In the north-western corner of Andorra la Vella, in a dilapidated hut, the flame on an oil lamp was less than the size of a matchhead.

The flame jumped and jumped, and it looked like it was going to go out at any moment.

In the almost negligible light, a woman sat on the edge of the bed, holding a bowl, and was feeding the thin rice porridge water into her son's mouth.

Her son's shocking whip marks, coated with herbs from neighbors, had now scarred, but he had been unconscious for three days and still hadn't woken up.

Fortunately, this young man still has the instinct to swallow, and he can still hang his life by relying on porridge water.

It's just that they have long run out of rice at home.

The young man used to run errands in the Silver Narcissus Chamber of Commerce, but there had been no pay there for a long time, otherwise he would not have followed his neighbors to the docks to carry things.

It's just that he walked out in the morning, thinking that he could buy rice and go home when he got paid in the evening, but he didn't expect to be brought back by a neighbor at noon.

Now the rice in the bowl was secretly stuffed by the neighbor the night before through the hole in the kitchen wall along with the herbs.

It's just that after the neighbor carried the young man back that day, he was targeted by the people of the Flying Fish Club, and he was not assigned a job for the past two days, and their family was also in a difficult situation.

It's not that the woman doesn't want to go to the priest of the temple to treat her son, it's just that there are several Flying Fish people around the house, and she will be beaten back as soon as she goes out.

The Flying Fish suffered a huge loss three days ago, and now they need to kill a few people to regain their prestige, and this unruly young man and his neighbors are ready to exemplify this.

After feeding her son the rice porridge and water, the woman looked at the small handful of rice grains at the bottom of the bowl and decided to add water to crush and boil it again tomorrow, and add some lamp vegetable oil, so that she could eat it for another day.

Just as the woman stood up to put the bowl on the table, a shock and dizziness came over her.

She barely ate for three days, and if it weren't for the fear that she would starve to death and have no one to take care of her son, she would only feed him what was left of the house.

The woman noticed that her eyes were dark, and her hands were weak, so she put the bowl firmly on the bed with the last of her strength, and then fell to the ground, and the little wind she had brought with her with her when she fell blew out the oil lamp on the table beside her.

Next door to their house, the cries of women and children have not stopped since sunset.

The middle-aged porter who carried the young man back sat on the edge of the bed with his head bowed, and looked at the kitchen knife next to the stove from time to time.

The situation in his house is also very difficult, if he hadn't caught a mouse and cooked it just now, there would be nothing to eat at home tonight.

The moonlight shone outside the door, and two or three dark shadows could be seen swaying on the road, and they were the people sent by the Flying Fish Society to watch their house.

The doors and windows of the surrounding neighbors have long been closed, for fear that disaster will enter the door.

The footsteps of the city guards who were patrolling the night came from afar, and then they left far away, and they seemed to have forgotten the place.

The city guards relied on the moonlight to pass through the residential area and came to the brightly lit central square.

Tonight, there are luxurious horse-drawn carriages parked on the street in front of the theater, and the theater is a sea of joy.

The Silver Narcissus Chamber of Commerce has fallen, and the property they have taken as collateral will be auctioned off this evening.

The day is when the merchants of Andorra are waiting for the day when they can find suitable buyers for their mortgages, from slaves to carriages to real estate.

It's just a pity that Miss Jenny, who was also used as collateral, was secretly operated early in the morning and did not appear in the auction catalog.

The head of the Silver Narcissus Chamber of Commerce has a lot of slaves, many of whom are craftsmen in the city who have to sell themselves into slavery after they can't repay the money due to loan sharks, and many of the workshop owners come for them.

It's just that there was a dark horse at tonight's auction, and a lot of coins were scattered to wrap up all the slaves, even the forty or fifty-year-old cooks did not let go.

The auction was interspersed with paintings by the Grand Duke of Andorra, when the auctioneer on the stage smashed his hammer and shouted: "Congratulations to the Count of Maccaden, who bought "The Girl Bathing Under the Waterfall" for two hundred and fifty gold coins!"

The auction hall burst into polite and warm applause.

In the most luxurious box in the theater, a middle-aged man in a silk robe smiled and said to Charles, who was sitting on another sofa next to him: "I really thank Charles." ”

His happy appearance made it seem that others really thought that the painting was painted by him, not that he had hired an artist to sign it after it had been painted.

Charles smiled and said: "The main thing is that this painting is very well painted, I didn't expect that there is a painting that can perfectly combine realistic beauty with hazy beauty." ”

At this time, someone brought up a one-person-high oil painting, in which a young girl stood under a waterfall, allowing the water to flow through her body, the girl's head and face and other places where no water flowed were painted realistically, which was very realistic, and the position where the water flowed was hazy underwater, making people want to reach over and cut off the stream that was in the way.

Charles put his arm around Diana's waist and smiled as he explained the techniques of painting to her, like those intellectual trolls.

The painting did have merit in this era, and it could be sold for fifty Andorran gold coins at a normal price.

Andorra's gold coins are very small, and the Northlands Ole gold coin can be exchanged for about 2,000 elven dollars each, while Andorran gold coins can only be exchanged for 200 elven dollars.

As for the painter, it would be nice if he could get ten to fifteen Andorran gold coins.

Since Charles bought the painting of the Grand Duke of Andorra at a high price, the next step is to get down to business.

The Grand Duke of Andorra is also waiting for Charles to make a move.

That day, he had a bit of a headache after knowing that Charles had cut the people of the Flying Fish Club, but he soon had a choice, the Flying Fish Club was over and there was a salted fish club, so it was better to sell it to Charles.

As a result, the Flying Fish Society was abandoned by the Grand Duke of Andorra at the beginning.

When Charles came to visit this morning, he did not tell the Archduke of Andorra about the Flying Fish Society, but recalled the moments when his father passed through Andorra during his lifetime.

And Charles stuffed himself with a sum of money through the auction tonight, and the Grand Duke of Andorra praised Charles in his heart for being able to do things and understand the rules.

At this time, Charles asked people to take down the oil painting and pack it, and after taking a sip of tea, he said casually: "Grand Duke, there are a lot of rats in this city, and my restaurant has been stolen by these rats to eat a lot." ”

The Grand Duke of Andorra leaned back on the sofa and said casually: "That rat of some kind of fish will be trampled to death." ”

Charles picked up a small silver flower with a gem core from the tray on the coffee table, which was inserted in Jenny's braid that day, and he had bought it at the auction just now.

He looked at the little flower carefully, and said, "But there are four rats like that, how about two percent?"

The Grand Duke of Andorra frowned, and his gaze at Charles suddenly became unkind.

It's one thing for him to throw a dog out for Charles' meat to relieve his anger, but it's another thing for Charles to beat his dogs to death and reach them in.

Charles continued to say nonchalantly: "Money is not important to me, the important thing is that I am not comfortable in my heart, and if I am not comfortable, I can't let those rats be comfortable." ”

"I'm not going to stay here for long, I'm going to leave in two days. ”

"I think Big Brother Brando is a good person, quite honest. ”

The Grand Duke of Andorra laughed out loud, what the hell is this, you kid swept away all those gangs for the sake of comfort, and finally asked the director of an orphanage to form a gang, and also helped him pay for filial piety, which was more than half of the previous gang's filial piety.

The Grand Duke smiled and shook his head, he didn't understand the world of local tyrants.

But this is not a problem for him, Brando is a native and he knows it. This man is honest and honest, has no scheming, does not like fighting, and it is estimated that he will run back to the orphanage in a few days.

As long as the money is in place, he doesn't care who sits in that position, it's a big deal to support others to drive Brando away, this is not the position in the city hall.

So the Grand Duke of Andorra said: "Fifty percent." ”

Charles shook his head and said, "Two and a half at most." ”

When he had finished speaking, he ignored the Archduke of Andorra, but stood up, pulled Artoria, who was standing behind the sofa as a guard, to sit down on the sofa, and then put the small silver flowers with the gem core on the bun that Artoria had coiled behind her head.

The Grand Duke of Andorra thought about it for a while, and then made the decision he regretted the most in his life, saying: "Deal." ”

Charles smiled, walked over and stretched out his right hand to the Grand Duke of Andorra, and said, "Thank you." ”

The Grand Duke of Andorra also smiled and reached out to shake his hand.