Chapter 74: The Song of Taotie (14) Sisyphus’s Pie. …
The next day at work, as soon as I entered the office, I heard a lot of noise inside. Many people gathered around Li Mai's desk.
When they approached, they realized it was Sister Hong who was causing trouble. She put her hands on her hips and said, "So, I've checked the surveillance footage, and it was you who took the bracelet."
The minister asked, "Aunt Song, do you have any recollection of that thing?"
Aunt Song said, "I didn't take it. Your coffee cups were piled on the table, and I swept them into the trash can with my arm. I don't know if your bracelet was on them."
"You definitely did it on purpose." Sister Hong said firmly.
Aunt Song's face gradually turned red as she was surrounded by so many people. She said, "I said I didn't take it. At worst, I can compensate you. How much do you want?"
Sister Hong said, "If you didn't take it, would you be so kind as to compensate me?"
The minister said, "Well, she wants to compensate you, so let's just leave it at that."
Sister Hong said, "How can we let it go? Are we going to let her continue working in our company? She's such a dishonest person."
"How much is the bracelet?" Zhang Deng asked.
When Sister Hong saw that it was him, she rolled her eyes at Aunt Song and said, "Two thousand eight hundred."
Zhang Deng thought it was worth tens of thousands of yuan, but it was only a little over two thousand. He glanced at the woman and felt she looked honest and wouldn't do such a thing. Zhang Deng was about to speak when Li Mai said, "How about this? Sister Hong's birthday is coming up soon. Let's pool our money and buy her a new bracelet."
"That one we had before wasn't the regular version," Li Mai said. "How about we buy a better one this time and put this matter behind us?"
Sister Hong was a little slow to react, so Zhang Deng spoke first, "That's a good idea. Aunt Song, don't worry. Be more careful next time you clean up."
Sister Hong was a little embarrassed by this, so the director said, "That's it. Xiao Li, you go do the shopping. It's so early in the morning, so you should cool down."
The crowd then dispersed. Aunt Song looked at Li Mai and muttered a few words, then said, "I really didn't move."
Li Mai had already sat down and turned on the computer. She said, "Just be careful when you clean up."
Zhang Deng smiled and said, "Aunt Song, do you have many people with this surname? I've already heard two."
Li Mai and Aunt Song asked at the same time: "How is that possible?"
"Song is a religious surname," Li Mai said. "This is the first time I've heard of it in my entire life. Doesn't anyone have that surname anymore?"
Zhang Deng was stunned for a moment, then looked at Aunt Song. She said, "I changed it myself later. I've never seen anyone else with this last name."
Zhang Deng said: "Then you..."
Aunt Song also realized something, and she raised her eyes and asked, "Who is that person you know?"
Zhang Deng went to look for Wei Yuanye, but Wei Yuanye was out on field work again. Zhang Deng asked, "Auntie, would you like something to drink?"
The two of them found a meeting room, turned on the lights and poured Aunt Song a cup of coffee.
Aunt Song was a little reserved. She looked a little timid, didn't talk much, and was also reserved in her body language.
Zhang Deng asked, "Your daughter's name is Songhua, right?"
"Where did you see her?" Aunt Song asked immediately.
Zhang Deng felt that this attitude seemed a little off. With Wei Yuanye away, he could only rely on his intuition. Zhang Deng asked, "Can't you contact her?"
Aunt Song said, "She ran away with someone."
Zhang Deng: "The last time we met, she told me she missed you very much."
Aunt Song laughed, but unlike the reserved tone just now, there was more of a sarcastic tone in her laugh.
It turned out that the misunderstanding between them had not been resolved. Zhang Deng said, "She is in a very dangerous situation now. She is a religious person, and the mentor she follows is very dangerous. Moreover, she has developed feelings for that man."
Aunt Song said, "She's a rich person on the list, right?"
Zhang Deng: “?”
Aunt Song said, "That man must be very rich. She's just after money."
Zhang Deng was silent. He calmed down and looked at the woman in front of him again.
To be honest, Zhang Deng had never observed the appearance of middle-aged or elderly women. They didn't often appear in his life, as if they had hidden themselves from society. Even if he saw them, they would just lower their brows and nod, and then quickly slip out of his sight.
Zhang Deng once heard a very cruel saying: older women all have the same face.
The woman in front of him looked to be around fifty years old. Perhaps because of overwork, she looked older than her actual age. There were many brown spots on her skin, which were like a star disk, connected by wrinkles one by one. She was not tall, with even smaller bones and a slightly overbite in her chin. She looked unsightly.
When Zhang Deng looked carefully at a woman's aging face, he read a sense of sadism.
This is his vice and an old habit that society has not yet abandoned.
The woman was disturbed by his gaze and turned her head away with some displeasure.
Zhang Deng finally came to his senses and said, "I don't think she did it for money."
Songhua is willing to give up her life for Bai Yan.
Zhang Deng said, "But if you think so, I have no way to refute it."
Aunt Song said, "Where is she? Tell me."
"Are you going to look for her?" Zhang Deng asked. "What are you going to do when you find her?"
Aunt Song was very alert and said, "What else can I do if I look for my woman?"
Zhang Deng leaned back on the chair and looked at her with a mysterious look.
Aunt Song said, "She must have lied to you about something."
"You don't think she's a good person, do you?" Aunt Song said, "She said something to pray for the child?"
Aunt Song said: "She had an affair with a thief and got pregnant. The thief was caught. She felt she couldn't raise the child, so she strangled the baby to death before she was out of confinement."
Zhang Deng couldn't tell whose words were truer. He only knew that the words were so vicious that the truth would only be more terrifying.
Aunt Song said, "I can find her even if you don't tell me."
"There aren't many places for someone like her to go," Aunt Song said. "I'll find out if I ask around."
The mother is a religious believer, and the daughter is deeply harmed by it. When she grew up, she also became a religious believer. What is this? Zhang Deng thought, there is no clearer intergenerational trauma than this.
Zhang Deng said nothing and got up and left.
Wei Yuanye came back before lunch and left a pile of snacks on the table. He hurriedly asked, "How is it?"
Zhang Deng: "Very good."
"You're working overtime at noon," Wei Yuanye said, "eat by yourself."
Li Mai said, "Just go with peace of mind."
As soon as she finished speaking, her phone rang. Huang Jingjing asked, "Have you contacted your mother?"
Li Mai said, "Of course I didn't. What happened to her?"
Huang Jingjing: "She sent me a message and said something very strange."
"Please let me take good care of you," Huang Jingjing said. "I called, but no one answered."
The pen in Li Mai's hand fell onto the table with a "bang" and then rolled to the floor.
Zhang Deng said to Wei Yuanye, "Don't do it anymore."
Wei Yuanye: "I originally joined this class."
Zhang Deng: “?”
Li Mai called her mother again and again, but all calls fell on deaf ears.
She looked at Zhang Deng in confusion, and Zhang Deng said, "Don't worry."
Wei Yuanye said, "Follow me."
The three of them hurriedly put on their coats and rushed out before their lunch break. People in the office found it very strange. Sister Hong leaned over and said to the person next to her, "When did Li Mai and the newcomer become so close?"
"You're single," the guy next door said. "That's understandable."
Sister Hong: "I heard that both of them have partners."
"I don't know," the man said, "I thought she was in love with Zhang Deng."
Sister Hong: "Zhang Deng doesn't like her."
But Zhang Deng, an office worker with a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan, no car or house, no ambition, and working as a copywriter with the least room for promotion in the company, couldn't explain why she was not worthy of Li Mai, who earned more than 10,000 yuan a month and was appreciated by her superiors.
The taste smacked their tongues, and they went back to work in disappointment.
Zhang Deng only then realized that Wei Yuanye had rented a car, a very cool off-road vehicle. The only shocking thing was that it was a bright pink color.
Wei Yuanye said: "I am driving without a license."
"I don't have a license either." Zhang Deng said, "Forget it, I know how to drive anyway, so how about-"
Li Mai opened the car door and got into the driver's seat without saying a word. Zhang Deng and Wei Yuanye quickly got in.
Li Mai stepped on the accelerator and Wei Yuanye said, "Towards Wuming Mountain."
"Where is that?" Zhang Deng asked. "Don't worry, Li Mai. I don't think it's a big deal."
Wei Yuanye said, "I found Bai Yan's hideout yesterday afternoon."
"How did you find it?" Zhang Deng asked, "Why didn't you tell me? The question is, did you really find it?"
Wei Yuanye said, "Her father can find it, why can't I find it?"
Zhang Deng didn't understand and was thrown against the car window by Li Mai after a sharp turn. Li Mai said, "Li Ya's crew is in Wuming Mountain."
Zhang Deng understood: "So that's it!"
Wei Yuanye is really smart. Since Li Ya has disappeared for such a long time and fans have not reacted, it must be because her disappearance has a pretext, and Li Mai's father doesn't know what Li Ya has experienced. I didn't expect that Bai Yan was also missing. He must have gone to find the crew.
Wei Yuanye actually did so many things by himself that the progress bar of Zhang Deng's love brain turned red again.
His mind automatically played: "You dominate, I worship, there is no better way-"
However, the reason why Zhang Deng was so calm was that he had already thought that Wei Yuanye would handle everything.
Li Mai overtook other cars along the way and honked his horn frantically, but his driving skills were so good that nothing went wrong.
She only drove for thirty-five minutes on a one-hour journey.
When Wei Yuanye got off the car, he told Li Mai, "Bai Yan is a hypocrite. He advocates against killing people, so her parents and brother are not in immediate danger. Bai Yan only uses other people's knives to kill people, allowing them to be destroyed by their own desires."
Li Mai said, "Where's my sister?"
Wei Yuanye said with certainty: "Alive."
Li Mai breathed a sigh of relief, her nerves slightly less tense. Zhang Deng knew that Li Mai could endure all of this, as she possessed a formidable mental strength. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to survive in this dark forest of steel and concrete for so long.
They went to the foot of the nameless mountain together. The crew was filming in an orchard with a white guardrail outside. Li Mai stepped directly in. The wire mesh tore her stockings, but she didn't even look at it.
Li Mai knew a little about the location of the crew. She had seen many videos of fans and knew what the environment was like over there. She threw her arms around and rushed forward. Zhang Deng felt how great the potential of people was in a crisis. He was also a veteran and felt it was difficult for him to follow.
Follow the path in the orchard to the main road. Keep going along the road and you can see several greenhouses. Zhang Deng realized that from here on, it was already the filming site for the crew. These greenhouses should be a place for extras to rest and change clothes.
There were many signs of life on the ground, but there were almost no people. I turned on the light and peeked inside, and it was all empty.
Wei Yuanye said: "Go forward."
As you walk in, you can slowly feel the presence of people.
Zhang Deng didn't know if it was a psychological effect, but he felt that the further he went in, the more uncomfortable he felt. It was as if there was a layer of something in his head, and everything he saw was blocked by something.
The scene they were filming was probably around the white row houses in the orchard. It was locked from the outside and it seemed like there was an electric fence on the wall. No wonder the fans couldn't get in.
Wei Yuanye took out his gun and broke the lock. After they went in, they found that the people inside were really filming a movie. When they heard them come in, they looked at them in confusion.
Although they seem to be working within their job responsibilities, their minds seem to be empty because their vision is also scattered.
After a while, a thin man in a vest asked, "Who are you?"
He seemed to be more sober. Li Mai asked, "You are the director?"
"Where's Li Ya?" Li Mai asked, "Where are my parents?"
The director said, "Who are you? We are filming right now and fans are not allowed in."
Zhang Deng said: "We are not fans, we are Li Ya's family members."
"That's what I said," the director waved the paper tube in his hand, "Let's go."
Li Mai was about to rush into the house, and the director said, "You don't want to listen, right?"
The director came to stop him and said in a stern voice, "Go!"
Many people gathered around, and Zhang Deng felt that the atmosphere was a little strange. The director told them to leave, but these people came up with things in their hands, as if they wanted to keep them.
Zhang Deng asked, "What are you going to do?"
The man holding the camera pointed the lens at them and said, "You are disturbing the filming."
"Don't blame us for being rude." said a woman with disheveled hair.
Wei Yuanye took out his pistol and fired a shot into the sky.
Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then started moving forward again.
Li Mai pulled the director over. She was much stronger than the director, her arms twice as thick. She looked around, picked up a nearby prop cup, smashed it on the well, and pressed it against the man's neck, saying, "If you come any closer, I'll kill him."
"It's no use," a man's voice came from behind him, "They won't be scared."
Everyone turned around at the same time and saw a boy walking out of the house. Zhang Deng recognized this boy; he was Li Mai's younger brother.
Li Mai said, "Li Sui."
Li Sui said, "Come in, he's looking for you."
After he said this, everyone retreated. Zhang Deng looked at the director, who was still standing there, looking at them with a strange expression.
Li Mai was very nervous. She clenched her fists and placed them on the sides of her thighs. She felt that the danger of this matter was far beyond her expectations.
To comfort her, Zhang Deng said, "You siblings have really interesting names."
Li buds, Li wheat, and Li ears: it is like the growth process of Li wheat.
Li Mai said: "My mother gave them all."
Zhang Deng's favorite name is Li Mai, but Li Mai said, "When my mother gave birth to me, she didn't plan to have any more children, so she named me 'Li Mai'. Wheat means mature. Later, when she got pregnant with him, she named him 'Sui'. I actually called him by his name."
"My mother likes him the most too," Li Mai added.
Zhang Deng said: "Parents generally love their youngest child more."
Li Sui listened to their conversation and said, "You keep talking about this endlessly. Is it interesting?"
Li Mai said, "Isn't that the truth?"
There are many problems in Li Mai's family. Her younger brother takes up more of the love. Li Mai suffers from guilt towards her sister and fear of her parents' quarrels. Her mother constantly complains to her about the grievances she suffers in the family, getting energy from her, but giving her younger brother a lot of pure care.
Li Mai never stops narrating her situation because this is her real life.
Li Sui said, "Every time I ask you for money, you use the same excuse."
"I have no obligation to support you," Li Mai said. "I'm just your sister, not your parent. If I were your parent, I would have strangled you to death as soon as you were born."
Zhang Deng realized that Li Mai really didn't like this brother. It wasn't the same hypocritical dislike she had for Li Ya, she hated this brother.
Li Sui led them to a door that was painted pure white, and the front wall was also white. Such a pure white made people feel uncomfortable.
Li Mai pushed the door open and gave Li Sui a cold look before leaving.
Li Sui followed them and walked in.
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