Chapter 6 The Old Beggar

Today is Sunday, and there are many people in Plaza de España, much more than usual.

From time to time, you can also see tourist groups from all over the world appearing on the square. They came to the statue of Cervantes on this square.

As the most famous Spanish literary giant, Don Quixote created by Cervantes is well-known to every household. Today his statue stands in the center of the square like the statue overlooking Don Quixote and Sancho.

The square itself was built to commemorate Cervantes. It was built in 1930 and has been around for a long time. It is only because of Cervantes that this square has become a favorite place for tourists. Many tourists like to take photos next to the Don Quixote statue to show their visit here.

But Chang Sheng is not interested in admiring the statues of Cervantes and Don Quixote.

Even though he squatted right in front of the statues of Cervantes and Don Quixote.

The Plaza de España on Sunday was full of people, the chairs for resting people were full, and even the edge of the fountain was full of people, so he could only squat in front of these two groups of statues.

But even so, he couldn't enjoy his lunch in peace.

Because of his location, people keep coming to take pictures with the statue.

Teams of tourists from all over the world like to take photos in front of the famous Don Quixote and Sancho statues, proving that they have been to Plaza de España, Madrid, and Spain.

And Chang Sheng happened to occupy the position of their group photo.

People kept coming up and asking him to move, move.

Chang Sheng just moved, moved, moved from left to right, from right to left.

In the end, he got annoyed, and when another group of tourists came to him and wanted to take a group photo, he suddenly stood up from the ground, startling them.

Then he patted his butt without saying a word, and went around to the back of the statue. Although there are many people resting here, at least no one will come to the back of the statue to take a group photo - who wants to have a head in his photo? Donkey ass...

He squatted down behind the statue again, just like he was squatting on the sidelines of the court to think about problems. He stared at the crowd in front of him in a daze, his eyes were out of focus.

In his hand, he held a whole-wheat bread stick with only one bite, about half a meter long, with a very hard taste. This is one of the staple foods of the Spaniards. It is very difficult to bite, and the Chinese are not used to this kind of taste. Chang Sheng is not used to it either, but he has no choice but to eat this now.

He took another bite of the bread in a daze for a while, then chewed vigorously, with a ferocious expression, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as "gritting teeth". As if what he was biting was not the bread, but the body of some bitch...

After being rejected by Atletico Madrid, he spent two months traveling almost all of Spain, not for tourism, but to find a job for himself.

But now, the new season of 1999-2000 has started, and he has not found a suitable job yet.

There are various reasons. There are problems with the club and there are problems with him.

Either the other party looked down on him; or he felt that his salary was too low, just like a beggar; or the expectations of the position did not match; or the club didn't even give him a chance to meet him...

In short, after more than two months, he traveled all over Spain, spent the last salary he received from Real Madrid, and he was still an unemployed person.

In order to find a job, he quit the house he was renting in Madrid.

But now, apart from the piece of bread in his hand, there are only two hundred and thirty-one pesetas left in his whole body.

At this time, the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the peseta is one U.S. dollar equals one hundred and eighty pesetas. Chang Sheng doesn't even have two dollars on him now.

In 1999, Spain had four consecutive years of inflation,

Now is the time when prices are soaring, and there is not much that two hundred pesetas can do.

Fortunately, the room rate of the hotel was prepaid, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to live in the hotel. Even the cheapest chain hotel.

But the room fee he paid was only enough for him to live until tomorrow. If he couldn't find a job tomorrow, he might have to sleep on the road like those homeless people.

No matter how miserable Chang Sheng was in his last life, he wasn't so miserable.

Do you really want him to experience everything his brother has experienced again? Does that mean I have to go to the trash can to plan food next?

I also thought about making some money by using my knowledge of being ahead of the world by 13 years.

But soon he admitted defeat.

In the previous life, he was a full-time senior football nerd, and he was not interested in anything other than football.

He can't remember the winning numbers of any lottery. He has heard that some stocks are very popular, such as Google, Yahoo, etc., but he has no start-up capital. Even if it's gambling... In the summer of 1999, there was an America's Cup, but gambling is not that simple. If you only know the outcome of the game, Chang Sheng's income is limited. If you spend all the money on your body, you may not be able to swing What a splash. Unless he can still remember the scores of each game, but who would remember such a remote game like the America's Cup so clearly? Chang Sheng is not a loyal fan of American football. If he is not allowed to Baidu, how can he remember so clearly?

Even if he knew about such a major event that could affect the international political and economic trends, he would not be able to make money for himself.

Could he go to the United States and say to the U.S. government, "I know you are going to have a big event in 2001. If you give me a lot of money, I will tell you the exact date"? I'm afraid that if he does this, he will either be imprisoned or directly deported from the United States...

When he returned to China, real estate was a money-making thing, but on the one hand, he didn't have the capital, and he couldn't even afford a house. In addition, even if he can afford to buy a house, he will starve to death when the house appreciates...

Copying the online novels of the great gods in the future? In 1999, the Chinese Internet was still a paradise for liberals, and it was free for others to read. If someone saw it, it would be flattering you. How dare you charge money? Publishing in Taiwan can make money, but it is rare after all. And it's still the same sentence - far away water can't quench near thirst. Even if he was able to publish in Taiwan smoothly, he would probably be starved to death.

In short, besides finding a job immediately, he has no other means of supporting him.

If it really doesn't work...

Why don't you just go to a Chinese restaurant to wash the dishes?

There is no technical content in the work of washing dishes, and it does not require education and work experience. He should be able to do it.

Pursuing dreams is worthy of respect and enthusiasm, but first of all, you have to feed yourself first. Otherwise, if you starve to death on the road of pursuing your dreams, whose fault is that?

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Falling into another trance, Chang Sheng suddenly felt a little dark in front of him.

When he came back to his senses, he found an old man standing in front of him.

He looked up to observe.

The clothes are fairly neat, but the matching is very weird, as if they were randomly put together by pulling one piece here and another piece here. Perhaps in ten years, everyone will think that this is a post-modern style, very avant-garde and fashionable, but now there is only one feeling - this is a beggar.

The old beggar stood in front of Chang Sheng, looked at him, silent, just stretched out his right hand.

Chang Sheng looked left and right, and there were people beside him, people who stopped and people who were walking, but the old beggar seemed to have only himself in his eyes, standing in front of him, and stretched out his hand to him.

Chang Sheng didn't wave his hand to tell the old beggar to go away, don't disturb him to think about life.

He just opened his hands to the man in front of him and said, "I only have two hundred and thirty-one pesetas for my whole body. But I can't give you this money, because I live on this money myself."

There were many people around, some of them were in a hurry, some of them walked leisurely, they walked past and around Chang Sheng and the old beggar. But no one cast their eyes here, Chang Sheng looked at them, all these people passed by them as usual, without even turning their eyes.

Even if Westerners pay more attention to privacy, they can't keep their eyes on each other, can they?

He felt strange.

But now is not the time to think about this, the beggar is still standing in front of him and has not left.

And it seems that he will not give up until he reaches his goal.

Chang Sheng looked at him again, and saw that the beggar was staring at the bread in his hand, his eyes full of longing.

This is one of the staple foods of the Spaniards, a baguette, about half a meter long. When he chose to buy this bread, he originally thought that he would eat half of it for lunch and keep the other half for dinner. As a person who doesn't even have two dollars in his pocket, he can only live so frugally. He doesn't even know where to go for tomorrow's three meals.

But now it seems that this dinner can't be kept.

He sighed: "Okay, okay, I only took a few bites of this bread, if you don't mind, I'll give you half of it."

The other party did not express any objection.

Chang Sheng carefully broke the piece of bread in half.

The reason why he was careful was not to spill too much bread crumbs, and now he has no right to waste food.

He gave the old beggar the half he hadn't bitten.

The beggar didn't refuse, and just took a big gulp.

Looks like he's really hungry.

While biting the bread, the beggar sat down beside Chang Sheng.

Chang Sheng looked at this uninvited old man and suddenly found it very interesting.

With so many people here, how did he find himself?

But to me, he is a stranger, and he may never have any intersection in his life.

Similarly, for him, he is also a stranger, and there will be no intersection in the rest of his life.

After two months of struggling to pursue his dream, until today he finally ran out of ammunition and food. Chang Sheng, who was a little depressed and hesitant, suddenly wanted to talk. Isn’t the old beggar sitting next to him chewing bread a good listener? ?

He wanted to tell the old beggar a story, not his story, of course, but his brother's.

"Hey, do you want to hear a story?" he asked the beggar next to him.

The beggar looked up, with crumbs around his lips.

He carefully licked the bread crumbs in with his hands and tongue, and then spoke for the first time: "Please tell me."

"So you're not dumb..." Chang Sheng rolled his eyes when he heard him speak.

Then he began to tell the story of his brother to this old beggar whom he had never met.

It was really a legendary epic of chasing dreams...

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PS, continue to ask for recommendation tickets on Monday, so that we can push the position higher on the list next week!

In addition, the outbreak is over, and the guaranteed update mode of two chapters per year will resume tomorrow. If there is an outbreak, I will notify everyone in advance. In addition, if the alliance leader is born, there will be a temporary update, but this day, I am in Zhuhai, and it is not convenient to surf the Internet. If there is a need to add updates, please return to Chengdu to talk about it... But I really don’t think it is difficult to have a leader The situation of adding more...