A man in a gray mask slowly walked along an alley and walked to a door.
He raised his finger and knocked on the door.
A voice came from inside the door: "Answer today's code!"
The gray masked man replied: "The dragon tore off the horns of the phoenix."
However... the door did not open.
The man in gray mask said quickly: "What's wrong?"
"Wrong answer! Where does the phoenix get its horns? Only the giant dragon has horns!"
"No... no, didn't you say that? Just because the phoenix has no horns, the code is more difficult. Why is it changed to another way now?"
Then, the door opened slightly.
"Okay, come in."
The man in gray mask walked in and asked blankly: "What?"
The door was opened by a woman in a gray mask. She quickly closed the door and said, "Don't you know, in the slums, there are people selling secret codes all the time, and then there are people who buy the secret codes, break into houses, and steal money and sex.
The closer you are to the black wall, the worse the security will be."
"So that's it," the gray-masked man breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, "Anna, so what you just said was to test me?"
"Yes. If you bought the password, you would definitely think that you bought a fake password."
The man in the gray mask touched his head, sighed, and said: "There is no way, all of us have to wear masks from birth..."
"Karl," the woman named Anna said, "you won't go out again today, will you?"
"Well, I won't go out anymore."
"That's good. Starting from tomorrow, set two passwords with twelve noon as the dividing line. Be sure to remember them. If you remember them wrong, I won't open the door for you."
"The secret code?"
"I will make a temporary decision tomorrow morning. I will think of the code in the morning, and you will think of the code in the afternoon."
Karl, the man in the gray mask, scratched the back of his head and said, "However, I don't understand, who would leak the password? I will never leak the password in front of outsiders."
"There are a lot of people like this." Anna walked to the kitchen aside and continued to cut vegetables. "Some people will use the passwords of their own homes, relatives, and neighbors to sell them. The living environment inside the entire black wall is getting worse day by day.
Now in the slums, a piece of bread is equivalent to a life."
After cutting the vegetables halfway, she added: "This year's food harvest is bad, so the pigs can't be fed. The price of pork on the market has increased three or four times. So, the next time our family eats meat, it will probably have to wait until New Year's Eve."
It’s night.”
"It's all because there is too little land..."
Suddenly, Karl walked up behind Anna and took off her mask!
"You, what are you doing?" Anna quickly grabbed the mask and said, "Didn't we agree that we can only take off the mask when we go to bed together at night?"
"I want to see my wife's face!" Karl looked at Anna's face carefully and said, "Anyway, the total time of taking off the mask within one day should not exceed one hour."
"Disgusting!" Anna punched Karl's chest hard, "By the way, I want to tell you something. I plan to kill your uncle..."
"We have something to talk about later," Karl also took off his mask, "Come on, let's kiss first..."
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
Anna quickly put on the mask and said, "Okay, someone is coming, I'll open the door first."
Anna walked to the door, coughed slightly, and said, "Who are you looking for?"
A voice came from outside the door: "Hello, we are the tenants who called before to prepare to rent the house."
Anna cleared her throat, turned around, looked at her husband Karl, who was also wearing a mask, walking out of the kitchen, and then said, "Well, may I ask, what is the secret code we agreed on on the phone?"
"The Naga Kraken Devours the Sphinx."
After hearing the sound outside the door, she immediately said: "I clearly agreed that the secret code was for the Sphinx to swallow the Minotaur. You were wrong!"
"Ah?" The voice outside the door was obviously surprised, "Impossible, you didn't say anything about the Minotaur?"
At this time, another voice sounded: "You are trying to test us, the agreed code is indeed the Naga Siren devouring the Sphinx."
Anna nodded and then opened the door.
Five people wearing gray masks stood outside the door.
"Everyone, please come in."
Karl unexpectedly said: "Wait... Anna, renting a house is?"
"What I just wanted to tell you," Anna pointed out the window, "After your uncle passed away, I wanted to rent out the house left to us in the south to earn some rent."
"You didn't even discuss this with me..."
"Didn't I tell you this?"
Then, Anna quickly looked at the five gray-masked people, subconsciously scratched her hair, and said, "Well, you guys sit down first, let's discuss the details of cooperation."
Karl pulled Anna over, walked to the kitchen door, and whispered: "Are you too reckless? You also know that the public security is not good now, so you brought five people in at once? Aren't you afraid?"
Anna pointed to a cabinet nearby and whispered: "There is a gun in that cabinet, the dowry my father left for me."
"To what extent have the prices of bullets on the market increased now? Can you afford them?"
"I can't afford it...but they don't know?"
At this time, the five gray-masked people had just sat down, and one of the men whispered to the other woman: "Mother Ziyi, Dong Xie, should we arrange for someone to guard the door?"
"There's no need to be so arrogant. Everything should be done as promised."
"Well, Li Yin also told me repeatedly that the most important thing in the Scarlet Mission is..."
At this moment, Anna came over.
"Hello everyone, my name is Anna Smith."
Then, she took out a few pieces of paper and handed them to them.
"This is the floor plan of the house you want to rent, an introduction to the room type, and a lease contract. Well, our house is indeed of average size and the location is not very good, but now we can have a place to shelter from the wind and rain, which is great.
It’s not easy, right?”
Karl brought a few cups of brewed tea, then walked to the side and observed a few people, showing a somewhat suspicious look.
Then, he walked to the corridor next to him. There was a dial telephone on the coffee table in the middle of the corridor. He made a call and was quickly connected.
"Fanny, I'm sorry, I can't let you continue to live in my uncle's house."
"Ah? Karl? Didn't you say that before? Please, don't do this! The people from the Black Corpse Team are looking for me now. I have embezzled their money, and they will not let me go! I don't want to go to the Black Corpse team.
Outside the wall, I don’t want to go there! I went there once before and I was going crazy!”
"Fani...my wife said she wanted to rent out the house. As you know, my wife has always had the final say in my house."
"Karl, where am I going? If I'm found, I'll be doomed! I can leave when this storm is over! Those people can't always set up checkpoints to make everyone who passes by take off their masks, right?
!”
"I...I'm very embarrassed...I can never change Anna's decision...Anyway, you are wearing a mask, so just stay outside for a while."
"Karl, can you really not save me?"
"There's really nothing you can do about it...so why are you trying to embezzle the Black Corpse Team's money so quietly?"
"I, I listened to that guy Wilfer and went to the black market to bet on dog fighting. He said that I would definitely win. Then I would make enough money to pay it back... but all the money was exported.
Got it!"
"You, a person who has never gambled... actually believe such nonsense, that guy must have deliberately encouraged you, otherwise who would share such a thing with you!"
"Karl, I..."
"Okay, listen to me... just leave tonight. No matter what happens, don't take off your mask."
…
Dong Xie looked at the contract in front of him, then looked at Anna in front of him, nodded and said: "There is nothing wrong with the contract, but we want to actually see the house first."
"Yes, but that house is relatively remote and may not be easy to find. I will take you to see the house later."
At this time, Karl suddenly ran up.
"I," Karl patted his chest, "I will take you there!"
Anna said doubtfully: "Didn't we just agree not to go out at night? You must go out, and we have to change the code."
"Okay, change the password..."
"It's rare to see you being so attentive to family matters," Anna looked at Karl and suddenly said, "You have nothing to hide from me, right?"
"No...no..."
After Anna stared at Karl for a while, she said: "You come with me, I will give you the key, and...I will decide the password."
