old dream

Chapter 231 Moth Chasing the Sun
"Have you found any news about Elena?"

Colin suddenly asked Ricardo.

This is a long and narrow tunnel, Ricardo just sideways avoided a jet of sewage, but his shoes were completely buried in the puddle.Annoyed, he couldn't answer Colin's question right away, and he came back to his senses after a while and said:

"...Not yet." Ricardo said:
"All I know is that she didn't return to Danaro, but she seemed to have disappeared in Stade."

Colin followed behind Ricardo, and the two were almost trudging through the mud.The walls here are very narrow, and if you don't turn your shoulders sideways, your clothes will be scratched.A lamp hangs every ten meters, and the wires are collected in the pipe, but most of them are out of light.The two entered the tunnel from the unloading area of ​​a wharf. After walking more than ten meters, they could still hear the sirens of cranes and freighters.

There are also those freshly loaded commodities, tons of palm oil, honey and the rich smell of coffee beans, lingering in the closed air.

Due to too many chores, recently Colin handed over part of the work of "Lieutenant" to Ricardo.Besides that, Ricardo was still in charge of eliminating the remaining wizards from the Boer Brotherhood.He was now at ease with the methods taught by Giovanni, as they had done with the Northern Organization.

And all of Ricardo's spare time was spent looking for Elena.

"There is no news about her in the ninth game." Colin said this, and pondered for a moment:

"But that's the good news."

At least still alive.

"Did you smell anything?" Ricardo asked in front.

Colin frowned, knowing that Ricardo could not be referring to the aroma of coffee and cocoa.He sniffed carefully.There is already a smell of sea fish here, and there is also a sweet and cloying smell.At first Colin thought it was honey, but then he realized it was more like something rotten.The rancid smell is sometimes very sweet, and it is quietly hidden in the strong aroma. Once it is noticed, it makes the originally turbid air even more disgusting.

"Drown bodies are often found here in the morning," Ricardo said:
"Probably a homeless person. He ran in in the middle of the night to find a sheltered place...but it will flood here when it rains." Ricardo said:
"I don't know how many days it has been soaked, it looks like a rotten fruit that is too late to deal with at home."

"Ok."

Ke Lin's expression remained unchanged, and he struggled to resist the urge to cover his nose:
"It's bad enough."

They were passing under a road, and the sound of the dock cranes faded away, replaced by the clang of trams and the steady and even clatter of horseshoes.But the traffic flow was not dense, and soon all the sounds fell silent.

At the end of the tunnel was a steel door.Ricardo took off the key ring hanging around his waist, unlocked several locks on the door one by one, and after pulling the latch, he turned around and handed the key to Colin.

"This was originally Boll's place." Ricardo pushed open the heavy door, and there was a brushed pattern on the steel plate:
"Only a few people in the Brotherhood know this place. It should be used for refuge, but unfortunately he couldn't use it."

After entering the door, climb up a ladder, and above it is an unexpectedly wide room.There are no other exits except the underground passage and the exhaust vent on the wall.Ke Lin remembered that there was an unremarkable private house in this location, and it was completely invisible that there were such facilities hidden in its underground.

Some simple furniture in the room has been removed and piled up in a corner.Now in the center there were, as expected, fermenters and extractors, retorts and Bunsen burners, beakers, vats and colanders.

The vats are full of honey, ready to distill the rum.Making rum with honey can be done more stealthily than whiskey, which requires a lot of grain.

"I bought everything two days ago." Ricardo said:
"Now I know the people here, apart from you and me, Benedict is the only one. Workers can be arranged to come in at any time."

As for such small and scattered secret workshops, Colin has checked more than a dozen of them these days.

Of course they can be used as wineries now, and of course they can also be used as other secret places in the future.

"It's really good." He said after looking around.

It is very close to the pier, which is very convenient for transportation and sewage discharge.The conditions can be said to be the best among more than a dozen secret workshops.But Colin considered it for a moment longer.

"But don't let people come here for the time being. I'm afraid it will take some time before it can be used here."

Ricardo was startled:
"why?"

"Because this is South Stadt," said Colin. "Someone may be misunderstanding something."

Ricardo moved his hand, brushing the bright silver revolver habitually:
"...you mean Luca?"

As a member of the gang, of course he is not ignorant of the changing situation of the Five Hands, but he just doesn't want to face it.

"We fell apart." Colin said flatly:
"So Ricardo, now we have to answer that question."

If me and Luca give the opposite order.

"Which side will you obey?"

"Even without me, you can still defeat Chestalo now." Ricardo said, "If Luca wants to kill you, of course I won't help him."

"So, plan to stay out of it?" Colin shook his head.

"I can't stop you guys." Ricardo said, "But I'm not a key player, can't I even refuse to participate?"

"Because you can't help it," Colin said:

"What if Luka wants to use you to attack me and report on me?"

The truth is, you already hold too many of my secrets.

"...The patriarch of the gang would not do such a thing." Ricardo said after a while, "This is not in line with our rules...and it is not decent."

"What is the rule of five hands?" Colin asked back:
"The gunmen are fighting desperately on the street, but the patriarchs are related to each other, and they wear formal clothes to discuss business at the conference table?" He reminded:
"This period has passed. Now no one can save face and can only roll in the mud."

"I don't understand." Ricardo said:
"We have been operating like this for hundreds of years, why did everything suddenly become like this within a few months?"

The people who grew up together on the street, even myself, seemed to have become strangers.

The rules have been rewritten, and the more people who were at ease in the past, the more at a loss now.

"Because nothing stays the same forever," Colin said.

But he also knew that, in a certain sense, it was he who bit by bit destroyed the environment that made Ricardo feel familiar and at ease.

Kanado, Luca, Elena, and even Jilian.

The inexplicable and strong purpose forced him to take extreme measures all the time, just like a moth constantly chasing the illusory sun that does not know whether it exists or not.

Even if you don't die from exhaustion, sooner or later you will wear down everyone around you.

Ricardo lowered his head in pain and didn't say anything more.And Colin didn't push too hard right away.After waiting for a while, he turned around and approached the wooden barrel, pulled out the cork and inspected the brown sugar liquid, which was golden, sweet and thick.

This is not honey but sucrose, purchased from the vast sugar cane plantations in the tropics, almost the crystallization of the blood of the aboriginal slave laborers.

Colin picked some up with a long stick for stirring, and while observing, he remembered another thing at the same time:

"Have you ever stayed in the same monastery school as Elena? The Franciscan monastery in the northwest suburb?" Colin asked.

"Yes." Ricardo replied blankly.

"Ji Lian is here?" Ke Lin confirmed.

"Ah."

He put the stick back to the barrel, thought for a while and said:
"I can send someone to help you find Elena." Colin said, "The premise is that you refuse any request from Luka."

"This matter has nothing to do with Elena."

"It's about now."

"Anyway, I only have one request." Ricardo said:
"Leave Luka alive and let him go to another country. With the current strength of the Stade Institute, we can do this."

Luca on the weak side can only risk his life, while Colin on the strong side has the ability to be merciful.

"What do you think is the difference between this and killing him for Luka?" Colin asked back.

Taking everything away and keeping him alive was even more cruel than killing him.

"I don't know." Ricardo shook his head and said weakly:

"When I see the corpses soaked in the sewage in the tunnel, I always think of the rotten fruits at home... I can't help but wonder if Elena would be like this quietly, in a certain place. Corner rot and no one noticed. Or Luca?"

He closed his eyes in pain and said:
"I know I've been too greedy."

"Because I don't want any of you to end up like this."

　Warm up first, the target day is 4000.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)