The weather was gradually getting colder, and the rainy season was about to begin. The slaves were in a panic—unlike the servants who served their masters, they slept in the corridors, but at least they were in the castle and could shelter from the wind and rain. They had to sleep by the fields, on the damp soil, which was cold and damp.

If they fell ill, they would be driven out of here to avoid infecting others.

Every year at this time, no slave could guarantee that they would be here until next year.

The gnomes huddled together, but they were still very cold. They had no clothes or blankets, so when they got cold, they could only hug each other. His mother had daubed the wounds on his face with plant ash. He was still confused when he was woken up, because it wasn't even dawn yet.

But he quickly remembered that when the rainy season was approaching, the nights would become longer and the days shorter.

So the overseer would wake them up and let them go to work in the fields in the dark.

But today, in addition to the foreman's voice full of disgust and contempt, there was also a fragrance—the smell of food. The young goblin was hungry, and he swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he got up with the others.

"The lord has bestowed food upon you, so that you can eat two meals a day!" The servants behind the foreman were carrying several large wooden buckets, which contained steaming bean paste. There were no spices or seasonings, not even salt.

But everyone, including the servants, except the steward, was swallowing their saliva.

No matter how it tasted, this was food that could fill their stomachs.

The steward obviously did not agree with the steward, just like the housekeeper, to give the slaves more food. He had a sour face, as if the slaves owed him a huge sum of money.

The slaves hurriedly took out their own bowls. The lord never prepared kitchenware for them, so they had to find a way on their own.

There were all kinds of strange-shaped "bowls".

The young goblin's bowl was made by a dwarf at his request, using a kind of fragile stone. It was a little hollowed out in the middle, more durable than a wooden bowl, but it couldn't be dropped on the ground, or it would break. It was his most precious possession. He followed the spit, hugging the bowl, and squeezed into the middle of the slaves waiting for their meals with his mother.

The slaves didn't dare to speak, but they all looked carefully at the spoon in the servant's hand with tired eyes.

They were lucky to get two meals a day, something they could only dream of.

After the gruel was served, the slaves sat on the floor and ate with their hands or drank from their bowls.

The young goblin was drinking the gruel when his mother poured some into his bowl.

Goblin: "Mum, you eat, I'm full!"

The goblin's mother insisted and poured some more into his bowl: "I'm not hungry, you eat."

The goblin whispered, "The new lord is willing to let us eat twice."

The bull-headed man next to him, who had finished his bowl of gruel, said, "The new lord must be a good person!"

Compared to the goblins and dwarves, the bull-headed men have the fewest worries. This race is also a very popular slave race. They are strong and healthy, have a lot of strength, can open up wasteland and cultivate the land, and are very honest. There have never been any news or rumours of bull-headed slave escapes. Their price is the highest of all races.

The Minotaur said with a satisfied look, "If only we could eat twice a day."

He wiped his mouth and went off with his companions into the woods to continue clearing land.

The goblin licked its bowl carefully before following its mother into the fields.

It seemed that because it was such a rare meal, the goblin did not hear anyone else's stomach rumbling all morning.

While the slaves' stomachs were not growling, Lex's stomach was beginning to rumble.

He lay in bed, thinking that he might not die from various diseases, but from hunger – because the bread was bland and tasteless, the thick soup tasted strange, he didn't eat much the night before, and he was hungry at night, but was too embarrassed to ask the cook to get him a midnight snack, so he just hung on until morning.

As a result, when he ate in the morning, he didn't eat much because he was full.

So by early afternoon, Lex was starving.

The butler knocked on Lex's door and entered with Lex's permission. Lex sat up immediately when he heard the knock.

The butler tidied Lex's clothes and then talked about the territory. He looked very serious and solemn. "The droppings have been cleaned up and a toilet has been built," he said.

By "toilet," he actually meant a few large pits. You went in, defecated, and then buried yourself. There was dirt next to the pits.

In short, it was much better than before.

"Don't we keep animals? Pigs, horses, cows, sheep, and so on?" Lex asked curiously, because animal urine and feces can be used as fertilizer. He is more resistant to human excrement, but strangely enough, he is not resistant to animal excrement. Perhaps it is because they are not the same species, so he doesn't feel dirty.

For example, when he used to keep a dog, he often picked up the poop and didn't think it was a big deal. It's not a plant, so how could it not excrete?

But if it were someone else, he couldn't do it. Going to a public toilet and finding someone who hasn't flushed, he can be so disgusted that he wants to vomit.

The butler frowned and said seriously, "Without the approval of the Holy Court, we cannot keep animals. We need the approval of the Holy Court and perform a cleansing ritual for those animals before we can keep them. Otherwise, who knows if those animals have the mark of the devil?"

Lex didn't say anything. He felt that since there were gnomes, dwarves and trolls in this world, the existence of angels and devils didn't seem too strange.

Lex made a quick decision, "Let's go to the nearest Holy Court and ask to keep animals."

The butler thought about it and thought it was feasible, but still asked, "What should we keep?"

Horses are out of the question. They are high-level animals that can only be kept by the monastery—the reason being that horses were originally the mounts of the holy spirits and only the monastery is qualified to keep them.

But Lex, a person who has come through time, doesn't believe it. Even if there are supernatural powers in this world, they can't possibly be related to horses.

Just like black cats, which are considered an unlucky omen in the West, and the presence of a black cat means that something bad is coming. But in the East, black cats can ward off evil spirits. Keeping a black cat at home can keep ordinary demons and monsters away.

So the question is, should we listen to the West or the East?

Lex prefers to believe in the East. Apart from the fact that he is himself Eastern, there is another reason: the Western black cat is actually an accessory of the witch movement. It is only a projection of the power of witches, because the black cat is the incarnation of a witch, which is related to humans.

In the East, it is independent and has the characteristics of an independent creature.

The reason for the Holy Court's monopoly on the horse-breeding industry is also very clear. Horses are a strategic resource. In the present era, before there was industry, horses were an indispensable and important presence on the battlefield. Cavalry is more important than infantry, and this is a truth that everyone knows. Therefore, the Holy Court is doing its best to control everything in the country, politics, the economy, and power.

Lex: "Keep cows, and you can keep chickens and ducks, and pigs too."

The butler also thinks it's a good idea, as the meat of these animals is delicious.

People here don't eat much pork, either because of dogmas or because they think pork is dirty, or simply because they can't get it.

Pigs take seven or eight months to raise, unlike chickens and ducks, and there is no feed here. It may take time to raise pigs, but by the time they are ready for harvest, it is found that the pork they have raised is not even half as much as the chickens and ducks raised in the same period.

With no manure in the fields, Lex is willing to leave the castle and go for a walk. He has not had close contact with his "subjects", although in the butler's mouth, these are all his "slaves".

He walks on the flattened mud, followed by Elijah and Alex, and surrounded by Alwin, who is more like a noble lord than him.

Looking up, Lex sees that his "subjects" are both men and women, but they are all young children, young people, and middle-aged people. There are no real old people.

The butler said matter-of-factly, "Slaves don't live to be old."

Elijah added, "Even soldiers and knights, the ones who live to be old are in the minority! My lord, you don't have to feel sad for them, being your slave is the honor of their lives!"

Lex: "...

My dear brother, you'd better shut up!

Instead, Alwin said, "They work all their lives, and without medicine, accidents and diseases can easily take their lives."

But the steward didn't think this was a problem. On the contrary, he thought it was great. He said, "Old people can't do much work, and they also waste food. Even if that food is given to them by their family, it's still a waste."

As for himself – although he was old, he was still useful. He was a person of high character, unlike the slaves.

The children were pulling weeds in the fields. They didn't have the liveliness of children at all. The hard life made them mature and sensible from the moment they were born, because they knew too early that life was not easy.

The children, with their big heads and small bodies, were naked, sniffling as they pulled weeds. When two of them saw Lex, they didn't dare look him in the eye, but only observed him with trepidation out of the corner of their eyes.

This was their new master.

He's so handsome!

They sniffled, peeking at him cautiously, while a few of them drooled as they bit their fingers.

They hoped that their new master would be kind to them.

It doesn't have to be too much, just a good meal when they harvest.

Lex couldn't hear their thoughts, but just looking at them made Lex feel very uncomfortable. He was born in the new China, and looked like a young man under the red flag. Before he traveled back in time, the worst thing he had done was to alter his exam results to avoid being beaten up, but he was found out and got beaten twice as much.

As for good things, the best thing he had done was to donate the money he earned from summer and winter jobs every year to children in poor mountainous areas.

He considers himself an ordinary person, selfish at times, but not really bad, kind at times, but not really good.

If he were to see a group of adults pulling weeds right now, it probably wouldn't have such a big impact.

But humans and animals alike have affection for their young.

In Lex's worldview, children should enjoy the love of their parents, and if they don't behave, they should also bear the consequences of their parents' "love".

Just as Lex was unable to snap back to reality, the butler spoke very inopportunely, saying, "It's already very good if three out of ten cubs can survive, but slaves always give birth to children, so you don't have to worry about there being fewer slaves in the territory."

In Lex's eyes, these children are "people", the cubs of "people", and the heirs of new life.

But in the eyes of the butler, these children are "things" that can be bought, sold, and exchanged for many purposes.

If they have them, that's great; if not, there's no need to feel sad or sorry.

"They don't have any clothes?" Lex asked very seriously.

The housekeeper answered very seriously, "Where would there be enough cloth to make clothes for them? Cloth is very expensive."

The cheapest cloth costs two copper coins, and you can only get a very small amount, just enough for a sleeve.

Lex: "Can't we weave our own cloth?"

He remembered from history class that in ancient times, weaving accounted for a large part of many families' income. For a long time, cloth could be used as hard currency to replace the function of coins, to exchange for daily necessities and food, and to pay taxes.

So for an ancient family, a loom was a very important possession.

The industrial revolution in the West also began with the Jenny machine.

Butler: "If we could weave cloth, this would be the most prosperous place in the whole West!"

Okay, so the monastery also has a monopoly on textile technology.

Lex suddenly grabs the butler's sleeve and pulls him forward.

The butler blushes and is led away obediently.

After making sure the knights can't hear them, Lex whispers, "So can we secretly weave cloth?"

The butler shakes his head and says with a sad face, "Why would you ask such a question!"

But then he quickly whispers, "And even if we did, we couldn't take it out and trade it for anything."

Lex: "Can't we find a merchant?"

The butler was stunned. He had never realized that merchants could be useful for such things. He thought about it for a while and felt hopeful. Merchants travelled all over the place and never stayed in one place for long. And some of the places they passed through were dangerous, so they might die at any time. Their information would be safer.

"But where do we find a loom?" the butler asked, voicing the most important question.

Lex: "The Holy Courtyard definitely has one. We can observe it a bit when we go to the Holy Courtyard to ask for the next batch of permits."

Lex was confident that he could write down the structure and then replicate it.

When he was a child, he could take apart remote control toy cars and put them back together again with no trouble at all.

This was a talent he had, and he wasn't going to waste it.