I Promise to Walk With You for Half of my Life’s Journey - Chapter 39

The video ended.

“I know who sent the anonymous email. I am not naming names to give one last chance, but I want to tell everyone this: the foundation of Echo Culture is doing the right thing and doing things right. If anyone uses office politics against colleagues who truly want to accomplish something, or against these children,” he tapped the table, “come find me after the preview ends on Friday. Otherwise, I will handle it in the strictest manner allowed by company policy.”

After the meeting adjourned, Cheng Sutong was intercepted in the hallway by Wang Lei.

His face was pale and there were dark circles under his eyes; clearly, he had not slept well for several days.

“I did not send that email,” he said as his opening sentence.

Cheng Sutong looked at him. “I know.”

Wang Lei was stunned. “You, you know?”

“The writing style does not match yours. You write with strict logic but in a dry manner. Although that email was organized, it was far too inflammatory and used very emotional language. It felt more like someone using the topic as an excuse to vent a long-standing grudge.”

Wang Lei opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

“But you know who it was, right?” Cheng Sutong asked.

After a long silence, Wang Lei nodded. “It was Li Na, the Deputy Director of the Business Department. She has always wanted to interfere with the Creative Department’s projects, but Director Chen never gave her the chance. This time, she thought she had caught a weakness.”

Cheng Sutong recalled the person. Li Na was in her mid-thirties, with excellent performance but polarizing reviews. She had indeed questioned the “Museum of Hearing” project several times during cross-departmental meetings, claiming its commercial conversion efficiency was too low.

“She promised me that as long as I did not expose her, she could transfer me to the Business Department after the project ended to lead better projects. I, I truly wavered. I felt like I had no future in this company, and I thought that maybe changing departments might help.”

“Then why are you telling me now?”

“Because yesterday my younger sister came to the company to find me. She looked at those glass jars and Xiaoxing’s drawings, and then she asked me: ‘Brother, you are doing such a cool thing, why do you look so unhappy?'”

He took a deep breath. “The ear my sister went deaf in was hit by a car when she was seven years old while she was trying to protect me. All these years, I have worked desperately to prove myself and give her the best life, but I never asked her what she truly needed. Yesterday, she pointed at Xiaoxing’s drawing and said: ‘Brother, this little girl drew exactly how I feel inside but cannot put into words.'”

Wang Lei’s voice choked. “Cheng Sutong, I am sorry. I should not have been jealous of you, and I certainly should not have remained silent for my own career while knowing who was behind this.”

“Wang Lei. The Friday preview needs someone to be in charge of media reception and on-site process control. This role is very important and cannot have any mistakes. Are you willing to do it?”

Wang Lei was completely stunned. “You still trust me?”

“I trust the man who worked overtime that weekend to help me with the risk assessment, the man who seriously studied gamification mechanisms, and the man who has a sister who is deaf in one ear. As for the rest, people get lost. The important thing is whether they are willing to walk back.”

Wang Lei’s eyes turned red, and he nodded heavily.

Cheng Sutong patted his shoulder. “Go on. The media list is with Zhao Xueqing. A successful preview is the best counterattack.”

Friday, Preview Day.

The preview was held in the largest exhibition hall of the Cultural and Creative Park. The originally empty concrete space had been transformed into an immersive “Forest of Sound.”

At the entrance, six hundred glass jars hung from the ceiling at staggered heights. Inside were works created by children based on early test sounds: origami, miniature collages, sand art bottles, and dried flower installations. There were small QR codes on the bottom of the jars; scanning them allowed visitors to hear the original sound that had been translated.

In the center were six physical Voice Mailboxes. Visitors could record sounds on the spot to deliver. After delivering a sound, they would receive a “Voice Travel Ticket” printed with an estimated translation time of one to three days, along with a passage: “Please wait patiently. Your voice is traveling to a special planet where the residents listen with their eyes and fingers. When they translate your voice into colors and shapes, it will be a reply from a parallel universe.”

On the surrounding walls were large prints of photos and notes of the children working:

A profile of Xiaoxing’s focused face as she touched a speaker to feel the vibrations.

A-Jie, with his eyes closed, using his fingers to trace the outline of the wind in the air.

A set of comparison charts: a brainwave map of a person with normal hearing listening to the sound of rain, and a brainwave map of a child with hearing impairment touching raindrops.

The preview began at 2:00 PM. By 1:30 PM, media, partners, and invited user representatives began entering one after another.

Director Chen, Cheng Sutong, Zhou Ming, Zhao Xueqing, Wang Lei, and others stood at the entrance to welcome them.

Li Na arrived as well, wearing an exquisite suit with a professional smile. When her eyes met Cheng Sutong’s, she nodded slightly without showing any abnormality.

At exactly 2:00 PM, the preview officially began. Teacher Su Hang brought five children, including Xiaoxing, to the scene. The children were somewhat nervous, but when they saw so many people seriously viewing their work, their eyes lit up.

During the media interview segment, questions initially focused on project creativity and technical implementation. However, the scene went silent when a reporter asked Xiaoxing:

“You cannot hear, so why are you able to translate sounds?”

Xiaoxing answered in sign language, and Su Hang translated. “Because sound is not just a vibration in the ear. When happy, sound is warm, like a cat sunbathing. When sad, sound is cold, like a hand touching ice. When angry, sound is sharp, like touching a cactus. Although I cannot hear the pitch, I can feel the temperature and shape of the sound.”

She walked to a glass jar containing a work she made with pale gold sand and broken glass shards, corresponding to the sound of birds chirping at sunrise.

Xiaoxing signed, “The person who recorded this sound said there were many birds singing. I cannot hear birdsong, but I feel that this sound consists of many tiny, golden points of light waking up one after another. So, I made this.”

The reporter followed up, “What if, what if it is a segment of someone shouting ugly, mean words?”

Xiaoxing tilted her head to think and then signed, “I would first look at why this person is so angry. Then, I would use very thick and dark colors to wrap up those fierce words, like wrapping a very bitter pill. But in the very center, I would leave a little bit of a very soft color, like cotton. Because even the fiercest person might have a small place in their heart that is soft and needs to be protected.”

After a moment of silence from the audience, sporadic applause broke out, eventually swelling into a roar.

Cheng Sutong stood on the outskirts of the crowd, watching that eight-year-old girl under the spotlight deconstruct the most complex human senses and emotions with the simplest language.

During the free viewing time, the crowd moved through the forest of glass jars. Cheng Sutong noticed Li Na standing in a corner for a long time. In front of her was a jar containing a scarred yet complete heart shape made of broken porcelain pieces.

It was created based on the sound of “crying after a breakup.”

Cheng Sutong walked over and said softly, “This is A-Jie’s work. He said that in a broken sound, every fragment is looking for a reason to be put back together.”

“How did you know that the email was me?”

“Wang Lei told me, after you decided to let him take the blame.”

Li Na’s shoulders stiffened.

She finally turned around. The exquisite makeup on her face could not hide her exhaustion. “How do you want to handle me? Tell the Director? Expose me in public? Make it impossible for me to stay in this industry?”

Cheng Sutong shook her head. “I have no interest in destroying anyone. I just want to know why.”

After a long silence, Li Na finally spoke. “Because I was jealous of you.”

“I have fought in this industry for twelve years, from an intern to a Deputy Director, calculating every step precisely. I know which projects can win awards, which clients can bring in revenue, and what words can make a superior happy.”

Li Na looked at the glass jars. “But I have never made a project that made my sister send me a message late at night saying, ‘Sister, this is amazing.'”

She gave a bitter smile. “My younger brother is also hearing impaired, congenitally. I paid for him to go to the best special education school and bought him the most expensive hearing aids, but I never asked him what those sounds, amplified and distorted by machines, sounded like to him. Not until she saw the report on your project yesterday and called me crying, saying, ‘Sister, it turns out someone understands.'”

Li Na’s eyes turned red. “Cheng Sutong, you are only twenty-three years old. How, how were you able to do something I never even thought about doing in twelve years?”

Cheng Sutong listened quietly. Only after Li Na finished did she speak. “Director Li, do you know what the luckiest thing in my life is?”

“What?”

“It is not that I survived. It is that at my most desperate moment, I met someone. She taught me that true strength is not proving you are better than others, but seeing the strength in others and being happy for it.”

“Your brother called you not because I am better than you, but because you gave him the courage to make that call. You let him know he could cry because he was moved by something, and that his sister would pick up the phone.”

Li Na was stunned.

“This project needs continuous operation and commercial conversion to truly help those children and schools. Creativity is my strength, but resource integration, commercial negotiation, and long-term planning are yours. What if we cooperate instead of fight?”

Li Na looked at her in disbelief. “You are willing to cooperate with me?”

“If the goal is to do this thing well and for a long time, why would I not be? Cheng Sutong extended her hand. “After Friday, if you are still willing to stay.”

Li Na looked at that hand. After a long moment, she finally gripped it firmly.

“Cheng Sutong, you are more terrifying than I imagined.”

“Why terrifying?”

“Because you know that forgiveness requires more strength than revenge.”

Li Na let go of her hand and smiled for the first time without any calculation. “After the preview ends, I will go to the Director to confess. Afterward, I want to participate in the long-term planning of this project, not for redemption, but for my brother.”

Cheng Sutong stood in place, watching the flow of people in the hall; the faces stopping before glass jars, bowing their heads to scan codes, and putting on headphones to listen. Accompanied by Su Hang and An Chuxin, the children began to demonstrate to visitors how to “translate” sounds. They spread materials of different textures on the table, letting the audience touch them and guess what kind of sound they corresponded to.

Xiaoxing saw Cheng Sutong and ran over, stuffing a newly folded star into her hand. This time, the paper was translucent, hiding tiny, flowing gold dust inside.

“What kind of star is this?” Cheng Sutong asked in sign language.

Xiaoxing signed, “A rain-cleared star. It is for that auntie who was very sad just now. You said she was looking for a reason to be put back together; the gold dust in this star is the reason. It is very fragmented but abundant, and when combined, it can shine.”

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