"Second girl, go call your brother back for dinner."

In a small courtyard near the city wall in the West City, a woman working in the kitchen poked her head out from the door frame and shouted to a young woman who was concentrating on embroidery under an old tree in the center of the courtyard.

"I know, mother."

The delicate woman named Erya agreed, carefully placed the silk handkerchief that had just been embroidered with half a mandarin duck in the bamboo basket beside her, stood up, carefully smoothed the wrinkles on the skirt, and put a few strands of hair hanging down from her forehead.

With a strand of hair tucked behind her ears, she walked lightly towards the courtyard door.

Outside the courtyard gate is a narrow alley that can only accommodate two people walking side by side. The ground is an uneven yellow mud road. Erya looked around and saw no sign of his younger brother, frowned and muttered dissatisfiedly.

"Thousands of people are troubled, and I don't know where they've gone."

Complaining is a complaint, Erya still lifted up her skirt to avoid being stained by the splashed dust. According to her memory, she carefully avoided the raised earth bags or pits on the ground and walked towards the west entrance of the alley. There was an abandoned building not far away.

Xujiu's house was a paradise for the half-grown children nearby, and Erya guessed that her little brother was probably there.

The Bo area located on the edge of Kyoto is not as prosperous as the center. At this time, when Xu is approaching, the sky is dark and it is difficult to see pedestrians on the streets.

The deserted house was in the alley diagonally opposite. Erya walked to the entrance of the alley and looked inside, but it was darker inside than on the street, and she couldn't help but feel a little scared.

"Xu Tieniu...Xu Tieniu...Mother calls you home for dinner."

Erya put her hands together like a trumpet, stood at the entrance of the alley and shouted into it.

"Drive...drive...drive..."

The sounds of children playing could be heard from the abandoned house located in the middle of the alley. Xu Tieniu, who was already playing crazy, didn't seem to hear his sister's shouts.

Erya stomped her feet angrily and was hesitating whether to go in and pull out her little brother when she heard the sound of wheels gurgling behind her.

Following the sound, I looked sideways and saw that a carriage with an unclear color was slowly approaching here. The driver sitting in front of the carriage pulled his head and seemed to be dozing off.

Finally seeing the figure, Erya became more courageous and wanted to rush into the deserted house before the carriage had gone far.

Lifting up the skirt again, Erya had just raised her right foot when a rope with a loop was thrown out of the carriage and wrapped around Erya's neck.

The panicked Erya subconsciously wanted to shout, but the rope suddenly tightened, and the speed of the carriage suddenly accelerated. When it drove behind Erya, the driver who pretended to be dozing cut Erya on the back of the head with a palm knife, knocking her unconscious, and then

He picked up the unconscious Erya with one hand and threw him into the car behind him.

The carriage never stopped, still driving leisurely, and the coachman returned to his half-asleep appearance.

"There are a few little ones in the alley, why don't we get rid of them all together? Taking advantage of the recent good market, we two brothers can also earn more gambling money. Tsk, tsk, tsk, this little girl looks thin and frail, but she has big breasts.

Not small."

A man's voice came from the carriage.

"Shut up! The boss specifically told me that each district can only catch one sheep within ten days. If you catch too many sheep and work diligently, and attract the attention of the government, you will be chopped into pieces by the boss and fed to the dogs.

Bar."

The coachman shouted angrily in a low voice.

"Hmph, they say that the older you get, the less courageous you become. From my point of view, the boss has already earned enough money for his retirement. He is thinking about washing his hands in a golden basin and finding a place where no one knows him to live happily. He has never considered us at all.

Brothers who worked tirelessly to help him."

Hearing the complaint from the man in the carriage, the coachman wanted to refute, but he still remained silent after he flattened his lips.

"Hey Huzi, let me tell you something. But first, I treat you as my brother. Don't turn around and sell me out."

"If you have something to say, say it, and if you have something to say, let it go."

"A few days ago, someone under Boss Xue from Nancheng came looking for me."

"You are looking for death, aren't you? That person named Xue is the sworn enemy of our boss. If the boss finds out, not only you, but also me will suffer."

the coachman said angrily.

"Don't be impatient, just listen to what I have to say. The person who is looking for me is not an outsider. He is a fellow villager. He is the second pillar of Lao Li's family in the village. He buried Batai when he was a child and snorted rhubarb snot all day long. You

Do you remember?"

"Hmm... After hearing what you said, I remembered, what does he want from you?"

"The second pillar is not what it used to be. He is now Boss Xue's white paper fan and the second boss. He said that the big seller behind the scenes has noticed that our boss wants to get out, so he thought..."

The man leaned half out of the car, put his palm across his throat, and made a motion of wiping his neck.

The coachman's body trembled, and after pondering for a long time, he asked in a low voice.

"Is the news reliable? Don't let others fool you."

"We are fellow villagers with Erzhuzi. He can't deceive us either."

"Even if his information is reliable, why did he come to you? It can't be that he wants you to kill the boss and replace him."

"Stop making trouble, don't you know what kind of tiger I am? I'll just be a runner in my life. Erzhu said that as long as I can provide them with the location of the boss's hideout, I will give them the number after the incident is completed.

"

The man spread his fingers and waved them in front of the driver's eyes.

"Five hundred taels! On the contrary..."

"Look at your little potential, it's a full five thousand taels!"

The man interrupted proudly.

hiss!

The coachman took a deep breath when he heard this, and his heart beat faster.

The carriage gradually drove away and disappeared into the night.

The five and a half-year-old urchins in the deserted house waited until they were hungry and tired, then they reluctantly said goodbye and went home, and agreed to come back here tomorrow to continue playing.

In the dark narrow alley, Xu Tieniu jumped over a smelly puddle with great skill, ran back home and shouted.

"Mom, I'm hungry!"

"It'll be ready soon. We'll start dinner when your father comes back."

The woman poked her head out of the kitchen, looked at her little son and said with a doting look on her face.

"Look at how dirty you are. Go back home and change into clean clothes. By the way, let your second sister wash the dirty clothes."

"Okay!"

Xu Tieniu responded cheerfully, took off his clothes and ran into the house, throwing the dirty clothes on the ground.

I washed my face randomly and changed my clothes. After I came out, I saw the dirty clothes I had just taken off still scattered in the yard, so I yelled at the top of my voice.

"Second sister, mother asked you to wash clothes. Second sister...Second sister..."

After shouting several times but no one answered, Xu Tieniu ran to the door of the kitchen and shouted.

"Mom, where is the second sister?"

"You silly boy, you two came back together, why did you ask about me instead?"

"I came back by myself, and I didn't see the second sister."

"ah!"

The woman quickly put down the spatula, grabbed Xu Tieniu's shoulders and asked.

"I asked your second sister to call you home for dinner, didn't you see?"

"I told you, I came back by myself and I didn't see the second sister."

Xu Tieniu shook his shoulders vigorously, shook the woman's hand off and replied impatiently.

The woman looked up at the dark night sky and realized something was wrong. She told Xu Tieniu to stay at home and wait for her father to come back, and then ran out to look for her daughter.

As soon as she ran to the door, the woman bumped into someone. She looked closely and saw that it was her husband-in-law.

"What are you doing in such a hurry?"

The man who had just finished his odd job and looked exhausted reprimanded weakly.

"The second girl is missing."

"What!"

After the woman told her what happened, the angry man would slap her with a loud mouth.

"Last month when Lao Li's wife was lost, I told you that Er Yatou and Tieniu were not allowed to go out after dark. Why don't you stinky old woman have a long memory? I'll beat you to death!"

"It's useless even if you beat me to death now, go find the second girl quickly."

The woman cried out in a tearful tone.

The two fathers hurriedly told their youngest son not to run around, locked the courtyard door, and went to look for him at both ends of the alley.

"Second girl...Second girl..."

Most of the people living in this area are poor people who are reluctant to buy lamp oil and go to bed early after eating. Tonight is cloudy again, with layers of dense dark clouds blocking the moonlight and starlight, so we can only make do with it.

If you can identify the scenery within three or four steps, it will be completely dark if it is further away.

The woman also felt a little scared, hugged her shoulders tremblingly, and kept calling her second daughter's nickname in a trembling voice.
To be continued...