"Therefore, Baudrillard believes that "things" and "needs" are false signs, he criticizes Marx's theory of use value, and believes that the latter has also fallen into the trap of capitalist political economy, so he proposes his own sign politics economics."
After Wu Qiren finished his report, he clicked on the last slide, nodded his thanks to the teacher and a dozen classmates, and left the podium under the teacher's signal, waiting for the next student's report.
"Thales!"
The next moment, former graduate student Wu Qiren woke up from his dream.
He curled up, lying on his stomach in a cold, dilapidated hole in the wall, feeling the cold wind blowing from the gaps in all directions.
Wu Chieren sighed. After traveling for five years, he still had dreams of his previous life. Although the life before time travel was boring, it was better than the miserable situation in front of him.
"Thales, Thales!" A big hand stretched out from the hole in the wall, grabbed Wu Qiren by the ear, and roughly dragged him out of the small den.
This is a dilapidated house. Through the half-collapsed roof, one can see the bright stars in the night sky, but the arrangement and shape of the galaxy are very strange to Wu Qiren.
Wu Qiren couldn't resist that rough hand - what can a child who is only seven years old do? He was dragged on the rough brick floor, his knees were rubbed sorely, but he still gritted his teeth and said nothing, because the cruel Quaid was especially impatient with the crying of children. It is said that he once gave a child who wanted to exchange tears for food The six-year-old girl was beaten with paralyzed legs.
"I asked Rick, your balance this week is five coppers less than last week! Did you hide it?" The angry Quaid was like a red-haired lion, and his protruding nose made him even more ferocious.
Wu Qiren was thrown to the ground. From the corner of his gray eyes, he saw the surrounding wall holes. The five beggars who lived in the same room with him, ranging from four to ten years old, were all surrounded by Quaid's roar. shivering.
Among them, in the innermost hole in the wall, the youngest short-haired girl was biting her left hand tightly, her face was red, and she was looking at Wu Qiren on the ground in fear. In the hole next to her, a six-year-old boy Ned was even scared cried out.
That was Ke Liya, and Wu Qiren knew what she was afraid of.
In fact, Wu Qiren had good luck this week. He, the beggar Thales——Wu Qiren's current name—had a total of thirty-seven coppers this week, eighteen more than last week.
But he only handed over fourteen coppers to Quaid—the leader of the Black Street Brotherhood in charge of the beggar business—and the remaining coppers, together with the money he had worked so hard to save over the past two years, went to Gee The Rove Pharmacy "purchased" a set of typhoid medicine at the cost price in the hands of the kind helper Yanni.
Thales fed the medicine to the four-year-old Kelia—at her age, she had typhoid fever, and without the medicine, it was almost a dead end.
In the five years since time travel, Thales has re-experienced the memory formation period from the age of two to seven. From an ignorant toddler, he gradually retrieved bits and pieces of memories from his previous life. Among them, children's memories seem fragmented And scattered. Even so, in the two years from ignorance to sobriety, Thales was deeply impressed every time he witnessed the death of others.
From sickness, falling to death, drowning, hanging to death, to being beaten to death alive (even once, Thales saw a crying beggar being suffocated to death ten meters away with his own eyes), the franchisee The black street fraternity that sells business has never had any bottom line and principles - even gangs need time to settle rules and order, and the fraternity that originated in the black street has only been ten years since its rise to growth Early time.
What's more, even the 90-year-old Blood Bottle Gang, the fraternity's arch-rival and known as the "noble gangster", has a lot of blood debts in their hands.
Most of the time, Thales, who witnessed the death, was powerless. Even he himself, with the help of an adult's wisdom and maturity, was able to avoid more than one murder.
For example, now,
Eager to fight, the enthusiastic Quaid showed the unique cruelty and viciousness of a gangster sadist in his eyes.
"I have nothing to hide! It's winter this week, and the number of people passing through the three districts of the lower city has decreased a lot—" Thales got up from the ground, his mind spinning quickly, and he spit out the excuses he made up.
"Snapped!"
What greeted him was a merciless slap in the face, and Thales fell back to the ground.
"Hand over the money you kept in your possession, and then I'll beat you up! Or I'll beat you up first, and then you hand over the money! Choose yourself!"
Obviously, Quaid didn't want to listen to his explanation. This fraternity leader might just want to collect some money for drinks, or he might simply want to get someone to beat him up.
"But you can also be tough-mouthed—I like tough-mouthed kids the most." Quaid grinned grimly and moved his fists.
Looking at the fist as big as a sandbag in front of him, Thales knew that even if he didn't say anything, Quaid would not let him go.
And Quaid tortured to death last month, a beggar from the fifth house.
Thales covered his swollen cheeks and thought quickly.
On weekdays, Quaid doesn't care about the accounts. He hangs out at the Sunset Bar in the underground street or hangs out with a bottle at night. It is also difficult for him to tell how much a Mindis silver coin can be exchanged for a Midr copper coin, let alone his beggars. How much money did the beggars pay—it was all in charge of his deputy, the steady-looking Rick, and even as shrewd as Rick knew, the beggars paid seven or eight coppers per week. Floating is simply too normal.
Someone informs. This is the only conclusion. Thales glanced at the beggars around, and after getting money from the noblewoman, he went straight back to the abandoned house. The children in the same room must have seen it, and under the harsh environment, the children's Hearts can become more terrifying than adults imagine. Quaid kicked again, Thales secretly covered his abdomen with his elbow, relieved the force a little, and put on a face of unbearable pain, as if he was in pain from this kick - he couldn't make a sound , Quaid likes the screams of children the most. "I said!" Thales showed fear on his face, "Don't hit me!" "It depends on my mood!" Quaid looked around and saw the other five beggars cowering in fear. This made him very satisfied, and his authority was respected. "I met a noble lady on Wednesday morning, and she gave me nearly ten coppers!" Thales hid in a corner, tremblingly. "I knew it! Begging? It must have been stolen, right? No one can hide it from me, especially you little thief!" Quaid rubbed his palms viciously, preparing for the next round of beatings: "Hand over the money !" Before Quaid raised his eyebrows, Thales added another sentence: "But I went to Red Square Street!" "Red Square Street?" Quaid lowered his raised palm a little more, "You went to the territory of the Blood Bottle Gang?" "Yes, we really can't ask for more money in our place." Except for the fraternity people, skilled rangers, and some special-purpose guys, who would not pay attention to the three people near the black street? Loitering in the abandoned area? Even the city defense team, armed with swords and shields, was unwilling to approach this crime-ridden place. "The first time I got so much money, the members of the Blood Bottle Gang didn't show up. Then I thought, there might be another chance the next day." "Idiot!" Quaid kicked Thales hard. Thales saw Kelia trembling in the distance, and only heard Quaid yell at him, "I don't even think about it, is there so much money to pick up in the blood bottle gang's territory?" Thales shrank his body and said tremblingly: "Yes, the next afternoon, the members of the Blood Bottle Gang caught me, they hung me up, I said I was lost, they didn't believe me, I gave the money I handed it all over, and they still won't let me go." "Trash! Then how did you escape?" Quaid spat fiercely. "Then, when I said that I belonged to Boss Quaid, they, they just laughed." "What?" Quade clenched his fists. He grabbed Thales' tattered burlap collar and lifted him from the corner. "What are they laughing at?" Thales shook his head suspiciously: "I don't quite understand—what they said." Quaid stared at him viciously: "Say it quickly!" Thales pretended to be frightened, shivered, and tremblingly said: "There is a bald head among them, he said, since he is Quaid's child, he should save his life, because Quaid needs it so much." The child—" Before Thales could finish speaking, Quaid slammed him against the wall! He tried his best to protect his head, chest and abdomen, and used his back to withstand the impact of the wall, then immediately turned his back to Quaid, receiving the heavy blows from his rage, while feeling the force of the blows, changing the angle of his back all the time , to cushion the strength of the blow. "Son of a bitch-you-bald-headed Spencer-how did he know-killed you-killed you-trash-stupid-" Quaid yelled furiously, kicking Thales one after another, screaming with only a few words. In the hole in the wall, several children watched Thales being beaten in horror, but they all tightly covered their mouths and did not dare to make a sound. Thales heaved a sigh of relief as he endured Quaid's rain-like kicks. At least, now Quaid will no longer ask where the extra money went, and, although it looks scary, Quaid who is furious is far safer than Quaid when he was happily torturing children. What he said was half-truthful, Thales did go to Red Square Street, but he has been hiding in the corner of the dark alley, carefully observing the surroundings, and he did meet a noble lady in a velvet dress , but she was followed by twenty swordsmen of the end, which was why the Blood Bottle Gang didn't interrupt him when he ran out of the alley to beg. In the hands of the velvet noblewoman, Thales did get twelve (Of course he would not be so stupid as to steal in front of twenty finisher swordsmen), but before the female nobleman's team went far, he quickly disappeared in the crowd and never returned. As for the bald-headed Spencer, Thales has never met him before. He only knows that he is the thug leader of the Blood Bottle Gang. And Quaid used to be a thug who collected black accounts in the fraternity—until Quaid provoked the wrong person and was beaten to the lower body. He only found out when he listened to the goblin fight between killer Leyock and Belicia in the room, laughing at Quaid in private. By the time Quaid finished venting his anger, cursed the bald Spencer of the Bottle Gang, took out the wine bottle from his arms, and left cursingly, Thales' back clothes were torn apart, and his back was bruised and purple. Because Thales deliberately turned sideways to avoid a frontal blow, blood was wiped out in some places, and the pain came in bursts. The blood flowed to the ground, and Thales only felt a burst of burning pain, probably because he hadn't been beaten for a long time, and he felt like his muscles were burning. Ever since traveling to this world, beatings, hunger, sickness and cold are commonplace, but after gradually recovering the memory belonging to the graduate student Wu Qiren, with caution and previous experience, Thales has not been beaten so viciously for a long time pass. After Quaid's voice faded away, the other five children in the room crawled out of their holes, and expertly carried Quaid, who was powerless, to the yard. Ten-year-old "big man" Xinti grabbed a piece of Fragments of the broken bowl of the arc, scooping water before the water tank. Lame Ryan and Black-faced Kerritt, both eight years old, labored to gather dead sticks and weeds. Try to light a fire with a flint and steel. The six-year-old blonde-haired Ned and the youngest Kelia picked off a few strangely shaped wild leaves, chewed them in their mouths, and gently rubbed them on Thales's bruised back. Thales endured the pain and wanted to find something to divert his attention. He looked at Kolya who was about to cry, and turned to the dejected blond-haired Ned, trying his best to keep his tone calm. "It's okay, Ned, I don't blame you." Ned raised his head suddenly, his face was full of horror, and the other four children also turned their gazes to him. "How do you know?" The six-year-old child couldn't hide what was on his mind, guilt and panic were written all over his face. Just now, when Thales was beaten by Quaid, the three older children were all terrified, but they all stared at this side. Only Kelia and Ned, one hid their faces in their hands and did not dare to look up, the other One looked into the wall, turning his head now and then to cast a horrified glance. Kelia's typhoid medicine was the final destination of those coppers. Of course, she would not tell the truth, but Thales was still not sure that it was Ned, and now there is no doubt about it. He tried his best to force a smile, "It's okay, Quaid won't care about this anymore." "I, I," Ned blushed unreasonably, he looked at Thales' back, tears falling drop by drop, "I didn't get any money this week, and I didn't dare to steal it," he sobbed, "Rick didn't say anything, but Quaid was very upset. He said that if he continued like this, he would sell me to the desert to be eaten by the skeleton people. I was so scared, so I told him, Thales, Tay Ernes, you got back a lot of coppers one day... I thought they wouldn't chase me like this... Quaid drove me back, saying he would come over at night..." Kelia's face also turned red, her hands wiping the herbs trembled violently, and a few drops of blood dripped down from Thales' back to the ground. Thales moaned silently, and the burning pain subsided, and was stimulated by Kelia's movements again. Ryan stared at Ned angrily, causing the latter to lower his head. Kellett looked at Ned and Thales in surprise. Only Cindy continued to bring the water without saying a word. "It's okay, Ned, Kelia," Thales felt that the injury on his back seemed to heal a lot, and he gently held Ned's hand, "Next time, if any of you can't get any money, tell me Me, I'll figure it out." Ned cried even harder, and the words in his crying voice were a little vague: "Tha-Tayles, right-is-is-sorry-" "It's all right now, Ned. Don't be afraid, I can always find a solution." Thales smiled and took the broken bowl in Cindy's hand, and took a sip of water. He turned his head and took a light breath. Compared with the countless seniors who traveled through countless worlds, his luck was undoubtedly much worse. But even so.
He looked at the five children around him, especially Kelia, who had just recovered from typhoid fever. Her crystal eyes still had horror.
He must find a way to get more money tomorrow, he thought.
In the Sunset Temple of Eternal Star City, after the sunset prayer ended, an intern priest who was cleaning up the altar stopped what she was doing. She looked in surprise at a sacrificial lamp filled with eternal oil under the stone altar. lamp.
Since she started taking care of the altar, she had never lit it, never used it, so it was never lit. In the humble sacrificial lamp, a bright yellow flame suddenly ignited.
The flame suddenly turned red again, reddened, like the color of blood, and became more and more vigorous.
An older priest noticed the intern's gaffe, she scolded dissatisfiedly, and the intern turned his attention back to the altar. But it wasn't until the priest herself saw the unusual sacrificial lamp that the older woman screamed.
"Nia, hurry up, tell the officiant!"
The elder priest couldn't hide her surprise. Trembling, she threw herself in front of the sacrificial lamp, raised her right palm, turned her left palm up, and prepared for the prayer pose.
What's going on here? It was the first time for the intern Nia to see the respected priest lose his composure so much that she herself was affected.
Did I make a mistake? But I didn't touch that lamp.
"But, but, what should I tell the priest? Someone secretly lit a lamp next to the altar?" Nia asked in a panic.
"No."
The elder priest stared at the lamp, and the prayers in his hands kept changing.
"This lamp, even if it exhausts the two continents and countless islands in Errol's world, only one person can light it."
"That person will determine the future of the kingdom."