It was past midnight when my father knocked on his aunt's door.

He was delayed outside the city, and a herd of shepherds who were about to enter the city with sheep made a mess of the city gates. The chief of the inspection ignored everyone's requirements at all, and still investigated the personnel one by one unhurriedly. When my father entered, it was past nine o'clock. As soon as he entered the city, the gates were closed, and those who did not come outside the gates could only huddle under the gates and wait for dawn.

After waiting for a few minutes, a lookout by the door was opened, revealing the face of a middle-aged man.

"Who are you, young man?" The middle-aged man's face was brightened by his torch.

"I'm Arcadio II, and the Tax Commissioner is my uncle."

The middle-aged man remembered the wedding he attended in the Valley of the White Dove when he was a young man. But he didn't know if the lord had a son. In his impression, the lord was of an ordinary appearance, and had a typical southerner face: small facial features. And the young man in front of him is dignified, although he is not handsome, but he has full facial features, more like a northerner. He told the young man outside the door to wait, and at the risk of being reprimanded, he found the warden, who remembered that there was a relative of Arcadio who had gone to the valley to deliver gifts on behalf of the tax collector and his wife when he was 10 years old, and the lad had run around with a wooden sword.

The butler was led by the middle-aged man to the door, and he could see at a glance through the lookout that the troublemaker from seven years ago had grown up. He chuckled and asked the middle-aged servant to open the door. The housekeeper told the middle-aged man to take my father to the hall to rest, and he himself went to wake up the tax collector.

Half an hour later, the father swallowed the bread that was still in his mouth and stood up in a panic to the tax collector. The tax collector came over and shook his father's hand and gave him a hug. He ordered the servant to carry the luggage to the room that his father had arranged, and for the servant to help his grandfather settle the horse. In fact, these have been arranged by the butler, and the tax collector wants to be more affectionate through these actions, and in any case, the father of the young man in front of him has become one of the richest lords in the plains of South Suno in recent years.

The tax collector briefly asked about the situation in the valley, about his grandfather's health, and finally about the purpose of his trip. My father said he was going to go to a university in Djerkhala. The tax collector shook his head, then gently criticized his grandfather.

The tax collector said that if his grandfather could talk to him about his father's future beforehand, he could introduce him to the tax academy in Suno, or even in the capital, Parabun. In this way, after his father graduates, he can become a tax officer. In the first few years, he could follow himself to get acquainted with the taxation of various places, and then through his connections, he could assign a wealthy area to his father as a tax district, which, according to the tax collector, "was almost promising." When I was a clerk, I was paid 200 dinars per month. Very decent. "Father thanked his uncle for his kindness.

At this time, a woman appeared by the door. Father's aunt appeared.

The woman had just passed her 39th birthday, and she resembled Sumi, which made her father a little in a trance. The woman was clearly more affectionate than the tax officer. He came over and squeezed his father's hand and kissed him on the cheek.

She asked Sumi how she was doing, and her father said, "Mother is fine except for a little weakness. ”

My father's aunt heard more from the simple words. The wise woman was so intrigued that she asked no more. She asked her husband if there was anything else she wanted to explain, and he said, "No, take the young man to rest." ”

The tax collector called the butler and asked him to lead his father to the guest room. Then he stood there and accepted his father's farewell bow. He smiled as his wife and housekeeper led his father to disappear at the end of the courtyard.

My father didn't get up until noon the next day, and when he got up, he saw his aunt standing by the bed.

Almost twenty years ago, the woman in front of her father stood in front of her grandfather's bed, dressed up by her mother. My aunt was amazed that she and her two younger sisters had been waiting for a man who had not woken up for a choice. If the man had made any different decision, the young man she was in front of her would not have existed.

The woman now remembers the embarrassment of being asked, "Then would you like to be my wife?"

At that time, she actually had a crush on her grandfather. She had never seen such a capable young man in the closed valley. The appearance of my grandfather jumping off his horse and breaking my feet was extremely cute, and the restrained politeness of my grandfather at the dinner table was also extremely simple.

That night, she was woken up by her mother in a smile, and at that time, her mother told her, "Girls, go and put on the most beautiful clothes." She did so honestly and helped her sister get dressed.

The mother then told them that one of them had to be the wife of the man who had been the previous night for the sake of the family. She was very surprised, she listened to the second sister quarrel with her mother, and then the hostess coerced the second sister as a mother. After that, her mother dragged her second sister, and she crept into her grandfather's room with Sumi in her arms. Along the way, she had already thought about it, the second sister was unwilling, the third sister was too young, and it was no surprise that she was the man's wife.

In fact??? Actually, it's not bad.

But after all, this is a man who only came to the valley yesterday, although she absolutely trusts her mother, but she still doesn't dare to be hasty with this kind of lifelong event.

After her grandfather woke up, she kept adjusting, and probably blurted out the next breath: "I'll be your wife", she looked at the man in front of her, and in her heart she already decided that this was her husband. Say it. When she was finally about to speak, her grandfather actually asked little Sumi if she would like to be his wife. She and her second sister shouted, "No! The second sister shouted "no" because she was worried that the fate of the third sister would be decided by child's play; She also had the same thoughts, and besides, she actually had a sense of loss in her heart that her husband had been taken away.

She had been thinking about what followed for years.

When she saw her grandfather walking out the door with Sumi's back in her arms; When she heard her grandfather's manly speech; When she saw the peasants' streamers flying all over the sky, she cried quietly, pouting, tears running down her face and dripping onto her bodice.

She left the valley the year after her grandfather arrived in the valley and married into the city. In these two years, the man had saved up enough for her to pay a dowry of 10,000 dinars; During these two years, the man cultivated the valley and made the land grow countless wheat and fruit seedlings; In the past two years, the hearty smile of this southern man has been deeply engraved in her heart.

She cried the night before she got married, and her mother realized that her eldest daughter's grief might not be just about fear of marriage and reluctance to give up on her hometown.

Her mother found her, held her helplessly, and was speechless all night.

The next day, her mother, the mistress of the valley, led her into the carriage. Grandfather took off his hat under the car and blessed her with a smile. She saw her grandfather's leather boots stuck to the fresh soil of the wheat field. The door had been replaced by my grandfather, and after being polished by my grandfather himself, it was as smooth as Sumi's face.

The moment the car door closed, she cried bitterly.

After marriage, her husband treated her very well. Her husband's father was a tax collector in Suno. She watched her husband rise from a small clerk to the middle level of the Suno Tax Bureau. Her husband worked hard, and within ten years he would replace his father as deputy chief of the Suno tax bureau. But she can't forget the man who laughed heartily in the sunshine, and she can't forget the man named Huo. Arcadio's man.

When Sumi got married, she stood in the crowd clapping and wept under the cover of the fluttering petals. In the afternoon, she put aside her physical discomfort and let her husband take her away. The woman shook her head, pushing away her thoughts.

Looking at Arcadio II, who had just woken up, she said, let's go eat, it's almost noon.

At the dinner table, my father's uncle asked about his arrangements. The father said that he planned to stay in Suno for a few more days, and then take the carriage of the inn to Uxhall, where he would write a letter of peace to the family. After that, my father would cross the Bluewater River and arrive in Viruga in late summer to visit a friend of my grandfather——— a Rhodoc officer who had fought alongside my grandfather in the Salander Desert. Before the fall, he will arrive at the university in Djalkara, where he will familiarize himself with the environment and wait for the start of the school year.

The uncle said he could help his father contact one of the owners of the car dealership and let him take him to Uxhall for free.

The father said that he could pay for it himself and did not want to affect his uncle's reputation because of himself.

The uncle laughed and praised his father, saying that he was worthy of being the son of a lord and had the style of a nobleman.

The uncle reassured his father, saying, "It's not asking others to give it for nothing, trust me young man." The caravan of the owner of the car shop had met Hibiki at Kujitte, and only one of the three caravans had returned, and the other two were missing. He owes us 7,000 dinars in taxes. There's my allowance of 500 dinars, you know? I'll deduct your travel expenses directly from his taxes. We didn't take advantage of others at all. The father said no more.

He went in the afternoon to deliver a letter to help Jill and told the family who received the letter that Jill had been busy lately and would visit her in a while. The housekeeper thanked his father and sent him out.

When he came back in the evening, his uncle asked him where he was going to play today. My father said he had sent a message to a tulip-filled manor on the south bank of the river.

The uncle said, "Is it such a coincidence? The owner of the house was the owner of the car dealership, and he would visit me at dinner. I introduce him to you. ”

My father was nervous for a while, and he was not used to receiving people. The tax collector smiled and told his father to get ready.

At dinner, my father introduced himself to a balding old man. The old man hurriedly greeted his father, saying that he liked his father's handicrafts, which were among the most beautiful objects he had ever seen.

Then he turned to the tax collector, hoping that the tax collector would defer the tax of 7,000 dinars for a month, so that he could have a good turnover.

He said, "It's terrible, you know businessmen like us, all the money is in business. There is no extra money at home, and this year there was a flood between Uxhall and Suno, and the roads were muddy, so people would rather choose to take another car dealership to Harrongosburg and then take a boat to Uxhall there, which made my car dealership much less business than it used to be. And as you know, my caravan should have returned a month ago, but all but one of them had already returned, and the other two were missing. Last year and the year before that, the weather in Kugit suddenly turned colder, and the people there are now poorer, and countless people have made ringing horses. My caravan told me that in some places the men of the whole village were doing this unprofitable business! I hope you will be considerate of me and deferred my taxes. ”

The tax collector thought about it for a moment and turned to ask his father for advice.

This puzzled his father, who had never seen much of the world, and he didn't know what a tax collector meant

But the merchant immediately understood that the tax collector was telling him that whether or not the tax could be deferred depended on the young man's mood.

The tax collector is pushing my father into some social circles that will be useful for him in the future.

The merchant suddenly showed his enthusiasm for his father, which flattered him a little. The merchant asked his father for some information, and when he learned that his father was going to Uxhall, he exclaimed, "Young gentleman, don't inquire about the traffic, for I have your place on every carriage." ”

That night, after the tax officer verified the tax standard, he found that the merchant did meet the criteria for deferred payment. So a letter of attestation was signed, the tax officer of Party A, and the merchant of Party B. The tax collector told the merchant that he thought his father was a good middleman.

The merchant happily hoped that his father would give him the honor of having his father as his guarantor, and that his father would be able to enjoy the honor of going to the humble house before leaving.

After sending the merchant away, his father's uncle said to him, "As long as you have me, you can travel freely on the Suno-Plain."