Chapter 2280: Cat Getan Music Festival (28)

"I don't know how to describe it." Christopher's tone lowered. He lowered his head slightly, his thick lips pursed tightly, clearly his emotions were churning inside.

"The contradiction between us isn't as simple as writing a few aggressive lyrics in a song." Christopher finally admitted, saying: "We want to look forward to a beautiful future, but Tupac is always reviewing the past—suffering, violence, injustice. I know these indeed exist, but we always have to solve problems."

"Dad often told me that if we want to achieve victory, we must stand at a high point, and for this, we can use all methods. Now I have achieved it, I am sought after by people, and I am the center of attention."

"I think I'm getting closer to changing something, but he says I'm a traitor. Don't you think we two should be the other way around?"

Christopher's tone was full of thick doubt. He said: "Doctor, you might think that all black people who rap must be from the street, not learning well since childhood, either selling drugs on the street or robbing shops and pedestrians."

"I admit that I was like this. My mother couldn't afford the life of the two of us alone, so I became a drug dealer in the block very early. This earned me my first bucket of gold, and I also received punishment and went to prison for a long time."

"I am not proud of this, but I have to say, if there is no such money, I have no surplus to engage in rap. This society has taken too much from us, we just want to find a way to take it back ourselves."

"Tupac is different. Although his conditions might not be good, at least they could support him to go to art school. Can you imagine? He has studied classical music, can dance, and even participated in the Baltimore concert. He is not a traditional black person, at least not on the same path as me."

"He has things I envy very much. He can easily squeeze into the upper class. He can go to obtain power, and then go to change all this, even if he doesn't change much, he can always help some people, instead of having to climb up from the bottom like me."

"But since I have climbed up, he should understand me more. Now I have the right to speak, I have a reputation, I can speak for many people, I can change their lives, this is exactly what I want to do in the next album."

"I want to start pointing directly to the key point, I want the world to understand what they have done to us, this is the reason why I racked my brains to get to where I am today, but he only saw that I compromised with the wave of pop music, he thinks I gave up speaking, just to make money."

"I admit that the wording of the album I released before wasn't that powerful. I listened to Dad and started to pay attention to the melody and added some pop elements, but this is just a means."

"I admit the wording on the album I released earlier wasn't that powerful. I listened to my dad and started focusing on the melody, adding some pop elements, but that was just a means to an end."

"What right does he have to demand that I tell the truth from beginning to end just like him? What capital do I have to be exactly like him, refusing to compromise on commercialization and only chanting my own scriptures?"

"I thought he could understand me, but the fact is he doesn't understand at all. Poor black people don't have that many choices; we just have to make money first. Without money, we have nothing."

"He doesn't understand that our starting points are worlds apart. How much effort would it take for me to reach his starting point? He just groundlessly accuses me of having the wrong way of running, while he himself is marking time, refusing to head to the higher ground that was already within his reach."

"He superficially misunderstood me before my time had even come. I have to say, I am very disappointed by this, and for a long time, I felt very sad."

"But what puzzles me even more is his approach. His view of our situation is so pessimistic that he feels he must sink down among us, must repeatedly denounce suffering and violence like a true poor black person, for it to be of any help to us."

"But in fact, this is our world, these are our rules. People at the bottom have their own way of living. We don't need his sympathy; we just need him to do something more efficient, but he didn't."

"He is overly immersed in pessimistic, sympathetic emotions, like a philosopher and thinker. I don't understand what makes him like this. I can only say his choice to get on this boat was a huge mistake. This is not how we solve problems, and this won't solve the problems of this world either."

Christopher poured almost all the wine in his glass into his mouth. Realizing he was a bit uncomposed, he had to wipe his mouth, grinned, and said: "Sorry, Doctor, just consider me unsophisticated. The champagne here is actually quite good."

Schiller revealed a smile and said: "The problem you mentioned always exists universally. Perhaps you haven't thought about the fact that a world-renowned super billionaire has done the same thing."

Christopher immediately became interested and asked: "Who?"

"Bruce Wayne."

"Whoa."

Schiller looked away and said: "I think you've already heard that Cat Getan's massive transformation is inseparable from this world's richest man, but in reality, he also walked the wrong path."

"He certainly knew that the lives of the people at the bottom of Cat Getan were miserable, and the first solution he came up with was to become them."

"Oh, god." Christopher laughed, raised his hands, and said: "Don't tell me he dove headfirst off a rooftop and then said this was the so-called life of the people at the bottom. Come on, we didn't just pop out of a crack in a rock."

"Later, he realized this point, so he chose to walk another path, and then there was the New Cat Getan you see."

"Many people think that if you want to improve life at the bottom, you must join them, live like a real poor person, and then see what ways the poor actually have to change the world."

"But in fact, different people in this world are in different positions. Anyone who rashly invades another's territory will be met with a heavy blow; suddenly moving up and suddenly moving down are the same."

"People stunned by this blow will always miscalculate and exaggerate the difficulties of the lives of the people at the bottom. This has a certain benefit, which is to give them more motivation to change this situation, but it also has a downside. After all, humans are emotional animals; as long as they think about how terrible the situation in this world is, anyone will feel pain and despair."

"You can't say they aren't strong, because through their own experiences and clear cognition, they realize that this world is permeated with despair."

"This is an empathetic explosion that can almost simultaneously resonate with the suffering of all the people at the bottom of the world. Every organ in the body is exaggerating these feelings; they become lost, frustrated, depressed, until they collapse."

"Those who can pull through are heroes, but even heroes find it hard to avoid this. They need to get through this period, but don't forget, this path was already full of obstacles, with countless pairs of malicious eyes staring at everyone who walks past."

"When they are trapped in depressive emotions, they also inevitably become like ordinary people; their thinking slows down, their reactions become sluggish, and this gives the beasts lurking by the roadside an opportunity to exploit."

"They will seize every weakness the heroes reveal, pounce on them with all their might, and try every possible way to bite off every piece of their flesh, making them lose too much blood and become unable to reach the finish line."

"Those heroes who have gone down in history have all survived all of this, but how many people are there in the whole world? It is imaginable that countless people have fallen on this path because of it."

"Some of them, who come from better backgrounds and must learn through acquired experience to understand the suffering of the people at the bottom, often possess more sensitive empathetic organs than the masses who have been exhausted by life, which is why they are more easily crushed by these emotions."

Christopher gripped his wine glass tightly and said: "Do you think Tupac is currently trapped in this kind of emotion?"

"I can't be sure, because I haven't met him. However, I need to tell you that often, the more such people there are, the more they will erupt with stronger motivation than anyone else after they survive this ordeal, and they can also do more than anyone else. The more suffering they empathize with, the more they will sacrifice their lives; countless heroes have already proven this point."

"Besides truly understanding the suffering of the people at the bottom, they also possess the perspective of the upper class, are not limited by class, and possess more comprehensive abilities and a vision more in line with the background of the times. This will give them a greater chance than others to create the great cause that belongs to them."

Christopher let out a long breath and straightened his back. The dizziness brought on by the alcohol gradually dissipated in his brain, replaced by a kind of excitement as his thoughts raced.

"I have to go talk to him." Christopher nodded and said: "Regardless, I want to know what he is actually thinking."

After saying this, Christopher was about to walk out of the room, but at this moment, the security guard at the door stopped him, and the people in the room turned their heads one after another.

The bright lights of the cruise ship shone across the pier's boardwalk, turning the pitch-black road surface into silver-white, which was then crushed into tiny fragments by the sea waves. In the instant the searchlight swept past, people saw that mysterious name on the side of the big ship—"The Great West Continent."

"Boarding!"

Accompanied by a shout from afar, Schiller, standing in front of the window of the second-floor waiting room, saw the guests on the first floor swarming toward the boardwalk. Under the guidance of the reception staff, they stepped onto the deck of the big ship and then entered the cabin on the first floor.

Among the many guests, Schiller saw some familiar figures. He pressed his wine glass to his lips and revealed a smile; tonight was destined to be a lively, sleepless night.

"Doctor, what's so happy?"

A familiar voice sounded behind Schiller. Schiller turned his head and saw Bruce. He sighed and said: "If I didn't take the initiative to find you, you'd better not take the initiative to find me. I think this is a tacitly understood politeness between adults."

"I don't think so." Bruce took out the invitation he had received, used a finger holding the invitation to slowly move to the name of the challenger who had challenged him, his eyes seeming to hope that Schiller would provide an explanation.

Schiller saw a name written there in ornate English script—"Roman Sionis."