Chapter 1034: Fire Transmission
Chapter 1034: Passing the Fire
That happened a few days ago –
in the reed marsh beside the Yongliu River, the old man standing at the bow of the boat called out to the young men who were pulling the net to catch fish on the dock.
”Boy, don’t touch these fish. They all ate dead people.”
The young men with dark skin looked up and saw the old man on the boat saying with a smile.
”What a joke you are making, old man. How can a fish that ate dead people be inedible?”
”That’s right!”
”All the things flying in the sky, running on the ground, and falling into the water are fish. It’s easier to sell them if they are fatter!”
Looking at these young men who had no fear, the old man shook his head and sighed.
”You also know that all the things flying in the sky and running on the ground are in the water in the end, but do you know what they ate before they fell into the water?”
The young men looked at each other and were speechless.
In the end, it was the young man pulling the net who didn’t know how to be arrogant and answered mischievously.
”I don’t care what the snakes, rats, insects and birds eat. We catch fish to exchange for money, but we don’t eat them! The other fish collectors don’t talk, so what are you talking about!”
The other guys came back to their senses when they heard this, and they all echoed and shouted.
”That’s right!”
”Isn’t this also a fishing boat? Have you never fished?”
”The old man is not a good person. I’m afraid he is worried that we will ruin his business!”
Oh…
The old man shook his head and said nothing more. He swung away with a long bamboo pole.
It is true that he makes a living by fishing. He used to raise ducks, but that was last year.
At the beginning of the year, the ducks he raised in the river were poisoned by something in the water. The fishmongers he often cooperated with no longer accepted fish from the Yongliu River and switched to seafood business.
Everyone is doing business in the neighborhood. They see each other every day. No matter how unsophisticated a person is, he dare not make money that goes against his conscience.
But then again, the new fishmongers seem to be less picky recently. They will buy any fish, but they will only offer a lower price. It is said that they are doing business with tourists.
No matter what business they do, the old man cannot get those things that can kill people to exchange for money.
Unlike those young men, he lives one day at a time. He may go to see the Silver Moon Goddess one day at a time. There is no need to lose his virtue for that little money.
Besides, he is not short of money.
As early as when Wu Tuo was still there, he had three ancestral houses for rent.
As for why he is still floating on the reed marsh, one is that he can’t rest, and the other is that the city hall has given him a new job to clean up the “dirty things” in the reed marsh.
This job can only be done by experienced old fishermen.
When he encounters someone floating on the water, he will poke it twice. If there is still movement, he will rescue it.
If not…
of course he will still fish it out.
I remember that a few days ago, a researcher from the alliance came over, scooped a ladle of water from the Yongliu River with a small cup, pointed and shook it, and then shook his head.
From that day on, he knew that this river was completely ruined…
The sunset fell. After
a day of wandering in the reeds, he was about to call it a day and go home, but he saw a sudden flutter in the deep reeds, like a wild duck that was suddenly awakened.
Of course, there were no wild ducks on this river. The old man hurriedly turned back with a bamboo pole, and sure enough, he saw a man fluttering in the river.
I don’t know if his feet were entangled in the reeds or what, but the man, whose face was pale from being soaked in the river water, struggled for a while.
”Grab it!”
The old man handed over the bamboo pole in his hand. After the man grabbed it, he
finally calmed down and stopped struggling. When the man ran out of strength, the old man came over little by little and rescued the 40-year-old man onto the fishing boat.
He took a blanket from the cabin and handed it to the man who was soaked all over.
”Put it on. It’s cold in the wind.”
The man took the blanket shivering, his face full of fear, like a frightened mouse that had just run out of a trench and had been hit by a machine gun.
His body was covered with scars, but fortunately they were all cut by grass, not gunshot wounds.
He was lucky.
The old man had seen too many swollen corpses these days. They were not completely drowned, but simply soaked in the river.
The man shivered and said in a stuttering voice.
”Don’t, don’t kill me…”
”Don’t worry, no one will kill you here.”
The old man smiled comfortingly, patted the man’s shoulder gently, handed him his thermos, and indicated that he could drink some if he didn’t mind.
Of course the man didn’t mind, but he was worried that the old man would mind him. He thanked him for a long time before unscrewing the cap and gulping down the hot water.
The old man lit the heater and placed it at his feet. Then he leaned towards the shore with a bamboo pole and asked casually.
”What does your friend do?”
”Fishing…”
Oh, we’re in the same boat.
No wonder he could swim here.
But looking at his panic, his wife and children must have fallen behind…
The old man said with a smile.
”It’s good to know how to fish. When you get ashore, tell the person who registered you, and they will arrange for you to find a job at the dock. There are many fishing boats there. Although it’s not the same as fishing in the river, you’ll learn it after getting familiar with it.”
The man nodded, just thanked him, and said nothing else.
The fishing boat approached the dock in the sunset. The children who had fished before had returned with a full load and were pushing a small cart towards the market.
Looking at the bustling street market in the distance, the man in the blanket suddenly couldn’t help crying.
The old man squatted down, patted his shoulder and said comfortingly.
”Okay, okay, we’re all going ashore, why are you crying?”
The man choked up and said, as if he remembered the other people who died on the road, and couldn’t stop crying.
”I just hate God for being blind, and misfortune always comes to the poor people.”
The old man smiled and said to him.
”How could God’s blindness allow you to be like this? Be content.”
The man still felt unwilling and said with hatred.
”But I don’t understand why I have been kind all my life and have never done anything bad, but the sufferings of the world have not spared me at all.”
The old man shook his head.
”Being kind all your life… Haha, what is kindness? Being honest and not stealing, robbing or cheating is kindness? Then I think the fish in the river are kind, the birds in the sky are even kinder, and the snakes and insects in the bushes are all kinder.” The
middle-aged man blushed.
”That’s not the case. How can humans be the same as snakes, rats, insects and birds?”
”Yes, how can you put the same standard for kindness as snakes, rats, insects and birds?” The old man said with a smile, “You are not young anymore, why are you still so confused, and think that getting by is kindness.”
The man looked at him blankly.
”Then… what is kindness?”
The old man thought about it, and didn’t know how to answer, so he just sighed softly.
”Maybe it’s… the people who really want to go to hell think you are a fool.”
God is not without eyes.
Retribution is not without.
And it comes earlier than expected…
The man hung his head, thought for a long time, and suddenly looked up at the old man, his Adam’s apple moved and said.
”Is there any way… can I not go to hell?”
The old man was stunned for a moment and said with a smile.
”This… How would I know?”
Looking at the man in despair, the old man was silent for a while, then sighed and said.
”There is a church with a crescent moon hanging on the shore, and there are many cats basking in the sun near the church… You can find a priest named Melgio, he may know.”
…
Tiandu. The
festive atmosphere was hidden with a bit of solemnity.
General Grove, who returned to Tiandu to report, was still in high spirits for the first two days. He spoke nonsense at the meeting, but in a few days he was taken down by Zaid as Sava had expected.
However, the following script was the same as what Sava, the senior member of the committee, had guessed.
Gopal, the “grey wolf”, was finally ahead of the “iron general” Grove.
The indignant young men blocked Gopal in his own house, and no one was allowed to enter or leave, including the curry that Gopal had to eat every day.
Not long after that, people searched his house and found the beast chess from the Xilan era.
After hearing the servant’s tip-off, Gopal knew that his life was coming to an end. In grief and anger, he finally made up his mind to lead the old Gray Wolf to fight to the death. However, his plan was exposed, and a few phone calls that should not have been made became the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
In despair, he arranged a retreat for himself and his family. He first spread the news that he was going to King Gallen Port, but secretly prepared a small boat at West Sail Port and planned to run to General McLennan’s place.
But perhaps because he had done too many bad things, it rained heavily that day, and there were thunder and lightning.
The people who came to arrest him arrived half an hour earlier, but the people who came to pick him up arrived late.
”God wants to kill me!”
Looking at the soldiers coming in through the front door, Gopal’s face was ashen, like a dog that had lost its home.
With no other choice, he could only use the excuse of going to the toilet and was about to walk through the wall of the toilet in the backyard, but he didn’t expect that the soldiers who came to arrest him would see through his trick.
Seeing that Gopal was already riding on the wall, the young man grabbed a bamboo pole and tried to poke him in the buttocks, but he didn’t expect to use too much force, and poked Gopal, who was in a panic, down and fell headfirst onto the stone brick road.
”Boom!”
Perhaps there were too many ghosts coming to claim his life, and even God couldn’t bear it.
A thunderclap sounded in the sky, and the flashing light illuminated the damp alley.
He was covered in mud and water, lying on the ground twitching, trying to struggle up, but choked on mud and water.
”Help… life…”
He still had a breath left, and as long as someone came to help him, he would be able to survive.
Unfortunately, he saw in despair that every household around him had closed their doors and windows, and acted as if there was no noise outside.
What a pity.
They died on the same rainy night, but some died standing, while others walked like a stray dog.
Gopal, a generation of “military god”, fell to death in such a cowardly way at the base of the wall behind the toilet in his backyard…
the next day.
The news of Gopal’s death spread throughout the city.
People clapped their hands happily, cheering that the gray wolf was finally dead, just as they cheered when he entered the city.
Grove, who was under house arrest behind bars, heard the sound of gongs and drums outside, wondering if it was a happy day, so he whispered to the soldier at the door.
”Family…Excuse me, what is the noisy noise outside?”
The voice was timid, without the domineering aura of an “iron general”, but instead sounded like an old man who was aging prematurely.
The young soldier looked at him coldly, as if his eyes were saying “Who is your family?”, but he still answered with a cold face.
”The traitor Gopal is dead.”
Grove felt a buzzing in his head, as if a 200-pound bomb exploded next to him.
Maybe it was the death of the rabbit and the grief of the fox.
He was shocked and shouted, holding the iron window with both hands.
”Go, Gopal is dead?! How is it possible?! How did he die? I don’t agree! No – he is a traitor! I am innocent! Zaid knows me, give him another call! Please…” The
iron bars creaked as the skinny wrist shook, but the soldier seemed not to hear.
Most of the Brahma people have a consensus on “who can kick someone when he is down and who needs to be forgiven”, which is like psychic power and does not need to be expressed in words.
Gopal is finished.
Can Grove still survive?
Even the children in Tiandu know that it is time to kill the dog after eating the wolf meat…
…
The wolf is dead.
The dog is dead.
Prince Sava and a group of heroes also sat on the fire pit, being roasted and fidgeting, their butts burning. Tiandu
seemed to be trapped in a battlefield without gunpowder smoke. For the first time, those rough men who only knew how to fight experienced what it meant to be easy to block an open spear but difficult to defend against an arrow from the dark.
However, what really shattered Gail’s worldview was not Gopal’s miserable end.
It was the end of Commissioner Kabaha, whom he had once despised the most and even hated to the core.
It was a sunny morning.
Although Tiandu had turned into a burning pit, the boiling fire had not yet burned into the gate of Tiandu University.
Gail, who was sitting in the classroom, was dozing off out of boredom, recalling the taste of the female student last night, but he didn’t expect to be awakened by a “bang”, and was so scared that his textbook fell to the ground.
Fortunately, the stick did not hit him on the head, but on the skull of Commissioner Kabaha.
Since the joint operation of the school, this education commissioner has been both the principal and the professor. He has never fallen down in the wind and rain under the roar of the bombers, but this time his nosebleed splashed on the desk.
Commissioner Kabaha did not seem to have expected that this day would come. He stared at the children holding sticks in a daze, and then at the adults behind them.
However, he did not say anything in the end, but just silently picked up the textbook that fell on the desk.
”Students, turn your textbooks to page 37. Today we are talking about “Mr. L”, which was completed by an old friend of the teacher with great effort-”
Snap!
The stick danced like the wind, and knocked him to the ground like a whirlwind.
”We are asking you questions!”
”What did you say in the theater that day? And why didn’t you applaud?”
Kabaha said nothing, as if those who beat him up didn’t exist. He reached out to pick up the textbook that condensed the hard work of countless people, until the textbook was snatched away and torn.
He stopped touching the textbook and tried to stand up to speak, but was knocked over. He stood up again and fell down again… until his head was bleeding and even the sticks were broken.
His bones were really hard, and he finally stood up.
The twelve-year-old boy frowned, and his temper rose up. He raised the half-broken stick and was about to give him the final blow, but was stopped by the man behind him.
The man stood at ease, looked at the students sitting in the classroom, and said in a cold voice.
”Students, you are Kabaha’s students and the people who know him best. Since he refuses to confess his crimes and reflect on his problems, you can speak for him.”
”Come one by one.”
The classroom was silent.
Everyone was shocked.
Including Gale.
He felt like a bullet hit his brain, and he was dizzy and couldn’t come back to his senses.
Kabaha…
I should hate this guy. It’s all his fault that he made a fool of himself by holding that big exam, and gave the opportunity that belonged to him to those mud legs, these inferior people… Why should I hate him for me?
Why…
This is unreasonable.
He couldn’t figure it out.
Maybe it was because he was too normal, or maybe it was because he was stupid from reading books.
And at this moment, he suddenly remembered what Nayak, the clever and evil-like little brother, said to him before leaving.
’I have four generals, A, B, C, and
D… I know that sooner or later I will kill them all.’ ‘Hide yourself after you go back… Be as cowardly as possible… Imagine yourself as a soft maggot…’
Gail suddenly regretted it.
Maybe he should have gone with that guy at that time, but now it’s too late to regret it.
But…
Why leave?
Gail suddenly laughed in his heart, because at this moment he suddenly realized that there were a group of sheep eating dirt around him.
What a good sheep.
The owner wanted to eat meat, and they were afraid that the owner would not be full, so they did not even need the owner to sharpen the knife.
They took the initiative to bite the sheep that did not get along with the group to death, and offered his flesh and blood.
He remembered Nayak’s third sentence.
’It will be your turn, I said.’
Gail stood up as if by magic, and the eyes of the front and back of the classroom looked at him.
Including Commissioner Kabaha.
The bruised and bleeding face was still cold and arrogant.
He actually had a way to survive.
But he chose to die standing.
Then…
it would be better to die meaningfully.
”Teacher… Goodbye.”
Gail silently chanted in his heart, staring into those eyes, and pretended to be honest.
This was the first time he recognized this guy as a teacher, and the first time he called him with honorifics.
And it was from the heart.
Kabaha looked at him, and the sneer in his eyes was the same as always, as if saying “You are worthy of calling me teacher”, but unfortunately he could no longer speak.
But –
that may not be a real sneer.
Maybe it is a kind of protection.
Or kindness.
Standing on the podium, Gale exchanged glances with a familiar man and took the stick from him.
That was his father’s soldier.
He recognized him whether he was wearing a military uniform or not.
Gale held the stick tightly in his hand, just like holding a burning torch.
Looking at the cold eyes, he whispered in his heart.
”Lend me your life.”
”Your revenge -”
”Fifty years later, I will avenge you.”
…
Golden Gallon Port, beside the Yongliu River.
The red soil has disappeared, and the sugarcane field in the Nihak era has become a bustling market.
After leaving the Lowell Camp, Ye Shi and Dora and his group came here.
Busy with official business, Yodu has returned to the city hall.
However, he did not leave the group alone, but arranged his secretary to be their guide, showing hospitality on behalf of the people of Golden Gallon Port.
Looking at the grilled fish on the snack stand, Dora was drooling with greed, her face full of desire.
Although there are many barbecues in French Fry Harbor, the grilling methods and flavors are completely different.
The spices here are sprinkled as if they are free, which aroused the greed in her stomach again.
Ye Shi was also hungry after seeing this, and was about to pay for it, but was stopped by the local guide sent by Mayor Yodu.
”That’s a freshwater fish.”
The guide hesitated for a while, too embarrassed to tell the truth, and only spoke vaguely.
”It’s not very hygienic.”
Ye Shi gave him a strange look, always feeling that it was strange to hear the word hygienic from the locals, but still listened to the advice and pulled Dora away from the grilled fish stall. There are
a lot of food here, and there are other varieties.
”What about the grilled corn? And the pork?”
”That’s no problem,” the guide said with an embarrassed smile, “but we need to check whether the fish and shrimp are from the river or the sea.”
Recently, there have been reports in the news that people have had stomach problems from eating fish. The representative council is discussing legislation to prohibit the capture of river fish and putting them on the market, but the relevant regulations have not yet caught up.
Ye Shi nodded in understanding, then picked up the menu and ordered a barbecue for about 100 silver coins.
100 silver coins are equivalent to 1,000 gallons, enough for the ten of them to eat until they are full.
At this time, the sky gradually darkened.
Looking at the hot air balloons in the distance, Ye Shi suddenly thought of the confusion when he first arrived at the port, so he looked at the guide sitting across the table and asked.
”What are those balloons for?”
The guide followed his gaze and said with a smile.
”You mean those? They were made by the priest of the Silver Moon Church. His name seems to be…Melgio.”
Melgio.
He always felt that this name was familiar. He thought he should have seen it on the forum, but he couldn’t remember when it happened.
”It turned out to be from the Silver Moon Sect.” Ye Shi nodded suddenly.
No wonder there are two tufts of hair on the hot air balloon. After a long time, it turns out that they are cat ears.
This is too abstract.
Looking at the hot air balloons, the guide’s face was filled with piety and admiration.
”Speaking of Mr. Melgio, he is also a celebrity in this area… Since he moved here from Xifan Port, he has done a lot of practical things, including building churches, helping refugees, and teaching the poor to read. Although I don’t believe in the Silver Moon Goddess, he is indeed a kind man. I really don’t understand why those people in the west want to drive him away.”
”West?” Dora blinked.
”It must be Xifan Port.” Looking at the balloons in the sky, Ye Shi sighed and said, “The Willant people are really cruel. They even took away the church.”
The guide smiled bitterly and said nothing, but cast his eyes on the sunset in the distance.
”Mr. Melgio knows some… good Weilantes, and some citizens who made some money in their early years. They made some hot air balloons, put dry food inside, and let the hot air balloons float to the west. When the fuel inside is gone, the hot air balloons fall like parachutes, and they land wherever they want.”
Ye Shi looked at him in surprise.
”How many people can this… save?”
The guide shook his head and said.
”As many as you can save, maybe someone just needs a bite of food to survive?”
Dora asked puzzled.
”Is there no food there?”
The guide shook his head.
”No.”
She suddenly remembered that she needed money to buy her food, so she asked timidly again.
”Then… there is no money?”
”No.” ”
Then what is——”
”Don’t ask.” Looking at the guide with red eyes, Ye Shi patted Dora’s shoulder with high emotional intelligence, “Tomorrow we will go to Silver Moon Bay… By the way, try to see if you can sense the mother nest here? Or other similar things?”
The latter sentence was his sudden thought, and it was also a long-standing debate on the official website forum.
Although there is no mother nest in the Borneo Province, it is said that the design process of the red soil seems to have referred to the DNA of the mutant slime mold and improved it.
Dora was stunned for a moment, closed her eyes, meditated for a while, then opened her eyes and shook her head.
”No.”
”Not at all?” Ye Shi still did not give up, “What about those soils? They-”
”I can feel that they are alive. These soils are actually alive. This is really amazing…”
With an incredible expression on her face, Dora continued in a very small voice.
”But it seems… it’s just alive.”
(End of this chapter)
