Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

The overall consumption in Bulgaria is indeed relatively low. To give the simplest example, staying here only costs 70 euros a night, which is half cheaper than a room of the same quality in the UK.

Because he arrived several days in advance, Liang En not only prepared the materials needed for the exchange meeting, but also went on a trip to Sofia.

The city center of Sofia is very small and the attractions are concentrated. One day is enough to explore on foot. The surrounding hotels are also within two kilometers of the city and can be reached quickly by car.

After a day's travel, the two biggest impressions of this city on Liang En and the others were two: one was that there was a church at every intersection, which was far denser than in Western Europe, and the other was that there were lion statues everywhere in the city.

The reason why there are so many lion statues is that the lion is the symbol of this country, and the number of churches is purely suitable for the local economic situation. After all, people do need some spiritual comfort when they are empty.

Whether it was in his previous life or this life, Liang En saw in many articles that people praised the people in this country for being laid-back, enthusiastic and with a slow pace of life, and then criticized the impetuousness of certain countries.

After actually coming to this country, Liang En found that the appearance was exactly the same as what those travel bloggers wrote, but the actual situation was that poverty had penetrated this city and even this country on a large scale.

This is why you can see drunks on the streets during the day and why the pace of local life is so slow. After all, why not take a break when you can't make any money soon?

According to official statistics, Bulgaria has the lowest per capita income in the European Union, and its average living standard is only about half that of the European Union. Its per capita GDP is even lower than that of China, a developing country in the East with a population of more than one billion.

For this reason, there has been a large outflow of people from the entire country. Even the smallest number of outflows has reached about 20,000 people every year in recent years. This is undoubtedly a huge increase for Bulgaria, which has a population of only over 6 million. Massive blood loss.

According to statistics, in more than 20 years from 1990 to now, the country's population has plummeted from 8.63 million to 6.93 million. The reason for the decrease is basically immigration. The outflows are often valuable technical personnel and young people.

The country's backwardness leads to the loss of brains, and with the loss of brains, the country's development lags behind more and more, and over time it will fall into a vicious cycle.

There is no doubt that this large-scale immigration has caused irreversible damage to this country. After all, the core of a country is its people. It is difficult to say that a country with a continuous loss of population has any future.

Of course, as a tourist, Liang En couldn't understand this place so clearly and thoroughly in just two or three days of travel. He got this information from chatting with the driver who drove him for the past two days.

After all, he knew Bulgarian and was equally proficient in his native language, so in this case, the driver was naturally willing to chat more and answer Liang En’s questions.

As for why the driver talked so much, it was because his own experience can already explain this matter very well, so he was very depressed and wanted to find an opportunity to express it.

According to the taxi driver, he is a physical education teacher in a middle school. According to normal thinking, being a physical education teacher in the capital should be a decent and relatively moist job, but this is not the case in Bulgaria.

So after discovering that he could not support his family with the money he earned, he could only go out and drive to earn some extra money to support his family, so as to ensure the life of a family of four.

"To be honest, I am indeed lucky to have a customer like you." The driver said with emotion when driving back from visiting the famous Rila Monastery, a nearby world heritage site, that evening.

Since the other party did provide good service, he not only came early in the morning and packed the car very clean, but also helped Liang En avoid many pitfalls at tourist spots in some places, so Liang En paid the tip according to the British car rental custom.

This is why the driver seems a little excited now. After all, British tips and Bulgarian tips are not of the same order of magnitude.

"After all, your service is worth the price, and I am very happy to meet you during the trip." After hearing what the driver said, Liang En smiled, but as soon as he finished speaking, the car suddenly braked and stopped. Got there.

"——What happened?" Because of the seat belt, Liang En didn't hit the back of the seat in front of him, but the force of the seat belt just now made him feel as if someone had hit him in the chest. Same as a punch.

"I saw someone on the edge of the bridge seemed to be about to jump off." The driver said while unbuckling his seat belt, "You stay in the car first, and I'll go over and see what's going on."

"It's okay, I'll follow you." After hearing what he said, Liang En unbuckled his seat belt, then pulled the hood of his clothes over to cover his Asian face. "You know that I am a scholar. I am good at both eloquence and skill. I should be able to help you."

"Okay, then you can follow." After hearing what Liang En said, the driver waved his hand and motioned for him to follow. When the two of them came to the bridge, they saw a middle-aged man with his whole body On the outside of the railing, it seemed that he was ready to jump off at any moment.

"Hey, friend, did you call a taxi?" Seeing the agitated middle-aged man, the driver stepped forward and said, "The dispatcher said you called a taxi, so let's settle the fare now."

"No, I didn't call for a taxi." After being asked this, the middle-aged man immediately froze. For ordinary people, when someone suddenly asks you some nonsensical questions, you will naturally be stunned.

Just when he was attracted by the driver's attention, Liang En used the shadow under the light to get closer to him, and then violently pulled him back from outside the railing.

The reason why this operation was successful was partly because Liang En had surpassed ordinary humans in all aspects, so his movements were so fast that most people could not react, and partly because the man himself was hesitant.

Because for a suicidal person, if the belief in wanting to commit suicide is very firm, it is basically impossible to stand on the bridge and hesitate for that long. Most people who hesitate like this have a chance to save themselves.

After pulling the man back, Liang En and the others began to persuade the middle-aged man who had just committed suicide. At first, he was unwilling to communicate, but later he finally let down his guard and told his story.

He can speak 7 languages. He studied in Paris and has a PhD in history. After returning to his motherland, he taught high school.

But his monthly salary is only 600 leva, which is equivalent to about 2,200 yuan. It does not even reach Bulgaria’s per capita salary of 941 leva in 2016.

A family of four lives on such a small salary, and they dare not turn on the heater to save on electricity bills. The middle-aged man only has one coat to wear.

But it wasn't poverty that finally broke him, it was humiliation. The students secretly put small notes on his jacket to make fun of him, and even recorded a video and posted it online.

"Alas -" Liang En sighed after hearing what the other party said. "But you shouldn't commit suicide. No matter whether you succeed or not, it will bring endless pain to those families. It is really not a good choice."