the world

"No need." Taki Ruoye shook his head.

"Are you a witch? There are no shrines around here. How did you get here?" The blushing samurai still gave his dry food to Taki Wakaba, "Take it, remember to hide it, one It's dangerous for women with children to wander outside."

"...Is it okay? What are you going to eat after?"

"I'm more than these dry food, my name is Liu Yu, what about you?"

"Taki Wakaba."

"Taki Wakaba... Is your surname Taki?"

"Correct."

Liu Yu was silent for a while, then looked at Taki Wakaba again for a while, "It seems that you are from Kyoto."

"What's wrong?" Taki Ruoye noticed that Liu Yu's tone had changed.

"It's nothing, I heard that the tiles in Kyoto are made of colored glaze, and the cars and BMWs come and go like weaving. Is this true?"

"It's not that exaggerated, but it is indeed very prosperous and beautiful."

"I've always wanted to visit Kyoto, but to get to Kyoto here, you have to cross several borders. It's not easy to talk about wars and chaos. Even if a person like me goes to Kyoto, he will be ridiculed by the big shots there as a country bumpkin."

"People in Kyoto are no different from you and me, so you don't have to belittle yourself." Taki Ruoye said.

"Really? You don't seem to be comforting me." Liu Yu smiled.

"Liu Yu, let's go, this woman is ignoring us again, don't waste your time, we still have things to do." Another warrior began to urge Liu Yu.

"Okay, then, Miss Miko, I really want to talk to you again if I have a chance." Liu Yu got on the horse, turned the horse's head, and asked as if he suddenly remembered something: "Do you have a passport? Although this thing is not necessary, there is a reason why the local officials want to embarrass you without a travel certificate. Maybe I asked too much, you can walk here from Kyoto, how come there is no travel certificate..."

Seeing Taki Ruoye shake his head, Liu Yu took out a wooden slip from his bosom, which was probably what he called the brigade certificate, and he threw it at Taki Ruoye, "Hold it carefully, don't lose it!"

Taki Ruoye received the passport, and Liu Yu and another samurai had already galloped away on the horse. She looked at the passport, and there were some words engraved on it, "Hojo clan...Isui...they should be Hojo The warriors in the territory of the clan, Yishui should be one of the territories of the Hojo clan, and this brigade card was made in Yishui."

Long Ruoye put away the passport and continued to walk towards the village. When she reached the gate of the village, she saw a simple wall surrounded by wooden boards, and there were soldiers standing guard on it.

Usually the villages are guarded by the villagers spontaneously, but this village has special soldiers equipped with a complete set of weapons and armor, which makes Taki Wakaba feel a little strange.

"You! Stop! Who are you?"

The soldiers standing at the door stopped Taki Wakaba.

"I want some milk for the baby."

"...It's a beggar again, you look like a noble lady...Forget it, this world...you go in, no matter whether you have milk or not, you have to come out before dark."

The soldiers opened the door and let her in without asking to see Taki Ruoye's passport. It seems that, as Liu Yu said, the passport is not a necessity, and the soldiers guarding the city will not deliberately check the passport.

Taki Wakaba walked into the village, and there was finally a sense of people here, and dead bones could be seen everywhere, and the thatched houses on both sides of the road were next to each other.

Although it was daytime, there were very few people on the road, and the doors of every house were closed. Taki Wakaba noticed that almost every house had mulberry trees planted in the yard.

"With houses and courtyards like this, it seems that this village is in relatively good condition, and there are special soldiers guarding it. It's just that there is no farmland, and every household is planted with mulberry trees. Does this village make a living by raising silkworms?"

Taki Ruoye knocked on the door of a house, but there was no response for a long time. She knocked again, and a woman's curse came from inside: "Beggars, stay away, I don't have any extra food here!"

"I have some dry food here, can I exchange the baby's food with you? Even if I go in and cook a bowl of rice porridge."

"Who cares about you! Take your child and die!"

Taki Wakaba continued to knock on the door of the next house, but the next house just pretended to be dumb, and no one opened the door even after knocking on several houses.

When Taki Ruoye knocked on the door of a relatively large courtyard, a woman's soft voice finally came: "Who are you?"

"I'm a traveling witch, and I want to ask for some food for babies. I can exchange it with dry food."

"Are you alone outside?" The woman's tone sounded a bit worried.

"Yes, I'm the only one." Taki Ruoye felt the baby in her arms start to move again, probably woke up from hunger, so she gently shook him to comfort him.

"...then you come in."

The woman opened the door, and Taki Ruoye saw that it was a thin woman, her sleeves were rolled up, her hair was not tied up, and the front two strands were scattered on her forehead, she coughed a few times, "It seems that it is really a Miss Miko, go in quickly, the child must be starving."

Her tone became much more cordial when she saw Taki Ruoye, Taki Ruoye could feel that she had let down her vigilance, she seemed to have made a lot of determination just by opening the door.

"My child is just one month old. Judging by your swaddle size, this child has only been born for a few days. It's really pitiful for you to be a woman wandering outside with your newborn child."

"This is not my child. I picked it up in a boat on the river bank."

"Well, you don't look like someone who has given birth." The woman coughed again, "It's a pity that I don't have enough milk to feed my own child, so I can only cook some rice soup for you. Willing to raise The child you picked up, Ms. Miko, you have such a kind heart. Since my child was born, I feel that there is nothing more important in this world than this child. Now I can’t see people suffering, and I’m afraid that one day It will come upon me and my children, and I fear it every day..."

The woman was about to cry as she spoke, but she held back her tears and started to burn firewood to cook rice soup for Taki Ruoye, "It may be because I haven't talked to anyone for a long time. What is there to say about depression? It also made you sad, and it’s good to be alive now.”

"I just knocked on the doors of several houses, but no one answered. There are soldiers guarding outside. Why are you still so worried?"

"Those warriors..." The woman's complexion was very bad, "Our village has raised silkworms for generations, and the women can weave silk from silk and sell it at a good price, so everyone's life is good. It's been a long time It happened in the past. Since the beginning of the war, the men have gone to fight, leaving the women to raise silkworms and weave cloth for the lord every day. The silk weaves must be handed over, and a certain share must be guaranteed. Those soldiers and warriors, It's not protecting us, it's just protecting their cornucopia. It's ridiculous that without this technology, we women might not even be able to protect our own homes."

"The coat on your body is also made of silk, and its craftsmanship is exquisite. It is definitely not something that can be made in a rural place like ours. It seems that Miss Miko must have been very prominent in the past." The woman stared at Taki Wakaha Chihaya on her was outspoken.

"It's just a thing of the past." Taki Ruoye looked at the silk piled up on the blanket, but the woman was only wearing linen and coarse cloth, "A person covered in silk is not a silkworm farmer."

"I can't answer Miss Miko's poem." The woman smiled wryly, "The rice porridge is ready, just put the leftovers from this morning into the water to warm up. The child is still young, do you need me to feed it?"

"No need, I can do it myself." Taki Ruoye took the bowl, turned sideways and fed it to the baby mouthful, preventing the woman from seeing his face.

The baby was very obedient when he ate the rice porridge. He didn't fuss or resist, and tried hard to swallow every mouthful of rice porridge that was put into his mouth.

"This child is so quiet. I think he will be a sensible child." The woman got up and said, "I'm going to pick mulberry leaves. Miss Miko, you can rest here."

Seeing her distressed face, Taki Ruoye asked, "What's wrong? She looks worried?"

"The mulberry tree planted in my yard is infected with pests, and there are not many leaves left. There may not be enough mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms in the future. Speaking of which, I was once called "mulberry" by the people in the village because of the good care of the mulberry tree. F', but now even if I want to save the mulberry tree in the hospital, I'm powerless."

"Can you take me to see the mulberry tree?"

The mulberry girl brought Taki Ruoye under the mulberry tree in the yard, and it looked like a very old mulberry tree, "Miss Miko, be careful if there are bugs falling down, I'll fetch some water."

Can insect damage be counted as a bad state of mulberry trees?Taki Ruoye looked at the lonely branches and leaves of the mulberry tree, and decided to give it a try.

She used [Mercy], and the mulberry tree immediately revived as if it had been washed, and the eggs and pests on it disappeared.Taki Wakaba used [Blood Ghost Art - Lian Ji] again, she scratched her fingertips with her nails, and a drop of blood dripped on the soil under her feet.

"It seems...a drop of blood is a bit too much, it seems that it will be diluted before being used on crops."

The color of the mulberry tree in front of me is green and green, as if spring has come, new branches and leaves are drawn out, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that it is thicker and taller than before.

"This..." Sang Nu froze in the yard holding the water basin.

"It's actually because..."

Taki Wakaba wanted to explain, but saw Sang Nu shed tears. She asked, "Did you do this? Miss Miko. No, besides you, who else would it be?"

"Aren't you afraid?"

"No, for people like us, who can see the miracle that we have dreamed of day and night, who cares what kind of power it is? Don't get me wrong, Miss Miko, I didn't cry because I was sad, on the contrary , I haven’t been happy for a long time.” Sang Nu wiped away her tears, “If this kind of miracle can still happen, then this ridiculous world will end one day, and my husband will return one day too. .”