The basement is where Jin Xiaochang meditates and works. He prefers to stay in the dark and damp place rather than the bright upper floors.
There is only one bedroom, and Jin Xiaochang doesn't like sleeping in a big bed, so his bed is a single bed.
Wen Qing suddenly wanted to sleep in the basement, so Jin Xiaochang made up the bed and let him sleep there.
Actually, there was nothing to clean up, the bed was already very tidy.
Wen Qing took a shower and came out without wiping himself. Water was dripping from head to toe. He didn't even wear shoes, so every step he took left a trail of water.
Director Jin Xiao asked him to go to bed early.
"My old buddy, I made the floor of your room so wet, why didn't you teach me a lesson?" Wen Qing stopped Jin Xiaochang who was about to leave and licked the wound on his lips.
Jin Xiao rubbed his forehead.
Wen Qing came up from behind and stood in front of Jin Xiaochang. Water droplets flowed down from the ends of his black hair, leaving tiny water marks on his birthmark.
"You should tell me in a disappointed and angry tone that as an adult, your living habits are too bad and you are really uneducated."
As he spoke, he walked loudly on purpose, like a naughty child.
Jin Xiaochang pinched his mouth again, only in this way could he temporarily obey: "I'll ask you again, do you still want to sleep?"
"Mmm." Wen Qing uttered unclear syllables, with a provocative and evil look in his eyes.
Jin Xiaochang let go of his hand and said slowly, "If you don't want to sleep, then go to the indoor shooting range west of the manor to practice shooting."
"Good night, Jin." Wen Qing's expression changed immediately. He pushed Jin Xiaochang out with a smile. After closing the door, he looked at the water on the ground and sighed.
Wen Qing washed his feet, put on his shoes, and mopped the floor. After doing all this, he spread his arms and fell onto the bed, with a thin gray quilt against his back.
The bed was really small, not even big enough for him to change sleeping positions. The bed board was also very hard, like a rock. He lay there for a while in disgust, then opened his eyes and looked around the furnishings in the room.
Jin Xiaochang is not an ordinary psychologist. His net worth is inestimable. He has quite a few properties, four of which have been visited by Wen Qing, including this manor.
This was the first time that the literary young man came to the manor. Everything he saw was in a strong medieval European style. For others, they might feel the thrill of entering a world of vampires and werewolves.
However, in the eyes of literary youths, it can be summed up in four words: old-fashioned and boring.
However, the owner of the manor is just the opposite. He is mysterious, changeable, complex and unpredictable. Wen Qing has known him for so long, but he has not been able to fully understand him.
This is also the main reason why Wen Qing still keeps in touch with Jin Xiaochang and wants to find him whenever he is bored.
—I wanted to have fun, and you had that.
They hit it off immediately.
The hipster was looking at his phone. It was almost five o'clock. He yawned and decided to take a nap. He would go play with Vic in the morning.
What should I play with? Let’s give it a haircut first, just as a practice. Then I can give Nini and 03 a new hairstyle when I get back…
The thick night gradually became thinner, and something was ready to burst out at any time.
In the office, Jin Xiao rolled up the sleeves of his thin sweater, put on his glasses and flipped through the medical information on the table.
The antique clock was ticking, and after a few minutes, a pale, bony hand reached out to the lamp and turned it off.
The man's deep, three-dimensional silhouette was hidden in the darkness.
It was very quiet.
The office changed instantly, as if it had become the lair of an old monster.
The air was sticky and bloody, and at the same time filled with a sense of desolation. It was dead silent without a trace of life.
After an unknown amount of time, the desk lamp was turned on again. Director Jin Xiao turned over a small hourglass on the table. He lifted his broad shoulders off the back of the chair and placed his hands crossed on the table.
Jin Xiaochang looked at the sand flowing inside, wondering what he was thinking.
The sand soon disappeared.
Jin Xiaochang continued to flip through the materials. Those materials were all about histrionic personality and they were all the latest. He read ten lines at a glance and flipped through them quickly. His brain kept recording, organizing and summarizing them. Time passed in the rustling sound between his fingers.
When dawn arrived, Jin Xiaochang pushed open the bedroom door. He walked to the bed gracefully, like an old aristocrat, leaning on an invisible cane.
The person on the bed was sleeping soundly and did not wake up.
Jin Xiaochang lowered his head slightly, his charming and strange green eyes reflected an unguarded sleeping face. He raised his thin lips slightly: "You are slow."
If Wen Qing heard this when he was awake, he would play along with Jin Xiaochang on the surface, but agree with his point of view in his heart. Successful people are all lonely lunatics. This statement cannot be generalized, but it does make sense.
Shao Wenqing is still alone now, so his terrible sense of smell in business remains unchanged.
But as a literary youth, his sensitivity is decreasing. That's because he has a group of friends. They usually play games, have meals, chat and act out plays together. This kind of life has silently influenced him and made him more popular.
Being popular is a good thing, but in this environment that is the opposite of peace and tranquility, a decrease in sensitivity means being closer to danger.
Jin Xiaochang frowned when he thought of the five-man team Wen Qing mentioned.
Ninety-nine percent of the taskers are ordinary people. The rationality of ordinary people cannot overcome their sensibility, and the sensibility of the taskers is the delicacy of rules.
A team of five can help each other, take care of each other, encourage each other, and support each other to move forward step by step.
However, teammates' negative emotions such as despair, anxiety, collapse, fear, etc. can also be transmitted to the entire team. The closer the teammates are, the stronger the emotions they will feel, and those with weak psychological defenses will be dragged down.
What's more troublesome is that the team's skills are different, and there is no strong person who can lead by a large margin, so the outcome is basically predetermined. Once one of the team members dies, the other four will have one more material for the illusion.
Witnessing the death of a teammate with your own eyes is many times more shocking than hearing about it. Only by experiencing that scene personally can you know that the pain can directly destroy a person's will and belief in survival.
The most fatal thing is that if a teammate dies for a certain teammate, the other teammate will not survive either. Perhaps he died from the illusion woven by guilt and self-blame, or he may have violated a taboo due to carelessness after his state collapsed... anything is possible.
Just like Chen Yang and his nephew.
Although his nephew did not die, his life was worse than death. As his nephew's supervisor, family member, and doctor, he watched his nephew fall ill and mutilate himself from morning to night every day for a long time. He was neither human nor ghost. He suffered mentally and psychologically because of this. He wanted to give up more than once, but each time he told himself to try again.
The end result was that the nephew crawled back to Chen Yang, and he was covered in blood.
Jin Xiaochang collected his thoughts without giving it much thought. The person sleeping soundly under his eyelids was talking in his sleep, and the content was all meaningless.
The lights in the bedroom were not on, so Jin Xiaochang's eyesight was not affected.
Wen Qing has yellow skin, which is evenly distributed all over his body. He scratched his forehead a few times and gathered his messy bangs together.
She even covered her birthmark while sleeping.
Only those who truly understand him know that he is actually afraid. He is afraid that others will look at him strangely and that he will be discriminated against.
But he still keeps the birthmark, disgusting those who disgust him, and at the same time also torturing himself.
Captain Jin Xiao picked up the thin blanket that had been kicked to the ground at some point, threw it on Wen Qing, and bent down to pinch his open mouth when he was sleeping.
"elder sister… "
I don’t know what kind of sweet dream Wen Qing had, he was laughing, and he laughed out loud. The curve of his lips was clear and childlike, it was a completely different smile from his usual one, there wasn’t a trace of acting in it.
Jin Xiaochang's gaze fell on Wen Qing's clenched hands, which were holding coins.
Normally, when a person falls asleep, his brain consciousness relaxes and whatever he is holding in his hands loosens.
There is only one possibility for not being able to loosen up: the muscle reaction has been fixed, and it will protect what the owner of the body wants it to protect.
Jin Xiaochang listened to the repeated "sister" and shook his head: "You have experienced many illusions made up of the past. Although you have long been numb and immune to the missions, you still haven't climbed out. You are rotting in the quagmire."
He looked at the person who was holding him with both hands, as if he was being hugged by his sister.
"Gute nacht, green."
Wen Qing woke up when the sun rose. He had slept for two or three hours, which was quite long. He felt uncomfortable as if he had overslept.
I've been squinting for a while until now.
"What's going on? Why am I sleeping so well? Is it possible that the magnetic field of the manor is very compatible with me?"
Wen Qing put the two coins in his hand into his pajama pocket. He lifted the quilt, got out of bed, and quickly brushed his teeth and washed his face.
His eyes swept across the razors on the shelf and then back again.
Soon, Wen Qing pressed the bloody wound on his chin and shouted as he walked, "Good morning, Jin."
There was only his echo in the basement, but no sign of Chief Jin Xiao.
Wen Qing walked up the stairs and heard the noises from the kitchen. He stopped rubbing his eyes. Although Chief Jin Xiao could cook, his movements would not be so big.
Hmm? There are outsiders.
Wen Qing quickened his pace and trotted to the living room, where he immediately saw the strange boy busy in the kitchen.
"Bang" the young man also noticed Wen Qing. He accidentally hit his knee on the cabinet door and reluctantly put down the plate of golden pumpkin pie in his hand.
"Hello, guest." The young man bowed politely.
Wen Qing looked him up and down strangely, and said with a smile: "Are you Lao Jin's girlfriend?"
The boy was humiliated, his thin chest rose and fell dramatically: "No, it's not!"
"I am Mr.'s life assistant, you can call me Ashley." He controlled his emotions and tried to remind himself that this was Mr.'s guest and he couldn't get angry or make trouble. Otherwise, Mr. would probably ask him to get out.
I can't just throw away the high-paying job that I found with great difficulty.
"Assistant..." Wen Qing touched his chin. Isn't the blonde old Jin's assistant? Every time he came to see Old Jin, he would play with her.
"Handsome Ashe, I misunderstood. I apologize." Wen Qing walked into the kitchen and sniffed at Ashe's flattered look. "It smells so good. Did you make the cake yourself?"
Ash nodded blankly.
"You are so virtuous." Wen Qing praised the pen core with a sincere look on his face, "A new day, keep going."
In just such a short while, Ash's impression of the guest changed greatly. He felt that the guest was a very gentle person.
but…
"Vic is very fierce and has sharp claws. You have to be careful and try not to get too close." Ashe reminded kindly.
Wen Qing left the kitchen with a smile. Where could Old Jin find such a simple assistant
"Sir, is your chin injured while shaving? Do you need me to get you a medicine box?" Ash asked with concern.
"No need." Wen Qing was not very happy. Old Jin was not using an electric shaver, but a manual one, and the blade could directly contact the skin. He thought it was fresh and interesting, so he tried it excitedly.
The result was blood.
He caught a glimpse of a figure coming down from upstairs, and Wen Qing strode over: "Why did you change your life assistant?"
Jin Xiao looked at his face. The wounds from playing with Vic last night were all purple, and there was a cut on his chin. "She is pregnant and is waiting for the birth of the baby at home."
Wen Qing snorted: "When did it happen? How come I don't know anything about it?"
Jin Xiaochang: "My assistant is expecting a baby. Does it have anything to do with you?"
"Whether it matters or not, it's all man-made. Everything depends on man." Wen Qing put his arm around Jin Xiao's shoulders, with a clean taste of mouthwash in his mouth.
Jin Xiaochang pushed away the approaching head with his index finger.
Breakfast was made by Ash, who is German but can speak fluent Chinese and cook Chinese dishes.
It was not that he had prepared for a rainy day and foresaw that a mixed-race doctor would be his boss in the future, but that he had a crush on an oriental girl and learned all the skills for her.
The oriental girl has a boyfriend, and her boyfriend is her brother.
Human tragedy.
Ashe didn't want to give up easily. He made all the necessary preparations and waited silently for a miracle that might never happen.
"It's very healthy." The young man commented on the breakfast on the table.
Ash said, "Sir has stomach problems."
"Oh..." Wen Qing dragged out the last line of the sentence, turned to look at Jin Xiaochang, and said in disbelief, "Do you have stomach problems? Then why did I see you drinking on an empty stomach last time?"
"I see! You must be doing an experiment, right? Take me with you, I want to do it too." Wen Qing asked humbly, "Should I first give myself a stomach disease and then drink alcohol?"
Director Jin Xiao said to the dumbfounded assistant: "Go down."
Ash immediately responded and left. He was busy looking after the animals and flowers at the back of the manor.
The atmosphere at the table was a little subtle. Wen Qing held a paper towel in one hand and a spoon in the other, pushing the chopped vegetables in the porridge onto the paper towel.
“Is your stomach problem physical or psychological?”
"The latter." Jin Xiaochang said.
"Is that so?" Wen Qing said with a sympathetic look on his face. "How pitiful."
"Can't doctors treat themselves?" He looked like a curious baby.
Jin Xiaochang answered irrelevantly: "If you don't want to eat it, make it yourself."
"The teacher said that children who are picky about food won't grow tall, so I ate everything when I was a kid." Wen Qing curled his lips.
The second half was uttered after he finished a spoonful of porridge, and every word was filled with resentment of being deceived.
"Grow taller!"
Jin Xiaozhang's face darkened: "No swearing."
"Yes, yes, it's my fault. Thank you for your advice." Wen Qing reflected on himself, "I will definitely learn how to be a good person from Dr. Jin."
The next moment, his expression changed, and he muttered bitterly: "Why is life so difficult? This porridge tastes so bad."
Jin Xiaochang got up and went to the kitchen.
"Kind person inside, what kind of meal are you going to prepare for me?" Wen Qing twisted his neck and asked expectantly.
Jin Xiaochang opened the refrigerator, curled his lips, and said without a smile: "I'm sorry to disappoint you, I just got the seasoning."
Hipster: “…”
Jin Xiaochang cooked a bowl of noodles. The water was the soup used to scald the vegetables, and the taste was covered by the other side dishes, so Wen Qing couldn't taste it.
Halfway through his meal, Wen Qing sighed in boredom and sent the photos he took before eating to the group.
One Yuan: Ding ding ding ding! My friend cooked breakfast for me!
Pineapple Cake: Brother Wen, this isn’t noodles.
One Yuan: Hmm
Pineapple Cake: I mean, that is a work of art, an absolute work of art!
The most handsome guy in the world: Have you been kidnapped, you bastard
Zhao Zhao Zhao Zhao Yuan: Brother Dong, let me say something fair and just. The noodles in the photo that Brother Wen posted are indeed very delicate. I can't bear to eat them. Pineapple is not flattering. What he said is true.
Zhao Zhao Zhao Zhao Yuan: Brother Dong, your teeth are sore. Is it because Professor Bai hasn't cooked anything for you yet? This should be Professor Bai.
Pineapple Cake: Professor Bai.
One Yuan: Professor Bai. Line up and give a thumbs up to our school hunk.
The most handsome guy in the world: Don't f*cking tag him, he's sleeping! If you wake him up, I'll have to f*cking coax him!
Pineapple Cake: I’m full, how about you
Zhao Zhao Zhao Zhao Yuan: I’m full too.
The hipster was scrolling through the group chat while eating delicious noodles, and his appetite improved a lot.
The white tiger passed by the door. Wen Qing hurriedly washed the dishes and ran out. There was no pig. There never was any pig. Old Jin was a liar.
If he hadn't had the White Tiger to play with, he would have been on the plane to Qingcheng by now.
Wen Qing chased the white tiger. He did the same thing last night, but the light was dim last night and now everything was bright. He saw the white tiger running into a grand oak orchard.
There the sunlight, broken into countless small pieces, greets it and bids it farewell.
Wen Qing walked into the camphor tree garden and looked up. The dense branches intertwined above his head, forming an arch.
The road is shaded.
He raised his hand and there were a few small spots of light in his palm.
Wen Qing found something interesting, so he temporarily let the white tiger go and counted the light spots in the oak orchard.
Too many to count and too many to count.
How interesting.
Wen Qing counted for more than ten or twenty minutes, but his interest died down a bit, so he climbed up a tree, adjusted his posture and lay down on it.
Without sunlight, the young man stares at it with his eyes open, which seems to be full of affection.
"Oh," Wen Qing sighed, not knowing when the next mission would come, and what idiots would be there by then.
Wen Qing has completed too many missions and can hardly remember the ones before last year. When he was bored, he did a statistics of the tasks from last year to this year. Among them, Chen Yang was in the three missions. His survival rate would be slightly higher because he was actively looking for clues without stopping, which was very boring.
Without Chen Yang's missions, in the end only one or two people would get out alive, and the rest would die. It was very exciting.
No one saved the mentally retarded people and they all died.
Wen Qing put the coin on his eyelids, so, people like Chen Yang are only suitable to be friends outside of the mission. It is best not to have him in the mission, otherwise it will not be exciting and fun.
"Yes, that's it." Wen Qing muttered. Qingcheng was fake, and the population data of tens of millions was not true. Taskers died every minute and every second, and the data would change accordingly. Assuming that the base number of the data was true, more than half of the taskers would probably not last for ten years.
What if all the taskers are dead? Does this mean that this world has no meaning to exist
So where will I go then
Wen Qing smiled so well that his eyes curved. Of course he was going to find his sister.
His face suddenly felt wet, and a slightly cool liquid slowly slid down.
It's raining.
Wen Qing didn't jump down, he just tilted his head and inadvertently caught something, and Wen Qing's eyes opened.
A figure walked towards this side in a daze. It was Ashe.
Not long ago he was fine and full of hope for life and the future, but now he is like a different person.
In his hand he held a... white card.
Oh no.
Wen Qing jumped down from the tree, his shoes splashing water on the wet ground. He stood in the rain, shaking his head and sighing with pity.
Poor little Ashe, he entered the mission world and just finished a difficult escape from death.
He was lucky enough to come out alive the first time he went in.
However, this is just the beginning, and it may not be the same next time.
Luck and strength must go hand in hand, neither is indispensable.
Chen Yang has strict one-on-one guidance from Li Mao, and he is also making progress. He will not point fingers at others and feed clues to himself.
Wen Qing thought of Zhao Yuan and Fengli at an inappropriate time. If they still rely on their teammates most of the time and do not improve their abilities as soon as possible, they will not go far even with the help of Xiangdong painter Bai Tang.
In any case, it is better to rely on yourself than on others, and be self-reliant.
Wen Qing looked at the boy who was getting closer and closer to him, and felt his despair, the fear he brought back from the mission world, and the not-so-light mental trauma.
It only takes a second or two to enter and exit the mission world, but life collapses at that moment.
Ashe walked mechanically and did not notice Wen Qing who was not far ahead. When he was about to bump into him, Wen Qing pulled him back.
"Little Ash, what's wrong with you?" Wen Qing asked worriedly.
Ashe was shivering, and if it hadn't rained, his face would be covered in tears.
"Let's go inside first." Wen Qing led him to the rental house. "It was raining so hard that I felt a little dizzy when it hit my head."
When Wen Qing turned around, Ashe had already put the white card away. He bit his nails hard and looked around nervously.
He is no longer suitable to be an assistant and can't even lead a normal life.
The literary youth would not ask the painter or pineapple for incense and send it to Ashley.
There are so many taskers who are in agony and half-dead. How many of them can be saved by burning incense
Wen Qing and Chen Yang are not the same kind of people. He can't do what Chen Yang can do.
His life motto is that everyone has his own destiny.
Wen Qing pulled Ai Xi into the house and considerately poured him a glass of warm water: "Drink some water to calm down."
Ash held the cup blankly, his eyes red. He looked at Wen Qing with a helpless and frightened look, as if he wanted to tell him about his terrible experience and what a horrible nightmare it was.
He woke up from the dream, but didn’t wake up. He was finished. His life was dead.
In the end, Ashe said nothing.
Wen Qing gave a towel to Ashley and asked him to wipe the rain off his face and head.
Wen Qing didn't wipe it himself. He squatted in front of Ashley, holding his face, and asked a question casually: "Where are you from?"
Ash said hoarsely, "Berlin."
The hipster narrowed his eyes. Oh, the main city of this fake city in Germany is Berlin.
All the taskers here are registered in Berlin.
Wen Qing went out to look for Jin Xiaochang. The manor in the rain was covered with a layer of dreamy colors, like an oil painting that traveled through time and space, unfolding inch by inch in front of his eyes, leading him to see those strokes that were completed in one go.
Ancient castles, vineyards, lakes with carp jumping from time to time, and large expanses of emerald green pine and bamboo…
"What are you doing?"
A voice suddenly came from behind, and Wen Qing turned around while chewing gum.
Jin Xiaochang walked towards them in the rain, followed by a white tiger and a... giraffe.
Every few steps they took, they would rub their heads against each other.
A couple.
Wen Qing felt in his pocket, took out a bag of pork jerky, tore it open and put it to Baihu's mouth. He said to Jin Xiaochang apologetically, "This is a gift I bought for Zhu and you. There are two slices in one bag, just right for you two to have one each. I'll give it to the couple first, and I'll make it up to you next time."
Jin Xiaochang: "..."
Giraffes don't eat meat, so the pork jerky all went into the white tiger's stomach.
The young man was worried: "How can a couple last long if they can't eat from the same pot?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the white tiger raise its head and open its mouth to rinse the rain, as if it was rinsing its mouth and washing its teeth. After that, it rubbed against the giraffe.
“… It’s love.” Wen Qing laughed, “Old Jin, all the animals you raise are single, but you are still single.”
He turned his head with a gloating look and found that Jin Xiaochang was very close to him, and the cold fragrance in his breath was blowing towards his face.
"You scared me." Wen Qing patted his chest. His thick bangs were all hanging in clumps, looking a bit ugly.
Jin Xiaochang dragged him away.
The young man kept looking back and said hello to the white tiger and the giraffe: "Go home, walking in the rain is bad for your health!"
"Where's Ai Xi?" Jin Xiaochang asked, "Didn't I bring you an umbrella?"
Wen Qing frowned: "Your assistant is dying."
After a pause of one or two seconds, Wen Qing leaned close to Jin Xiao's ear and said solemnly, "He has bound his ID number."
Jin Xiaochang looked normal.
Wen Qing pulled the corner of his mouth. This old guy really knew that there were mission bases and taskers all over the world.
It's boring. It's really boring.
Wen Qing spat the gum onto the tissue and suddenly made eye contact with Jin Xiaochang. Jin Xiaochang's eyelashes were very long, like the shivering wings of a butterfly wet by the rain.
There is a breathtaking beauty.
Fragility is an illusion, a delusion. Beauty is real.
"Old Jin," Wen Qing looked at the emerald inside the butterfly's wings, "When you die one day, can you give me your eyes..."
His mouth turned into a duck's mouth.
"Qingqing, the rain has flowed into your brain. Should I turn you upside down to let the water drain away, or should you clear it out yourself?" Jin Xiao looked down at him with his long, gloomy green eyes. He spoke in a lazy, negotiating tone that made people breathe hard and their scalp tingled.
"You'd better think about how to recruit a new assistant." Wen Qing pushed away Jin Xiaochang's hand, but his mouth was pinched again. He glared at him coldly.
"Empty it yourself. Next time if your brain gets watery again, I will cut open your brain, dig out the water, sew up the hole, and make a mark with a marker so that you will remember it." Jin Xiao pinched his mouth and pulled him forward at a moderate speed. At the end, he said, in a tone that sounded like both a brother and a teacher, "It's useless. You will never remember it."
In order to stop the pain in his mouth, Wen Qing had to follow Jin Xiaochang's footsteps.
The old guy is afraid of death? Impossible. Then why is he so angry
Wen Qing held down Jin Xiaochang's wrist and freed her lips from his fingers.
"Old Jin, there is a misunderstanding here. I am not cursing your short life. I am saying that your eyes are more beautiful than gems and are worth collecting."
Jin Xiao strode away.
"We are all adults, how can we still be at odds with each other? Who of us is mentally retarded?" The hipster tossed a coin, "I'm definitely not mentally retarded."
"I'm dead, and I'll give you my eyes."
A faint voice was heard in the rain.
Wen Qing didn't catch the coin. He had thrown it countless times, but he didn't catch it the first time.
The coin brushed past his fingertips and fell at his feet. He lowered his head and looked at it, but didn't pick it up, as if he was in a daze.
"I will not die."
Another sound came from the front, carried into his ears by the wind and rain.
cut.
The hipster picked up the coin, kissed the raindrops on it, and turned around with a smile on his face.
Jin Xiaochang, who had been walking away, stopped, took a few steps back and looked back.
Wen Qing walked towards him.