Goa is a port city built on the Arabian sea. After the Portuguese took Goa from the local Indian kings, they built it into the center of the imperial oriental trade and the Catholic missionary base in Asia.

There are always gorgeous flowers blooming in the city regardless of the seasons. Beautiful and lovely houses and gorgeous palaces are everywhere in the coastal coconut forests, and magnificent cathedrals and monasteries stand among them.

"Lisbon in the East", "Rome on the Equator", "Golden Goa", travelers and wandering poets have given it many good names in their writings, but they can never hide the deep and decayed atmosphere accumulated by capital.

In a blink of an eye, it was the third year that Yousuf had arrived in Goa.

He was sent to the famous Goa St. Paul's College in the Far East, and was taken care of by the city's charity church.

Honestly, besides not loving the spicy taste of the curry, the rice, butter and fruit served every day are good.

They were not allowed to wear his original clothes anymore. The college's dress code was shirts and knee-length shorts, and an extra coat or robe could be added when it was cold. The past name could not be used anymore. The priest who was responsible for teaching him gave him a new name - Geronemo.

Jeronimo's courses are full every day. He wants to learn reading, writing, catechism, as well as Latin, theology and Neo-Confucianism. Given that he will inherit the position of Sultan in Mombasa in the future, the coursework will also include navigation technology and war art when he turns 10.

The schoolwork is under great pressure and time passes quickly.

The grief brought by his father's death faded with time, and Jeronimo had been no longer dreaming of the white and fine beaches in his hometown for a long time.

Now he can walk through this wealthy and luxurious city with his eyes closed, and the countless alleys and forks have long been familiar with him.

There are always new things here to satisfy his curious and exploring eyes, there are always grand and magnificent celebrations, endless fireworks, and endless dramas. It is an eight-treasure box and a kaleidoscope. It is a hub for gathering wealth and information, and it is also a breeding ground for greed and sin.

Eucharist is the greatest religious festival in Goa.

After nightfall, the fanatical citizens walked out of their homes with roses and candles in their hands and rushed to the streets. They sang chants and marched around the city.

The city hall representatives took the lead, holding up velvet flags embroidered with silk thread and gold thread, followed by parade floats made by various guilds in the city.

These two or three-story giants were built by tanners and gardeners for months, exquisitely displaying legendary castles, dragons, snakes and banshees, and even small drama stages that could carry mobile.

Geronimo naturally didn't want to miss this annual carnival season. He slipped out of the student team and mixed into the crowds of people clamoring on the streets.

The street was full of vendors selling snacks, and Jeronimo resisted the greed in his mouth and walked into an alley behind the street.

There is the busiest marionette theater in Goa. He never misses any performance, and those magical adventure stories always touch the boy's heartstrings.

He struggled to push the crowd away and squeezed into the front row, and the play had been performed for most of the time.

Today is the story of the Portuguese prince conquering Ceuta. The prince led his army across the Mediterranean to attack this Moorish city in North Africa, spreading the gospel of Christ to the black continent. The minds of those disobedient guys cut down in an exaggerated way and piled into hills, while the rest of the conquered people became slaves, tied to chains and caught up with sailboats.

The excitement faded away from his eyes little by little, and Geronimo lowered his head, he didn't want to see it anymore.

He remembered his father.

He suddenly felt that the crowd around him was crowded and stuffy, and the hot flashes, sweat odor that had been ignored before swept over, making him almost unable to breathe.

Geronemo arched his back and stepped back, and in a hurry to someone else's upper.

Immediately someone took him behind him and pulled him up with politeness: "Are you blind or intentional?"

He stood unsteadily and fell out of the crowd and sat down on the ground. When he looked up, he recognized the boys who were surrounded. Some were a little older than him, some were the same age as him, and they were also students of St. Paul's College.

This is not a good thing. Jeronimo has always been in a bad mood with them.

Leading were two white-skinned Portuguese teenagers, surrounded by local children with a slightly darker skin, and Tipp, a boy from the East African coast like him.

"I think he was intentional." The tall Portuguese boy stretched his foot on Geronimo's leg, shaking slowly and forcefully, "Anyway, he never apologized to us, he stepped back one by one!"

Geronemo gritted his teeth and refused to cry out in pain, but he did not avoid the other party's provocative gaze.

"Oh! Step on him! Step on him!" The boys cheered and raised their feet on him.

Geronemo protected his head and face, seized the opportunity and rushed out to hug a boy's thigh, twisted him to the ground, and then rode on his waist and punched him hard.

Amid the boy's cry, Geronimo stood up and pointed to the tall boy who took the lead in stepping on him hatefully: "Antonio! I stepped on you, so I made you step on you. The rest of them are not qualified to hit me!"

"Pooh!"

The saliva fell on Geronemo's shirt, and it was Tipp.

Compared to several other local kids, he seems to be more keen on acting as a pioneer in confronting Geronemo.

Tipp hated this guy with the same skin color as himself, and even more hated his pride in pretending to behave. Seeing him, he would think of his skin with the same color and his equally poor and backward hometown. In order to integrate into a civilized society, he must firmly draw a line with Geronemo.

"The son of the headless sultan!" Tipp threw a piece of hard mud at Geronemo, "The traitor's cub!"

"Shut up!"

Geronemo roared and threw him down.

The two boys rolled in the mud, and the crowd in the back row of the audience turned to look at them. The other boys were cheering, occasionally taking the opportunity to make up.

The other side had a lot of people and powerful, and Jeronimo was gradually forced into a corner by them, leaving only the strength to resist.

Even so, he still refused to show weakness.

He asked himself countless times what had done wrong and why they always treated him so mean. But the answer that was clearly in front of him was just because he had a different face and a different complexion, but he never lowered his high head - just like his father, even if he lost his head, he refused to bow to the Portuguese.

Antonio's leather shoes took advantage of the situation and kicked his upper lip. A wound was immediately broken through the fragile skin, and salty and fishy blood flowed through the corners of his mouth into the cracks of his clenched teeth.

"Ah, let go!" Antonio cried out in pain. The hair behind his head was pulled down and pulled down.

Geronemo took the opportunity to pounce on him and kicked him over, and rushed out of the crowd that beat him up.

Only then did he see clearly that the person who helped was actually a girl with big braids.

She was wrapped in a dirty red sari, her light brown skin was covered with dust and mud, and she looked like a wild child everywhere in Goa. Many sailors who came ashore would look for local women as mistresses and give birth to a bunch of such mixed-race children.

Antonio led the boys to surround them and blocked the girls in the middle.

The girl held Geronimo behind her, and she didn't seem to be afraid at all: "Looking for trouble?"

"You are asking for trouble!"

A boy snatched it and pushed her, then picked it up to the burly and strong man behind him.

The boy was stunned for a moment, hung in the air and kicked and cried loudly. He was pinched in his big hand covered with calluses and looked like a chicken.

"I'm going to cry, go home and find your mother!" The girl rolled her eyes disdainfully.

She gestured to the strong man, and the crying boy was immediately thrown back to the ground and threw his butt.

The girl glanced at the boy and crawled into her companion, raising her chin: "Who else wants to try it?"

Several boys showed fear on their faces, and they stepped back from each other, and walked away for about ten steps. They suddenly turned around and ran away.

"It's useless." The girl scoffed. She turned around and stared at Geronemo, and the tip of her nose almost touched his face: "So do you!"

Geronimo was speechless for a moment. He didn't expect to be rescued by a girl, and he didn't expect to be despised by a girl.

"Don't show off next time." The girl said in a tone of teaching her little brother a lesson. "If you encounter such a thing in the future, be smarter. If you see a lot of people, you're a fool."

"I……"

"Go back quickly if you have nothing to do. If you are late, you have to climb the wall and go back to school." The girl interrupted him, turned around and waved her hand to walk towards the alley.

Geronemo followed a few steps and shouted at her back: "What's your name--"

The girl stopped and turned around and gave him a look of "no need to tell you".

Geronemo hit a nail and was a little dirty.

He turned to the strong man next to him: "My name is Geronemo...whether of you?"

"He's a mute." The girl's voice came from afar, "Go away, Raj."

The strong man named Raj responded "ah" and followed her out of the alley.

Jeronimo watched them disappear completely in the bustling alley. He felt very lucky today, and felt very embarrassed, and was a little discouraged for a moment.

He did not come back to his senses until the puppet theater began to close the stall. Geronimo looked at the Mount Our Lady of Rose to the west, and looked at the dimly lit church bell tower under the night, and couldn't help but sigh.

He really had to climb over the wall and go back to school.
Chapter completed!