Chapter 38 004 That was simply a sweet trap.
The workshop was as quiet as a lake without ripples. The air seemed to be still, and the rustling sound of turning pages was infinitely amplified.
Wu Cisheng sat at his workstation and could clearly hear a ticking sound outside. This was the sound coming from the connection of the air conditioner's outdoor unit outside the wall.
Water droplets are falling rhythmically along the pipes. This tiny movement, which might not have been noticed in the past, seems particularly noisy today.
During his lunch break a week ago, the conversation in the corner of the coffee shop downstairs replayed in his mind, and finally he came to an extremely clear idea:
"...There's definitely something wrong with that sentry."
First, there was a dangerous aura about him, and second, it was too coincidental, every link seemed like a "godsend opportunity".
Who could have imagined that a simple action would bring such a rich reward? Should we say good things come to those who do good, or should we thank the goddess of luck for her favor?
Wu Cisheng had been tossing and turning and unable to sleep at night because of the strange message; he wanted to re-investigate what happened that year but had no clue.
He knew that there must be something suspicious about the matter, but he had no background, was alone, and was a useless blind man. What else could he do except endure it?
But now, suddenly an "old friend" who has both background and strength comes to him and is not only willing to help him, but also has a very high-sounding reason: to repay his previous help.
There seems to be no reason to refuse.
Combined with the faint cold aura emanating from the sentry, he felt something was very strange.
Wu Cisheng was more than 50% sure that the "strange message" he had heard before was made by him, but why did he remind himself?
On the night he received that "message", Wu Cisheng actually thought of many possibilities in his mind.
Although he is blind, because of this, when talking with others, he always notices many details that others don't care about.
For example, he can infer a person's place of origin from their accent, judge many living habits from their body movements, and smell can also tell a lot.
In addition, he is very good at using seemingly plausible words to guide the other party to reveal more true or false information during the conversation.
Besides, he is a blind man. Many people know that he is blind, so their psychological defenses in front of him are much lower than in front of other people.
Wu Cisheng would not make blind attempts.
He thought that this sentry might not be the one who actually left the message, or perhaps he was just a medium pushed out to pass the message.
He also considered whether this was a test from his partner, or perhaps something happened to his partner and his rival had done it? Or perhaps it was a prank played by a colleague at the radio station who had a bad relationship with him?
But the Sentinel's performance does not seem to be that way.
Since that day, the sentry named Lucas contacted him three or four times for various reasons, and each time he would tell him some new details and new discoveries on the grounds that he had made new discoveries.
Can feel,
He wanted to give himself a sense of gradual progress.
And during the meeting yesterday at noon, the sentry told Wu Cisheng directly and firmly that it was his partner who caused him to go blind.
"His name is Cheng Yuan, right?"
"He is the one who caused you to be blind..."
"He did a very thorough job of cleaning up. That section of road really doesn't have any surveillance, and few people go there. But I have some evidence that proves he hired someone to knock you unconscious and then had someone drip an excessive amount of chemical reagent into your eyes, directly causing your blindness..."
"The sanitation worker who found you that day was deliberately led there by him. Your encounter with him in the hospital wasn't a coincidence; he was waiting for you there..."
"The doctor who treated you was his employee. He also directed the local police station that responded to the call. The police officers who were dispatched didn't conduct a proper investigation..."
"That huge expenditure was slandered to you by him and a management employee of the tower."
"You probably already know that you're currently working at a subsidiary of his group. There's someone there watching you. Everything you do and who you talk to is sent to him..."
"Don't worry, I will definitely help you..."
At noon the day before, in a VIP lounge filled with a fresh fragrance, a sentry said this to a blind guide.
After hearing this, the fair-faced guide first thanked him, and then carefully asked him what he planned to do next and what he could do.
He tightly grasped the cane in his hand, his beautiful thin lips tightly pursed, a little less bloody than before, and his whole body trembled slightly. "I'm just a blind man, I may not be able to help much..."
The next moment, the sentry interrupted the guide hastily: "I told you, I'm here to help you."
"After all, I am also a member of the Abnormal Management Committee, and I can't just sit there and watch you do nothing about the guides under your jurisdiction..."
He also said that it involved evidence collection, so Wu Cisheng was told not to alert the enemy for the time being and just pretend he knew nothing. He could just leave everything to him.
The guide saw nothing in front of him. He couldn't see what the sentry looked like or what his expression was, but he could tell from his tone that he was serious.
So he also said seriously: "Thank you."
The conversation from the previous day seemed to still echo in his ears. Wu Cisheng blinked his dry eyes, and his fingertips unconsciously rubbed the ring on his left ring finger in circles.
Do you want to...believe it?
Perhaps it's because people are always skeptical about information that's easily obtained, or perhaps it's because of some inexplicable intuition.
Wu Cisheng thought conspiratorially, would the sentry tell him the truth so easily and help him wholeheartedly? Is there such a good person?
Before he became blind, he and his mother lived in a tube-shaped building and had seen countless evil hearts. After he became blind, the whole world became even darker.
I've been helped, but I've also been teased a few times. For example, someone pointed me in the wrong direction and laughed at me behind my back. Also, because I couldn't see, they deliberately replaced the fruit I bought with rotten fruit.
He had also heard countless comments from others, envying his current life and thinking that he was very happy, but every time Wu Cisheng just remained silent.
What is happiness?
In fact, his own understanding of happiness is also very thin, and it is almost all pieced together from what other people say.
A wealthy, good-tempered partner who loves him, a stable and easy job, two or three colleagues with whom he has a moderate relationship and occasionally gets together on weekends, an absolutely healthy diet and sleep schedule, regular greeting calls to his family and generous living expenses, and even a pet turtle at home that he talks to for half an hour every week. Aren't these the happiness that everyone pursues?
Perhaps he had heard it too many times, or perhaps such peaceful days had lasted too long, he seemed to be beginning to immerse himself in this kind of life.
People have a kind of inertia, and they will habitually choose a more familiar lifestyle, and subconsciously replace familiarity with safety.
Wu Cisheng thought that by doing all this, he was in control of his life and had happiness, but now someone has burst all these false bubbles.
Is that really happiness?
*
Work continued as usual in the afternoon. As usual, Wu Cisheng used a gentle tone to comfort the confused callers. One of the callers was an acquaintance of Wu Cisheng who had contacted him in the past.
Wu Cisheng has a good memory. After just three sentences with the other party, he immediately recalled the time and specific reason of her last call to the hotline.
It was one morning more than half a year ago. The reason why this listener called the hotline was very complicated. The girl said in a very depressed voice that she could not live anymore.
At that time, Wu Cisheng patiently asked what had happened and learned about her specific troubles from her incoherent narration.
To sum up, it was graduation season approaching and I was already confused about the future, and at that time, relationship problems arose with my lover.
The listener found that her lover was frequently suspected of flirting with other people of the opposite sex. She wanted to ask about it, but her lover repeatedly avoided the question and was evasive. She felt that her lover must be breaking up with her.
Regarding work, the listener herself wanted to stay in the big city, but her family wanted her to return to her hometown. The two sides argued for a long time without reaching a conclusion, and in the end the listener began to refuse to answer calls from home.
She graduated from a pretty good university and was full of confidence, thinking that she would not have to worry about finding a job. However, after graduation, she failed three interviews in a row, while she watched her former friends get decent jobs arranged by their families after graduation.
The future that was different from her imagination made her feel helpless. Negative emotions in her heart accumulated day by day, but she had nowhere to confide them. So she went from doubting herself to doubting her life and even her own existence.
According to the listener herself, on the morning she called Wu Cisheng, she had not slept or eaten for two consecutive days.
"Maybe... there's no need for me to live at all? When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about going to the tower in my own province or another province. In the end, I spent my eighteenth year in a mediocre way. There are ordinary people like me everywhere on the street. It doesn't make any difference whether I'm there or not. The sun will rise as usual, right..."
Wu Cisheng had just joined the company at that time and had not yet learned so many all-purpose words. He could only judge her situation based on his previous experience with other junior brothers and sisters in the tower:
"This person definitely doesn't want to die. He's just lost and believes all the roads ahead are blocked."
Then what he has to do is very clear. First, he has to sort out all the current problems for her one by one, then prioritize them, provide clear solutions, and finally talk about his own examples to encourage her.
After going through the whole process, the other party's originally depressed mood was completely calmed down. She said she would give it a try and then cut off the connection.
Just this once, Wu Cisheng took the initiative to talk to the audience about his real-life information. After this call, he was interviewed by his supervisor and never talked about his real-life experiences again. Even if he mentioned it occasionally, he would just make up a fictional character.
It had been a long time since this happened, and Wu Cisheng really didn't expect that the other party would actually call him again.
The listener's voice was no longer as low as before, but was filled with obvious joy, and she called specifically to thank Wu Cisheng for his previous enlightenment.
She said that she followed the methods he gave her last time and resolved the misunderstanding with her lover. Although they broke up later for other reasons, she did not regret it, and the troubles she felt at the time were also resolved one by one.
"I really felt like the sky was falling. If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I would have... Thank you so much!"
Wu Cisheng was wearing a headset, listening to the sincere thanks from the other side. His hands unconsciously stroked the texture of the table, and he spoke words of relief with an expressionless face.
"So it's you?"
"Oh... I remember now. Long time no see. I'm glad you've gotten over the low point in your life..."
Wu Cisheng's hand had already pressed the end button, but he heard the other party ask again, "What about you?"
"kindness?"
The female voice remained in the same tone. She called Wu Cisheng by his pseudonym, Teacher Wu Sheng, and asked about his recent situation like an old friend who had not seen him for many years. She also brought up the difficulties he had confided in her at that time.
"You once told me that you'd faced a huge setback in your life. I didn't believe you at the time. You said your setback was unimaginable, that you'd suddenly gone from a normal person to a disabled person, and that it took you a long time to get your life back on track. So, how are you doing now? Are you doing well?"
The female voice didn't wait for Wu Cisheng to reply before continuing, "Oh! I must have asked too much. You told me so much back then, teaching me to take the first step bravely and not indulge in fantasies. Your self-control is much stronger than mine. Your life must be better now, right?"
“………”
The crackling sound of electricity passed by, Wu Cisheng remained silent, and the faint air flow of his breath was transmitted from one end of the microphone to the other. This strange silence made the originally joyful voices of the audience on the other end become hesitant.
"Teacher Wu Sheng..."
"What's wrong with you?"
The next second, a gentle male voice came from the headset: "I'm sorry, there's something wrong with my microphone. I mean... of course I'm fine now..."
At first glance, the voice sounded exactly the same as when we first connected, but upon closer listening, it seemed a little different, as if it carried a hint of indescribable emotion.
“Thank you for calling, I wish you a happy life…”
Before the female voice could speak, the connection was cut off.
With a smile on his lips, Wu Cisheng continued to listen to the next operator's troubles in a similarly calm tone, while the director's doubts came from the headset on the other side.
"What's wrong with Teacher Wu today? He never cuts off the audience before..."
Wu Cisheng did not answer and continued to maintain his usual work pace until he finished connecting with all the listeners in line. Only then did he respond to the previous questions during the break.
"Nothing, just an accident."
At this time, his colleague had long forgotten what questions he had asked Wu Cisheng before. He just hummed twice in confusion and then passed it off.
Wu Cisheng took off his headphones, sat silently, and stared at the nothingness in front of him.
In a trance, another identical "Wu Cisheng" appeared in his mind. That person looked even younger. He mocked him in a sharp and harsh tone for being cowardly and unwilling to face the truth that was within reach.
"Why don't you want to give it a try?"
"Why don't you dare give it a try?"
Wu Cisheng replied calmly in his heart, "Do you really believe what he said? Do you believe that such a good thing as pie in the sky can happen in this world?"
He commented:
"That's a sweet trap."
The illusory figure continued, "I know what he said could be true, could be false, and could have other motives, but does it matter?"
"Now you have what he wants, and he has what you want, so what are you going to do? Continue to be content with the status quo? Be an ostrich with your head buried in the sand?"
"Are you going to keep living this stagnant life forever?"
Of course not!
This question requires no thought at all.
The next second the answer appeared,
The figure disappeared like a wisp of mist.
In a medium-sized broadcasting studio, a handsome but blind guide carefully counted his heartbeats and breathing. He could clearly hear the beating of his heart in his chest, and the illusory time became extremely concrete with his breathing.
He didn't check his phone, but he had a very accurate sense of time. He guessed that there were still fifteen minutes until 6:30 pm, and in ten minutes he would hear the door pushed open, and then his colleague would tell him to get off work.
According to the previous rhythm, he should smile and say to his colleagues that he understands, then walk out of the TV station step by step with his blind stick. On the way, he will pass by a chain supermarket, buy some fresh fruits, send a message to his partner, and then go home along the planned route.
There are two intersections on the way, one of which is under road construction. Strange roadblocks will appear from time to time, so he needs to be more careful and pay attention to every step.
When I get home, I start washing my hands and cleaning the fruits.
After cutting the fruit, my partner will be back soon. We will chat about the day's life, then lie side by side in the same bed, say good night to each other and fall asleep.
He has been living like this since he became blind, and his life has always been so monotonous, but now everything is different.
When Wu Cisheng was thinking about whether to take a step with his left foot or his right foot, a prompt sound suddenly rang out.
He fumbled to find his charging phone on the table, unplugged the charging cable, and the phone's prompt tone automatically announced that it was charged to 100%.
Unlocking the screen with his fingerprint, Wu Cisheng relied on his memory to accurately click on the new message column, and learned from the voice prompt on the screen that it was a message from his partner Cheng Yuan.
He put on his headphones, and Cheng Yuan's voice came from the headset: "It's time now, should you be off work? I just happened to be passing by, so I came to pick you up after get off work."
My partner didn’t like going out before. When did he start to come and pick me up from get off work from time to time?
It seemed to have started from the moment I received that "recording" and the appearance of that strange sentry...
It seemed as if something invisible was quietly brewing in the dark, but Wu Cisheng, who was in the middle of it, knew nothing about it.
He replied with a faint "hmm".
.
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