Chapter 57

After 8 o'clock in the evening, all the entertainment venues in the central city, whether illegal or not, began to wake up, and Chen Li's bar also started to open at this time.

He sat in the same old seat as usual, with the bottle of absinthe in front of him. He glanced at his side, but it was empty.

If he hadn't waited for Chen Yuechu, he should have been sitting in the infirmary watching today's battle of wits and courage between the smoke gun and the black soul. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little irritated.

Old alcoholics call drinking a small bottle of strong liquor in one gulp a "kill". There are two most common ways to drink "kill" liquor.

One is to refrigerate the whole bottle of strong liquor. After pouring it out, it is chilly. Drinking it in one gulp, the mouth, tongue, and esophagus will only feel cold and refreshing, but soon, the liquor will wake up in the stomach, almost burning this greedy organ.

The other is to freeze the wine glass. When the wine glass was taken out of the refrigerator, there was a thin layer of frost. At this time, pour in the high-proof liquor at room temperature. After swallowing it, the tip of the tongue was numb from the cold, but the esophagus was severely burned. The mucous membrane in the body woke up in an instant and began to tremble wantonly.

Chen Li curled up on the sofa, looking at the many drinkers in the bar, some familiar faces, and some never met.

Everyone was immersed in his own world, the silent ones, the talkers, the frustrated ones... For them, wine is fresh and is the first liquid to maintain their lives.

The topic they talked about most was also the fire in Tushita Heaven.

The threshold of Tushita Heaven is much higher than this small bar, so most of the drinkers here don't like Tushita Heaven. What they talked about most was the hostess of Tushita Heaven, Que He, the woman who still lived under the name of "Mrs. Shang" after divorcing Shang Liming. They cursed and ridiculed this woman with quite vicious words.

Chen Li listened expressionlessly, but he didn't feel happy.

The lower class people hate Trayastrimsa Heaven, not only because most of them can't afford such a place, but more because of the resentment of being trampled under the feet of the powerful. Trayastrimsa Heaven is a legendary country where the gods enjoy themselves. Just the name alone can earn their hatred.

The poor hate the rich, and the people hate the officials. This is a natural opposition. Even if there are more human rights scholars, they can't erase the evil of this era.

Some people seem to be deliberately avoiding this topic and are unwilling to mention this earth-shaking fire. The reason is probably that there are interests involved, so they keep silent. Chen Li thought of Fei Yidao who communicated with the writer about his own survival that day. If there is a connection between them, then this will be a big chess game, with the entire central city as the chessboard.

So, who is playing chess? Is it the international lobbyist Master Mei, or the writer who seems to be laying out group mental control.

Chen Li stood up from the sofa and walked out of the bar. The noisy indoor environment would affect his thoughts.

The platform where the bar street and the avenue intersect has always been a popular place. It seems like a natural stage that can attract more people's attention.

The rock band I saw last time is also performing today, but the boy dancing in the red skirt is missing. They are still enthusiastic, accompanied by the sound of sharp electronic music, and the boys' messy long hair is swinging wantonly.

Not far from this band, the little girl Chen Li met at noon was standing on a wooden crate. She was still wearing the missionary's black skirt and white collar, and was singing the good love of the human goddess with all her might. I don't know how long she stood in the cold wind, her cheeks were red, but no one stopped to listen to her piety.

After praising the virtues of the goddess, she held the white statue in her hand high above her head, and the thin moonlight cast on her body, coating the statue and her with a thin layer of moon clothes.

She closed her eyes, her expression was peaceful and satisfied, as if the goddess was stroking her head.

Chen Li watched silently for a while. He knew that he could no longer dissuade the girl. Sooner or later, she would sacrifice her young life for a fabricated god.

It was already past 10:30 in the evening. More bans were lifted, and the central city fell into a deeper quagmire.

Chen Li turned into the dark alley beside the bar. There were no wild mandarin ducks today, probably because the weather was getting colder. He took out an e-cigarette from his pocket. It was still stuffed with the particle liner he had taken from the anti-revolution last time. He took a puff, and the smoke poured out from his mouth and nose, blurring his vision for a short time.

In the gap between the flowing smoke, he saw a short figure flash into the dark alley.

It was a child who was no more than five years old, with a slender figure and ragged clothes. He held a piece of broken glass in his hand that he didn't know where he found it. He stretched out his thin arm and scratched it hard on the wall. One, two, three lines, the child's hand stopped, and blood beads fell from the edge of the glass.

Chen Li walked over, bent down and asked, "Who told you to do this?"

The child turned his face, his little teeth were biting his lips, leaving a white mark, his whole body was shaking, obviously because of the pain in his hand, and he looked like he was about to cry.

Chen Li took the broken glass from the child's hand and threw it into the drainage ditch beside him.

"Just tear down this wall." The child said in a childish voice.

"Why?"

"This wall killed my mother."

"The wall won't kill people."

"Without this wall, my mother wouldn't die."

Chen Li took out a ball of cotton gauze from his coat pocket and wrapped the child's bleeding hand, "What about your father?"

Hearing this, the child trembled all over and cried "Wow", his thin neck tilted back uncontrollably, and he cried with his face up to the sky.

Chen Li was helpless, he didn't know how to coax a child, especially a child who was crying so hard that it destroyed the world. At this time, accompanied by a sharp brake sound, a silver-gray high-end suspension sports car stopped at the alley. The child was attracted by the sound and kept sobbing, staring at the coating that was still shining in the night with a pair of tearful eyes.

Chen Yuechu opened the car door and stepped out. He was not wearing a formal suit today, and the lower half of his face was hidden in the high collar.

He walked into the alley, glanced at Chen Li, and then glanced at the child next to Chen Li, obviously a little confused.

"Do you want to give you a child?" Chen Li said helplessly.

"Yours?" Chen Yuechu leaned closer to look at the child's face.

Chen Li glared at him coldly.

"Little friend, where are your parents?" Chen Yuechu asked the child with a pleasant face. His wording was obviously much more rigorous than Chen Li's. After all, there is still endless debate about the name of the family, and it is still difficult to reach a conclusion.

"Dad is dead," the child pointed to the alley, "outside, on that street."

"My mom is dead, on this wall." The child pointed to the wall in front of him again.

Chen Yuechu was speechless for a moment.

The child's understanding of "death" was too straightforward. He felt strong sadness because of the loss of his parents, and cried so hard that he couldn't control his small body, but he couldn't understand the deeper, future pain, so he blurted out "death" without hesitation.

Chen Li's heart trembled. He was about to say something, but was interrupted by Chen Yuechu, "It's so late, it's not safe for a little kid like you to be outside. Where is your home? Brother will take you back, okay?"

The child blinked his tearful eyes and stared at Chen Yuechu blankly.

"Then brother will take you to a safe place, okay?"

Chen Yuechu bent down and picked up the child. The child unexpectedly didn't cry and leaned on his shoulder obediently.

Chen Yuechu drove the car to the Regional Sheltering Office, told Chen Li not to show up, and then took the child out of the car.

He had used chocolate beads to coax the child into obedience before, and now the child curled up in his arms like an obedient kitten, breathing with a sticky sound of water, hissing.

The Regional Sheltering Office had already gone off duty, and there was only one on-duty officer, who was staring at the door in a daze. Chen Yuechu turned down his collar, revealing the butterfly on his lips, as if that was his pass.

The on-duty officer immediately stood up when he saw Chen Yuechu, but did not call him out. He reached out and took the child in Chen Yuechu's arms. The child was still holding two chocolate beads wrapped in cellophane in his hands, squinting his red eyes, as if he was sleepy and confused.

"Let's arrange it. Thank you for your hard work." Chen Yuechu said with a smile.

"It's not hard, it's our duty to ensure the safety of citizens." The on-duty officer nodded and bowed.

"After finding his family, write a letter and submit it to the Military and Political Department and give it to me."

"Of course," the duty officer asked cautiously, "If unfortunately we can't find them..."

"You should know more about the applicable citizen benefits than I do." Chen Yuechu's voice was gentle, but the duty officer was so nervous that sweat broke out on his forehead.

"I understand, I will definitely do it."

Chen Yuechu pulled up his collar, patted the child's head again, and said gently, "Brother is gone, you must have a promising future, so that we can meet again soon."

The child nodded as if he understood.

Chen Yuechu roughly understood the whole story from the child's vague and upside-down language. The reason why the child found the dark alley was because his mother had taken him there and killed herself in front of him. Since then, the dark alley has occupied all his cognition. Apart from that, he doesn't remember anything, doesn't understand anything, as if he is still wrapped in amniotic fluid, with five senses blurred and the world unknown.

Chen Yuechu returned to the car and turned to ask Chen Li, "What did you want to say at that time?"

"That day, his father collapsed at the door of my store. I and... took him to the hospital for emergency treatment, but he couldn't be saved. He was brain dead." Chen Li whispered.

"Is his father's death related to you?" Chen Yuechu asked.

"Death from overwork."

Chen Yuechu started the car, and the silver-gray sports car made a tooth-grinding sound of breaking through the air, and shot forward like an arrow from a string.

Chen Yuechu moved his seat back, and the entire operating panel of the sports car also moved back, so that he was flush with Chen Li's position. He turned his head and looked at Chen Li, with a faint scrutiny of a superior in his eyes.

"What does that have to do with you?" Chen Yuechu's tone sounded a little angry, "What does his father's death, his mother's death, his loneliness, have to do with you?"

Chen Li shook his head, his voice a little muffled, "It doesn't matter."

"If I'm not here today, how will you solve it?"

"Maybe I'll take him home."

"Then what? How do you raise him? What are you responsible for a child's life? Do you know who you are?"

Chen Li didn't say anything, but turned his head to the window. A little fire suddenly fell into his eyes, and his pupils shrank slightly. It was fire again. The scene outside the window was like a flowing scroll, not real.

"What do you want to talk to me about today?" Chen Li's eyes were still outside the window, and he changed the subject.

Chen Yuechu didn't continue the previous aggressiveness, "I'll take you to a place."