After resting all day, early on the third day, Ian went to the village chief's house and told the story that he had "stringed" with his mother-in-law in advance.

Although the village chief was still skeptical, he didn't intend to make things difficult for Su Mu's mother-in-law and Ian, so he simply registered and let him pass.

Finally, the village chief and the elders took out a large, heavy, worn-out book, cleaned the dust from it, and began to look through it. The book was so big that it kept the village chief in the way, and from Ian's view, he could barely see the top of his head and a hand holding the edge of the book.

After a long while, the village chief and elders muttered a few words, put down the book, and cleared their throats: "Ian, the land next to Granny Sumu's house, near the east entrance of the village, will be yours from today onwards. As long as the people of Qingfeng Village have the right to own a piece of land here, the size of Granny Su Mu's house. Of course, if you want to farm and need more land, you'll have to apply for it from the lord of Split Rock Castle. ”

"Thank you, village chief. Ian didn't expect to have land, so he couldn't wait to thank him.

"But—" said the village chief suddenly, "you have to tell us the truth, who are you?"

Ian had just put down his heart when he raised his throat again. He quickly recalled what he had just said, checking what he had said wrong, but his face crumbled tightly and was expressionless.

"Hehe, don't think about it, what you just said is not wrong at all. The village chief smiled, "It's a pity that Granny Su Mu doesn't have a grandson." ”

Ian was startled, then confused. He muttered, "No grandchildren?"

The village chief nodded and stepped out of the table. The old man smiled bitterly and said slowly: "This is a secret, if you can tell me your true identity, I will exchange this secret for you." ”

Ian said coldly, "I don't need to know my mother-in-law's secret. If you don't worry about me, I'll just go, and I'll explain it to my mother-in-law myself. With that, he turned around and was about to walk out.

"Wait a minute," said one of the elders beside the village chief, "don't be so impatient, child. We didn't want to stop you from staying, and the village chief had already allocated you the land for your residence. ”

"We just need to know who you really are," added another rude-speaking elder, "and it's our duty." I'll just get it straight! It's very unlikely, but if you're really a fugitive, we can't take you in, and we can't let Granny Su Mu take you in. If you are harmless to the village, since Granny Sumu wants to keep you, you are welcome to stay. As for whether you are her grandson, we know very well. ”

Speaking of which, Ian also made up his mind. He turned around, looked directly at the three old men, and said, "I am neither a wanted fugitive nor a murderer and arsonist. As soon as he finished saying these two sentences, he suddenly felt that there were thousands of grievances in his heart, and he choked up angrily, "I have my own hardships." If you can swear to the Twelve Gods that you will not reveal it to anyone—" he gritted his teeth, "I can tell you. ”

After listening to Ian's straightforward statement after omitting the details, the village chief sighed: "Although it is incredible, but ...... We've lived so long, and we've seen a lot of incredible things. ”

The rude-speaking elder said, "We can't guess what happened to you, and we can't help you, but we can make you settle down here." Back then, Su Mu's mother-in-law's son died to save the village, and she was kind to Qingfeng Village, in fact, she insisted on keeping you to live, and we would not object. After a pause, he slowed down and said, "That year, the Warcraft suddenly attacked the village - as you know, the Warcraft activity has been weak for a long time, and many lords have already neglected to take precautions. Granny Sumu's son volunteered to go to Split Rock Fort for help, but when he rushed out, he was targeted by several demonic beasts...... Although he finally arrived at Rifted Rock Fort and successfully brought in rescuers, he died of his injuries. Granny Su Mu's eyes have long been blind, and her son is her only relative. In despair, the mother-in-law committed suicide by throwing herself into the river, but fortunately, she was rescued in time. When we woke up, we found that she didn't remember a lot of things......"

Another elder answered: "At that time, when I saw that she had lost her memory, and I was afraid that she would commit suicide again, I made up some lies in my mind, saying that her son had died of illness many years ago, and that my daughter-in-law had returned home to the imperial capital with her three-year-old child. ”

"No wonder ......," Ian smiled wryly.

"Go ahead, what we said today, we will never mention it again, and I hope you too. The village chief said solemnly.

The mother-in-law's old house was not large, and Ian began to build a simple shack on his own land next to it, according to its size. Woodcutter Khajit is the closest neighbor to Granny Sumu, and usually does some carpentry work part-time. When he heard that Granny Sumu's grandson was going to settle here, he brought his family to help.

Everyone worked together, and it only took three to five days, and the shack belonging to Ian was completed. Khajiit's wife also used the leftover wood offcuts to make a nameplate engraved with the words "Ian's Home" and quietly hung it on the door. Ian walked to the door during the lunch break, and suddenly saw those words, and suddenly seemed to be immobilized by magic, and froze there. Then, the boy's gloomy and stiff face finally gained some vitality, but the tears seemed to thaw and could not stop pouring out of his eyes.

Fortunately, facing the door panel, no one could see it. He pretended to check the nameplate and briskly wiped a little tear from the corner of his eye.

It's like a home in Black Hawk City, he thought to himself, but immediately mocked himself fiercely for his weakness, and finally told himself in his heart: You don't have a home, Ian.

But that night, lying on a thatched bed, Ian slept better than any other night in more than a month.

He slept until the next morning, when he woke up, and he didn't have the nightmare of visiting on time almost every night.

Ian pushed the door open and went out to see Granny Sumu sitting in the doorway basking in the sun. Hearing the knock on the door, Granny Su Mu got up from the chair: "Wake up, come on, come on......" said and entered her house, took a piece of bread and handed it to Ian, "Eat while walking, I'll take you to recognize the neighbors ......"

There are only more than 130 households in Qingfeng Village, and the main road in the village connects the two village entrances, one east and one west, extending outward and connecting with the roads of other villages and towns. In the long and narrow village, all the houses and buildings are scattered on the north and south sides of the main road.

Granny Sumu and Ian's home is near the easternmost entrance to the village.

Along the way west, Ian can only barely remember the neighbors who are relatively close to each other, such as the woodcutter Khajitte's family, the baker Brower and his daughter Elise, and the family of the angry child Ah Hu...... As soon as there were many neighbors to visit, Ian would just follow his mother-in-law and say hello in a wooden manner, what they called and what they did, and forgot when they came back.

"Living in the village," said Su Mu, beating her back on the way back, "It's all about helping each other, although you came from a big city, but you grew up in a slum, you should also understand this truth." ”

"Hmm. Ian seemed to remember something, and the dull mood gradually crept back into his heart, and his expression stiffened.

"Oh yes, what are you going to live on in the future?, do you have any skills?" Hearing Granny Su Mu's question about his livelihood, Ian's heart sank again. Remembering that he fled from Black Eagle City overnight, he didn't have time to take anything, and he barely survived by begging and stealing along the way. Because they didn't dare to stay in the town for too long, they could only find some wild fruits in the wild to satisfy their hunger.

Su Mu's mother-in-law has been blind for many years, and she has long been out of farmland, living on the meager relief money in the village.

Even if he had farmland, Ian didn't know anything about farming. He grew up in a slum, living and growing up in a cramped and dilapidated house with a few friends who were also orphans. It is said that they have known friends since childhood, but they are actually more close to each other like brothers and sisters.

Ian remembered Zach, the eldest of them all, who had taken on the responsibility of parenting and taking care of the younger ones. Most of his income comes from Zach helping out in the blacksmith shop, and occasionally Ian and a few of the younger ones will go to the market together to do some stealing and dog stealing...... Now that he has fled, he finds that he has almost no ability to survive except for household chores such as fetching water, cooking and washing clothes. Begging and stealing the things of the market vendors all the way, he finally got to the vicinity of Qingfeng Village, and almost starved to death outside the village.

"Now, have you ever learned swordsmanship? Hey, what am I talking about, how can I learn it...... Will there be a fight?" said Granny Sumu, "Although our village is not large, there are also Warcraft exchange offices set up by the lord. ”

In the Warcraft Exchange House, you can exchange the materials obtained after fighting the Warcraft into currency, and this kind of site can be found throughout the continent, and is usually referred to simply as the Exchange House. The system of exchange was instituted by Emperor Hilfa III, and its original purpose was only to save money on the army.

Since human beings have gradually lost their spiritual power, the demonic beasts in the world have also shown obvious signs of weakness and concealment, so some people call this era "the age of mild". The terrifying and powerful monsters recorded in the historical records once threatened the survival of mankind, but now it seems as if they never existed, and the adventurers who went to explore them had no clues.

However, the "magic element" in this world is like a disease, and it still continues to have a profound impact on this continent. These magic elements infiltrate the earth, infiltrate mountains and rivers, and have a subtle effect on animals and plants. As a result, humans and most subhumans usually avoid settling in areas with high levels of mana.

Because every now and then, something new will pop up that you haven't seen before.

Thankfully, perhaps because the amount of magic absorbed is small, or the overall magic content of the continent continues to be low in this "mild era", these new species are all non-sapient low-level creatures.

While not lethal, these guys will exhaust the army and leave the finances and salaries into a bottomless pit.

So Emperor Hilfa III's Chancellor of the Exchequer made a calculation and found that offering a bounty for recovering materials related to Warcraft could not only save military salaries, but also obtain materials for production or research, and at the same time bring some peace to local villages and towns to a certain extent.

Since then, exchange offices have been opened in all levels of human villages and towns throughout the empire, and gradually this system has been introduced to the Western Federation and the Eastern Old Kingdom, and finally became a unified public system on the continent.

"There are quite a few mushroom thieves outside the village," Granny Su Mu continued, "often stealing from several villages around us, and even robbing merchants of goods. Although the bounties of these mushroom thieves are not very valuable, they can still make a living with a little effort. Don't worry, I've heard that thing isn't very good at fighting. ”

The "mushroom thief" mentioned by Granny Su Mu is not a new species. Ian remembered that its scientific name was probably "Umbrella Spirit", and that it had been in the Empire for many years. Each one was about the height of a child of four or five years old, but it was described as withered and wrinkled, and at first glance it was quite scary.

They all carry mushroom-like umbrellas, run very fast, and like to steal from human settlements, sometimes even by the hard. At first, the lord of Split Rock Castle also sent troops to clear it, but there were too many of them, and they would flee again, and they couldn't find where the nest was.

In the end, the lord turned a blind eye, set a bounty, and never sent an army to fight again.

"Fight...... Ian thought back to life in the slum for a moment, as if he was more familiar with running away than fighting.

In addition to the escape after stealing chickens and dogs and being discovered, that is, being beaten after the escape failed, and actually fighting with people, which can be called "fighting" or "fighting", Ian has almost no impression.

But he still replied, "I'll try." ”

In the evening, Ian found a thick and hard stick of oak and borrowed tools from Khajiit to make it into a simple stick.

In his empty shack, Ian stood in the middle of the room with sticks in his hands.

"Hey!" he waved vigorously, suddenly remembering the last time he saw his companions when Zach wielded his dagger, and couldn't help but wave it a few times from memory. It wasn't until he was satisfied that he fell on the thatch with a stick and fell asleep slowly.