America 1982

after many years.

A Victorian villa in the small town of Montauk, Long Island, New York.

An old and skinny white man was lying on a deck chair in the garden, basking in the afternoon sun. The servants and family doctors were observing and helping him adjust the angle of the parasol at any time to prevent the light from being too strong or too weak.

In front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, the old man's family looked sadly at the old man who had his back turned to them and was talking and laughing with the guests who came to visit him.

"Ben, I remember you are only five years older than my dad Colin. I mean, you should consider my opinion and go live in a room at the Stanford Medical Research Center in Newport, Rhode Island. The research center branch is also good. Their research is making progress. At least my dad is under their care very well. They helped him replace his liver two years ago. Because donating, you can also enjoy privileges such as exemption from ovulation and selection of better organ sources. "Wearing a beige fashionable suit, his hair color has been turned to platinum by time, Tommy, who is now a sixty-year-old guy, reached out his hand next to him and gently patted Benjamin Benson's palm on the back of the chair, his voice Asked gently:

"Now he continues to drink every day, and then he calls me a scumbag with confidence. The doctor said that if he changes a few times, it will not be a problem to live to be a hundred years old. I think your lungs can also be used. Africa is so big, there must be Many niggas who donated their lungs to you voluntarily or involuntarily have not spread to the brain anyway, so if there is a problem, just replace it."

The old Benjamin Benson had a smile on his face and shook his head slightly: "I know what I'm in, Tommy. Rather than living in those places, I would rather stay in that place during the last part of my life. At home, I have been busy outside all my life, in business and finance, charity, computers, the Internet, artificial intelligence, even weapons, banks, the Federal Reserve... Now I can finally stop. I have a lot of time to spend with my family every day, which feels very good. , I can see the changes in the grass on the lawn every day, the flowers are slowly blooming, and time has finally slowed down, as slow as an old man like me, hahahaha... By the way, I also watch you on time every week In the ninth season of the fantasy historical drama series "C.S.A" produced by the company, you can tell me in the latest episode whether the Confederate Ethnographic Survey of the United States was successfully infiltrated by white people who sympathized with black slaves to seize power... and the black slave Orin. What happened to the black slave terrorists who were preparing to cause sabotage at the Peace Games... The American Ethnic Survey, the American slave Olympics, are you really there? How did you come up with these racially discriminatory national institutions?"

"Ben, I don't insist on taking you away. I just came to visit you. To be honest, I still remember that I always called you old guy at that time, but I hope you understand that I have always regarded you as my mentor. No You, I may not be able to do anything." After Tommy heard that Benjamin refused the proposal to go to the medical center for recuperation and tried to change the subject to end the problem, he did not continue to persist, but talked with the old man. Past:

"Even if you have retired for a long time and haven't chatted with me for a long time, I always feel that as long as you haven't really met God, I have a trump card, and you can deal with it calmly when you encounter a desperate situation, because I know there is someone Old guy, as long as I go to him, he will definitely be able to give me the most correct guidance. You feel that time has finally slowed down, but I feel that time is the fastest gun in the fucking world. Every time you hear a The sound of a gunshot means the end of an era around you. Of course it doesn't matter to the person who was shot, as he is no longer afraid of time bullets, but for the friend of the person who was shot, it feels very uncomfortable."

"Who will not be hit by the bullet of time, Tommy?" Benjamin turned his face sideways, smiled at Tommy, raised his palm, pressed Tommy's hand underneath and patted it gently: "Nothing is important. , life is like a record, when the last note sounds, you should know that it is about to end, so why not enjoy the last song while the needle is still working."

Tommy looked back at the old man and smiled: "Why don't you use this time to submit articles to Ted's newspapers? Many young people should fall for the sentimental words just now."

"Thank you for coming to see me before my needle stopped working. This should be the last time we see each other. I mean, the funeral will not be notified to friends outside the family, just an obituary in the newspaper. Don't let us know again." Seeing you guys who have been dealing with each other for so many years, I am not joking." Benjamin was a little tired, so he squeezed Tommy's hand hard and finished speaking, then slowly closed his eyes and began to rest.

The health doctor next to him immediately came forward to confirm his physical condition. Tommy stood up, took out the sunglasses from his suit pocket and put them on his face. He turned to look at Benjamin's family behind the floor-to-ceiling windows, bowed slightly, and then walked directly across the garden toward Walk outside.

A low-key black Chevrolet commercial vehicle parked outside Benjamin's house. When he saw Tommy coming out, the driver opened the door and Tommy got into the back seat. He turned his face for the last time and glanced at the mansion, and then leaned his head on the chair. Sitting on the chair, he closed his eyes, made a fist with his left hand and gently tapped his chest, and softly recited the words Benjamin said when he met him for the first time:

"Tommy, no matter what business it is, when you feel you encounter temptation, recall the purpose you originally wanted to achieve, because it must be more important to you than the temptation, recall it, and let it guide your heart back to the original point. "

After finishing speaking, Tommy breathed out gently, calmed down, and said to the driver: "Let's go."

After the driver started the car, he said to Tommy in the back seat: "Sir, when you were visiting your friends, a call came in. It was your son Hilbert. He wanted to remind you that you must not forget to attend his party tonight. Eighteen-year-old coming-of-age party, if I remember correctly, Hilbert told me on the phone that his party will be held at six o'clock tonight in Los Angeles, California, in the southwest of the United States, and it is already four o'clock in the afternoon...seventeen Well, we are still in New York, in the northeastern part of the United States."

Tommy put away his somewhat sad emotions, thought about it, and then said to the driver in a dull voice: "Shit~ Why is this stupid son always used to reminding his relatives on the same day, but not one day in advance? I knew that one day I would regret giving birth. Children, because it is inevitable that there will be children who will inherit Otilia's simple kindness. Obviously Hilbert is the unlucky one. He is as innocent as his mother back then, and always feels that people should be as leisurely as he is."

"He called three months ago, a month ago, and a week ago. You made a perfunctory promise that he would show up on time. If the trial is held, I am willing to appear in court to testify for Hilbert." The driver looked through the rearview mirror. , said with a smile to Tommy.

Tommy waved his hands impatiently: "It is impossible for me to listen to my son talk about physics for half an hour, which makes me sleepy, but he is very interested, and still remember whether he reminded me to remember to participate in the middle. His party! I am not Einstein! I hate physics! Especially after Hilbert refused to attend Stanford and chose MIT! He should know how much he hates the four-eyed professors from MIT! Those guys are They are greedy vampires! The money spent on poaching them to work for me is enough to build another university!"

"Sir, I think Hilbert is really outstanding, well-educated, gentleman, kind..." The driver said his opinion of Hilbert.

Tommy reminded the driver dissatisfied: "John Page, do you know the biggest difference between you and your grandfather?"

"I guess you are going to say it again, little Peppa Pig, your grandfather never talked too much when he was my bodyguard, Mr. Tommy." The driver obviously didn't care about the dissatisfaction in Tommy's tone, and his laughter became louder: "By the way, I have asked your private jet to pick you up at the nearest Long Island Airport as soon as possible. This way we can save time and board the plane directly from the local airport. The flight takes five hours, but fortunately there is a three-hour time difference between California and New York. , we took off at 4:30 EST, and after five hours of flight, we would land at 6:30 EST. After deducting the time to get to the Eagle's Nest, we would be late forty to seventy minutes at most. You can participate in most of the party, but you cannot meet with your ex-wife, Justice Ottilia Farrell, who has finally forgiven you and is considering remarrying you, because she can only attend the first thirty minutes of the party. Then rush back to Washington.”

"Hey~ honey." Tommy called his ex-wife's number: "John just told me that you can only stay for thirty minutes tonight at the most important eighteenth-year-old party in your son's life? Is this better than what you have to give to the court? Those defendants’ statements were even shorter.”

Otilia on the other side of the phone said: "Tommy, I just walked out of Los Angeles Airport. John is right. I can only stay at the party for thirty minutes, but if you think it is more important to accompany your son, I will be happy to stay." Come down and miss another late night meeting tonight about some informal internal discussions at the Supreme Court of the United States regarding certain military-industrial complexes.”

"You know, when children grow up, they don't need to waste time and money in a big way. Busy with your work. My dear, let everyone understand the importance of the military industry to the United States. We have been so low-key and developed various high technologies to defend this great country. Country, why do they always feel that the Pentagon and us contractors are wasting money? Without the various equipment we manufacture, are soldiers allowed to use their teeth to deal with the enemy?" After Tommy heard the reason for Otilia's absence from the party, he immediately He chooses to support his ex-wife's work out of righteousness, and his son's party is not worth mentioning at all.

"How long does it take for you to arrive? I think we can meet and talk about some more important issues."

"What's a more important question, is there a more important question than what you just said?"

"Our wedding, Tommy, one of the conditions on which I agreed to remarry is that you owe me a wedding."

Tommy immediately agreed: "Of course, the details of the wedding require the two of us to be alone and discuss it slowly. It is a romance between two people and our three children have no right to participate."

Otilia hung up the phone, and Tommy leaned back in his chair: "Can you believe it, such an important internal discussion, she even considered absenting herself from a child's eighteenth-year-old party, please, she can hold it The taxpayers gave her a high salary! She also acted like her family was more important. If she didn’t have money from me, the taxpayer, and didn’t help me, the taxpayer, solve the problem, what would her children use to have a party? My biggest mistake , just marry her."

"One time when you asked me to help Justice Farrell handle some trivial matters, I happened to hear her complaining about similar things to General Leon's wife, Ms. Ashley." John said while driving fast on the highway.

"What did she say?" Tommy asked, looking out the window at the receding Long Island scenery.

John said: "She said her biggest mistake was that after divorcing you, she actually believed your lie that you would bless her to start a new life."

"Routine operations."