"I really want to travel around the world with you, get to know those knowledgeable people, and change those places that are oppressed. But I know that I still lack a lot. I will try to learn Brexi first, and then go to Lezein to see
Look." Willow has great hope that equality will show him the way.
"Sooner or later, don't be impatient." Verak comforted the passionate Willow just as Keating comforted him.
"Comrade Verak, can I ask you another question?"
Verak, who was walking on the street, said a gentle "hmm".
"I firmly believe that we will change the world, but I want to know how long it will take." Willow asked curiously.
"Why do you ask?" Verak felt that asking how long it would take suddenly was a very nonsense question, but since Willow was willing to ask this, there must be some special reason.
"I just can't wait, just like when I was a kid every time when the holidays were approaching, I was looking forward to what kind of sumptuous delicacies my parents would prepare and what special gifts they would give me..."
Willow's description made Verak feel funny. He smiled and said: "I don't know either. I just know that the festival is there and we are getting closer to it."
Seeing Verak smiling happily, with a pair of bright eyes like stars, Willow felt like he was infected again: "I'm really looking forward to that day."
"Me too." Verak's eyes flickered.
…
In the evening, Keating and Mr. Xin finished talking about things, and they all had dinner together. Mr. Xin ate slowly, as if he was delaying time, whether because he was reluctant to leave Quinn's Tavern or because he was thinking about Willow.
After dinner, Boss Xin and Keating made an appointment to meet two days later to negotiate with the leaders of other gangs. Afterwards, Willow drove Boss Xin back to the slaughterhouse.
On the way, Boss Xin noticed the smile on Willow's face and joked: "When you came to find me in the afternoon, you were still frowning. Why do you look so happy now?"
Willow grinned and held the steering wheel firmly with both hands: "Boss Xin, I have figured out something."
"What's going on?" Boss Xin held a cigar in his mouth and looked at Willow with squinted eyes.
"Some things don't face choices. It's not that if you have one, you will lose the other." Willow lamented the biggest gain today, "I have been struggling with this before, and today I realized that I was overthinking it."
Upon hearing this, Boss Xin knew what was bothering Willow before, but he didn't point it out. He just raised his eyebrows and hummed: "I don't understand what you kid is talking nonsense about."
Willow smiled and didn't explain much.
"Huh..." After exhaling a puff of smoke, Boss Xin became more serious, "Willow, remember, I, the Blood Knife Gang are not a drag on you. Each of us has benefited from your father's help, and we will never look back.
If you want to give back to your father, he will push you to the path you want to take without hesitation. So, don’t think so much. If you want to see the wider world, just go and see it. If you want to do what you want, just do it.
."
"...Thank you." Thinking of the care and respect that Boss Xin has given to him since childhood, Willow's eyes became moist.
"Keating is a good person, and the Verak he trained is also a reliable person, but what the Equality Society does is very dangerous... I actually want to tell you to be careful, but I also want to tell you that I have high hopes for you.
."Xin Lao Avenue.
Hearing this, Willow's tears began to well up.
He knows what Boss Xin means.
He would rather let go and let himself become his dazzling self than see himself surviving.
——
In the tavern.
"...That's it." Verak shared with Keating the conversation he and Willow had outside in the afternoon.
Keating learned that Willow had a headache because of this incident and was doing things that made him feel painful. He praised Verak: "You are great, you helped Willow see the essence of the matter clearly."
Verak liked Keating's compliments very much, but he couldn't bear Keating's compliments the most. He quickly waved his hands: "No, no, actually this is very obvious, but Willow was in it and didn't see it clearly."
"Tomorrow Xin will leave to contact the leaders of other gangs. I will join hands with him to negotiate on the 15th. There shouldn't be any big problems." Keating saw Verak's humility in his eyes.
"I will go to Manchester City to meet with Monroe and the others on the 16th, and the first step of the matter has been decided." With Keating taking action, Verak was not worried about what would go wrong here.
"Well, in the past few days, you have helped Sarah with the printing and weapon preparations. Once the settlers and locals have negotiated, our second step plan will begin immediately."
"clear."
"Okay, it's getting late, let's go back and rest." Keating rushed Verak back to the room to rest.
After returning to the room to wash up and lie down, Verak put his hands behind his head and looked at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep.
He didn't pay much attention to Dunman's matter, because they had always been relatively smooth, and everything fell into place. After all, the correct answer was there, and no one had any reason to refuse. It easily formed a torrent and started a prairie fire. The only real difficulty was
In the final head-to-head battle with the government, he was also ready to be at the forefront.
More than these, he was looking forward to Pruman's trip.
When I mentioned it to Willow today, he didn't seem to have any fluctuations. In fact, he was more looking forward to meeting people with more advanced ideas than Willow.
He wanted to seek a more in-depth answer and wanted to write Chapter 10 of "Equality" as soon as possible, "How do we change".
Give Chris an explanation.
Make the hazy world in your mind more realistic and detailed.
After thinking about it, Verak fell asleep and had a good dream.
The next day, February 13th, Verak got up early as usual, greeted Keating, had breakfast together, and then went to deal with business with Sara.
The Dunman branch had just been established, and it was necessary to immediately launch a huge demonstration and protest to repeal the "New Conscription Law" and fire the first shot at equality, so the pressure was very high. Verak's help effectively relieved Sara's burden.
As for Willow, he also taught the members of the Equality Society things seriously, and used all the free time he could use, studying even harder than Verak did.
Writing in Brescia and studying "On Equality".
Time passed quickly, two days passed in the blink of an eye. On February 15th, Keating took a car to meet up with Boss Xin and went to negotiate with the leaders of other gangs.
Late at night, Keating and Boss Xin returned to the tavern after talking all day.
Verak, Willow, and Sara welcomed the two of them in, sat down, and asked about the status of the negotiations.
"Alas..." Boss Xin kept smoking when he came back.
Just when a few people had a bad premonition, Keating did not accompany Mr. Xin to play anymore, and told everyone the result straightforwardly: "The negotiation went very smoothly. They agreed to cooperate with us and put aside their old grudges with the immigrants. It's just that they
It’s not as good as Xin’s understanding of us, and he is still wary of us, which can only be eliminated through time and practical actions.”
"You are so boring." Boss Xin put out his cigar dissatisfied and asked Willow to pour him a glass of wine.
"That's good." This result was in line with Verak's prediction.
It is inevitable for others to be wary of this. Anyone who can carve out their own territory here is not a good person. Without understanding the Equality Society, they will inevitably think that it is impossible for the Equality Society to help them for no reason. There must be something.
A plot that cannot be put on the table.
"Great." Willow clenched his fists, not hiding his excitement.
Seeing that Willow was not as calm as Verak, Old Xin Daodao felt that he was a head shorter than Keating: "Things are not as simple as Keating said. In fact, there are still some very complicated things that need to be dealt with slowly. You must have a sharp mind when dealing with these people.
If there are too many, you have to be careful about being noticed by the government. Anyway, there will be a lot of headaches next.”
Keating agreed: "Sheen is right."
"Then if you are busy here, I can just go and talk to Monroe and the others by myself tomorrow." Verak suggested.
Monroe and the others have basically reached an agreement. If Keating has something to do and he doesn't go, he can handle it alone.
But before Keating could speak, Boss Xin, who was drinking, rolled his eyes: "Then ask Willow to go with you. He is the heir of our Blood Knife Gang. If he comes forward, he can also represent our local people."
of sincerity.”
"That's fine." Verak had no objection.
"Then you go to Manchester City tomorrow." Keating glanced at Boss Xin and agreed with a smile.
——
February 16
Verak drove and took Willow to meet the three leaders of the settler gang, Monroe, Lao Jin, and Ruffalo, at the same time and place.
"Isn't Mr. Keating here today?" Monroe, Lao Jin, and Ruffalo still stood at the table and waited respectfully as if they had met Keating for the first time. The only difference was that this time they cleared it in advance.
People in the tavern.
"Mr. Keating has basically reached an agreement with many local gang leaders, and is now busy perfecting some details." Verak took Willow to sit at the wine table, "So this time I brought another
Someone more important has arrived."
"This is..." Monroe looked up and down at the young Monroe.
Verak introduced him as a middleman: "This is Willow, a member of our Equality Society and the heir to the local Blood Knife Gang. This is Monroe, the boss of the Sea Rat Gang from Brexi, and this is from Monlego."
Lao Jin, the boss of the Flash Gold Gang, this is Ruffalo, the boss of the Street Gang."
"The Blood Knife Gang...a member of Boss Xin?" Monroe narrowed his eyes.
Lao Jin's reaction was the most intense. He immediately stared at Willow fiercely and had the potential to fight on the spot.
"Yes, Boss Xin is my uncle." Willow nodded and looked at Lao Jin.
"Your uncle participated in the Dunmen war that year." The Blood Knife Gang is famous, and Lao Xin is also well-known. As a Mongolian who is at odds with the Dunmen, as soon as Lao Jin learned about Willow's origins, the atmosphere became tense.
Got nervous.
Verak was about to speak to ease the atmosphere, but Willow said to Lao Jin first: "That's all in the past, we decided to let it go."
"Put it down..." Lao Jin was startled. He didn't expect that the other party would behave so peacefully.
According to past habits, a fight would break out if the two of them said something wrong.
"I know what happened back then, and my father also participated in that war." Willow said, "It has been so long, I don't know if it makes sense to explore right and wrong now, but I know that there is more to do than if we continue to be at odds with each other.
There are more important things. If you need an apology, then I'm sorry. As a matter of sincerity, on behalf of our Blood Knife Gang, I can let go of the hatred I once had and no longer be hostile to everyone."
A young boy is more calm and aware of the overall situation than him, so Lao Jin can’t hold on to him any longer. What’s more, his agreement to cooperate is tantamount to agreeing to let go of hatred with the locals: “… Let’s just get over it, I hope.
You are not just talking about it."
"Don't worry." Willow exuded frank kindness and defused the tense situation.
Verak, who originally wanted to save the situation, saw that Willow made an appropriate response and solved the problems of Lao Jin and Meng Lego by himself, and he was much relieved: "What do you think? The final cooperation is still there
What’s the problem?”
"I have no problem." Monroe was the first to express his stance.
"No problem." Lao Jin followed.
"Me too." Ruffalo finally agreed.
"That's good. Since everyone is willing to cooperate, we will arrange the implementation of the plan as soon as possible." Verak smiled confidently.
He is bound to win today's negotiation.
The local gangs have basically been settled, and the immigrants will certainly not refuse.
The final result was not surprising. The three parties agreed to cooperate. Lao Jin and Ruffalo also had some exchanges with Verak about books such as "Equality".
Faced with Monroe's invitation this time, Verak did not refuse. During lunch, he included Willow, which answered many of their questions, making the foundation of cooperation more solid, and allowing them to follow up.
When asked by subordinates, you can answer the questions in an orderly manner, instead of not knowing what the book means. Everyone stares at you, and you only understand a little bit after working for a long time.
After finishing everything they had to do, Verak and Willow drove back to the city without staying any longer.
Although they do not expect everyone to be able to read "Equality", "The Internationale", and "Women's Manifesto", they cannot just print a small number of works because of this. In the past few days, the printing house arranged by Sarah was at full capacity, and one volume after another was printed.
Volumes of books were shipped out and filled the warehouse.
"Are there enough books now? How about the newspapers, excerpts and so on?" After returning, Verak found Sara to ask about the situation. If everything was fine here, he would rush back to Manchester City with the things and hand them over.
Give it to Munro and others, let them spread it, and let more people understand this.
"There's still a lot left, but we can transfer half of it from the warehouse first." Sarah looked at the bill and estimated the difference.
"Okay, Willow and I will prepare a batch. We will bring them over first and pass on as much as we can." It is much more efficient to get a part of it first than to take the same amount all at once. Verak and Sarah fought.
After saying hello, he and Willow immediately went to the warehouse to load the books.