John followed Maria Milley into the Beaver Cave, the cave was spacious and bright, the darkness was banished by the light of the candlestick, John looked down at his boots, although the ground was not too flat, but the sense of blockage under his feet was gone—the mud in the cave had been removed.

Maria dragged out a storage box from behind the platform and motioned for John to put his prey inside, "I've found an abandoned well and poured all this obstructive mud into the hole, and they won't stain your shoes again." ”

"It's hard for me to live here alone, I don't know how you managed to make it." John looked into the deep beaver cave and exhaled, and spoke his inner thoughts. Maria's dwelling was only the outer part of the cave, and the last time I visited, it was pitch black, with only a little light on the woman's hand. He didn't know what had happened in the depths of the cave, if there was any other exit, "Ma'am, have you ever feared the darkness?" ”

"Luckily, I've never actually walked into the cave, and although there is an occasional slight squeak at night, life here is pretty good. At least don't think about complex relationships – the human heart is far more feared than darkness, isn't it? The Beaver Cave was the only place willing to accept me, and I wanted it to look a little bit cozy, so I bought some furniture - wooden tables and crates and stuff like that, and I want to swap them out for stone in the future, do you have any suggestions, John? ”

"There are too many rocks here, so it's best to get some fabric or leather stools and chairs, and then you can ask me to help and call a few helpers to decorate this place."

"I will carefully consider your proposal. Speaking of helpers, I believe that there are always people in this world who take the initiative to lend a hand. I hired a horse-drawn cart to bring things back that day, and a few soldiers looked around the entrance of the cave, and I thought they had bad intentions, but they helped me unload the furniture, and ended up leaving half a crate of Scotch whisky. It is said that their commander was a fan of this wine, but after two sips he vomited it out of a human state, and said that no southerner was accustomed to drinking it, so the soldiers left it to me. Maria's face glowed red, and she turned out two goblets out of nowhere, "Sir, can you impress me?" ”

John replied with a smile and eagerly took the bottle and glass, he didn't intend to turn down any chance to taste the wine, nor did he want to disappoint the lady in front of him, and since his own amount of alcohol was more than enough for high-strength moonshine, these whiskeys should not be a problem.

John tilted his glass slightly, letting the clear liquid wet his lips, then cocked his mouth and took a deep breath, the pungent smoky smell mixed with the aroma of oak seeped into his nose.

Maria flicked the hair off her shoulders, her seductive red lips grinding against the rim and walls of the goblet, leaving two blurred lines, "You see, with these whiskeys, we can play a game and live up to the wine." ”

John nodded, his slightly drunken pleasure making him unable to extricate himself: "As long as it's not in that way, I'm happy to accompany you." ”

"In Scotland, two fun facts about yourself and two pieces of advice for your wine companions are better than cured meats and smoked beans."

"Storytelling? Ladies are preferred. ”

"Okay." Maria didn't refuse, but took a sip of wine and moistened her throat.

"I remember telling you that I'm not a local, that Scotland is where this wine is made is my hometown, and that I have wasted most of my wonderful youth in the taverns of Aberdeen. I fell in love with a green agate ring in the bazaar, and the Irish sailors who were in the harbour coaxed me to buy me a ring if I had a hangover at the tavern, and I agreed with a fever in my head, and that I was drunk that night, unconscious, and climbed into their thief ship in a daze, and fell into a pile of damned cargo. Who knew that the Scots had only docked for half a day, and the ship set off at night. ”

There was a magical power to Maria's story that made John feel uncomfortable drinking with a wine glass, so he picked up the bottle and poured two sips, and after a while, the burnt smell reached all the internal organs, "Let me guess, the ship's destination is the barren East Coast, right?" If that's the case, you're out of luck. ”

"That's right, sir, that's when I came to the United States, and being at the mercy of others is the norm for me." Maria laughed twice, "Okay, I'd like to hear your story." ”

John searched his memory for his own jokes, but there were few recent events that made him laugh, so he might as well look further into the past, he felt that the ignorance of his childhood was more suitable for the choice of jokes.

"Almost all of Texas was full of plantations and estates, and my father was the owner of the family ranch, and I was half a year old at the time, and I spent my days with the foals. Hey! Little master, help me carry a letter! One day a pastoral worker from Oregon stopped me, whose name was very close to the pronunciation of grapes, and told me in a hesitant manner that I thought they were plotting to cut off the freshly ripe grapes so that our family would not have a harvest, and the letter that was supposed to be delivered to the maid was delivered to my father's study. There are strict rules in the manor, one of which is that the ranch worker cannot fall in love with the maid, but no one cares, as long as the master does not see it, no one will care if he falls in love with the goats in the pen, but if he knows about it......"

"Hahaha, you were stupid." Maria was amused and covered her mouth and laughed.

"Later, my father settled the wages for that year, and then kicked the two out of the manor and let them follow the grape love."

John clutched the bottle tightly to find a leaning on, and he felt his soul struggle to peel off his body, and his brain was a mess.

"Ma'am, if I'm not mistaken, there's still a part of this game, and I'd like to talk about it while I'm still sober."

After getting Maria's permission, John said without hesitation: "You should really move to a decent city like Annisberg, I'm not talking to Anlube, it's just ...... This kind of place is really not a place where a woman should live. ”

For a moment, John couldn't tell whether these words should be said at such a time, and a gooseberry-smelling tiredness made him involuntarily droop his head, and he saw the corners of Maria's originally raised mouth drooping out of the corner of his eye.

"Let's not talk about that, shall we?"

John nodded slightly, "It's your turn, Lady Milley." ”

John gritted the smooth rim of the bottle with his teeth, raised his head slightly, and let the wine wash over the surface of his teeth before sliding through the gap between his teeth and into his mouth. He left this mouthful in his mouth, thinking patiently to listen to the woman's speech before swallowing.

"John, I have nothing to say to you but a warning."

Seeing that Maria was not ready to make a tirade, John tilted his head and let the whiskey slip into his stomach: "Oh? If the warning is not to eat herbs you don't know, and not to go near unfamiliar women, then you don't have to talk too much...... Come on, what's your warning? ”

Even though she was half-drunk and half-awake, Maria Milley showed a seriousness that John had never seen before.

"Stay away from the Indians."

For a moment, the intense drunkenness of the whiskey enveloped Maria's words, and John was in a trance, and he preferred to believe that someone had told him a joke in his ear: "I heard you right......

"Stay away from the Indians, get out of their reservations."

John drank the bottle in one gulp, letting the golden jade liquid slip down his throat, forcing himself to enjoy the churning in his stomach. Before the mellow scent from a foreign land seeped into every grain of his body, John was awake for a brief time like a mayfly's life, and then everything in his eyes began to distort, and the bottle with the scenery label fell out of his hand and shattered, and he lost his balance and fell to the glass slag on the floor, which could no longer support him to open his eyes.

Stay away from the Indians.

The voice echoed in John's mind like a ghost, until it was lost to the softest part of his heart......