Half an hour later, in the alley of Xiacheng District.
The dirty kid was panting and hiding behind the trash can, hearing the shouting of killing getting farther and farther away.
"Phew! You scared me to death!"
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "How could these fools be so smart, they actually found out that the uncle changed the cards... Fortunately, I ran fast, fortunately I left early, otherwise I would have been in this bad place today. I deceived you a lot. One hundred dollars, is it worth it?”
He murmured in a low voice, took out a lot of silver coins from his pocket, counted them one by one, wiped off the sweat stains on them with his sleeves, and suddenly smiled broadly: "More than three hundred pounds, hahaha! I earned it back! My first money, What better way to spend it..."
"Why don't you stay and pay for your medical expenses?"
Someone next to him said conspiratorially. Whispering in his ear: "Or do you want me to pay for your life?"
"ah!!!"
The child was so frightened that he rolled on the ground. Only when he got up did he see the boy sitting on the trash can. Under the dim light, he recognized the face of the unlucky guy he had tricked, and he suddenly smiled:
"Oh, isn't this my eldest cousin?"
"Yes, little cousin."
Ye Qingxuan looked at him with a sneer, and threw the large bag of waste paper he gave him on the ground: "Little cousin, you run very fast, cousin, I can't even catch up... I'll give you back the things."
"It's easy to talk about."
The child laughed dryly and stepped back, then suddenly turned around and ran away.
"10, 9, 8..."
Ye Qingxuan watched him coldly as he ran out of the alley, motionless and counting down in a low voice. Until the count reached 3, the trembling child came back with a look of horror on his face.
At the entrance of the alley, a big dog stained black by mud grinned, revealing two rows of messy white teeth in the sun, with the tail of a dead rat still on its teeth - Fei sealed the door so no one could escape!
"Little cousin, why are you leaving in a hurry?"
Ye Qingxuan pulled out the rope from the suitcase and put his hand on the dead child's shoulder: "Let's have a good chat."
"Brother, it was my fault. Please be kind and let me go. Wuwuwuwu..."
Five minutes later, the tied up child was huddled in the corner of the alley, blinking his big watery eyes, almost about to cry, looking completely pitiful.
Ye Qingxuan just watched him cry quietly until he couldn't cry anymore.
"Have you cried enough?" Ye Qingxuan asked with a smile: "Are you hungry? I'll give you a bowl of noodles."
"..." The expression of the dead child became as if he had eaten a fly: "Hey! Do you have any sympathy?"
"It's not that I don't have sympathy, cousin, but what you did today is really unreasonable." He stretched out his hand and pinched the dead child's face: "Since you call me cousin, let my cousin teach me Let me teach you how to be a good person."
As he spoke, he pinched his knuckles and sneered amid the crackling sound.
"Hey! What do you want to do?"
The dead child was frightened, curled up backwards, raised his voice and shouted: "I'm warning you! I'm very powerful, believe it or not, I'll call someone over to teach you how to behave in a minute?"
"hehe."
Ye Qingxuan smiled: "Old Fei."
Then Lao Fei came over and grinned.
This big dog didn't know what he had eaten, and his mouth smelled bad. His tongue licked the bloody foam on his teeth, and he chewed half a mouse tail and shook it.
"Okay, okay, I admit defeat! I admit defeat!" The dead kid's face turned pale, and he tapped the silver coins on the ground with his chin: "No! The rules of the world are to share half of it when you meet."
Ye Qingxuan didn't take it, just looked at him.
The dead kid's expression turned even more ugly: "Hey, you're all a gangster on the road, don't be disrespectful, I've already given you face by opening 50-50! Forget it, opening 40-60! ... Still not enough? Do you want to open 30-70? "
"I'm sorry, I don't want anything stolen or cheated."
"Then what do you want?" The child's expression suddenly became angry: "I can't give it all to you!"
Ye Qingxuan sighed: "Apologise."
"ha?"
Ye Qingxuan looked at him coldly and repeated: "Apologise."
"No!" The child turned his head to the side.
"Apologise." Ye Qingxuan repeated.
"Don't think about it, uncle, I never knew..."
The dead kid was halfway through speaking, but couldn't continue under Ye Qingxuan's gaze.
Ye Qingxuan didn't say anything, just looked at him silently without saying a word.
I don't know why, but the dead child always feels guilty when being looked at by these eyes. After a long time, he turned his head bit by bit and lowered his head.
"...R-I'm sorry... Sorry."
He hummed vaguely.
Ye Qingxuan sighed and reached out to untie his rope. Looking at him huddled in the corner, I suddenly felt a little pitiful for him: "Forget it, I wanted to beat you up. Just admit it."
"What else do you want!" The dead kid glared at him: "Pervert."
"I know it's hard to be hungry, but it's not a big deal to cheat or steal."
Ye Qingxuan reached out and rubbed the child's hat, and said softly: "But once you get used to stealing, one day you will find that some things cannot be stolen or deceived. Don't do this again."
The child looked at him with complicated eyes and murmured something softly. Ye Qingxuan leaned over to listen, and heard the child take a deep breath, grab his ear, and scream loudly:
"—I want you to take care of it!!!"
There was a thunder on the ground, and just when Ye Qingxuan's mind went blank, the child suddenly jumped up from the ground and stepped on Ye Qingxuan's instep hatefully.
Then, he greased his feet and fled.
Ye Qingxuan subconsciously reached out and fished it out, only to find a fedora hat in his hand. But the man has already run away... Lao Fei looked on gloatingly, just sticking out his tongue and panting, without any intention of chasing after him.
But Ye Qingxuan was also stunned. He stared blankly at the entrance of the empty alley, recalling the back of the child when he ran away. Her hat was caught by herself, so the long silver-white hair hidden in the hat spilled like silver.
"Is it a girl?"
Ye Qingxuan looked down at the hat in his hand, sighed softly after a long time, and stuffed it into his pocket: "It's really unlucky that I finally met half of my fellow villagers, but ended up in a place like this."
…
…
Half an hour later, the original tavern was in a mess.
Two burly men stood guard at the front and back doors, holding their arms and looking coldly at anyone who dared to get close. On their waists, daggers inlaid with silver emblems were faintly revealed, causing pedestrians passing by to speed up and avoid them.
In the tavern, everyone was lying on the ground, or... was beaten until they were lying on the ground.
There was only an old man sitting silently on a chair, smoking a pipe.
The bartender who had been hiding behind the bar was now tied to a pillar, with blood on his face and a groan coming from his throat. In front of him, the man with an upper body still kept punching him in the face like a hammer.
His fists were already covered in blood.
"Okay, stop it, Marvin."
The old man smoking a pipe waved his hand and looked at the dying bartender: "Jason, you are a tough guy, I know, a good man... The amount you give to the shaman every month is never less, so I don't seem to be right. Everyone else will break your neck. But you have to tell the truth, where is that kid who gambled with you?"
"He, he ran away. I swear, I don't know him." The bartender opened his mouth with difficulty, his teeth leaking.
"I know you don't know him."
The old man smoking the pipe sighed: "Tell me something I haven't heard, otherwise I can't explain it."
"I really don't know. He was seen running away with a kid... and then he was never found."
"child?"
"Avalon is full of dead children!" The pipe-smoking man frowned: "Do you want me to drag them out of the stinking ditch one by one and question them?"
"Someone saw it. He is an Oriental! He also brought a dog!"
The bartender begged: "Mr. Ghost Hands, I really only know this much. Mr. Shaman's name is here. I don't dare to lie. I just ask you to let me go..."
"Another oriental child? What day is it today? It's really worrying."
The man smoking the pipe sighed and waved his hand, signaling Marvin to go away. He stood up and patted his shoulder: "Thank you for your honesty, friend. Mr. Shaman will repay you for the things in the bar today."
He kicked away the broken table that was in the way and turned to look in the corner: "As you can see, Mr. Chang, our people are not with the child you are looking for."
In the corner, out of the shadow where the light could not be found, a thin and stooped shadow came out.
This is an oriental old man, wearing a robe that looks cumbersome and luxurious, but his hair is the gray of ordinary people after aging. His eyes were sharp, but when he stood in the corner, he had no presence at all, like air.
Mr. Chang had his hands in his sleeves, his face covered with age spots expressionless:
"The shaman promised us that he would be found."
"Yes, yes, the shaman said that if we find him, we will definitely find him. We will return the white-haired child to you without losing a hair. Maybe we will buy one and get one free and give you another one. White-haired kid. But you have to give us some time."
"I will."
The old man surnamed Chang said calmly, took a step back and disappeared into the darkness.
Guishou watched him disappear and sighed after a long time: "Damn, it's really troublesome. Someone, let me know. Let the people below work harder and search carefully."
Outside the door, a subordinate walked in quickly and whispered: "Mr. Ghost Hands, Mr. Shaman has something for you again."
"What words?"
"It's better to find someone, another group of people's entrustment. We can't refuse."
"What a piece of shit." Ghost Hand scratched his white hair in distress: "Damn, we are a gang, we are not a nursery... Who are they this time?"
"A child from the East with a dog."
“…”
At that moment, Guishou suppressed the urge to spit out a mouthful of old blood, held his forehead and sighed:
"Let me guess, will someone come and ask us to find a dog again?"
…
…
After spending a long afternoon, Ye Qingxuan finally found Shangcheng District following the complicated spider web-like road.
It was already dusk when the long bells came from the distant church.
In the crowded square, Ye Qingxuan sat tiredly on a bench next to the fountain, looking at the tall buildings not far away with a satisfied expression.
"Royal Academy of Music, I finally found you."
He laughed.