Chapter 685: Evil Whispering (Part 1)

   Chapter 685 Evil Whispering (Part 1)
After lunch (to be exact, a thin and bitter porridge), under the leadership of Chad Peace Hauser, a group of them were settled on the top or farthest floor of the tunnel, from the nearest ground exit. Not far, but far from the rest of the local "dwellers" - whom Glover's violent intrusion has made unwelcome.
   After the operation, Kathleen lay on the bedding and fell asleep. Chadvey stood beside her and prayed in a low voice. Rolfe was still leaning in the corner, looking at this scene with a complicated expression. Dorothy set up the stove and cooking pot, while Aunt Gadama put her hands on her hips and pointed at Woniak and Popo as they laid out the rest of the bedding. And Glover rummaged through a pile of junk or trash, trying to find a weapon.
   "That's all you pry out of her mouth?"
   By the fire, Shi Lai and Thales talked in low voices, the former asked the boy angrily:
   "A silly nickname - Lausanne II?"
   Thales looked embarrassed.
   She fainted after the operation, what can he do?
   "More than that," the young man tried his best to save face, "at least we...then what do you want to know?"
"Too much!"
  Xile spread out his palms and tapped his fingers again and again:
"When was the last time she saw someone with Iris? What was the order she received? What did she do? What was suspicious about it? What happened to the Blood Bottle Gang? How did the Secret Service attack them? What did Jenn plan to do?…

   Thales was scolded by her like a fight, but at this moment, Slimani's voice sounded from the opposite side:
   "Hey, Master of Magic! Brother Wyah and Miss Wyana, have you made up your mind? Where are we going next?"
   Thales and Shireqi turned their heads together, their expressions unhappy.
  I saw Slimani crouching on the damp ground, bewildered and embarrassed by a roll of hay.
   "We'll leave when it gets dark, don't worry, it's safe here..."
   "Stop playing me!" Srimani raised his voice.
   Apparently, the day's encounter made him nervous.
"The person who just came down is the 'good neighbor' of the citizens of Emerald City, the 'phantom blade' Kathleen of the Blood Bottle Gang," Srimani stared at Kathleen on the ground, "I recognize it, I remember! When I was in the police station, her little brothers often came in for 'tea'."
   Thales and Hillary looked at each other.
"what?"
   Uncle Hauser, who was dealing with the work at hand, heard the words and turned his head, staring at Slimani's apparently pampered hands and figure:
   "You used to be a green skin?"
   "That's right, yes," the defender was a little embarrassed at first, subconsciously holding his stomach and chest up, but then he figured out something and smiled bitterly, "I know, it doesn't look like it, I rarely go to the street?"
   "On the contrary," Hauser snorted softly and turned around, unable to hide the disdain in his words, "It's just too tm-like."
  Hauser's attitude made Slimani a little embarrassed. He leaned over to the fireplace and glared at Thales:
   "Please, a gang leader fled here, and her two gangsters... You have to tell me, what happened?"
   Thales looked at Hillary, who shrugged and motioned for you to go first.
Ok.
  The teenager could only sigh:
   "Let's put it this way, Kathleen's current situation is very similar to yours, the difference is that you are more fortunate to have met us."
   "Like me? But I was..."
  Slimani looked puzzled, and was immediately surprised: "Even the boss of the Blood Bottle Gang... oh no, Duke him, Lord Jenn, is he crazy?"
   "Maybe it's just in a hurry," Thales pondered, "Life is hanging by a thread, so of course you have to rush to death."
   Srimani thought the worse, panicked:
   "No no no, Emerald City is dying, Kongming Palace is killing people everywhere, even the Blood Bottle Gang... The Emerald City is going to be in chaos, right?"
  Xiley regained his senses, his eyes were cold.
   "So, cooperate early, tell us everything you know, and maybe we can turn the tide."
   "Turn the tide? Stop joking, it's up to you?"
   Srimani was emotionally unstable and became more and more desperate.
  Xile raised his eyebrows: "It's not us, but our master, you know, he has a noble status and superb means..."
Thales on the side    sighed helplessly.
"Come on, your master is the source of the chaos," Srimani apparently exhausted his patience, speaking faster and faster, "From that wine merchant, to the wool merchant, and now, everything comes from him. Start! If he hadn't come to Emerald City, none of this would have happened! Neither would I, would not..."
   Srimani buried his head in his hands, very frustrated.
   Thales raised his eyebrows:
   "Are you sure?"
"certainly!"
  Slimani looked up and said:
   "I've been in the Emerald City for so many years, from the Duke of Leinster to the Duke of Jenn, it's never been this bad!"
   Slimani sniffed, raised his head and looked around.
   "God knows how I came to such a ghost place! The stinking ditch is full of mice and cockroaches, cold, wet, dirty and dark..."
  Clang!
   The sharp metal crash sounded suddenly, making Slimani tremble!
   "Don't forget, this ghost place and the stinky gutter saved your life."
   Gadama walked behind them, carrying a pot behind him and holding a spoon in his hand, with a very ironic expression:
   "Of course, most of the people here are not as valuable as you are, 'sir'!"
   "When, of course," Slimani woke up to his current situation and changed his expression hastily, "Oh, I mean, thank you! You are all good people!"
   "Good guy? Don't be so sure," Gadama looked at him disdainfully, with a grim smile, "You don't know about 'water ghouls'."
   Auntie's expression and tone are quite scary, coupled with the dim atmosphere, Slimani swallowed:
   "Wait, this place was run by the Chadwe priest, right? For charity?"
   Uncle Hauser, who turned his back to them, sneered.
  Slimani hesitated: "He adopted these, these..."
   "Do you want to say monsters? Or deformed ones?" Woniak snorted coldly, who had just finished his work and sat down opposite.
   "Sorry," Slimani's expression changed, and he quickly lowered his head: "No, I don't think so."
"real?"
  Xilei sneered, shaking her gloved hand intentionally or unintentionally:
   "Then look around: dwarfs, idiots, burps, seal people, lobster hands, hairy people, brainless people, two-headed people, and of course, multi-fingered people..."
   "Wyana!"
   Thales pressed her hand and shook his head.
   Sheila looked back at him silently.
   After a few seconds, she withdrew her hand.
   Woniak, who was opposite them, hummed uncomfortably.
   "No, Chadway didn't adopt them - you see how old we are, do you?"
   Uncle Hauser turned back and chuckled:
   "He's just helping out at best."
  Slimani frowned: "Then here..."
   "It was a long time ago."
  Hauser sighed:
"A certain Duke of South Bank, God knows which one, he wanted to rebuild the sewers in the same way as the capital, but he gave up halfway. After a long time, people lived in the tunnels that were half-built, or in short, deformed monsters. We..."
   Thales turned his head and looked at the tunnel: the residents all had mutilated figures, and many of them were very sensitive to their eyes. Seeing Thales, most of them hurriedly lowered their heads and turned around, or indented into the deeper darkness.
   Thales suddenly thought of the abandoned house many years later, and of Mertesa, who was living in it boringly and had no expectation of returning to the Brotherhood.
Uncle   Hauser sat down by the fire, his little hands draped in a blanket rather comically.
"Over the years, the more prosperous and prosperous the Emerald City has become, the more people in this tunnel will increase - from lepers to deformed and abandoned babies, from disabled to lunatic, from work-related paralysis to incurable diseases, this tunnel has become a complete Countless 'people' who are not normal, unwanted, and not welcomed by the world on the ground will be thrown here, or forced to be here, forgotten by people, and will fend for themselves..."
   Woniak snorted angrily, and the giant tumor on his neck became more and more dazzling.
   Srimani looked at the dark tunnel, his smile gradually disappeared.
   "So that people on the ground are invisible, for the sake of the civilization of the Emerald City?" Thales wondered.
   "Not more," Shi Lai chuckled and rubbed her hands together:
   "To expel 'abnormal' from 'normal'."
   Thales frowned slightly.
   Srimani was silent for a while.
   "Then the people here, how do they live?"
   "Do anything."
   Uncle Hauser pointed to a pile of used goods behind him:
"I do some refurbishment work, Gadama does fortune-telling, sells deceptive elixir, and Dorothy goes to the heaps thrown down there, as for people like Woniak and Popo , just go to the circus to perform burlesque, jump through the hoops, or go to the freak show for a day and come back at night, of course, more people, lepers and stuff like that... well, the days go by."
  Slimani smiled reluctantly: "Oh, then... at least you are self-reliant, you are very... self-reliant?"
"Don't make a mistake, this place was far from being as 'normal' as it is now," Hauser stared at the dark and endless tunnel in the firelight, "A long time ago, those 'people' who were forced here, they were twisted Not just the body."
"What's the meaning?"
   Madam Gadama sat down beside Hauser and tucked him a blanket:
"Have you ever seen a seven-year-old kill another sixty-year-old just for a meal of rat meat in a pot? Or a deaf man being crushed upside down in sewage just because his bunk is better? Even the legend of the water ghouls is not without trace, even the Black Street Brotherhood's territory was better than here," Gadama sneered, and looked at the frowning Dorothy and Woniak. , "Don't look at me, I also heard from old Pauley."
   "We know," Woniak shook his head, "you've said it over and over a dozen times."
  "Really?" Slimani looked ugly, "Then...it shouldn't be like that anymore?"
"Thanks to Sister Ilshaga," Hauser sighed, "she discovered this place a long time ago, paid at all costs for decades, treated deformed children as human beings, not only insisted on relief, but also worked hard to survive in savages. Restoring the chaos - God knows how she did it - order."
  Hauser nodded:
   "The most important thing is that she didn't leak this place, but gave the people here... the last bit of poor dignity."
"I still remember the last time she was on crutches and was helped down by Lord Chadwe. Ilshaga gave me her hairpin, saying that she was dying and would never use it again," Jia said. Aunt Dama's voice was a little stagnant, "It's hard to imagine that Mommy has been dead for so long."
   "I went to her tomb to deliver flowers the day before yesterday, before the tomb keeper drove me away," Uncle Hauser patted his wife's hand, "May the sunset bless her soul."
Woniak, Dorothy, Hauser, and even Bobo, who only understands "woohoo"... The aborigines in the tunnel all performed prayers in unison, even more uniform than the clergy in the temple. Also standard.
   Thales watched this scene with surprise.
   It seems that the Ilshaga aunt not only brought dignity, hope and order, but also the faith of the setting sun.
but……
"Strive to make people live more like people, not the other way around," Thales sighed. "Perhaps only for this alone, she is better than most of the officials and lords in the kingdom. This mammy is worthy of the sunset belief. "
   If the people here are saved by the sunset believers, why not?
   But Thales noticed that Shi Lai next to him was motionless, just staring at the stove with his mouth up.
   "You know," Slimani said suddenly, but this time, his tone was low, "I once had a child, but that child was born...without the back of the head."
   "No... the back of the head?" Woniak was surprised and touched his head subconsciously.
   Srimani looked at the stove with a sad expression:
   "Yes, the doctor said it may be malnutrition, the child did not develop well in the womb..."
   "Your child, malnourished?" Gadama asked suspiciously, looking at the fine clothes on his body.
  Slimani patted his clothes, embarrassed.
"I... I was very poor at that time. I was working for the police station, running errands and delivering letters, and the price of Emerald City was so high that my mother-in-law could only live in a short-term rental house with me, and I was hungry and full... …

   "But you live on the ground," Dorothy whispered.
  Slimani paused for a moment, he sighed and closed his eyes.
   "When our child was born, the doctor who delivered the child was so frightened that she said that she had delivered so many children, and she had never seen such a deformed child, only a monster with a half head."
   Thales listened quietly, and the tunnel was silent for a moment.
   "Not a monster."
   Woniak spoke suddenly, and he shook his head, as if Slimani was not the only one to persuade:
   "No! Your child is just, just, just unlucky."
   His voice trembled, his eyes sad.
  Slimani was stunned for a moment, and he slowly lowered his head:
   "Yes, just, just not very lucky, not very lucky."
   At this moment, the voice of the Chadvi priest came:
   "The way everyone is born is both a grace and a test of the goddess."
  The crowd turned their heads, and the priest, with a tired face, approached and joined them in their conversation:
   "She's getting better, I'm sorry, I've troubled you all..."
   "Don't worry about it, Lord Chadwe," Madam Gadama said respectfully, "you said, Brother Mohasa has something to say; the healer does not abandon the mortal disease."
  Chad Witton for a moment:
"thanks."
   He then asked Slimani:
   "What happened to your son?"
   Slimani reacted.
"daughter."
   The defender said in a slump:
   "Our child, she's a daughter. For weeks, we did everything we could...but she died anyway. I, I can only try to comfort my wife."
  The crowd fell silent.
   Chadway sighed:
   "Sunset Mercy."
   Srimani chuckled.
"But it's not over. One day my landlord found me, and he gave me money and begged me for help," he said bitterly. "His son broke down with a bunch of blood bottle gangsters. After drinking, To be precise, he entered the classroom after the drug trouble, and he needs me to enter the police station to exchange the confiscated evidence-a bag of medicines."
   "I'm just a temporary service worker in the vigilante hall, how dare I? But... but he threatened me if I didn't do it..."
   Srimani took a deep breath and held back his emotions:
   "He's going to write an anonymous letter to report me, and to incite the neighbors, saying that we villagers worship demons and practice evil, give birth to such deformed monsters, and keep her at home..."
   "What?" Thales couldn't believe it.
   "I know, it's ridiculous, right?" Slimani gritted his teeth.
   In the murmur of the crowd, Priest Chadvi sighed.
   "After the Scarlet Year, the Emerald City was not very good for a while."
The    priest said dullly:
"There is too much population, food is not enough, and all kinds of businesses are in vain... People, especially the people at the bottom, have a very bad life. Over time, there are all kinds of rumors and nonsense. For example, why is our city like this? Damn, it's because of the curse - brought by strangers during the war."
   "The curse of the water ghouls?" Thales asked.
   Chadvi shook his head: "That's just one of them."
"In short, for more than half a year, the whole city became crazy, from good citizens to homeless people, from blood bottle gangs to small gangsters, from homeless to beggars, everyone was keen to combat cult superstition and put an end to demon worship, especially those who Outsiders, it seems that after getting rid of them, the Emerald City will get better and go back to the past..."
The words of the    priest made everyone feel depressed.
"That's the way my cousin is gone," Aunt Gadama was sullen, "she was originally a famous fortune-teller in Shili Baxiang, she only needed a bowl of tea, and the calculation was fast and accurate...until she was reported that she was cursed The neighbor's field was handcuffed and taken away..."
   "That's right, I fled in the Scarlet Year, when it was popular to crack down on 'foreign forces'."
  Hauser sighed:
   "If you dare to complain about the high prices, someone will ask you, did you, a foreigner, accept foreign money and plan to subvert the Emerald City from within?"
"Fortunately, the Duke of Leinster came forward in time to stop the farce and hang several rumors," Priest Chadvi glanced at Slimani, who had an angry expression, and shook his head, "But the damage that has been done... "
  The priest was silent.
   "Then your landlord, did he report you?" Dorothy asked cautiously.
   Srimani shook his head.
   "In order to protect myself, I had to promise him, I went to the police station, and I stole the key to the evidence room..."
   The defender sighed bitterly.
"But it was only the first time. The landlord had to take an inch and started asking me to do things for him, such as notifying him before the police station set off for an inspection, so that he could hide black workers and sell antiques. He also forced me to accept him. It seems like this will pull me on board, and if I refuse, he will bring my daughter..."
   "Bah, despicable," Woniak said angrily, "and you let him bully like that? Just because you gave birth to a... unfortunate child?"
   Srimani was silent, and when he spoke again, his words were filled with hatred.
   "You're right, how could I forget? Huh?"
   He gritted his teeth:
   "How can he be allowed to use my child to blackmail me and threaten me? Just when my wife is still awakened by nightmares every night and crying with an empty cradle?"
   Thales only felt his heart sink.
"So, when he came to me for 'doing business' for the last time and mentioned the 'dead child' in secret, I made up my mind and wrote an anonymous report letter," Slimani took a deep breath. He was sent to prison along with his hopelessly rascal son."
   Thales frowned: "Then after him..."
   "Hanging," Slimani replied, his tone so calm that he startled everyone, "The charges are drug possession and drug trafficking and evil worship."
  Hauser frowned. "What?"
  Slimani nodded, brows entangled in pain:
   "The most powerful and crucial evidence is a baby corpse with no back of his head hidden under the floor of his rental house and carefully preserved by embalming."
   Everyone was surprised.
  Dorothy covered her mouth: "That's..."
  Slimani closed his eyes and nodded dazedly.
   Silence fell in the tunnel.
   Chadvi sighed deeply:
   "The test from God, not only himself, but also those related to him, and even the believers of the goddess."
   "You did the right thing," Sheila said suddenly, "Your daughter, you got your revenge."
   Thales frowned slightly.
   "Yeah, for tat, that landlord, he should have thought of this day when he did harm! He deserves it!" Woniak gritted his teeth.
   "But it's also... so sad," Dorothy said in a trembling voice.
   "Woooooo!" Bobo waved his arms unhappily.
   "Quiet," Hauser suppressed the chatter with his eyes, and turned back to comfort Srimani, "It's okay, man, at least, at least it's over."
   Srimani opened his eyes.
   "Yes, I thought, I thought this was the end, I could finally get back to my life, but..."
   He paused for a while, the color in his eyes only darker.
"But in the guard hall, my boss, to be precise, his boss's boss, somehow knew about it," Slimani said, dumbfounded, "he took out my anonymous letter, saying that as A man who does chores, his writing skills are not bad, and he said with a smile that he is relieved, not only will he not pursue me, but also promote me."
  Woniak's eyes lit up:
   "Isn't this good?"
   Thales frowned.
   "Yes, that's fine."
   Srimani laughed sadly,
   "The premise is that I have to pass a test: write a closing report on a case of a high official's son and nephew assaulting a civilian girl."
   "I don't understand?" Woniak wondered.
   Srimani covered his face and snorted softly.
"That case was a hot job, and no one wanted to do it. The boss didn't want to offend people or make mistakes, so he pushed me up: If this report goes out of the box, the person who wrote the report is the scapegoat. , a top-duty clerk, a temporary worker..."
   He scratched at his hair.
   "But I couldn't refuse. My boss took hold of me: I took bribes and colluded with the landlord, including... framing it."
   Thales sighed lightly.
  The tunnel was quiet, only the murmur of water could be heard.
   "When the trial comes, the demons will whisper, and the evil spirits will whisper," Priest Chadvi read the scriptures, his words solemn, but his expression was pitiful, "in a language we do not know."
  Slimani took a deep breath and shook his head weakly.
"There was no way, I had to do it. I had to rack my brains, do all the grammar I learned in clerical school, and get my first vigilante closing report - God knows how much I've been looking forward to this moment before that day. , until it really arrives - written flawlessly without any flaws: 'The person involved is a young woman, the incident happened at dusk, she was alone, she was lightly dressed, her makeup was complete, and the flowers she carried with her had been inspected or had aphrodisiac effects... When she went to work Close relationship with many men... Whether the male and female are consensual still needs further evidence...', Ha, I swear, I didn't write a single lie, it was all the conclusions of investigation, but when I testified in court, Ren Ren Anyone who reads the report will think that the girl's behavior is disorderly, her identity and occupation are suspicious, and she goes out alone at night, maybe it's a money dispute afterward..."
"what?"
  Dorothy understood and was indignant: "How can you?"
  Slimani looked ashamed, and some dared not look up.
   "Yes, I know, a lot of people know it's rude, but if I don't do it, my boss, my boss's boss, he will take me, I, I have no choice..."
  Everyone was silent, no one knew how to respond.
   "But you have it, you always have it," Shiley said suddenly, "it's just that you don't want to, or dare not admit it."
   Srimani opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he just bowed his head.
   "The devil is whispering secrets, and the evil spirit is busy."
   Priest Chadvi sighed:
   "Those whose minds are not firm will always be in trouble. Those who wander and look back will have a difficult road ahead."
   (end of this chapter)