The young Cesare did not understand the meaning of this sentence at all, but his mother blinked and looked at the way she came, as if she saw something in the crowded crowd, frowned, and turned back. It was to say thank you to the old beggar.
"Thank you for reminding."
After a simple bow, the mother took Cesare and left in a hurry.
They passed through street corners one after another, through Theater Square and through noisy factories. Mother looked anxious as if she was avoiding something, but Cesare found nothing every time he looked back. Everything was gone. As usual.
"Don't look back." His mother reminded him, and Cesare obediently looked at the road ahead and never looked back. Although he was a little scared, he felt much more at ease thinking that his mother was by his side.
Until his mother took him into a dark alley. The sunlight was blocked by the buildings on both sides, and the alley was only wide enough for two adults to walk side by side.
The alley was dark and no pedestrians passed by. The mother's pace slowed down, until she stood completely and held Cesare tightly, then placed the basket in her hand on the ground, as if waiting for what would happen next.
When he looked in the direction he came from, he saw a strange man slowly walking into the alley.
The man was wearing an ordinary tuxedo. He was thin and not too tall. The whole piece of clothing hung on his shoulders as if it didn't fit him, like a funny thin clothes hanger.
His hands were covered with white gloves, and in his breast pocket hung an exquisite pocket watch, inlaid with diamonds that easily left an impression.
His hat was pulled down so low that his face could not be seen clearly, and the face under the hat seemed to be wrapped in several layers of bandages. It looked like his face had been seriously injured, but it might just be so that people could not remember his appearance.
Seeing his mother pulling Cesare to a stop in the alley, the man hesitated and froze for a moment, then walked over to the two of them as if nothing had happened.
Although the mother's expression remained natural, her body silently protected Cesare behind her, and the man naturally walked closer and closer like an insignificant passerby...
"Madam, you seem to have gone the wrong way." Silently, the man shook his right arm and let a dagger fall out of his cuff and hold it firmly in his hand...
Cesare remembers...
His mother is very strong.
When they were very close to each other, the man waved the dagger in his hand and stabbed his mother in the throat. The young Cesare was frightened by the sudden situation and quickly shouted "Mom, be careful!"
The mother stared closely at the opponent's eyes without making any dodge. She grabbed the assassin's knife-holding wrist with her right hand promptly and powerfully, and slapped the opponent's arm joint with her other hand, deflecting the assassin's attack. It came up empty.
"If I don't leave here, do I still want you to follow me home?" The mother smiled teasingly, then her expression became serious, and she stayed in front of Cesare.
The assassin became angry and attacked the mother again at close range.
Deftly bending down to avoid another blow, the assassin looked clumsy and stupid compared to his mother's movements, and then quickly pulled out a sharp short blade from under the white cloth covering the basket.
In Florence, women were generally not allowed to carry weapons, and Cesare had never known that his mother had the habit of carrying a self-defense weapon with her.
The assassin's attacks were fierce, but they could not withstand the mother's ease. Every attack was powerful, and every dodge was just right. The assassin had no way to deal with this woman, and he couldn't hurt Cesare in the slightest behind his mother.
The beautiful woman could still flexibly deal with the assassin's dagger even though she was weak and pregnant. Looking at the bandage on the man's face, cold sweat gradually oozed out. He only knew that he had to deal with a woman, but he didn't know that this woman was surprisingly unexpected. Very powerful.
Time passed little by little, and someone might come in at any time in this alley. The assassin knew that he would never be able to escape once the guards were alerted.
So he became even more furious and tried to kill his mother with the brute strength of his male advantage. The attacks that became unorganized also left his body full of loopholes.
The mother blinked her keen eyes, and with her agile skill, she moved the blade as smoothly as flowing water, following the opponent's random attack and drawing an arc on his arm.
Starting from the back of the man's hand, he cut the white gloves and tore open the sleeves of the tuxedo. Instantly, the skin inside the clothes was bleeding, and blood flowed out.
The pain forced the assassin to let go of the dagger, and he fell to his knees holding his injured arm and moaning in pain, while his mother angrily pressed the short blade against his forehead.
"Who with no vision asked you to come here? You still want to be an assassin with your poor skills?"
The assassin endured the severe pain and glared at his mother fiercely. Cesare remembered that his face was thin under the bandage, his eyes were light green, and there was a gold tooth embedded in the right side of his upper teeth.
Little by little, he almost crawled along Cesare and his mother from the ground, and then rolled and crawled out of the alley, leaving a trail of blood.
The mother watched him go away and then breathed a sigh of relief. After hiding the short blade again, she hugged the trembling little Cesare and comforted the child. She did not kill the assassin at that time, nor did she choose to chase him or look for the guards. s help.
I only know that my mother will not kill anyone. She is so kind...and will not hurt anyone easily unless she has no choice.
The current memory ends here, and the picture is once again distorted and transformed into a pile of chaotic dyes twisted together. The voice of Captain Claudius once again sounded in the void, and he asked Cesare.
"If your mother had killed that assassin, would that be the result you wanted?" His voice was ethereal and incomprehensible, and Cesare didn't know how to answer him.
"I don't know..." This was Cesare's heartfelt answer.
As the mother's belly gets bigger and bigger, and the day when her sister Crocia is born gets closer, the mother's body becomes weaker and weaker...
It was like I had some kind of incurable disease, and none of the doctors I called could explain the cause. They just used some common drugs, but the condition still didn't get better.
I watched my mother eat less and less every day, forcing herself to eat just for the sake of her sister in her belly, and her face getting worse day by day... Only my mother's gentle smile remained unchanged, accompanying Cesare all the time. around.
Gradually, my mother could no longer take Cesare to the city, and even she was dragged by the family servants not to stray too far from home. But she still stubbornly did the housework she could every day, insisting on doing it for Cesare himself. Every day, every meal.
Cesare did remember that the servants' cooking at home was terrible... not half as good as his mother's cooking.
