Chapter 678: twenty-four (below)

   Chapter 678 Twenty-four (Part 2)
   "Scare away outsiders and keep away from danger?"
  Beside the cistern, Slimani cautiously interjected: "The Emerald City is safe, and you don't look like people who can cause trouble or have property, uh, sorry, I mean, where is the danger?"
  The abandoned cistern is quiet.
   Woniak snorted.
   "Dangerous? Too much."
   Uncle Hauser sighed: "Everything, everything from normal people, is dangerous to us."
   Srimani was confused.
   "Gaze," Ciel said suddenly, attracting the attention of many people, "normal people's eyes, words, and everything they can do because of their 'normal' physique, are all harmful to us."
"More than that, their pity, sympathy, contempt, scolding, rejection, isolation, are too many," Uncle Hauser stopped his work and said with emotion, "And we, we are on the ground, in their eyes, only Could be half a person."
   He compared his height and made a sarcastic expression.
   "Ha, it's much better here than up here," Woniak folded his arms, the big tumor on his shoulder twitched, "It is said that some people have dug the underground limestone veins and made a fortune..."
  Slimani raised his eyebrows: "Then why are you still here?"
   "We...someone has to give up their glory and wealth and stay and take care of everyone." Woniak's voice dropped.
   Everyone laughed.
   "So, twenty-four, have you found your parents?" Dorothy asked.
   Thales frowned.
   Looking for parents?
   Xilai was startled, and after a few seconds, her expression sank.
   "No, I'm still looking for them."
   "I advise you to give up as soon as possible," Woniak snorted disdainfully, "they can abandon us at birth, which explains a lot."
   "I..." Hillary hesitated.
   "Woo woo, woo woo." Bobo made a comment that no one could understand.
   "It doesn't matter, people like us," Hauser continued to dismantle the old goods without caring. "Sometimes, it's a good thing to not find it."
  Aunt Gadama stabbed Hauser in the elbow and glared at everyone.
   Seeing this, everyone by the cistern quickly dispersed like no one else, doing their own work, even Slimani was shivering and Boboti slipped away.
   "About this place, the ghoul tunnel, the people here, and the 'parents'," Thales whispered to Hillary, "You don't have anything to say to me?"
  Sheila turned around and smiled mysteriously:
   "You just need to know that this is where Jenn can't find it, and that's enough."
   Thales raised his eyebrows:
   "Okay, what's next? Waiting here?"
   "Of course not, we're here to ask for help."
   "Who helped?"
   Before he finished speaking, there was quite a commotion in the tunnel.
   Thales turned his head to look, and under the firelight, a chubby man in a dark robe carrying a large bag appeared at the corner of the tunnel.
   The clothes on his body were simply decorated, but made of luxurious materials, which seemed out of tune with the surroundings.
   In an instant, not only the cistern, but in the tunnel, almost everyone in the settlement stood up.
"grown ups!"
"thanks!"
   "Sunset bless you..."
   Here, Aunt Gadama and Dorothy also stood up and urged Woniak:
   "The lord is here, hurry up, go and take out our gifts..."
  The man with the bag walked through the settlements, stopping at each place to distribute something, and people responded enthusiastically:
   "This is for you, please take it!"
"this way please!"
   "Eat with us!"
   Thales frowned when he saw the man's figure.
   That person...a little familiar?
"Who is that?"
   "Ah, no," Shiley replied, "here's the man we're looking for."
   After a short while, the squat man in the robe came to the cistern, took Dorothy and Aunt Gadama's gift-a packet of tobacco with a smile, and went straight to Hauser's workbench.
   "Come on, Hauser, take this week's share."
   Uncle Hauser took the bag handed by the man:
   "Yo, you make a lot of money?"
   "The world has been unstable recently, and everyone wants to seek God's blessing, especially the rich." The man muttered.
   "By the way, your magic props are very useful, very realistic, uh, maybe too realistic. When praying, a lady believed that she heard the voice of the dead daughter and was chasing after me for money."
  Hauser's hands are stagnant:
   "Then what did you say?"
   The chunky man sighed, he skillfully sat down by Hauser's workbench, and fished out a hookah from under the table:
   "I told her, yes, that was her dead daughter, and she was at rest, no more pain."
   Looking at the other party's appearance of fetching the hookah, Thales just moved his mind and remembered the other party's identity.
   "Chadwi priest?"
   Thales blurted out.
"Yes."
  The man in the robe didn't have time to light the cigarette. He turned around and looked at Thales, who was dressed in shabby clothes: "Well, I don't seem to have seen you before?"
   Thales blinked, not knowing how to answer.
   That's right, the man in front of him is the priest who secretly smoked in the confession room of the Sunset Shrine - Chadvi.
   Sheila coughed beside him.
   Priest Chadvi looked at Shi Lai, and after a while, he was shocked:
"you--"
   "Yes, I am twenty-four!"
  Xile interrupted him loudly and kept winking: "Yes, I haven't been back for a long time, remember?"
   Chadway froze in place.
   "Xi-Twenty-Four, you, why are you here?"
   "Yeah, I'm here," Sheila frowned, showing her twelve fingers, "It's here, just like many years ago, remember?"
   Chadwei smiled and had a headache.
   "Oh, yes, this is," Sheila pulled Thales with a smile, "Well, my... friend."
   "Boyfriend." Aunt Gadama said quietly from behind, not unexpectedly receiving a fierce eye knife from Xilai.
Boy friend?
  Her boyfriend?
   Chadway looked puzzled, but then he remembered something.
  The priest looked at Thales carefully for a few seconds, and suddenly his face changed greatly!
   "Hall—"
"right!"
   Seeing that the situation was not good, Thales spoke quickly:
   "I'm Wyah! Twenty-four man- um, friend!"
   Woniak grunted unhappily.
   Priest Chadvi felt dizzy for a while, he took several deep breaths, and then calmed down, looking at Shi Lai pitifully:
   "Okay, I understand the truth, but why..."
   Before Chadvey could finish speaking, Shiley pulled him away and muttered in the corner.
   Well, it turns out that Chadwei follows this tunnel full of disabled people...
   Thales watched from a distance Chadwei and Shiley were arguing in a low voice, but the former was clearly at a disadvantage, while the latter was righteous and had the upper hand, pointing in the direction of Thales and Slimani from time to time.
   And Thales swore that he could vaguely hear him without the senses of hell. Shilett mentioned "You and Mrs. Pingtor" at least twice. Every time he mentioned it, Chadvey's expression became ugly, and he seemed guilty.
   "Wiya, will you stay?" A sweet voice sounded in his ears.
   Thales was stunned for a second, and then he reacted: "Wyah" was calling himself.
   He turned his head hastily and answered Dorothy, "Uh, yes?"
   But Dorothy sighed.
"Okay, I'm thinking too much," the girl shook her head, her face was completely covered by clumps of hair, "you, including twenty-four, are all different. How could you be willing to stay, with Where are we together?"
   Thales was at a loss for words.
   Facing this girl who looked gentle but had a special face, he didn't know how to reply for a while.
   "You must love her a lot, right?"
   Thales has another headache;
"what?"
   "That's why she loves you so much," Dorothy sighed, "even willing to bring you down here."
   "No, you misunderstood," Thales said with a huge head, "I'm not with her..."
   But Dorothy ignored his excuse.
   "You know, in the past, we also had people who brought our lovers to the pits and showed them the worst side of ourselves, the worst friend."
   Dorothy's eyes were crystal clear, sticking out from between the hairs, staring straight at Thales;
   "But most people, basically after seeing everyone in the tunnel, never come back."
   Thales was stunned.
  Dorothy probed carefully, realized something, and then carefully lowered her head, not to face him:
   "So, Wyya, you, will you come back? Come back to see us?"
   Thales was silent.
   He looked at this damp, dark tunnel with a stench of stench, and looked at the handicapped or incapacitated people in each settlement.
   He looked at the distance again, Shirai, who was still talking to Priest Chadvi.
   His heart suddenly calmed down.
   "Yes," Thales' voice sounded, calm and gentle, "I'll be back, Dorothy."
   He looked at Dorothy and smiled:
  
This place is amazing.

   Dorothy looked back at him, and after a few seconds she shrank back into her seat, smiling needlessly.
   "Liar, nothing great here, especially for the people above - I know."
   But Thales shook his head.
   "No, it's great here, it's really great," Thales said with emotion as he watched Shi Lai swing his bare hands freely, "Especially for Xi-for Twenty-Four."
   Dorothy was silent for a long time, then sighed;
   "The book is right - you really love her."
   on the book?
   Thales was stunned for a moment, but Dorothy had covered a romance novel in her hand and turned away.
   But not long after Dorothy left, Woniak, who had a tumor and a peculiar body, sat down beside Thales.
   "Tell me, what's wrong with you?"
   Thales was startled again: "Huh?"
   "You must have something incomplete, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see twenty-four, right?" Woniak said to Thales dully.
Ah?
   Thales twitched the corners of his mouth and could only smile helplessly:
   "Okay, she said it, I'm mentally retarded."
"Shit," Voniak glanced in the direction of Aunt Gadama with a guilty conscience, and lowered his voice, "Twenty-four, even among us, she is the best, she won't like one... ."
   Thales covered his forehead and sighed:
   "I repeat, she really didn't like me."
   "She asked you to touch her hand."
"what?"
  Woniak's expression darkened:
   "When you were in the sewer just now, you held her hand."
   Thales was taken aback;
   "What? Oh, it was an emergency just now—"
"Twenty-Four never let anyone touch her hand, no one," Voniak sullenly poked the tumor on his shoulder, "from day one, from priest Chadvi for the first time. She was like that when she brought her here."
   Thales was speechless.
   "So, you must be flawed somewhere, right?"
There was hope in    Woniak's words, as if this fact would help him feel at ease: "I had to find twenty-four, for...people like us."
   Thales looked at him and said nothing for a long time.
"What's up?"
   "You know, Woniak," the teenager sighed, "No one in this world is complete."
  Woniak was taken aback.
   "It's just that some people's flaws are visible, while others are invisible."
   Thales' trance:
   "For me, the invisible flaws are the scarier ones."
  Woniak scratched his head, as if he didn't quite understand, and seemed to be touched.
   But he finally took a deep breath and contorted his tumor-covered face.
   "You know, Wyya, after you go out, if you dare to treat her badly," Woniak clenched his fists and said bitterly, "I will, I will..."
   Woniak's words reached his lips, only to find himself speechless.
   Thales could only smile politely.
   "I'll go to your door every day to mourn!" Woniak finally thought of the answer and said viciously.
Ah?
   Thales looked at him puzzled.
"You know, people, people like me, if people like me show up in your house every day," Warniak stammered, "then people will, they will hate... In short, over time, they will not want to go to your house. , you will suffer, bad luck."
   Thales looked at the sickly Woniak and was startled for a moment:
"how do you know?"
   "I just know." Woniak pouted.
   At that moment, Thales was silent.
   "But, stay at least for the last few days, it's dangerous on the ground."
   Thales frowned:
"what?"
   "Haven't you heard? The Blood Bottle Gang and the Brotherhood are at war, and people die every day."
"Oh."
  Woniak was dissatisfied with his attitude:
   "I mean it! We even found bodies floating down the river with their necks chopped to pieces! We, you, you and Twenty-Four should stay here until the danger passes."
   Thales frowned.
at this time.
boom!
  Boom! Bang bang bang!
   A violent knock sounded on the door, echoing in the ghoul tunnel, extremely harsh.
   For a while, everyone in the tunnel stopped what they were doing and looked in one direction.
   "What's going on?" Thales wondered.
boom! boom! boom!
   The knocking on the door was getting more and more urgent, and the knocker was obviously quite impatient.
  Woniak stood up crookedly and pointed to a dark hole, which was the direction the voice came from.
   "It doesn't matter, there is more than one exit in the tunnel, but only you know about it." The young man with a tumor shook his head and limped toward the entrance of the cave, "That's one of them, I'll open the door."
   bang bang bang bang!
   Thales frowned, instinctively aware that something was wrong.
   The rhythm of the knocking on the door is... too hasty.
   is too cruel.
   It was like, like a wild beast, slamming on the door madly.
   bang bang bang bang bang!
  The sin of Hell River burns up, bringing Thales into the senses of hell.
  Woniak made his way with difficulty, he turned sideways, squeezed into the hole, and disappeared on the steps.
   At this moment, Thales felt something.
   His face changed greatly, and he stood up abruptly:
   "Wait, don't open the door!"
   But it was too late.
   pat.
The    machine sounded, and the sound of the door opening came from the entrance of the cave.
   "Huh? Who are you? Why are you holding a knife—ah, let me go, no, no, no ah ah ah ah!"
At the entrance of the    hole, Woniak's voice was puzzled at first, and then became terrified.
   Until the end, he issued a cry of pain and despair, followed by the sound of a human body falling to the ground.
   Hearing this voice, the people in the tunnel - Shirai, Chadvi, Hauser, Srimani, and everyone else - were stunned.
   tread, tread, tread...
   At the entrance of the cave, footsteps sounded, echoing in the tunnel.
   is getting closer and closer to them.
Hold!
   Thales' nerves tightened, he got up, pulled out the JC dagger on his body, and faced the dark hole.
Do not! Damn, damn, damn!
   Thales thought bitterly.
   He should have recognized it sooner!
   That's right, at the moment Woniak opened the door, he confirmed it.
   What's wrong is the taste.
  The smell that first oozes from the crack of the door, and then comes violently after the door is opened...
   is the smell of blood.
  Incomparably pungent smell.
   And in the senses of hell, what cannot be ignored-heavy murderous intent.
   Thales took a deep breath and waited.
   The footsteps were getting heavier and closer.
   As the smell it brings.
"I just killed five, no, six people before I found this ghostly place, just to find one person, one person. To be honest, my patience is almost exhausted." A grim voice.
   tread, tread, tread...
   "Now, you better get to know each other."
   Finally, amid the pungent smell of blood, the owner of the footsteps walked out of the cave, revealing his true face under the firelight of the tunnel.
   "Don't force me to kill more."
   At that moment, Thales took a deep breath and widened his eyes in shock.
   (end of this chapter)