"I also heard children crying, saying the questions were too hard, and I wanted to patiently explain them..."
"But in the eyes of others, I seemed like a madwoman. They thought I was feeling guilty about my daughter... so I turned out this way."
"To them, everything I did was atonement, just to balance out the guilt in my heart."
"But I really wanted to help them. I felt that by helping them, I would gain peace and happiness."
"Later on... I came here, and all sorts of voices constantly filled my ears. I wanted to help those who owned these voices."
Wen Xishu said:
"And now? Have you found peace and happiness?"
Granny Wu nodded:
"Yes, I have found peace and happiness because Ding Dong came, and Ding Dong gave me the radio."
"Believe it or not... No, it’s not about belief, Ding Dong himself is a miracle. After the radio arrived, I no longer heard any noise, my world became quiet all at once."
"But occasionally, the radio automatically plays out the troubles in the hearts of those around me, so I go and ask these people if they need any help."
Wen Xishu had some answers in his heart:
"Granny, did Ding Dong also ask you? Similar to the question Mo Yuan asked?"
Granny Wu nodded again:
"He asked, he said after being condemned by everyone several times, would I still be willing to help others?"
"Of course I would..."
Wen Xishu continued:
"Did Ding Dong also express his gratitude to you?"
Granny Wu nodded once more:
"That child Ding Dong, he was somewhat lost, he didn’t know if he should view the world with goodwill. He hoped to be like me, not to ponder this question, but to always see the world with a kind heart."
Wen Xishu sighed:
"Thank you, Granny, people like you are really rare. Meeting Ding Dong is indeed a miracle, but Ding Dong meeting you is also fortunate."
Wen Xishu looked at Lele:
"What about you, Lele?"
It wasn’t Lele who answered, but Granny Wu. Granny Wu said:
"Ah, Lele wasn’t like this before. He was just very gullible, he believed whatever others said. Once, Lele and other kids went to play by the river... those children hid, leaving one child who said..."
Even someone as willing to help as Granny Wu showed a bit of anger at this moment:
"He said, Lele, the others have fallen into the river, let’s go save them."
"Lele jumped into the river without hesitation, but he wasn’t a good swimmer, and the current was rapid. That child was scared stiff, he didn’t expect Lele to really believe him."
"After that incident, Lele became... became like this."
Wen Xishu guessed:
"Lele lost the ability to distinguish between truth and lies?"
Granny Wu nodded:
"I often chat with Lele. I found that even before that incident, he had a tendency to easily believe those... lies that tried to harm him."
Wen Xishu said:
"So Ding Dong came, and knew Lele would continue to believe... and made that pipe for Lele?"
At this moment, Lele spoke:
"Hehe, Brother Ding Dong told me a story, a child who lies will have a nose that grows longer. He also said there’s a smart detective who likes to use a pipe, he hoped I would become smart."
Wen Xishu smiled:
"Lele, you will be."
Wen Xishu didn’t ask another question, which was whether Lele would continue to believe others in the future.
He had the answer, and he thought Ding Dong did too.
An obsession with love, a persistence in helping others with kindness, a commitment to trusting others... Wen Xishu increasingly believed that Ding Dong came here with a certain purpose.
Wen Xishu looked at the cook Xiangyang:
"What about you, Brother Xiang?"
Xiangyang said:
"My story is actually simpler than theirs. I’m someone who is somewhat fastidious about my own craftsmanship... I’ve been researching cooking techniques, participated in many competitions, and won many championships."
"But I always felt that the food was becoming less delicious. I had my disciples, I was very strict with them, sometimes strict to the point of hitting and scolding them, using very harsh words to insult their intelligence."
"Everyone thought I was abnormal. Once, in a highly prestigious cooking competition, my dish was criticized as inedible. So I started tasting their dishes..."
"I cursed, ’It’s all dog shit, how dare they say my dish was bad?’ This caused me to insult my opponents and the competition, and I was expelled."
"Later on, my disciples began to say I lost my sense of taste and could no longer make delicious food."
"My restaurant’s business started to decline rapidly, and negative news about me began to appear constantly."
"All I could think about were those ingredients... they seemed to come alive. I felt like I could see the various changes when they were put together with different ingredients, some changes I knew, and some... I was seeing for the first time."
"Does it sound like I was seeing hallucinations? I felt like an art student seeing various paints automatically mix to form new colors."
"I doubted I was going crazy, especially during that time. The pressure was immense, and my family also thought my pickiness about food had reached a pathological level."
"They thought what I dreamed of, the taste and state of the food, either didn’t exist or already existed, but my sense of taste was faulty."
"Sometimes... when too many people say something, even falsehoods become the truth. I really started to believe my taste was out of order."