Whispering Verse

The two continued to draw cards, and the old tombkeeper, who was in a good mood, did not forget to continue the story:

"The legends of the villagers are not much different from the rumors you can hear elsewhere. They believe that there is a ghoul hiding in this cemetery, but it has no interest in corpses or living people, but occasionally He would go to the village and steal the chickens, ducks, geese and sheep raised by the villagers.”

Shade took a look at his hand:

"But is it really a ghoul? Could it be a wild animal like a wolf or a fox?"

"The church thinks so too. The church has sent people here to conduct routine inspections, but you also know that there is no evidence for such rumors. Moreover, there have never been any casualties, so the investigation ultimately came to nothing."

The old man shrugged, looked at his hand of cards, and showed a confident smile:

"Two cards are suspended. I have a lot of luck today. The moon is 10, the flower is 9, and I am at 19."

Although Shade did not stop playing, he also revealed his hand:

"I am now Sun 5 and Sun 13, so I will continue to draw cards and hope not to bust..."

He opened the corner of the third card and threw it against the chair. The cards hit the wood and made a snapping sound. The two of them looked over and saw Flower 2.

"20 points, I win the second game."

Shade breathed a sigh of relief, and the old tombkeeper didn't care:

"Go on, let's look at the third game now. I don't believe it, you still have 20 points in the third game."

The two reached out to touch the cards, and the local story continued:

"So has anyone actually seen that ghoul? Not a strange shadow, but an actual monster."

Shade was very curious about this, while the old tombkeeper shook his head:

"If you exclude the excuses of those drunkards, of course there is no such thing. But if you are interested, you can go to the row of shabby houses on the east side of Lower Griol Village. Some people say they have seen strange things there. The house originally belonged to Mika's family, but their family moved to the village of Pukhov more than ten years ago. The house has always been empty, and maybe the person who was seen was actually a homeless person."

After saying that, he kept silent and concentrated on the last round of poker.

In the third round of the card game, the two of them quickly drew out their two cards, pasted the two cards together, then held them in front of their eyes and slowly twisted them open, and then both showed confident smiles.

They touched the third card together, and then showed the final result:

"Flowers 3, 11, and 5 are all the same color...I am at 19."

This was the result of the old tombkeeper, and Shade arranged the three cards in his hand on the chair:

"Moon 4, sun 4, stars 13. Sorry, I'm at 21 o'clock."

He brushed the three cards arranged together with his hand and looked at the chair with obvious wood grain, the thick paper cards and the three points. He felt that the stress accumulated due to various things in the past few weeks had all disappeared at this moment. .

The old tombkeeper looked at the result in surprise, and after a long time he nodded:

"Well, losing to 21 points is not a bad result. Young man, if you want to ask anything else, keep asking."

"Putting the ghoul question aside for now, I actually have other questions."

He smiled sheepishly and pointed to his "Moon 4":

"Your Moon Four is [Urban Legend·The Street that Does Not Exist]. I wonder if you are willing to change hands with this card?"

Shade liked the card that showed a picture of a deserted street under the moon:

"I can buy it at a premium to the market price."

He is sincere. After all, a true Rhodes player will not sell his cards easily:

"Don't refuse in a hurry, I'll offer you this price."

I wrote a number on the notebook and handed it over:

"With this money, you may be able to visit more places and meet more poker players in your later years. Maybe you can also participate in the next Big City Players."

The old tombkeeper hesitantly touched his chin and glanced at the tempting number again:

"I won't sell my Rhodes cards easily. I even want them to stay with me in the grave. But your proposal... it's better... let's play three more games. No, it’s five games, or no, seven games. If you beat me, how about I sell it to you?”

"That would be great. This way, we will have time to continue telling the story of the ghoul."

Sunlight shone from the church door, illuminating Shad's face and the scattered playing cards next to it. Foreigners may occasionally miss spring mornings like this in the future, after all, the weather is so nice.

An hour later, Shade left the cemetery satisfied with [Urban Legend·Non-Existent Street], added it to his real deck in a deserted place, and assimilated it with [Treasure Object] .

He wanted to control the smile on his face, but because he was in such a good mood, he couldn't help but raise the corners of his lips. The bad emotions about water ghosts, islands, ancient families, desires, bloodlines, etc. in the past few weeks really all disappeared. Shade then remembered that he seemed to have not played cards with others for a few weeks. Recently, he was busy with girls at the banquet and had no time to meet the card players in the Green Lake area:

"I put too much pressure on myself."

He even thought that nothing could interfere with his mood this morning.

【Loyal love. 】

"She" said suddenly, Xia De was startled, but continued to move forward:

"The facts cannot be changed. Now I can't give up anyone around me. In this case, it is better to use other ways to prove my feelings and intentions for them and to express my guilt towards them. For love Are you loyal? I will not lose to desire, I will definitely win. I am very greedy, but I will never let go, absolutely not."

"She" smiled softly, not knowing what she wanted to express.

The old gravekeeper said that the rumored ghoul might live in the broken house east of Lower Griol Village. Shade left the cemetery and walked towards the village. The weather outside the city is really good today. Even though the clouds of conflict between the two countries are still hovering in the sky above Green Lake, for the villagers living in the countryside, this does not affect their lives.

Rural life in the steam age has not changed much due to the development of the steam industry. The lives of farmers carrying hoes are very similar to those of their ancestors living on the same land.

However, outsiders have heard news about steam-mechanized large agricultural tools from newspapers, and have also heard that large grain merchants in the city have used equipment such as semi-automatic shelling machines, but they don’t know when these changes will be implemented. Spread into the countryside.

The sky is very blue, with large clouds floating in the sky, like cotton that has been stepped on by little Mia. The farmland on both sides of the country road already has neat seedlings that are pleasing to the eye, and the wind blowing in the face also carries the smell of the spring countryside...probably a mixture of cow dung and earth.

Shade did not enter the village, but walked around the village and came to the vicinity of the "broken house on the east side". There is an apple forest separated from the village, and sheep from nowhere are eating the hanging treetops with their heads raised. Its back was slightly raised, and its limbs were slender and flexible. When Shade walked through the woods, the sheep turned to look at Shade, and then continued to slowly chew the leaves. Watching it eat like this, Shade even felt that time was slowing down.

After walking through the woods, we came to a building that seemed to have no trace of life. A fence encloses four houses, the roof of the smallest of which has collapsed. Although it is dilapidated, I have to admit that the scenery here is really good, and it is completely different from the city.

Since there was no one, Shade didn't have to say hello to anyone. He jumped over the fence and inspected the houses in turn. Because there was no owner for a long time, everything in the house was emptied, and even the windows were removed.

In a place where there is ventilation from all sides, there is not even much dust on the ground. But there are traces of bonfires, footprints of running children, animal excrement, and even firewood stored by villagers.

After a rough circle and finding no harvest, Shade returned to the woods to look for the sheep. It was still in the same place, but on a different tree eating leaves.

Shade recalled it and determined that the sheep did not belong to a species that likes to eat fish, and then put the [Fish Training Ring] on its horns.

The sheep, which originally had drooped bloodshot eyelids and looked not very smart, actually raised its head and glanced at Shade again after the relic came into effect, but then continued to eat leaves.

"The relic is useless?"

Xia De thought suspiciously, considered his words, and asked:

"Can you talk now?"

"Yes."

The sheep drawled and answered slowly. It spoke Drarian with a slight accent, and spoke really slowly.

"I thought that after you gained the ability to speak, you would speak immediately."

Shade was relieved. The sheep chewed and stared at the leaves and said:

"Eating is important, talking is not. I want to survive."

It made a swallowing motion, and its gray white wool reflected the warm light in the spring morning sun:

"Is there anything you need?"

the sheep asked, motioning for Shade to follow it, and then found a place where he could lower his head and eat leaves.

Shade thought this sheep was very interesting, and began to look forward to whether little Mia would be as interesting as this calm sheep once she could talk:

"I want to ask, have you always lived around here?"

"Yes."

"Do you know the house over there?"

"Go and rest from time to time."

"Did you see anything dangerous there?"

This time the sheep did not answer immediately, but paused. Of course, it could also be because you have to struggle to swallow what you chew:

“Man, how do you define danger?”