Chapter 16 Mao Mao Chapter 16 Poverty in Richness

"Hey, where are you going?" the driver asked when Momo sat in Gigi's long luxury car again. The little girl stared ahead in bewilderment.What should she tell him?Where should she go?She must go to Cassiopeia.But where to find it?Where is it?When did you lose it?One thing is for sure, though, when she and Gigi drove to the airport together, it was no longer with her. Then, it must have been thrown at Jiji's house!At this time, she suddenly remembered the words "goodbye" and "I'm going to find you" that appeared on the tortoise shell at that time.Cassiopeia had clearly foreseen that they would soon be separated.Now, Cassiopeia must be looking for Mao Mao too, but where can Mao Mao find it?

"Hey, can you tell me where to go quickly?" The driver tapped his fingers on the steering wheel impatiently and asked, "I have other things to do besides take you for a drive!" "Please drive to Jiji's house." Maomao replied. The driver looked at Maomao strangely and said, "I think I should send you back to my home. Do you want to live with us now?" "No." Mao Mao said, "I lost something in the street there, and now I have to look for it." It was just right for the driver, who was going back anyway. The car stopped in front of Jiji's villa, Mao Mao jumped out of the car, and immediately began to look around.

"Casiopeia, Cassiopeia!" she called softly again and again. "What are you looking for?" The driver poked his head out of the window. "Master Hula's tortoise." Mao Mao replied, "It's called Cassiopeia, and it can always predict what will happen half an hour later. It writes letters on its carapace. I must find it. Please help me." , okay?" "I don't have time for silly jokes like this!" he murmured, pulling the car through the gate, which closed behind him. Maomao had to find it alone. She searched every corner of the street, but she didn't see the shadow of Cassiopeia.

"Maybe," Momo thought, "she's going back to the amphitheater." Maomao walked slowly back along the road she had walked when she came, inspecting every corner and every pothole on the road while walking, and kept calling the turtle's name, but it was all in vain. Mao Mao didn't return to the ruins of the amphitheater until late at night.With the help of a faint light in the darkness, she carefully searched the surrounding area again. Still holding on to a glimmer of hope, she thought, perhaps the tortoise had miraculously returned home before she arrived. Because it's impossible to go so slowly.

Mao Mao climbed onto the bed, and now she really felt that she was alone. Since then, for several weeks, Momo has been walking aimlessly around the big city, looking for old Beppo, the scavenger.However, no one can tell her the whereabouts of old Beppo, so she can only hope to meet him by chance on the street. In such a huge city, the possibility of two people meeting unexpectedly is of course extremely small. This is like a victim who throws a float bottle for help into the rough sea. The hope is slim. But Mao Mao said to himself, maybe they are very close, maybe they just walked through that place, old Beppo just passed here just an hour ago, a minute ago, or even a second ago.Who knows how many times this has happened.Or on the contrary, the place she just walked, the corner she came to, Old Beppo just happened to pass by here sooner or later.Who knows how many times this has happened.Because of this kind of thinking, Maomao often stays in a certain place for several hours.

In the end she had to go on.However, there is also the possibility of missing the opportunity to meet in this way. How she needs Cassiopeia now!If it is around, it will suggest to her whether to "wait" or "keep going"!Maomao really didn't know what to do now.Wait, she is afraid that she won't meet old Beppo, let's go, and she is afraid that old Beppo will come soon, she really feels in a dilemma. She also wished to see the children who used to come to her, but she saw none.On the street, there were no children at all, and she remembered Nino's words, the children were being watched now.

Since Mr. Gray never stopped monitoring her work in private, Mao Mao was never caught by the police or adults and sent to the "Children's Home".The Mister Gray did this because the plan they were using against Fluffy was immature.Of course, Maomao didn't know anything about it. She went to Nino to have a meal every day, and every time it was the same as the first time, she had no chance to talk to Nino. Nino was always so busy that he never had time to have a word with her. Weeks passed, and months passed.Mao Mao was still alone. One evening, she was sitting on the railing of a bridge when suddenly she saw a short, hunchbacked figure on another bridge in the distance, swinging a broom rapidly, as if he couldn't live without it.Maomao thought it was old Beppo, so he called him loudly and kept waving, but the man didn't stop working for a moment.Mao Mao ran towards the man, but when she ran to the bridge, the man had disappeared.

"Maybe it's not old Beppo," Maomao said consolingly. "No, it won't be him at all. I know what old Beppo looks like sweeping the road." For several days she stayed in the little stone room on the ruins of the amphitheater, because she had a sudden glimmer of hope, and she thought that maybe old Beppo would drop by her to see if she was back. .If it happened that she was not there, he would believe that she still hadn't come back.This might have happened a week ago or just yesterday!Thinking of this, she couldn't help feeling sad again.So she decided to keep waiting.Of course, waiting like this is futile.Finally, she had an idea and wrote a few big letters on the wall of the small stone house: I am back again.But no one but herself had seen the letters.

During this period, she could never forget the experience at Master Hola's place, and she always thought about those flowers and that kind of music. As long as you close your eyes and hold your breath to listen to your heart, you can see the beautiful flowers in bloom and hear the beautiful music.Just like the first day she heard it, she can not only repeat the words, but also sing the melody, even though they are constantly changing and updating. Sometimes, she sat alone on the stone steps all day long, talking and singing to herself.No one came to listen but the trees and the birds and the ancient stones.

There may be many different kinds of loneliness, but the kind that Maomao experiences is only understood by few people, and these people must at least have her self-control. She felt that she was locked in a cave full of priceless treasures, which were multiplying and suffocating her. There is no exit here, and no one can come in.She couldn't even take any action to attract people's attention, so she was buried deep under the mountain. Sometimes, she even wished she had never heard that music, never seen that color.But she seemed to be forcing herself to make a choice that these memories must not be wasted in this world, even if she had to pay for it with her life.Because she now understands: some wealth, if she can't share it with others, then she herself will be destroyed because of it—every few days, Maomao runs to Jiji's villa and waits for a long time at the door.She hopes to see Gigi again.

During these days, she completely figured it out.She is willing to be with Gigi, she wants to listen to him, and she wants to tell him, whether he is the same now or not.But his door was always shut tightly. In this way, several months passed, and Mao Mao felt that this was the longest day she had ever spent.Because real time cannot be measured with clocks and calendars. She couldn't really tell what it was like to be alone like this.Perhaps it is more clear in other words, this is: If Mao Mao could find a way to Master Hou La - then she would have been running to him again and again, asking him not to allocate her time, or Begging him to let her stay in the Nowhere Building forever. But, without Cassiopeia's help, she would never find that way again.And the tortoise is still missing. Maybe it has gone back to Master Tilha long ago.Maybe it got lost somewhere in the world.It didn't come back anyway. Just then another thing happened. One day, Maomao met three children in the city. They used to go to Maomao's place often.They were Paul, Franco and the little girl Maria who always had a little sister Dede.All three of their children had changed in appearance.They wore a kind of gray uniform, and their faces were particularly dull and lifeless.Even when Mao Mao greeted them cheerfully, they barely smiled. "I found you again." Mao Mao said eagerly, "Now you go to my place, okay?" The three children exchanged glances, then shook their heads together. "Then come tomorrow, okay?" Maomao asked, "How about the day after tomorrow?" The three children shook their heads at the same time. "Oh, come back again." Mao Mao begged, "You used to come here often, how wonderful it was then!" "That was before!" replied Paul, "but now everything is different, and we can no longer waste our time in vain!" "We never waste time in vain!" Mao Mao said. "Yes, it was beautiful then," Maria said, "but that's not the problem." The three children left in a hurry, and Mao Mao followed them closely. "Where are you going now?" Mao Mao wondered. "Go to game lessons," Franco replied, "where we learn how to play." "What are you playing?" Maomao asked. "Today we play cards with holes," Paul explained. "It's useful, but you have to be careful." "How to play?" “We each deal out a card with holes, and each card has a lot of numbers on it, indicating height, age, weight, etc. Of course, this is not true, otherwise it would be too simple. Sometimes we also Indicated by very long letters and numbers, such as MUX/63/Y. Then, put the cards together, and one of us must find the prescribed card, and he must ask questions. While picking out all the other cards, only that one is left. Whoever finishes the fastest wins. " "Are you having fun?" Maomao asked suspiciously. "The question isn't whether it's fun or not," Maria said timidly. "Don't look at it that way." "Then where is the problem?" Paul replied: "The problem is that this game is good for the future." Just as they were talking, they had come to a gray building, and saw a few large characters written on the door: "Children's Home". "I have a lot to tell you." Maomao said. "Maybe we'll meet again someday," Maria said sadly. Many more children came round them, and all went through the gate.It seems that they are very similar to these three friends of Mao Mao. "It was fun when we were at your place," Franco said suddenly. "We could always come up with new tricks at your place, but now they say we can't learn anything by playing like that." "Then can't you leave here?" Maomao suggested. The three children shook their heads and looked around to see if anyone heard what they had just said. "We tried several times at first," Franco said in a low voice, "but it didn't work. They always caught us again." "You can't say that," Maria said. "We might be locked up again now." They all fell silent and stared blankly ahead.Finally, Mao Mao summoned up the courage to ask: "Can you take me with you, I am lonely now." It was too late to say, and then a strange phenomenon appeared: before the three children had time to answer, they were picked up. A huge magnetic force sucked into the building, and the door slammed shut. Mao Mao saw this scene with his own eyes and couldn't help being surprised.After a while, she wanted to go to the door and ring the bell or knock. She wanted to ask them again to let her play with them, anything.But before she could take a step forward, she froze.Between her and the gate, a Mr. Gray suddenly appeared. "Forget it!" he said dryly, with a cigar in his mouth. "You don't even have to try! It's not in our interest to have you there." "Why?" Maomao asked.She felt a puff of cold air rising from her ducts. "Because we plan to do something else with you." Mr. Gray explained, and then exhaled a smoke ring, which wrapped around Mao Mao's neck like a rope, and it took a long time before it disappeared. Many people hurried past them. Maomao pointed at Mr. You, wanting to ask them for help, but she couldn't make a sound. "Forget it!" Mr. Gray let out a blunt, dingy laugh as he said, "Don't you know us yet? You still don't know how powerful we are?We've captured all your friends, and no one can help you anymore.Even for you, we can do whatever we want.But we burned you, as you can see. " "Why?" Momo asked with difficulty. "Because we want you to do something for us," replied Mr. Gray, "and if you were wiser, you would get many benefits—and your friends. Would you?" "Okay." Momo whispered. Mr. Gray smiled dryly: "Then let's talk about it in detail when we meet at midnight today." Maomao nodded silently, but Mr. Gray had already disappeared without a trace. Only the smoke he left still hangs in the air. As for where she should meet him, Mr. Gray did not say.