Millennium Babylon

The capital of Country K has a local name in the local language: Saltwater City.

It is said that the origin of the name of the city is the long river that passes through it.Everyone thinks that country K is located on a plateau, and the rivers are formed by melting snow mountains, so they must be fresh water.

But the first person who tasted the fresh water reported to the king in panic: the water is salty.

This sparked a round of fruitless investigations, a thrilling coup, and generations of artists who made up the story.

History has gone forward quietly for more than 800 years, and the city still retains the name of the famous salt water city.

The good colonists have already found out that part of the saltwater river in country K is melted from the snow mountains of the Golan Valley, while the other part is poured from the seawater of neighboring country Z. Therefore, the river tastes a bit salty .

Jimmy stood at the window, gazing out at Saltwater at night.

The buildings in the city are all below five floors, mostly small concrete buildings or simple zinc board houses, and the roofs are all shining with silver light.There are occasional Buddhist temples in the street, and the red curtains swayed gently with the night wind, which seemed to blow away his troubles a little.

Chen Yan has not woken up yet.

He just glanced through the glass window of the intensive care unit during his visits. The rich second generation who was so hypocritical that he drove a Maserati to buy groceries is now tanned in Thal, with natural muscles, lying motionless under the ventilator.

Jimmy sighed.

Lin Mu silently grabbed his hand and pressed it hard.He knew what he wanted to say, how difficult life is, the sea of ​​suffering is endless, and so on...but he was just lucky to have him by his side.

Jimmy shifted his gaze to the paintings hanging in the hospital corridor.

It was a black-and-white photograph, on which was a snow-capped mountain with sharp edges and corners that refused to be seen thousands of miles away.

By looking at the notes, Jimmy understood that it was the famous Mount Everest.I don't know how many people gave their lives to climb Mount Everest.

"Why are they all?" Jimmy asked himself looking at the painting, "Why did the person who survived the mountaineering team risk his life for something so...so abstract, so...so unimportant?"

Lin Mu replied: "Maybe for him, the mountain is the most important thing. The reality of the mountain is no less than...for example, food, or salary, or even children and girlfriends."

Jimmy answered: "It may also be for his country. Didn't Country Y always want to be the first to reach the top of the Island Peak and set a world record? Why would someone do it for the country, honor, or even... justice, feelings... these things Die with an abstract concept?"

What he asked was the climber, Chen Yan, and Edison Chan.It's a pity that his father is dead, and the two survivors of the mountain disaster are silently racing against life in the adjacent intensive care unit.

Jimmy didn't regret having drawn his gun on Dr. Pete.He wanted to save Chen Yan, and even if it happened ten thousand times again, he would do whatever it took to save Chen Yan.

If the price to be paid is too heavy, he is willing to bear it for the rest of his life and pay with blood.

That's why he must make those who hurt Edison Chan pay the price.

As if sensing what was on his mind, Lin Mu only said: "It's better to live well than anything else. If you lose your life, you lose everything. How did the old man teach you in the field first aid class? You should think about it before saving me." consider--"

Jimmy turned to him, smiling brightly: "I'm superficial, not that noble. I just covet your flesh."

Regardless of the fact that this is a hospital, Jimmy put his paws on Lin Shu's neck and drew a circle.

Jimmy didn't speak again, but in his heart, he was thinking: I really thought so.

I thought I coveted your body, your beauty, your pilot's medal.

But when you are in the rain, when you are in the sky, and where I can't reach, why do I still like you so much.

Even if one day... your name can no longer be parallel to mine, and I will not answer your call to the control tower for a successful landing. Even at that time, you have to believe that I still like you the most.

It's not shabu shabu but you.

Not the monsoons of Taal but you.

"It's you..." Jimmy let go of Lin Shu's collar.The smile gradually faded away.

Lin Mu suddenly became vigilant and asked him, "What am I?"

Jimmy pulled him to the hospital, laughed and sang the cartoon theme song while walking:

"What are you and me? It's him! It's him, it's him, it's him, young hero, little Nezha!"

Before they reached the hospital, the sound of quarreling could be heard far away, half English mixed with half Bangalore, and Jimmy could only hear the general idea.

"Are you a family member of the patient? Could you please speak English? It's useless for you to make trouble here. Our hospital really doesn't have adrenaline. Now it's after the earthquake and the whole country is in a state of emergency. We can't get approval for importing. Hey, I can't explain it to you..."

"Doctor! Help him, doctor, doctor..."

The local woman in the turban was crying anxiously.For some reason, Ji Yuanyuan was by her side. Seeing Jimmy approaching, she gave him a complicated look.

"Family." She pouted at the woman.

Jimmy got it.He used a gun to force Dr. Pete to put down the patient in his hand to save Chen Yan. At that time, he didn't care about the consequences.

And the consequences... are now finally in sight.The surviving mountaineering team had an allergic reaction. Just in case, adrenaline for first aid needs to be stored before the next operation.

Otherwise, the doctor refused to operate on him.

Immediately, Jimmy put on a long-lost businessman's face, and walked up to shake hands with the doctor.At first glance, he finally looked like a young and promising heir.

"Hi, I'm Jimmy Chan, the president of Chen's Capital. This patient is our employee, and we are willing to bear all the treatment costs incurred in this hospital for him, including the cost of purchasing adrenaline of course—"

"It's not about money now, it's about not being able to buy it! Adrenaline has been out of stock since the earthquake, even—"

Jimmy interrupted him: "If it's a customs problem, our group has rich freight channels in the three southern countries, so it's not a problem."

The doctor was obviously a local, and it probably took all the family's resources to afford medical school tuition.I have been working overtime for a long time now, and I have a pair of obvious dark circles under my eyes.

The doctor sighed: "You don't understand. Adrenaline is a controlled drug on the 302 list. At present, country Z has banned exports to us, and country Y has not. Our last pen was used up this morning... "

Jimmy had heard about that list - in the spring, country Z suspended the export of many controlled military items and chronic disease drugs in order to force country K to draw a line with terrorists and independent forces.

That's why Rahimi's father couldn't even buy insulin... But he didn't expect that the government of country Z even banned emergency life-saving medicine.

Jimmy was just about to call the housekeeper Jeremy, taking a path that was not so conspicuous and not so in line with international law, when the doctor said hesitantly:

"It's not that there is no way. In fact, the U.S. embassy in Saltwater City has its own emergency room. When we visited their emergency room last year, we saw epinephrine pens. If the U.S. No one in the embassy needed first aid, so the pen should still be there by now."

Lin Mu answered: "I know an American."

Jimmy looked at him: "I know it too. We know... probably the same person."

Five minutes later, Jimmy squeezed out the business card that the white reporter had forced on him after the press conference at Taal Airport a few weeks ago from his business card holder.

—Alex, The Washington Post.He remembered that he, an American, was actually an independent investigative reporter, currently employed by the Post for a short period of time to investigate the American Aid Association.The main source of funding for the American Aid Association is the U.S. Government’s Department of Foreign Assistance, so it has to accept people’s supervision occasionally, and it’s really normal for people to come to investigate.

"Alex, this is Jimmy."

There sounded an overly enthusiastic voice, as if drunk:

"Hey Jimmy! Of course I remember you! My colleague reported the news of your rescue from the Golan Valley. What do you want from me?"

Americans, Jimmy thought, would drink if the sky fell.

"The survivor we rescued is in critical condition. He needs a back-up epinephrine pen before he can undergo the next operation. If it is delayed, he may not survive 24 hours."

Alex asked, "You want me to help you find an epinephrine pen in Saltwater City?"

"No, I've found it: your American embassy has it. They won't give it to us, they'll just leave that pen to you Americans. I need you to pick it up for me."

Unexpectedly, the other end immediately agreed: "No problem, leave it to me."

Jimmy knows that everything is conditional. In the dangerous gap between the three southern countries, only stray bullets will fall from the sky, but no pies will fall: "Can I help you?"

Alex smiled: "How about you help me with Dr. Pete's interview? I know he's based in Tal's medical base, maybe you know him well?"

Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief, but he didn't expect the conditions to be so small: "No problem. After the rescue mission subsides after the earthquake, I will arrange for you to interview him. In the guest house, there is champagne in the swimming pool."

An hour later, the American journalist Alex took refuge in the US embassy in Saltwater City on the grounds that his passport was robbed and his personal safety was threatened, and he was warmly received.

He casually grabbed a handful of almond chocolate in the embassy lounge, but developed a severe allergy and was rushed to the emergency room.At midnight, the doctor had already left work. Under the watchful eyes of the staff on duty, he took out an epinephrine pen from the first aid kit, and hit it on his left thigh——

Pen cases were thrown in the trash.

After another break, he had to bid farewell to the warm, homely embassy as he headed home to prepare for the evening NBC newswire.

USAA Saltwater City International Hospital.

Alex rushed into the lobby, onto the elevator, and headed straight for the intensive care unit.

Jimmy, Lin Mu and the doctor were all waiting there.After learning that Chen Yan had intravenously injected sleeping pills and would not wake up before noon tomorrow, Ji Yuanyuan went back to the hotel to rest.

"I got it! They didn't suspect it. If you don't check the serial number on the pen in the trash can, no one will know that what I threw away is your used pen, even if you watch the surveillance video!"

Alexis chattered proudly.

Jimmy deliberately teased him: "Aren't you a reporter who specializes in investigating illegal activities? How can you be so talented for this kind of thing—"

"Wrong, wrong! I am a reporter who specializes in investigating behaviors that hurt others. As long as it is beneficial to others, why do you violate international law? International law is set by the United States and the United Kingdom to bully you. International law says that war is justified, but you can imagine it Borrowing for infrastructure requires privatizing all hospitals first. What bandit fart!"

"Hey, hey, I'm British," Jimmy declared.

"Then you also have a share. Since you didn't stand up and refute, you have already enjoyed a vested interest."

Jimmy was about to argue with him, but he heard his pager rang. It was an unknown British number. He called once, and only the voice station left an automatic reply "Quickly".

He inherited Edison Chan's habit of not holding a mobile phone for several years.

The mobile phone is too easy to be tracked, and the data is often taken without knowing it. Even the living habits and the address of the lover are picked up, and finally gave the enemy a deadly weapon.

A pager is much more convenient.No mistake, the technology is so low-level that anti-tracking is easy.It's just...it's a bit of a hassle to call someone back every time.

"Sir, please come with me, our cashier is here."

The doctor is quite embarrassed and urges the domineering president Jimmy to pay for the operation of the climbers.

He wanted to swipe his card, but realized that the network communication in Saltwater City was once again cut off by the heavy rain, so he ran out of the hospital in a hurry and went to line up in front of the ATM in the city center.

Before leaving, Jimmy trustingly entrusted the pager to Lin Mu: "Call me back and see who it is. If there is something urgent, you can handle it, I trust you. If there is nothing urgent, I will be back in about an hour."

Jimmy turned around and wanted to run out of the hospital to get the money, but Lin Mu grabbed him.

"what happened?"

Lin Mu zipped up his down jacket, covered his head with a hat, even stuffed the fur on the hat finely, and then let him go away.

"Don't worry, I'm here." Lin Mu said.

Lin Mu found a public phone in the floor-to-ceiling glass lobby on the top floor of the hospital.

It was already early morning, and this long and ill-fated day was finally about to be wiped out by the light of the newborn sun.

He dialed the number on Jimmy's pager.

"Hi, hello? I'm—"

"Jimmy, if you don't take the pepper away, your mother will make you reimburse the salary of the psychological counselor."

"Hello? Excuse me, are you—"

Then Lin Mu heard a calm answer in Chinese from the other end of the phone with a thunderbolt:

"Jimmy, I'm not surprised you don't remember your mother. But you didn't forget the pepper, did you?"

Lin Mu clearly felt that this was the first time his hands trembled after he first experienced the speed in flight school.

"Hi, hello, hello! I'm sorry I didn't make it clear just now. Jimmy has a very urgent matter. He is going out temporarily and will be back in about an hour."

"Oh, my name is Lin Mu, Lin Shu of the forest, I am... Jimmy's friend and colleague. Nice to meet you!"

There was a noticeable pause on the other end of the phone, probably thinking whether this was a new type of scam targeting world-class rich people, and then the woman with a nice voice probably hoped that this would come true, and said:

"So Jimmy still has friends."

Lin Mu didn't dare to say more, and he didn't know if Jimmy had told his family about his identity as an airport navigator in Thar.So I could only answer: "Yes, I met him at Thar Airport."

The woman immediately warmed up, quite a bit of Jimmy's familiarity: "Are you the navigator too? Or?"

"I'm a pilot."

"Oh! The pilot is awesome! Our Jimmy wants to be a pilot the most, and we have worshiped pilots since we were young."

he knows.

He tried desperately to imagine that little Jimmy who was wronged at school because of his Asian face.

Of course, how could the children of the British aristocrats express their contempt explicitly?

Will not.They will only make little Jimmy realize clearly in every detail of communication: he does not belong here.

He does not belong to the aristocratic school that Edison Chan desperately earned for him, he does not belong to London, England, he does not belong to this ground full of contempt, hypocrisy and injustice.

He belongs to the blue sky.If nothing happened to Edison Chan three years ago, he would be a trainee pilot today.

On the other end of the international call, Jimmy's mother seemed to have not chatted with Jimmy for a long time.After no one answered for a long time, I suddenly received a call from my son's friend, and they had a heart-to-heart chat.

He almost regarded Lin Mu as a replica of Jimmy.

She talked about Jimmy's favorite airplane model when he was a child, and how he was bullied by his classmates when he was in summer school in Switzerland.

She had to fly to Switzerland twelve times a summer just to check into a hotel for Jimmy who had sneaked out of school and refused to go back to his dorm.He was underage then.

She also proudly said that she taught her children well, and that she only gave Jimmy a hundred pounds a week in pocket money in a private high school, so that he would not get into the bad habits of a noble boy early and play with those bad boys.

She sighed as she spoke.

"You said, Jimmy has not been able to get a girlfriend for so many years, is it because—"

Lin Mu's heart tightened, but she only heard her continue: "—he's too stingy, no girl wants to be with him?"