Chapter 6 Maomao Chapter 6 Although the plan was wrong, but it got his wish

There is a huge but very common secret.Everyone shares it and knows it, but since ancient times, few people have thought about it.Most people accept it casually, without any surprise.The secret is time. In order to measure time, people invented calendars and clocks, but this does not mean anything, because everyone knows that an hour may make people feel endless, or it may make people feel fleeting - it depends on you in this hour What has been experienced.This is because: time is life, and life is in people's hearts. Precisely on this point, no one knows better than Mr. Gray.And no one knows the value of an hour, a minute, or even a second as well as they do.Of course they understand time in their own way, just as crickets understand blood, so they act in their own way.

They have made detailed and careful plans, ready to count other people's time.The most important thing, they believe, is that no one be aware of their activities.They secretly settled among the citizens of big cities, approaching day by day, step by step, stealing people's time without anyone noticing. They knew a man who was skeptical of their intentions, and they knew it long before he knew it.They were just biding their time so they could catch him.They worked hard to make that moment come as soon as possible. Mr. Fossey the barber was such a man.Although he is not a particularly famous barber, he is quite famous on the street where he lives.He wasn't poor, but he wasn't rich either.His barber shop is located in the city center, very small, he only has one apprentice.

One day Fossey was standing outside the store waiting for a customer.His apprentice happened to be resting that day, so Mr. Fossey was alone in the shop.He watched the raindrops crackling on the road, and looked up at the gray sky, feeling very depressed. "That's all my life," he thought, "listening to the sound of scissors all day long, chatting with customers, and lathering up my hands. Well, what is the purpose of living? If there is One day I die, isn't it like I've never been there?" In the past, Mr. Fossey was not like this. He was not against small talk, and he even enjoyed extensive discussions with customers, and he was willing to listen to their ideas.Back then, he didn't dislike the sound of scissors and soap suds at all.He's very satisfied with his job and knows he's doing a great job.Especially when shaving customers' faces and chins, every knife is so light, no one can compare to him.But now, there were times when he felt that none of this mattered, to anyone.

"I've been on the wrong track all my life," thought Mr. Fossey. "Who am I? Just a little barber. What am I now! If I've been on the right track, what am I now?" It could be someone else entirely!" How exactly that real life should be striven for, however, Mr. Fossey did not know.The real life he imagined was a life of ostentatious luxury, as one often sees in illustrated magazines. "But," he thought dejectedly again, "with this kind of work, how can I have time for that kind of life? To live that kind of real life, you must first have leisure time, you must be free, and all my life It's left to the squeaking scissors, pointless chatter and endless suds."

As soon as Mr. Fossey thought of this, he saw a delicate gray car coming from a distance, and it happened to stop in front of the barber shop.A gray gentleman got out of the car and walked into the store.He put his leaden briefcase on the small table in front of the mirror, hung his round, stiff top hat on a coat hook, and sat down in the barber's chair.He took a small notebook out of his pocket and started flipping through it.At the same time he smoked vigorously on the gray cigar in his mouth. Mr. Fossey closed the shop because it seemed to him that it had suddenly become very cold in the cabin.

"Sir, what can I do for you?" He asked a little panicked, "Shave or cut hair?" Before he finished speaking, he began to blame himself for not thinking carefully, because he found that the gentleman's head was bald, like As smooth as a light bulb. "No need." The gray gentleman said, without a smile on his face, and his voice was very special, cold, without any tone, it could be said that the voice was also gray, "I'm from the Time Savings Bank, I am agent XYQ/384/b. We understand that you would like to open an account with our bank." "This is new." Mr. Fossey was even more at a loss. "Frankly, I have never heard of such an institution so far."

"Then, you should know now." The time bank agent said coldly.He flipped through his little notebook and continued, "You are Mr. Fossey the barber, right?" "Yes, I am," replied Mr. Fossey. "Then, I found the right one." Mr. Gray said while putting his notebook on the table, "You are our candidate." "What does that mean?" Mr. Fossey was still wondering. "You see, dear Mr. Fossey," said the Time Bank agent, "you are wasting your life in scissors, babbling, and soap scum. If you die suddenly one day, it will seem as if you never There is no such thing as you. If you had the time to live a real life, as you wish it to be, you would be a completely different person. All you need right now is time. Am I right ?”

"I did think so just now," murmured Mr. Fossey, and he began to shiver. Although the door was closed tightly, he still felt more and more cold. "You see, am I right?" continued Mr. Gray, puffing on his cigarette with satisfaction, "but where do people get time? They save it for themselves! You are very irresponsible, Mr. Fossey." wasting his time. Now let me do the math for you to prove it to you.There are sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour. Can you count with me? " "Certainly," said Mr. Fossey. Agent XYQ/84/b began writing numbers on the mirror with a gray pencil.

Sixty times sixty is three thousand six hundred.That is, there are 3600 seconds in an hour.There are 24 hours in a day, 3600 times 24, then there are 86400 seconds in each day. There are 365 days in a year, or 31,536,000 seconds. Ten years is 315.36 million seconds. "Mr. Fossey, estimate how many seconds you have in your life?" "Then," stammered Mr. Fossey, "I hope to live to be seventy, no, eighty, God willing." "Well," continued Mr. Gray, "for the sake of caution, let us assume that we live only seventy years. That would be three hundred and fifteen million three hundred and sixty thousand seconds multiplied by seven, for a total of two billion two hundred and seven hundred and fifty. 120,000 seconds."

He wrote the number on the mirror: 22,520, MM seconds. Then he underlined the number several times and explained, "This is your fortune, Mr. Fossey." Mr. Fossey swallowed and wiped his forehead with his hand.The number made him dizzy.He had never imagined that he was so rich. "Yes." The time bank agent nodded, and took out another thin and long gray cigar, "This is a very considerable amount, isn't it? However, we have to continue to take a look. Mr. Xi, how old are you now?" "Four, forty-two," Mr. Fossey stammered, with a sudden pang of guilt, as if he were hiding something.

"How long do you sleep on average every night?" Mr. Gray then asked. "About eight hours," said Mr. Fossey. The time bank agent calculated it with lightning speed.The pencil scratched against the mirror, giving Mr. Fossey goosebumps. "Forty-two years—eight hours a day—that's 441,540,000 seconds. We should count that number as lost time. How many hours a day do you work, Mr. Fossey? " "About eight hours too," whispered Mr. Fossey. "Then, we have to subtract the same amount in the account expenditure column." Then, the time bank agent said bluntly, "In addition, it takes a certain amount of time for you to eat every day. Your three meals a day total How much time will it take?" "I don't know the exact amount," replied Mr. Fossey timidly. "Maybe it will take two hours!" "Two hours, I think it may be too little." The time bank agent said, "But assuming that is so much, forty-two years will take a total of 110,376,000 seconds. Let Let's count! It is said that you live with your old mother. You spend a full hour every day with your mother, that is, you sit next to her and talk to her, although she is deaf and hardly hears at all. Gone. This is also your lost time, a total of 55188,000 seconds. In addition, you have a spare Australian parrot, and you spend about a quarter of an hour on it every day. That's 14,797,000 seconds." "But..." Fossey interjected, beggingly. "Don't interrupt me!" the time bank agent shouted.He counted faster and faster. "Because of your mother's handicap, Mr. Fossey, you are obliged to do some household chores yourself. You go shopping, shine shoes, and other trivial tasks. How much time do you spend doing these things every day?" "About an hour, but..." "You've lost another 55,188,000 seconds, Mr. Fossey. Besides, as far as I know, you go to the movies once a week, you go to the singing society once a week, you have a fixed table, and you go twice a week." time, and the rest of the night with friends, and occasionally read a book. Simply put, you spend time on some meaningless things, although these add up to only about three hours a day, it can be calculated as 165,000 1,564,000 seconds—are you feeling ill, Mr. Fossey?" "Never mind," replied Mr. Fossey, "I beg your pardon..." "It will be over soon," said Mr. Gray, "but we must talk about a special capital in your life, that is to say, you have a little secret, you must have known what I was talking about gone." Mr. Fossey's teeth were chattering from the cold. "You know that too?" he said feebly. "I think, except me and Mademoiselle Darlene..." "In our modern world," Interrupted the Time Bank Agent XYQ/384/b, "secrecy loses nothing. You see, Mr. Fossey, be realistic and respect objective facts." Now, answer me a question: do you want to marry Mademoiselle Darlene?" "No," said Mr. Fossey, "that's not okay..." "That's right." Mr. Gray went on, "Because Miss Darlene's legs are disabled, she has to sit in a wheelchair all her life. But even so, you still spend half an hour every day visiting her, just to Send a flower. Why is this? " "She likes flowers," replied Mr. Fossey, with tears already in his eyes. "But take a sober look," said the Time Bank agent. "For you, she is your lost time, Mr. Fossey. That works out to be 27,594,000 seconds. Also, before you go to bed every night, you are also used to sitting in front of the window and thinking about the past day, which takes another quarter of an hour, if we include these now, it will add another 13,797,000 seconds .Now, Mr. Fossey, let's see how much time you have left." There is such an account written on the mirror: sleep 441, gu, op money work 441, SIM people eat 110.376 seconds, (MM seconds accompany mother 55, 188, (MM seconds raise birds 13 7er, (MM seconds shopping 55 , 188, (MM second entertainment 165.564, (NM second secret pair. SM, op ​​second Jingsi 13, 7er, op second total 1,324,512, op second "this number," Mr. Gray said while using The pencil kept tapping on the mirror, making a sound like a revolver shot. "That's the time you've lost so far. Mr. Fossey, do you have anything else to say?" Fossey said nothing.He sat on a chair in the corner of the wall and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, breaking out in a cold sweat despite the icyness of the room. Mr. Gray nodded solemnly. "By the way, take a good look at it," he said. "Mr. Fossey, this is already more than half of your property. But we should now see how much you have left over these forty-two years. We know that there are 31,536,000 seconds in a year, so there are 1,324,512,000 seconds in forty-two years." He wrote this number under the lost time: 1,324,512,000 seconds - 1,324,512,000 seconds 0,000,000,000 seconds See how Mr. Fossey reacts to this string of zeros. Mr. Gray is applying pressure. "This..." said Mr. Fossey feebly, "that is to say, my whole life so far has been balanced." This account was extremely accurate and accurate, which left a deep impression on him.Faced with all this, he had no choice but to accept it and could not express any objection.There is nothing wrong with the account itself. This is one of the tricks that Mr. Gray uses every opportunity to deceive the world. "Don't you think," said the Time Bank Agent XYopgu/b, now in a subdued tone, "that you can't do housekeeping like this again, Mr. Fossey? Aren't you going to start saving your time?" Mr. Fossey nodded silently, his lips were already a little purple. "For example," the monotonous voice of the time bank agent rang in Mr. Fossey's ears again, "if you started saving an hour a day twenty years ago, you would now have two thousand two hundred and two One hundred and eighty thousand seconds is such a fortune. If you save two hours a day, you will naturally double it, which is 44.56 million seconds. Please think, Mr. Fossey, for such a fortune In terms of numbers, what is a paltry two hours?" "It's nothing at all!" exclaimed Mr. Fossey. "Yes, it's a trifle!" "I am very glad that you have seen this." The agent of the time bank said calmly. I found out that this is a proud number, a total of 105.12 million seconds. When you reach the age of sixty-two, you can dispose of this property as you like." "That's great!" Mr. Fossey said gruffly, his eyes widening at the same time. "Just wait and see," Mr. Nong said again, "good things are yet to come!Our Time Savings Bank not only saves these time for you, but also pays you interest.That said, you actually get more time. " "How much more?" asked Mr. Fossey breathlessly. "That's up to you," said the time bank agent. "It depends on how much time you save in the future and how long you plan to keep it with us." "How long?" asked Mr. Fossey. "What does that mean?" "It's very simple," Mr. Gray said, "if you don't take the time you saved within five years, then we will pay you the same amount of time. Your property will double every five years, understand Is it? Ten years from now, you'll have quadrupled your original number, fifteen years from now, you'll be eight times your original number. And you can go on and on. If you started saving two hours a day twenty years ago, you're At the age of sixty-two, that is, after forty years, you will have 256 times the original amount of time at your disposal. This amount will be 26,910,720,000 seconds." At this time, he took out the gray pen again, and wrote the number on the mirror: 26, 910, 720, MM seconds "Mr. Fossey, you have seen it with your own eyes." He smiled for the first time, "This amount of time is ten times more than your original life, and it's just saving two hours a day. Think about it, is this advice worth heeding? " "Worth it!" said Mr. Fossey exhaustedly. "There's absolutely no doubt about it! What a wretch I was for not saving time long ago. Only now, I must confess—I'm done!" "You have absolutely no reason to despair," said Mr. Gray mildly. "It's never too late. You can start today if you want. You'll find it worthwhile." "I would!" said Mr. Fossey hastily. "Then what should I do?" "Listen, friend," replied the time bank agent, who raised his eyebrows and continued, "You should know how to save time! For example, you should work faster and give up everything you don't need to do. Things. Cut each customer in fifteen minutes instead of half an hour. Avoid time-wasting chatter. Cut mother's time from one hour to half an hour, or better yet, send her to another And cheap nursing home, where she will be taken care of. This will save you a whole hour a day. And don't keep that useless parrot anymore. If you must visit Miss Darlene, do it Change once a week to biweekly. Cancel the fifteen minutes of self-reflection every day, and stop wasting precious time on singing, reading, and chatting with your so-called friends. In addition , let me give you a suggestion by the way: you hang a large and accurate wall clock in this shop, so that you can accurately supervise your apprenticeship." "Well," said Mr. Fossey, "I can do all that. But the time I save by these means--what's to be done with them? Must I turn them over? Where? Or should I save them? What will all this be like?" "All of this," Mr. Gray smiled faintly for the second time, "you don't have to worry about it. Let us save it for you. Don't worry, we guarantee that the time you save will not be lost for a second. You will find that, You have no shortage of time." "Okay, okay." Mr. Fossey said at a loss, "I'm relieved, I'm relieved." "Good friend, don't be afraid." The time bank agent stood up as he said, "Here, I welcome you as a new member of the Time Saving Association. Mr. Fossey, you are now a truly modern and advanced person .I congratulate you!" After speaking, he picked up his top hat and briefcase. "Wait a minute," said Mr. Fossey. "Don't we have to sign a contract or something? No signature? Nothing in writing?" The Time Savings Bank agent turned at the door and gave Mr. Fossey a slightly displeased look. "Why?" he asked, "saving time cannot be compared with any other kind of saving. It is based on the basis of complete trust between both parties! We believe that your promise is enough. You will not put your promise Withdrawn. We only care about what you save. As for how much you want to save, it is entirely your own business, and we will never force you. Goodbye, Mr. Fossey!" The time bank agent said and went to him The beautiful gray car suddenly drove away. Mr. Fossey watched him from behind and wiped his forehead.It took a long time to warm up slowly. He felt very uncomfortable and felt very painful in his heart.The blue smoke from the time bank agent's cigar lingered in the room for a long time, refusing to dissipate. It wasn't until the smoke cleared that Mr. Fossey felt better.As the smoke slowly cleared, the numbers on the mirror became blurred.When the handwriting completely disappeared, Mr. Fossey's memory of the gray visitor also completely disappeared—he forgot the visitor, but he did not forget the decision!Now, he considers that decision his own.In order to live another real life in the future, he is determined to save time from now on.This decision was like a barbed fishhook that firmly hooked his heart. After a while, the first customer of the day came.Mr. Fossey cut the man's hair with a sad face, omitting all unnecessary procedures, and without saying a word, it took less than half an hour and only twenty minutes to finish the haircut. Since then, he has been like this to all customers.Working in this way, he no longer had any fun, and he no longer felt that this kind of work was so important.He hired two more assistants, and strictly supervised their work, not allowing them to waste a single minute.Even each action is timed according to precise calculations.Now, Mr. Fossey has a sign in his store that reads: "Time saved is double the time l" and he wrote Miss Darlene a dry note explaining that he's running out of time because he doesn't have time. Can't see her anymore.The parrot was also taken to the market by him and sold.He put his mother in a nice but cheap nursing home, where he visited her once a month.In addition, he also accepted all of Mr. Gray's suggestions, but he believed that it was his own decision. He became more and more nervous, more and more restless, because one thing struck him as strange: in fact, he seemed to have nothing but the time he saved.In a mysterious way, time is easily lost, and it seems to no longer exist. His days are getting shorter and shorter.He didn't feel it at first, but then it became more and more obvious.Before you know it, a week has passed, and before you know it, a month has passed, a year, a year, and a year. Since he no longer remembered Mr. Gray's visit, perhaps he should seriously ask himself where all his time was going.But, like other time savers, he rarely asks the question.When he felt, to his horror, that the days were passing faster and faster, he was even more desperate to save time. Men like Fossey are already numerous in the big cities, and growing every day.They started doing what they called "time saving".The more people there are, the more people will follow suit, and even those who would not otherwise have no choice but to follow the crowd. On the radio, on television, and in the newspapers, new time-saving benefits are being touted every day that will set people free to live "real" lives.On the walls of the building, on the advertising posts, there are pictures of that happy life everywhere, really everything that one expects to find.In large, bold typefaces beneath the photo: "Time-saving benefits are many, and more and more." Or: "The future belongs to those who save time" Or: "Save time - your life is richer!" The reality, however, is something else entirely.Although those who save time dress better and earn more money to spend than those who live near the ruins of the amphitheatre, their faces are sullen, weary, Painful, and the eyes are indifferent.Among such people, of course, no one knows the meaning of the phrase "Go to Mao Mao!"They don't have a friend who can listen to their heart and make them wiser, kinder, and happier for it.But even if they had one, it was very doubtful that they would go to him--if they did, perhaps stay there for five minutes at most and then hurry away.Otherwise they will think it is a waste of time.Even if they must fill their leisure time, it is, as they say, only a hasty enjoyment of a possible gratification, a little relaxation of the mind. In this way, they would have no more celebrations, neither merry nor serious. For them, even dreaming is a sin.The most intolerable thing for them is silence.When they are quiet, they will feel waves of fear attacking them, because they will be reminded of everything that happened in real life.Whenever they feel threatened by their tranquility, they make loud noises.It wasn't, of course, the happy noise of children in a playground, but an angry, melancholy noise. This kind of voice is filling every city, big and small, day after day and year after year. It doesn't matter whether one likes one's job or loves to do a certain thing - rather, one just does it, and the important thing is to get more work done in as little time as possible. So, in factories and office buildings, every job has a sign that reads: Time is precious - don't waste it; or: Time is (like) money - save it. Similar signs are also hung on the desks of factory managers and company managers and on the walls behind their sofas, in outpatient departments of hospitals, restaurants and department stores, and even in schools and kindergartens.All in all, everywhere. Finally, the big cities are changing their appearance more and more visibly.Old towns were demolished and leveled, and new buildings were erected. Such a building saves everything that people think is superfluous.Building such a building not only suits the user's requirements, but also saves manpower and material resources, otherwise, they would have to build another completely different building. These new buildings are all built in the same way, but they save a lot of money and, first of all, a lot of time. On the north side of this big city, a huge new district has been expanded, where rows of high-rise residential buildings stand like eggs and eggs, and there is no discernible difference.Likewise, the monotonous streets stretched on and on, all the way to the horizon—so orderly, like a mote!In the same way, the life of the people there is so dull, leading straight to the horizon like a taut rope!Because every centimeter here is precisely calculated, and every moment is pre-arranged. However, people don't seem to think that in the process of saving time, what is actually saved is something else entirely. But no one wants to admit that their life has become more boring, more monotonous, and more indifferent. It is the children who feel this most clearly, since adults no longer have time to play with them. Although time is life, life is in the heart of man. So, the more time people save, the less time they have for themselves.