I lay in bed, but I didn't feel sleepy

I don't know if everything is as it should be, but Giovanni said it to me without any ability to argue, and although I strongly did not want to admit what he said, I told myself in my heart that it was probably what it was

Even Alexey, who was the best to me, once said indifferently to children my age on the dock, "They don't think about it anymore"

I am becoming more and more aware that I do not want to convince myself that in the face of this world, I am probably not in the consideration of anyone except my parents, and perhaps no one will really care about me at any cost, where are my parents? What kind of people are they?

Since my memory is vague and I can't remember what they looked like, I can't help but imagine my father in the image of Alexei, and the appearance of my mother is unpredictable, and everyone I have met so far is far from what I imagined my mother to be, and the few women I have seen are all cooks and maids, and some ji-wives, which are completely different from the image of my mother in my mind

I know from a few words that Messira once had an amiable mother, and when her mother was alive, Yuri was the most energetic young man in the whole family, and even in the whole of the southern plains of Zhivadin, Yuri was a good communicator, and he was a frequent visitor to the various aristocratic salons of Zhivadin, and there are some mistresses and followers in the city who admire him, but although there are many rumors, it is known that Yuri only likes the death of the Messiah's mother, the death of the Messira's mother not only hits the Messira, but also hits Yuri, and the current bearded and cynical Yuri and the former one who seems to be completely two servants often sigh first and then start talking about him when talking about Yuri, and that tone is as if mourning a broken bottle of fine wine

What was the mother of the Messiah like? What was my mother like? I can only tell myself in my heart that my mother is at least no worse than the Messiah, though I know that this is not very likely

Am I in whose considerations?

I went to sleep with the thought that I thought some dream would enter my sleep again, but this time I slept so light that I could not sleep at all, and the wind outside the window and the laughter from downstairs kept coming and made me irritable, and even later, when only the wind was left and all the drinkers had dispersed, I still could not sleep

I flipped and then, I heard the door click and I opened my eyes all at once Giovanni's snoring paused, but he cleared his nose as if in a dream, and then he continued to snore and I sighed and was about to try to fall asleep again, but, to my creep, the sound came from the other side of the door again, and the stool on top of our door was moved slightly, and it was obvious that someone was pushing our door

I opened my mouth, ready to ask something, but a hand pressed my mouth

I looked sideways, Giovanni had opened his eyes, one finger pressed his lips to signal me not to speak, and the other hand slowly withdrew from my mouth, my heart pounding, not knowing what was next

Giovanni continued to snore, and I wondered if his voice didn't seem to change from beginning to end, could he usually snore and pretend to be asleep?

The movement of the door outside did not continue for a long time, as if the people outside had decided to leave, but just as I was rejoicing, the sound of the door was heard again

I know, someone came into the house, why didn't Giovanni leave him?

The sound of footsteps on the floor, creeping towards the bed, I closed my eyes and I felt that this man had walked to the bedside, and I even imagined that he was covering the moonlight next to the bed and was approaching me

The movement was gone, and it felt like a long time had passed, but there was no movement from this man, and I remembered my infiltration that day, and I couldn't help but feel my good fortune, if I had woken up Old Man Tuke by the bedside, I would have been caught and tortured long ago

What is this guy doing? Giovanni didn't seem to move, this man was silently confronting us, what was he waiting for? Is this a thief?

Suddenly, a cool breeze blew, and my stomach seemed to be emptied

At the same time, Giovanni's snoring stopped, and I felt Giovanni next to me jump up with my quilt, I opened my eyes, and suddenly I saw a black shadow standing next to the bed, and in the next second, Giovanni covered the quilt and pressed his knee against the man, and Giovanni fell to the ground with the man

I saw Giovanni's swift falcon, his right hand clutching the candlestick beside the bed, which he had picked up when he jumped up, and before the man under the quilt could react, he struck it somewhere below

A muffled snort came, and there was no movement below

Giovanni knocked twice, then quickly leaned his back against the wall and beckoned to me, I jumped out of bed in a panic, jumped to his side, he pushed me into a corner, and then quietly moved to the door, he lightly touched the door, someone outside seemed to think something was wrong, and the sound of running and knocking downstairs broke the silence of the night

Giovanni walked up to me and said, "Victor, collect something"

"Running again?"

"They still have people," Giovanni said

We quickly put away our clothes and luggage, and then set our eyes on the man on the ground

Twenty minutes later, a large group of people with torches began to knock on the door of the tavern, and the guests began to wake up, scolding and arguing, some people opened a crack in the door, quietly looked outside, and quickly closed the door, and the old man who was guarding the door put on a leather blanket to open the door, as soon as the door was opened, these people burst into the door, and went straight upstairs, and the whole tavern jumped up, and people talked about it, and some rooms turned on and off, and the owner of the inn did not show up for a long time, Only a few young servants cautiously inquired for news

The men turned the tavern inside out, and then found nothing, and in the end, they left two men to guard the front and back doors, and the others walked out through the gates

Giovanni and I crouched behind the haystack in the stable, quietly watching all this, the man tied up with rope behind him groaned from time to time, his forehead was bruised, the corners of his eyes were bleeding, one eye was noticeably larger than the other, it looked like Giovanni had just hit here

After a little light, a man came and picked up the two people who had been left behind, and then the men dispersed together

At this time, Giovanni picked up the man on his back and jumped out of the alley with me, and we ran along the frozen river for some distance south, and then hid in a pine forest, where the sun did not see the sun all day, and it was as cold as an ice cellar, but we could only try to go through the pine forest

"Where are we going?"

"There's a village in the south of here, go there first"

"How do you know?"

"I was here when there was a war in the riverlands"

I saw that Giovanni was a little out of breath, so I stopped talking to him, and it was getting brighter and brighter, and if we ran away on the road, we would have been seen, but in the pine forest, a distance of several miles, it would have taken us several times as long to cross

Finally, on the edge of a pond, Giovanni lowered the man on his shoulder

With every Giovanni breathe, a large white mist appeared in front of him, and his breath was full of power, and he grabbed the man by the head and his clothes, and pulled him to a tree, and there was no one around here, except me, Giovanni, and this captive

The man had woken up, looking at us in horror and rage, his face was red from the cold, and he was wearing only light clothing, and in the hotel, the infiltrators had to keep their bodies agile and light, but in the wild, he would have to pay for it

Giovanni straightened his body, and then slapped his face, the man struggled to hit Giovanni, but he tripped over himself, Giovanni kicked him, and then, Giovanni found a huge stone next to him, walked to the edge of the pond, threw it with all his might, and the stone 'bumped' on the frozen pond, but the ice did not break, but there were large cracks that spread out in circles, Giovanni walked to the edge of the pond, stepped on the stones with his foot, and then walked to the side of the tree, and pulled the man over

The man began to curse Giovanni and shouted for help, but Giovanni seemed to know that no one was going to come at all, so he didn't worry about him at all, but every time the man screamed, Giovanni would beat him up, and finally, Giovanni threw him on the ice of the pond, and the creaky cracking sound of the ice was heard

The man's expression changed from anger to hatred, then to horror, and finally he stopped screaming, just looked at Giovanni and me, panting loudly

"Who are you?" Giovanni finally spoke

The man began to curse again

Giovanni shrugged his shoulders and began to throw stones onto the ice one by one, the sound of the ice shattering and the cracks getting bigger and bigger

The man looked around in horror, ice water had seeped out of the cracks, and his head was on the icy water, and he was immediately frozen on the ice

"Who are you?"

"Bastard, you coward, you're going to pay, wait until the uncle catches you"

"Victor, go find the stones," Giovanni commanded me

I turned around and went to the edge of the woods, and Giovanni took a lot of stones and threw them on the ice one by one, and the ice was so stressed that it almost crumbled

"Who are you?"

"How dare you do this to me" This person did not have the slightest remorse

Giovanni didn't throw any more stones, because the ice had begun to crumble, and the man didn't dare to move anymore, but tried to flatten his body, and then tried his best to threaten Giovanni to let him go

Giovanni looked at the man coldly

"Dog thing," the man squinted at the ice around him, "let go of me, you don't know who you're dealing with, you idiot"

"Who am I dealing with?" Giovanni's face was also blue from the cold, and his exhaled white air was damp

I rubbed my nose and wiped the snot off

The man didn't speak

The ice broke

The man screamed in amazement, half of his body invaded the icy water, and he screamed from the cold

"Who are you?" Giovanni asked again, "When you sink in, the ice here will freeze at night and people will see a pool of rotten meat here."

"I," the man's face turned blue and his lips turned white, "you let me out first"

"You say first," Giovanni rubbed his hands, looking unquestionable, "who are you and what are you here for?"

The man held on for two minutes, closing his eyes as the ice broke more and more, and he began to slowly sink downward

"I," the man opened his eyes, as if out of breath, "I'm Stanya from the Assassin Guild, ordered to assassinate you"

"Who sent you?"

"Pull me up," the man said in a trance

"Who sent you?"

"I don't know, I don't know," the man inhaled hard, "I don't know who the patron is, it's the rule, we can't ask"

"No, you know," said Giovanni, "I've dealt with Assassins and don't know my customers?" Bah, except for the frightening amount of money given, who would dare to work for someone who came from an unknown source? ”

The man's face was as white as paper, "Pull me up, please"

"Who the hell is it?" Giovanni urged, "If the ice doesn't break, you can live for an hour and half an hour in a coma, and if the ice breaks, you can live for three minutes."

The man said, "Pull me up and I'll say anything, I know who it is"

Giovanni was afraid that the man would pass out, so he pulled him up by the head, his lower body was wet and frozen in the cold wind, the man was shivering, and his expression was gone

"Say," Giovanni said

"Little East Lake City," the man said, "Little East Lake City, please have mercy."

"Little East Lake City? What are they killing me for?"

"I don't know," said the man, "yesterday afternoon, a Burke went to the office of the people of Little East Lake, and I happened to be there, and then in the evening I got the task of damning it, and let me go."

"Why did they come to kill me?"

"How do I know you're at odds with them, how do I know," the man curled up in a ball, "you're not going to kill me, are you?" Let me go."

Giovanni looked at him, wondering what Giovanni looked at me, "Victor, do you see?" ”

"What?"

"This is your compatriot" Giovanni spat a mouthful of saliva onto the ice, where the ice water was still slowly surging "Victor, you see, when you get in their way, what will they do to you now, a lot of people are blocking our way, what should you do?" ”

"I don't know," I fled

Giovanni stared at me, "No, you know"

This world belongs to men, and you kill the boy in your mind

The man said in a weak voice, "Give me some wine"

Giovanni untied the sac from his waist, uncorked it, and poured it into the man's mouth, whose teeth chattered, and the drink spilled all around

"Thank you," the man gasped with his eyes closed

"No thanks," Giovanni stood up, corked the bottle, and turned to walk towards the woods, "Victor, push him down".