The spring in Wuyangcheng is gradually coming to an end, but the weather is not hot at all. Gao Qing sat in the courtyard, staring blankly at the sky. It's been almost two months since I became a slave to the Australian lords.

After the incident was transferred at the beginning, Master Gao specially instructed him to report every move of the Australian lords, and promised that if the Australian lords never returned, or something went wrong, he would still take back his family, and he would definitely not let them live on the streets.

He also discussed with his wife a few times, what if the Australian gentlemen wanted to take them back to Australia. At that time, I didn't know if I could ask the master to keep their family.

These Australian lords are generous to their subordinates. knew that his family was suffering, and gave him extra moon rice and his son monthly money. But they are foreign maritime merchants after all, and they will go back one day, so what if they really want to bring them back to Australia? It stands to reason that these masters are the masters of his family, and where the master goes, the slaves have to go with him, which is justified. But he didn't want to leave his hometown again - he had already left his homeland when he fled from his hometown and sold himself, if he really went to Australia, which was thousands of miles away...... Needless to say, Australia is a wild land, even if there are some strange and obscene objects, how can they compare to China? Although this Guangzhou city is not his hometown, he is still very nostalgic after living in it all these years.

Thinking about it, I was very distressed. He had been at Mr. Gao's house for many years, and he knew that the Franc Machines and Maritime Merchants would have to wait for the wind to sail away in June. Most Australian maritime merchants are also leaving at this time - will they take their family with them?

He sighed again, squinted his eyes and looked at the door of the backyard, Steward Yan was about to come over in a while, counting the days, the last few days were the days when the Australian lords were coming.

In the past two months, every half a month or so, the three masters will come once and stay for several days. Every time he didn't know when he came or how he got into the house, it was always dawn when he saw that the door of the courtyard where the old man lived had been opened, and piles of goods were piled up under the hall and the eaves.

This always made him feel very mysterious, and there was a little bit of fear in the mystery. Although Master Gao either hinted or explicitly promised him benefits, and asked him to dig out all the details of the Australian maritime merchants, he didn't dare to do it - it was naturally not difficult to lurk in the courtyard, in case he saw something that he shouldn't see......

Gao Qing knows that the most important thing about being a slave is that you must not know what you shouldn't know. It doesn't matter if the master is from the Ming Dynasty or from Australia.

The elder brother didn't understand his father's thoughts, so he trotted over all the way and asked, "Big, my mother asks you: when will the old man come, she can prepare the meal." Last time, Mr. Wang also said that he wanted to make a haode and try the dishes of Daming. ”

"It's just a few days, it's almost over." Raised his fingers and counted for a long time, "Your account books are ready?" ”

"It's all ready, at the end of last month, the old men have seen it, and they praise me for remembering it all and being careful." The senior brother raised his neck a little proudly, "Master Wang also helped me correct the white words, and that Master Xiao said that he would teach me Arabic numbers in the future, which is faster than the gentlemen in the bookkeeper." ”

"Okay, good, if you like it." Gao Qing said vaguely. The will of the old man among the children is originally a good thing, if the old man is Chinese, it can be regarded as finding a good place for the children, but-alas! They were foreign vassals, and even if he didn't take their whole family with him, he would not be willing to take one or two of his sons and daughters.

"I see that Master Nawen likes my sister very much, every time I ask my sister to talk, and I also reward my sister with something, will I take my sister into the house?"

These words hit Gao Qing's heart hard. He kept a calm face and thought for a long time before he said, "Look at her creation." But in my heart I was reluctant.

was stuffy, but I heard a knock at the door, this is Steward Yan. Gao Qing hurriedly greeted him, invited him to sit down at the stone table in the courtyard, and sent his son to fetch tea and dried fruits.

"Lao Gao, the Australian maritime merchants are coming again in the past few days, what about what the master told you?" Steward Yan is not polite and straight to the point.

"Replying to your words, the little one really doesn't understand." Gao Qing knew that these words were inevitable, "Those masters, but they are alert, and they never ask people to go to the room to serve." Every time, it always comes and goes without a trace. ”

"It's been two months, and it's still a few words, you're such a fucking piece of waste." Steward Yan has always been Master Gao's confidant, and he has never taken Gao Qing's qualifications to enter the inner courtyard in his eyes. The opening of the exit is also unscrupulous.

"Yes, yes, little dull."

"How do you tell me to talk back to the master?" Steward Yan rolled his eyes, "The master is very dissatisfied with you......"

"Then I have to ask Steward Yan to take care of you, what a beautiful word......" Gao Qing was a little panicked, touched his waist for a long time, and found out two coins of silver - this is what he has left over in the past two months, and he is going to pull some clothes for the two children. At this moment, Steward Yan's half-truths made him afraid, although he was no longer a slave of the Gao family, he did not dare to entrust his fate to the old men in Australia.

Steward Yan took it casually, and after a little weighing, he stuffed it into his sleeve: "Master, I'll help you deal with it first." But this matter, I can hide from the first year of junior high school, but I can't hide from the fifteenth, no matter what, I have to find out the details of these people! ”

"Yes, yes, the little one understands."

As soon as the merchants arrived, they were invited to come over. Anytime. ”

"Yes, the little one knows."

Steward Yan said and walked away. Gao Qing wiped the sweat from his head, and his brows furrowed even tighter. Helping Master Gao investigate, after all, he is going to offend his master, not to mention the benevolence of the Australian masters, he is ungrateful in doing so. Just to peek into the layer of betraying the Lord's secret, it is a crime of betraying the Lord, and it is a felony no matter where it goes, and even if you don't die, you have to peel off your skin. If you ignore Master Gao's orders, there will be no way to take refuge in the future, let alone if Master Gao wants to deal with a minion like him, it will be effortless.

was thinking wildly, but saw that Gao Chang, a sworn brother of his own in the Gao family, came over, carrying a large food box, all of which were smoked snacks given by Master Gao to the Australian masters. Gao Qingqiang was in good spirits, and asked his wife and daughter to come out to receive it and go to the kitchen to clean up.

"Steward Yan, this guy is here to slander my brother again?" Gao Chang is twenty-five or sixteen years old, he is a sturdy young man, he and Gao Qing are fellow villagers, and they also came to Guangzhou without a life in their hometown, so they sold themselves to Gao's family with Gao Qing as a guarantor. They both worked in the outer courtyard, and the two were fellow villagers and took care of each other, so they became brothers in private.

"Ugh." Gao Qing poured his head and spoke.

"Brother, you are too cowardly," Gao Chang said indignantly, "You are now an Australian man, what are you doing with him?" The old man is kind, save a few dollars for you, and you go and stuff this dog hole! ”

"Brother, don't say it, I'm hard to say." Gao Qing looked at the sky on the courtyard wall, "This family ...... I'm afraid that I will still have to take refuge in Master Gao in the future. "I won't say anything more.

"Strange, my brother's whole family has been given to the Australian lords, why do you want to take refuge in the old man Gao, is it possible that the old man doesn't want you?"

"That's not true, the old man really didn't say anything about our family. Be generous and kind-hearted. All good people. ”

"Then what do you want to do when you go back to Gao's house? My brother is just a dozen miscellaneous slaves in the Gao family. What better than being half a steward now? I envy my brother for having such good luck. ”

"But they're always the maritime merchants of the foreign domain!"

"So what? It's not a red-haired and green-eyed Franc man, and the hairy grass stinks. Gao Chang disagreed, "Although the old man doesn't understand what he says, and he dresses strangely, how can he say that he is also a Chinese." ”

"They're going to have to go someday, what if they want to take the family with them?"

Gao Chang suddenly realized that his brother-in-law was worried about this. He didn't care about this kind of thing: he was an orphan since he was a child, a single person, no worries, and he went the same everywhere. However, the righteous brother dragged his family with him, and he did think about it from the perspective of the future.

"My brother is worried. But according to the younger brother, just go. Although this Ming is good, it is not the Ming that we are waiting for. It's a slave here, and it's just a slave when you go to Australia, so how bad can it be? These old men are good-hearted, and the whole family of my brother followed, and they definitely won't suffer. He smiled, "If I were a brother, I would be able to follow if I wanted to, so that I could see the customs of this Australian overseas little China." ”

"Brother is right, but I don't want to die in a foreign country." Gao Qing sighed, "When there was a famine in my hometown, in order to find a way to survive, I abandoned the ancestral grave of the old house and fled the famine, and Master Meng Gao took it here, and it has been more than ten years. Most of the houses and ancestral cemeteries have been annihilated...... I have already broken off the idea of returning to my hometown......" he said, tears fell, and he choked up, "Brother, I have passed forty, and the mountains and rivers are low to win people, and I have to bury my bones overseas when I am old, so I really can't see it." ”

Gao Chang's righteous brother was sad and hurriedly comforted him. But in my heart I didn't think so. The slaves of the Gao family are dead, and only those slaves with heads and faces can still rely on the master's reward and usual savings to make a dojo and buy a piece of underground burial. Ordinary minions just rewarded a thin-skinned coffin, carried it to the righteous mound outside the city, and buried it indiscriminately. The righteous brother wants to stay here, is it just greedy for these behind him? I can't help but feel unusually bleak.

This chaotic young man who was a slave and a mess of life, for the first time in more than 20 years, flashed a flash of light in his heart: This shijie may not be like this......