Chapter 69: The Song of Taotie (IX) Sisyphus's Pie. ...

Li Mai was instantly startled. Regardless of her injured leg, she quickly ran to the window sill and leaned over to look. Fortunately, she didn't see any bloody scenes downstairs. She turned back to look at Zhang Deng, a little confused: "Isn't she home?"

Zhang Deng calmly told her the current situation: "She ran away."

"Where did he go?" Li Mai had never experienced such a thing before and was at a loss for a moment.

Zhang Deng wanted to call Wei Yuanye. He took out his phone and said to Li Mai, "Call Huang Jingjing."

Li Mai finally realized what was happening and took out her phone to make a call. Zhang Deng said to her, "It's unlikely she's looking for a boyfriend. If she did, you wouldn't stop her, and she wouldn't have to jump out the window."

Zhang Deng has already discovered how the three of them get along with each other. None of them will be overly involved in each other's lives. Although they care about and protect each other, they also maintain the respect and understanding of adults. There is no need for Huang Jingjing to jump out of the window to find a man just to avoid them.

Li Mai asked, "What was she doing...? She didn't answer the phone."

Zhang Deng had anticipated that Wei Yuanye would answer the phone. Zhang Deng glanced at Li Mai and said, "I suspect she's going to die."

Wei Yuanye said on the other end of the phone: "Who? Huang Jingjing?"

Zhang Deng said to Wei Yuanye, "Wait a moment."

He turned on the hands-free mode and asked Li Mai, "Does Huang Jingjing pass by Century Plaza on her way to work?"

"I'm not sure," Li Mai said. "She doesn't have a fixed place to work. She just does photo shoots by appointment. Does that have anything to do with Century Plaza?"

Zhang Deng said, "Go ahead and hit her."

"At our last dinner, Huang Jingjing said the commercial was beautifully shot," Zhang Deng said. "She's seen it before, probably many times."

Wei Yuanye said, "I'll go over there."

Zhang Deng asked him, "Where are you now?"

"Very close." Wei Yuanye said simply.

Li Mai was a little confused about the current situation and asked, "Where are we going?"

Zhang Deng said, "Century Square."

Although Li Mai didn't understand, seeing him so confident as he put on his clothes and walked out, Li Mai felt confused: "What does this have to do with the advertising screen?"

Zhang Deng said, "I suspect your weight has something to do with that big screen."

Li Mai didn't want to go: "This is ridiculous."

"Isn't that ridiculous?" Zhang Deng asked. "Those three students had a serious drop in grades, Huang Jingjing had a fight because their relationship warmed up, and your inexplicable weight loss—is there really no connection at all?"

Zhang Deng had no way to explain to Li Mai that the world she lived in was a low-magic world, where all kinds of unreasonable things would happen.

"Let her go home on her own," the sound of running could be heard from Wei Yuanye's side. "It's a bit dangerous."

Li Mai said, "I'm not going back."

"Then let's go." Li Mai couldn't get through on the phone, so she turned to inform Liu Bo. When she looked up, she said to Zhang Deng, "Can I trust you?"

In fact, Li Mai had no other choice.

But Zhang Deng still said to her: "I'm here to help you."

Li Mai sat in the car, feeling something was wrong no matter how he thought about it: "What do you mean you are here to help me?"

"That's exactly what it means," Zhang Deng said. "Master, please hurry up."

Li Mai didn't feel any urgency yet and said, "Huang Jingjing isn't the type to be bewitched. She has her own ideas."

Zhang Deng asked, "Are people with unique personalities more likely to be depressed, or are ordinary people more likely to be depressed?"

Li Mai was silent.

Zhang Deng is an editor. He is very familiar with pure art workers. He understands very well that the basic personality of these people is fragile and painful. They rack their brains in pursuit of extraordinary things and try to eliminate the mediocrity in themselves. They are extremely fragile, like giant babies. If there is no one to coax them and they are left alone to hesitate, it is very dangerous.

Wei Yuanye and Zhang Deng arrived at Century Square almost at the same time. As if they were telepathically connected, they exchanged glances across the square, a few dozen meters away. Wei Yuanye ran toward them, and Zhang Deng looked up to see the woman on the big screen still interacting with passersby, occasionally uttering the ad slogan: "You deserve better."

Zhang Deng looked at the direction the woman's gaze occasionally went. Even with squinting, he couldn't see clearly. Wei Yuanye noticed it first and said, "Over there."

Zhang Deng didn't actually see it clearly, but he followed anyway, leaving Li Mai exploding on the spot: "No? Slow down, huh?"

Finally, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and limp off to run. After running a few steps, he actually felt that his feet were not so painful anymore. He finally caught up with them and got on the elevator. Wei Yuanye was a little surprised: "Why are you here?"

"Whose friend is in trouble?" Li Mai asked breathlessly, leaning against the wall. She saw the elevator advertisement and said, "I've been here before."

Li Mai said, "I had forgotten. This is Jingjing's gym. She took me to a trial class."

"Oh shit, I remember now," Li Mai suddenly realized, "Huang Jingjing and her boyfriend met at the gym."

Zhang Deng said, "Then she'll see this ad every day, right?"

Li Mai pressed the button for the thirteenth floor and said, "You're doing it wrong. The gym isn't on the top floor."

Wei Yuanye canceled it and said, "It's the top floor."

Zhang Deng said, "There are so many people in the gym, how could he jump off the building?"

"...Who wants to jump off the building?" Li Mai glanced at them, feeling increasingly strange. "You two look like secret agents."

"He does look a lot like him," Zhang Deng pointed at Wei Yuanye, "Do I look a lot like him too?"

"You look more like him than he does," Li Mai commented.

When they reached the top floor, Wei Yuanye went out first. He had a strong sense of direction and was relatively good at finding the fire escape leading directly to the rooftop. Zhang Deng followed behind him, feeling safe and confident that he would find the way.

Sure enough, with Wei Yuanye's fierce kick, the rooftop door was broken open with great force. Li Mai collapsed and said, "Do you two really have to break in?"

As a result, when she saw the scene on the rooftop, she suddenly shut her mouth.

Huang Jingjing heard the voice behind her and looked back with her eyes red and swollen from crying. She was still wearing a thin light yellow pajamas, one of her cotton slippers was missing, and her long black hair was flying wildly in the cold wind. She saw Li Mai and could no longer suppress her emotions. She cried so hard that she almost died.

Li Mai dragged his half-dead leg and rushed towards her angrily. Zhang Deng was about to stop him but was stopped by Wei Yuanye. Huang Jingjing squatted down, shielding her face with her hair, and huddled in front of the railing of the rooftop, hugging her shoulders.

Li Mai slapped her across the face, twisted her clothes and pulled her down. They both lost their balance and fell to the ground. Li Mai collapsed and yelled, "You idiot!"

Wei Yuanye walked to the railing of the rooftop. The billboard could be seen from this direction. Li Ya seemed to glance over here. Wei Yuanye had no expression. He put his elbows on the railing and looked down. The cold wind blew his clothes. Wei Yuanye stared at the 3D woman in the billboard who occasionally leaned out her body, until the woman never looked in this direction again.

Zhang Deng took off his coat and put it on Huang Jingjing. Huang Jingjing was almost exhausted and shivering violently. Li Mai felt her hypothermia and hugged her tightly. Huang Jingjing also cried and said, "I really don't understand you."

"Why are you doing this?" Li Mai asked her, "Have you never thought about your parents? Have you never thought about your friends? Is that man the only thing on your mind?"

Huang Jingjing shook her head, her lips trembling, and she said vaguely: "No, no, it's not for him."

"It's such a long time and you're still lying to yourself," Li Mai said. "You're about to commit suicide, isn't it for him? Then what is it for?"

Huang Jingjing roared and shook her head: "No, no."

She denied it repeatedly, and Zhang Deng was so cold that she said, "Let's go back first."

This kind of hypothermia is difficult to recover from in a short time. Wei Yuanye put on the lights again and put on a thin round-neck sweatshirt, like a trendy guy.

However, Zhang Deng did not think Wei Yuanye was a trendy guy. He thought Wei Yuanye was like a superman. He and Wei Yuanye had known each other for so long and had basically spent all of their time in winter, with bad weather. Under such circumstances, Wei Yuanye insisted on jogging every morning and never caught a cold, got sick, or complained about being cold, as if he had no feelings about the outside world.

At this time, he had put his clothes on Zhang Deng and reached out to hail a taxi. The cold wind almost blew his clothes off, and Zhang Deng could even see his waist and abdomen exposed. Wei Yuanye acted very numb and turned around to say to them, "Get in the car."

Zhang Deng asked Li Mai, "Aren't you considering buying a car?"

It is really inconvenient to move around in a big city like this without a car.

Li Mai said, "Where do I get the money?"

She was holding Huang Jingjing, and they were all in a state of disarray. The driver's eyes kept wandering over them. Li Mai met his gaze in the rearview mirror and asked unhappily, "What are you looking at?"

The driver looked away.

Li Mai's home was closer, so they decided to go back there first. Huang Jingjing was silent all the way, but her tears were uncontrollable and she was almost dehydrated when she got home.

Li Mai directed Zhang Deng to pour water, and he went to the room to pull out the quilt and wrapped her up in it. Then he found a pair of cotton socks and squatted down to put them on Huang Jingjing. After doing all this, Li Mai realized that he was not feeling well either, and his ankle was even more swollen than before.

Li Mai said: "If I become lame, you will have to wait for me to rely on you for the rest of your life."

Huang Jingjing twitched from time to time, and Li Mai asked worriedly, "Is she okay?"

Wei Yuanye also sat on the ground, replying to the message, and said with a little attention: "I'm cold, I'm fine."

"She seems..." Li Mai pointed to his head, indicating that his brain was frozen.

Zhang Deng said, "Are you okay? What number is this?" He stretched out two fingers and placed them in front of Huang Jingjing. Huang Jingjing twitched again when she saw the gesture.

Li Mai asked, "Why?"

Huang Jingjing's state of collapse and inability to speak lasted for about two or three hours, until it was slightly dark. Huang Jingjing's condition improved a little. Li Mai was hungry again and ordered a table of takeout. Maybe because food can make people relax, Huang Jingjing looked at the table full of carbohydrates and fats, her mood calmed down, and she was willing to open her mouth to answer questions.

"I didn't do it for him," Huang Jingjing completely denied this argument and refused to admit it. "I just feel like a failure."

Having said this, she wanted to cry again, but she was physically unable to shed tears.

Huang Jingjing said: "I'm already at this age, and I've wasted too much time with him. Everyone around me knows that I have a boyfriend. I don't know how to face everyone if he dumps me."

"A few days ago, he said he was getting married," Huang Jingjing buried her head in her hands. "It's so embarrassing."

Li Mai handed her a box of rice and said, "Eat something."

Huang Jingjing refused, but Li Mai stuffed it into her hand and said, "This is not the right time to lose weight."

Huang Jingjing reluctantly ate a few bites. Zhang Deng had no appetite either. He said, "I don't think your life is at the point where you have to die."

"I think it's come to this," Huang Jingjing said, her eyes red and swollen, and she looked extremely exhausted. "Don't I deserve better? Where is it?"

This sentence sounds very familiar. It is the advertising slogan said by Li Ya.

Zhang Deng suddenly woke up and glanced at Wei Yuanye. Wei Yuanye felt his gaze and asked with his eyes: "What's wrong?"

Zhang Deng held it back again.

Li Mai said, "If you have to fart, just fart."

"You two are so secretive," Li Mai said. "I'm completely convinced by you now. I believe everything you say."

Zhang Deng said: "I just thought that maybe this is a way to kill people."

"What?"

"This sentence," Zhang Deng said, "sometimes words are like spells, with infinite power. If you think about it carefully, this slogan has little to do with the lipstick she sells. It's more like instilling a new worldview in people."

"You deserve better?" Li Mai said, "Isn't that true?"

Zhang Deng: "How can it be right? Always having better things, does that conform to the laws of the world? Eating the best, using the best, learning the best, dating the best, then where does the bad go? How can this be reasonable? Isn't this just indulging unbridled desires?"

Li Mai: “That’s too exaggerated.”

"It's not an exaggeration, but rather too abstract," Zhang Deng said. "But this is the curse words can cast on people. Not carefully discerning true and false wisdom in the information flow, blindly trusting others' words, and summarizing the secrets of life in a few short sentences is inherently dangerous."

Li Mai said, "She wouldn't commit suicide just because of a single sentence, would she? It would make it seem like my sister is a murderer."

Zhang Deng said, "Of course it wasn't your sister who killed someone. This is a form of mass innuendo. Just like the saying goes... a thought can lead to the collapse of everything."