The holidays are coming soon.
The people of Shaonan are prosperous and attach great importance to education, and the same is true for the Magic City. In addition to three magic academies and a children's magic school, the teaching institutions here also have several schools for ordinary people, and most local children will go to the latter. This is not only because the children's magic school only admits children with outstanding talents, and children from magician families with less ability are not able to enter, but also the basic knowledge taught in ordinary schools is very comprehensive, which is quite helpful for the students' future development.
These ordinary schools basically arrange their courses according to the three-level ten-year system. Two years of elementary school is compulsory education. It only teaches a few basic courses so that students can write, do calculations, and have some common sense. If they do not continue to study after graduation, whether they are starting a small business, working as an apprentice in a shop, or going to a professional Anyone who works as a trainee servant in a wealthy family can be qualified; in the three years of middle school, the subjects studied are increased by half, and the difficulty is also increased. Etiquette courses will also be added, and the graduated students are competent enough to work as clerks, housekeepers, clerks, etc.; the five years of high school , there will be clear professional divisions, some people study accounting, some study surveying, some study management, some study medicine, some study law, some study politics and diplomacy, etc. After these graduates left school, they formed the elite class of ordinary people in Shaonan.
If most children of magicians cannot enter children's magic schools, they will receive an education in ordinary schools while practicing magic at home. After graduating from secondary school, they will enter one of the three magic academies to continue their studies.
Ming Na has graduated from a junior high school in a civilian area after two years of study. Although she felt a little reluctant to leave like this, she immediately put the sadness behind when she thought of being able to live with her parents. Although Xiao Tianjian felt that his granddaughter had learned too little, he no longer felt pity when he thought that she could still receive education when she returned to Yidong. Before the summer vacation even started, he had already made preparations for a long trip. He said hello to several friends, and by the way, he also picked up a lot of good things from his old friend Han Lin and his wife Patty.
On the other hand, from Sauron, he got no benefit at all. The Potions Master was very dissatisfied that he was taking away the assistant he had finally trained. In the past two years, Sauron has actually taught Ming Na as his own student. He has extremely strict requirements and has formulated a ten-year teaching plan. He is fully committed to cultivating her into a talented person and then showing off to his old rival Sennett. After a while, he was suddenly interrupted by Ming Na's grandfather, who was extremely depressed. The last time Minna went to his place, he forced her to skin 300 slugs and collect 100 liters of slug mucus, which made her feel sick for three days.
Therefore, Ming Na was actually very happy to be able to escape from the clutches of the potion master as soon as possible.
After packing all the luggage she could and saying goodbye to the friends, teachers and classmates she had met in the past two years, Mingna followed her grandfather on the hired boat. She remembered with some regret that Happy, who had been confined at home by his mother to study hard because he failed in the exam, silently wished that he would not fail the exam next time.
Luba from the neighbor's house came specially to see off their grandson, with a look of reluctance on her face: "I have to leave so soon. My sister can't bear to leave little Mingna." She also hugged Mingna's head and rubbed her.
Ming Na finally broke away, stepped back one meter, and said with a smile: "When will Sister Luba marry Brother Wise? I will definitely come to the wedding then." As she spoke, she peeked at Wise who was helping to move things. , the other party smiled and winked at her, and carried a box of dry food onto the ship.
Luba slapped Ming Na on the head: "Little devil, why do you care so much?" Although she said this, when she looked at her sweetheart, the expression on her face was so sweet that it almost dripped with honey.
The luggage was loaded and the ship sailed. Luba kept waving to say goodbye to Ming Na and Xiao Tianjian. Suddenly, a pink water lotus with water droplets appeared in front of her, and she knew that it was picked by Wise from the waterside just now. Looking up, she saw him waving to Ming Na as if nothing was wrong. She slapped him angrily a few times, took the flowers, and raised her sleeves to wipe the sweat on his forehead: "Do you mind if you keep doing this... "
Mingna watched the two of them making love to each other on the shore from a distance, secretly snickering, and shouted loudly: "Sister Luba, you and Brother Wise must love each other and don't quarrel!" This made everyone around them turn to Luba and Wise. Look, Luba was stamping her feet and scolding "the troublesome brat" from a distance, but she was quickly hugged and gagged by her lover.
Ming Na laughed and hid back in the cabin. Xiao Tianjian was sitting next to the boatman and watching the scenery. When he turned around and saw her, he couldn't help but laugh.
The boat they took was hired from a civilian area. It was slightly larger than the one they took when they arrived. The boatman was a strong middle-aged man. Minna saw him rocking the oar and became interested, so she whispered to her grandfather: "Let me rock the boat? I have rocked it before." She lived in the Magic City for two years and played with the local children. No stranger to these things.
Xiao Tianjian hesitated for a moment and said with a smile: "The river is too narrow now, there are many boats, and the water is deep. If you want to play, we can talk about it later." Ming Na had to give up.
Since the western civilian area where they lived was in the opposite direction to the Barrow River they came from, they walked from the west via the Senluo River to the capital city of Yini, which was more than ten kilometers away. After walking less than ten kilometers, we came to the intersection with the Barrow River. The river was five to six hundred meters wide, with countless boats of various sizes plying back and forth on the water. There were bustling markets and residential areas on both sides of the river.
Ahead is the Yi Ni Dam. Bao Deman, the dedicated boatman of the Xiao Family Trading Company in Anke City, once described it as a behemoth five times larger than the Ori Dam. But in Ming Na's opinion, although the dam was very high, it was not even five times as high. However, seeing that it blocked the entire river surface, she also suspected that Baoderman probably didn't mean the height, right
The dam has six gates, which are released every day according to the number of passing ships. Ming Na and her party were lucky. When they arrived in front of the dam, the gate opened and they passed through smoothly without waiting. However, after passing through the gate, Ming Na discovered what the so-called "five times" meant.
In fact, there is a large rectangular lake behind the gate, with a boundary of two or three kilometers wide. Many boats are parked in the lake, lined up in three rows under the flags of the dam staff, and then slowly pass through the next gate, and then the river surface .
On the north and south sides of the lake are towering dams, which seem to be made of large stones and are very strong, while on the east and west sides are mountains and fortresses. Ming Na recalled what she saw in the textbook, plus her grandfather was beside her. Explain that this dam is actually a defensive fortification in Italy.
After passing the dam, you can see the edge of the city to the right. Although Shaonan has often become the target of invasion by other countries because of its wealth, it has never destroyed the country. It has weathered the difficulties with difficult support every time. To put it more carefully, it has been a country for thousands of years, and it is the only country on the mainland. One of the oldest countries (second only to the Kingdom of Elf), and its capital, Yini, is a thousand-year-old capital.
A large river flows by it, so a large part of the city is close to the water. Then the farther west, the higher the terrain, and a large area of densely packed houses stretches from the water's edge to the sky. It is almost impossible to see the end, and it can only be vague. I vaguely saw a large rose gold building on the top of the mountain, which was the Shaonan Palace.
It was actually still early at this time, Ming Na and her party had just set off. Xiao Tianjian thought of his little granddaughter's departure and wondered when she would have a chance to come back, so he simply took her along the way to have some fun. Italy, the largest city in the continent, was naturally not to be missed.
The closer you get to Italy, the more you can see the unique traces of this city. Most of the houses are old. Although the exterior walls are newly painted in various bright colors, the mottled walls hint at their age. It is also half a water city, and the waterways in Yi Ni are much wider than those in the Magic City. But the strange thing is that large ships are not allowed to enter here, so Ming Na and Xiao Tianjian can only pay to get off the ship and transfer to a local boat.
These small boats range in length from two to five meters, with pointed ends and a slender body. They are very flexible and convenient to operate whether they are carrying people or cargo. Minna sat on the stern of the boat and entered the waterway outside the city of Yi Ni, and found that its speed was quite fast.
Summer is the season when rivers swell, and river levels rise, flooding low-lying areas in the city. If the Magic City builds its houses on the shore near the water, then the current situation in Yinyi Outer City seems to be that the houses are built directly in the water. Along the way, Ming Na saw many people holding boats directly into their homes. The second or third floors of these buildings are connected to other buildings by bridges. Vendors propped up small boats carrying various goods on the river to sell. If someone wanted to buy something, a basket with money was hung down by a rope, and the hawker would put the goods into the basket and let the customer lift it up.
Ming Na saw it interestingly, and threw a few coins to the vendors, and bought some snacks and fruits. Among them, the small fish rice, compared with the Ori fish rice she had eaten before, was missing the round seed grass. But with more chopped mango and mycelium, the taste is more fragrant.
After Ming Na finished eating these things in a leisurely manner, the small boat she was riding in reached the waterway near the Xiao Family Trading Company branch in Italy. The branch here is located in a commercial district in the outer city. It is a building with pink red walls. It looks very spacious, and the door is submerged in the water. But when Ming Na took a boat and entered through the doorway, she discovered that there was a cave inside.
There are buildings on all sides behind the doorway, and in the middle is a square pool, which looks like the shape of the Chinese character "Hui" that Xiao Tianjian taught him. There are stairs on three sides of the pool. As you climb up the steps, people from the branch have already come up to you.
Xiao Tianjian was very familiar with the people here. He was chatting and saying hello while walking towards the front house surrounded by everyone. Minna followed closely behind the crowd.
When he came to the house, Xiao Tianjian saw a large strip of red silk tied on the door with two wooden carved birds tied at the end. He smiled and said, "Whose family gave birth to a son? Is it Lao Gu?"
The person next to him smiled: "No, Lao Gu's wife gave birth to a daughter at the end of last month." Xiao Tianjian raised his eyebrows: "Hey, eight thousand gold, it's not easy, Lao Gu, all the young men in Italy will know it in the future. Crazy for your daughter." Everyone laughed kindly. One of the dark-skinned middle-aged men touched his head sheepishly and whispered: "I just received the notice this morning that the Crown Princess gave birth to a baby last night. Prince, this is specially prayed for the little prince.”
"Oh? Have you given birth already?" Xiao Tianjian nodded, "That's really unfortunate. I remember that according to the rules, circuses and theaters across the country had to stop performing for that little baby a hundred days ago, right?"
"Yes, we want to pray for the little prince. But those people are also rehearsing new shows so that they can show their faces in front of the royal family on the day of the 100th anniversary."
Xiao Tianjian glanced at Ming Na with regret, but Ming Na had already pouted. She had heard from her grandfather about the circus and theater in Italy. She used to ask him to take her to play during the holidays, but because Sauron refused to let him go or her grandfather was not available, she always failed to come. She thought she would finally come this time. You can get what you want, but this happens again. She couldn't wait for a hundred days.
Only then did the people in the branch notice Ming Na's presence. After knowing her identity, their expressions were a little strange, but they quickly returned to normal and enthusiastically welcomed the grandson and grandson into the house.
They lived in the two best rooms in the main building, and all the furniture and supplies were carefully selected. Ming Na had lived a simple life for two or three years and didn't care much about these things. When she opened the window and saw the lively scene on the street outside, she put away her frustration and happily went shopping with her grandpa.
There is a shop facing the street at the back door of the branch (perhaps it should be said that this is its real front door). After passing it, the street is outside. Italy's commerce is very developed. There are no less than 30 blocks in the outer city alone. More than half of them are mainly commercial, 30% are half-residential and half-commercial, and the remaining parts have schools, temples, government agencies, hospitals, Places such as purely residential areas.
There are goods from all over the mainland on the street, as well as goods said to be from other continents. Minna even found white porcelain tableware with the name of a store on the Qedon Pier. The variety of goods was overwhelming, and there were many new, interesting, and unheard-of things. She really wished she had an extra pair of eyes. After wandering like this for several days, she only visited a few nearby blocks, which was less than one-tenth of the city.
In the past few days, she bought two bottles of Shaonan specialty perfume for her mother, a pair of very soft and comfortable calfskin boots for her father, a few jacquard square towels for Winnie, and some body repairs for Grandpa Marshall. pills and bought a lot of potion ingredients for myself. In addition, I bought gifts for Grandma Mirabell and her uncle’s family who are about to meet. At this time, she was in trouble again.
What should I buy for my grandpa
She remembered that Happy had just bought a gift for Grandpa Happy's birthday not long ago, and decided to buy the same one.
That night, Xiao Tianjian received a gift from his granddaughter...a very good girdle, genuine leather produced by Nuojia, warm and moderately soft, but he still couldn't help but feel depressed, wasn't this kind of thing for the old man? It turns out that in the eyes of my little granddaughter, he has already reached this age...
(This volume is coming to an end...)