Dow and Carbon-Based Monkey Breeding Guidelines

The boy passing by seemed to be three or four years older than Xiao Chu. His shirt had no logo or school name tag, but Xiao Chu thought it should be a uniform worn by high school students. He has a fair complexion and neatly trimmed hair. He is a typical city dweller. However, the smile on his face is not annoying to Xiaochu, but is kind and gentle.

"Excuse me," the boy asked in a voice that matched his appearance, "Is this the direction to go to the old shipyard?"

Xiaochu nodded immediately, not because he understood the question, but because he didn't want to disappoint the other party. But then he realized he was lying. He wondered in a panic why he was doing this, why he couldn't let his body obey his head. Fortunately, the young man opposite did not leave immediately, but continued to stand there, as if he could see through the chaotic struggle in Xiao Chu's head.

"Don't you know?" He still had a reassuring tenderness on his face, "You came here from the city to see your friends, right?"

This time Xiaochu nodded affirmatively. How did you guess it? He wanted to open his mouth and ask the other person, but he was inexplicably timid, as if he couldn't hide anything from the other person. Maybe it's because he's wearing a school uniform. But how would the other party know that he was here to see a friend?

"Because you look very happy and you don't look like you are waiting for your parents."

No one had ever spoken to Xiao Chu like this, let alone a stranger passing by. But the young man who was chatting with him didn't have any ill intentions at all, and he was so easy to communicate with. Xiaochu couldn't help but murmured a whisper.

"What?" the boy said, "Sorry, I didn't hear clearly."

"What are you doing in the old shipyard?"

"Well, do you know what the old shipyard is like?"

"Is it...a place where ships are built?"

"It was many years ago, but it's abandoned now. A very capable man lives there now."

"Very capable?"

"Yes. In other words, if you encounter a problem that you really can't solve, you can try to find that person in the old shipyard."

"Is it the police?" Xiaochu asked in a low voice.

"No, I should say an engineer."

At that time, Xiaochu didn't quite understand what an engineer did, but he vaguely knew that it was a more difficult job than a worker. Then, he thought quietly in his mind, he must be someone more capable than an auto mechanic or a welder. But why does he want to help others?

"He likes to help others," the boy said, "because it is also helpful for his own projects."

"...His project?"

"It's probably a project that satisfies everyone. Those who want to be rich will be rich, those who want to be smart will become smart, and those who want to become supermen can do it - but if everyone becomes superman, I'm afraid there won't be any The concept exists.”

The young man smiled quietly. The setting sun swayed in the clouds behind him like waves. Xiaochu watched this scene with fascination, feeling that he should be dreaming. The strange boy looked nothing like someone he could meet in school, but rather a distant tourist he met by chance in a dream. Although he couldn't remember the specific appearance, it reminded people of all kinds of pleasant things. As soon as he heard the boy's voice, Xiao Chu felt that the heavy pressure on his chest was lifted. The future is no longer scary, any wish can be realized, any idea can be successful, and any place can be reached. What an amazing person.

"Then, just remember that place." The boy said, "See you again when you have the chance."

He walked away. Although he was walking slowly along the straight road, Xiaochu felt that he had disappeared from this world in the blink of an eye. The sun set into the shortest chimney, and Xiao Chu sat there in despair, with the voices of his parents arguing in his head and the face of the boy who was once scared away by the auto mechanic. After what seemed like a long time, Cai Ji walked out of the store, holding a washed wet towel in his hand. When he saw Xiao Chu's face, he stopped wiping his neck with a towel.

"What's wrong?" he asked, eyes scanning the deserted gravel road.

Xiao Chu told him everything about the passing boy, but Cai Ji didn't believe it. It's not that I don't believe that a person just passed by, but I don't believe in the feeling that Xiaochu described. A young man who wears a school uniform and goes to an old shipyard will say those things to strange children for no reason, and it doesn't sound like he has good intentions. He warned that there are many bad people, scammers, pyramid sellers or human traffickers in Xiaochu area, so don't talk too much to strangers. The tone of his speech was like those adults who have been tested by society for a long time. Xiaochu has always been deeply yearned for, but today he finally no longer thinks so. He felt that Cai Ji's way of speaking was a bit like his parents.

"That person is very good," he said dully, "not a bad person."

"You don't know him." Cai Ji said, "Who knows what path he is from."

Xiaochu didn't speak any more. He thought he couldn't explain what he felt. The truth behind being close to someone or hating someone cannot be fully explained in words, but the young man passing by on the road understands him without any malice or contempt. Only Xiaochu himself understands this. He was still thinking about this when he returned home to do his homework. The pencil in his hand drew overlapping suns, roads and sailboats on the draft paper. After he fell asleep, he saw the bloody setting sun swinging above the clouds again, and under the setting sun was the golden farmland. In front of this beautiful background is a snow-white medicine bottle that is constantly tumbling, like a particularly old TV commercial. The bottle has "Special Effect Rat Poison" written in golden fonts. That golden font often appears in art films. A relative of Cai Ji died from eating rat poison. Dead as a rat.

After that, Xiaochu still went to the auto repair shop, but he never saw the boy carrying the guitar again. The people at the auto repair shop didn't seem to know much about the old shipyard. The oldest among them has been working here for eight years and never knew there was a shipyard nearby. However, eight years is not enough time to understand a medium- to large-scale industrial city. Then, the auto repair shop went out of business.

In the days before it closed down, Cai Ji went to Xiaochu's school gate to wait for him and told him not to go to the store again this week. There was something wrong with a car they took over - it was the car that Cai Ji took over to fix the fender on the day the boy passed by the store - the owner believed that they had tampered with the car and replaced it privately. The spare parts caused the secondary failure two weeks after the repair was completed. The boss and the guest had a quarrel, and then I don't know who made the move first. Both parties were taken to the police station, and that's when things got their first bad sign: the other party left before them.

The restless chaos day and night began. The next morning the door of the store was filled with paint that gave off a strong odor, and the next day it was covered with feces and urine; some unknown people poked their heads around the store, seemingly taking photos of customers' license plate numbers; everyone working in the store was covered with paint. Set your cell phone to silent or do not disturb, otherwise you will receive endless harassing calls. Cai Ji once took out his mobile phone and showed it to Xiao Chu. None of the unfamiliar numbers on it were the same. Xiaochu asked him what the caller would say, and Cai Ji gave him a few recent examples: three lenders, one promoting real estate, and another asking about the price of a night package.

The owner of the auto repair shop decided to go back to his hometown to rest for a while. The decisive factor for this idea may be that someone came to check the fire protection in the shop, or someone followed his son after school. Suddenly, business is over for the quarter and no one knows when it will start again. Cai Ji came to him with the wages paid during the off-season. It was a night after school. He stood far behind the banyan tree at the corner of the street to prevent other students from seeing him talking to Xiao Chu. In fact, someone saw it. A classmate walked by, staring at the necklace around Cai Ji's neck, and then at Xiao Chu, with a stiff and weird smile on his face. Xiao Chu stared back at him blankly, the dream rolling through his mind again: the sunset, the sea of ​​clouds, farmland and the tumbling rat poison bottle.

Cai Ji told him that he was looking for a job. He didn't know anything about things other than repairing cars, and he was too young - to outsiders he always said he was in his early twenties, but in fact he was not even seventeen. He had no ID card and no reliable acquaintances. He looked at Xiaochu hesitantly, as if he wanted to say something, but finally gave up. Only after returning home did Xiaochu realize that maybe Cai Ji wanted his parents to help him find a job.

He wanted to help, but the beauty salon wouldn't want a seventeen-year-old auto mechanic apprentice. His father just smiled and said that the kid was really pitiful and must have offended some dirty people. When Xiao Chu asked him what an "unclean person" was, his parents didn't answer him and just told him not to hang out with Cai Ji anymore. This is another thing that Xiaochu doesn't understand. He could only imagine what "dirty people" looked like. Maybe they were patients with a virulent infectious disease, and his parents felt that Cai Ji had been infected. But he knew that was not the case. The employees in the auto repair shop were all healthy and there was nothing wrong with anyone. His classmates often looked sick.

The day after tomorrow, he couldn't help but go to the auto repair shop. The shop has been closed, and the rental phone number posted on the iron door has also been painted over with red paint, with the words "Death to you bitch" written on it. He stared at these four words blankly, as if he was reading a completely unfamiliar foreign language. There were also snow-white round papers scattered in the mud, something Xiao Chu had only seen in TV dramas. He walked around the pieces of paper and approached the gate timidly, as if the four red letters on the door would jump out and bite him like a mad dog. When he finally got closer, he saw that the keyhole of the gate was filled with solidified universal glue. He thought this was all done by unclean people - but what kind of people are unclean people? He had seen auto mechanics stained with oil and farmers covered in mud, but the person who did this must be much dirtier than either. The man must have looked terrible, with a sickly rat-like face.

He silently thought about that strange face, and suddenly his nose was filled with sourness and tears welled up in his eyes. But he not only felt very sad, but more importantly, he felt inexplicable fear. The adults lied to him. What the school told him was false. All the so-called rules and promises are also false. The door before him was a foreshadowing of his own future. What will happen to Cai Ji in the future? What will happen to himself? If one day he meets an unclean person, it will become such a shabby iron door that no one cares about. If Cai Ji ends up in the factory, in those houses surrounded by iron railings and heavy gates, there will be no time to talk to him. He became a weirdo again with nowhere to talk and no one to listen to. As for Cai Ji, Xiao Chu felt that he would die in the end - if you can no longer contact a person or meet this person, then this person is equivalent to death. He tried hard to hold back his tears, and his head was filled with his father's impatient roar - Why cry! Don't act like a worthless chicken! But the more I thought about it, the sadder it became. The setting sun stretched the shadows of him and the trees longer and longer, and the colors became lighter and lighter. Just when he thought he would disappear into the night, another shadow quietly fell to the bottom of the gate.

"What happened to this store?"

Xiaochu turned around. The boy who once asked him for directions was standing on the gravel roadside, not knowing when he arrived. He hurriedly tried to wipe the tears from his eyes, but they all fell down at once. Instead of laughing at him or shouting at him like an adult, the boy put down his gig bag and took out a pack of tissues from the side pocket. When Xiao Chu lowered his head to wipe his face, he had already walked to the door and quietly looked at the line of words written in red paint.

"The store is closed. Do you know what happened?"

Xiaochu shook his head. He really shouldn't say this to strangers, but when the boy's eyes fell on his face, he unconsciously said what he knew. He was so choked up when he spoke that his words were completely inconsistent with what he said, but the young man was a very good listener and never interrupted him once.

"So, there was a dispute with a troublesome customer, right? Even my friend lost his job because of it?"

"Yes……"

"Is it sad?"

Xiaochu suddenly felt ashamed. The young man was obviously not much older than him, but he spoke so calmly and calmly, as if nothing could bother him. He wanted to explain why he was so sad, but when he opened his mouth, he couldn't. In fact, he was not familiar with the owner of the auto repair shop. Although Cai Ji was a good friend, he was only a companion when he was lonely. Besides, this was just a job loss, not a serious injury. He thought about it carefully and finally realized that he was not sad for Cai Ji. In the end, he could only mutter: "I feel these people are very bad."

"You did indeed do a despicable thing." The young man agreed in a quiet voice.

"…and, without punishment."

"Yes. But why do you think that if you do bad things, you must be punished?"

Xiaochu couldn't answer this question. He wanted to say that this was what the teacher at school said - but then he denied it. In fact, the teacher never taught him this way. The teacher just said that you have to work harder and harder so that you can catch up with those who have a higher starting point. My parents also said that I have to work harder and harder to surpass the sons of wealthy businessmen and officials. But regarding fairness and why people should be punished for doing bad things, he didn't even know where he learned it. But isn't this a matter of course? If you put in the same effort but get very different rewards, shouldn't you feel aggrieved? If you can bully others with impunity, then... so what?

The boy's head was slightly tilted towards the direction of the setting sun, as if he was thinking deeply and said: "I think the person who did this bad thing must be very well-connected, so even if it happened like this, he was not arrested. However, in your world Only a few people will have power, so no matter how many bad things they do, it won't have much impact. Until the numbers on both sides are imbalanced, the ethnic group will not die out because of this."

"……you?"

"Well, your world. Because I no longer belong to your category."

Xiaochu didn't quite understand his answer. The young man's dress is no different from that of students in the city. But he still didn't feel scared or doubt the origin of the other party. Even though he said weird words, the other person was the most gentle and kind person he had ever met. He also thought about what the boy said. Since there are so few people capable of doing bad things, it’s okay to do bad things – isn’t that even more disappointing? This kind of life will continue forever, until the rats become infested and the farmland becomes barren. He thought about this scene intently, as if he had also had nightmares about such scenes: the blood floating in the sea of ​​clouds, the barren farmland, and the swarms of rats screaming and running in despair. He was so focused on his thoughts that he even forgot about his sadness. One day, he whispered timidly, the numbers will get out of balance...

But that will be a long, long time later. The boy pointed at the gate with red letters on it and said. Before this, this kind of thing would happen repeatedly in every ethnic group. But Xiaochu doesn't need to worry too much, because for individuals, life is very short, and the suffering they can endure is also limited. No matter what the differences are while alive, they will all be equal after death and will gain eternal peace.

Xiaochu had never heard his peers talking about death like this. He felt a little scared, but at the same time he also felt strongly that it was unfair. No matter what kind of equality you get after death, what happened during your lifetime cannot be changed! Xiaochu thought of those old movies that auto mechanics watched when they were bored, stories about knights who punished evil and promoted good. He finally realized that those ideas about fairness may not have been told to him by his parents, but what he saw from stories. But those stories are very comfortable to read. And if a bad guy dies, what's there to be happy about?

As if he had been waiting for him to ask this question, the young man smiled. "Because it will accidentally hurt people who have made no mistakes." He said, "It's like a meteorite falling from the sky. If it is possible to hurt good people in order to make bad people suffer retribution, would you still want to do this?"

Xiaochu hesitated. The first thing he thought of was Cai Ji. However, Cai Ji himself would be willing to pay a lot if it could make the person who caused the auto repair shop to close down unlucky.

"Then," the young man continued, "if you want good people to be rewarded, you must also give bad people the same benefits, just like putting them in the same paradise. Are you willing to reward good people in this way?"

This time Xiaochu shook his head without any hesitation. This is a natural reaction and there is no need to hide it at all. The young man looked at him carefully and finally said: "You can neither go to this end nor that end. So you are trapped here."

The boy said, slowly taking a step back. Xiaochu understood that he was leaving, and—I was afraid they would never see each other again. Strong reluctance surged in his heart, but the young man took out a notepad from the side pocket of his piano bag, tore out a page and handed it to Xiaochu.

"If one day you decide to make a choice, go to this address. Whether you want to punish bad people or protect good people, you can tell the engineer your thoughts. He will definitely thank you."

Xiaochu took the note. The handwriting on the paper is very elegant, like someone who has studied calligraphy. He read the words above with surprise and confusion. The streetlights came on above him.

He raised his head and saw that the boy was gone. Xiaochu folded the note and put it into the deepest pocket of his schoolbag, then slowly walked back. When he reached the dim area between the street lights, two people squatting nearby smoking suddenly appeared and stopped him one after another. They were all tall adult men, with their faces illuminated. Xiaochu could only see a python-like pattern tattooed on the back of one of their hands.

"What are you doing standing there?" one of them asked.

Xiaochu was so frightened that he froze. Another person grabbed his schoolbag and grabbed the name tag on his chest. He put his hand into the pocket of Xiaochu's school uniform and took out his bus pass. The school bag was torn open and all the textbooks and notes were taken out. The tattooed man kicked his foot and the stack of books fell in all directions.

"He's a little brat!" said the voice, and his terrible laughter echoed throughout the field. "He's as stupid as a pig. Get out of here!"

Xiaochu was speechless. He mechanically grabbed the school bag with one hand, and held the textbooks as far as he could with the other hand - just as much as possible, because several books had fallen into the dark and damp meadow. He was in a state of embarrassment and ran away with tears in his eyes. When he returned home, he was beaten with a belt by his father. At night, Xiaochu woke up from a dream of sunset, farmland and rat poison, and saw the stars twinkling outside the window. Rat poison. He thought drowsily. And meteorites. He quietly got out of bed and took out the note on the inside page of his school bag. That note turned out to be real. So what the young man said to him was also true. At this time he made up his mind to find the old shipyard.

Resurrected.

Comments and tips are welcome.