Accident
After giving way slightly, Lin Ting continued fiddling with the app on his phone used for clocking in at work. The app was unpredictable, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, occasionally lagging like a 3G network. Lin Ting had already developed patience and stood there waiting patiently.
As he waited, the dark figure he had seen earlier seemed to have spotted him and suddenly rammed into him.
Lin Ting's phone was knocked away, and he looked up in astonishment to see a person wearing a mask staring intently at him.
Lin Ting's intuition told him to back away warily, but the person in front of him seemed to have been prepared, taking out a strange can and spraying it at him.
A pungent aroma exploded in the air, and a burning sting spread through Lin Ting's eyes. In the confusion, he realized it was pepper spray.
Those nearby noticed something was wrong and immediately called security, who then restrained the person who was spraying pepper spray at Lin Ting.
The surroundings were chaotic, but Lin Ting had no time to pay attention. The intense discomfort in his eyes made it impossible for him to open them. He was in excruciating pain and no longer had the strength to stand. He slowly squatted down and then sat on the ground. Lin Ting heard the voice of a familiar colleague.
"Lin Ting, hang in there, I've already called an ambulance..."
Something was shoved into his hand; it seemed to be his phone, which had been knocked away.
Lin Ting was then put into an ambulance called by her colleagues and taken to the hospital emergency room. The treatment was not difficult, but Lin Ting was in so much pain that she was covered in sweat.
When he couldn't open his eyes, he thought aimlessly: I wonder which was more hurt, him or his phone.
Even after the treatment, there was still a stinging sensation, but Lin Ting was able to open his eyes. The doctor gave him some instructions and then let him leave.
Lin Ting looked at her phone. The screen was cracked, and the bottom left corner, where it seemed to have been in direct contact with the ground, was cracked. It looked serious, but it could still be turned on normally for the time being.
When he opened the app, it showed his clock-in screen. He was downstairs at the company when he missed clocking in. He was now outside the clock-in area, so he exited the app, found his team leader's contact information, explained the situation, and asked for the morning off.
Then Lin Ting received a call from the police, saying that the person who attacked him had been temporarily detained, and asking if his injuries were serious and if it would be convenient for him to come over to give a statement.
Lin Ting checked the time, asked for the address of the Public Security Bureau, and said he could get there in twenty minutes.
Lin Ting used his battle-damaged cell phone to take a taxi to the police station, his eyes red as he cooperated with the police.
"Okay, that's all. How are your eyes feeling now?" the police officer asked with concern after taking the statement.
Lin Ting truthfully stated, "It still hurts, but I can bear it to this extent."
After leaving the police station, he randomly found a noodle shop for lunch and then took a taxi back to the company.
His colleagues in the office were somewhat surprised when they saw him and asked, "Why don't you take another half day off? Your eyes look quite badly injured."
Lin Ting shook her head: "If I don't come back now, I'll probably have to work overtime tomorrow. I'd better come."
Upon reflection, the colleague realized that this was indeed the case and sighed with genuine emotion.
Lin Ting worked until after 8 p.m. as soon as she got home, she received a call from Zhao Qinfeng.
"What's wrong?" Lin Ting answered the phone, asking in confusion.
Zhao Qinfeng asked, "You were cornered? Are you alright?"
Lin Ting put her phone on speakerphone, changed into slippers, and went inside.
He said, "I guess so. There was a little trouble, but I've already been to the hospital. It's not too serious."
He heard a long sigh of relief from the other end.
Lin Ting asked curiously, "But how did you find out about this?"
Zhao Qinfeng said, "My staff member was just browsing local short videos and told me that he thought he saw you. I went over to take a look and it was indeed you, covering your eyes and squatting on the ground."
Lin Ting said with a wry smile, "So it seems everyone instinctively raises their phone to film when they see an accident... At the time, I was sprayed with pepper spray in my face and couldn't open my eyes, so I didn't see the reactions of the people around me."
There was a loud bang on Zhao Qinfeng's end, as if he had bumped into something.
"You call this 'not too serious'?"
Lin Ting said with a wry smile, "It's not fatal, but it's truly an unexpected disaster."
Zhao Qinfeng then used his experience in dealing with obsessive fans to launch into a ten-minute-long, uninterrupted lecture to Lin Ting, his voice loud and clear, each word forceful and his breath flowing smoothly.
"Did you understand?" Zhao Qinfeng asked, as if giving a lecture.
Lin Ting said, "As expected of a professional singer, her ability to control her breath is amazing. I admire her."
Zhao Qinfeng's voice suddenly rose considerably, and he didn't care about being out of breath anymore. He said angrily, "Is that the point? Don't interrupt me, I'm talking to you seriously!"
Then Zhao Qinfeng started muttering again.
Lin Ting felt a warm feeling in his heart as he listened to Zhao Qinfeng's ramblings, but he got tired after listening for a while, so he found an excuse to change the subject.
"My eyes hurt, I want to hear you sing."
As soon as he said it, Lin Ting felt a little strange. How could these two things be related? But Zhao Qinfeng immediately agreed, which made Lin Ting feel that there was nothing wrong with what he said.
"What do you want to hear?" Zhao Qinfeng asked.
Lin Ting said, "You can choose, as long as it's you singing."
He heard the other person chuckle softly, followed by a short humming.
Zhao Qinfeng hummed a soft melody. The melody was unfamiliar to Lin Ting, but Lin Ting liked it very much after hearing it only a little, and quickly recognized the personal style within it.
Lin Ting lay half-reclined on the sofa, turned off the speakerphone, and held the phone speaker to her ear.
Zhao Qinfeng hummed for about two minutes, exactly one verse, then stopped without speaking immediately. Lin Ting remained silent as well, the only sound in the call being their soft breathing.
"Did you compose this music yourself?" Lin Ting already had a conclusion in mind, but was only asking to confirm.
"Yes, it only has a simple melody yet, no lyrics," Zhao Qinfeng replied.
"It seems my eyes don't hurt as much anymore," Lin Ting said with a smile.
"That's good."
Suddenly, there was some background noise on Zhao Qinfeng's end, indicating that he was busy with something. So the two quickly said goodbye and hung up.
Lin Ting gently closed her eyes, and Zhao Qinfeng's humming seemed to echo in her ears again. How could she describe the feeling of hearing this melody? It was like seeing a rainbow after the rain for the first time, or witnessing the thawing of a river for the first time—a first encounter with something beautiful, filled with anticipation.
"That would be wonderful. I wish I had the chance to write lyrics for this song," Lin Ting thought to herself.
Although Lin Ting uses his real name online, he has a pen name, "Jinghu," which he uses specifically for writing lyrics. On the eve of his graduation from university, he was asked by the class's art and literature representative to help rewrite the lyrics for their class's graduation song, and thus he accidentally developed a new skill—lyric writing.
After that, he gradually got involved in some related work. Although he still focused his main energy on his main job, he never stopped doing this side job over the years, and would occasionally take on some lyric writing work.
However, he doesn't plan to let others know for the time being that "Lin Ting," who posts music reviews online, and "Jing Hu," the lyricist, are the same person.
By the time of the next recording, Lin Ting's eyes had returned to normal, but Zhao Qinfeng still grabbed him and asked about his eyes.
"Are you really alright?" Zhao Qinfeng leaned closer, placing one hand lightly against the corner of Lin Ting's right eye, observing him carefully.
"It's really okay now, my eyes feel completely fine!" Lin Ting flinched, and the breath Zhao Qinfeng exhaled as he spoke brushed against his cheek, making him feel a little itchy.
Zhao Qinfeng then let him go to get his makeup done, and even told the makeup artist about Lin Ting's previous injuries, asking her to be careful.
The makeup artist exclaimed in surprise, "Is that so? Don't worry, I'll be careful. Some of the cosmetics here are less irritating to the skin. I'll change them for you..."
Lin Ting felt he had recovered almost completely and didn't want to trouble others, but the kindness from Zhao Qinfeng and the makeup artist warmed his heart.
As Lin Ting sat there applying her makeup, she pondered Zhao Qinfeng's actions just now, and a subtle joy rose in her heart.
Although he is a programmer who is used to coding and spends his days and nights with computers, he has always felt that many things cannot be transmitted through the network, so he has never been able to imagine that his friendship with others is only connected by a network cable.
Only when their eyes meet in the same space and time, and their skin touches and transmits warmth, will he feel that the other person is a tangible and real person.
The corner of her eye, which Zhao Qinfeng had just wiped, still had a distinct presence, and Lin Ting felt particularly itchy when the makeup brush touched that area of skin.
Even though the night was still long and the recording hadn't even started yet, he would still see Zhao Qinfeng countless times that night, but he couldn't help letting his thoughts drift to the more distant future.
According to the production team's schedule, there are two more recording sessions. Apart from that, they are all in the same city, so meeting up would not be difficult if they wanted to.
What kind of feeling is this? Lin Ting asked himself this question, but still couldn't give an answer immediately.
He hasn't forgotten the pain of having pepper spray sprayed on his face, or even how he felt when he wrote the script for that video.
Earlier, when he accepted Director Qiu's invitation, he had thought about what might happen in the future, but he still took this step.
People can exhaust themselves forever on an imaginary path just to deceive themselves. Lin Ting understood his hesitation, but he still couldn't stop the trembling in his heart.
But no matter how turbulent Lin Ting's emotions were, the show still had to be recorded, so he sat upright in his seat and got into work mode.
The seating arrangement changed several times during the show. This time, there were no other music critics or singers between him and Zhao Qinfeng, but there was still a slight distance between them because the music critics' seats were not next to the singers' seats.
Therefore, Lin Ting couldn't peek out to discuss anything with Zhao Qinfeng in front of everyone. She could only discuss things quietly with Wang Qiong next to her. The two had developed some tacit understanding during their time working together, and they exchanged ideas while watching the show. Lin Ting felt that she had gained a lot of inspiration.
During the recording process, it wasn't necessary to maintain focus all the time, such as when the staff was setting up the stage. At this time, Lin Ting would usually pretend to be carefully reviewing his notes, but in reality, his mind was already wandering, treating it as a way to relax.
Suddenly, a staff member slipped while lifting a stage device, and the device fell from a height, crashing to the ground with a loud bang.
Lin Ting was immediately startled from her reverie and looked up sharply, but not towards the direction from which the sound came. Instead, she instinctively turned her head to look beside her—not on Wang Qiong's side, but on Zhao Qinfeng's side.
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