Chapter 024

The weather was beautiful today. After finishing her breakfast of steamed buns, Xia Zui headed to the area beneath the overpass to set up her stall.

To her surprise, as soon as she stepped out of her vehicle, she spotted several men squatting under the bridge. At first glance, they looked like they were about to start a brawl.

Xia Zui quietly retrieved her fishing rods. Before she could even take a step, they rushed over.

"How much for your fishing rod?" one of the men asked.

Clutching the rods, Xia Zui replied warily, "One thousand."

She wondered if these men were planning to attack her. Could they be the hired thugs sent by that guy from yesterday? She flexed the muscles on her arms—a look she had carefully curated specifically to deal with such situations. With this physique, who would dare mess with her?

"One thousand! It really is you!" the man exclaimed joyfully. "Where is the QR code?"

"Is it the same as the one from yesterday? Can it really catch big fish?"

"Hey brother, is this the one?"

They were chattering away, and before Xia Zui could even react, she heard one of them confirm, "That’s the rod, exactly the same!"

"Boss! I want to buy a fishing rod!"

Nie Luo was thrilled. He hadn't expected his luck to be so good, running into the stall owner first thing in the morning.

Xia Zui finally realized what was going on; these were just a bunch of fishing enthusiasts. She shook the rods she was holding and said, "Move aside, let me set up my stall first." Since it was a "stall-setting system," it wouldn't do to sell them without actually setting up shop.

The group immediately cleared a space. Xia Zui walked straight to the spot she had used the day before, spread a cloth on the ground, and laid out the rods. She then placed the price tag and the QR code.

Seeing there were only eight rods, the men swarmed in. Nie Luo was the quickest, scanning the code immediately. He had experienced the power of this rod firsthand yesterday—when it came to catching fish, it was unparalleled!

"Boss, I want this black one," Nie Luo said, pointing to one of them.

Xia Zui handed him the rod and began her pitch, "The Magic Fishing Rod, guaranteed to catch fish! Let me tell you about its features. The hook has been specially treated to emit a scent that attracts fish. The rod is telescopic—see that button? Just press it, and it extends."

"If you hook a fish, the rod will automatically retract."

"Plus, my rod is designed to save effort; fishing requires absolutely no strain."

Nie Luo listened intently. He pressed the button, and sure enough, the rod was exactly like the one from yesterday. With a light touch, it extended by a meter. For a regular fishing rod, that might be a bit short, but this rod could actually catch fish! At only one thousand yuan, the boss was practically doing charity work!

Seeing him make a purchase, the others hurriedly pulled out their phones to pay. Fortunately, there were only seven of them, or there wouldn't have been enough rods to go around. After buying their rods, they left in high spirits, dreaming of catching big fish today.

Only Xia Zui remained under the bridge, staring blankly at the final rod. "Looks like that guy last night must have caught quite a lot of fish."

***

While she waited to sell the last rod and complete her task, Yu Jingshan was preparing to meet the blind and deaf individuals for a product test.

He had been up since seven that morning. He felt he had fully grasped the functions of the "Sleep Learning Machine." It genuinely possessed the ability to help people fall asleep quickly; he had been full of energy while lying in bed last night, and yet he didn't even know when he had drifted off.

Yu Jingshan figured that if he tested it on one more insomniac, he could begin working on his video. He had already made contact with a candidate in his city named Liu Maomao, and they would meet soon for the test.

Yu Jingshan drove to a teahouse, the agreed-upon location. Entering the private room, he patiently sipped tea while he waited. Not long after, a knock sounded at the door. It opened to reveal a middle-aged woman guiding a frail-looking young man into the room. The boy’s skin was very pale, suggesting he rarely ventured outdoors.

The woman nodded slightly at Yu Jingshan. "Hello, are you 'Jing the Wanderer'?"

Yu Jingshan stood up and nodded repeatedly. "Please, come in. Is this..."

"This is my son, Yu Tiancai, whom I mentioned to you," the woman said. "He is sixteen and has been blind since birth."

"Please, have a seat," Yu Jingshan said, pouring tea for both the woman and Yu Tiancai.

The woman, Yu Shan, had contacted him voluntarily after he posted his request for blind and deaf participants to test the "Magic Glasses." As far as he knew, she wasn't a local of Suxian City; it seemed she had traveled specifically to bring her son.

Yu Shan took Yu Tiancai’s hand and placed it on the teacup before taking a sip of her own tea. "Thank you for giving us this chance to test it."

"My son has never seen this world. For years, his father and I have taken him to countless hospitals, but none of them were confident they could cure him."

"When I saw your post online, I had already learned from the trending topics how impressive the bamboo dragonfly from this stall owner was," she smiled. "I just thought, why not try? Maybe this will work."

"He has never seen anything at all."

Yu Jingshan pursed his lips. He looked at Yu Tiancai, who sat with his eyes closed, holding the teacup with both hands, looking very well-behaved. He looked like a fragile piece of glassware, yet he radiated a sense of warmth. It was hard to imagine he had never seen the world, always living in darkness.

"Does he usually not go out?" Yu Jingshan asked.

Yu Shan glanced at the camera, sighed, and shook her head. "Life is very difficult for the blind in this world."

"It’s not that he doesn't want to go out; it’s that it's very difficult. You probably notice the tactile paving on the ground when you walk, right? Some are blocked by parked electric scooters, and others are poorly maintained."

"There are even paths that end in deep pits. If he goes out alone, falling is a common occurrence."

"As parents, we want to accompany him, but we have jobs to attend to; we can't always be by his side." Her eyes turned red as she spoke. "What we fear most is that he will go out and not be able to find his way home."

Yu Jingshan listened in silence, handing her a tissue when he saw her emotions unraveling. He then asked, "Aren't there guide dogs now?"

He already knew the answer to these questions, but he had to ask them. He needed to ask for the sake of the viewers who weren't familiar with these issues. The video Yu Jingshan was making wasn't just to show how amazing the magic glasses were; it was to help people better understand the special groups of the blind and the deaf.

Yu Shan composed herself and replied, "The number of guide dogs is very small. For a blind person, a guide dog is a luxury item."

"The training cost for a single guide dog is nearly a hundred thousand yuan. If a blind person wants one, they must first spend months or even longer bonding and familiarizing themselves with the animal."

"Even after they get one, the expenses for food and care are a significant burden."

"Most blind people cannot find work; the most common job is massage, and sometimes they struggle to even feed themselves."

"Sigh, and this world isn't very inclusive toward the blind. Sometimes, if he walks a little slowly, people will shout at him. Even with a guide dog, many places don't allow them to enter."

Yu Shan sighed, looking at Yu Tiancai with a helpless smile.

Yu Tiancai pursed his lips and pulled the glasses from his backpack. "These are the Magic Glasses. Shall we try them now?"

Yu Shan nodded eagerly. She looked at her son next to her. "Tiancai, are you ready?"

Yu Tiancai, who had remained silent, nodded slightly. "I'm ready."

He had never seen the light; he didn't know what the world looked like. He had never seen his mother’s or father’s face. He didn't know what color sunlight was, nor what color tea was. Everything he knew about the outside world came from his mother’s descriptions, and his understanding of objects came from the touch of his fingers. The cup was smooth, the quilt was soft—he could feel these things, but he had never seen them with his own eyes.

Yu Jingshan placed the Magic Glasses in front of Yu Tiancai and guided his hand to touch them. "You can put them on now."

Yu Tiancai’s hand trembled slightly. For him, these weren't just a pair of glasses; they were the longing of a lifetime. He was afraid he wouldn't see the light, yet nervous that the world would be too unfamiliar. He picked up the glasses, unfolded them slowly, and fumbled to put them on his face.

Yu Tiancai took a deep breath. "Mom, I’m going to open my eyes."

Yu Shan looked at him with tears in her eyes and nodded. "Don't be afraid, Mom is right here with you."

Yu Jingshan recorded everything with his camera. He watched as Yu Tiancai opened his eyes, watched him suddenly freeze, his mouth slightly agape, his eyelashes fluttering.

Yu Tiancai had imagined the world many times: sunlight was golden, tea was yellow, they were yellow-skinned people, hair was black, and eyes were amber. He had heard many descriptions, but he could never imagine what those colors actually looked like.

Until he opened his eyes and saw the bright room. On the white walls hung landscape paintings; before him was a solid wood table, and on the table sat the teacup he had just used, a little tea still left inside.

Beside him sat a person wearing a red shirt—his mother. When she left the house, she had told him she was wearing a red shirt today, and he was wearing a blue one. Yu Shan had said that blue was the color of the sky, and from that day on, Yu Tiancai had fallen in love with the color blue.