Augustus Road

Next, the tribune read out the motion on the podium in an extremely lengthy manner. After Calabis had eaten, he took the glass of water handed to him by the landlady and touched the shriveled money bag, which contained about With thirty or fifty coins left, Na Na said to herself: "Is this the politics of Rome? Money and blood?"

"Perhaps it was not like this one hundred, two hundred or even more years ago. My father once said that when people played the flute and gave him the official position of a consul in the ancient times, he was still plowing in the fields and washing his feet. After getting into the mud, he led the army to defeat the barbarian invasion. Then he took off his purple robe and returned to the fields again, just like a peasant. Now the city of Rome is decayed, and the citizens are not concerned. Honor, but the gold and silver brought by the war, slaves, free bread and maidens, and - the dinars and sestes given as a bonus for electoral fraud - just like what you did today, little brother, Well done, citizens will only throw their votes at those they think are worthy of throwing their votes. Politics has turned into gambling and war. There are no politicians on the stage, only winners. "The boss lady put her hands on the window, like. It was expressing emotion about the future of the city of Rome, and also seemed to be answering Calabis' doubts.

"Citizens, now I ask you, are you willing to make your own decision on this bill now?" After reading, the civilian tribune raised his hands again, and citizens from different groups of hundreds also raised their hands. , and then walked through different pre-set channels (pons, bridges) according to different occupations, walked to the ballot box anonymously, and threw in the pottery pieces engraved with their choices.

"Are these the same people who just took the money?" Karabis asked.

"At least most of them are, and you have to know that you are definitely not the only one who did this for your patron today." The proprietress leaned against the window and said with a smile, "But this time, the person who did this is the same as the one above." The people at the citizens' meeting were very different again, which shows that he changed the asset certification of many citizens and manipulated the comparison of the number of people voting - your patron Luculas is indeed the richest person, he He should be as rich as Crassus, God knows how much he spent for this time!”

"Madam boss, where is the laundry room?" Karabis picked up his wallet and sword, stood up and asked, preparing to leave.

"This old cloak seems to be worn by soldiers. What do you want with it?"

"A souvenir and a gift, boss lady."

"Call me Duo Mujiang... Little brother, you are so calm in front of me. You must have a lovely wife at home?" The landlady stickyly pressed Karabis, "Laundry room, turn left on the third street If you want me to wash you, I'll be happy to do that. I can even wash you from head to toe..."

Turning around a fig tree, Calabis saw the laundry room that the landlady mentioned. Dozens of female workers in the courtyard were washing hard at the basin. Calabis handed the blood-stained cloak to the receptionist, and the receptionist asked He smelled something with a strong fishy smell, but showed no sign of surprise at all. This kind of thing was probably commonplace in Rome.

"Ten sestes." The receptionist stretched out his hand.

"Wash a cloak here, and I can eat two good meals, plus fuck a girl." Calabis said dissatisfiedly.

The receptionist said angrily: "Free people in a foreign land, your mind is not broken, are you? I hope you can adapt to the prices in Rome as soon as possible. The cheap price here is only equivalent to two pieces of wheat bread. How can you do that?" Comparing it to washing clothes? Didn't you see that we do it all manually? The cost is too expensive." Karabis looked into the courtyard and saw that it was indeed densely packed with women and clothes.

"It belongs to his brother-in-law. It seems that he will have to wash less clothes in the future. I really can't afford it." Calabis muttered in his heart, took the marked pottery piece, and was about to turn around and leave, but he heard the receptionist's thin voice. Shout, "Fan Lun Ding Na, Fan Lun Ding Na, don't look like a dead person, wash this cloak, look at you like this, can you work two Ass in a day? You are clumsy, your father is in Asia Minor Qiu Ba, life or death is uncertain, your mother is still working as a prostitute at home, you have to act like a girl from a poor family!"

Calabis's heart tightened when he heard this, then he turned around, pushed aside the rows of wet robes and shirts hanging in the yard, and walked over to the man who took the cloak, a man who looked about eleven or twelve years old. In front of the brown-haired girl, Calabis felt confident when he saw the appearance of Fan Lundina. He said to her: "Is your father a member of the Seventh Legion? His name is Heibrida. "Grade Centurion."

Na Fan Lundina raised her head, with a few strands of hair hanging in front of her forehead. Her childish eyes saw Karabis staring at her, and she was so frightened that she shrank to the corner holding her cloak, and whispered: "Who are you? ..."

"Does your family live behind the Flower Temple? Well, Fan Lundina." Karabis continued to take a step forward.

At dusk, Karabis and Valentina came to a shabby four-story apartment in the back alley of the Temple of Flowers. It was even bleaker than the apartment rented by Karabis and Poti. The gray ground floor was a... In the nursery for foster babies, there are groups of drawers in a row of cabinets against the wall. Many children, dirty children, are sitting in these equally dirty drawers, crying and shouting. ,sleep. "Whose children are these?"

"Poor people, poor people like ours, parents go out to work, and the children are kept here." Fan Lundina's words were somewhat mature and inconsistent with her age.

Walking up the shaky stairs, the two came to Valentina's house on the third floor, where the walls were cracked. After knocking on the door for a long time, her mother, Hebrida's wife, opened the door in a panic. She was a tall woman with a slightly hooked nose. Seeing Carabis standing aside, holding a dagger in his hand and tattooed on his arm, she was trembling with fear.

"Won't you invite me in for a drink, ma'am?" Carabis leaned against the door and asked.

Carabis' wife walked in like a sieve, and Carabis followed her in. The room was dark and full of moldy smell. Half of the stove collapsed, and all the furniture was black and smoked by smoke. There were several piles of gray rags on the ground. Then Carabis saw a disheveled man wandering there, pretending to be innocent. When he saw Carabis, he smiled awkwardly, and the bed was in a mess.

"Sorry, there's only salt water." Hebrida's wife was busy at the stove with her back to Carapis who was sitting down, and she looked back in fear from time to time. Valentina was very calm, and walked to the cradle with ease, teasing her crying sister inside.

"Madam, you have to know that I am also from the Seventh Legion. I just came to Rome and I know your husband..." Carapis took the clay cup, took a sip, and said to Hebrida's wife.

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