What should a famous master look like?

Piercing eyes, angular chins, deep and calm personality and brilliant talent seem to be the necessary conditions for a master to look up to.

But if you meet a young man who is not only five big and three rough in appearance, but also has no edge with the artist's temperament, and even looks like a little brainy, then the title of master will not be comparable to him.

When he knew that he really couldn't go back, and then decided to stay in this era, Ding Mu also thought that since his fate should be like this, then he couldn't waste such a good opportunity.

Although this era is full of chaos and turmoil, as long as he thinks that this era is also one of the most brilliant periods in the history of human civilization, Ding Mu still feels that he is somewhat lucky.

He even thought that if he had the chance, he would definitely meet the great masters and wizards who left immortal masterpieces in posterity, and if possible, witness the birth of those great works.

But now he was a little skeptical that he was a little naïve in these ideas, and only when he thought about the stonemason behind him who kept waving his hand, and seemed to be no more thin than the pig-killing stonemason who had just passed by the vegetable market, he felt that the word master was not appropriate for that person, at least not yet.

Ding Mu did not suspect that this person was not one of the famous three masters of the Renaissance, because although there were many people with the same name and surname in this era, there was only one who not only had the same name, but was also a carving artist, and in addition, thinking about the age of this young man, it happened to be about the same level, so it was almost certain that this person was Michelangelo Bonarroti.

But most importantly, Ding Mu vaguely remembers that it was in 1496 that Michelangelo, who was studying art in Florence, had to leave his turbulent hometown with the invasion of King Charles VIII of France, but it was also from that time that this young man, who already had this extraordinary talent, began his brilliant artistic journey.

It's just that now it seems that there is no shadow of this future master, not to mention that his amazing masterpieces have not yet been born, and maybe even this young man is still worried about which next family to be his benefactor.

What if Michelangelo could be sponsored at this time?

At the same time as this thought flashed through Ding Mu's mind, he laughed self-deprecatingly.

Not to mention that he has nothing now, even if he has a firm foothold in the future, it is a bit of a fantasy to say that he wants to sponsor those artists, in this era, anyone who can become an artist protector must not only have strong enough financial resources, but also be strong.

To be precise, Italy today is a strange time when art and war coexist, creation and destruction.

Thinking of this, Ding Mu shook his head, he felt that he had better think about what to do in the future, now that he was in Palermo, what should he do next?

Do you just wander around with the gypsies?

Ding Mu didn't think it was a good idea, and Old Gurga didn't take revenge on him before, just because of the clan rules, but after a long time, he would always find an opportunity to avenge his nephew.

Looking at Sophia, Ding Mu felt that it was time to plan well.

As in all cities, Gypsies were not allowed to camp in Palermo, so after leading his tribe around the city and announcing the arrival of his tribe to the Palermoians, the elder Gurga led the convoy through the city, along a large road south of Palermo into a valley with a gentle upward terrain.

"It looks like we're going to camp here tonight," as soon as the team stopped, Shaskina jumped down from her car and shouted to Ding Mu's car, and then lowered her voice and said, "Old Gurga seems to be doing something, I see that he and a few people are sneaky, Gaj, if you can take Sophia away, do it as soon as possible, Gurga can't forget about his nephew." ”

Ding Mu nodded gratefully, he knew that what Shaskina said was right, the gypsies might not stab them in the back, but they would not forget the knives that had been stabbed.

"I'm going to take Sofia to Palermo." Ding Mu looked back at the city with a little light at night, which might be the beginning of his new life.

"Go, go, go," Shaskina waved her hand, then picked up Sophia's face and looked at it carefully, "Look how beautiful you are, Nashan must be glad to see you now." ”

Sophia blinked, then shook her head disappreciatively.

"Take care of her," Shaskina looked at Ding Mu critically, "Don't forget that she will have children for you in the future." ”

Xiasina's words made Ding Mu shake his body, he turned his head to look at Sophia beside him, although his figure looked much more mature than many of his peers, but he still couldn't imagine how much a 12-year-old child had to do with having children, but thinking about the atmosphere of this era, he couldn't help but feel a heartbeat.

Old Gurga seemed to have forgotten about Ding Mu and them, and after beckoning the whole tribe to set up camp, he went into the city with a few people.

The night is getting darker, but the city of Palermo is still brightly lit and much livelier than it was at any other time.

Walking through the shoulder-to-shoulder street, if you don't look closely, you can even get the illusion that you're just taking part in a grand medieval costume parade.

Everywhere there was laughter and boisterous crowds, shiny feathers, tweed hats, ornate and exotic cardigans, oversized skirts with exaggerated lace, groups of young men and women huddled each other through the streets, their curved toes bouncing on the stone floor, as if to embellished the silent tune of the madness of the night.

When a few young men running around in the street shouting loudly with torches saw the oncoming Ding Mu and the others, they immediately greeted them and surrounded them while whistling and dangling the torches in front of their eyes.

Just as Ding Mu was vigilantly protecting Sophia, the young men shouted and ran to the others.

"Praise be to God, praise to Jesus Christ, praise to the sacrifice of St. Peter and the soul of St. Rosaria!"

The young people kept shouting loudly, and there were bursts of angry but secretly happy rebukes from the young women.

"A bunch of crazy boys," an elderly man shook his head as he stood on the side of the road and looked at the young men, but then shook a few pieces of paper in his hand to Ding Mu and Sophia, who were standing in the middle of the road, "Come on, young man, why don't you go to the parade with them." Don't worry, everything is fine, God will forgive you, you can get an indulgence charm for a small fee, this has been blessed by the Pope, believe me with this, you can be forgiven by the Pope. ”

The old man who sold the atonement charm shouted hard, and when he saw that Ding Mu ignored him and pulled Sophia away, the shouting turned into a low curse: "It's really a stingy ghost, so that you don't have a good result, even a hundred atonement charms can't save you." ”

Of course, Ding Mu didn't hear the old man's evil words, and under the impetus of the flow of people, the two walked slowly along the main street in the direction of the old palace.

The royal palace in Palermo was almost perennially empty, because for King Ferdinand II of Aragon, the master of Sicily, the King of Sicily was only a "part-time".

Although both Ferdinand II himself and his wife, Isabella I, were in great importance to Sicily, the co-kings were far away in the Iberian Peninsula, so most of the time, it was the court minister of the Kingdom of Sicily who sat in Palermo.

The royal palace, which was built and renovated by Saracen and the Normans, became the office and private residence of successive court ministers.

Another string of torches passed through the shadows in the distance, and the shadows filled the streets and alleys in the light of the fire.

The further you go in the direction of the palace, the more people there are on the street. Gradually, the whole street became so tightly blocked that it seemed to be filled with marching processions.

Sophia followed Ding Mu blankly forward, although there was laughter everywhere, but she was a little confused. So later, she simply poked Ding Mu's elbow with her finger and made a gesture of confusion to him.

Ding Mu quickly understood what she was wondering about, for a period of time, in addition to asking Shaskina for advice, he himself had been trying to learn from Sophia, and gradually he could roughly understand the meaning of Sophia's gestures.

Now, for example, Sofia wonders what the people around her are doing, or she wonders what is so special about the festival for the people of Palermo.

Ding Mu had a little headache about this question, but he knew what the Palermo people were doing, but he was a little worried about how to tell Sophia about these things.

Because the special relationship between Sicily, or the Palermo people, and Easter, is really "a long story", and the complex relationship is also clueless, to understand these reasons, we have to start from more than 200 years ago.

Ding Mu didn't think Sophia had the patience to listen to some old things, so just as he was thinking about how to tell Sophia the story of a bloody incident caused by the incident of the lower body of a bastard, which led to the Sicilians and Easter, a team of palace guards passed in front of the cathedral and walked down the street as a loud horn sounded.

Helmets in the style of single-ridged broad-brimmed hats, full cuirasses, red tunics lined with thick velvet, and spears with typical fishtail wings, a group of Spanish spearmen marched through the streets with neat steps to the beat of war drums.

Enough torches had been lit around the team to illuminate the already brightly lit streets as if it were day.

As the procession passed, the people on both sides of the street bowed slightly and saluted a middle-aged nobleman on a white horse.

Because he was far away, Ding Mu couldn't see the man's appearance clearly, but the figure that looked quite strong gave him a deep impression.

As the procession got closer, the cheers from the people in the streets grew louder and louder, and Ding Mu could already hear the crowd shouting "Long live Lord Gomez" except for "Long live the king and queen".

In response to the crowd, the middle-aged nobleman waved his arms at the crowds on both sides of the road, and whenever he stopped, his followers grabbed a handful of gold coins from a large basket and threw them at the crowd.

This was exchanged for screams and louder cheers.

Julián Don Gómez, the current court minister of the Kingdom of Sicily.

As the procession drew closer, Ding Mu pulled Sophia under the porch of the street, knowing that the already excited crowd was more likely to go crazy because someone threw money at it, and he didn't want to be a bad guy who died in the stampede.

There was a wooden staircase sticking out of the house where Ding Mu was standing, and it was obvious that the owner of the house usually rested under this porch that doubled as a rain eaves, because Ding Mu saw that there was a wooden pier next to the door that could be used as a chair.

Seeing that Sophia couldn't help but stand on tiptoe to look at the street, Ding Mu reached out and picked her up, ready to let her stand on the wooden pier.

At this moment, a bright light flashed above Ding Mu's head who unintentionally looked up, and he habitually glanced up, and under the firelight, Ding Mu clearly saw the tip of an arrow emerging from the gap in the stairs.

The quadrangular pyramidal arrowhead looked so familiar, Ding Mu didn't even have to think about it to know that behind the stairs there was a pair of powerful short crossbows aimed at someone on the street!

Almost without thinking, Ding Mu pushed Sophia away, and while throwing the dagger from his arms towards the gap in the stairs, he let go of his throat and issued a loud warning to the approaching team: "There are assassins!" ”