Mercenaries and Adventurers

Mona's mother tried to wake up the sleeping Mona's father, probably because she was too tired, so she couldn't wake up now. He couldn't slap the face of the head of the family to wake him up, so he had to go to the backyard to fetch a basin of water from a wooden basin, and put the water on Mona's father's face with the sackcloth used to scrub his body.

"Oh, it's so cold, is it snowing?" Mona's father got up and woke up in a daze, and saw that he was at home, surrounded by his family, he shook his head and said Asked: "How is Mona? Did you find it? Why aren't my brother and other brothers here?"

Mona's eldest brother explained in detail what happened to his father after he fell asleep, and then introduced the Kiel warrior who was sitting on the side to his father.

Mona's father seemed to be sober. Hearing what the elder son said, he realized that someone would actually come to the commission that he couldn't do in the tavern before, and he helped the Snow family figure out that their daughter What is the so-called disappearance: "Really, really. Hey, it's all my fault! I never asked Mona's thoughts. That child has had ideas since he was a child. Hey, he has lost face in the family."

Zhao Ji coughed: "Now it's not something to be ashamed of. No matter what, you have to find Mona who ran away first. Are you right?"

Mona's father, who understood the meaning of Kiel's words, hesitated for a moment, but his two young children were clamoring for their sister at this time. This made him make up his mind: "Warrior Kiel, I will trouble you. The commission fee is only two silver coins. Please do your best."

As he said that, he asked Mona's mother to withdraw the money.

Zhao Ji waved his hand to stop the other party from withdrawing the money: "Don't be in a hurry to withdraw the money, let's find Mona first. Let's go to the backyard first. By the way, do you know which tailor shop Mona usually sews clothes at? ? If you know, go there first and ask the merchants there if they know that Mona has been to him recently."

Mona's family members looked at each other and found that no one knew where Mona usually sewed and mended clothes. That child is very assertive and basically doesn't need the attention of his family.

"If you don't know, just go to all the tailor shops nearby. How many of them are there in our slums? You'll find out soon, and it's best to ask for information before it's dark." The time is now In the afternoon, when the sun goes down early in winter, Zhao Ji reminded Mona's family.

In the end, Mona's two elder brothers who had already married went out to inquire about the news separately, one south and the other north. For the others, Mona's mother took care of the two little ones, while Mona's father and Mona's third brother followed Kiel Warrior to their backyard.

Came to Mona's house, where thin firewood was stacked at least one meter high. Generally speaking, this kind of burning material cannot be piled up next to the living room, especially in the recent dry weather. Although the weather is cold, whether there is a fire does not depend on the temperature of the weather, but on the humidity.

Mona's father saw such a pile of firewood piled up by Mona in the backyard of the house next to the inhabitant, and immediately moved the firewood to the far side of the backyard in anger.

Zhao Ji checked every bundle of fine firewood, and asked the two of them that they hadn't found a pile of firewood here in the past two days. Mona's brother lowered his head and said embarrassedly: "I thought I was kidnapped these two days, and I have been running around in the city. I didn't expect this."

Mona's father followed up and said, "It's all my fault. My daughter disappeared, and I was in a panic. Fortunately, I made a commission at the Table Corner Tavern at that time, and I'm waiting for you, Keel."

Zhao Ji suddenly removed a small piece of fabric from a bundle of firewood. This section of cloth is made of relatively dense linen, not the rough linen used in normal production, but the dense linen that people wear.

I showed this discovery to Mona's father and brother, but they couldn't recognize whether it was a piece of cloth hanging from Mona's clothes.

take it into the house,

It was confirmed by Mona's mother that Mona was wearing a dress made of this fabric the day before she disappeared.

Now, with the physical proof, Zhao Ji can confirm that Mona did leave here. It should be at night, so I didn't notice a small piece of cloth hanging from the firewood on the dress.

Zhao Ji looked at the backyard of Mona's house. The courtyard wall in the backyard is at least three meters high, and without enough climbing objects, it is impossible to climb over the courtyard wall at night. Moreover, there were other people's houses on the other side of the courtyard wall, not members of the Snow family. If she turned over, it was impossible not to be found.

Zhao Ji walked around the courtyard wall, but found no traces of footprints or hands climbing on the wall, and there was no obvious damage to the firewood piles, poultry cages, and kennels in the backyard.

How did the little girl escape from her house?

There is not even a single tree in this backyard, and she didn't climb out of the fence, so.

Zhao Ji looked at the ground, she had only one way out from the ground.

Zhao Ji asked Mona's family to see where there were signs of movement in the backyard, and there were signs of excavation on the fence.

And he himself came to the well and the sewage outlet in the center of the backyard to observe. Although the well and the sewage outlet seem to be together, they are not in the same place, and the routes they take are also separated, and they are firmly separated by stone and bricks.

Mona's family also used a large wooden board to separate the two. The well was open to the open air, and a small toilet made of wooden boards and wooden piles was opened next to the sewage outlet.

No matter how you think about it, the little girl will not leave the sewage outlet, and the thick stone slabs used for the sewage outlet only leave a gap of fifteen centimeters wide. Dirt can flow down smoothly, but normal people can't go down at all.

The water well is different. The opening of the well is one meter wide. In order to prevent people from falling, the well has a one-meter-high fence built with bricks and stones on the ground. It is impossible for children to fall.

"I want to ask, what kind of structure is under this well?" Zhao Ji pulled Mona's father over and asked.

The other party scratched his head: "Structure?"

"What does it look like? Do you know?" Zhao Ji pointed to the bottom of the well.

Mona's father suddenly realized: "The bottom is very safe. The bottom is not far from the bottom. No one can be drowned. The depth of the water inside is less than one meter. The water gushes out from the channels on both sides and is made of stones. , very solid."

Zhao Ji glanced at the bottom of the well suspiciously, and asked, "How big is the waterway? Can you leave?"

Mona's father was a little puzzled. He probably couldn't remember clearly. Fortunately, another person present remembered.

Mona’s third brother said, “I’ve been going down to clean the moss in the well every year, I know.” Zhao Ji signaled him to continue, “It’s definitely not okay if you walk with your back bent, but if it’s a girl who walks squatting, Seems like a good size."

Mona's father retorted: "Fart, it's such a small place inside, can people leave? Besides, there is water flowing in the water channel, can people walk?"

Zhao Ji stopped the two from arguing, and said, "I'll find out when I go down and have a look."

There is no need for other people's assistance, because the well is not wide, and he can get stuck in the middle of the well by just supporting it left and right.

Zhao Ji turned over and went down the well. Although the weather was dry, the walls of the well were still quite wet, but people could still get stuck here easily.

Sure enough, as Mona's father said, the well is very shallow, and this place is not a natural well in the plain. This is a systematic project built in the early years of Kendall City. It is said that water is drawn from the Kendall River, raised underground in Kendall City to the underground pool of the Baron’s Mansion, and then descended from the heights in the city. Branches all the way flow to various regions, and finally gather in the south of Kendall City and discharge.

The small well in Mona's backyard is just one of many branching water supplies.

Mona's father sent down a light from above, hey, a relatively uncommon grease candle.

There was some ash accumulated on the candle, Zhao Ji blew the ash off, and then took out the flint from a storage space in the handle under the candle holder.

With candles lit, Zhao Ji's surroundings were illuminated.

The well is at most three meters deep, and there is a puddle in the middle of the soles of the feet, surrounded by stone slabs that rise in sequence. His feet stepped on these stone slabs without water.

Zhao Ji paid attention to the wall, and sure enough, he found that besides the fresh traces left by him when he came down, there were also many climbing traces left here recently.

Zhao Ji was sure that the little girl Mona must have gone up and down here many times. The first few times were probably for checking the way, and the last one or two must have gone from here to other places.

Zhao Ji spread his legs and leaned down, and saw two water holes at the bottom of the well.

One water hole simply flows the cold water of the Kendal River, which is not much, and the other water hole fills the well's central puddle and flows to the next family's well.

Zhao Ji compared the height of the water hole and found that it was not easy for him to go in, but if it was a girl, she probably could walk along the waterway squatting.

The waterway is very clean and the air is very fresh, so there is nothing to worry about. It seems that Mona sneaked away from here a few days ago.

Hey, what a painstaking effort. Because the wedding date was approaching, the little girl who couldn't go out for a step just climbed down the well alone in the dark at night, then bent down and walked along the dark waterway.

no! Suddenly Zhao Ji thought of what to do if Mona got stuck here, wouldn't she die here.

Thinking of this, he climbed into the well and told Mona's family about this possibility.

They were also frightened by this possibility, anxious and didn't know what to do. Zhao Ji told them and asked them to inform them back and forth along the underground waterway.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji suddenly remembered, even if Mona was going to leave home through the waterway, where did she plan it?

Mona's father answered Kiel's question. From their house, after passing the wells of the eight families, there is a public water intake on the street outside, which is probably where Mona plans to come out. .

After getting the directions, Zhao Ji asked Mona's family to go down the road to inform each family to pay attention to the wells, and then went to the street public water intake outside the alley alone to wait for him.

After speaking, Zhao Ji climbed down the well again.

Regardless of the fact that the running water in the waterway would wet him, Zhao Ji could not walk in the waterway if he was squatting, so he climbed down directly this time and crawled along the waterway.

Biting the illuminated candle handle in his mouth, Zhao Ji climbed down and moved downstream along the direction of the water.

Depressed, claustrophobic.

The pressure of the environment made Zhao Ji feel hard to breathe, not because of lack of air, but because the closed waterways around him made him feel oppressed.

Thinking that Mona had also crawled here, Zhao Ji didn't know what kind of courage supported such a little girl to walk through the lower layers of the city.

He himself had already experienced quite a few adventures, but he also felt quite uncomfortable crawling in this oppressive waterway.

The icy water wet his palms, his knees, calves and shoes were soaked. The river water, which is estimated to be only a few degrees, quickly took away his body temperature, and Zhao Ji only hoped that Mona was wearing a pair of waterproof shoes a few days ago, and she walked squatting. As long as she didn't fall, there should be only Shoes will come into contact with the running water beneath the channel.

Years of water erosion made the bottom of the channel quite slippery, and the palms slipped several times and failed to support the body. Fortunately, his legs were firmly on the ground.

In the waterways that no one has cleaned, you can see some dark moss when you look up. These mosses not only do not need sunlight in dark waterways, but also emit a faint light by themselves.

The light of the grease candle was quite bright, and Zhao Ji could only judge whether these rare mosses were glowing, and what was their specific condition, and now he didn't bother to take a look.

Soon, he traveled more than ten meters and arrived at the backyard of the next family, Xing Snow's house.

There are already people on the top of the well. Seeing the Kiel warrior crawling out of the waterway, he hurriedly said hello.

Zhao Ji responded, and then said that he would continue to move forward. The worst case would be that Mona was exhausted and fell into the dark waterway. If Mona really came out of the public well outside the alley according to her own plan, that would be good news.

Moving on, Zhao Ji first moved his sour mouth, then climbed down and continued on.

Along the way, in addition to moving forward, Zhao Ji also paid attention to the moss on the top of the waterway. Unlike Zhao Ji who walked forward in the waterway on her stomach, Mona mostly squatted forward, so there was a high possibility that she would hit the moss on the top of the waterway with the hair on the top of her head.

Zhao Ji paid attention to the moss on the top of his head all the way. After passing the well of the three families, he finally found traces of moss being knocked down in the water channel afterwards.

The original moss was knocked off, leaving an obvious gap. Zhao Ji judged that Mona probably lacked physical strength at this time, so she knocked off the moss on the top of her head.

Come on!

Although the cheering was for Mona a few days ago, Zhao Ji still hoped that the girl, Mona, would survive and not fall down in this dark and oppressive underground waterway because of lack of energy.

You must be successful. If you lack physical strength, you must know how to rest to accumulate physical strength.