20 A Mediator.
Inside a hut, an old lady with a straw broom is sweeping the floor happily. The old lady wears simple but well-kept clothes. Even with white hair, her skin is well cared for, only her hands have calluses and look thicker. Showing the years of work and experience she carries. She stops sweeping the floor for an instant and starts to touch her hands softly over her face, she opens up an even bigger smile and energizes herself to continue cleaning!
Not long after a man who looks in his twenties also enters the hut. He has on his back a bag smelling of fish.
She changes her gaze to the man, he has almost the size of the door, a long green hair as well as green eyes, a muscular body, his robe is short, three fingers above the knee but he does not seem bothered by it.
Even smiling he speaks pretending to be angry!
"Mom, I already told you that you do not have to work again, I'll clean the house as soon as I get here!"
"Hoho, I could not help myself! I feel so young! You know what I found? Look, look!" she approaches cheerfully as she searches for something in her hair, until she finally finds and gently shows it to the young man!
"It's a green hair, eh?" he does not seem to understand much of her happiness.
"Is not only a green hair! It has more others appearing! And my skin is rejuvenating too! Just this month, I feel five years younger!"
"Oh, this is good news! But I still do not want to see you worked so hard, okay?" He speaks fondly but has an authoritarian tone.
*Smack* The old woman hit the broom against the man's head.
"ouch! HEY, stop!" He cries for mercy.
"humph ... Do not forget who's the mother here, if you get off the line again I break that broom in your head."
"Jeez mom, I was just taking care of you!" he feels wronged.
"So get me grandchildren! All the girls in the village are already getting partners, this way if you take too long, we're going to have to marry you a much younger girl or worse marry a widow, you're going to get bad-mouthed!" She seems really worried about the last case. But the man panics and tries to change the subject, he pulls the bag on his back showing the contents.
"Look how many Haiyu I managed to get today, even without the guards, productivity has increased! We just had an accident, Old Rui was attacked by one of the river beasts but he survived and is already recovering." The bag has three black and fatty fish over 3 feet long.
"It's a good thing! In your father's day only the best fishermen were able to bring three Haiyu for home, but it's still a little risky to have no guard with you do not be rash, son!"
"I know, I know. But there really is not much to be done, only two of the old guards survived and I know they were not even transformed...but there are more guards being trained, so we just have to wait a little.
OOH, before i forget, the new Lord came to take a look at our work, he did not seem very impressed, but he still left some words of success for us and that will give us new tools in the future and then we will be able to catch a lot more fish. Besides, after the transformation we are only a little weaker than the guards."
The woman's eyes become bright,
"The new lord, I will tell you, he is an envoy of the gods to us! I have this feeling that..."
*knock knock* She is interrupted by knocking on the door.
The young man just smiles and opens the door.
Who enters is another lady, but this one seems to be much older. The young man quickly greets her,
"Lady Hong, what a surprise to see you!" he is genuinely surprised and boosts his voice.
"I'm not dead yet, boy!" she responds in good humor realizing the boy's surprise. He immediately becomes embarrassed and tries to apologize.
"Sorry" he scratches the back of his head.
"It's okay, I do not leave my house to talk to you, so, get out of the way." She is already intimate with the man and he does not think anything wrong and lets the old lady pass.
She sits down on the table and smiles.
..
30 minutes from old ladies talk.
..
Inside the house two ladies gossiping happily about the changes of the village and about the events of relatives, a young man bored as hell, until then Lady Hong finally goes to the important point of the conversation.
"Old Liu, I came here for a reason other than our day-to-day conversation. My grandson is close to the new lord, and somehow he knows the lord is going to get some people for some government positions.
Apparently, the name of the new position is Alderman. And who will choose the new Alderman are the people of the village by some form of vote." Lady Hong seems very serious."For thirty years I have tried to mediate the situation between the villagers and the Haiyu family." she sighs
"I have done my best, but many have suffered in their hands. But the new lord seems to seek a mediator autonomously. That is good news, but I am already very old and the young people are already strangers to me, besides I do not want to get involved with this job anymore, but I want you to take a step forward as an Alderman, you're smart and you know the new generation, I can convince others to choose you easily, but I do not think it's necessary, people like you."
The old lady, over 80 years old, even wrinkled, with trembling hands she has healthy eyes and commands Ols Liu to the position of Alderman, demonstrating her activity within the politics of the small village.
"B-But Lady Hong, I'm not like you, I'm not able to help so many people!" Old Liu does not seem so confident.
"You are the most capable, you only need experience.
It was always my intention to pass the baton to you, now that you've finally reached age, I do not have to be in charge anymore! I do not know how this Alderman position works, but no one in the village has more potential than you to take care of the villagers and advise the new Lord, or do you prefer to let some fish-head like your son turn the next mediator?"
Old Liu looks at her son and returns to Lady Hong saying firmly. "I'll be the next Aldermen!"
The two old ladies laugh until tears flow. The wronged man scratches his head with a desolate look as he sighs words in the wind "My own mother thinks I'm a fish-head"
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ps: chapter 18 is edited.
