South Asia, Kolkata.

Thundered.

A bolt of lightning swept through the sky like a silver dragon, tearing through the cloudy sky and illuminating the city in a miserable white, rolling thunder sweeping across the sky at the speed of sound.

As if the god of rain had sounded his horn, a torrential downpour fell from the sky and violently washed over the city on the banks of the Ganges Delta.

There is a Fifth Avenue in New York and a Fifth Avenue in Kolkata, the difference is that the former is a street, while the latter is an upscale apartment building, which touches on the name of the former.

The top floor of this building on Fifth Avenue is also the most expensive floor of this building.

A young woman in a beautiful sari with a glass of red wine stands on a balcony overlooking the stormy city.

Behind her is a sliding balcony door with floor-to-ceiling glass, only dim night lights on, a computer screen is the brightest light source in the room, and the air purifier makes a faint noise.

Even the rare thunderstorms of winter did not seem to be able to blow away the heavy smog that enveloped Kolkata all year round, and when she came from indoors to the balcony, her tongue felt the tiny particles in the air and the smell of sulfur-containing compounds.

From her vantage point, you can see the people in the slums hurrying like ants in a rainstorm, rushing to prevent the family in the nest from being swept away by the rain.

With an average elevation of just a few metres above sea level, Kolkata is sinking due to the pumping of groundwater due to rapid population expansion, and rising sea levels due to rising global temperatures...... Putting the two together, Calcutta will probably one day become the Venice of the East – in a negative sense.

One-third of the city's population lives in slums, and some people can't even afford to live in slums, so they can only lie on the sidewalks with the sky as a tent and the ground as a seat, and dedicate themselves to mosquitoes carrying malaria and other viruses, and even they don't know if they will wake up the next day.

The temperature in winter is low, now it may be less than 20 degrees Celsius, at this time if it rains, maybe you will catch a cold and fever, for the poor, the consequences of a cold and fever are very serious, free public hospitals are always in line, there is a shortage of doctors and no beds, expensive private hospitals are not accessible, and the super-first-class medical standards of Indian doctors only serve the rich.

So, from the moment the first thunderclap sounded, the poor began to fight for survival, and they panicked to cover the leaking rusty tin roofs with plastic sheets they had picked up, and used the hornless pots and pots to catch the rainwater seeping in.

When the father was silently busy, when the mother called the children to hug them tightly, stared in horror at the crackling roof, for fear that the dilapidated house would be washed away by the rain, and the whole family was washed into the Ganges.

Heavy rain is like a note.

The city's weak drainage system quickly collapsed, and sewage overflowed from the drains, bubbling with a pungent stench, polluting the already scarce domestic water.

The streets have become waterways, the water is full of garbage, and the smell of cow dung is a good thing in this sense, at least for a day or two after the rain.

Every time it rains like this, hundreds of people die in Kolkata from the cholera and dengue fever that follow, but who cares? The people who die are the lowest untouchables, and even their deaths go unnoticed, and the bodies are washed into the Ganges by sewage and into the Indian Ocean to feed the fish.

A small window pops up in the lower right corner of the computer screen in the room, and a slight beep sounds at the same time.

The woman sipping wine on the balcony heard the sound and returned to the room with her glass.

With the sliding doors closed, it was as if the two worlds were completely separated from the outdoors.

She sat down in front of the computer, clicked on the email she had just received, and her eyes swept over the contents, her eyes bursting with black anger.

"My dear friend...... Have you left this world......"

This is an automatically scheduled email, which will not be sent under normal circumstances, because the sender will delay the set schedule at certain intervals, and she receives this email, which means that the sender is no longer there.

"Absent" means that something has happened, and due to irresistible forces, the timing can no longer be changed, and it is likely to be death.

This is her pact with her friends.

Her friend did not hesitate to risk his life and go deep into a foreign country to raise funds, and once detected by the foreign transcendent, if he could not escape in time, he would likely encounter accidents...... Her friend knew this, so before leaving her country, she agreed with her that if she did not contact her for several days in a row, and she received this scheduled email, it would mean that her friend was no longer alive.

Before receiving the email, her friend had lost contact with her, and the last money she had remitted from a foreign country had been nearly two months ago, so she had been mentally prepared for the arrival of the email.

Still, the confirmation of her friend's death left her grieved and angry, and her originally beautiful and gentle face became distorted and hideous.

It's time for her turn to step up.

Half of the blood-red wine was left in her glass, and she took it up and drained it on the carpet to comfort her friend.

My friend gave her precious life for the prosperity of her country, and although she had some disagreements on the details of implementation, they all shared the same goal, which was to revitalize this backward and poor country.

It was still raining outside, so she picked up an umbrella and left the penthouse, taking the empty wine glass with her.

Coming down from the elevator, she held up her umbrella and stood at the door of the apartment building, looking around.

The taxi driver, who was waiting for a guest on the side of the road, saw her coming out of this high-end apartment building, coupled with her beautiful appearance and gorgeous clothes, and couldn't help but light up in the eyes, excitedly started the car, and slowly drove to her.

"Beautiful lady, in a car?"

The middle-aged male driver with a thick mustache jumped out of the car, took the umbrella in her hand courteously, opened the back door for her, made a gesture of "please", and his eyes fell on her face, chest, waist, hips, and legs like a rain of arrows, and quietly swallowed hungry saliva.

Her sari is very open, and she can only cover half of her breasts, and the looming feeling is even more erotic.

As if unaware of the driver's gaze, she smiled gracefully and sat in the back seat.

The driver closed the door and returned to the car, started the car excitedly, held the rearview mirror to the right angle so that he could enjoy her beautiful angle, and asked, "Beautiful lady, where do you want to go?"

"Kali Temple. She said.

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Stealing incense