It's natural to be anxious when his son is nowhere to be found, and so is Zheng Chunsheng.
From that day on, he cared about every letter, courier, and any social media account that might come from his son, and so on.
While waiting for news from the police, it wasn't that he didn't want to look for it, but he had no clue and didn't have the financial strength to let go of it. Worry did not go to his head. He knew very well that his son was already an adult and had no mental shortcomings that he could not take care of himself. It was entirely his own choice to run away.
As a father, it is his responsibility to not have a fundamental understanding of his son, but he can no longer make up for this at this moment.
There has been no contact at all, which still makes him uneasy. In his understanding, his son was not someone who would abandon his family and never come back, even if he went astray.
But even now, he is not sure, and he only has the last vague hope.
And the results are often beyond his expectations.
The express delivery he received that day contained a CD without a cover.
In this era, thin and light laptops rarely have optical disc card readers. But the coincidence is that although Zheng Chunsheng no longer needs or will not buy a computer, he used to use it when he was young, and the old computer that was outdated for decades is still Leave it in the box where old things are stored.
He cleaned the dusty plugs, turned on the computer that still worked, and put in the CD as he had done in his youth.
There isn't much content on the disc, just a video and a bunch of unknown files.
Zheng Chunsheng was eager to get a conclusion because he thought from the beginning that this might be a message sent to him by his son. He immediately watched the video and found only some blurry images and familiar voices.
That was indeed his son, but it was obviously the result of abnormal photography. The image was blurry, and the facial features were photographed into a mosaic. The trivial details made him realize that his son was in a very anxious state, but he could not hear any information from the words.
He looked over it several times, and just when he made up his mind to call the police, he found messages from strangers on his phone, which made him toss and turn and find it difficult to make a decision.
The remaining files on the CD were also "acted according to circumstances" and all content seen by Zheng Chunsheng was deleted.
——In fact, restoring the file or even stating this fact to the police has the possibility of prompting Zheng Chunsheng to call the police, but his fear can no longer allow or imagine this situation happening. The relevant information he received before can only reach the deleted file Finally, I have to empty the recycle bin, and the rest is like an incomprehensible technology that only exists in TV dramas.
Sufficiently compelling dangers can often be based solely on the victim's existing level of knowledge, without taking into account all circumstances. In other words, if Zheng Chunsheng's ability was not limited to this,
This is the check and balance created by the streamlining of the mastermind behind the scenes.
The next scene was even harder for Zheng Chunsheng to recall. It was difficult to say every word, but Liang An could actually imagine it.
It’s not that he knows things like a god, but no matter who is being manipulated in the applause, this routine will eventually go in the same direction, but it will follow the different motivations of different objects, and the ending and process will also be structurally different. There is a difference.
But generally speaking, it's still the same, either make money or kill people.
For example, in a kidnapping case against a rich man, the suspect's goal is to seek money, but he also has other concerns. For bachelors like Zheng Chunsheng, whose family is not wealthy, the situation is much "simpler".
Unlike Zheng Wancheng, who just walked around the door of society and thought he knew a lot after typing a few words on official accounts and search engines, Zheng Chunsheng, although he is an honest person, has lived for decades longer. time.
He had already paid the IQ tax for his recklessness when he was young, and it was also out of the need to protect his property. He would not easily believe in the pretense of mystification, and he had a vigilant limit forged by his own experience, but he would be exhausted because of the danger his precious son was in.
Most people always have weaknesses, such as family, love, and friendship. No matter how the importance of the three is arranged and combined varies from person to person, every relationship will form an invisible shackles.
When the chains of connection fall apart and the restraints suddenly tighten, the rules and bottom lines that we stick to in our hearts and are commonplace will become closer and closer to collapse. The same goes for Zheng Chunsheng.
But the process of collapse is not easy, at least for Zheng Chunsheng.
The struggle he was in at the beginning was just a choice between death threats and calling the police immediately. The automatically deleted files tilted his balance towards the former. With the arrival of the second express delivery, the bad premonition of being manipulated made him try his best to retain the evidence. However, when this attempt failed again as expected, he fell into a helpless confusion.
Does resistance really work?
If you call the police and the other party directly kills you, how will your son have time to be rescued?
Although the words that the other party stayed at first and then disappeared were completely wiped out from the data, they were deeply engraved in his mind. For some possible clues, Zheng Chunsheng recalled those words in his mind again and again, and at the same time, his fear of them became more and more intense from the depths of his heart.
This is a "win-win" dice game, but the only winner controls the overall situation, planting another seed in the heart of the frightened Zheng Chunsheng.
The essence of planning is to play with people's hearts.
This is just the beginning.
Time can bring faded memories, but it can also make the fear of the unknown intensify. Zheng Chunsheng couldn't help but think of this incident, and while he was hesitating over and over again, the second turning point happened.
That's a phone recording,
A familiar voice screamed for help. The voice was trembling and overwhelmed, and Zheng Chunsheng almost collapsed.
He broke out of the door and finally wanted to call the police. He didn't even remember to ask for leave in advance - his current job was his only source of income. His condition never improved, and he could only cover up his depression with complete silence. But forced by debt, he still went to his boss and asked for his job humbly in order to get his job back, and he never wanted to make a mistake.
But he couldn't care so much anymore, and the raging emotions could no longer be suppressed...unless he lost consciousness immediately.
When he woke up again, Zheng Chunsheng found himself sitting on a yacht, surrounded by clean interiors. The water outside the window was sparkling, the island was full of green, and the beach glowed golden in the morning light.
Zheng Chunsheng remembered in a daze that he did have experience in driving small boats, and that was when he was younger. However, due to the uncertain travel time, he had just become a single father at that time. At that time, Zheng Chunsheng had no choice but to give up his existing job, just to transport Zheng Wancheng, who had just entered elementary school, to the elementary school a few kilometers away every day.
He didn't know what to do until he found instructions neatly placed in front of him, asking him to drive in a fixed direction to the dock at the edge of the city.
Zheng Chunsheng did not obey immediately, nor did he sit still and wait for death. He tried to push open the cockpit door, but found a delicate box placed at the door. He picked up the box and didn't expect that it had no latches and would open up and down due to gravity.
He then saw the items contained inside.
That's a severed finger.
Zheng Chunsheng hardly needed to look carefully. He knew clearly where his hard-working son had thick pen calluses on his hands, and he also knew the long-lasting scratches left on his fingertips when he was doing arts and crafts in elementary school.
The blood coagulated around it crazily, and the person who put it seemed to be very leisurely, wiping the bleeding area nearby.
By this point, Zheng Chunsheng had completely lost all will to resist.
Emotional ups and downs, such ups and downs are the most debilitating weapon.
Like the wandering memory curve, the "fear curve" can also be consolidated repeatedly as events progress. One month, two months, Zheng Chunsheng fell asleep in a certain place like a machine, and woke up in a certain place. He was afraid that the window was empty or a box containing blood and limbs. He drove the yacht with trembling hands and returned to the designated place. s position.
again and again.
Zheng Chunsheng returned to the city, pretended to be ill as a bachelor, used all his skills and connections to regain his precarious job, and then continued his normal life.
Until one day I woke up again on the yacht and drove the yacht back to the dock numbly.
Return to the world.
Apart from the initial message and the instructions to follow the map, the other party did not even leave any other text.
Actions, behavior, everything, except for his own transfers and instructions, Zheng Chunsheng's actions all stem from his own judgment.
It's just that he no longer dares to open his own "Pandora's Box".
"This is generally one-sided complicity." Jiang Qiu concluded, "There are too many legal choices, and it is not convenient for me to draw a conclusion."
"In other words, as long as the yacht has oil, you can find the way back through memory?" Liang An is concerned about this.
Zheng Chunsheng nodded, then looked down at his injured arm.
"After all, there are people among us who can hold conferences." Liang An sighed slightly, having already understood his thoughts, "You don't have to worry about this. Did you really not get any news later?"
Zheng Chunsheng hesitated for a moment, "Actually, I saw a mineral water bottle on the beach that I had never seen before. I didn't know if it was washed by the waves or if there were other people on the island, so I thought about stopping for a while and docked. About twenty minutes.”
"Then?"
"Then," Zheng Chunsheng closed his eyes, "I received another phone recording."
It was Zheng Wancheng's voice, similar to the previous cry for help, but more tragic and fragile.
"That is to say, you have considered whether there will be anyone on the island, but you don't dare to look, you don't dare to be curious, and you don't even want to stay for a few more hours because you are afraid that there will be other threats to harm your son." Jiang Qiu blinked. ,"is that so?"
That being said, it's not a good idea to seduce people and blame yourself right now.
Liang An skillfully gave Jiang Qiu a silent gesture and asked him to continue squatting quietly aside. He was even more sure that this was Zheng Chunsheng's luck.
"So, what should we do now?" Zheng Chunsheng gritted his teeth and his arms twitched slightly. He didn't know whether it was pain or other ideas, maybe guilt or something else.
He was indeed threatened to that point, but what he did was also a fait accompli.
"We may, indeed, have to make some plans." Liang An took a deep breath.
The other two people also looked at him because of these words.
"Although it's a bit offensive, from now on - Uncle Zheng, you are already dead."
