Chapter 25 The little girl buying flowers
The other side.
The three flying squirrels were walking along the lively town streets with hundreds of naval soldiers, heading towards the residence of Hildes Saint.
Gion looked worried, looking at the back of the flying squirrel walking in front.
She felt something was not right, and she always suspected that Darren deliberately separated her and Jiaji to act alone.
"Sister, you are so beautiful."
At this time, a childish voice sounded from the side, interrupting Gion's thoughts.
Gion was stunned and turned around.
What came into view was a little girl wearing a simple floral skirt, carrying a backpack behind her, which contained packed red roses.
The little girl looked to be only seven or eight years old. Her eyes were big and shiny. She bowed politely towards Gion and said:
"Do you want to buy flowers?"
Seeing the cute look of the little girl, Gion's heart almost melted. A gentle smile appeared on his face. He squatted down and touched her hair:
"Little sister, how much did you spend on this?"
As if seeing the long knife hanging on Gion's waist, the little girl said timidly:
"Sister, can I have one for 200 Baileys?"
Gion chuckled,
"You shouldn't ask me that,"
Sensing the little girl's eyes, she smiled softly and said:
"Don't worry, my sister is in the navy and will protect you."
"Sister, this knife will only be used against bad people."
Little girl: "Really?"
Gion nodded and smiled:
"Of course, that's what our Navy is supposed to do."
She looked at the flowers the little girl was carrying,
"Give me one."
As he spoke, Gion took out 200 beli and put it in the little girl's hand.
The little girl raised her head in surprise, then put down her schoolbag a little awkwardly, and started picking carefully with her small face.
"Well, this one blooms the most beautifully."
She picked out a red rose that was obviously the brightest in bloom, raised her hands in the air, and handed it to Gion.
Gion took it and asked with a smile:
"Little sister, why are you selling flowers at such a young age?"
The little girl smiled sweetly and replied:
"Leah is not young anymore, she can help daddy."
She looked at the roses in her backpack with pride.
"This is a flower planted by my father. It is as beautiful as my sister!"
Gion laughed.
So that’s it, is dad a flower farmer?
"Where's your mother?"
"Mom..." the little girl's eyes darkened, "Mom is sick, and dad told me that she went to a place far away for treatment."
Gion was stunned for a moment, sadness flashed in his eyes.
Then the little girl turned around again, looked at Jiaji next to her, bowed politely and asked:
"Uncle, would you like to buy flowers?"
Jiaji's face darkened.
The corner of his eye twitched, and he squatted down with a smile that he thought was friendly.
"Little sister, I am less than 20 years old, you should call me brother."
The little girl opened her eyes wide in surprise, carefully looked at the man wearing a brown hat and chewing a cigarette in front of her, and finally shook her head firmly:
"No, uncle, you don't look like a brother, you look like an uncle."
Addition:…
He gritted his teeth and forced a smile with a stiff expression:
"Little sister, if you call me brother, I will buy all your flowers."
The little girl's eyes lit up, but she soon became entangled again. A pair of white and tender little hands kept stirring in front of her body, her face full of grievance:
"Although Leah wanted to sell all the flowers...but dad told me not to lie."
boom!
Jiaji fell to the ground.
He got up again and said fiercely:
"Damn it!! Open your eyes and look, I'm obviously only 19 years old!!"
He screamed frantically.
"Okay, okay..." Seeing the pitiful appearance of the little girl who was so frightened that she was about to cry, Gion kicked Kake out angrily and squatted down to touch the little girl's head.
"Although that uncle is a bit uglier, he is still a good man. Don't be afraid."
The little girl blinked her big eyes and nodded blankly.
Immediately, she spread out the 200 beli that she earned from selling flowers in Gion in her hands, and counted them awkwardly. Then she took out 40 beri and put it in her left pocket, and put the remaining 160 beri in her right pocket. .
Seeing this, Gion asked curiously:
"Why did you separate the money?"
The little girl said seriously:
"Dad said that we should hand over part of our income so that those with weapons will not come to trouble us."
Gion's face changed slightly.
But at this time, a man ran over anxiously, took the little girl's hand, and bowed to Gion with some fear:
"I'm very, very sorry, Lord Marine, Leah is ignorant and spoke nonsense."
After saying this, he picked up his daughter and ran away.
"Goodbye big sister!! Goodbye uncle!!"
The little girl in her father's arms smiled and waved her little hand towards Gion and Kake.
"Damn it!! I told you that I am a brother, not an uncle!!"
Jia Ji said bitterly.
Gion looked at the father and daughter walking away, but he seemed to realize something.
Hand over part of your income...people who hold weapons...taxes...
She frowned, walked forward quickly, and stopped the flying squirrel who was commanding his subordinates to deploy tasks not far away.
"Major Flying Squirrel, tell me, is that guy Darren doing something shady again!?"
Gion looked serious.
The flying squirrel looked at Gion with a serious face in front of him and said with a headache:
"Major Gion, Commander Daren, as the highest officer of the entire Beihai Navy, naturally has things he has to deal with."
"As his adjutants, our first responsibility is to carry out the orders he issued."
"Our most important task at the moment is to carry out the security work of Shields Saint."
Gion shook his head stubbornly and said:
"No, I want to know what Darren did."
"Now that the order from the headquarters has been issued, Marinefando must have communicated with the governor of Badia Island. There is no need for Darren to go to the handover in person."
"Since the task of protecting Shields Saint is so important, and Darren is the first person in charge of the operation, it is even more important that he should not leave."
She gritted her teeth and asked:
"Darren... is he going to collect taxes from those mafia families with the mayor?"
The flying squirrel was stunned for a moment, feeling a little surprised.
Although Gion's thinking is very naive many times, she is indeed very smart and she actually guessed Darren's purpose.
"I knew it!"
Gion clenched his fists fiercely.
From the flying squirrel's reaction, she already got a definite answer.
"How can you do this! Although the mafia forces are not as harmful to civilians as pirates, their existence will also cause civilians to be suppressed and exploited!!"
Gion asked angrily:
"Forget it Darren...that depraved, corrupt bastard is beyond redemption!"
"But Major Flying Squirrel, how can you be like him and collude with the Mafia family!"
"We are a righteous navy, and our responsibility is to protect civilians, not to oppress and exploit them!"
She had wanted to question Darren a long time ago, but the sudden war started by Germa 66 interrupted her.
The flying squirrel looked at the anger and determination in Gion's eyes, and suddenly let out a long sigh.
What an admirable belief... It's a pity that in a place like Beihai, pure justice is the most useless thing.
"Major Gion, do you see this street?"
He did not answer directly, but pointed to the street in front of him.
"Can you please tell me what you saw?"
Gion was stunned for a moment and looked around.
There are many shops on both sides of the street, displaying a dazzling array of products. There is a constant flow of people. Young parents are playing with their children, and there is laughter and laughter everywhere.
A scene of peace and tranquility.
"Peace." For some reason, Gion's voice became lower.
"...Yes," the flying squirrel shook his head,
"But you don't know that a year ago, this street was a notorious lawless street on Badia Island."
"This place was once filled with liars, gangsters, fraudsters, and murderers... filled with darkness and chaos that a genius like you who was born in Malinfando could never imagine."
Gion opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the flying squirrel pointed to a building not far away.
That's a hospital.
"That place was originally a shelter for refugees and homeless people."
He pointed in the distance in the direction of the port where they landed.
"The port where we docked the warships turned out to be a smelly ditch filled with corpses."
"The road we walked on was a smelly garbage station a year ago."
Seeing the faces of Gion and Kaki in front of him gradually changing, the flying squirrel let out a long breath:
"Batiya Island was one of the most chaotic shipping routes in the North Sea."
"Pirates plundered without restraint, and dozens of mafia families, large and small, ran rampant here..."
"Gunshots ring out here almost every day. The crime rate on the entire island exceeds 30%. More than half of the children have joined the ranks of pirates, liars, gangsters and gamblers for various reasons before they reach adulthood. .”
"The island of Badia, which is bustling with trade, is to some extent a breeding ground for evil."
"How... is this possible..." Gion and Kaki murmured with pale faces.
They looked at the prosperous commercial and trade island in front of them, and they couldn't relate to the dirty and chaotic picture described by the flying squirrel.
"But in the past many years, hasn't the Beihai Navy sent troops to suppress it?" Gion suddenly gritted his teeth and said.
"Send troops? Of course there will be."
A mocking smile appeared on the corner of the flying squirrel's mouth.
"When Major General Sakaski was in office, he led troops to attack pirates and mafia more than once, killing them in rivers of blood and leaving almost no one alive."
"Of course, this process also resulted in the casualties of many civilians and officials, and also triggered a lot of political pressure, which ultimately led to him being deployed to the headquarters."
"But... that's at least effective, right?" Gion said again.
"Effect? No... the situation on Badia Island has become even worse." The flying squirrel looked quite complicated.
"This is impossible!" Gion and Kaki retorted in unison.
Now that Sakaski has sent troops to attack, it can have a deterrent effect no matter what.
How could the situation in Badia get any worse?
They couldn't believe it.
"It's really hard to believe, and if I hadn't experienced it myself, I probably wouldn't believe it, but it is what it is."
The flying squirrel sighed:
"Because there is no way to kill all the pirates and mafia families...at least in the North Sea."
"Less than half a year after Major General Sakaski sent out troops, a large number of gangsters, lawless elements, criminals, swindlers, pirates, and mafia members... once again poured into this prosperous trade island like locusts. This place has once again turned into a chaotic and lawless place.”
"And the truth is, no one can solve these problems."
“Major General Porusalino’s ‘indulgent’ policy is ineffective, and Major General Sakaski’s ‘iron-blooded’ policy is also ineffective.”
"——Until Darren was promoted to the base director of the 321st branch a year ago."
Flying Squirrel said calmly, and when he mentioned that name, his eyes gradually revealed deep admiration.
"He led the navy to suppress the rampant pirates and mafia families in this place, leaving only two mafia families, and divided them into distinct territories."
"He once told me, "Pirates, mafia... these things cannot be eradicated in any era. The key to governance is control, at least in the North Sea."..."
"Having retained two mafia families that were relatively easy to control, Colonel Darren let them go completely, allowing them to maintain a balance of hostility and unify the island's underground forces."
"So the situation finally stabilized. For their own interests and fear of Colonel Darren's bloody purge, the two mafia families cooperated peacefully."
"There are no more gang fights, civilians can recuperate, Badia Island's economy and trade have achieved long-term development, and the face of the city has undergone earth-shaking changes. The crime rate, which originally exceeded 30%, dropped to less than 5%. …”
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