Chapter 53: Robin Hood Robin Hood, open the door.
Chapter 53 – Robin Hood Robin Hood, Open the Door
Led by Adam, Arthur and the others arrived at the Crow’s Nest area located in the deepest part of St. Giles Parish.
Arthur glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Dickens scribbling a few lines in the book he carried with him.
— The streets were muddy and the narrow, dark alleys were filled with the stench of excrement and vomit. There were a few small stores left, but their shelves were sparse, and I’m afraid the only thing they had was a collection of children begging for food.
–The sun had barely risen, and already they had to crawl around the doorway, with the occasional cry of a baby coming from inside.
–The place was so full of desolation that the only thing that seemed to be doing any good business was the tavern, from which came the loud clamor of some of the lower-class Irishmen.
–The narrow street stretched out on either side of a number of verandahs and courtyards, through the gaps of which could be seen a few rude rooms crowded into heaps and clusters. There, some drunken men and women rolled together, covered with muck, like swine rolling in a mud pit.
–From some of the doorways, from time to time, a few pugnacious men of ferocious and frightening appearance emerged, with furtive eyes, and it was evident that what they were about to do could not be anything honorable or noble.
Arthur saw this, and exhaling a slow ring of smoke from his pipe, he read.
“There are no toilets, no garbage cans, no water supply lines or clean water sources, and not a single sewer pipe for cleaning up the filth can be seen in the entire area.
Instead of living in the busiest city in all of Europe, they live in a pristine wilderness where civilization is invisible and no one cares.”
Dickens heard this and his writing suddenly stopped as he twirled his hat and asked.
“Arthur, did you take the classics department in college?”
“No, I read history.”
Dickens was a little surprised, “Is the standard of education at the University of London so high? It seems that the earlier reports in the newspapers about your school were all wrong; they were unfounded slanders.
You, a student studying history, can have such a high level of writing, if you were to graduate in classics, I’m afraid you’d be at the literary level, right?”
Arthur sipped his cigarette and asked, “What do the newspapers say about our school?”
Dickens returned, “They said that the University of London is a university that enrolls students without regard to their faith, and does not even have a prayer room, such a school is simply a cesspool university, and even if a good student studies in such a school for four years, even if he reads elegant classics, what he learns in the end can only be cesspool literature.”
Arthur would have liked to retort for the reputation of his alma mater, but his mind suddenly floated back to Elder’s beatific grinning face.
He struggled in silence for half a day before he took a sharp drag on his cigarette and spoke slowly, “While I don’t agree with the newspaper, people who are full of cesspool literature do seem to be all around me.”
Dickens asked, somewhat unsure of himself, “Do you mean me?”
Arthur shook his head in denial, “No, no, Charles, I’m not talking about you. That man you met, the one I was drinking with at the tavern the other day.”
Dickens stared at first, then covered his forehead in awe, “He actually read the classics? My God! If you hadn’t told me, I would have thought he was uneducated.”
Arthur raised his eyebrows, “That’s probably because you don’t know much about the nature of education. Education only teaches students skills, but it doesn’t teach them to think. Education doesn’t always make people’s brains better, sometimes it even makes them worse.”
Dickens looked a little confused, “I don’t quite understand what you mean.”
Arthur saw that he didn’t understand, so he set up a question, “What do you think would happen to a stubborn fool if he got a college education?”
Dickens hesitated, “It would make him less stubborn?”
Arthur shook his head, “No, he would become even more difficult than he already was.
Because he’ll make himself look more comical by choosing the parts of his education that he likes to add to his bullshit logic.
You have to realize, Charles, that even the sun can only shine on things that are willing to accept the light.”
Dickens asked, “Do you mean that stupid people should not be educated?”
Arthur shook his head again, “No. They should still be educated, smart people can only struggle to move forward in this society without education, how can stupid people live if they don’t get some education?
Besides, even I’m not sure if I’m smart or stupid, what if I’m the stupid part myself?
We think we are rational, we think our every move is justified.
But the truth is that bossiness and paranoia are common to all types of people.
Charles, usually when I call people names I’m calling myself names too, so in the end, it’s better to leave yourself open.”
Hearing this, Agareth smiled and appeared sitting on the fender that had fallen most of the way out of the small store.
“Arthur, how can you be paranoid and stupid? You’re a clever villain. You just don’t get mixed up with the stupid people. Once people are in a group, their intelligence level is severely reduced.
In order to gain acceptance, they are willing to abandon right and wrong and trade their intelligence and common sense for that ridiculously humble sense of security and belonging that makes me laugh.
Isolated individuals have the ability to control their reactive behavior in a way that groups do not.
As soon as they get together in a group, they run out of brains, and what they used to be afraid to do or even think about, they can do to you one thing after another as long as there is a leader.
What you need to do is to give them some slight, not so easy to detect the influence, perhaps a slogan, or a behavior.
As long as you get them to pick up on the message you’re sending, you can drive them to give their lives up front while you sit back and quietly count your money.”
Arthur glanced at the Red Devil, unable to fathom exactly why the guy was saying this passage today.
He couldn’t say he was in a good mood right now, nor could he say he was in a bad one.
Usually when he was in a tranquil state of mind, Agareth didn’t bother to say much.
Because even Arthur himself knew that it was hard for humans to be tempted when they were in such a state of desirelessness.
Agares was at least an old businessman who had been doing this since the time of King Solomon, could he not understand this?
Arthur pondered for a moment and did not say much, but followed the crowd’s footsteps all the way forward.
In the alley in front of them was a small, dilapidated two-story building with a broken hole in the roof, the traces of last night’s rain still hadn’t faded, and the end of the eaves were dripping down a little bit of water.
Adam, who was being held by Tom, let go of his father’s hand, and he whispered at Arthur and the others, “Gentlemen, please get out of the way for a while. If Mr. Fagin sees that I’ve brought an outsider back, he’ll not only not open the door, but he’ll go through the window and escape.”
Arthur and the others looked at each other and began to back away.
“Okay, we’ll duck out of the way for a while and you stay safe.”
Adam hesitated, he suddenly called out to Arthur.
“Mr. Hastings, is it true that you won’t arrest Mr. Fagin?”
Arthur blinked at him and smiled softly, “Have I ever lied to you?”
Adam was finally relieved to hear the reply and he nodded seriously.
He then walked over to the door of the room, which had been reinforced with two layers of wooden planks, and stood on his tiptoes and gently snapped it three times.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The rhythm of the knocking was slow, but each sound was very heavy.
Immediately afterward, Adam curled two fingers into a ring and whistled twice like a cuckoo’s call before opening his mouth to read.
“The birds of the forest come home to roost, Robin Hood, Robin Hood, you open the door. Don’t bring your bow and arrows, for I’ve brought you back two cat’s eyes.”
There was a moment’s silence in the hut, when a voice, shrill with a touch of huskiness, came from within.
“Cuckoo, cuckoo, where have you flown back from? The crows of the forest send back word that you have gone to the guillotine.”
“The cake has bewitched the eagle’s eye, and I have returned from my further training at the college, a ten days’ vacation, easy and pleasant.”
No sooner had Adam’s words been uttered than a cloudy, yellow-spotted eye appeared from the round aperture hollowed out in the door of the room.
The eye glanced around at the surroundings behind Adam until it was certain that no one was hiding, and then the door of the room finally opened slowly a crack.
“Adam, you may come in.”
Editor’s notice, there’s something wrong with this chapter of the starting point free chapters, you all can’t see the new chapters posted in the past two days that say they’re not visible, and it’s not expected to be fixed until next week.
However, the new chapter said I can still see in the background, if you find any writing is not right place can still point out, I saw it will be revised. Incidentally, the shelf time should be around 6.16.
To be honest, this book can get the second position in the new book list, really let me unexpected, I would like to thank you for the reward, monthly votes and recommendation support! I really thank you all for your support!
(End of chapter)