The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 22: Infectious Diseases

Walking along Fleet Street, which was worn smooth by the soles of shoes, in the early morning, when it was not yet early, the owners of various small shops had already come out to open their businesses.

Roland was among the third wave of early risers, arriving about an hour after there was movement outside.

He wrapped his collar around his neck, holding on to it tightly, picked up his cane and went out.

Gray haze floated out from the nameless factory chimneys, looking down at the worthless gears on the ground.

The blind man tapped his cane as he walked through the streets of the prosperous capital, which were full of feces and sewage - he deliberately didn't work hard at the medicine table today, but instead got a day off and had money given by his uncle in his pocket.

Today he was going to go to a nearby place, a few blocks away, to buy a Braille book.

It was Lao Puxiu who found a good place for him.

Books are not available everywhere, and this one is particularly hard to find: "You have to learn to read somehow, and I don't have the money to send you to school."

As he said this, he looked me up and down, muttering, "You have no education for your eyes...why don't you ask around yourself?"

He is a good uncle.

"The requirements are low."
-
That's good enough.

"Roland Collins has no need of Braille."

He really doesn't need to 'know' words. But who knows, he might have to write them someday? -
Can you write it for me?
"The busy Roland Collins."

Thanks to his eyes, Roland had a shortcut: he didn't need to wait for his uncle to be free to teach him (to be honest, it was hard to say how many words his uncle knew).

He only needs a Braille book for recognizing words and a few story books with many words to compare and learn.

It was time to start work and more people appeared on the streets.

It was still dark, and these men, with hurried looks and feet, moved along the street, separated behind Roland, and reunited in front of him. Some people's muttering was so loud that the waves condensed into huge white letters.

"The father of all things, a monster..."

The sound floated by.

Those who were familiar with the pharmacy could recognize Roland, and they gathered in groups of two or three to discuss old Pushou's brother: What crime did Thales Collins commit, or what crime did his wife commit, to give birth to a blind little monster -

Men's conversation will undoubtedly lead the topic to another amusement.

For example, Roland's mother probably had a common "problem" among women, and old Thales Collins knew nothing about it.

Perhaps Roland's pretty face brought him some trouble when he was a child, such as...

The 'Grace' of Old Thales Collins...

some type of.

You can figure out the specific story by just thinking about it.

They used this amusing and obscene joke to digest the dry and rough bread that had been stuck in their esophagus in the morning. They exchanged wrinkled cigarettes from their canvas pants, lit them, and staggered towards the factory while glancing at Roland's delicate face.

"Dirty bastards."

"Roland Collins will remember their appearance."
-
Ok.
-
Wait until night time and I will infect them one by one.

"ignorance."

"Blindness is not an infectious disease."
-
The cracks in the wall were filled up, and no wind could get through anymore.

"Hereditary disease can cause sheep's tail."
-
I do not know what you're talking about.
-
I mean, I'm fine.
-
Isn't it lucky enough that I have Miss Yam and Miss Nina?

"May they fall into an oil refinery."
-
Count me in.

The so-called 'bookstore' recommended by old Collins is not a proper bookstore.

Generally speaking, the owners of these black shops that need to avoid patrol police all have eagle eyes - they can tell who has money in their pockets and is ready to come in to buy things, and who has no money and likes to cause trouble.

Just like this one:

The thin woman with protruding joints leaned lazily against the window, looking out through the gap in the curtains from time to time.

——The next moment Roland stopped, he was violently blasted away.

"What disease are you going to give me again? Holy Father!"

She glared at Roland and tapped on the window a few times with her fingers. The sound was muffled behind the glass.

She cursed and swore, and when she heard Roland say "book", she half-reluctantly wrapped herself in her coat and disappeared behind the window.

After a while, a head popped out from the wooden door, and the flesh on the cheekbones was so loose that it drooped down.

"buy what."

She stared at Roland warily, and kept glancing around him.

"Like a half-grown toad."

Roland asked, and then took a few steps back under the woman's gaze, leaving a large gap between him and the wooden door.

He was used to being treated like this, and through the long process of treatment he had summed up a set of coping methods that made both parties comfortable.

“How pathetic.”
-
There is nothing pitiful about her. I heard that these black bookstores are very profitable.

"…You fool."

"I want to buy a Braille book, ma'am."

"Mr. Puxiu Collins said that it's agreed with you." Roland lowered his voice and said the 'code' his uncle told him -

"It's 'decided'."

The woman glanced at Roland and said, "You are the one... Go, don't face my door, go to the side." She used the tip of her shoe to poke Roland's leg, like poking a dirty wine bottle on the ground: "Go over there and wait... Just want one?"

She glanced back into the house and quickly turned back.

"Don't wait for me to take it out. You want this and that. You know books are not cheap, right? That old man didn't pay me! This book was obtained by the daughter of my husband's friend through some private channels. It is a legal book."

At this point, she realized that she had said too much and emphasized things that shouldn't have been emphasized.

So he immediately shut his mouth and stared at Roland.

Actually.

Private channels mean "borrowing forever" from certain gentlemen's homes for free.

Books equal knowledge, and knowledge is never free.

"And two more storybooks."

Roland thought for a moment and added, "For the children. My uncle has prepared the money for me."

He patted his pocket and the coins inside rustled.

The woman glanced at Roland's stiff eyes, looked around with a sly look, and muttered, "You will never be able to read in your life. Your uncle really doesn't know how to live..."

She closed the door again and went inside for a long time.

But Roland could hear the sound of rummaging through drawers in the house.

He stood at the door, leaning on his cane, waiting calmly.

After the rush to go to work was over, there were fewer people wandering the streets.

A uniformed street policeman saw Roland from a distance and immediately changed his route, moving from the left to the right - even though there was a pool of water on the right side mixed with dirty milky liquid.

The trace extended all the way to the wall of a house, and above that, to the window.

"Lazy whore..."

He spit into the puddle, where it mixed with the milky liquid, while thinking in his mind what regulations he could use to go to the door and collect some money.

About ten minutes.

Until the patrolman disappeared, the immature Toad Lady observed for a while before she opened the door again with a creaky sound and furtively handed over a torn bag.

The books were found.

In addition to the two Braille books and story books, there are also some "thin pieces of paper" that are not suitable for children to read and that children cannot understand at all.

Roland didn't pick them out separately. He paid the bill and left quickly with the books.

I felt heartache as I walked.

The book is too expensive.

That's all, it's not new.

Buy it only this time.

this life.

"A blind man who likes to read poetry."
-
The first thing I learned in the county was: Don't cause trouble, especially when you can't see.

Roland was of course aware that the woman had indeed mixed one or two poetry collections in with the books, but they were nameless, handwritten on scraps of paper, and privately stapled together in order to cheat him out of his money.

However, what word is not a word?

Anyway, he has to learn to read and write.

In my uncle's drugstore, it is not busy all day, every hour, and every minute.

Apart from crushing and packaging fresh herbs every day, the rest of the work is not strenuous: he receives guests and chats with his uncle's friends who come to the store.

Besides, he had plenty of time.

My uncle would occasionally go out at night and come back drunk, covered in makeup and smelling musty.

Roland didn't need to ask, the words in his sight would "actively" remind Roland where the old man had been working hard.

"He's probably spent all your £100 on this."
-
It wasn't 'my' hundred pounds, it was Thales Collins's inheritance.
-
It has nothing to do with me.

When he wasn't writing (he would soon learn to write his own name), he would visit Mr. William's shop, see the shoemaker Princess Alice, and walk around the streets with Rick Rich and the kids:

The children did not mind that Roland had an "infectious disease". By the time they got off work, it was already evening or night.

Sometimes young people get together and indulge themselves by buying a penny worth of fireworks to set off.

Usually the only one who does this is Roland.

The boys would choose meatloaf or the cool thing that adults had in their mouths: cigarettes. They also wondered if there was something wrong with a blind man buying fireworks.

Later, Alice 'woke' them up:

Roland showed it to them.

So they treated their blind friend more kindly.

In short, Roland was living a happy life, at least much happier than when he was in the county.

Until one night a few days later.

(End of this chapter)