Psychopathic Cup Noodle

The consciousness of Bai Chong's lower body has recovered, and he can already get out of bed.Although the motor nerves in his brain were damaged and his body coordination was implicated, he steadfastly walked on crutches for eight hours a day under the sweltering sun that was like fire all year round in Jialan.

Once Lu Cheng happened to be doing an interview near the hospital. He bought some snacks and rushed over to see that Bai Chongzheng leaned on the ground with his knees and shook his head at the nurse who rushed over to help him. He supported himself with his own arms alone; In the pit of the neck, transparent sweat seeped into the ground at his feet drop by drop... Although Lu Cheng knew that the starting point of his efforts was wrong, he couldn't help but classify him as a person with outstanding perseverance in his heart.

Seeing Bai Chong's body recovering as quickly as flowers and plants in March in spring, Lu Cheng couldn't help but ask himself: Do you feel worried?Should he be restrained?Is this considered letting the tiger go back to the mountain?

In the past few months, except for the weird theory last time, Bai Chong did not show any ethical confusion once.He is still calm and indifferent, with active logic; from time to time, he will show a pure and lovely smile like a child, which makes people have the illusion that this person has "love and love, blood and tears".

Because only Lu Cheng helped trim it, his hair grew a lot longer, and his eyes became softer, and there was a hint of decadence in the scattered golden chestnuts, which made people couldn't help reaching out to tease him.

Lu Cheng once heard that there was a well-known woodcarving artist in Japan. The carp he carved would even sniff the cats passing by the booth. Attracted by the "goodness" in his body, he suspected that he was of the same kind, and treated him tenderly in every possible way.

No one can see the tiger under the skin.

From the bottom of his heart, Lu Cheng does not think that Bai Chong has gained a "conscience" after experiencing this catastrophe, but he believes that Bai Chong has a strange reward mechanism in his heart; judging from Bai Chong's performance, he seems to think that as long as he suppresses the desire in his heart, he should be a good man , even as a reward for Lu Cheng's care for him during this time.

In short, Lu Cheng continued to live with Bai Chong, taking care of (monitoring) his daily life; while continuing to write the article about people without conscience.

The more he understands Bai Chong, the less he understands the difference between people without conscience and ordinary people:

In some things, Lu Cheng seems to be able to smell a clue: for example, because Bai Chong never reads film and television works or novels, this may be because he cannot empathize with himself; he prefers news editorials and other articles that can express the author's subjective intentions. While watching, he pressed the corner of his mouth to show a disdainful smile;

In addition, his sexual desire is also unusually dull.When Lu Cheng was under house arrest, Lu Cheng had no interest in caring about such matters. Looking back now, Bai Chong seemed to seldom go out at that time, and he must wait in the living room every night when he returned to his "home";

Only during the period after he was discharged from the hospital did Bai Chong's desires seem to rise a little, and he would sometimes meet boys and girls in bars on Saturdays.For him, sex seems to be just a way to control the other party - and it is a second-best way; if there is a more "exciting" way, he can keep the dice of "sex" hidden.

But for most things, such as dealing with a girl who chased after her or a health product salesman who refused to pay a persistent visit... Bai Chong's handling method was no different from normal people except that it was more appropriate.Later, such two small incidents even happened, which seemed insignificant, but they really surprised Lu Cheng and shook the moral foundation he had built up over the past 20 years.

Does no conscience really = evil?He couldn't help questioning from the bottom of his heart.

First things first, cats.

In Lu Cheng’s works depicting unconscionable people, they mentioned putting cats in the microwave oven or throwing dogs into the washing machine—this seems to have become an indicator of psychopathy, but things are a bit subtle in Bai Chong’s case .

Lu Cheng noticed that Bai Chong had the habit of not closing the windows a few weeks ago - when Bai Chong returned home, he immediately opened the glass, screens and curtains wide, as if inviting thieves to visit;

Since Lu Cheng is often not at home during the day, he deliberately applied for a few days of rest in the gap between the completion of a manuscript to solve the mystery; but he saw an unexpected scene:

With the cane propped aside, Bai Chong leaned his back against the cabinet, fondling the little cat's cheeks intimately.

The cat is very small, with a tiger-spotted pattern, and the monkey cheeks are not good-looking; after eating the jerky that Bai Chong had cut for it on the chopping board, it lay on the counter and scratched , looks very familiar with Bai Chong.

Hearing the sound of the door, Bai Chong narrowed his eyes, and his face was covered with frost instantly, as if someone interrupted the important time... The cat in his hand has also quietly escaped out of the window.

Lu Cheng was a little panic-stricken—he had followed Lu Cheng all the way outside the hotel room to ensure the safety of the girl he was dating, and he didn't care, but now it seemed that some important privacy had been stolen.

"Sorry..." he said.Although Bai Chong didn't answer at the time, he limped to sit in the same room with him afterwards, and even distributed the leftover dried meat of the cat to Lu Cheng, apparently accepting his apology.

"Compared with casual acquaintances with humans, I think the indiscriminate trust of stray cats is more trustworthy." That's all he said.

Lu Cheng didn't know whether Bai Chong had really made friends with others.Compared with himself, the other party is the "master of human heart" - there is no doubt about it; but for some reason, Lu Cheng only feels ashamed when he hears a psychopath say such words.

The second incident sparked another big discussion between them, but it really only involved a restaurant and an old man.

Because Bai Chong has been very "good" recently, Lu Cheng often allows him to go out (without a collar).However, Jialan has gradually entered the rainy season recently, and the sky is often covered with dark clouds without warning. After a few dull thunderclaps like drumming, long and cool rain falls...

The leaden sky was teeming with seabirds.Bai Chong, who needed crutches with both hands, stood hesitantly on the porch because the rain blocked the passage; Lu Cheng sat in the living room and stared at him for a while, finally sighed, and picked up a big umbrella that could cover the two of them in one hand, Opened the front porch door for the man.

Since then, whenever it rains, the two have to go together; fortunately, although Bai Chong likes the time alone, he doesn't seem to hate Lu Cheng's company.

A few days ago, the two were halfway on the road, and the rain that had stopped for a long time came unexpectedly.Lu Cheng saw that it was almost time for dinner, and he was not familiar with the surrounding streets, so he pointed to a food court by the side of the road, motioned for himself to buy water, and asked Bai Chong to queue up first.

Food court is a local characteristic of Jialan. The restaurant is not a restaurant. The local people call it "foodcourt". Each block; several snack windows are arranged in a line or L shape, and the tables and chairs of the same model are placed outside, and the four sides are transparent, and simple curtains can be lowered around when the wind and rain come... In terms of appearance, it is quite similar to Chinese food stalls. resemblance.

Lu Cheng and Bai Chong said that they wanted to eat white fried chicken rice, and asked him to queue first; Bai Chong glanced at the shop crowded with people, and replied calmly: "Okay."

After walking for a long time without seeing a supermarket, Lu Cheng felt awkward, and always felt that there was something weird about Bai Chong's attitude just now.Is it because you can't understand this kind of common people's restaurant?But for the past few months, as long as Lu Cheng was around, they had been eating at this kind of place, and he hadn't complained; that's...?

Lu Cheng remembered that once he pulled Bai Chong to squeeze the subway, Bai Chong was not happy, but the crutches were squeezed out by the crowd; the more the person who picked up the crutches apologized, the colder Bai Chong's eyes seemed... He didn't want others to see him Showing weakness, Lu Cheng thought so at the time.

Lu Cheng suddenly realized, thinking that Bai Chong was squeezed into a shop full of people by himself, and hurried back.

As a result, the road-crazed young man finally made his way back to the food court, but unexpectedly saw a weird and natural scene.

It was raining heavily, and an old man in untidy clothes just walked into the store, and the brim of his hat was dripping with rain... The old man walked up to the store and said that he would buy a bowl of rice for one yuan, and the store shook his hand: "No, you can buy it elsewhere." , he moved to other windows, but the people inside gave the same answer like an infection.

Lu Cheng saw that Bai Chong had already bought food and sat on the seat safely, and was about to call him, but saw Bai Chong stand up.

Bai Chong walked up to the old man, lowered his head, and seemed to say something to him.Lu Cheng hurriedly hid in the shadow on one side and probed, completely ignoring the rain pouring into his back collar.He saw Bai Chong talk to the old man before walking away and approaching a window; the old man went to the corner seat and sat down silently.

After a while, Bai Chong asked the shopkeeper to bring the steaming beef noodles to the old man's table, and nodded neither enthusiastically nor coldly at the old man.

At that time, Bai Chong's words and deeds were very ordinary, probably not intending to upset the shopkeeper who had just rejected the old man, he silently completed the above process, returned to his seat and slowly had a meal with Bak Kut Teh.However, when Lu Cheng hid there for a while, he heard various voices from all around him: some said that the old man came to ask for money from the beginning, some said that Bai Chong's purpose was impure, and of course some praised Bai Chong's behavior, but No matter what, people just sat in their seats and chattered, no one raised their voices a little, let alone stepped forward to express.

This incident made Lu Cheng's balance instantly unbalanced.What is natural to him is that this is not a big deal, and people usually make righteous choices naturally when they mention it; the weird thing is that people who are really dealing with the matter hesitate and hesitate, resulting in various differences; Lu Cheng asked himself, after watching At the moment when the old man was about to step out of the store after being rejected many times, did he have the idea to stop him immediately?

No, at that time he only felt that the world was like this.Instead, the "conscienceless" Bai Chong stepped forward.

(At this moment, is Bai Chong more conscientious than Lu Cheng and the others?)

Afterwards, Lu Cheng asked Bai Chong what he thought at the time. Bai Chong seemed a little impatient, and replied that he was just inconvenient to see the old man, so he did what he could; but when he found that Lu Cheng used the word "conscience" to weigh him This behavior immediately revealed a contemptuous smile:

"So the conscience in your mouth is so cheap."

Every word of this sentence is like stone like gold, and Lu Cheng can't help but think of a recent sensational news: a man's house caught fire and fled to the window, but he couldn't get out because the window was sealed with iron bars.In the case of calling the police and being unable to rescue, pedestrians can also choose to walk away, but he pointed his mobile phone at the man who was emitting thick smoke from the grill and moaning in the raging flames for 42 seconds.

Does this man have no conscience?Or is it just ordinary cold-blooded, ordinary psychological endurance?

What exactly is "conscience"?

Cold-blooded, heartless, evil—where is the boundary between these three?What should society use as the yardstick for dividing "normal" and "heterogeneous"?

...But before Lu Cheng could come to a conclusion, Bai Chong interrupted him with a smile:

"It's such an era, I'm surprised that you're still struggling with the definition of 'conscience' here."

Lu Cheng looked at him with a "don't make trouble" gaze, but Bai Chong didn't seem to see it, and slightly twitched the corners of his mouth, speaking in a very discriminating tone: "Humans have a kind heart, even if they If you don't involve your own interests, you can't bear the suffering of the other party and lend a helping hand—do you think so?"

Lu Cheng acquiesced.Unexpectedly, Bai Chong nodded in agreement in the next second: "You are right." He said, "Human beings have a conscience."

"However, conscience is not the exclusive property of humans. Dolphins sometimes help drowning people for no reason, and some elephants pump water from their cellar wells during the dry season to distribute to surrounding creatures. In other words, conscience is not A part of 'human nature', a product of evolution, but a part of the 'animal nature' that originally existed in human beings."

"Well, so what, this still doesn't explain what 'conscience' is." Lu Cheng sat down opposite Bai Chong.In all fairness, he likes to listen to Bai Chong's speech when the other party's point of view is not biased; the unhurried, eloquent tone gives people a detailed analysis, and the feeling that the last jigsaw puzzle is perfectly embedded in the box makes Lu Cheng feel very comfortable.

"Biologists already have an answer to this kind of animal nature." Bai Chong raised his hand slightly, telling Lu Cheng not to worry: "Animals don't need the existence of subjective consciousness to show conscience, let alone friendship. Its purpose It is to improve the fitness of this species of genes." Facing Lu Cheng's ignorant face, he smiled slightly: "To put it bluntly, dolphins secretly expect human rewards when they save people. The selfless dedication to nature is actually to satisfy individual selfish developmental needs."

"You want to say that helping others is all about asking for something in return, and that 'selfless' people don't exist." Lu Cheng immediately realized that the topic was going wrong, and reflexively retorted: "Then you bought something for the old man that day. Is it because you're 'secretly expecting' his return?"

"How is it possible." Bai Chong let out a soft "tsk", as if he had just spent a long time talking and playing the piano, "You didn't understand me at all, and you confuse different subjects. Listen carefully," he said. Behold the landing orange:

"'Selfless people' do exist. No matter what happens, there are people who will always choose to sacrifice themselves, protect others or the collective interests. Even if it is not so extreme, normal people will carry out some altruistic behaviors on weekdays— — it's genetically determined."

"Even if the individual who paid today did not receive a 'reward', as long as the survival mechanism of 'selfless dedication' is established, the reward like spring rain will eventually fall on this population-this is how the genes 'consider'."

"Do you understand?" Bai Chong smiled very seductively, as if he was explaining the most obvious and clear truth in the world——

"Humans, like animals, think that they are acting selflessly and have a conscience - in fact, it is just genes manipulating the behavior of individual organisms in order to improve the fitness of the population. There are many subdivisions of this manipulation. For example, when a ship sinks, the reason for ensuring that women and children leave first is to leave a more active sperm and egg carrier; for example, the usual "mutual aid" is for the prosperity of the individual or the group to which it belongs; It's because the 'conscience gene' is too strong in him, he probably lost himself."

Speaking of this, Bai Chong lowered his voice and leaned forward, as if being overheard by others would not work, and whispered in Lu Cheng's ear:·

"Conscience is the conspiracy of genes."

After speaking, he stood up, smoothed the folds on the collar with his thumbs, and gently rolled up the light-colored straw jazz hat and put it on his head.

"Ah, that's right." Before opening the door, Bai Chong looked back as if he just remembered something:

"My actions are totally different from what you call 'helping others'. I'm just doing what I want because, what the..."

"I 'have no conscience'," he laughed.

The author has something to say: Once I chatted with my classmates about psychopath, and my classmates said that if a wild beast that cannot be controlled well runs in front of your eyes, you must think you should kill him; but if it is controllable, you can turn it into As a harmless kitten, people start to sympathize with it.

I asked back: What if the tiger is handsome, elegant, and always speaks soft and coaxing words?

Even though you know it's not a cat, do you still sympathize with him?

- This is more the case with psychopaths in real life.

So in this novel I invented a character like Bai Chong.After reading this, have you ever felt sympathy for tigers?