January, the third week.

Looking out of the window to the courtyard during the day, there are few pedestrians, and more often crows. The crow feathers here in India and Mumbai are pitch black, black as purple ink, glowing bright purple in the sun, and there is a wide circle of iron gray around the neck.

Sometimes they split through the blue sky like swords, and sometimes they fell in groups, falling like yellow leaves on the air-conditioned roofs and narrow windowsills outside the building. There were white and off-white crow droppings everywhere, tasteless, just sticking to the ground in puddles!

In the early morning, all the men in the family went out to work. The landlord of the building where Amir Hui lives rarely goes out early, and his mother and jade mother will come out to clean and throw some food at the crows on the ground and platform. The birds chirped and fluttered, and pounced with the pigeons on the food crumbs.

After a few weeks of life, Amirhui slowly became harmonious, and often a crow poked his head out of the window, as if asking for water. Most homes in Mumbai don't have screens, and Amir Hui is no exception. The strange thing is that there are very few mosquitoes in such hot and humid places, and occasionally a fly comes and flies away consciously without waiting for a swatting.

In fact, Indians do not hunt flies, and some devout Jains even wear masks when they go out to avoid inhaling flies or other insects and killing them. Without screens, crows and pigeons can swagger to the windowsill and beg for food.

Mumbaikars love to feed the crows, and some even hang a food box in their windows to serve the crows. Over time, the crows formed a habit of knocking on the window as soon as the morning dawned, as if to say, "Hey, it's time for breakfast." ”

Just in the beginning.

The crow standing in front of Amirhui's eyes has a slightly pale gray neck and a touch of white on its tail feathers, which is a bit different. Perhaps the original occupants had taken care of it, so they dared to look at themselves from the window with generosity.

"Go away, I'm not a philanthropist." Amirhui didn't feed it water, but waved his hand to order the eviction. Living in India for so long, I have mastered the basic common sense of life, one of which is not to feed crows casually, they will come in flocks to find you to eat; Don't let the crows into the house, they'll make a mess of your house!

The crow looked at Amirhui with melancholy eyes, and then reluctantly turned his back and spread his wings and flew away.

After living for a long time, Amirhui gradually changed his attitude towards the crows, and even took a small box with some water and put it on the windowsill. But the crow never came to drink, but seemed to know him well, jumping to the windowsill every day to watch Amirhui writing in the room, or making eye contact with the human.

Hehe, among the billions of humans and tens of billions of crows on the earth, it is also a kind of fate that they can be so familiar. With these lively and kind crows and pigeons as companions, and calmly embellished with goshawks, the city of Mumbai does not have the coldness of a concrete forest, but adds a bit of natural interest. Mumbaikars love these black elves and hail them as the city's lucky birds. Parents and children can often be seen calmly feeding crows on the beach, and the harmony between humans and birds has been passed down from generation to generation.

From the cries of these crows, who live next to humans, Amirhui hears the harmony between the city and nature, and also sees the kindness and tolerance of the people of Mumbai towards creatures other than human beings.

The crow on the windowsill, which seemed to be familiar with me, finally flew away, and Amirhui picked up his work and went out.

・・・・・・・

"Red Deer Pocket Book Publishing Company"

Looking at the Red Deer Pocket Book Publishing Company, which is full of Western European style, Amirhui stepped in.

Before India's independence, the publishing industry was very backward, and a small number of publishing houses were basically controlled by Indian capital. After independence more than 20 years ago, the government strongly supported the nationalization of primary and secondary school textbooks and encouraged the publication of books and periodicals in ethnic languages. Most commercial publishing houses have gone through the process of publishing primary and secondary school textbooks first and then expanding the variety of publications. A few years ago, the publication of primary and secondary school textbooks was largely nationalized. Since the middle of the 20th century, the country's publishing industry has developed rapidly, and the variety and quantity of publications are among the highest in the third world.

In India, the government controls the majority of the production of primary and secondary school textbooks and provides financial subsidies to publishers and readers, as well as publishing funds and subsidies for research and scholarly works that cannot find publishers in the private sector.

Red Deer Pocket Books, on the other hand, is a privately owned family-owned company. Not only is it one of the best publishing houses in Mumbai, but it is also one of the most prestigious publishing houses in the whole of India, and it all has to do with the fact that the publishing house has published many best-selling books in India in recent years. The future is also one of the leading players in the Indian industry.

Therefore, this is also the reason why Amirhui chose to give him the manuscript as soon as possible.

Since handing over the manuscript to the Provincial Education Bureau, Amirhui has been writing "Mercenaries" at school, and he has returned to write the remaining drafts of the finals in the evening. As for why I wrote the manuscript for the finals, in my opinion, the preliminary round has never been a problem, and I want to win the championship.

Hurry up, the first volume of "Mercenary World" has finally been written. Amir Hui is so eager, not for nothing.

India hosts a large number of book fairs every year, with the National Book Trust alone organising about 40 book fairs every year. There's an international book fair in Mumbai next month, and Amirhui has no reason to miss it.

・・・・・・・

Facing the sea on both sides of the coast, the city of Mumbai is lined with modern high-rise buildings and towering classical buildings. Mumbai's main thoroughfare, the Corniche, is the proudest street for Mumbaiers. At the southern end of the street are the Federal Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange and the representative offices of major airlines.

When night falls, the crescent-shaped coast is lit up with countless colorful lights, which are dazzling and dazzling, and the 10,000 stars in the night sky are intertwined, like a gorgeous pearl necklace set on the sparkling sea. Mumbai is therefore known as the "Queen's Necklace".

Red Deer Pocket Books is located on the Corniche, a nearby street that is also the transportation hub of the entire city, and is passed by almost all bus routes.

"At least it's clean in here." On the way here, Amirhui saw the words of Red Deer Pocket Books Publishing Company printed on many road signs, so he followed the designated direction.

Outside, there are no lawns and trees, and there are a few new Japanese and local cars parked on the cold concrete floor.

The inside of the Red Deer Pocket Book Publishing Company is even cleaner and brighter, and compared to the hot weather outside, it suddenly looks a little cooler.

"Is there something wrong with the sir?" The front desk lady of Red Deer Pocket Books Publishing Company asked when she saw Amirhui.

"Hello, ma'am, I'm here to contribute." Amirhui first came to politely make a namaste, and politely explained his intentions: "I have a work that I want to show to your publishing house!" ”

I heard that I came to submit an article to my own publishing house.

The black-haired, deep-set girl looked at Amirhui with strange eyes.

Although she really couldn't find the slightest hint of a writer and literati in Amirhui, this is Mumbai, India, a civilized and polite city.

So the front desk lady was still smiling and talking to Amirhui.

But the smile is a smile, and the words are always skeptical and mocking.

She said, "Sir, are you sure you're really here to contribute to us?" You know, we at Red Deer Pocket Books Publishing Company are well-known in the whole of Mumbai and even in India. ”