Chapter 663: The Early Arrival of Winter

In Huaxia, the temperature plummeted off a cliff, and the north wind blew fiercely, so most units in Huaxia started their winter break early, letting everyone return home to spend the Winter.

All construction sites were completely shut down, and the construction of several New Towns also stopped; fortunately, there were enough rooms for the Residents there to spend the Winter, and although many people had to squeeze together and the conditions were a bit poor, by next Winter, they would all be able to move into large courtyards, and everyone was full of anticipation for their future life.

Currently, news from Huaxia cannot reach the Xuanyuan Tribe quickly, so Huaxia does not know when the Construction Team of the Xuanyuan Tribe will return.

Fortunately, the Construction Team had long since stopped work, finished all tasks, and properly covered and protected all materials and the construction site to avoid being affected by the heavy Snow; at the same time, they found Dahong and told him some precautions, so after their Construction Team left, the site could only rely on the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe to look after it.

At the same time, when they left, they took the musicians that Zhishou had specifically requested, and also took back some young people from the Xuanyuan Tribe whom they felt were quite talented and had been assigned to their Construction Team; although they could not practice or study during the Winter, they could learn theoretical knowledge.

This included a few people from the Xuanyuan Tribe who needed to study Medicine; for the time being, the Embassy of the Xuanyuan Tribe in Huaxia was far from being finished, and not even one person could move in, so they could only be boarded in places like offices in schools and the Hospital, letting them live and study in the same place; it was precisely because of this that they only brought the top students with the best talent, so they could go early, learn early, and finish their apprenticeship early, as wanting to come to Huaxia in large numbers to study would have to wait until the Embassy was built.

Now they are already on the return journey, and they have already traveled more than halfway; on the river surface, they felt the increasingly biting cold wind, and if it were not for the large sails, it would have been extremely difficult for them to rely on manpower to return.

Now they no longer hid the Boat sails, as frequent communication made the possibility of the sails not being seen too small; however, the possibility of the Xuanyuan Tribe successfully imitating them was not high, as it would not be difficult for them to make a Boat sail that could be used with the wind, but it was not very realistic for them to be like Huaxia and make the sail provide power even when sailing against the wind, as the technological gap involved was too large.

The Slaves had it much harder; they discovered that although they did not have to work, the daily training was not an easy task, as there were strict requirements for when to sleep and when to wake up, and furthermore, they—it could be said the vast majority of them—received their first punishment for stealing food.

With one day left until the food distribution, which was the last two meals of food for the Slaves, many Tents already could not scrape even a bit of grease from the grain jars for the noon meal.

They still did not know the severity of the situation; they felt that Huaxia might provide them with food so casually, every day without fail, and such delicious food that they could almost eat their fill, so they felt secure in the knowledge that they had backing, and in the dead of night, someone would always sneak up, open the lid, and take a few pieces to eat.

There was more than one person in a Tent; you stole some while I was asleep, I stole some while he was asleep, and with each person stealing a little, when five people did it together, it was no small amount; after accumulating for a few days, before the day of food distribution arrived, their grain jars were already empty.

The instructors were waiting for this day; they wouldn't listen to lectures before, but now they could punish them; plus, during this period, facing this group of savages who understood nothing, and this task that was not easy, all the Soldiers were not feeling very happy in their hearts; if the Slaves could be a little smarter and more sensible, and reach the standard earlier, they could also be freed from this sea of bitterness, complete the task earlier, return, take a vacation, and spend the Winter at home.

But things did not go as wished, and they had far underestimated the stupidity of the Slaves; even Chunfeng and the others, who were also Slaves, were angered to no end, saying only that they wanted to kill the entire families of these Slaves; they had already forgotten how irritable Baifeng's state was when Baifeng taught them back then.

Since the Slaves had violated the rules, then prepare to accept punishment; when the order to cook was given, the Tents where no one had stolen food, or where the stealing was extremely restrained and had not caused a large shortage, began to light fires and cook as usual with unchanged expressions.

But the instructors began to patrol their respective areas; when they encountered a Tent, everyone stood frozen in place, neither lighting a fire nor boiling water; the instructor walked over and asked kindly, "Why aren't you cooking? Are you too full to eat?"

The Slaves trembled, and the dormitory head spoke in a panic, "Report to the instructor, our food is gone, the jar is already empty."

The instructor acted as if he had just realized, "Oh, is that so? But everyone's food is distributed in fixed quantities, not more and not less; how much grain you put in for each meal is measured by utensils; it was clearly enough to eat today, so why is it already gone now?"

The group of Slaves could not say a word, and the dormitory head also stammered, not knowing what reason to use to explain.

"Why aren't you talking? When I ask a question, you must answer; have you not learned this simple rule after so long? Ah! Why, tell me the reason!" At this point, the instructor stopped pretending and began to question them severely.

The others dared not speak and lowered their heads even further; only the dormitory head could not escape, and he had to answer, so before the instructor's next outburst, he said tremblingly, "It is, it is because we ate too much."

The instructor unhooked his leather whip, "What do you mean by ate too much? Wasn't it clearly stated how much grain should be put in for each meal? How could you eat too much, and how much could you have eaten to have none left by now?"

The dormitory head was so scared that he knelt directly on the ground, and the other few Slaves knelt down together; the dormitory head pressed his forehead tightly against the ground, and he could even smell the metallic scent of Iron, then he said truthfully, "It is because we stole food, we stole it at night."

"Oh, stealing food, good; you few, did you all steal? Those who didn't steal, lift your heads for me."

The few Slaves kept their eyes tightly shut, and not a single person lifted their head, which counted as admitting they had all stolen.

"Good, since you all stole, then I will treat you all the same; you just stay kneeling like this, kneel until others have finished eating."

Afterward, the instructor walked straight away and went to the next Tent, which left the few people kneeling a bit confused; they weren't beaten, and shouldn't a sound thrashing be what awaited them? Why did they just let them off like this?