The most commendable thing about the imperial capital is that there are public pools in every street and alley in the slums, dozens of faucets stretch out from the stone walls, lined up in a neat row, and below is a solid sink made of bluestone slabs, in the hot summer, the pool is the most lively place in almost every street and alley, some industrious poor women gather together, carrying a large and heavy wooden basin, which is full of all kinds of dirty clothes, they squat next to the drainage ditch, talking and laughing to wash clothes, rough sound can be heard far away.The poor children would carry baskets full of variegated vegetable leaves to the edge of the pool, pick out the edible vegetable leaves, rinse them with water repeatedly, and place them neatly on the stone platform.A boy who has washed the leaves will put his head under the faucet, let the cool water soak the dry yellow curls, and then rub the dust and mud on his face, and finally pick up a handful of water and sprinkle it on his chest to cool his body, and the girls on the side will also stretch out their hands to hold the clear and clean cold water, wash their faces happily, and some younger children, simply climb up to the pool, stand in the pool and take a bath.The slums of the imperial capital are among the most densely populated, and it is these clean domestic waters that reduce the incidence of infectious diseases in the slums to a very low level.In the courtyard of a family not too far from the pool, a flat-bottomed iron pot with a black surface burned on the firewood pile, the fire under the iron pot was burning very strongly, and the heat wave of the fire could be felt from a distance of two or three meters, and the whole bottom pot iron pot was like a big water tank, and two poor men with shovels in their hands gathered around the iron pot, cooking a large pot of thick soup.This kind of pauper-style food is to use boiled butter to fry some special spices, then add some onions, small tomatoes, red peppers, throw in four or five fat chickens chopped into meat pieces, stir-fry to bring out the fragrance, and then pour in several large pots of water to boil, and then boil until the aroma is overflowing, and pour the whole bag of peeled rice into a large pot to cook.This kind of chestnut stew chicken cooked in a large pot has almost become a traditional food in the slums, a large pot is enough for half a street of neighbors to eat together, the people in the slums are very stressful, not only the men in the family have to go out to work, usually the women of the family also have to find a job in the nearby workshop to support the family, so that lunch has become a big trouble in the slum.I don't know when this method of taking turns to prepare food began, but this way of eating is a good solution to the lunch problem of these residents in the slum, this kind of meal is generally half a street of neighbors together, about 20 to 30 poor families take turns to prepare lunch at noon, they will set up a large pot in front of their yard, boil delicious soup, and then throw rice or wheat cake into the pot to cook, Use a large iron pot to make a lunch for 100 people at a time, and then quietly wait for the neighbors to get off work at noon, and then gather here in the big pot to eat together.I always thought that this kind of chicken boiled chestnut rice must be very delicious, but now it doesn't look like that at all, because the children by the pool, after cleaning the vegetables they have picked up, have carried the basket to the side of the big iron pot, and then an adult man with a firewood knife in the basket casually rummaged, casually cut two knives on the rotten leaves, and poured all the vegetables and vegetables into the big iron pot to boil together.It turned out that the children in the slums were picking up leaves at the market so that their lunch could be more hearty.Then the children would gather under the shade of a tree not far from the iron pot, each with a large bowl in his hand, staring at the big eyes and waiting quietly for the meal to begin.As soon as the lunch break arrived, men and women came out of the workshop one after another, and they joined into the alley, where they gathered around the pool to greet the women who were washing their clothes, and the whole public pool became noisy, like a busy vegetable market.The men and women who went to work enjoyed the first round of food, then the children and the old people who came out of the house slowly, and finally the women who washed their clothes by the pool.This is the way of life of the people in the slums of the imperial capital, most of the poor families cannot afford to send their children to the warrior academy, if these children do not awaken the magic pool before the age of twelve and change their fate, then they will become a member of the vegetable leaf scouts, and then slowly grow up in this neighborhood.Boys serve in the military at the age of sixteen, and they have the right to enjoy life only as auxiliaries or hoplites known as cannon fodder.The girls, after the coming-of-age ceremony at the age of sixteen, took their meager dowry and looked for an opportunity to marry a warrior who had returned home from the battlefield.The Grimm Empire has an imbalanced population ratio of boys and girls, and the girls who can have the opportunity to marry smoothly are either rich in dowry or beautiful in appearance.Of course, there will also be some beautiful girls who are selected by the nobles to become the handmaidens of the nobles, and many girls yearn for that kind of luxurious life.The girls who fail to marry themselves in time must work hard to accumulate more and more generous dowries for themselves, and strive to marry themselves off before the age of twenty-five, otherwise those officials of the Imperial Capital Civil Affairs Department will take the household registration book to register the older girls who have exceeded the age limit one by one, at this time, never try to guess their fate, maybe marry a wanderer, maybe marry a disabled veteran who walked down from the battlefield, maybe be sent to a remote and barren plane, in short, who knows?
We had lunch in an aristocratic restaurant in the Sixth Block, which looked relatively clean, and the reason we chose it was not because of the good food, but because the board at the door of the restaurant stated that the minimum price of a pan-fried veal steak was above three silver bells, and at the bottom of the board was clearly written: The restaurant refuses to trade on copper plates.Just a few words turned most people away.The owner of such an aristocratic restaurant in a slum must be bold enough to open such a noble restaurant, but a cursory calculation shows that a meal here will cost at least ten silver coins, and I suspect that most of the poor people will not come here to eat, and a meal here will reduce their hard-earned salary by a fifth in a month.After pushing open the door and walking in, I found that the restaurant was definitely not as deserted as I imagined, and the restaurant was very delicately decorated, the environment was elegant, and the guests were whispering, and each table would be separated from each other at a certain distance to maintain a relatively private space.The waiters standing at the door can ensure that every guest who enters the restaurant is well trained, not only is he polite when he speaks, but his eyes are not wandering around Lady Arya's body, and when the waiter talks to Lady Arya, he will consciously lower his eyelids, bow his head slightly, or just stare into Lady Arya's eyes.The inside of the restaurant felt very cool, and after a closer look, I realized that behind each hidden green plant, there was a block of ice hidden, and it was these melting ice cubes that made the restaurant feel comfortable.I realized that the owner of this restaurant was not selling delicious food, but the elegance and service, and he cleverly kept the ordinary poor out with high prices, and most of the nobles didn't care about a few silver hammers, so it became a restaurant for the aristocracy.Many of the shopkeepers in the slums are the private property of some nobles, and they occasionally come here to make rounds, and it is inevitable that there will be people like us who need to settle lunch here, and it is far more important to find an elegant and comfortable place in the slum than what to eat at noon.The silver spoon slammed against the top of the goblet with a clear sound.The same red bean paste ice served in a goblet and topped with a red cherry is thirty times more valuable in such a restaurant.The silver spoon was filled with soft red beans and fine crushed ice crumbs, and she put them into her red lips, feeling the coldness and sweetness, and Lady Arya gracefully enjoyed the dessert after the meal.Caterina sat at the front of the dining table, carefully admiring the exquisite dessert in the cup, as if she couldn't bear to eat it at once, her beautiful red eyes were filled with a faint joy, but she didn't know that she and the exquisite dessert on the table had become a beautiful scenery in the eyes of others."
Caterina should be old enough to get married, right?
Alas, twenty-five is a nightmare for every girl in Greene. ”Lady Arya let out a soft sigh.Caterina didn't rush to answer, but turned her head to look at me, who was sitting across from her, and smiled faintly, a blush on her face."
Looks like you're a little luckier than a lot of girls."
Lady Arya said in understanding."
Are you saying that Caterina is luckier than everyone else, because of me?"
I asked Lady Arya, and then pouted self-deprecatingly before saying, "Imperial law doesn't say that magicians don't need to serve in the military, and obviously I don't have that privilege either, and I will be required to do it after graduating from the Royal Academy of Magic." ”Lady Arya smiled and said, "Does it make any difference to you whether you do military service or not?"
”"Huh?"
I let out a puzzled question.Lady Arya stirred the melted ice water mixed with bean paste at the bottom of the goblet with a silver spoon, and said with a leisurely expression: "As far as you are concerned, Jijia, maybe you need such an opportunity after graduation to take your followers to the battlefield to establish some merits!"
I know you're a person who won't live a mediocre life all your life, and you're doing a great job right now!
When you were in El City, you were an eagle, able to hunt those strong barbarians in the ice and snow, and the Dao would still be afraid of the natives on the plane?
”"Who would have expected what would happen on the battlefield.Powerful enemies lurk everywhere, walking on thin ice at every step, and every morning when you open your eyes, thank Lady Luck for her blessings. ”I withdrew my fierce gaze and took a sip of juice before saying, "But even so, I will not be obsessed with longevity and fear death, since Lady Luck has chosen me to have the ability to manipulate magic, I think I am destined not to live an ordinary life." ”I was contemplating whether or not to tell the story of me and Caterina to Lady Arya when I heard someone next to me who seemed to be arguing excitedly, and though I didn't want to eavesdrop, our attention was quickly drawn to the sound of the argument.I heard someone at the next table say excitedly: "Hey, Brennan, listen to me, as long as you lend me another two hundred gold coins, I will definitely get through it, you have to believe in me, at this time, the Fu metal plate market is sluggish, not only me, the entire industry is like this, Angela's many mining companies have been forced to close, so that now Mithril and Thorsilver are as rare as pure gold, and the factory has no way to operate normally, but there are so many people to raise, what can you let me do!"
”Listening to another tired and slightly hoarse voice, he lowered his tone and said, "But Nick, how long do you want me to wait, I'm just an employee in a small venture capital company, and I need some performance to prove to my boss that I'm still a useful person, after all, I want to prove that the work I do is worthy of that salary." ”The excited voice obviously paused, and asked a little stunned: "Haven't the investment prospects you found always been very good?"
”"No matter how good the prospects are, they will be dragged down by this economic storm, and I don't know when this hellish plane war will end, and even if it ends, what can it do, will the economy of Dao Green be restored all of a sudden?"
The hoarse and tired voice was so weak, "If you think like that, it means that you are too naïve."
Nick, listen to my advice, don't be a philanthropist, dismiss the workers in your workshop, you have to throw dozens of gold coins into it every month to feed them, but your workshop is out of production, and your workshop has not made any profit for more than two months, and if you continue like this, you will become a poor bastard with a heavy load, old friend, please don't do this. ”The excited voice became much louder again: "Is there really no other way?"
”"Nick, listen to me and sell it, at least you still have a little money left, don't wait for the time when you are worthless, and then think about solving it, can you still pull down your face and go to the airport dock to carry bags for people in the future?"
The tired voice whispered again.