The twin city-states, Piltover, had an already prosperous harbor full of large ships, which brought Piltover a large berthing fee.

With the arrival of the much-anticipated day, the annual city festival, [Evolution Day], was held as scheduled.

During this time, the 100-meter steel arch bridge connecting the upper and lower towns, the Sun Gate, will lift most of the traffic bans, allowing residents at both ends to pass freely.

Even the Zuans who lived in the stinking gutters had the right to visit Piltover as long as they could get decent clothes and take a good shower to deodorize them—though most of the time the Zuans, who hated the Upper City Greats, preferred to use this right for a windfall to find something to do for the Pitt magistrates.

The city is littered with bunting, banners, and balloons, and even the bright brown-red tiles reflect the excitement of the Zuans.

Each shop had prepared a sufficient number of goods in advance to avoid selling out, and the overnight inns were full, even if they fiddled with a few brass gears on the floor, they could sell in this case.

Young craftsmen and apprentice mechanics who are eager to be appreciated by big merchant families are energetically wearing the craftsman's clothes that best reflect their abilities, and carrying their toolkits to different merchant families to recommend themselves, looking for their own life opportunities.

There are also some outstanding talents who focus on technological innovation who choose to enter the School of Science and Progress to exchange technology and brainstorm with other scientific researchers, in order to make a name for themselves in the Academy, become new students or be hired as honorary lecturers by Dean Heimerdinger.

For most people, Evolution Day is a festival that must be treated with caution, as long as hard work is always indispensable for opportunities and wealth, but for Lyster, Evolution Day is just a little more than a little more festive hustle and bustle in the ordinary.

That's all.

In the west of the Blue Smoke Manor, in a single-family villa, Lyist was enjoying breakfast with his favorite little apprentice, Sindra, while the old butler Smed stood beside him, like a sleeping statue.

"I'll take you around in a moment, and by the way, visit the College of Science and Progress, there will be many interesting souvenirs sold in the shops during Evolution Day, if you are interested, buy a few more."

"Well, teacher, should I change into an evening dress?"

Syndra asked only after she covered her mouth and swallowed her food, making sure that there were no food debris in her mouth.

Completely different from a month ago, during the time she was no longer in Lyster, Sindra learned a lot from Dorothea, the tailor expert of the Philos family, including makeup techniques, Piltover lady etiquette, and the daily life of a noble lady.

At least in Sindra's own opinion, letting the teacher take her out with her will definitely not embarrass the teacher in terms of etiquette.

Naturally, seeing how Sindra, who looked more flawless with her makeup, had changed, Lyist shook her head with a smile and said softly.

"You don't need to wear an evening dress, just a little plain dress, and the evening dress will be worn at the Philos family banquet in the evening."

Nodding, Sindra returned the dishes and wiped her lips with a napkin.

I don't know if I didn't notice it or didn't care about it after noticing, my teacher didn't praise me today, which made Sindra a little disappointed, but she didn't show it.

"Okay, I see."

"You look beautiful today, Sindra, and it looks like you've studied well with Dorothea."

The compliment that followed brought a smile to Sindra's face, and she instantly gained a little more confidence in herself.

After breakfast, the two of them left the Blue Smoke Manor without much delay, and politely rejected the suggestion of the old butler Smedt to personally drive the carriage as an attendant, and Lyster felt that it would be more down-to-earth to let Sindrado go.

Sindra strolled along the clean and tidy stone road and looked at everything in front of her curiously, and Lyster was also silently observing the familiar and unfamiliar city in front of her.

For example, the addition of a few drainage culverts on the road, or the construction of a Fidellett bell tower on the east side, these changes are not only reflected in the architectural design, but also in the clothing of the people of Picheng, the weapons and equipment of the magistrates, and the steam carriages in the streets.

From this point of view, Piltover can also be called a progressive city.

Overall, the benefits of opening up the Strait far outweigh the losses, and although the coastal ports of the Emerald Territory in the southwest divert some of the profits from the fleet's trade, after more than a hundred years of development, Piltover is still far more prosperous than the average of the Runeterra, probably catching up with Fidellett four hundred years ago.

It is not easy to achieve this in just over a hundred years, and the soul of Picheng, Heimerdinger, can be said to have paid a lot.

It was only because Giggs and Kutch were "forcibly recruited" by Tristana to become part of the Bandel Expeditionary Force that the two yodelers did not join the Academy of Science and Progress with Heimerdinger to become the scientific cornerstone of the progressive city, otherwise Piltover's development would have been better.

The only problem is that Piltover's progress is built on the fall of Zaun,

What the famous crystal processing factory, the metallization factory, or the notorious alchemy potion purification factory, what is everything, is built in the underground city-state of Zaun, located in the south, these environmental killers have brought the alchemy baron unimaginably wealth,

According to the information that Lyster has, many of the alchemy barons of Zaun are also secretly carrying out human body modification and biochemical poison gas development.

These alchemy barons rose in the market, with a black background, and there were not a few blood debts in their hands.

To put it simply, the alchemy baron may be a gangster who competes viciously through various cruel methods all the way, and finally becomes the winner and black boss of the region, gaining the authority of the factory industry agent and the power to suck blood from the alchemy factory and the workers.

And with the 'local security' 'spontaneously selected' by the locals of Zu'an, the real owner of the factory, the upper-class businessmen, are also happy to be idle, and only need to cooperate with the alchemy baron to give up a little part of the benefits to play a unique role, why not.

One does not need to consider the destruction of the factory by those natural saboteurs of Zu'an, the alchemy baron pays more attention to the hens that can lay golden eggs than the owner of the factory, and treats the saboteurs who are also Zu'an, and the alchemy baron is much darker.

Second, there is no need to consider recruiting workers from Zu'an, because the alchemy baron himself is a black intermediary who controls the manpower channel, and it is normal to know how to recruit hard-working Zu'an people to work in the factory at a low price.

Third, if something big happens to the factory, such as the casualties of workers caused by a general strike, or a terrorist attack, the spearhead will be pointed at the alchemy baron, not at the big businessmen living in the upper city, who can make money lying down without dirty hands, which is the meaning of the alchemy baron's existence.

The alchemy baron and the owner of the factory have reached an invisible cooperation agreement, and the two sides can be regarded as taking what they need.

It's just that in this way, the alchemy barons who have the right to speak are inevitably greedy, and the unlimited expansion of territory and the addition of factories have made the already suffocating and cramped space of Zu'an even more scarce, and they even have to combine factories and residences to establish a unique living environment in the extensive underground network.

The urban environment was originally located below sea level was very bad, and the air circulation could only be maintained by erecting additional ventilation pipes, but now the environment is even worse, after several man-made or accidental chemical explosions, many low-level workers living in Zu'an have been living in thick industrial exhaust gases, and lung disease has become the main culprit of the high mortality rate of Zu'an people.

In the early days of the construction of the Sungate, Lady Piltworth was willing to pay out of her own pocket to help improve the environment of the Zaans, but now the inhabitants of the two twin city-states are full of gunpowder and hostility.

The uptowners are fed up with the swindlers, robbers, and thieves of the lower city, while the downtown people hate the uppercity people who maintain their wealth by sucking blood from the lower city, and they are eager to come to a full-scale zero-dollar purchase.

was thinking about the current situation of the twin city-states, but Lyist slapped the sudden skillful hand, and hit the blade in the palm of the skillful hand to the ground.

Sindra, who had almost been cut through her pocket by a blade, was stunned, and didn't seem to have reacted to what was happening.

"Hey! Stealing something to steal here? Young people, you have to find a suitable person to start. ”

"Cut! How many of you Picheng veterans have stolen from us? ”

The not-so-tall thieves came and fled as fast as they could, disappearing into the crowd in the blink of an eye.

Lyster didn't chase after him, nor did he look for the Leather City sheriff, but just dragged Sindra to a drink shop and ordered two vanilla ice creams, which made the good apprentice frightened.

Sindra now has enough power to protect herself, but because he is so well protected, she is somewhat inexperienced in these emergencies.

It's also time to teach Sindra how to deal with the deep malice of her kind, which is not comparable to the ridicule that Sindra's village peers bring.

"Teacher, why didn't you catch that thief just now?"

Sticking out her little tongue and licking the ice cream twice, Sindra calmed down, regretting that she hadn't reacted in time.

"What's the use of catching him? He'll be released in a few days, and I'll have to go to the sheriff in order to keep him in jail for a few days, which is not a good deal. ”

Tapping her head, Sindra whispered as she held the ice cream.

"Teacher, I don't understand, I heard the people of Picheng say that this is a civilized and progressive city, why would anyone choose to commit crimes? Wouldn't this have a negative impact on this beautiful city? ”

Not surprising that Sindra would ask such a naïve question, Lyist smiled and pointed to the palm-sized vanilla ice cream in front of the table.

"Do you think that thief just now can afford this ice cream?"

Sindra frowned and recalled the clothes of the little man from Zuan just now, and nodded hesitantly.

Although the thief just now had a lot of patches on his clothes, he couldn't even afford to buy ice cream.

"Can you afford to eat every day?"

This time Sindra shook her head without hesitation.

"That's right, that's why he's coming to the city to steal."

Lyster sighed softly, took a bite of the cream of the ice cream, and scratched Syndra's blank little nose.

"Don't you understand? To put it bluntly, it is jealousy and revenge brought about by the uneven distribution of wealth. ”

"The Picheng and Zuan people are like two conjoined brothers living in the sun and shadows, one is glamorous, known for their civilization and progress, and the other huddles in the darkness and staggers forward with the weight of life.

And most of the pressure of the Zaun life comes from their brother Piltover, in this case, you can't expect the Zaun people to have the pride of this civilized city that symbolizes the benchmark of progress, and hostility is inevitable.

No matter how good Picheng is, it's also a matter of Picheng, and it doesn't have much to do with Zu'an, and Zu'an people can't enjoy the so-called civilization and progress, because of this, they naturally don't care if they will lower Picheng's reputation, and unscrupulously completing a crime in Picheng will make them proud. ”

So whose fault is it that caused this situation? Is it Leather City? ”

Sindra's expression was serious, but Lyster shook her head.

"It's human nature."

"Humanity?"

This extraordinary answer made Sindra stunned, but Lyster did not continue to delve into how sinister human nature is, most of the time people are always reluctant to believe the words of others, only after experiencing it themselves can they deeply understand the original evil of human nature, because at this time they have been hurt and feel pain.

It's also human nature.

"The most fundamental contradiction between the Picheng people and the Zuan people lies in the uneven distribution of wealth, the direct cause is the unequal power, the Picheng people have a council that controls the magistrates, and the Zuan people only have alchemy barons who are good at infighting in collusion with big merchants.

Piltover, who has the advantage of the harbor, is like a gold-sucking beast devouring all the riches that arrive at the Gate of the Sun, and what do the Zauns get?

In this feast, they could only get a share of the factory workstations opened by the Picheng people in Zu'an with a fraction of the trade tariffs, and they could not enjoy the products they processed, so they could only wait for their lives to be taken away by illness in a bad working environment, and if they wanted to turn over, they could only sell themselves to the Shangcheng people.

The people of Picheng can enjoy the wealth and material brought by foreign visitors with dignity, but the people of Zuan can only call themselves the factories in Shangcheng, they think they are machines in the factory, but they don't know that they are just a consumable in the factory in the eyes of the people of Shangcheng, and they can replace a batch if they break a batch.

There is never a shortage of people in Zaun, which is why there are so many brothels in Zaun that prohibit abortions, and those children who don't know who their father is will be raised in orphanages by the wealthy people of Pi Cheng in the name of charity, becoming a new generation of labor to succeed their fathers.

And they will also find prostitutes to have a child, so that their children can live the miserable life they once had. ”

Sindra shuddered, and shuddered just thinking about it, for the poor life in the village of Skarsias was as good as heaven compared to the Zaun people in Lyster's mouth.

"Teacher, you still haven't said that this has anything to do with human nature?"

Staring into Sindra's beautiful eyes, Lyist lowered her voice.

"When the people of Picheng trampled the Zuan people under their feet, but the Zuan people did not resist, the Zuan people were destined to be trampled under the feet of the people of Picheng and become stepping stones.

Never-ending greed is the root of humanity's inferiority and original sin, and as long as it is humanity itself who is responsible for distributing wealth, humanity will never be able to transcend samsara. ”