tearjerker director

Chapter 1652 Thought Implantation
On the bullet train!

When Arthur saw the next data jump to zero, he put the tube into the briefcase.

In the hotel in the dream, the door slammed again - Li Teng regained his confidence and walked towards Cobb. Nash was behind Li Teng.

Li Teng said: "But in my dream, you have to play by my rules."

Nash was stunned for a moment: "Ah, yes, but you know, Mr. Li Teng"

Li Teng turned to Nash, and Cobb said again: "We are not in your dream!"

Li Teng turned back to Cobb, but Cobb had disappeared!
"We were in my dream," Nash said.

Li Teng turned to Nash again. The door was knocked off its leaves. The rioters rushed into the house. The crowd swallowed Nash but Nash disappeared. The music stopped. Li Teng and the rioters stood there in silence. The light gradually dimmed.
In the bullet train car, Nash opened his eyes and woke up.

Arthur's voice came from off-screen: "Damn it!"

Nash blinked. Arthur stood before him, looking extremely angry.

Arthur demanded, "How could you have got the carpet wrong?"

Nash looked innocent: "It's not my fault!"

Arthur said angrily, "You're the designer!"

Nash shrugged. "I never thought he would rub his cheek against the carpet!"

Cobb pulled Arthur away from Nash: "Let's go."

Arthur: "And you - what the hell is going on?"

Cobb said confidently: "I have a way to control it."

Arthur: "I hate to see control lost!"

Cobb said, "We don't have time for this anymore. I want to get off in the capital."

Arthur asked: "Why? He won't check every car."

"I can't stand trains," Cobb said.

Arthur walked over to the suitcase and turned the dial. "I can keep him down there for a minute longer!"

Arthur pressed a key and a piston deflated. Cobb untied the tape on Li Teng's wrist and rolled up his tube. Arthur quickly closed the silver briefcase. Chen Tian opened the car door.

Cobb glanced at everyone and said, "Let's take care of ourselves."

Arthur and Nash walked out of the carriage door and ran in different directions along the corridor. Cobb threw a thick roll of cash to Chen Tian, ​​then looked at Li Teng, who was about to wake up. Cobb left.

The bullet train sped through the lush countryside. Inside the carriage, Li Teng slowly woke up. He looked around the carriage and saw only Chen Tian, ​​who was reading a comic book. Li Teng looked down at his wrist and saw a small mark.

He rubbed it with his hands and smiled.

At dusk, the camera swept across the vast city, then pulled up to a certain height. A helicopter appeared, now flying towards a landing pad on the roof.

Inside the apartment, Cobb sat there waiting for someone. He checked his watch, without a moment's rest, he took out a gun, checked the loaded bullets, and then put the gun on the table in front of him. He took out a tin-lead alloy gyroscope and spun it on the table. He carefully examined the spinning gyroscope. As he stared, the sound of the freight car became stronger and stronger, the gyroscope began to wobble, then tilted to one side, and the sound of the train stopped. The phone rang, and Cobb grabbed the phone!
The children's voices came from the phone: "Hi, Dad! Hi, Dad."

Cobb couldn't help but smile, "Hey, little guys. How are you?"

The children's voices came from the phone: "Okay. It's okay, I think."

Cobb closed his eyes and tried to imagine what the children looked like. The scene flashed back to a little blond boy crouching in the garden, looking at something in the grass.
Cobb asked, "Who said it was OK? Was it you, James?"

James' voice came over the phone: "It's me. When are you coming home?"

Cobb was silent for a moment: "I can't, not yet."

He thought of a little girl with blond hair and white skin, whose face could not be seen, who was with James and squatted beside him...

James' voice came through the phone with confusion: "Why?"

Cobb thought for a moment and said, "Well, James, like I told you - I left home because I wanted to work!"

The little girl's voice came from the phone: "Grandma said you will never come back."

Cobb paused and took a breath. He thought again of his two children, their faces invisible, looking up from the grass, hearing someone calling them, running across the garden, running away from the screen and disappearing!
Cobb: "Philippa, can you put Granny on the line?"

Philippa's voice came over the phone: "She's shaking her head."

Cobb was a little anxious and seemed about to smash the phone.

Cobb calmed down and said, "Well, we can only hope that grandma is wrong, okay?"

James: "Dad?"

Cobb: "Go ahead?"

James: “Is Mommy with you?”

Cobb looked like he had been hit hard, and he fell into memory again. His wife, Mal, appeared, the wind blowing her hair, smiling calmly.
She is still as beautiful as ever, but
"No, it hasn't. We talked about it, James, and Mom's gone."

"Where have you been?"

At this time, grandma's voice came from the phone: "It's time to go, children. Say goodbye!"

Cobb said, "I'll bring the presents to Grandpa, okay? You guys be good."

Cobb stared at the hanging phone. Then he drank his drink, and there was a knock on the door. Cobb grabbed his top and gun, walked to the door, opened it, and saw Arthur through the crack.

Arthur said, "Our transport is on the roof."

Cobb nodded and he walked back to get the bag while Arthur watched.

Arthur asked worriedly, "Cobb, are you okay?"

Cobb looked up: "Nothing, what's wrong?"

Arthur sighed, "In the dream, Mal appeared just like that."

Cobb nodded, "Yeah, I'm sorry about your leg."

Arthur looked at him. "It's going to get worse, isn't it?"

Cobb: "All you want is an apology, Arthur. Now, where's Nash?"

Arthur: "He hasn't shown up yet. Want to wait for him?"

Cobb shook his head: "We should have handed over Li Teng's expansion plan to Cobol Engineering two hours ago. Now they know we have failed. We'd better disappear immediately.

The scene switches again, and in the corridor, Cobb and Arthur walk towards the elevator.

"Where are you going?" Arthur asked.

Cobb said, "Buenos Aires. I can hide there. When things calm down, maybe I can see if there is any work to do. What about you?"

Arthur said, "Go back to America."

Cobb nodded: "Of course, give my regards."

Arthur looked at Cobb and nodded, his face full of sympathy.

The helicopter landing pad on the roof, the time is at night, the helicopter is parked there, the propeller is spinning, Cobb and Arthur walked to the cabin door, the cabin door opened. Cobb stepped into the leather padded cabin, he was stunned.

Because he saw Nash, who was beaten to a bloody pulp, sitting at a farther seat, looking depressed as if he had drunk too much. Sitting next to him was Li Teng, who nodded politely to Cobb.

Li Teng said: "He betrayed you. He wanted to surrender to me and bargain with his life."

Li Teng's bodyguard handed Cobb a gun: "So I can satisfy you."

Cobb refused: "That's not the way I do things."

Li Teng didn't understand: "Do you still want to work with him?"

Cobb shook his head, and Li Teng's bodyguard dragged Nash out of the helicopter. Li Teng motioned Cobb and Arthur to sit down. The helicopter took off, and Cobb watched Nash being dragged over from the landing pad.

Cobb couldn't help but ask, "What are you going to do with him?"

Li Teng shook his head and watched the city outside slowly slip by. "Not very good. But I can't speak for your friends at Kobol Engineering."

Cobb continued to ask: "What do you want from us?"

Li Teng finally stated his purpose: "Implantation of thoughts."

Arthur frowned, Cobb remained expressionless.

Li Teng continued to ask: "Is this possible?"

Obviously he wasn't sure, but Arthur was the first to say, "Of course not!"

Li Teng was unwilling to give in and said, "Since you can steal ideas from other people's minds, why can't you implant ideas into them instead?"

Arthur said, "Okay, now I'm going to implant an idea: I say to you, "Don't think about the elephant." What are you thinking about now?"

Li Teng said: "Elephant."

Arthur spread his hands: "Yes, but this is not your own idea, because you know that I gave it to you."

Li Teng said: "You can implant thoughts into your subconscious mind!"

But Arthur quickly interrupted him: "The subject's mind can always trace back to the source of the idea. True inspiration cannot be faked."

Suddenly Cobb, who had been thinking and not speaking, said: "No, that's not the case."

Li Teng immediately turned his head to look at him and asked, "Can you do it?"

Cobb said with a painful look on his face: "I don't want to do it."

Li Teng was very confident: "In exchange, I can provide you with information that others pay you to steal."

Cobb looked at him: "Are you giving me a chance? I can find a way to settle the matter with Cobol Corporation myself."

Li Teng smiled: "So, you can indeed make a choice."

Cobb: "Then I choose to leave."

The helicopter stopped next to a private jet. Li Teng pointed at the plane and said, "Tell the crew where you want to go. They will plan your itinerary on the way."

Cobb and Arthur looked at each other, then they walked towards the cabin door.

Li Teng said from behind: "Mr. Cobb, I can offer you one more thing."

Cobb stopped when he heard that!

All he heard was Li Teng continue behind him: "Do you want to go home? Go back to the United States and be with your children."

Cobb turned to Li Teng and shook his head: "You can't do this. No one can do this."

Li Teng looked at him and asked, "Just like implanting a mind?"

Cobb thought about it, and Arthur patted his arm: "Cobb, let's go!"

Cobb suddenly asked: "How complicated is that idea?"

Obviously Li Teng had grasped his lifeline. He wanted to go home, he wanted to go home and see his children so much, so he had to compromise.

Li Teng said: "Simple enough."

Cobb shook his head and said, "There is no such thing as a 'simple idea' if you want to implant it into someone else's mind."

Li Teng said: "My main competitor is an old man who is now in poor health. His son will soon inherit and take control of his company. I need him to make a decision to split up his father's industrial empire, which is a confrontation and challenge to his own interests."

After hearing this, Arthur immediately advised: "Cobb, we should avoid such things."

Cobb ignored Arthur: "Suppose I am willing to do it, suppose I can do it...how do I know you can deliver on it?"

Li Teng said, "You don't know, but I can. How can I tell you? Do you want to take a leap of faith, or wait until you are old, full of regrets, and wait for death in loneliness?"

Cobb looked at Li Teng and nodded slightly.

Li Teng smiled: "Gather your men, Mr. Cobb, and be wise in choosing your men this time."

On the jet, Arthur was very angry. He thought Cobb was looking for death.

Because in his opinion, implanting thoughts is impossible, but Cobb suddenly told him that he had done it!
Arthur pressed him: "Who did you do this to?"

But Cobb looked at Arthur and kept silent, and Arthur shrugged.

He and Arthur went to Paris to find his father-in-law, Miles, who was also his mentor in stealing dreams.

Of course Cobb also has to find a new dream builder!

The new dream builder is named Lin Ni!
He is Miles's most promising student.

Inside a Parisian café, Cobb and Linnie sit at a table outside.

“Some people say we only use a fraction of our brain’s true potential…but that’s when we’re awake,” Cobb said. “But in dreams, the brain is doing extraordinary things.”

Lin Ni was puzzled: "For example?"

Cobb induced: "How do you imagine a building? You consciously create every aspect of it... At some stage, you will be a little confused... But sometimes, when your imagination flies."

Linnie said, “I’m discovering it.”

Cobb nodded. "Right. Real inspiration."

Cobb leaned forward and began gesturing on the paper tablecloth. "In dreams, your brain does this all the time!"

He drew a circle with two arrows.

"We create and perceive our world at the same time, and our brains do such a great job of this that we don't even know our brains are creating it. That's how we can shorten the process!"

Lin Ni was curious: "How to do it?"

Cobb: "Creating this part through direct intervention."

He drew a straight line between the two arrows.

“That’s where you come in, you create the dream world, we bring the subject into the dream, and then let him fill out the dream with his subconscious.”

Linnie asked, "Does this mean you want to fool him into thinking his dream is real life?"

Cobb nodded appreciatively. "But we are here, and we don't want him to realize he is dreaming."

Lin Ni was a little bit unbelievable: "How can I get enough details to make him believe it's true?"

Cobb looked at her. "When we are dreaming, it feels very real. It is only when we wake up that we realize how strange things are."

(End of this chapter)