When Arthur and the others walked down the deep alley outside St. Giles' Church, the aisle was too narrow for the two to walk side by side.

Even a full-grown man can only hunch his shoulders as much as possible to keep his shirt from touching wet, mossy walls.

They could only line up, with Officer Tony in front, Arthur at the end, and Dickens, Tom, and Little Adam in the middle.

As they walked, Adam stopped abruptly, obsessively in front of a shack made of planks and wire extensions.

Tom pulled Adam's arm without looking back, until he found that he had encountered resistance, then he looked back at Adam who had stopped, and asked suspiciously, "Child, what's wrong?" ”

Adam blinked, pointed to the house that had been stitched together with wire and planks, and said, "I want to go back and see my friend." ”

Arthur glanced at a nail that hung crookedly from the door panel, rusty red.

It reads 27 Church Lane, the home where Adam lived for nine years.

Arthur turned to Dickens and asked, "Charles, aren't you busy today?" ”

Dickens laughed: "I've been here for the last month, that's my job, it doesn't matter if I'm busy or not." ”

"That's good."

Arthur turned around and accidentally rubbed mud on the shoulder of his coat.

He raised his hand and knocked lightly on the door, asking, "Is anyone home?" ”

Who knew that after a long time, I didn't hear anyone respond.

Then Adam stood up, and he spoke, "Mr. Hastings, you don't need to say hello to enter the door here, we have four families living here, and this door is shared by everyone. ”

With that, he came to the door, put his hands on the lower edge of the door, and lifted it to the top of his head, opening a gap of several feet from the bottom.

Little Adam's face was flushed, and he could tell that he was struggling all over his body.

"Please hurry up and get in, I won't be holding for long."

Seeing this, Dickens hurriedly stepped forward to take over his work, but as soon as he exerted his strength, he heard a knock and unloaded the entire door.

"This ......" Dickens held the door in his hand, his face full of confusion: "I...... Did I break something? ”

Adam shook his head and said, "No, it's bad in itself, and we just use it to block the wind." ”

Dickens breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this: "That's good." ”

He set the door aside, and everyone could get a glimpse of the inside of the shack.

The first thing that catches your eye is a semi-open-air aisle that is not too long, and the reason why it is said to be semi-open-air is because the top of the aisle is simply made of wooden planks to keep out the rain.

On either side of the aisle are stoves made of rubble and rubble that can be found everywhere in the ruined houses of St. Giles.

On the stove was a blackened cylinder of iron pot, in which some of the rain had accumulated from the previous night, and the corpses of several unrecognizable black flying insects were floating on the water.

There was still some graying charcoal left in the stove, and at the edge of the stove was a table leg that had been picked up from nowhere.

When Adam saw the iron pot, he was stunned for a moment, and then muttered, "This must have been done by Kyle, and he forgot to take the pot and the rest of the fuel back after boiling the tea, and if his father found out, he would probably be beaten again." ”

When Arthur heard this, he took the iron pot and threw it outside, saying, "Then let's go and get it back for Kyle." Is Kyle the friend you're looking for today? ”

Adam shook his head as he led them into the stairwell and walked towards it: "No, don't take it for him, I'll glad to see him beaten." ”

Arthur was stunned when he heard this: "Why? ”

Adam said, "Kyle is not my friend, he is two years older than me, he is taller than me and stronger than me, and he fights with me a lot. ”

Tom was also interested, and he was eager to know about his son: "Why are you fighting?" ”

In the face of his father's questions, Adam did not hide his grievances with his enemies.

"There are too many beams between us," he began, sometimes for a penny in the brick crack, sometimes because I stole the newspaper he intended to sell on the street, sometimes because he and his minions looked down on me. ”

"Look down on you?" Tony laughed and said, "Adam, relax, there will always be people who will look down on you in this world." I patrol every day, and I am looked down upon every day. ”

Adam said with a serious face: "Kyle didn't dare to look down on the police, he only dared to look down on me."

He said he could get six pennies a day for working in the factory, whereas I could only get five for that.

But he didn't think much about it, and he was able to get six pennies not because he did a better job than me, but because he had an aunt who worked as a foreman in the factory.

He doesn't know it, and he still thinks his rudeness is manly.

I used to work in a textile mill with him, and when he was not working, he liked to pick up Robin's skirt with a stick and tease her, 'Hey, let's take a good look at how white your thighs are.' ’

Robin was made to cry by him, and I couldn't stand it, so I grabbed Kyle's head from behind, threw him to the ground, and rode on top of him and beat him.

Kyle's nose was bleeding from me, and he covered his face and cried like a leper dog.

I was on the verge of winning, but the bitches under his command rushed up to me like crazy and punched me like crazy in order to get an extra penny from Kyle's aunt, kicking me in the stomach and trying to separate us.

But I just wouldn't let go, I had to give him some color.

Until his aunt came running with a stick, and she called me 'little bastard' and hit me hard on the back with a stick.

I was in so much pain that I had to let go, and since then I've been forbidden to work in the factory......"

At this point, Adam fell silent.

Seeing him like this, Arthur suddenly remembered the information he had received when he was chatting with Adam earlier.

"So that's why you're being driven out into the street by your family, and you're not allowed to go home and sleep unless you get five pennies a day," he asked. ”

Little Adam had tears in his eyes, and he nodded.

Arthur smiled and reached out to rub his head, then patted Tom on the shoulder: "I have to say, Tom, you earned it, this is a pretty good boy." ”

Tom also smiled and nodded, "I think so too." ”

He crouched down, wiped his son's tears with his fingers, and held him around his neck.

Dickens also smiled and encouraged: "Boy, this is nothing. The reason why they want to kick you out of the house is not because you are doing badly, but because they are jealous of you, that you have something that they cannot buy for five pence a day, and that is your character and conscience! ”

Adam wiped the corners of his eyes with a smile and said, "Dad, you better put me down." ”

"What's wrong?"

"I've got to dig up my hidden treasures out of the ground, I don't need them anymore, but I'm going to give them all to Robin. Robin lives here too, and she needs these things more than I do right now. ”

Tony whistled and quipped, "Alas! Adam, can't you see that you're still a merry seed? Robin, I remember the name, the girl you rescued from that little bastard Kyle, right? You ghostly clever. ”

Little Adam blushed, neither admitting nor denying it, he just raised his hand and pointed to the roof: "She lives on the second floor, the third room at the top of the stairs." ”