"Therefore, Baudrillard believes that "things" and "demand" are false symbols. He criticizes Marx's use value theory and believes that the latter has also fallen into the trap of capitalist political economy, thus putting forward his own symbols.
political economy."
Wu Feiren finished his report, clicked on the last slide, nodded to thank the teacher and a dozen classmates, left the podium at the teacher's signal, and waited for the next student's report.
"Tiles!"
The next moment, Wu Feiren, a former graduate student, woke up from his dream.
He curled up and lay in a cold abandoned wall hole, feeling the cold wind blowing from the gaps in all directions.
Wu Feiren sighed. After five years of time travel, he still had dreams about his previous life. Although the life before time travel was boring, it was always better than the miserable situation in front of him.
"Tails, Tails!" A big hand stretched out from outside the hole in the wall, grabbed Wu Feiren's ear, and roughly grabbed him out of this little den.
This is a dilapidated house. Through the half-collapsed roof, one can see the bright stars in the night sky. However, the arrangement and shape of the stars are extremely unfamiliar to Wu Feiren.
Wu Feiren could not resist the rough hand - what could a seven-year-old child do? He was dragged on the rough brick floor, and his knees hurt, but he still gritted his teeth and said nothing, because the cruel Quaid
He was particularly impatient with children's cries. It is said that he once beat a six-year-old girl who wanted to exchange tears for food until her legs were paralyzed.
"I asked Rick, your payment this week is five coppers less than last week! Did you hide it secretly?" The angry Quaid was like a red-haired lion, and his protruding nose made him more ferocious.
Wu Feiren was knocked to the ground. From the corner of his gray eyes, he saw the holes in the wall around him. The five beggars who lived in the same room with him, ranging from four to ten years old, were all amidst Quaid's roar.
Shivering.
Among them, in the innermost wall hole, the smallest girl with short hair was biting her left hand tightly, her face was red, and she was looking at Wu Feiren on the ground with fear. In the hole next to her, the six-year-old boy Ned was even scared.
cried out.
That was Colia, and Wu Qiren knew what she was afraid of.
In fact, Wu Feiren had good luck this week. He, the beggar Tails - Wu Feiren's current name - got a total of thirty-seven copper coins this week, eighteen more than last week.
But he only handed over fourteen coppers to Quaid, the leader of the Black Street Brotherhood who was in charge of the beggar business. He took the remaining coppers, together with the money he had worked hard to save in the past two years, and ran to the grid.
At Luo Fu Pharmacy, a pair of typhoid medicine was "purchased" at cost price from the kind-hearted helper Yanni.
Thales fed the potion to four-year-old Colia - at her age, if she got typhoid, without the potion, it would be almost a dead end.
In the five years since traveling back in time, Thales has re-experienced the memory formation period from the age of two to seven. From an ignorant toddler, he has gradually recovered bits and pieces of memories from his previous life. Among them, the children's memories appear fragmented.
And scattered. Even so, during the two years from ignorance to sobriety, Thales was deeply impressed every time he witnessed the death of others.
From dying of illness, falling to death, drowning, hanging, to being beaten to death (even once, Thales saw with his own eyes a crying beggar who was suffocated to death ten meters away by someone using supernatural powers), the franchisee
The underworld brotherhoods that sell business have never had any bottom line or principles - even gangs need time to settle down the rules and order, and the brotherhoods that originated from the underworld only took ten years to grow from their rise to growth.
Time to start.
What's more, even the Brotherhood's rival, the Blood Bottle Gang, which has a history of ninety years and is known as the "nobles of the gang", has a lot of blood debt in its hands.
Most of the time, Thales was helpless after witnessing death. Even he himself relied on the wisdom and maturity of an adult to avoid more than one fatal disaster.
For example, right now, Quaid, who is gearing up and in high spirits, has the unique cruelty and viciousness of a gangster sadist in his eyes.
"I don't have anything to hide! It's winter this week, and there are far fewer people passing through the three districts of the lower city -" Thales got up from the ground, his mind was spinning rapidly, and he spit out the excuses he had made up.
"Snapped!"
What greeted him was a merciless slap, which knocked Thales back to the ground.
"Hand over your hidden money, and then I'll beat you up! Or I'll beat you up first, and then you hand over the money! Your choice!"
Obviously, Quaid didn't want to hear his explanation. The brotherhood leader might just want to get some drinking money, or he might just want to find someone to beat him up.
"But you can also be arrogant - I like children who are arrogant the most." Quaid grinned 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.
Last month, Quaid tortured a beggar in the fifth house to death.
Thales covered his red and swollen cheeks and thought quickly.
On weekdays, Quaid doesn't care about the accounts. At night, he hangs out at the Sunset Bar in the underground street or hangs out with a bottle of wine. It's hard for him to tell how many copper coins a Mindis silver coin can exchange, let alone the beggars under him.
How much money the beggars paid - that was all the responsibility of his deputy, Rick, who seemed to be down-to-earth and steady, and even a shrewd person like Rick knew that the beggars paid seven or eight coppers per week.
Floating is simply too normal.
Someone snitched.
This is the only conclusion.
Thales glanced at the beggars around him. After begging for money from the female noble, he went directly back to the abandoned house. The children in the same room must have seen it, and in the harsh environment, the children's
The heart can become scarier than adults imagine.
Quaid kicked him again. Thales secretly protected his abdomen with his elbows, released his strength slightly, and pretended to be in pain, as if he was in excruciating pain from this kick - he couldn't make a sound.
, Quaid likes the screams of children the most.
"I said!" Thales' face showed fear, "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 that his authority was respected.
"I met a noble lady on Wednesday morning, and she gave me almost ten coppers!" Thales hid in the corner and said tremblingly.
"I knew it! Begging? It must be 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 could raise his eyebrows, Thales added: "But I went to Red Square Street!"
"Red Square Street?" Quaid lowered his raised palm a little, "You went to the territory of the Blood Bottle Gang?"
"Yes, our place really can't get more money." Except for the people from the Brotherhood, skilled rangers, and some guys with special purposes, who would not be quick-sighted to see three people near the black street?
Patrolling in the abandoned area? Even the city defense team armed with swords and shields are unwilling to get close to this sin-ridden place.
"The first time I got so much money, no one from the Blood Bottle Gang showed up. Then I thought there might be another chance the next day."
"Idiot!" Quaid kicked Thales hard. Thales saw Coria shaking in the distance, and only heard Quaid yelling, "I don't even think about it, the territory of the Blood Bottle Gang, there are
Is it possible to pick up so many bargains?”
Thales shrank and said tremblingly: "Yes, the next afternoon, the people from the Blood Bottle Gang caught me. They hung me up. I said I was lost, but they didn't believe me. I gave the money
Even after I handed it over, they still wouldn't let me go."
"Trash! Then how did you escape?" Quaid spat harshly.
"Then, I said I was Boss Quaid's man, and they, they laughed."
"What?" Quaid clenched his fists. He grabbed Thales' tattered burlap collar and lifted him from the corner. "What are they laughing at?"
Thales shook his head in confusion: "I don't quite understand what they said."
Quaid stared at him fiercely: "Speak quickly!"
Thales pretended to be frightened, shook, and said tremblingly: "There is a bald man among them. He said that since he is Quaid's child, let him live, because Quaid needs it too much.
It’s a child——”
Before Thales could finish speaking, Quaid threw him hard 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 he immediately turned his back to Quaid and received the heavy blows from his rage. At the same time, he felt the force of the heavy blows and changed the angle of his back at all times.
, buffering the strength of the blow.
"Son of a bitch - you - bald - Spin - how does he know - kill you - kill you - waste - idiot -"
Quaid yelled furiously, kicked Thales one after another, and roared only a few words that could be distinguished.
In the hole in the wall, several children watched in horror as Thales was beaten, but they all covered their mouths tightly and did not dare to make a sound.
Thales breathed a sigh of relief as he endured Quaid's violent kicks.
At least now Quaid will no longer ask where the extra money went, and although he looks scary, Quaid is much safer when he is angry and mad than when he is happily torturing children.
What he said was half true and half false. Thales did go to Red Square Street, but he kept hiding in the corner of the dark alley and carefully observed the surroundings. He did meet an aristocratic lady wearing goose down.
, but she was followed by twenty Terminator Swordsmen. This was why the Blood Bottle Gang did not interrupt him when he ran out of the alley to beg. In the hands of that velvet female noble, Thales did beg for twelve
A copper (of course he would not be stupid enough to steal it in front of twenty swordsmen), but before the female noble's team had gone far, he quickly disappeared in the crowd and never returned.
As for the bald Spencer, Thales had never met him before. He only knew that he was the head thug of the Blood Bottle Gang who collected black accounts. And Quaid used to be a thug who collected black accounts in the Brotherhood - until Quaid made a mistake.
He killed someone and was beaten to the lower half of his body. The news was relatively secretive. It was Thales who was lying under the corner of the brotherhood house, listening to the goblin fight between the killers Leyoke and Belicia in the room, and privately laughed at Quaid.
Just found out.
By the time Quaid finished venting his anger and cursed the bald Spencer of the Blood Bottle Gang, he took out a wine bottle from his arms and left cursingly, the clothes on Thales's back were torn to pieces and his back was covered in bruises.
Because Thales deliberately turned sideways to avoid a frontal blow, blood was scratched in some places, and pain hit him in waves.
The blood flowed to the ground, and Thales felt a burning pain. It was probably because he hadn't been beaten for too long, and he felt as if his muscles were burning.
Ever since he traveled to this world, beatings, hunger, pain, and coldness have become commonplace. However, after gradually retrieving the memory of graduate student Wu Qiren, and relying on caution and previous experience, Thales has not been beaten so viciously for a long time.
pass.
After Quaid's voice disappeared, the other five children in the room crawled out of their holes and skillfully carried Thales, who was unable to move, to the yard. The ten-year-old "big man" Xinti grabbed a piece of
The curved broken bowl fragments went to the water tank to scoop water. The lame Ryan and the black-faced Kellett, both eight years old, struggled to collect dead branches and weeds, and tried to light a fire with flints. The six-year-old yellow-haired
Ned and the youngest Kolya picked off a few strange-shaped wild leaves, chewed them in their mouths, and gently rubbed them on Thales's scarred back.
Thales endured the pain and tried to find something to divert his attention. He looked at Coria, who was about to cry, and then turned to the dejected yellow-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 full of horror, and the other four children also turned their eyes to him.
"How did you know?" The six-year-old child couldn't hide his thoughts, guilt and panic were written on his face.
Just now, when Thales was beaten severely by Quaid, the three older children, although frightened, were all staring at this side. Only Coria and Ned, one hid his face in his hands and did not dare to look up, and the other
One looked at the wall, occasionally turning his head to glance in horror.
Kolya'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 was no doubt about it.
He tried his best to smile and said, "It's okay, Quaid won't care about this anymore."
"I, I," Ned's face turned red as he looked at Thales's 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 unhappy. He said that if he kept doing this, he would sell me to the desert and feed me to the Bone Man. I was so scared, so I told him, "Tales, Taylor."
Ers, you got back a lot of coppers one day... I thought they wouldn't take me away... Quaid drove me back and said he would come over in the evening..."
Coria's face also turned red. Her hand that was applying the herbs trembled suddenly, and a few drops of blood dripped from Thales' back to the ground. Thales groaned silently, feeling the burning pain.
It had just subsided, but now it was stimulated again by Kolya's movements.
Ryan stared at Ned angrily, causing the latter to lower his head. Kellett looked at Ned and then Thales in surprise. Only Cindy remained silent and continued to bring the water.
This child is only six years old - Thales told himself with dark eyes.
Understand almost nothing.
He shouldn't be in such a place and suffer such a fate.
"It's okay, Ned, Colia," Thales breathed out. He felt that the injury on his back seemed to be much better. He gently held Ned's hand, "next time, none of you will be able to ask for anything."
Money, just tell me and I'll figure it out."
Ned cried harder, and his words in a crying tone were a bit vague: "Tails, Thales, yes, no, I'm sorry,"
"It's okay now, Ned, don't be afraid, I always have a way." Thales smiled and took the broken bowl from Cinti's hand and took a sip of water.
He turned his head and took a breath. Compared to the countless predecessors who traveled through countless worlds, his luck was undoubtedly much worse.
But, even so.
He looked at the five children around him, especially Colia, who had just recovered from typhoid fever. There was still fear in her crystal eyes.
He will have to find a way to get more money tomorrow, he thought.
————————————————————
In the Sunset Temple of Yongxing City, the sunset prayers ended. An intern priest who was cleaning up the altar stopped what she was doing. She looked at the stone altar in surprise, a lamp filled with eternal oil.
lamp.
This inconspicuous sacrificial lamp, which had never been lit, used, or even lit since she started taking care of the altar, suddenly ignited a bright yellow flame.
The flame suddenly turned red again, turning red, like the color of blood, and became more and more intense.
An older priest noticed the intern's gaffe and scolded her dissatisfiedly. The intern then turned his attention back to the altar. But it wasn't until the priest himself saw the unusual sacrificial lamp that the older priest
Then she screamed.
"Nia, hurry up, notify the officiant!"
The elder priest couldn't conceal her surprise. She tremblingly threw herself in front of the sacrificial lamp, raised her right palm and turned her left palm up in preparation for prayer.
What's going on? It was the first time that intern Nia saw the respected priest being so rude, so much so that she herself was affected.
Did I make a mistake? But I didn't touch the lamp.
"But, but, what should I tell the officiant? Someone secretly lit a lamp next to the altar?" Nia asked in a panic.
"No."
The elderly priest stared at the lamp, and the prayers in his hands kept changing.
"Even if this lamp covers two continents and countless islands in Errol's world, only one person can light it."
"That person will determine the future of the kingdom."