Whispering Verse

"Dad, mom asked me to bring you food!"

The boy held up his lunch box and said to the porter on the trestle, and then accidentally tripped over the hemp rope under his feet. Seeing that not only himself, but also the lunch box in his hand would suffer, fortunately, Shade, who was on the side, stretched out his hand to support the boy, and caught the lunch box that had flown out of his hand:

"Be careful."

he said to the boy.

The porter in a short-sleeved shirt also hurriedly put down the sack on his shoulder and ran over. Because his work was based on piecework, the supervisor frowned but did not stop him.

"Newman, are you okay?"

The man asked about his child, and then embarrassedly thanked Shade:

"Thank you very much, sir."

He judged from Shade's clothes that Shade did not belong to the dock area, so he spoke with extra respect. The boy was even more reserved, holding his father's hand and hiding behind him.

Shade didn't care about this. He returned the food box to the boy and asked the man:

"Do you mind if I invite you to dinner? I'm a travel writer from out of town, and I want to know some local customs. I won't waste your time. Let's go to the tavern over there for dinner. I'll treat you, and your son will too. You can come along."

If it hadn't been for Shade supporting the boy just now, this request would have been very abrupt. But in the current situation, the man just hesitated and nodded:

"Okay sir, thank you for your generosity. But can you wait a moment? There are still ten minutes before work ends."

Shade didn't mind waiting a little longer, so he chatted with the reserved boy on the sidelines while the man was carrying the sack again.

Foreigners probably really have a unique affinity that they don't even know about. The boy didn't speak much at first, but when the man came back from going to the supervisor to confirm the number of his workpieces, Shade had already chatted happily with the boy about raising cats. things.

Of course, the boy's family is not rich, so he does not keep a cat at home, but together with the children on the street, he feeds two stray cats that often come looking for food. Judging from his description, the two stray cats probably used the children as a self-service food supply station.

There are many cheap taverns in the dock area where sailors and porters can rest. As work was approaching, the tavern became even more crowded. Shade, the man named Laurie Anderson and the boy Newman Anderson sat down against the wall. The boy sat with his father and was asked to sit on the inside against the wall. Location.

This meal cost Shade 10 pfennigs in total, which was 14 copper pennies according to the exchange rate. The price is quite reasonable considering the prices in the Yuewan area and the sumptuous food on the table.

The man and boy thanked Shade again. During the meal, Shade did not rush to ask the boy what his wishes were. Instead, he carefully inquired about the porter's living conditions and the working environment on the dock.

Laurie Anderson answered Shade's question seriously while eating, and highlighted the "Moon Bay City Dock and Warehouse Workers Association":

"The Yuewan area has been an important port on the West Coast since a long time ago. In order to compete for jobs at the docks, local workers and outsiders formed gang-like associations of various sizes in the early days. Over the next few hundred years, these dynamic organizations on the docks interacted with each other. The integration has become the current Dock and Warehouse Workers Association. You must join the association before you are allowed to work on the dock. In addition to the annual lottery, you can only join the association through family inheritance. Sir, you know that every year people from other places come from How many people are there looking for work at the Yuewan City dock?"

He is quite proud of this:

"My father is a member of the association, so I can join the association. I thought that when Newman grows up, he will inherit my association membership."

As he spoke, he excitedly patted the shoulder of the boy whose mouth was stuffed with bread, causing him to cough.

"But that's illegal, right? What if an employer actually hires someone who's not a member of the association?"

"Then you will have to pay an additional management fee. The dock office has reached an agreement with our association, which makes management easier. There is a tacit understanding that the gang fires on the dock will not involve the workers who are working and the sailors on the ship. Because we are united, we will not be bullied at will."

Shade nodded to express his understanding. This could be regarded as local workers protecting their jobs. Although "respectable people" in the city think that the work on the docks is strenuous and the income is meager, for those who make a living on the docks, the income is enough to sustain their families.

After all, this is the rich Yuewan, and even dock workers' incomes are higher than those of workers in other areas.

While Shade and Anderson were talking, the boy, Newman, kept eating and did not interrupt. But when Mr. Anderson mentioned just now that he wanted Newman to inherit his "porter qualifications" in the future, Shade easily noticed something was wrong with the boy's expression.

In other words, this teenage boy doesn't seem to want to be a porter.

This desire is much more difficult than persuading Miss Lisa to read a story to her daughter. Fortunately, Shade didn't have to solve this matter immediately. He had plenty of time to deal with it slowly. Moreover, he did not dare to say whether the idea of ​​"not becoming a porter is for the sake of the boy's future" was the "arrogance" of outsiders deciding other people's lives.

Now that he had thought about how to solve this matter slowly, Shade was not in a hurry to ask more questions. So the next step was to chat with Mr. Anderson, and when the three of them were about to finish dinner, a stranger came to the table and handed Mr. Anderson a note.

The latter took a cautious look, and then met Shade's curious gaze.

Shade didn't ask because it would be an invasion of other people's privacy. But under his gaze, considering this sumptuous dinner, the porter took the initiative to talk about what it was like:

"My friends and I have a meeting tonight, and this is the note announcing the time and place."

He said sheepishly and stuffed the note into his pocket. Shade observed his expression, then smiled and asked casually:

"Eternal light?"

"How do you know? Oh, I mean, you know this too?"

Mr. Anderson looked a little panicked and glanced at his confused son uneasily:

"Since you know, forget it, but we have rules and we must not tell outsiders about things at will."

"It's okay, I won't go around talking about it. I'm just interested."

Shade lowered his voice slightly:

"When I was on the dock just now, I heard your co-workers saying that they still have to work at night, otherwise the goods to be transported will not have time to be loaded on the ship. You gave up your working time to attend such a rally because you agreed with them. Concept? They seem to like speaking for the poor."

"no no."

The man shook his head and also lowered his voice:

“Although I feel extremely calm every time I participate in an event organized by [Eternal Light], some of their views are too extreme. I don’t want to say bad things about them. In fact, what they do has always been very extreme. Okay, but... I always feel like this is not like a social group, but like some kind of religious cult."

He pursed his lips and didn't know what he thought of, and swallowed what he almost said:

"But every time I attend an event, they give me some eggs and vegetables, which is more than what I earn from working at night."

Shade nodded to express his understanding:

"So do the dock workers have a lot of contact with [Eternal Light]?"

"Sir, I can't say that."

Shade glanced at the boy and handed the man a few bills under the table, so he answered carefully:

"I know about a dozen people, not many, and most of them are just like me, just for the eggs and vegetables. But there are also people who agree with them, but very few, and I can't name them. .”

These are enough to prove Shade's original conjecture, that is, [Eternal Light], a nominal organization of ordinary people, is definitely not simple. As for what they want to do, this has nothing to do with Shade for the time being, but if Shade is still active locally, he will encounter them again sooner or later.

He lowered his head and continued eating. The man across the table hesitated for a long time, glanced at his son again, and then lowered his voice and said to Shade:

"Sir, please don't investigate them and don't be curious about it."

"Why?"

Shade raised his head curiously, and then saw the fear on Laurie Anderson's face:

"I met a lot of people there, and one of them wanted to go to the police station and make a fortune by reporting them, and you know there are always people like that. And then, and then, and then he died. His body was lying on the ground. Heads are missing from people’s alleys.”

"Um?"

He was stunned for a moment, then Xia De suddenly looked at him in surprise:

"Wait a minute, you want to say"

The man lowered his head and shook his head quickly:

"No, I don't know anything! This may be just a coincidence, I don't know anything. So please don't continue the investigation, it won't do anyone any good. There are a lot of them, really a lot of them."

Before leaving Mr. Laurie Anderson and the boy Newman, Shade made an arrangement with them to meet again at noon tomorrow. He has to think about how to deal with the boy's wish, and contact with this porter should allow Shade to come into contact with more secrets about the "Eternal Light".

According to the plan, Shade then went to Belindel Manor to visit the witch, mainly to inquire about her physical condition. After all, the sage-level relic was still in her shoulder.

The witch went out on business in the afternoon, and returned to the manor in the evening. When Shade saw her, she was sitting on the sofa, tilting her head and looking at the sunset outside. The orange-red light that broke through the black clouds shone on the side of her face, and her expression looked lonely and sad.