It's even easier to rent an apartment in the East End.

Many farmers bankrupt by the Grain Act have flocked to Beckland's factories, and undocumented rents have become the norm in the chaotic East End. On the other hand, there is not much security in such an environment, and the gangsters here do much more than the police, and everyone just wants to live with a bite to eat.

The owner was a very cold, thin man, missing a little finger of his right hand, and he held a string of rusty iron keys in his hand, but seeing the bulging bag around his waist, Esther suspected that there was a pistol under his coat.

Maybe it's Esther's small body that can't live for two days in the eyes of a man, and after he collected a total of ten sucks for two weeks, he didn't even ask for a deposit, he just dragged a key and threw it to Esther roughly, and didn't care about anything else: "What you want is with a window." ”

Although she felt the contempt and disdain of the other party, Esther was happy to make such an impression on others.

Anyway, she could go somewhere else at any time, and she couldn't leave too many traces like she did on Lily of the Valley Street.

There was nothing in the room except for a bed that was so hard that it could be put down that it could be used as a tabletop, and a few hooks nailed to the wall. There were no pillows or matching bedding on the bed, and at most it was half a meter higher than the ground. The already low ceiling makes the room look cramped, and it is really simple to the extreme.

No wonder you don't even need a deposit, the most valuable thing in this house is probably the door lock that comes with this key. Esther muttered, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting the plank down, the barbs left behind by the shoddy work poked at her fingers, causing Esther to sigh.

Xiao Qi struggled to squeeze out of her satchel, landed on the edge of the window, and gasped: "Ha, it's suffocated." Why do you keep putting your hands on the bag. ”

"Ah sorry, I'm a little nervous."

"I doubt yours can survive long in the Eastside." Xiao Wu also poked his head out of the small pocket of his satchel and said a cool word.

"I'm not going to make money in the East End," Esther pulled her organ out of her backpack and wiped it gently, "Anyway, there is a steam subway, I can go to various areas to play, wander around avoiding the officers' reprimands, and come back to the East End in the evening." ”

Xiao Qi tilted his head: "I won't stay here for long, I have to leave for the suburbs of Beckland for a while." ”

"Huh? Do you have a plan? Esther checked the opening and closing of the window, but as soon as she pulled it up, the choking smell of smoke from the street kept pouring in, mixing with the musty smell of dampness in the house, and Esther quickly closed the window again.

"Go find someone who might know."

Xiao Wu seemed surprised, it seemed to know who Xiao Qi was going to: "Are you serious!?" ”

"Of course, how many others have survived from the Tertiary to the present day? He is most likely to know. ”

Esther's curious gaze swirled between the two, but no one gave her an explanation this time, so she could only keep a bunch of questions in her mind for the time being.

However, she also noticed that the personal pronoun that Xiao Qi said was "him" again.

It's terrible.

"Then you're leaving tomorrow?"

"Well, because I don't want Him to notice you, it's much safer to find Him in the suburbs than in Beckland. But I can only find Him when He is willing to see me. ”

"Sounds mysterious, but it's because of some extraordinary ability?" Esther's brow furrowed, "Aren't you dangerous?" ”

Xiao Qi laughed: "There is nothing in this world that is completely undangerous, I will be fine, but I still have to ask for a hair of yours." ”

Esther reached out and pulled a bang down from her forehead: "No wonder you always remember me, and you can still find Lily of the Valley Street, it turns out that this is the case." Sooner or later, I'll have to be bald by you. ”

Xiao Qi laughed twice, swallowed the strand of hair into his abdomen, and the white circle in his right eye disappeared again: "Then I'm looking forward to that day too much, I will definitely laugh at you happily." ”

——

A few days later.

Klein followed Mike Joseph and accompanied him on his interview in the East End, and their guide was Kohler Sr., who hired the middle-aged dock laborer for two soles a day at Mike's insistence, and asked Kohler Sr. to help give a more detailed and in-depth introduction to the situation in the East End.

Soon after they left the café, they came to an intersection, and Mike saw a dozen children in tattered clothes and empty eyes gathered around the street, wiping their mouths with handkerchiefs, intending to walk over and give them some pennies.

The homeless old Kohler stopped Mike: "Those are thieves!" ”

"Thieves? What about their parents? Or is this all controlled by gangsters? Mike, a veteran journalist, has heard that gangs will control these street children to steal or beg, which is of course easier and cheaper than adults.

Kohler Sr. told him what he knew about it, and a lot of information came from the workhouses he had been in: the children were either orphans, or their parents were thieves, and the gangsters behind them would even teach them how to steal, and sometimes the young children would inevitably be caught for stealing.

"I remember the youngest thief ever caught on this street, only six years old, alas, six years old......"

Old Kohler remembered his sadness and did not speak again for a while.

Klein narrowed his eyes, "Who do they seem to be around?" ”

Old Kohler sniffed the crumpled cigarette in his pocket, and then carefully put her back: "It should be little Hamel, she showed up once two days ago and brought brown bread to the group of children." The same should be true today. ”

Mike was visibly stunned: "Philanthropist? ”

"Hahaha, we don't know, no one in the East End is going to pay attention to this," Old Kohler laughed, the old wrinkles on his face softened a lot, "and no one is going to do what she's doing here." The last time she first appeared, many people thought that she was more likely to be a human trafficker than a noble lady who did good deeds......"

Mike was even more intrigued, after all, it was not common for such characters to appear in the East End, and there were no rumors before: "Can we go over and have a look?" Maybe you can stop by and interview her? ”

Old Kohler's brows immediately furrowed: "I don't know if there will be risks, she looks like a mysterious person, and it can be seen from the fact that she can still appear." And the kids next to you are all there, so you have to keep an eye on your wallet. ”

Mike turned to Klein, "Since she's willing to share food with others, she's not going to be someone who can't communicate." Sherlock, what do you think? ”

Crane originally disapproved, but he was sensitive to ordinary people's perception, allowing him to hear the harmonica sound coming from the wind.

It sounded familiar, but it took him a few seconds to remember.

[Don't ask me where I'm from, my hometown is far away, why wander, wander far away......]

Even if all that was heard was the harmonica, Klein instantly filled it with the lyrics.

Did Russell the Great still leave this song? Klein was completely impressed.

"Let's go check it out. But we also need to be vigilant so that this is not a trap for some kind of scam. The East End is a place full of forest laws, and pure kindness only attracts jackals. Klein pushed his glasses and suppressed the excitement in his heart, thanks to the "Joker"'s ability to regulate facial expressions, he would not show any abnormalities because of mood swings, and still maintained the "Sherlock Moriarty" detective's rational reasoning style.

But he had an unbelievable guess in his mind—a strange one, but it was as if a little flame of hope was burning his heartbeat, and Crane was desperate to find out who the lady really was.

Mike's pen moved quickly, as if he was jotting down this sentence: "It makes sense, if that person is too dangerous, we can just take a look." ”

"Hamel. According to the rumors circulating in these streets, her voice is very young, Hamel is her self-name, we usually call her Little Hamel, but the children call her Hamel Angel. ”

Knowing that there really is an "angel" in this world, Klein tugged at the corners of his mouth, sincerely hoping that this is just a nickname, not the real identity of that "Hamel".

As they got closer, they saw something more concrete.

Mike didn't know, of course, but as Crane listened to the increasingly melodious harmonica sound, and watched the children immersed in the music, their eyes gradually brightening, he easily remembered the legend of "Hamel's Pied Piper" - the story of the Pied in Clothes took away the rats that plagued the town, but because the mayor refused to pay, the Pied Piper played music at midnight, attracting and taking away the children of the town, except for a child with crutches and inconvenient legs.

Looking at it this way, she looks more like a human trafficker!

Klein finished complaining in his heart, looked over the group of children in front of him who were munching on black bread and listening to the tune obediently, and looked at the person who was surrounded by them:

If it weren't for the elder Kohler's use of the pronoun "she", it would have been hard to tell from the size of the black and green cloak that this was a lady. She was not tall, her fingers pressed against the harmonica were not as rough and puffy as those of the washer, her fingers were white and her nails were neat, and she even wore an iron face-covering mask under the hood of her cloak, revealing only the soft curve of her chin and the crook of her lips. She wore strap-on leather shoes that made it easy to move, and the rough shoes and linen trousers peeking out from under her cloak also showed that she was not in a good financial situation.

The lady bulged out under the cloak on her side, and she was supposed to have a satchel inside.

Seeing this lady's dress, Klein's first reaction was "witch", but her sneaky appearance is difficult to reminiscent of an image like "philanthropist".

But the admiration on the faces of the children was not fake, they genuinely liked the lady, especially the music she played.

At the end of the song, after the lady put down the harmonica, Klein's second reaction was that the smile felt familiar to him.

The ragged children around did not finish the piece of black bread at once, but each kept a portion of it in his bosom and continued to gather around the lady, and the child, who looked the oldest and had the cleanest face, stepped forward and whispered if she could play another song.

His voice was cautious, his face crimson, nervous to the point of almost reverent worship.

The voice of this "Hamel" is indeed very young, gentle and soft: "Sorry, there seem to be a few guests today, let's disperse first." ”

The children remained quiet, even though the two youngest children were disappointed. It's just that several teenage children glared at the old Kohler and his group in annoyance, one of them stumbled on his foot, and almost didn't hit them, and when Crane subconsciously reached out to help him, the lady's voice rang out:

"Rabbit."

Mike and Crane didn't understand what the lady was talking about for a moment, but the kid who had almost hit him dodged away, avoiding Crane's arm. The boy, who was in his early teens, looked up, grimaced at the two of them from under his brown hair like a mess of seaweed, and then quickly disappeared into the streets like the other children, looking for their target for the day.

It turned out that the boy just now wanted to make the first order of the day, but stopped after the lady called out his nickname. However, even if he didn't stop, he would still be caught by Klein, and he who had been promoted to Sequence Seven "Magician" would not be able to be stolen by someone under such a small trick.

It was not good to communicate with the lady just like that, and she put the harmonica under her cloak, revealing a little of the patterned waistcoat and white shirt inside, and Crane could feel the eyes under the hood looking at her, full of doubt and thought.

Her voice was still so gentle and calm: "Sorry, it's their survival instinct. ”

Mike, who is most interested in this "Hamel", stepped forward: "It's okay, after all, you helped us out." I'm a journalist, and I'm here to interview the residents of the East End. You don't feel like an ordinary worker, I wonder if you'd like to talk to us? ”

However, the answer was destined to disappoint Mike, and the lady shook her head and said, "I'm also new to the East End, and I'm afraid I don't know as much about this side as the old gentleman next to you." ”

"I see, were you handing out food to those children just now?"

"All I can offer is a little brown bread, and if I have more, I'll be out of luck."

Mike subconsciously asked, "Unlucky?" Why do you say that? ”

The lady chuckled, and the familiarity she brought to Klein became clearer: "Of course, because there will be people who covet it, even if it is not these black breads that make them crave, it may be my possessions, my usefulness." That's the case in the Eastern District, Mr. Reporter, if a resident of the Eastern District is not able to protect himself, then showing off his wealth is no different from committing suicide. ”

Klein tugged at the brim of his hat and cast a shadow between his eyebrows, "Then why do you do such a conspicuous thing?" ”

The lady was silent for a few seconds before she spoke: "There are many reasons why I want to say it, because I like it, because I want to do it, and because I am lucky enough to get me out of those terrible things and not be contaminated with bad luck." ”

She lifted her head, her hood slid back two inches, revealing an iron mask that covered most of her face, and a pair of pale and clear gray eyes: "And because I'm taking advantage of those children, gentlemen, I won't deny it." ”