Chapter 35
As the saying goes, movies are also a reflection of the current social landscape. Some good stories that expose the ills of the times and even class contradictions are born later than reality.
The day after Lu Chao was forced offline by the Desperate Game, Zhan Mu was surprised to find that a movie called "Qinggui" was launched online and caused an uproar.
The story takes place more than ten years ago. At that time, the world was still dominated by one superpower and many strong countries. As the global hegemon, Xia State firmly sat in the position of big brother with its strength far exceeding that of An State and Jiang State.
The ancients said, "cultivate oneself, manage the family, and govern the country." In other words, governing a country is similar to managing a large family.
The film has no protagonist, but presents several characters in a documentary style. It was they who leveraged that era and brought far-reaching impacts under the arrangement of fate.
Only then did Zhan Mu realize how terrifying Lu Chao's family's social status was and how difficult the dilemma he faced was to resolve.
Xia State was the only powerful country, and Jiang State wanted to weaken its big brother's power, so it asked a female scientist to study biological bombs, and thus the plant 'Yingzhi' was created. Due to mutation, Yingzhi swept the world and brought about a catastrophe.
This female scientist is Bai Tiao.
The Jiang Kingdom panicked. Yingzhi caused a natural disaster out of control, so someone from the top ordered her to be killed to silence her. At this time, a Xia countryman who was studying in the Jiang Kingdom, Lu Chao's mother, sympathized with her and helped her smuggle out of the country.
As a result, Lu Chao's mother was shot and killed on the way, and the whole family suffered. Instead, Bai Tiao later entered the underwater base, continued to study Yingzhi, and even won the Nobel Prize with the help of Lanzhou.
In other words, Jiang country committed a sin, Xia country fell into decline, and the world was in crisis. Lanzhou took advantage of the situation and sacrificed Mother Lu, and won the award for Bai Tiao in the name of the government. It used the tactic of climbing over the wall to sprint for the Nobel Prize in order to enhance its own country's strength.
The Lu Chao family was truly sacrificed.
Thinking of this, Zhan Mu sighed deeply, feeling quite angry and having nowhere to vent. If this kind of internal strife in the country was involved, then their family's grievances would be nothing compared to the interests of the motherland.
Zhan Mu went to take another look. This movie was made by Xia Country. Xia Country's national status was much worse after the fluorescent disease, and the top leaders had no reason to go to the Lu Chao family.
As the saying goes, when one person succeeds, everyone around him prospers. But a person's rise to prominence is inseparable from the shaping of the times and the dictates of fate. The downfall of a family is also inseparable from the foolishness and arrogance of one or two people.
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When they arrived at the station, Zhan Mu got off the bus with his suitcase and was stunned.
The hustle and bustle of the small town seemed to have a rural flavor that was not covered by technology. Zhan Mucai went online to see the prosperity and felt as if he was in another world.
He went straight to his third uncle's barber shop. Before he got close, he saw his third uncle's brother and sister playing games in a van. They were both in their early twenties, about the same age as Zhan Mu. They were playing a shooting game and competing with others, cursing at each other.
There are many games on the market now. There is no mobile game for Desperate, only PC game, and the other is brain-computer game. Obviously, players who can play this game need some financial strength, which they don’t have.
"Hey, Brother Mu, you're back?" Zhan Changjian jumped up and squeezed his sister to make room for Zhan Muteng.
His sister Zhan Changmei tutted her lips in impatience, as if she was in a critical moment of the game. She stared at the screen without raising her head and said, "Stop it, idiot. I'm in the ranking this time."
They had a good relationship when they were young, but when they grew up, they lived apart and didn't see each other for several years. Zhan Mu was quite unfamiliar with them now. He just heard that the elder sister went to a normal college and the younger brother went to a vocational high school.
"It's so hot, why don't you go inside?" Zhan Mu asked casually.
Zhan Changmei finally looked up, her face confused. She blinked several times but didn't recognize him. She asked her brother, "Who is this?"
"This is Brother Mu, sister!" Zhan Changjian said, "Brother Mu has lost weight. He used to be fat, but now he has lost weight."
"Hey, how did you know?" Zhan Mu smiled, ruffled his hair, and said, "I remember I didn't add you on TT, how did you know? Hehe."
"I noticed you were shaking, haha." He replied.
"Wow, brother, you're so handsome." Zhan Changmei murmured subconsciously, even froze in her tracks while playing with her phone. Then, belatedly realizing what was happening, she motioned for her brother to move aside so she could get out of the car. She said with a grin, "Brother, do you want some ice cream? Are you coming back to play for a few days?"
Zhan Mu followed her into his third uncle's barber shop. The suitcases were placed outside. His third uncle was washing someone's hair. He smiled as a greeting. Zhan Mu observed her family's shop and found that although it was simple, it covered an area that almost covered two rooms.
Business has been good recently, and there are several customers sitting on the sofa waiting, playing with their phones while waiting.
Zhan Changmei took him upstairs and said, "The refrigerator is here. What do you want to eat? We have everything."
"I want to ask you about renting a house." Zhan Mu had just finished speaking when Zhan Changjian climbed up and asked, "Ah? Here? Brother Mu, why are you renting a house here?"
"The pressure of living in the city is great, and I don't have a high level of education, so I can't get in. The main reason is... I don't like working in an office building, and I want to come back and find something else to do." Zhan Mu answered honestly, with a forced smile.
"You're not taking the postgraduate entrance exam? What about the civil service exam?" Zhan Changmei handed him a green tongue, biting an ice cream herself, and said, "Or maybe join the army. You're not nearsighted, brother."
Zhan Mu was annoyed when he heard those three words. He was not one to follow the rules, and he was tired of a life that was like following instructions and following a routine. For now, he was deeply aware that what he wanted most was money.
Being a soldier, a teacher, or a civil servant does not make a lot of money and cannot satisfy his current worldly desires.
The twenties are a very beautiful age, the most youthful and beautiful time in a person's life. At the same time, it is also the age when one has just entered the society, has strong desires and longs for the bright lights and wine.
But for someone like Zhan Mu, who came from an ordinary family, he couldn't do it.
"Brother, aren't you trying to be an internet celebrity through your own media?" Zhan Changjian said, "You can get away with it. You can get those rich ladies to shower you with gifts. Really, it's totally possible to make a fortune overnight with a few thousand dollars in one night."
"I..." Zhan Mu was too embarrassed to admit that he had touched it, but unfortunately, he had never encountered such a grand occasion.
Zhan Changmei was browsing Douyin and clicked on the local app. Sure enough, she found "Master Zhan who loves to eat" in a few seconds. In less than half a month, the number of his fans barely exceeded 10,000, which is actually a pretty good record.
But Zhan Changmei carefully compared the real Zhan Mu with the one in the video, laughed for a moment, and finally came to the conclusion, saying, "Brother, you are not photogenic. Haha, you are much more handsome in person than in the video. No, why? You are too unphotogenic."
"Let me take a look." Zhan Changjian leaned forward to take a look, then replied with an awkward laugh, "...Uh, it's true. It's very strange."
Zhan Mu covered his face in pain and nodded, more like wailing than speechless. He replied tiredly and annoyedly, "Yeah, I know. I don't know why I look ugly in photos. There's nothing I can do. I tried hard, but then I realized I have no talent."
"My gaming skills aren't that great, it's so funny, ah... I really can't do anything, I give up." Zhan Mu then tore open the Green Tongue's packaging and started eating.
After chatting with them for another half an hour, the topic was finally interrupted by Zhan San's father who came upstairs. Zhan Mu had to cheer himself up and drag his suitcase straight to his grandparents' old house.
-
Along the way, his family didn't call him. Zhan Mu looked at the 15% remaining battery on his phone and felt lonely, but at least comfortable.
Zhan Mu has an introverted personality and could even be said to be cowardly when he was a child. He was never bullied at school, but he did have very few good friends, and after graduating from college, he didn't want to contact most of them.
In the final analysis, he thought it was because of his temperament that Zhan Mu studied sports only because of his poor grades, and the cultural score for taking the physical examination was even lower, so he didn't like the path of sports at all.
For many years during his student life, he has always been a taciturn fat otaku with poor popularity. The only thing he has accomplished since he was a child is to lose weight successfully. Unfortunately, this has not brought him much value.
Zhan Mu always felt isolated and helpless. He had encountered many difficulties and hardships along the way, and was lonely and miserable, with no one to lend a helping hand.
In fact, he still had a thousand yuan in his pocket, but he knew that it would not last long.
They arrived at their grandparents' house. In front of two osmanthus trees, an elderly couple was working in the fields, one doing a bulldozer and the other spraying pesticides. Coincidentally, Zhan Mu met the female boss in Brother Qiang's farm account.
Zhan Mu greeted his grandparents, cleared his throat, took a step forward, and said to Sister Hong, "Hello, Madam Boss."
"Who are you?" asked Sister Hong, who was wearing glasses and looked very gentle.
"My fourth son." Grandma Zhan replied, "Are you really back? Come on, here's the key. Hurry and take the suitcase and put it back."
"That's great. I'll go drink some water." Sister Hong said, wiping the sweat off her forehead.
The two returned to the house, and Zhan Mu secretly observed her. She was thin and petite, and if she hadn't been tanned, she would have been a beautiful girl. She looked to be in her forties with a lot of white hair.
"I haven't seen you very often. You don't come back often." Zhang Hong said, "Have you graduated from university?"
"Well, I've seen the account you created, boss lady. It's amazing." Zhan Mu dragged the suitcase into the living room.
The old house of the Zhan family’s grandparents is actually quite big. It is a two-story self-built house in the countryside with a large courtyard. Because the grandparents clean it well, it looks neat and generous.
"My husband did that." Sister Hong turned on the tap, washed her hands, and then walked into the living room naturally, picking up a paper cup and filling it with water. Her movements were so skillful and natural that Zhan Mu knew she must be a frequent visitor to his grandparents.
After Zhang Hong left, Zhan Mu didn't feel comfortable asking more questions. He thought he would stay here for a while to calm down, and then ask her in detail when they had a chance to have dinner together.
After he connected his home set-top box to the wifi, his phone vibrated and he received a private message from An Jing.
An Jing: Are you still in Wanzhou? I'm here on a business trip. Are you free to meet me? Are there any good places to eat nearby?
As expected of a Celestial Dragon, he can even say words like "reception" to his friends. It is conceivable how class-conscious he is.
However, Zhan Mu accepted it happily, sent his location first, and said: I have returned to my grandparents' house and am not in Wanzhou City.
An Jing: I came here with my colleague. Our leader asked us to inspect the local area. It was clearly something that would happen six years from now, but she insisted that I do it now. Haha, she was mainly trying to make things difficult for me.
Zhan Mu: Is it that difficult? It’s hard work, but come on, buddy. When you get there, send me a message and I’ll treat you to a meal.
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