"There's Palatine Hill ahead." In the shadow of the building, Kelly looked at the smoke rising high in the distance and judged, "We're turning left on the street ahead." ”

Kelly was right, there were no road signs in Rome at all, and people could only rely on the landmarks: temples, mountains, fruit trees. Approaching the big circuit at the bend, Calabis saw that on the Palatine Hill in Kelly's mouth, there were faintly standing some beautiful courtyards, which must have been the residence of the most powerful people in Rome, and in the center of the back courtyard stood a very dilapidated shack, surrounded by all kinds of people, with all kinds of furnaces, lit a curling smoke, worshiped religiously, and circled around this shack. That's how the smoke Kelly saw just now rose up.

"That was the hut where the builder of the city, the great Romulus, once shepherded sheep, and now it is the place where the most incense burns." Kelly pointed in the direction Calabis was looking and introduced.

Perhaps this is the charm of the ancient city, where the lavish new architecture intertwines with the old and old traditions.

They soon turned into the neighborhood of Mount Evandini, the great cave of immigrants and paupers, where every newcomer to Rome tried his luck and settled down, for the rent and living were the cheapest, and the dense shacks that went up the hill to the Tiber on the other side, and where the feet were all pure dirt, winding and muddy, on which pigs, dogs, and chickens stood proudly, and did not shy away from man. Among the squatters and dilapidated apartment buildings, there is often an old but imposing mansion, like a white swan squeezed into a pond full of gray ducks, which must have been the courtyard of the oldest aristocracy in Rome.

Calabis was eager to see the legendary central Piazza in Rome, but Kelly didn't mean to, and when they reached another section of the city wall at the foot of Capitol, they passed through the gates, where stood the temples of Belona and Apollo, a relatively secluded neighborhood between the two temples. After turning around, Kelly parked the mule cart under a two-story apartment building leaning against the street, a piece of wood and mud, with a patio-like courtyard in the middle, a jumble of wooden statues, firewood, and a narrow staircase leading to the second floor, and the railings were dotted with cheap flowers and plants. As they entered, the inhabitants of the building, citizens, freemen, and slaves, were sitting together at the tables in the patio, around the platform where a small table was assembled, munching, when they saw Calabis and his party, a fat man with a silver necklace around his neck and a dress of colored piping, stood up kindly, and greeted him warmly: "Welcome to our vici!" Enjoy today's Kampitania Festival, a festival for all. ”

Vici, Latin for crossroads and neighborhoods.

Kelly smashed a money bag directly into the fat man's chest, "There are a hundred Sethres here." Then he took Calabis up and said, "It was the people of Crassus who introduced us to this place, and the family will live here, and we will arrange it at once." Then Kelly prostrated himself on Calabis's ear: "I'll leave at once, don't ask me what I'm going to do, you immediately move the things in the mule cart, and your women and children, to the room, this apartment is the property of Crassus, don't worry, don't move, don't mess with things, wait for my next instructions." ”

With that, Kelly walked to the door, looked cautiously toward both ends of the street, pulled a box from the mule cart, and hurried away with the other two.

"Hello, freedmen of the land, my name is Delfero, and I am also a freedman from Greece, and I am the caretaker of this neighborhood, and I am honored to have this honorable position, sweeping the roads every day, offering sacrifices to the patron saints of the neighborhoods on the altar, and taking a tenth of the rent as a commission. By the way, your name is Calabis, and judging by your appearance, it seems that you are Asiatic. The fat man's mouth did not stop for a moment, and he used the key to open a room in the southwest corner of the second floor, and then enthusiastically took the slave and helped Calabis carry the things on the mule cart.

"No need!" Calabis grabbed the fat man's hand, then nodded apologetically, signaled that he could go out and do his own business, and then walked down the stairs step by step, outside the door Paruma was guarding the mule cart, and Calabis was in the noisy and dancing crowd of tenants, and together with Potty, all moved to the open space of the room, and then very carefully fastened the door.

The apartment was simple, in the shape of a large square, separated from the door on the right by a wooden plank, and divided into a long, narrow bedroom, in which was placed an old bed, and the curtain was gray and protruding; Separated by a curtain on the left, inside is a stove and a shelf blackened by smoke, which appears to serve as a kitchen; The room divided in the middle had a brazier, and a rough, dull niche on the wall, which was empty, and under the alcove was a rough wooden dining table and four chairs. Calabis shook around, hung the pigeon cage on the windowsill of the corridor outside the door, and said to Paruma, "Play with your pigeons here, and be silent." ”

Paluma nodded, and quickly leaned on the windowsill, where Porti came over and whispered, "Maybe I should go out and buy some bread and vegetables." ”

"Hmm." Calabis then sat down in his chair, dazed, calming down the excitement of what he had seen and felt today, and it turned out that Kelly was right—the city of Rome was not an eternal city made of marble at all, at least not yet, and it was indeed a big pigsty! ”

In the evening, Potty bought bread, pies, lettuce, charcoal, and other miscellaneous items from outside, and Calabis raised a brazier and kept warm next to little Paruma, while Potty was busy in the kitchen, and soon there were sky-high voices and screams from the long and narrow window of the wall, and Calabis hurried into the bedroom, drew his broadsword from under the bedboard, and pressed it against the window to observe—a four-story apartment building two blocks away was burning, and the sound of people's cries, footsteps, and sirens was everywhere. It seems to be an ordinary fire—and I think it's the same thing, this kind of thing built up in layers of mud and wood immediately turns into a big torch when it encounters a fire, and the same is true of the building where I live.

Within three quarters of an hour, there was a loud crash, and the apartment collapsed completely, and the dark gray smoke rose in thick smoke, and it was finished and reduced to a cloud of rubble in the city of Rome, and by this time Potti's toast and lettuce pie had been served, and Calabis and his adopted son began to gobble it up.

"Calabis, open the door!" There was a sharp kicking sound, accompanied by Kelly's unpleasant voice.