Chapter 68 Wishing Well
How will the white-robed priest get the coin out? Well, he'll probably use a hook.
The date of the Moon Goddess Festival varies slightly each year, but in principle it must be selected by the emperor and the high priest before the snow falls.
If unfortunately it snows early this year, it will be delayed until the beginning of next spring.
Be sure to choose a day with a full moon. It is said that Diana's divine power reaches its peak when the moon is full, enough to protect your hunting luck for the whole year.
As the priests of the Pantheon hung the golden ribbon on the statue of Diana, this year's Moon Festival officially began.
Of course, wealthy families do not need to wait as patiently as ordinary people.
The slaves in the house had already prepared various holiday gifts and hunting supplies, waiting for their master to feast until he vomited, then choose a day to go hunting and present the best prey to Diana.
…
The warm sunlight shone on the quilt, and Melia curled up into a ball, not wanting to move at all.
Until a hand tapped her shoulder: "Little lazy, hurry up, today is Moon Goddess Festival."
"Meow."
"Speak nicely, don't mumble."
"Mumble."
"..." Elena grabbed someone's cheek and slowly pulled her away. Although she felt a little reluctant to let go of the warm touch in her arms, she wasn't going to let Melia sleep into the afternoon.
"Oh, I don't want to get up—the quilt is so comfortable~" Melia threw herself back into her arms, rubbing against him aggrievedly. The rubbing became slower and slower, and she was about to fall asleep again.
This quilt is indeed very comfortable.
Elena touched the quilt and lifted the quilt cover with some curiosity: "What's stuffed in it? It's so light." And it's very warm.
"It's cotton, yawn."
Once the quilt was lifted, Melia had no choice but to slide down Elena's thighs, lowering her head to change clothes: "Do you still remember Sonny?"
"Remember, that little guy with golden eyes and good skills." Elena recalled for a moment. There must be only one person who was so young and almost shot her.
"It's her. She has a good relationship with the Huns and helped me find cotton in the caravan."
Melia dodged the two maids' hands that offered to help her and finally fastened the buttons. She said it lightly, but in reality it was much more troublesome.
First of all, the origin of this batch of cotton is probably in India and Southeast Asia. There are too many scattered countries and ethnic groups between it and Rome, so it can only be searched through nomadic caravans.
Fortunately, with specific intelligence, sufficient funds and strong connections, Sunny actually found cotton from a remote ethnic group and bought a batch of seeds.
Melia patted the quilt and said, "I gave the seeds to Ilit's people. She will have her relatives plant cotton in the delta next spring."
Elena put on her clothes and put on her boots neatly.
The maid waiting outside pushed a cart with today's breakfast on it: fig jam on whole-wheat bread, dry-cut beef, and two vegetable rolls. A hard-boiled egg sprinkled with sugar sat on a small ceramic dish.
The two sat side by side on the couch. Elena expertly picked up a wooden spoon and used the back of it to spread fig jam between the bread. As she was spreading it, she suddenly noticed Melia's fixed gaze and couldn't help but pass the bread to her.
"eat?"
Melia took the bread and took a bite, her eyes still fixed on her: "You come here every night these days, don't you have anything to tell me?"
Humph, Meimei Kitty knows everything. You are such a bad guy, and you still want to coax me into being your lover. As long as you dare to mention it, she will have ten thousand ways to fight back, and she will definitely make her retreat in shame!
She waited and waited, all the way to the Moon Goddess Festival, but she didn't even see the shell bracelet, let alone a showdown. Elena came over every night, lay on the bed, ate breakfast, and wiped her mouth before leaving, living a typical married life.
"What's going on? Oh, today is Moon Goddess Festival, shall we go out for a walk?"
Elena wiped the gravy from her lips with bread and stood up as if nothing had happened.
Hehe, are you pretending to be stupid with me? Fine, I'll pretend with you till the end. Melia stuffed the boiled egg into her mouth: "I... oh, woo, ow——"
"Meliya? Meliya! Tsk, Taffy, help me straighten her!"
Pah! Cough cough cough cough.
Accompanied by a deafening cough, the egg and the handsomeness value splashed to the ground and shattered all over the floor.
…
The gate of the villa opened to both sides, and the servants lined up to see their master off.
"No need to follow me, Taffy. I'll just walk around the city today. I've got Elena with me, so I'll be fine~" Melia waved her hand. Just as Taffy was about to chase after her, Pados held her shoulder.
He held a large scroll of parchment in his hand, which he unfolded to Taffy. "If I remember correctly, you haven't handed in your homework for a month."
"Teacher, I am a slave..."
"Well, out of nearly a thousand students, at least 200 of them are still slaves, and you're the only one who didn't turn in your homework."
Taffy swallowed her saliva, and the unknown fear enveloped her heart. For some reason, she wanted to run out and shout for help.
"Let's go, don't be idle. Wouldn't it be nice to take extra classes during the Moon Goddess Festival? You can also take the exam in the evening. It's just some simple formula calculations. After the exam, you can help me correct the homework."
Pardos clapped his hands, and two sturdy apprentices, one on each side, carried Taffy out. She turned back, tears welling in her eyes, to find her daughter hanging onto the princess, the two of them shoving and jostling each other as they ran a long way off.
…
Pasha, pasha, get ready for a long walk. Melia specially wore small vine-soled boots today so that she could walk softly.
She happily took Elena's arm and said, "It's just the two of us now. Is there anything you want to say?"
"Hmm? What do you want to buy?"
...What a weird answer! What do you mean by "what I want to buy"?
Melia glared at her, but unfortunately Elena didn't carry a handbag, so she couldn't tell where the bracelet was hidden.
She let go of his hand and ran forward a few steps: "Then let's see who reaches the fountain first--"
Swish—just as she finished her words, a gust of wind blew across her cheek. When Melia looked back with her mouth wide open, Elena was already standing by the fountain, waving at her boredly: "Come here quickly, don't you want to see the fountain?"
Her open mouth slowly closed, and Melia's fists stiffened: Damn it, just wait and see.
She sprinted with all her might, dodging two floats and three piles of cow dung. She staggered to the fountain. "Ha, ha... I didn't expect the uphill slope here to be so steep... Eh?"
A small silver coin was placed in her palm, and Elena helped her stand up: "Okay, make a wish."
It turned out that this was a wishing well. Melia lowered her head and saw that the fountain was indeed filled with coins of all sizes, and there were even one or two golden lights.
She couldn't help but sigh, "It's incredible! The Romans were so pious that no one came to pick up the coins."
"Why not?" Elena glanced at her in surprise. "Didn't you see the white-robed priest over there? He guards here every day. In the dead of night, he goes in with a bucket to fish out the fish."
...Crash, something shattered onto the ground.
Melia shook the coin in her hand. "Is this called making a wish? This is called donating to the temple."
Well, from a certain perspective, if wishes can really be fulfilled by making a wish, it might be more reliable to just give the money to the gods.
"So are you going to lose it?"
"leave!"
Elena's money would be wasted if not spent. Melia confirmed again and again that the coin in her hand was silver and not gold, then gently threw it into the pool.
Clang~ A silver arc crossed the water column and landed steadily in the jar held by the statue.
"Great!" She clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and muttered rapidly: "World peace, people's well-being, scientific and technological progress..."
"Pfft, what are you wishing for? The Fountain Goddess is not Jupiter, so she doesn't care about those things." Elena looked at the girl's back gently: In fact, Jupiter can't care so much. Even if He really exists, will the world really be peaceful?
"I know." Melia opened her eyes: "I said this to myself."
"You? Then you are more powerful than Jupiter. How many years will you live~" Elena took her hand and walked towards the street, avoiding the noisy crowd.
"I probably won't see that day, but, well, my sons and grandsons will have grandsons and grandsons~"
"With whom?"
The atmosphere suddenly fell silent. Elena bit her lip. She realized she had said the wrong thing, but how could she console him? What was the point of apologizing? You know... the plan in her heart hadn't even been spoken yet.
"Meliya..."
"Elena, look, the shop over there is jointly opened by Ilit and I~" Melia smiled again and dragged her hand and ran forward.
When I ran to the side, I found that the door was full of people.
This is a ready-made clothing store, and Rome is surprisingly suitable for selling ready-made clothes: decorative shawls are easy to sell as long as the style is fashionable, and the sizes of robes also have a rough range, so each piece does not need to be tailor-made, and alterations are also convenient.
With the help of the textile machine, the workers' work efficiency increased to 8 times that of before, and 300 people could spin hundreds of pieces of cloth every day.
The situation of this cloth is somewhat awkward: if the price is too low, it will hurt the civilians who make a living by weaving; if the price is too high, it will be completely unsaleable. Labor is not valuable these days, and everyone would rather stay at home and weave it themselves.
Even if they followed others and set the price at 3 silver coins per piece, the city of Rome would not be able to consume so much cloth.
But making it into ready-made clothes is another matter.
Illite had existing shops and dyeing factories, and controlled the Egyptian market, while Melia could consume large quantities of raw materials, produce cheap cloth, and design clothing.
They hit it off immediately, and the clothes became profitable in Rome thanks to high sales volume.
In addition to the noble custom-made items inlaid with gems, the fine linen robe without jewelry is only sold for 10 silver coins, the red shawl with gold edges is 6 silver coins, and the best quality robe set is a total of 1 gold coin each.
The price doubled in Egypt, and the supply was insufficient to meet the demand! It's a pity that the transportation cost is too high, otherwise it would be sold like hot cakes in neighboring countries. There is no anti-dumping tax these days.
"There are so many people..." Melia sighed: "Let's go check out some other places first."
"What do you want to buy?"
"It's not a question of whether to buy it or not. I just want you to see it."
Elena looked at her regretful expression and smiled slightly: "Wait for me."
I haven't seen her pushing anyone rudely. The princess seemed to have a certain aura. Whenever she walked forward, someone would always make way for her.
She disappeared into the crowd, and more than ten minutes later, a powder blue veil fell from the sky and gently landed on Melia's head.
"Okay, I've seen it."
Elena stroked her soft hair and adjusted the golden pendant on her veil. "It's quite nice inside. Let's go. What else do you want to see? Your little gold mine of bread?"
"Pfft, it's the bread roll shop~ Hmm, I really want to go to the Colosseum and take a look."
"For that gladiator you know? She's quite tall, twice as tall as you."
Hold two hands together and shake them gently.
"Hahaha, there aren't two people as tall as me." His affectionate eyes fell on her face through the veil: "But you guessed right~ Ronnie will be free in a few games. Today is the Moon Goddess Festival, so she will definitely have a game."
"Then go ahead."
The streets were crowded with people, but Elena only had the girl's smile in her eyes.
…
They once again stepped into the Colosseum in the center of Rome. Perhaps due to the psychological effect of the holidays, the Colosseum today was less bloody and had a more intense atmosphere.
Slave owners painted the odds of the gladiators on sheepskin and hung them on tall flagpoles. Beneath the flagpoles, tables were filled with gamblers, each betting big bucks, believing that the Moon Festival would bring good luck.
They walked along with the crowd, neither of them asking to sit in the stands reserved for the nobility. Rather than being near elders like Sulla, they would rather hold hands and enjoy their time together.
Walking to the outside of the circle, Elena took off her shawl and spread it on the steps.
The two sat down side by side, and soon, Melia's furry head came close to them, tickling her long hair.
Elena took a deep breath.
Forget it, I'll tell her tonight: Actually, the rule of the wishing well is not to throw the wish into the bottle of the fountain goddess, but to throw it onto the platform in the center of the pool.
How will the white-robed priest get the coin out? Well, he'll probably use a hook.
The author has something to say:
Thanks to Lei Lei for the advice~
Thanks to Doubi Xiao Mushroom and Wang Zixin for their support~
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