Chapter 31 Why are you so happy? Why are you the only one so happy?
Gao Xing has been a little absent-minded these past two days, often taking out her cell phone to check it from time to time, while walking and eating. She doesn't answer when asked what she is doing.
Regarding this symptom, Shen Xingjian did some research online and found out that it was a mobile phone addiction disorder that many young people have nowadays.
On the one hand, more and more life scenes are inseparable from mobile phones. Some children born after 2000 lack proper guidance from their parents and are particularly easily attracted by the various contents in them and become addicted to them. On the other hand, some people lack spiritual life and can only get instant happiness through mobile phones to relieve stress, loneliness and other emotions in reality.
Shen Xingjian thought about it carefully and felt that Gao Xing completely met these two requirements, even their ages matched.
All she does every day is work and sleep. She has no entertainment activities and no hobbies. There is no one around to supervise her. Won't she become addicted to her mobile phone over time?
Shen Xingjian decided to be kind and correct Gao Xing's "bad habit" and guide her to "turn over a new leaf" with gentle persuasion.
That's why, when I got home from work, I was so happy to see him sitting on the sofa, holding a book... "The Devil Master Is By My Side"? He was reading it with great relish.
"What are you doing?"
Gao Xing walked in, casually placed the paper bag he brought for work on the coffee table, and looked curiously at the pile of romance novels in front of him.
"I've reflected on what happened with the game last time. Those card games are indeed too far away for you. It's normal that you're not interested."
"I was out shopping today, and just happened—" he emphasized the word "just happened"—"to pass by a bookstore, so I wanted to learn about your interests. Weren't you writing novels before? I want to see what you're into."
Happy:"……"
She approached and flipped through the brainless romance and youth pain literature that had been out of fashion for eight hundred years. However, her attention was not on these. Instead, she asked with a hint of surprise, "You went out?"
She has been living here for several months, and Shen Xingjian has only gone out a few times on his own initiative.
"It's not important! What's important is that you now have something to do in your free time and you don't have to hold your phone all day!" he emphasized.
Free time? Gao Xing gave a wry smile. How could she have any free time in her job?
Gao Xing twitched his lips and put the novels back: "You have a lot of free time, you can keep them and read them slowly."
Just as she finished speaking, the phone in her pocket vibrated again. She swiped open the text message and found that it was another safety reminder.
Recently, her mobile phone has been receiving security reminders from some apps, reminding her to pay attention to login security, but she hasn't browsed some pornographic websites for a long time, so why does she keep receiving these?
I don't understand.
Seeing that she was looking at her phone again, Shen Xingjian tried to divert her attention, “By the way, can you go upstairs and get my computer?”
Gao Xing put the phone into the paper bag and asked, "What do you want to check?"
"Nothing much. I received a call from the demolition office today saying they were going to hold a residents' meeting, so I wanted to see how the Mingjing Lake area was specifically planned."
"Demolition? Now?" Gao Xing became nervous.
If she remembered correctly, didn't Mingjing Lake Resort just open this year? How could it have started demolition ten years ago? If it had been demolished, what would happen to the house? What about the overlap of time and space?
Gao Xing didn't understand the land acquisition process, but Shen Xingjian did. He'd researched it online and found that the typical process takes three to five years, though complex cases can take ten or eight. The Mingjing Lake plot, located within a national scenic area and surrounded by complex commercial and residential areas, involved numerous departments and personnel, so it wasn't surprising that it took ten years.
"It's still in the planning stage, and we're soliciting opinions." He comforted her happily, "Don't worry, even if it's really demolished, it will be after I'm dead!"
Happy:"……"
He seemed to have become desensitized to the idea of death and could even joke about it.
However, Gao Xing suddenly realized that he had less and less time.
After October, he will only have half a year left.
Gao Xing sighed inwardly, turned around and went upstairs to help him get the computer.
Not long after she left, the paper bag on the coffee table suddenly made a rapid vibration sound. Shen Xingjian didn't pay attention to it at first, but the buzzing sound continued and became annoying.
He looked up and shouted upstairs, "Happy! Phone call!"
No response.
The vibration continued. Shen Xingjian hesitated for a moment, then moved closer to the paper bag and took out the ringing phone from it.
The caller ID showed a number with no remarks. He was worried that there was an emergency in the nursing home and they wanted to find her. After all, the nature of the profession of doctors and nurses is that they are on call 24 hours a day.
He subconsciously pressed the answer button, but suddenly remembered that his voice could not be transmitted across time and space, so he had to press the hang-up button and typed a text message: "Gao Xing is not here now, please leave a message if you have anything."
The other party quickly replied: "Excuse me, who are you?"
Seeing that the other party was so cautious, Shen Xingjian thought that there was something inconvenient to say, and typed carefully: "I am her roommate. If you have something urgent, I can help pass it on."
The other person read his reply and quickly replied: "I'm her sister. My family hasn't been able to contact her for a long time and they're very worried. They asked me to call and ask about the situation. It's not an emergency. Could you please send me my sister's current address? My family just made some jars of kimchi, and my mother asked me to send some over."
Seeing the word "sister", Shen Xingjian was puzzled. Gao Xing also had a sister? She seemed to have never mentioned her family since they met.
But he still replied: "No. 1 Guanyu Road, Mingjinghu District."
After he sent the text message, he remembered that in his happy time, Mingjing Lake had long been turned into a resort, and there was no such thing as a rain-watching road.
Just as she was about to correct herself, she heard a happy voice coming from the stairs, and handed her the phone: "Someone just called you."
Gao Xing walked over with the computer in his arms, put it down and took it over. "Who is it?"
"She said it was your sister."
Shen Xingjian's answer was like a bolt from the blue, hitting Gao Xing's head with a "boom". She looked at the caller ID and saw that the number was from Xijiang!
"What did you say?" Her face froze instantly.
"Your sister said your family is worried about you and wants to send you some kimchi. She asked for your address."
"You told her?" Gao Xing's expression became even more gloomy, his voice was as tense as a guitar string, and there was a coldness in Xing Yuan's eyes that had never been seen before.
Shen Xingjian had never seen her so serious before, and was speechless for a moment: “I…”
Seeing his guilty expression, her joy suddenly vanished as if she had fallen into an icy cave. She quickly looked through the text message records, and when she saw the address from which the message was sent, the color drained from her face.
Instantly, a huge panic swept over me. Memories of shredded textbooks and test papers, slamming dormitory doors, and smashed pots and pans flashed through my mind bit by bit.
"Who told you to meddle in other people's business!" she yelled at him for the first time.
…
Gao Xing was puzzled as to how Gao Lai Nan found her new number until she remembered the frequent unusual security alerts her phone had received during this period.
After changing her number, she naturally changed the bindings of all the apps on her phone, but she forgot that even if she deleted all traces of use, as long as the other party got hold of her account on any platform, they could use it as a clue to find other platforms, and then infer her new number through number combinations and attempts.
It is said that people do not mind the trouble when doing bad things. We have to admit that Gao Lai'nan has an amazing talent in this regard.
However, at this point, it is no use dwelling on this. Gao Lai'nan has already grasped her location, and it is only a matter of time before he comes to her. What she has to do now is to think of a countermeasure as soon as possible before this storm comes.
Gao Xing understood her sister, and she wasn't on the same page with them, but they were just on the same side in exploiting her. They took it for granted that Gao Xing was born to support them.
When Gao Lainan was still a baby, her parents, who gave birth to her but did not raise her, wanted to do what they had done to her older sister and asked Gao Xing, then only in the third grade, to drop out of school to take care of the child. But Gao Xing was not her older sister; she was naturally unruly and, if pushed to the limit, she would do anything.
So she made a big scene, and while they were asleep, she set the house on fire, intending to die with them. That night, Gao's parents were terrified, and the way they looked at her changed from fear to panic.
Gao Xing stayed at school for a long time and never returned home. The principal took pity on her and let her live in the school dormitory with other teachers who came to Xijiang to teach. She had to do odd jobs for the school to make a living.
Gao Xing was also very competitive. From childhood to adulthood, her academic performance was always the best in that rural primary school. The principal couldn't bear to see her being buried, so he paid for her to continue her studies in the town's middle school.
After Gao's parents learned the news, they went to the principal's house to find fault with him and tried to gain some benefits from it. However, because the principal lived in the local area, they had to give up in the end.
Until the second year of junior high school, the school received targeted assistance from a charity organization, and each student from a poor family was assigned a kind-hearted person to provide special financial support.
Gao Xing was funded by an older sister who started a business in southern Beijing. She wrote a letter to encourage Gao Xing: Life is long, and no matter how many difficulties and obstacles there are, they will eventually pass. As long as you don't give up, the thorns on the road will become your medals, and you will definitely get what you want.
It was also in that year that Gao Xing met Gao Lai'nan again. She had grown up to be a naughty child under the care of Gao's parents.
At that time, their son Yaozu had just been conceived by Gao's mother. To find a blood bag that would keep Yaozu alive, they turned their attention to Gao Xing. However, this time, they were smarter and didn't confront her directly. Instead, they dumped Gao Lainan, then only five years old, at the school gate, hoping to force her to submit.
The five-year-old girl was wearing a ragged shirt that didn't fit her properly, and in the cold winter, she only had a pair of dirty slippers on her feet.
She didn't know what the ghostly parents said to Gao Lainan. The girl looked at her with hatred, as if to say: It's all because of you! It's because of your parents that they don't want me!
But they obviously underestimated Gao Xing's cold-bloodedness. In a sense, she was the loyal successor of their bloodline.
When the teacher in the school duty room brought Gao Lainan to her, she said expressionlessly that she didn't know him, with no emotion in her eyes.
Gao Lai'nan's suffering was not caused by her, and she has no obligation to raise her!
It was also from that time that Gao Lai'nan hated her.
Her thoughts raced back, the past flashing through her mind. She knew Gao Lainan would definitely contact her again. Instead of letting that happen, she might as well strike first.
She turned on her cell phone and called the number in Xijiang.
"It's me."
Gao Lai'nan couldn't describe how he felt when he found out that she actually dared to call him, and he brought out those old threats again.
The threatening lines were similar, which simply meant that if Gao Xing didn't give her money, she would bring Gao's parents over and make her life miserable.
Their tricks have remained the same for decades, but unfortunately, Gao Xing is no longer a child.
"Come and try if you can. I promise you will never find me."
The happy voice was eerily calm, like the eerie silence before a storm, chillingly cold.
Gao Lainan heard contempt and sarcasm in her tone. She felt guilty for a moment, but still managed to speak in a sharp tone:
"Happy! While I still have the patience to talk to you nicely, you'd better transfer the money to me right away! Even if they can't find you, they'll go find your roommate!"
"I've just checked. The area around Mingjing Lake in southern Beijing is full of wealthy people. I didn't expect you could live in such a nice place! So, a mere 5,000 yuan isn't too much for you, right?"
Gao Lai-nan, with her limited life experience and clumsy rhetoric learned from brainless skits, plays the role of a vicious female supporting role.
Gao Xing was amused by her naivety and said, "Don't even think about getting a dime from me, let alone five thousand."
Realizing she wanted to hang up, Gao Lainan was completely furious and started cursing, "Happy! You're so selfish! People like you don't deserve to be born! You should be thrown into a well! Drowned! Bitten to death by rats! Hit by a car!"
"Other sisters would protect their younger sisters, but you! You only care about yourself! You abandoned me! You don't care whether I live or die! You were like this when we were little, and you're still like this now! You will die a miserable death!"
She screamed hysterically, tears tinging her perverse voice. "This world is so fucking unfair! Why are you so happy? Why are you the only one who's so happy?!"
"You've trapped me in this hellhole, having me ordered around like a dog! Sold by them! How can someone like you always have people helping you? How can everything go your way? How can you live a good life?"
Gao Lai'nan vented all her dissatisfaction from childhood to adulthood on Gao Xing, as if all her misery and suffering were caused by Gao Xing.
There are people in this world who, when they are stuck in a quagmire, want to pull all struggling hands into the abyss and sink with them. They think that doing so will make them feel better, but they don't know that all those who pin their hopes on others will eventually be disappointed.
"Gao Lainan, you chose your own path, you can't blame anyone else."
Gao Xing hung up the phone almost indifferently and completely blocked the number.
She is not a god or Buddha and cannot save all living beings.
Mingjing Lake Resort has access control, so it is not easy for them to get in.
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