Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Divergent

I woke up with sweaty palms and a pang of guilt, still lying on the recliner in the mirrored testing room.I threw my head back and saw Tori behind me.She pursed her lips tightly, and took off the electrodes sticking to my forehead one by one.I waited for her to say something about the test, like "it's over" or "you did well" or something, though how could this kind of test be bad?But she didn't say a word, just busy pulling the thread off my head. I sat up, wiping sweat from my palms on my pants.Even though everything was happening in my head, I always felt like I must be doing something wrong.Was the weird look on Tori's face just because she didn't know how to tell me "what a horrible person you are"?I want her to be straight.

"Your test results," she said, "are a bit mixed. Sorry, I'm going out for a while, I'll be right back." complex? I put my arms around my knees and buried my head in it.At this moment, I hope that I have the urge to cry for a while. Only tears can give me the feeling of release, but I don't want to cry.How could it be possible to fail an exam for which there was no way to prepare? As time passed by, I became more and more uneasy.Every few seconds, I wipe the sweat off my palms, or maybe it just calms me down.A horrible thought crossed my mind, what if they told me I didn't belong to any sect?Am I going to sleep on the street with other non-partisan people?I can not do it.It was clear to me that being non-partisan meant not just living in poverty, but that I would be completely cut off from society, from the most important part of my life: my community.

My mother once told me that we couldn't survive alone, and even if we could, we wouldn't want to live that life.Without factions, we have no purpose and no reason to live. Thinking of this, I couldn't help shaking my head.Can't think about it, I have to keep calm. Finally, the door opened and Tori came back.I gripped the arm of the chair tightly. "Sorry to worry you," Tori said.She stood at my feet, her hands in her pockets, looking tense and pale. "Your results, Beatrice, are indefinable," she said. "Usually, each simulation can eliminate one or two factions. But in your case, we can only eliminate two factions in total. "

I stared at her with wide eyes: "Two?" I suddenly felt a tightness in my throat, so that I couldn't speak. "In the first scenario, if you instinctively loathe knives and choose cheese, the scenario takes you to another situation to test your friendly tendencies, but obviously, that didn't happen, so we ruled out Friendly Pie," Tori said, scratching the back of her neck. "The test uses a linear approach, highlighting one faction to the exclusion of the rest. You make a series of choices that almost rule out the possibility of the honest faction, so I switched to the bus situation to test this hypothesis. You lied, so that Get rid of the honest ones." She smiled at me, "Don't worry, only the honest ones tell the whole truth."

A knot in my heart was finally untied, maybe, I'm not such a bad person. "I don't think this is entirely true. Apart from honest people, there are also selfless people who can tell the truth." She interrupted suddenly, "So, we have encountered a problem." Hearing this, I opened my mouth in surprise. "On the one hand, you'd rather throw yourself on the dog than let the dog attack the little girl, which is the altruistic reaction, but on the other hand, on the bus, you were indifferent to that person's plea for help, and refused to tell the truth , This is not the reaction of the Selfless faction." Speaking of this, she sighed, "Facing the attack of the dog, you did not dodge, this is the reaction of the Fearless faction, but you did not choose the knife, this is not the Fearless faction Reaction."

She cleared her throat and continued, "You're smart enough to respond to a dog's attack, which is a hallmark of the Erudite, but I struggled a little bit with hesitation in the first simulation. But -" "Wait a minute," I interrupted her. "You mean, you still don't know what my result is?" "Yes, not all," she explained. "My conclusion is that your test results are 1/3 selfless, 1/3 fearless, and 1/3 knowledgeable. People who come up with such test results..." She Looking back, as if expecting someone to come to the rescue, she continued, "...we are called... the Divergent." When she said the last three words "Divergent", her voice was so low that she could hardly hear her, and her expression turned pale. Become tense and pale.She went around to the other side of the chair and leaned over to me.

"Beatrice," she said to me gravely, "under no circumstances should you tell anyone about this. It's very important." "We shouldn't share test results." I nodded. "I understand that." "No." Tori knelt by the chair, her arms resting on the armrest, her face close to mine. "It's different. I don't just mean you can't tell anyone now; I mean you can never tell anyone, Always, no matter what happens. It's extremely dangerous to be different. Got it?" I don't understand—how could life be in danger if the test results are not conclusive? —But I still nodded.Anyway, I will not tell others the result.

"Okay." I took my hands off the armrests of the chair and stood up, feeling a little dizzy. "I suggest," Tori said, "go home. You have a lot of things to think about, and it won't do you any good to wait with the others." "I have to tell my brother first." "I will tell him." I touched my forehead and walked out of the room with my head down, not daring to look into Tori's eyes, and not daring to think about tomorrow's selection ceremony. Regardless of the test results, it's my choice now. Disinterested faction.Dauntless.Erudite.

Divergent. I decided to walk home.My father would routinely go through the family travel log at night, check our comings and goings, and if I got home early by car, he would find out and I would have to explain what was going on.go back.Of course, I had to stop Caleb before he mentioned anything to his parents. I trusted Caleb to keep it a secret. I am walking in the middle of the road.Cars often run rampant when turning at intersections, so it is safer to go this way.Sometimes, on the street near our house, I can see places that used to be marked with yellow lines, but now they don't help because few cars pass by.We don't need traffic lights either, and in some places they hang precariously, as if they're about to fall.

The urban renewal project is gradually rolling out in the city, interlaced with clean new buildings and crumbling old houses.Most of the newly built high-rise buildings are near the swamp, and a long time ago, there was a lake there.The Selfless Volunteer Agency, where my mother works, did most of the remodeling. Whenever I look at the altruistic way of life through the eyes of an outsider, it is very beautiful.When I see my family get along; when we go to dinner parties together and clean up after the meal; when I see Caleb helping strangers with heavy loads: I love this life all over again.But then again, in real life, I am not a qualified selfless person, and I always feel that being too selfless is equivalent to hypocrisy.

But choosing another faction means that I abandon my family, never return home, and never regret it for the rest of my life. When I walked through the periphery of the faction-free area, I saw ruins everywhere, dilapidated buildings that were about to fall apart, and the road under my feet was dilapidated.Some road sections even completely collapsed, exposing sewage pipes and abandoned subway tracks to the air.I covered my nose, against the stench of sewers and garbage, and walked forward cautiously. Non-partisan people live here, because they have failed the test of each faction, they live in poverty, and they work in jobs that others don't want to do.There are cleaners, builders, and waste pickers; there are people who make fabrics, and drive trains or cars.The rewards for the work were food and clothing, but, as my mother said, they didn't have enough to eat and they didn't have enough to wear. That's when I saw a non-partisan man standing around the front corner in a tattered tan suit with saggy skin on his chin.He stared at me, and I looked back, unable to look away for a moment. "Excuse me, do you have anything to eat?" He said to me, his voice hoarse. I suddenly felt a lump in my throat, and a firm voice echoed in my mind: lower your head, ignore him, and move forward. No.I shook my head vigorously to deny this selfish voice, I shouldn't be afraid of this person in front of me, he needs help, and I should do my best to help him. "Well... yes." I responded, reaching into my schoolbag.That's exactly why my father told me to keep some food in my bag at all times.I took out a small bag of dried apples and gave it to the man. He stretched out his hand, but instead of taking the dried apple, he grabbed my wrist and grinned at me, showing a big gap between his teeth. "My God, you have beautiful eyes," he said, "but the rest of them are so ordinary, it's a pity." My heart was pounding, and I suddenly became frightened.I jerked my hand back, but his grip tightened.There is also a pungent and pungent bad breath. "Honey, you look too young to be walking around by yourself," he said. I stopped resisting and stood up straight, knowing that I looked small and didn't need others to remind me. "I'm older than I look. I'm sixteen," I retorted. He grinned suddenly in surprise, revealing gray molars and a black hole on one side.I couldn't tell if it was a smile or a sneer. "So is today a special day for you? The day before the election?" "Let me go," I suddenly heard a voice vibrating in my ears.The voice sounded clear and harsh—something I hadn't expected.I don't feel like saying it myself. I've figured it out and know what to do.I imagined hitting him back with my elbow, and I seemed to see the sack of apples fly away, and I heard my own running footsteps.Yep, I'm ready to beat him up. But then he let go of my wrist, took the dried apple, and said, "Little girl, choose wisely."