Chapter 8 Differences

  Lin Fang lay in bed at 10 o'clock that night, possibly due to emotional reasons or exhaustion, and soon lost consciousness, slowly falling asleep.

  Lin Fang's sleeping posture hadn't changed much, and his breathing was very stable, as if there weren't any intense stories in his dreams.

  After a night's time, the sun continued to rise from the east.

  "Mm." Lin Fang's hazy consciousness slowly cleared up, making unconscious sounds and moistening his dry throat.

  At 6:30 in the morning, Lin Fang got out of bed. He first went to take a look at the dining table, but there was nothing on it. He worried that the breakfast that had appeared out of nowhere hadn't appeared after all. Letting out a sigh, Lin Fang felt much more relaxed.

  Since there was no breakfast, he made it himself. In 15 minutes, Lin Fang fried two eggs, heated a bottle of milk, and took out two slices of bread from the refrigerator, finally adding two slices of bacon. This Western-style breakfast was simple and hands-on, just the way Lin Fang liked it.

  "Ding ding ding." The alarm clock rang out, and Lin Fang had already finished his breakfast. After turning off the alarm clock, he began to clean up the dishes.

  Lin Fang felt a long-lost sense of ease and familiarity, as if this ordinary rhythm had finally returned after a very long time.

  Originally, Lin Fang's first thing to do every day after waking up was to record everything that happened in his dreams. His notebook was always by the bed, within easy reach. After about half an hour, Lin Fang could usually recall and write down everything completely. However, once the time passed, Lin Fang would forget what had happened in his dream and couldn't remember it anymore.

  There is still half an hour before going to work, Lin Fang's breakfast was prepared too early.

  "I need to find something to do to pass the time." Lin Fang muttered to himself.

  His only pastime was daydreaming, and what he knew about daydreaming came from that book.

  Lin Fang picked up the book again, although he had read it before, but there were still some places that hadn't been read.

  Lin Fang quietly watched for about 30 minutes and seeing that it was almost time, he prepared to leave.

  At 7:40, Lin Fang had just walked out of the door and saw Wan Zhou opposite.

  "Wanzhou, getting ready for school? How was yesterday's play?" Lin Fang greeted casually.

  "Lin Ge, good morning! Yesterday was too crazy, got back a bit late, so I'm running a bit behind now and have to rush to school." Wan Zhou's spirit seemed a bit lacking, Lin Fang could also see the faint dark circles under his eyes.

  "Youth is good, haha." Lin Fang laughed and said that during his university days, he didn't have many opportunities to go out and play with his classmates.

  "Never mind, I'm going to school now, see you later, Lin Ge." Wan Zhou hastily bid farewell and ran down the stairs, seemingly in a hurry.

  Lin Fang walked down the stairs as usual, slowly heading towards a bus station.

  After waiting for about 5 minutes at the bus stop, the bus arrived. However, it was rush hour now and there wasn't a single seat available on the bus. Lin Fang walked towards the back of the vehicle and stood there, anyway he was used to it.

  Looking at people in and out of the car, it was originally a good time in March when everything woke up, but Lin Fang did not see that anyone here had a good spirit, at least no one smiled.

  "What a boring life." Lin Fang didn't know what he was thinking about, and somehow thought of this sentence, whether it was said to others or to himself.

  Just as Lin Fang was feeling sentimental, a sudden **jolt pulled him back to reality. The car screeched to a halt, causing Lin Fang to almost fall over, luckily his hands quickly grabbed onto the handrail tightly.

  Then he found that in front of the car, there were a few people surrounding something, seemingly looking at something, Lin Fang couldn't see very clearly.

  I thought I wouldn't think much of it, so I didn't pay attention again, but the sound that came was even louder. Under the noise outside the car, I could vaguely hear words like "It's not me, it's not me."

  Then the whole car stopped, Lin Fang was helpless, and now he couldn't help but look.

  Slowly squeezing into the crowd in front, Lin Fang also didn't forget to take care of his belongings among the people, because he knew that behind the excitement, there were always people eyeing unearned wealth.

  Pushing through the crowd, Lin Fang saw an old woman lying on the ground in front of him, lying on her side with her eyes closed and her belly rising and falling slowly. Her eyebrows were tightly furrowed on her face full of wrinkles, as if she was suffering greatly and struggling to hold on.

  And on the side, there was a young man in his 20s, with panic-filled eyes and a twisted face due to tension. He said it wasn't him who pushed her while retreating, trying to get out of the crowd, but the people around didn't let him through, tightly blocking the young man. The onlookers' gazes at the young man were filled with disgust, pity, ridicule, anger, and more indifference.

  Lin Fang remembered that when he got on the bus, the old woman was sitting in the front seat, and the young man was sitting next to her. He must have been thrown off by the sudden braking, Lin Fang thought.

  "You believe me, it's really not what I did, she fell down by herself." The young man said nervously to the people around him.

  But the people around him did not speak, they were staring at him with all sorts of eyes.

  Seeing the reactions of everyone, the young man seemed to have suffered a blow, slowly losing air, lowering his head, still unconsciously saying it wasn't me who did it, as if this sentence had become his last straw, grasping tightly.

  "Driver, are you going or not? If not, let me get off!" At this time, a loud voice came from behind Lin Fang. Looking over, it was a tall and sturdy man who was impatiently looking at his watch.

  "What's the hurry? Don't know what's wrong with this guy, is he in such a rush?" The driver responded loudly from his seat, but still stretched out to press it, and the rear door opened.

  Everyone saw the back door open and rushed to get off the bus, as if they were in a hurry to do something.

  Lin Fang didn't rush to get off the bus, he had enough time anyway. He watched as many people rushed towards the back door, but it was impossible for him to squeeze through. Looking over at the old lady, the young man saw that the back door was open and wanted to rush down, but there were still a few people blocking his way. They looked like they weren't in a hurry and seemed determined to block the young man's path.

  After a while, Lin Fang saw that there were no more people at the back door, and he was ready to get off. He took one last look at the crowd, where the driver was holding his phone, seemingly calling the police. The young man, seeing the driver's action, seemed to have gained new life, and was extremely excited.

  "Isn't there a closed-circuit TV on the bus?" This was Lin Fang's last thought as he prepared to get off the bus.

  After Lin Fang got off the car, he didn't think about what happened in the car again, it was just one of many things.

  The car stopped at a place not far from the bus station, Lin Fang walked for 1-2 minutes and arrived, waited for about 3 minutes, and got on the bus again. On the bus, he saw several ambulances and police cars coming from the opposite direction. The loud siren made all vehicles give way, and those who didn't know the situation or were novice drivers would definitely be in trouble.

  This little episode did not affect Lin Fang's pace, and after a while, he had already arrived at the company's entrance.

  After a day, everyone's excitement about the vacation had subsided somewhat. At least Lin Fang was no longer subjected to strong jealous glances, and some colleagues even came to greet him.

  "Good morning." A colleague greeted Lin Fang.

  "Good morning." Lin Fang responded somewhat uncomfortably, as he was always quietly coming to work, and except for a few people, hardly anyone greeted him.

  One morning, Ning Zhiyuan was nowhere to be seen, probably busy somewhere else again. Lin Fang, on the other hand, was working diligently, possibly due to a change in mood.

  As Lin Fang's fingers kept jumping and tapping, document after document appeared on the screen, as if he had never worked so efficiently before.

  "Ding ding." The last few keystrokes were uploaded from the keyboard, and Lin Fang had finished what he needed to do today.

  "Wow, it feels like I've been doing this for a pretty long time." Lin Fang looked at the time and found that only two hours had passed, and there was still some time before lunch.

  "Take a break and wait until dinner is ready."

  Get up and walk towards the pantry, ready to pour a glass of water.

  Watching the distilled water flow slowly, Lin Fang thought of that old woman again, wondering what happened to her afterwards, would anyone help her, did that young man really push that old woman?

  The cup was full of water, Lin Fang held it and was about to return to his own seat, but he caught a glimpse of a figure out of the corner of his eye.

  The afterimage in my line of sight is always blurry, making it flash by in an instant, and I can only react a second later that there seems to be something there. However, when I look over, I find that it's just some objects at different positions, what I saw was roughly blurry.

  As Lin Fang turned his head to look back, he saw a figure composed of a microwave oven, a coffee machine and some other things, like a silhouette, a person wearing black clothes.

  Back in the seat, casually browsing the web, waiting for time to pass. It was only 11:30 when Lin Fang went out to find something to eat, and it was strange that he was so early today.

  Today, Lin Fang chose a fast food restaurant, slowly savoring his lunch while enjoying the view outside the window. He happened to see a group of people who had just finished work and were looking for a place to eat outside the window. Although there weren't many cars on the road at this time, there weren't few either. The sound of cars passing by, the noise of pedestrians walking, and the tall buildings standing in the distance formed an ordinary urban landscape. If there wasn't some trash on the road, the scene would be much better.

  Looking at the trash by the side of the road, Lin Fang didn't have the mood to look anymore, and instead focused on savoring the lunch in front of him, a dish of stir-fried potato shreds with meat, but there was very little meat, similar to the amount of potato shreds.

  After lunch, Lin Fang strolled aimlessly, as if he had come to this place for work and hadn't taken the time to appreciate its scenery. He wasn't busy, just lacking in spirit, always thinking about the dull days ahead.

  Where there are people, there is a river and lake, this is an old saying, put in different occasions, create different languages.

  Lin Fang looked at the usual hustle and bustle around him, the endless stream of people, and he always found something different from ordinary times.

  A group of young people, looking like high school students, hurriedly walked by. They weren't wearing uniforms and some were holding cigarettes in their hands, saying something and laughing about it.

  "They should be at the internet cafe." Lin Fang thought for a moment.

  Then there was a young man about the same height as Lin Fang, who was holding a briefcase and quickly walking towards a parked taxi. He got in hastily and the car drove away.

  "This should be in a hurry to sign the document." Lin Fang saw that the young man's footsteps were a bit weak, as if he was tired or hungry.

  Today's weather is nice, the sun shines warmly, not a bit cold, and there's no wind at all, giving people a refreshing feeling.

  There was a woman on the street who caught Lin Fang's eye, wearing fashionable clothes but a bit too much, making her look slightly bloated. Her hair was permed, but she wore a mask and sunglasses, even though the sun wasn't glaring, and had a slightly chubby figure, likely in her 30s. The sunlight shone on the skin exposed on her face, reflecting a faint glow.

  "This woman must have gone to a beauty parlor." A bold guess.

  Lin Fang did not continue walking but instead headed towards the company's location.

  Behind him, an environmental worker was bending down to pick up a wet paper scrap from the ground with his hands and threw it into a nearby trash can. The trash in the can included cigarette butts, disposable food boxes, empty drink containers, and a black bag emitting a foul odor.

  What is the biggest difference between people who have achieved different things?