Rebel Demon King

Chapter 1018 Broken World (2)

Cheng Mo looked down at the little boy who was standing under the curb and holding a women's bicycle. He was extremely thin. Although he was not as skinny as a "little carrot head", he was not too far behind.The skin showed an unhealthy dull color, as if it was covered with a layer of black oil, and it looked not very fair, which was obviously caused by sun exposure and malnutrition.In addition to being thin, the traces of overwork are also obvious. The slender hands are covered with scratches, and the scabs of some wounds have not yet fallen off.

However, the little boy named Khalid has very beautiful facial features. If he takes a little maintenance, turns white, and puts on nice clothes, he will definitely be the kind of handsome boy who will make girls scream.If this kind of appearance is in Huaxia, tidying it up must be the darling of scouts, the kind that can become a cash cow with a little training.

But in Syria, not only did he have no chance to become a star, he even had problems reading and eating.

Different birthplaces have created completely different destinies.

However, Cheng Mo just sighed in his heart. The little boy's unfortunate life and cute appearance did not make him feel pity. He has always been rational to the point of being cold-blooded. At this time, he was thinking more about "his own safety". Therefore, it is impossible for him to agree to the three thousand dollar condition of the little boy.

There is no doubt that the number "three thousand dollars" can be blurted out by the other party, either at the instigation of someone, or because it has some special meaning.So Cheng Mo immediately shook his head and said firmly, "Impossible, do you know how much three thousand dollars is?"

"I know, I know, but, sir, I really need this money" Khaled clasped his hands and begged in a low voice.

This kind of tone and attitude is almost equivalent to giving up the bargaining power. Cheng Mo was a little surprised that the little boy slipped to his knees so quickly, but he didn't have any compassion, and his tone was so serious that he almost condemned, "That's none of my business, I I only know that this offer is very unreasonable. What's more, I don't have so much money."

Khalid was still too young, incapable and incapable of judging who was in a strong position between himself and Cheng Mo, and was easily frightened by Cheng Mo, and asked with a sad face, "Then how much can you pay?"

"One hundred dollars." Cheng Mo cut the price down to one-thirtieth with a cruel knife.

"One hundred dollars?" Khalid exclaimed, "That's really a little bit, believe me, no one in this town understands English except me! Besides, you can't find the black market!"

"I also understand Saudi." Cheng Mo said in Saudi, "Maybe you are the only one who understands English, but there must be others who understand Saudi."

Khalid was stunned, he opened his mouth slightly and didn't know how to answer, so he could only stand there and stare at Cheng Mo.

"If you don't want to, I'll go to the hotel in the town to have a look."

"There are no hotels in town that provide accommodation."

"There will always be someone who is willing to provide it. If it doesn't work, I can go to the city government to ask." Cheng Mo didn't give Khalid too much chance to think, nor did he give the rich woman Athena a chance to intervene, and turned Athena around. keep going.

He didn't care about three thousand dollars, but he deeply understood the truth of "wealth is not revealed".In addition, this is also his way of testing Khalid. If the other party immediately agrees to his outrageous counter-offer, it means that there must be other ways to calculate him, and he must be more vigilant.In a war-torn place like Syria, there are no rules at all. As a "white man", anyone may be an enemy, and he cannot capsize in the gutter.Cheng Mo was thinking about whether to explain to Athena, telling her not to love so much that she would become a fat sheep. When she turned to look at Athena, she found that there was no emotion on her face, and she didn't look back, wondering what to do. How to be a good Khalid, with a look of indifference.

"Is there something wrong with this little boy?" Cheng Mo asked softly.

"Is there a problem?" Athena turned to look at Cheng Mo, "I don't know, I didn't even look at him. I don't like children"

"I don't like children either." After a pause, Cheng Mo continued, "Especially naughty children."

"Hmm." Athena nodded sympathetically, and then said, "Where are we going? Didn't that kid say that there is no hotel in the town?"

"Wait a while." Cheng Mo said firmly, "He will definitely catch up."

As soon as Cheng Mo finished speaking, there was the sound of Khalid pushing the bicycle "bang bang bang dang" running behind him. Cheng Mo didn't look back, but he didn't speed up his pace, and continued to move forward along the street with Athena at the same speed. Walk.

The two of them didn't go far at first, so Khalid pushed the old bicycle and chased after him again. He didn't speak, but walked a little behind Cheng Mo and Athena silently.

Cheng Mo glanced at Khalid from the corner of his eye. He lowered his head and kicked the stones under his feet, with a timid expression, a little lost, and a little at a loss.He seemed to have completely forgotten what he was going to do. He pushed his bicycle and walked beside Cheng Mo and Athena, not continuing to bargain with Cheng Mo.

After walking for a while, Cheng Mo asked proactively, "Have you considered it?"

Khalid raised his head and begged with a pitiful face: "Sir, please add a little more, add a little more, I know you are a good person, a little more is enough!"

"It has nothing to do with whether I'm a good person, Khaled." Cheng Mo shrugged his shoulders and said, "I can only afford a hundred dollars."

Khalid followed Cheng Mo and Athena's footsteps with small steps, while swallowing saliva to moisten his dry lips, "Why, I know you are rich."

"Oh? How do you know?" Cheng Mo asked pretending to be curious.

"The clothes you sold to Papa Mubayed were very expensive. I know the brand, Gucci, very expensive."

"You still know Gucci?" Cheng Mo pretended to be surprised.

"Of course." Khaled said with pride on his face, "My father took pictures at the door of this store when he went abroad before! The door of the store is very big and tall, as high as the gate of a temple, and it is also very impressive. The models are so ugly! They don’t know how to wear more clothes”

Khalid's "proud" mood was fleeting. As he spoke, his face gradually became gloomy, his head drooped again, and his tightly pursed lips revealed an indescribable sadness.

Cheng Mo was quite satisfied with Khalid's performance, and basically ruled out the possibility that he was instigated by others or arranged some kind of trap. He smiled and said, "But my Gucci is just a fake. If you are so rich, you won’t come here anymore.” Hearing Cheng Mo’s words, Khalid raised his head and looked at Cheng Mo again, but at this time the light of hope was gone from his pupils, and his disappointment was beyond words. The upright posture just now was a bit sluggish like an eggplant beaten by frost.

Seeing this, Cheng Mo immediately threw a sweet date, "I'll give you another fifty dollars, one hundred and fifty dollars, which is quite a lot of money, what are you willing to do?"

"150 dollars, 150 dollars." Khaled replied with a mournful face, "It's okay."

Cheng Mo stopped in his tracks, turned around and stared at Khalid, who looked decadent and worried, and asked in a low voice, "Can I ask why you urgently need three thousand dollars?"

Khalid said weakly: "Because it takes three thousand dollars to go to Germany"

Cheng Mo nodded, "If your performance satisfies me, I will consider giving you another fifty dollars."

Khaled forced a smile and said, "Yes, sir."

"Then you take us directly to the black market now?"

Khalid shook his head and said, "Go to my house first. My grandfather is familiar with the black market. If you want to exchange money, you have to go to him."

"Okay, you lead the way. Try to go where there are few people."

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Khalid took Cheng Mo and Athena around the main road of the city and walked to the edge of the town with ease.It turned out that there were also a large area of ​​houses here, but now it has become ruins, and a strong wind will blow up a cloud of dust.The road was also buried in broken bricks, and bullet casings of various calibers and sharp shrapnel were densely mixed in the cracks of the bricks. When three people walked by, there was a crackling sound.

Through Khalid's intermittent narration, Cheng Mo knew that Latakia was a pleasant seaport town before the war, not only developed in shipping, but also in tourism, with a population of 60, and its history can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. , although not many relics have been preserved before, but there are more or less left.

But after the war, the population dropped sharply to more than 20, and most of the remaining monuments were severely damaged.Khalid pointed to the small hill not far away and said: "There used to be a Crusader castle there, but because the government armed forces once occupied it and set up machine guns and artillery, only a few sections of the city wall were left. .If it's still there it's really good for a photo shoot."

Cheng Mo raised his eyes and saw that there were only a few pieces of scattered city walls left on the hill. The strong fortress that had stood for hundreds of years could be completely destroyed with just one shell.

But in fact, the ruins on the hills are not enough to describe the cruelty of the war.Looking around, there are completely intact war relics. Huge rockets, aerial bombs, homemade bombs are everywhere, and parts of various military vehicles are scattered everywhere. They are already rusted and mottled, mixed in the ruins as if they were one .Those guns that were melted, deformed and solidified, Hummers that were shredded like paper, and T55 tanks with only keels left, are like steel statues that can stand forever
Even if Cheng Mo didn't personally experience the war here, he could still imagine how tragic the situation was.Now, the ceasefire agreement has been signed for almost two years, and the reconstruction here is still far away.Cheng Mo couldn't help but think of Yi Lak. He once went to Yi Lak when he was attacking the "Tongtian Tower". In contrast, the situation in Syria is more complicated, so it is more tragic, and the real peace is far away. .

Cheng Mo has a lot of feelings, but Khalid doesn't have much emotion. When he encounters a slightly better building, Khalid will tell Cheng Mo and Athena what it is used for now like a tour guide.

Cheng Mo listened very carefully, and occasionally asked Khalid some questions, but the questions Cheng Mo asked were too deep, involving the complex sectarian and ethnic struggles in Syria.Khalid really couldn't answer too much, but the silence in his speech completely dug out Khalid's identity.

As a port city, Latakia has an international flavor that cannot be found in other places in Syria, so it is more tolerant to other religions.For example, Khalid's parents are Sun Li sects, so they sent Khalid to a private Catholic school.Therefore, most of Khaled's childhood playmates were Catholics.His understanding of the "Bible" even exceeds that of "XXX", and Khalid's parents have no objection to this. His father is an engineer and has a short overseas study experience, so he is more open-minded and misses him. He came into contact with English early and sent him abroad to study in the future, so he entered a Catholic private school.Even his mother rarely wore a hijab in public, and his father only went to temples when he attended funerals.

In fact, before the war, Hafiz al-Assad, known as the dictator, had been committed to secular liberalism. The reason for this was of course that he was a religious minority of the Alawites, but his rule Definitely milder and more modern.

But the irony is that it is this kind of moderation and modernization that makes him almost powerless to fight back when facing the big stick of "freedom and democracy" from a big country.

But what if you have the strength to fight back?
Libia not far away is a living example. When the "Saudi Spring" broke out in Tunisia, Libya was under the rule of the political strongman Gaddafi, and the economy and people's livelihood were doing quite well. In the entire African region and even the Middle East In this area, the living conditions of Libyans are among the best.Ordinary Libyans do not spend much money on housing, medical care, transportation, and communications, and their public facilities are much better than most African and Middle Eastern countries.Because Gaddafi nationalized the oil controlled by Europe and the United States, and then used the income from the oil to build the army and subsidize people's livelihood and infrastructure, so there is no such thing as Tunisia or Yemen in Libya. The situation of the uprising.

But the problem is that Gaddafi has made Libya a little too good, and has the largest oil reserves in Africa, which makes Gaddafi a little swollen, and even wants to set up the African Investment Bank and establish Africa's own oil organization , in order to push African countries to form some kind of alliance to bargain with Lighthouse and Europa, which touched the reverse scale of Lighthouse and Europa.

So Gaddafi was immediately on the lighthouse blacklist, and was labeled as a dictator by the lighthouse with the help of a powerful public opinion control machine, and then the French began to stab their knives. In fact, the crimes committed by France in the colonies are not much worse than those committed by the Japanese.

However, because France was among the victorious countries during World War II and was not liquidated, it was nicknamed "Surrender Master" like a white lotus in the world. Although the real France is not as brutal as Germany, it is also Not much better.How can the noble white people tolerate the former colonial rebound?In order to regain Libya's oil, the French will of course crush Libya.

The Lighthouse does not care about the oil in Libya, but it needs the right to control the oil. A big oil-producing country like Libya is not under its control. The Lighthouse will never accept that the random production of oil will affect the price of oil, so get rid of the anti-American Gaddafi is an inevitable choice for the lighthouse
So France and the lighthouse hit it off. As the former suzerain country, the French were the first to send planes to bomb Libya.

For the lighthouse to solve the problem of the country, it is enough to use the routine repeatedly.First, use powerful propaganda machines, Facebook, Twitter, and various TV stations to stigmatize hostile countries and promote freedom and democracy. At the same time, use money and force to instigate opposition to ethnic minorities, religious sects, or warlords in enemy countries, and then wield freedom And the stick of democracy imposes sanctions on the enemy country, as long as the enemy country's economy and humanity collapse, and finally send a powerful fighter plane to bomb a few times, everything will be at hand.

This routine is really simple to say the least, but it is very practical.As for a small country like Libya, it can be easily overthrown. Even a strongman like Gaddafi was overthrown after only a few struggles.

The death of a generation of heroes was extremely miserable. Unfortunately, after his death, the Libyans did not see the freedom and democracy they wanted. The Lighthouse and Europa were only responsible for overthrowing Gaddafi, not giving them the American life they yearned for.

Cheng Mo is also very curious about how Libyans feel now, whether they miss Gaddafi, the dictator they once hated because of public opinion, when they can't afford food or go out unsafely.

Cheng Mo walks slowly through the ruins of the battlefield. The written history and the real history give people a completely different feeling. No matter how powerful the power of the text is, it is not as shocking as the real scene.

The huge destructiveness of the war showed him an extremely ruthless picture. At this moment, he had a new feeling for the country and the nation in his heart.
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Under the leadership of Khalid, Cheng Mo and Athena walked around the edge of the city for a long time, and then went back to the seaside.Along the coastal road, there is a long street with small buildings on both sides, but the small stone buildings on both sides of the long street have collapsed a lot, and now only stubborn wreckage remains.Probably because the building stones here are extraordinarily hard, most of them have only been cut off the second floor or the roof, leaving the walls made of granite.

Cheng Mo was able to infer from the faded marble and granite that the small building here has a certain age. If it had not been destroyed, it must be as beautiful as Santorini.

Khalid pointed to a small building on the side of the sea and said happily: "That is my home."

Cheng Mo followed Khalid's finger and saw that among the many damaged small buildings, one was basically intact, with a flat roof firmly on it, and no holes or collapses in the walls, except for Except for the windows nailed by wooden boards, which are a bit abrupt, everything else looks normal.

In the middle of a bunch of dilapidated houses, it seemed like a miracle.

"The house where nothing happened is your home?" Cheng Mo asked.

"Yes." Khalid quickened his pace.

"Why is your house the only one that is good?"

"I don't know either. My mother said it was the blessing of the creator, and my grandfather said it was luck. I don't know which of them is right."

Khalid quickened his pace, as if something in the distance attracted him naturally.Cheng Mo and Athena also followed quickly. This narrow long street was completely different from the street in the ruins just now. It had been cleaned up, free of bricks, shell casings and mortar shrapnel.And there are still many people living in the houses that have not completely collapsed. There are shops open on the side of the road. Seeing Cheng Mo and Athena, people with nothing to do are all staring curiously. A few people in shabby clothes The child rushed out and circled the two of them laughing and laughing without any fear, and asked Khalid loudly who they were.

Khalid waved his fist to drive away, and the group of children laughed and dispersed, and hid in the distance making faces at Cheng Mo and Athena.Cheng Mo didn't care about this, and looked left and right to observe the surrounding environment. Unlike the heartless happiness of the children, the faces of the adults were cold and hard, like lifeless and crudely made clay sculptures.

Athena stared at the shops selling buns and pancakes with great concentration.

When he was about to reach the gate of Khaled’s house, he pointed to the building facing the sea at the end of the long street. In front of an empty playground, the white rectangular building evenly crossed half and became a square with a green side. The national flag of Syria just stood on the edge of the crack, like a dividing line in a comparison photo, "That is the Catholic school where I studied. The original flag should have a cross, but it was blown up."

"Why did you bomb the school?" Cheng Mo asked in shock.

"Because it's a Catholic school." Khalid was a little sad, "I don't dare to say that I have studied there, and I don't even dare to say that I can speak English."

Cheng Mo didn't know what to say, so he could only remain silent.

When I came to Khaled’s house, there was a middle-aged man with a beard and a disheveled face like a homeless man sitting in the ruins next to his house. His house only had two walls on the left and right, and there was no shelter in the front and back. There are bricks and wooden beams in all directions, and decayed wooden beds and wardrobes can be seen in the middle.He was sitting on the sofa in the living room where the front and back were transparent, surrounded by piles of household garbage, and a pitifully skinny mouse was crawling around at his feet. He ignored it completely and just stared at the photos hanging on the wall.

Khalid said in a low voice: "That's Uncle Ashkar. Before the war, he was the manager of a car company. After the war, he was in charge of cleaning up corpses in the city. He drove a pickup truck every day, looking for corpses in various ruins, and loaded them into the car to transport them." Go to the centralized place to bury. When it was his turn to clean up the ruins of the school, he dug up the bodies of Amuro, Heribin, Mawas and little Soma from the ruins of the east building of the school. All four of his children died , a bomb destroyed half of the school, and it happened that his four children were all in the bombed east building. Before the school was cleaned up, they still had a glimmer of hope. After the hope was shattered, Aunt Adilai went crazy , I accidentally fell into the sea one night, but the body was never found, so Uncle Ashkar never went out again." After a pause, Khaled said softly, "It's accidental, maybe it's because of teachings. Suicide is not allowed!"

Cheng Mo turned his head slightly and glanced, hanging on the bare wall was a dusty family portrait, a middle-aged man in a suit was holding a little girl and a woman in a western suit were standing side by side, three people also wearing small suits The boy stood by his legs, smiling brightly.

"Actually, it has nothing to do with religion. Which family didn't die?" Khalid's narration and expression were very calm. He pushed open the wine-red wooden door and signaled Cheng Mo and Athena to go in first.

Cheng Mo looked back and stepped into the courtyard of Khalid's house.The size of the yard is small, there is no landscape, and the concrete floor is not very smooth. Under the fence, there are some metal parts and electrical appliances that do not know what to do. There are cabinet refrigerators, car steering wheels, and even a tank. the crawler.Cheng Mo guessed that Khalid picked up all the things he thought were valuable.

Khalid closed the door and shouted loudly in Syriac: "Mom, there are guests."

Cheng Mo and Athena stopped and stood in the yard waiting.Soon a middle-aged woman wearing a black headscarf came out of the living room. Her eyes were big and swollen, her face was full of exhaustion, but she was dressed very cleanly. She looked like a woman who cared about her image.When she saw Cheng Mo and Athena in the yard, she was stunned and glanced at Khalid in confusion. After Khalid walked over and said something, she forced a smile and asked Cheng Mo and Athena entered the room, and then asked Khalid a few more words in a soft voice.

Khalid had a quick chat with his mother, arranged for Cheng Mo and Athena to sit down on the shabby leather sofa in the living room, and hurriedly said, "Wait a while, I'll go find my grandpa first."

Cheng Mo nodded, and Khalid ran away in a gust of wind.And Khalid's mother brought water and three dishes of food and put them on the coffee table. She didn't know how to communicate with Cheng Mo and Athena, so she gestured to Cheng Mo and Athena to eat with embarrassment, and then sat awkwardly. On the chair beside him.

Athena was not a polite person either. She looked curiously at the three stacks of crude snacks on the coffee table, and there were three old wooden trays where the quantity of food could be seen at a glance.One plate is an unknown green fruit, which looks a bit like an olive, but it is definitely not an olive, it is bigger than an olive; a plate of fried pasta, like a triangular spring roll; and another plate is rock sugar skewers.
Seeing Athena staring at the snacks intently, Khalid's mother immediately uttered an unknown Syrian language, probably telling Cheng Mo and Athena to be polite.

Cheng Mo has no desire to eat at all, and the appearance of these foods is not good, so he doesn't want to do anything. He turned his head and said to Athena who was eager to try: "Eat if you want, but don't expect too much from the taste. "

Athena reached out and picked up a green olive-shaped fruit, and handed it directly to her mouth.Khalid's mother was very surprised, said something quickly, and kept shaking her hands.

Cheng Mo guessed that Athena's eating method was wrong, and it was too late to stop it.Athena, who had bitten through the green fruit, wrinkled her face, and immediately spit out the fruit in her mouth on the ground. The yellow, yellow, green and green flesh and flesh splashed a flower on the white and green tiles.

Athena lowered her head to look for a tissue but couldn't see it, so she subconsciously asked Cheng Mo, "Where are the tissue?"

Cheng Mo has nothing to do with this kind of question, and he doesn't know how to answer it. According to his estimates, there is a high probability that there is no paper towel in this room, not only because of poverty and lack of supplies, but also because Saint Laurent teaches that he doesn't use paper to wipe PP. left hand
Khalid's mother quickly stood up, said some incomprehensible words, and walked out of the living room quickly.

Seeing that Athena was still turning her head to look at him, waiting for him to hand over the tissue.Cheng Mo could only pick up the water glass, pour some water on his fingertips, and gently wipe away the green juice and yellowish seeds on the corners of Athena's red lips.However, those viscous juices were already flowing down the chin to the neck, Cheng Mo could only do it to the end, lift her chin, and slowly rub along the shallow sugar mark with her thumb.

Sunlight leaked in from the gaps in the plastic-covered wooden boards, and a pale golden light cut on Athena's fair neck like a sharp knife. It had a strange sense of art, like a simple modern sculpture.This sudden scene and the occasional ambiguity made Cheng Mo's brain dizzy for a while, and the atmosphere suddenly entered a state of being drunk.

Cheng Mo stared sideways at Athena's tall body line, thinking that if Athena is compared to wine, then she must be the strongest vodka, which looks as pure and clear as water, but is actually as hot and dangerous as fire.Especially in this small town with a strong smell of death, he subconsciously longed for the existence of Athena to pull him out of this world.

But those broken souls cruising among the ruins like ghosts made the sound of clanging metal footsteps, making his brain unable to shake off the heavy sorrow like shackles.

Cheng Mo is determined to get rid of these worthless sympathies. He has long known that as an individual, he is powerless to do anything. Perhaps the only thing he can do is to maintain a good attitude and live his own life. Give Khalid a little more money.He stared at Athena's skin as clean as white paper, his heart moved, and he slid his fingertips and asked, "How do you feel after seeing these cruel scenes?"

"I don't feel much, I just hate humans more." Athena said lightly, "Humans are a flawed species."

"Defect? ​​Is it desire?" Cheng Mo thought for a while, "It is desire that can promote human progress."

Athena shook her head and said: "I don't think there is anything wrong with desire, but I just think that human beings are too hypocritical. There is no good or evil in nature, and the natural law of natural selection has no moral attributes, but human beings have invented the judgment of morality." System, the strong hold the right to speak, judge others at will, and pretend to be a model of human beings, it is really disgusting."

Cheng Mo thought that for Athena, "nausea" should be a very serious word, and he continued to ask: "Then do you sympathize with the weak? For example, these people who are helpless during the war?"

"No. Why is there any sympathy for ants being trampled to death by elephants?" Athena said indifferently, "What's more, what they need is not sympathy."

Cheng Mo just wanted to refute that this metaphor is inappropriate. Humans are different from animals and involve a subject of subjective initiative. Before he opened his mouth, he suddenly remembered another similar sentence-"What does it matter to you to destroy you? ", this sentence from "The Three-Body Problem" has the same meaning as "What is the sympathy for an ant being trampled to death by an elephant", it has transcended the human individual and revealed the basic laws of the progress and development of the human world.

Although most people apply this sentence to the scene of enterprise competition, such as smartphones and cameras, such as e-commerce and physical stores, such as takeaway and instant noodles
In fact, the competition between countries is even more so. Laws can somewhat restrain enterprises, but there is no law or morality at all between countries.

Just like the Syrian war, regardless of religious conflicts, ethnic conflicts, or totalitarian rule, it was not the root cause of its destruction.The root cause is the location and oil at the foot of Syria.

Oil is the black blood of the human world, and the transportation channels of the world are blood vessels, and the most important artery is the oil transportation line from the Middle East to Europe via Syria.Therefore, whoever controls Syria will control the "oil discourse power" in the Middle East and even Europe, and whoever controls the discourse power can participate in formulating the rules of the oil game.

Setting the rules of the game has always been something that top countries around the world pursue.

This is the reason why both Lighthouse and Ennoth want to control Syria, and it is also the root cause of the war in Syria.The wrestling between the two great powers has nothing to do with Syria or the people of Syria. Even the foreign minister of Syria could only sit outside the meeting room and cry at the United Nations meeting that decided the fate of Syria.

Weakness is not a mistake, nor is it a sin.

However, passively accepting everything, having no right to choose at all, is the consequence that the weak must bear.Assuming that the weak place all their hopes on the pity of the strong, the outcome depends only on the mood of the strong.

The Syrians are just pond fish that have been affected by the disaster, and the lighthouse and Ennos, who are elephants, don't care about the survival of the Syrians.

So are these poor Syrians worthy of sympathy?
There is no doubt that the vast majority of ordinary people would be deeply sympathetic.However, when people in other countries are required to do something, it is the vast majority of ordinary people who are against it.Maybe they will donate some money and things symbolically to show their superiority; maybe they will take photos and movies to publicize the horror of war and the tragedy of the Syrian people; maybe they will leave messages on social networks as tragic narratives. Pray for the Liya people; but they will never allow these poor refugees to flood into their country and affect their lives.

Human sympathy is actually limited and cheap.

Thinking about it this way, Athena's sentence "What's more, they don't need sympathy" seems cold and meaningful.

Endless desires and limited resources are irreconcilable contradictions in the human world, Cheng Mo sighed inwardly.

Just as Cheng Mo was meditating, a small head poked out from the wooden door on one side of the living room, and a ten-year-old girl looked at them secretly with her big flickering eyes holding the eaves of the door.Cheng Mo immediately thought of the little girl who was hiding in the crowd next to the second-hand clothes stall, and he was sure it was the same person.The little girl looks somewhat similar to Khalid, and she is undoubtedly Khalid's younger sister. She wears two long braids, her eyes are round like black grapes, her nose is small and straight, and her lips are It presents a light pink color, which complements the round and soft apple flesh, like a porcelain doll carved with jade.

Athena seemed to sense the little girl's prying eyes, and looked back at the door of the inner room.

Cheng Mo withdrew his right hand that was raised in the void, and his chest suddenly felt a little empty. He pretended to be nonchalant and poured some water from the water glass, rubbed his palm twice, and then casually wiped the water stains on the black On slacks.

And Athena turned her head to look at the little girl, maybe she was afraid, maybe she was shy, the little girl retracted her head behind the door, but immediately poked it out again, and found that Athena was still looking at her, so she hid again. went back.She just repeated the peeping action over and over again, and she didn't feel tired, as if she was playing "whack-a-mole" with Athena cosplay.

The childish behavior of the little girl made Athena very confused. She stared at the little girl puzzled, as if she wanted to see what the little girl was going to do.

Probably the little girl was a little shy from Athena's straight eyes. She stopped showing her head and hid behind the door. She didn't hold her mother until Khaled's mother walked in through the door. The corner of his clothes came out of the room.

Khaled's mother first handed Athena a brand new silk scarf as a sign that she could use it to wipe her mouth. Seeing Athena took it, Khalid's mother showed a pained expression on her face, but she didn't look at it too much. He squatted down and began to wipe the floor with a rag.

The little girl cautiously walked out from the side of her mother. She looked at the half-cut fruit thrown by Athena on the ground and grinned innocently with missing front teeth. Use the small knife next to the wooden plate to quickly remove the top of the green fruit, and then cut a few times with ease, peeling the fruit like peeling a mango, and the yellow flesh like a cantaloupe appeared in front of Athena in an instant. The little girl raised her tender little hand and handed it to Athena timidly.

Athena hesitated for a moment, but took the fruit from the little girl's hand. First, she tasted a little cautiously, and then finished a fruit with three or two strokes.

"Is it delicious?" Cheng Mo asked.

"It was the first time I accidentally ate the skin of the fruit, which was very bitter, but it was much better if I only ate the pulp just now. It was a little sour, but the fragrance was very fresh and quenched my thirst." Athena looked down at the fruit on the wooden plate. Olive-shaped fruit, "It should be a cactus fruit!"

Cheng Mo also looked over, and said with some surprise: "There is indeed a custom of eating prickly pear fruit here in Syria, but this fruit is too small and a little too green. It is reasonable to say that prickly pear fruit is usually crimson. The purple and yellow ones are the right ones." After a pause, he explained to himself again, "It should be that the cactus fruits were picked before the ripening season."

Athena nodded in approval.

Seeing that Athena had finished eating, the little girl took a knife, cut another cactus fruit, and handed it to Athena again.

Athena has always been used to serving, so she took the cactus fruit naturally and ate it calmly.The little girl immediately cut another one and handed it to Cheng Mo, with a faint smile on her face, very cute.

Cheng Mo waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need it, but he didn't take it.

The little girl was a little disappointed, when Khalid's voice rang again in the yard, the little girl immediately put down the knife and cactus fruit in her hand, threw off her two calves, and ran towards the door quickly with her hands open.

Silver bell-like laughter rang out in the yard, Cheng Mo turned his head, and saw Khalid holding his sister in circles through the door, maybe he noticed Cheng Mo's gaze, Khalid quickly stopped Playing games with my sister, holding her hand from the yard into the living room, he introduced with eyes full of love: "My sister Afaf, just turned ten years old."

Afaf broke free from Khaled's hand and hurried into the house.Harry glanced at his sister's back and continued: "My grandfather will be back soon, and I asked him to buy some lamb chops. He knows Grandpa Ibrahim on the street very well, and he will definitely get the fattest lamb chops." "

While talking, Afaf returned to the living room with a water glass in one hand and a towel in the other. She handed the water to Khalid, stood on the chair, and wiped Khalid's forehead sweat on.

Khalid said something to refuse embarrassingly, Alfaf pursed his pink mouth, jumped off the chair angrily, and ran back to the room with the towel.

Khalid shook his head helplessly, and said: "I'll help you clean up the house first, and you should rest first. You will definitely not be able to go to Damascus today, so you have to figure out a way tomorrow! As for the exchange of money, after dinner, put Just give the money to my grandpa."

----------------------

After Khalid cleaned up the room, Cheng Mo and Athena moved from the living room to the second floor. This is probably Khalid's room. Other than that there is not much furnishing in the room.There is only one bunk bed and two desks and two chairs.

Khalid said that the bed sheets and quilt covers were brand new, and they were originally used as dowry items for his sister, but her sister's boyfriend died in battle.There are not many young men in the whole town now, except for the elderly, women and children, it is probably difficult to find a suitable partner.

Then he said with a sad face that the task of preparing the dowry for his elder sister and younger sister fell on his shoulders, and no matter what, he had to prepare a generous enough dowry for his elder sister and younger sister.

Neither Cheng Mo nor Athena responded, and Khalid didn't feel embarrassed talking to himself.When a bald old man with a cane and a large piece of lamb ribs came into the yard, Khalid immediately stopped talking, said something to call them when they were eating, and ran downstairs excitedly.

Soon the yard was buzzing, Khalid set up the fire and his mother brought the lamb chops into the house.When the firewood was lit in the iron stove, his mother also brought out a pot of lamb chops that had been neatly cut and marinated.

As the sun sets, smoke rises from the city's evening breeze, and the aroma of grilled lamb chops permeates the fireworks.The two turbaned women and Alfaf both came to the courtyard, Khalid's mother was kneading dough, Khalid's grandfather was leaning on a cane, turning the lamb chops on the stove, and Khalid controlled the fire.

Alfaf squatted by the stove, obediently helping Khalid pass the firewood, swallowing her saliva and staring at the sizzling lamb chops on the shelf, asking Khalid what to do.Because he was too close to the smoky smoke, tears welled up in the corners of Alfaf's eyes.Khalid drove Alfaf, who was rubbing his eyes, to a distance. The little girl like a porcelain doll climbed onto the pile of mechanical parts piled up by the wall, and sang loudly. This is clearly a Saudi folk song: the color of the sky
turned gray today

the color of the sea

turned red today

her heart was broken

I can't hold back the tears

we feel your pain

Her two older sisters also sang along. Although it was a song with very sad lyrics, they sang very happily, and the whole yard was full of laughter for a while.When the lamb chops were cooked, Khalid's grandfather immediately handed Khalid a lamb chop, but Khalid held the iron skewer but didn't eat it. lips.

Alfaf, who had been drooling beside him, only took a small bite and let Khalid eat it. The two of them pushed back and forth for a long time before finishing a lamb chop.Then came his two older sisters. The two shared a lamb chop and two pancakes. They took turns to grease the lamb chops on the pancakes a few times, then minced the meat with scissors, and served them with vegetable rolls. Sitting on the steps in the pancake, chewing slowly.

Khalid's mother just rolled some vegetables in the bread, and pushed a lamb chop to Khalid, and Khalid picked off the meat of the lamb chop with a knife, and distributed it to the returnees. Sisters and sisters who were still thinking about it carefully gnawed their bare ribs many times.

Alfaf handed the burrito with mutton in his hand to Khalid's lips. Khalid only took a small bite, pushed the burrito away, touched Alfaf's hair and smiled.

Cheng Mo sits on the chair in the room on the second floor, and through the window, he can see the gray-blue sea gradually being dyed into blood-like colors by the sun's rays, and the yard is floating with bits of happiness that belong to the world.

At some point, Athena, who was sitting by the bed, also walked to the window. She looked down at the scene in the yard in a daze.

Cheng Mo remembered the rumors about the Onassis family, and could only turn a blind eye to Athena without saying a word.

Not long after, Khalid came up to ask Cheng Mo and Athena to eat, but there were only two chairs by the dining table in the yard.There are far more grilled lamb chops on the plate than Cheng Mo imagined. There is no doubt that most of the lamb chops are concentrated here. Maybe one lamb chop and one piece of cake for the two of them just now is their family's dinner share.

Thinking that these were not enough for Athena's teeth, Cheng Mo felt a little pity in his heart, so he only ate a piece of cake and a lamb chop.Unexpectedly, Athena, who has always had a huge appetite, only ate a piece of cake and a lamb chop.

After dinner, Cheng Mo gave Khalid 80 euros to ask his grandfather to help him exchange it for Syrian lira.An hour later, his grandfather brought in a large plastic bag of Syrian lira, and Cheng silently counted more than [-].Cheng Mo gave Khalid [-] surya lira, and asked him to arrange the meals for tomorrow, and hurriedly asked if there was any chartered car to Damascus.

Khalid nodded and left the room.

The town at night is silent, with no Internet or TV, except for the dotted lights and the roar of diesel generators at the port, it seems like a primitive society isolated from the world.

The oil lamps on the table are like beans, not as bright as the moonlight outside the window.

The two of them really had nothing to do, so they could only lie on the bed early, Cheng Mo slept on the lower bunk, and Athena slept on the upper bunk.The cool evening wind leaked in from the window, Cheng Mo wrapped the quilt tightly, and a crescent moon sprinkled a piece of silver on the old desk. In this city that is almost divorced from modern life, Cheng Mo felt A raw clarity.

This was a novel experience for Cheng Mo, but he knew it was not what the people of Syria expected.He closes his eyes and fantasizes that the ancients would work at sunrise and rest at sunset. He has not entered the life of modern civilization at all. He feels that it is not impossible for him to accept such a poor life, if he has the right people to accompany him.
His mind once again recalled the imagination Xie Minyun said to him before he left, Cheng Mo closed his eyes, he wanted to use firewood to cook, but the smoke was too much, he must tell Xie Minyun when the time came, and give up such a romantic but childish idea , maybe it would be better to use smokeless charcoal.

In such a quiet time like water, Athena's slight breathing and the faint sound of the wind are like a lullaby, and Cheng Mo feels a kind of sober and comfortable sleepiness, which is hazy and not as annoying as when trying to fall asleep , Cheng Mo immersed himself in it, enjoying a moment of stability.

After an unknown amount of time, Athena's voice suddenly sounded in the room.

"Do you have siblings?"

Cheng Mo opened his eyes. The long light sleep made him not feel sleepy, but rather sober. He stared at the bed board and whispered: "No, I am the only child, and I often feel lucky that I am the only child." He stretched his hand out of the quilt, "But I have a cousin and a cousin."

Athena turned over, turned sideways to the direction of the window and asked, "How is your relationship with them?"

"Ah! How should I say it?" Cheng Mo scratched his head.

"If you don't want to say it, you don't have to say it."

"I didn't expect you to be able to observe words and expressions." Cheng Mo smiled, but immediately he realized that Athena didn't need to observe words and expressions at all. One was because of her identity and strength, and the other was that she could spy on people's hearts.Cheng Mo vaguely guessed that the rumors about the Onassis family may not be groundless, and it can even be said that the death of Athena's brothers and sisters must have something to do with her as the media speculated.He paused for a while, "There's nothing you can't say, the relationship is neither good nor bad, but my cousin probably hates me, and I don't like him either. But my cousin is very righteous and very A kind girl, she is the kind who will take the initiative to get out of the car and help an old man when she sees them crossing the road. Others will dislike me for having a heart attack, but my cousin doesn’t. Trouble, take me to the park to play, I can't play those very exciting projects, bumper cars, roller coasters, spinning planes. She took me to row, and my cousin was very upset about it."

"Is that why you don't like your cousin?"

"No, that's why I'm jealous of him."

"You don't like it because you're jealous?"

Cheng Mo nodded at the bed board, "There are factors related to this, and it is also because their family invaded my life after my father passed away. Probably because I am very selfish, so I always like to speculate on other people with the worst malice, Therefore, my uncle and aunt became my guardians, which was a great danger to me and made me lose my sense of security. Therefore, I was very disgusted with their family. Even my cousin was not as good as she used to be. cute."

"Then you haven't thought about killing them?"

"No, firstly, I don't think I have the ability to kill them without being suspected; secondly, I think they just want me to have a heart attack and die in an accident at most, and there is no real threat to me." Cheng Mo grinned After a while, "It turns out that they are actually not that bad. They are all small citizens with little courage. Taking advantage of a small advantage is the limit of their courage. Cruel strife within the family usually only happens to rich families like you. We small citizens For the sake of property, at most it’s just a fight and a lawsuit, and it’s not up to the stage of murder, so let’s say, sometimes too much money is not a good thing.”

"I'm not really interested in money." Athena whispered.

"Oh! I also heard this sentence from a people's capitalist."

"I don't understand what it means?" Athena asked very confused.

"What I mean is that when you are in a certain position, you can't help yourself. This has nothing to do with your own wishes."

"No one can control my will."

"Then why do you care about killing your own brothers and sisters?"

Athena turned around, as if lying down again.

Silence came as expected.

Cheng Mo also turned around. He lay on his side on the hard wooden bed, looking at the bright silver sea outside the window. The deep night made the faint lights on the side of the harbor stand out, like a piece of vanity growing along the coast Flowers, sparkling waves floating on the dark sea, like butterflies stuck on the black sea and unable to fly, they wave their wings hard, but they can't reach the false garden on the other side, they can only anxiously wait for the moment when the sun rises, burn everything.
(End of this chapter)