Chapter 28 Leaving Gaza

  The lights had just come on, and the night sky looked particularly beautiful. In a suite at a five-star hotel near Cairo Airport in eastern Cairo, all the lights were on, including the TV. The door to the outer room was open, and a young woman rushed in, her high heels clicking on the floor. "Brother, do you want to see the news? You have no idea how popular you are right now, it's true!"

  He held a stack of books and newspapers in his hand, all written in English, which I didn't recognize. Of course, I wouldn't bother with him, so I continued to watch the 50-inch TV screen showing a train moving scene. He put that stack of magazines on the high-legged table next to my high-backed chair, still glancing at me watching the TV program. After a while, he smiled lewdly, revealing his neat teeth, and I had to say that even though he was smiling so indecently, he was still handsome.

  "Brother, what kind of program is this? Do you know? Guess, you definitely can't understand what's written above, but you can guess!"

  I didn't pay attention to this guy continuing to watch my TV, until he appeared in front of me again and came to my left side, picked up the vodka on the high table, looked at the bottom of the cup without ice, and gulped it down, "Ah...this is a real drink, brother you're really good at drinking, only vodka without ice is the drink for men..."

  "Get out of here, you've never been to Shenyang. In my hometown, even the old ladies drink two jars of baijiu before drinking a few bottles of lao xue. What's with your wine? It's not even as good as Xiao Tie's! I straightened up from the high-backed chair, lightly shaking my half-long hair, and turned off the TV with the remote control. Only then did I look at him: "Your Mandarin... oh... Northeastern dialect, you speak it pretty well. What are you pretending to be a foreigner for? Every day? Second-generation immigrants from the Northeast are more rustic than those from Guangdong?"

  "Not that kind of meaning, the Chinatown I lived in was the territory of Qingbang Hongmen, they all spoke Cantonese and Minnan dialect, forced by life, forced by life!"

  This guy also felt a bit embarrassed, and suddenly lowered his head slightly to look at the side, standing on his left foot, as if to check if his pants were clean, in order to avoid embarrassment. Indeed, now the second generation of immigrants generally do not have that kind of tenacity and coarseness from living on the mainland, no longer having that thick grainy feeling, even if he is older than me or around my age, but wherever we go, people will think I'm the older brother and he's the younger brother. This may just be the difference brought by life.

  I'm just a person with the worldview and cognition of my age, not more mature than ordinary people. However, compared to this child who has grown up overseas and claims to have rich life experiences, I seem much more mature than him. This is not my problem, but his own issue.

  I didn't want to continue with this nonsense, so I stood up and picked up the magazines on the small table, flipping through them one by one. However, I found that many of them had no pictures, and the only three that did have pictures all used the same image. This really made me feel embarrassed again. With a lack of interest, I put these things back on the high desk, unbuttoned the middle button of my suit jacket, reached out to touch the back of the high-back chair, and looked at this young man who wasn't saying anything.

  "Is brother dissatisfied with their camera technique? Next time we'll take a good picture and then give it to them, okay?"

  "Get lost, is there anything important to discuss? With Hassan not around, I'm counting on you. Don't be a complete waste of time, you're asking for a beating! When can we return to Gaza City?" I still can't understand how I was bombed by Israel and then hunted down by Hamas, barely escaping with my life from the Gaza Strip just because I told the truth and denied being a terrorist mastermind. Luckily, I still have high support among the people and even within the Qassam Brigades, which is why I received advance warning again and managed to slip away once more."

  When they came to kill me, I had Mahmoud drive my carriage to the inn in Gaza City, and I took Hassan with me to the border of Baal, leaving only Hassan in charge, and sneaked into the convoy carrying supplies to escape to Egypt. It was a narrow escape, but it also made me angry enough to grind my teeth, and I immediately told Dr. Jiao that he had cut off the supply of Gaza City, after all, they did not provide uranium ore according to the contract, nor did they show any signs of resuming work. Therefore, when Dr. Jiao learned that I was attacked, he also agreed with my opinion, and even comforted me by saying that everything here is under my full responsibility.

  I think since Jiao Ge trusts me so much, I might as well cut off their subsequent supplies. After all, they're just weapons and ammunition, and the living supplies from before haven't appeared on the market either. Moreover, Shui Cui asked me to contact a buyer for these things, let's just sell them all off, don't leave any behind.

  We are here because there is an organization in North Africa that opposes the Arab ethnic cleansing of Africa, which suddenly gave me a boost. Although I was bombed by Israel and Hamas deliberately publicized it, Hamas turned around and attacked me, making me feel disgusted with forces like Hamas. At the same time, discussing arms deals to counter Arab world powers in the capitals of Arab countries is interesting to me.

  This is already the third day I've been trading weapons here, and it's also the fifth day since I accepted an interview. At this point, I'm totally on fire - many American magazines, networks, and TVs are reporting my story, and what's more, many European countries that don't even care about Middle Eastern politics are re-posting my news. From what I can gather, the US and other NATO countries, as well as the EU, have already labeled me as a new terrorist mastermind after Bin Laden. This fills me with awe and guilt towards Ben Laden's original terrorist mastermind ****, who has been robbed of his name by me - how can I show my face?

  I've been seemingly idle with Shui Cui these days, but actually I'm waiting for a group of mercenaries to arrive. I have no idea where Shui Cui got this job from, saying that he's going to take a group of mercenaries to a semi-civilian training base in Israel for training and learning. When I heard it, I thought he was crazy. Is my newly-minted terrorist master dare to show his face in Israel? Isn't he afraid of being beaten up directly?

  I dared to promise him that I would wait for this group of mercenaries to agree to go to Israel together, and it was really my fault that I agreed to come down with his words.