Translator: SJade, Editor: Dj22031
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At nine o’clock in the evening, for some people, it was time to finish the day’s work and prepare to go to bed, but for others, it was just the end of their busy work and the beginning of their journey home.
Lu Lingling just came out of the company. Their company adhered to the principle that 996 is your blessing, and getting off work at nine o’clock in the evening is the norm. Fortunately, there was a subway station next to the company, so she was able to catch the subway in time and find a seat to sit down. She had no intention of looking around at all. After all, if she looked up, she would only see one face after another that was as tired as hers.
Lu Lingling put on her headphones and opened Weibo. As soon as she refreshed her homepage, a video that had been released not long ago appeared.
The video was posted on the official Weibo account of “Mountains Behind the Mountains”. Lu Lingling initially followed the account out of dissatisfaction with the abuse of stand-ins in “Today With You”, and she never unfollowed it afterwards.
Now she was quite bored, so she clicked on the video with the intention of killing time, but the video could not be played directly, and jumped to the well-known barrage website h station.
“[Interactive Video] The 10,000 choices you encounter when you reach middle age.”
Lu Lingling glanced at the comments. The video was posted at 8 o’clock, and now there were more than 2,000 comments. The top comments were all words like “tears, moved”. She sneered and thought that this must be a water army. She clicked on the video with a rebellious mentality. And after she finished watching it, she would definitely curse at it with reason and evidence.
The video played with soft music at the beginning, a delicate choice not often seen in ordinary interactive videos.
Gender, of course choose female.
Occupation? Among housewife, doctor and corporate clerk, Lu Lingling chose corporate clerk, which was more similar to her current job.
The following video began with an introduction to the background from a first-person perspective. “I am Xiao Fang. I’m 42 years old and work as an accountant in a private enterprise. Although I’m a director, I only earn 2,000 yuan more than the clerks below me. My son is sixteen years old and just started high school, and he’s in his rebellious period. My husband has to stay in the capital for a month because of his graduate school graduation, and the round-trip ticket costs 1,000 yuan.”
“Last week, your mother fell down at home. After a few days in the hospital, the doctor confirmed that she needed surgery. She just finished the surgery this morning. Because she can’t move, she needs someone to stay with her. Your son just started high school. The school is far from home. You used to pick him up and drop him off every day. But now it’s the end of the month and the company needs to do accounting reimbursement. Another accountant has taken maternity leave. According to previous practice, you must work overtime.”
It became interesting. Lu Lingling focused her attention a little and picked a relatively acceptable option from the detailed options: “Go to the hospital to accompany my mother at noon and evening every day, let my son have lunch at school, and ask for leave from my boss one hour earlier every morning and afternoon.”
The story went on. Unlike other videos, this video was acted by real people, just like the sixteen-year-old son here. Lu Lingling remembered that he was an actor in “Mountains Behind Mountains”. She had seen his makeup photos before.
“Under your careful care, Mom gradually got better and was able to get out of bed and walk. But at this time, the boss of the company called you to his office and scolded you for not fulfilling your duties properly. Last month, the company had a big problem with its tax revenue. Due to negligence in accounting, the company made mistakes and missed payments to employees. If you want to make up the salary next month, many people will have to pay an extra three-digit personal income tax.”
In the video, a male actor who looked familiar to Lu Lingling was scolding “me” with spit flying all over his face, and then a piece of paper flew towards the camera. “I” looked down and saw that it was a notice of dismissal. “I” was fired.
Gradually, it became difficult for her to treat the game as a game, and she was instead brought into the scene by the emotional dubbing. Every choice she made would bring different consequences.
After resigning, she chose to hide it from her family. She had to go back and forth between the job search site, hospital and school every day. Because she had to go to work early every day one month before she started working, she was rejected by one company after another. During this period, her son, who was neglected, got together with bad boys at school.
In fact, each choice would not lead to the “worst” result. Even if she ignored her mother, there would be people who would not only see this but also lend a hand, but she would become emotionally alienated from her mother and have a bad reputation; if she focused only on work, she would be able to keep her job opportunities; if she took care of her son every day, her son would not hang out with bad boys, but he may enter a rebellious period due to overly strict discipline.
In the meantime, she would also have the opportunity to call her husband to complain, and her husband would rush back from the capital. But because he could not complete the defense and obtain the degree certificate, his graduation would be delayed for one year, and he would miss the qualification for promotion. However, he could help you solve part of the family burden.
Each option was too real, including when you come home tired and face your ignorant child. If you choose to lecture, you will have to criticize for an hour, and your son may be sleepy and you would affected at work the next day; if you choose to beat and scold, it will only take fifteen minutes, but your son will be in a very bad mood and even quarrel with you; if you ignore it, your son will become worse, but it will not affect your work.
It was like a… text selection game, but the problem was that every option that appeared was performed by a real person in a video, with superb acting skills, making you feel like you were in the scene.
When you say you are too tired, your mother will secretly wipe away her tears on her hospital bed. Later, you will hear people from the next bed say that she cried for a whole day after you left.
If you can’t help but lose your temper with your son, he will ask with a puzzled look why other mothers know how to respect their children but you know nothing, and then slam the door and leave.
You ask your husband for help, and he is willing to drop everything and come back immediately, but soon after, you will be sitting on the bed together, worrying about the tight household expenses.
…
At the end of the video, everything finally came to an end, and all the choices brought completely different results.
Suddenly, a long string of text appeared on the screen which turned black.
“You are middle-aged, with elderly parents and young children to take care of. You can’t give up your job and you have to take care of your family. No one knows that you are climbing mountains and crossing rivers every day. The challenges are like one mountain after another. The incomprehension of your family sometimes makes you want to give up. But after sighing and shedding tears, you have to continue climbing mountains and crossing rivers.”
The black screen ended and the video continued playing.
The person who appeared on the screen was Xiao Fang, who was about 70 years old, with grey and white hair. She was watching TV with her husband. As she was watching TV, she suddenly recalled that her mother clapped her hands and said, “Thank you for your hard work” before she died. Her son, who had just returned home, rubbed his face before entering the house, trying to make himself look more energetic. While eating, he smiled and said, “Mom, you have worked hard all these years.”
“You see, the wrong choices at that time may not necessarily lead to bad results, but only you know how difficult and painful it was for you every time you made a choice.”
“Mountains Behind The Mountains” will meet you at Dajiangtai at 8 o’clock on the evening of July 6th, and tell you the story of a group of middle-aged people crossing mountains and ridges.
The final slogan naturally stopped on the screen, neither abrupt nor annoying.
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