Chapter 81 Chapter 65

Amaril arrived a few minutes before 1400, looking cautiously around as he walked.His hair is quite neat, his thick mustache has been combed, and the ends are slightly turned up, and the short shirt on his body is surprisingly white.He did have a smell, but it was a fruity one, no doubt from a little too much perfume.In addition, he carried a bag with him. Seldon had been waiting outside.He and Dors held Auriel's arm respectively, and the three quickly walked towards the elevator.Once they were on the correct floor, they walked through the rest of the apartment and made their way to Seldon's bedroom.

Amariel whispered humbly, "No one's home, huh?" "Everyone is busy," Seldon said matter-of-factly.Then he pointed to the only chair in the room, which was actually a cushion placed directly on the floor. "No," Amarel said, "I don't need that, either of you can use it." He squatted down gracefully to the floor. Dors imitated the motion and sat down beside Seldon's cushion.Seldon's sitting position was so awkward that he had to reach out to help, and his legs didn't sit right. Seldon said, "Well, young man, why do you want to see me?"

"Because you're a mathematician, the first mathematician I've ever met—up close, I can even touch you, you know what I mean." "Mathematicians feel like everyone else." "Not the same for me, thank... thank... Dr. Seldon?" "That's exactly my name." Amarel seemed pleased. "I finally remembered. You know, Dr. Seldon, I also want to be a mathematician." "Fine. What's stopping you?" Amaril frowned suddenly: "Do you really want to know?" "Yes, I'd love to know. I guess there must be something stopping you."

"What's stopping me is that I'm a Dahl, a Dahl heat worker. I don't have the money to get an education, and I don't earn enough credits to get an education—I mean a real education. All they teach me is to read , computing, and how to use a computer, and then I'm good enough to be a hot worker. But I have to learn more, so I've been teaching myself." "In a way, that's the best way to teach. How do you do it?" “I know a librarian who is willing to help me. She is a very nice woman who taught me how to use the computer to learn math. She also built a software system that allows me to connect with other libraries. I always go there on holidays and in the morning after work. Sometimes she locks me in her private room so I won't be disturbed by other people, and she lets me in when the library is closed. Herself She doesn't know math at all, but she does everything she can to help me. She's old and a widow. Maybe she treats me like a son or something, she has no children of her own."

(Perhaps, it occurred to Seldon, there were other emotions involved. But he dismissed that thought as it had nothing to do with him.) "I love number theory," Amarel said. "I made some results myself based on what I learned from the computer and the film it used to teach me math. I got something new, the film It's not in the book." Seldon raised his eyebrows: "That's really interesting, like what?" "I bring some, I've never shown anyone. Those people around me..." He shrugged, "They either laughed or were annoyed. Once, I tried to tell a girl something I knew, But she just said that I don't know why, and don't see me again. Is it okay if I show it to you?"

"It's really okay, trust me." Seldon held out a hand.After a brief hesitation, Amarel handed him the bag he had brought. For a long time afterward, Seldon was flipping through Amarel's manuscript.The content in it was extremely simple, but he didn't let any smile flash across his face.He read the arguments one by one. Of course, he didn't have any original ideas, not even close to the original ideas, and he couldn't find any important results. But it doesn't matter. Seldon raised his head: "Did you make all these yourself?" Amaril seemed to be half-shocked, and just kept nodding.

Seldon took out a few sheets of paper: "How did you come up with this?" His finger drew towards a line of mathematical inference. Amaril looked carefully, frowned, and thought about it again.Then he began to explain his train of thought. After listening, Seldon said, "Have you ever read a book by Enan Beagle?" "Is it about the number?" "The title of the book is "Mathematical Deduction", and it's not about number theory." Amariel shook his head: "I've never heard of this man, I'm sorry." "Three hundred years ago, he introduced your theorem."

Amarel seems to have been slapped in the face: "I don't know about it." "I believe you don't know, but your method is more clever. Although it is not rigorous, but..." "What do you mean by 'tight'?" "It doesn't matter." Seldon re-bundled the manuscripts and put them back into the bag. "Make several copies of it all, have one of them dated by an official computer, and put a computerized seal on it. This friend of mine, Mrs. Vanabili, can get you some sort of scholarship that will let you Going to Trantor. You have to start all over again, and take courses other than mathematics, but..."

Unexpectedly, Amariel gasped suddenly: "Enter Trantor University? They won't accept me." "Why not? Dors, you can arrange it for him, can't you?" "I'm sure I can." "No, you can't," Amarel said excitedly. "They won't take me. I'm a Dal." "so what?" "They won't take Dahl's countrymen." Seldon looked at Dors. "What is he talking about?" Dors shook her head: "I really don't know." Amariel said, "Are you an alien, ma'am? How long have you been at Trantor University?"

"A little over two years. Mr. Amarel." "Did you ever see a Dahl there--short, black curly hair, thick mustaches?" "There are students of all shapes and sizes there." "But there are no Dar people. You can take a closer look next time." "Why not?" Seldon asked. "They don't like us, we look different, they don't like our mustaches." "You can shave off yours..." Seldon's voice suddenly cut off under the angry stare of the other party. "Never, why would I do that? Mustache is my masculinity."

"You shaved off the beard underneath, which is also your masculinity." "A mustache is a mustache for my countrymen." Seldon looked at Dors again, and murmured, "bald, mustache...foolish..." "What?" Amarel said angrily. "Nothing. Tell me what else the Dar people don't like." "They made up a lot of things they didn't like. They said we stink, they said we were dirty, they said we stole, they said we were violent, they said we were stupid." "Why do they say that?" "Because it's easy to say, and it makes them feel comfortable. If we work in the heat, of course we'll be dirty and smelly. If we're poor and stuck, some people will steal and get violent, but We're not all like that. So what about those tall, yellow-haired guys who live in the Imperial Quarter and think they own the whole galaxy—no, they do? Are they never violent? Don't they ever steal? If Let them do my job, they'll stink like me, and if they have to live like me, they'll be filthy too." "Who can deny that there are different kinds of people living here and there?" said Seldon. "No one talks about it! They just take it for granted. Lord Seldon, I must leave Trantor. I have no chance at Trantor, no credit, no education, no mathematician, no To be any character can only be what they call...a useless piece of trash." The last half sentence was spoken in frustration and despair. Seldon tried to reason with him. "The one who rented this room to me is a Dahl. He has a clean job and is educated." "Oh, of course," said Amarel in an emotional tone, "there are some of them. They make a few people like that so they can say it can be done. And those few people don't have a Dar, They can live just fine. Let them go outside and they'll know how they're treated. While they're here, they treat the rest of us like shit so they can feel comfortable. So in In their own eyes, they are the yellow-haired class. The nice gentleman who rented this room to you, what did he say when you told him you were bringing in a hot worker? What did he say I looked like? They They're all gone now... don't want to stay in the same place as me." Seldon licked his lips. "I will not forget you. I promise to get you out of Trantor and into my college in Heliken—once I get back there myself." "Will you promise this? On your honor? Though I'm a Dahl?" "The fact that you are a Dahl is not important to me, what matters is that you are already a mathematician! But I still can't fully understand the things you tell me. Such irrational feelings about a harmless race , I find it unbelievable.” Amarel said sarcastically: "That's because you never had any chance to interest yourself in such a thing. It can swagger through your nose and you can't smell anything, because it's so irritating to you." You have no effect." Dors said, "Mr. Amariel, Dr. Seldon is a mathematician like you, and his head is sometimes in the clouds, and you have to understand that. I'm a historian, however. One group looks down on another." Man, I know it's not unusual. There are idiosyncratic, almost ritualistic hatreds that have no rational basis at all and have serious historical repercussions. It's just too bad." Amarel said: "'Too bad' is easy to say. You say you disagree so you can be a good person and then you can mind your own business and never have to worry about it again. Care about this. It's many times worse than 'too bad', it's against everything that's noble and natural. We're all the same, blonde or brunette, tall or short, oriental, western , southerners or aliens. We are all one family, you, me, and even the emperor are all descendants of earthlings, aren’t they?” "Spawn of what?" Seldon asked.He turned to Dors, his eyes wide open. "Descendants of the Earthlings!" cried Amarel, "the planet from which Mankind originated." "One planet? Only one planet?" "The only planet, of course, is Earth." "By Earth you mean Aurora, don't you?" "Aurora? What's that? I mean Earth. Have you never heard of Earth?" Seldon said, "Actually, it can't be counted." "It's a mythical world..." Dors was interrupted in the middle of her sentence. "That's not a god, it's a real planet." Seldon sighed. "I've heard this before. Well, let's start again. Does Dahl have a book that mentions Earth?" "what?" "So, some kind of computer software?" "I don't know what you're talking about." "Young man, where did you hear about Earth?" "My dad told me, everyone knows it." "Is there anyone who knows anything about it? Did they teach you that in school?" "There's no mention of that at all." "So how do people know?" Amariel shrugged his shoulders, as if listening to an annoying question made out of nothing. "It's just that everyone knows. If you want a story about it, you can go to Sister Rita, I haven't heard she died yet." "Your mother? How could you not know..." "She's not my mother, but that's what they call her, Aunt Rita. She's an old woman who lives at the navel, or at least used to live there.'' "Where is that place?" "Go straight in that direction." Amarel said while making a vague gesture. "How do I get there?" "Where are you going? You shouldn't want to go there, or you will never return." "why?" "Trust me, you shouldn't want to go there." "But I want to see Sister Rita." Amariel shook his head: "Can you use a knife?" "What is it for? What kind of knife?" "A knife for cutting things, like this one." Amarel reached down and touched the belt tightly tied around his waist.A section of the belt fell off, and a sharp blade flashed from one end, it was thin and shiny, and it was obviously deadly. Dors's hand immediately grabbed his right wrist. Amarel laughed a few times: "I didn't plan to use it, I just showed it for you to see." He put the knife back into his belt, "You need a knife for self-defense, if you don't have one, or If you don’t know how to use it, you will never be able to leave the navel again. In short..." He suddenly became very serious and focused. "Are you serious about helping me leave Trantor, Lord Seldon?" "One hundred percent serious, that's my promise. Write down your name. And how to reach you with a supercomputer. You have an address code, I think." "There's one at my hot post, okay?" "Can." "Okay," Amarel said, raising his head and looking at Seldon solemnly, "this means that my future depends entirely on you, Lord Seldon, so please don't go to the navel. If you lose it now You, I can't afford this loss." He turned his pleading gaze to Dors, and said softly, "Mrs. Venabili, if he will listen to you, don't let him go, please."