Abandoned House is not a house, but a place name in Yongxing City. It is located in the Second District of Lower City, adjacent to the notorious Black Street, and the total area is about the size of a street.

Thales once heard from an old man in the brotherhood that the abandoned house was said to be the royal court of the Kingdom of Stars. It was funded and built a hundred years ago. It also had a more respectable name (but no one remembers it anymore, only the City Hall).

There are records only here), and it was once filled with the mediocre but bustling citizens of the kingdom's capital.

I don’t know since when, the abandoned house became a place for gangs to contact, negotiate, and occasionally fight.

As a result, the bustling neighborhood houses, accompanied by blood and axes, turned into deserted houses with only stone walls and bricks.

It is said that the abandoned house was once used as a place to dump corpses. To this day, children who grow up happily in the sunshine of the capital will be warned: "If you continue to disobey, I will send you to the abandoned house."

As a result, the reputation of abandoned houses is second only to the terrible black streets.

When the Black Street Brotherhood rose up and took over the hegemony of the Lower City underground world, the abandoned house was used as the base for the Brotherhood's beggar business in the city.

In order to facilitate management and prevent beggars from escaping at night, in addition to arranging thugs to monitor each house, the brothers dug trenches ten feet wide and fifteen feet deep on all sides of the abandoned houses. The trenches were filled with

Sharpened wooden stakes and rusty nails left only a stone door on the front of the abandoned house that could be locked with a large lock.

Rumor has it that after countless corpses and tests, someone finally dug a secret passage in the deep ditch and escaped. But at least during the four years that Thales was in the abandoned house, no beggar could find the legendary secret passage.

Instead, there are corpses in the ditch, with the number increasing every year as the Brotherhood's business expands.

It is said that every year, blind children try to escape across the ditch, so the brotherhood also cleans up the bones in the ditch every year.

As the name suggests, the abandoned house is composed of long-abandoned stone houses, with a total of twenty-three (there were originally more, some collapsed in the gang war many years ago, and some were demolished and dug trenches by the Brotherhood)

), located irregularly behind the big stone gate. Some stone houses "live in isolation" while others are closer together.

Those who are lucky will have well water in the abandoned house they are allocated. Those who are unlucky, such as the sixth house where Thales is, can only fill the water tank with water from other houses - which is usually not the case.

At no cost.

Water and food often cause fights among the beggars, such as the water tank in the sixth house. In the second year after Thales arrived at the abandoned house, he used various means to reach an agreement with the seventeenth house next door. Every week

Obtained by pumping water once.

Before that, they - Ned and Kolya hadn't come yet, there were only Cindy, Ryan, Kellett and two other beggars who were no longer alive - even drinking water was a problem.

And now what Thales and the others hear is the cry from their "boss", Diego, in the seventeenth house next door. Thales still remembers the cry on Diego's head when he was fighting for water.

When a rock was smashed, his cry then was similar to what it sounds like now.

"Kara! Someone is here! We don't have one! It's not us!"

Diego's screams sounded painful and panicked.

As a result, the beggars in the sixth room, including Thales, did not react for a moment.

But after all, Thales had the memory of his previous life. His first reaction was to drive everyone in the yard back to the hole in the house. For a long time after that, Thales had doubts about this decision.

Too late to regret - take shelter.

Thales himself glanced at the inconspicuous stone slab in the corner of the house, hid under the wall opposite the Seventeenth House, and stared at the dog hole connecting the Seventeenth House and the Sixth House. In those days, there were two

A symbol of the alliance between the children of each house.

"What happened to Diego and the others? Did they fight?" Ned asked curiously after hiding.

The beggars are not happy among themselves, and there are not many houses as harmonious as the sixth house among the abandoned houses.

The disability or even death of many beggars, with the exception of Quaid, was actually caused by the beggars themselves. Children under ten years old did not know the importance of their actions. For example, before Ned and Colia arrived, Tyr

One of Si's two previous roommates died in this way.

But House Seventeen can be regarded as one of the few in the abandoned house. Diego is a brown-skinned, small-eyed, yellow-haired, carefree but stubborn child. At nine and a half years old, he appears to have more leadership qualities than both Cindy and Thales.

At least the beggars in the Seventeenth House listened to his words, which also caused many twists and turns in the battle for water between the Sixth House and the Seventeenth House.

"It doesn't look like a fight. Could it be that another house is bullying Diego and the others? It must be Karak from the tenth house! He loves to bully other guys the most!" Kellett said hurriedly as if he had figured something out.

.

"Then we have to go help quickly! We agreed with them to help each other!"

Upon hearing this, the lame Ryan was about to run out of the hole and crawl into the dog hole, but before the moonlight hit half of his body, Ryan was dragged back by Thales.

"Don't worry, it's not Karak! It's something else!" Thales listened to the screams next door with a solemn expression.

"No, Diego!"

There was a dull sound, like a sandbag being thrown against the wall, but this time it was the cry of another child, Nsola.

Thales remembered this eight-year-old child. When they were fighting for water, Ensola pursed her lips tightly and stood firmly beside Diego.

When the two sides started fighting, he was the one who hugged Cindy's thigh tightly to prevent him from getting close to the fight between Diego and Thales. If Thales hadn't violently attacked Diego's knee joint and quickly picked up a stone with quick eyes and hands, the third

I still don’t know if Liuwu has regular water to drink today.

"Something's wrong!"

As the oldest child in the house, the confusion on Xinti's face gradually turned into seriousness. As the beggar in the sixth house who cooperated most happily and well with Thales, Xinti spent most of the time silent, but whenever

When he spoke, it was either about important things or key words.

Soon, the doubts and solemn expressions on the children's faces turned into fear.

"Begging for mercy! You begging for mercy! Keep going! I love hearing you people begging for mercy!"

A deep but crazy voice came from next door.

Every beggar in the abandoned house will never forget the sound of this knife. To them, this sound is simply as terrifying as the devil in hell - at least the devil will not break the beggar's bones inch by inch or cut open the beggar with a knife.

He would not immerse the beggar head-down in a water tank and call it "quenching your thirst" (does the devil really not know that? At least the beggar doesn't know).

It's Quaid.

Quaid Roda, the beggar leader of the Black Street Brotherhood, is also the nightmare and bane of beggars.

"No! Boss Quaid! We were wrong! We - ah ah -"

"Let's see if you still dare to talk nonsense! Do you dare to scold me behind my back! Damn it! Red-haired woman! Damn it! Bald head! Damn it! Yara Sariton! You all deserve to die!"

As Quaid cursed in a state of confusion, bursts of beating sounds came from the next door, sometimes from fists, sometimes from stones, and sometimes from the sound of human bodies colliding with the wall.

"Help! Help! Diego! Kara! Marita! Get up quickly! Help me!"

"Run! Run towards - uh -"

"Oh my God! Where are the guards! Where is Mr. Rick! Oh my God! He's going to kill us, he's going to kill us all—"

"no, do not want!"

Heart-wrenching cries came from more than one person's mouth. The abandoned house under the moonlight seemed terrifying to Thales's eyes at this moment!

It took Thales three seconds to realize what Quaid was doing.

He suddenly turned his head and looked at everyone in the sixth room. Ned and Kolya were shivering in the hole in the wall. Ryan, who had just rushed out to help, was stunned.

Kelit and Cindy were not much better. The former looked back and forth with eager and fearful eyes, wanting to speak but could not speak. The latter looked pale and stared at Thales.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Click!"

"You damn scum! You even dare to laugh at me! You laugh at Quaid Roda, the 'Blood Axe'! Even you dare to-"

"Haha, you guys are screaming! Why don't you scream? Call me!"

There were crazy roars and painful howls in the ears, accompanied by a shattering sound that no one wanted to think about deeply.

Thales knew that at this moment, panic had spread in the sixth room. He was running his brain frantically, thinking about the current situation.

Quaid beat the beggar severely in the seventeenth room - no, judging from Quaid's appearance, and the frequency and intensity of his beatings, tonight was not just about venting his anger!

Moreover, although Quaid is a bastard, he will not kill all the beggars in the whole house at once - by the way, where is Rick? Where are the guards and patrolling thugs in the abandoned house? There are stone walls between each house.

They may not be able to hear each other, but the thugs walking on the road can certainly hear them!

Of course, Thales would not know that tonight the defense force of the abandoned house was artificially reduced to two people, and that those two thugs would never come again.

"Tiles, what - what should I do?" Listening to the tragedy next door, Cinti instinctively felt that something was wrong. There was already a thin line of sweat on his pale face, and he just kept asking Thales.

"Quiet, everyone is silent! We -" Thales frowned, thinking hard about a countermeasure, but before he could finish his words, he saw the dog between the sixth and seventeenth houses.

In the cave, a figure of a beggar suddenly emerged.

Kolya let out a small scream of fright.

Thales had sharp eyes and could tell at a glance that the person coming from the seventeenth room was Ensola with his head covered in blood.

But Nsola seemed to be about to have a mental breakdown. Before Thales could help him up, Nsola gasped and threw himself to the ground, completely ignoring the blood on his head and face.

"Run! Escape! Let's—"

Thales and Cinti nervously helped him up. The howls and roars in their ears were still there, but Nsola seemed to have lost his mind. He refused to ask no matter what, and just muttered "Run away" with a terrifying expression.

.

Until Thales slapped him to wake him up.

"What happened? Quaid came to vent his anger?"

Nsola's tears suddenly flowed down.

"Qu-Quaid--he's crazy! He wants--we're not the only ones, he, he all wants--go in from room to room and see--"
To be continued...