Chapter 62: The cruelty of the omen world revealed a corner to her
"Yes, insert your bank card and select the transfer function here." Zhu Zhiwei stood next to the ATM machine and instructed Zhu Yingning.
It was a scorching summer day, the sun blazing like fire. The self-service area had no air conditioning, and the cramped space felt like a furnace. It wasn't long before a fine layer of sweat formed on the sides of their necks. Zhu Yingning wiped her neck with her hand and looked at Zhu Zhiwei with deep apology. "Sister Weiwei, you should go back to the building first."
"It's okay. I'll watch you through. I'll show you how to do it once, and you'll know how to do it from now on." She raised her chin and poked the screen lightly with her index finger. "Enter your bank card number here. You should remember it, right?"
"I remember it. I've memorized it." She punched in Liu Guifang's bank card number from memory and entered 700 in the transfer amount. This was nearly all her salary for the month. Zhu Zhiwei had given her 837, and she saved the rest, planning to buy herself school supplies so she wouldn't have to bother Xu Zhengkang with pocket money. Another 100 yuan would go toward paying for Xu Sirui's down jacket, and the rest would go back home for household expenses—primarily Zhu Dashan's medical bills.
A few days ago, Chen Bin called her and said that he had helped Zhu Jixiang apply for a national scholarship, which greatly reduced the burden on her shoulders. Otherwise, she had to support four people in the family, earn money for Zhu Dashan's medical expenses, and save money for Zhu Jixiang's tuition. She really didn't know what to do.
Zhu Yingning thanked Chen Bin profusely, and Chen Bin continued with something like, "Your greatest gratitude to me is studying hard." Towards the end, perhaps out of concern, Chen Bin asked, "By the way, how's Xu Sirui? He should have gotten over his internet addiction by now. Now that he's back in the big city, is he studying hard and starting to be more considerate of his parents?"
"Well……"
Zhu Yingning scratched his cheek, not knowing how to answer.
Of course I haven't given up my internet addiction, and I haven't studied well. As for being considerate of my parents... let's not mention it.
Although he followed her to the bookstore after leaving the Internet cafe that day, he acted lazy the whole time. He just leaned against any bookshelf without reading or choosing any exercise books. If she hadn't insisted on trying to please him and picked out a few books for him on her own initiative, he would probably have come in empty-handed and left empty-handed.
Zhu Yingning didn't understand whether he was tired and sleepy from staying up all night, or whether he was mentally exhausted.
In short, after careful observation over the past few days, she found that Xu Sirui had indeed changed.
It becomes very bland and empty.
This indifference doesn't mean his temper has improved. No, his temper remains the same. Rather, his indifference manifests itself as apathy and disinterest. He seems to have lost the ability to feel excitement or joy, like a hollow, airy being.
They were both hanging out at the internet cafe, and she could tell Zhang Lin truly loved playing games. Even Sun Mingyuan, a dab hand at it, was genuinely happy when he got into it. But Xu Sirui was different. Zhu Yingning felt like he wasn't truly focused on the game. Maybe he did love playing games before, but now, he seemed to be just doing it because...
He didn't know what else to do except sit there in front of the computer.
Zhu Yingning didn't tell Chen Bin about her observations. She instinctively didn't want to show anyone else Xu Sirui's predicament. Was it out of a gentleman's code of conduct? She couldn't explain it herself.
In a daze, the first day of school is imminent.
**
Looking back, Zhu Yingning felt that her misfortune had been foreshadowed.
From the phone call the day before school started, everything was filled with uncertainty.
The call was from Liu Guifang, using Xu Sirui's home phone. Having not spoken to her family for a month, she was overcome with emotion when she answered the phone. She said "Hello," her voice cracking at the end. Just as she was about to ask if Liu Guifang had received the transfer, she heard Liu Guifang sobbing, "How have I ever wronged you that you hate me so much?"
She was holding the microphone, caught off guard by her mother's sudden accusation. She was stunned for a long time before asking, "What happened? Was there a problem with the transfer?"
"Transfer money? You actually have the nerve to mention transfer money? If I hadn't come to town today to pick up the money you sent me and seen that video, I wouldn't have known you were talking about me like that to the reporters! Ningning, you should have a conscience! I think you went to the city and the city people sold your conscience!"
"Video? Reporter?" She was like a malfunctioning tape recorder, only able to dully repeat Liu Guifang's accusations. "What reporter?"
"Didn't you accept the interview with that reporter? Don't tell me you're lying about this!"
She thought carefully and remembered that she had indeed been interviewed by a reporter in the car when she first came to Xu Sirui's house. So she said uncertainly: "When I first came here, there was a reporter following Uncle Xu's car..."
"Yes! It's him!" Liu Guifang became excited and interrupted her, "You remember it now? Do you know what people in the town said about me when I came here this time? This is the first time your mother has been criticized and gossiped about in her decades of life. You have no conscience! Your father and I worked hard to support your studies. When did we ever force you to get married?! Am I the kind of person who sells his daughter for fame and fortune? You - you -" She seemed to be out of breath at the end of her words. She stroked her chest and took a breath for a moment, cursed a few words casually, and then hung up the phone. Only Zhu Yingning was still holding the microphone on this end, her soul out of her body.
What is deceiving? What is marrying? What is losing conscience?
Why didn't she understand a word?
Xu Zhengkang had a laptop in his room, a model from a few years ago. It couldn't play games, only browse the web. Xu Zhengkang had given her the password, telling her she could use it to look up any questions she had about her studies. She had used it once before, to look up her freshman year high school textbook, but she hadn't used it for anything else. At this moment, in this state of utter confusion, she instinctively thought of turning to the computer, searching online to find out what had happened.
Xu Zhengkang was not at home. Zhu Yingning walked into the master bedroom, unskillfully opened the computer cover, pressed the power button, and anxiously bit her nails while waiting for it to start up.
Two minutes later, the screen turned into the Windows default interface. She opened the browser and when the mouse moved to the input bar, her brain suddenly froze.
What keywords should I search for?
Reporter? No, that's too big a scope.
Or... just search for Uncle Xu?
She tentatively typed Xu Zhengkang's full name into the search bar and pressed enter. She expected a flood of results, given his impressive business. But surprisingly, only two listings appeared: Xu Zhengkang's Baidu Encyclopedia profile and an interview titled "Did a Philanthropic Entrepreneur Change Her Life? Uncovering the Dire Plight of a Village Girl." She clicked on the interview, and the page redirected to Tudou Video.
After a few seconds of advertising, she saw her own face appear in the video——
She was wandering around the train exit, carrying the dirty snakeskin bag on her back.
She stretched out her hand and said excitedly, "Hello, Uncle Xu."
She got into the car and put her hands on her knees awkwardly.
"Ms. Zhu Yingning, can I ask you a few questions?" The reporter's voice came faintly from the video.
"Okay, go ahead and interview me." Her voice also seemed to be covered by mist.
"Can you describe your life in the mountains? Was it hard work, chopping wood and carrying water every day?"
"Yes, it's very hard."
"Is your school very old and dilapidated? Are there very few teachers?"
"yes."
"If you don't continue your studies, will your parents force you to get married next?"
"yes."
The camera cuts to the street. Zhu Yingning recognizes it as the street downstairs from Xu Sirui's house. Yang Zihao says to the camera, "As you all saw in the interview just now, girls like Zhu Yingning, forced by their parents to marry young, are not uncommon in mountain villages. Not only do they lack education, they even face the pain of childbirth at a young age. While city girls enjoy a sea of knowledge, they have to worry about how to serve their in-laws. How unfortunate is this? According to Zhu Yingning herself, her parents even discussed marrying her off to a lame old man from the same village. Fortunately, at this critical juncture, there are upright entrepreneurs like Xu Zhengkang who are willing to provide these village girls with the opportunity to study. It is upright entrepreneurs like Xu Zhengkang who have changed the lives of these poor people..."
The camera panned to Xu Zhengkang's face, and he smiled modestly: "This is the social responsibility I should shoulder as an entrepreneur..."
Zhu Yingning did not read the rest of the content. She closed the webpage, turned off the computer, and stared blankly at the rotating circular icon on the screen when the computer was shut down.
Out-of-context editing, specious rumors, and exaggerated descriptions woven together a seemingly innocuous lie. Yet, staring into the void, she felt only emptiness and confusion. The real hardships a mountain girl had experienced could be so haphazardly pieced together and used as a ladder for others to ascend. She didn't mind Xu Zhengkang using her for publicity, whether it was malicious derogation or deliberate humiliation. He had done her a favor, and being used as a tool for publicity was simply a way of repaying his debt. But the experiences he copied and pasted into her for publicity were realities her cherished friends and the classmates she had tried to save but failed to save had already faced.
The cruelty of the world was revealed to her, and she saw what lies were and what the truth was.
The corpses of truth are built into lies, and the mirrors of lies reflect the truth.
In her heart, Xu Zhengkang, who had been filtered through ten layers of filters in advance because of Xu Sirui's existence, was suddenly stripped out of the filters and turned into a strange symbol, hazy and vague.
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