Chapter 10: The Story of Duran

My name is Du Lan, and everyone calls me Blue. My father left us when I was very young because of the war, and my mother and I lived in a small village in Afghanistan and made a living selling fruit. Even though we sell fruit, I've never eaten any of it. I don't know what apples taste like, I don't know which is better, peaches or lychees, and I don't know how to peel oranges.

Because my family was poor, I couldn't eat extravagant fruits, which were to be sold to the soldiers. I asked my mother why we were selling such valuable fruit to these people who had come to destroy our homes. At that time, my mother just shook her head and said helplessly, "To survive." "At that time, I didn't know what it meant to live.

Every night, at the end of the day, my mother would always carry me to the field. The tulips all over the mountain exude a charming aroma, the evening breeze blows, the good smell goes straight to my nose, the floral fragrance of tulips, from the nose through the whole body, can wash away the fatigue and troubles of the day.

The starry sky overhead is so beautiful, and the deep darkness is embellished by the bright galaxy like a picture scroll, painting the people who have left.

Every day, someone around you leaves this world. I asked my mom where they went. Mom always said that those people were very happy and went to a beautiful place, where there was no war, no harm, no lies, no tears, no parting, no... No...

Mom seemed to yearn for it and kept telling me stories about it, and I just looked up at her. I wish I could go to that place with my mom because she said there was an endless supply of fruit. I didn't know exactly where it was.

One night, my mother was taking me to look at the starry sky, and suddenly she told me that one of her favorite paintings was Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night" in the Netherlands. One day she was going to show me the painting and said I would definitely like it. But at that time I didn't know who Van Gogh was and where Holland was.

I can see that my mother likes stars very much, and I also like stars, which are shining, mysterious and beautiful. I said to my mother, "Mom, when I grow up, I will pick a star for you, you will hang it around your neck, it will definitely look good." "My mother is very good-looking, but she only wears some simple clothes on weekdays, and she has never brought any jewelry necklaces, I really want to take off a star to make a necklace for my mother.

My mother listened to me, kissed me on the cheek, touched my head lovingly, and said, "Thank you, my darling, but the stars are far, far away from us, and you need to fly for a long, long time to touch them" and I didn't know how far away the stars were.

When I was a child, I wanted to eat fruit, but every time I tried to restrain my cravings and not think about the sweetness of fruit. One day, my mother said to me, "Your 10th birthday is still a month, and on your birthday, your mother will prepare you a few delicious fruits to celebrate your birthday." "Mom's words made me feel very excited, fruit, I can finally eat fruit.

Every time I saw the soldiers munching on fruit, I would secretly swallow my saliva, and the splash of juice made me lose my soul every day. Finally I was able to taste the sweet fruit. I'm so happy that every day I'm looking forward to my birthday.

The days go by and tomorrow is my birthday. Today, the sun has also turned reddish and dim, and we are ready to go down the mountain to rest, and my mother and I began to clean up our stalls.

Mom suddenly remembered that the money she borrowed from the neighbor's uncle last time had not been returned, and the uncle's family had already closed the stall and left here. I saw the dwarfing figure of the uncle's family in the distance. My mother hurriedly handed me the money and told me to run and give it to my uncle.

I've been running fast since I was a kid, much faster than the kids in the village. I grabbed the money and ran to the uncle, and soon, I caught up with the uncle's family and handed the money into the uncle's hands. Uncle smiled and touched my head and said, "What a good boy." "I said goodbye to my uncle, I hurried back, I wanted to go back to help my mother clean up the stall.

But just then, I heard several gunshots coming from the bazaar, and a strong uneasiness hit me. It's broken, it won't be...

I rushed to the market as hard as I could, and when I arrived at the market, I was suddenly sitting on the ground by the scene in front of me. Mom, lying in the blood splash. Not far from her, stood several soldiers with guns.

No... No... No... Don't. My body stiffened, and I felt like all the blood was being drained from my body, and I crawled towards my mother tremblingly. I crawled in front of my mother with great difficulty, tears falling desperately from my eyes and dripping down my mother's face.

Mom stretched out her right hand, trembling to my face, gently wiping the tears from my face. "Mom, Mom, don't, are you going to leave me too? Don't leave me alone. But my mother smiled and said to me, "Silly child, how could my mother leave you alone, my mother is just going to that happy place, where there is no pain or sorrow, only happiness and hope, and there are so many fruits." Child, don't cry, it's just a relief for mom, where mom can see your dad. Happy birthday, son. Mom is tired and going to bed. With that, Mom's hand drooped. She left me forever.

I screamed in tears and cursed at the sky like a madman. Why? Why take mom away?

I cried for three days and buried my mother in that tulip-filled field. Where there are mother's favorite flowers, there is mother's favorite starry sky, I think my mother should be able to sleep well there. I talked a lot with my mother, and I told her that I would be a good boy, a good boy to make her proud.

But I deceived her. A week later, on a rainy night, I carried a knife that usually cut fruit and killed the soldiers that day.

That day they mistook a villager for a rebel and opened fire, and in the chaos a bullet hit his mother. And they didn't get any punishment for killing their mother by mistake. After my investigation, I was furious to find out that the leader of the squad had put my mother on the list of rebels in order to avoid punishment, so no one asked about it again. I couldn't tolerate it, so I planned for a long time, and finally found the right time to kill all the people in this team.

After that, I disappeared for a long time, ready to wait for the rumors to pass, kill the team leader and avenge my mother. But one morning, an uncle came to me and asked me if I was the murderer who killed the soldiers. When I saw that the matter was revealed, I confessed and prepared to be taken away to be shot.

Unexpectedly, after hearing the cause and effect, this uncle did not take me to the camp of the US army, but took me to China. On the way, he asked me if I would like to be his disciple and learn the art of assassination. He told me I had a talent for it.

I don't think I have any talent for killing, but when I stab the knife at the soldiers, the position and angle of the knife is subconsciously perfect, tricky. When my uncle saw the corpses, he had the idea of taking me as an apprentice, so he followed the breath to find me.

That uncle became my master, and he was Liu Fei, the number one assassin today. He told me many things, telling me that he was going to train me to stop the outbreak of war and drive the impending gods out of the earth. During my years in Afghanistan, I saw the damage caused by war, and if it weren't for the war, my father, my mother, and Uncle Li's two sons next door would not have left this beautiful world. So I decided to learn assassination with my master to protect the earth and prevent the outbreak of war.

But in the first year of studying with the master, the master did not teach me practical skills, but asked me to meditate on my own heart. He wanted me to put killing and power in perspective. And I also learned about his son from Master.

After a year of retreat, I have come to understand what power is and what killing is. I realized that the purpose of learning assassination was not to use this power to kill the squad leader to avenge my mother, but to use this power to protect the earth and protect everyone.

Seeing that I understood this, the master began to teach me how to kill people perfectly, and I realized that assassination is also an art with its own charm. The assassination technique that my master taught me was not stained with blood as people think, but an assassination technique to protect others, to protect the earth. Under the guidance of my master, I made rapid progress.

One day, he told me that I was going to study at the Douqi Academy, where there were teachers who would teach me more, and I would meet a teenager named Zhou Ye. The master said he was strong and able to protect me. As I was leaving, I asked my master if he could take me to see the "Starry Sky".

The master took me to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where I saw my mother's favorite painting, and I cried when I looked at the blue starry sky.

Now I know the hardships of survival, I also know where my mother went, and I also know that the stars are really, really far away from me, and I can't take them off for my mother.

During the training with the master, I finally got my wish to eat an apple. It was really delicious, very sweet, very crunchy, and I still can't forget the taste.

But I don't eat fruit very often, because every time I eat fruit, I think of my mother and the times we spent looking at the stars together.