I didn't know you were such a vampire

Even though Cesare had seen Joya galloping on the roof at night, he never knew that this gentle and demure elder sister could swim. Even if he knew, after seeing the rolling waves of the Tiber River, he didn't feel that A delicate and frail girl can survive in such a rapid current.

This is the most charming spring among the four seasons, but it is also the most turbulent flood season of the Tiber River.

On that day, soldiers from the Holy See Guards were on both sides of the Tiber River, and even many servants of Roman nobles joined the search, but no one was found from the place where Joia fell into the river to the vicinity of Ostia. The man who fell into the river, just after nightfall, a servant sent by the ambassador of Ferrara fished out a bead chain from the river bank.

That was the decoration Joya fixed on her hair that day. There were a few strands of naked hair wrapped around the bead chain. Under the light of the torch in the hands of the searchers, it shone with pale golden light.

Further down the Tiber River is the Tyrrhenian Sea.

When the search team from the Vatican searched along both sides of the Tiber River to Ostia on the Tyrrhenian Sea, no nobles had set foot here in the poor area on the edge of Rome on the upper reaches of the Tiber River.

In the early spring, the Apennine Peninsula is full of cold spring weather. After nightfall, there is less sunlight and the temperature drops sharply. Every family in the slums has searched for the clothes that can withstand the cold at home. The whole family put on clothes and leaned against the leeward Keeping warm, he talked about the interesting stories of the past few days, and then talked about the two noble men and women who rode horses into the slums in the afternoon.

"Have you lost your way?" said a little boy, "but the horse is really good-looking, and so is the noble lady riding the horse."

As soon as he finished speaking, his mother knocked on the head, so he could only "ouch" and shrank to a corner with his head in his arms.

Joya was sitting behind the window of an abandoned house. The window had no glass. The wind brought a few drops of rain into the house, and even the child's murmurs were brought into her ears. Wrapped tightly in the dirty blanket that was draped over his body.

Although this house was abandoned by the previous Roman residents, the people who moved here used the tools and bricks they could find to fill the house in detail. A bed, and a chair with missing legs and hands found elsewhere.

Near the door and window, there is a small fire, and the residents in the house rely on this fire to resist the cold in early spring.

There was a pot on the fire, and a black-haired, black-eyed foreign woman was sitting opposite Qiao Ya, holding a chipped ceramic bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, scooped a spoonful into the pot, and poured it into the pot. Then she stood up, brought the bowl in front of Qiao Ya tremblingly, and said something in Arabic. Qiao Ya was stunned for a while, and wanted to decline politely, but then she thought that the old woman didn't understand Italian very well, so she said something in Arabic. Still smiling, he took the bowl with both hands and took a sip of the soup in the bowl.

This is the way of vegetable soup, but they can't afford fresh vegetables, so they can only find some wild vegetables outside Rome to cook the soup. It seems that they put a small piece of beef in the soup to entertain Joya, the guest.

Common people couldn't afford salt, and the soup didn't have any seasoning except beef, so the taste was naturally not good, but she still drank it all in her stomach.Although it was not a delicacy, such a bowl of soup still made her feel much warmer.

At this time, a boy who looked twelve or thirteen years old came into the house with a bundle of dry wood. He first glanced at Qiao Ya, then walked to the edge of the fire, and put the dry wood into the fire one by one. pile.

After the firewood was added, the fire became more intense, illuminating the room brightly.

This is the home of Lucia and Alicia. To be precise, it is a shelter from the wind and rain that her family found after they traveled across the ocean and came to Rome.The life of pagans in Rome is very difficult, and because the two sisters have found a job in the Vatican, the lives of their mother and brother are slightly better than other families in the slums.

For example, they can afford beef to make soup.

Lucia once introduced her family to Qiao Ya. Her parents gave birth to two girls and two boys. The direct reason for the decision to cross the ocean.Lucia and Alicia are the second and third children, and they are currently the two oldest children in the family. They also have a 14-year-old brother Abud.

That is, the boy who walked in holding the firewood.

Because of insufficient nutritional intake, he looks younger than his actual age, but he is very smart and sensible. After his two sisters went to work in the Vatican, he stayed at home and took care of his mother and other sick neighbors. He is a very reliable kid.

The most important thing is that he is excellent in water, and he has rescued several children who fell into the water when he was in his hometown.

After Joya heard about Lucia and Alicia's younger brother Abud, who was excellent in water, she had a rough plan in her mind.

As early as when she had just returned to the Vatican, from the questions Juan asked her, she guessed that the arrest of the Totti family by the Florentine guards was related to Rodrigo, and Alicia heard the news, It also confirmed her guess.

In the current Totti family, Martina died of illness, Ricardo was wronged and died, Arturo, Sirio, Lisa and grandma Elisa were still alive and dead, and the young Marco escaped alone.

No matter how dark and quiet the night is, as long as she thinks about the current situation of the Totti family, she will never be able to fall asleep anyway. She keeps her eyes open every night, staring at the painting of Isaac offering sacrifices on the top of the bed.

She decides to leave the Vatican and go to Florence to find Marco.

She could no longer sit and wait in this place of music and dance, and then hear the bad news from Florence again.

Escaping from the Vatican is easy to say, she can jump out of the Orsini Palace that imprisoned her from the window along the eaves every night, but she also knows that as long as the Orsini Palace finds out that she has escaped, it will probably take less than a day. He will be captured by the Holy See guards on the way to Florence.

She needs someone to help her, to help her put a blind eye on the Vatican.

The Tiber River, which traverses the city of Rome and then flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea, was already in her preliminary plan, but the Tiber River entered the flood season in winter and spring, even if she was in the swimming event of the school sports meeting when she was a student I have won the ranking, but I still dare not challenge the river easily.

And the younger brother Abud, who Lucia said was excellent in water, made her escape plan fully realized.

After the plan is ready, what is missing is an opportunity.

Joya originally planned to implement this plan after the wedding was over, and she moved into Count Pesaro's residence in Rome with a little freedom of movement.

However, Count Pesaro was beyond her expectation. Before the wedding, he proposed an invitation to ride a river. After Count Pesaro's personal guards and Julia left, Joya took the invitation and almost To laugh out loud.

Horse riding is a very dangerous sport, especially side riding. Although there are side saddles for side riding in this era, the incidence of horse falling accidents is still high.Joya had fallen many times when she was learning how to ride a horse with the riding teacher of the Orsini Palace in her teens. It can be said that Joya was invited by Count Pesaro to ride a horse to visit the Tiber River this time. A fall from the back is an extremely common accident, and it will never be suspected.

And the only accident in this accident was that Qiao Ya was beside the Tiber River which was in the flood season.

After Qiao Ya fell into the river in a feigned panic, she immediately held her breath and drifted downstream along the river.

From time to time, she came up to the surface to breathe, and then sank to the bottom, and each time she sank, she would take one of her belongings from her body, or a bead chain in her hair, or a lace tied around her wrist, and let them float down the water ; and every time he emerged from the water, he determined the distance between himself and the point of fall, and then desperately looked for an opportunity to return to the shore.

It's just that she had expected it well before. The Tiber River was full of water during the flood season. It took her too much effort just to keep it from sinking to the bottom and not to be swept away by the undercurrent under the water. It was almost impossible to get to the shore. possible.

Just when her physical strength was on the verge of exhaustion, she finally floated down the river to a rope that Abud had tied between the two banks of the river the night before, and stretched across the river, and with all her strength, she hooked the rope with her hands.

At this time, Abud, who had been waiting on the bank for a long time, immediately entered the water, paddling the water with one hand, and grasping the rope with the other to ensure that he would not be washed away by the current. Then he swam to Qiao Ya in the middle of the river, and pulled the exhausted She slowly swam back to the shore, took out a small knife from her bosom, and cut off the rope in the middle of the river.

Then this young man, who looked thin but extremely strong, carried her on his back and went around to a deserted place, returning to the dirty and crowded slum where she and Count Pesaro had passed by.

The search team went farther and farther along the flow of the Tiber River, almost approaching the mouth of the Tiber River, but they didn't know that the person they were looking for had returned to the edge of Rome. A broken blanket with a disgusted face, drinking vegetable soup that even the servants of the noble family would not drink.

After Qiao Ya finished drinking the vegetable soup, she put the ceramic bowl aside, while the old woman took the bowl, filled another spoonful of vegetable soup into the bowl, and handed it to Abd who was about to sit down.

Abud took the bowl and drank the vegetable soup in one gulp, then wiped the corners of his lips with his dirty sleeve, then buried his head and stuffed the firewood into the fire.

After a while, the old woman walked over slowly again, handed a cloth bag in her arms to Qiao Ya, and then said something in Arabic. When Qiao Ya was in a daze, she heard Abd Said in substandard Italian: "My mother said, here are all my clothes. If you want to leave Rome, you need to change your clothes before leaving."

Joya knew that Aboud usually worked as a helper on the dock on the banks of the Tiber River, so it was not surprising that he could speak some Italian.

She took the cloth bag, opened a corner, but saw the clean and tidy fabric inside, she paused for a moment, and then looked at Abud.

Abud was still wearing the dirty clothes from when he dived to rescue her in the afternoon, because they hadn't been properly starched, and after the clothes dried, they were crumpled and stuck to his thin body.

In the cloth bag that Lucia's mother gave her, there were probably Abod's best clothes.

Holding the cloth bag containing Abud's clothes in her hand, she calmly took out a pearl from her bosom and wrapped it in the blanket on her body.

This pearl comes from the pair of earrings she often wears. Before she leaves for an appointment, she has already removed the gemstones and pearls from the jewelry she often wears and sewed them in the pocket of her underwear for her convenience. After escaping, you will not starve to death on the street. After the jewelry is removed, although the value is greatly reduced, even if it is sold and made it to the Vatican, no one will recognize the original appearance of these jewelry, let alone the original wearer. .

After making sure that neither Lucia's mother nor Abud saw her small movements, she took the blanket off her body, folded it carefully and put it aside, then looked at Abud and said, "Please tell me Say thank you to your mother." She paused, then said, "Also, thank you too."

Aboud glanced at her, and then said something in Arabic to his mother.

The woman waved her hand with a smile, saying some kind of impolite words, while Qiao Ya smiled at her, and asked Abud: "Excuse me, can I use your afternoon to cut ropes?" lend me your knife?"

Abud was stunned: "Knife?"

"Yes, the knife." Qiao Ya squinted her eyes and smiled, "Can you lend me a moment, I'm of great use."