"Bite this piece of firewood tightly, you will feel better. I'm sorry, I-I can only think of this way."

Thales frowned and knelt in front of Ryan.

The lame beggar was half lying on the ground against the wall, holding up his right hand with "broken lotus roots" and blood slowly flowing out. He looked blankly at Thales, who was polishing a dagger on a blunt stone, and let him stuff a piece of firewood into his mouth.

inside.

Behind Thales, the girl Colia was sitting on the steps of the yard and the house with a dull look on her face. The spot burned by the silver coin on her left face had been treated and given medicine, and was now covered with a piece of cloth.

And the blackened silver coin was tightly grasped in her hand at this moment.

The girl widened her eyes, looking here and there, and for a while she looked up at the moon and laughed nervously.

Behind her, Quaid's lifeless body leaned against the broken wall.

A wave of nausea hit Thales.

That kind of touch, that feeling of metal piercing flesh and blood, vaguely appeared in Thales' knife-holding hand from time to time.

Thales sighed and endured the strange discomfort of killing someone for the first time. The burn on his chest was still painful, taking away a lot of his attention.

He had to kill Quaid, and Thales had no regrets about this.

Even when he plunged the dagger into his neck and watched Quaid fall unwillingly, Thales felt a burst of joy welling up in his heart.

That's the thrill of revenge.

At that moment, it seemed that all the grievances and hatreds were relieved and vented.

Simple, crude, effective and direct.

But - Thales closed his eyes and repeated to himself over and over again: I can't like this feeling.

After all, what he took away was a life. No matter what Quaid had done, whether he deserved it or not, in a sense, he was an equal and bipedal being like his own kind.

Killing may be necessary, but no matter what the reason, it is not something to be proud of.

Killing Quaid is definitely not to become a scum like him.

What's more important - Thales turned his head and looked at Kolya, the dagger in his hand was sharpening faster and faster.

These children have probably experienced the most critical scene in their lives.

Another illusory scene appeared before his eyes, with the light from the projector and the text on the slide emerging like breaking waves.

"...The literature review of the paper I reported in today's class mainly focuses on the field of psychology. From the perspective of developmental psychology, childhood and adolescence are the most critical periods for the formation of a person's mind and personality.

Bloom's follow-up research has found that the environment, interactions, and behaviors experienced at this stage are all strongly related to future personality and psychological development. Many theoretical studies also believe that this impact may even last a lifetime..."

Thales shook his head and hid another recovered memory deep in his heart.

The mental health of the beggars is secondary, but the immediate problem that needs to be solved is how to survive.

Thales suppressed the nausea in his heart and turned his attention to the dagger in his hand.

This dagger is no longer than an adult's forearm. It is bladed on one side, and the tip has a slight arc toward the side of the blade. The wooden handle is wrapped with a black leather hemp strap to prevent slipping, and the sides of the blade are smooth—

-Um?

Thales suddenly discovered that under the wash of blood, the two letters "jc" engraved on the side of the blade appeared.

jc?

Thales' eyes changed slightly, and his heart moved.

Haha, no matter how many tricks, no matter how many plans, no matter how clever, Thales thought, they are not as effective as this "jc" dagger.

Then, Thales' eyes turned into ice, and the blade that was still being polished one moment appeared next to Ryan's severed hand!

"laugh!"

Thales cut it off without hesitation!

The blade cut off the remaining flesh between Ryan's palm and wrist.

"Hmm! Hmm! - hum!"

Ryan's whole body convulsed violently like a shrimp from the Yasir River that fell into boiling water.

He bit the firewood tightly, making a scary sound from his throat, his eyes were closed tightly in pain, his face was twisted into an exaggerated shape, and tears and snot flowed down continuously.

Thales quickly pulled the cloth with good medicine (actually just some Urdron grass), wrapped it around Ryan's severed hand, and beat it hard back and forth.

I hope this will work, stop the bleeding, and prevent infection, otherwise - Thales looked at the fire and shook his head.

Ryan was still twitching in pain. Thales held his severed hand tightly with one hand and pulled him into his arms with the other.

"Hold on, Ryan, it will be over soon, hold on!" Thales comforted him softly with his eyes closed. The burn on his chest was rubbed by Ryan's hair, and there was another heartbreaking pain.

Thales looked to the other side, where Kelit, Ned and Ensola were lying quietly under the moonlight.

It's like falling asleep.

Ryan's breathing gradually became regular, but Colia began to sob softly again.

"Tales, wuwu, I'm so scared. Colia obviously doesn't have typhoid fever. Colia is already cured——"

Thales put down Ryan, turned around, held Colia in his arms, carefully avoiding the burns on her face, and patted her gently.

"It's okay, Colia, it's okay."

sorry.

It was me who failed to protect everyone.

"Tiles!"

Thales opened his eyes, looked at Cinti who ran back panting, and asked calmly: "How is it outside?"

Cindy was the least injured among the children in the sixth house, after Thales helped him reattach his dislocated leg (the life of beggars has given them a lot of self-rescue knowledge, such as bone setting - or bone removal)

, was sent by Thales to go outside to inquire about information and give an early warning to the possible arrival of Brotherhood members.

"There's no one up there, no Rick, no goons, no frat guys, it's like no one outside the abandoned house knows anything."

Cinti was the oldest and had a long-standing understanding with Thales. She directly told what Thales was most concerned about.

"Quaid seems to have been to many people's houses. Some people managed to escape. However, not counting us and the seventeenth house, there was no movement in at least six or seven houses."

Thales's eyes dimmed. The sixth house was not the abandoned house closest to the gate, and he could probably guess the fate of the beggars in those houses.

"Now the beggars know what happened. Everyone is spreading the word that the Brotherhood is going to kill us all. Some people are hiding in the house and dare not come out, but more people are running to the streets. Others want to

Gotta run away."

Thales' eyes lit up: "Wait a minute, you said the thugs are all gone?"

Cinti knew what Thales was thinking. He shook his head and said bitterly: "It's useless. The door was locked from the outside. Karak and the people in their house shouted at the door, but no one came. Unless

We can cross the ditch and the spikes inside, otherwise we won't be able to escape."

"We," Ryan struggled, sat up from the ground with his right hand in his hands, and said with a pale face, "do we have to escape? We can wait here until the morning, wait until Rick and others arrive, and tell them that it is Quaid himself

go Ape--"

"No!" Thales interrupted Ryan decisively, "Quaid died in the abandoned house. If they find the murderer, we will definitely die. Even if they can't find the murderer, they will use the beggars to explain. What's more,

, Quaid’s father is a boss in the brotherhood, they won’t just let it go.”

"Moreover," Thales looked at Ryan coldly and said, "Do you still want to wait for them to send the next Quaid? Even if the next leader is not someone like Quaid, when he knows that his predecessor died in

Do you still expect him to feed you delicious food and drinks from a beggar, and then kneel down and beg you not to kill him?"

When this string of words came out, Ryan, Colia and Cindy couldn't quite understand it. The three of them blinked and looked confused.

Thales looked at the eyes of the three of them, lowered his head helplessly, sighed, and said: "Oh - to put it simply, we have to escape."

"oh."

The three children then nodded in unison as if they had "a sudden realization".

Thales shook his head helplessly.

Another scene suddenly appeared before his eyes.

Snow was falling heavily on the scattered streets, and a slim figure jumped ahead while he was mumbling.

"——So, Weber used his observations and historical data to summarize the origin of capitalism in Europe. In his book, he said that Lao Ma's economic base determines the superstructure, and he ridiculed——"

"Although I don't understand what you are talking about, it feels so powerful."

"Alas - to put it simply, Weber is using his IQ to crush the old horse."

"Oh, that's right, let's go eat hot pot!"

"Obviously you are asking me what class I took today, can you please stop jumping to the topic so fast? And why does it change so naturally?"

"Then it's decided, Korean BBQ! Attack freedom, attack!"

"Didn't you just say that you were a hot pot? Hey, don't push me. What else is freedom attack? I told you not to push me."

Thales closed his eyes tightly to dispel the memory illusion that came back from the void.

Recent memory flashbacks have become more and more frequent, and "past events" emerge one by one.
To be continued...