Lumian looked over and saw that it was Franca, who was wearing a women's shirt, who was banging on the glass.
He opened the window and asked with a smile:
"Why don't you go through the front door?"
"Don't you often climb windows?" Franca jumped into the room easily, followed by Janna.
Janna observed for a moment, then pointed at Lumian's left palm and said:
"You are hurt?"
Why is it bandaged
Lumian laughed.
"I went to the fourth level of the catacombs and encountered a monster that looked like an evil spirit. I fought a big battle with it and got slightly injured."
"Is this true? The fourth level of the catacombs..." Franca looked at Lumian's left palm and said in confusion.
"If you believe it, it's true. If you don't, it's false." Lumian smiled.
Franca understood and didn't ask any more questions.
"I think some are true and some are false..." Janna muttered softly.
Lumian ignored her and asked:
"Did you guys encounter any problems too?"
"Yes." Franka recounted their experiences in detail, took out the brass key, and said eagerly, "Do you want to divine which door it can open? Anyone who can offer a reward of 50,000 Fel Gold must have a lot of wealth!"
Lumian sneered:
“You really love to experiment.
"Such an evil matter should of course be handed over to the Purifier for investigation. Moreover, this also involves the issue of some monks of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery sliding into the abyss. You don't want to explore the secret cave in the Deep Valley Quarry by yourself, do you?"
"To be honest, I'm a little tempted." Franka smiled awkwardly, "Extending life through machinery and giving life to machinery are both areas that I'm very interested in. Of course, my reason prevents me from exploring."
Janna didn't say anything. It was obvious that she had discussed this issue with Franca on the way.
After venting her delusions, Franka agreed with Jenna to find an opportunity to hand over the key to the "Purifiers" and report her experience.
She then looked at Janna:
"I'm planning on going to Fountain Street, what about you?"
Janna had already thought about it, and said to Lumian:
"Didn't you ask me to find out where the factory owner lives? I've already followed him and got a lot of information. Now we can go find the families waiting for compensation and guide them to go and ask for it together."
"It's not me who asked you to do that. It's you who wanted to do that." Lumian responded with a smile.
Franka said "hmm", but finally went to Fountain Street according to the plan she had already said.
… …
The Botanical Gardens, where rue Pasteur and rue Yvelines meet.
Each building carries many components that do not originally belong to it, just like a child's randomly assembled building blocks, giving people a sense of wild and crumbling woodland.
Janna pointed at a woman squatting on the street washing clothes and said:
"Mrs. Morgana, her husband also died in that accident a few years ago."
Mrs. Morgana was wearing a gray, worn, patched dress. There were obvious wrinkles on her face, and she looked over fifty years old.
“You take care of this.” After Lumian set fire to the “Bottle of Fiction”, the potion was digested a little more and he was no longer in a hurry.
Jenna looked silently at Mrs. Morgana, who had a thin face and high cheekbones, and said after a few seconds:
"I actually don't like her very much."
“Why?” Lumian asked curiously.
Janna exhaled and said:
"She is very vicious, the kind of person who wishes bad luck to her neighbors, and she will do some very hateful things, even if it will not bring her any benefits.
"You know, my mother is a theater actress. She learned some writing skills and once found a job as a middle-class tutor. It was respectable and well paid. But when Mrs. Morgana found out, she followed my mother and found that family. She told their servants that my mother was a part-time streetwalker and a loose person who seduced male employers. Not long after, my mother was fired and could only work as a cleaner, dishwasher, and chemical factory worker.
"Mrs. Morgana herself didn't know the words and didn't get the job, but she was still very happy."
"Jealousy, one of the original sins of mankind." Lumian nodded gently, "Why don't you take revenge on her?"
"It's been a long time." Janna laughed softly, "Besides, living in a place like this, similar things always happen. When my father died, my brother was already a grown man and in good health. Otherwise, my family would be even worse off. If you were a widow with a daughter and moved here, someone would come to your door and scold you the next day, saying that her husband looked at you a few more times, and the neighbors would pretend to be kind and introduce you to their male relatives.
“If you don’t agree, her relative will sit outside your door and drink, one day, two days, every day. The police won’t take care of such things, and you can’t find anyone else to help. When the day comes that he gets really drunk and becomes bold, I don’t need to tell you what will happen, right
“Sometimes, the police would arrest him, but if they arrested one, there would be a second one, a third one, or even his relatives would get angry and smash your windows every night, pile feces at your door, and find older children to beat your daughter.
“This is not the worst, the worst is being targeted by gangs.
"To survive in a place like this, you either need to have several adult men in your family, or you need to be tough and show that you will not let them off even if you die. Fortunately, after the lease ended, my mother immediately moved to the other end of the street, and the surrounding environment became much better."
Jenna described it in great detail, as if she had seen it many times with her own eyes.
Lumian had lived a worse life than Janna, but he had never experienced anything like this. The conflicts and contradictions between wanderers were more naked. They would either be beaten into submission, or beat others into submission, or wander around the edge like wild dogs, waiting to pick up some leftovers from others. When he arrived at Cordu Village, with the protection of his sister, a Beyonder, he could play pranks without any worries, while other people in the village were mainly bullied by the parish priest's family.
He looked at Janna who was lost in the past and asked thoughtfully:
"Didn't you say that everyone around you is trying hard to live?"
"Fuck, this doesn't contradict their badness." Jana cursed, pointing her chin at the woman washing clothes not far away. "Like Mrs. Morgana, she has to work three part-time jobs a day just to give her son a chance to move out of this place. Haha, you may not believe it, but she who deliberately slanders my mother will occasionally give me a piece of bread when I'm hungry and waiting for my mother to come home."
Lumian then looked at Mrs. Morgana:
"Such people are easy to teach."
"Yes." Janna nodded slightly and walked over.
She changed her previous attitude and shouted at the woman who was washing clothes:
“Mrs. Morgana, do you know that? That damn Alphonse betrayed us!
“That piece of shit always says wait and wait, saying that since the court has already ruled, old Edmund will definitely pay, but the sow is planning to run away and doesn’t want to give us even a cope!
"That boar Alphonse must have secretly gotten his share, that's why he said that!"
Mrs. Morgana stood up quickly, with water dripping from her rough fingers.
She asked with a distorted expression:
"Really? I'm going to fight that boar!"
Janna also looked angry:
“There’s no way to control him now, old Edmund is going to run away!
"Let's stop him right away. I know where his family lives!"
Lumian was five or six meters away, listening to Janna instructing the people who needed compensation who lived nearby. He looked around casually and found that this place was similar to a chaotic street, with vendors, children, women and a small number of men mixed together, blocking most of the road. Occasionally, ordinary carriages passed by here, and after observing for a few seconds, they would often choose to take a detour when they arrived at the intersection.
Among them, there is a relatively special middle-aged man who can be spotted at a glance.
He was wearing a not-too-old linen shirt and dark trousers. His face was clean-shaven and his hair was neatly combed, which made him completely different from the street vendors and residents around him.
At this time, the man was talking to several women holding long baguettes of rye bread.
He took out a stack of bills that were neither too thick nor too thin, and counted them one by one:
"195, 200... Do you think there are 200 Felkins
"If you don't believe me, you can count them yourself."
—The smallest denomination of banknotes is 5 filgin.
The women had never received so much cash before, and they counted it nervously and confirmed that it was 200 Filkins.
The man took back the bills and counted them again.
"195, 200, 205... You see, as long as you recite the name of God sincerely, there will be one more bill each time you count it!"
The magic trick was good... Is this a liar? Whenever Lumian saw a liar, he would think of Monet and the "Different" dance hall, and his anger and resentment soared.
The women counted again and found that there were indeed 41 bills, one more than before, 5 more filgins!
Seeing this, the middle-aged man said solemnly:
“My Lord is the ruler of all diseases. If you believe in Him, you will never get sick again. Even if you do get sick, you will recover quickly.
"Being sick is a punishment from the god of sickness. As long as you have faith in the god of sickness and offer him devoutly, he will leave..."
Hearing this, Lumian narrowed his eyes and walked over.
He pulled out his revolver, turned the gun around, and smashed it hard into the middle-aged man's head.
boom!
The middle-aged man instinctively squatted down, covered his head, and couldn't even scream.
Bright red blood began to flow out from between his fingers.
Amid the confused and terrified gazes of the people around him, Lumian squatted down, shook the barrel of his gun, and said to the middle-aged man with a smile:
"Come, let me see how the God of Disease can heal you."
The middle-aged man shouted in shock, fear and anger:
"The sick god, hiss, the sick god will punish you!"
Lumian picked up the banknote he dropped on the ground and handed it to him.
"If you can't give me an extra 100,000 Felkins today, you can't leave."