Twenty Seven Years

  Chapter 450 Soil

  The city of Montrego occupies a large area and has two railway stations. One of them is located on the outskirts of the city, and the other goes straight into the city center.

  Valak and the others arrived at the outskirts of the city. With the train station as the center, this area radiates prosperity in a small circle, and then across a few streets, the prosperity begins to fade rapidly, and everything is dilapidated.

Newspapers are flying all over the sky, garbage is randomly piled up at the intersection, new or old bulletins and arrest warrants are pasted on the walls, sloppy drunks are wandering on the streets, bright-eyed but lifeless children are lying on the ground, some inconspicuous In the corner, there were some thieves standing in twos and threes with unfriendly eyes, quietly looking at the direction of the train station...

   Since Veraker and his party got out of the car and saw this scene, their brows have not been stretched. The local residents are used to this, but they are busy in their own way, as if there is a gap between them and they are not in the same time and space.

   "Let's go, let's find a place to live first." Murphy, who grew up in this ancient and huge city, said suddenly.

   "You are familiar with this place, just choose a place with a reasonable price and a minimum level of security." Needless to say, Verak also knows that this place is very unsettled, and safety is the top priority.

  The second is the issue of funding.

  The funds brought by the three of them were not bad at first, enough to cover normal expenses for about a year. Although they subsidized Shuang Naga Village a little after they came here, they don’t have to worry about the rest for a period of time.

  The situation of the five of Lopez is a bit unexpected. They boarded the train to kidnap nobles. They didn't bring any money at all, and they didn't have much money themselves. If they were to be included in the plan, the funds would be rather stretched.

  Based on this, Verac decided to temporarily live on the outskirts of the cheap Montrego city, and then consider advancing into the city after he has a way to make money and establish contact with other sub-stations to get assistance.

"There is a corpse." Lopez pointed to the side of the garbage dump, where there was a rotten corpse that attracted flies, "People in Montrego City don't clean it up, are they afraid of some infectious diseases and plagues... "

   "It should be dealt with, we don't need to worry about it." Murphy is actually not very familiar with this area, but as a person who grew up in Montrego City, he still took on the task of leading the way and walked at the forefront.

   After the eight people left the train station and moved forward among the crowd, they quickly attracted the attention of criminals lurking in the dark.

  Usually the people who come to this train station are ordinary people, but occasionally sporadic nobles appear. In short, whether it is the former or the latter, as long as you can get as much as you can, it is profitable. Therefore, the simplicity of Veraker and others' outfits did not dispel the coveting of some people with dirty hands and feet.

   But this is the capital of the Monlego Empire after all, even in the outer areas, the basic order still exists. Few people have the courage to plunder on the street at will. Most of them use secret tracking to find the right time to steal, and exchange the smallest loss for the greatest benefit.

  Verak has quite a lot of experience, and he has determined that there are at least two groups of people following them just by his keen intuition.

   "Do you feel that someone is following us?" He asked in the middle of the team.

   "There should be." Murphy, who took the lead, replied in Bresci without translating.

   "It's new here, they didn't come to the door, and it's not appropriate for us to make trouble here..." Verak didn't want to be very violent, so he came up and picked out the people who followed him and dealt with them. After thinking about it for a while, he told Lopez and other five people with guns to loomingly reveal the guns around their waists.

   This trick seemed to be very effective. After walking for another 200 meters, several people lost the feeling of being secretly watched.

  Verak didn't let down his vigilance easily: "Be careful, it's a chaotic place inside and out."

Murphy looked at the horse manure on the road that hadn't been cleaned up in time, and thought of something: "We can take a public carriage and walk towards the city center. The closer to the city center, the busier the streets, the better the law and order, etc. Find a hotel to stay at a similar location, as long as you maintain a certain level of vigilance, there will be basically no problems."

   "That also means that the price will be higher, right?" Verak asked.

"It will be higher, and it is precisely because of the increase in consumption that the city of Montrego has formed a circle of invisible barriers, clearly distinguishing the poor area and the rich area, and the rich and powerful are naturally concentrated in the city. out of the center, and the poor civilians are naturally excluded." Murphy said.

"...Let's go ahead then." After finishing the settlement of the residence, they still have a lot to do. Verak doesn't want to devote unnecessary energy to dealing with various problems arising from the security environment, so he must Pay the monetary price.

   Not long after, Murphy led a group of people to find a bus operation route, and took the bus and slowly pushed towards the distant city center for a certain distance.

  Just three or four kilometers away, the outside environment has already changed significantly.

  The cleanliness of the streets has improved, the buildings are still dilapidated, but they are much better than before, and the pedestrians are more neatly dressed. There are no drunkards, and no skinny children with big bellies.

   "Why do those children have such big stomachs?" Connie saw that the children outside were generally thin, but they were barely healthy, and she couldn't help thinking of those children outside.

"Edema caused by long-term malnutrition, that is, ascites." Verac has seen such people during his residence in Tsward City and in his wandering life before Latsward City. "Actually, not all of them are like this. People who are hungry will lose their hair and become skinny, looking no different from skeletons, and even scarier than skeletons."

   "This is the city of Montrego, the most prosperous city in Montrego..." Connie sighed softly.

   "In the eyes of the rich and powerful, I am afraid that this place is not worthy of being called the city of Montrego. It is just a parasite outside the city." After Verak experienced it, it is not difficult to judge what those high-ranking people think in their hearts.

"arrive."

  Murphy's voice brought their thoughts back.

  The eight people got off the nearest train station and came to a place where the overall environment was a whole level higher than the area just out of the train station.

   "How is it here?" Murphy asked Verak for instructions.

  Verak turned around and looked around: "Just here."

  Murphy immediately found a decent hotel and opened three rooms.

  When they didn’t meet Lopez and others, they pretended to be poor, took care of each other conveniently, and only opened one room to save money. Now the number of people has increased sharply, and the number has to triple.

  After everyone settled their affairs and had a simple meal, Verak called a meeting of seven people.

  The meeting mainly mentioned three things.

   The first thing is security.

  This place is better than the outer areas, but it doesn't mean it's absolutely safe. They will live here for a while, so they must be more vigilant to prevent any danger from happening.

  The second thing is funding.

  The current funds are enough for them to last for two or three months. If they can't find a source of funds in the future, even food and accommodation will become a problem, and all work will have to be suspended, delaying precious time.

  The third thing is to prepare for the establishment of sub-stations.

  It is divided into two parts. They need to divide their troops into two groups, establish contact with the main station and other sub-stations along the way, maintain stable contact, and solve part of the funding problem from here. The other channel immediately began to investigate and integrate the relevant information of Montrego, and then planned the specific establishment of the sub-station and the specific development direction.

  Among the three things, the first thing needs to be kept in mind all the time, the second thing is not urgent yet, and the third thing is best to start working immediately.

  Villac gave everyone a day off as usual to rest and adjust their status. From the day after tomorrow, they will officially work hard to establish a sub-station and change Montrego.

Late at night.

  In front of the window of a room on the fourth floor of an inconspicuous hotel, there stood a man who was smoking a cigarette and looked a bit vicissitudes.

   "Villac, Lopez and the others also want to hear the story of equality theory, class theory, and our revolution." Murphy walked into the window.

   "Huh..." Verak spit out a puff of smoke without turning around, "You can just talk about it, anyway, we know about the same."

   "Are you thinking about something?"

   "Well, cranky." Verac said.

   "Okay, then Connie and I will go to their room first." Murphy greeted and left with Connie.

   A cigarette was quickly exhausted, and Verak stood in front of the window, as if waiting for something.

   Half an hour later, a "bang" gunshot broke the desolation of the night, and there was a slight commotion outside, and then it quickly returned to calm.

   After another ten minutes, there were gunshots and shouts from all directions again.

   In the future, after a period of time, there will always be some movement in some places, indicating that this area is not peaceful.

  Verak took a deep breath and closed the window.

  During those gunshots and battles, there were desperadoes and patrols, and there must have been people fighting against the government with weak strength.

  In such a big city, in such a miserable situation, there must be such people.

   Now Verac has no way to gather the people with lofty ideals in this city, and can only make a simple judgment from the continuous noise in the middle of the night, but one day, they will gather to overthrow the city of Montrego.

  The next day, October 20

  Early in the morning, Murphy didn't even care about eating, so he took a cloth bag and prepared to go out.

   "What are you doing here?" Verac wanted Murphy to take him out for a walk after dinner, so that he could take a walk around this big city.

   "I'm going to the cemetery," Murphy said.

   "Looking at your parents?"

"Um."

  Verak looked a little more serious: "Don't be in such a hurry, sit down and eat your meal first, and we'll go together after we're done."

"…it is good."

   After finishing breakfast and talking to Lopez and the others who were still asleep in the next room, Verac, Murphy, and Connie left the hotel and took a public carriage towards the direction further away from the city center.

   Murphy kept silent on the road, holding a cloth bag in his hand, staring ahead.

  Connie looked around curiously, admiring the customs of a foreign country.

  Verak also looked around from time to time, but most of the time he was secretly observing Murphy, always ready to take care of his emotions.

  Murphy is not very talkative. He used to be calm and introverted and was appreciated by Verac and Keating. Now, because of the last wish of his brother Diaz on his shoulders, he has become a little anxious, but he has not done anything out of the ordinary.

Verac can think of how hard their family has gone through all these years from opening a small and well-known martial arts gym, to the family being ruined, Murphy is seriously ill, and Diaz is exiled to Lazein, the capital of Brescia, to work as an underground boxer. Murphy was able to get out of the invisible pressure and sadness as soon as possible.

  After taking the stagecoach and walking for quite a distance, the three finally came to the cemetery where Diaz and Murphy's parents were buried.

  The moment he saw the cemetery, Murphy breathed a sigh of relief.

  He hasn't been back for a long time, and Meng Lege is undergoing great changes every day. He is very afraid that this cemetery will suddenly disappear anytime.

  Villac and Connie followed Murphy's fast pace into the cemetery, all the way to the place where his parents were buried.

   "Let's just stand here." Verak stopped Connie when he was six or seven meters away from Murphy and the tombstone in front of him, and they stood together and looked at Murphy silently.

  I saw some changes on Murphy's expressionless face. He talked to himself like a chatterbox, opened the cloth bag in his hand, and sprinkled a handful of soil inside.

   "That's..." Connie didn't understand.

   "It should be... the soil in front of Comrade Diaz's tombstone..." This is the only possibility Verac can think of.

  The fact is exactly the case.

  When Murphy set off from the International Equality League Headquarters to join Veraker, he deliberately passed by Laizein to get a handful of soil from the tombstone of his brother Diaz in the cemetery.

  The symbolic meaning of this holding of soil is very profound.

  The moment he sprinkled it, in his heart, his elder brother who was buried thousands of miles away was reconnected with his parents.

  Villac was afraid that standing here would make Murphy feel uncomfortable, so he distanced himself from Connie a lot.

   Ten minutes later, Murphy took a deep breath and walked towards them: "Okay, let's go."

   "Not staying any longer?" Verak suggested.

  When he was under a lot of psychological pressure, if he had time to go to the cemetery, he would chat with those sacrificed companions for a long time on his own. This kind of chat is to slowly release the backlog of emotions.

  Murphy has a different personality from him, so he didn't accept this suggestion: "No need."

  Verak didn't force it, and stepped forward alone, bowed solemnly to the tombstone, and then left the cemetery with Murphy and Connie.

   "Do you feel better?" Connie asked concerned.

   "I'm fine, don't worry about me." Murphy didn't look like he said that.

   "That's fine." Verak smiled, didn't expose it, and changed the topic, "It's still early, let's go shopping again, and go to the city center to see what it looks like there."

   Murphy, who hasn’t been back for many years, doesn’t know how much the city of Montrego has changed. He also wants to re-experience the absurdity of his hometown: “Let’s go.”

  (end of this chapter)