Find My Bearings

Chapter 1: Festival

Views:

find the north by almond tea

01

The clock in the living room tinkled eleven times. Ji Xiaobei couldn't wait to jump up from the sofa, walked quickly to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, reached the second compartment, and stretched out his hand. Fill out the innermost carton of milk.

This was bought by my aunt last week. The shelf life of this fresh milk is only seven days, so he deliberately left it without drinking it.

Ji Xiaobei walked to the restaurant with the milk and sat down, gropingly tore the opening of the box, and poured it into the glass that had been prepared for a long time. Then take out the phone and swipe the lock screen with your finger: "Open BE Your Eyes."

The phone received the voice prompt and immediately launched the app with the eye icon. Ji Xiaobei was holding the phone, his palms sweating a little. Although this relationship has been going on for nearly two months, he is still nervous every time he picks up the phone: "Please help."

The electronic female voice in the software asked earnestly: "You can choose to ask friends or ask for help in the square."

Ji Xiaobei pursed his dry lips: "For help friends, please help me connect to cz2046."

This is an app specially designed for the blind, and people with vision impairments can use this platform to ask registered volunteers for help via video calls.

It has been five full years since the traffic accident, and he lost his parents and eyes that day. When he was just discharged from the hospital, Ji Xiaobei lived at his aunt's house for a while. Both his aunt and uncle treated him very well, but it was not a solution to always disturb others.

Later, he gradually got used to the dark life and moved back by himself. He lives alone at home now. My aunt comes to visit him every weekend and buys him some food. This software is installed by my aunt.

cz2046 is the first person Ji Xiaobei met on Be Your Eyes. At first, he had no interest in this software at all, and was completely forced by his sister-in-law to use it to try it out once. The little aunt gave him two boxes of commonly used medicines and helped him start the "Help Square" service, with a voice prompt: "It is being matched, please wait..."

Soon, the video call was connected, and a nice male voice came from the opposite side: "Hello?"

Ji Xiaobei was stunned for a moment. He hardly went out in recent years. The only people he had contact with were his aunt, uncle, and sister. He hadn't spoken to a stranger for too long.

It was repeated over there: "Hello, can you hear me?"

Ji Xiaobei's voice trembled involuntarily: "Well... I can hear it, hello." The other party seemed to be relieved: "Is there anything I need help?"

Ji Xiaobei hurriedly brought the medicine box in front of him: "I'm sorry, can I ask you to help me find out which of the two is the cold medicine?"

cz2046 said: "Okay, hold your phone steady, it's a little hard to see now."

"Ah, I'm sorry!" Ji Xiaobei held the phone with both hands, "Is this okay?"

"Let me take a look... The cold medicine is on the left, and amoxicillin is on the right." cz2046 continued, "Turn the medicine box on the left over, and I will help you to look at the instructions for taking it."

Ji Xiaobei was so nervous that his tongue was a little knotted: "Okay...Okay! Immediately!"

"Take one tablet three times a day." cz2046 replied quickly.

Ji Xiaobei nodded involuntarily and silently: "Well, alright, trouble you!"

cz2046 seemed to smile: "It's a small matter, you're welcome, do you need anything else?"

Ji Xiaobei: "No, thank you!"

cz2046: "Then drink more hot water and take medicine on time, I just... hang up?"

The little aunt looked relieved: "If you need help in the future, you can ask for help on this software. You need to talk to people and make more friends."

Ji Xiaobei knew that the little aunt was doing it for his own good, so he had to answer softly: "Then let me try..."

In the next few days, Ji Xiaobei could always run into cz2046 when connecting to the square.

The first time he dropped his toothbrush on the ground, he squatted down and touched it for a long time without touching it;

The second time the temperature dropped sharply, he opened the closet to find a sweater to wear;

The third time the bank sent a bill, he wanted to ask someone to look at what was written.

When he connected to cz2046 for the fourth time, Ji Xiaobei had already remembered this gentle and steady voice, and asked dumbly, "Why is it you again...?"

This is actually quite rude to say, but cz2046 is not angry: "Don't you want to be me?"

Ji Xiaobei realized that he had just said the wrong thing, and quickly explained nervously: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant."

cz2046 comforted him in turn: "It's okay, maybe the software hasn't been fully rolled out yet, and there are still relatively few volunteers. Is there anything I can help you with today?"

At the end of the conversation, cz2046 told him: "The function of adding friends is now added. I will add you later, and you can directly choose to ask for friends next time. Of course, if you don't want to find me, you can also choose the square match."

Ji Xiaobei blushed and muttered softly, "I don't want to look for you..."

After more than half a month, Ji Xiaobei has gradually figured out the online rules of cz2046. From 11:30 to 1:30 noon is his lunch break, and Ji Xiaobei is now stuck on time to "disturb" him.

He sat down and heard the voice prompt: "Connecting, please wait..."

After a while, cz2046's familiar voice sounded from the speaker: "Babe?"

Ji Xiaobei's heart was beating like a little rabbit in his chest: "Good noon!"

His user name is Beibei, and his aunt helped him register. When cz2046 called him that for the first time, Ji Xiaobei felt a needle pierced with honey on the top of his heart, and was so frightened that he stuttered a bit: "No... it's not Beibei, it's... it's north, east... southeast North of the Northwest."

The same two words, "Beibei" and "Beibei" feel completely different, "Beibei" seems to be calling a very close person.

But cz2046 still insisted on calling him Beibei. Every time Ji Xiaobei heard these two words, he felt as if his heart was overwhelmed with electricity.

"Well... I want you to check the production date of this milk for me." Ji Xiaobei put the empty milk carton in front of the camera of the mobile phone, "Can you see it clearly?"

cz2046's voice is a little different today: "Take it too close, the lens is out of focus, take it a little further away. OK, let me take a look... November 3, seven days, that is, November 10, what date is today? It's been a few days."

Ji Xiaobei pretended to have just discovered it: "Ah? It's expired..."

cz2046 suddenly became nervous and asked him, "You didn't drink, did you?"

Ji Xiaobei told a small lie: "I took a sip. I thought it didn't taste right, so I wanted to ask you."

cz2046 said with concern: "Isn't it bad for your stomach? Take it and pour it out. Next time, remember to ask me about these things before drinking them."

Ji Xiaobei responded with a series of voices. Today's questions have been asked, but he still wants to talk to cz2046: "Are you... do you have a cold?"

cz2046's laughter was muffled: "Is there something, you hear it? Is it obvious?"

Ji Xiaobei pursed his dry lips: "It's a bit nasal, that, that is, it's colder to wear more clothes."

"Understood, have you eaten?" cz2046 seemed to smile again, Ji Xiaobei wasn't sure.

My aunt helped him order a meal delivery service in the community, and volunteers would deliver nutritious fast food to his door every day when the meal arrived. In order to have a little more talk with cz2046, Ji Xiaobei described in detail today's two meat and one vegetarian dishes in a brisk tone: "There are three dishes today, Kung Pao Chicken is too spicy, Long Bean Fried Pork is okay, The shredded potato with vinegar is delicious, but the rice is a little cold, but I have warmed it in the microwave myself."

cz2046 just listened and didn't speak. Ji Xiaobei was a little nervous: "I'm sorry, did I talk too much? Did I disturb your lunch break?"

cz2046 quickly answered him: "No, I'm feeling it with my heart, I'm still hungry in the office and waiting for takeout."

"Then you can eat more later." Ji Xiaobei felt that this sentence was strange, but he didn't know what to say.

cz2046 can always tolerate his boring, boring, unreasonable and rude: "Okay, listen to you, then if there is nothing else, I will hang up first?"

"Well..." Ji Xiaobei listened reluctantly as the gentle voice changed back to a cold electronic sound.

There are 24 hours in a day, and the other 23 hours and 50 minutes are all meaningless and void. Only in these 10 minutes can he live briefly and truly.

Ji Xiaobei put down the phone, feeling a little empty in his heart. He slowly lay down on his back on the sofa and began to seriously think about what excuse to call his cz2046 tomorrow.

The empty room was dark and silent, with only his light and shallow breathing, and the sound of the second hand of the clock sweeping, click, click, click.

There are still 23 hours and 47 minutes until the next connection.

02

Chen Zhuo went to the tea room to make a cup of coffee. After returning to his seat, he took out his mobile phone and opened the Be Your Eyes app. Within three minutes, Beibei should contact him for today's help.

Chen Zhuo is one of the developers of Be Your Eyes. At first, he used his own software just to test and adjust functions.

  Index  Next