After the little beggar received the money, he hurriedly left the Pink Lady.
The cold wind and snow hit his face. He closed the door and silently walked out of the alley.
The baby girl in his arms had fallen asleep again. Touching her cheek, it seemed that the fever, which had disappeared due to the tavern's warmth, had returned in the freezing wind and snow. He lifted his head, confirmed his direction, and planned to head towards the clinic…
"Is it here?!"
Suddenly, an anxious voice came from the street. A group of soldiers rushed towards the front door of the Pink Lady. People screamed and dodged as the soldiers entered the tavern without hindrance and started to cause chaos.
The little beggar, who was about to step onto the street, shrank back into the dark. He noticed that the leaders were three of the ten people who had protected the little girl before. Another group of soldiers ran past him, heading straight into the alley of the Pink Lady. No one paid any extra attention to a little beggar with a baby by the alley.
Others didn't know what had happened, but the little beggar had a feeling. He lowered his head, quickly walked out of the alley, and faced wind and snow without hesitation to leave this place of trouble as fast as he could.
His choice proved correct because, five minutes later, the little girl came out from the main door of the Pink Lady, dressed as a maid with a cloak over her, her expression angry, protected by many soldiers. Another ten minutes after that, the middle-aged man (now half-naked) and the Fox were escorted out by the soldiers with swords at their backs, in a very embarrassing manner.
…
The snow continued to decorate the world, making a noise on the rooftops of the city.
The night had deepened, and the dim light from the street lamps on both sides of the road became even more blurred in the heavy snow.
"Crunch, crunch, crunch…"
Ragged shoes made noise as they sank into the snow, revealing toes with purple bruises from the cold. These young feet knew neither rest nor comfort. They simply continued their most primitive task in the snow, walking nonstop.
The little beggar held the baby girl in his arms. Her complexion was much better after he visited the clinic and paid for her injection, and her fever had subsided a lot.
Now, fatigue and the pain from the recent injection made the baby girl fall into a deep sleep.
On the little beggar's waist hung two small pouches. One held the remaining twenty-seven gold coins, and the other contained medicine bought from the government office.
He wrapped the blanket tightly around him, the chains on his wrist turned even colder by the wind and snow, and he walked quickly towards the home under the bridge.
"Hey, human boy. If you had taken the money from that middle-aged man three minutes later, you might now be caught by soldiers and being tortured."
Moving silently in the heavy snow, unnoticed, the one with a sword, whose blood-red eye had not spoken for a while, opened again. Its voice began to echo in the mind.
"Haha, I didn't disturb you because you were busy. Do you have time now? Could you talk to me about how you managed to do all of these?"
The little beggar kept his mouth shut, not slowing his steps.
"Hmph, first, I have to admit that your reaction was quick and your judgment was accurate. But there are a few questions I need you to answer."
The sword kept asking.
"One, why did you think that the fox had deceived you, and how did you know that the trader was not the old man over fifty as mentioned by the fox, but the middle-aged man?"
"Two, the fox's expression changed several times during your trade. What do you think about that?"
"Three, why did you take the unreasonable and dangerous action, kidnapping? there was another safer way you know, right?"
"Alright, answer me, human."
Strength escaped from the little beggar's mouth with each exhale and inhale. He was tired.
On such a snowy night, a ten-year-old child had endured too much, which was more than his peers could bear and was beyond what some adults could imagine - the extreme filth and sin he had gone through in the gutters, struggling to survive, now trekking forward with numb, exhausted, yet unstoppable feet moving towards his destination.
The demon waited patiently for the little beggar's response. Its blood-red pupil observed its current "host" with great interest, eager to determine his "worthiness" through his answers.
"…Because…"
The white breath poured out of the little beggar's mouth.
"He is human."
Without breaking his stride, the pace of the little beggar did not slow even with frostbite. He began to speak slowly—
"A person will lie. You can't guarantee that everything people say is true. When under threat, people tend to lie more easily for something."
"Heh, interesting. Especially for that fox who has been between gangs and the underworld for decades, it's impossible for a mere kid's threat to make him say everything. Heh, he has planned to make you kidnap the girl, waiting for you to fail and get caught, right? After all, it's unlikely for a kid to kidnap a girl all by himself. Hmm, go on, kid."
"…I watched him. He said he needed the girl for a trade. But in the tavern, he didn't seem anxious at all. He looked so relaxed"
"Heh, his confidence precisely proved his lie. If he truly was in a hurry to finish the deal, he couldn't have been so calm and casual. So what, kid?"
"So, the answer to the second question is clear. He had already kidnapped another girl before he said to me, wanting to get rid of me and believing I'd get caught. But his words weren't purely lies. The deal with the big man did exist."
Excitement sparkled in the blood-red eye, and its laughter echoed in the beggar's mind.
"Intriguing. So, from the start, you never believed his words. The answer to the second question is his surprise that you managed to bring the girl, which he hadn't expected."
The beggar stopped for a while and then explained with a weaker voice.
"…Yes. But, it's not just that. He probably didn't expect me can bring someone, so he guessed that maybe I'd found out where he was hiding the girls and was trying to extort money from him. His facial expression relaxed only after I didn't head towards where the girls were hidden."
"Ha-ha, kid. Tough for you, being in the front yet still able to see the fox's facial expression at the back?."
After a moment of silence, the little beggar slowly said.
"With the reflection from the lamp's glass, reflective metals, and the jewelry on the woman walking towards us, I saw it very clearly."
The devil sneered: "Well, let's answer the third question now. Since he obviously abducted girls, why did you take such a big risk to abduct girls? Just find where he hid the girl and then confess it, why not?"
The bridge was almost there, and he reached his home soon through an alley. The little beggar lowered his head and glanced at the little baby girl in his arms. After seeing that she was sleeping happily, he said weakly.
"Because I didn't know where to hide it."
"I couldn't go into many places in the Pink Lady. There were people guarding everywhere. So, I could only kidnap a girl to get money."
All questions had been answered. Judging from the blood pupil, it should have known these answers for a long time and was just waiting to see if the little beggar's retelling met its requirements. It turned out that it was very satisfied with its "host" this time.
"Well done. Your execution ability and thinking ability are superior to many of the people I have ever met. But boy, in your actions just now, you also committed two mistakes. Did you know what they were?"
The little beggar thought silently and nodded.
"Hey, the first mistake is that the girl you abducted was rescued before she was done and killed. Now she knows your face."
The little beggar nodded as he walked. He looked in the direction of the bridge hole with eagerness.
"The girl has remembered your face, and judging from the fact that she was able to call so many people to rescue her, she should have had a prominent status. Especially the guards, who were able to mobilize the crowd immediately after noticing that the lady was missing, and search for the Pink Lady in a very short period. You had offended that young lady, the consequences would be disastrous."
Walking out of the last alleyway, the bridge cave appeared in front of him. The little beggar's pace finally slowed down a little at that moment. He walked the last path in silence, regretting his lack of caution and mistakes.
"The second mistake, do you know what it is?"
The little beggar exhaled a white breath and replied.
"The second mistake is that I shouldn't have earned the fifty gold coins. I should have directly asked for fifteen gold coins and then left immediately to go to the guard team as quickly as possible to report the situation, and I could get a reward that was far more than fifty gold coins."
"That's right. You made both of these silly mistakes. These show that you didn't consider things carefully and comprehensively. You are still too young and naive, such a silly boy."
"…"
The little beggar stopped talking. He realized that he was still not calm enough to think of every detail in his decisions as the sword just said.
Of course, he was always very aware of his strength and wisdom; just a stinky sewer rat.
He was content and felt so lucky to have been able to survive to that day with such terrible intelligence.
The blizzard was blowing, and the little beggar couldn't wait to get to the bridge bottom and return home.
Home...