After a few days of staying, the father said goodbye to his uncle. Before leaving, his aunt stopped him by the door, and his father found that his aunt's expression was very complicated and even sad, and then his aunt calmed down and cautiously said to his father: "When you see your father, take me to say hello to her." ”

The father rode away from the tax collector's house, and the tax collector and his wife sent him to the door: "Have a good trip, young man." ”

His father arrived at the merchant's house at noon, and the merchant received him warmly, saying that a carriage would leave for Uxhall this evening, and that he would reach the town of Lourense to-morrow evening. Rest in Lurens in the evening, change horses, and continue the journey the next day. The father said thank you to the merchant for everything.

The merchant asked his father what he was going to do with the horse. If his father had given him the horse and given him another 30 dinars, he could have a caravan take the horse to Uxhall, but the caravan had been badly damaged at Kugit and would not have set out until half a month later; Alternatively, the horse can be left at the merchant's house for no charge and picked up at any time in the future, but the merchant may have to do some work with the horse in the meantime.

It was only then that my father realized that the traveling horse was a burden, and that he should not have ridden it away from his uncle's house. He gave the merchant 2 dinars and told him to lead the horse to the tax collector's house. Then he wrote a letter to the Valley of the White Dove, asking Jill to bring the horse back when he had time. The father gave the money and the letter to the merchant, who said "see you in the evening" and left.

The father fell asleep in the compartment arranged for him, and before dinner the merchant woke him up, told him that he could go to dinner, and that he was ready to get into the car after eating. My father got out of bed in a daze, packed up his things and went downstairs.

Suddenly there was a commotion during the meal, and a chef-like man in the aisle was beating a dirty child, pushing and shoving her forward.

The merchant looked at his father's puzzled face and said, "This is a little Kugit mongrel." The men of their village robbed our caravan, the one that had returned. But our men were brave enough to drive away the ringing horses. It was a terrible fight, and we had 11 people killed, and they were no better, about 20 people died. The few remaining alive fled. The brother of our caravan leader died in that battle, which drove the irascible man insane. They followed the ringing horses all the way to their village, and all the bastards who had done bad things ran away, and we searched all over the village to find a few old things that couldn't run and this little bastard. Our caravan tied up the old stuff in the center of the village, set fire to the village, and brought the little bastard back. ”

At this time, the little girl who looked like a rag lay on the ground and didn't get up. The cook kicked and kicked her. The cook spent 200 dinars ---- his annual income to get the caravan to do some personal work for him, but the caravan was lost in the Kugit steppe. His money was also lost. He took all his anger out on the little Kugit mongrel. The cook pulled out his belt and whipped the dirty little girl of Kugit on the ground.

The father couldn't stand it anymore and shouted, "Stop fighting!" It is hoped that the businessmen will stop this atrocity.

The merchant watched the scene coldly for a few more seconds, during which the belt rained down on the little girl. Then the merchant told the cook to stop. The cook grabbed the Kugit by the hair and tried to drag him out of the porch. The father told the merchant, "The man is going to beat her!" ”

The merchant said: "Dear sir, more than 60 of us are missing in the home of this little mongrel. What kind of torture do you think they're suffering right now? Maybe they have died no one left, but for these dead people, it is a blessing to be alive, even if they are beaten. The father couldn't argue with the businessman, he said, "I don't want this kid to be beaten."

The merchant said, "Young man, there is a saying, 'Do not accuse your master of whipping his servant,' and I want you not to interfere with me, and to do whatever I want with my property." ”

The father lost his voice and said: Then I can buy her!

The merchant was a little annoyed by his father's entanglement, and when he heard this, the merchant's brain instantly calculated: this little Kugit man has sores all over his body, and he is beaten every day, and it is estimated that he will not live until next spring. It's better to sell it to this stupid boy who doesn't know anything now. And the Kugit seemed to be an eyesore, always reminding him of the tens of thousands of dinars of his goods that had been lost in the steppe.

The merchant said, "Huh?? In fact, I wanted to tell you a long time ago that it is very inconvenient for a man who does not know how to run a house to go out and wander without a waiter. This is a girl from a poor family in Kujitte, who can do a lot of work, and is very clever with her hands and feet. And she doesn't speak, which is good for your studies. It's a good idea to have her serve as a boy for you. ”

The father was so excited that his blood rushed to his head, and he asked the merchant how much it was, and the merchant privately calculated that the caravan needed to be rebuilt, and that it was difficult to buy horses. And the traveling horse looks very strong, and at first glance it is a good horse from the plains of Palauven. Then the merchant said, "How about you exchange your horse?" ”

The horse was carefully purchased by Gil for a whopping 400 dinars. It would cost them 60 dinars to hire a sweet maid for their parents, and then another 6 dinars a year and take care of room and board. But the fledgling father didn't know the market, and he felt that a horse was still valuable in exchange for a person, but even then he felt that he was at a loss.

He said that the saddle was to be left behind. The merchant pursed his lips and said that if his father did not leave the saddle, which he no longer had for his father, he could wash the little Kugit clean; Giving her father enough medicine would allow him to wipe the sores on her body; And he was able to find clean clothes for the Kujiit.

The father thought about it, tried hard to make himself look not easy to be deceived, and finally said firmly: "Deal." ”

The expression on the merchant's face seemed to be at a loss, and his heart blossomed.

The little Kugit had been suffering from a fever.

She dreamed about her suddenly changed life. She got up hungry as usual, hoping that her father would bring food back from the meadow today. Her father told her that he and her uncles had gone hunting. The women of the village have been worried for the past few days. My father had been gone for 3 days, and he had only left one day's dry food before leaving.

The two winters have been longer and colder. Large numbers of cattle died in the pastures. Now her clothes were shabby and cramped, and her family did not have as much of leather goods, jerky, and cheese as they used to be, and she could go to the city in exchange for the necessities of life. People are getting poorer and poorer, and finally they don't even have enough to eat.

A few nights ago, her uncle had arrived at her house overnight. His father couldn't take out milk tea to pick up customers. His uncle looked around the house and persuaded his father to go with him tomorrow to "hunt." My father was very embarrassed and said that he did not want to go until he had to.

Rhine's uncle licked his upper lip: "How long has it been since little Rhine (Midnight Dreamer, welcome to the official appearance) hasn't changed his clothes?" Why can't you marry a new woman when she dies? Where are you with so many cattle and sheep before? Now the time has come for last resort. If you want to do something, we will be waiting for you at the entrance of the village tomorrow morning. The sheep is fat, and all we have to do is sharpen the knife, slaughter it in the plain, and use its flesh to change Rhine's clothes! ”

Rhine's father didn't sleep all night, intermittently handing firewood to the hearth and sowing it with tongs. At dawn, her father came and tucked her quilt. Then he took down a scimitar that had fallen dust from the beams of the house, took out a whetstone from under a pile of firewood sticks, and sharpened it for half an hour, during which time he tried the blade with his thumb. Finally, Rhine's father slowly wiped the blade with a thick cloth. He watched the knife for the last few seconds in infinite silence, and plunged it into his own scabbard. Rhine heard his father go outside the house and untie the reins of his horse in a shack??????

At noon that day, Rhine drank a lot of water and lay in bed, trying to make himself forget about his hunger. At this time, she hadn't eaten for two days. Suddenly, there was the sound of panicked horses' hooves, and he thought that his father had returned from hunting, and the imagination of food made her even more hungry. I waited for a long time, but I didn't see my father come back. She faintly heard: "Everyone go quickly, go to the woods to take refuge"

"Dead old man, get out of here, do you want to drag everyone to death?" "Just bring food, we don't have anything else anyway." "Those bastards are chasing after you, and they're coming."

She waited for her father inside the door, listening to the louder and quieter outside the village.

In the evening, she heard the sound of horses' hooves around her house again, and suddenly the door was pushed open.

"Father is back!" Rhine thought to himself.

A smell of sweat came, and several strange men stood beside Rhine.

After they had discussed a few words, three of the men turned and left, and one of the remaining men grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head on a stake.

When Rhine woke up again, he found himself tied upside down to a horse, his head facing down for a long time, and his head was in terrible pain. She opened her eyes and saw that "above" was the constantly shaking grassland, and "below" was the silent sky. She looked to the left, a corpse with half of its head cut off was tied to the side, and the remaining half looked at her with an indifferent expression on their faces.

Rhine began to cry.

For a few months, she was beaten and toyed with to a lively city. After settling here, she continued to be beaten, scolded, and bullied. She was assigned to a cook to help with the living. Today, when she was squatting on the ground to add firewood to the stove, the cook put his hand into her pants from behind, and she panicked, turned around and struggled for a long time, finding the opportunity to bite the cook. The annoyed cook punched her and turned to close the kitchen door???

When Rhine woke up, he watched the chef swear and tie his bleeding fingers with strips of cloth. He was going to ask the butler for leave and go to the doctor to treat him, and he grabbed Rhine's hair and prepared to take her to show the butler what she had done.

Then she was pushed and knocked down in the courtyard, and the ensuing whipping made her almost die of pain, and at the end of her consciousness she prayed to her dead mother for the blessing of her long-dead mother, hoping that her long-dead mother would send a god to save her. Then she heard a voice: "Stop fighting!" That was the first time Rhine had heard his father's voice.

She had a fever and felt like she had been taken a long way, and she heard a muffled voice ask, "What's your name?" It was the same voice she remembered, the same tone she had heard before she passed out, "Stop fighting"; the same kind of care; The same voice that makes people feel warm and trusting.

"What's your name?"

"Rhine."