Midnight Life Museum
"Look, there's a small moving ornament over there!" Gao Wenwen reminded loudly, as if he had seen something extraordinary.
Shi Yan looked in the direction he pointed, not so surprised: "Can't we move too?"
"Oh, that's right." Gao Wenwen realized belatedly that they were not human beings now and could move freely.
"Which one did you see?" Ding Can looked intently at the shelf. There were several little figures placed in that area, all standing upright in a row. He had no idea which one he was talking about.
"Wait a minute," Gao Wenwen counted carefully, "starting from the left, the fourth one, the one facing us."
He was talking about a desktop ornament that looked no more than ten centimeters tall. It was a small figure with both hands raised upwards, and it was completely red.
The palm of the little man is in the shape of a groove, and you can put some lighter objects on it, such as a pen or a mobile phone.
It is made of wood, and you can see wood grain like annual rings on the surface.
In addition, the outer layer is coated with a bright red coating. I don’t know what kind of processing it has undergone, but at first glance, the color is very bright and shiny.
If placed in a corner of the table, it is indeed a very delicate desktop ornament.
"You just said that it deliberately exposed the cracks on its body?" Xia Jialian asked doubtfully.
Gao Wenwen responded: "I saw it clearly, and that villain was sneaking around, afraid that he would be discovered by the clerk."
Actively exposing your shortcomings in front of customers means you don’t want to be bought.
If we understand ornaments as objects that have become spirits, they have already been in the human world for a period of time, receiving a lot of information continuously every day. They must also have normal thinking consciousness and at least understand some basic principles.
Perhaps it not only doesn't want itself to be bought, but also wants to avoid the same model next to it being bought.
They even want to influence customers' psychology, making them have a bad impression of the store so that they will not buy other products in the store.
However, the reason for doing this is still unclear, and the ornaments have independent consciousness.
Is it because he knows that he can be harmful to humans?
The display shelf for ornaments is not far away on the right hand side of the entrance. It is only two or three meters away from the new clothing display area where Ding Can is.
At this distance, they should be able to hear shouts, and they want to try whether they can communicate normally with this ornament.
Gao Wenwen shouted first: "Hey, that little guy, the little red guy who just moved."
People were walking back and forth in front of them from time to time, and no one heard the sound of the tag hanging on the side of a piece of clothing in the corner.
He shouted several times in a row but heard no response. He was already wondering if it was because they were different species that the other party couldn't hear him.
“I can’t seem to hear it.”
Xia Jialian saw that the ornament remained motionless despite the crowds of people coming and going.
"If you shout like that, it might not know you're calling it, and even if it hears it, it won't easily respond."
Ding Can noticed that there were plastic tags on the shelf compartments with labels introducing the products, and he read out the printed words on them.
"Multifunctional desktop ornament (red version), priced at 9.9 yuan. I just saw you move. I am also a product that has awakened consciousness."
These words finally had some effect on the ornament, and its little round head moved slightly, but only for a moment.
He wanted to turn his head to look, but he was cautious and didn't dare to make any big movements.
To dispel its doubts, Ding Can began to introduce himself: "I'm on the new product display shelf. Here's the new basic crew neck T-shirt. I'll move it right away for you to watch."
She tried to raise her arms and legs, the tag moved a few times, and the clothes also moved slightly along with it.
"Which piece of clothing are you?" Sure enough, the voices of the ornaments reached his ears clearly, and he thought they were spirits of clothes.
Its voice sounded like that of a little girl, but it was just a question, not a surprise.
"It's not the clothing, I'm the tag next to it. Including me, there are four of us."
"There are actually four new little geniuses."
Shi Yan subconsciously retorted: "Why do you say we are stingy?"
We are not familiar with each other yet and this is our first meeting. There is not much chance for us to reveal our personalities. How can you make such presumptuous guesses?
Gao Wenwen said weakly, "It should be talking about the instrument. I guess in its system, it thinks it has become a spirit, so it considers us to be instrument spirits as well."
"Oh, I see." Shi Yan was a little embarrassed. It turned out that it was a problem with her understanding.
"You are a hanging card, so you must have been born not long ago. Do you have a name?"
The ornament spoke with the attitude of a senior. These people were young and inexperienced, and the information they received was probably not enough for them to come up with particularly complicated names.
Xia Jialian asked casually, "We haven't given ourselves names yet. What's your name?"
The sounds and thoughts of the ornaments are all in the mode of a child, and the information that can be received in the human world is ultimately limited.
If they appear too mature, they are likely to be looked upon with suspicion and it will be difficult for them to fit in.
"Everything that lives here must have a name, otherwise it would be a waste of time to call it by its scientific name on the label. For example, I chose a catchy name, Hong Ba!"
Ding Can twitched the corners of his nonexistent mouth: "Your name is really quite domineering."
"Yeah, there happened to be two students who had just watched a movie and were browsing the store that day. I heard them talking about a character called Ba who could destroy anything he didn't like with just a flick of his finger."
"I also want to be like that person and make all things harmful to humanity disappear from this world, including myself."
"If that were the case, there wouldn't be so many people getting sick in this world."
As Hongba spoke further, his tone became increasingly depressed.
"Do you know something?" Gao Wenwen listened and thought it might have some secret.
Hongba sighed, and the expressions on the wooden figures' faces all became sad at the same time.
"You're just ordinary tags. You'll probably be thrown away right after you buy them, so you won't have any impact on humans. But ornaments like me will be placed in people's rooms for a long time. If they inhale the odor from me for a long time, they will get sick."
Next, Hongba talked about the things he had gradually come into contact with since he had a vague consciousness in the factory.
The wood itself is a very common wood, which is bought from the mountains and cut down and brought out of the mountains.
After being transported to the factory and uniformly cut on the machine assembly line, it has its current shape and form.
However, wood is a special material, and if it is to be turned into a decorative ornament, it needs to go through many sophisticated processes.
The first thing to do is to polish the wood splinters and sawdust produced after cutting. The polished surface is usually dull. If you want a more beautiful color and make it more suitable for collection as a decorative item, you need to use high-quality ointment to nourish it for a long time.
Following this production process step by step will not only prolong the production time, but the surface nourishing raw materials will also be a considerable expense.
In order to take advantage of opportunities, shorten delivery time and make profits, the unscrupulous factory that produces Hongba chose the most inhumane practice.
The surface is painted with the lowest quality low-grade paint, and in order to achieve the visual effect of grease, a lot of toxic brightening substances are mixed in it.
Various elements that exceed the formaldehyde standard are mixed together, which gives it a smooth and beautiful patterned appearance.
Those unpleasant odors attached to the surface will become less obvious if they are placed in an open space for a long time.
But what seeps into it cannot be expelled.
Hongba endures the damage to the wood inside by toxic substances every day, and does not want to be bought back to anyone's home and harm others.
There is a small crack on its left arm, which was caused intentionally by the owner so that it can be shown to customers who come by.
Sometimes it is useful, but if I see that it is damaged, I will not buy the same ornaments next to it.
Sometimes I just pick and choose and take the better ones.
Hong Ba was anxious, but that was all he could do.
At least her efforts helped a small number of people.
The reason for hiding from the clerk is that he doesn't want his products to be replaced due to defective products.
Once it is accidentally replaced, it can no longer do anything.
Hongba insisted on doing the same thing every day for three months.
He is just a child, yet he has to face such a heavy burden.
After hearing this, everyone felt sad.
Sure enough, this lifestyle center does have big problems.
Ding Can felt a little sorry for it and was about to say something to comfort it when Hong Ba interrupted him.
"But there's a good thing here. Besides me, there are quite a few other people in the store. During the daytime, I was worried about getting caught out by the crowd. Plus, with so many people around, it's hard to hear each other clearly."
"When you called me just now, I took a while to recognize you. We were both taking a walk here at night."
"There are no surveillance cameras in the store at night, so everyone feels more comfortable moving around. All they have to do is return to their original position before the store staff arrives every day."
Xia Jialian couldn't help but wonder, "Are there many people like us in the store?"
"There are a lot, but it's inconvenient with so many people around right now," Hong Ba suddenly thought of something. "By the way, have you decided on a name? Let me help you figure out if it's the same as other products."
"Ah, just call me Ding Ding." Ding Can thought, if he changed the name to another one, he would probably have to think about it before calling them.
Gao Wenwen is next: "Then call me Wenwen."
"My last name is Shi..." Shi Yan suppressed the second half of the sentence that was about to come out of her throat due to muscle memory, "Just call me Shitou."
Hong Ba asked, "There's another one."
Maybe because there was a new person here, she sounded in a good mood.
Xia Jialian didn't really want to use such a catchy name, but she also didn't want to stand out among them, so she had no choice but to say, "Xia Xia."
It's a bit of a contrast when someone who usually looks aloof calls himself such a repetitive word.
When he thought that he would be able to call him Xia Xia in the future, Ding Can even felt strangely in a very good mood.
"I remember that, but I don't know how long you can stay here. I just saw several pieces of clothing next to you were taken away."
What Hong Ba didn't know was that because of the props, the clothes that Ding Can and the others were wearing would never be bought.
Gao Wenwen said in a low voice, "The fabric of this clothing is harmful to the human body, and we don't want anyone to buy it."
Hong Ba thought that the awakening of these little spirits was actually somewhat different from theirs. It was not that there was something wrong with them, but that the clothes they lived in were harmful to the human body.
"I want to hear your stories."
Xia Jialian briefly summarized the matter of the batch of fabrics containing improper additives and the conversation between the black-hearted factory manager and his assistant.
Hong Ba quickly accepted this statement. While sneering at the factory director's statement, he also thought that they came from outside after all.
"Did you hear any news before you came to the store?"
This brings us to the point. While being transported, Ding Can told Hong Ba about the report about the high rate of medical treatment that had concerned him.
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