The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 20 Busy and safe days
"Hey old Bullet, I heard you had a son?"

"Get lost."

"Old Bullet gave birth to a son!"

"Really?"

"Hey! Old Bullet has a son, but he's not his own!"

"Really?"

"Lao Zidan is raising someone else's son. It is said that the son is the child of his lover and another man—"

Roland, with a half-black bread in his mouth and a cane between his legs, sat by and listened to Mr. Collins's cursing.

He could feel that these neighbors who came to his house had no ill intentions.

Instead of joking, they focused more of their attention on themselves - a man with a girl bought a bag of thistles, and his daughter was missing two teeth and kept staring at him.

"Is this your..."

Old Collins reluctantly tied up the oil paper and threw it to the man at the counter. "My brother's son."

"I heard that he was sent here by... those priests?" a heavily made-up woman shrieked. "It won't be contagious..."

The old man glanced at Roland, and seeing that he looked normal, he grinned and replied in a bad tone, "Yes, he is quite familiar with the priests. Mary, you can continue to say what you want to say. In a few days, maybe the lady will come to see you and hug you or something."

The woman named Mary quickly covered her mouth.

Everyone laughed.

Well, it's not all without malice.

A man with an oilcloth bag came in and poured him some flowers and plants that he had picked in the early morning. The two of them pulled each other and went to the side to haggle over the price.

Roland noticed that the man who had just bought the thistle was walking over with his daughter.

"Old Bullet is tough on the outside but soft on the inside. You will adapt to life here, little Collins." His hair was not very thick, but he had a brown beard that covered his entire chin. His eyes were gray, and his rolled-up sleeves revealed two sturdy forearms.

Probably thicker than two of Roland's put together.

He had a strong, pungent smell of leather mixed with some kind of potion.

Strong as a bear.

"Old Bullet? Uncle's nickname?"

Roland saw the man pull a stool next to him and adjusted his posture to face him.

A boy nearby stuck his head out and shouted: "Read it together! Read faster! Hahahaha——" and then was hit on the back of the head by the angry parents.

"Puxiu...Puxiu——"

He saw that the gray-eyed gentleman's daughter began to laugh too.

"alright, I got it."

"I'm William Cordoni, and I've lived here for more than 20 years. This is Alice." He introduced Roland in a gentle voice and gently pushed his daughter.

The girl timidly took a few steps forward and carefully touched the back of Roland's hand.

Roland smiled and gently held it with his backhand.

"Hello, little Alice," he said.

"…Hello, Roland."

"You're supposed to be pretty, right?"

Little Alice was so happy that she didn't care about the two missing teeth. "You are very beautiful, too, Roland!"

"me?"

"Yes! You are the most beautiful boy I have ever seen!"

The child's direct praise.

"Thank you. I'm sure you're a pretty girl too."

The children around started to make a noise.

"This little bastard is just good at talking. I think he should work in the theater."

Puxiu Collins seemed to have finished his discussion. He came out of the inner room with his hands brushed, and put the base of his palms on his hips. "These little guys who are even more idiots than you will show you the way. When you get off work tonight, go out with them."

After he finished speaking, he squatted down again and pinched Alice's face.

"Let me see if the little princess has recovered from her illness?"

"Giggle cluck..."

William Cordoni glanced at Roland and said, "I think it's a good idea for Roland to work with you. The theater is not for people like us."

He was a shoemaker, living alone with his daughter who was sick all year round.

However, business hasn't been very good recently.

"Nowadays, there are big factories." William made a helpless expression. Seeing his daughter smiling happily, his eyes were filled with tenderness. "I just hope Alice can grow up healthy and not be like her mother..."

Alice's mother was in even worse health and died early.

"I've thought about what you said, but if I go to the factory, who will take care of them..."

Old Collins embraced little Alice and grinned, "Just go away..." Noticing Alice was looking at him hesitantly, he swallowed again and changed his words, "...Alice can come to my place for dinner every day."

"She doesn't even eat as much as a cat."

William Cordoni picked up his medicine bag, stood up from his chair, and patted his old friend on the shoulder.

"If you can't speak, you must be a good person praised by everyone."

Puxiu Collins retorted, "If you didn't come to me to buy medicine, there wouldn't be so much trouble."

The relationship between these two people is very good.

As Roland was thinking, he saw Alice running towards him and shaking his hand.

"Goodbye, Brother Roland! Please come and play with me more often!"

"I'll go, little princess." He also changed the address and pinched the girl's cheek with a smile.

Anyway, that’s what life is like in the East End.

so so.

Prosperity and wealth are never mentioned in this land. They are distant words that no one has ever learned.

Most of the buildings, including Mr. Pushou Collins's drugstore, were supported by rusty metal branches, plaster and bricks. Rotten wood was used to patch holes in the broken putty, and clotheslines were tied from the inside to the houses on the other side.

The windows were cracked and never repaired. The sky above was gray and the feces underfoot was black.

Most people here don’t have clocks, so they have to wait for an opportunity to light a candle. Maybe they will fall asleep by the time they get there, thus saving the expense of candles or gas lamps.

Roland thought it was a nice place.

That's really good.

At least it was better than the workhouse, at least better than spending the night lying on a cold, prickly board listening to the rats grinding their teeth.

Every day he weighed and classified the herbs with his talkative uncle.

Crush them or soak them in water.

Some are charred with fire, others are mixed with others and mashed, the juice dripping into small bottles.

Not easy, but safe.

The neighborhood kids would often come to play with Roland after work—although he was no longer considered a "child," he was too skinny, and these kids were too friendly.

They even get along quite well.

A few clever boys discovered that as long as they went out on the street with Roland, they could always attract a lot of attention, just like the protagonists in the legendary stories.

Out of vanity, they quickly made Roland familiar with the street and the area.

Eastside.

But Alice was still sickly and her face was pale.

Roland looked a little more radiant, and from grinding medicine every day, he gained a lot of strength.

It seems that Enid hasn't appeared for a long time. Perhaps there is another cult that needs her to lead a team to fight?

Just when he was almost forgetting the days in his dull life (he thought it was not bad this way), one day, a wonderful thing happened.

"Let me tell you, Charlotte can move!"

This is certainly not nonsense.

The mysterious Rick Rich is the 'leader' among the children - he inherited the advantages of his parents and has a 'big head that symbolizes intelligence', but unfortunately he inherited it too early, making him look top-heavy.

His father was a bartender, his mother was a laundress on the West Side, and he worked in a shoe polish factory.

Overall, he was able to become the leader because he was considered generous among the children.

At least much richer than kids like Alice.

"Really, it moves!"

At this time, Mr. Big Head was riding on a high stool in the drugstore, and while his uncle was rummaging through the medicine cabinet at night, he told Roland and the other children something mysteriously.

The so-called Charlottes are some palm-sized ceramic figurines.

(End of this chapter)