soul bondage

"Uncle, I'm going out! You don't have to wait for me for dinner." I shouted towards the study.

"Oh, don't come back too late at night, your aunt will be worried." A middle-aged man's voice came from the study, sounding weak.

"Okay, then I'm leaving." After I finished speaking, I walked out of the house.

Different from yesterday, the weather today is very good. Although the outdoor temperature is still very low, the afternoon sun still makes people feel warm and harmonious.

I walked to the subway station closest to my home, and along the way I found that there were very few people my age.It's no wonder that as a high school student who is about to face the college entrance examination, he should have been on the way to tutoring classes on weekends, fighting for the fate-determining exam in his life instead of enjoying the afternoon leisurely, but I and other peers, there are some different.First of all, my guardians are not my biological parents, but two adoptive parents who have no blood relationship with me. My adoptive father is a scientific researcher, so in my impression, he will only come out of the study when eating. , even if he is at home, I spend very little time with him, let alone communicate.My adoptive mother is a workaholic. As a lawyer, she can be said to be conscientious and dedicated to her clients. Even on weekends, she spends most of her time in the firm.

Generally speaking, my adoptive parents are definitely the type of people recognized by people in today's society. They are successful in their careers, decent, and very caring. Otherwise, they would not have adopted me when I was lonely.However, after living with them for several years, our time together was very short, and we rarely communicated. Sometimes they didn’t know whether I was at home, let alone cared about my study and life.I have never blamed them for this, because everyone has something they love, and no one has the right to interfere in other people's lives and careers, and my adoptive parents can take me in when I am most difficult, no matter what, I should be careful Be grateful, be considerate of them as their children, understand them, and not let them worry.

Before I knew it, I arrived at the subway station. A soldier with an assault rifle scanned my whole body with a detector and waved to me to indicate that I could pass. I passed through four security personnel with live ammunition and A shiny-coated anti-riot dog came to the ticket gate and took out his mobile phone and put it on the sensor. When the prompt of successful deduction appeared, the gate opened immediately.All kinds of reminders can be seen everywhere on the billboards on both sides of the escalator and in the waiting room. It not only states that this subway station can withstand air raids and biological and chemical attacks, but also that the materials stored inside and the underground backup power generation system are also sufficient to support it. Works fine for weeks.

Five years ago these underground bunkers used to be temporary shelters for countless victims, and I was lucky enough to live there for a period of time, until today, recalling that the living conditions at that time were simply terrible, and the dirty public toilets seemed to be forever The stench that can't be eliminated, there is only a curtain between the houses, and there is no privacy at all, but even so, people still hesitate to drag their families into these underground shelters, because no one can be sure where they are outside. If you put up a tent, will you be killed by an alien drop pod or shot by an alien when you sleep at night?

After a while, the subway came into the station.I went in and found a seat to sit down. After I sat down, I realized that everyone in this car was looking down at their mobile phones or tablets, and I felt embarrassed when my hands were empty. See reports on missing persons tracking.

Just two stops later, the door opened, and a woman walked in with a child in her arms.It looks a little embarrassed.

"Sit here." I stood up and said to the lady.

I held the handrail and observed the people around me. From the mother and child up to the present, most of the people lowered their heads as before, as if they had nothing to do with me. Only a few raised their heads and took a look. He immediately turned his attention elsewhere.

The subway arrived at the station soon, and before going down, I looked back at the mother and child, and saw the little child staring at me with a pair of big watery eyes in the mother's arms, looking very cute.I smiled and waved at him and got off the subway. Before stepping out of the car door, several people glanced at me blankly and then lowered their heads again.

After leaving the subway station, I hurried to the fast-food restaurant for fear of delaying time.I have a feeling that today's meeting is extremely important to me.

When I walked into the fast food restaurant out of breath, I found a person waiting for me at a window seat, and I went straight over and sat down opposite him.Today he was wearing an inappropriate black suit. I looked at this stiff-backed man and felt that he was out of place with the casual atmosphere of a fast food restaurant. I took another look at his dinner plate. Ordinary humans would not be in a fast food restaurant like him. With black coffee and soda, the taste is really unique!

"Well, I'm very punctual, and I'm still 10 minutes early. Well, before I speak, I can ask you a few questions as a reward for your early arrival." The man said to me, but his eyes were looking out of the window Heavy traffic flow.

"I don't know your name, can you tell me?" I asked cautiously.

"Raul," the man replied.

"Are you the one who saved me that night? Are you an alien?" I asked in a low voice, afraid of being overheard.

"I'm not an earth species, and my colleagues and I did help you that night." Raul replied, and his eyes finally looked at me. After such a careful look, his eyes are still friendly, but I hope it's not illusion.

"Your friend, so you still have companions, so what is the relationship between you and the Lorgars?" I asked anxiously.

"We are all over the star regions. As for the Lorgars, they are also one of us." He picked up his coffee and took a sip, then stuffed a large chocolate sundae into his mouth with a small spoon. Variety.

"What is the star area? Also, where are you standing?" I asked puzzled.

"Well, I don't think you will understand if I explain it to you from the beginning to the end. Let's go, it's too noisy here, let's go to the place yesterday." Raul poured the sundae into the coffee and drank it He wiped his mouth with a napkin and pointed to the bench outside the window.

No way, I had no choice but to leave the warm room with this strange alien and come to the cold outdoors again.

"Your earth is too crowded, there are people everywhere, don't you feel uncomfortable?" Raul fell on the bench and let out a long sigh of relief.

"The earth currently has 80 billion people, and my country itself accounts for more than a billion people. I grew up in this environment and I have long adapted to it." I explained to him with a shrug.

"Okay, now let's get back to the topic. First, let me explain the current interstellar situation. In the universe you and I live in, there are more than a hundred species that are confirmed to have high intelligence, and about fifty of them have extremely high intelligence. With the level of technology and interstellar influence, we call them advanced life forms, and the Lorgars who once invaded you are one of them."

"How do you judge it?" I asked.

"If a racial group only has the most basic social system and can only maintain its own survival without any civilization and culture of its own, then such a group can only be regarded as a living body. If a race has a relatively complex and complete society system, and has its own civilization and history, can change the ecology of its own region to a certain extent for its own use, and can also stand at the top of the biological chain of its own planet, such a living body is a highly intelligent creature."

"Like a human being," I said, rubbing my frozen hands.

"That's right, and based on this, higher life forms also have the ability to control the ecosystems of other planets, and can play a leading role in the interstellar politics of this star region." He patiently explained to me.

"That means that in order to become an advanced life form, you must have the ability to travel between stars and colonize outer space, right." I guessed.

"That's right, and for the convenience of management, we divide the universe into various star domains, and subdivide each star domain into several star areas. Each star area will have a resident special envoy to coordinate, but if there is a continuous If neither the special envoy nor the authority of the star field can deal with it, then the governor of the star field will ask the Star Cooperation Alliance for help to help solve the problem."

"Star Cooperation Alliance?"

"The Interstellar Cooperation Alliance is an interstellar organization composed of various highly intelligent life forms. It is responsible for assisting each star area, and always supervises the governor and the special envoys of each star area elected by the creatures of each star area and stationed in the capital of the star field. The Star Alliance, and I am the observer sent by the Star Alliance to Earth."

After speaking, Raul let out a long sigh of relief, and slumped on the chair relaxedly. It seemed that it was really embarrassing for him to explain so many theoretical things to me, but there was still a question in my mind that had not been solved.

"What do you want me to do? You have told me so much about the Star Alliance, what intelligent creatures, what is your purpose? I think it is not a good thing for an undercover alien to come to me to talk about this kind of topic. ' I crossed my arms and questioned him.

Raul burst out laughing when he saw my posture.

"Don't get excited! You guessed right, I really didn't come to catch up with you, let alone chat." Raul put away his smile, stared into my eyes and asked me.

"I can give you a chance to change your life. I can make you no longer dependent on others. I can make your life more valuable." His eyes made me a little uneasy when he spoke.

I looked at this "person" in front of me and became vigilant. What is he going to do?Although the invasion five years ago completely knocked on the door of the earth, and human beings communicated with life in the universe for the first time, in the past five years, although human beings have discovered four kinds of highly intelligent creatures, and separated two of them from alien races. The establishment of diplomatic relations has become a partner, but human beings are generally wary of aliens.After all, the result of the first contact turned out to be a brutal massacre. No one would naively think that aliens are friendly and all creatures in the universe are peace-loving.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked coldly, avoiding his gaze.

"I hope you can join the Star Alliance and become a scout." Raul continued without waiting for my answer, as if he was reciting an official document.

"Scouts are a single-soldier combat unit of the Star Alliance. The main content of their work includes humanitarian assistance in war zones, counter-terrorism, and emergency response. Each scout is equipped with the most advanced military equipment of the Star Alliance, and its members come from All races in the universe. We hope to develop some human scouts, and you, I think, are a very suitable candidate."

"You mean to let me abandon my current life and fight with a group of creatures I have never seen before, and these battles have nothing to do with me in essence." I think the person in front of me is too naive .

"What is there to commemorate your current life? I have been observing you secretly for the past few years. The couple who adopted you are not suitable to be guardians at all. They have long dedicated their lives to themselves You’re more their burden than their adopted son, and you ask yourself, do you really like them? Do you really think you’ll be happy with them?”

Facing Raul’s questioning, I hesitated. Although I wanted to refute, what he said was not unreasonable. Can the place where I live now really be called home?I'm afraid not.My real home is here, the ruins that can never be rebuilt under this bustling business district.

"Since that night, I have been watching you. Whether it was your performance of surviving adversity during the attack, or your behavior after learning that your parents were dead and homeless, I thought you Different," Raul said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I looked at my red hands and thought about Raul's suggestion. The current life is indeed not what I want. When I was struggling in the quagmire of memories, no one around me understood my difficulties.What will happen to me in the future?After getting out of the shadows, like every normal person, I covered up all my sorrows and accepted the new life calmly, but after a period of time, all the things I experienced made me no longer expect things that I would never get. They will sympathize with me because of my misfortune. I am just a loser in the eyes of everyone.

At that time, everyone thought that I had just come out of the shadow of bereavement, and my good acting skills also allowed me to have a family that was willing to adopt. My original idea was that I was going to go back to the original school to continue my classes. After all Even if the past is hard to look back on, I will continue to look forward. My parents know that I gave up my life because of their death, so what will they think?No matter what happens, I don't want to let them down.

But when I went back to school, I found that I thought too well.At the beginning, the classmates would come up to me to greet me, but gradually I found that these new classmates kept a respectful distance from me, and the teacher let me sit alone in a corner of the classroom.Although many people died in that aggression, the news only reported that humans had discovered several extraterrestrial races, or that several earth bosses blamed each other for vying to be the spokesperson of the earth. On the contrary, this The death and loss caused by a disaster become less important.Not only did everyone not express indignation or accusations against the invaders’ brutal acts, but sometimes some people were excited when they saw the ruins in the newspapers and news. I am sure that these people should not be my neighbors.

I still remember that when two or three boys learned that I had seen aliens with my own eyes, they pestered me for several days, asking me to recall what happened that day over and over again, until one day I couldn't bear it anymore and greeted them. Relatives, as a result, a few days later there was a mental illness in our class whose parents died. Such a rumor spread throughout the grades. The person also found me and asked me stupidly if I could talk about my feelings, and I answered every question she asked very politely.Although I hate that stupid idiot, I feel a little guilty in my heart when she left crying and covering her mouth. I have to ask myself, can I live and study with these sunny and cheerful people? Under one roof.

I have been enduring, hoping that everything will be better, but I found myself farther and farther away from the peers around me, until something happened that pushed me out of my familiar environment.

I still remember that in the last three months when we were preparing for the senior high school entrance examination, because my grades were not satisfactory, the average grade of our class was dragged down by me. The time when I woke up was really tormenting!I don't even know what I'm holding on to.

I remember that it was an afternoon, and I was about to go home, but was blocked by several boys in the same class.

"Look at that bear look on that man, it makes me angry." A sly-eyed guy pointed at me and said.

"Don't say anything about him, he has passed the exam like that, show some face to the handicapped." Another guy echoed.I clenched my fists tightly, and my nails were deeply embedded in my palms, which was painful.

"Be patient," I said to myself.

I know a few of them. Because these six people often play pranks in our class, it has caused many teachers a headache. He was recommended to a prestigious school, and I have dealt with the guy who is the leader. After I just returned to school, this boy named Li Qiang was the first classmate who came to say hello to me, but I always feel that this person doesn’t care. It's a bit unpredictable to always have a smiling face, and he always inquires about my life intentionally or unintentionally, so I am only superficially friendly with him, but rarely get close to him.Later, I found out that my initial precautions were correct. This person is very smart and understands people's bad habits very well.I bet such a person will not only not be despised by people, on the contrary, he will climb higher than others, I hope I will not have any intersection with him in the future.

"What kind of clothes are you putting on me, you useless!" A bloated boy dragged me over, and my bicycle was left aside by him.

Li Qiang swept me from head to toe, then motioned for the fat man to let go, stepped forward and stroked my wrinkled neckline pretending to be amiable.

"Chu Mingyu, your recent grades are not satisfactory! If you continue to do this, you will drag down the total score of the first in our class. Don't you feel ashamed?" Li Qiang said with a smile, but It looks rather hideous to me.

"I haven't been feeling well lately, so I..." I try not to add color to his perpetually smiling mask.

"So you are disregarding the interests of the whole class for the sake of personal comfort, which is a bit selfish, don't you think?" He said cheerfully, putting his hands on my shoulders.I stared into his eyes as if I saw something disgusting.

"I...I will try my best to keep up with everyone's progress and not to hinder our class." I replied carefully.

"Very well, I hope you can understand my difficulties. After all, as a member of the class, I don't want any worthless transfer student to ruin this honor we have worked so hard for." Li Qiang squeezed my shoulder painfully.

"I understand." I whispered, a group of girls in our class in front of us were giggling and pointing at me.

"Don't let me down, otherwise, I promise to make you disappear from the class." His face slowly approached my ear, I looked at the gray sky in front of me, and heard him say the sentence "I will never forget you all my life" Never forget the words.

"Do you know what a poor person must hate, you damn stray dog."

Before he could utter his last word I tripped him with a sweep of my legs and rained down on the scum with all my strength and rage.At that time, I only had anger, the anger I had suppressed for a long time. When I hit him, the group of boys tore my clothes and tried to pull me away, but for some reason, I felt that there was only me and me lying on the ground in my world. This bastard, I just want to punch him a few more times. My reason and my cowardice have disappeared at this moment. At that time, there was only one thought in my mind: I will kill you, beast!

What happened afterwards was reasonable. Li Qiang's parents went to the school, claiming that if the matter was not dealt with seriously, they would sue the school leaders to the education committee. The teacher called me to the podium for three consecutive morning self-study sessions, and told me He yelled at me, saying that I was a burden to the class, not only willing to degenerate, but also hurt Li Qiang, the class leader who is both good in character and academics.Looking back now, I don't remember anything about that teacher, but what she said to me will always be in my heart.

"Are you saying that you are worthy of your deceased parents by doing this? Are you worthy of their upbringing?"

so funny!Even if my parents are alive, they will not stop me from resisting those who oppress me. Although my approach is a bit radical, what can I do?Who cares about my feelings?Teachers, schools, and my adoptive parents don’t care much about me. They won’t give me real help, and they will only prevaricate me with some high-sounding polite words.In this way, I was given a punishment of probation by the school, and I was even dragged by the grade director and several tall and burly senior boys to do a psychological evaluation. When I told my adoptive parents the bad news Their reaction was surprisingly calm. They just gave me a few words of verbal education and then sighed. Very important.

After spending the most difficult summer in my life so far, I did not expect to be admitted to the worst high school in our place. If that kind of place is called a school, I have naturally become the one in the eyes of my classmates and teachers. laughing stock.

In the next three years of high school, I lived in a muddle, neither learning anything useful nor leaving any good memories.Until now, I've been thinking, am I wrong?I was wrong, I shouldn't hurt others, and when I was hurt, my behavior seemed to be right. Sure enough, my outlook on life and values ​​have been distorted beyond repair. Maybe I'm really sick.

"I did something wrong, and I paid the price." I looked into Raul's eyes and said weakly.

"Are you willing?"

"what?"

"Based on our observations of you in the past, you are not the kind of person who can go with the situation. There must be desire in your heart, am I right?"

I am speechless.

"What do you think of your future? Do you have a bright future? Do you have a reasonable plan?" Raul asked me.I was speechless.

"You have only one life, and that is to graduate from a third-rate university or junior college, find a job that doesn't make ends meet, and spend your life in mediocrity, while those who bullied you stand on top and laugh at you situation, but if you become a scout, then everything will be different, at least not the same as now, child." Raul said, patting me on the shoulder.

"Give me some time, I want to think about it, after all, this matter is of great significance." Facing the pressing Raul, I had no choice but to say this, but I began to feel that what he said was not unreasonable.

"Well, I'll wait for you here at twelve o'clock tomorrow morning. As long as you haven't come after twelve o'clock, then I will leave, and you will never see me again." Raul rubbed his hands stand up.

"Wait! Tomorrow, there is too little time!" I asked in surprise.

"Remember, child! No matter what time it is, don't let the opportunity wait for you. Goodbye, Chu Mingyu." Raul brushed the snow off my head with a smile, then turned and left.

Is this a dream?I looked at the street with people coming and going and thought, or is this an opportunity?But no matter what, Raul is right, don't let the opportunity wait for me, then let me take a gamble!After all, I have nothing to lose.