Four-Faced Buddha [To My Shore] - Chap 67
Chapter 67 Entering the Game?
2024-10-13 07:27 Category: Four-Faced BuddhaTurn off the lights
Long, slender fingers twisted the light bulb, the spiral pattern turning slowly and making a creaking sound.
After spinning three or four times, the light bulb detached from the ceiling and was casually tossed by Fan Xiao into a nearby trash can.
At this point, the small storage room was completely devoid of artificial light.
After tossing a few cushions inside, Fan Xiao stood at the doorway, scrutinizing the small space.
He pulled a box of matches from his pajama pocket, held it in his palm, and then walked inside step by step.
With a flick of the finger, the door slowly closed, shutting out all light and the entire world.
The seawater surged up, already past my ankles, its icy temperature seeming to have just melted from a glacier, freezing every bone and soul through my skin and flesh.
Fan Xiao curled up tightly, hugging his knees and shivering. The sound of his upper and lower teeth clashing together vibrated in his head, the huge echo making him feel as if he had gone deaf, unable to hear any sound from the outside world.
There was no sound.
At first, you could still hear some shouts of people running for help, but now there is nothing at all. Even the surging waves are gone, and the whole world is deathly silent.
“Mom,” Fan Xiao called softly.
His mother built a very high platform for him, but it was unstable. He squatted on a broken tabletop, barely finding a foothold to maintain his balance.
His mother hadn’t spoken in a long time. When her mouth and nose were submerged in seawater, Fan Xiao had only two matches left. He used one, and in the dim, flickering light, his mother told him with a smile.
You must survive.
The seawater had already reached above his calves, and for the first time in his life, Fan Xiao contemplated death. It didn’t seem like such a big deal after all. Living wasn’t much better either; there was his eldest brother’s disgust and accusations, his second brother’s instigation and scheming, his fearsome father, and his gossipy relatives—nothing to hold him back.
So, is it necessary to survive?
No one answered him. He had only one match left; if he lit it, he could see his mother.
My hand was shaking so badly that the match head was stuck on the side of the matchbox and wouldn’t slide.
His hand suddenly tightened, crushing the last object that could provide light.
Darkness is the safest place. There’s no sight of the seawater relentlessly swallowing people, nor of the silent mother within it…
The water level continued to rise, reaching above the boy’s chest even when he stood upright. For the first time, Fan Xiao didn’t want to listen to his mother. Who said death wasn’t a relief? Who said one had to live with hope?
Why live? For whom do we live?
If he had to find a reason, Fan Xiao slowly opened his tightly closed eyes. His pupils couldn’t focus in the darkness, but he saw his father, who had rushed away in a panic, ignoring his own fall and leaving without a second thought; Fan Yu, who was the first to climb into the car and shouting to drive fast; and Fan Bo, who leaned halfway out of the car, looking hesitant, but was eventually pulled back into the car.
Too many people fleeing for their lives wanted to board that “Noah’s Ark,” and countless hands reached for the car doors. In the end, the car locked itself without hesitation, roared to life, and sped away, leaving trails in the water.
Only the mother, who had just pulled her child up, was left, swallowed up by the zombie-like fleeing army.
Fan Xiao finally found a reason to live.
I want to live! And then drag everyone in that car down to hell with me!!
“Someone, please save me!”
On a Southeast Asian island, the wall of a dilapidated storeroom was being pounded on. Tiny hands pounded the wooden planks with all their might; if one hand wasn’t enough, they used two. When their hands ached and went numb, and they ran out of strength, they banged their heads against the wall!
The tunnel of time twists and connects, tearing and crumpling that lonely room like a piece of paper, projecting it into another space. Nineteen years later, in a storage room whose light source has just been cut off, the adult Fan Xiao does the same things as the young Fan Xiao.
It was also banging its head against the wall hard!
The hoarse roar, like a vengeful ghost, crashed around in the confined space, but could find no way out.
His arms were too weak to support him any longer, and he could barely hold onto the wall. Fan Xiao could only use the strength of his body to shake his head, slamming it against the wall again and again.
“Save me! I want to live, I must live! I live so that you can all die! Die!”
Thick liquid slowly slid down his forehead, and the smell of blood gradually filled the small space.
Thick bloodstains stained the rough walls. Fan Xiao seemed oblivious to the pain, repeatedly slamming his fist against the wall in the same spot.
The blood flowed more and more, dripping steadily from his chin. It blurred his vision, covered his lips, and the warm liquid gradually turned cold, adding to the filth as it fell to the ground.
“You Shulang.” The man suddenly stopped his self-harming behavior, and the name that came out with heavy breathing was like a calming injection, briefly restoring his rationality.
“Shulang, please save me.” In the void of darkness, only the man’s hoarse and broken voice could be heard, “I’m so scared, I’m in so much pain, You Shulang, please save me.”
No one replied; they remained silent, like a woman sinking into the water.
Apart from Fan Xiao’s own panting, everything was eerily quiet.
Thump! Thump! Thump! The sound of hitting the wall rang out again! After a brief moment of clarity, Fan Xiao once again fell into the abyss of nightmares.
But this time, his dream included not only people from the past, but also a wandering scholar named You Shulang.
“Shulang, please come back! Are you really abandoning me? You said you loved me, you told me not to be afraid of any of this, you said you would protect me!”
The voice gradually shifted from pleading to a ferocious and ruthless tone: “Why did you break your promise?! Is your love so fragile? You say you love me, and you say you don’t?! Aren’t you a bodhisattva? Aren’t you kind? Then why did you abandon me?!”
Amidst the pervasive stench of blood, the man roared furiously, “You Shulang, who gave you permission to leave me?!”
After venting his anger, the man’s breathing weakened, and in the narrow space, the only sound seemed to be the dripping of blood onto the ground, drip, drip.
Silence fell. From a dark void, Fan Xiao saw Fan Bo and Fan Yu’s car drive away; the woman slowly sank into the deep, dark water; You Shulang also dropped his baseball bat and turned away expressionlessly…
Everything became blurry, the seawater surged higher and higher, and Fan Xiao slowly closed his eyes, thinking, “I can finally die as I wish.”
Suddenly, a series of shrill telephone rings shattered the stillness.
Fan Xiao suddenly opened his eyes!
His eyes, almost completely blinded by blood, looked at the phone lying not far away. The faint light emanating from the phone screen made Fan Xiao, whose body was half covered in blood, look like a vengeful ghost.
He reached out his trembling hand, spread his arms, took the phone, and looked at the words jumping on the screen. A glimmer of light suddenly appeared in his cloudy, empty eyes.
Raising his eyebrows slightly and clearing his throat a few times to restore his voice to normal, Fan Xiao swiped open the phone and politely greeted, “President Huang.”
You Shulang applied for a two-person dormitory room, and his roommate was an ordinary employee of the pharmaceutical factory.
The young man in his early twenties was always a little apprehensive when he saw You Shulang. He either didn’t talk much or kept running to the dormitory next door.
You Shulang is a mid-to-senior level manager in the company, while the dormitory building is mostly occupied by ordinary employees. People come and go, and although You Shulang tries to be very approachable, everyone treats him like the headmaster of discipline, jumping from excitement to complete silence in an instant.
You Shulang was also somewhat helpless and planned to move out and find someone he didn’t know or had no connection with to avoid such an awkward situation.
However, this is another expense, and he is currently short of money.
Leaning on the old balcony, smoking, You Shulang flicked ash into a worn-out soap dish. As the weather gradually warmed, a few blades of grass sprouted from the cracks in the balcony’s cement, only to be pecked by some annoying sparrow, leaving them looking extremely ugly with their gaping teeth.
The phone in his pocket rang. You Shulang took the last drag of his cigarette, stubbed it out in the soap dish, and then took out his phone. Seeing the name on the screen, he gave an unconscious, slight smile. He answered the phone and called out, “Boss Huang.”
Huang Qimin loves tea, and he arranged to meet You Shulang at a long-established teahouse.
The two seemed very close. You Shulang helped the chubby Huang Qimin to his seat and personally poured him tea.
“This is top-grade Tieguanyin tea that I took from the factory manager’s office. Please have a taste.”
In the still slightly chilly early spring, Huang Qimin took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He smiled like a Maitreya Buddha: “Alright, alright, let me taste this tea to see if it has the smell of a thief.”
You Shulang sat across from him with a smile and ordered a few kinds of nuts and snacks to accompany his tea.
While Huang Qimin was drinking tea, his eyes, which were squeezed smaller by his fat, kept looking at You Shulang.
“You look terrible.” He put down his teacup. “You weren’t this thin before the New Year.”
You Shulang peeled a few hazelnuts and pushed them in front of Huang Qimin, lightly changing the subject: “Teacher, you said on the phone that you wanted to talk to me about something, what is it?”
Huang Qimin was indeed swayed by him. His small eyes narrowed into slits, and he leaned forward slightly, saying, “I would like to invite you to join my research team.”
You Shulang was taken aback: “Inviting me to join the research team?”
Huang Qimin nodded: “Did you carefully read the materials I sent you before the New Year?”
“You mean honeysuckle drink?”
“Yes, that’s the project.” Huang Qimin, after drinking some hot tea, wiped his sweat with a handkerchief. “Now we plan to optimize the process and launch it on the market.”
“Not cooperating with other pharmaceutical companies? Not going through OTC channels?”
“We will not cooperate; we plan to use our own ‘Changling’ brand.”
You Shulang saw the light in Huang Qimin’s eyes: “As long as we can make this project a success and establish the Changling brand in the market, we can launch other projects one after another to further support the brand.”
At this moment, Huang Qimin’s double chin revealed his smug expression: “The investors said that we rely on the reputation of Changling University’s research team, and as long as the marketing is done properly, it will be easy to build the brand.”
“Investors?” You Shulang asked. “Has capital been involved?”
“Yes, otherwise where would we get the money? Besides, we only know R&D, not sales.” Huang Qimin said with anticipation, “Shulang, you are my most outstanding student. Come back and help your teacher.”
A glint flashed in You Shulang’s eyes, but he slowly suppressed it after thinking for a moment: “Teacher, my current job…”
“Shulang, it’s a waste of your talent to be the office manager. Although you’ve done a great job, I know your heart isn’t in this. If it weren’t for the fact that you were in a hurry to earn money to support your family, and that I was really poor and couldn’t afford to pay you a decent salary, how could you not even pursue a master’s degree and rush out to find a job that’s completely unrelated to your major?”
Huang Qimin pointed to You Shulang’s chest: “Ask yourself honestly, do you like this job?”
You Shulang took a sip of hot tea before smiling helplessly and saying, “I don’t really like it.”
He was telling the truth. There was nothing wrong with the job of office director; You Shulang was worldly-wise and experienced in handling affairs, so he was quite adept at it.
But I don’t like it, and I even find it a bit annoying.
Tired of social niceties and endless welcoming and farewells; tired of unraveling endless conflicts and problems every day; tired of the formalities and hypocrisy of clinking glasses; and tired of the sauna and dirty jokes after drinking.
However, he worked his way up from an ordinary employee to this position, and now he holds a high position and earns a good income, fulfilling his initial wish of earning money to support his family.
In fact, You Shulang’s college entrance examination scores were quite good, enough to allow him to leave the city and attend a better university elsewhere. However, fearing that his adoptive mother and younger brother would be bullied, You Shulang carefully considered his options and chose Changling Medical University in the city.
When You Shulang graduated from university, his adoptive mother had already passed away. Despite his advisor’s repeated attempts to persuade him to stay, he chose a job that wasn’t directly related to his major but paid well, and he stayed there for five or six years.
But, to be honest, he longs for a simple and pure research team, enjoys the ease and pleasure of immersing himself in the world of micromolecules, and is more interested in exploring the wonderful combinations and decompositions of chemical elements. This makes him feel grounded and also interesting.
But now, he’s penniless again, even burdened with credit card debt. Needing to make a living and supporting his younger brother, You Shulang can’t easily give up his high-paying job.
“Are you worried about your salary?” Huang Qimin asked bluntly.
He smirked, revealing a nouveau riche-like smile: “Now you don’t have to worry anymore, don’t we have investors? You’ll be my deputy team leader, and handle all external affairs as well. Here’s the price for you.”
Huang Qimin raised a few fingers and gestured with his eyebrows.
You Shulang laughed and said, “A scholar should be looked at with new eyes after three days of separation. Boss Huang is really rich and powerful now.”
“Are you coming or not?” Huang Qimin continued to tempt you. “I heard you sold your house and have nowhere to live. I happen to have a student who went abroad to study. His apartment lease still has more than half a year left. You can stay there temporarily.”
You Shulang squeezed the teacup hard with his fingers a few times; Huang Qimin’s suggestion had really appealed to him.
This attraction wasn’t entirely due to the ideal job and salary; another reason was that if he continued to work at Bohai Pharmaceutical, he would inevitably meet Fan Xiao again.
Now that things have come to this point, You Shulang doesn’t know how to face Fan Xiao at work, nor can he guess how Fan Xiao will react to him.
Fan Xiao’s terrifying quality lies in his uncontrollability, and You Shulang himself has repeatedly lost control in this relationship, often making irrational decisions. You Shulang doesn’t want to bring this chaotic emotional state into his work, so leaving Bohai is the wisest choice.
Taking a deep breath, You Shulang said, “I’ll pay the rent for the house, and as for the rest… I’ll just leave it to you, teacher.”
Huang Qimin clapped his hands, overjoyed: “Then it’s settled. My project has already started, and I urgently need you to get to work as soon as possible, so you should resign and come over tomorrow.”
You Shulang poured tea for Huang Qimin, somewhat helplessly: “You need to give me some time to hand over my work. By the way, who are the investors in our research team…?”
“Yes…” Huang Qimin choked up halfway through, stammering, “Xinruida, a long-established investment company.”
You Shulang nodded: “I will take up my post as soon as possible.”
…
