48 Hours a Day

“The slave traders, who sold their weapons to our hostile tribes and fomented the war between us, suddenly lost a lot of money in order to prevent them from being captured, halved in number over the years, and we had to migrate to survive, but the slave traders seemed to find us all the time, and they came to my father, expressing their willingness to trade weapons for the prisoners we had captured, but the father refused without hesitation.

“Thereafter, our living conditions became worse and worse, until several nearby tribes joined forces at the instigation of the slave traders and launched a raid on us, in which my father and brother died, killing the elders of the tribes and selling the young and powerful youth to the slave traders who supplied them with weapons.” Laerido, “and I'm one of them. ”

“So those female slaves and Rakotoa were from your tribe, and they knew who you were? But how is it possible, as far as I know, that slave traders usually sell people from the same tribe separately to different buyers in order to prevent slave riots?” Zhang Hengdao.

“Only four of these people who were bought with me belonged to my tribe, one of whom died soon after contracting the disease, and one of whom tried to escape and was caught back and beaten to death with a whip. Now, plus I only have three left. To be honest, I didn't expect to see them here either. They were a group of people who had been taken from the tribe at the beginning of the war, mostly women. I think they were less threatened. The slave owners did not separate them completely, and many of them were sold here… As for Rakotoa, he and I were captured together, but then we were sold to different buyers, Malcolm liked to watch the gladiators, who had been collecting powerful gladiators, heard of Rakotoa's power, and spent a month buying him back. ”

Laerie introduced herself and said, “I heard you say on the carriage that you were going to deal with Malcolm? ”

Zhang Heng nodded, “There is some resentment between his black business alliance and my Cold Raven. It is no secret that the whole of Nassau knows about this. Tonight he invited me to his estate for a banquet, which is also a possibility of seeking reconciliation. ”

“And you're not going to accept his offer, why?” Laerie stared into someone's eyes like she was trying to see him through.

“I don't like to put my destiny in the hands of others.” Zhang Heng did not hide it, "Malcolm and I had no personal grudges, but once his very black business alliance was successfully established and he stood on the island, it was not good news for all those who pursued freedom, and Nassau would then be completely controlled by capital. ”

Laeri does not quite understand what Zhang Heng meant by the last sentence, but he can see that the other party did not deceive him, and at least for now Zhang Heng should have chosen to stand opposite Malcolm.

So he silenced and said, “After my father and brother died, according to the rules of the tribe, I was the new chief, and it was my duty to rescue the tribal brothers and sisters from their misery, break the shackles on their feet, and let them breathe back into the free air, which is why I had to escape from the estate in any case. ”

Zhang Hengdao, "I admire your ideals, but unfortunately I'm afraid I can't help you too much. ”

As a future generation, he had no interest in the dirtiest and bloodiest page in the recent history of mankind - the black slave trade, of course - but it was one thing to save Laerie, another to help liberate the other slaves in the estate, and now it was almost the most dangerous time for Raven and Karina. Zhang Heng had to focus all his attention on Malcolm and his black business alliance, and there was no extra energy to help Laerie.

As a result, the black gladiator shook his head when he heard the words, "I'm not asking for your help, I'm trying to work with you. ”

“Cooperation?”

“Yes, you want to know what the difference is between Malcolm and Raymond, and I might be able to help you.” Laerido, "black people sold to the New World by slave traders have a lot of tragic endings, becoming gladiators, fighting like beasts and fellow animals, and having fun with their masters is one of them, but sometimes it's not entirely bad, because we can hear more occasionally than our hard-working compatriots.

“In the eyes of those whites, we're just walkable goods and labour, their personal possessions, they don't care about our thoughts and feelings, we can't leave the estate forever without their permission, so many things they won't deliberately avoid us, and from the first day I was sold to Terrence estate, I was preparing to escape there one day, and in addition to learning more vocabulary in private to understand the world, I was also trying to gather information and hope to find a way out. ”

Raelyton said, "About eight months ago, Malcolm and Raymond had a private party where Malcolm made me and another slave fight in front of them, but both were a little distracted in the meantime, followed by a little quarrel. ”

Zhang Hengyang raised his eyebrows, and Laeri's words aroused his interest.

“The focus of their argument seemed to be a businessman, because it had nothing to do with my escape plan. For too long, I couldn't remember that name. I only knew that he was also a black market businessman on the island. He was doing the same thing as Malcolm and Raymond. It seemed that he also had a reputation. Raymond had spoken to him about the formation of the Black Business Coalition, but it was his strong resistance.

“He said he was playing with fire and cautioned that Raymond Malcolm was too ambitious. Raymond had discussed the matter with Malcolm afterwards, and they both felt a little tricky. The man was not the most profitable businessman on the island, but he was old, had some influence, Raymond insisted on slowly communicating with each other, but soon afterwards the guy was caught in the colony, and Raymond suspected Malcolm of doing it, but Malcolm said that it had nothing to do with him, and the two people ended up unhappy because of the argument over it. ”

Zhang Hengxin moved. He thought about what Karina told him about her father when she first met him. The two coincided in time. Zhang Hengxin did not think that the arrest of the businesswoman's father in New Jersey had anything to do with the Black Business Coalition, so I'm afraid it's not as simple as it seems.