little Prince

Chapter 14

On the fourth planet that the little prince travels, there lives an industrialist.The man was so busy that he did not even raise his head when the little prince arrived.

The little prince said to him: "Good morning, sir, your cigarette is out."

“三加二等于五。五加七等于十二。十二加三等于十五。你好。十五加七，22。22加六，28。我现在没有时间再去点燃它啊。26加五，31。哎哟！一共是五亿零160二万二千730一。”

"What is five hundred million?" the little prince asked curiously.

"Huh? Why are you still here? Five hundred and one million... I don't know what five hundred million is. I have a lot of work and I'm a very serious person. I don't have time for small talk! Two plus five makes seven……"

"What is five hundred and one million?" the little prince repeated.I'm sure you all know that once he asks a question, he's bound to get an answer.

The industrialist raised his head and looked at the little prince and said: "I have only been disturbed three times in the 54 years I have lived on this planet. The first time was 22 years ago, a scarab came from nowhere to disturb me. It issued A humming sound that made me make four errors in one account."

"The second time, 11 years ago, it was a rheumatism attack because I was just sitting and not exercising - I didn't have time to hang out."

"I'm a serious man. Now... you're the third time! My calculations are five hundred and one million..."

"What are millions?"

Hearing the little prince's question, the industrialist knew that it was hopeless to settle accounts quietly, so he said: "Millions of little things, these little things sometimes appear in the sky."

"Is it a fly?"

"No, little shiny things."

"Is it a bee?"

"No, it's the little golden things that make lazy people think. I'm a serious man. I don't have time for thoughts."

"Ah, golden yellow and shiny, are they stars?"

"That's right, it's the stars."

"What are you going to do with these [-] million stars?"

"Five hundred and sixty-two thousand seven hundred and thirty-one stars. I am a serious man, and my data is the most accurate."

"What are you doing with these stars?"

"What am I going to do with them?"

"Yes."

"Do nothing. They are all mine."

"The stars belong to you?"

"Yes."

"But I have seen a king who..."

"Kings don't own, they just 'rule.' It's not the same thing."

"What use are you to have all these stars?"

"When I'm rich, I can buy other stars, if someone finds other stars."

The little prince said to himself: "This man thinks a bit like that drunkard."

But he thought of other questions, so he raised them:

"How can you own the stars?"

"Then whose do you think the stars belong to?" the industrialist replied unhappily to the little prince.

"I don't know, but the stars belong to no one."

"If they don't belong to others, then they belong to me, because I was the first person to think of it."

"Is that all right?"

"Of course. If you find a diamond without an owner, then the diamond is yours. When you find an island without an owner, then the island is yours. When you first figured out a way, You just go and get a patent, and the method is yours. Since no one has thought of owning these stars before me, I will own them."

"That is true. But what are you going to do with them?" said the little prince.

"I manage the stars. I count them over and over again. It's a difficult business, a lot of trouble, but I'm a serious person!"

Still not quite understanding, the little prince asked the industrialist, "For me, if I have a scarf, I can wrap it around my neck and carry it away. If I have a flower, I can You can pluck my flower and take it away. But you can't pluck these stars and take them away!"

"I can't pick them, but I can deposit them in the bank."

"What does it mean?"

"That is to say, I write the number of stars on a small piece of paper, and lock the paper in a drawer."

"Is this the end?"

"This should be okay."

The little prince thought: "It's fun. It's quite interesting, but it's not a serious business."

On the question of what is serious business, the little prince has a very different view from the grown-ups.

He said: "I have a flower, and I water it every day. I also have three volcanoes, two of which are active, and I clean them every week, and the rest is an extinct volcano, and I want to Clean up. Who knows if it will come back to life again. I own the volcano and the flowers, and what I do every day is good for my flowers, and what I do every week is good for my volcano. But these things you do, It's useless to the stars."

The industrialist was speechless.So the little prince went away again.

After embarking on the journey again, the little prince still said to himself: "These grown-ups are really strange."

(End of this chapter)