my magic industry

Chapter 9 Slums

After a night of hard work, Xia Lin finally got the small workshop plan and process flow chart for making brown sugar into white sugar, as well as the simple centrifuge with an iron pot and a wooden shaft, and a simple filter with a filter layer inside a bamboo tube. The drawing of the device came out to the liver.

It was around midnight that Xia Lin climbed onto the bed, and she didn't even have the energy for daily meditation.

After waking up the next day, Xia Lin decided that she must find a channel to learn the dancing lights of the illusion department, or go to the market to see if there are candles with higher luminosity similar to whale oil candles.

Otherwise, if you do drawing work in dim light for a long time, your eyes will be abolished sooner or later.

As usual, she used a cleansing technique to clean up her personal hygiene, and hurriedly ate good and cheap fish soup and rice in a small restaurant near her new home, and then Xia Lin walked to the slums further west.

Along the way, you can see water transport workers pulling flatbed carts from the river bank and various wells in the imperial capital, and civilians carrying buckets to fetch water.

The large-scale imperial capital does not have a running water system. Except for the nearby residents who have the Seine River and wells as water sources, the rest of the residents can only rely on manpower and animal power to transport the daily drinking water and domestic water needed by every household.

Two buckets of river water cost one copper bis, one bucket of well water costs one copper bis, and a flatbed truck can deliver ten buckets of water in one trip, three or four trips in one morning.

It seems that the water transporters seem to be extremely profitable, but these businesses are actually in the hands of those gray organizations in the imperial capital.

Those people cooperated with the residents near the water source and controlled the power to fetch water, and the water carriers who drove the carriages only earned five or six copper coins for a trip.

Xia Lin, who was born in a slum, has a very clear view of the ways of these gray organizations. If he hadn't been detected as a mage talent, he might have become one of these people.

From a certain point of view, if these people did not organize people in the slums to deliver domestic water, the lives of residents in the imperial capital would also be affected to a certain extent.

As it gradually moved away from the center of the North District, the surrounding houses became more and more dilapidated, and the stone slabs covering the sewers on both sides of the road disappeared, causing the stench from the sewers to spread continuously.

When Xia Lin smelled the stench that accompanied her growing up, she felt an instinctive resentment in her heart, but he quickly suppressed it.

Going on for a while, passing a long section of blank land without any buildings used to isolate the West End from the slums, the houses on both sides of the road have become shacks made of reeds and mud.

The sewer had disappeared, the dirt road was so full of potholes that it was almost impossible to get down, and the stench became more intense, as if the whole person was placed in a big cesspool.

But in fact it is not the case.

In the slums with no sewer facilities and no toilets, for the poor to survive, seven or eight years ago, the people living here, under the guidance of doctors and the organization of gray organizations, collectively worked hard to dig a lot of deep pits near their residences. The pits are covered with grass mats woven with reeds and used to dump the domestic garbage and feces they produce.

Although those straw mats could not completely insulate the feces and the smell of fermented garbage, they also made the environment a lot better. Otherwise, it is impossible for the slums to have no large-scale plagues in the past few years.

Therefore, human beings will always spare no effort to survive under any circumstances, even the people in the slums.

Xia Lin's appearance quickly attracted the attention of the children wandering around in the slums. The people here did not know Xia Lin. The children looked at each other and ran over, some of them pretending to be He accidentally bumped into Xia Lin, but Xia Lin easily turned around and avoided it.

This is an old handicraft that has been passed down for a long time in the slums. Some vicious brats will stab or even kill their targets with daggers to prevent them from being chased, but Xia Lin is more proficient in this aspect than them.

Compared with the shallow children, the adults in the slums have a much broader vision. Seeing Xia Lin's mage robe, they shyly told the nearby children not to mess with Xia Lin again.

After all, the mystical mages are fearsome and wise beings in all the stories sung by bards.

Xia Lin was not recognized until he walked into the northern block of the slum, and a group of children who knew Xia Lin flocked to him immediately. These children were all younger brothers and sisters of childhood playmates that Xia Lin knew.

They touched Xia Lin's mage robe curiously with their dirty hands without any fear of Xia Lin's mage status, leaving dirty handprints on it, and some dishonest ones even wanted to take money from Xia Lin's pocket , It's a pity that Xia Lin had already prepared, so she didn't bring anything with her.

"You guys, although this robe is old, it is worth a few silver mares. If it gets dirty, you have to ask your mother to wash it for me!"

Xia Lin had nothing to do with these daring brats, and threatened helplessly.

"Okay! The water in the Seine River is so fast, I think my mother will definitely be able to 'clean' this robe!"

A boy shouted mischievously, but his cleanliness probably meant that Xia Lin's mage robe was gone.

"Hey! You guys..."

Xia Lin sighed helplessly, and walked towards her home surrounded by their enthusiasm.

Not far from Xia Lin, in front of a hut made of reeds and mud bricks, Hurley Carr was sitting absent-mindedly on a stone, supporting the spinning machine for her mother, while looking forward to the east of the road. , looking forward to the arrival of that familiar figure.

"Mom, when do you think Xia Lin will come back?"

Can't bear it anymore, Hurley Carr asked anxiously to her mother.

"Hulley, Xia Lin is your elder brother, how can you call him that!"

The face of the woman who lowered her head and spun vigorously was full of wrinkles, and a lot of white hair had grown between the withered and yellow hair, she said sternly to her daughter.

Today, she didn't receive any laundry job, so she could only spin some spun yarn to earn the meager four copper coins. Even with the twenty or so copper coins earned by her husband, the family of three would be struggling to eat tomorrow.

After all, her second son, Charlene Karl, had already graduated from the Imperial Academy of Magic. As soon as he graduated, the two silver coins he would take home every month would be gone.

As for the fact that her son has become a distinguished mage, Lanny Reid, who has little knowledge, has no real sense of it.

Low-level people like them only know the mystery and horror of Master Mage, but they don't know the use of the power they have.

In the past, in order to reduce the burden on the family, Xia Lin stayed at the school to eat the two free meals provided to the sergeant students, and rarely went home. He only took back the two silver coins, paper and pen subsidies issued by the academy to the sergeant students every month. He only stays at home for one night when he is at home, and he seldom talks about magic at home.

Magic academies in this world do not have winter and summer vacations, only one day of vacation per month can be applied for.

For the past three years, Xia Lin has spent every day in intense study and exercise. Otherwise, no matter how good his arithmetic talent is, no matter how hard he works, it is impossible for an ordinary slum boy to become a first-ring mage in only three years.

"Charlene Karl is back! Charlene Karl is back!!"

Suddenly there was a faint shout from a distance, and the two who were spinning immediately stopped their movements and listened carefully.

"Charlene Karl is back!"

The children's messy voices were getting closer and closer, the girl and the woman showed surprise expressions, and they got up and walked towards the source of the voices.

I saw Charlene Karl, wearing a messy mage robe, walking over helplessly surrounded by a group of children. If there were people in the houses on both sides, they would naturally come out to see what happened.

But at this time, except for members of gray organizations and people engaged in shady industries, the men in the slums are all working in the city, and the rest are some children and women who spin yarn at home.

After sending Xia Lin to the door of the house, the group of children dispersed and gave way to talk to the family.

"Mother, Hurley, I'm back!"

Xia Lin didn't bring anything with him, after all, he came to pick up someone.But Hurley didn't know this. She walked around Xia Lin several times but didn't see any presents, so she immediately showed a disappointed expression.

"Just come back, your father and elder brother are still at the pier, wait for me to go out and buy some food!"

Lan Ni said with a forced smile that the family didn't have the slightest savings, and it seemed that they had to find someone to borrow some money.

"No, mother, you and Hurley pack up the things at home now.

I made some money during this time and bought a house in the North Side.

We're moving there today, so you won't have to go to the river to do your laundry, and Dad won't have to carry bags at the pier! "

Under Hurley's dissatisfied gaze, Xia Lin rubbed her head, looked at her sister's skinny body pitifully, raised her head and said to her mother in this life.

"What? A house in the North District?!"

Hurley yelled in disbelief, and the surrounding women also showed shocking gazes.

There is no one in the slums who does not want to leave here, but they have no skills to talk about, and the money they earn every day can only barely feed themselves and their families. How can they leave here?
They didn't expect that there would be a family that was about to leave this big mud pit today, and that family was the one they got along with day and night.

"House... house?"

Feeling the envious eyes mixed with envy from the people around her, Lanny felt her head was a little dizzy, as if the world had become unreal.

At this moment, she vaguely understood what her son becoming a mage meant to her family.

"Brother, then my mother and I will pack up first! By the way, is the house you bought big? Can I have my own room?"

Hurley saw that her mother's reaction seemed a little slow, she couldn't wait to hold her mother's hand and walked into the house, and she didn't forget to turn around and ask as if to add.

"Don't worry! It's huge, we and our parents each have our own room!"

Xia Lin smiled, and looked at the three men who did not know when they appeared in the crowd. The crowd of onlookers left an open space beside these men, obviously fearing them.

These three people were members of a gray organization called Bronze Hands in the slums, and they were all his former playmates. If he hadn't been detected as a mage talent, he might be one of them now.

(End of this chapter)