Chapter XVIII Residency

Alexey gave me a gray horse

It was a disobedient horse, and whenever someone approached him, he would pout his hooves and kick someone else's mount, and Alexei asked a horse boy to follow me, and he told the horse boy to blow my horse to the front, and whenever my horse was behind, the horse boy would struck the horse's buttocks with a long whip, and the gray horse would rush forward fifty or sixty yards after being beaten

After a while, the horse found a pattern, whenever the horse's mount approached, it would rush forward for a distance, and then lazily gnaw on the fresh grass and flowers on the ground, waiting for the people behind to arrive, and once it also niào a large puddle of niào liquid in the middle of the road, the people behind were dissatisfied and shouted, let me run away, I could only reluctantly ride on the back of the horse at that time, where can I ride forward

I heard Vladimir laughing, and it was Tom who followed him, telling him all the oddities of life in the city

That night, Tom led Alexei to find the nobleman of Old Man Leo and proved that Alexei wanted to give Tom some money to beat him away, but Tom was very resolute and would not leave, and Tom hid Old Man Leo's noble wrench, saying that he would take it out again when he arrived in the Eastern Regions, and Alexei asked people to search Tom's whole body, but he did not find the wrench

Vladimir prompted Tom to wash his intestines, and maybe he found Tom and said that he was willing to try Alexei showed a tired expression, "Okay, go over there, if you don't take out the wrench, I'll hang you in a tree"

"Are there oak trees in the Eastern Regions?"

"You want to die on an oak tree?"

"People must have a beginning and an end"

Tom said he was going back to pack his things, and he was quick to come back, and he went to find a tavern owner, where he wrote a letter to his agent, saying that he was leaving

Inside the tavern, when they heard that Tom was leaving, they came to say goodbye to him and asked him where he was

Tom said he was going to the East to build his own business

Some people laughed at Tom, saying that it was because the girls had left Tom that he had gone to the East to plague people

"Tom," said a drunken Nord furrier, "won't you go there and open another 'oak house'?" Why do you like oak so much? Have you plastered the first offspring on the oak? ”

"That's right, the bark of that oak looks exactly like your face"

The merchant "Dog Thing" struggled to get up and tried to smash Tom with a wine glass, but a crowd of Tom-loving drinkers surrounded the Nords, and a fat woman buried the Nord's face in the middle of her chest and giggled herself

The hotel comes alive

Tom stood on the table and shouted, "The men I like and the men I don't like, the women I slept with and the women I haven't slept with, your good Tom is going to fuck off, I want you to remember me, just like I will remember you today, I will help you buy wine, boss, drill the best barrels, soul eggs, drink tonight"

The crowd cheered and called Tom's name

Tavern owners like to have someone to set the mood and someone to buy wine for everyone

When the best wine was served, Tom took the first sip, and then toasted continuously, and then Tom left the tavern without paying, and the people were still cheering Tom found Alexei in the second half of the night, Alexei thought he was out of this trouble, but he did not expect to come again

Tom handed over the business to one of his partners, and gathered his last three girls and a seven-year-old girl, Amy

Amy's parents left her, and her neighbor raised her for three months, and then got a maintenance contract from the village elder, and the day after receiving the contract, the neighbor sold Amy to Tom, who thought she was too young and didn't want it, but the neighbor said that it was only half the price, and one of Tom's girls had just beaten the child, and she couldn't let go when she saw the child, so Tom had to pay and keep Amy

Tom said to the girls, if you want to stay, you can stay, if you don't want to stay, you will be free, Tom threw four copies of the deed of sale to these people, and the three girls gave the deed of sale directly to Tom's successor, they have no other way of living, they live well here, they do not want to go back to their hometown in the poor country

Each of the three girls came and kissed Tom, and then went back to the house and went about his evening business, but the little girl could not get away

The little girl's snot and tears were falling in her eyes, she thought that Tom didn't want her anymore and the three women didn't want to take the little girl, and they tearfully hung a small necklace around the little girl's neck and a souvenir left by the guests, but they didn't want the little girl to go the same way as them, they all hoped that Amy and Tom would get out of here

"Tom, she's only seven years old," a woman said to Tom before entering the house

Amy sat on the floor crying, holding a dirty rag doll, which a tailor who couldn't afford to pay for Tom, it was very ugly but the little girl liked it, and the little girl named the doll 'Tom', and she said that 'Tom' would protect him

Tom remembered how he had been treated as a child, and when he came out of the inn where we were staying, he bent down and took Amy in his arms

Amy burst into tears and laughed

The little girl also asked for her three sisters-in-law, and Tom wiped Amy's snot clean and smeared it on Tom as he went

"There will be an aunt in the future"

On the moonlit gravel road, Tom whispered

When Vladimir saw Tom running with a package on his back, a mule, and a doll, his eyes widened

"I say, Alyosha," Vladimir called to Alexei, "you really should marry this Tom, at least on the issue of having children, you have something in common, and after you become brothers, the cost of ni can be flat in the future, it's really appropriate."

Alexei looked at Tom as if he was going to kill him

Tom bowed to Vladimir, "My lord, I think that when Alexei and I get to know each other well enough, we will become better partners than brothers."

"Nonsense," Alexei glared at Tom, "remember who you are, Tom, you man from Oak Village, remember that you are surrounded by Romanovs, and I allow you to laugh when we need clowns, but at other times, you'd better keep your tongue in check, and the Romanovs don't lack a noose."

"You lack oaks" Tom turned and hugged Amy, who was afraid of Alexei and hid behind Tom's back, then stretched out a hand and took out 'Tom' to scare Alexei

Alexei snorted and walked away

Vladimir came over and patted Tom's mule, "Well, yes, there was a mule that came to the Romanovs, but it's a pity that the mule brought a little girl and a useless man, so it's not easy"

"My lord," said Tom, "this mule is very useful, and will find its own food, and it will go to the mother mule itself, and perhaps it will solve many problems in the future, and your house will not be so small that it will not fit even a mule?" ”

"I like the she-mule, little mule," Vladimir shrugged, "I have too many mules to count, this mule can still live in, I like it"

"I thank you on its behalf, your virtue is as strong as oak"

"I say, boy," Vladimir scratched his head, "why do you always have trouble with oak?" ”

"Why do you always have trouble with NI?"

Vladimir laughed, "The journey is very boring, do you know the fun things?" ”

"If you want to listen, I know a thousand stories, and every story is not repeated"

"Okay, okay," Vladimir asked Tom for a compartment for food, and a woman came over with a bundle of straw and threw it on the ground, and then covered it with a white cloth, and the woman told Tom that if the white cloth was dirty the next day, or if there was much less straw, he would have to pay for it

Early the next morning, we left the town of Kudan

It is said that the people in the tavern drank until the middle of the night, and they all lay on the ground, but the next morning they could not find anyone to pay, and the tavern owner used all his men to search Tom, and they knew that Tom was going to the east, so they stopped every caravan that went to the east to check, and the result was very disappointed

Tom did go to the East, but we had to go to the southern manor to meet the people who had moved east, so when there was chaos in the East, we left Kudan through the South Gate with peace of mind

Amy fell in love with the only girl her age, Kaja, so she always followed her Amy wanted to introduce 'Tom' to Kaja, Kaja said it was stupid, and, "If this filthy thing wasn't called Tom, I'd wash it for you, but you gave him that name, and you played with him yourself."

Every time the carriage stopped to rest, Amy would pout and twist the carriage backwards, and then staggered to Kaja's carriage and gave Kaja a candy, or a flower picked by the roadside, or even something on her own neck Kaja refused all of them, she thought it was Tom's method again, but in fact she misunderstood Tom, Tom had been staying with Vladimir on the road, telling him all kinds of stories Amy stayed with a washerwoman, who only cooked soup, So we only ate soup along the way: lamb boiled with carrots, beef stewed with turnips, soybeans boiled with cabbage and onions tasted good

Vladimir likes radishes very much, because this thing is very clear of the intestines, and Vladimir thinks that one of the signs of good intestines is that there are many farts, and he thinks that if these stinks are not released, they will always be held in the stomach, and they are the source of all diseases

Tom said he appreciated this, and he said he noticed that "Victor's horses are very fond of farting, and they love to niiào everywhere, and they must be very healthy."

"That's right," said Vladimir, "it's a good horse, the hooves are wide and thick, and the horseshoe will have to be nailed in the spring of the next year, otherwise it will not be good if it is ground up, you know that some horses have crooked hooves and twisted hooves, and the chapter bones are so thin that they can't nail them at all."

"Well, maybe Victor's horse often eats turnips to strengthen his body."

"Hmph, that's not Victor's horse, what will happen to Victor's treatment, I'll talk about it when I go back to the manor"

"Just like Tom?" Tom asked with a smile

"Maybe it's not as good as you," Vladimir's face sank a little

My horses seemed to understand Tom's words, and I didn't know whether Tom had offended him or flattered him, but the horses suddenly turned back, and even the horse boy had no time to stop him

The horse bit Tom's boot and dragged it back

Vladimir laughed, and the boy came over in fear and wanted to bang away, Kaja opened the window of the carriage, glanced at it, and then put it down indifferently

The riders around cheered and they all bet on who would win the tug-of-war, most betting on my horse and a few showing their support for Tom

I saw Alexei walking in the front, looking at the river beach to the south with a relaxed expression

I followed his gaze and saw endless fields, golden ears of grain swaying in the wind, houses of the manor house like models, scattered over the wide fields, and the great river shining in the distance, like the liquor of amber

We arrived, Romanov Castle, a place that was about to be abandoned