Chapter 34

A young woman with a white hair band is washing clothes by the river in maple leaf village, kaidoziling, del Province, in the kingdom of foster.

Although it is late autumn, kaiduoqi belongs to the south, and the temperature is not too low and cold, so it is reasonable that the woman is still washing clothes at this time. Although her hands have been frozen white.

"Leah TIA calls you home for dinner ~" a middle-aged woman holding a headscarf shouted at the entrance of the village in the distance.

"I see ~ Aunt Mary ~" the woman responded, quickly put away the washed clothes, and put the unwashed ones aside. She was ready to come and wash them when she was free tomorrow.

After the woman cleaned up, she found that Aunt Mary was still waiting for her at the entrance of the village. She ran past with her things.

"Aunt Mary, let's go." The woman held the wooden basin for clothes in one hand and aunt Mary's arm in the other.

"Hey, TIA really has a good daughter. I envy her." Aunt Mary exclaimed.

"Aunt Mary, Hank, they are also good. Thank you for your help this year." Said the woman.

"Those boys, in addition to giving me a few mouths to eat, how can they have other skills!" Aunt Mary is always so hot.

"Ha ha ~" the woman covered her mouth and smiled.

"If your brother is the most promising in our village, he has been the leader of the team for only a few years. What will he do in the future?" Aunt Mary exclaimed.

Xu thought of her brother, whom she hadn't seen for several years. The woman Chen Mo said for a moment and smiled, "Hans is also very good. The third class soldier is also praised in the village."

"That boy doesn't have to rely on your brother, Locke. I thought he was smart when I was a child." Aunt Mary was very happy to hear the woman praise her son.

They walked in the village together, and the passing villagers took care of them very warmly. Most of the parents in the village are elderly, and most of the young and middle-aged have joined the army.

After walking to a yard west of the village, Aunt Mary talked with the woman and left. Their house is next door and not far away.

The woman waved her hand, watched Aunt Mary enter her yard, and pushed the door into the house. The door leaf is just an ordinary firewood door, but it looks very new. It should be newly repaired.

"Mother, I'm back." Cried the woman.

The woman is Leah, Locke's sister, and this yard is also the home where Locke lived for 14 years.

"Oh, my daughter is back." An old man with gray hair squatted on a wooden pier in the yard, smoking a dry cigarette and greeting. This is old Locke, Locke and Leah's father.

Civilians have no surnames, only first names, such as Locke and Shaxi. In some families with low educational level, when there is only one boy, the child will inherit his father's name. For example, Locke will inherit his father's name. The villagers they know call them old Locke and little Locke.

Of course, Locke is a young man now, and his status is not low. People will no longer call him little Locke, but Locke.

Aristocrats are different. Each aristocrat has his own surname, family and clan emblem. These three are important criteria for judging the size of power among nobles. Outsiders generally call the aristocrat's surname. For example, kaiduoqi is a surname, and the surname represents the face of the aristocrat. Among the aristocrats, only the head of the family is qualified to be honored as a surname.

For example, there is only one Baron kaiduoqi. Although master Solon is also called kaiduoqi, others only call him Solon.

"Father, how many times have you said, don't always smoke!" Leah is a sensible and clever girl, but she always disagrees with her father on the matter that her father likes to smoke dry tobacco.

"Cough... Anyway, I haven't lived for a few years. I had a mouth addiction before I died." Old Locke coughed twice, put out his cigarette gun and tied it to his back waist. He still listened to his daughter's words.

Leah put her clothes and wooden basin back into the house, took out a small stool, sat behind old Locke and knocked old Locke on the back.

"It's still a daughter ~" old Locke stretched and sighed comfortably. Old Locke thinks that the two most successful things he has done in his life are adopting his sister's daughter and giving birth to Locke, a good son. Of course, Leah is not his own daughter. Only he, his wife and some old people in the village know about it.

Not long after, the smell of rice came. A middle-aged woman came out of the house with a bowl. The woman with crow's feet on her eyes and gray hair was the mother of TIA, Locke and Leah.

There are only flour cakes and a few corn cobs in the bowl, but it is also rare and delicious. If there were not a brother who has been taking care of the family for the past two years, they might not even be able to eat it.

TIA put the bowl on a wooden pier and went back to the house to bring out a large bowl of soup. The soup was the water boiled with corn cobs. TIA added several wild vegetables to the water, making the soup both sweet and fresh. A simple dinner is the norm for the vast majority of civilians in the world.

The three of them sat around the wooden pier with small benches and began their dinner. Although kaiduoqi was subordinate to the south, in late autumn, when the north wind blew, the three diners trembled. In the low temperature environment, several people accelerated the progress of dining.

It's not that I don't want to eat in the house, but the wooden house of Locke's family has only a small 20 square meters. This small space is also divided into three parts: a kitchen, a room of old Locke and TIA, and a room of Lia and Locke. In addition to the stove and two beds, there is even no excess furniture in the house. The meals of Locke's family or some manual work done by TIA and LIA, It was all done sitting in the yard outside the house.

Not only the lockers, but also most families in maple leaf village. It's too crowded to stand in the room, let alone sit around eating.

On the dinner table, the three people ate silently, and the wooden pier around them vacated a position, which was once Locke's position. Old Locke is honest. Leah's character follows her mother, TIA. She is also a simple woman who works hard and works hard. The family always think of Locke when they eat together. Therefore, there are not many small chats on the table.

Old Locke grabbed a corn and began to chew it. From time to time, he bowed his head and drank a mouthful of soup. Leah followed her mother, TIA, and just bit the bread gently.

"The price of grain in the town has gone up again." TIA said at dinner. The Locke family is different from the Hans family next door. He doesn't have young men. The two acres of land in his family depend only on the body. Old Locke and her mother grow not enough food at all. They can only ensure that they don't die of hunger. If they want to eat enough, they have to buy food.

"Just go up. No one has surplus food these days." Old Locke said while eating, "how much money did Locke send back last month?" Asked old Locke.

"Half of the money sent back last month has been saved, and the other half has 30 left." TIA said.

"That's enough. It's estimated that the Baron's caravan will come back in these two days..." Old Locke said nothing. The Baron's caravan came back, but there was no guarantee that their children could send back money. They couldn't come back after seeing too many young people in the village go out. What they came back was the death compensation and bad news of the Baron's caravan. They are too afraid to receive the death notice of their children one day. Like most villagers, they have a complex emotion of both hope and hope for the Baron caravan.

"Don't think about the bad news." TIA knew what her wife was thinking. She said to the good, "I have saved a lot of money from Locke in recent years. In addition, I became a team leader last year and sent more money. There is enough money at home. Should I find a daughter-in-law for Locke?" TIA is very interested in Locke's marriage. Locke is now 18 and is old enough to get married and have children.

"Well, Locke has been doing well in the Baron's army these years. It's time to find him a good daughter-in-law." Old Locke nodded and said that old Locke agreed that his wife wanted to find a wife for Locke.

After dinner, Leah and TIA cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks, while old Locke hunched over, checked whether the door in the yard was closed, put the farm tools and other items in the yard, and finally returned to the house with three small benches at dinner.

In late autumn, it always gets dark very fast. Locke's family is not the only one. Most people have gone to bed at this time.

After cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks, Leah said hello to her parents and went back to the house. This is a seven or eight square meter cabin. There are only two thin wooden beds and a small cabinet half a meter high. This is not only Leah's wardrobe, but also Leah's box for some of her own gadgets, such as silk scarves for hair, handkerchiefs woven by herself......

Leah took off the white scarf tied to her hair and carefully put it in the cabinet. In the cabinet, in addition to the white scarf, there was also a cyan one, which Leah bought this year, just because her brother at the front asked the merchant to bring it. Leah stroked the silk scarf and didn't know where she had gone. When she came back to her senses, her face turned red and put the silk scarf back in place.

Leah lay in her own bed and looked at the empty bed next to her. Her heart was empty. She thought of her brother, Locke, the naughty and sensible little boy. Or she remembered when she slept with Locke in her arms when she was a child. Leah surrounded her arms with a mass of air and thought of Locke.

-----------------------------------------------

The exam will start tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Xiaodou can't resume writing until about the 15th. He doesn't have a draft in his hand. He has been busy reviewing recently and has no time to write, so I'll start this chapter today. Xiaodou may be more before the 15th, but not necessarily. Forgive me.