Chapter 21 Chapter 21 The Miser's Adventure

Readers who are regular readers and therefore understand everything at once will probably have guessed that the thin traveler in the black top hat is none other than Mr. Scrooge.Less than a day and a night had passed since he dumped his "savior," but a lot had happened to the Scrooge in that short time. He ran for a long time in the forest, trying to escape as much as possible from Little Wink who was chasing him.When he turned his head and saw that no one was chasing him, he slowed down considerably. To put it simply, he walked away in a leisurely manner.He was in a good mood and full of joy.He was happy to have the freedom he longed for, and it cost him nothing.

The miser has no idea which way to turn to get to the main road where he might catch a car.So he decided to go straight without turning the corner, thinking that the forest would eventually end, and he would be able to walk where there were people. Because of all the adventures he had gone through, he felt no hunger at all, that is to say, he had no appetite at all.It should be said that this is a common phenomenon, and everyone will have such an experience, and it is impossible for people to have various feelings at the same time.It is always always a stronger feeling that excludes other, weaker ones, that is to say, replaces the one that had previously assumed the highest importance.That's exactly how Scrooge feels right now.He found that he didn't want to hold anything at all, and he knew that the hunger disappeared due to excitement.This discovery makes the miser think that if he gets excited before breakfast or lunch, he can save money on food.Just having an unpleasant conversation with someone or a fight with someone is enough.

The miser was so enamored with this ingenious idea for a while that he didn't even notice that the hunger had returned to him.It was only when he felt a tightness in his stomach that he woke up.He knew that people who got lost in the forest usually fed on berries, hazelnuts, or mushrooms, so he looked around carefully with his eyes, but he saw no hazelnuts, no berries, or even mushrooms.Losing hope of finding something to eat, the miser tried to chew a blade of grass, but it was bitter, and he spit it out in disgust.He looked around for something to eat, but he didn't realize that he had walked into a swamp.He suddenly felt slippery under his feet, and wanted to go around this dangerous place, but the ground under his feet was sinking.He was so scared that he ran back, and fell directly into a puddle within a few steps.The miser saw that there was thin mud all around him, so he jumped up from mound to mound.He managed to jump to the hard ground, but he jumped on top of a clump of old mangoes.He walked through the thorny plants, scratched his face and hands, and sat down on the grass to breathe heavily.

But he didn't sit for long because he was attacked by marsh yellow ants.As we all know, this kind of ant bite is very painful.The miser was right, he sat on the ant nest.At the beginning, he stepped on the ants with his feet and beat them with a cane, but seeing that this did not reduce the number of ants, he decided to leave the battlefield and retreat.Only then did he notice that it was getting dark.Scrooge quickened his pace, considering the day was coming to an end.He shuddered at the thought of having to spend the night in the forest.From time to time, he felt that the trees were starting to thin out, and he was about to reach the edge of the forest, but this was an illusion.The forest is still endless, and the twilight is getting heavier.

The miser knew that in a few minutes it would be completely dark, and he began to look for a place to spend the night.He found a big hole in a tree, the same height as himself.He thought that he could not find a more comfortable place to spend the night now, so he got into a tree hole and prepared to sleep. The tree hole is quite spacious.You can sit in it with your back against the cave wall and your legs raised.The miser found it comfortable, and there was a layer of last year's dead leaves underneath.The miser took off his top hat from his head, put it together with his cane at the bottom of the tree hole, and tried to fall asleep as soon as possible, but a pang of unbearable hunger dispelled his drowsiness.In addition, his legs began to ache.The miser thought that the pain in his legs was because he was not used to sleeping in shoes, so he took off his leather shoes.However, the pain in the legs did not stop, and it was not only the legs that hurt, but also the arms and the whole body.The miser understood that if he could straighten his body, the pain would go away, but he couldn't straighten his body in the tree hole, he could only sit curled up there.

After dark, the temperature dropped, and the miser was terribly cold.Feeling the cold growing, he put on his shoes again, put on his top hat, turned up his coat collar, and put on his cane and check-book.But it didn't warm him up.Until now, the miser has blindly believed that he can escape any disaster in his life so long as he does not leave his checkbook.This time, he personally experienced the same situation: neither the bank's check nor the cash has any value. Scrooge felt that he was finished, so he got out of the tree hole, jumped around the tree, and then did a whole set of quick gymnastics.It helped a little, but not for a while.As soon as the Qiang miser got back into the tree cabinet, it was extremely cold.He emerged from his hiding place several times during the night, hopping around like a grasshopper, getting somewhat warmer, and gnawing bark to satisfy his hunger.He couldn't close his eyes for a minute all night, and he was so tired that he seemed to be used as a draft animal.It seemed to him that the night was endless and endless, so that as soon as daylight broke, he left this unwelcoming shelter, only strange that he was still alive.

But the miser's adventures didn't end there.After sleepless nights, his mind was very tense, and he walked slowly, regardless of the road.However, it was not too bright in the forest yet.He stumbled and bumped into the tree trunk from time to time, and almost broke his nose.At last he managed to emerge from the forest with difficulty.A green valley lay before him, covered in places with blobs of grayish white.Miser mistook these things for snow.When he got down into the valley, the miser realized that it was not snow at all, but a fog that had condensed over the cold land at night.The mist hung so low and so thick that Scrooge walked in it as if he were neck-deep in water.Seen from the side, it seemed only the head of a miser in a black top hat was floating in the sea-water fog that enveloped the valley.

Miser himself felt as if his arms, legs, and even his torso had disappeared, leaving only a head resting on something.When he looked down, all he saw was the blurred outline of his own shoulders.When he looked up, what he saw was a silver-white moon sky with rose and light blue shimmers in some places, and he felt that the moon sky seemed to be a huge giant floating in the sky miraculously. Metal cliffs. Of course it goes without saying that Miser had once been free to enjoy the beauty of the morning sky, but he had never woken so early before.The miser, completely immersed from the neck down in the thick mist stretching in all directions to the horizon, seemed to be alone with the morning sky, which was covered with a layer of pure, soft, and shining hues, and this sight filled him with a sense of nobility. , solemn feelings.He felt that he had discovered a new, unexperienced, and unseen beauty in nature. His only regret was that he had never learned painting and could not describe this magnificent picture with colors. Take away and never leave.

The miser felt as if something stirred him inside him, and made him feel a desire to embrace the sky that spread above his head.He felt he could do it by simply reaching out.He stretched out his hands, but at this moment, he stepped on the ground and rolled to the bottom of the ditch. He rolled a few times as if doing a forward roll, and rolled to the bottom of the ditch, where he lay sprawled there.Pebbles and clods of dry earth rolled down behind him knocked on his back for a while.The rolling of earth and rocks soon stopped.Scrooge felt all over his body to make sure there were no broken ribs, and ran his hands about for the top hat that had fallen from his head.Fortunately, the top hat is not far away.The Scrooge shook the pebbles out of his top hat, put the hat back in place, and began to look around.It should be said that this is meaningless, because in the fog it is almost impossible to see anything.

Stinging his way with his stick, the miser went to the other side of the ravine and began to climb.He climbed up several times and rolled down again, but finally climbed up.The miser rested for a while, saw that the fog had lifted a little, and went on. The fog soon cleared, and Scrooge found himself walking on soft ground covered with a low, knee-high, dark green plant.He pulled one out of the ground and saw several light yellow root lumps attached to the roots.The miser inspected the root and guessed that it was the most common potato.But he was far from sure of his guesses, since he had seen potatoes only fried or boiled before, and for some reason thought they grew on trees.

The miser shook the soil off a root block, took a bite of a piece, and tried to chew it up.He found raw potatoes unpalatable, even repulsive, but thinking that no one would grow something useless at all, he put five or six potatoes pulled from the ground into his pocket, and went on Walk. Walking on soft ground with your feet constantly wrapped in potato stalks is tiring.The miser cursed the little dwarfs in a different way, as if they were trying to make things difficult for him, and they thought of digging up the surrounding land and planting these plants in his path. It is conceivable that he finally reached the ground.On the firm ground, Miser breathed a sigh of relief when he caught a whiff of smoke coming from somewhere.The smell seemed to make him feel warm and at home. "If there is smoke, it means there is fire; and if there is fire, it means that food is being cooked somewhere," thought the miser. He looked around and found some willow bushes in the distance, and a wisp of smoke curled up above the bushes.The miser made his way through the bushes with all his strength, and came to a river.Looking out from behind the bushes, he saw the river bend here, forming a small peninsula.A few weeping willows leaned over the river, their long branches hanging down to the water, and the green leaves shining with silver light kept shaking.Several streams of transparent and crystal clear water gurgled through the roots of the trees.Two dwarfs were swimming not far from the bank, and seemed to be looking for something in the river.The two of them sank under the thick and branched trees in turn, and snorted vigorously after surfacing.The other two lived by a bonfire on the shore, and put dry sticks into the fire.Under a big and old willow tree close to the river bank, there is a house that is not like a house, and a hut is not like a hut, it is more like a wooden shed in the myth.Its four walls are full of inexplicable pictures.One showed a little man in a checked cloak with a pipe in his mouth.Another picture showed the same little man, also smoking a pipe, but somehow with his feet up.On top of this upside-down little dwarf was someone's big foot, wearing shiny leather shoes.Next to it were jars of oranges, green pea pods, a head with white foam all over its hair, a smiling mouth with wide red lips and big teeth gleaming white.Then there was another soaped head, but this one turned sideways.A cup of steaming coffee, another can of oranges, a big fly, and another foot...all of this has no meaning, no connection, as if a painter went crazy, after he ran out, I want to paint the wooden sheds I encountered on the road with a crazy paintbrush. But it was not these, after all, that astonished the miser.He was breathless when he saw a sign above the entrance of the quaint barn.In large block letters the sign read: Scrooge's Macaroni Factory. "What absurdity!" muttered the miser in bewilderment. "What kind of macaroni factory is this again? Who gave them the right to write my name on this weird little shed? Or am I dreaming?" He rubbed his eyes with his fists, but none of the river, the trees, the dwarf, or the house with the writing disappeared. "If this isn't a dream, what is it? Is it a joke?" The miser was irritated, and he couldn't help clenching his fists in anger. He felt that all this was deliberately arranged by someone, as if someone had made him obey the will of that person, forcing him to walk in forests and swamps, jump on mounds, and roll into ditches, all for the purpose of keeping him alive. He lured here.Show him this ridiculous signboard. "What absurdity! Hooliganism! It's an insult to the person! It's absurd!" muttered the miser, looking at the sign that surprised him for the twentieth time. However, he began to slowly recall where he had seen this type of writing. Generally speaking, he was very, very familiar with this type of writing. "Ah!" he almost shouted suddenly. "Remember! I saw it on the macaroni boxes from my own macaroni factory, yes." On closer examination, he was sure that the sign was made of the rectangular macaroni box of plastic that the whole shed was made of.There were tobacco-cases with pictures of little men with pipes in their mouths, soap-cases with lathered heads, tooth-powder cases with shining teeth. At this time, the two dwarfs of Zhamengzi had come out of the water and got together with the two dwarfs who were warming up by the campfire. The miser wanted to go over, but he was embarrassed because the peasant uniforms of the dwarfs were all worn out. Not fully clothed.One wears only trousers and shoes; another wears a jacket and no trousers, a third has no shoes on his feet; a fourth has no hat.He saw the little ones put a big tomato pot on the fire and start to cook something, and decided to put respect aside, and walked over. "Hello, dear friends, don't you have anything to eat?" he asked in a sad voice. "To be honest, I haven't eaten all night." His words set off a storm of laughter from the dwarfs.The little man without the shirt was lying on his back with a smile, kicking his legs. The little man without trousers slapped his bare knee and cried, "What? What do you say? Haven't eaten all night? Ha-ha-ha!" "Excuse me, man," he said at last. "We live by the rule that five minutes of laughter is worth a loaf of bread, so if we have the opportunity to laugh, we can't laugh for less than five minutes." "Is what I said so ridiculous?" asked the miser. "Of course, old man! Who ate at night? We thought something was wrong with you, but you said: You haven't eaten all night!" "If only I didn't eat at night! I didn't even eat lunch yesterday! The damned little crab promised to treat me to lunch, but not only didn't invite me, but also dragged me into the forest and tied me to a tree." These words caused another burst of laughter from the dwarfs. "What?" they shouted. "Tie you to a tree? It's a treat. It's nothing to say! It looks like this little crab can really joke!" This time they laughed for no less than five minutes.Afterwards, said the little man in the jacket. "Excuse me, man, I think you're a good man. You can't be lonely with you! It's just a pity that there's nothing for you to eat. We wanted to touch some shrimp for breakfast, but it's not going well today. The bad things are hiding so deep. Zha Mengzi can't touch it, and the water is so cold in the morning, it can't bear it. If you like, come and have some tea with us. Here, Little Thumb," he said to the barefoot dwarf, "take more Here comes the teacup, pour tea, it's your turn today." Little Thumb quickly brought five cans and placed them on the table made of two large boxes. Then he took the tomato jar from the fire and poured boiling water into the cans. "Take a seat, please," he invited after he had done this. Everyone sat down on wooden boxes instead of chairs.Scrooge sat down too.The miser saw that everyone else was picking up the tin can and drinking it in small sips. He also picked up the tin can and took a sip. He found that it was not tea, but ordinary boiled water. "Where's the tea?" he asked inexplicably. "This is tea," explained Littlefinger. "Of course, there's no tea leaves in the tea, but it's the kind of tea that doesn't have tea leaves, which is the fashion these days." "Hmm!" muttered the miser. "Yes, drinking tea is indeed a prejudice! Fuck it! Drinking tea is not good for the body anyway. But what about sugar?" The question elicited another burst of laughter.The little man without trousers was slopping into his tin can and splashing scalding water on his bare knees, while Little Finger said: "Forgive me, man, we don't have sugar, nor can we afford it, and we've been drinking tea without sugar for a long time." "What's the good of just drinking plain water?" the miser muttered sullenly. "Well, don't you say that, old man, it's good," said the shirtless man. "For example, you are freezing at night, your body is cold, and you need to warm your body. How to warm it up? You can drink some hot water, and the hot water will flow down your blood vessels, and your body will be warmed immediately, and your stomach It’s not empty anymore, and the water is good too.” "A bucket of water is worth a cup of cream," put in Little Thumb. "Science has known this for a long time." Everyone laughed again. "Who are you, brethren? What do you do?" asked the miser as he drank some water. "We, old man, are what's called the innocent unemployed. Perhaps you've heard of such a profession?" replied the shirtless man. "We used to be no worse than everybody else, but since we lost our jobs we've gone down the drain. We've got something wrong with everyone. You see, I don't even have a shirt on me, and this one doesn't have shoes, and that one doesn't have hats. You try to go into town without shoes, or even a hat, and the cops are going to have to pick you up right away and go to Fool's Island." "Yes, it is natural," said the miser. "Then, you see, we can't stay in the city, and we can't leave the city either. I'll put on Pinky's shirt and go into town in a minute, and tomorrow Pinky will put on my shoes to earn money, and that's how we'll go." Day after day: two of us at home, two of us looking for work. It's hard! I don't think we'll make it through." The miser drank hot water and felt really warm, but he still didn't feel particularly full. He took potatoes out of his pocket and said, "Brothers, I picked up so many things over there, maybe they can be eaten?" The dwarfs all laughed when they saw the potatoes. "It's potatoes!" they said. "The beans can be roasted and eaten." "Can you bake?" "Not yet!" exclaimed Little Thumb. He picked up the potatoes and walked towards the campfire. "Brothers, then you can bake it, and I will go get some more." Saying this, the miser got up from the table and walked towards the potato field. "Where are you going?" cried the little ones. "I'll be right back, brothers! Just a moment!" cried the miser, and disappeared into the bushes. In a little while he was walking through the willow bushes to the potato field, and he pulled the potatoes out of the ground, root and stem.He plucked the roots from the roots, put his top hat on a pile, and was about to go back, when he suddenly felt someone grab him by the collar from behind.The miser thought that he had fallen into the hands of the land watchers, so he struggled hard and ran away. "Look if I don't beat you!" The spectator shouted while grabbing the sticks in his hands. Several times he beat the Scrooge hard on the back with the stick, and did not stop the pursuit until he was thrown into the ditch. The miser was at the bottom of the ditch again, and having lost all the potatoes on the way, he wondered which way to go: whether to follow the ditch or climb up the ditch.He dared not climb up the ditch, lest he be seen by the watchers again.He thought it over, and decided to go up anyway, because it was more likely to go outside. His estimation was correct. After trekking for about half an hour, he finally got out of the ditch, and saw a road in the distance, and cars were running back and forth on the road at high speed. The miser hoped that someone would take pity on him and take him to the city, so he went to the road.Whenever a car appeared in the distance, he began to wave his hat.As luck would have it, a little man stopped the car, opened the door, and let him in. "Where are you going?" he asked, starting the motor. "I'm going to Liar City," said the miser. "I think I'd better go home now." "Then you must go back," said the little man. "I'm going to squeeze the city." "Hey, it doesn't matter!" Miser waved his hand. "I'll go to Squeeze City first, and from there I'll take the train to Lie City. I'm just going to find this bad little crab, and I'll settle with him for tying me to a tree, and I'll get my leftovers in his room thing." The miser then told the new acquaintance in detail about his adventures and the little crab's indecent behavior, but he didn't talk about the purpose of their joint outing.The miser has always kept secrets about money, and never violated this rule.The little dwarf laughed loudly as he listened to his account, and was quite satisfied that fate had sent him such a ridiculous companion.However, they broke up soon after they came to Squeeze City. The miser thanked the owner of the car for his help and walked straight to the hotel.The people in the hotel told him that the little crab left yesterday to plunder the city.But Scrooge said he had to get something from the room.The miser repacked the soap, the towel, the handkerchief, and other things, down to the nails and a piece of copper wire, and put them back into the top hat. meal. After lunch, he drank a bottle of mineral water to help his digestion. He thought that no one would hinder him from returning to the dear city of lies this time.We already know that he happened to be on the same train that Omnik and the Kid were taking to St. Mosquito, even in the same car.We know that the City of Lies is located on the way to the City of Holy Mosquitoes.