Succubus' Manor

The first ray of sunshine in the morning fell on the white land, and the snow on the road was not thick, because there were always tauren sitting on the side of the road with a brazier to clean it at any time, which allowed people to go out in this season.

However, there were not many pedestrians on the road, only the guys who carried the goods pushed the wooden carts around.

Ya'erlinha let out a sigh of relief, rubbed his hands together, and stood in front of Mei's house, waiting for Mei to come out.

Except for Yarlin, almost every household has a person who goes out.

The neighbor greeted Yarlin: "I'm going to the steward first, come quickly."

After speaking, he tightened his collar and headed to the steward's residence against the cold wind.

A street has a steward. If it is a bustling street, there may be two or three stewards. They are responsible for registering and counting the population, and usually take care of small things on the street.

The county magistrate is not as good as the current manager, and the managers still have a bit of status.

May came out soon, and the two walked side by side on the road, Yarlin wanted to take Lamei's hand, but he quickly took it back.

Mei wears all the clothes at home. When going out in winter, the family can only scrape together enough clothes for one person to go out. The shoes are also, animal skin boots are not cheap, and a pair of them is already very good for the family.

They are going to collect supplies for the winter today, of course it is not free, but according to the value of the things they receive, they will be replaced by working hours in the coming year, but this is still good news.

After all, they can't even do work and buy things if they want to.

The two of them didn't speak to prevent the cold wind from blowing into their mouths. They waited at the door of the manager's house until the other party came out and counted the people in each household, and then took them to the temporary shed in the open space.

After all, only open space can accommodate so many people.

Unlike Saked, the locals in Saked ran to their deaths, and some vacant houses could be requisitioned. This is different. Even if there are vacant houses, they are empty houses in poor areas, and requisitioning them is useless.

They lined up in the cold wind, and there were already people queuing up in front of the sheds. There were more than a dozen sheds in total, with a table and a chair inside, parchment paper and quill pens on the table, and the person in charge of the registration was lowering his head to copy.

And behind the shed, there are carts and carts. Mei stood on tiptoe and squinted to see. She could see that many carts were piled with clothes, and some carts were piled with charcoal. Mei swallowed , Their house is not short of clothes, but because they were busy building roads, they didn't go out to chop firewood and collect firewood. The only way to keep the house warm is to squeeze the mother and daughter tightly together at night.

Because there is not much firewood left, it has to be used for cooking.

Under the leadership of the steward, people lined up behind a shed. Their hands and feet were cold, but their hearts were very hot.

The manager didn't want to shout in the cold wind, so he stood by and rubbed his hands. He never opened his mouth when no one asked him.

They lined up for a long time before it was finally their turn.

When it was Mei's turn, she felt that she was about to freeze. She rubbed her hands and said hastily, "My lord, my family doesn't need clothes, it's just lack of charcoal."

The recorder looked up at Mei, and shouted back without much energy: "Bring her two bags of charcoal."

Then he said to Mei: "Don't be too small, there are only two people in your family."

Mei Lianlian shook her head: "Not too little, not too little."

She saw that there are so many in one bag, and two bags are enough for the mother and daughter to save a little for this winter.

She went to the back to get two bags of charcoal, and then stood aside to wait for Yarlin. She couldn't carry the two bags of charcoal back by herself. If she dragged them all the way back, she was afraid that the charcoal inside would split and the corners would be smashed into slag. ——She is not willing to waste at all.

Yarlin’s essentials were the same as ordinary people. He got a few linen clothes and a bag of charcoal. The linen clothes were light, and he just tucked them under his armpits. Then he helped Mei carry a bag of charcoal, and Mei only needed to carry a bag of charcoal.

They came over in silence, and went back in silence.

Both Mei and Yarlin knew that their wedding date would be postponed indefinitely, and even whether they could get married became a problem.

Mei turned her head and glanced at Yarlin. She sniffed, feeling helpless, and could only take one step at a time.

If you can get married, that's great.

If not, she also hopes that Yarlin can still meet the girl she loves in the future.

Ya'erlin sent Mei to the door. This time he did not enter Mei's house, but said to Mei: "Then I will go back first."

May nodded.

Yarlin lowered his head, hunched his back, and walked in the direction of his home.

Mei pursed her lips tightly. At this moment, she suddenly realized that her marriage with Ya'erlin should not be fruitful.

But she didn't hate Arlin.

They just... couldn't make it to the end.

Mei wiped her eyes and entered the house carrying charcoal.

"Mom! I'm back!" Mei smiled again.

Mei's mother stood up quickly, and when her daughter was queuing to get her things, she went to the cafeteria to buy bean dregs cakes. Leave it for a long time.

After this period of time, they had a lot of food in store, so they finally had some confidence.

"Come and eat first, you have been out for a day." Mei's mother wanted to help her daughter carry the bags, but Mei stopped them. I have some regrets.

While they were eating cakes, Mei's mother suddenly said, "That's great."

Mei looked at her mother suspiciously—how can this not be called good?My father passed away, and my mother has never recovered. This winter is still so difficult, what's wrong?

Mei's mother smiled and said, "You are still young. When I was young, I also encountered the plague."

"At that time, the people in a city were almost dead. In winter, some people would be frozen to death. The lord ran away, and no one cared about us. Fortunately, my parents took me to my aunt, otherwise there would be no you gone."

"Don't talk about bean dregs cakes, no one will give us a single bean, and we can't buy it with money."

"And charcoal."

"A beautiful girl like you is only worth a handful of wheat if sold to a slave owner."

Mei was taken aback.

Mei's mother continued: "Do you think it's hard now? It's not hard now, the lord is in charge of us."

"Those bean dregs cakes, these charcoals, and the clothes that others received were all given to us by the lord."

May nodded.

Mother smiled and said, "So I said, that's great."

Although her husband is dead, her daughter is still alive, which is really good for her.

The canteen is making tofu. Tofu is very simple to make and easy to sell. Especially in this weather, if the tofu is made and frozen, and then sold by the caravan, it can be sold at a very good price.

Even bean dregs can be sold at a high price in the city. Although there are not many bean dregs, if so much bean dregs are used to feed the livestock, the animals will never be able to eat them all. It is better to sell them to the people in the city, which is more or less an income.

Lilia felt that her decision was not wrong.

Her family has now jumped up and become one of the most influential businessmen in the city.

"Miss." The clerk suddenly trotted to Lilia's side, and his mouth was full of white breath when he spoke, "There are not enough people."

Because there are too many people who come to buy bean dregs, after they get the bean dregs, they have to knead the bean dregs into balls and flatten them on an iron plate to make bean dregs cakes, which also takes time.

Now people in the whole city are buying cakes at his house to eat, and the bean dregs are still enough, but there are not enough people.

Lilia: "Then recruit again."

After they make tofu, they will distribute the tofu to other merchants. These merchants are all following her family's lead, and the price they sell is also the same, and the portion is more, so other people in the city who want to get a share of the pie don't take it. Have been to anything cheap.

What's more, the lord is helping her now.

Others sell tofu, and the tax is high, but her family's goods are so low that the tax is negligible.

Lilia was gearing up, feeling that this was a good time for her to show off her skills.

Chi Yan was dealing with Gejir's matter. He originally thought that there should be no small slave owners who would dare to attack Gejir. He was going to charge Gejir with a crime and arrest him first. After muddying up the lake, he would take all the slave owners down .

In the end, there was a little slave owner who whispered to Chi Yan that Gegil had something to do with it.

Gagil's wife was once the wife of a nobleman.

This startled Chi Yan, wife of a nobleman?

The aristocrats are not like the royal family. The royal family has the least rules. The queens are often born in the market, even prostitutes, but the nobles are not the royal family.

That is, people with status.

And nobles and wives cannot divorce.

Unless one of the nobleman or his wife died, the other could remarry.

Most noble wives, in order to keep their deceased husband's property and power in their hands, can remain widows for a lifetime.

The little slave owner said to Chi Yan: "He didn't hide this matter before, it's a matter of face!"

As a slave owner with a slave army, coupled with the laissez-faire of the original earl, he is like the second local emperor besides Bertram.With the Holy Court and the Earl working together with him, he doesn't have to worry about anything.

Little slave owner: "That's a baroness."

"She was tied up by Gejir."

The baron is the lowest title, and it cannot even be called a title, because the nobles do not recognize that the baron is also in the ranks of the nobility, and think that the baron is similar to the common people and is also an inferior person.

Moreover, the baron's territory is also very small, not rich, and he doesn't have to go to the Holy City every few years, and he may never see a member of the royal family in his entire life.

That's why Gejir was able to do this and dared to do it.

The nobles did not want to be with the baron. The baron was wronged and his wife was robbed, so he could only knock out his teeth and swallow his blood. No one would give him justice.

The royal family will not care about him, let alone the Holy Court.

Robbing a wife is not a serious crime, at most it is a fine, but taking a nobleman's wife is a very serious crime.

A businessman robbed the wife of a nobleman. When the news spread, the nobles of the whole country lost their faces.

Chi Yan said to the little slave owner: "You have to find the suffering master. Do you know who the lady's original husband was?"

Don't be afraid that the other party won't come, just see if the benefits are enough.

The little slave owner said in a low voice, "It's not far. It's only a three-day journey. It's very small. It's a city, but it's actually a village."

Chi Yan smiled at the other party: "Then you can run this trip for me."

"If you succeed, I will reward you with a golden bowl."

Let the slave owner think about the benefits to the baron. For this golden bowl, the other party will also sharpen his head.

The slave owner nodded repeatedly, and said excitedly, "Follow your lord's orders."

After the slave owner left, Chi Yan breathed a sigh of relief and took a sip of the hot water at hand. At this moment, the person standing next to Chi Yan suddenly stretched out his hand, stopping Chi Yan from sending the water glass to his mouth.

The hand was wrinkled like unattractive bark.

"My lord, this water is too hot, you can drink it later."

After many days, Chi Yan finally felt the feeling of being controlled again. He raised his head and showed a bright smile at the old housekeeper.

The housekeeper looked at the smile on Chi Yan's face, and squeezed out a smile on his serious face, and then he said, "My lord, that person can't be used. He has a dark heart. If he can betray Gejir today, he can betray your lord tomorrow." you."

Chi Yan: "I know, anyway, it will be liquidated at that time. If he does more now, he will feel better then."

Chi Yan didn't think people's hearts could be tested, and most people were not tempted, just because the temptation wasn't strong enough.

People have a steelyard in their hearts.

But how heavy the other side of the scale is, only you know.

Also, the position is different.

He didn't even remember the name of the slave owner just now.

Chi Yan finally understood why the ancient emperor wanted to say that he was a loner. He hadn't become an emperor yet, he was just a city lord, and he felt that there were fewer and fewer people around him who could speak the truth.

Whenever someone appeared in front of Chi Yan, Chi Yan would subconsciously think: What does this person want from me?

Chi Yan even felt that he had become the boss in the game. Everyone wanted to collect experience points from him to see if he could drop some good equipment.

No one will be friends with the boss.

Chi Yan suddenly said, "By the way, I want to cancel the city entry tax next year."

The city entry tax is a tax on merchants. The city originally relied on this to make money. Merchants brought goods in and had to pay the tax. If they wanted to leave the city with the goods, they still had to pay the tax when they left the city.

Most of the time the guards would draw a sum of money from it, but even so, the earl still left a lot of property.

Most of them are gold objects.

In the world of the rich, even rice bowls are gold, let alone knives and forks.

The butler frowned slightly: "My lord, where did the money come from?"

This is not a city that relies on growing grain for its living. There is no city tax or city exit tax. The cheap ones are businessmen, and Chi Yan can't get any benefits.

Chi Yan stretched, he stood up and took two steps, then turned his head and said, "Let's take a longer view."

"Since there is no city tax and city exit tax, it will be cheaper for merchants to sell things, and the common people can live better."

Chi Yan winked at the housekeeper: "As for my money, there are other places to get it."

Warehouses, shops, can't these be taxed?

Only when there are more and more merchants, can this city as a transit point get more benefits.

Dripping water wears away rocks, gathering less makes more.

He can become fat with one bite, but the people in the city will never become rich.

The goods of the merchants are not free, they also have to be bought with money, they have to be escorted by people, and they have to be paid to support servants and buddies.

At that time, the merchants in the city already had a system, and prices could stabilize.

The new merchant will not feel that he is grateful for selling the goods at a low price. After all, he has saved a lot of money.

Chi Yan: "Don't worry, what did you have for dinner?"

After Chi Yan finished asking, he laughed first.

He didn't know where he heard the joke, saying that no matter what time the Chinese say hello, the first sentence is: "Have you eaten?"

Appetite can be seen.

Although his body belongs to this world, his soul will always be the soul of a Chinese.

The housekeeper didn't understand why Chi Yan was smiling, but he thought Chi Yan's smile was beautiful. Ever since he came here, he found that Chi Yan had changed, but in just a few months, Chi Yan had matured a lot.

Only now, Chi Yan showed his youthful side, as if he was still the little lord who disliked the slaves defecating everywhere in the manor and didn't need to cover it with soil.

A loving smile appeared on the butler's face unconsciously, and he said, "I ate it. I ate fried chicken. This is the first time I have eaten such delicious chicken. It's a pity that there are no steamed buns here."

The butler now loves steamed white and fat steamed buns. The steamed buns just out of the pan are very soft and easy to chew.

As for the black bread, the butler couldn't chew it anymore, and he found it unpalatable if it was soaked in soup until it softened. Now that his appetite has grown, the butler is now a person who knows how to enjoy it.

Chi Yan: "Can Triss do it in Saket?"

He wasn't worried about Triss' gender. After all, this country had a queen. What he worried about was Triss' race.

When he was there, all races were honest and honest. He was afraid that when he was not there, disputes and discrimination between races would pop up again, and then develop and grow, and finally get out of hand.

The butler said confidently this time, "My lord, Triss will be fine."

"She's a smart person."

Triss knew exactly what to do in which position, and would never cross the line, and now the dwarves still had a great status in the city, they were the main force of the blacksmith.

Even if the dwarves are not good at communication, but their abilities are there. With them supporting Triss, as long as they are not stupid, nothing will happen.

Chi Yan laughed: "Since you've said that, let her do it well. When I'm free tomorrow, I'll go back and have a look. As for the manor...it can only be postponed."

The manor is now a paradise, and it is also Chi Yan's last retreat.

So unless necessary, Chi Yan didn't want to expose the manor.

The housekeeper reminded: "My lord, the water is ready to drink."

Chi Yan walked back and picked up the water glass. The temperature was just right, neither hot nor cold.

"Is it time for you to visit Bertram?" the butler asked.

Chi Yan rubbed his chin: "I haven't seen him for a while, but don't worry, see him again when you need him."

Bertram's current treatment has plummeted. Except for the priests, all the people in the Holy Court have left, and Bertram's wine is gone. Now he is in the Holy Court every day, and he can only listen to those fools chanting every day. Code.

He couldn't wait to talk to Chi Yan, and wanted to tell Chi Yan that he was useful.

It is easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal.

Bertram is almost under house arrest now.

While Chi Yan was talking to the butler, Kleist was making knights and guards fight each other in the ice and snow.

The knights and guards fought their lives, and knowing that they had lost, they would definitely have to stand here until midnight before going back to rest.

It is estimated that even in the face of the enemy, they do not have the energy they have now.

Kleist watched blankly. There was only one person in this group who could barely catch the eye. That person was not much better than others, but he had a ruthless spirit that he didn't know whether he was born with or cultivated. He lay on the ground after being beaten, his head was held high, and his eyes were on fire.

Only this kind of person can be cultivated into a real warrior, a warrior who dares to transform himself into a knife.

But he doesn't look very good, if he stood with the demons, he might be mistaken for the demons.

That person was beaten again.

His opponent was about to give him the final blow, but was suddenly blocked by Kleist's arm.

In an instant, all the people who were fighting stopped, and all their eyes were on Kleist's side.

Kleist said to the person lying on the ground: "What's your name?"

The man was taken aback, but he still gritted his teeth and said his name: "Achille."

Kleist didn't say anything else after hearing his name, but returned to the seat he was standing just now.

When his eyes glanced over, the person who had stopped moved again.

This is now, and everyone is thinking—their cold-faced instructor, can you remember their names?

Why was that person asked for his name by Kleist just now?

That night, Kleist held Chi Yan in his arms and said to him, "There is a good one."

Chi Yan closed his eyes and smelled Kleist's scent: "Who?"

Kleist: "It's Amir."

Chi Yan opened his eyes: "...Did you forget Lamir and that person?"

Kleist's tone was flat, but he said firmly: "It's called Amir."

Chi Yan yawned and hugged Kleist's waist tightly: "Well, what then?"

Kleist: "But he can't be a shield, he can only be a knife."

In other words, that person could only charge forward, but not protect Chi Yan.

Chi Yan didn't care too much: "With you by my side, I don't need a shield."

Kleist kissed Chi Yan's forehead: "But he still has one use."

Chi Yan yawned continuously: "What's the use?"

Kleist: "If you want to build an army, people like him are the most useful. His presence can assimilate the people around him."

Chi Yan nodded. He was so sleepy that tears flowed from the corners of his eyes: "The army...it's time to get out..."

Chi Yan: "I just don't know how many people are willing to join the army."

In the past, people were arrested directly, and the males from each household could not go back after being arrested.

But Chi Yan didn't want to use such a simple and rude method.

Those who are gathered by fear will scatter because of greater fear.