"Donovan, how many years have you been with me?", asked the Patriarch of Lisbon as he walked around the warehouse and was about to leave.

"Three years, seven months and ten days, my lord. Your support for Donovan, Donovan is unforgettable. Donovan replied respectfully.

The Patriarch of Lisbon nodded, clearly pleased that Donovan remembered it so clearly.

"I remember you're from Manny, aren't you?" he asked.

Donovan was a little confused, not knowing the meaning of the words of the Patriarch of Lisbon, and he replied cautiously: "Yes, my mother died in childbirth when she gave birth to me, and my father was originally a leather merchant in the city of Shenghui, but later committed suicide because of the failure of his business, and I was sent to an orphanage without any relatives. ”

He said this in a very flat tone, as if this miserable childhood was not talking about himself, but about someone else.

The Patriarch of Lisbon walked outside the warehouse and looked up at the gloomy sky, wondering what he was thinking. After a while, just as Donovan was getting more and more uneasy, the Patriarch of Lisbon suddenly spoke: "I was also born in an orphanage, but my family is not as good as yours, and my parents are two ordinary commoners common in the Hileven district. ”

As he spoke, he stepped out, Donovan following closely behind him.

"Life in the orphanage is very difficult, it goes without saying that there is a lack of food and clothing, and we older children have to work day and night every day. I have done all these tasks, and now I think that it is no different from those hard coolies, and we are not even as good as those coolies, and the hard work we pay is only cheaper for the orphanage, in exchange for only a meal of inferior food. ”

Donovan was stunned, he did not expect that the Patriarch of Lisbon's childhood would be just as miserable, even more miserable than him. Although there was a sudden change in his family, perhaps because of his background, he stole some money from his family, and he really didn't suffer this kind of abuse in the orphanage.

What made him even more uneasy was why the Patriarch of Lisbon would reminisce with him? Donovan thought that the relationship between the two had not yet reached such a point of affection.

"The director of the orphanage has never been in the orphanage, so he must not bother to look at us little ones. What I remember the most is a middle-aged maid in the orphanage, she is very nice, treats us very kindly, and will tell us some small stories if we have free time. ”

"The days of listening to stories were one of the few happy moments of my childhood, and I still remember many of the little stories she told me vividly. ”

"There's a story about an ant in the world that has a very peculiar habit. The more ants there are, the larger the colony, and the longer the roots, the longest of which is said to be more than 30 meters high. ”

"When I heard it, I was very shocked, the little ants, even if I was very weak at the time, I could pinch a few to death. However, when they are combined, they can build a nest that is a hundred times and a thousand times larger than their own body, how amazing it is!"

"But why on earth do these ants make their nests look like that? Donovan, you know?"

Donovan shook his head again and again, and said, "Forgive Donovan for being ignorant, my lord, I have never heard of this kind of ant, let alone know the reason. ”

"It's normal that you don't know. The Patriarch of Lisbon continued: "When I grew up and was able to get out of this Radiant City, I was determined to find such an ant, but I traveled all over the kingdom and never found it. ”

"Later, I even thought that it might be a lie made up by the maid to tease us children at will, so I gradually stopped taking it to heart. ”

"Until one time, when I was compelled by life to venture with a caravan to the depths of the north to sell furs, I saw this ant in a desert across the mountains. I was so excited that I was happy and excited now, and I still feel excited. ”

"But why are these ants different from ants in other places? I took advantage of that time to observe for a long time, and came to the conclusion that because those ants can see the sky. ”

"Can you see the sky?", Donovan repeated confusedly, he didn't expect such an answer.

"Yes, think about it, why is this desert only the ants different. That's because of the special geographical environment of this desert, this desert is almost empty except sand, there are no trees, no houses, only a hard, and impregnable mountain wall in the distance, I think it must be those ants who climbed to the mountain wall, occasionally looked up at the vast sky, they thought of the sky, so they gave birth to the idea of building that kind of nest. ”

"Otherwise, it really doesn't explain that they built their nests to point to the sky. ”

"Because those ants are going to climb to the sky?", Donovan was shocked, he didn't know if this was the real experience of the old man in front of him, or if he wanted to tell something about this story.

Just looking at the half-squinted eyes of the Patriarch of Lisbon and the staccato words, it seems that he is really immersed in that long memory.

"I figured this out at the time, and I was shocked to think that these ants are really amazing. But the rest of the caravan didn't think so, the days in the caravan were always unbearable, and there was no entertainment. Seeing this rare scene, a few people used wooden sticks to directly break the nests that were more than ten meters short and twenty or thirty meters high. ”

"I still remember that scene, like a towering tree, it fell with a bang, and from the yellow-brown fracture, dense ants squeezed out as if fleeing, but after a while, there were only a few left in the originally tall cave. ”

"The people who were amusing themselves laughed and laughed when they saw this, but I was sad for the ants. It's just that I was alone and in the middle of nowhere, and I really didn't dare to argue with those people. ”

"Over the years, I've been thinking about the fact that those ants suffered such a catastrophe and lost their homes, and the people who were having fun were wrong, but those ants building such a high nest were really the way to die. ”

"If they, like other ants, build their nests in an ordinary and unobtrusive way, how can their nests be destroyed?"

So I realized a truth, ants are still ants after all, even if they see the sky, they are still ants. ”