amaotonovel Chapter 2665 Hollywood Rhapsody (23)
Chapter 2665 Hollywood Rhapsody (23)
Chapter 2665 Hollywood Rhapsody (Twenty-three)
Strange looked at Schiller with a puzzled look.
"Excuse me, ma'am." Schiller suddenly stood up and said to a girl sitting in the back row, "We have to discuss some contents of a confidential medical project, but we have nowhere else to go for the time being. Could you please change your seat?"
Strange thought Schiller's pronunciation was a little strange, especially the sentence "nowhere else to go for the time being", which sounded very strange.
The girl was slightly stunned. Now she was facing Strange, while Schiller had his back to Strange, so Strange could not see Schiller's expression.
"I'm really sorry, ma'am. This is because I made a small mistake. I have to explain it quickly, but I can't risk the content of the project being exposed..."
"Oh my god, you guys chat, I'm leaving now."
Schiller made the sign of a cross on his chest to express his gratitude. The girl walked out and halfway turned back to look at this side with some worry. The worry in her eyes did not seem fake at all.
Schiller turned back and sat down, and Strange asked him, "What did you do?"
"That's it." Schiller smiled at him and said, "No one in this world can blame the victim, and most people can't distinguish between moral and emotional concerns. It's too easy to confuse them."
“Are you playing a victim?”
"Express this temperament only to certain people," Schiller said. "Make them think they are your only savior."
"It's indeed unhealthy." Strange could hardly suppress his sarcastic tone.
But he paused and asked, "Begging others will make you lose your dignity. Won't it make people think you are a poor little thing?"
"I told you, only for certain people."
"How can you guarantee that she won't reveal it?"
"Do you have to like someone who always criticizes others?"
Strange choked, but continued, "Wouldn't that make you look...unsociable?"
The word "gregarious" seemed to weigh heavily on him, but Schiller smiled and said, "If you treat everyone like this, they will all be your saviors, living around you and moving for you. How can you not be gregarious?"
"Didn't you say that it's only for certain people..."
"There are many people who are born kidnappers." Schiller leaned forward and looked at Strange and said, "As long as you give them a feeling that they only need to give you a handout once, they can get endless emotional returns from you. Everyone will do such a profitable business."
"Is this what you call training a kidnapper?"
"Yeah, make them feel like if they give you a little, you give them the world in return."
“But you can’t.”
"Yes, I can't do that."
Strange looked at Schiller.
"But I was ashamed of my inability to do it, and because of this shame I often felt endless depression, even full of self-destructive tendencies, which made them save me more, because of my initial return, they would only expect more returns that would never come."
Strange stared at Schiller, as if he had seen something he had never seen before.
"I said it's not healthy," Schiller stressed.
"But they don't actually need the whole world." Strange seemed to have found a loophole and said.
"You want one billion dollars?"
"I can't say I don't want to."
"But is it possible for you to obtain it?"
Strange shook his head.
"You knew it was impossible to get it before you answered whether I wanted it or not, but you still couldn't say you didn't want it because you really wanted it. So does it matter whether you can get it or not?"
Schiller put his hands on the table and said, "Everyone knows in their minds that they can't possess all of a person's emotions, but they just want to. In this regard, I dare say that the devil has never seen such greed as those people."
Strange wanted to say something else, but Schiller leaned forward and moved closer. He looked into Strange's eyes and asked, "Don't you want someone like this? He will give you all his emotions, only regard you as his best friend, and will destroy the world and himself for you. Don't you really want it?"
Strange's lips moved, but it was more like a tremor, as if he had nothing to say and was just making a gesture.
Because he knew there would be no other answer, just like he couldn't say against his will that he didn't want a billion dollars. In his opinion, this was something that could change his entire life more easily than even a large sum of money.
"You know there won't be such a person." Schiller pulled him out of his thoughts and shattered his assumptions with the cold and ruthless reality. Schiller continued, "Your reason and logic are telling you the answer. There will never be such a person. But you still want to be like crazy because this is the bad nature of human beings."
"The closer a person is to his primitive instincts, the more obvious this bad nature becomes, and the easier it is for him to become a kidnapper, extorting endless emotions."
"As long as you always show that you can give, he will ask you endlessly. When you have this choice, never choose other answers. This is much more reliable than empty words such as love and friendship."
Strange was lost in obvious thought, and then he said, "But it's mean, and it's going to ruin someone's life."
"No, this kind of relationship is not healthy, but it is not despicable." Schiller said: "Giving people hope is the noblest emotion in the world. No matter what way, as long as you can make someone feel hope from you from time to time, you are a noble provider, not a despicable blackmailer."
Strange was breathing gently, as if resisting to accept this idea, but finally his expression relaxed, his tightly pursed lips loosened, his brows slightly wrinkled, and his thumb circled the tip of his index finger.
"Maybe you can give it a try," Schiller continued. "There's a football game next week, and there's a party after the game. Renee will be there, and you happen to have a very important observation class that day..."
"Are you asking me to tell her about this so that she will invite me on purpose?"
"That's the other way around. You said you heard about the party but you just couldn't go. You said you felt sorry for her."
"But she didn't even think of inviting me. Am I supposed to act like someone else invited me?"
"No, you have to believe, or at least act as if you believe she will invite you, and then feel deeply sorry for missing an invitation that doesn't exist."
"That sounds so embarrassing. She didn't even want to invite me, and she knew it," Strange said. "It's just like I'm being sentimental."
"Yes, she hasn't invited you yet, but you're feeling so sorry for not being able to attend. If she invites you warmly but you still can't go, then she won't see you at the game, and it will make you feel even more guilty about her. Why doesn't she do that?"
"Sounds like some kind of... moral blackmail?"
"But she is the blackmailer. She wants you to feel guilty about her."
"But Renee is not that kind of person."
"There are no good people who like me." Schiller said: "If you play a hostage, you will always meet kidnappers. But if you really think that love is more important than possession, you won't come to me, right?"
Strange seemed very conflicted. Looking at this younger face, Schiller seemed to have suddenly remembered something interesting. He sighed softly, laughed and said, "You can definitely give it a try. If she tells you that I didn't mean to invite you at all and you misunderstood, then it means you like the right person, which proves that you have good taste."
"but……"
"She is so great that she doesn't even try to extort emotional capital from you. Would she still spread the news? Would she keep bringing it up to embarrass you?"
"If she chooses blackmail, it proves that you two are actually the same kind of people. You want to possess her, and she wants to use you. You two are just a perfect match. It would be best if you could harm each other until you grow old, right?"
The last sentence was like a sharp awl piercing a piece of ice; Strange almost heard the sound of glass breaking.
"How would you like me to repay your guidance?" Strange asked.
Schiller lowered his eyes and smiled, saying, "If I say I don't ask for anything in return, it would seem too hypocritical. If you don't mind, can you write me a blank check?"
"what?"
"If I'm in trouble someday, you have to do me a favor. Of course, maybe you'll get enough reward from it."
Schiller stood up. Ultron had already started reporting information to him. He nodded to Strange and said, "I have something else to do. I'll leave first. If you have anything else to ask, you can find me in the psychology department."
After saying that, he turned and left, and Strange stood there pondering for a long time. After a while, he saw a figure walking towards him.
"Uh, sorry to bother you guys, are you all right?"
Strange looked up and saw the girl who had just been persuaded to leave by Schiller. She first looked at Strange, then turned back to look in the direction Schiller left.
Strange knew what he was thinking, because he had a stern face and hardly spoke during the entire conversation, while Schiller sometimes lowered his head, sometimes smiled, and said a long string of words. No matter how you looked at it, it was consistent with what Schiller said, that he had made a small mistake, was trying hard to explain it, and was now running to make up for it.
And Strange could obviously feel that the girl in front of him was distracted. He was paying abnormally much attention to Schiller. What the hell, could the effect be so immediate?
The girl exchanged a few words with him and then left. It was unclear whether she was following Schiller.
Schiller was walking on the school trail while listening to what Ultron told him. There hadn't been any major disturbances in Manhattan recently, and the current political news was also peaceful.
But this is New York. Even the New York of 20 years ago could not be as peaceful as it seems. Or it could be said that 20 years ago was the time when things were really going crazy.
Because this time was both the golden age of the United States and the golden age of Hydra.
"There were about 12 arrests that were unclear in the cases I looked at, six of which were by regular police officers, but six of which were by people who didn't look like police officers."
"A special agent? Which department?"
"There is not enough video material, most of it is photos and text, so it is difficult to tell."
"Unless they do it again."
“Under our noses.”
Schiller straightened his collar and walked quickly towards the dormitory building. Behind him were dark clouds, and the first rain of summer was about to come.