Chapters 48-49 of Tomato's novel "Captain Lu's Love Debt and the Little Treasury":
(The first chapter was released on May 21st, and from June 20th, two chapters a day were combined into one article and published in Toutiao, and Tomato has been updated to 100 chapters)
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After getting off work, Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming followed the African foreman into a tattered convertible.
Soon came to a small town, and the African foreman motioned for Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming to get off the car.
He said in English:
"That's where my family lives."
The so-called towns are completely different from China's, they are all thatched huts, or simple houses made of mud, some without courtyards, and some with simple fences made of tree branches.
Not all houses are next to each other, and they are separated by tens of meters, or even more distances.
The Chinese pay attention to etiquette, and Lu Haiyang feels that he can't go empty-handed when he goes to other people's homes.
Lu Haiyang asked the African foreman, do you have a supermarket here?
The young African pointed into the distance.
"There's a small Chinese supermarket there."
Lu Haiyang was very surprised, he did not expect that in such a remote place, there were actually Chinese living here.
Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming walked about 150m, and there was a house on the street, which looked neater and more beautiful than all the surrounding houses.
Lu Haiyang walked over and found that the door was locked, he thought the supermarket was not open, and was about to turn around and leave, when the window opened, and a Chinese woman poked her head out.
"Do you want to buy something?"
Yang Zhiming muttered quietly:
"How could such a beautiful Chinese woman run to such a place where birds don't."
Lu Haiyang looked at the Chinese woman, smiled and asked:
"Do you have any snacks for the kids here?"
"Yes."
"Can we go in and have a look?"
The Chinese woman smiled and said:
"Of course you are Chinese and can come in, but I dare not let them in."
Yang Zhiming asked suspiciously:
"Why don't you let Africans in?"
"They steal, sometimes they rob."
Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming went to the back room, where the shelves were full of food, drinks, and some daily necessities from China.
Yang Zhiming asked the Chinese woman.
"How did you go so far to open a supermarket?"
The woman did not answer.
Lu Haiyang stabbed Yang Zhiming's arm with his hand, meaning that he should stop asking, maybe the woman has something unspeakable.
Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming bought some snacks and some drinks.
The Chinese woman quickly locked the door again.
The African foreman watched them from afar, with a smile on his face all the time.
When they arrived at the foreman's house, his wife was sitting in the yard with a baby in her arms and a little boy less than two years old standing beside her.
Lu Haiyang asked:
"Is this your wife and child?"
"Yes, I have two children."
The foreman's wife looked a little cramped when she saw two Chinese coming to the house.
"Sit down for a while, I'll buy a chicken."
The foreman turned and walked out of the courtyard.
The African woman stood up, took two benches and handed them to Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming.
The woman could speak some English, so Yang Zhiming chatted with her with a gesture.
The woman is 21 years old, her skin is dark and shiny, and she is very delicate.
Yang Zhiming whispered to Lu Haiyang:
"Don't look at Africans who look dark, their skin is much thinner than that of white people."
Lu Haiyang asked Yang Zhiming:
"You're so fun-loving, have you ever seen an African woman?"
Yang Zhiming scratched his head, a little embarrassed.
"This time you asked, I really haven't played with African women, and I'll ask the foreman if there are any women who do business here."
The foreman returned, carrying a chicken, a fish, and a few beers.
He handed the chicken and fish to his wife, speaking their local language.
His wife took the chickens and the fish, and went to a place in the corner of the yard, where there were a few stones on the ground, and there were some ashes in the middle of the stones.
That's where they usually cook.
The African woman was cooking there, and Lu Haiyang, Yang Zhiming and the foreman were sitting in the courtyard chatting.
In less than an hour, the chicken and fish were ready.
Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming looked at the chicken and fish brought by the African woman, and they didn't have any appetite at all, they just cooked them in white water and put a little salt.
They ate and talked.
During the chat, Lu Haiyang learned that the foreman was not a local, and his family lived 200 kilometers away.
He worked at the dock, so he took his wife and children over.
After a few beers, it was already dark.
Yang Zhiming gestured with his hand and asked the African foreman in a low voice:
"Are there any women doing business around here?"
The foreman smiled and said:
"There are a lot of them."
"Then you can introduce me to one."
The foreman looked at Lu Haiyang and asked:
"Lu, don't you need it?"
Lu Haiyang shook his head.
"I don't need to."
Yang Zhiming smiled and said to the foreman:
"He's not a man, so he doesn't need to."
The foreman laughed.
Lu Haiyang kicked Yang Zhiming's ass with his foot.
"You're not a man, you're an animal."
"I'll admit I'm an animal, haha."
Yang Zhiming stood up and said to the foreman:
"Take me with you."
The words spoken by the foreman made Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming look at each other and be dumbfounded.
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The foreman pointed at his wife and said with a smile:
"You see my wife is only 21 years old, and she is also very beautiful, do you like it?"
Yang Zhiming didn't expect the foreman to introduce his wife to him.
Lu Haiyang also felt incredible. He and Yang Zhiming looked at each other.
The foreman thought that Yang Zhiming did not take a fancy to his wife, and said:
"If you don't like my wife, I'll take you to find another one."
Yang Zhiming hurriedly said:
"I like it, I like it, it's your wife."
The foreman muttered a few words to his wife in the local language, and the woman glanced at Yang Zhiming with a sweet smile on her face.
The woman handed the child into the foreman's arms, turned and walked into the room.
Yang Zhiming asked:
"How much?"
The foreman smiled and said:
"It's all friends, you give ten dollars."
Yang Zhiming said to Du Haiyang:
"This guy is funny, I thought it would cost at least $15."
Yang Zhiming followed the foreman's wife into the room.
Lu Haiyang and the foreman continued to drink beer and chat in the courtyard.
Lu Haiyang asked the foreman:
"How could you let your wife make such money?"
The foreman looked disapproving.
"What's wrong with that? My wife's ability to earn such money shows that my wife is beautiful, and many women can't earn it if they want to. ”
Lu Haiyang nodded.
"You're right, not every woman has such capital."
Half an hour later, Yang Zhiming and the foreman's wife walked out of the room.
The foreman asked Yang Zhiming:
"How's my wife? Are you satisfied? ”
Yang Zhiming was still a little embarrassed, and his voice was much lower than usual.
"Satisfied, satisfied, I will come to Abidjan again in the future to find your wife."
The foreman smiled and said:
"Thank you."
The foreman's wife was also much more cheerful than just now, and she said to the foreman with a smile:
"Chinese man, very good! I like it. ”
Back on the boat, Lu Haiyang wrote a letter to Liu Ying and shared what he had seen and heard in the past few days with Liu Ying.
The ship was unloaded in Abidjan for a week before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the port of Santos in Brazil.
Brazil is a major exporter of white sugar, and their ships go there to load sugar, and the port of discharge is the port of Latakia in Syria, a country in West Asia.
Santos is the hometown of the football king Pele, and Lu Haiyang, as a fan of Pele, is full of expectations for Santos' trip.
After many days of turbulence, they finally arrived at the port of Santos.
That night, Lu Haiyang and several Chinese crew members came to the beach near the pier.
The waves crash against the shore, tourists take a leisurely stroll on the beach, and many local children run on the beach and play football.
There are also some stalls selling snacks that are constantly shouting, and the beach is very lively, and Lu Haiyang has seen so many people abroad for the first time.
Not far away, there are tall buildings and bright lights.
Lu Haiyang and they left the beach and came to the city center, in a Chinese-owned supermarket, when Lu Haiyang was buying drinks, the Chinese boss kindly reminded them:
"Don't go to the ghetto, it's dangerous there at night."
The Chinese have no concept of slums, and they walk aimlessly along the street, passing through an intersection that suddenly turns from bright lights to darkness.
The houses have also become low and dilapidated, the streets are narrow and dirty, and Lu Haiyang looks out into the dark streets, and there are almost no pedestrians in sight.
Curiosity prompted a few of them to continue walking, a stray dog came out of an alley, saw Lu Haiyang and them, the stray dog stood in place, looked at them for a few seconds, and then turned and ran away.
Yang Zhiming is a fan of the Italian team Napoli, he wears the Napoli jersey and has Maradona's face printed on his baseball cap.
Before Yang Zhiming came to Brazil, he didn't realize that Brazilian and Argentine fans were at odds with each other.
On Brazilian soil, it is not surprising that wearing a jersey printed with Maradona, the king of football, is hacked to death.
Two young people walked up to him, and the moment they passed Yang Zhiming, one grabbed the hat he was wearing on his head, and the other punched him in the face.
Before they could react, the two of them disappeared into the night.
At this time, Lu Haiyang and the others realized the danger here, and a few of them quickly turned around, crossed the road, and returned to the brightly lit area, as if they had come to another world.
Yang Zhiming had been to Santos before, and the next night, he led the landing ocean to the seamen's club near the dock.
Seafarers from all over the world gather here.
People were drinking beer and speaking different languages, and in the middle of the house was an open space where a beautiful Brazilian girl was standing and singing.
Lu Haiyang and Yang Zhiming also found a place to sit down, and they asked for a few bottles of beer and a plate of fried peanuts.
Lu Haiyang didn't like this kind of noisy place very much, he wanted to leave after drinking a bottle of beer, but was stopped by Yang Zhiming.
"There's a striptease show in a while, it's pretty good, I'll go back later."
Lu Haiyang sat down again, drinking beer while looking at the Brazilian girl singing.
After singing the song, the girl retreated, and the hall fell silent for a moment.
After a while, the Disco music started again, and the whole hall became lively again, and the crew members shouted loudly with their bottles.
It's like there's a big star coming out.
Amid the shouts of the people, a sexy and beautiful Brazilian girl walked up from the backstage with her waist twisted.
To the rhythm of Disco's music, the girl begins to dance wildly in the middle of the stage, and she begins to undress herself as she dances.
Every time she took off, she would throw her clothes into the crowd, and the person who got the clothes, as if he had won the jackpot, stood up and held up the bottle, waving the girl's clothes, showing off to the people around her.
Lu Haiyang quietly looked at everything in front of him, he didn't understand why those people were so excited.
When the girl took off only a pair of panties, she twisted her waist and came to Lu Haiyang.
