One morning while I was on duty at the entrance, suddenly a colleague shouted over the intercom that Manager Li was coming to your post. But by the time I heard him shout, Manager Li had already appeared around the corner, so I could only instinctively press the response button and quickly say received.

At that moment, Manager Li had quickened his pace and was about to reach me. At this time, the colleague in the intercom shouted again, Manager Li has passed by, please respond.

In this situation, I couldn't respond because responding in such a scenario would undoubtedly indicate to Manager Li that we were being dishonest, so I stopped responding to the other person's message. However, this post is manned by two people, and the other person was in the yard at that time. I hoped he could respond, and he did, but his voice was not loud.

After Manager Li left, Manager Tang came over and angrily said, didn't you hear the colleague say Manager Li was coming? Why didn't you respond?

So I said, I did respond. Then Manager Tang asked me to imitate my response, and I recreated my quick reply. Unexpectedly, Manager Tang said he didn't hear it and said, you've been here for so long, don't you know there's a delay with the intercom? You have to keep pressing the response button.

Then he made me keep pressing the response button, and indeed, he heard the response sound this time. Then he turned and left.

After Manager Tang left, I realized that something was wrong. Why did I have to answer his question instead of explaining the situation at that time? What force made me immediately focus on answering the question he had in mind?

In this situation, my correct response should have been that while the colleague informed me over the intercom, Manager Li had already appeared around the corner, so I could only respond quickly. When the colleague continued to ask if I received it, Manager Li had already come to my side, and at that moment, it was not appropriate for me to respond. Besides, the colleague inside had already responded.

Therefore, from this specific scenario, I did nothing wrong. However, before this scenario was known to the other party, even though I accurately recreated my response action at that time, I could only receive the other party's blame.

That day I pondered this question. Why do people experience temporary directed forgetting in some events? How can we overcome directed forgetting?

This incident reminded me of a time in my childhood when I was wronged, and I also experienced directed forgetting. One day in my childhood, I was busy in the fields with my father and grandmother all day until it got dark before we returned home.

The next day when I went to the river to fetch water, I encountered a man named Xiaogang. The man sternly asked me, Yanzhi, did you take a bath in this pit yesterday?

At that moment, I was confused by the question. I had indeed bathed in this water pit before, so without thinking, I answered yes.

After answering, I realized something was wrong because I had been working in the fields with my father and grandmother all day yesterday. How could I have been in this water pit bathing?

When I came to my senses, I immediately corrected myself, saying I had bathed in this water pit before, but yesterday I was working in the fields with my father and grandmother and did not come here.

Unexpectedly, he seized my previous answer and directly rebutted, you clearly admitted to coming here, and now you want to deny it. You are not honest.

I said, I bathed here the day before yesterday, but I indeed was not here yesterday.

At this point, he stopped pretending and directly stated his purpose, stop quibbling, you were bathing in this water pit with several other kids yesterday, and you also went to my ginger field to steal ginger. I saw it all.

Hearing this, I was even more shocked. It turned out he thought he saw me stealing ginger yesterday and deliberately asked if I had bathed in this water pit?

No matter how I explained, he just didn't believe me, always holding onto my answer when he asked if I had bathed in the water pit yesterday. Frustrated, I could only leave in silence. Clearly, I had explained that I came the day before yesterday, but I did not come yesterday, and he just wouldn't believe it.

Later one morning, I went to his brother's house, and Xiaogang happened to be there, along with their father. Then Xiaogang brought up the old story again, saying, Yanzhi was bathing in the water pit with a group of kids yesterday and stole a lot of ginger from my family. Hurry up and tell me, who did you go with to steal?

I didn't expect that he not only wronged me but also made me name my so-called accomplices in front of everyone. I clearly didn't go, so how could I fabricate a story? At that time, I denied it. However, Xiaogang said seriously, I asked you if you went to the water pit yesterday, and didn't you answer that you did? I looked at that person and said, you can't deny it.

I thought that at this point, no matter how I explained, they wouldn't believe me. So I wanted my grandmother or father to come and explain and prove that I indeed worked in the fields all day yesterday and didn't go anywhere. When I got home, I told my grandmother and others the whole story, hoping my grandmother would stand up for me and clarify the matter.

Unexpectedly, after my grandmother heard it, she thought it was just a small matter and didn't want to stand up for me. I felt very desperate inside and said angrily, they are saying our family are all thieves, stealing their ginger, and even said it was yesterday.

When my grandmother heard that Xiaogang even implicated her as a thief, she immediately got angry and said, come on, let's argue this point. My grandmother went to Xiaogang's brother's house and directly said, why do you say she is a thief? Yesterday our whole family was working in the fields, so it was impossible to steal anything from your family.

Unexpectedly, Xiaogang, his father, his brother, and his sister-in-law all said in unison, Yanzhi admitted it, he admitted he went yesterday. Xiaogang's father then accused me, clearly saying you stole it, not your grandmother, how can you drag your grandmother into this?

I said again, our whole family worked in the fields yesterday, and I couldn't have gone to steal your ginger. But they still had a deadpan expression, seizing my impulsive answer to counter me.

This incident attracted the attention of passersby. During this process, my grandmother also clarified for me, but they just seized my impulsive answer and deliberately smeared me.

At home, we raised rabbits. One time I went to cut grass in the fields and passed by someone else's field. At that moment, Qiqing's mother saw me and loudly reminded me, Yanzhi, don't go into other people's fields, or you'll be accused of stealing again. So I quickly left their field. It seemed that Qiqing's mother thought I was wronged because I had gone into their ginger field, regardless of whether I stole or not, I was blamed. But the actual situation was that I had only worked in my own field all day that day.

This incident made me experience the complexity of human nature and the harm of directed forgetting. Later, an elder in the village told me, leave half a sentence when speaking. The meaning is that when you hear someone else's words and need to respond, you should think again before speaking. Since then, I have also developed the habit of thinking for a while before responding. However, this habit has also brought me a lot of trouble. For example, in the workplace, leaders may think I am always a beat slower than others, or they may think I lack confidence in what needs to be done. If it were you, how would you handle a situation similar to mine back then?