Lord Highlander

After entering June, there hasn't been a single rain in the barren land.

The seedlings in the wheat fields around Wall Village are already knee-high, and there is a lush green scene in the valley.

Although the rainy season has not yet come, the dry season this year is the best year for Wall Village because the reservoir was built in time before winter last year and was filled with water throughout the winter.

The water pool in Beigou Grassland has completely dried up, and the rattan grass and thirsty grass on both sides of the ditch have been eaten up by gazelle, leaving only the rhizomes under the ground.

The wheat harvested last fall was running low after a long winter followed by a long dry season.

This year's drought has become more severe. Many villagers from other villages have gone to Hailansa City to seek a living. Some skilled bricklayers and stonemasons have also gone to Wall Village to build reservoirs and flood control dams for artificial drainage channels.

There are many villagers who cross the Paglos Mountain and enter Oak Ridge to dig wild vegetables and cassava. Some women are worried about leaving their children at home to starve, so they usually take their children into the mountain to dig wild vegetables.

When many people passed by the entrance of Wall Village, they would stop and look into the village. They really wanted to take a good look at the cistern under construction.

Today, the stream in Wall Village is one of the few streams in the barren land with clear water flowing.

The villagers who pass here will fill up their shriveled water sacs on the side of the stream, and then lean over to have a full drink before continuing to cross the mountain pass and enter Oak Ridge.

A group of children from Woer Village sat under a big tree at the entrance of the village.

Old Sheila would bring little Peter here every day, and she would think of herself when she saw those old and young villagers with yellow and emaciated faces heading towards Oak Ridge. Ta is going to get married again, and I am afraid that he will also bring little Peter to join the army to dig wild vegetables in Oak Ridge. Life is always full of hardships and helplessness.

Old Sheila would hold little Peter tight at such times.

Little Peter, who was held in the arms of old Sheila, stared wide-eyed and refused to be idle for a moment.

He looked curiously at the slave camp not far away, and wanted to check out the mysterious house surrounded by reed mats with his friends, and wanted to know how the kobold slaves lived.

Several times, I almost got in, but was stopped by the adults in the village in time.

The adults warned these naughty and mischievous children, those kobolds will eat any kind of meat, but children are their favorite food...

The sun was shining warmly on his body. Little Peter showed the jujube shield and wooden sword in his hand to the friends around him, which made those children very envious.

A few old people sitting at the entrance of the village were chatting under the tree, and the topic always turned to Suldak.

The old man asked, "Dake will come back this time, won't he leave again?"

A tall figure appeared in the old Sheila's heart, and said in a calm voice: "He is now a knight of the guard battalion of Hailansa City. As long as the higher-ups issue a mobilization order for war in the plane, he may go to the battlefield at any time."

Another old man had a sour envy in his tone: "Yes, Little Duck is the first knight to go out of our Wall Village..."

Old Sheila didn't want to talk about this, her eyes fell on the brown-haired woman who came out of the wasteland not far away.

Her hair was in a mess, and she carried a baby in swaddling on her broad shoulders, and there were two more beside her, the big one holding the small one.

The woman walked very slowly, her skirt was a little torn, and her thin thighs were exposed when she walked. Her face was a little hungry, and the child on her back was holding a piece of thin wicker in his hand, and was crying loudly while feeding it to his mouth. .

The two little ones were also as thin as hemp sticks, and they followed behind the woman. Although it was very difficult to walk, they both gritted their teeth and walked forward without making a sound.

Their skirts were a little wet, and they had obviously drank water by the stream.

Hearing the cry of the child, old Sheila stood up from under the tree and walked towards the family.

"Which village are you from?"

Old Sheila was standing by the side of the road, her back so bent that she had to tilt her head to chat with the woman.

"Yuangang Village..." the woman stopped and said to old Sheila.

She shook the child behind her, trying to lull him to sleep. At least she wouldn't feel too hungry in her dream. As long as she turned over another ridge, she might be able to find some wild vegetables.

But the child refused to sleep no matter what, and cried more and more.

"Come from so far away?"

Old Sheila looked at the child, and stretched out her hand to tease him.

The woman nodded reluctantly.

"Where's the child's father?" Old Sheila asked casually.

"Died on the plane battlefield..." The woman turned her head away, quietly hiding the bitterness on her face.

The child on her back suddenly stopped crying, and the woman looked back in surprise, only to see that old Sheila was taking out a piece of crispy chestnut flour pancake from her bosom, split the pancake in half, and stuffed it tenderly into the mouth. There were two children next to the woman. The older girl wanted to refuse shyly. The younger child stretched out her dirty hands early and held half a pancake in her palm. His eyes were shining, staring at the girl. Zhang Miscellaneous Grain Cake gave off a strange brilliance.

The youngest child on the back grabbed a snow-white toasted wheat cake with both hands and stuffed it into his mouth.

The younger child ran up to the woman holding the half of the multigrain cake. His eyes were full of longing, but he still stood on tiptoe and handed it to the woman, saying in a low voice, "Mom, you eat!"

There were tears in the woman's eyes, but she hardened her heart and said to the younger child: "Ninny, we can't take the cake from grandma, we will starve if we eat it from grandma, bear it any longer, turn over the ridge in front, There are a lot of green wild vegetables behind the mountain."

Old Xi stretched his hand to touch the child's face that was flushed by the wind, and said slowly: "A multigrain pancake is nothing, you can walk there hungry, but the two little ones are already too hungry Now, you have no right to refuse for him, this is for children."

After speaking, he stuffed the remaining half of the multigrain cake into the arms of the older child, then turned and walked back to the dead tree at the entrance of the village.

The woman stood at the entrance of the village and saw the old Sheila sitting under the dead tree, then silently led the two children, one big and one small, to the mountain pass.

The old people sat under the tree and chattered:

"I don't know how long it will take until it rains..."

"It's almost here, it's already June, and last year it rained heavily in late June."

"Damn year, damn plane war!"

...

dusk, sunset.

The birds looking for food on the wasteland have returned to their nests one after another.

Some villagers slowly climbed over the mountains and walked home.

There are not as many wild vegetables in Oak Ridge as imagined. If you want to dig more wild vegetables, you have to go further into the mountains.

The kobold slaves dragged their exhausted bodies back from the river. After washing themselves, they waited obediently by the big iron pot in the slave camp.

The smell of beans in the multigrain porridge cooked in the iron pot wafted far away. When the women returning from Oak Ridge passed Wall Village, the eyes of some children who followed them would involuntarily look towards the slave camp.

After a group of kobold slaves washed by the river, they sat outside the slave camp and silently ate porridge.

A lot of multigrain porridge is cooked, because occasionally Wall villagers come here to drink porridge, just to save a dinner. The wheat bran in this kind of multigrain porridge is a bit throat-piercing, but it is definitely not unpalatable Well, the cook who is in charge of distributing the porridge will only ensure that each kobold slave gets a big bowl, and the remaining miscellaneous porridge will not be controlled too strictly, and it is not impossible for the villagers to drink porridge.

If the cook feels that the porridge is not enough, she will add some water to the pot, and stir it casually to make another big pot. Of course, this situation cannot be seen by the old village chief, otherwise he will really scold people .

Rita and Natasha exchanged jobs with women in the village. They came from the reservoir construction site to the slave camp to cook porridge. The main reason is that the women in the village felt that the food at the reservoir construction site was better. After all, the cook can still have a working meal every day, and Rita and Natasha probably are the only women in the village who don't care about this dinner.

Old Sheila took little Peter and sat on the big rock beside the slave camp, waiting for the two of them to get off work.

Andrew and Samira led their horses and walked back from outside the village. The two of them would patrol the barren land every few days, and this time they went out for nearly a week.

Seeing little Peter staring eagerly at the kobold slaves drinking porridge, and licking his lips from time to time, Andrew squatted in front of little Peter, put his arms around his shoulders and asked with a smile:

"Why, hasn't our little knight had his dinner yet?"

Little Peter shook his head, stretched out his hand and patted the small cloth bag on his back, indicating that it contained food.

"Then why are you drooling while watching the kobold slaves eating dinner?"

Little Peter replied crisply: "Uncle Andrew, I just want to know what is boiled in the pot, they eat delicious duck!"

Andrew touched little Peter's head, and said seriously: "That's not delicious, are you really going to try it?"

Hearing what Andrew said, Little Peter became a little hesitant.

Samira came up from behind, took out an apple from his pocket and stuffed it for little Peter. Andrew and little Peter made an appointment to test his homework tomorrow morning, and they led the horse back to the village.

It wasn't until the two left that the kobolds in the slave camp breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. The villagers couldn't feel the strong murderous aura emanating from the two, but their noses could smell the blood, whether it was the butcher behind Andrew , or the quiver hanging on Samira's back waist, all have this strong aura.

...

Kobold slaves would go into the shed to rest after dinner, and their easy-going personality could easily be satisfied no matter where they went.

There was still a little grain porridge left in the big iron pot. Rita and Natasha were going to scoop out the porridge, scrub the big iron pot well, and the day's work was over.

The two were chatting about what to eat for dinner. Suldak came back for dinner tonight. Natasha wanted to make the dinner richer. Little Peter was sitting on the side eating apples. Apples can still be eaten in this season Yes, there is only the half-elf archer under Suldak in the village.

Old Sheila came to Rita, stooped to pick up a big wooden bowl from the big wooden basin, and handed it to Rita.

"You want to eat this?" Rita's eyes widened, she looked at the big wooden bowl in Old Sheila's hand, and then pointed to the porridge that was about to cool down in the iron pot with a spoon.

When old Sheila faced Rita, she didn't have any scruples in speaking. She stared and said to Rita:

"Can't I have a bowl if I don't eat it?"

"I didn't say that." Rita muttered, and filled a large wooden bowl of multigrain porridge for Old Sheila casually.

Natasha, who was busy at the side, hurried over and said to Old Sheila, "The porridge is a bit cold, how about I warm it up?"

Old Sheila waved her hand and said, "That's good!"

After finishing speaking, he took advantage of the moonlight to walk out of the village entrance. Under the dead tree outside the village entrance, a sallow and thin woman was holding a child in her arms, and two smaller ones were sitting quietly beside her. There, old Sheila walked over with a big wooden bowl and handed it to the woman without saying a word.

Such a large bowl of multigrain porridge is enough for a woman and a few children to eat.

After the woman thanked her, she distributed the porridge to the three young ones. After the three children were full, she poured the rest of the porridge into her stomach.

Then they took advantage of the moonlight to leave Wall Village.

It wasn't until the woman and the children walked away that Rita, who was hiding not far away, stood up, raised her eyebrows and said dissatisfiedly to old Sheila:

"Hey, what are you trying to do?"

Old Sheila walked towards the slave camp with an empty wooden bowl without raising her head, and said casually, "Can't you see?"

"But it's against the rules!" Rita declared her position to old Sheila.

Old Sheila stopped in her tracks, turned to Rita and asked, "Just because I asked you for a bowl of porridge?"

"You're going to make it hard for us," Rita said.

Old Sheila looked up, looked into Rita's eyes and asked her, "What's the problem?"

Rita argued, "If other people follow your example, how can we refuse?"

"Why did you refuse?" Old Sheila asked Rita as she stuffed the wooden bowl in her hand.

Rita said: "There is only so much porridge. Whoever eats more is destined to eat less. If too many people are like this, what will those kobold slaves who dig river channels for us eat?"

Old Sheila said very dissatisfied: "They just ate a little leftover, will anyone be hungry? Have you forgotten the days when you were starving?"

The dispute between old Sheila and Rita continued until the dinner table. The candles on the table kept dripping wax oil on the candlestick. Little Peter looked at the candles on the candlestick with some fascination. He really wanted to pick the one that kept dancing with a knife. flames.

Natasha sat aside and didn't dare to intervene. Seeing that the staple food basket on the dining table was still empty, she took out a basket of white bread from the kitchen.

Dinner is fried steak, which is very tender and only medium rare.

If this kind of meat is overcooked, it will lose a lot of juice and become smaller. Therefore, the barbecue meat eaten by the villagers is basically only medium rare.

There was still a glass of golden cider in front of Suldak, and Natasha silently put a piece of white bread on his plate.

Suldak cut up the fried meat on the plate and distributed it to everyone's plates, then said to old Sheila and Rita with a smile: "Don't argue, in fact, this matter is easy to solve. I'm also discussing this with Uncle Brett..."