Working Prophet

Chapter 915 Debate in the snow (Thanks to the leader for the promise of happiness)

"How long will it take for us to reach our destination?" Corinne asked.

"Let me take a look." Song Deyang took out a crumpled city map and a 19-year-old Shanghai travel brochure from his backpack.

The wind speed had slowed down a bit now, but it still made the pages in his hand rattle, and tiny ice shards hit his goggles.

Song Deyang looked around and saw tall buildings with strange shapes in the distance.

Then he turned his back to the direction of the cold wind and opened the travel brochure in his hand. Corini also came over curiously.

"Here." She pointed to a promotional page and said in standard Mandarin, "That's the Shanghai World Financial Center, in... Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone. What is a financial and trade zone?"

"I don't know either." Song Deyang shook his head. "The apocalypse had already arrived for almost ten years when I was born, but I heard from my mother that this place was once a metropolis with more than 25 million people living there."

"Twenty-five million? This is too exaggerated." Corinne said, "It is equivalent to 2,500 times the population of the settlement. But I also heard my dad say that there are more than 10 million people in Paris. The end of the world is coming. It must be very lively there.”

Song Deyang spread out the city map again, found the financial and trade area and the World Financial Center on it, and determined the direction.

Then he put the map and travel brochure back into his backpack. Then he looked at his watch and said, "Let's go. We have to arrive at the library before noon, so we can have lunch there."

"Okay, I like books the most." Corinne cheered, "They not only bring us knowledge, but also help us keep warm."

After a brief pause, the two young men continued walking forward.

Their figures looked a little lonely in the wind and snow.

"Why did you apply to be an investigator?" Corini asked again, perhaps out of boredom, "This is the most dangerous job with the highest mortality rate."

"Because you can get double the salary." Song Deyang said, "And you can get bonuses for bringing back valuable things."

"Are you short of money?" Corini was a little surprised. "Our food, medical care and accommodation are all free. Why do you need so much money? Are you going to use it to buy electricity and play games?"

Song Deyang did not answer Corini's question, but instead asked, "What about you, why do you want to be an investigator? Aren't you afraid of death?"

"I'm afraid, but I also want to see the outside world." Corini, "My dad always told me how beautiful the city was before the cold wave came, and told me about those football games, endless concerts, fashion weeks... I wanted to see with my own eyes the traces of past civilizations.”

Song Deyang snorted.

"Why, you seem to have a different opinion."

"No, my nose was just a little itchy just now." Song Deyang said.

At this time, Corini suddenly let out an exclamation. Song Deyang immediately became alert and held the ice ax hanging on his waist, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I think I saw a coffee shop." Corini said excitedly. She squatted down and used her gloves to sweep away the snow under her body, revealing the ice below.

Through the ice, she saw a deer antler sign and the English words of Lukin Coffee below.

Song Deyang breathed a sigh of relief and let go of his hand holding the ice ax. Seeing her fuss, he couldn't help but said, "It's just a coffee shop."

"It's just a coffee shop. Have you ever drank freshly ground coffee?"

"No."

"Me neither, but my dad said that when he was young, he would drink it every day, and there would be more than one cup. If he didn't drink for a day, he would feel weak."

"Your father must be lying to you. Facts have proved that humans can live well without coffee, otherwise the settlements would not have grown coffee until now."

"That's because our food supply has been very tight and we don't have the spare greenhouses to grow the cash crops that can improve our lives."

"snort."

"Here you go again, I can probably guess why you want to be an investigator."

"Why?"

"Because you don't interact with others of your own kind, you will definitely be ostracized by your colleagues when working in a settlement."

Corini made a face, but her face was tightly wrapped in a thick scarf, and Song Deyang couldn't see her expression clearly.

"I just don't understand why you always miss the past." Song Deyang said, "I don't think there is anything wrong with it now."

"Oh, are you talking about the time when we braved the severe cold and risked losing temperature and food by walking more than 800 kilometers to Shanghai, and then we were less than 30 meters away from the coffee shop, but we couldn't get in? ?”

"Coffee, like Mercedes-Benz, is just a non-necessity. In the past society, they used them to distinguish classes."

"Oh, so are you going to teach me political lessons now?"

"No, I'm just seeking truth from facts." Song Deyang said, "The prophet stipulated that the gap between the highest income and the lowest income in settlements is six times, and all transactions are settled using electronic currency and can be traced, which greatly reduces corruption in administrative agencies. The probability.

"Do you know that in the world you long for, how many times the income of the richest people and the poorest people can differ?"

"I don't know ten times, twenty times? It can't be hundreds of times."

"A hundred billion times, that's what my mother told me, and she was a worker."

Corini's mouth opened wide, "A hundred billion times, how is this possible? What I mean is that I accept that people are born with differences in intelligence, emotional intelligence, including origin, and the importance of the work they do is also different.

"But the value created by their labor...is not as exaggerated as the difference of hundreds of billions of times."

"That's the problem." Song Deyang said, "And those workers at the lowest level have been deprived of even the right to have weekends off. I don't think there is anything to aspire to in such a world.

"Even though they have created countless good things like coffee, luxury cars, and yachts. But...

"But the more wealth the worker produces, the greater the power and quantity of his products, the poorer he becomes. The more commodities the worker creates, the more he becomes a cheap commodity. The increase in the value of the world of things is the same as the devaluation of the world of people. Directly proportional.”

Corinne then continued, "This is the original words of Karl Marx in the "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844". I told you that I also like reading.

"But you have to admit that in terms of material civilization alone, the people who lived in that era were very happy."

Song Deyang frowned.

"OK, it's that expression again, just say what you want." Corini said helplessly.

"No scientific research can prove that the more developed material civilization is, the happier human beings are. People who lived in the Tang Dynasty are not necessarily unhappy than people who live in the 21st century. In the same way, I don't think our life now is as good as in the past.

"While our civilization may have stagnated or even regressed."

"Okay, you win, big debater, I just hope we can find some canned fruit at noon..." Corinne licked her lips, ending the brief debate.

In the snow, two figures continued to walk slowly towards the tall buildings in the distance.