At four or five o'clock in the morning, the sky was still dark, and most people were still asleep. Edsberg's market had become very lively, and the most industrious people in the whole city were sweating here.
There are bare-armed coolies, shouting slogans and dragging carts full of fruits and vegetables through the market; there are hawkers shivering by the cold wind in the morning, knitting sweaters with both hands, tidying up quickly and methodically. the wares on the shelves; young lads with hairy chins brushing forearm-thick skewers with spices in the smoke of charcoal and the aroma of roasting meat; and cattle dealers, pointing to whining in the wood circles Animals, negotiating prices with guests whose faces were flushed with cold.
Roy struggled to squeeze through several large boxes of green parsley and watercress that had just been picked from the ground and were still stained with mud, and came to a stall selling herbs.
The stall owner is a middle-aged man in his forties. He wears a thick felt hat and a gray cloak. The cloudy eyes have a bit of the shrewdness that a businessman is used to.
"Little brother, what do you want to buy?" The vendor's eyes turned on Roy's innocent and handsome face, and he rubbed his fingers mysteriously and vulgarly, "Medicine for hemorrhoids and anal fistulas?"
Hemorrhoids and anal fistulas? Why did he say that? He was stunned for a moment. Did he think that I… suddenly showed an ugly expression like eating flies, "I'm not here to buy herbs... My name is Roy, and I just came to Edsberg. I wanted to find a job, and I heard that there was a shortage of people in the market, so I came over and asked."
"I see... Roy," the businessman nodded, put his hands around his chest, and scrutinized him again, "you don't look strong enough, so let's get rid of most of the physical work first. Can you count? Can you read? Also What other advantages and advantages are there, let’s talk about it.”
"No problem with arithmetic, but I don't know how to use common words," Roy glanced at the merchant's shelf, observed dozens of herbs, and showed a slight smile on the corner of his mouth, "Besides, I'm very familiar with herbs. For example, I know that the oldest herbal medicine on your shelf is the five-year-old Datura root in the center grid. Datura root is very effective for rheumatism, malignant sores, and asthma."
The businessman was surprised when he heard the words. He didn't expect the young boy in front of him to have such poisonous eyesight, and he said exactly what he said. "Look carefully, what kind of herb is this?" The businessman pointed to a khaki-yellow, cone-shaped root in the left grid of the mandala root.
"It's aconite," Roy blinked at the shopkeeper, "about three years, and it's treated... um, has a miraculous effect on impotence."
The businessman asked him about more than a dozen herbs on the shelf in one breath, and Roy answered all of them fluently.
"Can you recognize the flower of this ghost needle grass? The little brother is really very knowledgeable," the shopkeeper extended his hand to him in admiration, "Roy, right? Just call me Tros. I run a herbal shop in the market for ten In the past few years, both myself and the store have a good reputation, do you want to consider doing things for me? Listening to your accent, it is obvious that you are not from Edsberger, except for me, the vendors of other stalls are not so easy to get along with.”
"Can you be more specific?" Roy breathed a sigh of relief and asked calmly, "For example, job content and salary..."
"Little brother, I am forty-three years old this year. In order to run this shop, I have to get up at four or five in the morning every day to buy goods and set up a stall with the cold wind blowing to death. This kind of life is too torturous, maybe I can't make it through. When I'm fifty, I'm going to die violently. I'm looking for a guy to help me get past this time period. Those who are familiar with herbal medicine and learn arithmetic are the best, and have a good memory."
"Mainly from four in the morning to eight in the morning, waiting for me to replace the shift. If there is no problem, the weekly salary is 5 kroner and 50 copper coins."
It is not difficult for Roy to get up before four o'clock every day. After completely replacing sleep with meditation, he only needs five hours of rest a night. But the weekly salary of 5.5 kronor is only 22 kroner a month, which is not enough for the rent outside the city.
"Uncle Tross can't fool me because I'm young and a foreigner..." Roy pursed his lips, "The weekly salary is 10 crowns... I can start work now."
"Little brother, you can't ask for a price. Like when I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I couldn't earn this much after working so hard for a month." Tros's eyes narrowed to a slit, and his tone changed, "How about this? ? The weekly salary is 7 crowns, and you have a meal, just next to the barbecue stall. I can guarantee that there is no better treatment elsewhere."
Roy stared into the businessman's eyes. After a long time, when the other party was about to lose his patience, he nodded, "Uncle Tros, how about starting to count the days today? Tell me how to do it? What are the herbs now? Quotes?"
…
Roy spent the morning at the herbal stall, asking about the price of each herb.
The prices of herbal medicines fluctuate frequently, so Tross writes the latest information on the kraft paper beside the shelf every morning for his reference and memory. He also taught him the basic weighing tools, as well as a few precautions.
In the end, he specially asked him to come to work before four in the morning tomorrow, and let him leave.
…
Roy continued to hang out at the market. The work at the herbal stall ended at 8:00 in the morning, and he still had a lot of time to prepare for another job.
The most ideal job is of course a butcher apprentice, with both experience and crown. But as the miller outside the city said, Edsberg is not a Kaye village. The butcher here is not related to him, and it is impossible to put oil and water. Cheap outsiders.
The job of slaughtering pigs and sheep outside the city was not up to him, but Roy was eyeing another job of a similar nature in the market—a hawker who specialized in handling live chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry for the townspeople.
The experience value of poultry is only 1 point, which is equivalent to one-fifth of ordinary livestock, but it cannot hold a large number.
The poultry-handling booth is right next to the wooden fence where the livestock are kept. The owner of the booth is a local old man with gray hair, Ruhr, who has the cheek to recommend himself to Roy. He showed him his skilled cutting skills and solved a quack monster cleanly. After calling the fat-headed goose and cleaning the hair, blood and internal organs, Ruhr agreed to take the employee.
It's just that the wages are extremely low, and only 50 copper coins are paid for every 30 poultry processed.
Roy didn't bargain. This effort was mainly for experience points. According to Old Ruhr, at least 15 poultry had to be handled in the morning alone, which is 15 points of experience points. It is even higher to fight to the death.
Big cities have this advantage, with more opportunities and ways to gain experience, and you don't have to risk your life all the time.
…
Roy breathed a sigh of relief, put down the bloody knife in his hand, and patted off the messy poultry feathers. Throughout the afternoon, he killed 20 "quacks" and gained 20 experience points and proficiency in slaughtering skills.
More importantly, with a place to stand, even if you don't rely on the witcher's relief, you can still survive in this big city. After a few days when the job stabilized, he went to a place to study.
…
Stepping into the afterglow of the setting sun, Roy returned to the water mill outside the city, and the smell of soil, grass and falling leaves hit him. He finally recovered from the stench of poultry feces, the corners of his mouth curved slightly, and his mood changed. be happy.
One hundred chi from the mill, Roy suddenly stopped and looked at the distance curiously.
Outside the dilapidated wooden warehouse, a group of boys and girls surrounded the place where hay and firewood were piled. Their faces showed meanness that did not match their age, and pointed at a petite figure sitting on the ground in the surrounding circle. The irony goes on and on.
"You are ugly, you look like a camel... You don't honestly hide in the house, and you dare to run out and sway around. Seeing you, you really have no appetite at all. How can you eat?!"
A tall and thin boy with dense freckles on his face, kept poking at the man's hair with his index finger, spitting out vicious words,
"Humph! She's not a camel, a camel is so cute..." Another little girl with two small pigtails and a delicate appearance, holding a branch with forked branches in her fleshy little hands, pressed heavily towards the man's high bulging back After pulling a stick, the man's body trembled, his hands wrapped around his knees, and his face was firmly attached to it. "She is a monster... It is filled with highly toxic sewage. If she hates anyone, she will secretly poison anyone's food... My grandmother must have been poisoned to death by her, and her biological mother was also poisoned by her. Poisoned himself!"
"She's an old witch, kind of freak, that's what the books say. She's cursing people and unleashing wicked sorcery every day. The witcher should be the one to get rid of her... mutants can deal with freaks."
"Woooo..." The man in the middle suddenly choked.
"Ugly, freak, and crying... I feel like we're bullying you!" The freckled boy slapped her on the back of the head, "We are doing this righteously, just like the revolutionary army, and she belongs to the baron You bastard over there! Hit her!"
Some children tugged at her hair, some punched and kicked her in the back, and others threw branches and smashed with stones and mud.
"Hey! A bunch of little bastards, what are you doing? Don't stop me!"
Suddenly there was a loud cry not far away, and the child who was doing evil was startled by the sound. When he looked back, he didn't care whether he could see clearly or not, and fled in a panic. In the blink of an eye, only the girl with her hands around her knees remained.
Her neat white apron was covered in footprints and mud, and patches of bruises and bruises could be seen on her exposed neck under her brown hair.
"Your name is Toya, right, the miller's daughter. How are you feeling, did those little bastards hurt you?" Roy walked to the side and squatted down, extending his hand to her.
The hunchback girl just turned her face and glanced at him, her eyes timid and wary.
There were two red slap prints on her fair little face, as if two buckets of dirty paint had been poured into a delicate oil painting. The girl's two palms covered with frostbite and calluses pressed against the ground, silently propped up her hunched, bony body that was pressed down by the huge hunchback, and limped into the warehouse and closed the door.
Roy couldn't imagine what kind of life the other party lived to show such an expression... But he felt that he should do something for the other party, so he took out the processed marigolds from the space, wrapped them in cloth and put them outside the door. "Toya, I left some herbs for you outside, just chew it up and rub it on the wound... Trust me, it works very well."
…
Before the dinner table, Roy mentioned this matter to the miller and his wife angrily,
"I saw a group of stinky bastards bullying Toya. Five or six people surrounded her, pulled her hair, beat her with a stick, and slapped her face. Do you care?"
"Oh, little brother, you don't know, that girl has a rough scalp. It doesn't hurt or itchy after a few hits, and she can still work honestly." Mana gnawed on the greasy fat, her bloated face. He had a habitual expression on his face.
Roy took a breath, there was no doubt that the fat woman must be a stepmother.
"I understand that you are kind." Henk also helped, "but our family is an ordinary family, we can't protect Toya like a princess? In this world, there is no way. With her appearance, to Where can I not be bitten and gossip? Toya can survive with more setbacks, grievances, and more sins. More than ten years have passed, and that girl is very strong now."
A little grievance and frustration
Roy understood, the pair of people who didn't even let Toya serve dinner didn't treat her as a daughter at all. They were probably just a free labor force who could be beaten and scolded
"Don't mention that girl. Little brother, have you been in the city for a long time today, have you found a job?" Mana asked curiously, more interested in this question than Toya.
"found it… "
Both husband and wife have joy in their eyes, and the job is stable, then this kid will have the money to continue renting the room...
After dinner, Roy took a look outside the warehouse door. He didn't see the marigolds. He breathed a sigh of relief. When he returned to the room, he suddenly found that there was a fresh, wiped clean on the bucket in front of the door. A clean apple, with the blue cloth wrapping the herbs under it.
"Is this a gift in return?"
He seemed to have found a way to communicate with the girl.