Time seemed so slow in this secluded corner, and the spy was so anxious to find out at once their intentions for this meeting, which was quite different from what he had estimated by listening to the introduction, and he thought more than once that it was blown, and persuaded himself that they had either stopped at a distance or had found another place to talk. He was about to get out of hiding and return to the main road, when he heard footsteps, followed by voices almost close to his ears.

He straightened up, pressed straight against the stone wall, held his breath, and listened intently.

"That's far enough," said a voice, apparently the gentleman's, "I can't tell this young lady to go any further." If you change to someone else, you will not be able to believe you, and you will not even come here, but you can also see that I am willing to follow your thoughts. ”

"Follow my thoughts." It was the voice of the girl that Rohan followed, "You are so considerate, sir. Follow my heart. Okay, okay, it doesn't matter. ”

"Oh, why," said the old gentleman's tone, softened a little, "for what purpose did you bring us to such a secluded place?" Why don't you let me talk to you up there, where there are lights and people walking around, but they want to lead us to this desolate black hole? ”

"I told you just now," Azhu replied, "I'm afraid to talk to you there. I don't know why," said the girl, trembling all over, "but tonight I was so scared that I couldn't stand on my feet." ”

"What are you afraid of?" The gentleman seemed to be sympathetic to her.

"I don't know what is going on," replied the girl, "if only I knew." All day I thought about terrible thoughts, death, the bloody shroud, and the more I feared, the hotter it became, like roasting on a fire. I read a book tonight and wanted to mess with the time, and these things came out of the book again. ”

"It's an imagination." The old gentleman comforted her.

"I don't imagine," said the girl's hoarse voice, "I swear I saw the word 'coffin' on every page of the book, and the font was big and black—well, and they had just walked past me carrying a coffin on the street." ”

"It is not surprising," said the old gentleman, "that I have encountered it from time to time." ”

"It is a real coffin," replied the girl, "and what I see is not real." ”

The back breath of her speech was indeed extraordinary, and the spy who was hiding on the side and eavesdropping couldn't help but be creepy, and even the blood was cold. Then he heard the soft voice of the young lady again, and felt only a relief that he had never felt before, and the young lady begged her to calm down, and not to allow such terrible hallucinations to torment her.

"Persuade her," said the young lady to the old gentleman, "the wretched girl. ”

The girl cried out, "Miss, there are some people who claim to be great and kind, why can't they be as considerate and kind as you are to us who are miserable people?" You're young and beautiful, you've got everything we've lost, you can be haughty, you don't need to be so humble. ”

"Oh." "The Muslims wash their faces and pray with their faces facing east. And those so-called good people do not have a good color for the poor. ”

These words were ostensibly addressed to the young lady, but the purpose may have been to give Ah Zhu a little time to settle down. After a short pause, the old gentleman himself began to talk to her.

"You weren't here last Sunday night." He said.

"I can't come," replied Azhu, "and I will leave it." ”

"By whom?"

"The guy I told Miss before."

"We're here tonight, and no one suspects you're here to tell someone?" The old gentleman said.

"No," replied the girl, shaking her head, "it will not be easy for me to leave him, unless he knows why." If I hadn't given him a little opium before the last time I came out, I wouldn't have seen this young lady. ”

"He didn't wake up before you went back?" The old gentleman asked.

"No, neither he, nor any of them, doubted me."

"Very well," said the old gentleman, "for now you listen to me." ”

"I'm listening." The girl replied the moment he stopped.

"This young lady," said the old gentleman, "told me and a few other friends whom you could fully trust what you had said almost half a month ago. Frankly, at first I doubted that you could be absolutely reliable, but now I am convinced that you can. ”

"I can be trusted." The girl said sincerely.

"I repeat, I am convinced of this. In order to prove to you that I trust you, I will tell you without reservation that we intend to start by exploiting the fear of Lao Meng, and force him to tell the secret, whatever it may be. If—if—" said the old gentleman, "you cannot catch him, or, if you do, you cannot compel him to do what we want, you must denounce the old camel." ”

"Old camel!" The girl stepped back and let out a scream.

"You have to report that person." The old gentleman said.

"I don't do it. I'd never do that! The girl replied, "Even though he is a demon, and treats me worse than a demon, I will never do such a thing." ”

"You don't want to?" The old gentleman seemed to be fully prepared for this reply.

"Never!" The girl replied.

"Can you tell me why?"

"There is a reason," replied the girl categorically, "there is a reason that Mademoiselle knows, and Ju will support me, and I know that she will support me, because I have an appointment with her." Besides, there is another reason, although he is a bad guy, but I am not a good thing, many of us do the same thing, I can't betray them, they, no matter which one they are, should have had the opportunity to betray me, but they didn't betray me, even though they were bad guys. ”

"In that case," said the old gentleman at once, as if that was what he was bent on aim, "then leave Old Meng to me, and I will deal with him." ”

"What if he confesses to someone else?"

"I promise you, in this case, as long as he tells the truth, the matter will be settled, and there must be all kinds of changes in Yongchang's brief experience, and it is inconvenient to distinguish them from the world. Once the truth is revealed, they will be disconnected. ”

"What if you can't figure it out?" The girl reminded.

"Then," continued the old gentleman, "the old camel will not be brought to court unless you agree." If that were the case, I could probably give you a reason, and you'd agree to do so. ”

"Did the young lady say yes?" The girl asked.

"I promise you," replied Ruth, "I promise from all my heart." ”

"Lao Meng will never understand how you know these things?" The girl paused for a moment and said.

"Absolutely not," replied the old gentleman, "it will fall upon him, and he will not be able to guess at all." ”

"I am a liar, and have lived among liars since I was a child," the girl was silent again, and after a while she said, "but I believe you. ”

After receiving her reassuring assurances from the two of them, she began to describe the name of the tavern she had been targeted at that night as soon as she came out, and where she spoke in a low voice, and the spy who was eavesdropping on the sidelines often had difficulty even fathoming the gist of what she was saying.

Judging by the occasional pause, the old gentleman seemed to be hastily taking notes of what she had provided. She explained the location of the small hotel, where it was best to keep a watch, without attracting the attention of others, which nights it was most likely that Pan Kesi would go to the hotel, what time it was, and then, she seemed to think for a moment, in order to recall his physical features more clearly.

"He's tall," said the girl, "he's very stout, not fat, and walks sneakily, always looking back, first on one side, and then on the other." Don't forget, because his eyes are sunken and much deeper than any man, and you can recognize him by that alone. His face was dark, as was his hair and eyes. Even though he is not twenty-six years old, even if he is twenty-eight years old, his skin has grown a lot of folds, and he is quite haggard. His lips are often bloodless and his teeth are deep. He cramped so badly that sometimes he bit his hands all over the ground - why are you scared? The girl said abruptly, and stopped.

The old gentleman hurriedly replied, he was unconscious, and asked her to continue.

"Part of this man," said the girl, "is partly what I have learned from the other people who live in the hotel, the hotel I told you about, and I have only seen him twice, and on both occasions he wears a large cloak. That's probably all there is to you to identify him. Wait, and," she added, "his neck, and when he turned his face away, a little bit could be seen under the scarf, and there's—"

"A large red patch, like a burn or scald." The old gentleman said loudly.

"What's going on? You know him! The girl said.

The young lady let out an exclamation, and for a moment all three fell silent, and the eavesdropper could even hear their breathing clearly.

"I think so," the old gentleman broke the silence, "as it should be, according to your description. Let's talk about it. A lot of people look like each other very well, or they may not be the same person. ”

He said this as if nothing had happened, and took two steps forward, closer to the secret agent hiding in the shadows, who clearly heard him whisper, "It must be him." ”

"Well," said him, as he spoke, as he seemed to return to where he had been standing, "girl, you have given us a great deal of help, and may you be rewarded for it." What can I do for you? ”

"Nothing." Ah Zhu replied.

"Don't be stubborn," replied the old gentleman, his voice and tone full of kindness, and no matter how hard and stubborn his heart was, he could not help but be moved. ”

"Nothing, sir." The girl cried as she replied, "You can't help me, I have no hope at all, really." ”

"Don't give up on yourself," said the old gentleman, "you have wasted your youth in the past, God has only given us once, and will never give it again, but you still have hope for the future, and that can only come if you pursue it yourself." It's okay to be in Conch City, and if you don't dare to stay here, it's okay to go abroad, which is not only what we can do, but also our ardent hope. Before dawn, before the sun shines on the river, you will be able to reach a place that your former group of accomplices is completely out of reach, and leave no trace, as if you had suddenly disappeared from the earth. Go ahead. I don't want you to go back and talk to a former accomplice, or to take a look at a lair, or even to take another breath of the air that will only bring you bad luck. Leave all of this behind and take advantage of the time and opportunity. ”

"She's going to be convinced," cried the young lady, "she's hesitating, she must be." ”

"I'm afraid not necessarily." The old gentleman said.

"Yes, sir, I will not change my mind," replied the girl after a short effort, "and I am bound together by a chain with the old words. I hate it, I hate it, but I can't live without it. I'm going to have to get to the point where I can't go back - I don't know how, even if you said that to me a long time ago, I'd laugh out loud, not the same thing. But," she looked back in a panic, "I'm scared again, and I've got to go home." ”

"Go home!" The young lady repeated, accentuating the word "home" in particular.

"Yes, go home, Mademoiselle," replied the girl, "that is the home I have built for myself with all my life's labor. Let's break up. I'll be targeted or recognized. Let's go! Let's go! If I do you any favor, I have no other request, but I beg you to leave me alone and let me go my own way. ”