Chapter 7

"Your Highness, I dare to swear to the great Sun and Justice God, this fruit is one of the best red fruits I have picked in the twenty years I have been picking fruit trees!"

Xinpu said solemnly, his face, tanned dark and red, full of seriousness.

This also let Xia Mingyu know the name of this fruit, red fruit... it was quite appropriate, very much like a red apple on Blue Star, only smaller and rounder.

"Thanks for the treat."

Xia Mingyu took the red fruit from the other party's palm and took a bite.

In an instant, a sweet juice burst out in his mouth, with a hint of coolness and just the right sweetness, neither overly cloying nor losing its natural fresh flavor.

The flesh was crisp and delicious, neither soft nor dry and hard, and the just-right hardness made him unable to help but continue chewing.

"This is the best fruit I've ever eaten!" Xia Mingyu sighed sincerely.

Hearing this, Xinpu's face was like being painted with red pigment, flushed to the point where one wondered if his blood vessels would burst in the next moment.

"A noble Highness praising the fruit I cultivated like this, this is the happiest day of my life, happier than the day Boi married me!"

This middle-aged villager danced with excitement like a child.

"The gods are above, Your Highness, I must offer you another basket of the highest quality red fruit!"

After saying goodbye to Xinpu, Xia Mingyu and Anliya continued to walk side by side in the dense fruit forest.

At this time, the afternoon sunlight was gently passing through the dense branches of the fruit forest, shining mottledly on the two of them.

One was a handsome and delicate black-haired young man, and the other was a beautiful girl in the prime of her youth with golden hair and blue eyes; under the sunlight, they truly looked like a pair of immortal couples that people yearned for.

"Little Anliya and this Highness look really well-matched; if only she could marry this noble Highness!"

Not far away, on a fruit tree, a middle-aged couple picking fruit saw this scene from afar, and the wife among them sighed.

This scene reminded her of the fairy tales her mother told her when she was a child, the story of a stranded prince meeting a kind country girl and finally marrying her as his wife and spending his life together under the blessing of the gods.

"The gods are above, you are already an old woman, don't let your imagination run wild!" The husband rolled his eyes.

"That Highness's status is so noble that even Lord Hughes would have to kiss his shoe tips when he sees him; little Anliya is a serf like us after all, let alone a wife, even a concubine is impossible."

"I think, little Anliya being able to be that Highness's maid is already the protection of the gods!" The husband said decisively.

Old woman...

The wife was silent, her eyes gradually becoming fierce, as if hiding a lion.

A moment later.

"Wrong, wrong, don't pinch, I'll fall!" The husband's wailing sound spread very far in the fruit forest, startling countless birds.

Dusk.

The sunset poured down like molten gold, dyeing the horizon orange-red, interweaving with the light green fruit forest in the distance into a dreamlike scene.

"What a beautiful village! I hope such beautiful scenery can continue forever." Xia Mingyu praised.

After visiting the large group of fruit forests around, he and Anliya returned to the wooden house.

Hearing this, the girl beside him who had been smiling all day, at this moment, the smile on her beautiful face suddenly stiffened, and a trace of obvious worry flashed in her deep blue eyes.

Perhaps, it was time to bring up "that matter".

The girl secretly made a decision.

"Your Highness, such beautiful scenery won't last much longer."

Anliya whispered, her heart very nervous at this moment, but she still tried her best to control the clarity and sweetness of her voice.

"Is it because autumn is here? It doesn't matter, yellowing fallen leaves are also beautiful." Xia Mingyu smiled slightly.

"No, it's not because of this."

Anliya shook her head, a trace of bitterness appearing on her fair face.

"In a few days, it will be time for the lord to send someone to collect the agricultural tax, but the coins accumulated in the village are far from enough to hand in..."

Hearing this, the smile on Xia Mingyu's face gradually disappeared.

"Is it because the agricultural tax is too heavy?" he said in a deep voice.

"No, the agricultural tax set by the lord for Fruit Basket Village is already quite gracious in the Sosia Kingdom; in previous years, we could afford it; he is a kind lord." Anliya said softly.

"It's just that an accident happened this year..."

"Some time ago, a Simon Kelai merchant came to our village; he vigorously boasted that the red fruit produced in the fruit forest was rare in the world and selling it to the free people in the capital would definitely make a lot of money."

"So he promised that when the red fruit was harvested, he would buy it at a high price, and the condition was that the village must refuse the purchase of other merchants before he arrived."

"Because his eloquence was indeed very good, many people in the village were moved by him; although my foster father had doubts, he later paid a generous deposit, and most of the villagers expressed agreement, so my foster father could only agree."

"Just as he said, our village refused other merchants who came to buy red fruit, but he arrived late two days before the harvest, but he didn't follow the agreed price, instead proposing a price far lower than the normal market price, even close to a loss..."

When saying this, the girl's mouth was tightly pursed, and her eyebrows were also wrinkled into a ball; her deep blue eyes seemed to be surrounded by faint flames, just like a little deer that had been angered.

This was the first time Xia Mingyu saw Anliya so angry; he thought that a beautiful person like the girl would never lose her temper in her life.

"The villagers angrily drove away that Simon Kelai merchant, but it was too late to find other merchants, and the red fruit had completely matured; every day that passed, there would be ripe fruit falling to the ground, gradually rotting and becoming worthless."

"In a few days, it will be the day for the lord to send someone to collect taxes, and once they can't pay enough taxes, some villagers will be demoted to slaves and taken away to be sold to the slave capital, and the ending waiting for them will only be endless humiliation and being worked to death..."

The girl's expression gradually became sad, and those beautiful deep blue eyes also lost their past color, becoming deep and blurred.

"So I thought, if there was a person with a noble enough status who could persuade the tax collector to wait a little longer for us to gather the taxes, it would be great."

Those pleading eyes slowly turned, finally fixing on the expressionless black-haired young man in front of her, and the long string of white text above his head.

Feeling the hot gaze full of expectation, Xia Mingyu was silent.

He didn't know what to do for a moment.

If he could, he would of course be willing to help this beautiful girl who taught him to learn the language and those kind villagers; after all, it was just opening his mouth to persuade.

But the premise of all this was that he had the ability to help.

(End of chapter)