A widower's entertainment

Chapter 368 [The Fate of Blind Abing] (Please Subscribe)
Xinghua Hutong, Beijing.

Lin Youcheng walked out of the main house of the courtyard. He had been sitting and writing for a while and naturally needed to rest. As soon as he stepped out of the house, he saw Xie Shuhua and Song Ma taking vegetables to the kitchen.

"Youcheng, your older brother sent over some more vegetables."

When Xie Shuhua saw Lin Youcheng come out, she couldn't help but say, "He knew you were writing, so he didn't disturb you and left first."

Lin Youcheng also knew that his elder brother's small restaurant was doing well. Because it was a restaurant business, Lin Youcai had his own channels for sourcing ingredients in Beijing. So sometimes he would specially deliver some dishes to Lin Youcheng, which was just a convenient thing to do.

"Then you give the money to your older brother later."

"I offered it, but he didn't want it!"

Upon hearing Xie Shuhua's words, Lin Youcheng shook his head and said, "I'll talk to my brother about it later. If we don't pay, we won't take the dish."

Although Lin Youcheng knew that his older brother was grateful for the house he lived in, and wanted to help him out, he naturally didn't need his brother to save him money on groceries. Moreover, even if Lin Youcai's restaurant business was doing well, it was still a small business, and he earned his money through hard work. He naturally couldn't let his family always rely on his older brother to buy groceries.

Xie Shuhua nodded and said, "I'll say that to my older brother next time."

It's Thursday afternoon, and the children are still at school. Xie Shuhua doesn't have many classes at Yanjing Normal University, so she spends most of her time in Xinghua Hutong. The whole courtyard is quite quiet.

Xie Shuhua watched as Lin Youcheng carried the groceries into the kitchen and couldn't help but ask, "How's your manuscript coming along? Zhang Wei called this morning to ask about it."

Hearing Xie Shuhua's words, Lin Youcheng couldn't help but laugh and said, "He keeps asking me questions like this, how could I not keep up?"

Because the children would be coming home from school soon, Lin Youcheng was helping to pick vegetables in the yard with a basket of chives, chatting with Xie Shuhua about some plots in the novel, and about the special character Ah Bing in The Listener, a blind man whose name was quite unique.

"I'm afraid some people might mistake your name, A Bing, for the one who plays the erhu."

"The old man said that those ears were capable of becoming a musical instrument tuner. At that time, he even thought that Luo Shan should take Abing as his apprentice so that he could make a living..."

In the novel, Ah Bing is a monster. He was born mentally challenged, unable to walk until he was three and unable to call out "Mom" until he was five. At five, Ah Bing had a high fever and remained unconscious in bed for three days and three nights. When he awoke, he could speak, but his eyes had been blinded by the fever, and no treatment could cure him. Although he couldn't see anything, he possessed a pair of incredibly sharp and sensitive ears; he could hear things before others even saw them.

As the two chatted about various plot points without realizing it, time passed by unnoticed.

The children have all returned from school.

Because Lin Zhaoqing is in the senior high school section of Xinghua Middle School, he sometimes doesn't come back with his younger siblings. Now, it's Lin Zhaomei, the older sister, who is bringing the younger ones back together. As for Lin Zhaoqing and Lin Zhaoxi, who are in high school, their return time is sometimes a little later, but not too late.

This was also because high schools at that time usually didn't require mandatory evening self-study sessions. This was largely modeled after the experience of a certain middle school. Initially, participation was limited to boarding students and there were no teachers on duty. Later, due to increasing pressure to get into university, it was gradually extended to day students and became an important means of improving college entrance examination pass rates. In Beijing, high school students would either engage in sports with classmates or participate in clubs after school. Sometimes there would be extracurricular lectures. Most of the time, they would go home around 5 p.m., meaning that their time after school was basically their own. In this era, high schools in Beijing were quite diverse and vibrant.

When the children returned, there was no homework, so they all started playing. Lin Zhaole waited to watch cartoons on TV, Lin Zhaomei went to the alley to play with her classmates, Lin Zhaoman quietly read a book in the courtyard, and Lin Zhaohuan went to practice piano in the music room of another courtyard in Xinghua Hutong.

It wasn't that Lin Youcheng, as her father, forced her to practice the piano; rather, Lin Zhaohuan started practicing because she was interested in it. After all, Lin Youcheng didn't expect his daughter to become a famous pianist; he was simply cultivating her interests. And music just happened to be something Lin Zhaohuan was interested in. You could say that a child's interest is the greatest teacher.

After Lin Zhaoxi and Lin Zhaoqing returned, Lin Zhaoman called Lin Zhaohuan and Lin Zhaomei back, so there was no need for Lin Youcheng, the father, to shout for the children to come home for dinner from outside the yard.

After all, Lin Zhaohuan and Lin Zhaomei knew that Lin Zhaoxi and Lin Zhaoqing wouldn't be back very late, so they naturally wouldn't keep the family waiting at the dinner table.

After dinner, the children all went about their own business. Of course, Lin Zhaoxi, who will be taking the college entrance examination next summer, went to study, while Lin Youcheng, the father, went to write his manuscript.

Lin Youcheng continues writing the story of Blind Ah Bing from "The Conspiracy," or perhaps it's the ending—

"Look at the tape recorder, it still contains audio tapes."

I pressed play, and after a while, I first heard a sobbing sound, then I heard Ah Bing say to me in a tearful voice, "Waaah... I can't see, but I can hear... Waaah... My son isn't mine, he's that Shandong guy at the hospital pharmacy... Waaah... My wife gave birth to a bastard, I have no choice but to die... Waaah... All men in Lujiayan are like this, if their wives give birth to a bastard, the men have no choice but to die! Die!... Waaah... Xiao Fang is a bad person... Waaah... You're a good person, give the money to my mother... Waaah..."

Good heavens! How could I possibly listen to anything else?! I urgently called a taxi, got in, and drove off through the emergency exit to the office. A dozen minutes later, I smashed open Ah Bing's office (the server room) and found him curled up on the floor, clutching a bare power plug, his entire body burned beyond recognition by the damned electric current…

Ah Bing! Ah Bing! Ah Bing—! Ah Bing's ears can no longer hear the sounds of the world…

……

Although Lin Youcheng can now write at night with ease without worrying about Lin Zhaole waking up crying in the middle of the night, he doesn't particularly intend to stay up all night to finish his manuscript. While he doesn't have to rush to meet deadlines, Lin Youcheng hasn't been procrastinating either. His writing of the "Wind Listener" character in *Plot Against* is progressing smoothly. Of course, he hasn't completely followed the original novel; it's more of a combination of the novel and the later television adaptation of *Plot Against*. The television series *Plot Against* was originally intended to be faithful to the original work, not only depicting minor scenes from the novel but also adding certain details. For example, the security personnel are missing two bullets, and after searching for a long time, fearing they were stolen by spies, they finally discover that Ah Bing has used them as earplugs. These were all intentionally added to the television series, allowing the audience to more realistically experience Ah Bing's peculiarities in everyday life and thus remember the character.

Lin Youcheng will naturally adapt the exciting plots from the TV series into the novel, further enriching the story of Ah Bing in The Listener.

After finishing writing, Lin Youcheng naturally informed the editor, Zhang Wei.

Since there's no need to wait for the entire novel "The Conspiracy" to be finished, the current section on the Wind Listener can be considered a short story, so Zhang Wei can take a look and see if it can be published in the magazine "People's Literature".

Undoubtedly, Zhang Wei brought with him Lin Youcheng's unfinished manuscript, "The Plot," with great excitement and anticipation.

The editors of the entire People's Literature editorial department were also very curious about Lin Youcheng's latest spy novel. They were also well aware that Lin Youcheng had once again written a story about comrades on the hidden front, and naturally they all wanted to know what this spy story was like.

"This is the first part. Youcheng said that he plans to divide the whole novel into three parts, and this first part is called The Listener."

Clearly, the editors in the editorial department understood what Zhang Wei meant, but none of them expected Lin Youcheng to write such a story, completely different from the spy stories of "The Message" and "Lurking". The blind man Abing in "Plot Against" really surprised all the editors.

They never expected that Lin Youcheng would write such a story about a comrade on the hidden front, and more importantly, the ending of this comrade on the hidden front shocked them all.

That genius, Abing, actually committed suicide!
Zhang Wei himself was still somewhat stunned and hadn't quite reacted. Undoubtedly, he found Lin Youcheng's description of the entire mysterious 701 place very exciting, and he also found the blind man Abing, whose hearing was extraordinary, to be very special. However, he really didn't expect that such a legendary wind listener would actually hear that the child his wife gave birth to was not his own, and in the end, he chose to commit suicide by electrocution.

This was something he never expected!

Although he was shocked, after thinking about it carefully, Zhang Wei felt that this was probably the fate that Ah Bing was meant to have.

Ah Bing's ears picked up countless enemy radio broadcasts, making him a great hero of Unit 701. Yet, he possessed the fragility and sensitivity common to geniuses. He had an extremely strong sense of pride, refusing to allow anyone to doubt his hearing abilities. He was incredibly arrogant and overconfident, and also quite feudal. It was precisely because of this that he desperately wanted to give his mother a grandchild and married a nurse. However, upon hearing the baby's cries at birth, he concluded that the child's biological father was someone else, ultimately leading to his tragic electrocution and death.

"I think Lin Youcheng's novel is quite absurd!"

One editor couldn't help but raise this point, because 701 is a mysterious place, and Lin Youcheng's story of Ah Bing, the Wind Listener, is even more bizarre. His ears were able to hear these things, which was really hard for the editor to understand. Of course, what the editor couldn't understand even more was Ah Bing's ending. Such a heroic comrade ultimately chose to commit suicide by electrocution, which was also very regrettable.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wei couldn't help but retort: ​​"The character of A Bing is a character whose fate is full of drama. It is obvious that You Cheng intentionally wrote him as a genius, prodigy, and eccentric. Otherwise, how could a blind young man from a poor water town, with his super-ears that can hear flies mating, be led into the forbidden area by the mysterious figure of 701 and achieve one miraculous feat after another?"

"It's just a pity that in the end he also lost because of his ears."

Zhang Wei truly never expected that Ah Bing would recognize the cry of his newborn child and conclude that the child's biological father was not him, leading to his shameful suicide.

The other editors were also discussing the story written by Lin Youcheng. Undoubtedly, just like the mysterious 701 department, the whole story seemed very mysterious. Shouldn't such mystery be reviewed before it can be published? Even if it was fictional by Lin Youcheng, the whole story still seemed very real because the mystery and special nature of the 701 department made it seem very real.

Not to mention that in such a place, there is an incredible person like Ah Bing.

Yes, it's unbelievable. Ah Bing's ears are truly incredible.

Of course, even such an incredible person met such an absurd end, which is truly regrettable.

Besides discussing the authenticity of the entire spy story, the editors also naturally discussed whether the characters in the novel did not conform to the spirit of comrades working on the hidden front, and whether there was any distortion or defamation. After all, such plots are something that editors need to consider. Of course, as literary editors, they also know very well that the tragic ending written by Lin Youcheng was for the sake of authenticity, rather than to completely deify that incredible Wind Listener.

"I think the transformation of history or hero writing into personal experience, and the perfect combination with personal pain, is the unique art of Lin Youcheng's novel."

Looking at the other editors, Zhang Wei couldn't help but say, "Youcheng told me that this novel, 'Plot Against,' tells the story of intelligence workers in the early days of the country's founding. It will feature the clash and interweaving of setting secrets and decrypting them, genius and madness, love and hatred."

"Blind Abing was just one of them."

Was Ah Bing just one of them?
Undoubtedly, Zhang Wei's words startled the other editors in the editorial department.

So, what kind of stories and fates will these other people have?
This was the first thought that popped into the minds of the other editors. Even though they thought that Ah Bing, the Wind Listener in Lin Youcheng's writing, was a genius, they were also very curious about what kind of unknown genius was cracking the code that controlled their fate in that mysterious borderland 701.

While the editorial department of People's Literature was still fiercely debating the fate of the blind man Abing, and whether or not the novel should be published, Lin Youcheng was already writing about the fate of another character.

(End of this chapter)