"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.
But not now.
It can't be now.
There are more important things to do now.
Thales opened his eyes and found that the three children were waiting for his decision.
He stood up gently, pulled Ryan up too, and took a deep breath.
"First of all, move Quaid out of the sixth house when no one is outside - although it is very heavy, in the short term, no one will know that his death is related to us."
"Then, Cindy, you go and spread the message secretly among everyone - you must do it secretly, so that no one knows that you sent it on purpose. Tell them that there are five loose spikes under the ditch on the left side of the fourth room.
Remove them and cover the remaining two spikes with slabs or something, and you can escape from the abandoned house."
Xinti was surprised: "You, you found the secret passage in the deep ditch?"
"Secret passage?" Ryan and Coria also seemed to be shocked.
Thales didn't say anything, he just patted Cinti on the shoulder and said, "Go ahead."
That was not a secret tunnel dug by some powerful senior beggar.
The so-called secret passage was dug out secretly for four years using the excuse of going to the West City Gate to beg for food twice a week so that he could return at night with a dagger, vines, linen, and corrosives from the pharmacy.
of.
It's like the "Shawshank Redemption" of Errol's world.
As for that legend, it is simply a fantasy.
There is never any savior, is there?
Thales patted Cinti on the shoulder again. The latter nodded and was about to turn around when he scratched his head, thought of something, and said in confusion:
"Why do we have to tell everyone? Can't we escape on our own? The more people there are, everyone will rush to escape, and the slower we will escape."
No, Thales said in his heart, the Brotherhood is not a vegetarian. Every street, every road, and every corner in the three districts of the lower city has their spies. The suburbs of Ximen are also full of their lackeys. For a few
For a beggar under the age of ten, it would be difficult to escape from the brotherhood even if he escaped from the abandoned house.
In Thales's original escape plan, it would take another half a year. He would be able to completely figure out the pattern and rhythm of the Brotherhood's spies from the Third District of the Lower City to Hongfang Street, and then follow up with Gloria from the Sunset Bar.
If the husband prepares supplies in the pharmacy, the possibility of their escape will greatly increase.
As long as I can escape to Hongfang Street.
But now, now is simply not the best time.
But in order to survive, they must escape - accidents always happen suddenly, right?
Therefore, he must turn the private escape in the sixth house into a collective commotion among beggars.
Only the sixth house is missing, which is too obvious, and the Brotherhood will find them soon. Secondly, the more people there are, the slower they will escape, but it will also be safer and less conspicuous.
However, if you want to tell these reasons one by one——
Thales looked up at Cinti, his dazzling eyes making the latter feel a little uncomfortable.
"Xinti, do you still remember the agreement we made four years ago?"
Xinti was stunned for a moment, lowered her head, and thought for a moment.
When he raised his head, his eyes had become firm.
"Of course." Cinti looked at Thales, the boy who was a head shorter than herself, and said slowly: "You are responsible for thinking, and I am responsible for doing."
Thales nodded solemnly.
"Let's escape together!"
————————————————————
Yara Sarriton watched boredly as the last customer walked out of the Sunset Bar, then lazily stood up and put away his glass.
There were not many drinkers today, especially those from the Brotherhood. Many of them had been transferred to participate in the "big operation". Even Edmund, the cook, went there with a machete. It was said that he wanted to return a favor.
debt.
The old guy hasn't been back for a long time.
boring.
Yara glanced at the clock on the wall. It was three-thirty in the morning, which was a bit early.
However, that clock is also a bit slow.
That clock was already very old, Yara thought to herself. Even the back tank where the eternal oil was installed was rusty. The rust mixed into the eternal oil, which greatly reduced the work efficiency.
We have to think of some way to make the old guy bleed out and change the clock.
With so much business in the Sunset Bar, there is neither the tax collector from the city hall to collect taxes ("For the sake of the king, I will give him two middle fingers!" - Yara), nor the unsighted guy to ask for it.
Protection fee ("One hundred coppers per person, I can protect your fingers from being chopped off by me, how about that?" - Yara), even the purchase of goods is obtained from the Underworld Brotherhood's own channels
The preferential price ("Nar Rick, you are the accountant, tell these brothers on the ground, and also tell me about my knife, what price should you give me when purchasing the goods?" - Yara), pay some money
, it’s always okay to change the clock in the bar, right?
That stingy old guy.
After closing the door and finishing the business at the bar, Yara put down her apron and rag, tightened her short leather pants, turned off the permanent light at the front desk (the name was really ironic), and walked into the back kitchen.
It's a bit early today. According to the old rules, after finishing the exercise, there is still -
The next moment, Yara's expression became cold and fierce!
Her body instantly lowered, her knees bent to a position that was convenient for exerting force, and the famous wolf-leg knife on her leg instantly reached her left hand.
The blade flew out like an electric shot!
"Boom!"
The wolf's leg knife stabbed a wine barrel fiercely!
Only a small half of the blade was exposed, and the handle was still shaking.
"Ah!" This is the terrified scream of a little girl.
Yara slowly straightened up, stuck the other wolf leg knife in her right hand back into her boots, and then lit the eternal lamp beside her.
The light illuminated the dim kitchen, and several small figures were revealed.
"Yara - that -" Thales, the time traveler who was frightened by the Wolf Leg Knife, grinned a forced smile, raised his slightly trembling right hand, and shook it unnaturally: "Hi -
-it's me."
Yala looked at him coldly and said nothing.
Her eyes were sharp and terrifying, and Kolya shrank towards Thales in fear.
Yara suddenly stepped forward.
Thales felt that the three beggars behind him took a step back unnaturally.
"I know," Yara said coldly, "otherwise, what I was aiming at wouldn't be as simple as a wine barrel."
Yara walked up to him, pulled out the wolf-leg knife from the wine barrel two inches away from Thales' left ear, held it in front of him as if to demonstrate, and then inserted it into her boot holster.
"And, you little brat——"
Thales rolled his eyes inwardly and instinctively raised his hand quickly to protect his forehead.
But a slender finger has already stabbed it hard!
"Ah! It hurts!"
"Call me——Sister Yala!"
——————————————————
"When I came in through the back door, I didn't see Edmund, so I wanted to come to the kitchen and have a look -"
They are now in the cellar of the Sunset Bar. The three beggars, except Thales, are leaning on the large sacks containing food, fidgeting, biting the white bread in their hands with difficulty but effort - they have not eaten it for a long time.
Such good food.
A little far away from them, Thales was sitting on a wine barrel that was twice as tall as him, looking straight ahead at Yara Sariton, who had her arms folded across her chest and one leg leaning against the wall, looking lazy but still cheerful.
If it were in his previous life, Thales would probably look at her carefully from head to toe with an appreciative eye, then look up at the sky, and sigh at the beauty of this world while reminiscing.
Huh? You ask what Thales will do after that? Nonsense, of course he will go home alone and do whatever he needs to do.
As for now - sorry, this body is still young.
"Tell me straight, why did you come to me?" Yara still had that indifferent look on her face, getting straight to the point and going straight to the point.
But Thales is already used to it. Ever since he first met this "big sister" who was only eighteen or nineteen years old in the garbage dump behind the Sunset Bar four years ago, she has always had this tone and style.
.
He knew that she was this kind of person.
"Quaid went crazy and killed almost half of the beggars in the abandoned house."
Thales said solemnly, while silently clenching his fists.
damn it.
Ever since she saw these scarred beggars, Yara had vague doubts about what happened earlier today.
Yara's face remained calm, and she began to curse Rick in her heart. The accountant knew that you had no good intentions when you gave Quaid the Chaka wine.
Why did I agree to him just for those ten gold coins? Ten gold coins, ten gold coins!
This kind of thing will definitely anger the Brotherhood. Ten gold coins - he should be charged at least twenty!
and--
"No one came to stop him, and no one came to save us. We had no choice but to escape by ourselves." Thales said in a gloomy mood, as the scene a few hours ago seemed to have reappeared.
—And, alas, half of them are beggars.
Yara closed her eyes and sighed.
"I understand, you can hide here for a day. Don't worry, as long as I'm here, the gorilla won't dare to come. If he comes, I will chop off his--ahem--his hand."
Yara looked at the other three beggars and frowned. She could recognize which ones were new injuries, especially the child whose right hand was wrapped in cloth.
"When Edmund comes back, I will ask him to find Rick and the people above. Quaid will not be able to escape if he does something like this - why doesn't this guy die soon?"
Yara was a little disinterested, she put down her legs leaning against the wall and stood up.
Thales's eyes darkened. He looked at the three beggars, took a deep breath, and then looked at Yara.
"The brothers have a big mission today, so the guards and patrols will be relaxed. If you can escape, you must-oh, forget it, I'll get the medicine, and if you need a doctor-wait, kid, what's wrong with you?
?”
Yara was talking to herself when she suddenly realized that something was wrong with Thales across from him. His body was also covered with scars, the clothes on his chest were torn to pieces, and his right sleeve was even splattered with blood.
No, the look in this kid’s eyes——
Yara suddenly walked up to Thales, dragged him down from the barrel, then squatted down, held Thales' shoulders with both hands, and looked directly into his eyes.
Yara's eyes suddenly became serious and eager.
"Kid—you, are you?"
Thales was a little afraid to look into Yara's eyes, but in just a few seconds, he adjusted himself and raised his head resolutely.
Thales heard his own voice sounding calmly and without trembling.