Chapter 160 The Thief Who Stole Salt
A slum area outside the north gate of Innadli, adjacent to the mule and horse market.
John did not go into the city to find odd jobs that day. He did chores around the house all morning and then squatted at the door to wash bed sheets and quilts.
It was almost afternoon when John finally washed all the sheets and carried the dirty water to the sewer at the entrance of the alley to dump it.
Two strange men wearing flat hats and overalls walked into the alley where they lived.
John, who was carrying dirty water, subconsciously made way.
Two strange men passed by John. One of them glanced at John and then casually looked away.
John didn't pay much attention to the two men. He waited until they walked away before he tilted the bucket of dirty water into the ditch.
Amid the sound of splashing water, he suddenly felt something was wrong. He tilted his head slightly and secretly looked at the two strange men who walked deeper into the alley .
At first glance, these two men seemed no different from the residents of the slums - flat hats to block the dust on their heads, dirty coarse pullovers and overalls on their bodies, and worn-out leather shoes that had been worn for who knows how many years. They looked no different from the adult men who occasionally came into the city from the slums to find odd jobs.
But a closer look reveals a big problem... these two men are too "strong" for the residents of the slums!
Few people in the slums have such plump cheeks, thick arms, and strong thighs that can support the baggy legs of their overalls!
The slum, divided into five blocks according to different streets and alleys, is home to nearly a thousand households. It is larger than an average small town, and it is impossible for John to know everyone. But John, who grew up here, knows very well that such a healthy and strong adult male cannot stay here for long. He will either find a job in a factory in the city and never come back, or be taken away by street gangs.
John stared at the two men's backs for a while, silently poured out the dirty water, and carried the bucket home.
After finding a relatively clean sleeveless pullover to put on, John immediately rushed to his friend's house in the next alley.
Sangji, a boy with freckles on his face, gets up early every morning to deliver newspapers to the city. He then stays in the newspaper office to do odd jobs and only goes home at noon to have lunch.
When John came over, Sanji was sharing the bread slices he had saved from the newspaper lunch with his younger brothers and sisters.
"I saw someone I haven't seen before." After calling Sanji out, John lowered his voice and said to his friend, "Two people entered the alley near our house. They are definitely not people who live in this area."
Sang Ji's expression changed: "Someone else is coming?"
John nodded: "Those two don't look like good people. They are much stronger than the average person."
"Mr. Yan has really been targeted." Sang Ji said angrily, "The street gangs in South City are recruiting people. I heard from my colleagues who live in South City that the gang members have set their sights on Mr. Yan's salt. The person you just saw might be a gang member. Damn it, why can't some people control their mouths?"
Since the day John came back from his odd job at the autumn harvest, Mr. Salt came every night and distributed salt to hundreds of households in the slums.
Everyone has figured out the pattern that Mr. Salt will distribute salt to each household one by one. Those who received salt are naturally very , and those who didn't receive salt are also waiting patiently.
But...when more people know a secret, it is no longer a secret.
Although most people knew that good news should not be spread outside and kept their mouths shut, there were still some people who did not keep their mouths shut when they went to the city to find work and let out the news that "someone in the slums was giving out salt."
Most people in Nadeli have no chance of having a nightlife (they have no money and there is no electricity in their living area), and their days after dark are quite empty. If someone forgets to put away their pants that are hung out to dry and are bitten by mice, people will talk about them for a long time with relish (gloating), not to mention the new news that someone is giving free salt to poor people in the slums, which will spread immediately.
Since the day before yesterday, strangers have been wandering aimlessly outside the slums. Yesterday, Sangji, who works as a newspaper delivery boy in a well-informed newspaper office, was trembling with fear when he heard from other newspaper delivery boys about a rumor in the city that a big salt thief had appeared in the slums.
It is impossible to verify why Mr. Yan became a "salt thief" in rumors. In short, in just two or three days, the rumor in the city had become "a big thief who stole from the salt warehouse was hiding in the slums, using salt to bribe the poor to keep his secret."
This is a very outrageous variant of the rumor... In fact, from a certain perspective, it is logically self-consistent - if you don't ask for anything, why would you give salt to the poor people in the slums? If you didn't steal a lot of salt, who would be willing to spend salt generously to bribe the poor people?
The people in the slums had no chance to talk to Mr. Yan. They knew very well that he had not made any demands on them, let alone bribed them. However, their words really had no weight...
"Hey, you guys are here!"
John and Sanji were just feeling worried when their friend Tommy, an apprentice in a workshop in the city, came to them, sweating profusely.
"You're back so early?" John asked in surprise when he saw Tommy. "Is the workshop closed?"
"Let's not talk about this." Tommy waved his hand, looked around, and pulled his two friends into the depths of , finding an uninhabited shed and crawling into it.
"I saw the wanted poster of Mr. Yan in the printing workshop." After closing the doors and windows, Tommy wiped the sweat from his forehead and spoke mysteriously in a low voice.
"What?!" John and Sanji were shocked.
"Is Mr. Yan really the big thief who stole the salt warehouse?" Sang Ji gasped.
"No, it has nothing to do with Salt." Tommy said with a strange look on his face. "It was not the City Hall that paid for the printing of the bounty order, but the church. Mr. Salt's name is von Alphonse. The people in the church claim that Mr. Salt is working with an evil black magician. As long as you provide clues, you can get a reward of ten gold coins."
Ten gold coins were the highest price the Gold Coin Church was willing to pay for its anger... To the slum dwellers, this amount of money was undoubtedly a sky-high price.
"There are quite a few people who have seen Mr. Yan." Sang Ji said in a dreamy voice.
Mr. Yan always came at night and never spoke to anyone, but he never deliberately avoided other people's sight. Like these three young men, many people had seen him in the dark out of curiosity.
Tommy wiped his sweat again and said nothing.
John and Sangji vaguely sensed something and both of them gradually felt a little dry in the mouth.
They knew that Tommy seemed to be moved...and they were actually a little moved too.
Just for reporting clues you can get ten gold coins, who wouldn't be tempted by such a thing?
But... betraying a gentleman who was kind to them was still an unspeakable and shameful thing for these three young people.
John hardened his heart, suppressed the clamorous desire deep in his heart, and said in a hoarse voice: "Once the wanted order is issued, someone will definitely report it. What do you think, should we find a way to remind Mr. Yan not to come again?"
"…That's what we should do. Mr. Yan has donated salt to so many families. We can't let him down." Sang Ji agreed, as if feeling a little regretful, but also as if relieved.
Tommy looked bitter, perhaps because the pain of losing ten gold coins made him feel suffocated. He covered his chest and said uncomfortably: "Then where should we go to find him? No one knows where he hides during the day."
"He always comes from that side." John turned his head and looked southwest outside the shed. "How about we go there earlier tonight and find a safer place to wait for Mr. Salt?"
Sang Ji hesitated and said, "But some families haven't gotten the salt yet... My family hasn't gotten it yet."
"If Mr. Salt is caught by gang members or the church, you can never expect to get salt again." John patted Sanji on the back.
"That's true." Sangji sighed.
Next, the three young men discussed the action plan in a serious manner for a long time - they must not let others know about tipping off Mr. Yan, let alone the church, the gangs in South City could easily kill them, and they dared not expose themselves and offend others.
A few hours later, when it began to darken, John and the other two found their own excuses to leave home and slipped out of the slum as inconspicuously as possible.
The slums and the mule and horse market were very close to each other. Some merchants had self-built horse sheds and crude warehouses for storing fodder right next to the slums. The three men did not go far, but directly found a fodder warehouse and hid inside. No one in the slums could afford to raise cattle and horses, and the merchants in the mule and horse market did not worry about someone stealing fodder, so the warehouses usually only had wooden pins but no padlocks.
After waiting for a while in the hay warehouse with a faint smell of cow and horse manure, the three of them saw through the leaky wooden walls of the warehouse... a large group of gang members dressed in pullovers and overalls, swaggering past outside.
"These guys are really here." Sangji shuddered and his face turned pale quickly.
There is not much money to be made in the slums, and gang members are not interested in wasting their energy on these poor people who can't even afford two meals a day. Most slum residents' impression of gang members is just that "strong men can go and get a meal from them."
But Sangji had worked as a newspaper deliveryman in a well-informed newspaper for many years, and he knew only too well how brutal these gang members were - every month, there would be one or two serious incidents involving gang members that resulted in death in the city!
Not long after the gang members left, another carriage passed by on the dirt road in front of the warehouse where the three were hiding.
On the body of this carriage is the emblem of the Gold Coin Church.
Sanji and John reached out at the same time and covered Tommy's mouth tightly as he almost screamed.
When the sound of the carriage wheels faded away, the two men dared to let go of Tommy, whose face was beginning to turn blue.
"The church people came so quickly... the wanted poster that was just printed this morning has already been seen by someone?" Tommy said with a look of worry and heartache over the reward.
John, who was originally very excited, put aside his hesitation and peeked out from the crack in the wall: "There is no need to hesitate whether to betray Mr. Yan. It is not our turn to do it. The church car went straight in. They already know Mr. Yan's movements."
"Look, it's coming, it's coming!" Sangji suddenly reminded excitedly in a low voice.
In the light of the rising moon, a burly man wearing a hooded cloak and carrying a large backpack appeared outside the woods in the southwest.
