"Carmen, did you take more?"

After running out of the streets in one go, making sure that Henry hadn't chased him out, Tom asked Carmen with a gasp.

Carmen put her hands on her legs, bent over and gasped, and said without looking back, "You don't want your brother to learn bookkeeping?" ”

"Yes, yes, but—" Tom didn't say the rest of the sentence, because he knew that Carmen also knew that collecting debts was not the same as robbery.

Collecting debts will only take away the part of the debt, even if the person who owes the debt has a lot of money, they will not take any more points, even if they go to the police station, they dare to confront them face to face.

On the other hand, after collecting the arrears, you have to take an extra part, which is of a different nature.

Now that the world is so chaotic, every street is covered by a boss, and these bosses who have collected protection money will never sit idly by and ignore this kind of thing.

"No, your brother has to go to school, we have to eat, and we need a lot of money. Even, with enough money, we can buy off the sheriffs, have a street under our jurisdiction, and never have to be a thug anymore. Tom, believe me, sooner or later, we will only have to lie at home and someone will offer to give us the money. ”

Carmen's eyes were full of yearning, and she gently patted Tom on the shoulder.

Tom opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say anything, because Carmen was right, his brother needed the money, and the sooner the better.

"Two bottles of soda!"

A woman selling soda walked by the side of the road when Carmen stopped her.

"Ten cents." The woman selling soda was not alone, she also had a little boy of six or seven years old, who looked like the little boy's mother.

Carmen, in the envy of the little boy, took ten cents out of her pocket and said, "Give..."

Taking the soda, Carmen took a hard sip and let out a satisfied sigh.

Looking at the little boy who turned around and followed his mother away, Carmen pulled Tom's sleeve and whispered, "That little boy's mother sells soda, but I bet he hasn't drunk soda, why?" ”

"Why?" Tom wasn't smart and didn't react for a while.

Carmen held up the soda bottle and whispered, "Because they don't have money, a bottle of soda is five cents, which is equivalent to two days' wages for a worker, and 2.5 arm-long pieces of black bread." If he drank a bottle of soda, it was equivalent to drinking two and a half days of food. Look at these vagabonds, the unemployed, who sleep on the streets, who suffer from hunger, who can't afford even two cents of black bread. ”

Don't look at Bill's pub, where a beer costs three cents and a pasta serves five cents, and it feels like it's a daily routine.

Wrong, and very wrong.

The real situation of ordinary people is that a family of five can eat a day of black bread for two cents and a soup mixed with wild vegetables, which is the daily life of ordinary people.

Moreover, there is brown bread to eat, and in this era, it is already considered a good life.

The unemployed, who have no jobs, or families with many children, have starved to death in droves on the streets, and the horse-drawn carts that clean up the garbage every morning can pull out more than a dozen wagons of starving people.

Having enough to eat is a very luxurious thing for ordinary people.

Eating well, for the middle class, is a petty bourgeois mood that is carried out once every three to five days.

As for eating steak, drinking red wine, and reading the newspaper, this is something that only the wealthy can do.

Silent, Carmen and Tom, looking at this miserable world, did not speak to each other.

Ten minutes later, Carmen took out three dollars from her bosom, held it tightly, put it in Tom's palm, and whispered, "Go home, it'll be fine." ”

Tom nodded heavily, clutched his pockets and left, life was so unsatisfactory now, what else was there to pick and choose.

Seeing Tom leave, Carmen exhaled and headed for her home.

Carmen is an orphan whose father died in the factory, so he is determined never to work for the black-hearted factory owner for the rest of his life.

As for his mother, it is an unfortunate story, his mother disappeared with all her possessions on the third day after his father's death, and he understood that man can only live on his own.

However, Carmen never feels alone, because he has a sister to keep him company.

Carmen's sister is five years younger than him, and he was brought up by him, and although she is only ten years old, she is very sensible.

Buying a small cream cake for two cents from the side of the street, Carmen regrouped and went home.

"Brother, you're back."

As soon as she opened the door, Carmen saw her sister, Ellie, fiddling with apples on the floor.

In fact, a gangster like Carmen is not as glamorous as he appears, and often goes in and out in order to maintain the superficial scenery.

Therefore, Ellie can't be the eldest lady at home, she has to follow the little sisters in the neighborhood every day to pick up garbage on the docks or in the rich area.

Some cargo ships docked at the docks often have sailors drop spoiled and spoiled food, attracting countless people to rush it.

In the rich area, there are also rich people who hold banquets and dump leftover food in the trash, and these two places are treasure troves in the eyes of the poor.

"Ellie, you're on the docks?"

Seeing the rotten apples on the ground, Carmen gently crouched down and stroked her sister's hair.

Ellie smiled shallowly, and replied in a child's crisp voice: "Brother, there is a cargo ship carrying apples on the dock today, and many rotten apples have been thrown away by them, and Ellie has picked up a dozen." ”

"Going with Anna again?"

Anna is their neighbor, and Ellie can go out and pick up the trash, all because Anna is there to maintain it.

Hearing her brother's question, Ellie nodded again and again, squinting her eyes with a smile: "Sister Anna is fine." ”

Knock knock...

Before he could continue, there was a knock on the door.

When I opened the door, there was a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl standing at the door, with a big pie face, fat and freckles.

"Anna, Ellie and I were still talking about you." Seeing the girl outside the door, Carmen had a slight smile on her face.

Anna gave Carmen a look of disgust, pushed open the door and walked in, pulling Ellie and whispering, "Look what my sister brought you." ”

"What is it?" Ellie clasped her hands in front of her chest and asked longingly, as for Carmen on the side, she had long been ignored by the two.

Because Ellie knows very well that although the two of them live opposite each other, and Sister Anna likes her very much, the relationship with her brother is very ordinary, and even a little wrong.

"See for yourself."

Anna pulled out an oil packet wrapped in oiled paper and placed it in front of Ellie.

Ellie carefully opened the oil bag, and when she saw it, there was a duck leg in the oil bag, and the duck leg was shiny and shiny, which made people swallow saliva at first glance.

"Where did you pick up such a big duck leg?" Seeing the duck leg, Carmen swallowed and said with disdain.

Anna sat on the ground, like a mountain of meat, and sneered, "Pick it up, you pick one for me to try." This is the old lady I used this mouth to help a boatswain suck out, and sucked half a duck. ”

Children from poor families have the habit of going to the dock to pick up garbage, but only a few people know that they can change it in addition to picking it up.

Anna is such a smart person, even if the economy is depressed and many people starve to death on the streets, she still relies on this kind of intelligence to eat a fat head and big ears, and in terms of size, she is almost like a rich lady.

To be sure, Carmen looked down on Anna and thought him was inferior.

But he had to admit that Anna's family was the best one in the entire slum, and what Carmen couldn't understand was why Anna was so popular in the entire slum even though she wasn't beautiful.

Thinking like this, Carmen couldn't help but look down, and put her eyes on Anna's chest, the murder weapon that was bigger than his head.

Perhaps, that's the answer.

"Don't look at it, hey, why don't you still watch it, it's not over, isn't it?"

Anna shook the twin peaks, looked at Carmen with disdain, and sneered: "I won't touch you when I look at it, I have a clear price, you can touch the two-cent cake, and the five-cent cake will only let you eat a bite, you poor ghost with a silver gun wax head, don't think about it." ”

Carmen touched her nose, isn't it just a little bigger, crazy or crazy.

His little girlfriend Bertie, although small is a little smaller, is better than exquisite, and he is not rare to be so big.

Thinking of her little girlfriend, Carmen's heart was on fire.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and every Sunday afternoon, Bertie's father takes his brother to church to pray.

The thought that she would be alone with Bertie tomorrow afternoon made Carmen a little confused.