the south wall of the shipbuilding workshop carrying a pile of dirty and smelly clothes.
I only saw a few words written on the wall, and they were already a little blurry.
"Work hard and get rich through hard work."
Everyone seems to believe that you can get rich by working hard, and so does the second sister.
The two of them walked under the high wall, and the morning sun rose from the east and fell on them, making their shadows long and slanting.
The second sister twisted her neck, looking at those words in trance.
"We can earn forty copper points for one day's washing of clothes, which is..."
"If everything goes well, we can do it in a year."
Lillian said: "We can die from exhaustion."
The second sister said: "How can people make money without working? It's a bit hard, but hard work can definitely change."
Lilian said: "My father worked hard all his life, but finally died of exhaustion and illness, and my mother abandoned him."
"It's all bullshit."
"In this world, only those glamorous and upper-class people follow the rules, because it is good for them to follow the rules."
"People who live at the bottom don't talk about this, because this is a world of the weak and the strong. We speak with our fists, claws and teeth."
"If we still behave honestly and behave ourselves, we will gain nothing but be completely devoured by others and become their nourishment."
The second sister was unhappy: "Then what are you going to do?"
Lilian said: "When I grow up, I will definitely make a lot of money, and I will do whatever makes money."
The second sister had a straight face at this time and showed her elder sister's dignity: "Are you going to be a bad person?"
Lillian said: "I just said I wanted to make money, not that I wanted to be a bad person."
After saying this, Lilian's voice changed: "But, I won't listen to others honestly, I only listen to myself."
The two of them took the clothes home and washed them from morning to night, only to end when they were so tired that they couldn't straighten their backs.
Lilian beat her shoulders and sighed: "When will this end!"
Even the second sister was speechless. She no longer had the enthusiasm she had before talking about how many copper points she could earn in a year.
She wiped the water from her hand, but she touched the cracked wound on her hand, grinning in pain.
Life is busy and heavy.
However, when a table of hot food was served, waiting for the elder brother to open the door, the younger brother shouted excitedly.
"Brother is back, it's time to start dinner."
Everyone in the family still smiled.
Under the light, they sat together and talked about what happened today.
Lillian talked viciously about how she beat up the drunk man, and the elder brother said that he would beat that guy severely when he met him.
The younger brother looked at the third sister with admiration. The second sister didn't say anything, but she couldn't help but cover her mouth and smile.
The picture is warm and beautiful.
On this day, the second sister came back with a gospel booklet from Thunder Temple and excitedly told everyone.
"Your Highness the Witch, we can see Your Highness the Witch."
The third sister and the younger brother of the Yaen family looked at the second sister and thought she was suffering from hysteria. But the eldest brother seemed to have guessed something: "The day of reincarnation of the witch is coming soon!"
The second sister kept nodding her head, holding the gospel book in her arms: "Then the witch's ship will set off from Thunder City and go to the deepest part of the swamp, to the Kingdom of God in the sky."
"Then there, meet the great
The great giant of the sky."
"If we find a good place, we might be able to meet the witch." "The great witch Liz VII."
The second sister has longing in her eyes, because the witch can be said to be the most noble woman in the world, except for those legendary female gods.
The younger brother asked: "Where is the witch going?"
The second sister raised her head and looked at the sky outside the window. She held the gospel book and swayed slightly as she answered: "Of course I want to go to the Kingdom of God, above the sea of clouds. There is a city floating in the sky. That is the Kingdom of God. The witch will be there."
There the reincarnation is completed."
The younger brother was extremely curious: "Is there really a Kingdom of God deep in Thunder Swamp?"
At this time, the elder brother interrupted and said: "Really, I heard a conductor on a sightseeing boat tell me that he saw the city of God in the sky a long time ago."
The eldest brother was also very happy when he talked about it: "There is really a lost country in the deepest part of the swamp."
Lilian's focus was rather strange: "On the day of reincarnation, will the witch die?" The second sister immediately said: "The witch will not die, she will only become a child again and grow up again."
Lilian held her chin, a little envious: "It's great, I won't die, I can always go back to my youth, still have a noble status, enjoy a life and endless wealth that we can't even imagine!
"
The second sister frowned: "The witch doesn't care about this. She is the spokesperson of God. Nobility, power and wealth are not worth mentioning to her."
Lilian didn't believe it: "How could anyone not care about this!"
Second sister: "That's a witch."
Lillian: "The witch must be the same."
Second sister: "How can you, a guy who doesn't like reading books and newspapers, know how great the witch is?"
Lilian and her second sister started to argue, but neither one was convinced by the other.
And soon, the day of reincarnation of the witch arrived, and this day also happened to be the ceremony to worship the giant god in the sky.
The two came together, and this time the ceremony was far better than before. Countless sky believers rushed here to send the witch to the lost country.
In the surging crowd, Lilian finally squeezed to the front and found her elder brother and younger brother who had already occupied their seats.
Lillian looked to the side: "What's going on? The second sister hasn't come yet? She is the one who is looking forward to it the most?"
The younger brother shook his head and said, "I don't know. She said she would come after washing the clothes."
Lilian: "It's already here, and you're still thinking about earning those two copper points!" Lilian looked like she was still bickering with her sister: "This guy said that there are things that are more important than money and power, but in the end
She wouldn't give up even a copper cent."
The eldest brother looked into the distance from a high place and suddenly shouted: "Third brother, fourth brother, the boat is coming."
As soon as he shouted one sentence, everyone started to move and looked towards the other side of the river.
The same goes for Lillian.
She said she was not looking forward to it, saying that witches must eat and poop just like people, and they must also like money and status, but at this moment her eyes were focused, with a hint of longing.
Above the ripples of light, she saw a building ship emitting divine light approaching slowly, like a palace walking on the water.
The ship is inlaid with all kinds of gems and uses all kinds of extraordinary materials. This ship alone will consume a country's financial resources. It was built successfully by the Thunder Kingdom generation after generation.
There are beautiful waiters and maids on the boat, which are engraved with cloud patterns, and they are accompanied by clouds and mist as they walk.
They looked piously into the depths of the swamp and the sea of clouds, their eyes motionless.
"Wow!"
Lilian had never seen such a scene before. At this moment, she really believed that the witch really didn't care about those external things, because she really had everything.
She already has even God's preference.
The ship slowly sailed past, passing by the side of Thunder City.
And when she was about to leave here and completely enter the depths of the swamp, Lilian saw someone on the top of the boat lift the curtain and look towards
outside.
It was a pair of beautiful, mature and moving faces, and a pair of eyes as pure as the water deep in the swamp, rippling with some kind of emotion.
Lilian was a little lost: "It's so beautiful!"
"Is this a witch who does not belong to the human world?"
She doesn't know what a goddess is like, but maybe that goddess is just as flawless as this, right?
But she didn't see the bitterness, confusion, and fear in the witch's eyes. The whole world fell silent, and no one dared to speak anymore.
Until the Enchantress ship completely leaves and goes to a distant place.
In everyone's eyes, the other party must have reached the kingdom of God.
The three brothers looked at the depths of the swamp, at the clouds and mountains connecting the sky and water, imagining the beautiful scene.
Lilian couldn't restrain her inner excitement. On the way home, she kept thinking about the scene of going to the sea of clouds in the sky, the pious eyes of the servants and maids, and the huge power and enchantment emanating from the Witch's ship.
"So sacred!"
"so beautiful!"
She felt that maybe she was really as ignorant as her second sister said.
However, after returning home, Lillian opened the door and saw the disheveled second sister lying on the ground with scars all over her body.
Lilian was stunned for a moment, then immediately rushed forward.
"Second sister!"
After asking, she found out who did it. That person was the drunk they had beaten away before.
The guy came back to take revenge, and happened to meet the second sister who was doing laundry at home. "I won't let him go, I won't let him go."
"I'm going to make him pay, that guy."
Lillian was furious, she had never been so angry before.
She felt as if her heart was on fire, and the flames seemed to travel along with the heart and blood to her limbs and brain, igniting her scalp and hair.
However, after the dying sister regained her composure, she asked Lillian: "Have you seen the witch?"
Lillian didn't know why the second sister was still paying attention to this issue at this time. She could only answer with some confusion: "I saw it."
The second sister said: "What is she like?"
Lilian didn't know how to describe it. After thinking for a long time, she could only say: "Like a witch."
But the second sister seemed to understand this sentence. She was a witch who was just like the witch in her imagination.
For a moment, her eyes were filled with regret.
She shed tears slowly, and then she began to sob: "Unfortunately, I didn't see it."
Lillian looked into her second sister's eyes and seemed to see the sound of a broken dream. She knew that the other sister longed for a witch, and that she seemed to be a perfect existence, because it was written like this in books, newspapers and gospels.
Because he was born humble, because he has nothing, and because he is out of reach.
So I long for the unattainable beauty even more.
Lilian: "I will definitely avenge you."
Next, Lillian looked for that guy everywhere like crazy. She finally found out the identity of the other person, and he turned out to be the butler of the shipbuilding workshop owner, the shipbuilding workshop where Lilian's elder brother and father worked.
After she knew the other party's identity, she immediately found her eldest brother.
However, after the eldest brother learned the news, the first thing he said was: "He must be compensated, he must pay the price."
Lillian looked at her elder brother in disbelief: "Compensate?"
Lilian stood up immediately and looked at her eldest brother angrily: "He assaulted the second sister, and you asked him to pay for it. Is this how you protect your family and your sister?"
The eldest brother looked at Lillian and said, "What can we do? Should we beat him up or send him to the trial court?"
"What's the point? We must take this opportunity to get something back."
Lillian opened her mouth wide and her jaw trembled, but she couldn't say a word. According to
Lilian got the information and knew the other party's pattern of actions.
The eldest brother took Lillian and blocked the other party on a remote road, but the other party was still arrogant and domineering and didn't care.
"Just a washerwoman..."
The other party said this.
Laundresses are not a good word, because most laundresses not only wash clothes for others, but also sell their bodies part-time.
While the elder brother was arguing angrily with the man, Lilith, who had been silent all the way, suddenly walked forward, faster and faster.
She suddenly pulled out a dagger and stabbed it into the other person's body.
"Pfft!"
Lilian's face was expressionless, but her hands stabbed down again and again with extremely sharp hands, blood splattered all over her body, turning her face blood red.
The other party had made no sound, and she was still waving the dagger. The eldest brother was standing next to her, with blood flowing to his feet, and he seemed to have come back to his senses.
He looked at Lilian with trembling hands: "You killed someone!" Lilian stopped then. She panted and sat cross-legged on the ground, lowered her head and said stiffly: "I know."
After a while, she added: "I killed an evil person, and he deserved it."
The eldest brother didn't say anything, and both of them fell silent.
But after a while, he tremblingly dragged the other party's body with Lillian, and the two disposed of the body together.
"Hurry up, come and help."
"You can't let people find out and know that you killed someone."
The two people covered the body with things, filled the blood stains with soil, and after checking the situation, dragged it away on a truck.
At night, the two dug a hole and buried each other's body, but they dug out a pile of banknotes from the pack animal skin bag that the other party carried.
"money!"
"It's a gold dollar, it's a gold dollar!"
"So much money."
The eldest brother exclaimed that he seemed to have never seen so much money.
Lillian looked at the money. She always felt that she wanted to have a lot of money before, but now that she saw so much money, she didn't know why she couldn't be happy at all.
After disposing of the body, Lilian and her eldest brother walked back together.
After returning home, Lillian walked to her second sister and finally showed a smile: "Second sister, I have avenged you."
The second sister's eyes were still a little dull. She turned her head slightly when she heard Lilian's voice, opened her mouth and said "Oh!"
After a while, she said with tears: "Thank you, Lillian." Lillian looked at her second sister's tears, but she didn't seem to see any joy at all.
It is a kind of shattered hope for the future, and confusion.
However, when the eldest brother took out those gold dollar bills, they were piled up in front of the second sister.
The second sister's eyes slowly turned around and she said in disbelief.
"So much money?"
The eldest brother cried bitterly while holding the money, and lay down in front of the second sister.
"Yes, we have money!"
"I have money."
"Finally we don't have to suffer anymore. You don't have to wash clothes when your fingers are as cold as carrots. If you had come earlier, father wouldn't have been exhausted."
"Finally, we can live like one person."
"A man of dignity!"
They killed someone and got a sum of money, and then used the money to order a not too old magic crystal steamboat.
With this magic crystal steamboat, they can open up a new situation on the river. It can carry passengers and cargo, and at least they can get rid of poverty. On the way, the eldest brother was extremely excited.
Even Lilian was a little excited. It was a magic crystal steamboat, even if it was a second-hand one.
Although the eldest brother did not dance and kept his words as calm as possible, Lillian could already see that his fingers were trembling, but the reason for the trembling was different from last time.
"Magic crystal steamboat!"
"My father has been thinking about a steamboat for so long, but he never got it, but now we have one.
As they passed by the street, they heard a familiar voice yelling from the street.
"Take them away, search their homes, and be sure to find my money, my money!"
He is the workshop owner of the shipbuilding workshop.
The two people walked into the crowd and saw the chubby workshop owner ordering people to search a three-story building. An old woman and a woman with three children were kneeling in front of the workshop owner, and kept saying
Begging for mercy.
"We really didn't take it, we really didn't take it!"
However, there was no mercy in the workshop owner's eyes, and instead he slapped the woman to the ground.
"That guy took my money and ran away. Someone must be responsible. You thieves always want to get something for nothing."
The eldest brother pushed Lillian: "Don't look, we have something to do. Let's go home." Although Lillian left with her, her eyes kept looking at the family. She couldn't be happy. She seemed to be able to see
To the end of that family.
On the way, Lilian suddenly said: "We should return it."
The eldest brother walking in front did not respond, so Lillian continued.
"This is not our money. We are here to take revenge, not to steal money."
"And the money should belong to the workshop owner. If we take it away, there will be problems, and his family will definitely be implicated."
"They...will die."
The eldest brother did not stop, but turned his back to Lilian and suddenly asked: "How do you send them back and tell them that we killed them?"
After Lillian caught up with her eldest brother, she said, "We can quietly send it back to that family. As long as the money is paid, the workshop owner won't care what happened."
The eldest brother said: "It's a pity that the money has been spent."
Lillian: "I just placed a deposit."
The eldest brother finally stopped and turned to look at Lilian: "The money was given to them, what about us?"
Lillian also stopped and looked into her elder brother's eyes.
"But, we will kill them."
"An old man, a mother, and three children."
"Five lives!"
The eldest brother became angry: "That's the cold-blooded workshop owner, what does it have to do with us?" Vivian's voice became softer: "We can save them."
However, the eldest brother looked at Lillian intently, as if she had begun to change after that night of burial.
The eldest brother said: "Do you think I am inhumane and that I am all about money?"
Lillian: "I didn't"
The elder brother quickly interrupted Lillian: "That's how you feel." Lillian didn't know how to refute and fell into silence.
The eldest brother said: "I don't know what is inhumane or cold-blooded." "But I know."
"If we didn't have money in this world, I would work in the workshop until I died of illness like my father, and your second sister would really become a washerwoman one day, just like those women who sell their bodies while washing clothes."
"I know you are very courageous and unwilling, but no matter how unwilling you are, your courage can only be gradually worn away by reality. I have seen people who are too unwilling, so what, in the end, you are not facing
Surrender to reality and bow your head.”
"And your brother's life is destined to be like mine and our father's, always working in the dark corner of the workshop."
"Our father, me!"
"Your second sister, you, and your brother."
"This is the fate of all."
"Do you know what I was thinking when I saw your second sister's desperate eyes?"
"I'm thinking.
"This is just the beginning, the beginning of our running towards despair." "I have to do something, but what can I do?"
The eldest brother's face was so stiff that he looked like a
It was an iron plate, but his muscles and body were constantly shaking. His hands were clenched into fists and he was beating his body one after another.
"I can't change it."
"I don't know how to change."
"I'm desperate, but I can't scream."
The eldest brother beat his body three times, then gritted his teeth and said.
"But now, we have an opportunity, an opportunity to change our destiny."
"I'm going to seize this opportunity!"
"I don't want revenge, I don't want humanity and sympathy for others." "I just want your second sister, you, and your brother to escape this fate."
"It doesn't matter if it's shameless or inhumane."
"Anyway."
"We want to change our destiny."
The elder brother, who was roaring in a low voice at this moment, was like a violent toothed beast that was driven to a corner and saw blood.
Even if they are raised as carnivorous beasts, once they see hope and muster the courage, they will try their best to jump out of the pen.
"Aren't you saying that those of us who follow the rules will only be devoured by others?"
"You are talking about changing your destiny and making money to become a big shot. Is this your determination?"
"Or are those words of yours just words?"
The eldest brother pointed at Lillian and her heart.
"human nature!"
"That's what people say."
"Are we human?"
"We are not, we are a bunch of beasts."
"Didn't you say that those who follow the rules in our world, those who are kind and innocent, are destined to be devoured?"
"Because here, because in the world of beasts, these are symbols of weakness and symbols of being devoured."
Lilian looked at her eldest brother. It was the first time she knew that her eldest brother was like this in his heart. This man who supported the whole family by himself always seemed a little helpless, but the despair and pain in his heart burst out like
It's overwhelming.
She watched her eldest brother burst into tears and his chest kept heaving. She couldn't say anything, she could only cry out. At this time, she was crying like a child of her age.
The eldest brother looked at the crying Lilian and suddenly softened, then held Lilian in his arms and whispered.
"You want to be humane, you want to be polite and honest, and you want to live like a human being."