Chapter 14： ripple

Luo Zhi slowly opened his eyes.

He looked at the ceiling and thought about where he was for a few minutes, but to no avail, he had to pick up the phone beside him.

After waking up from a sleep or fainting, this situation began to occur, and I can't remember exactly.

In short, after waking up a certain time, Luo Zhi looked at the words on the memo. Although he recognized each word, he could no longer identify their meaning, and it was difficult to connect memories through reasoning.

In his mind, there was a squirrel that specialized in eating memories, biting off a little bit every day, leaving more and more blanks.

It didn't hurt, just numb and unstoppable pantothenic acid, unable to exert any strength.

It's like... when I turned my hand back to take something, the numbness on my elbow accidentally slammed into the corner of the cabinet, and instantly hit my arm with the kind of strong soreness that I couldn't move at all.

Luo Zhi was actually a little scared at first, but he quickly got used to this feeling.

It feels so easy.

As if he was a blank man with no past and no future.

There is no need to think about superfluous people and superfluous things, so there will be no worries.

Even the pain and sadness that happened to Luo Zhi yesterday had nothing to do with him.

...but it's still inconvenient if you don't remember at all.

Just like the last black-hearted hotel owner.

I don't know from which detail it was discovered that Luo Zhi couldn't remember things, the boss had a crooked mind and asked Luo Zhi for the room fee thirteen times within two days.

He didn't even think that Luo Zhi just had amnesia, not dementia, and the transfer record was clearly on his phone, and Lai couldn't let it go.

Luo Zhi let the money be transferred, and if he saved enough money to file a case, he backhandedly threatened to report.

…

Luo Zhi just clicked on this video.

He cradled his mobile phone by the bedside, admiring his feat with relish, and looking at the black-hearted boss with an earthy face, he was so happy that he could hardly stop.

Luo Zhi dragged the progress bar and watched it back and forth twice, until he had had enough laughs, then turned off the video and re-selected in chronological order.

The phone froze for a few seconds, until the back panel began to heat up vaguely, and a bunch of video clips, each tens of minutes long, finally appeared on the screen.

Because the memo is no longer useful, Luo Zhi is now using video to record what happened to him.

Had a great time yesterday.

In the video, Luo Zhi is wearing a simple white shirt and jeans, carrying a drawing board, like a student who comes out to collect style.

He was sitting on the side of the road painting, and was thoroughly soaked by the unforeseen heavy rain, but the soaked painting was smudged with a certain artistic atmosphere of Impressionism.

He simply handed over the painting work to this rain, threw away the paintbrush, and stepped on the water by the roadside in high spirits.

There were many people waiting for the car on the side of the road, and the video screen swiped over, and many people looked at him with a strange line of sight. Some people were probably afraid that he would suddenly go crazy and hide in the distance without leaving a trace.

Then a little girl laughed and clapped her hands, completely ignoring the beautiful little skirt she just changed, and happily ran over to tread water with him.

Then the little girl's parents were startled, ran over, stopped, persuaded and coaxed, and in the end they didn't know how to persuade them, so they became a family playing together while treading water in the rain.

Then someone couldn't help but run into the rain from under the canopy at the station.

This kind of thing is weird to do it alone, but when everyone starts to be weird no one is weird anymore.

Some people stretched out their hands to catch the cold raindrops, some people stretched their arms to let the wind carry their coats up, and it was probably the boy who was the older brother with a sullen face and a serious look.

Two boys who just got out of school are fighting with umbrellas. You throw water at me and I do somersault.

Luo Zhi himself was so squeezed that there was no water to step on, so he went to pull out his guitar again.

After the sound in my ears disappeared, as I gradually got used to the extremely quiet world, the clear voices in my memory became blurred day by day. He was no longer used to speaking and singing.

But what's the big deal?

He couldn't hear it anyway.

Anyway, at this time, what you want is not a decent melody.

Luo Zhi sat on the flower bed and focused on his strings. He used to play the guitar very smoothly, tap the strings, tap the strings, and strum the strings at his fingertips. Before he was somehow cursed by the whole Internet black, he died young and did not defile the world. A guitar can easily set the audience on fire.

...but what's the big deal?

The little squirrel in Luo Zhi's brain was very industrious, and in less than a second, he devoured those vague memories.

So he concentrated on strumming his strings.

The warm and cheerful guitar sound mixed into the raindrops, the crackling rain, the rumbling thunder, and the gloomy sky crackling with a white bright lightning.

Then throw all the distractions, all the stress, all the unpleasantness into a brief runaway where everyone tacitly indulges.

Then contentedly return to reality, back to their own life.

The little girl was under the two-pronged approach of her young parents. She wiped her head and covered her face and played with water. She was covered with her father's warm coat.

People had finished venting and went back under the awning, soaked in a mess, but everyone still had a relaxed smile on their faces.

The younger sister took out a few tissues and stood on tiptoe to wipe the water from her brother's head, sticking out her tongue in dissatisfaction while being criticized.

A couple cuddled together, the boy opened his jacket and wrapped the girl tightly inside.

The two boys ended the master duel, and simply stopped waiting for the car. They brushed a bicycle each with an umbrella, and rode in the rain with splashes of water splashing all over their clothes.

The young man who looked like a salesman ripped off his tie, stretched his waist hard, took a deep breath and exhaled, and said to himself, "Go to resign tomorrow and start a new life."

The mother rubbed her daughter's hair with a gentle expression: "Big brother is home."

The little girl blinked and looked around.

The big brother is gone, the guitar and drawing board are gone, and the phone on the tripod is gone.

…

Luo Zhi carefully watched all the videos.

He couldn't hear the sound, so he pulled the progress bar repeatedly, carefully identifying what everyone was saying based on the mouth shape.

At the end of the video, it stops abruptly at the face that appears too close to the camera.

It was two girls he didn't know, looking at him with complex expressions, and that expression was enough to bring people back to reality in one second.

He stopped the guitar in his hand.

"Luo Zhi?" His name was called, "Are you that Luo Zhi?"

…

Luo Zhi opened the video editing software, carefully dragged the timeline, and deleted the last paragraph.

He bent his fingers, tapped his temple lightly, found the squirrel and asked it to eat the memory.

In such a situation of being called subjectively, the squirrel's appetite is generally not good, and the content that was eaten is still vague and has an outline. It takes a while to deliberately not think about it before it can be completely forgotten.

So Luo Zhi can still remember what happened at that time.

This kind of thing actually happens a lot.

Huaisheng Entertainment issued a statement that due to the egregious nature of the incident concerning Mr. Li Weiming, the board of directors has dismissed Luo Zhi as general manager.

This result can be said to be severe, which made Li Weiming's fans reluctantly satisfied, and also accepted Li Weiming's decision to disregard his past suspicions and still be willing to re-cooperate with Huaisheng Entertainment.

Huaisheng Entertainment returned the favor and threw a lot of traffic and resources on Li Weiming.

So Li Weiming has been very popular during this period. His advertisements are on the streets and alleys. He is so popular that a group of little girls stay up all night and don't sleep just to give a thumbs up to one of his new albums.

It was also so popular that Luo Zhi could easily be recognized as "the **** former general manager of the company who once humiliated and suppressed Li Weiming" even when he was walking on the road.

I don't know if it was intentional or coincidental, Li Weiming's new drama is a workplace drama. In the drama, there is also a general manager who relied on his wealth and power to do all kinds of bad things, insulting Li Weiming's character in every way.

The filming of the drama is very good and it is very immersive. After only three episodes were aired, the fans were so strong that their teeth itch with hatred.

So this hatred was poured out to Luo Zhi as a matter of course.

Two girls stood in front of Luo Zhi.

Their self-discipline was very good, and they didn't do anything extreme like the fans of Li Weiming that Luo Zhi occasionally met before, but they stopped talking and finally looked down in contempt.

Probably because Luo Zhi was soaked all over, and was extremely thin and pale, and there was some pity in his eyes, as if he was looking at a stray dog ​​paralyzed by the roadside, dying.

"You look pretty pitiful too."

One of them said, "If I knew it would be like this, why would you do that in the first place?"

"What's the use of telling him this?" Another girl scolded lightly, "This kind of person is unscrupulous when he is beautiful, and can do any disgusting thing. He has to wait until he is down and kicked to the side of the road. I know I regret... Leave him alone and let's go."

Before that girl sighed, she still gave the umbrella to her companion, took out some money and handed it to him: "Go buy some food, don't do bad things in the future, people have retribution."

Luo Zhi slowly recognized what they said, turned off the video recording function of the mobile phone, and typed on the memo.

He has not been able to use the text smoothly. After changing a sentence back and forth for a long time, he finally made it clear: [I have not done anything bad. ]

The girl who handed him the money frowned.

The other girl couldn't help it at all, and said with a crackle: "Okay, so I'm still stubborn now! You're obsessed with it... What kind of person is this! I'm so angry, let's go, bad luck..."

As she spoke, she dragged her companion and left.

This time, the eyes of the companions also cooled down, probably because he thought this kind of chaotic behavior was ridiculous, he put away the money and turned away without looking back.

Luo Zhi also lowered his eyes, put away his things, stood up slowly and left slowly.

He was just explaining yesterday's Luo Zhi, until the day he completely collapsed and emptied this body, he would explain every occasion when he was misunderstood.

It doesn't matter if no one believes, he can't do nothing.

Luo Zhi put the guitar and drawing board on his back, and held the wet mobile phone. He wiped his face and walked into the rain curtain.

…

and then?

Luo Zhi pondered and tapped his forehead twice.

His memory stopped here, indicating that he didn't go very far before he fell into that state of knocking his elbow against the cabinet again.

Once this happens outside, it will be very troublesome. He has to go back to the hotel as soon as possible before he completely loses consciousness, or find an empty alley and pass out, otherwise passersby will be frightened to call the police or an ambulance.

Although I don't know why, the Luo family has also started looking for him recently.

Luo Zhi was almost discovered several times. He relied on the instinct in his memory to escape in time. If he contacted the police or the hospital, the news would definitely be notified to his family.

That's why Luo Zhi often carries a bottle of low-quality liquor with him. When he realizes that he can't hold on any longer, he pours all the wine on his body, so that people can smell the alcohol and know that this is a drunk and fell asleep. The drunk man on the side of the road doesn't need to worry about it.

...Did he accidentally drink alcohol this time?

Borrowing wine to drown your sorrows?

Luo Zhi was amused by his own assumption and laughed. He really couldn't find any clues from the video, so he had to put away his mobile phone and move himself out of bed little by little.

Stepping on the soft carpet with his bare feet, Luo Zhi realized that this was not the hotel he had booked.

In order not to find out his identity information, Luo Zhi had always chosen a black hotel in a less strict alley, which could barely meet the living needs, but the conditions were far from comfortable.

And the room he is currently in, even if it is an ordinary big bed room, is quite high in specifications, at least four and a half to five stars, and the remaining half of the stars are usually determined by whether there is a gym, an open-air swimming pool and a buffet.

Luo Zhi used to live in this kind of hotel.

It's just that he didn't use the Luo family's money, he never used the Luo family's money.

Luo Zhi has drawn comics and submitted manuscripts, done game training, wrote songs for others, and went to the recording studio to help record harmony and accompaniment... Anyway, I can earn a little money.

Luo Zhi didn't save the money he earned. He spent as much as he earned, and all the extra money was given to Aunt Ren to buy gifts for her family and Brother Chen Bai.

Aunt Ren was very happy to receive the gift, hugged him and praised him endlessly, but at the end, there was a little worry in her expression, and she lightly poked his head: "Xiao Huo Miao, don't you save a little money?"

Luo Zhi thought about it seriously: "If the things you want to buy are too expensive, save them."

Aunt Ren was dumb: "I didn't say this... What will you do in the future?"

When this question was asked, Aunt Ren had already been diagnosed with the kind of disease that could hardly last too long.

But she herself didn't take it seriously at all, and she told Xiao Luozhi that she felt that the most important thing in life is to live happily, not to live as long as possible. If one day there is only pain and torment left, it would be better to be a hero after 20 years.

Aunt Ren was not worried about her condition, but she seemed to know something about the Luo family and was always worried about Luo Zhi.

Later, Luo Zhi seemed to have picked up a random topic and diverted the conversation.

Although his memory had begun to be blurred and confused, he lay beside the bed and thought slowly, as if he had never answered every question about "future" from Auntie Ren.

…

Since when did he no longer want to think about the future?

Luo Zhi thought about it for a while in a lucid moment, and then he forgot what he was thinking. However, he at least remembered that he appeared in a strange four-and-a-half-star to five-star hotel, so he still took some time to get himself up slowly.

There was no trace of anyone else in the room.

His guitar and drawing board were well placed on the sofa, and his clothes and shoes were on the other side, which seemed to have been washed, dried, and neatly folded, and there was a painting next to him.

Seeing the painting, Luo Zhi's vague memory jumped out a little bit.

...Strictly speaking, that painting can no longer be called a painting.

Being stopped by the two girls who suddenly appeared, it just delayed the most beautiful moment of this painting.

Because of the delay, the paint on the picture was completely washed away by the rain, leaving only pale traces. Later, even that little trace was completely dissolved, and it slowly melted into the scattered water marks and disappeared without a trace.

By the end, only some very light water marks remained on the screen.

It was like a person drowning in the water without a sound and disappearing completely, leaving only that little ripple.

Luo Zhi recognized his own words among the ripples.

[I haven't done anything bad. ]

In fact, he is no longer able to write well. At some point when he fell unconscious on the ground, he took out a paintbrush without even realizing it, and traced the shape of the words on the mobile phone memo bit by bit. of.

He was sitting in the almost pouring rain that drowned everything, drawing stroke by stroke, even attentively, and even immersed in the feeling that he was really a great artist.

After finishing the last stroke, Luo Zhi drew the finishing touch and drew a very round full stop with satisfaction.

He found himself with an audience.

An unknown figure holding an umbrella, stood in the rain and looked at him, as if he had been standing for a while.

Luo Zhi hadn't spoken for a long time, but he had just spilled a lot of wine on his body. The wine was diluted by the rain, but it seemed to drip into his skin, making his head a little dizzy.

Luo Zhi raised his head and rolled his eyes skillfully: "Come and scold me?"

The voice from a voice that had not been used for a long time was hoarse and strange, like rubbing the roughest rust under the scorching sun with the pulp of the finger, leaving a little hot and **** smell.

The man opposite seemed to be stunned and shook his head.

Luo Zhi was a little surprised, he tilted his head and thought for a while: "Come and catch me?"

This time, the person on the opposite side squatted down. I don't know if it was Luo Zhi's illusion. Across the rain curtain, the other side seemed to frown.

… it seems neither.

So.

"So."

Luo Zhi raised the drawing board and handed him the crooked words in the row of ripples: "Sir, do you want to buy a painting?"

He smiled so well and beautifully. Of course Luo Zhi knew how to smile to look best. He was an experienced liar.

He successfully deceived Aunt Ren, making Aunt Ren believe that he would grow up well, live to be eighty years old, and have many particularly beautiful futures.

He didn't do anything bad.

Luo Zhi looked at the line of words that were about to be watered by rain again, and he cherished them and guarded the finishing touch.

"The price is very expensive. If you have to say 'um', it means you believe it."

Luo Zhi raised his head and rolled his eyes in the overwhelming rain.

He took off the guitar generously and pushed all his belongings over: "You can say 'um', and then they are all yours."