We quietly left through the drainage canal of the temple.

In many places where I thought there was no road, Abiy could dig through a plank or remove a small bush to find a new path. The road was two hundred yards long, with high masonry and muddy ground on both sides. There were times when I couldn't walk, Abiy would stop, put his arm around my shoulders, and helped me over.

We stopped at the end of the drain, and Abi took a closer look at the situation outside, saying that he would wait until it was dark before leaving." As Abi looked around through the cracks in the stone, I quietly hid the flour in my arms.

This action did not escape Abi's eyes, he looked at me with shining eyes, "You have to believe Abi, there are a full half of the people now, and the food is more abundant than ever." There will definitely be a famine next year, but right now, the last thing you have to save is food. ”

I suspect that's why he didn't rob me of my flour, and of course, why I was able to find flour.

That being said, it's better to save some for food insurance for the next few days. Abi gave me some clean water, and I drank it little by little. The pain in my abdomen tormented me for a long time, making me feel like I was in a trance. My right leg is swollen and I feel more and more swollen and don't know what the cause is. I didn't tell Abi this, I was afraid he would leave me behind because I was a liability. I'm going to grit my teeth and follow him until I find a safe place.

I don't know how much Abi's words are credible, but in this case, there must be very little power left to maintain law and order, and the things that bind people's morality are as bleak as the mosque, and it is normal for thieves to loot everywhere.

After a while, Abi finally made sure that no one outside was secretly observing the mosque and motioned for me to follow him.

By this time it was so dark inside the ditch that nothing could be seen.

"I said," I whispered to Abi, "the mosque is full of dead people, and whoever wants to go just goes there, so you don't have to keep an eye on it." ”

"The sheriff summoned nine soldiers the other day." Abi said. "It's useless."

Abi doesn't seem to say the word thief.

I asked him, "Are those people out there thieves?" ”

"Theft, robbery, forcible jiān," said Abi, "a thief who does everything." ”

"You're looting, too." I said to Abi, "I see you looting the dead. ”

Abi did not answer. Just say, "We need those things." ”

I don't know what he meant by us, or if he just got the singular and plural relationship between 'I' and 'we' wrong.

"And the sheriff you said," I said to him, "he's dead." ”

"But his soldiers didn't die."

"To be honest, I didn't see any soldiers."

"But the people out there don't know." Abi said. "Those thieves. It will be a little longer before they go to the mosque and loot. Looting the dead. ”

"Did the soldiers leave?" I asked Abiy.

The soldiers Abi was talking about might have been militiamen recruited by the sheriff from the manor or the surrounding cities, and of course, the temples were always wealthy, and it was possible for them to hire skilled mercenaries.

"Leave?" Abi said, "Yes. When they arrived at the mosque, the first thing they did was to kill the men of the temple and force the women. Snatching property. They are more odious than thieves. Thieves kill for food and money. Soldiers kill because of their preferences. ”

I had nothing to say, and I limped after him.

All of a sudden. The stone bricks and planks covering the top of the ditch were gone, and the sky was filled with brilliant stars.

There was a crisp wind blowing in the south, there was no stench of dead men, no blood stains everywhere, the ground was a dry and easy road, and by the side of the road was a series of newly abandoned manors.

We continued along the path, and as we passed a Salander-esque barn, we heard someone talking. Abi told me to follow him and hide in the grass on the side.

A man on horseback walked lazily, and behind him were six men tied together with ropes. At the end of the group, a man with a stick guards these people. The man suddenly reached into a woman's skirt, and the woman screamed in panic, causing the whole team to mess up. The rider turned back and yelled at the man, who replied with a few words and used his stick to drive them away.

After the group drifted away, Abi squeezed out a few words.

"Thieves."

"Who are these people?"

"At the beginning of the disease, many slaves fled because of the death of their masters. So the owners of the manor set up a slave hunting team to hunt down the runaway slaves. Abiy's words revealed anger, "Then the lords of the manors either died or fled, and the slave hunting teams were no longer hired. But these people felt that they had not gotten enough, and they entangled a group of men, wandering around and plundering, no longer to hunt slaves, but to get slaves and money. ”

"Doesn't anyone care about them?"

"Two months ago, the town sent a force of 60 men to distribute some weapons and torches to the surrounding villages to keep them safe. But those guys fled back into the city before it got dark, and now it's borderlands. ”

"Town? Which town? ”

Abi looked at me a little confused, "Naturally it's Eureka City, where else could it be?" Why do you ask? ”

He looked at me slyly.

"No, I just didn't know I was so close to Eureka City."

"Nineteen Wikis to the south, you will see the old town of Eureka City, and across the river you will see the new town. But the town is dead. ”

"What do you mean the town is dead?"

"There are more dead than alive." "That's it," Abi said. At first people thought it was a cold disease, then they thought it was an ordinary plague, and finally everyone knew that it was too late for the catastrophe to come. ”

A small patch of dry grove showed a charred yellow color, and I could barely make out that it was a sapling used as a landscape tree. In the past, Bey and wealthy merchants would buy these saplings every year to decorate their wonderful gardens. This kind of tree will dry up and die if it is not watered for a few days, and it is a rare thing native to Rodoco, and once no one maintains it, this kind of thing cannot be stored in the desert. As he walked through the last manor, Abi retrieved the backpack from a pile of haystacks and held it over his shoulder.

"You've been here this afternoon."

"Yes, hide the good stuff. Then go back and see who you are. ”

A squirrel jumped quickly from a branch in the tree above me to another tree next door. We all looked up curiously.

For the rest of the day we didn't speak.

The wind was getting colder and colder at night, and I always wanted to find a tree hole to rest for the night. But after I saw the slave catcher, I knew that it was very dangerous to stay alone in the wilderness, and although I didn't trust Abi too much, it was better to follow him now. If Abi has bad intentions, what does he gain? I don't bother with other people's good intentions or bad intentions anymore, this kind of thing is inherently inaccurate. People may not be able to tell whether they mean good or bad. The easiest way to do this is to speculate on someone else's motives, so you can guess what they're going to do next.

So, what can Abi get from me?

He shouldn't be a member of the slave catcher, and if he was, he would have betrayed me just now, and I wouldn't have been able to escape. So who is he? What if there was more than one slave catcher. Maybe there are all kinds of slave catchers, thieves, bandits, wandering banners, and marauding samurai around? It's all very likely, and Abiy could be one of them.

My head was a mess, and I felt like I couldn't walk as I walked down a gravel beach. The river beach is almost vertically downward. I'm going to get out of here. Otherwise, it would be impossible to go up to the river.

Abiy stopped to watch, and was alarmed a few times without any reason. Pulling me into the bushes to the side, looking too cautious. I don't know why he reminded him so much, I remember when I led a few soldiers across the Ryazan River, I was so careful not to cross the river, and now there is just a group of sick Salanders around here, and everyone knows that these people are a rabble, don't worry.

"Wait a minute, follow me." Abi said.

He bent down, quickly crossed a small wood, took the bag in his arms, and walked down the riverbank. For a moment, I thought he was going to leave me, so I looked around to see if it was some kind of trick, like a man with a stick coming out from behind or something, but there was nothing around, and I had to take a few steps to follow him. The slope was piled with small, dense rocks that I used to dare to go down on horseback, but now it was as difficult for me as the high cliffs. Still, I sat down, propped my cane in front of me, slowed down, and slowly slid down.

Abiy ran across a rocky beach and hid in a clump of grass by the river. This posture is like hiding from the rangers on the battlefield.

A terrible whistle made my scalp tingle.

When I turned back, I saw a black knight high on the riverbank, wearing a gray cloak and a few loops of rope hanging from his shoulders.

"Run!" Abi stood up, the package behind him looking amazingly large.

The knight ran down from the riverbank, and I felt like a mountain had collapsed.

Suddenly, my staff seemed to turn into a sword, and I instinctively made the infantry's movements as it resisted the onslaught of the cavalry, lowering my legs and leveling my weapon at the enemy cavalry. But Abi's hand grabbed me by the arm and dragged me like a pincer to the river. Isn't this looking for death? I can't cross the river.

When the knight realized our intentions, he slowed down and slowly approached us.

"Who is this?" I asked Abiy.

"Slave hunter." Abi said, and I now understand why he was panicking, "Go to the river." ”

This part of the road is extremely difficult, with knights playing a game of cat and mouse in the back and a river in front of them that must die.

At the river, Abi looked at the moon as if to guess the time, and then he looked around at the dark surface of the river, as if waiting for something.

The knight was so close that he untied the rope and seemed to have calculated that we would not be able to escape.

"Tie yourselves up." This guy speaks Wikiyan. "So as not to suffer."

"My lord," said Abi, "we are from the village of Fit, not fugitive slaves. ”

"It's all the same." Said the knight.

"Our village is protected by the city of Eureka."

"Let the sheriff save you, bastard." The man said, "Creelians are all mongrels. ”

This fellow's shirt shimmered with iron, and it was a dull blue, as if death had come.

"Bastard!" He cursed at the end and prepared to draw his sword.

An arrow pierced him in the arm, followed by a second and a third, puffing into his belly.

The knight fell to the ground screaming.

Behind us, a brisk boat touched the riverbank, and several Creelians jumped into the water with crossbows on their backs and walked ashore.