In the near future, the federation will legalize "memory asset transactions." Each memory can be retrieved, numbered, valued, and put on the shelf like a file. The buyer buys someone else's real personal experience, and the seller collects the money, at the cost of permanently losing that experience.
There is a "Today's Old Things" in the west of the city, which specializes in collecting and selling second-hand memories. The shop owner, whose surname is Zhou, has silver-rimmed glasses. He has been in the business for 20 years and never makes a mistake.
Jiang Wang sat across from the counter, took off the necklace and placed it on the glass. There was a sapphire hanging on the silver chain, which was of excellent quality. Shopkeeper Zhou opened the booklet and wrote a few words with a pen: "The third item will be deducted by 20,000 yuan."
"Twenty thousand?" Jiang Wangmei's heart skipped a beat, "The painting was only worth eight thousand last month."
"Sapphires are not valuable, what is valuable is the memory behind the chain." Shopkeeper Zhou raised his eyes and looked at her, "It was given to you by the lead singer of a band on your nineteenth birthday. That person later wrote an album with twelve songs, ten of which were about you. But you can't remember his voice, right?" Jiang Wang pursed his lips and said nothing. Shopkeeper Zhou closed the book and said, "Twenty thousand, no negotiation."
"Okay."
When the memory stripper was attached, Jiang Wang was used to the coldness. It was like an ice needle piercing the depths of her temple, pulling away a small group of nerve tissue, and her brain made a few tiny hums. After a while, the memory about the sapphire necklace was extracted and sealed into a small milky white box. Shopkeeper Zhou put them into the refrigerated cabinet behind the counter, numbered them, put them in storage, and waited for them to be put on the shelves. In Jiang Wang's mind, the scene on his nineteenth birthday, the boy playing the guitar, and the scene where he knelt on one knee and put a necklace on her on the New Year's Eve stage, all became a blank sheet of paper. She remembered that her birthday was in winter, and that New Year's Eve was very cold, but the face, voice, and touch of that person's hands were all written off.
"Next one." Shopkeeper Zhou raised his chin to another customer waiting at the door.
Jiang Wang stood up, opened the door and walked out. The wind chime rang behind me.
She comes once a month and is unstoppable. In the third month, she sold the first watch that her mother gave her before she was alive. In the fifth month, she sold the entire memory of her signing in the conference room on the day when the shares of Xuxing Group were liquidated - keeping that period was of no use except giving her recurring nightmares. In the seventh month, she sold all the details of her first love, in the eighth month, she sold a trip, and in the ninth month, she sold an ex who had been pestering her for two years. Every time a section is cleared, there will be one more number in the account, and the mother's ICU bill will be one less red.
Today is the eleventh month.
What she brought from the apartment was a leather handbook with the Seuxing Group's dark pattern on the cover. Inside was the entire record of her financing last month - 20 venture capital firms, 37 business cards, and 52 rejections. When she couldn't sleep at night, she flipped through this booklet. Her fingers became numb as she flipped through it, and she became more and more awake as she flipped through it. Now shopkeeper Zhou flipped through it, said "Thirty thousand", and took away that memory. From then on, Jiang Wang thought about the last month again, and there was nothing left in her mind: she remembered that she was very busy, but she didn't remember what she was busy with; she remembered that many people had rejected her, and she couldn't remember what those people looked like.
Fine. There is something missing that is blocking my head, and I am breathing lightly.
"You still have the last credit." Shopkeeper Zhou flipped the book forward two pages and pointed to a line of notes to show her, "After deducting all of your mother's medical debt, it will be settled."
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