The Secret Code of Monsters

Chapter 28 Ch.28 William the Shoemaker

Mr. William Cordoni's shop is filled with all kinds of handmade shoes and boots.

This old shoemaker, who does not look old, has a good craftsmanship, but because of the recent approaching factories, his business has fallen to the bottom. Of course, in the uncle's opinion, this is not the bottom yet.

He 'expected' that if William Cordoni did not give up his family's craft, he would not even be able to guarantee two meals a day in less than two years.

Poor Alice.

Roland brought him two bottles of unlabeled wine from the nearby small market, and bought Alice a few small bags of strawberry candy balls, a standard four-pound piece of bread, and a red bow tie.

It is worth mentioning that:

Roland enjoys more discounts when shopping than his uncle.

Much.

Although both women and men use the same excuse: Forget it, who can avoid getting sick and not taking medicine?

But old Collins never had this kind of treatment.

The shoe shop is not far from the drugstore. It is a single-story building. An awl and a leather boot are painted with paint on the door, and the name "William Shoe Shop" is marked.

The fence outside the door was covered with brown leather, and there was a dirty little mat at the door.

Half of the corner of the side wall where it meets the roof is missing, and it is plugged with new mud and stones wrapped in grass.

William Cordoni lived here with his daughter Alice.

Don't be too shabby, Mr. Cordoni and Roland's uncle are considered the 'rich' people in this street.

They are 'property' people, very different from others, they walk with their heads held high.

"Sir, I brought wine."

When inviting people into the house, the shoemaker rarely looked shy.

The room is too messy.

There were used pieces of leather or tools everywhere under his feet, and Roland had to wade slowly.

Three walls of the room are lined with wooden shelves, on which are finished or semi-finished shoes.

A huge, grotesque shoemaker took up half of the room, and around it heaps of sawdust and strips of wood were mixed together.

The room smelled of wood and leather. I couldn't tell if it smelled good or not.

William Cordoni just stood in the room awkwardly, enthusiastically...

Rub hands together.

It was Alice who took the initiative to receive Roland.

"Roland!"

"Hey, are you feeling better?"

"I can jump! What did you bring me...candy! Dad! Roland brought me candy!"

Alice squeezed the candy bag and winked at her father - William felt that his daughter understood human affairs better than he did.

"Call me brother, or sir, Alice."

Roland squatted down in front of Alice, fumbled, and tied the red bow tie on her collar. He patted the girl on the head and smiled: "You can also call the guards, little princess."

"Roland! It's tied backwards!"

"Hey, does the princess now dislike the fact that the guard is blind?"

"Kekeke..."

He came to visit today, obviously for the upcoming exam:

Heart anchor.

He has already decided on the style of his anchor.

The reason why I found Mr. William instead of the blacksmith was because my uncle and I had the same intention: we wanted to find some work for the shoemaker.

Roland handed him the small silver piece he had prepared and asked him to measure the size of his left little finger.

"It won't take half an hour."

He skillfully padded the metal in his hand, turned around and crouched down to rummage through the toolbox in the corner.

Here, Roland was sitting on the chair, listening to Alice's little mouth talking about the new things every day.

"Yesterday Rick Rich was bragging again, saying that his dad found a good job on the boulevard..."

"Roland, what is an angel?"

"I want to be a pastry chef when I grow up!"

"Have you heard the story that's been going around lately?"

Chirping like a happy bird.

"Confectioner?"

Roland opened his mouth and let the bird feed him a strawberry ball candy, which he held in his mouth. In order to express "sweetness", he also made an exaggerated expression, which made the girl laugh non-stop.

"Well...pastry chef, this is not cheap. Alice, your dad has to work hard."

"not cheap?"

Alice smoothed her frizzy brown hair, tilted her head as she spoke, and picked out the wood chips in her hair, "Isn't it cheap? I heard that you can make a lot of money, and it's very easy."

Can you make a lot of money?

He must be a well-known pastry chef in the West District.

Facing those ladies and ladies, you can make a lot of money.

As for taking it easy...

There is no easy job in the market.

Even the executive introduced to her by Enid will have to face dangerous things in the future.

"real."

Alice smiled brightly and said in a clear and high-pitched voice: "Thomson said that his mother is a pastry chef!"

Thomson was Rick Rich's lackey, and Rowland didn't have much interaction with him.

This man's family background has always been vague.

“A pastry chef who lives on the East Side?”

The man who was rummaging through the boxes snorted and turned his back to his daughter and muttered: "Don't listen to what those wild boys say. Except for Roland, they are all idiots."

"I bet if you weren't around, there wouldn't be 'Except Roland.'"

-

You have to know a little bit about the world.

"I want to be a pastry chef!" Alice jumped: "He said that his mother only needs to receive three or four people who come to buy cakes every night, and her weekly income is more than his father! And it's very easy..."

every night…

Come to your door?

The man who bought the cake?

Roland could imagine that the shoemaker's expression was probably as bad as his own.

As expected.

A pair of pliers was smashed heavily on the ground.

Bang!

He turned around angrily and glared at his daughter: "Your mother and I worked hard to make money just to let you--"

Let you...

Let you do...

His lips moved, unable to say the next vicious words, and suddenly he felt a little sad, his gray eyes filled with mist.

The man looked at his daughter, and the daughter looked at her father.

He might have thought of his daughter's future fate, but his daughter was just afraid of her father's sudden rage...

"You scared her."

Roland hugged the sobbing girl into his arms and stroked her rough and prickly long hair.

…………

……

Roland's heart anchor is a ring.

A silver left-hand pinky ring that looks unremarkable.

The first little secret is the inside of the ring.

He planned to borrow two tools from the shoemaker and go back to engrave the words himself;

The second little secret is a small mechanism in the inner ring: there is a bulge that is difficult to see with the naked eye.

You won't notice it when you wear it normally, but once you twist it with other fingers, you can feel the bulge on the tip of your little finger.

The third is...

This ring is not silver at all.

It is a ring made of wood with a hole drilled, and it is just wrapped with a layer of silver.

So, the weight is very different from the same silver ring, and once it is knocked, the sound is also very different.

That's enough.

"Oh, I also want to order a pair of shoes from you."

"I have a pair on the shelf--"

"No, no, I mean, custom-made."

Roland searched his memory and tried his best to restore the styles of the leather shoes Nina mentioned.

She said it casually at the time, but Roland now has to spend a lot of effort to recall it.

"Picture"

Roland:...

-

I admit that you are a little useful now.

He picked up his cane and prepared to leave: "I'll find someone with good eyes to draw the picture, sir."

I hope this will help you and Alice.

He thought.

Maybe...

I can try it on in front of those ladies first?

He knew nothing about this, and only heard strange stories from Miss Nina.