Chapter 117: Deceiving Oneself
Seventy-Six cried uncontrollably, repeatedly saying, “I’m sick, I’m mentally ill.”
She seemed to be in a state of delusion and panic, utterly pitiable.
The boy, heartbroken, held Seventy-Six close and comforted her, saying, “Don’t cry, don’t cry, it’s okay, I’m here, don’t be scared. I won’t leave you. I’ll stay with you, and we’ll get your illness treated together. After you’re better, you can decide if you still want to be with me. Don’t be afraid, I’m not leaving.”
After comforting Seventy-Six, the boy discussed finding time to take her to see a doctor in the next couple of days. Seventy-Six agreed.
Who knew, cough cough, three days later Seventy-Six revealed her true colors again. She would get angry without warning and become physical just as suddenly.
The boy felt tormented, and told Seventy-Six he would take her to see a doctor the next day.
But Seventy-Six was like a completely different person, saying angrily, “I’m not going, I’m not sick, I absolutely won’t go.”
The boy thought that Seventy-Six couldn’t accept that she had psychological issues and decided to wait for the right moment to gently guide her.
However, no matter how much the boy persuaded her, Seventy-Six never agreed to go, and would even turn hostile whenever the boy brought it up.
After more than half a month of fruitless persuasion, the boy felt like giving up again because he thought Seventy-Six was beyond saving. What was even more perverse was that Seventy-Six acted shy and quiet in front of others, but when she was with the boy, she was like a bitter enemy.
This time, the boy had made up his mind to give up on her. Seeing that the boy no longer wanted her, Seventy-Six started crying again, apologizing and promising to change, asking the boy for some time.
This boy was a fool. She hadn’t changed in over half a year, yet he still believed that people could change for the better, and his heart softened again.
But he, who was usually so positive and sunny, started unconsciously sighing all the time, sometimes without even realizing it. It wasn’t until a colleague asked him why he was always sighing that he reacted, giving a bitter smile and shaking his head without saying anything.
This Seventy-Six really got to the boy, leaving him with a shadow in his heart. Even when Seventy-Six came to play with him with a smile, the boy would suddenly jump, thinking she was about to act out again.
During a holiday break, the shop organized a trip to a water park. The boy wore swimming trunks, and except for his face, the front of his body, arms, back, legs, and feet, he had marks from scratches, grabs, pinches, or being hit with a charger cord.
Many colleagues saw the boy’s state and looked at him with pity, even shedding tears. Even grown men in their thirties and forties couldn’t help but secretly tell the boy, “Younger brother, I’m not trying to cause trouble, don’t be angry. You’re such a good person, you can find anyone you want. Why are you insisting on her? Given how good you are to her, anyone else would have married you by now, and frankly, would have had your children. You… sigh…”
The boy said with a bitter smile, “She’s still young, she’ll be fine in a few more years.”
Hearing this, the male colleague couldn’t help but say, “She’s still young? Even if she’s twenty, she’s not this immature!”
The boy lit a cigarette for his Big Brother colleague and said, “Let’s not talk about it, Big Brother, haha. It’s enough that I’m upset myself. I know you’re looking out for me, don’t let my problems upset you too.”
“Alright then, think it over yourself. As your Big Brother, I won’t say anything more, sigh…”
Many people who were close to the boy had secretly advised him. Not all employees, of course, because not everyone knew what was going on, but anyone who noticed the change in the boy had guessed some of it.
They all found excuses to drink with the boy and give him advice. But the boy was just foolish; he always deceived himself into believing that people would eventually change for the better.
Since Seventy-Six started dating the boy, she transformed from someone very introverted and insecure into someone arrogant, feeling she could do anything, that she was excellent and capable. She changed from someone without dreams or direction in life. For example, the boy said he wanted to open a tattoo shop in the future, which would allow him to paint, make money, and not have to work for others.
When others asked Seventy-Six what she wanted to do in the future, she would use the boy’s dream and say it was hers.
This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; at least Seventy-Six had a goal in life.
They had been together for a long time. The boy had taken Seventy-Six home a few times. Each time, Seventy-Six would act very well-behaved, sensible, honest, and shy. The boy’s family doted on her, not letting her do any chores, and always asking her what she wanted to eat. Seventy-Six experienced the warmth she had lacked in her childhood at the boy’s home.
The boy could do some cooking, laundry, and mending, and occasionally made some of Seventy-Six’s favorite dishes.
But as soon as they left the boy’s home, Seventy-Six would change instantly, faster than a Transformer.
In their rental room, Seventy-Six saw some information about e-commerce and heard it was profitable. She started fantasizing about how successful she would be doing e-commerce.
The boy told her that e-commerce wasn’t profitable anymore because the strategies had changed. The first wave of people who did e-commerce made money not by selling goods, but by recruiting agents, similar to a pyramid scheme. They would constantly invite you to group lessons, brainwash you, and then sell you products, telling you that once you bought the products, you belonged to the agents and could start selling goods to make money. However, to get goods at a cheaper price, you had to upgrade your agent level, which meant buying more, and reaching a certain amount before you could.
Seventy-Six asked the boy why he knew so much. The boy said that before e-commerce existed, a buddy of his was doing order-brushing for Taobao, earning only a few dozen yuan a day. The boy gave him an idea: told him to get some pictures from Taobao and other platforms, post them on WeChat Moments, and if someone wanted to buy something, he could set his own price, collect the money, and then order it from Taobao or other platforms to be delivered to the buyer’s address.
His buddy didn’t believe him and told him, “If that were true, wouldn’t people have been doing it already? Nobody’s that stupid. If they had this method, wouldn’t everyone be doing it?”
The boy didn’t argue with his buddy.
A few years later, the term “e-commerce” emerged online. The first wave of e-commerce sellers made a lot of money, while those who joined later became layers of downstream agents.
At this point, the boy’s buddy found the boy for a drink, deeply regretting not having listened to the boy’s advice. He was now also doing e-commerce, and the strategy was exactly the same as what the boy had told him. Although he started much later, he could earn ten thousand to eight thousand yuan in a good month, and only one or two thousand in a bad month.
Now, the boy’s buddy doesn’t do it much anymore; he posts advertisements every day but only sells a few orders occasionally, not earning as much as he did at the beginning.
At this point, when Seventy-Six said she wanted to do this, the boy naturally tried to stop her, as he couldn’t just watch Seventy-Six jump into a fiery pit.
Helplessly, Seventy-Six didn’t believe the boy. She got two cards and used the money in them to buy a whole box of cosmetics. Every day, she would listen to lessons in the group at the scheduled time. She also learned to post on WeChat Moments. After listening to too many classes, she wanted to buy more to upgrade her agent level. The boy blocked her, telling Seventy-Six that if she could sell even one item within a month, he wouldn’t stop her and she could continue buying products.
Although Seventy-Six was furious, after calming down, she felt the boy had a point. So she persisted for a month, and indeed, as the boy predicted, she didn’t sell a single item. However, instead of thanking the boy, she called him a jinx and blamed him for saying negative things.
Fortunately, the Store Manager Sister found out and advised Seventy-Six. The Store Manager Sister had also been scammed in e-commerce before and knew how deep the water was, saying the boy was absolutely right, and it was all a scam.
After hearing what the Store Manager Sister said, Seventy-Six finally stopped blaming the boy.
