Whispering Verse

"The date of the newspaper is... This is the newspaper from the birth month of this year. The destination is correct, this is the Green Lake area, and there is a high probability that it is not the city of Mikaela Blast Furnace, but the city of Green Lake."

Not leaving in a hurry, Xia De narrowed his eyes slightly, used the thaumaturgy [Echo of Blood] to look around, and then observed very fresh blood. Searching along the bloodstains, I found a place where pigs, muttons and chickens were placed separated by red bricks and stones:

"It's not a tavern. Even if a tavern sells food, it won't be so well-prepared. It looks like this is a restaurant or hotel storage room, and the area is not small. The ingredients and drinks are not very high-end, not noble clubs or high-end that require reservations." The restaurant; but it is very clean, and the ingredients are also sorted, which shows that the business here is very good.”

He concluded in his mind, using [Red Butterfly Illusion Technique] to disguise himself, and then walked towards the exit of the underground storage room. The basement is connected to the top by stone steps, but the door to the top is not a vertical door like the basement of Shade's house, but a trap door embedded in the ground.

Xia De pushed the door, and when he found that it was not locked, he directly opened a gap. The eyes look out through the gap, and the outside is the storage room on the ground, with bacon and peppers hanging on the walls, dinner plates and wine glasses on the shelves, and a bag of soybeans and potatoes piled up in the corner.

The size of the room is not very large, there are no windows, and the door is closed. So Xia De came to the ground through the trap door again, stuck to the door to listen to the sound outside, and confirmed that the restaurant or the hotel's kitchen was outside the door.

"It does look like a hotel."

It's around nine-thirty in the morning, and if it's a restaurant, it's not even on fire at this point.

The chefs who were busy were ordinary people, so Xia De walked out of the storage room generously, and no one could find him. However, Shad did not enter the front of the hotel through the kitchen door, but left through the back door where the kitchen connected to the alley.

A restaurant or hotel kitchen will have a back door for trash, no matter which city you are in.

"This time the door is actually inside the hotel, so it's not convenient to act at any time now. The business here is very good, and I can't buy the entire hotel directly with money."

Xia De thought in his heart.

When I came to the narrow alley, I saw a series of low-rise buildings. There was gray mist floating in the air, and that mist mixed with the smell of spoiled food leftovers, forming an extremely disgusting smell. The wanted notices and blurry old newspapers posted on the walls have turned yellow, and the obscene patterns graffitied by someone are also covered by various dirt. The brass steam pipe is fixed to the ground with a keyhole, and the entire pipe is located on the central axis of the alley. Not far from the back door of the hotel, the pipe buried in garbage is even leaking.

The water vapor mixed with the rancid smell made the environment here even more unbearable.

Surprised by Xia De's appearance, the wild dog with skin ringworm fled in a panic from the garbage dump outside the door. The barking of the dogs startled a flock of crows pecking at the alley floor, and the birds left behind creepy cries as they flew into the foggy gray sky.

Gloomy, dull, and dilapidated, this is Xia De's first impression of the city:

"Although I have long heard that the development of Green Lake City is not very good, it is also... possible that this is a slum."

The narrow alley even has a curved arc, and the fork of the alley can be seen on the left hand side, and it is not known where the end leads. Not far to the right, the houses on both sides are connected to form a covered bridge, and the tower can be seen across the covered bridge, and the street seems to be farther away.

"Turn left into the labyrinthine alleys of the city, turn right to the main street."

He summed up the current situation, but he didn't leave immediately. Instead, he reached out and knocked on the lid of the metal trash can beside him.

There are not many places on the lid that can be regarded as "clean". Xia De had to avoid the dry sticky phlegm and animal feces before he dared to drop his fingers:

"Is anyone home?"

He got no response, so he opened the lid of the trash can himself. Peeking inside, wearing a gray short-sleeved top in early spring weather, holding a spotted puppy in his arms

The boy, huddled in the trash can, timidly looked at Xia De who came with his head,

There was also a strong smell in the barrel, and he put the old quilt and some newspapers under his body. Before the boy timidly opened his mouth, it was the frail black and white spotted puppy that barked fiercely at Xia De a few times.

Shade ignored the dog, but locked eyes with the boy for a moment, beckoning to him as the latter grew more and more frightened: "Come out and ask you some questions. I'll give you food."

As he spoke, he took a step back, and at an angle where he couldn't see clearly in the bucket, he took out the bread and a few cubes of sugar in a paper bag from his pocket. The reason why he didn't give money was because Xia De didn't know whether the boy had a safe way to turn money into food.

I don't know if it's Xia De's amazing affinity, or the temptation of food is too great. The boy whose limbs were as thin as a match first threw the puppy out of the trash can, and then he climbed out with great effort.

But he didn't dare to get close to Xia De, but picked up his companion, leaned against the trash can, and stared at the bag of bread that Xia De was holding. "I feel bad all of a sudden."

The stranger sighed softly, and asked:

"First test whether you can speak—where is this place? City name, street name. What is your name, and how old are you." The boy pressed his chapped lips and waited for five or six seconds before saying:

"This is Green Lake City. I can't read, but people say this is Rotten Worm Alley. This is behind the Green Lake Hotel, and the street outside is Owl Street. My name is John, and I am thirteen years old."

But his height also looked like he was five or six years old, which is a symptom of severe malnutrition. "Little John?"

Xia De nodded, and then searched his memory about the map of Green Lake City. While thinking about it, he took out a piece of white bread from the paper bag and threw it to the boy. After the boy put down the puppy and caught the bread in a panic, he tore off a small piece and threw it to the thin puppy, and then he wolfed it down.

"Do you have water? I have other questions, so don't choke yourself to death."

Xia De said again, the boy nodded quickly, crawled back to the trash can to find a wooden cup - it looked exactly like the ones in the hotel warehouse, then ran back dozens of steps, bent over to brush away the garbage on the ground , showing the imperceptible faucet and taking a glass of water.

Most of the external faucets in this alley have special purposes. The boy occupied the trash can here, largely because of this faucet.

After the boy finished eating the piece of bread, Xia De, who was waiting patiently, continued to ask, "You've been living here?"

"Yes."

It was still a very short answer, and Xia De also understood that the other party lived off the garbage thrown out of the hotel, so he gave the boy another piece of bread.

"Green Lake Hotel, how is the business this spring?"

"Very good, better than the winter business. Recently they throw out more kitchen waste, and I found a fried fish that only ate two bites yesterday."

"Very good. So, have any strange things happened around here recently? For example, there are strange noises at night, or the garbage thrown out by the hotel is strange."

In fact, he had already finished asking what he wanted to know, and he continued to ask questions only because since he still had bread in his hand, he naturally had an excuse to give it away.

The boy thought for a while, shook his head, and looked at Xia De with the new bread, wondering if he should return the bread because he didn't answer the question. Of course Shad would not do this, he gave the boy all the white bread and sugar cubes left in the bag.

Both the boy and the puppy seemed a little scared, and Xia De didn't say much. He put the paper bag on the ground, waved his hand, and walked towards the right side of the alley.

Not only in the alley, but after crossing the alley to Owl Street, the city still looks gray and hazy~www.readwn.com~ But compared to that alley, at least the street finally shows a big border city scene.

All you can see are continuous stretches of low two-story or three-story old-style buildings, and the large tiled roofs look like some kind of ringworm under the thin sunlight. Several tall buildings can be seen in the distance, the most eye-catching is the church

tower. Farther away, a solitary chimney spewed black smoke into the sky, like an old man who was about to die, unwilling to admit defeat and wanted to take a few more breaths.

Just looking at the street view, the development here is not as good as most of the cities that outsiders have been to in this world, not even the "Eternal Night City" in the rainy night.

"Here, it's like dying in this gray fog."

Owl Street is a street in the downtown block of Green Lake City, where the library, city hall, chamber of commerce and important functional buildings in the city are located. Going further east, it is connected to Green Lake, and the Duyin River spans the Green Lake area from north to south. On the east bank of the Duyin River is the train station of Green Lake City, followed by a large area of ​​slums.

And the Green Lake Hotel, since it is named after the city, is naturally the largest hotel in the area.

Shad walked towards the main entrance of the hotel while looking at the street scene in the fog. From the outside, Green Lake Hotel occupies a larger area than the "Three Cats Hotel" in Tobesk and the "Plenty Land Hotel" in Randall Valley. Large, occupying about one-third of the entire east side of Owl Street. The hotel has three floors, and the small square windows with curtains are closed. From the street, it looks densely packed. After a long time, the hotel even feels a little weird.

Considering that he will be here for many days in the future, Xia De entered the Green Lake Hotel through the main entrance, intending to rent a room as his mailing address.

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