废弃的房子不是房子,而是永兴市的一个地名.它位于下城区的第二区,毗邻臭名昭著的黑街,总面积约为一条街的大小.
泰勒斯曾经从兄弟会的一位老人那里听说,这座废弃的房子据说是星辰王国的皇家宫廷.它是一百年前出资建造的,曾经有一个像样的名字（但没有人记得它了,只有市政厅它只记录在城市里）,它曾经挤满了王国首都平庸但熙熙攘攘的公民.
不知从什么时候起,废弃的房子成了歹徒接触,谈判,偶尔打架的地方.
结果,热闹的邻里房屋,伴随着鲜血,刀子和斧头,变成了荒芜的房屋,只有石墙和砖块.
据说废弃的房子曾经被用作倾倒尸体的地方,以至于今天,在首都阳光下快乐成长的孩子被这样警告:"如果你再不听话,我就把你送到废弃的房子里.废弃房屋的声誉仅次于可怕的黑色街道.
黑街兄弟会崛起,夺取下城地下世界的霸主地位后,这座废弃的房子就被用作兄弟会在城里做乞丐生意的大本营.
为了便于管理,防止乞丐夜间逃跑,兄弟会除了安排每家每户对应的暴徒监视外,还在废弃房屋的四面挖了宽十尺,深十五尺的战壕.削尖的木桩和生锈的钉子只在废弃房屋的前面留下了一扇石门,可以用大锁翻回去.
传闻,经过无数的尸体和诱惑,终于有人在深沟里挖出一条秘密通道逃脱了,但至少在泰勒斯在废弃房屋的四年里,没有一个乞丐能找到传说中的秘密通道.这条路,但深沟里的尸体,随着兄弟会业务的扩大,每年都在增加.
据说,没有视力的孩子每年都试图越过深沟逃跑,所以兄弟会每年也会清理一次沟里的骨头.
顾名思义,废弃的房子由废弃已久的石屋组成,共有23座（还有更多,有的在多年前的帮派战争中倒塌,有的被兄弟会拆掉挖出战壕）,不规则地位于大石门后面,有的石屋"独居",有的靠得更近.
乞丐运气好,分配的废弃房子有井水,倒霉的,比如泰勒斯住的第六宫,只能用其他房子的水装满水箱——而通常情况并非如此.白.
水和食物也经常导致乞丐之间的挣扎.比如第六宫的水箱,就是泰勒斯来到废弃房子后的第二年.通过各种手段,他与隔壁第十七宫达成了协议.打一次水就能得到它.
在那之前——奈德和科莉亚还没有来,只有辛迪,瑞恩,凯利特和另外两个已经不在人世的乞丐——他们喝水有困难.
但泰勒斯等人现在听到的是隔壁17号房间里他们的"老板"迭戈的哭声.泰勒斯还记得,当迭戈为水而战时,他就在迭戈的头上.他撞到了一块石头,他的哭声和现在差不多.
"卡拉!加油!我们没有!不是我们!
迭戈的哭声痛苦而惊慌失措.
以至于第六宫的乞丐,包括泰勒斯,一时间都没有反应过来.
但毕竟泰勒斯有前世的记忆.他的第一反应是把院子里的人赶回房子里的洞里——在那之后的很长一段时间里,泰勒斯都反对这个决定.来不及忏悔——躲开它.
Thales himself glanced at the inconspicuous stone slab in the corner of the room, hid under the wall opposite the Seventeenth House, and stared at a dog hole connecting the Seventeenth House and the Sixth House. A symbol of the union of the children of the hut.
"What happened to Diego and the others? Did they fight?" Ned asked curiously after hiding.
The beggars are not happy and harmonious, a harmonious house like the sixth house,
There are not many people in the abandoned house.
Many beggars were disabled or even died. Except for Quaid, the beggars themselves caused them. Children under ten years old did not know what to do. For example, before the arrival of Ned and Kelia, Taylor One of Smith's two former roommates died this way.
But the Seventeenth House can be regarded as one of the few in the abandoned house. Diego is a brown-skinned, small-eyed, yellow-haired, carefree but stubborn child. At the age of nine and a half, he seems to have more leadership qualities than Cindy and Thales. At least the beggars in the seventeenth house listened to him, which also made the battle for water between the sixth house and the seventeenth house repeated.
"It doesn't look like a fight. Could it be that another room is bullying Diego and the others? It must be Karak from the tenth room! He likes to bully other guys the most!" Kellett said in a hurry as if he had figured something out .
"Then we have to hurry to help! We promised them to help each other!"
The lame Ryan was about to run out of the hole and go into the dog hole when he heard the words, but before the moonlight shone on his half body, Ryan was dragged back by Thales.
"Don't worry, it's not Karak! It's something else!" Thales listened to the screams from the next door with a solemn expression.
"No, Diego!"
There was a blunt sound, like a sandbag being thrown against the wall, but this time it was the cry of another child, Ensola.
Thales remembered this eight-year-old child. When he was fighting for water, Ensola pressed his lips tightly and stood firmly beside Diego.
When the two sides started fighting, he was also the one who hugged Cindy's thigh tightly to prevent him from getting close to the struggle between Diego and Thales. If Thales hadn't slammed Diego's knee joint and quickly picked up a stone, the first I don't know if Liuwu has a regular supply of water to drink.
"Something's wrong!"
As the eldest child in the house, the doubts on Cindy's face gradually turned serious. As the beggar who worked most happily and tacitly with Thales in the sixth house, Cindy was silent most of the time, but every time He opened his mouth to speak, not important things, but key words.
Soon, the doubts and seriousness on the children's faces turned into panic.
"Begging for mercy! You begging for mercy! Keep going! I like listening to you people begging for mercy the most!"
A thick but crazy voice came from the next door.
Every beggar in the abandoned house will never forget this sound, it is more terrifying to them than the devil in hell - at least the devil will not break the beggar's bones inch by inch, and will not cut the beggar open with a knife The face of the beggar, let alone immerse the beggar head-down in the water tank, euphemistically called "quench your thirst" (can the devil really not? At least the beggar doesn't know).
It's Quaid.
Quaid Roda, the leader of the beggars of the Black Street Brotherhood, is also the nightmare and disaster star of the beggars.
"No! Boss Quaid! We were wrong! We—ah—"
"Let's see if you still dare to talk nonsense! Dare you dare to scold me behind your back! Damn it! Red-haired woman! Damn it! Bald head! Damn it! Yala Surriton! You all deserve to die!"
Following Quaid's delirious curses, there were waves of beating sounds from the next door, sometimes it was fists, sometimes stones, and sometimes the sound of human body colliding with the wall.
"Help! Help! Diego! Kara! Marita! Get up quickly! Help me!"
"Run! Hurry toward—uh—"
"My God! Where's the guard! Where's Mr. Rick! My God! He's going to kill us, he's going to kill us all—"
"no, do not want!"
Heart-piercing cries also came from more than one person's mouth. The abandoned house under the moonlight, in the eyes of Thales, seemed thrilling at this moment!
It took Thales three seconds to realize what Quaid was doing.
He turned his head suddenly and looked at everyone in the sixth room. Ned and Kelia were trembling in the wall hole, and Ryan, who was about to rush out to help just now, was already petrified.
Kellett and Cindy were not much better. The former looked back and forth between the several people eagerly and fearfully, and he wanted to speak but was unable to speak. The latter was pale and stared at Thales.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Click!"
"You bloody scum! Even you dare to laugh at me! Laugh at 'Blood Axe' Quaid Rhoda! Even you dare to—"
"Haha, you guys are screaming! Why aren't you screaming anymore? Call me!"
Crazy roars and howls of pain ran side by side, accompanied by cracking sounds that no one wanted to think about.
Thales knew that at this moment, panic had spread in the sixth room. He was running his mind frantically, thinking about the current situation.
Quaid beat the beggar severely in the seventeenth room—no, judging from Quaid's appearance, and the frequency and intensity of his beating, tonight is not just about venting his anger!
Besides, even though Quaid is a jerk, he won't kill all the beggars in the room at once—by the way, what about Rick? What about the guards of the abandoned house and the thugs on patrol? Across the stone wall, although each house may not be able to hear each other, the thugs walking on the road must be able to hear it!
Of course Thales would not know that tonight's garrison of the abandoned house had been artificially reduced to two people, and those two thugs would never come again.
"Thales, what—what should I do?" Hearing the tragedy next door, Cindy instinctively felt that something was wrong. His pale face was already dripping with sweat, so he kept asking Thales.
"Quiet, everyone is not allowed to make a sound! We—" Thales frowned, thinking hard about the countermeasures, but before he finished speaking, he saw the dog between the sixth room and the seventeenth room In the cave, a figure of a beggar suddenly emerged.
Kolya let out a small cry in fright.
Thales' eyes are very sharp, and he can tell at a glance that it is Ensola who is covered in blood from the seventeenth room.
It's just that Ensola seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Before Thales could help him up, Ensola gasped and fell to the ground, completely ignoring the blood on his head and face.
"Run! Run! Let's—"
Thales and Cindy nervously helped him up, the screams and roars in his ears remained the same, but Ensola seemed to have lost his mind, and he didn't ask any questions, but muttered "run away" with a horrified expression .
Until Thales slapped him soberly.
"What happened? Quaid came to vent his anger?"
Ensola's tears flowed down suddenly.
"Qui—Quaid—he's crazy! He wants—we're not the only ones, he, he wants to—go in from room to room, see—"
Ensola was already incoherent, but it was enough for the beggars in the sixth house to understand what happened. The six little faces suddenly turned pale, and even Thales couldn't help showing fear in his heart.
"—I beat anyone I saw, I beat anyone I saw, until I died—I heard crying, so I went out to peek—I saw Quaid dragging Larry from the third room, blood—blood ——they all came out bloody, and then saw me—"
"He grabs Kara-Kara, throws it on the ground, Diego-Diego tries to stop him--and--he punches hundreds of times, Diego stays still--and-and Mari Tower, Quaid throws him into the fire-boom-fire-"
Thales only felt his scalp tingling.
It's not that he hasn't seen Quaid beating people, but many times, he will be stopped by multiple thugs before he is about to die-as for whether those children who are beaten will be permanently disabled, the fraternity has no idea. People care about this.
"The third house is over—it's over, and our house—he was just beating Midland—I don't know how many houses—"
However, before Ensola, who was crying and complaining, hadn't finished speaking, Thales covered her mouth!
At this time, through Thales' actions, everyone realized that the cries and roars from the next door had disappeared, and the seventeenth room became quiet, as if several children had fallen asleep.
There was only a rough panting sound, still moving slowly.
No one knows what this means.
In the sixth room, almost all the children started to tremble.
At that moment, Thales turned his head abruptly and lowered his voice as much as possible: "Listen, let's quickly—"
"Peng!"
There was a loud noise.
The door to the sixth room was kicked open.
At the door, Quaid's wobbly figure slowly approached. That fierce and grinning face was looking towards the shivering seven children.
"Run--where did you go? Hey, you--you look a little-slightly familiar--"
Everyone in the sixth room was stunned, and Thales was no exception.
Quaid rubbed his nose, Thales saw that his face was bright red, which was the color of drunkenness.
And his hands were also dark red.
It's the color of blood.
Quaid looked at Thales for a while, who was tightly covering Ensola's mouth.
"I, I remember you!"
The expression on his face kept changing, gradually changing from a grin to viciousness and hatred.
"You are the one, that brat caught by the dead bald head—"
"It's you! You must be the one laughing at me behind my back, talking too much behind my back! Isn't that right!"
"It must be you—"
"It must be you!"
Thales' heart was icy cold.
——————————————————
While driving the carriage carefully, Rick forced himself to calm down and felt the temperature on the back of his neck.
Fortunately, everything is normal.
The ghost did not appear.
Probably having a headache for Quaid.
In front of you, the big house of the headquarters of the Black Street Brotherhood is gradually approaching.
Rick breathed a sigh of relief.
"Accountant!"
Leyock's voice came, the fraternity killer, calling Rick from twenty feet away.
Leyok's face appeared in the distance, as if he appeared under the light of the torch, and he asked dissatisfiedly: "Why did you come here at this time? This is a business with a knife! With your hands that settle accounts, Want to join in the fun too?"
Rick was stunned for a moment. As the carriage moved forward, he saw that the small square in front of the big house was full of faint torches.
They were all figures standing quietly, each of them was bound with a black cloth.
A black cloth belonging to the Brotherhood.
There are at least several hundred people.
Rick suddenly realized that almost all the people in the Black Street Headquarters are here.
Rick quickly pulled over and got out of the carriage, walked a few steps quickly, and by the moonlight, he saw his boss, the obese Morris, who was also the head of the population business in Eternal Star City, and several other figures with different silhouettes— A two-meter-tall yellow-haired giant, a mysterious figure in a dark red robe, and a fat, honest guy—discussing something.
Rick was taken aback.
He recognized it, it was the other bigwigs in the club.
There are even a few big bosses who usually don't live in Eternal Star City.
Passing through teams of black cloth thugs who were fully armed, from axes, short knives, daggers to studded sticks, Rick went straight to Leyok.
"Leyock, nice to meet—forget it, I won't talk nonsense—what are you going to do tonight?"
Rick doesn't like Leyock, just as he doesn't like Rick either. We just have to meet often because of work, and the two of them have a tacit understanding about this.
But here, the person who knows the most inside information and can ask questions the fastest is Leyoke.
"Did the boss not tell you?"
Leyok raised his mouth contemptuously and glanced at him.
"Old rules, when facing the Blood Bottle Gang, you can use any weapon except the magic gun and infantry crossbow..."
This assassin, known for his efficiency and ruthlessness, supported the scimitar inserted horizontally behind his waist, as if he was feeling the sharpness inside the sheath.
Rick was shocked: To deal with the Blood Bottle Gang...
The killer took a deep breath, then licked his lips with a playful smile.
"Tonight, we will take down Hongfang Street!"
———————————————————
"Is there no news about Yordle yet? What about the Sunset Temple?"
The gray-haired middle-aged nobleman asked solemnly in front of a luxurious chair.
"Patience, my friend, we have waited for twelve years, it doesn't matter if we wait a little longer."
The sturdy figure got up from the chair, grabbed a scepter inlaid with bright blue spar, upon closer inspection, the spar on the scepter was actually slowly but regularly twinkling with dots of stars. mango.
"Our unnecessary guesses here are only doubts about Yordle's ability. Besides, isn't he carrying the lamp's Zi Yan? I believe that he is already close to the goal, and he is just making the final confirmation." The robust figure spoke slowly.
The middle-aged nobleman bowed deeply.
"I don't doubt Yoddle's ability, and I never underestimated his loyalty, but—" he paused, sighed: "——Yordle is too calm and cold, compared to his... Unwavering loyalty, everything else he doesn't care about, like twelve years ago, I worry about him..."
The middle-aged noble didn't continue talking, and the sturdy figure didn't answer right away.
The sturdy figure walked to the floor-to-ceiling window with the scepter in hand, looking at the brightly lit and resplendent Great Temple in the distance outside the window.
Not even the moonlight can compete with such brilliance.
"Then you go get ready and go to the temple secretly immediately - as soon as you get the news, you don't need to wait for the signal from Yordle."
After a while, the strong figure said slowly, "I have no reason to doubt Yodel, he will definitely not hesitate when it is time to make a move."
"However, it's good to be extra prepared."