African Nationhood

Chapter 26 Immigrants (Part )
  The white officer followed the lead and soon arrived at a smaller shack.

Shi Jintang was already prepared when he opened the door, but this time he just sneezed twice.

The shed was crowded with people sitting and lying down, all of them girls.

British merchants followed old rules when transporting immigrants, a batch of "pig flowers".

These girls are not very old. The older ones are thirteen or fourteen years old, while the younger ones are only seven or eight years old.

These children have been on an ocean voyage for more than half a month, and the fact that they can persist until now shows that their physical fitness is very good.

The sound of opening the door startled many girls, who didn't have much feelings about the environment they were in.

Just because I haven't had a full meal since I got on the boat.

When they saw the door of the shack open, they instinctively thought that dinner was about to be served.

So they greeted their companions in twos and threes:
  "Sister Ye'er has served dinner",
  "Yaya is ready for dinner."
  "Nanny, wake up quickly, dinner is ready."

……

You can imagine the sadness in Shi Jintang's heart when he looked at these children with sallow faces, skinny faces and dull eyes.

"Children, I'm here to pick you up, but you need to eat first.

Don't mess around, line up and come one by one, do you understand? "

After the girls stepped onto the giant ship, they met for the first time a richly dressed man who spoke Chinese to them and promised to give them a full meal.

These girls were naturally happy, and some even cried out with joy.

"That's great. We can have a full meal. Sister Ye'er, we can have a full meal."

The girl named Sister Ye'er is tall and tall, with a melon face and peach blossom eyes, but her complexion is slightly darker.

Her lips were white and cracked due to lack of water, and there was a braid hanging from the back of her neck to her waist.

This girl is a perfect beauty, but she lacks nutrition, causing her body to be too slender, which affects her beauty.

After listening to her companion's words, there was no smile on her little face.

She stared directly at Shi Jintang, "Are you our buyer?"

Looking at this girl who was not timid, Shi Jintang felt very fresh, "Yes, I am the buyer of all of you. What is your name?"

Sister Ye'er looked at the young man in front of her and found that this man was not only tall and handsome, but also very kind. It would be good to follow such a master.

It's just that he doesn't have braids on his head, just like those foreign adults. Are there people of the same race among the foreign adults as we are in the Qing Dynasty?

She was a little embarrassed by the man's gaze, but she couldn't back down.

If this new owner bought them for the business of selling laughter, she would rather die than do it!

Shi Jintang saw that the girl's body was shaking when she answered his question, and her little hands involuntarily tightened her trouser legs. He realized that the girl had been holding on.

"Why don't you answer me? Are you afraid of me?"

Hearing the new owner's question, Sister Ye'er raised her head and let out a deep breath, "I'm not afraid of you. I have no name. My mother calls me Little Leaf, and my sisters all call me Sister Ye'er."

"Little Ye Zi, don't you have a last name?"

"No, my mother didn't tell me her last name when she died."

Shi Jintang sighed and said softly: "Since you don't have a surname, let's take Ye as your surname. I'll give you another name, Ye Rong, okay?"

After hearing this, the girl recited it in her heart twice, and then nodded to Shi Jintang and said, "Thank you, Master, for the name."

As soon as Ye Rong's name was decided, the other girls couldn't sit still, "Master, please give me a name too, I don't have a name either."

Shi Jintang saw that the girls were getting excited, and he waved his hand, "Don't worry, kids. There's no rush in naming. You have to eat something first, and I will make arrangements for you when I take you back."

Ye Rong couldn't help hearing this, "Did the master buy us to do the kind of business that sells laughter?
  If that were the case, I would rather starve to death than do that kind of business. "

This girl knew quite a lot, he chuckled, "It's a shame for a beautiful girl like you to do that kind of business.

Let me make it clear to everyone here that I bought you to train you to be talented people. If you work well for me in the future, I will never let you do any messy business. "

Hearing this, Ye Rong breathed a sigh of relief. The new master praised her for being beautiful. She felt a little happy but felt that she was overthinking it.

The other girls looked at Shi Jintang and the dozen men behind him with half-understanding.

There is also a foreigner there. Who is this new master? How can he make the foreigner listen to him?

……

Shi Jintang said nothing more and waved to Ye Rong, "Come over and help distribute fish soup and bread."

Ye Rong nodded, walked over quickly, took a large piece of black bread from Shi Jintang's hand, and then tore the bread into pieces with her hands.

It's a pity that she is too weak, and the black bread is very tough. When she was anxious, she suddenly heard the new master say to her: "If you can't do it with your hands, I'll give you a knife. It can be cut very quickly."

Ye Rong nodded, took the knife and cut the black bread into small pieces easily. Because there were so many people, she didn't care how well she cut it. She just cut off a piece and handed it to the little sisters.

After all the busy work, Ye Rong was so busy that she was sweating, her feet were a little unsteady, and gold stars began to flash in front of her eyes. She is no better than the other little sisters, and she is also hungry every day.

Suddenly, my vision went dark and I lost all consciousness.

When she woke up again, she felt someone feeding her hot soup with a spoon.

The hot soup was fragrant and had a light fishy smell. She realized it was fish soup, so she opened her mouth and swallowed the fish soup.

When the man fed her the fish soup, he didn't forget to wipe her mouth with a cloth, for fear that the fish soup would flow into her neck.

After drinking a few sips of fish soup, Ye Rong's consciousness completely recovered. When she opened her eyes, she saw a handsome face looking at her intently. Her whole body felt hot for no reason, and then her face also became hot.

"Wake up. Take a rest first and don't move around. You have low blood sugar. You can just lie down for a while and you'll be fine."

Ye Rong found that the new master had loosened his arm holding her shoulders. She took a deep breath and tried to sit up straight, and answered like a mosquito, "Oh."

After a while, she regained her composure, and when she looked up, she found that the new master was checking on the other little sisters, and he didn't forget to ask them if they had eaten enough.

This new master is really good!
  They were busy until the sun went down. There were hundreds of people in the two shacks, and most of them were half full.

It's not that Shi Jintang is reluctant to give them food, it's because he's afraid that these people won't be able to control themselves and something will happen to them.

The immigrants felt energetic after eating, and they all began to guess what the new master did, and how he could control foreign adults, and he was still so young, which was really curious.

The girls were all quiet, but there were also a few familiar sisters whispering, and Ye Rong, sitting among them, became the center of the conversation.

"Sister Ye'er, you suddenly fell down. It was the new master who hugged you in time to prevent you from falling.

Then he stretched out his hand to check your nostrils and neck for a while, and loudly told us that you were fine, you just fainted. "

After saying this, the other man came up to her and whispered: "After the new master said this, he started to pinch you. When he found that you were awake, he held you in his arms and fed you fish soup..."

These words made Ye Rong blush and her heart beat faster. The more she thought about it, the faster her heart beat.

Someone beside him whispered in a low voice, "The new master must have taken a liking to you. Look, he not only hugged you but also gave you a name, Ye Rong, Ye Rong, how nice it sounds!"

Ye Rong could not control herself even more, fearing that this little sister would be even more unbearable if she continued talking.

She stretched out her hand and pinched the girl with broken mouth, "Don't talk nonsense. If you talk nonsense again, I will get angry!"

The girl who was pinched was shocked, while the other girls gloated over her misfortune.

"What nonsense are you talking about Caiya? Who is the new master? How can he like us?
  If you continue to talk nonsense, I will sue the new master and ask him to take care of you. "

"That's right, the new master can drive foreigners away. His status is so high, how could he choose from girls like us?
  He will definitely choose a beautiful aunt among foreign adults, a woman a hundred times more beautiful than us, to serve him. "

Most of the little girls of this era matured precociously. Although they seemed to have a vague understanding of love affairs between men and women, they were more realistic than the junior high school students of later generations.

Just because Ye Rong was given the name by the new master first, they all began to fawn on Ye Rong more or less, and began to form a small group with Ye Rong as the center.

……

"Boss, I have counted all those men. There are 301 of them now. They are all young, most of them are seventeen or eighteen, and some are over twenty years old.

There are not many people who are skilled in crafts. Two of them have gone to private school and know a few words. The others are blind. "

After hearing this, Shi Jintang nodded slightly, "Where's the girl?"

"There are 198 girls, most of them are around ten years old, and a few are thirteen or fourteen years old.

That Ye Rong is the eldest, fourteen and a half years old, and the best-looking. "

When Shi Jintang heard this, he immediately stretched out his legs and kicked Tian Liang down, "You kid, you can't play tricks on them. I can use these kids."

Tian Liang rubbed his belly, and when he heard this, he was immediately surprised and said: "Boss, you don't want to get all these girls into your own room, do you?
  If you do this, you will give it to the emperor..."

"GNN, what are you thinking about all day long? I'm a superman. Why don't you exhaust me to death by collecting so much?"

Tian Liang chuckled, "That's good, I'll book Ye Rong first."

Shi Jintang pointed at this guy and said, "You, an old boy, can become someone's father. Why do you still want an old cow to eat tender grass?"

Tian Liang felt embarrassed when his boss said this, "Hey, I, Lao Tian, ​​am a hard-working man. I can't wait to work under you. I don't think about anything else but getting married as soon as possible and living a good life."

"I understand how you feel, but these girls are really useful to me.

Later, I will ask the merchants to bring in as many older women as possible. Don’t worry, I will definitely let you be the first to choose when the time comes. "

After hearing this, Tian Liang immediately expressed his loyalty to Shi Jintang, "Boss Shi, you are my Lao Tian's reborn parents. I, Lao Tian, ​​will be with you in this life. From now on, you..."

"Okay, stop talking nonsense and get down to business."

"Well, those girls who are illiterate are all blind, but several of them can embroider and weave. That Ye Rong can both weave and embroider."

Shi Jintang nodded again, "Well, these people's foundation is indeed very poor."

　Please vote, collect, invest and continue reading, thank you!

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)