Chapter 149: Chapter 149 – Family
With the list of names, what Ren Suo had to do was to find a lucky winner who would “easily cultivate faith” and also lived in Baiyun City.
In addition to the name, gender, and physical condition, there was also an extremely important indicator on the list: the degree of belief.
The degree of belief represented how easy the person would accept new beliefs, whether the person’s beliefs were complex, and whether the beliefs were strong. They were not distinguished by numerical values but categorized by colors.
In fact, the large majority of people had their personal beliefs; atheism was also a belief, and so was scientific theology. Strong faith in a particular school of thought was the source of various beliefs.
Blue color represented unsteady or complex beliefs, which generally referred to pragmatists who both believed easily and turned their backs equally quickly. That made up the majority of people and they would also burn incense to worship the deities occasionally. Whether or not they believed was based purely on their personal interests at different points in time.
Red represented a true and unified belief. It was more common among theists and members of political parties in various countries who were concerned with building a better society.
Yellow represented that between blue and red. There was a stronger belief but did not firmly deny other beliefs. Most of such people were full of hope and passion in life. Their beliefs were often the emotional, spiritual pillars of aspirations, love, and affection. They might not be extremely affluent but had sufficient to be happy.
Orange was the most special. It represented a special state which signified that the person’s psychological state was unstable. It might be due to a broken heart, due to disease, or due to impermanence in life. Such people might also be suffering from mental illnesses like depression, which also resulted in confusion in their beliefs.
Ren Suo suspected that “Naisser_Ren” deliberately made use of a lucky draw as the global population was too huge so that he could narrow down his targets and make accurate calculations for their individual degree of belief.
However, red did not necessarily mean that they should not be chosen while blue was the easiest target to complete the mission in Repaying Kindness.
According to the introduction about the degree of belief, the blue-coded pragmatists often sided with whatever was more practical. Such people might not be willing to establish a belief whole-heartedly even when they stood to gain. On the other hand, if Ren Suo managed to find a way to counter the prior beliefs of those who were color-coded red, he could persuade them to convert to a new belief more easily.
It was those who were color-coded yellow who were the hardest to persuade. Such people did not have an ultimate goal and easily felt happy in life. Their beliefs were the hardest to uproot and least likely to waver.
On the other hand, those with an orange-coded degree of belief were the most likely ones to produce belief, as their mental state was unstable and they encountered difficulties in life. They urgently require psychological support which would support them and encourage them to continue to work hard.
To put it nicely, that would be providing help in times of need; but to put it bluntly, it was actually taking advantage of them.
Although the mini-game did not explain what would happen if he failed the mission, and neither did Ren Suo think about failure at present, it would be beneficial to cure a person of all physical and psychological illnesses while completing the mission.
As such, Ren Suo first filtered out all the non-Chinese names and focused on those who had an orange-coded degree of belief. He clicked on them one by one to view their location.
But there were so many people who chose the black horse Zhao Zili. Despite setting that many filters, the list was still a few pages long.
Moreover, there was no address stated in the name list, but a globe would appear on the screen when Ren Suo queried their individual details. The person’s coordinates would be displayed on the globe, but it took a few minutes to do so. Eventually, Ren Suo still did not manage to find any suitable target after a few hours of selecting names.
Ren Zuo initially thought that he would have to spend another afternoon looking through the long list of names, but a few minutes later, he found a suitable candidate—
Ning Hai from Baiyun City.
Ren Suo hesitated slightly as he thought, ‘The name… sounds somewhat familiar?’
But he did not mull over the seemingly familiar name. He zoomed in on the globe and found that not only was Ning Hai situated in Baiyun City, he also lived in Longkou District!
You are the chosen one!
The reason why Ren Suo had to choose a target was because he needed the coordinates of that target to set a location where Zhao Zili would descend. And naturally, that target would be Zhao Zili’s first recovery target.
As a matter of fact, Ren Suo did not care whether the target would eventually become a true believer.
If he succeeded, Ren Suo would take it as that the medical fees for curing the target had been paid for; and if he failed, Ren Suo would pay the fees for the target. At most, he would just lose the character “Zhao Zili”.
What was more crucial was that the person lived in Baiyun City!
———————
In the evening, Ning Hai was on the way home after buying vegetables from the market. When he reached the intersection, he accidentally bumped his shoulder into an auntie who was passing by. The auntie was not injured, but Ning Hai lost his grip of the bag in his hands and the apples inside rolled out.
“Oh no, sorry,” the auntie said as she quickly squatted down to pick up the apples with Ning Hai. Ning Hai was not angry and said, “It’s alright, the intersection is narrow, it’s easy to…”
“Oh? Are you Xiaohai?” the auntie asked suddenly.
Ning Hai raised his head and a subtle smile emerged from the corners of his lips. He said, “Oh, it’s Auntie Ren… It’s been a long time.”
Auntie Ren replaced the apples in Ning Hai’s bag and said, “The last time we met, it must be… after the college entrance examinations when I accompanied my son to school for the goal-setting advice meeting? Ah, I still remember that you were cited as a positive example by the level prefect, unlike my useless son who could only enter Lianjiang University.”
“That was a long time ago… I haven’t contacted them for a long time too. I’m actually slightly surprised that you still remember me,” Ning Hai replied.
“Does that mean that you don’t remember me anymore?” Auntie Ren questioned.
Ning Hai said, “Ah, no. I don’t think it will be difficult for me to forget about you. After all, you and Ren Suo quarreled openly during the meeting.”
“It was all because he started playing games on his mobile phone during the meeting…” Auntie Ren was slightly embarrassed and quickly changed the topic, asking, “You must have graduated too? Are you back to further your studies?”
“… It’s because of certain reasons,” Ning Hai said.
Ning Hai put two apples into Auntie Ren’s bag and walked away. Aunt Ren quickly said, “Hey, you’re a nice child… Come over to our house to eat when you are free, you can teach my daughter how to fill in her goals and aspirations at the same time.”
Ning Hai answered loudly, “She will definitely do well in the college entrance examination and be able to enroll in a good university and study a useful major.”
When Ning Hai reached home and opened the door, he heard a muffled sound from the room. He did not pay much attention to it and said loudly, “I’m home! We will have curry chicken with potatoes for dinner tonight! I will leave the apples in the refrigerator and you can eat them after dinner.”
Ning Hai washed the vegetables, peeled the potatoes, lit the fire, placed the pan on the stove, cooked the rice, and very soon, a table of dishes was served. The food was not glistening nor was there a strong pleasant scent emerging from the food. It was merely an ordinary, home-cooked meal.
Ning Hai wiped her hands clean and knocked on the bedroom door. He said, “Xiao, are you there? I’m coming in.”
Ning Hai opened the door to see the blanket on the bed on the floor. The wheelchair had flipped over, and his sister, Ning Xiaoxiao, was lying on the ground, hiding her face under her long hair and not saying a word.
Ning Hai did not say anything either, but proceeded to set the wheelchair upright, and lifted his sister up and onto the wheelchair. He parted her messy hair, and conveniently clipped her hair with the hairpin on the table. He said, “You will look ugly if your hair is messy. Let’s eat now.”
He pushed Ning Xiaoxiao to the dinner table, then filled a bowl of rice for her. He placed a piece of potato in her bowl and said, “The potatoes are going to be delicious, this is my most confident dish.”
Ning Xiaoxiao silently held up her bowl to eat. As they were eating, two streams of tears fell from her eyes, down her cheeks, and into the bowl. She cried, “Brother, aren’t I a burden to you?”
“There is no such thing as a burden between family members,” Ning Hai said.
“But if it weren’t for me, you would be climbing the ranks in Tianjing now, and not a free-lance worker back here in a third-tier city like Baiyun City. You are a Tianjing University graduate!” Ning Xiaoxiao said.
“But before all of that, I am your brother,” Ning Hai answered.
Ning Xiaoxiao continued, “You must be regretting it, no? You must regret having to come back to take care of me, a disabled person! You said before that you were well-liked by your boss during your internship, and were offered a position even before your fourth year in university, you said—”
“Did you not take your anti-depressants today?” Ning Hai asked as he put down his bowl. “I’ll—”
Ning Xiaoxiao grabbed Ninghai and asked with tears streaming all over her face, “I did! I ate them! Let me ask you this, if you have to take care of me like this forever, will you regret it?!”
Ning Hai looked at her sister and sighed softly.
Ning Xiaoxiao’s hands were shaking as she continued, “See, you regret it! You must regret it! You hesitated! You wavered!”
“Yes, indeed, I hesitated,” Ning Hai said as he squatted down and wiped the tears on Ning Xiaoxiao’s face with her fingers. He brushed the long hair behind her ears and continued, “And indeed, I wavered. Sigh, I told you that you would look ugly if you mess your hair up.”
“You regretted!” Ning Xiaoxiao exclaimed.
“I did not regret,” Ning Hai said as he held onto Ning Xiaoxiao’s face and touched her forehead with his. Their eyes were centimeters apart as he looked at her intently, and he seemed to know what she was thinking. He said, “Xiao, look at me.”
“I wavered, but that’s precisely because I am willing to do so, and because I love you. A vow can be made very easily within the moment, and no one would have thought about betrayal when making a promise to the family.”
“But for a promise that you are willing to uphold throughout your lifetime, only then would you think through it carefully, and only then would there be hesitation. Only those that once wavered would become a firm belief.”
Ning Hai watched as her sister finally calmed down. He picked up her bowl and said, “You must be tired, let me take some food for you.”
“… Just less than half a bowl would do.”
“Alright.”
But when Ning Hai turned around with the bowl in his hand, he saw a human figure being made of light converging together, in front of him. A holy, righteous voice boomed as if piercing through clouds of grey—
“In the name of the great existence of divine love—”
Chapter 149: Chapter 149 – Family
With the list of names, what Ren Suo had to do was to find a lucky winner who would “easily cultivate faith” and also lived in Baiyun City.
In addition to the name, gender, and physical condition, there was also an extremely important indicator on the list: the degree of belief.
The degree of belief represented how easy the person would accept new beliefs, whether the person’s beliefs were complex, and whether the beliefs were strong. They were not distinguished by numerical values but categorized by colors.
In fact, the large majority of people had their personal beliefs; atheism was also a belief, and so was scientific theology. Strong faith in a particular school of thought was the source of various beliefs.
Blue color represented unsteady or complex beliefs, which generally referred to pragmatists who both believed easily and turned their backs equally quickly. That made up the majority of people and they would also burn incense to worship the deities occasionally. Whether or not they believed was based purely on their personal interests at different points in time.
Red represented a true and unified belief. It was more common among theists and members of political parties in various countries who were concerned with building a better society.
Yellow represented that between blue and red. There was a stronger belief but did not firmly deny other beliefs. Most of such people were full of hope and passion in life. Their beliefs were often the emotional, spiritual pillars of aspirations, love, and affection. They might not be extremely affluent but had sufficient to be happy.
Orange was the most special. It represented a special state which signified that the person’s psychological state was unstable. It might be due to a broken heart, due to disease, or due to impermanence in life. Such people might also be suffering from mental illnesses like depression, which also resulted in confusion in their beliefs.
Ren Suo suspected that “Naisser_Ren” deliberately made use of a lucky draw as the global population was too huge so that he could narrow down his targets and make accurate calculations for their individual degree of belief.
However, red did not necessarily mean that they should not be chosen while blue was the easiest target to complete the mission in Repaying Kindness.
According to the introduction about the degree of belief, the blue-coded pragmatists often sided with whatever was more practical. Such people might not be willing to establish a belief whole-heartedly even when they stood to gain. On the other hand, if Ren Suo managed to find a way to counter the prior beliefs of those who were color-coded red, he could persuade them to convert to a new belief more easily.
It was those who were color-coded yellow who were the hardest to persuade. Such people did not have an ultimate goal and easily felt happy in life. Their beliefs were the hardest to uproot and least likely to waver.
On the other hand, those with an orange-coded degree of belief were the most likely ones to produce belief, as their mental state was unstable and they encountered difficulties in life. They urgently require psychological support which would support them and encourage them to continue to work hard.
To put it nicely, that would be providing help in times of need; but to put it bluntly, it was actually taking advantage of them.
Although the mini-game did not explain what would happen if he failed the mission, and neither did Ren Suo think about failure at present, it would be beneficial to cure a person of all physical and psychological illnesses while completing the mission.
As such, Ren Suo first filtered out all the non-Chinese names and focused on those who had an orange-coded degree of belief. He clicked on them one by one to view their location.
But there were so many people who chose the black horse Zhao Zili. Despite setting that many filters, the list was still a few pages long.
Moreover, there was no address stated in the name list, but a globe would appear on the screen when Ren Suo queried their individual details. The person’s coordinates would be displayed on the globe, but it took a few minutes to do so. Eventually, Ren Suo still did not manage to find any suitable target after a few hours of selecting names.
Ren Zuo initially thought that he would have to spend another afternoon looking through the long list of names, but a few minutes later, he found a suitable candidate—
Ning Hai from Baiyun City.
Ren Suo hesitated slightly as he thought, ‘The name… sounds somewhat familiar?’
But he did not mull over the seemingly familiar name. He zoomed in on the globe and found that not only was Ning Hai situated in Baiyun City, he also lived in Longkou District!
You are the chosen one!
The reason why Ren Suo had to choose a target was because he needed the coordinates of that target to set a location where Zhao Zili would descend. And naturally, that target would be Zhao Zili’s first recovery target.
As a matter of fact, Ren Suo did not care whether the target would eventually become a true believer.
If he succeeded, Ren Suo would take it as that the medical fees for curing the target had been paid for; and if he failed, Ren Suo would pay the fees for the target. At most, he would just lose the character “Zhao Zili”.
What was more crucial was that the person lived in Baiyun City!
———————
In the evening, Ning Hai was on the way home after buying vegetables from the market. When he reached the intersection, he accidentally bumped his shoulder into an auntie who was passing by. The auntie was not injured, but Ning Hai lost his grip of the bag in his hands and the apples inside rolled out.
“Oh no, sorry,” the auntie said as she quickly squatted down to pick up the apples with Ning Hai. Ning Hai was not angry and said, “It’s alright, the intersection is narrow, it’s easy to…”
“Oh? Are you Xiaohai?” the auntie asked suddenly.
Ning Hai raised his head and a subtle smile emerged from the corners of his lips. He said, “Oh, it’s Auntie Ren… It’s been a long time.”
Auntie Ren replaced the apples in Ning Hai’s bag and said, “The last time we met, it must be… after the college entrance examinations when I accompanied my son to school for the goal-setting advice meeting? Ah, I still remember that you were cited as a positive example by the level prefect, unlike my useless son who could only enter Lianjiang University.”
“That was a long time ago… I haven’t contacted them for a long time too. I’m actually slightly surprised that you still remember me,” Ning Hai replied.
“Does that mean that you don’t remember me anymore?” Auntie Ren questioned.
Ning Hai said, “Ah, no. I don’t think it will be difficult for me to forget about you. After all, you and Ren Suo quarreled openly during the meeting.”
“It was all because he started playing games on his mobile phone during the meeting…” Auntie Ren was slightly embarrassed and quickly changed the topic, asking, “You must have graduated too? Are you back to further your studies?”
“… It’s because of certain reasons,” Ning Hai said.
Ning Hai put two apples into Auntie Ren’s bag and walked away. Aunt Ren quickly said, “Hey, you’re a nice child… Come over to our house to eat when you are free, you can teach my daughter how to fill in her goals and aspirations at the same time.”
Ning Hai answered loudly, “She will definitely do well in the college entrance examination and be able to enroll in a good university and study a useful major.”
When Ning Hai reached home and opened the door, he heard a muffled sound from the room. He did not pay much attention to it and said loudly, “I’m home! We will have curry chicken with potatoes for dinner tonight! I will leave the apples in the refrigerator and you can eat them after dinner.”
Ning Hai washed the vegetables, peeled the potatoes, lit the fire, placed the pan on the stove, cooked the rice, and very soon, a table of dishes was served. The food was not glistening nor was there a strong pleasant scent emerging from the food. It was merely an ordinary, home-cooked meal.
Ning Hai wiped her hands clean and knocked on the bedroom door. He said, “Xiao, are you there? I’m coming in.”
Ning Hai opened the door to see the blanket on the bed on the floor. The wheelchair had flipped over, and his sister, Ning Xiaoxiao, was lying on the ground, hiding her face under her long hair and not saying a word.
Ning Hai did not say anything either, but proceeded to set the wheelchair upright, and lifted his sister up and onto the wheelchair. He parted her messy hair, and conveniently clipped her hair with the hairpin on the table. He said, “You will look ugly if your hair is messy. Let’s eat now.”
He pushed Ning Xiaoxiao to the dinner table, then filled a bowl of rice for her. He placed a piece of potato in her bowl and said, “The potatoes are going to be delicious, this is my most confident dish.”
Ning Xiaoxiao silently held up her bowl to eat. As they were eating, two streams of tears fell from her eyes, down her cheeks, and into the bowl. She cried, “Brother, aren’t I a burden to you?”
“There is no such thing as a burden between family members,” Ning Hai said.
“But if it weren’t for me, you would be climbing the ranks in Tianjing now, and not a free-lance worker back here in a third-tier city like Baiyun City. You are a Tianjing University graduate!” Ning Xiaoxiao said.
“But before all of that, I am your brother,” Ning Hai answered.
Ning Xiaoxiao continued, “You must be regretting it, no? You must regret having to come back to take care of me, a disabled person! You said before that you were well-liked by your boss during your internship, and were offered a position even before your fourth year in university, you said—”
“Did you not take your anti-depressants today?” Ning Hai asked as he put down his bowl. “I’ll—”
Ning Xiaoxiao grabbed Ninghai and asked with tears streaming all over her face, “I did! I ate them! Let me ask you this, if you have to take care of me like this forever, will you regret it?!”
Ning Hai looked at her sister and sighed softly.
Ning Xiaoxiao’s hands were shaking as she continued, “See, you regret it! You must regret it! You hesitated! You wavered!”
“Yes, indeed, I hesitated,” Ning Hai said as he squatted down and wiped the tears on Ning Xiaoxiao’s face with her fingers. He brushed the long hair behind her ears and continued, “And indeed, I wavered. Sigh, I told you that you would look ugly if you mess your hair up.”
“You regretted!” Ning Xiaoxiao exclaimed.
“I did not regret,” Ning Hai said as he held onto Ning Xiaoxiao’s face and touched her forehead with his. Their eyes were centimeters apart as he looked at her intently, and he seemed to know what she was thinking. He said, “Xiao, look at me.”
“I wavered, but that’s precisely because I am willing to do so, and because I love you. A vow can be made very easily within the moment, and no one would have thought about betrayal when making a promise to the family.”
“But for a promise that you are willing to uphold throughout your lifetime, only then would you think through it carefully, and only then would there be hesitation. Only those that once wavered would become a firm belief.”
Ning Hai watched as her sister finally calmed down. He picked up her bowl and said, “You must be tired, let me take some food for you.”
“… Just less than half a bowl would do.”
“Alright.”
But when Ning Hai turned around with the bowl in his hand, he saw a human figure being made of light converging together, in front of him. A holy, righteous voice boomed as if piercing through clouds of grey—
“In the name of the great existence of divine love—”
