Winner Takes All

The boy was completely dumbfounded.

He didn't expect that, after taking his little sister with him to escape and save their life, they already hid themselves in that deserted alley.

He couldn't believe that he could meet Jack when he turned his head!

In the line of sight, his sister Amanda already pounced on Jack's body and called very cautiously.

Her voice was low like the buzz of a mosquito.

The boy sighed helplessly, as if he was resigned to his fate.

Dragging the bamboo mat, he crept to Amanda's side and crouched down. "Amanda, you hold the mat. Let me look at him."

He didn't want to pay attention to the man in front of him, but he couldn't be indifferent to his sister's attitude.

More importantly, after escaping until that point, he met him. Such a cruel fate simply left him speechless.

Since he met him, he couldn't just stand idly by and watch Amanda being in a hurry.

Amanda quickly took over the bamboo mat, propped it up a little bit and tried to let the bamboo mat cover the three of them.

Now they were escaped slaves, so they were not out of danger at all.

At that moment, there was a mess outside. As long as they went out in the thirteen cities of the Royal Palace, their embarrassed expression could be easily recognized.

Fortunately, none of them entered the auction house, and none of them was tattooed as a slave.

Anyway, at least for the time being, they had to hide themselves cautiously.

If found out, even an ordinary person from the thirteen cities of the Royal Palace would have the right to own them and turn them into slaves.

Even a child like Amanda knew the cruelty on the snowy plain.

That was nothing more than a child like Amanda who always kept a kindness in his heart.

"It's all right. No problem, but there's no way to save him right now."

After an examination, the boy's expression relaxed and he said to his sister Amanda, "Let's hide here until dark. After dark, I will go out to look for food and some medicine. Like that, maybe we could save him."

He said those words principally to calm down Amanda.

He was just a teenager, but also a child. How could he know something about medicine?

He just checked on Jack's injuries, but the examination didn't reveal too much about what was going on inside him.

That faint dead man in front of him could still be "saved", as long as he kept breathing.

As expected.

The worried look on Amanda's face faded a little.

She held up the bamboo mat with difficulty and looked at the boy with a grin. "Thank you."

"Okay, I'll do it."

The boy took the bamboo mat in Amanda's hand. "Hold on until dark. Although we already escaped without problems, we still need to find a way and get a suit of clothes. Like that, we would finally get rid of our status of slaves."

On the snowy plain outside the city, all the real slaves were tattooed to prove their status of slaves.

However, people like Jack and Amanda had not yet entered the auction house and didn't have time to be tattooed.

That was a silver lining.

Once you are tattooed, you would never be free of slavery in your life.

But when it got dark.

Even for the most prosperous tribes of Hun of the Royal Palace, and the thirteen cities, it was another story.

In the night, people like Amanda and the boy, who lived in humble homes in the dark corners of the cities, would walk on the streets.

It was not too much to say, "hundreds of ghosts walking at night."

At nightfall.

There were all sorts of people on the street, all mixed up.

People were mixed among with decent people and shifty ones. That was why it became easier to sow discord and create confusion. Sure, the stakes were a bit high, but for a boy, the payoff was definitely a win!

"Hmm

Amanda nodded and her shining eyes cast a worried glance at Jack on the ground.

'Jack, you must hold on!'

She knew that her brother had gone as far as he could go.

She would like to save Jack, but now in that situation, making her brother go out in the street would be equivalent to put him in a bigger danger. The only thing to do now was to wait for dark and pray that Jack could hold out until then.

Time was passing slowly.

The boy looked very resolute. He leaned against the wall of the alley, his hands struggling to support the bamboo mat.

Even though his hands were sore, he didn't say a word.

Amanda snuggled up in his arms and fell asleep. The hunger and cold left that little girl exhausted.

Lying on the boy's arms, she was sleeping very soundly and from time to time she also ground her teeth.

However, the boy didn't dare to let Amanda sleep too long, and from time to time, he woke her up.

He knew that she might never wake up after a long sleep in such a cold weather.

Jack laid on the ground, breathing steadily, but the boy was no longer concerned about Jack.

It was very quiet.

If you looked from outside, you could see, in the alley, a broken bamboo mat slightly arched. During that violent snowstorm, the bamboo mat piled up snow and only the tiny shadow of the bamboo mat was visible outside.

When it was completely dark

The city streets changed their appearance.

During the day, the people on the street were well dressed but

At the night, there could only be seen distressed people wearing torn clothes.

In the darkness

The shops on both sides of the street were lighted up.

The thirteen cities of the Royal Palace, even though they stood in the depths of the snowy plain, didn't fall into a deep sleep at night, but burst into another kind of vitality.

On the street, there were still ordinary people who were not going home.

Their difference with the people dressed in rags who came and went could be distinguished in a glance.

However, at the night, that difference became blurred.

For the Hun of the Royal Palace, as long as there were no serious accidents in the city, it was fine.

As for the night, they didn't care about the people walking in the street.

What was more, they ignored the sordid and bloody events that took place in the dark corners of the city at night.

The alley was silent.

"Amanda Amanda..."

The boy said, pushing off the bamboo mat with great force, and his hands dropped down.

Soreness and pain made him frown, and his expression broke into a pained expression.

Two soft cries awakened Amanda from her deep sleep.

"It's getting dark."

Amanda crumpled her loose sleeping eyes and stared at the boy in a daze.

"Well, I will go out to look for food and clothes, and also the medicine for this man. Stay here with him and keep a look at the bamboo mat," The boy exhorted. Glancing sideways at Jack on the ground, the boy said decisively to Amanda, "Remember, if there is any danger, run at once, don't pay attention to this man, I want you to be safe, and I don't allow you to have any risk."

"But..."

Seeing that Amanda wanted to argue, he became solemn, "You are my only family."

Amanda swallowed her words back and nodded, as to agree.

The boy got up, shook his arms, and made his way down the lane with difficulty.