The entire next day passed without any incidents. Though the young n were sowhat reluctant, they nonetheless followed the deputy manager’s instructions to explain the situation to so of the girls.
Nothing unexpected happened until just before dinner. Both the deputy manager and Nell breathed a sigh of relief, but as the sky darkened and they were about to get sothing to eat, a young man in his mid-twenties stood before them.
He looked quite embarrassed, and standing behind him was a local girl. Nell felt a slight tingle on his scalp and knew that sothing might have happened.
Before the deputy manager could speak, he intercepted, standing in front of the young man, and asked softly, and gently, "What’s wrong?"
He knew the guy in front of him; he was just four years older than Lynch but was already a father and a husband.
The Federation’s odd age regulations allowed people to marry before graduating high school, and indeed so did marry before graduation, maybe genuinely for love.
This wasn’t uncommon, as getting married at twenty-one or twenty-two was the norm of this era, a silent trend. If not for Lynch’s defiance and Catherine’s mother’s dissatisfaction with their relationship, they might have even had a child by now.
The guy in front of Nell was shouldering a heavy family burden; he had to support his wife and child, as well as his mother, being the child of a single-parent family.
It wasn’t easy for a woman to raise him alone. Apart from supporting his own family, he also wanted to ease his mother’s burden.
But after only a month here, this sowhat uninhibited young man quickly got involved with a girl.
"This is..." He first introduced the girl beside him to Nell, then scratched his head and said with so annoyance, "She’s pregnant."
Before he could continue, Nell interrupted sternly, "Get an abortion!"
The young man looked up at Nell, considering many possibilities, yet didn’t expect Nell to so decisively demand he abort his child.
All languages in the world originate from the sa language family, which is why there is an international standard universal language. As foreigners ca to this country, Nagariel also began to popularize the universal language.
The sa word, pronounced differently, can signify different languages. Federation’s pronunciation is relatively standard, so Nagariel people can understand it.
Conversely, the universal language spoken by Nagariel people is mixed with too much local slang, making it hard for outsiders to understand.
The girl understood Nell’s words and was so frightened that she stepped back several tis as if Nell might at any mont harm her and the child in her belly.
By this ti, the young man also reacted; he stood between Nell and the girl, looking at Nell and saying, "I am a believer, Mr. Nell."
The Federation’s largest church worships a Lord that opposes abortion. In so main church districts, the church even pushed for local legislation to ban abortion and classified this act, along with the doctors responsible, as criminal acts and offenders.
For believers, abortion amounts to murder, a cri, an unacceptable act.
Nell frowned, "Do you an to bring this woman and child back to the Federation?"
"Don’t you think about your wife in the Federation, your child in the Federation, and your mother’s feelings and reactions upon knowing about this and seeing these two people?"
"They thought you were working hard for them, earning money for them to have a stable life, but instead, you not only bring the money back but also bring an extra pair of people. Is this what you promised them before you left?"
"I think they’d wish you never ca here in the first place!"
Nell’s tone was serious. Lynch had just ntioned this issue yesterday, and now such an incident had occurred. If it delayed further, the child might be born by then, creating an even bigger problem.
Fortunately, the issue was discovered early, and it could be resolved. Just abort the child and give so money. He believed these money-hungry girls wouldn’t have any objections.
While Nell and the young man were seemingly arguing, the girl hastily fled, and by the ti they realized it, she was long gone.
"I’ll grant you another day off tomorrow. Make things clear with that girl. I can privately give you a thousand bucks. This money should be enough to soothe the harm the girl suffered!"
Nell’s expression left no room for refusal, "I’m considering your interests; I could ignore everything, but since you’re with , I still hope to bring you back!"
The next morning, sothing happened.
A group of local young n, wielding scythes, hoes, and such, surrounded the entrance and exit of the camp.
Although called a camp, it was rely a circle of makeshift walls and a gate, easily constructed with prefabricated panels. The reason for not using steel wire and steel plates was mainly for property security.
In Nagariel, lacking steel mills and steelmaking technology, steel-like items were hard currency. Using steel plates for setting up camp was as laughable as building a house with banknotes.
Within one night, apart from the people, nothing would be left behind.
At this mont, the entrance of the camp was blocked, impenetrable.
Various local dialects mixed with the common language made it sowhat comprehensible, yet still elusive. One might say it was completely incomprehensible, but it seed they could understand a bit.
But to say one understands the aning behind these people’s words, it was hard to guess.
Their general aning seed to be cursing sothing.
Once Nell found out, he rushed to the entrance. Outside the iron gate, the agitated young people were vigorously shaking the iron gate, and so were using agricultural tools like hoes and sickles to strike the gate and wall, creating an extraordinarily tense atmosphere.
"What happened?" Nell asked while tying his tie.
He used the act of tying his tie to disguise his nervousness, and now his palms were sweaty.
At this ti, the girl who escaped the night before appeared outside the gate, accompanied by two young people who looked similar to her.
She spoke at this mont, using the common language Nell could understand, "Hand over that man, give him to us, and we’ll leave!"
The deputy manager also rushed over and whispered sothing in Nell’s ear. Nell turned to look, and not far in the barracks, the young man stood there confused.
Nell fiercely glared at the young man, then turned back to the deputy manager and whispered, "Call Lynch and Senior Soldier."
As he spoke, he walked toward the camp gate. He was a foreigner, and he didn’t believe these people would easily harm him—unless they want to spend the rest of their lives in the kiln.
He raised his hands to show his harmlessness, slowly approaching the crowd, "I am the manager here. Everyone, calm down. This is not the attitude to solve the problem if there is sothing between us that needs to be resolved!"
Perhaps due to his attitude or his words, the noisy people quieted down, and he looked at the girl, "If there is sothing you can tell , there is no need to complicate things."
The girl seed a bit timid, gripping the hand of the person next to her tightly, "I an no harm, just let take him away. Other matters are none of your concern, and we don’t wish to harm others."
Nell felt a headache rising, "Where do you want to take him?"
"To go back and get married," the girl’s attitude was firm, and the surrounding people shouted for a while. Nell guessed they were saying "Well said," "Exactly right," or sothing similar.
At this mont, Nell could only slowly explain, "He doesn’t plan to stay here long. He will return to the Federation soon, and moreover..."
He felt extrely unlucky. This clearly wasn’t his problem... Well, it had a bit to do with him, but he shouldn’t be the one settling others’ troubles here, "Moreover, he doesn’t plan to marry you. Please forgive for being so direct, he is already married and has his own children."
The girl was stunned for a mont after hearing this, and probably after a few seconds, others began to react or understand what was said, and the crowd suddenly beca agitated.
Each person, red-faced and with bulging neck veins, shook the iron gate, wildly hacking and chopping with the things in their hands, scaring Nell into retreating several steps.
The girl walked to the side of the gate, gripping the gate tightly with both hands, and asked loudly, "If he doesn’t want to marry , why did he have relations with ?"
This statent left Nell, the deputy manager, and everyone dumbfounded, unsure of how to respond.
They couldn’t boldly or righteously tell her because these won are cheap, who doesn’t like free stuff?
Yet it was this statent that trapped him there.
Nell’s silence made the locals outside the iron gate even more furious, but no one knew how many were genuinely angry and how many were feigning anger.
Seeing the anchor bolts on the prefabricated panels begin to loosen at both sides of the iron gate, the panels starting to crack, the gate’s sway grew larger.
As the commotion grew louder, more locals ran over to watch the spectacle.
For Nagariel’s people, their purpose in living is to muddle through until death; watching spectacles is one of their few pleasures.
Soon, among these people, a rumor spread that a foreigner raped a girl and caused her to beco pregnant.
The girl was about to get married, so she had to reveal the incident, resulting in what people were witnessing here.
Nagariel is a barbaric and backward society, yet they greatly emphasize the chastity of ordinary won. If a woman cannot maintain her virtuous body for her husband, she may be beaten and chased away lightly, or secretly drowned heavily, to quell a man’s anger.
When people heard that a girl from an ordinary family was raped and pregnant, they imdiately joined in this rapidly spiraling demonstration in rage.
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