Fairy Tree

At dawn the next day, Xiao Lin got up from the bed, put on the linen gray clothes, carried the bamboo basket on his back, then picked up the iron pickaxe at the door and went out.

When he arrived at the square, he saw many people standing there, and some people were coming out of the mine carrying bamboo baskets. Xiao Lin knew at a glance that these people were miners who were here originally. They came out to pay for the ore.

On the other side of the square, there is also a tent, under which a disciple of Bailiantang is collecting ore. Each piece of ore is not big, the big one is about the size of a fist, and the small one is only as big as a soybean, which is dark red. Some of the miners are very excited. But there were also a few whose faces were pale and dejected, with deep fear in their eyes, which made Xiao Lin murmur in his heart.

Soon, it was the turn of a pale miner to pay the ore. The Bailiantang disciple who collected the ore glanced at the ore in the bamboo basket, and his face suddenly darkened.

Seeing the expressions of the Bailiantang disciples, the miner suddenly became full of fear, and kept bowing to the Bailiantang disciples, as if he was pleading.

But soon, two Bailiantang disciples rushed out from behind. Without saying a word, they dragged the miner away and tied his hands to two wooden stakes. One of the Bailiantang disciples picked up the miner from the side of the wooden stakes. He picked up a whip as thick as his thumb and had a sneer on his face.

The miner's face happened to be facing Xiao Lin and the newcomers. Seeing the desperate expression on the miner's face, everyone showed a look of horror.

"Papa." Even though they were dozens of meters apart, the sound of each whip still clearly entered everyone's ears.

Xiao Lin could even clearly see the blood rising from the whip. After ten lashes, the miner fainted with his lips turned black, but the Bailiantang disciple showed no mercy and continued to swing the whip. .

"Don't look any further. If you fail to complete your monthly tasks, he will be your fate." A cold voice came, attracting everyone's attention.

Sun Fang came in front of them, jumped on a table, and raised a piece of dark red ore in his hand.

"This kind of ore is called hematite, and hematite can be extracted from it to forge inferior weapons. This kind of hematite is the main product produced in our mines here. You must pay at least fifty kilograms of hematite every month. If the iron ore is less than one kilogram, it will be whipped once. If it is left empty-handed, it will be whipped fifty times. Oh, by the way, let me tell you, the average strong man can only bear twenty whippings. "

Sun Fang's words caused a commotion below. Many people had dissatisfaction on their faces. This dissatisfaction was also tinged with fear. After all, the scene of Sun Fang killing the strong man yesterday was still vivid in his mind. No one wanted to jump out and seek death. .

Sun Fang glanced at everyone coldly, paused, and then took out a piece of dark ore the size of a soybean from his palm.

"This ore is called black iron ore. It is an extremely rare ore in the veins. Dark iron can be extracted to forge high-quality weapons. Since the quantity is extremely rare, digging this kind of ore requires not only hard work, but also a lot of effort. A little bit of luck, of course, as long as you can dig such a large piece of black iron ore, it will be enough to meet the monthly tasks, and you don’t have to pay for the hematite.”

Sun Fang asked someone to give the hematite and the black iron ore to the miner at the front and let them pass it around to take a closer look.

At this point, everyone has given up their thoughts of escaping and completely resigned to their fate. Everyone carefully looked at the two kinds of ores that were passed to them. After all, this is related to whether they can complete their monthly tasks in the future. In other words, It is also related to your own life.

Soon, the two pieces of ore were passed to Xiao Lin's hands. He felt heavy in his hands, and there was a surprised expression on his face. The piece of black iron ore the size of a soybean was actually the same as the piece of hematite the size of an egg. Almost as heavy.

He stared at the two ores, wishing to carve them into his brain. It was not until the people behind him urged him that he reluctantly passed the two ores to the people behind him.

It took a full hour for everyone to read it.

The ore was returned to Sun Fang's hands. He looked at everyone with satisfaction, with a strange expression on his face, and said: "By the way, let me tell you, it is dark in the mine, and there is not much ore in the first place, so It is not easy to dig out fifty kilograms of hematite ore in a month. In order to complete the task, some people may kill their fellow miners and seize their ore to complete the monthly task, so you have to Be careful of the miners around you. Of course, despite the fact that there are only a dozen entrances to the mine, the inside is connected in all directions and there are countless branch holes. It is not easy to meet people. Well, it’s time to say I've said it all, the rest depends on your luck. Over there is the canteen. You can come out to get food and water every day, or you can get food and water for several days at a time. This is up to you, there is no limit. ”

After speaking, Sun Fang waved his hand, indicating that everyone could get food and water, and then enter the mine.

Now Xiao Lin finally understood that in the mine, he was not only mining, but also guarding against the miners around him. This made him speechless. But looking at the whipped miner with his head hanging down and fainting, Xiao Lin Lin seemed to understand again.

When people face life and death, good and evil seem to have become less important.

Xiao Lin looked around and didn't see Xiao Shi, and even if he met him, so what, after all, two people together couldn't reduce their monthly tasks, and they might be able to dig more if they were separated.

Thinking of this, Xiao Lin went to the canteen. He received ten days' worth of food and water at one time. This was basically the maximum amount he could bring. The reason why he brought so much food and water was mainly to save time on the road. And he knew very well that with his small body, he was definitely at the back among all the miners. If he met someone who killed someone to steal the ore, he would most likely lose his life, so his idea was very simple. That is to bring as much food and water as possible, and then find a remote mine hole as deep as possible, which should reduce the chance of encountering other miners.

After receiving the food, everyone entered the mine one after another. Xiao Lin came to the foot of the mountain, looked at a dozen dark caves, took a deep breath, and chose one of them to go in.

The mine inside was indeed as Sun Fang said, extending in all directions. Xiao Lin lit the kerosene lamp in his hand and walked silently towards it. There were a lot of people at the beginning. After walking for half an hour, there were already people around him. There is no one around anymore, and there are so many branch holes in the mine. If there weren't white-painted arrows indicating the direction every three or four hundred meters, you would definitely get lost in the mine.

The deeper you go, the narrower the mine becomes. The tunnel Xiao Lin is walking in is only over one meter high. He is also small, and an adult would have to bend down to pass through. However, Xiao Lin obviously did not stop and start digging. Instead, he planned to continue walking in. Every few hundred meters he would stop, carefully identify the direction, and clearly imprint every branch hole he passed in his mind.

After walking like this for more than an hour, Xiao Lin stopped. He looked thoughtfully at the forked road in front of him. After a while, he suddenly used a pickaxe to remove the white arrow pointing the direction on the forked road. The painted arrowhead was pried off, and then he walked into an inconspicuous small branch hole on the right side.

After prying off seven or eight white-painted arrowheads along the way, Xiao Lin turned into a small branch hole again. This branch hole was not very deep. It took about as long as a cup of tea to reach the end. The surrounding walls were very thin. It was humid, and the bottom of the mine was red mud mixed with some gravel piled aside. Xiao Lin dug a small hole with a pickaxe at the highest point of the mine and placed the kerosene lamp up.

He looked at the red mud at the bottom of the mine with a thoughtful expression on his face.

In Xiao Lin's view, this is the deepest part of the mine. Although he has pried off seven or eight white-painted arrowheads along the way, unless it is him, if others want to come in, they will have to have some luck.

But Xiao Lin obviously didn't feel that he was absolutely safe now. After thinking for a moment, he showed a firm expression on his face, then took the pickaxe and started from the bottom of the wall about ten meters away from the bottom of the cave. Digging up.

The soil in the mine is very moist red mud, and occasionally some gravel is dug out. It took half an hour to dig out an oblate circular cave about a foot in size. Even he had to lie down to enter it. Xiao Lin showed a satisfied expression on his face.

He lay down in the small cave and started to expand the cave with a pickaxe. He stopped expanding the cave until he could stand and swing the pickaxe easily. He stopped and thought about the direction of the cave and how he wanted to do it. direction when digging, so as not to dig in the wrong direction. When I dig into the remaining branch holes, although all the mine holes are winding, the final general direction is towards the inside of the mountain, that is, towards the west. For a moment After that, Xiao Lin started digging.

After digging for two hours, Xiao Lin looked at the only thumb-sized piece of red ore in the bamboo basket, and his face became a little ugly. After digging for so long, he only found a small piece of hematite. If this goes on, a Yue will definitely not be able to complete the task. Thinking about the miner who was whipped, Xiao Lin's face turned a little pale.

Gritting his teeth, Xiao Lin continued to dig. He could only do his best to dig now. If he was still far from the task quantity when it was close to a month, he would have to run if he didn't. After all, in the virgin forest, There is still a glimmer of hope that he can escape from the beast's mouth, but if he is whipped dozens of times, he will definitely die.

In the silent mine, there were only the sounds of pickaxes digging and Xiao Lin's breathing. After all, he was only twelve years old. In addition, he had not had enough to eat for a long time and was very thin. After digging for another two hours, he He stopped panting.

Seeing that there was still a thumb-sized piece of hematite in the bamboo basket, he smiled bitterly and shook his head. He sat on a stone nearby, took out a steamed bun, mixed it with water and ate it. In his opinion, even though mining It was hard, but at least he had enough to eat, which already made him feel very satisfied. If he wasn't worried about his father and sister, he would be willing to continue working here as long as he could complete his monthly tasks without being whipped.