"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 crippled beggar, half lying on the ground against the wall, held up the right hand with "broken lotus roots", blood slowly flowing out, and stared 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 Kelia was sitting on the yard and the steps of the house with a dull expression. The burn on the left face by the silver coins had already been treated and medicated, and it was currently covered with a piece of cloth.
And the scorched black silver coin was tightly grasped in her hand at this moment.
The girl widened her eyes, looked here and there, looked up at the moon after a while, and laughed nervously.
Behind her, Quaid's dead body leaned against the broken wall.
A wave of nausea hit Thales.
That sense of touch, the sense of piercing metal into flesh and blood, faintly appeared in Taylor's hand holding the knife from time to time.
Thales sighed, resisting the discomfort of killing for the first time. The burn on his chest was still hurting, and took away a lot of attention for him.
The decisive and ruthless protagonists in those dark novels can take lives without changing their expressions, can talk and laugh happily after killing people, and can plan the next killing calmly and as usual.
It's all a lie.
Thales sneered, his heart filled with sorrow.
After all, what he took away was a life. No matter what Quaid did, whether he deserved to die or not, in a sense, he was a life that was equal to his own kind and walked on two legs.
And he plunged the dagger into his neck.
Thales was very jealous of those naturally cold-blooded killers, they were able to endure the nausea after killing people. To him, the slippery and sticky feeling on his right hand seemed to be still spreading, and the dull sound of piercing Quaid's neck was also echoing in his ears.
Momentary impulse and anger can help you kill, but it can't deal with the aftermath that shakes your spirit.
Even in his bones, he is already an adult, an adult who can and must be responsible for his actions.
More importantly - Thales turned his head and looked at Kelia, but the dagger in his hand was getting sharper and faster.
These children probably experienced the most critical scene in their lives.
Another illusory scene appeared in front of his eyes. The light of the projector and the text on the slide surfaced like breaking waves.
"...The literature review of the thesis 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 found that the environment, interaction, and behavior experienced at this stage are all strongly correlated with future personality and psychological development. Many theoretical studies also believe that this effect may even accompany lifelong..."
Thales shook his head, hiding another piece of recovered memory deep in his heart.
The mental health of the beggars comes second, but the immediate problem is how to survive.
Thales suppressed the nausea and sadness in his heart, and turned his attention to the dagger in his hand.
This dagger is not as long as an adult's forearm. It is single-sided, and the tip of the knife has a slight arc to the side of the blade. The wooden handle is wrapped with a black leather belt to prevent slippery hands, and the sides of the blade are smooth—— -Um?
Thales suddenly discovered that under the washing of blood, the two letters "JC" engraved appeared on the side of the blade.
JC?
Thales' eyes changed slightly, and his heart moved.
Hehe, no amount of tricks, no amount of planning, no amount of cleverness, Thales thought to himself, it would not be as effective as this "JC" dagger.
Then, Thales' eyes turned into ice, and the blade that was still being sharpened one moment, appeared next to Ryan's severed hand the next moment!
"Chick!"
Thales cut it off without hesitation!
The blade cut between Ryan's palm and wrist,
There is only a little flesh left.
"Mmm! Mmm! — Humph!"
Ryan's whole body convulsed violently like a Yasir River shrimp falling into boiling water.
He clenched the firewood tightly, and let out a frightening sound from his throat. His eyes were closed tightly in pain, his face was twisted into an exaggerated shape, and tears and snot kept streaming down his face.
Thales quickly pulled the cloth strips of the good medicine (actually, it was just some Urdron grass), wrapped it around Ryan's severed hand, and beat it back and forth fiercely.
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'll be over soon, hold on!" Thales closed his eyes and softly comforted him. The burn on his chest was brushed by Ryan's hair, and there was another burst of piercing pain.
Thales looked to the other side. Kellit, Ned, and Ensola were lying quietly under the moonlight.
It's like falling asleep.
Ryan's breathing gradually became regular, but Kolia began to sob softly again.
"Thales, woohoo, I'm so scared, Kolya obviously didn't have typhoid fever, Kolya is already cured—"
Thales put Ryan down, turned around, held Kelia in his arms, carefully avoided the burns on her face, and patted her gently.
"It's all right, Kolya, it's all right now."
sorry.
It's because I failed to protect everyone.
"Thales!"
Thales opened his eyes, looked at Cindy who was running back out of breath, and asked calmly, "How is it outside?"
Cindy was the least injured among the children in the sixth house. After Thales helped him connect his dislocated leg (the life of beggars gave them a lot of self-help knowledge, such as bone setting—or bone removal) , was sent by Thales to go outside to inquire about the news and let the wind out, to give an early warning to the members of the Brotherhood who might come.
"No one from above, no Rick, no thugs, no fraternity people, it seems that people outside the abandoned house don't know anything."
Cindy is the oldest and has a long-standing tacit understanding with Thales, so he directly said what Thales is most concerned about.
"Quaid seems to have been to many people's houses, and some of them managed to escape. However, if we don't include us and the seventeenth house, there is no movement in at least six or seven houses."
Thales' 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's going on, and it's rumored that the fraternity is going to kill us all. Some are hiding in their houses, but many more are out on the streets, and some want to To escape."
Thales' eyes lit up: "Wait, you said the thugs are gone?"
Cindy knew what Thales was thinking, he shook his head, and said bitterly: "It's useless, the door is locked from the outside, Karak and the people in their house shouted at the door, but no one came. Unless Able to cross the ditches and the spikes inside, otherwise we wouldn't be able to get out."
"We," Ryan struggled, sat up from the ground with his right hand in his arms, and said with a pale face, "Do we have to escape? We can wait here until the morning, when Rick and the others come, and tell them that Quaid himself go Ape--"
"No!" Thales interrupted Ryan decisively, "Quaid died in the abandoned house. If they find the murderer, we will surely die. Even if they can't find the murderer, they will use the beggars to explain it. What's more , Quaid's father is a boss in the brotherhood, they won't just let it go."
"And," Thales looked at Ryan coldly, said: "Do you still want to wait for them to send the next Quaid? Even if the next leader is not someone like Quaid, wait until he knows that his predecessor died in the The beggar's hand, do you still expect him to eat and drink for you, and then kneel down, begging you not to kill him?"
Ryan, Kelia, and Cindy couldn't quite understand this series of words. The three of them blinked and looked as if they didn't know what was going on.
Thales looked into the eyes of the three, lowered his head helplessly, sighed, and said, "Oh—to put it simply, we have to escape."
"oh."
Only then did the three children nod in unison as if they "suddenly realized".
Thales shook his head helplessly.
Another scene suddenly appeared before his eyes.
It was snowing heavily on the scattered streets, a slender figure bouncing and walking ahead, while he was muttering endlessly.
"——So, Weber used his observations and historical materials to summarize, regarding the origin of capitalism in Europe, he said in the book that the economic base of the old horse determines the superstructure, sneering—"
"Although I don't understand what you're talking about, I feel very powerful."
"Alas—to put it simply, Weber is crushing the old horse with his IQ."
"Oh, that's right, let's go eat a small hot pot!"
"Obviously you are asking me what class I have today, can the topic not jump so fast? And why did it turn so naturally, hey!"
"Then it's decided, Korean BBQ! Assault Freedom, attack!"
"Isn't it just that I was still a hotpot—hey, don't push me—what else is freedom to attack—I said it all—don't push me—"
Thales closed his eyes tightly, dispelling the memory illusion that came back from the void.
Recently, memory flashbacks have become more and more frequent, and "past events" have surfaced 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 all waiting for his decision.
He stood up gently, pulled Ryan up as well, and took a deep breath.
"First of all, when no one is outside, move Quaid out of the sixth room—although it is very heavy, in the short term, no one can know that his death is related to us."
"Then, Cindy, you go and sneak word among the people--be sure to sneak it, and don't let anyone know that you spread it on purpose. Tell them that there are five spikes loose under the ditch on the left side of the fourth room. Remove them, cover the remaining two spikes with a stone slab or something, and you can escape from the abandoned house."
Cindy was surprised: "You, you found the secret path in the deep ditch?"
"Secret passage?" Ryan and Kelia also seemed to be taken aback.
Thales didn't say anything, just patted Cindy on the shoulder, "Go."
That was not a secret passage dug by a certain supernatural beggar senior.
The so-called secret way is that I use the reason that I go to the west gate twice a week to beg, so I can return at night. I took the dagger, vines, linen, and corrosive agent from the pharmacy, and secretly dug it out in four years. of.
It's like the "Shawshank Redemption" of Errol's world.
As for the legend, it is nothing but a fantasy.
There has never been a savior, has there?
Thales patted Cindy on the shoulder again. The latter nodded, and was about to turn around, but scratched his head, thought of something, and said in doubt:
"Why tell everyone? Can't we escape by ourselves? The more people there are, the slower we will escape."
No, Thales said from the bottom of his heart, the fraternity is not a vegetarian, every street, every road, and every corner in the third district of the downtown has their eyeliner, and the suburbs of Ximen are also full of their lackeys. For a beggar under the age of ten, even if he escaped from the abandoned house, it would be difficult to escape from the fraternity.
In Thales' original escape plan, it took another half a year. He can fully understand the law and rhythm of the brotherhood's eyeliner placement between the third district of the downtown area and Red Square Street, and then prepare supplies from the Sunset Bar and the Grove Pharmacy, then the possibility of their escape will increase. greatly increased.
As long as they can escape to Hongfang Street.
But now, now is not the best time at all.
But in order to survive, they have to escape—accidents always happen suddenly, don't they?
Therefore, he had to turn the private escape from the sixth house into a collective riot of beggars.
Only the sixth house is missing, that's too obvious, the brotherhood will find it soon. Secondly, the more people there are, the slower they escape, but the safer and less conspicuous they are.
However, if you want to tell these reasons one by one——
Thales looked up at Cindy, his piercing eyes made the latter a little uncomfortable.
"Xinti, do you still remember the agreement we made four years ago?"
Cindy froze for a moment, lowered her head, and thought for a while.
When he raised his head, his eyes had become firm.
"Of course." Cindy looked at Thales, at the boy who was a head shorter than himself, and said slowly, "You are responsible for thinking, and I am responsible for doing it."
Thales nodded solemnly.
"Let's escape together!"
——————————————————
Yara Sariton watched boredly as the last customer walked out of the Sunset Bar, then lazily got up and put away his glass.
There are not many drinkers today, especially the Brotherhood itself. Many of them have been transferred to participate in the "big operation". Even the cook Edmund went with a machete. It is said that he is going to pay back favors. debt.
The old guy hasn't come back for a long time.
boring.
Yala glanced at the clock on the wall, it was three thirty in the morning, a bit early.
However, that clock is also a bit slow.
That clock is very old, Yala thought to herself, even the back tank that holds the eternal oil is rusted, and the rust mixed into the eternal oil, greatly reducing the work efficiency.
I have to think of a way to make the old guy bleed and change the clock.
There's so much business at the Sunset Bar that there's no City Hall tax collector to collect the taxes ("For the king's sake, I'll give him two middle fingers!" - Yara) and no blind-eyed guy to ask for it Protection fees ("One hundred coppers per person, I can protect your fingers from being chopped off by me, how about it?" - Yala), and even the purchases are taken from the Black Street Brotherhood's own channels ("Nar Rick, you keep the books, tell these ground brothers, and my knife, what price should I give me when I buy it?" - Yala), some money , changing the clock in the bar is always okay, right?
That miserly old guy.
After closing the door and finishing the business at the bar, Yala put down her apron and dishcloth, tightened her short leather pants, turned off the permanent light at the front desk (the name was ironic), and walked into the back kitchen.
It's a little early today. According to the old rules, after finishing the exercise, there will be——
The next moment, Yala's face became indifferent and stern!
She lowered her body in an instant, her knees were bent to a position where she could exert force, and the famous wolf-leg knife on her leg came to her left hand in an instant.
The blade flew out like an electric shot!
"Boom!"
The wolf's leg knife was pierced fiercely on a wine barrel!
Only a small half of the blade was exposed, and the handle was still shaking.
"Ah!" This was the terrified scream of a little girl.
Yala straightened up slowly, stuck the other wolf leg knife in her right hand back into her boots, and then lit the permanent lamp beside her.
The light illuminated the dim back kitchen, and several small figures appeared.
"Yala—that—" Thales, the traverser who was frightened by the wolf-leg knife, grinned reluctantly, raised his slightly trembling right hand, and shook it unnaturally: "Hi— -it's me."
Yala looked at him coldly, without saying a word.
Her eyes were sharp and terrifying, and Kelia shrank her body towards Thales in fear.
Yala walked over suddenly.
Thales felt that the three beggars behind him took an unnatural step back.
"I know," Yala said coldly, "Otherwise, I wouldn't be aiming at wine barrels."
Yala walked up to him, pulled out the wolf's leg knife from the wine barrel two inches away from Thales' left ear, swung the knife in front of him as if in a demonstration, and then inserted it into the boot cover.
"Also, you brat—"
Thales rolled his eyes in his heart, and instinctively raised his hand quickly, trying to protect his forehead.
But a slender finger has already poked 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 visit the back kitchen—"
They are now in the cellar of the Sunset Bar, the three beggars except Thales, leaning on the big sack containing food, fidgeting, biting the white bread in their hands with difficulty but hard - they haven't eaten for a long time Such good food.
A little farther away from them, Thales sat on a wine barrel twice as tall as him, looking straight ahead at the lazy but sassy Yara Sariton with her arms folded and one leg leaning against the wall.
If it was the previous life, Thales would probably look at her carefully from head to toe with admiring eyes, then look up at the sky, and lament the beauty of this world while reminiscing.
ha? What will Thales do after you ask? Nonsense, of course, go home by yourself, what should you do.
As for now—sorry, this body is still young.
"Say it straight, why did you come to me." Yala still had that indifferent expression, straight to the point, and got straight to the point.
But Thales is used to it. Since he first met this "big sister" who was only in her early twenties in the garbage dump behind the Sunset Bar four years ago, the other party has always had such a tone and style.
He knew that she was such a person.
"Quaid went crazy. He killed almost half of the beggars in the abandoned house."
Thales said solemnly while clenching his fists silently.
damn it.
Ever since Yala saw these bruised beggars, she had faint doubts about what happened earlier today.
Yala's face remained calm, and she began to curse Rick in her heart. The accountant knows that you must have no good intentions when you pour chaca wine into Quaid.
Why did I agree to him just for those ten gold coins? Ten gold coins, ten gold coins!
Ten gold coins for this kind of thing that will definitely anger the Brotherhood—at least twenty gold coins should be charged to him!
and--
"No one came to stop him, and no one came to rescue 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 reappear.
——And, alas, half of the beggars.
Yala closed her eyes and sighed.
"I see, you can hide here for a day. Don't worry, UU reading www.ukansh. With me, the gorilla dare not come. If he comes, I will put him under the - ahem - his Chop off your hands."
Yala looked at the other three beggars and frowned. She could recognize the new injuries, especially the child whose right hand was wrapped in cloth.
"When Edmund comes back, I'll let him go find Rick and the people above. Quaid has done such a thing, he can't escape—this guy, why didn't he die sooner."
Yala lost her interest a little. She put down her legs leaning against the wall and stood up.
Thales' eyes dimmed. He looked at the three beggars, let out a deep breath, and then looked at Yala.
"The brotherhood will have a big mission today, so the defense and patrol will be lax. If you can escape, you must-oh, forget it, I'll get the medicine, and if I need a doctor-wait, kid, what's wrong with you ?"
Yala was talking to herself when she suddenly realized that something was wrong with Thales on the opposite side. His body was also full of scars, the clothes on his chest were torn to pieces, and the sleeve of his right hand was even spattered with blood.
No, the kid's eyes——
Yala suddenly walked up to Thales, dragged him off the wine barrel, then squatted down, held Thales' shoulders with both hands, and looked straight into his eyes.
Yala's eyes suddenly became serious and eager.
"Little devil—you, don't you?"
Thales was a little afraid to look into Yala's eyes, but in just a few seconds, he adjusted himself and raised his head resolutely.
Thales heard his voice sound calm and unshakable.
"Yara, Quaid was killed by me."