Why it never ends

Chapter 929 The other side

Hesta stood in the corridor and watched the old man enter. Before the black door closed completely, the old man suddenly stopped.

"Perhaps I am talking too much," she looked at Hesta, "your eyes."

Hesta was startled, and the old man had already closed the door. Hesta looked at a mottled standing mirror piled in the corridor. When he got closer, he could indeed see a circle of silver edge.

It seems that this old lady also recognizes mercury needles.

Hesta looked towards the wooden door again, then quickly went downstairs and returned to the round table on the street. The open-air seats that were empty just now were now full of people. It seemed that more and more people realized that the exit inspection by the gendarmerie would take a while, so they chose to find a place to rest for a while.

Everyone sitting here was on the phone, even the pedestrians on the street and Valeria sitting opposite her. Hesta was still wondering why everyone was acting in unison as if they had agreed to do so. Her own cell phone rang too - Eucalyptus had just heard from the radio that a terrorist attack had occurred on the main road near the city hall. The casualties were not known yet, so she called to ask if Hesta was safe.

…It turned out to be a safe call.

"I'm indeed stuck here. I won't be back until later... I don't know how long, maybe more than an hour. Well, don't worry, I'm fine."

Eucalyptus sighed a few times and said that everything was fine, and Rico took the phone.

"How did you get stuck there?" Li Ge laughed at the other end, "Did you go to see the cultural relics convoy alone?"

Hesta did not answer immediately. He tapped the table with his fingers, thinking about how to explain: "Uh..."

"I knew it," Rico said, "Yesterday I asked you over and over again if you were going, and you kept saying no, but today you left us alone to join in the fun?"

"No, please listen to my explanation..."

"Come back and bring us some food. It's a bit chaotic outside the apartment today, so we won't go out. Let's go to a decent restaurant and take food back. Don't buy instant food, okay?"

"Okay." Hesta stood up. "It just so happens that I'm in the tea restaurant right now—"

The voice on the other end of the phone suddenly changed.

"Jane! I want to eat cake!" Eleven grabbed the phone, "Qiqi and I both want to eat cake! Buy us a cake--"

Hesta held the phone farther away. Although Eleven spoke in the language of District 14, she still understood it.

After hanging up the phone, Valeria smiled and said, "Would you like something to drink?"

"Just water."

Valeria looked at the waiter nearby: "One glass of Pacat, one glass of water..."

"A cup of what?" Hesta looked up.

"This isn't the real Pacat," Valeria explained, "After all, alcohol is forbidden in District 12."

"Pakat? You mean Pakat?"

"Yes, it's the name of a cocktail," Valeria replied. "It's very famous in the Third District. Haven't you heard of it?"

Hesta opened his mouth slightly.

What a coincidence.

……

After returning to the apartment, Hesta spent the restricted time safely beside Rico while Eucalyptus and the children were having dinner. Rico showed Hesta a few videos, and Hesta was shocked to find that about two blocks away from her, a policeman was hit by a Molotov cocktail and fell to death in the flames.

"Didn't they notice you saved two people?"

"Probably not." Hesta whispered, "If they noticed, they wouldn't let me go so easily."

"It's hard to say. Let's see if the surveillance cameras nearby are real," said Li Ge. "If they capture our tracks, it will be very troublesome."

“I thought of this, so I did not interfere with the police bullets at that time, but chose to save people.”

"They won't play this kind of word game with you." Rico lay down next to Hesta, "It would be a bit passive to conflict with them here... We have to go to Emanlia quickly."

Hesta's eyes fell on the luggage in the corner again.

Because of her text message in the morning, Eucalyptus and the others had already repacked all their luggage, but now because a section of the Eternal Tree was looted by the Red Palm Sangha, all traffic in and out of the entire Saint Lom has been banned again. The gendarmerie is searching every house in the city for the fleeing monks, and no one knows when traffic will be restored.

"But I met a very interesting old lady today." Hesta suddenly said, "Do you know the Red Palm Sangha?"

"I'll shock you if I tell you this," Li Ge raised his lips slightly, "I've been to the school they built in the mountains."

Hesta struggled to turn his head, "Have you met them yet?"

"I have met him, but we don't get along very well. The southern part of District 12 is quite chaotic. There are more than 400 armed organizations with names and surnames, and one-fifth of them have more than 500 members. The Red Palm Sangha has little presence among them, mainly because they have never participated in violent activities before. At most, they would sit in the streets and post slogans."

"Why can't we get along?"

"It's simple," Rico also turned sideways and pointed at his cheek, "It's mainly because of this face from the third district. I'm treated like an enemy wherever I go."

"…Didn't you tell them that you were actually from District 4?"

Li Ge laughed out loud: "What's the difference? Go on and tell me what the old lady said to you."

Hesta roughly recounted everything that happened in the morning, and Rico listened with great interest: "Very interesting, did you ask her what she does?"

"No, but I asked her name," Hesta answered. "You know, I asked her name today, and then I heard Valeria say that it was also a kind of wine - this person ran away to live in a place where her name is taboo -"

The smile on Rico's face slowly faded: "Is the old lady's name Pacat?"

Hesta was a little surprised: "Yes, how did you——"

"Pacat Bodudel?" Rico asked.

"You know each other!"

"I don't know her, but I know her." Rico lowered his eyes, "She used to be a well-known supporter of the abolition of the death penalty. I heard that this person came to District 12 last year... I didn't expect that she was in Saint-Lome."

"She said her daughter was also here, but she just returned to District 3 recently—"

"How could she have a daughter?" Rico interrupted Hesta directly. "This man only had one son, who was hacked to death in the street decades ago. She personally signed a letter of pardon, reducing the murderer's sentence from thirty years to seven years... But the murderer killed another person four months after he was released from prison. This time the victim he chose was younger, and his method of committing the crime was even more cruel than before."

"……Then what?"

"Nothing happened. I haven't heard much from her in these years, and she rarely writes articles in newspapers or columns," Rico replied. "I hope she feels guilty for killing another person."