I put out his fire

At night, the city of Rome is lit up with dots of lights, which look like cut sequins in the dark.

Rhodes put on a long-brimmed hat and tied the strap near his Adam's apple.He and several firemen loaded the water pump onto the carriage and turned to look at the winding and messy street.

This is the Latium district, the most densely populated place in Rome. A large part of it is a poor area with dense houses. Only the nobles can live in independent villas, and the common people can only live in crowded apartment buildings.A bungalow is piled on top of a bungalow to form a crooked apartment building. There is no running water on the highest floor, and the rent becomes cheaper as you go up.

Rhodes raised his head, his slightly protruding Adam's apple appeared, showing a sharp corner, "This kind of apartment building is most prone to fire."

Holding on to his long-brimmed hat, he said to a group of subordinates beside him: "When you go on inspections later, you must eliminate all sources of fire, including scattered firewood and abandoned olive oil bottles."

His subordinates put on their hatbands in silence, squinted at him, and made no response.There was no kindness in their eyes, and they looked quickly from all directions, like endless fishbone.

Rhodes suddenly realized that there was no fire alarm saluting him tonight.He fastened the water pump and asked seriously, "Didn't you hear what I said?"

The subordinates were wearing straight hats, and there were only rustling sounds around them.They kept their mouths shut as if by agreement.

The fireman closest to Rhodes turned around reluctantly, and said as if being forced: "It has snowed just now, and there is still water on the ground, how could there be a fire..."

He wrinkled his nose, spoke in a low voice, and never looked straight at his boss.

Rhodes knew that he had a very bad reputation in the market, but he was still a little shocked when he experienced it for himself.

Especially when even your subordinates refuse to follow your orders.

"You better get serious," he said. "If there is a fire, not only will I be punished, but you will also face a barbed whip..."

Before he could finish his words, flames exploded in the air, and then a loud noise came from the front, and the ground shook accordingly.Rhode subconsciously supported the brick wall, and the dust fell from the cracks in the wall.There was a lot of dirt on the brim of his hat.

The firemen who were still dressed coughed from the ashes.They staggered to and fro, their arms flailing in the smoky air like black ants in a pool of honey.

"God..." A fire alarm wiped his nose, drawing a black mark in the middle of the crowd, "Has the volcano in Pompeii revived again..."

Rhodes covered his mouth and nose, and looked forward, the flames were instantly reflected in his black eyes like golden balls.

The black smoke billowed upwards and was illuminated by the flames into dark blue. The tongue of the flames licked towards the night sky like a crimson snake.There were screams, slaves dropped clay pots on their heads, and women ran for their lives with bare feet in their nightgowns.The standing fire alarm was hit by the crowd and almost fell down on the stone road.

Rhodes stood motionless.His ears seemed to be slowly sealed with wax, and the noise was gradually cut off.

His consciousness instantly wandered to his previous life.

That year, a fire that lasted three days and three nights almost destroyed the whole of Rome.The Senate accused Nero of deliberately setting fire to build a new palace.Since then, Nero's fortunes began to decline.

The fire recorded in history happened in the downtown area of ​​Rome, Latium.

There was a sudden noise in Rhodes' ears.

He tightened his hatband even more, grabbed the rope of the horse's head, and rolled onto the horse's back as soon as he lifted his foot, "What are you still doing?"

Holding his whip, he said to the fireman who was still in a daze, "Why don't you hurry up and put out the fire?!"

The firemen seemed to recover from the dead, and hurriedly raised the bucket.A few firemen pushed up the catapults that would only be used when attacking the city.This equipment can demolish burning houses and create isolation zones.Low-level firefighters hold iron hooks to pull down burning things.They soaked the quilts in water and stacked them on the bullock cart.

……

Nero stood in front of the emperor's palace, and his servants took off the dark red woolen shawl for him, and rang the golden bell.Immediately, a high-ranking slave came out from the door, holding a brush in his hand, kneeling in front of Nero's boots.

Just now, Nero received an order from Agrippina to attend the dinner hosted by the emperor.

The slave swept the dust off the soles of his boots with a brush.This prevents guests' shoes from staining the expensive mosaic floor.The mosaic floor of the emperor's house is made of exquisite materials, and the pattern on it is the goddess Venus embracing a vase.

Nero glanced at the brightly lit temple, waved the slave away with his feet, stepped on Venus' face and walked in.

A gust of hot wind with the aroma of paella, together with the bright yellow light, hit him directly in the face.

Chefs sprinkle celery dices on steaming brown bread, which adds flavor to the food.The slave girl crushes the hazelnuts, scoops out the crumbs with a long and thin spoon, and puts them on the roasted bonito meat.Four slaves worked together to bring in a copper disc with twelve kinds of vegetables arranged according to the directions of the zodiac.Claudius' favorite roasted mushrooms with fennel are placed in the Scorpio Palace.

Nero took off his boots and washed his feet in the copper basin dripping with perfume.He stepped on the velvet blanket barefoot and lay down on the side sofa.

Claudius on the main sofa squinted at him, then silently looked away.

"Huh..." He let out a weak breath from his nostrils.

Claudius used a pointed silver spoon to hold a few slices of roasted mushrooms, and forked out the ovary of a castrated sow from the virgin palace of the disc, and sprinkled some shredded cheese.As if angry, he swallowed these in one gulp.

Nero refused to intermarry his daughter, and the emperor deliberately snubbed him.

After finishing her dressing, Agrippina came from behind the curtain supported by her slave girl.

She wrapped all her hair in a scarf, except for two spiral locks hanging from her temples.

"You're here." She said flatly, naturally lying beside the emperor.

Claudius coughed, and subconsciously twisted his body to move aside, separating some space from her.

Nero spread the tablecloth, "Are there no other guests?"

Agrippina opened her hands for the slave girl to wipe.She looked at him with those eyes that were always cold and poisonous, and said, "This dinner party is held because of you."

She pinched off the fishbone in the bonito meat and handed it to Claudius's dinner plate with a flat spoon, "Last time, we had some troubles because of your innocence and youthfulness. I hope you can reconcile today. "

Claudius picked up the fish with a fork and stuffed it into his mouth.Reluctantly he rolled up his drooping eyelids,

"I wanted to call Octavia," he said, chewing on the fish, "but your mother stopped me..."

"She's still resenting Nero." Agrippina interrupted him, her eyes as cold as a cold pool.She brushed away the female slave who poured her wine with her gauze sleeve, "Now is not the time for them to reconcile."

Nero looked cold.He pinched a purple grape from the fruit plate and peeled off its skin bit by bit.

Claudius tilted his body, with one foot hanging down, and asked his pedicure slave to trim his nails.

"During this time, I lost a lot of weight. I even dreamed that I fell off the back of a flying Taurus..." He said gloomily, "This is really an ominous dream. It is said that Caesar had a similar dream the night before he was assassinated. Dream……"

Agrippina cut off his words: "Roman civilians and nobles all submit to you. Believe me, you will live a long life. The doctor told me that your body is as healthy as a bull."

"Hey..." Claudius touched his sunken cheeks, "I have been getting old and thin. The flood, the elders who are obsessed with others, and the people who complain about others... I didn't understand until now that I A hostage of history, a scapegoat for an inactive god."

Nero remained silent, and put the bonito meat into his mouth.

Agrippina saw her son who was on the sidelines, and she cleverly changed the topic: "Speaking of the flood... Nero, you have been in charge of managing this matter. Have you had any results?"

She tried her best to highlight Nero's achievements, "I heard that you built a water tank, which has the effect of drainage..."

Nero swallowed the food in his mouth before saying, "It has an effect, but it's not great."

He put the spoon horizontally on the rim of the glass, so as to prevent the slaves from adding grape juice for him. "The floods come and go, like a pool of conscious slime. At the foot of my estate, there used to be a market for selling honey and fish, but now it has been washed into a muddy river."

Agrippina rolled her eyes, "But your administrator told me that the new sink works very well. You child, always like your father, has a pair of light-colored eyes, but only sees black... ..."

She suddenly realized that there was Claudius beside her, so she quickly shut her mouth and squinted at the emperor.

Claudius sprinkled the sauce on the grilled mushrooms, chewing them carefully, nothing unusual.This emperor, having experienced his previous empress, was quite magnanimous and could tolerate anything that any other husband could not.

Agrippina handed the emperor an expensive drink made of elderflowers, and said: "But this quality also makes him a serious ruler, doesn't it?"

She is trying to broker a reconciliation between her son and the emperor.

Claudius stared at Nero resentfully, and said in his usual useless tone: "Nero also has the quality of persistence. He is as persistent as a bullfighting bull who has identified the target of attack."

Nero wiped his hands with a towel slowly, and gave him a lukewarm glance.

Claudius said angrily: "He doesn't want to marry a princess with a valuable dowry and noble blood, but he can ignore the street talk and treat his unknown personal guard like a beloved wife..."

Nero clenched the towel tightly, his lips trembling.He didn't say a word, and it took a long time before he gradually let go of the towel in his hand.

Claudius rambled: "I love my daughter the most. She is another form of my life, a derivative of my flesh and blood, and the evidence of my survival in the world. I really wish to give the whole world to her If she is a boy, I will sacrifice my life to ensure that she wears the laurel crown; but since she is a girl, I will make her equal to the emperor!"

He raised his voice and said in a provocative tone: "Her husband must be the emperor of Rome; or the emperor of Rome must marry her. This is what I have to stand on even if I am taken away by the god of the underworld." The oath read on the dark ship!"

Nero muffled, slowly lowered his head, the candlelight illuminated his silver hair into the copper yellow of old parchment.

Seeing that he was silent, Claudius was even more anxious, "Nero... why is you the heir to the throne? Why is you the only prince in Rome? Rome is so big that there is no other who can govern Government affairs, young nobles who can speak rhetoric in Greek..."

Agrippina's mouth twitched a few times.In order to make Nero the only crown prince, she had someone assassinate several young nobles.These aristocrats under the age of 15 were all stabbed to death on the way to school, died together with the accompanying servants, and were later disguised as robbery or bitten by wild animals.

Claudius' voice became sharp: "I am like an old man who has been pushed to the end. I have always wanted to ask you and ask you to give an honest answer: Why didn't you marry my daughter?"

Nero looked into his aging eyes and replied coldly, "I don't love her."

Claudius felt sad: "Oh, even the throne and laurels are not enough to encourage you to marry her..."

He was so angry that he wanted to cry, his nasal cavity was sore.A feeling of sympathy with his daughter grew in his heart, and merged with his long-suppressed resentment.The emperor, who had never been taken seriously by others in his life, used the name of his daughter to vent his anger at this moment; just like the founder of a cult, defending his imaginary way in the name of the guardian goddess.

"What I hate is not that you don't love her, but that you haven't looked down on her from the beginning to the end, and even despise her in your heart. This is not not love, nor is it not a match based on equal strength, but the completeness of one soul to another soul Negative! It can be summed up by more than just 'not loving'. My poor Octavia, our father and daughter share the same fate, we are destined to walk this life alone..."

Nero sat up from the sofa, washed his hands with the water brought by the slave, and looked indifferent.

"I will never reconcile with you, Nero." Claudius said angrily, sucking his collapsed nose, "I will never marry my daughter to you again, and it is impossible for you to become emperor .You represent all the malice this world has towards our father and daughter!"

When Agrippina heard this, her face darkened suddenly.She silently turned over the table knife in her hand, and a ray of light reflected from the blade flashed across her uncomfortably complex face.

At this time, the domestic slave kept by the emperor ran in from outside the palace, a few drops of sweat oozing from his forehead.He dropped to his knees, and the golden kneepads the emperor had given him clattered against the marble floor.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, master, and... Lord Domitius." He tried to steady his trembling back.

Nero is raising one foot, and the kneeling slave is holding the boot in his hand, ready to re-boot for the master.

The slave arched his back and said, "There is a fire in Latium, and many firemen and civilians have been injured."

Nero's heart felt cold, and his hands and feet became cold.He lowered his legs and asked alertly, "What do you mean?"

The slave lowered his head, avoiding his questioning eyes, and continued: "The fire was not serious, but the casualties were heavy. A fire alarm said that they had exhausted all the trebuchets, water pumps and water pipes in the city, and many people died just like that. The fire It happened in the downtown area, where the density of residents is so dense that it is one of the best in all of Rome..."

"Why is it an ordinary fire alarm? Where's the fire chief?" Nero suddenly stood up, "Where's my Rhodes?!"

The slave looked puzzled, "The sheriff... is said to be missing..."

At this moment, Nero seemed to hear the loud sound of blood rushing to the top of his head, "Missing?!"

"The fire has been extinguished, and the fire brigade has begun to count the number of people, but as the sheriff, he was not there..." The slave squeezed out his voice a little bit, "But maybe he has arrived now..."

Nero put on his boots in a daze, the bright candlelight in the hall made his eyes hurt, "Get ready for the carriage." He said in confusion, "I'm going to Latium..."

His palms were sweating coldly, and the soles of his iron boots made a chaotic rattling sound on the floor.

Claudius glanced at his back, threw the cutlery on the plate, and said angrily: "He seems to have been enchanted, he was bewitched by the son of a sinner. I'm sorry, Agrippina, Even if he were your son, I could not give my daughter and Rome to a witched man."

Agrippina was surprisingly calm.She quietly finished eating the fruit pieces on the plate, looked up at her uncle, and said flatly: "Your favorite roasted mushrooms are going to be cold, uncle. In order not to make it taste fishy, ​​you'd better Eat it now."

Claudius felt that the scene in front of him was inexplicably awkward.