Chapter 8 Food

After crossing a gravel paved road, we walked into a garden

There are willows, pines, and locust trees, but most of them are not grown, they are only saplings, and a few large trees are obviously brought from somewhere else, and the buildings here are not built in a coherent manner, each one is far from the others, because of the large area of Dongquan University, so it seems empty inside

And it is incredible that many people ran to Dongquan University to fetch water, an old man led a mule cart, and the cart contained five large buckets stacked together, the surface of the buckets was wet, and the mule cart kept dripping from the back of the cart as it passed, and the people who made the road behind it wet were some young women who wrapped long cloths around their heads or draped them on their backs, and these women carried clay pots on their heads, and carried another one in their hands

Alexei told me that it was easy to identify a woman in Vekia, because women in Vekia often wore a white headscarf around their heads

I asked him curiously, "Huh?" Didn't you say that only the women of Salander wore headscarves? ”

"Hey" Alexei shook his head, "But the Salanders are tightly covered, and they only have two eyes, what do our women say, you can see it when you follow me in the future"

At this time, one of the White Dove Business Associations who led us said, "Your son is very interested in women, 'Wikibians always love to go back to where they were born', Wikibians are really like that?" ”

Alexei and the people around him laughed, "That's right, if the Wikiians don't like women and wine one day, then the Wikipeople won't save you, what will happen if Mr. Ivan hears this sentence?" ”

The person who led the way didn't care, "That's what Mr. Ivan said, if you don't believe it, you can ask him"

Our voices were suddenly drowned out, and a group of unarmed and sweat-soaked soldiers with helmets and boots passed by, looking like they had just run

The captain of the soldiers walked at the rear, a whip in his hand, urging the soldiers to hurry up

"Ake" shouted to the man who led the way, "to the beach again today?" ”

"That's right, Lord Andre thinks you can get strong by going to the beach, you know, there are some women living in those shacks by the sea, and Jill is not allowed to live in the city, so they move to the beach and wait for us for five copper coins at a time, and my strongest soldier will use up dozens of copper coins as long as he goes to play for an afternoon, and he can't walk when he gets off the boat, and he is still a strong ghost."

"Lord Andre should come with you, so you can work out and save money."

"That's right, Tully, and in a few days, you'll be able to see the copper coins we saved in your wife's sī pocket."

The thrimming soldiers streamed through a stone gate behind us, and the women who disappeared around the corner of the building gathered in a heap as the soldiers passed, pointing at some of the tall, fair-skinned men among the soldiers

The leader who had suffered in the conversation was not angry at all, he turned the next corner to the left of the avenue, and a shining pond appeared on the side of the road, and the blinding light startled me for a moment, and then I buried my head and hurried forward with Alexei

Finally, in front of a slightly shabby white building, we saw Ivan who had been waiting for us

Ivan was wearing a white blouse, a gray hard-leather hat on his head, his beige kù was tense, his head was covered in sweat, and he was surrounded by two respectful young men who were holding a pile of papers and asking Ivan what to do, Ivan frowned and poked his fingers around, and then pointed at the surrounding houses

"No, the gallery can't be far away from the water source, the last time there was a fire, hundreds of drawings were lost at once, and a bunch of people came, but there was only a bucket of water" Ivan pointed to the outside of the courtyard, "Over there, you see"

He has appeared to us

Then he handed the contents of his hand to the young man, and the two young men looked at each other and left with interest

Ivan opened his hands: "Alyosha"

Alexei laughed and greeted him, "Vanya"

Ivan looks like Alexei's father, but in fact Ivan is not yet forty years old, only more than ten years older than Alexei, people say that Ivan suffered a lot in his early years, and his life has improved in recent years

As soon as we arrived, a group of people in the house started to get busy

These people got up before dawn to make a stove and boil boiling water

In the kitchen, the ham, vegetables, cheese and spices that had been bought had been stacked neatly in a large bucket with a few fish, and last night, they were fed milk jelly As for the wine, Ivan prepared the best Nord wine, although Vecchia wine is the king of wine, but Alexei came from afar, and it is still appropriate to taste the local wine

Before serving, the chef caught a fish in the net and showed us that the fish was wagging its tail violently in the net, Alexei nodded, and the cook turned and went back

"Alyosha, I heard that you eat fish on the boat with minced food," Ivan asked as he waited for the food to be served

A child brought two long hookah butts and a plate with tongs on the side of the plate, and a few red charcoals burned on the plate

Ivan picked up the charcoal and lit a pipe for Alexei, then handed the tongs to Alexei, who in turn lit Ivan's pipe, and the child bowed slightly, took his things and retreated

"Yes, Vanya," Alexei said with a smile, "if you eat a whole fish, you have to turn over the other side when you finish eating one side, and the fishermen of Vykia say 'the fish capsizes', and we don't dare to joke with our lives."

"Oh?" Ivan said with a smile, "In the East, people think that if you tattoo a pig on your body, you can get wealth; Tattoo a wolf on your body to gain agility; If you tattoo a horse on your body, you can gain stamina, are you also ready to follow the local customs? ”

"Then if I don't have this intention, it's enough for me to follow the rules of the Wikibians."

"I'm afraid there aren't many Wikibians in the East"

"From now on, it's all Wikibians"

Alexei spit out a big puff of smoke, but this disguised and dashing action choked himself fiercely, and he coughed for a long time, coughing and waving his hand away the smoke in front of him, these smoke made his eyes full of tears Ivan motioned for the people behind him to help Alexei, and then he squinted his eyes to look at Alexei, it felt like a farmer looking at a piece of land, and then thinking about how much it could be recovered in the autumn after planting seeds

The fruit here is not very tasty, a little sour, but there is something I have never seen but it is very sweet, this thing is like taro, but it is much tastier than taro, as if it has been boiled in sugar juice, this fruit I have never seen before, they are stacked in a pot, like a pile of mud balls, it is easy to peel the skin, it is even more convenient than peeling oranges

Now that I like to eat these things very much, Ivan 1ù has a very happy expression, he turns his head sideways and whispers something to Alexei, I feel that they are talking about me, because they keep looking at me, what Alexei said seems to make Ivan a little surprised, he narrowed his eyes and looked at me, I was very uncomfortable, I don't like people staring at me like this

The four men came carrying a large table, and then put the table down with a bang, and one of them shook the table, and after feeling a little shaky, he shoved a plank under one of its feet, and when he was done, the four men turned and went to get the chair

Ivan pursed his lips with some disdain, "Nords, it would take nine people to make Nords nail horseshoes like wood: eight Nords carry horses, and one Nord hammers the nails into it with stones"

Alexei looked left and right uneasily, "Mr. Martin is a Norder, if he hears it"

"Oh, oh," Ivan shrugged, "Martin is smarter, he'll remember to hammer nails"

There were Vecchians all around, and when they heard this, they all sneered, and when the four dumb Nords moved their chairs, everyone immediately stopped laughing, and the change made the four Nords a little overwhelmed, and one of the Nords looked at us with pale blue eyes, and then bowed his head and retreated with the rest of them

"Vanya, have any Nords you off?" Alexei asked puzzled after waiting for the Nords to leave

Ivan was silent, "Do you know what they're pointing at me?" The captain of a pioneer said that in the west, at the end of the ocean, there were islands one after another, and the uninhabited islands where birds don't The madman said that as long as he continued to go west, he could find the Golden Empire, and what was full of gold Martin was fascinated by it, and asked Mr. Jill to allocate money for him to organize a fleet."

"Then why do you want to point fingers at you?"

"Listen to me, Alyosha," Ivan continued, "a gold coin, if there is only one gold coin, put it in the left pocket, the right pocket will be empty, put it in the right pocket, the left one will be empty, and now Martin is grabbing gold coins from me, when Mr. Gil and I were talking about the trade in the East, Martin always came to make trouble, I heard that Gil had already met some of the people he introduced, if in the end, Gil was lost in him, and your family's business"

Alexei was shocked when he heard this, "No, Mr. Jill has agreed to cooperate with us, we are all ready, if he changes his mind"

"Don't worry, don't worry, Alyosha," Ivan comforted Alexei with a smile, "I'll try my best," Ivan spat out a large circle of cigarette, "It's not a big problem"

After the intimidation, Ivan's important to us has become bigger out of thin air, and our dependence on him has also increased

A certain light flashed in Alexei's eyes, "Vanya, the ancestral motto of the Romanov family is 'never forget' You can rest assured that you will always be our ally"

At this time, a lot of women came out of the house, and these people brought plates of dishes

"Hehe," Ivan smiled and took the opportunity to say, "Don't talk about such a serious topic, let's have dinner"

The first to come up were boiled ham, cold pigeon soup, wheat boiled lamb kneading, pear preserves, and a large plate of strangely tasting kneaded mud porridge and minced Salander white lotus root

After eating these things, we drank some drinks made with milk and honey

The servants served a side meal and we were amazed by these things: fresh oysters and squid, sashimi smeared with mustard, some unknown pickled vegetables, and a jar of steaming loach soup

These things made our eyes widen, and I couldn't help but stick out my tongue when I saw the squid's legs still moving

Alexei blew, "I say, Vanya, I didn't treat you badly when you went to Kudan, how did you get some of this strange thing for us to eat?" ”

Ivan smiled, "Hehe, you know what? When you go to the East, you're going to have to eat these things every day, and that's what the Burks cook there."

"I'll give them a recipe for Wiki, I've heard of the Berks, that self-righteous stupid people, I've heard that they made territorial claims to Svadia decades ago, they said that Zhivadin was built by their ancestors, a bunch of fools, Calradia, anyone can deal with them alone, what kind of Holy Alliance"

"Alyosha, don't talk too much, our brother suffered a big loss from the Burke cavalry on the other side of the mountain, you will also contact them on this trip, be wary of them, not despise them, I only have one gold coin, don't lose it"

"Yes," Alexei's eyes flashed with contempt, "I know, Vanya"

As he spoke, Alexei picked up a glass of wine and began to gulp it down

Ivan glanced at Alexei, then again, and then suddenly 1ù made the most kind expression

"Alyosha, although you don't like what the Burkes eat, I have something here that you should like, at least," Ivan suddenly pointed at me, "Your guy likes it"

I was dealing with a piece of sheep kneading, and when I heard this, I looked up at Ivan in confusion

"What is it?" Alexei put down his glass, tapped his mouth with a napkin, and asked with some confusion

Ivan waved his hand, and a boy brought up the basin with something like taro

"To say that there is really nothing in the Western Oceans would be an insult to Martin, at least, the fleet has brought back this kind of thing, you know? Men and horses can eat it, and wherever it is, if you throw it into the soil, you will grow up vigorously, and the wife of a soldier who fights every day can grow a large piece of this thing, and feed a large family, which is much better than wheat and bring it to the East, so that you will first overwhelm the Burkes on the table."

"This kind of thing grows so much and so fast, I'm afraid it's not delicious?" Alexei tore open one of them and asked with some confusion, "But it smells good."

"It's not delicious, can you eat two of your stuff in one sitting?" Ivan said with a smile

I looked at Alexey embarrassedly

Alexei didn't pay attention to me, he took a slight bite of the yellowish-white tuber, "What's this called?" ”

"'Sweet potato'" Ivan shrugged his shoulders and picked up a glass of wine, "The pioneers call it 'sweet potato'"

"Who came up with the name 'sweet potato'?"

"It's obviously a Nord person, if you want me to say it, it's called Nordgua"

Ivan drank the wine