April 3, 0001, the medieval world.
In the long and narrow valley, a team of more than ten people is slowly moving forward.
Dozens of steps ahead of the team, at a certain place by the mountain spring that was hidden by the steep slope and trees above, a man in leather armor wiped off the sweat from his forehead, got off his horse, and another man stood respectfully beside him , Hastily delivered the mountain spring that was filled early.
The heart-warming mountain spring quickly drove away the fatigue and heat. The man in leather armor let out a sigh of relief, and handed the wooden bowl to the man who was still waiting respectfully. The man in leather armor looked forward , while asking: "Ante, how far is it?"
Ante hurriedly swiped his fingers and counted silently, pulling all the fingers of a whole palm, and he replied: "Take another slap to the corner, and then..." As he said, Ante clamped the wooden bowl with his arm, and then vacated it with his hand. The palm of his hand clapped twice: "...after two more turns, we will reach the village of Akeli, Master Harvey."
"Ha, I have a good memory. After all, it's the messenger..." Master Harvey smiled, and patted Ante on the shoulder: "Go and drink water, and tell the people behind to hurry up after drinking."
Hearing the order, Ante quickly squatted beside the mountain spring, drank a few sips of water quickly, Ante stood up, opened his palms and fingers, waved vigorously at the team covered in dust and tired on their feet, and shouted loudly: "Everyone! Work harder, take one more turn, and two more turns, and you will arrive at the village of Akeli!"
The master's staring eyes, coupled with the encouragement of the messenger, immediately increased the speed of the team.
However, after only a few tens of seconds of walking, a small figure suddenly staggered at the back of the entire team, and another small figure beside him stretched out his hand to help, but was also pulled down, and the two fell at the same time One fall.
Noticing the movement at the back, several people in the team returned to help the two who fell down, and the people in front also turned their heads and looked behind.
The team's speed dropped again.
"Tsk..." Looking at this scene, beside the mountain spring, Master Harvey smacked his lips, instead of being annoyed, he sighed: "Ante, do you think it's true that the buckwheat in Akeli Village doubles its seeds?"
"I don't know, master." Ante shook his head cautiously: "I'm just a stupid messenger."
"And you want it to be true?"
"This..." Ante raised his eyes secretly, and Master Harvey was looking into the distance. At that place, two small figures were supporting each other, struggling but firmly following the team.
Master Harvey sighed again, and answered himself, "I hope it's true."
I also hope it is true, Ante replied in his heart: Otherwise, little Green and little Osis would really have no way to survive.
As a well-informed messenger, Ante is quite sure that his master Harvey/Ogi/Ackford Knight is a rare and kind master in this world.
At the hottest time last year, there were several heavy rains in a row, turning the middle water passing by the village into a flood. At that time, the parents of Little Green and Little Osis were also dizzy. To a small pea field ten steps away, I ran to the water's edge in the middle of the night to pick peas.
In the end, they saved trouble and went to see the master early, leaving all the suffering in this world to the two children.
Master Harvey was kind enough to exempt the death tax, the grace tax, and the fodder for the bulls. He also gave young Green and Osis a full interval between three sermons, allowing them to continue working on their original land. As long as the work can be done similarly—even if it is done sloppily, and everyone sighs—then they will not take it back for the time being, and let these two little guys continue to farm.
It's a pity that the master probably wanted to reunite the family. The luck of little Green and Osis was terrible. The buckwheat field grew worms, the pea field collapsed, and even the fallow pasture land was completely burned by the sky fire. .
In this way, in winter, Master Harvey kindly gave them two jars of peas, and gave them special permission to dig squirrel nests in the mountains, so that little Green and little Osis survived.
This year, when the warming started again, the two little guys continued to work harder in the allotment.
However, the whole year of bad luck last year, the family did not have any accumulation, and this year is even more difficult. In the summer, even the worn-out farm tools can no longer be repaired.
How to fix it
— It is also difficult to handle farm tools. Every time I help two little guys repair farm tools for nothing, the next day my face is guaranteed to be scratched by a woman.
——It’s also difficult for the mother-in-law of the farm tool handle. Every time the two little guys go there, the brightest star is still overhead the next morning, and the family has to go out quickly to catch up with the work that the farm tool handle left behind the day before. .
It's difficult for anyone in this world.
Even harder.
Ante had seen more difficult times.
That was when Ante was just married.
The autumn harvest was over that year, and Master Meng was merciful, and Ante was allowed to choose a tree at the edge of the forest as the main body of the house.
When Ante picked the trees, his wife also came to enjoy this happiness, and by the way, the wife who gleaned wheat ears in the surrounding fields. —At this time, only such dangerous places can glean some ears of wheat.
When Ante selected the tree and was about to cut it down, he suddenly heard his wife's anxious cry.
He turned his head and saw a gray wolf throwing the lame widow's son to the ground.
The place where the gray wolf threw the little guy was only ten steps away from the lame widow, and only a few dozen steps away from Ante.
However, these ten steps, these dozens of steps, are so difficult.
When the lame widow, Ante, and Ante's wife rushed over to drive the wolf away together, the little guy's face had already been bitten into several big gashes that couldn't stop the bleeding.
"Mom, it hurts." After saying these words vaguely, the little guy died.
Within a few days, the lame widow was found dead at the bottom of the cliff in the east, dead in several pieces.
Although the parents went to see the master early, and the land suffered successively, little Green and little Osis survived for a year no matter what.
Even now there is a chance to try to find another village to take him in.
Ante has also seen a time when he couldn't survive three months, and it was impossible to find a place to take him.
When Ante was about the same age as little Green and little Osis, there was no rain in the village for three consecutive months.
During those three months, villagers brought their children into the forest every day while weeping.
Then come back alone.
Ante's uncle, who was the messenger at the time, was working more diligently to deliver letters between Ackford Castle and other villages at that time under the arrangement of the lord and the master. In the forests on the edge of each village, Ante's Uncle saw one lost child after another, piles of small skeletons.
During that time, Ante's uncle always avoided those lost children.
When it was really unavoidable, even at the risk of being punished by the masters or even running out of food, he would hide until those children who could never go home walked away by themselves, or turned into a pile of bones.
After that period of time, when it rained again, Ante's uncle handed over the messenger's position to Ante's father, and never stepped out of Harvey Knight Village again.
He never married in his life and left behind children.
It's true to wish the buckwheat doubled in seed.
Looking at the last two small figures in the team, holding each other together, Ante read silently.
Hope it's true.
Let little Green and little Osis have a place to stay.
Let the little guy not have to go to the mouth of the wolf to glean ears of wheat in autumn.
Let there be no more children who get lost on the mountain and can never go home.