Rei led Julius forward in the dark tunnel.
Julius held the torch high to illuminate the path ahead of Rei, while Rei held a bag full of pebbles in her hand.
Of course, Rei did not have the hobby of picking up pebbles to play with. These were not ordinary pebbles.
She dragged the bag with her right hand, and held several pebbles of different shapes in her left hand.
The pebbles were round and sharp, milky white, and had a smooth surface … If that was all, they were just special pebbles.
The pebbles glowed with a faint white light. In the dark, even without the torch, they were quite bright.
Every once in a while, Rei would squat down and stuff the pebbles into the gaps that could fit. It would be best if she could stuff the pebbles into the gaps where it would be difficult to take them out.
Or she would find the gaps in the surrounding walls and stuff the pebbles into them.
After entering the entrance with the iron fence, Rei had been doing this kind of work.
It was indeed a kind of work, and it was the price she had to pay to enter the tunnel for free.
Julius had been following behind Rei. Now that the tunnel was safe, there was nothing to do.
He only needed to hold the torch. Since he had nothing to do, he was not only paying attention to the surroundings, but also observing Rei.
The petite girl was stuffing the milky white glowing pebbles into the gaps that could fit things in the tunnel, using them as a kind of guide.
The path constructed by the guiding pebbles was quite far away.
Although Julius was familiar with the sewers, this was the first time he had come to a completely new place.
"You have never brought me here before … Is this a new place that you discovered?"
Julius had doubts in his mind.
After entering the iron gate, which was usually impassable, Rei led him through the complicated passageways for quite a while. They walked in a circle on the left and straight on the right for quite a long distance. Only when he almost lost his sense of direction did Rei stop.
After passing through the iron fence, the sewers on the other side did not seem to be dangerous. However, there were more pipes, and not only were there around, there were also pipes above and underground.
The underground holes made people worry if they would lose their footing and fall down, while the pipes above made people worry if something heavy would fall down and hit the unlucky people below.
"Don't worry, we are now walking on a new path.
It's easy to get lost here, but I won't, "Rei replied.
In this narrow and dark space, even if there was a fire, it wouldn't make people feel any better. It was already good enough that they didn't have any negative emotions.
Moreover, in this space, the flow of time seemed to be frozen. It gave people the feeling that they had been walking for a long time. However, this might just be an illusion. It was just people's senses that dragged out time.
At first, Julius was a little worried that Rei was just walking around randomly. However, when she took out the guiding stone at the entrance of a cave and started to leave a mark, he understood that Rei was not walking around randomly.
Since then, Rei had been walking silently in front of him. Occasionally, she would crouch down or get close to the wall and insert a small stone as a mark.
If Rei hadn't lied to the people from the Rat Path, then the path she had left behind would lead to a new area.
Julius knew Rei's character very well. She was a child who struggled to survive, but she wouldn't go crazy because of it. At least, she wouldn't cheat others to get something.
Julius believed in Rei, so he didn't say anything more. However, in this space, silence was also a kind of torture.
"Why did you take on this job?
I don't think you are such a selfless person, "Julius said.
As they had a good relationship, Julius didn't speak politely. Besides, if he spoke politely, they wouldn't be able to get along. This was not only the way he and Rei got along, but also the way most of the residents of the Rat Path dealt with each other.
There was no euphemism, only simple and direct.
"Of course not. If I could monopolize everything in a place, I would definitely do it," Rei replied.
"But I can't do it. I can't even bring anything that is slightly heavier with me. I can only bring some small and light things, and I don't know if they are valuable."
Speaking of this, Rei smiled. "Since I can't eat so many things alone, and someone will find out sooner or later, it's better for me to sell this information while it is still valuable.
Besides, you and I can't walk around freely in the new area. Maybe there will be dozens of little fangs that will eat us up. "
Rei's words were so reasonable that Julius was speechless.
This poor little mouse was not as greedy as other scavengers. She was smart enough and content.
When Julius was at Rei's age, he didn't have the same awareness as Rei. If he knew that there was a large field of sweet fruits waiting to be picked, he would never tell anyone, even if he couldn't finish them all by himself. Most of the fruits would eventually rot on the branches or the ground.
People would change according to different environments. Julius was an orphan who lived in a remote village, while Rei was a mouse who lived in a chaotic place like Rat Tunnel and had to scavenge in the sewers … At least, Julius felt that his life in the village was not worse than Rei's.
Before the two of them teamed up, both of them were actually not doing very well.
"Sometimes I always feel that you are just a child, but you are no different from an adult," Julius said.
"I also want to grow up quickly," Rei replied. "It would be great if I could live until then."
Such heavy words coming from the mouth of a little girl might not be normal in the first place.
But Julius had to get used to it. Otherwise, he couldn't make a living in a place like Rat Tunnel, nor could he get along with a little girl like Rei.
Julius didn't know how long he had been walking, but Rei finally stopped in front of him.
There seemed to be an exit in front of her, and there was wind blowing in. Although it was strange that there was wind underground, Julius had already gotten used to it.
"After walking around in this maze-like place for so long, we finally come back here."
Rei turned back and smiled at Julius. "I thought I would never find this way again. It seems that I am lucky."