It seems that the idle Houdini, who has no low prestige among this group of beggars, is like a king who responds to every call.

I glanced at the beggar king, who was intently picking at his feet, and shuddered, and hastened to move to the fire, and lay down next to the rabbit's legs, and it was late at night.

I slept for a long time in a daze, and many fragments flashed in my mind, the two demons of hunger and nightmares, tormented me to turn over and over, and finally opened my eyelids tiredly, staring at the stars in the sky sluggishly, and with the breath of fresh air, my consciousness gradually became clearer.

The crescent moon was sinking in the west, and everything was silent, the beggars who kept vigil had long since fallen asleep, and the fire without firewood was half-dead and extinguished, so it was no wonder that my back was uncomfortable with the cold.

The village in the distance was also shrouded in an impenetrable darkness, like a deserted ghost town, exuding a mysterious atmosphere, and a dozen beggars were crowded out of the broken house, some snoring like thunder, some muttering in dreams, some humming and crying, and some lying on the ground silently like dead people, all of them were full of embarrassment, their sleeping appearance alone was enough to scare away the most ferocious beasts, and what kind of night watchman!

I exhaled softly, and I could see a faint white mist drifting away in the wind:

"The weather is getting colder day by day."

I thought about it when I suddenly felt someone kicking me in the heel.

Who is it!

I almost shouted, but the man stopped where he was, watching my reaction in a breathless manner, his ears close for a moment, and reason reminded me not to act rashly at this moment.

The latter waited a moment, making sure that he had not woken me from my sleep, and tiptoed again, this time with more and more caution, except for the slight rustle of stepping on the thatch, which made it impossible to catch any clues.

This is a danger sign, and there are hidden secrets among the beggars who have nothing! I was nervous and pretended, my mind spun fast, and I began to think about all kinds of possibilities:

Is it the robber's internal response? No, what blind robber idiot wants to rob a beggar? Is it an undercover agent for a certain lord? It's possible that there are a bunch of pretentious psychopaths in the territory who have to find a way to get rid of them, but to eliminate some beggars in a matter of minutes, you need to install undercover agents? I came up with strange speculations one after another, and then rejected them one by one, and the entanglement was quite terrible.

Just follow along! I was terrified by the thought that was pouring out of my own coldness, and I really felt a cold fear in my soul that if that person found out, he would kill me, right? It was like pinching an ant to death, and then my bones were left to rot in the wilderness......

I didn't dare to think about it, the cold sweat had soaked through my clothes, and I knew in my ears that the sound of Suo Suo had gone far away, and the night was mercilessly swallowed.

Forget it, it's none of my business, I'm not a beggar, do I need to be so concerned? Go to bed! I rolled over and leaned over to the remnant fire.

A figure stood up silently, his movements lighter than the man just now, but not so muddy, he easily stepped through the gap between the crowd, and squatted down in front of me in three steps and two steps.

Damn it! Why can't you get along with me!

The soft snort of the black shadow floated on my face, causing the cold hairs to stand up as a warning, and I closed my eyes tightly, trying to pretend to be asleep as much as possible, hoping to deceive the other party.

But he did it!

"Hey, don't pretend to be asleep, do you want to come with me? Although you are clumsy, it is good to have more than one style. ”

Houdini shook my shoulder impatiently: "Aren't you interested?" I guess this must have something to do with you......"

I couldn't help myself, and sat up happily, and Houdini gave him a look that he had known to be so, and immediately followed the direction in which the man had disappeared.

The air in the middle of the night was cold and thin, and so dark that I couldn't see my fingers at all, and I couldn't see the scenery around me at all, but Houdini jumped around as light as a deer, as if he had a pair of eyes with night vision, and I followed closely with him, for fear of falling behind.

The beggar-king stopped abruptly, and I immediately understood the silence, and before I knew it, we had passed through a few villages, and came to the other end of the road, near the main road, where the horn road winded to the north-west, cutting a small olive grove into two irregular parts.

I watched intently for a long time but found nothing, and had to tug at the corner of Houdini's coat, which was clearly to ask about the current situation, and he glared at me, Nunu's chin full of disdain.

The man knelt in front of an olive tree, with his back to the place where we were hiding, and blended in with the dark woods so harmoniously that it was impossible to spot without looking closely.

"Waiting for someone?" I couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

Houdini pouted and ignored it, his hunched back like a lurking leopard, rubbing something in his hands, babbling strangely and scary.

The target moved, and he straightened up, as if to make sure he wasn't being followed, and after a moment he cautiously walked towards us.

It's only a hundred paces, and if you go any further, you'll definitely find the two of us!

I looked at Houdini, who was still rubbing his stuff unhurriedly, not at all worried about exposing himself.

Pretty close! My nerves were suffocating, and my limbs were spasming uncontrollably! In the flash of light, Houdini next to him jumped up, kicking, turning over, suppressing, all the actions in one go, and in the blink of an eye, the other party was already convulsive and out of breath.

"You killed him!"

I stepped forward and saw the dead man's neck strangled with hemp rope: "Why don't you leave a living mouth!" ”

Houdini gasped, but his hands still did not relax: "It's not me, he bit his tongue and killed himself." ”

I noticed the blood flowing from the corner of the deceased's mouth: "I can't ask anything, and having the courage to commit suicide shows that he has already come to his senses." ”

"You know?"

"It's a dog's nose." Houdini sighed imperceptibly.

I turned over the deceased's sideways face and finally saw his old wrinkles.

It's the dog's nose, the old man with a rabbit leg who has just returned from begging from the north, the old man who boasts that he stole a chicken from a Jewish dealer, and he is actually a hidden spy!

I looked at Houdini in disbelief, and it stands to reason that an outsider should not have such an expression, and the beggar king lazily asked me:

"What's there to be surprised about? The rules of this troubled world are that you play with me, I yin you, it's normal to have a traitor around you, have you never been betrayed? ”

Never betrayed? I sneered and didn't answer, this question is really unspeakable, if you want to talk about betrayal, is there anyone who has learned more deeply than me?

"I'm not surprised, it's just your calm attitude that I'm curious."

As Houdini scrutinized the dog's nose and searched for valuable objects under my watchful eye, it seemed that he must have been a man of the dead and grave robbers more than once, and he was extremely skillful up and down.

"That's it."

Houdini shouted excitedly as he pulled into his crotch, and I thought he had found something, so I hurried over to look at it, only to see a few coins that were so worn out that I couldn't see the pattern.

"Haha, I didn't expect that there would be an unexpected gain, and the son of a bitch dared to hide private goods!"

I rolled my eyes in disappointment, and at this moment Houdini saw it, and said sourly: "What is your expression?" ”

Finding faults? I don't want to make a fuss, after all, the two have to continue to go to ****** together, and the relationship is always a little awkward.

"It's nothing, after doing this little thing, do we have to find out why he came out in the middle of the night?" I shrugged my shoulders to show I didn't care.

Houdini made a rattling of the coins, and replied without raising his head or opening his eyes: "If you want me to see, even if you look for it, you can't find any evidence, he came to such a ghost place in the middle of the night, nine times out of ten it is to connect with someone, oh, that person has already run away and disappeared, where can I find it?" ”

"That woods ......"

Houdini simply took my words as a deaf ear, and groped for other hidden corners of the corpse, but the beggar's ragged clothes were clear at a glance, and the two-inch cloth could not cover three points of flesh.

I paused, deciding to change the way I communicated: "Aren't you curious about what he's doing sneakily up?" Aren't you calling yons to be a king of beggars? Now that there is a traitor in the kingdom who is a traitor seeking glory, and your throne is in jeopardy, maybe he is a spy planted by someone else, waiting for the opportunity to kill you! ”

"A pot end? To a dozen beggars with nothing to lose? No kidding! ”

As if he had heard something funny, Houdini clutched his stomach and smiled and bent over: "I guess he's coming at you, friend, isn't he?" You still have a secret from me, little squire of the lord's castle? The more I look at it, the less it looks. ”

Will they part ways? Thinking about the long and dangerous road ahead, I couldn't help but shiver.

"I didn't say I was a little squire in the lord's castle, it's always been your speculation."

Houdini stood up with an unnatural expression, staring at each other, as if he might pounce at any time: "Remember the agreement between you and me, you escort you to the ****** safely, I will give you money, and from now on, the two will not owe each other." ”

"I don't like dishonest dealings, and beggars don't believe their word."

He played with the heavily worn coins, and in his tone there was a daunting danger: "If I leave you alone, friend, the journey to ****** will be a shortcut to hell for you, alone, without food or drink, unfamiliar with the environment, and with a broken foreign accent...... How far can you go? Fifty miles? A hundred miles? ”

I can't work together happily! But how can a beggar make me trust?

"Equal transactions are based on trust, you seek wealth and I seek survival, each takes what he needs, why bother to get to the bottom of it?"

Without fear, I met Houdini's gaze, and when my eyes met, invisible sparks flew: "I will not put you in danger, friend, and in the same way, you don't need to know my past. ”

"But now I'm half a foot in hell!"

Houdini suddenly burst into a rage and threw the coin on me: "Also, we are not friends!" ”

I squinted my eyes, my mind was in a mess, and all the experiences I had had since left Rome were like climbing to the top of the pyramid, but I had fallen to the bottom. In order to touch the cold throne, do you first have to become a lonely person?

"I ......"

"You're a Frank, aren't you?"

Houdini stepped in front of me, the tip of his nose was very different from the tip of his nose: "Don't worry, I don't care about your identity, but someone is chasing and killing, and it is obviously coming for you, this trip will be dangerous, I want to increase the price......"

Greedy poor ghost! I raised my eyebrows, my surprise overflowing, yes, this person is safe, he has something to ask, I can satisfy even the never-ending desire, there is no bottomless pit in the world, there is always a time to fill it.

Do you know what kind of people are the scariest? It's not a villain who has an insatiable desire, but a gentleman without desire, without desire, there is no weakness, the so-called desirelessness is rigid, they are almost invincible.

"My brother-in-law doesn't have much money......"

"Not much!"

Houdini interrupted me with a wave of his hand: "Two gold coins, the master of the lord's kitchen, can't even afford two gold coins, what?" ”

"Okay!"

I pretended to shake my head in distress, but my heart was a burst of joy, fortunately, this desire to capture the old indulgence is skillful, did not boast of the self-quotation code, otherwise not only aroused the suspicion of the other party, but also exposed the identity, more and more dangerous, the life experience of the past few years told me, be a man to pay attention!

Heaven and earth were shrouded in the deepest darkness before sunrise, and we came to the woods where the dog's nose wandered, and we were completely aware of the trunks of the trees that appeared suddenly, and Houdini walked ahead, rubbing his aching head and muttering about the darkness of the woods, which was so dark that even the beggar king, who often walked at night, could not see the path under his feet.

"Damn, I'm not leaving, I'm going to go yourself!"

When he hit the big tree head-on again, he finally couldn't help but burst out: "I can't see anything, how can people find it?" ”

I covered the corners of my mouth with my hand and snickered, and promised without yin or yang: "I'm here, and when I go out, I will bump my nose and face ......."

An unfriendly smell spread through the air, and I hurriedly changed my words: "Pretty much this is it, right?" Let's squat down and look for it, what if we find something? ”

"For the sake of the coins!" Houdini snorted angrily.

We crouched down and searched carefully, not sparing every inch of the turf and the hollow of the tree, and if the dog's nose really hid something here, it was impossible not to find a trace.

Wait a minute! I touched it with both hands and re-experienced the touch brought by my fingertips.

"I think I found it."

It is a hollow, column-shaped object, much like a letter box for private mail.

Houdini only touched it slightly, and immediately laughed ruefully: "Haha, my friend, you are wrong this time, take the bones of dead people as treasures!" ”

"Dead man's bones?"

I frowned and rubbed carefully, and said reluctantly, "How come?" ”

Houdini simply sat cross-legged on the ground: "I am more familiar with this village than you, near the olive grove is a mass grave, the dead and the unblessed will be hastily buried here, wild dogs and gray wolves often visit, digging out the corpses that are not buried deep to satisfy hunger, and it is normal to pick up bones and ballast." ”

I didn't like the tone in which he spoke to himself: "Then why didn't you tell me earlier?" ”

"Friend, you didn't give me a chance to speak?"

The beggar king ruffian ruffian picked his nose angrily: "You insist that there is something hidden here, and it is useless for me to persuade you." ”

It's too much of a deception!

I tried to remain calm and did not continue to refute, confined to the eaves, and had to learn to bow my head when it was time to bow my head.

"I guess that's it, let's go back."

"Hmph, I knew it was like this, oops!"

Houdini snorted strangely, and suddenly screamed, listening to the voice as if he had stepped on something and fell into it: "Bad luck! ”

He struggled to pull his foot out, stretched out his arm at me, and kept babbling: "Look at it, don't help quickly!" ”

(End of chapter)