Cliff Experiment
The cliff test is an experiment used to study the depth perception of infants and young children.
First, lay a flat layer of special plaid cloth on the ground. Visually, the front half is the ground and the back half is the cliff.
Then put the child on the ground, and the caregiver stands on the other side of the cliff.
When a child climbs to the junction of a flat slope and a cliff, a normal child will stop, observe the expression of the caregiver, and judge whether to climb over based on the caregiver's expression.
Children with autism do not look at their caregivers or get cues from their caregivers' expressions.
They would crawl right over it, or even simply stop forever at the junction.
The older director described the experimental process as if she were telling a story, and her calmness prevented He Dayong from getting upset.
The director asked: "Did He Kang have any special performance when he was a child?"
"Performance" He Dayong scratched his chin awkwardly, "She doesn't cry a lot, and she's easy to worry about."
"Do you respond to him when he cries, such as checking to see if he needs a diaper change or if he's hungry?"
"No." He Dayong was playing mahjong, how could he respond to He Kang.
He defended himself: "We rural people raise children roughly. If we take care of them as soon as they cry, wouldn't it be like we have to live by their mood? That's the opposite of heaven! We as parents have to live by our children's moods."
The director shook his head: "So his soul was separated from his body during his infancy. This damage is irreversible."
He Dayong was anxious: "Then Director, can you tell me whether my child is autistic?"
The director smiled and said, "We can only make a preliminary diagnosis. For further diagnosis, you can go to a higher-level hospital."
"We're filming—"
"You don't have to take the photo." The director interrupted him, "Go to a higher-level hospital and take the photo."
The kind smile on the director's face froze into a mask. The doctors, nurses and security guards around him separated He Kang and He Dayong, fearing that He Kang would be beaten again.
Even though He Dayong is such a shameless person, he can feel that he is unwelcome.
He took He Kang home in shame.
He did not give up and took He Kang to different hospitals for treatment, and got the same result - He Kang was suffering from autism.
The scene changed, and in Li Wangli's dim home on the 5th floor, He Dayong was slumped on the sofa smoking, and Zhang Xiaona was washing He Kang's face.
"I bought insurance for Kang Kang." He Dayong said solemnly after putting out his cigarette.
Zhang Xiaona quickly blocked He Kang's sight: "What are you talking about? The child is still here!"
He Dayong suddenly got angry: "What's wrong with buying insurance? Why can't I tell you about it?"
Zhang Xiaona's face was pale.
"Hehe." He Dayong smiled proudly, "You think so too, right?"
"What are you thinking about?"
He Dayong said harshly: "You are thinking what I am thinking, don't fucking pretend."
The room was silent and Zhang Xiaona stopped talking.
After a long while, she begged in a low voice: "Don't say it in front of the children."
"I said it, I said it! Does he understand? He's like a beast who can't understand human language!"
The word "beast" came out of his mouth along with saliva, and He Dayong lit another cigarette.
"In the past, it was normal for a child to die. My grandmother's sister was burned to death and only had her last breath left. Her mother put her on the ground and said that she would be cured by connecting to the earth."
He exhaled a puff of white mist, and said with a hint of pride in his melancholy tone: "In the end, she died anyway. Who would ask too many questions about the death of a girl?"
"I took the pill to change my pregnancy." Zhang Xiaona, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said.
He Dayong perked up: "Yes, you took medicine desperately to keep him alive, otherwise he would have been aborted long ago."
Zhang Xiaona looked at her son dimly.
"We have done our best to honor him," He Dayong said. "No one owes him anything. We have a clear conscience."
Zhang Xiaona pursed her lips tightly.
Finally, she asked: "Why are we the ones with bad luck and not others?"
He Dayong couldn't answer her.
Expressionless little He Kang sat on the bench and looked up at his parents.
He is like a bird imprisoned in its shell. He can clearly sense everything, but has no interaction with the world. He can only act as a faithful camera, recording the sufferings he has experienced in this world.
The next day, He Dayong took He Kang to a remote village under an overpass in the suburbs to go fishing.
He Dayong was crying while fishing, and halfway through he slapped himself hard.
He is a man who is cruel but not cruel enough, cowardly but unwilling to be cowardly, and even he hates himself.
He Kang didn't know why he was crying, maybe he couldn't even understand the act of crying. In his barren world, all emotions can be expressed by raising hands and dancing.
"Kankang..." Tears and snot covered He Dayong's face.
On the water surface, the float sank and the fishing line shook, and a big fish was hooked.
He Dayong held back his tears and caught the fish first.
He injured his finger while removing the hook from the fish's mouth.
Regardless of whether He Kang understood or not, he spoke mechanically as if reciting a line:
"Kang Kang, Daddy's finger is injured and he needs to go to the village clinic to get it bandaged. Can you go to the hut over there and wait for Dad?"
There is a small wooden house by the pond for farmers to rest. The door is not locked and the only furniture is a simple low bed.
He Dayong squatted down and said, "Kang Kang, let's do an experiment together with Dad."
"This experiment is called the cliff experiment."
He Kang raised his hands and danced like a butterfly.
He Dayong was stunned. For the first time, a light appeared under his swollen eyelids. He thought his words were responded to, but the light soon went out.
He closed his eyes and said, "You are in the house, and Dad is on the other side of the river. Observe Dad's expression. If you feel that he looks scared or anxious, run away from the house."
He Kang put down his hands and stood upright in the hut.
"If you don't want to escape." He Dayong took out a piece of white paper and a pencil from his arms, "Just write numbers from 1 to 500. When you finish, Dad will come back to pick you up."
A wisp of black smoke slowly emerged from the lighter, like the genie coming out to meet Aladdin.
He Dayong turned and left without looking back.
He did not stay on the other side of the river as he said.
He walked straight to the village, looking for the health center that he didn't know if it existed.
People say that water can wash away everything, but they always forget that only fire can burn the source.
The flames devoured the wooden bed and then bit He Kang's calf.
He Kang stood straight there, like a sculpture.
The hut was engulfed in flames.
"Fire! Fire!"
The village was already remote, and the pond was even more remote than the village. People only discovered the fire when the raging fire and black smoke rose into the sky.
When the villagers and He Dayong arrived, the hut was burning like a torch. They hurried to put out the fire, and the black hut was burned down to only the foundation.
An unknown murder surged in the dusk. The instigator had no joy of success. He closed his eyes and made a silent wish.
Then he knelt on the ground and cried bitterly, following the movements he had rehearsed countless times in his mind: "Kang Kang Ah——"
The snot flowed back into the trachea and He Dayong's blood coagulated.
He saw a long-haired little girl with severe burns all over her body standing in the middle of the ruins.
The girl's lips were completely burned, and the corners of her mouth were raised unnaturally, with bloodstains and blood scabs forming a horrible and absurd smile, as if she was mocking him and mocking everything in the world.
"Ghost!"
The people from the village who came to help were so scared that they dropped their water pipes and ran away.
The smiling female ghost briefly stayed on people's retinas, and in the blink of an eye, He Kangli, with a little dust on his body, stood in the ruins.
He Kang stood there with his hands hanging down and an expressionless face, like a statue for people to make wishes for.
The next person to make a wish was Zhang Xiaona.
In the house in Liwangli filled with the smell of soybean oil, Zhang Xiaona whispered to He Kang: "Kang Kang, I am pregnant with my younger brother."
He Kang was busy painting.
"But don't tell Dad now. You can tell Dad after tonight!"
The last word ended with a rising tone, and Zhang Xiaona held her stomach and giggled like an old hen.
The old hen asked: "Kang Kang, how about calling your younger brother Shan Shan?"
He Kang picked up the crayon.
"You agreed. What a good child!" The old hen was very happy. "Make a wish with your mother. May Shanshan be a healthy child!"
He Kang raised his hands and danced wildly.
Zhang Xiaona giggled.
He Kang, waving her hands, turned into a fake girl. She and He Cuifeng walked on the path home.
He Cuifeng excitedly used her mobile phone to record the first time she actively activated He Kang's superpowers.
She believed that He Kang was her sister and made a trivial wish to go home together after school, but her wish was quickly fulfilled by the fake girl.
The fake girl looked like an ordinary child, chasing He Cuifeng's shadow in the sunset.
Everything is exactly the same as in the video clips of the pseudo-human test.
After recording the video, He Cuifeng squatted down and held the fake girl's shoulders. She spoke softly:
"Kang Kang, I have always regarded you as my god."
The happy pseudo-girl looked up at her.
"I hope I can have lots of money, meet a talented and handsome man who truly loves me, give birth to a healthy and smart boy, and live a happy and worry-free life."
He Cuifeng looked at the fake girl expectantly.
The fake girl raised her hands and began to dance. She turned back into the dull and bloated He Kang. He Cuifeng sighed in disappointment.
The sighs were accelerated, and the old movie made up of memories was fast-forwarded.
He Kang grew up quickly. He was beaten and kicked by children when he played a puppet in a shopping mall. He was fed paper by his colleagues in the conference room of a printing factory for fun.
But he had no reaction to this, or maybe he did, but he could only express it by raising his hands and waving them around randomly.
Chen Yingsheng broke free from the gray-black film.
She saw He Kang, who had turned into a pseudo-human girl, sitting in a small wooden house by the pond writing numbers, and she had just written 159.
The closed cabin has no windows or doors, and He Kang seems to be prepared to write here forever.
"He Kang." Chen Yingsheng asked, "How do I remove your superpowers?"
He Kang ignored her.
She looked around and suddenly realized something horrible: He Kang didn't want to go out, and she couldn't go out either.
Chen Yingsheng snatched the paper from He Kang's hand and forced He Kang to look at her.
She said sincerely: "He Kang, you are being used by He Cuifeng. A person named A Ku is about to be killed by your superpowers."
"Please save her. She is a brave and strong person. You have met her daughter."
He Kang stared at her blankly, with no trace of her in his eyes.
Chen Yingsheng took a deep breath and made a wish: "He Kang, I believe you are a fake girl. I wish to remove the superpowers from Ah Ku."
He Kang remained unmoved and his wish was not fulfilled.
Anxiety slowly turned into despair.
Chen Yingsheng made a wish again: "He Kang, I believe you——"
A beam of pure white light penetrated the roof of the cabin. Chen Yingsheng was captured by the white light. The color of his body gradually became lighter, and he was about to leave this world.
It's the people outside the kaleidoscope.
They used flashlights to shine into Chen Yingsheng's eyes in real life, trying to wake her up by force.
He Kang finally reacted. She raised her pencil and gently cut off the light.
Chen Yingsheng understood what He Kang meant.
Stay with me.
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