She turned to look at the people who were speaking, and saw that they were all wearing similar clothes to the locals, with only animal skin coats added. Each of them was carrying luggage as high as a hill, including quilts, clothes, wine and meat. , still holding thick wooden sticks in their hands, but the knives or daggers on their waists revealed that they were not good people.
Those few people also noticed that Ming Na was staring at them, but they didn't take it seriously to a little girl who was described as a bit embarrassed (she had just come out of the mountains and hadn't washed her face or bathed in a few days), and even thought she was carrying it. The luggage was too bulky, which caught the kid's attention, and he bared his teeth at her: "What are you looking at?! I'll dig out your eyes if you look at it again, kid!"
Mingna quickly turned her head and ran a few steps to catch up with her grandfather. She is no longer the little girl who didn't understand anything more than half a year ago. During the winter, she heard a lot of stories from her grandfather and Uncle Qiao before going to bed, including many adventure stories about battles of wits and courage. Even if she can't listen to them now, If you understand how adults think about life, at least you won’t reveal your secrets foolishly anymore.
As her grandfather and the man named "Luo Er" walked along the path on the right, Mingna carefully looked back at those people and found that they were all heading towards the road she came from before. Those people just mentioned the "treasure of elves". She remembered that it was what the bad guys who injured her grandfather wanted to steal. They even killed an elf. Could these people be their accomplices? Are you going to the Elf Forest now? She couldn't help but worry when she thought of Uncle Qiao, Xiao La, Brother Leif and the people in Phantom Town.
She tugged at the corner of her grandfather's clothes: "Grandpa, those people over there..."
"Let's talk later, Ming Na." Xiao Tianjian only listened to Luo Er's words, "Uncle Luo Er and I have something to discuss."
Ming Na looked back at those people and saw that their figures had disappeared. She felt even more anxious. She tugged on the corner of her grandfather's clothes a few more times, but he broke away: "Be obedient! We can wait until we finish talking about anything." Minna had to give up and followed them muttering.
Xiao Tianjian didn't notice anything strange about his granddaughter. He was just worried about Luo Er's nagging, but he didn't get to the point for a long time: "I know, your life is not easy, but how is Lila's family doing? ? You should make it clear."
Rohr had no choice but to stop complaining about his family's poor life, and said with some reluctance: "Her family has moved away a long time ago. Less than a year after you left, they moved to Heishan Town in the southwest. I heard that she married After getting married, the couple opened a tavern, and the business was pretty good. I only know that her parents passed away a few years ago, and I don’t know what she is like now.”
Xiao Tianjian was not very surprised by the news of the death of the old couple. Very few locals could live past the age of fifty. Considering their age, the two old people were considered to have lived a long life. However, although he had expected Lila's marriage, he still had some knots in his heart. Shaking off this thought, he forced a smile: "So she is living a good life? Why does she open a tavern instead of a wine shop? Isn’t the wine shop more profitable?”
"Oh, what are you talking about?" Roll looked at him with his eyes wide open, "How can country people like us buy that kind of thing? What Lila's shop sells is ordinary wine, but the stew is very famous. That's you The method I taught you back then. As for the brewing recipe you gave me, the lord said it was his thing and he had long asked Lila’s father to hand it over.”
"What?!" Xiao Tianjian was stunned, then furious, "He's talking nonsense! That's obviously a recipe passed down by my family! How could it be his?" That recipe was really passed down by his Xiao family's ancestors, even though it was just a method of brewing ordinary rice wine. , but it has been a hundred or two hundred years since he made modifications based on the actual local conditions. In any case, it is definitely not something that a rich country man could come up with. "This is robbery! I will never let him go!"
Luo Er was startled by his words and said hurriedly: "No, no, the lord didn't rob her. Lila's father paid the prescription, but he got thirty gold coins as a reward. Thirty gold coins, that's good." It was a big sum of money, even if it was used to buy that recipe, their family would not be able to earn that much money just by making wine. The lord also said that making wine requires the use of snow from the mountains to the north, so he opened it nearby The winery is recruiting local people to work, and my son has also gone there. You must not mess around. People in several of our villages rely on the winery to make money."
Xiao Tianjian almost choked to death, thirty gold coins! This kind of ice and fire wine is sold in East for ten gold coins per jar. The price of three jars of wine is the price of the prescription. Do you think it is not a robbery? He was also very dissatisfied with Rohr's attitude: "Why do you want to speak for that lord? He took away the prescription. Even if Lila's family can't open a wine shop, people in your village can help open it. Then Wouldn’t it be possible to make more money? Why don’t you blame him?”
"Look at what you said." Luo Er was a little dissatisfied, "That recipe used to belong to Lila's father. We are all the same people, why should we work for him? The lord is different, he is a noble master!"
Xiao Tianjian's face darkened and he stopped talking. Seeing this, Luo Er asked cautiously: "You are not really looking for bad luck with the lord, are you? You must not go, please. The harvest has not been good these few years. Okay, if the people in several of our villages had not worked in the winery, they would have starved to death long ago. Just think of it because we helped you back then, and never do anything to the lord. I I have been saving money with my son for several years and have already saved more than thirty silver coins. As long as I save fifty, I can marry my son a wife. You must not mess around at this time..."
Xiao Tianjian was a little annoyed and didn't want to listen to his ramblings anymore: "You just said that Lila moved to Heishan Town, right? Mingna, we..." Seeing his granddaughter following behind him with a pout, he suddenly thought of the child just now After saying that she was hungry, she changed her words: "We are all hungry, Roll, can you get us something to eat."
When Luo Er heard this, he became excited: "Of course, of course. How about you come to my house and stay for one night? You are a noble person. If the Lila family hadn't kept you here for so long, they wouldn't have become rich." Money. Oh, look, what nonsense am I talking about? Quick, please go this way..."
Ming Na continued to pout and followed them, entering a small village and turning onto a narrow path. That Luo Er kept chattering away. When will he and his grandfather finish talking
Rolle's home is a low stone house, which is dimly lit and somewhat cold. Luo Er smiled flatteringly and lit a stone stove in the center of the house. He carefully counted six or seven pieces of black coal and put them in. The room became slightly warmer. While rubbing his hands, he asked Xiao Tianjian and his grandson to sit down, and then went to cook.
While Luo Er was cooking, one after another villagers got the news and came to the door. Most of them were Xiao Tianjian's old acquaintances, and they greeted him warmly and invited him to their homes for dinner. One of them also said that his house was spacious and invited Xiao Tianjian to spend the night. As a result, Luo Er drove everyone away like a cat whose tail was stepped on, but when he faced Xiao Tianjian, his smile immediately returned.
Xiao Tianjian was a little depressed. He remembered that Luo Er was a very simple and honest young man back then. Why did he become like this now? Also, the way the villagers looked at him just now seemed a little different, with more of a greedy tone. What happened to this village? Suddenly, he remembered the wine shop opened by the lord. Many simple villagers worked there. They must have been led away by the bad habits of the nobles!
Thinking back to the time when he crossed the snow-capped mountains, he took a lot of mistakes because he didn't know the route. Finally, he collapsed at the foot of the snow-capped mountains from exhaustion. He was rescued by Lila and his daughter. How simple the villagers were at that time. In order to let him Get well soon and take out the best things at home. In return, he specially taught Lila's family how to make braised pork, and also helped the villagers hunt and repair their houses.
That delicate, shy mountain village girl Lila was as pure and lovely as a lamb. If her father hadn't gotten him drunk out of joy that night when he learned how to make braised pork, he might have only regarded her as his little sister. However, he also knew in his heart that she and he were from different worlds. Even after what happened that night, he would not accept a village girl who knew nothing as his lover or partner, not to mention that he was still There is Fnoya.
As compensation for that night, he left behind a recipe for brewing wine. His original intention was just to give Lila's family and other villagers a way to get rich so that they would not continue to suffer from poverty. Unexpectedly, it caused so many troubles.
Mingna sat at the wooden table, watching her grandfather's expression constantly changing, feeling very dissatisfied. She had tugged on his clothes several times, but he didn't respond. She didn't know what he was thinking. She was heartbroken and was about to call him loudly, but Luo Er came over with rice in hand.
He kept urging them to eat, and kept saying how rare this meal was, and that even his own family rarely had such good food. However, in Ming Na's opinion, the soup was simply a paste made from powdered roots of unknown plants. The taste was a bit weird, but for her who had not eaten hot soup for many days, it was still manageable. The staple food is a fruit with a dark brown hard shell. When cooked and broken open, there is fist-sized white pulp inside. It tastes a bit like potatoes, but the taste is slightly sweet. This kind of food was quite to Ming Na's taste, so she ate two of them.
Xiao Tianjian explained from the side that it was Nuojia's specialty staple food fruit. It can grow on plants or rocks in high mountains. It only needs a little water and can achieve high yields even at low temperatures. This is a food developed by the founding monarch of this country in order to solve the food crisis. In order to commemorate his achievements, the people named his country after him.
Perhaps because he was full and in a better mood, Xiao Tianjian saw that it was getting late, so he accepted Luo Er's proposal to stay overnight. The latter hurriedly went out to help his grandfather and grandson get quilts for the night. .
As soon as he left, Mingna immediately told her grandfather about those people. Xiao Tianjian frowned after hearing this: "Sure enough, more than one group of people heard about that rumor. Who spread it? Damn it!"
"Grandpa, what should we do? Will those people hurt the people in the forest? Should we stop them?" Mingna asked anxiously.
Xiao Tianjian thought for a while and suddenly smiled: "You said they all carry a lot of luggage? And they dress like locals?"
"That's right." Ming Na didn't understand that he wanted to laugh, "Is this what grandpa said...disguise?"
"What are you wearing, Qiao? They are not as cold-resistant as the locals, and they can't survive the cold with such clothes." Xiao Tianjian looked confident, "Do you think that road is so easy? If I hadn't had a storage ring, I would have brought enough We only had dry food, water and a stove. If I hadn’t had internal energy to protect myself, and if you hadn’t eaten that fish soup in the forest, and if we hadn’t used lightness skills on the snowy mountains, you would have been so light, and you wouldn’t have been able to pass so smoothly. Even if those people are not afraid of the cold and have brought enough food, that luggage bag alone is enough to cause an avalanche."
Ming Na thought for a while: "Avalanche, does it mean that all the snow will be shaken down? I remember that I spoke a little louder a few days ago, and a lot of snow fell on the mountain. Grandpa meant that they brought such a big bag of things. , will it also cause an avalanche?”
"It's all about heavy footsteps or talking loudly." Xiao Tianjian said with a smile, "Moreover, even if they really pass successfully, the road before reaching the forest is completely unobstructed, and they will be discovered all the way, and they will be exhausted by then. Where are the elves’ opponents? You don’t have to worry.”
Ming Na was relieved when she heard this, and she could eat the strange-tasting soup with peace of mind.
Early the next morning, when Luo Er was chatting, he mentioned that there was a rumbling sound coming from the mountains in the north the night before. It might be a big avalanche. People in several villages stayed up all night to check if anyone had entered the snow-capped mountains. However, No one seemed to suffer, and everyone was happy.
After hearing these words, Ming Na thought of her grandfather's analysis last night and glanced at him. Xiao Tianjian remained silent and generously threw down ten gold coins as toll, and then left with his granddaughter amidst Luo Er's praises.
After they left the village, they did not return to the road leading to the south, but walked southwest. Ming Na felt something was wrong, so she asked: "Grandpa, aren't we going back to Qedun? Why don't we go south?" Xiao Tianjian said: "Let's take a long way. In the town of Heishan in the southwest, there is one of Grandpa's Friend. When grandpa left the Elf Forest for the first time, he collapsed at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. She was the one who saved grandpa from going back. It’s a rare occasion for me to come here, so I wanted to drop by and see her.”
Ming Na pouted. She was already much later than the appointment. Grandpa Marshall must be very anxious.
Xiao Tianjian saw her expression and said hurriedly: "Actually, there are benefits to walking here. It is a town, and there must be horses for sale. Let's buy a horse and ride it back. It's much better than walking, isn't it?"
Ming Na was very much in favor of this proposal. She was really afraid of walking, so she nodded quickly. Xiao Tianjian secretly breathed a sigh of relief and pulled his granddaughter forward. When dusk fell again, they finally arrived at Black Mountain Town.
(In the next chapter, the mysterious behind-the-scenes mastermind will lift the veil a little bit~~~ It’s almost the end of the month. Looking at the PK results is really terrible. If you think you can still watch it and have a pink vote in your hand, please vote for me. One vote~~~)