Chapter 3293: Untitled
Bai Xiaolu was prepared to be mocked, berated, and even drunk by Boss Gold Tooth.
But after a mont of silence, Boss Gold Tooth answered his question.
“Was.”
The dominator of the Wasteland replied, “There was.”
“Then…”
Although Bai Xiaolu did not know how to talk, she knew that she should not ask further.
“She was the most beautiful girl in all the farms. A hundred tis more beautiful than Old John’s wife. She could sing a lot of songs. When she sang, her hair was shining like the most brilliant sun.
The gold-toothed leader said, “She is also an expert at doing chores. She can do anything in the farm. She has always wanted to have her own winery. It doesn’t need to be big or famous. Even a winery will do, as long as it is her own.
“We’ve saved a lot of money. The winery is safe now. As long as I finish the task of ‘capturing Yuri’, I will be able to leave the army and start a new life. Last night, she told
that she was pregnant. Everything will be different when I co back.
“However, hehe, you already know what happened next. I beca—like this.”
The gold-tooth leader opened his index and middle fingers and pointed at his two crimson eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Bai Xiaolu lowered her head.
“There’s no need. Even if I had not been captured by Yuri, the outco would’ve been the sa. A nuclear war would’ve broken out. Our winery would’ve been razed to the ground, if not worse.
“At least for now,” Boss Gold Tooth said in a low voice.
“What about them?”
Bai Xiaolu blurted out and imdiately regretted it.
“I don’t know.”
Boss Gold Tooth shook his head slowly. “I was locked up in Camp X of Yuri for ten years and struggled in the wasteland for another ten years. When I returned to this place, the farm and the wilderness had already turned into rolling sand. All the familiar things were gone. My wife and… my children. Who knows?”
“Don’t worry.”
Bai Xiaolu did not know how to comfort him. She replied clumsily, “Heaven helps the weak. They must be alive. You will find them.”
“Alive, hehe, alive.”
The gold-tooth leader said, “That’s why I said you were stupid. Kid, you are ‘living’ in the desert, too. Do you really think such a life is better than death?
“I don’t want them to be alive. I want them to be long dead. The mont the nuclear war breaks out, they will be lted in the high temperature of thousands of degrees in their sleep. It is the happiest outco.
“Maybe, they escaped to the underground in ti and lived a carefree life there.
Bai Xiaolu’s mouth was dry. “You are an elite Navy Seal, a martyr who sacrificed himself for the dangerous missions of your motherland. Your family should be given preferential treatnt, shouldn’t they?”
Hearing that, Boss Gold Tooth almost choked on his wine.
“Hahahaha, sacrifice, hahahaha, martyr, hahahaha, preferential treatnt!”
He threw away the bottle and stared at Bai Xiaolu. The redness in his eyes turned into extrely dangerous flas. “Kid, didn’t you hear what I said just now? For several years, I was brainwashed by Yuri and beca his minion and killing machine, helping him carry out the dirtiest and bloodiest missions! Therefore, in the eyes of the ‘uppers’, not only am I not a self-sacrificing martyr, I am also a despicable ‘traitor’ and the most dangerous ‘betrayer’. How could I give any preferential treatnt to my family?
“Besides, hehe, hehehehe, even if they are the family of the victims, they will not be able to enter the underground tropolis and beco an underground demon without special circumstances.
“Why?”
Bai Xiaolu found it odd. “That’s not fair!”
“Fair?”
The leader of the Gold Tooth Legion sneered, “As the scale of the war grows larger and larger, the casualties of the countries involved in the war will be calculated in the tens of millions. How many family mbers do they have? The space of the underground tropolis is limited. The resources are limited. What will happen to the families of the victims?”
Bai Xiaolu asked, “Who—who are they?”
The leader of the Gold Teeth Gang bellowed, “The people on Wall Street, the 1% of them, the people who are waving flags, the sanctimonious people in suits, the people who are sitting comfortably in their offices, the people who are operating their computers, the people who are talking about ‘motherland’ and ‘sacrifice’!”
Bai Xiaolu didn’t know what to say. He was truly not a talkative person.
“Forget it. Let’s not talk about .”
Boss Gold Tooth waved his hands in frustration. “What about you, kid? Other than your brother who shares a body with you, what other family do you have? Where are your parents?”
“I also have a twin sister. She is normal. I an, she is separated from us, but right now, her legs are not very good. As for her parents—”
Bai Xiaolu was not supposed to talk about it, but he hesitated for a mont and said, “Our mother died a long ti ago, just like many other won in the desert. As for our father, we—we don’t have a father.”
“You don’t know who your father is?”
The gold-tooth leader smiled. “It’s alright. It’s perfectly normal. Most of the children in the desert do not know who their father is.
“No.”
Bai Xiaolu shook her head. “We either don’t know who our father is or we don’t have a father. At least, that’s what our mother said when she was alive.
“What do you an?”
“What do you an by ‘no father’?”
“A very strange teorite fell from the sky near the village where we lived a long ti ago. The plants near the teorite were very lush, and many strange animals that we had never seen before often appeared.
Bai Xiaolu said, “One ti, my mother went to the depths of the ‘teorite forest’ by accident. She seed to have taken a nap below the teorite. When she ca back… we were born.”
“Ha!”
Boss Gold Tooth couldn’t help but laugh.
“We thought it was absurd, too. We didn’t know why our mother made up such a lie.
Bai Xiaolu blushed and said, “Such things are very common in the Wasteland. People are born like animals, die like animals, and reproduce like animals. Nine out of ten children don’t even know who their father is. Does it matter? At the very least, there is bound to be a father. I really don’t understand why a mother would lie like that. It’s nothing to be ashad of.
“My sister and I have asked my mother repeatedly—it doesn’t matter who it is. We can accept whoever it is. Even if she doesn’t rember, at least tell us that there is a father. We will be satisfied.
“But my mother insisted that there was no such person. She got pregnant because she touched a teorite. She said that the three of us were all ‘Children of the teorite’. It’s true. Sigh. Since then, she has been a bit crazy. She died soon after.
“Did you know, Boss, that there was a ti when I hated my mother and her crazy words? Why did she have to deceive us with such an absurd joke? Why did she have to say that we ‘had no father’?
“If we have a father, even if we don’t know who he is, we can imagine him to our heart’s content. He might be an invincible hero, he might be a villain who commits cris, he might be an evil and terrifying devil king, he might be a wandering traveler, or he might be a handso and confident Underground Clan mber. That’s all good. Right? That’s all good.
“But ‘Children of the teorite’? A broken stone that fell from the sky? That’s not funny at all!
“It is not funny.”
“But don’t hate your mother,” the leader said. “Maybe she has her reasons.
“Of course, we don’t hate her anymore. We just feel sorry for her.
Bai Xiaolu sighed. “After all, we have nothing in the desert. It doesn’t matter even if we don’t have a ‘father’.”
The two of them fell silent again, not knowing what to say.
Maybe it was a coincidence, but they both turned to the center of the carpet where Old John and his son had played ‘Strong Chess’.
His gaze was very sticky, unable to break away for a long ti.
“Kid, if you find your father one day…”
The gold-tooth leader asked, “What do you want to talk to him about?”
“I don’t know. What about you?”
Bai Xiaolu shook her head. “If you find your child, what will you say to him and what will you do?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never thought of such a thing. They should be long dead.
Boss Gold Tooth finally retreated his eyes and took a long breath. He waved his hands helplessly and said, “You should rest. I should rest, too.”
“…Alright.”
Bai Xiaolu moved inch by inch to the door. She held the door fra for a long ti, before she suddenly turned around and asked in a trembling voice, “Bo—Boss, is ‘Strong Hand’ fun?”
“…Maybe.”
Boss Gold Tooth sat up and looked at Bai Xiaolu. “It might be fun.”
“Then, then can you teach
how to play?”
Bai Xiaolu felt that she was about to cry.
He thought that Boss Gold Tooth would refuse, or at least hesitate.
He didn’t expect that Boss Gold Tooth’s lines would suddenly beco soft.
“Co here, brat.”
Boss Gold Tooth waved his hand and smiled. He tapped the carpet next to him and said, “Sit down. I’ll teach you how to play.”
…
They had played ‘Strong Chess’ for a long ti.
They said that they would only play one ga, but they ended up playing one ga after another. Maybe ‘Strong Chess’ was really fun.
“This is an ‘Opportunity Card’. This is a ‘Public Fund Card’. When you reach this question mark, you must draw a card. Do you understand?”
“Ha. I have a water factory and a railway company. You are dead for sure, kid!”
“How about this? If we buy all three plots of the sa color, the rent can be doubled, right, Boss? Then you will have to pay , right, Boss?”
“Hey hey hey, get out of jail!”
“What are you talking about? Pay inco tax? Is there such a thing?”
“I won. I won this ti, right, Boss? Hahahaha. Boss?”
They played one ga after another. The two chess pieces wandered on the ‘streets’ that had been demolished long ago. They lost possession ti and ti again. Bai Xiaolu was so engrossed in the ga that she forgot that she was in a purgatory in the depths of the desert.
“Again! Again!”
The boy’s face was flushed. He waved the toy bills and the title deed and shouted excitedly, “I’m going to beat you this ti!”
But this ti, Boss Gold Tooth opened his hands, grabbed the chess piece and the die, and shook his head at the boy.
“Enough, brat. It’s over.”
Boss Gold Tooth smiled, his voice coarse.
Bai Xiaolu was dazed. The smile and redness on her face gradually froze and disappeared.
“Can’t we play another ga? Just one!”
The boy begged. He wanted to cry again.
“One more ga will have to end eventually.”
Boss Gold Tooth opened his hands and let the chess pieces and the die roll and collide. He mumbled, “Everything is coming to an end. Listen. The music is over.”
The song ‘Yesterday Again’ had stopped at so point. The only sound in the small living room was the sobbing of the boy.
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