The next morning, my grandfather was awakened by the flickering light. Then he sat up and saw three beautiful girls dressed beside the bed: the youngest one was giggling, and the two older ones looked serious and even a little sad.

The hostess stood aside and said, "Young man, choose one of my daughters to be your wife." I'm not against you being a lord, but I also don't want my family to be kicked out like dogs. Now I can only make you a member of my family, so that my family can have one more male heir in one day, right? Of course, you can choose not to, then there are 20 farmers outside the door, and they are ordered to either welcome their new aunt or kill a stranger when the door opens. Make a decision. ”

Grandfather was stunned, "Aren't you afraid of the punishment of the lord of the town if you kill me?" The hostess said, "That punishment will be half a year away at the earliest, and now you have to decide whether you want to survive this morning." You don't have much time, No, my daughters are here. ”

The grandfather looked at her three daughters carefully: the older two were indeed very beautiful, but their faces were full of reluctance, because the grandfather was not handsome at all. Only the youngest is ignorant of the world.

The grandfather felt extremely constrained by this forced choice, which annoyed him, so he maliciously asked the little girl, "Will you be my wife?" ”

The little girl grinned, "I'm willing to be nice to me." ”

Her two older sisters yelled, "No! ”

The hostess's face was pale, and she brought her little daughter only because she was a member of the family, and this kind of thing involving the interests of the family must be formal. But the hostess did not expect that this reckless young man would have a soft spot for a little girl who was less than 10 years old.

The grandfather asked the two older girls with great interest, "Then you will be my wife?" ”

The two sisters pouted and blushed; One bit his lower lip and said nothing. The grandfather turned around and asked the hostess, "Or can you also pick up a new love?" ”

The hostess didn't understand at first, and then after thinking clearly, she became angry and slapped her grandfather. She scolded her grandfather: "You bastard, if it were any other case, I would have opened the door at once and let my servant kill you." Okay, if you like little Sumi, take her out. Go and tell the servants that you are my new son-in-law, that you are holding your new wife, and that now they can go and prepare for the wedding. ”

Grandfather touched the slap marks on his face, thought carefully for a few minutes, and went out with little Sumi in his arms.

The peasants held a scythe in their left hand and a ribbon in their right. They were puzzled by the order given by the mistress: if a man came out alone, kill him; If he comes out with any of the lord's young ladies, sprinkle flowers on him.

Grandfather pushed the door open, and the morning sun shone on his face. Little Sumi rubbed her eyes and yawned as she looked at the servants outside the door. Grandfather said, "Now, I am your new lord. This is my wife, and her name will be Huo in the future. Arcadio. Sumi. ”

At this time, the peasants all looked back at an old man, the one who had been the night before. The old man knew the hostess's plan, saw the current situation, and knew that the hostess's son-in-law was successful. He dug his scythe into the waistband of his trousers and scattered the ribbon in his hand. The peasants hurriedly plunged their scythes into their trousers and scattered the ribbons. Those streamers fluttered in the morning wind.

Well, that's my grandmother, Huo. Arcadio. Sumi.

In a few years, my father's story will begin in earnest.

It was seven years after my grandfather and Sumi were officially married. The hostess had an agreement with her grandfather that the current marriage was only a matter of rights, and that in order to formally marry, the grandfather must fulfill three conditions: first, arrange the marriage of her other two daughters; second, to reclaim 500 acres of idle wasteland in the valley; Third, repair the lord's house with stone to make it a formal fortress to protect the surrounding land of nearly a thousand acres and to be expanded.

In fact, the other two daughters of the hostess have already been engaged, but their family is shabby, and the lord of the other party is unwilling to fulfill the marriage contract. So the last two conditions of the hostess are actually preparations for the first condition.

Grandfather agreed.

He led the farmers to build a dam in the creek, cut down the trees on both sides of the stream, and began to cultivate fields. The housekeeper, the old man, approached his grandfather and said that he could contact the buyer to buy some surplus wood. His grandfather asked him how much a piece of wood could be sold for.

The housekeeper said that you can buy 2 dinars for the best materials, 1 for the medium and half for the lower ones. Grandfather looked at the piles of timber and said, "If you sell the whole pile, you won't make 2,000 dinars, which is almost half of the forest."

The housekeeper said that he had a relative who was in charge of receiving goods for a lumber mill and that he could relax the standards so that he could earn about 200 dinars more.

My grandfather said, "No need to do that. ”

In the afternoon, my grandfather fired the butler from a procurement plan for 600 dinars of joinery, including files, molds, saws, cartridges, alignments, and even 1,000 nails.

The housekeeper secretly went to the hostess and said that the new uncle didn't know how to run the house at all. The mistress rebuked the butler, saying that since there was already a lord, he should not come to her, a woman. The butler had no choice but to put on a mule cart and lead three horses to the city, one of which was lame, the treasure brought by his grandfather.

The grandfather told the farmers to stop their work and gather at the lord's house. The peasants came, and the grandfather told them, now that you are carpenters, you can do what the people of Suno can do; What the people of Suno can't do, you can do.

My grandfather always carried the bachelor's notes with him, and he couldn't read many of the things and formulas in them, but there were some simple, practical, and creative little things that were easy to understand. During the days of waiting for the tools, my grandfather called the farmer every day to explain to them how to dig a square pit, how to process a piece of wood, how to polish it, and how to make some strange-looking parts.

The peasants were full of doubts, but the lord's orders had to obey, and they had to come every day to learn carpenter's work, and they all guessed that this lord had been a carpenter in the south, and had become a lord because he had betrayed his countrymen. My grandfather's textbook was actually a notebook from the bachelor, "Wealth in the Forest--- Turn Wood into Your Dinar".

After a week, the grim-faced butler returned, bringing with him hundreds of tools of all kinds. My grandfather left behind the best farmers at his disposal, prepared the timber, and then clanked it in the field. When my grandfather put the pieces together like building blocks and nailed them together with nails, one saw an exemplary armchair, a cradle, or a pair of high-backed chairs. These things haven't even been enjoyed by the old men in the city. This was even the beginning, and my grandfather was almost strict in demanding that the farmer polish these things and "be like Sumi's face", at this time Sumi was often tired of playing and lying on the wood to sleep, the old butler frowned, and the farmers laughed.

Ten days later, the old butler saw a dozen pieces of fine furniture that he had rarely seen in his life, all of which were smooth to the touch like Sumi's face.

The old housekeeper once asked his grandfather where he had learned this trade, and he said, "The crossbow arrows made by the South Swadians can shoot 400 steps, and those are the essence of the South Swadian craft, and these things are only used for subsistence." ”

After five days, the steward went up to the city in a mule cart, three horses, and nine oxen carrying large and small wooden products. There were so many things that I had to let 10 sturdy farmers carry the rest on their backs.

In total, 300 logs were consumed, and 2,000 logs were cut down in the forest by the creek.

These days when the housekeeper is gone, the carpenter work has stopped. My grandfather took the farmers to the newly opened riverbank land, dug up the roots of the trees, and used ploughs pulled by oxen to cut the land. Every day my grandfather would go out very early and come back in the evening. One morning, when my grandfather woke up, the butler had already returned, and when he saw him awake, the housekeeper came and opened a sturdy bag for him, which contained 2,200 dinars.

Grandfather cheered, and the old butler laughed.

After that, my grandfather transferred more than 15,000 dinars from the timber business. He went to the town to visit the lord of the city and gave him 100 dinars, hoping that he would bring 2,000 dinars to the king so that he would not be able to hand over half of the farmer.

The city lord had seen this young man at the front line and liked him very much. The city lord readily agreed.

Soon after, a clerk of the king's treasury wrote back to his grandfather: "Remembering the lord's meritorious service in protecting his lord in southern Xinjiang, and the shortage of labor because of his new fiefdom, it is understandable. Therefore, he is hereby exempted from the obligation to provide labor for our king. Finally, I would like to commend the lord for donating 1,500 dinars to the royal family, and may the lord encourage him to remain a pillar of my king in the future. ”

The grandfather showed the letter to his mother-in-law, the hostess, and told him about the cause and effect. The hostess nodded, "Then the city lord is worth 500 dinars." ”

In the years that followed, my grandfather turned half of the farmers in the valley into craftsmen, earning a lot of gold by working with wood and stone.

During the North Sea War, my grandfather brought back thirty slaves from the slave market in Suno: ten Nord men and twenty Nord women. At this time, because of the war, "the supply was abundant", and the price of slaves more than doubled. When they returned to the valley, most of the Nord women gave wives to farmers who could not find wives, while the Nord men were pardoned as free farmers after a few years of labor, and their grandfathers gave them the freedom to stay or leave. The people of the North Sea knew that every Swadian wanted to kill them in the long plains between the valley and the North Sea, and although the war was over, it would take at least ten years for the people to forget about their hatred. In the end, all the Nords chose to stay, and signed a contract with their grandfather for ten years or more, and became their grandfather's pawns.

In the seventh year of my grandfather's arrival in the valley, a beautiful stone castle was inaugurated in the original lord's estate. From afar, the castle was as peaceful as a white dove on the high ground of the valley.

By this time, the hostess of the year was terminally ill, and her last wish was to see the wedding of her grandfather and little Sumi.

So in the second week of the inauguration of the castle, Huo. Arcadio & Ho. Arcadio. Sumi's wedding was held.

The man's family invited the lord of the city, worth 500 dinars, to be his guest; The woman's family is the head of Sumi's two brothers-in-law: a lord and a tax collector.

The wedding lasted 3 days.

By this time, all the peasants had received gifts from their grandfathers, including a freshly starched linen shirt, a pair of spirited tough cloth trousers, and a pair of shiny cowhide boots. They happily set up the venue, greeted the guests, and busily served food and drinks in the open air.

My grandfather and grandmother were officially married on the last day. The old butler bought 30 barrels of rose petals around Suno. Have some maids wait on the roof of the church.

When the grandfather took Sumi by the hand and walked into the church, all the guests cheered, and the petals of flowers fell from the sky, almost drowning the newlyweds. The bells of the church jingled through the valley, and the birds flew up to the white clouds, looking at the castle with flags fluttering and the busy crowds below. The wind blew in the fields, and the wheat stretched endlessly to the horizon, until the music played at the newlyweds' ball could be heard on the horizon.

It was the most glorious moment of my grandfather's life. After that, my grandfather didn't have too many twists and turns.

In the autumn of Sumi's pregnancy with my father, the Salanders invaded the grain areas of the Rhodoks. My grandfather always felt that he had an obligation to Rhodok, or South Svadia, so he led more than 20 men to the front line for several months.

When he returned, he brought back the widow of his former bachelor, an old lady who had been poor all her life and had no children. After the death of the scholar, he gave up his possessions and lived in a monastery, and enjoyed good fortune in the last moments of his life. She did needlework every day on the sunny side of the castle, sewed little clothes for my father, and finally died peacefully in the castle like a white dove.

She was later buried with her hostess.

In the autumn of the following year, my father, Huo. Arcadio the second was born.