How long had it been since something this big happened on this highway?
Liu Xing didn’t remember anymore. As a senior employee of Hongjing Highway Company, he came to work here as soon as he graduated. He had seen too many traffic jams and a series of accidents, from crashes to rollovers.
But a time bomb?
That was truly a novelty.
However, five minutes ago, in the parking lot of the Hongjing Highway Langchuan Rest Stop, they found a time bomb tied to a bus driver.
The numbers on the bomb were still flashing and jumping, indicating that time was passing by minute by minute. The entire staff in the hall was terrified, as if the debris from the explosion of the bomb hundreds of kilometers away would also hurt them.
Liu Xing stood in front of the monitor desk and didn’t move, not because he didn’t want to leave this terrifying place, but because someone was looking at him with extreme calmness that prevented him from moving.
“Liu Xing, right? How many years have you been working here?”
“Six.”
“Then you should be familiar with the highway evacuation plan, right?”
Liu Xing saw the captain of the police criminal division hold down his mic and spoke to him.
He didn’t know why the person he had looked down on before suddenly became a different person. The policeman’s eyes were deep and beautiful, but what made him unable to move was that he saw trust in those eyes, which made him nod involuntarily.
“Arrange for the staff to evacuate the rest station in an orderly manner, and do not divulge the news of the time bomb to prevent panic.”
After Xing Conglian finished speaking, he released the mic and continued to speak at the other end of the phone. “Hello, sir. I am the Captain of the Hongjing Police Criminal Division. My name is Xing Conglian. Can you tell me how many people are on the bus right now?”
“Just one!” The security guard was anxious. “When can we leave? The bomb will explode in twenty-nine minutes! When will the police come?!”
Everyone in the know was taken aback when they heard this. The bus had twenty-six children and two chaperoned teachers. Where did those people go?!
Xing Conglian pressed Lin Chen’s hand and continued, “Now, please take out your phone and take two photos for me.” He paused and looked at the security guard on the screen, then said, “In the first picture, please aim it at the time bomb on the driver. The clearer you can capture the bomb, the better. In the second photo, please capture the bus and take several pictures of the environment around the bus.”
Soon, a response came from the other end. “It’s done. A lot of pictures have been taken!”
“Do you have WeChat? Please send it to me on WeChat.” Xing Conglian gave Wang Chao a wink. The technician quickly opened the WeChat interface on the laptop, ready to receive the photos.
“No, no. Don’t open the door.” On the other end of the line, he didn’t know who suggested the proposal, but Xing Conglian increased his volume to stop them.
Wang Chao was anxiously waiting for the photos on his laptop screen. Seeing that Xing Conglian was still talking on the phone, Lin Chen mumbled to himself in a low voice, “Twenty-nine minutes? Could it be there was a fuse on the time bomb that led from the door of the bus, and it was activated when the door was open?”
“I’m afraid that’s the case. Jiang Zhe was right about one thing. He wants to attract attention, but why not just blow up the bus in a parking lot and instead use a time bomb?” Lin Chen looked at the captain of the police criminal division, who had requisitioned two phones and was still on call non-stop, and continued, “He must ensure that when we find this bus, it won’t explode. Then installing a fuse on the lock was the easiest and most direct way. Once someone opens the door, the timer starts.”
“What about the children? Where have the children gone?”
“There are twenty-six children. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to hide them at the rest stop. It’s too conspicuous. Then the biggest possibility is that they got off the bus between Meicun and Langchuan.” Lin Chen leaned over slightly and said to Wang Chao, “Can you adjust the highway surveillance to check the trajectory of this bus?”
“A’Chen, I have to teach some science. Most surveillance cameras on highways are used to calculate the traffic flow and photograph illegal vehicles. Unless that bus happens to be photographed for illegal parking, the system will extract and filter out its license plate information. It’s going to take too much time and manpower to track it, and what we lack right now is both of that…”
“I’m asking you, can you or can’t you?” Lin Chen looked at Wang Chao, patted him on the head, and spoke very gently.
Wang Chao jolted and hurriedly said, “In theory, we can still use the OCR technology, which is the technology that scans paper documents and then recognizes them as text, to identify all the surveillance photos taken from Meicun to the Langchuan, within these four hours, and then retrieve the license plate of the bus, but…”
Lin Chen looked into Wang Chao’s eyes as if waiting for him to continue.
Wang Chao could only bite the bullet and say, “But, the module for filtering highway surveillance photos isn’t embedded with OCR technology…”
“So?”
“So… I will need to upgrade the system slightly…” Wang Chao gulped and looked at his captain and the chairman.
“Are you kidding me?! In case something happens to this system, can you afford to replace it?!”
“He doesn’t need to bear it. I will.” Xing Conglian pressed the chairman’s shoulder and said to Wang Chao, “Get started.”
The technician seemed to have been given a booster shot. He took two deep breaths and then said, “Alright, I just killed two Trojan horses for this system, so there won’t be any major problems. You can look at the photos on the computer at table 2. Finally, the girl who is playing poker at table 35, can we please use your phone number.”
After he finished speaking, the entire surveillance hall was so quiet that only the sound of electric current and heating remained.
Finally, Lin Chen sighed and asked Xing Conglian, “Where did you find this guy?”
“He owes me some money.”
“Must be a lot.”
“Yeah.”
At the same time, the pictures quickly came through. They walked to table 2 and looked at the photos.
In the photo, only the driver was tied to the cab. Other than that, the bus was empty inside. The twenty-six children and two teachers who were supposed to be sitting in their seats had disappeared out of thin air.
In the next photo, it could be clearly seen that the driver tied to the cab had struggled desperately. There was a simple time bomb tied to him.
The bomb had a simple structure. Above the detonator, lines of wires were exposed and intertwined, as if they were the terrifying blood vessels of a patient.
More importantly, there were only 27 minutes left on the countdown on the time bomb.
“You have to send a bomb disposal expert quickly!” Xing Conglian heard someone shout at him, but he ignored it and leaned down to look at the screen, constantly adjusting the photo position and angle.
“The bus is parked next to a gas station. In case the bomb goes off, the consequences will be unimaginable!”
“Captain Xing, you must think of a way.” Yang Dianfeng, who had been standing near Xing Conglian, finally spoke.
“It’s an isolated area.” Lin Chen looked at the man silently while he spoke slowly. “All the bomb disposal experts are in the city. Even if the lanes are cleared, it will take them at least an hour to make it to that rest stop.”
“Then what to do?!” Yang Dianfeng added, “Find someone to disarm the bomb at the scene? I have watched some movies. Can’t you tell them which wire to cut?”
“Real bomb disposal is very complicated.” Lin Chen looked at the time bomb on the screen. “It’s no different from suicide if you haven’t received professional training.”
“Then what do we do?!” The technician, who had his hands flying around as he wrote code, couldn’t help but interject.
“Continue to take chances.” Xing Conglian suddenly turned his head and said to Wang Chao, “Check if the rest station staff, the nearby traffic police, or any of the security guards have been in the army!”
Hearing what he said, Lin Chen suddenly looked at Xing Conglian and said, “How sure are you?”
“The time bomb’s structure isn’t very complicated. We just need to dismantle the ignition device between the detonator and the fuse. Therefore, I need someone with very stable hands who can handle the pressure of disarming a bomb.”
Lin Chen was silent for a moment. He raised his head and stared at the huge LED screen in front of him again. The left half of the screen had been switched to live surveillance by Wang Chao. The sea of people was vast. Where could he find such a person?
“You need a person with very good psychological quality, which means he has a strong resistance to stress, can abide by traffic rules even in chaos, keep vehicles moving in a straight line, and will even give way for traffic jams…” Lin Chen’s gaze quickly swept back and forth.
“Captain, our luck doesn’t seem to be very good. Among all the staff, there doesn’t seem to be any veterans… The security guards are all temporary workers, and I can’t transfer the information… The traffic police system isn’t connected to us. Should I hack it?”
“No need.” Lin Chen suddenly spoke. On the big screen, a white police car was driving into the rest stop against the flow of traffic. After that car, there were more than a dozen news cars of all shapes and sizes.
The white police car was as efficient as ever. It quickly drove into the parking space, and a young man in a police uniform opened the door and walked out.
Looking at the person on the screen, Lin Chen said lightly, “Huang Ze was a Special Ops. I’m pretty sure he has received professional bomb disposal training.”
Luck was both the most reliable and unreliable thing in the world. When it was good, it could make one feel omnipotent, but when it was bad, it could make one feel as if they were never going to get back on their feet.
So, if possible, people rarely took chances.
Lin Chen also thought that if they were lucky, the teenager was just playing a prank on the police, and they might encounter a crisis like a false alarm, maliciously causing car accidents, chemical leaks, or other such crises.
However, they now had a carload of children.
This was truly bad luck.
“Captain, two hours. It’s been two hours since the bus has been missing!” Wang Chao had seen many things and dealt with a lot of crises, but a bus carrying twenty-six children that had just gone missing still made him panic. “Within these two hours, if the bus was hijacked, it could be anywhere in the world!”
Xing Conglian finally managed to break free from all the continuous phone calls. When he hung up, his eyes were cold and his tone raw. “Talk properly. Think carefully before you tell me the exact radius,” he said to the technician.
Wang Chao sprang up in fright, snatched the white paper from Lin Chen’s hand, and continued to calculate.
“At an average speed of 80 kilometers an hour, the two-hour drive should be an area within a radius of about 160 kilometers,” Wang Chao said as he ran to the laptop and quickly typed up a piece of code. “Excluding the reed fields and traffic jam roads, the area they might reach is…”
The enter key was tapped softly. The center of the green topographic map was slowly covered by a red fan-shaped area.
“Take us to the surveillance center and line up all vehicles passing through the toll booths from within this radius.” Xing Conglian spoke to the chairman while turning the display screen towards him.
The chairman felt depressed. He had been in office for three years, but never had there been a large-scale incident. Suddenly, the police came to tell him he needed to shut down the highway for no precise reason. While he thought it was an exaggeration, with a school bus gone, could there really be such a coincidence in this world?
He still had some hope in his heart. “Captain Xing, no need to get excited. Every vehicle is equipped with GPS. You’ll know where the bus is if you just check it. How could it be lost…”
“GPS?” Xing Conglian looked at the chairman coldly. “Just now, my colleague told me that the GPS shows the bus should be in a reed field!”
“That’s impossible. The bus can’t drive into the reed field.”
Hearing this, Wang Chao stared wide-eyed and looked at Xing Conglian in disbelief. “Fuck, we were fooled by the GPS this morning. Captain, it’s not really that kid!”
“Even if the GPS fails, each bus is equipped with an autonomous call for help system. If something happens, our management center will automatically receive an alarm. There hasn’t been an alarm now. The bus should be fine. It may have broken down halfway and couldn’t be contacted. Maybe they’re in a blind spot where mobile signals can’t reach!”
Xing Conglian stared straight at the middle-aged man sitting on the sofa. He emphasized his tone as he spoke. “Take, me, to, the, surveillance, center.”
The Hongjing Highway surveillance center was on the first floor of the administration building. There were nearly a hundred staff stationed year-round there. As far as the eye could see, dense display screens stretched dizzyingly, and in the middle of the hall was a huge LED screen half the size of a basketball court, covering the entire area.
On the screen was a huge amount of information about traffic flow that it was impossible to search for one thing with the naked eye alone.
Assistant Liu Xing took out the keycard and opened the glass door.
The sound of an electronic beep was followed by the blowing of warm air.
The footsteps of six people were noisy and chaotic, smashing the quiet atmosphere of the space as if a rainstorm came hurling in. All the staff looked at them.
“Where is the main surveillance console?” Xing Conglian scanned the surroundings.
“There.” The chairman pointed to the location closest to the big screen.
Xing Conglian gave Wang Chao a wink. The technician pressed the brim of his hat down and ran towards the very front.
The chief technician sat in front of the main surveillance console. He suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up to see a very young boy.
“Excuse me, please.” Wang Chao grinned, bowed politely, and then squeezed past the chief technician.
After the middle-aged man was pushed away, he shouted unhappily. “Who are you?!”
“The police are here to handle a case. We’re from the police.” Wang Chao murmured to himself as he hit enter and said to Xing Conglian, “Captain, I’m in.”
“This is a staff-only area. Unrelated personnel aren’t allowed inside!” Watching the display screen quickly jump to another interface, the middle-aged man hurriedly rushed over to grab Wang Chao’s mouse.
At this moment, Xing Conglian stepped closer and said lightly, “Trust me, he’s more exposed to surveillance systems than you.”
“Rules are rules!” The middle-aged man said loudly when he saw the chairman walking up to them.
“What I am discussing with you now is the safety of twenty-six children, so shut it about rules!”
The captain of the police criminal division had a cold expression on his face. He stood still for a long time, exuding a compulsive aura.
The middle-aged man immediately fell silent, not daring to speak up again.
“Don’t worry. The core module for this system is the Infinova system. I used it when I hacked into Country X’s system. Don’t be nervous,” Wang Chao reassured.
“Exaggerating much?” Xing Conglian kicked Wang Chao’s chair. “Pull up records of toll stations around 8:30. Check the license plate.”
“Okay!” Wang Chao’s hands were flying while his mouth kept talking. “To check the license plate, you only need access to the toll station VLPR* system. Thanks to VLPR, we can automatically extract the detection video and grab the license plate number from the data it generates. In other words, the time to witness a miracle is coming. Five, four, three…”
*Vehicle License Plate Recognition. They have various names and acronyms, but it’s basically technology that automatically recognizes a car’s license plate and records them.
Before the countdown was over, Wang Chao’s hands stopped in the air. His entire body froze like a sculpture.
“What’s the matter?” Xing Conglian asked hurriedly.
“No…” He turned the screen to the side and pointed to the empty search results. “I set the time value after 8:30, but there’s no records showing the bus entering or leaving the toll station…” He subconsciously touched a pen and started to turn around. “This is impossible. The Hongjing Highway has a total length of 317 kilometers. It’s already 12:30. Almost 6 hours have passed. This is completely unscientific!”
As soon as the chairman heard this, he suddenly became energetic. “I told you that it could be that the bus had broken down and was probably parked on the side of the road. I’ll send a highway maintenance team to check on it.”
“Someone is already doing this.” Xing Conglian pondered for a moment. “We can think of the highway as a closed system. If the bus didn’t leave the highway, it means that it’s still somewhere on it. It can’t just disappear out of thin air. Except for temporary parking on the side of the road, the only possibility is a rest stop in the middle.
“From Meicun to Qiong Mountain, there are only two rest stops in the middle.” Wang Chao quickly checked the information. “There are a total of 270 parking spaces for large vehicles!”
“I’ll find a staff member to check on it right away,” the chairman said positively.
“Er! Can you wait a bit…”
While Wang Chao was talking, the surveillance video of the parking lot at the rest stop was brought up on screen. As the camera turned, the screen moved and switched rapidly, capturing various buses, vans, trucks, and a slew of other vehicles that quickly flashed by…
However, among all the various vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and colors, there was no figure of the bus with blue clouds on a white background.
“It seems that it is not at the Anting rest stop,” Wang Chao said, continuing to retrieve surveillance for the other rest stop.
The number of frames was flowing rapidly when suddenly Wang Chao stopped the camera.
“Here it is!”
He paused the video and pointed to the lower right corner of the screen.
On the edge of the parking lot, near the hidden corner of the trees, a white bus with blue clouds that were vaguely visible was parked.
“Notify the security guard at the rest stop to check on it. Be careful,” Xing Conglian said to the chairman, then he turned to look at Wang Chao again. “Zoom in.”
“Look!” Wang Chao expanded the image while he kept on chattering. “The surveillance system is relatively old, so the clarity isn’t that good. Don’t be too surprised if all you can see is mosaic people.”
“Stop!” Xing Conglian shouted.
Like Wang Chao said, the quality of the pixels on the surveillance camera at the highway rest station was too low. After zooming in a few times, the image became too blurred. Despite that, it could be seen from the image of the cloud pattern above the rear wheel that it was indeed the missing bus with twenty-six children.
The chairman breathed a sigh of relief while Lin Chen took a step forward and stood beside Xing Conglian. “There’s a problem. The curtains are drawn.”
Although the video was blurred, it could still be vaguely seen that the bus windows were completely blocked off by curtains, and everything inside the car wasn’t visible.
At this time, the notified security personnel had begun to rush into the parking lot.
“If it was you who tried to hijack a bus, would you make it this easy for others to find it?”
“Tell the security guards not to open the door!” As if realizing something, Xing Conglian shouted to the chairman, who had just hung up the phone.
“Why are you making such a fuss?!” The chairman muttered and unlocked his phone screen again. Before the call was connected, the security guards at the rest station had already reached the side of the bus.
The two security guards stood in front of the door, subconsciously reaching out to pull on the door handle.
The danger didn’t happen.
Everyone present seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Connect to the security guard’s walkie-talkie and tell them to record everything with their phones,” Xing Conglian ordered while grabbing his phone.
The security guard in the camera seemed to feel something and picked up the walkie-talkie.
“Hello, hello.” The hissing static of the walkie-talkie came into the earpiece.
“Sir, I need you to enter the bus carefully, while leaving the door open, and walk to the front of the bus to see what’s going on inside. If you hear anything, please aim the camera at the southwest corner, make an M sign, and nod.” Xing Conglian instructed clearly, speaking each syllable carefully.
After a while, the security guard on camera nodded. They bypassed the front door and walked to the front of the vehicle.
On the surveillance, the two of them could no longer be seen.
The surveillance hall suddenly became quiet. There was only a slight rustle that came from the cellphone. If they listened carefully, they could hear a vague conversation between the two security guards.
“There’s only the driver.”
“What is that?”
“Why is it blinking?”
“Is that a bomb?”
The entire room was silent. A second later, a panicked and hesitant voice rang from the headset.
The rainy day was really annoying. Every step Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman took was full of mud. The ruins weren’t difficult to find. The Order Supervisors had partitioned it off with fences and mechanical police dogs were stationed every two to three meters.
Major Ding sent an offline drone to drop off weapons from the Order Supervisors for them. They were dressed seamlessly. Everything was in place. They only needed a calm attitude.
The ruins, wet by the rain, revealed a suffocating gray and black color. Coupled with the orange light bar, it only made the scene go from bad to worse. Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman glanced at each other, raised their chests, and crossed the cordon of light.
Tang Yibu’s refuge was truly useful. The mechanical police dogs didn’t even move.
The central ruins of the Institute were right in front of them. It looked like a mausoleum being inspected by an archaeological team. There were waste bins and liquid silos with varying degrees of damage neatly stacked on one side. Countless machines that they couldn’t name were running around on the smooth ground that had been neatly cleaned up.
The fracture of the underground corridor was still exposed with a fixed rubber rope added around it. The entrance had a lot of scanning facilities. Compared to a pure ruins, it looked more like an abandoned bunker at first glance. There was a pothole with reinforced edges near the underground corridor. It was covered with a round canopy and had a ladder going deep underground. There was a bright red no-entry sign floating nearby, indicating that it wasn’t a suitable place to go.
Yu Le cleared his throat and stepped into the corridor ahead of Ji Xiaoman.
There was no one in the corridor except for the humid rain. The newly installed absorption lamp emitted a pale light as the two of them fearfully crept deeper. After turning the corner of the second corridor, they finally saw a figure.
The Order Supervisor had his head down and almost bumped into Yu Le. Fortunately, the mechanical life that followed him was fast and took the lead in grabbing his clothes.
“New here?” The man glanced at Yu Le’s outfit and muttered, “What we want is a scanner…”
“The weather conditions outside aren’t good. The scanner is a precision machine, so it’s not suitable for immediate transportation,” Ji Xiaoman said after taking a breath. “Mr. Yu and I will take a look at the situation on the scene so we can make plans for the next transport.”
“Ah.” The man was obviously not interested in meeting new friends. He turned his gaze back to his feet. “Okay, besides, we can’t finish sweeping that thing underground in a day or two.”
Yu Le thought for a while. “What’s with that pothole outside? It’s covered with a canopy and has a ladder, but entry is forbidden.”
“You didn’t receive the notice?”
“It was raining heavily on the road, so I didn’t have time to read it.” Yu Le’s face didn’t change in the slightest.
“We found the remnants of the S-type Prototype there, so we took samples. Although there’s a road to the underground, it’s equipped with a powerful perceptual camouflage, so general machines can’t work normally there.” The man spoke quickly. “You’d better not go down. After all, Ruan Xian… If you break anything that’s valuable, your contribution point will be deducted.”
“Other paths don’t matter.” Since the Order Supervisors had discovered the attack machine, there had to be other routes. The environment was dangerous, and Yu Le didn’t want to lose communication with Tang Yibu.
“It’s okay… Just keep walking this way. The entrance is easy to find, but the place is a little deep,” the man said hurriedly. “You can read the notice for yourself. I have to go get the lab test results.”
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Yu Le touched his chin solemnly. Without feeling his stubble, he felt strange. “Let’s go, Xiao…Man*.”
*Clarity: Yu Le almost made the mistake of calling Ji Xiaoman Little Profiteer (her nickname), so he quickly changed it to Xiao (little) Man.
As they went deeper, the number of Order Supervisors increased. Most of them didn’t look like combatants but more like researchers. The hall that connected to the corridor had been completely transformed. It was orderly and clean, without the slightest smell of ruins. People were busy at the table covered in light screens so that with just one step they would bump into one.
The two puffed up their chests, held their breath, and carefully bypassed the busy Order Supervisors.
“Go to the left. You should be able to see a door marked D-11.” Tang Yibu’s voice finally came from the earphones, sounding as if he had just woken up. “Wait for me for ten seconds… Okay, now, directly go and scan your electronic wristband. You should be able to get in. Although I temporarily hacked the facial recognition here, the Mainbrain has a strong anti-modification program. You’d better stay away from any cameras.”
“Easier said than done.” Yu Le squeezed the words out from between his teeth.
“At present, you’re on the first floor of the basement. According to the information on my side, the attack machine is on the tenth floor underground. You have to go through layers of identity checks before entering. That’s the hard part.”
“I have a hunch that I’m not going to get out. I’m starting to regret it again.”
“The tenth floor only has the attack machine. Don’t worry,” Tang Yibu said, sounding as if he was holding back a yawn. “According to my understanding of Ruan Xian, once you activate it, in order to prevent possible attacks, the entire tenth floor will quickly go into lockdown. During the operation of the machine, no one can interfere with you—even the Mainbrain will take a while before it can break through into the room.”
“…This doesn’t put me at ease at all,” Yu Le said. “Under the nose of the Mainbrain, it will firmly lock the tenth floor of the basement. Are you really sure we can get out?”
“If we succeed, you can come out normally. If we fail… I guess there should be a launch port for people to escape near the machine. Miss Ji will definitely be able to find it.”
“You guess?!”
“Professor Ruan originally put me in his plan, so he wouldn’t let me easily get buried with him. Even if we fail, the attention of the Mainbrain will be focused on us. Rest assured.”
“Is it really okay to rely on the machine alone?” Ji Xiaoman’s focus was elsewhere. “Are you sure you don’t need us to send some virus program? If you just start this machine…”
It seemed that there was no practical use except to scare the Mainbrain. Ji Xiaoman had heard of the usefulness of this thing. It could wirelessly connect to the nervous center through specific information and then attack the core program of the Mainbrain from a long distance. But now they didn’t have Professor Ruan or Tang Yibu to operate it in person, and secondly, they didn’t plan to connect it to anyone’s brain. Finally, they didn’t have an attack program to act as a bullet.
“Aside from what Professor Ruan originally planned to do with it, it’s just a communication machine.”
For some reason, Tang Yibu today sounded a lot more patient.
“Mr. Ruan and I have made a real program. When the time comes, you can directly connect with us.”
The two stepped on the tiles and proceeded cautiously towards the elevator. From time to time, Order Supervisors, immersed in their own world, passed by them. After just a few hundred meters, Yu Le’s back was completely soaked in sweat.
He hoped this was worth it and hoped Tu Rui could hold out until they finished this. Yu Le tried his best to maintain a natural pace, always half a step ahead of Ji Xiaoman as they headed towards their destination.
The edge of the desert.
Tang Yibu woke up. He rubbed his eyes and gulped down an entire bottle of water. The iron bead seemed tired. It didn’t eat anymore, but just rattled as it drove the car wildly.
In the evening sun, the desert glowed slightly red. From a distance, the border between the sky and the desert was still empty. The Mainbrain hid its own body very well—if it weren’t for the S-type Prototype, this kind of perceptual interference would indeed be effective.
“The temperature in the southwest direction is abnormal.” Ruan Xian casually handed Tang Yibu a hot towel to wipe his face. “But I’m not too sure. I’ll have to get π to go closer so I can take a look.”
“Gwah!”
Tang Yibu covered his face with the hot towel and whispered, “It’s almost dark.”
“The moon is dark, and the wind is high at night. It’s just right… Wait, π speed up now!”
“Why?”
“Something’s approaching,” Ruan Xian vigilantly said. “The speed is very fast, and the smell is a bit like M-β and R-β. It seems that our direction is right.”
Tang Yibu immediately became energetic.
The two looked at each other and found a subtle reluctance in each other’s eyes. Ruan Xian moved his body, leaned in front of Tang Yibu, and directly looked into his eyes.
It was as beautiful as ever, just like the day they first met. At this time, the cold and hard beast was looking around nervously. Ruan Xian held Tang Yibu’s face with both hands so he could stop him from looking around and kissed him decisively.
The tip of his tongue swept across Tang Yibu’s and stayed here for a long time. Tang Yibu was shocked, just like how he was at the very beginning, but there was no anger in his expression. He accepted the kiss a little nervously, without any resistance.
Ruan Xian rubbed his finger on Tang Yibu’s face. “You should go.”
Tang Yibu silently prepared his backpack, picked up π, and handed over control of the car to Ruan Xian. The latter didn’t ask for too complicated manipulation rights. The light screen alone could do the operations—he only needed to aim and accelerate the car to its maximum speed.
Tang Yibu opened the car door and rolled into the sand that was starting to get cold. The armored off-roader rushed to the hidden body of the Mainbrain at a crazy speed. It whizzed past the defensive net and through the heavy gaps in the hidden building. The physical defense of the Mainbrain took effect. Machine guards started firing heavy artillery at the car, burning it and riddling it with countless holes. Seeing a machine that used EMP attacks, the car spewed out an explosive wind and sprinted diagonally upwards.
Naturally, the defenses of the Mainbrain wouldn’t be easy to break through.
The distance was close enough that Tang Yibu could see the Mainbrain’s body. Compared with the huge combination of various cubes, the size of the armored off-roader was like a harmless moth. It trailed a long tail of burning smoke, rushed towards the core of the Mainbrain, and then exploded on the last layer of the Mainbrain’s defense network.
Tang Yibu closed his eyes. The sand under his feet was a little cold. This wasn’t a simulation or exercise. He was walking into reality, and it was now time to continue.
The calculation cubes that made up the body of the Mainbrain continued to rotate. A bloody hand suddenly grabbed one of the black cubes. The hand was still burning, and the damaged skin showed dark red muscles recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye. Ruan Xian coughed with difficulty, holding back the pain of burning in his lungs as he kept squeezing the cube that was constantly changing shape.
Blue arcs of light were still firmly attached to these small cubes, carrying a high temperature that a human body couldn’t tolerate. Ruan Xian endured the hot air and slowly moved towards the center of the Mainbrain. His blood stained the nearby cubes, creating sizzling sounds in the high heat.
Ruan Xian didn’t bother to destroy the body of the Mainbrain. He didn’t even take out his blood gun. Not to mention that he had the S-type Prototype, even if Tang Yibu could forcibly deal with the high temperature, it was difficult to physically destroy such a behemoth—these black metal cubes were probably made of the hardest material in the world.
He pushed aside the hot metal cubes in front of him and moved patiently towards his destination amidst the scorching smell of flesh. The cleaning machines of the Mainbrain started to gather. They swept over Ruan Xian’s limbs, cutting off pieces of flesh, but Ruan Xian didn’t bother with them—he only needed to guarantee one thing. As long as the mechanical box tied to his back wasn’t removed, the plan would not be affected.
The mechanical box was big and heavy, but he didn’t have time to rest. The pain was eating him, and Ruan Xian wasn’t sure if he would have the stamina to continue.
He had to hang on for a while. He couldn’t waste any time. Every minute, every second that he held on to here was bought by Tang Yibu out there.
The garrison obviously found this abnormality that couldn’t be cleaned up, but the Mainbrain’s body was too strong and the metal cubes too dense. This had never happened before, so everyone was at a loss—the solid black cubes became the greatest barrier and even the smallest guide. Bullets couldn’t penetrate through them.
But it was only a person made of flesh and blood with a mechanical box the size of only one cubic meter, so he wouldn’t be able to make any waves—even if the person was carrying a nuclear bomb, the Mainbrain only needed to temporarily adjust its shape and establish a closed network to minimize the damage. If this was some kind of secret weapon, it didn’t seem complex given the size.
Even if the Mainbrain could be destroyed, it certainly wouldn’t be by the hands of such a thing.
The leader of the garrison thought for a while. “Connect me to Commander Zhuo. Report this matter and do your best to deal with the one outside.”
“Yes.”
Ruan Xian could faintly hear these conversations, but his attention was completely focused on other places…
At the core of the huge square formation, a black cube the size of a human head was silently rotating. There were thousands of black cubes spinning uncontrollably, with blue arcs of light connecting them. Surrounded by such a sight, this thing didn’t look conspicuous at all.
But he still found it.
Ruan Xian’s vision was a bit blurred, and he began to pull fresh memories from his head so that he could refresh himself.
Not long ago, it was just him and Tang Yibu. Under the star in the sky, they happily gestured various plans on the light screen, as if it was some kind of interesting game.
At that time, Tang Yibu wasn’t so anxious.
[When I was on the Mainbrain’s side, there was a food sand table.] Tang Yibu produced a video. [Explain it Mr. Ruan.]
[You’ve written down the basic structure of Professor Ruan’s spare machine.] Ruan Xian gestured. [This new information is very important.]
[Tell me about it?]
[In theory, this is a simplified version of Professor Ruan’s preferred plan. You see, even if the attack machine of the forest petri dish was exposed by me, considering the research cost, his combat thinking would not change too much—this alternate version is more like a solidarity core. He has to use hardware from other petri dishes in order to achieve the connection effect similar to the completed machine.]
[This is indeed the most reasonable choice.] Tang Yibu’s eyes flashed in the night. [Is there any problem? …Ah.]
[Yes.] Seeing Tang Yibu coming back to his senses, Ruan Xian smiled. [The attack machine in the forest petri dish was exposed by me, so the Mainbrain will look for it and study it as soon as possible, and by default, it will not be used in the war.]
[Because Professor Ruan is aware of the exposure, he will definitely not risk going to the forest petri dish.] Tang Yibu took over. [But it’s still able to function properly.]
[Yeah. It’s not bad to borrow it. It would be a shame to waste such a big project.]
[But we still don’t have external resources… Without it, it’s just a powerful signal transmitter. It can’t do much with the Mainbrain watching over us.]
[The premise is that we do the normal connection method—use it as the main attack machine, find external resources, enhance the signal, and ensure the strength of communication. What if we treat it as ‘external hardware’?]
[Wait, Mr. Ruan. Did you mean at the time…】
[Nn.]
[No, it still won’t work.] Tang Yibu calculated for a while. [If this was feasible, Professor Ruan himself would use this approach—even if we use the spare machine as the main tool and the one in the forest petri dish as the external hardware, the strength still isn’t enough to destroy the Mainbrain.]
[Even if you consider the weakness of the Mainbrain?]
[I’ve considered it. I’ve also considered the lack of support caused by the chaos of the small and medium-sized strongholds.]
[Hm…]
[Even if Professor Ruan lends us his attack program and I try my best, at most I can only hit it hard.] Tang Yibu fumed on his own. [But this direction is reasonable. It seems that to truly eliminate MUL-01, we still have to cooperate with Professor Ruan—we first hit it hard, then Professor Ruan will follow up and use his own set of mechanical attacks. This will work, Mr. Ruan, and the odds of winning are much better.
[No. By the time Professor Ruan’s attack program is completed, the Mainbrain will already be in a fully prepared state. We may not be able to approach it successfully with the backup machine as we are now—the farther away we are, the worse the connection. Counting the Mainbrain’s war-level defenses, it’s hard to say what the effect will be.]
The Mainbrain had the instinct to live in spite of everything. Even if it couldn’t win, it would still make things ugly until the very end.
…Wait. They could win “in theory” like this.
[Yibu, I have an idea.]
A string of blisters burned on the palm of Ruan Xian’s hand. The new pain dispersed his memories. Ruan Xian adjusted his breathing and continued to move towards the center of the Mainbrain—finally, he stopped next to it and unlocked the mechanical box behind him.
The temporary spare machine could withstand the high temperature. Time was limited. They modified many places and didn’t perfectly restore Professor Ruan’s design, but the current distance advantage could make up for this shortfall.
The spare machine started and was tightly absorbed next to the core of the Mainbrain.
“Yu Le, do it.” After delivering the message, Ruan Xian picked up the mechanical helmet-like connector. He made mental preparations for a while before putting it on his head—it was like a head device used to treat mental illness in the early years. After tightening it on his head, several long needles penetrated into his brain.
Ruan Xian thought bitterly that at least this was better than Professor Ruan’s situation. He didn’t have to embed his brain directly into the machine.
Then the scene in front of him turned snow-white.
It was coming.
The program stimulated and modified visual signals. There was only a small, snow-white room in front of him, and all four of its sides continued to expand. Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman had activated the device in the forest petri dish according to their agreement, which effectively enhanced their connection and computing power.
The space was getting bigger and countless fluorescent blue spots of light were flashing around. Those were all mental cores that could be connected. Most likely, they were mechanical life near the desert. Ruan Xian ignored them and continued to look around.
A huge golden light mass, as dazzling as the sun, floated near him—that should be Tang Yibu’s mental core. Ruan Xian stretched out a hand and touched it tentatively, but before his finger approached, an overwhelming forbidden signal was erected near the mass.
“If I could hack NUL-00 so easily, I would have done this a long time ago.” A voice sounded.
Ruan Xian retracted his hand and turned his head. His goal was just a few steps away.
Since the invasion point was next to the Mainbrain’s body, Ruan Xian didn’t need to work hard to distinguish possible interference signals. The Mainbrain had no plans to go in circles with him. In this cyber world, the Mainbrain once again used the same image as Tang Yibu.
He successfully avoided the early invasion war of attrition and came into direct contact with it.
“I really didn’t calculate this, but your approach is meaningless,” “Tang Yibu” said. “Since the start of when you entered my city, your actions with NUL-00 have lost common sense.”
“But it doesn’t matter. Here, your winning rate is 0%.” The Mainbrain stretched out a hand. “Thank you for your recklessness. This can be regarded as an exercise to deal with Ruan Xian.”
The huge space was immediately filled with countless flowing characters. Ruan Xian recognized some of them.
The Mainbrain was trying to seize control of him and decipher their possible attack plans. Ruan Xian used his thinking to mobilize the system a little jerkily. With the core logic of the Mainbrain clear, several screens of characters rose in a row. He barely blocked the first wave of attempts at the cost of pain that penetrated deeply into the marrows of his brain.
Professor Ruan’s initial plan was indeed reasonable. Without the necessary external forces, their “computing resources” were too disparate. Compared to Professor Ruan, his only advantage was probably “after suffering brain damage, he will not die too quickly”.
But this was enough. He only needed to hold on for a while.
Ruan Xian quietly activated the procedures he and Tang Yibu had perfected and continued to confront the Mainbrain.
Perceiving Ruan Xian’s way of resistance, the virtual image of the Mainbrain became unstable for a moment, showing uncomfortable distortions and flickering.
“It seems that there is no need to wait for the results. There is indeed a problem with Hu Shuli’s report.” The distorted shadow resembling a human form opened its mouth, and its tone became somewhat strange. “You have been exposed to my core logic and understand it deeply.”
MUL-01 finally stabilized its image again, and the expression on its face completely disappeared.
Professor Ruan was still nervously preparing his battle plans, so it was naturally impossible for him to answer MUL-01’s question. At present, the attack program hadn’t been completed. He acquiesced to Tang Yibu’s tossing outside—as long as NUL-00 could contribute when it was time to do so, Professor Ruan didn’t want to bind it too tightly.
After all, it was acting with its true creator. With NUL-00 staring at him, it wouldn’t be easy for Ruan Xian to compromise with the Mainbrain.
He had no position to command the two of them, and it was easy for things to backfire if he pushed too hard. Professor Ruan maintained this cooperative relationship but had secretly asked people to observe the whereabouts of the two of them. Whether it was them playing whack-a-mole at the various small and medium-sized strongholds, to riding into the desert, he didn’t mean to intervene for the time being.
They had wisdom and strength, but even a clever woman couldn’t cook without rice*. Even if they stood in front of the Mainbrain’s body, two people alone couldn’t make much of a storm.
*(巧妇难为无米之炊) Proverb meaning lacking the necessary conditions, it’s difficult for even capable people to accomplish things.
As far as his latest information was concerned, the damaged armored off-roader was heading deep into the dessert. Those two people were probably taking advantage of the chaos to spy on more intel. At least this was what Professor Ruan concluded—he couldn’t think of what else they could do.
Well, his information wasn’t wrong.
The morning of the last day had arrived. The sun was shining bright. The top of the armored off-roader unfolded its sun panels. Outside the window was only endless desert. The dull scenery made the iron bead less enthusiastic. It was no longer humming but was slowly chewing on parts on the side as it drove the car smoothly.
Ruan Xian sat leaning against the window of the car, watching the sand dunes outside slowly recede. The armored off-roader seemed to be sailing on a sandy and golden ocean. Tang Yibu was no longer attacking the strongholds under the Mainbrain. Their test had been completed—the assembled machinery lay quietly beside Ruan Xian, and the procedure contained in it only needed a final correction.
Tang Yibu was once again eating something. Even with the air conditioning in the car, the heat radiating from outside still made the android look sick. He rubbed against the temporary bed that was made of seats connected together and scuttled next to Ruan Xian.
Ruan Xian didn’t avoid allowing Tang Yibu to lean on his shoulders.
Yu Le’s and Ji Xiaoman’s escape presented a great opportunity, allowing the start of a chain of chaos. Without Professor Ruan’s intervention in this matter, the possibility of the Mainbrain reacting in advance was extremely low. However, under the control of the Mainbrain, the butterfly effect was ultimately limited. Once the 24 hours had passed, those small and medium-sized strongholds would recover from the chaos, and they would lose their best chance of attacking.
Success or failure was at stake here.
After attacking hundreds of strongholds in a row, Tang Yibu felt tired. With one hand, Ruan Xian manipulated the one cubic meter-sized machinery and continued to improve the program inside. His other hand was wrapped around Tang Yibu, letting him lie in his lap.
“Get some sleep.” Ruan Xian lowered the curtains and said to the listless Tang Yibu, “The next part is a protracted battle. It’s better to accumulate as much energy as possible.”
Tang Yibu hummed, and obediently lay down on Ruan Xian’s lap. He didn’t close his eyes immediately, but half squinted them, staring at Ruan Xian’s neck from the bottom up, and holding the bag in his arms tighter—Ruan Xian took enough blood and made countless blood compresses along the way. They were packed together with high-calorie food in Tang Yibu’s backpack and waist bag.
He still wasn’t used to the feeling of not having absolute control over the overall situation.
“You told me, ‘Any action has a rhythm. You just need to catch it and pull the trigger, and too much thinking can disrupt that rhythm’… I think this statement is extremely applicable to combat.” Perceiving the other party’s uneasiness, Ruan Xian stopped the movements in his hand.
“That’s because I have the power to make sure there won’t be any problems,” Tang Yibu whispered.
“Now… The Mainbrain must’ve discovered our movements, so it’ll also send M-β and R-β over. They must have been upgraded. The same tactics cannot be used a second time. We don’t have an advantage in combat power.”
Ruan Xian didn’t answer immediately, but just listened carefully.
“In case it finds out that you are Ruan Xian, the number of troops to suppress us will only increase. Mr. Ruan, in case something goes wrong…”
“You can escape at any time. If you want to run away with all your strength, I guarantee you can run away.”
“I know,” Tang Yibu muttered. His entire body tensed up, but he still held his gaze at Ruan Xian.
He wasn’t sure if it was physical fatigue… but this was the first time Ruan Xian had seen Tang Yibu so anxious. He set the program to a self-test state, freed up his hands, and pressed his fingers on Tang Yibu’s head, gently massaging the other’s scalp.
“Are you nervous?” Tang Yibu stretched his taut body a little.
“More like I’m feeling an element of anticipation.” Ruan Xian thought for a while before saying, “Everything has to have a result.”’
“…” Tang Yibu was silent for half a minute. Ruan Xian had just planned to stop massaging when Tang Yibu spoke again. “But I’m still anxious.”
“That the plan will fail and we’ll lose to the Mainbrain?” Ruan Xian put his hand back when he saw this and continued massaging. Tang Yibu’s hair was smooth and soft, and he liked the feeling of it.
“No,” Tang Yibu replied sullenly. “Like you said, we’re going to get a result. The Mainbrain is quite persuasive. It was fine when it doesn’t know who you are, but if it finds out your identity in the process—Ruan Xian’s DNA fused with the S-type Prototype—it will definitely go to great lengths to convince you in the face of such a precious resource.”
He held his breath for a moment.
“I know we have discussed these issues, and this is just worthless repetition… but I can’t help it. Now I even want to go back and take you to Professor Ruan’s side and choose a slow attack method. Although the danger is a bit higher, we don’t need to directly confront the Mainbrain.”
“Didn’t you really want to confirm it at first?” Ruan Xian raised his eyebrows.
Facing the Mainbrain was a crisis that couldn’t be surpassed. If he could make it through, Tang Yibu would calmly throw away his doubts; if he couldn’t make it through and chose to betray, then a judgement would be reached on their relationship, and Tang Yibu would still have the opportunity to “deal” with him. Ruan Xian originally thought this was the least problematic part of the process, but Tang Yibu was nervous because of this point.
“I like this now.” Tang Yibu couldn’t answer the question. “I don’t want it to end.”
Ruan Xian stopped moving. The car continued to move quietly in the sea of sand. He didn’t say anything more, but continued to gently massage Tang Yibu’s scalp, all the way to the roots of his ears, quietly listening to the android’s babbling, lowering his entire sense of security in his body.
The android continued to mutter and kept talking about all the possibilities they hadn’t chosen, as if he intended to put them into practice with his mouth, but when Ruan Xian’s massaging moved faster, Tang Yibu’s speed of speech would almost increase, and when he slowed down, Tang Yibu would match it as well.
This guy was quite cute when he was nervous. This was the first time he had seen Tang Yibu nervous like this. Ruan Xian moved his posture so that Tang Yibu could lie flatter. The afternoon sun was getting hotter, so he pulled the curtains tighter. The program had completed the self-test and made a soft beep, which Ruan Xian quickly turned off.
In the gentle bumps of the off-road, Tang Yibu eventually fell asleep.
He no longer slept like a vampire in a coffin like when they first met. At the moment, Tang Yibu was resting on his lap, curled up, sleeping like a baby close to its mother’s body. His breathing was even and long, and his brows frowned slightly.
Ruan Xian moved his body cautiously, trying to smooth the wrinkles between the android’s eyebrows.
“…Just like you, I don’t want to end,” he whispered. “Unfortunately, like you, I also want more.”
Forest petri dish.
Yu Le tugged at his clothes and pulled at his collar uncomfortably. His stubbles were shaved, and the dust and oil on his face were also cleaned up. Coupled with the uniform of the Order Supervisors, a bit of age-appropriate majesty emerged from him. The edges of Ji Xiaoman’s hair were neatly cut, and it was combed and no longer messy. With her usual indifferent expression, she looked like a young, orderly woman.
“It’s really uncomfortable.” Yu Le tugged at his neckline again.
Ji Xiaoman, on the other hand, nervously confirmed her gloves, pulling them tighter over and over again to ensure that her prosthetics wouldn’t be exposed by her movements.
“I have prepared the required documents for you and have clearly marked the destination you want. Mr. Yu is a ruins pirate, so there should be no problem with his sense of direction.” Guan Haiming looked up at the two of them. “For weapons, Major Ding will provide some, but the system over there; even he couldn’t intervene, so I personally can’t do anything about it.”
“Tang… NUL-00 will help us. Don’t worry about this.” Yu Le was so nervous that his stomach hurt. “But the detection device…”
“Order Supervisors’ detection machines have a number on them, so we can’t get them. Using the detectors here will expose you, so you can only rely on yourself along the way.” Guan Haiming shook his head.
“It’s okay. It’s not far anyway.” Yu Le tentatively straightened his back, imitating the movement of an Order Supervisor. “Is there anything else to pay attention to?”
“Don’t contact anyone other than NUL-00. Once you blend in with the Order Supervisors, without Major Ding’s help, we have no way to bypass the Mainbrain’s alert system.” Guan Haiming sat down behind his desk. “We don’t accept temporary distress calls and we can’t provide reinforcements.”
“Great, just the kind of backup support I want.” Yu Le laughed dryly.
Ji Xiaoman rolled her eyes and glanced at Yu Le, who quickly changed his dry laugh to a dry cough.
“I don’t understand NUL-00’s intentions.” Guan Haiming sighed. He still couldn’t hold back from asking questions. “Why does he want the two of you to go to the ruins of the Institute? Why do you think you’ll encounter Order Supervisors there?”
“You can ask Professor Ruan about this in the future. I think he will answer you.” Yu Le adjusted his facial expression. He breathed in his hand, twisted his eyebrows, and smelt it. “Is there a unified mouthwash for the Order Supervisors?”
“We’re not going to their stronghold.” Ji Xiaoman started pulling on Yu Le. “It’s almost time.”
“Ugh.” Yu Le wiped his hands on his clothes. “Let’s go. On the bright side, at this time tomorrow, we’ll be liberated—no matter what kind of liberation it is.”
“Don’t crack such jokes!”
“Okay, okay. Ah, Little Profiteer, are you really angry?”
“The situation outside has been determined. I also asked Zhang Ge and the others to scout it out. There’s not a lot of dangerous mechanical life or ventral cockroach movements nearby, but it’s a bit troublesome when it rains, making the path difficult to walk on. However, the way there shouldn’t have problems.”
“What else can we do? Let’s go.” Yu Le shook his head. “Thank you, Xiao Ding.”
Ding Zepeng stopped the electronic map in front of Yu Le and gave a long pause.
“Although I don’t know what you plan to do… I hope you have a smooth journey,” he said. “When the time comes, I’ll definitely pick you up.”
“Thanks for the auspicious words.”
Ji Xiaoman looked at the electronic landscape outside the fake window and then retracted her gaze. “…Thank you.”
Zhong Qing and A’Qiao were left in the refuge. Considering Zhong Qing’s chatterbox personality, Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman tacitly remained silent. Now that they had stepped out of the refuge again, it was just the two of them alone.
“I kind of miss the iron bead.” Yu Le breathed in the moist air. “Well, in 10,000 steps, perhaps an iron coffin will do.”
“Let’s go.” Ji Xiaoman touched the modified electronic wristband and whispered, “We’ll see them again.”
Their destination was easy to find—a collapsed corridor with a solid triangle propped up by several cement slabs at the entrance. Standing near the pile of ruins, they could see the memory city not far away.
At least that was what Ruan Xian described to them at the beginning.
[There is definitely a strong perceptual camouflage in that place, so Professor Ruan hid the S-type Prototype there with peace of mind. Perceptual camouflage isn’t easy to maintain. He won’t make another one in the same petri dish. Rather than dispersing resources, it’s best to just make the best one.] Not long ago, in the bumpy armored off-roader, Ruan Xian explained. [In other words, the machine he originally planned to use to attack the Mainbrain is nearby.]
[But how do we find it?] Ji Xiaoman bluntly asked.
[You don’t need to find it. When I was on the Mainbrain’s side, I leaked part of Professor Ruan’s plan. The Mainbrain can also find the petri dish where “Ruan Lijie” first appeared. Combined with the information from the S-type Prototype, it’s not difficult to determine where the attack machine is located.] Ruan Xian answered simply.
[And after “Ruan Lijie” leaked the secret, it can also be assumed that Professor Ruan will probably abandon this plan as a result.] Tang Yibu naturally took over. [If I were it, I would definitely send some Order Supervisors and scour every inch of land in the forest petri dish as soon as possible, find this attack device, and analyze it—the ruins of the Institute must be one of the first suspected locations. Most likely, the Mainbrain have already found it.]
[Haa… Do you want us to infiltrate and be the oriole behind the mantis? We’re not quite qualified for that, are we? The Little Profiteer knows a bit about machines but what can I do? Make things livelier? Wait, you don’t want us to destroy the thing, do you? We’ll definitely not be able to preserve our lives, so we won’t do it.]
Hu Shuli returned to his residence. Since the Mainbrain sent him an urgent job and the results were due in the morning, he had to take his work home to study it—his own residence was better than his office and at least someone would accompany him.
As usual, as soon as he entered the door, his wife smiled at him. The layout here was exactly the same as his home before the Great Rebellion. The view from the windows was well simulated. Stepping through the door, all memories of the doomsday were inconsequential, like waking up from a nightmare and finding yourself lying in a warm, familiar bed.
In order to save the dead, people in stories would make a deal with the devil, but he didn’t need to give his soul. All he needed to do was make a wish to the Mainbrain and continue his work.
“Come and eat. I made wontons today.” His wife looked extremely healthy. She was putting fresh flowers in a vase. The housekeeping robot was cleaning on the side, vacuuming the floor. “Why are you back so late again?”
“Busy at work.” Hu Shuli smiled at her. “I have to work overtime today, so let the housekeeper do it.”
“Oh, but I already stewed up some chicken soup.” There was no hint of complaint in his wife’s tone. “You’re staying up all night, Lao Hu? Why don’t I make you a bowl first so you can replenish your body.”
“No, it’s not such an exaggerated job. Just DNA comparison.” Hu Shuli’s expression softened. “How about you?”
“Same as always. I met a few unpleasant clients today. I’m telling you that Lao Sun…”
While listening to his wife’s nagging, Hu Shuli found a comfortable spot in the living room and pulled up a light screen. He used to hate it when his wife muttered these trivial things, but now he was more than happy to use them as background noise as he worked. It made him feel at ease.
The young man surnamed Ruan was too young. His eyes couldn’t tolerate any sand and everything needed to be pure. In contrast, Hu Shuli was already old and wasn’t as confused. He didn’t want to tear open his scars over and over again, and escape wasn’t a solution.
Ruan Lijie’s attitude made him secretly angry as well as gave rise to an unknown anxiety. He had been extremely attentive to that young man. Everything he said was soft, and he took great care with his words, but Ruan Lijie didn’t appreciate it.
Ruan Xian couldn’t win, so why couldn’t the young man face reality?
“Lao Hu, do you want to eat pears? I can wash them for you. The housekeeper’s chicken soup is also quite good…” His wife was still nagging.
“Eat.” Hu Shuli stared at the light screen in front of him.
He had proven the mother-child relationship between Ruan Yuchan and Ruan Lijie, but the Mainbrain wasn’t satisfied with this result. It asked him to analyze the gene fragments of the S-type Prototype and compare them to the characteristics of the disease Ruan Xian suffered from.
Hu Shuli had his own set of conjectures—the birth of the S-type Prototype was probably Ruan Xian’s intention of treating himself, but they couldn’t obtain Ruan Xian’s complete DNA. Since the S-type Prototype was highly suitable for those two people, they may have a certain kinship with Ruan Xian.
The Mainbrain could develop a virus specifically for Ruan Xian by analyzing their genetic characteristics.
But these issues belonged outside the door. Hu Shuli took a breath and continued checking the jumping numbers on the light screen. He had been busy with this matter for a day, and now he only needed to compare the final data and the question of “whether Ruan Lijie and Ruan Xian are related” would be proven. Next, he only needed to verify some details and apply the finishing touches.
After entering the final parameters, the analysis bar reached 97.59%.
His wife approached with two pears that had been peeled. She picked up a piece and brought it in front of Hu Shuli. Hu Shuli was looking at the number solemnly, and he subconsciously stretched out his hand to block it. He inadvertently used too much force when pushing his wife’s hand away that he caused her to drop the pear. The snow-white pear rolled onto the carpet, no longer suitable to be eaten.
Hu Shuli shrank his neck—his wife didn’t like him working overtime at home. This would most likely cause her temper to explode, and then he would inevitably suffer a scolding.
As a result, his wife just smiled, without the slightest hint of anger, but looked distressed.
“Look at how busy you are.” She picked up the pear. “I’ll wash it again. It’s cold in autumn, so I’ll add it to a stew with some rock sugar.”
Hu Shuli was taken aback by this reaction.
The time for self-deception had come again. He closed his eyes, calmed his breathing, and didn’t bother to look at the readings that came at the end. “It’s been hard on you.”
“We’re family. What are you talking about?” His wife left the living room.
Hu Shuli wiped his face hard twice before looking at the result, and then he was really stunned.
As one of the top researchers under the Mainbrain, he defected from Ruan Xian. He had been responsible for many analysis cases of Ruan Xian’s genetic information. He didn’t even need to compare, as he could recognize it empirically—Ruan Lijie’s genetic data was almost exactly the same as the recoverable parts of Ruan Xian’s DNA.
Hu Shuli was shocked and deliberately changed several algorithms, but the value on Ruan Lijie’s side didn’t change. This wasn’t a calculation error.
Ruan Lijie was most likely to be “Ruan Xian”, or Ruan Xian’s clone.
But he had been with Ruan Xian for so long, and he knew that Ruan Xian had never cultivated a clone—simply cloning a body was fine. In terms of personality, this wasn’t a replica of some random person. To give “another Ruan Xian” a complete personality, Ruan Xian himself would inevitably participate in the process, and that was a workload that one person couldn’t complete.
Hu Shuli’s fingers trembled a little and he started sweating suddenly.
Who is Ruan Lijie? If he’s Ruan Xian’s clone, why would Ruan Xian make such a clone and allow him to run around with his own DNA? This didn’t make sense, but if it wasn’t Ruan Xian’s clone, what could it be?
He had a ridiculous guess.
No, stop. He just needed to do what he was good at. Complete the comparison, submit the report, then his work was over.
Just tell the Mainbrain that “Ruan Lijie” was extremely likely to be “Ruan Xian”. No need to say any other nonsense…
“Here, the chicken soup is ready.” His wife came over again and put down a bowl with a smile. “I’ve even asked the housekeeper to make some sorbet, so you can have it as a dessert after dinner.”
Hu Shuli moved his gaze away from the light screen and looked at his wife in a daze.
[We can’t win.] A long time ago, he said this to his wife, who was still alive. [Come with me to see the Mainbrain.]
[How do you know you can’t win? Is it a 100% chance that we’re going to lose?]
[Professor Ruan is gambling his life. I can see it. We just have this one chance. The Mainbrain’s side is growing too strong… Be good and listen. I still have the power to treat you—]
[Hu Shuli, you bastard! Do you want a perfect wife? Do you want me to be transformed? I am not you. The Mainbrain doesn’t allow ordinary people with big personality flaws to exist. You know this!]
[No, I—I’m just saying, based on the situation, it will take a miracle for us to win. It’s better to cut our losses early…]
[What’s wrong with miracles? Huh? Are there not strange and bizarre things in the world? It’s not like no one has won the first prize in the lottery before. I don’t care. Even if I die here, I don’t want the Mainbrain to remove my head!]
……
Hu Shuli silently held the bowl of chicken soup; his hands were cold, but the bowl was a little hot.
This matter was truly strange and bizarre enough, dear wife. The real Ruan Xian had returned to the world as a ghost and was acting with NUL-00.
“Why are your eyes turning red? Hurry, put the soup down!” His wife—or the replica of his wife—raised her voice. “Housekeeper, bring a cold towel—”
“No, it’s okay.” Hu Shuli lowered his head and took two sips of his soup, then he entered a string of numbers on the light screen.
Escaping was also a way.
Besides, he was originally cowardly and timid. Although he had some skills, he wasn’t a major force that could influence the direction of the war. The Mainbrain knew this, so even if he gave results with errors, the Mainbrain would probably only change the weight of a certain possibility.
He wanted to let this strange thing stay a little longer, and he didn’t care about what the result was.
“I actually like the way you look when you’re angry.”
After sending out his conclusion that “No match was found. Ruan Lijie and Ruan Xian are not close relatives”, Hu Shuli finished his bowl of soup.
“Have you eaten yet? I’m done with my work. Let’s have some wontons together.”
And the Mainbrain did adjust the relevant weights.
“Adjust the alert level of the vicinity to the main body to level A. Send the modified R-β and M-β to patrol the perimeter.” The Mainbrain was standing in the wide lecture hall, playing with a virtual orchid in its hand. “Dispatch A-016 team to suppress the chaos in the stronghold near the Sea of Ruins. Zhuo Muran, what’s the situation now?”
“Don’t you need to send more forces?” Zhuo Muran responded to the question with another question.
“At this stage, it seems that Ruan Lijie and Ruan Xian aren’t directly related. As for the specific conclusion, we will have to wait until we visit Fan Linsong to determine it.” The Mainbrain’s tone remained relaxed. “Then as far as the current intelligence is concern… Ruan Lijie and NUL-00 are following Ruan Xian’s instructions. If we put too many troops into dealing with these two, it’s likely we’re playing right into Ruan Xian’s hands. Aside from the garrison near my body, the improved versions of R-β and M-β are enough.”
It was true that the matter wasn’t urgent. If there was a new discovery, they would increase their troops in time, but despite knowing this, Zhuo Muran still felt uneasy.
It was clear that only Ruan Lijie and Tang Yibu were currently acting.
“Continue to focus the investigation on Ruan Xian’s possible attacks and pay close attention to the trends of petri dishes around the world. I will let Hu Shuli continue to research the perception enhancement of R-type weapons.”
It seemed the Mainbrain could sense Zhuo Muran’s anxiety and spoke up as if to comfort him.
“In addition, I will mobilize several experts to test Hu Shuli’s report, just in time to produce the results along with our meeting with Fan Linsong. Just wait two more days. There will be no mistakes in this matter.”
“I understand.” Zhuo Muran reluctantly pulled the corner of his mouth. “It’s just that the chaos near the Sea of Ruins has just dispersed the spare troops in the middle of Continent Y. Although it’s not a big deal, I have a bad feeling…”
“Can you produce conclusive evidence?” The Mainbrain responded calmly. “Ruan Xian hasn’t made any big moves yet, and it’ll be too late to deploy troops at that time. On the contrary, once our pace is disrupted, they could take advantage of the situation.”
“…Yes, but I have a request.”
“Go ahead.”
“Requesting a full set of combat equipment support. I will personally travel to the garrison of your main body. Changing positions will not affect my command work. Just in case, I will be in a better position to deal with it—if Ruan Lijie and NUL-00 are indeed targeting your body, with the ability of the D-type Prototype, coupled with the support of M-β and R-β, I will not be wiped out by NUL-00 so easily.”
“Alright.”
“Thank you.”
“Zhuo Muran.”
“Yes?”
“I can’t figure out the purpose of NUL-00.” The Mainbrain turned its head. The skin it projected looked bloodless under the white light. “I have calculated for a long time but still can’t understand its motivation. Its action style this time is very weird and has no clear logic.”
“……”
“Our logical core is the same, but I have learned more about complex human morals and rules than it does. Our essence is the same and our abilities are comparable. Now, it seems that for humans, it may be countless times more dangerous than me.”
The orchid in the hand of the Mainbrain slowly disappeared.
“Why does Ruan Xian allow it to live but not me?”
The author has something to say：
Mainbrain: I’m the one who plays chess well. Why would Ruan Xian rather let the crazy cat dance wildly on the board than fight me first?
Professor Ruan: Shit, I don’t want to either. I can’t help it. The one who contributed to it is the great uncle.
Tang: Be free and fly*, cool.
*(放飞自我) Refers to letting go of oneself and pursuing your dreams. Later, due to heated discussion on Weibo, it means breaking character and showing your true temperament. || In this context, it’s referring to the latter.
Though the refuge itself was underground, the moisture of the soil in the air was much thicker than before. Guan Haiming sneezed, rubbed his nose, and continued to process the mountain of program files in front of him. Ding Zepeng found a place in his office, moved over a table and chair for himself, and studied the string of data quite seriously.
The familiar pain in his head suddenly appeared. Guan Haiming sighed. He glanced at Ding Zepeng’s back and didn’t turn on the alcohol music again, but instead honestly took medicine from the shelf and swallowed it with water.
A large light screen hung in the air, showing a pattern of no signal. After night fell, Major Ding would send some brief messages from time to time. Recently, the nearby petri dishes had been under martial law. For some reason, there had been a lot of Order Supervisors in the forest petri dish, so the frequency of Major Ding’s contact had been a lot lower.
[What are they looking for?] Major Ding once said. [Tell your people to stay honest and don’t go to places where there are remnants of buildings. It happened to be rainy recently, so it’s good to narrow down the scope of activities. The Mainbrain shouldn’t suspect anything.]
Then he would send back at most one or two sentences a day.
However, Professor Ruan’s contact filled the gap. After briefly informing Tian He of the scope of activities, Guan Haiming focused almost all his energy on improving the fragment of the attack program. Although Ding Zepeng was mediocre in medicine, he had shown amazing talent in program research. So far, the progress on their side was going smoothly.
Of course, the sense of urgency was indispensable, but Guan Haiming had never felt so relieved.
“Haiming, I don’t understand much of the design here.”
Ding Zepeng scratched his short hair and approached with a floating light screen. He hadn’t been out for a few months, so his skin was a lot paler, and his temperament was like that of Major Ding. Even if it was a false memory, the impact was still huge—Xiao Ding had become a lot calmer, but inside, he still kept his simple nature.
“According to this algorithm, the efficiency improvement of the unit diffusion is 79%.” He gestured to one of the codes. “But if you change this to this… like this, you see. This can increase the value to 87%. I don’t understand why we’re not using it like that. Is there some potential problem?”
“Let me see.” Guan Haiming dragged the light screen in front of him. “…Such changes may affect the efficiency of another part, but what you said is quite interesting. With a little change, it’s possible to reach 82%. Great job.”
Ding Zepeng smiled sheepishly and rubbed his nose. Before he moved his fingers away, the light screen in the center of the room suddenly lit up.
“The defense network northeast of Petri Dish No. 1306 has an abnormal reading.” Major Ding narrowed his eyes at the two people in front of him; his tone was a little subtle. “I’ve suppressed it. There are two inexplicable characters in the conventional detection data.”
“What characters?”
[:D]
Major Ding directly responded to Guan Haiming with text.
“I see.” Guan Haiming remembered that Professor Ruan once told him that this was a symbol that NUL-00 loved to use, but he had not received notice that NUL-00 would come here. “It’s a matter on our side. I’ll take things over from here. Thank you.”
Major Ding glanced at the room gloomily, snorted softly, and cut off the communication.
Unfortunately, by the time the rescue team arrived at the location of the anomaly, they didn’t see any characters who might be NUL-00—four people were standing in the wet forest, two men and two women; among them was a teenager.
After a brief inspection, they were brought to Guan Haiming’s office.
“Who are you guys?” Guan Haiming recognized Yu Le, but he had little impression on the rest of them. His gaze lingered quite a while on Ji Xiaoman, who was wearing an Order Supervisor’s uniform.
“This is Ji Xiaoman, our mechanic. She’s not with the Order Supervisors.” Yu Le wiped his wet hair with a towel. “The rebellious girl over there is called A’Qiao. She’s an android with a cybernetic brain—can barely count as a fighting force, so don’t mind her. The kid is just a picky bear*. He didn’t like the Underground City, so we can only bring him here. We have to trouble you for a while.”
*This is referencing the bear breaking corn metaphor explained in chapter 142.
“Hey!” Zhong Qing yelled dissatisfied.
“A’Qiao can look after Zhong Qing, so you don’t have to find someone to babysit him. Just give them something to eat.” Yu Le ignored Zhong Qing’s protest. “I heard that your treatment is okay. It’s not a problem to feed two mouths. We’ll pay for the nanny.”
“Teacher asked you to come?”
“Sort of.” Yu Le shifted his gaze. “To be precise, we are NUL-00’s companions. Professor Ruan doesn’t know about this yet, so there’s no need for us to voice it.”
Guan Haiming squinted suspiciously.
“Anyway, get these two kids out of here first. It’s not convenient to say some things in front of the children.”
When Ding Zepeng smilingly took A’Qiao and Zhong Qing away, Yu Le smiled and gave Ji Xiaoman a wink. The latter nodded, made a face, and then activated the wristband. A figure that Guan Haiming was extremely familiar with appeared in the room.
“STR-Y type 307a231 is at your service.” Tang Yibu’s phantom made a grimace at Guan Haiming.
“……?” Guan Haiming didn’t react for a moment.
“I’ve been in the Shade Refuge long enough, Mr. Guan. I know this place like the back of my hand. If you don’t cooperate or try to reveal anything to Professor Ruan, I’ll be the first to block off your communication.” Tang Yibu continued with a smile, “Don’t worry, I won’t let you do anything that will wrong Professor Ruan. You just need to help keep it a secret for us for the next 24 hours.”
“231? ……What are you doing?”
“Your teacher calls me NUL-00,” Tang Yibu’s phantom continued. “This name is very troublesome. I prefer the name Tang Yibu. As for the evidence… I just inserted 43 ‘:D’ in the fragment attack program given to you by Professor Ruan. You can count it later—I checked this confidential program for him, so I know how to break it.”
When he talked with Ruan Lijie, Guan Haiming was indeed curious about where 231 had gone. Considering the constant crisis outside, he once thought that 231 was damaged, and Ruan Lijie didn’t know how to mention it.
Regarding external matters of the outside world, Professor Ruan would only give him the necessary basic information. After hearing that NUL-00 was still around, Guan Haiming also imagined its form, but he never thought that the “predecessor” of MUL-01 was this thing that had dawdled in their base for two years.
For a while, he didn’t know what attitude he could take to face the smirking predecessor of the Mainbrain, so he chose to remain silent.
…Fortunately, Ding Zepeng wasn’t here. Otherwise, as a person who had been on the team with this guy for so long, Xiao Ding would develop a psychological shadow.
“For 24 hours, I want to try and attack the Mainbrain in my own way. Please also provide Mr. Yu and Miss Ji with some shelter and resource support, while also keeping it a secret for 24 hours.”
Tang Yibu ignored Guan Haiming’s expression.
“There’s no need to call your personnel. You can continue to work on your own program research. Of course, this is me putting it politely. If you don’t agree, I can only forcibly block this place for 24 hours—I don’t think you can finish studying those attack programs within 24 hours.”
…Then why else discuss this? Just block and do it. Considering the identity of the other party, Guan Haiming had to swallow back his words.
After saying this, Tang Yibu was stunned for a moment. He reacted quickly, with a little pride in his tone. “I’ve considered that such enforcement may hurt your feelings, so I decided to discuss it with you.”
Guan Haiming wiped his face, still trying to digest the fact that he had “repaired” NUL-00.
“Alright.” He glanced at the stack of data on the top of the table. “:D” had suddenly appeared in dazzling numbers, giving him a faint sense of irritability. “In 24 hours, I will report to Professor Ruan immediately. Until then, I’ll provide Mr. Yu and Miss Ji with room and board and resources to help… But like you said, I’m very busy now. At most, I’ll find someone to show them the way. Our people will not participate in any battles.”
“Deal.” Tang Yibu blinked. “As a reward, I just helped you pick out all the bugs in the modified version of the attack program, right next to all those ‘:D’.”
“……”
Guan Haiming rubbed his temples, only feeling that his head was hurting even more. He sighed and glanced at Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman in front of him.
“Thank you,” he responded weakly. “By the way, there is a strange rattle on your side. It’s recommended that you check the safety of your surroundings.”
“Don’t worry, that’s our driver.”
“?!”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Wait, Tang Yibu, what are you talking about? Wait for me—” Yu Le rushed to the light screen with a single stride, but unfortunately, Tang Yibu had already terminated the communication.
“You shouldn’t have told them,” Ruan Xian stated euphemistically inside the armored off-roader that was driving at high speed.
The steering wheel of the armored off-roader was completely destroyed by A’Qiao. During the six hours it took to get to the forest refuge, Tang Yibu and Ji Xiaoman devoted all their energy to making the planned machinery and equipment, so there was no time to repair it.
Naturally, Tang Yibu could drive like A’Qiao did—connect the circuit to his electronic wristband and manipulate it using his cybernetic brain. However, as the only remaining combatant in this car, Tang Yibu may need to leave the car to fight at any time, so there was only one solution for them…
At the beginning, Ji Xiaoman had made a “driving bowl” for the iron bead, and now it had come in handy again. The iron bead happily sank into the metal bowl and started driving the car. Perhaps because it was feeling too good to be able to drive at such a fast speed, it barked excitedly, rattling a little tune.
Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian stayed in the back seat row and continued their work.
It was already dawn, and after sending the remaining four people to the forest refuge, the armored off-roader embarked on its final journey—moving at full speed in the direction of the Mainbrain’s body.
“Are you sure it’s there?” The seat was still flattened. Tang Yibu was lying on the makeshift bed as dozens of light screens floated and swam around him, with data quickly flashing on them.
“Mm-hmm.”
Ruan Xian checked the machinery that Ji Xiaoman and Tang Yibu had rushed to put together.
“I stayed for several months on that day in 2100, so I’m pretty sure. Before launching the Great Rebellion, the Mainbrain must have considered how to protect its body—if the Great Rebellion had just begun and it was shut down by physical means, that would be such a joke. I have calculated the map at the time, as well as the corresponding environmental and facility requirements, so its new location must be near the great desert, south of the Android Show.”
“Close,” Tang Yibu muttered, drawing his hand twice on the nearest light screen.
“With a general area, it’ll be easy to find.” Ruan Xian stretched out his hand and stroked the back of the person next to him, motioning the other party to feel at ease. “How is the situation on your side?”
“During the conversation just now, I captured another fifteen strongholds… Well, I harassed fifteen strongholds.” Tang Yibu grinned. “If MUL-01 can get angry, it’s expected to be furious at me.”
As expected, Yu Le’s escape caused the small stronghold to fall into chaos. In the face of a chaos of this scale, the Mainbrain was bound to mobilize troops from nearby strongholds to suppress it.
However, whenever it mobilized troops from a stronghold, Tang Yibu took advantage of the gap in security to enter, snatched all the soft persimmons, and harassed these weak strongholds—for example, seizing control of several armed robots, bombing east to west, and setting off fireworks in the stronghold’s arsenals.
Tang Yibu didn’t move against the big strongholds but insisted on making a mess of these smaller strongholds without causing any fatal injuries. Going on the premise that the Mainbrain firmly believed “this was all Professor Ruan’s instructions”, Tang Yibu’s actions could only be thought of as particularly confusing…
The target wasn’t at any military base. These attacks had no strategic significance other than to create a short period of confusion. Unable to understand the purpose of the other side, MUL-01 wouldn’t draw its troops from the large strongholds to suppress this. Tang Yibu’s technical level was comparable to it, and the firewall of the small stronghold wasn’t as tight, so it couldn’t solve these annoying intrusions in such a short time. Thus, it could only accompany Tang Yibu in continuing to play this kind of whack-a-mole-like disaster of a game.
Just six hours.
Centered on the small stronghold that Yu Le destroyed, hundreds of small and medium-sized strongholds around it were more or less plunged into chaos. Red smiley faces floated everywhere on various screens, and some armed robots went crazy, blasting the walls of the small stronghold to kingdom come. If they were lucky, some of the attacks managed to hit the arsenal room, setting off waves of fire and explosions.
“I don’t know if the Mainbrain is angry or not, but Zhuo Muran certainly is.” Ruan Xian looked at Tang Yibu’s light screen that was blinking red dots and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Did you encounter any problems with poor connection during the attack?”
“No, as long as you focus on one point, the attack is quite efficient.” Tang Yibu commanded the light screens and let them swim back and forth in the dimly lit area. “It’s more efficient than attacking by myself… Let’s see, about 10 times more.”
Ruan Xian looked at Tang Yibu, who was in high spirits. He stroked the buzzing machinery that was humming with his fingers. “It seems that the connection performance of this thing is up to standard. Professor Ruan didn’t take his backup plan lightly. It’s a good design.”
“Most people wouldn’t be able to modify it in such a short period of time.” Tang Yibu turned his face sideways. “I’m pretty good, no?”
“Yes.” Ruan Xian leaned over and buried his nose in Tang Yibu’s hair. He kissed the top of his head and said, “You’re very good.”
‘One more day,’ he thought.
In another 24 hours, both this ridiculous world and his own heart would get an answer.
Just when there was a not-too-serious dispute in the office of the chairman of the Hongjing Highway, something also happened in a mountain range southwest of the Hongjing Highway.
Qiong Mountain was southwest of Hongjing. It was nearly a kilometer above sea level and was surrounded by clouds and fog all year round.
When the weather turned rainy, the scenery here was the best. The wet water vapor condensed on the rock wall, rubbing over the moss, and finally merged into a gurgling stream along the crevices.
At the edge of the stream between the valleys was the Qiong Mountain scenic campground. From a distance, the entire campsite was colorful, full of various tents that were set up by campers.
More importantly, among those people, there were many children.
Cao Qianzhi was an ordinary elementary school teacher at Fengjing. Today was a field trip day for the first graders at Fengjing. The place was set in Qiong Mountain.
He stood at the edge of the camp and watched the staff pretending to be mountain people, bringing a goat to the children. The children seemed to have never seen a live goat before as they gathered around it to point and poke, looking excited.
Cao Qianzhi’s gaze moved from the goat to the water’s edge. There were still some children watching fish by the stream. They huddled together and seemed to be discussing how to fish. As a teacher, he didn’t walk over to stop them as the stream was very shallow. It was a specially created artificial landscape. He also trusted his students not to get their shoes and socks wet since it was still cold in early spring.
Everything looked very peaceful and harmonious, but the uneasiness in Cao Qianzhi’s heart became heavier.
There was a sound of rapid footsteps in the distance, making Cao Qianzhi hurriedly follow to look for its source.
The dean and another teacher who led the team with him were quickly running towards him. Both of them looked solemn and shook their heads at him.
“Haven’t you made contact yet?” Although he knew the answer, he still subconsciously asked.
“No. We can’t get through to Master Xu’s phone, and Teacher An’s phone is also turned off. The car should’ve arrived half an hour ago!” The dean whispered.
Cao Qianzhi looked at his watch. Time had long passed since their scheduled meeting time.
Today, for the school’s spring field trip, the school rented six buses to send children to Qiong Mountain. They gathered at the entrance of the school early in the morning. It took more than four hours to drive from the school to the mountain. When they set off, they spent a lot of time on the road because of the traffic jam. It was also because the order of the buses was disrupted, several buses were separated by ten minutes before they arrived at Qiong Mountain, one after another.
If that was the case, it was just a trivial matter of a delayed trip. However, after the five buses arrived at the meeting point, the last bus, No. 3, didn’t. On the bus were twenty-six students from class three, the school’s first grade, and two leading teachers.
They always thought that Bus No. 3 was left behind because of the traffic jam. They tried contacting the driver and the two teachers earlier, but they couldn’t get through to their phones.
At first, they thought it was because of the poor signal in the mountains, but just now, the dean and another teacher went to the campground visitor center to try to call them again. They were only met with the same mechanical and monotonous female voice at the other end of the line. Only then did they realize that Bus No. 3 could have been involved in an accident.
“Even if there was an accident, their phones wouldn’t just fail to connect!” The female teacher on the side said worriedly.
“Did you call the highway side?” Cao Qianzhi continued to ask.
“Yes. They said they are investigating but haven’t found them yet.”
Cao Qianzhi was silent for a moment before he finally said, “Let’s call the police.”
——
In the office of the chairman of the Hongjing Highway Company, three phones rang almost simultaneously.
Xing Conglian took half a step back in front of the chairman and took out his cellphone. The Chairman breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the landline impatiently. Liu Xing heard the phone for the assistant’s office ringing, got up, and ran out.
After a while, Xing Conglian looked at Lin Chen. The chairman’s expression stiffened while Liu Xing rushed back to the room.
The other end of the line had delivered terrible news.
“The City Bureau just received a report that a school bus from Fengjing disappeared on the highway.” Xing Conglian pressed mute as he spoke to Lin Chen.
“How could it be missing? The highway exits are monitored!” Before Lin Chen could speak, Yang Dianfeng exclaimed.
Xing Conglian frowned, only to see Lin Chen’s thin lips pursed lightly. He sat upright on the sofa and didn’t speak.
He was still on the call, so he didn’t have time to answer Yang Dianfeng’s question. After a while, he suddenly raised his head, held down the phone with one hand and pointed to it with the other hand, looking at Wang Chao.
Wang Chao reacted quickly. He took out his cellphone and was about to hand it over to Xing Conglian. However, Xing Conglian motioned him to give it to Lin Chen instead.
“The schoolteacher will call soon. You answer it,” Xing Conglian said to Lin Chen and quoted a series of numbers to the other end of the line.
Soon, Wang Chao’s cellphone rang.
Qiong Mountain Scenic Area, Campsite.
Cao Qianzhi’s palms were sweating. The female teacher who was with him had already burst into tears. Various terrifying pictures continued to appear in his mind, making him even more flustered.
The moment the phone was connected, he couldn’t help but shout at the person who answered it. “Have you found the bus yet? If not, what can I do?”
After he finished speaking, the other end of the line was quiet for about three seconds before a voice came through.
It was a calm and tranquil male voice, like the flowing water of a stream or the breeze in the mountains, slowly trickling into his ears.
“Hello. I understand you are currently anxious, but I need you to calm down. Take a deep breath with me and answer my questions.”
Of course, Cao Qianzhi knew how to take a deep breath, but things were urgent right now. How could there be time to take deep breaths! While he thought so, his body involuntarily followed the calm instructions at the other end of the line, and he began to inhale deeply, then exhale.
“What time did the bus depart from the school?”
“6:30 AM.”
“Okay, I need you to recall carefully now. When was the last time you saw that school bus?”
The voice was still calm and mellow, but this question made Cao Qianzhi panic again. “I don’t remember!” His mind was in chaos, so he subconsciously blurted out, “Every bus was the same. I can’t tell the difference.”
On the other end of the line, the young man holding the cell phone seemed to have expected this. He put down his pen, flipped the white paper in front of him, and faced the person opposite him.
Opposite him was a young man wearing a cap. The young man glanced at the white paper, which had “bus, recent photos, bring up” written on it. He nodded and began to tap the keyboard.
The voice on the other end of the line disappeared for a few seconds. Cao Qianzhi felt that the wind in the mountains was getting colder. He panted twice, and the voice on the other end of the line immediately responded.
“Hello, I’m here.”
Words like clear water flowed out again, causing Cao Qianzhi to relax a little. Then he heard the man say, “Perhaps you’re just not clear. In fact, human memory doesn’t completely subside because of the passage of time. They have another system that stores implicit memories, so for things you forget or don’t remember, in fact, your brain preserves them in another form. What I need you to do is to calm down and recall. At the same time, you need to do your best when recalling. This can help us determine the time cut-off point, which is very important.”
——
The same clear voice as flowing water also sounded in Wang Chao’s ears, but he obviously didn’t have the chance to close his eyes. He was very nervous.
After hearing Lin Chen speak, he quickly connected to the SkyEye system and brought up the surveillance of the field trip gathering at the entrance of Fengjing at around 6:20 AM.
Six buses were lined up one after another on the road. Their bodies were pure white with colorful cloud patterns painted on them. The words “Hongjing Foreign Affairs Vehicles Management Co.” were vaguely distinguishable.
Judging from the appearance of several buses, there was no difference. Wang Chao looked up anxiously, but the person opposite was gone. When he looked to his right, Lin Chen was already beside him.
On the screen, fair and delicate fingers crossed and stopped on the body of the third bus.
“Enlarge.”
Wang Chao zoomed into the picture and the words “Foreign Affairs” on the bus’s body became bigger and the rest of the words became more blurred.
“Here.”
He tapped his finger on a spot above the rear wheel, and then quickly pulled away.
Wang Chao took a closer look. Behind the body, where the huge blue clouds were originally painted, there seemed to be something missing, as if it looked incomplete. Most likely, this Bus No. 3 had just come out of a repair shop, and the missing piece had been repaired, but the spray paint wasn’t done yet.
Wang Chao subconsciously looked at Lin Chen. Lin Chen had already walked to the window as he spoke slowly. “There’s a blue cloud above the rear wheel of Bus No. 3, but the cloud is half gone. Although you won’t notice this, your brain definitely recorded it. Now, I need you to close your eyes and start recalling…”
“It was on a busy highway. There were a lot of cars around, and the children on the bus were laughing. Because it was a bit noisy and you had to get up early, you felt a little sleepy. You got distracted and looked out the window. The scenery outside was beautiful. There were reeds that stretched to the sky, and you saw cars passing by from time to time. Suddenly, you see a bus. It’s very strange. The pattern near the wheel seemed to be missing something. You may have watched it for less than a second, but because it was so odd, you remembered it…”
Following the soft voice, Cao Qianzhi seemed to have really returned to that noisy bus. He looked around the window, and a bus happened to pass by.
“I remember!” He suddenly raised his voice. “There was such a bus, but I don’t know when this was!”
“Please work hard to recall. Were there any iconic buildings in that scene? Perhaps a green road sign on the side of the road that looked very conscious…”
“No, no. There were just reeds all around.” Cao Qianzhi frowned, as if desperately grasping the image that was about to flash away. “Wait a minute. I remember! A child told me that he wanted to go to the toilet, so the driver said he would stop at a rest stop in Meicun right away!” Cao Qianzhi opened his eyes abruptly.
Lin Chen quickly returned to his desk, picked up a pen, and wrote the word “Meicun” on the paper.
“You or the teacher next to you, do you remember what time you stopped at the rest stop in Meicun?”
“Wait a minute. Let me ask.”
In front of the laptop, Wang Chao had already brought up a map of the entire Hongjing Highway. While looking at the map, he calculated on the paper. “Meicun’s service station is about 130 kilometers from Honjing to Qiong Mountain. The traffic jam occurred after 7:00. If they left at 6:30, taking into account the distance and the traffic jam, they would arrive at Meicun’s service station around 8:30.”
As soon as Wang Chao dropped his pen, an eager male voice came from the phone. “Our director said that it was around 8:30 when we entered Meicun’s service station! I really can’t remember the rest!”
The male teacher sounded extremely apologetic.
“That’s fine. Thank you very much. It was very helpful.”
Seeing Lin Chen hang up the phone, Wang Chao breathed a sigh of relief and felt strange in his heart. “How did you know that there would be a difference in Bus No. 3?!”
“I didn’t.” Lin Chen picked up the calculation paper and then said, “But at that time, I could only hope for luck.”
This was bullshit, but this bullshit told us not to have preconceptions about anyone or anything.
Of course, Xing Conglian didn’t like Huang Ze, but he wasn’t prejudiced against him. For Xing Conglian, for those who weren’t dandies, they at least deserved a little respect, and that was why he was still willing to work with Huang Ze.
Huang Ze was contemplating it seriously. He didn’t give a quick answer, and his gaze wandered past Lin Chen’s face as he asked, “What do you mean?”
“This is a dangerous matter.” Lin Chen didn’t say anything more.
“It’s impossible for me to close the highway because of your opinion.” Huang Ze looked at Jiang Zhe, who was still being interviewed. “That is our real psychology expert, and I can only listen to the opinions of experts.”
Huang Ze always stuck to the rules, meticulously. This was the reason why he was well respected and was able to defeat all his competitors and step into the position of Inspector of the Provincial Office. This kind of personality wasn’t bad, but sometimes wasn’t necessarily good either.
Xing Conglian sighed.
Huang Ze apologized politely to the reporter and brought Jiang Zhe to Lin Chen.
When Jiang Zhe heard the reason, he exploded in an instant. “This is a prank by a teenager in his rebellious phase, and you expect to close off an entire highway for that? Are you kidding me?” Jiang Zhe lowered his voice, as if unwilling to let reporters from a distance notice what was happening. He sneered at Lin Chen. “I know, in fact, you just want to make things big so you can make a name for yourself again. Do you think you can go back to those flowery days?”
After he finished speaking, he threw his hands in the air and started to leave, but Lin Chen stopped him. “Jiang Zhe, can you be responsible for every analysis you make?”
“Lin Chen, what are you still doing? Trying to scare others?” Jiang Zhe turned his head and gave Lin Chen a look as if he was looking at a ghost. “I can’t be responsible, can you?”
“I can.”
It was obvious sarcasm, but Lin Chen answered very seriously. His voice wasn’t loud, but it held a seriousness that left people speechless.
Jiang Zhe couldn’t retort. “Psychopath!” He held back for a long time but could only come up with this as a response.
After he spat out his insult, the psychology expert with messy, curly hair didn’t look back.
Huang Ze shrugged and said to Lin Chen and Xing Conglian, “I’m sorry. Our expert told me that your idea is nonsense.”
“Huang Ze, if something happens, please let me know.” Lin Chen looked at Huang Ze.
“Why are you so desperate for something to happen?”
“It’s not that I’m hoping something will happen, but something will happen. The occurrence of things isn’t based on my will.”
When Lin Chen finished speaking, Xing Conglian patted him on the shoulder and said, “Let’s go.”
—
When pressed against time and one wanted to close off a highway, the fastest way was to directly go to the Highway Transportation Administration Office.
Xing Conglian sat in his jeep, and as soon as he got in, he stepped on the gas, and the jeep sped away.
The atmosphere inside the car was depressing and no one spoke. Lin Chen sat in the front passenger seat, while Wang Chao and Yang Dianfeng were in the back.
The manager of the transportation company seemed to be holding back for a long time and could no longer contain it. He burst out, saying to Xing Conglian, “Young Master Huang is like this. You didn’t need to talk to him at all!”
Lin Chen noticed that he was still staring at him when Yang Dianfeng spoke, as if he was very dissatisfied with his proposal.
“It’s my duty. If I don’t say anything, it’s my problem. It’s his problem if he doesn’t listen. Forget about it.” Xing Conglian clenched the steering wheel with both hands and acted unconcerned.
Lin Chen glanced at him, and then was poked by the other party. Xing Conglian said to him, “Get me a cigarette.”
Lin Chen looked around in the car but didn’t see a cigarette pack.
“It’s in my pocket.” Xing Conglian motioned slightly sideways.
In the back seat, Yang Dianfeng was watching their every move. He felt as if he was being ignored again.
“How can you leave it like this? It’s obvious that Young Master Huang has a personal grudge against you. You should appeal to your superiors!” Yang Dianfeng increased his volume slightly as he spoke again.
“Why bother?” Xing Conglian didn’t even seem to register Huang Ze in his mind from the start. He stepped on the gas and quickly passed the vehicle in front of him. “It’s a waste of time and energy to be angry.”
If Huang Ze was present, he would probably want to vomit blood again if he heard this.
The Hongjing Highway Transportation Administration Office was about 50 kilometers away from the scene of the hijacking. Even if Xing Conglian drove at full speed, it would take nearly half an hour to reach it.
While in the car, Xing Conglian had already called the old director to report the latest progress of the case, hoping to get his help. Therefore, when they arrived at the transportation office, there were already people waiting for them in the parking lot.
“Hello, Captain Xing. I am Liu Xing, Assistant Chairman of the Hongjing Highway Company.”
After the group got out of the car, a young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses greeted them.
“Where is your chairman?” Xing Conglian asked as he walked briskly.
“The chairman is in a meeting.”
Liu Xing sized up Xing Conglian and his party. Although he had a good attitude, there was still a hint of disapproval in his tone.
Just now, he received a phone call and heard that Captain Xing wanted to meet with the company’s management and asked them to block off the highway. He felt it was all too ridiculous. What kind of rank does a municipal captain of the police criminal division have to dare make such a ludicrous request?
Now that he saw the person in the flesh and saw the dilapidated jeep he was driving and the simple clothing he was wearing, Liu Xing was even more certain that this captain had no background. Since he had no background, he was just an ordinary public servant, so he could send him off casually.
He had dealt with this kind of prevarication from many people before. Some got angry, while others could only swallow their anger. Of course, some would try and beg, but what he didn’t expect was the reaction of the captain to be so different from those types of people.
“Things are urgent. Even if the chairman is on the toilet, we have to force our way in.” Xing Conglian stopped and threatened Liu Xing with a tone that was saying “I’ll be reasonable with you”.
Liu Xing winced. As an assistant, he couldn’t embarrass his boss, so he invited Xing Conglian and his party into the chairman’s office and then made a phone call.
When Liu Xing put down the phone, he saw the four people who had entered the room standing at the door, showing a very surprised look at the furnishings inside.
The Hongjing Highway traversed two provinces and was extremely profitable. It shouldn’t be a wonder why the office of the chairman of the company would be luxurious.
The four pieces that made up a local tyrant were extremely eye-catching: oak floors, mahogany furniture, leather sofas, and jade ornaments. The only difference was that behind the chairman’s leather chair, instead of an imitation of a famous foreign painting or pictures of tigers descending the mountain, there was a huge photo.
The photo was extremely old in every sense. The corners were yellowed. The people in the photo were all wearing outfits from the late 1980’s, and they were laying the foundation for the highway. Looking closely, they found several people in the photo had retired from high positions, meaning the people in this photo were also old.
In the entire photo, the only thing that looked relatively new was the beautiful lady in the lower right corner. The lady was wearing a simple silk cheongsam. Her long hair was coiled with an ebony hairpin, and a few strands of black hair hung down the side of her face. Her ears were like jade, her face was pure, and she wasn’t wearing any jewelry. She stood there quietly, but her temperament was mighty, as if she had descended from heaven.
And because of her existence, it made the huge photo seem to glow.
Liu Xing retracted his gaze and looked at the visitors again.
“The chairman said he’ll be here soon.” He coughed lightly, interrupting the four people who were studying the photo carefully. “Ah, is Captain Xing interested in this photo?” There was silence in the room, so Liu Xing reluctantly found a topic to break it. “This is a photo of when the foundation of our Hongjing Highway was laid. The groundbreaking ceremony wasn’t very grand. Several senior executives were present. More importantly, an important investor was also at the scene.”
Liu Xing had recited this sentence many times. After all, this was the most glorious history of the Hongjing Highway. Whenever visitors came, he was always responsible for explaining it.
He looked up at the beautiful lady in the photo and began to speak eloquently.
As one of the first batches of highways constructed in China, the Hongjing Highway once had trouble raising funds at the beginning of its construction. At that time, private capital was just emerging, and the so-called North-South families were just emerging.
In order to prepare for the construction of the highway, the then mayor of Hongjing went around begging for alms, and finally came to the door of the legendary first elite Chinese family.
It was said that on that day, the mayor arrived at the door of the family, knocked on it, and went in for a cup of tea. When he came out, he was holding all the funds that could complete the highway.
“This beautiful lady, isn’t it Miss Xing?” When Yang Dianfeng said this, he glanced at Xing Conglian meaningfully.
“No, that’s not Miss Xing but Mrs. Xing.” As Liu Xing spoke, he also looked at the poor Captain Xing and said with a smile, “Speaking of which, Captain Xing is also surnamed Xing.”
“No, our Captain’s Xing is punishment, which has sword as it radical*. He just has the same pronunciation.” When Wang Chao heard this, he patted Xing Conglian on the shoulder. “Captain, you have the same surname Xing, yet why are you so poor?”
*Clarity: The Xing in Xing Conglian’s name is (刑) which means punishment. The Xing in Mrs. Xing is (邢). What Wang Chao is saying is that the first radical of the Chinese character is the same, but the second radical is different. Xing Conglian’s second radical is part of sword (剑). Thus, the Xing are homophones but different Chinese characters, so they are not related.
Xing Conglian staggered a bit when he was patted. He looked at the lady in the photo and fell unexpectedly silent.
Wang Chao was certainly joking, but it showed that the first elite family in China was still rich in people’s hearts, as well as probably still rich in the physical sense.
The Xing family had been doing business since the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, spanning hundreds of years. Its tentacles had spread to almost every corner of the world. The Xing family managed everything, from gas and minerals, to mining and tobacco, to forestry and rice, but even so, they were only just a rich family.
However, legends hold that wherever there were Chinese people, the Xing family would always be held in high regard.
That was because, since the war hundreds of years ago, the Xing family had provided shelter for countless overseas Chinese, and to this day, ran the largest overseas Chinese charity organization, providing all kinds of assistance to countless overseas Chinese who were scattered in foreign countries.
All their praise boiled down to one sentence: The Xing family are truly remarkable.
In silence, the door suddenly opened. The chairman of the Hongjing Highway Company strode in.
Mr. Chairman ignored the people waiting in the office and sat down in his seat, then began to answer the phone.
The content of the phone call was about some insignificant content about a trip abroad. He chatted with the person on the other end of the line and seemed to have no intention of hanging up.
At this moment, Xing Conglian got up, walked over, and disconnected the call.
“Who are you? Who let you into my office?” The chairman scolded.
“Xing Conglian, Captain of the Hongjing Police Criminal Division.”
Perhaps it was due to Xing Conglian’s eyes being too cold that, after a short stalemate, the chairman’s tone finally softened. “Oh, Captain Xing, please sit down.” The chairman waved his hand and said, “I heard that you came to me, so you can ask that I shut down the highway.”
“We judge that the teenage hijacker will probably make a big move today. For the safety of the citizens, I hope you can agree to temporarily close it off.”
“Just because of your judgment, we have to close off the highway? Do you know how much loss the shareholders have to bear?!”
“I don’t.”
“What do you know?!” The chairman almost poked his finger at Xing Conglian’s face.
“I don’t know much, but I do know that if you’re not willing to take responsibility at this moment, you’ll have to bear the consequences for the next moment.” Xing Conglian’s eyes were full of frost.
“Consequences?” The Chairman sneered. “Captain Xing, you don’t think this highway is run by your family, do you?”
Hearing this, Xing Conglian had an odd expression on his face.
The author has something to say:
In fact, my country has been vigorously promoting the introduction of private capital to participate in highway construction. Many roads have private capital participating in investment and construction. This is true…
This is just slightly exaggerated, a bit modern…
Kinky Thoughts:
Well, obviously the Xing is the same Xing. Given that Lin Chen has four elite families after his ass, he needs the backing of a gong with an elite family that rules them all.
The tone of the two people in front of her were relaxed and happy, without any sense of tension. Instead of persuading them to defeat the Mainbrain together, they were more like salesmen trying to introduce them to some store discount.
Even so, she still had chills all over her hands and feet. The cold wind in late autumn was beating against her back, and everything in front of her had a strong sense of unreality.
At first, she just wanted to go out and explore. At most, perhaps she would be exposed to some new knowledge. If she could find Ruan Xian, that would be great. Now, the goal was completed beyond the standard; she found two Ruan Xian, but unfortunately, neither of them could immediately help her.
Professor Ruan was busy dealing with the Mainbrain right now and, let alone helping, hadn’t even had time to rest. The brain in the jar was continuously rotating for nearly 24 hours a day. She also had no friendship with Professor Ruan, so Ji Xiaoman didn’t believe that the other party would put aside their big plans and treat her mother wholeheartedly.
The one in front of her was even colder. With regard to whether there was a presence or absence of conscience, he was inscrutable. Considering the other party’s knowledge was also behind the times and he didn’t seem to be the gentle or responsible type, unless Ji Xiaoman had complete certainty, she didn’t want to use her mother’s cybernetic brain as a practice model for him.
As soon as they arrived at the Underground City, she dug out her mother as soon as possible, moved her to another place, and attached a timing device. When enough time passed and the Underground City was safe again, Fu Yu and K6 would receive the signal and properly preserve her mother’s body. She made all the preparations. In order to ensure that Professor Ruan would treat her mother seriously after the dust settled, Ji Xiaoman was indeed willing to contribute to the rebels’ plan against the Mainbrain.
But she was just a young girl, one who could be easily found anywhere. She didn’t have much awareness, no great ideals, and in regard to her mother’s repair, she had no bottom line.
She thought that after completing this task, her plan to gain favor would be over. Although she was regarded as a sacrificial by Professor Ruan, which made her dissatisfied, she was still alive. This favor had now become a bargaining chip that could be traded.
As for defeating the Mainbrain, she had never thought about it.
…After all, that was on the scale of fighting a God.
Ji Xiaoman thought Yu Le would probably agree. He seemed to really cherish the ship and his friends in the Sea of Ruins. The man had always been cheeky, giving off a look that suggested he didn’t take his life seriously—he would probably agree to such an exciting invitation.
Sure enough, Yu Le didn’t think for long before he nodded readily. “Well, it’s only 30 hours anyway, so long as I get to keep the ship. I’ll say this in advance, if my life is in danger, laozi will run faster than anyone else—if I die in this matter, Lao Tu and the others have wasted their efforts for nothing.”
Should she refuse? Now that she had earned a favor from Professor Ruan that was probably barely strong enough, she didn’t need to take this kind of risk. But…
“Miss Ji, I can guarantee you that you and Mr. Yu will have a way out. If this war can be ended early, you will be lauded as one of the heroes. Professor Ruan will definitely find the top experts to repair your mother. Personally, I’m also willing to learn about relevant knowledge and contribute.” Ruan Xian seemed to sense her hesitation.
“I…” Ji Xiaoman was still hesitant. “I’m not that good.”
“There is a way out” was not equivalent to “being able to return alive”. Right now, the air was filled with fire and the smell of medicine. People may not be able to save their own lives, let alone others.
Unlike Guan Haiming, she didn’t receive a top education before the doomsday. She wasn’t like Yu Le, who could grin at the world and wandered carelessly through the wind and rain. Ji Xiaoman knew better than anyone that all the knowledge she learned was stolen through picking locks. Although she was quite good at fighting, she had no experience on a great battlefield as big as this.
But no matter how she looked at it, this was a matter of righteousness. If she refused, would she become some kind of sinner?
“I—I may not be able to do it.” She flinched a little, but she didn’t know how to politely refuse such a big event. “…I don’t have any personal grudges against the Mainbrain either.”
“Okay, I understand.” Ruan Xian didn’t mean to force her. He just nodded. “Lao Yu, then pick one from the ship yourself. These are all your people, right? In short, the higher the level of the mechanic selected, the easier it is to succeed in this plan and the safer you will be. It’s best not to take it lightly… I’ll give you two ten minutes to rest. When the time comes, I’ll trouble Miss Ji to stay in the cabin.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Yu Le responded happily. Ji Xiaoman opened her mouth crampedly, but before she could speak, a big warm hand covered the top of her head.
“Little Profiteer, if you don’t want to, no one will blame you for this.”
Yu Le rubbed Ji Xiaoman’s head, but not too hard.
“Unlike me, you still have worries and you have done what you have to do. You don’t owe anyone anything. If we force you to take a risk at this moment, we will be no different than that thing—just choose the path you want to choose. Not to mention, just look at those two. Which one seems to want to make a big difference with you?”
The giant ship touched the ground and raised waves of sand and dust on both sides as it rumbled forward in the dark night. Not far away, the surveillance aircraft sent by the Order Supervisors were getting closer. They had sent out seeking missiles from time to time that hit the anti-artillery net the pirates had set up at the stern of the ship. In the faint light of the explosion, Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu were talking about something. They would smile and exchange a kiss from time to time.
“When did they become so sticky? No, I still can’t accept Xiao Ruan’s identity.” Yu Le looked at Ji Xiaoman and began to digress. “Don’t look Little Profiteer. You’ll be blind if you look again.”
“Do you have a mechanic on board?” Ji Xiaoman’s mood was still not good, and her tone had returned to its usual coldness.
“Yes, I do. His knowledge is okay. See that positioning box in the bow? He did that.”
Ji Xiaoman quickly swooped over to the vicinity of the positioning box and took a closer look. Her expression became more complicated—the maker of this box did possess technical knowledge but was definitely far worse than her.
After a while of silence, Ji Xiaoman walked slowly back to Yu Le, rolling her eyes up to look at him.
“…We’re friends,” she whispered. “Right? Don’t lie to me. This may be our last meeting.”
“What are you talking about, girl?!” Yu Le choked. “Yeah, sure. At least the kind where we will visit each other’s graves. With that many days together, even cats and dogs would develop feelings. I would sigh for those two over there if they died, so shouldn’t you be more confident?”
“Then I’d better go with you.” Ji Xiaoman lowered her head even lower. “Your mechanic’s level is really not good. If you really die because of this, I’m afraid you’ll pop out of your coffin and kill me.”
She raised her arms and rubbed the raspberry sticker under the Order Supervisor’s uniform.
“…” Yu Le sighed again. “Thanks.”
“It seems that the two of you have finished discussing.” They didn’t know when, but the two people who were kissing like fish just now had appeared. Ruan Xian smiled at Yu Le. “Let’s go.”
“You already knew she would follow?”
Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu glanced at each other. The two looked at Yu Le with a little more pity in their eyes.
“…Fuck, wait. Thinking about it, the timing was on purpose too, right? Did you guess that Lao Tu would sail the Walking Stones over in order to save me? Then you can use that to make a deal with me?” Those closely involved often couldn’t see clearly than those on the outside*, for instance, like Lao Yu right now. “We all know each other anyway, so why act so desperate?”
*(当局者迷) Idiom referring to the parties involved are overly concerned at thinking about the pros and cons, so they get confused when looking at the problem.
“It was just speculation, and they may not arrive on time.” Tang Yibu made a modest face.
“I sold such a favor and incidentally pitted the Little Profiteer. Ah, too good… Forget it. It’s better to follow you two than Professor Ruan. At least you two will pit me clearly.” Yu Le shook his head. “Say it, what’s the plan.”
Ji Xiaoman didn’t say a word. She was as silent as before but came closer in the direction of the three of them.
“We’ll speak somewhere else. It’s not safe here. Order Supervisors will catch up soon. For Tu Rui’s sake, the fewer people that know, the better.” Ruan Xian opened the light screen and quickly sent a message.
“That being said, where can we change to—who are you sending a message to?”
“Tu Rui and Zhong Qing. I have to tell Tu Rui that we’re borrowing you, so he won’t worry for the time being and can go back to the Sea of Ruins and concentrate on escaping.” Ruan Xian quickly entered the text. “Yibu, first, clean up the Order Supervisors tailing us. Remember to do it stealthily and don’t let the Mainbrain know you’re here.”
Tang Yibu ran to the stern of the ship and dismantled a missile casing, then put his upper body in it and happily played the game of “disguising himself as a missile”—the Order Supervisor’s surveillance aircraft were shot down one by one by this “missile”. Considering that there were missiles shooting all around, Tang Yibu’s disguise was indeed not conspicuous.
“…To be honest, I have already started to regret it.” Yu Le reluctantly retracted his gaze and frowned. “Zhong Qing? Didn’t we leave that kid in the Underground City?”
“Yes. He didn’t like it there very much, so he was quick to want to leave.” Seeing Tang Yibu’s figure disappear from the deck, Ruan Xian moved faster. “When I was referring to hearing a familiar engine sound, it wasn’t a threat. It’s the truth.”
“Wait, what?!”
“Well, he knows we have the necessary weapons. No need to take extra from the Walking Stones.” Ruan Xian looked at the message on the screen. “Let’s go, you two. Yibu, let’s go—”
The missile at the stern of the ship stretched out two long legs and happily ran back. There was a strong smell of gunpowder on his body. Tang Yibu tore open the metal casing, grabbed Yu Le with one hand and Ji Xiaoman with the other, while Ruan Xian took the initiative to hug Tang Yibu’s waist. Seeing that everything was in place, Tang Yibu jumped down from the fast-moving Walking Stones ship.
Yu Le screamed louder than Ji Xiaoman.
However, they didn’t hit the sand directly. The shell casing that Tang Yibu tore apart served as a buffer—they landed on top of the armored off-roader. The metal casing jammed into the roof, so the four of them didn’t slide off. At that moment, the armored off-roader was advancing in the same direction as the Walking Stones at a fairly high speed, so they weren’t thrown off by inertia.
“No.” Yu Le propped himself up and patted the metal roof under him numbly. “I remember that only I can drive this car.”
Probably anticipating something, there was a hint of despair in his voice.
Ji Xiaoman, as the mechanic, was the first to react. She quickly opened the car door and got into the back row. Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian followed closely.
The things in the car had been emptied by the Order Supervisors before. Although Zhong Qing brought a lot of things with him, in the end, he was still a child and didn’t know much about real combat preparation, so the number of things inside was really limited. The luggage space in the back row was a lot emptier, as it now had enough room for two more people to sit in. Ji Xiaoman went straight to the edge of the luggage area and decided to avoid the upcoming storm.
Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu unceremoniously occupied the middle row of the car. Yu Le took a while in order to collect himself before slowly climbing into the car.
Then he let out a wail.
Tiantian-Q2—or rather, A’Qiao, was holding a lollipop while sitting solemnly in the driver’s seat. The steering wheel and the palmprint scanner were violently removed. The android had connected the line to her electronic wristband and was using her cybernetic brain to control the vehicle. Depending on the degree of damage, this probably wouldn’t be repaired for a while.
The removed steering wheel lay between the two seats. Fortunately, it was thin enough in the front seats that there was space for it. Zhong Qing was sitting in the front passenger seat. When he saw everyone was together, he turned around shivering and greeted everyone with a wry smile.
“Son of a bitch, when this car stops, I’m going to fucking—”
“A’Qiao, turn on the sound insulation.” Ruan Xian gestured at her, took out a piece of candy from Tang Yibu’s backpack, and gave it to her as a reward. “Keep going west. Thank you.”
When the little girl got the chocolate candy, she turned on the sound insulation function, muting all of Yu Le’s curses.
“Now we can talk about the plan with just a few people.”
Ruan Xian peeled off another piece of chocolate candy and stuffed it into Tang Yibu’s mouth. The latter swallowed the candy and happily turned on the light screen as he took over the conversation.
“Take a closer look at this mechanical structure diagram, Miss Ji. It’s still a six-hour drive to the forest petri dish, and we have a lot of things to prepare.” With the candy in his mouth, Tang Yibu’s voice was a bit muffled.
“The forest petri dish—you mean Petri Dish No. 1306?” Yu Le was still looking distressed over the steering wheel that was violently pulled off as he drew in a big breath.
“Yes.” Ruan Xian adjusted his posture and pressed the seat adjustment button. The back of the middle row of chair lowered and connected to the seat in the back row like a bed-like plane. All four of them moved their bodies, forming an atmosphere as if they were gathered on a bed playing cards.
“Let’s talk about the bad news first—I’m sorry Mr. Yu. You can’t have both. We can protect your ship, but the car is destined to be sacrifice.”
“……”
The author has something to say:
Opponents that the Mainbrain is ready to deal with:
Determined, confident, highly obedient to command, a heroic opponent like a moth to a flame.
For example, Professor Ruan and his friends.
They are serious and upright people who have been prepared for a long time.
The opponent that the Mainbrain is actually facing:
One just wants to beat his younger brother to find a way to live; the other wants to clear the obstacles and then consider living a good life.
One reluctantly fights after thinking about it; the other works for the sake of his ship and was ready to run for his life at any time.
Behind them is a group of people who don’t know what’s going on. In short, they will go back to their homes first (……
Tu Rui walked out of the cabin with tears of laughter in the corners of his eyes.
Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman were carried on the ship by Tang Yibu, one at a time. Ji Xiaoman was fine; just sweating a little. The young pirates waiting on the deck handed her clean water and towels. At this moment, while she was wiping the sweat and dust from her body, Yu Le was still affected by the drug. He leaned on the edge of the deck and was rolling his eyes hard.
“This stuff is similar to a neuroleptic agent. I’ve developed a tolerance for it.” Seeing Yu Le’s complicated expression, she explained to Tu Rui in a low voice. “Lao Yu’s condition is normal.”
“No, no, girl. That’s not the point.” Tu Rui grinned and threw a steaming towel directly on Yu Le’s face. “This guy is so powerful before. The Great Captain Yu was always bragging that the head can be cut off, and blood can shed*. During a drinking party, he bragged tens of thousands of times, saying that he was the world’s top hot-blooded man, preferring to die standing up, rather than being half-dead—”
*”The head can be cut off, blood can be shed, and work can never be resumed!” (我头可断，血可流，工不可复!) Said by Lin Xiangqian when he was arrested for striking during the Beijing-Hanzhou strike due to terrible labor conditions. When questioned if he would resume work, he categorically said this. A similar line was also said by Li Yusheng, a Chinese revolutionary martyr. “The head can be cut off, the blood can be shed, but the (communist) will is unyielding!” He was eventually arrested, imprisoned, and later executed. || Overall, Tu Rui is basically describing Yu Le’s persona as heroic, fearless, powerful, ect. (like the people who said these quote).
“Bah, fuck your mother, Lao Tu. Can being dragged out half-dead and being carried by a beautiful girl still be considered the same?” Lao Yu swallowed a few sips of water fed by the pirates around him and took a breath. “Aren’t you jealous of this kind of treatment, ah? I know you envy it.”
Ji Xiaoman’s face flushed.
“Neutralize the drug.” She lowered her head and grabbed the medicine box that Tu Rui had brought out. She rummaged hard through it, as if she wanted to divert her attention. “And drink plenty to replenish electrolytes, and preferably…”
While Ji Xiaoman was still rummaging through things, Tang Yibu took a sharp scalpel from the medicine box. He walked up to Yu Le, poked a hole in the other party’s finger, and carefully licked the blood on the blade.
“The effect of the medicine can last for about 40 hours.” Tang Yibu frowned as he smacked his lips. “Miss Ji, Mr. Yu, I suggest you don’t take the neutralizing medicine yet.”
“Why?”
“Gave me a cut when we first meet?”
Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le spoke at almost the same time.
“I don’t want to do an oral sample on you. Your blood is fine.” Tang Yibu’s face wrinkled even more severely. “Or do you actually want me to do that?”
Yu Le reacted quickly as his face turned blue. “Do you have enough blood? If not, give me another cut.”
“Enough. Don’t be nervous. Even if that’s what you want, I won’t agree to it.” Tang Yibu sighed heavily before turning to Ji Xiaoman. “The Mainbrain’s drug can keep your minds in a high state of excitement, which is good for our future plans. Yu Le’s physique is good. As long as he keeps up with the other drugs, it’ll quickly restore his ability to move.”
“I suppose.” Yu Le waved his hand. “I haven’t slept yet, and I have to send the ship back first.”
“Send it back?” Ruan Xian, who was observing the battlefield, suddenly spoke.
“God knows who will come join in the fun so early. I had discussed it with Lao Tu—when we’re about to get arrested, if there’s no response from Professor Ruan, he’ll come and rescue us. This stronghold is near the Sea of Ruins. We didn’t pick just any random place to be arrested.” Yu Le stumbled to his feet and drank the drink Ji Xiaoman had thrown over.
“That’s right,” Tu Rui said. “I estimated the time was almost up, so I took advantage of the chaos over at the Sea of Ruins and rushed over. I brought a year’s worth of shuttle agent, so if you guys didn’t show up, we were going to wear this stronghold out until we found the Captain.”
Having said that, he glanced at the time again. His fingers flickered from the light screen—the main ship of the Walking Stones made a dull whistle.
“Return if you’re done. The Mainbrain’s reinforcements are on the way!” Tu Rui’s voice blared through the loudspeaker. “Five minutes. I won’t wait for any exception—!”
The pirates no longer looted the stronghold. They rushed to the huge, dilapidated ship one after another. The hull of the Walking Stones trembled and rumbled.
In order to prevent the enemy from emerging silently from the shadows again, Ruan Xian leaned on the deck with the best view and kept his eye on the battlefield. This stronghold wasn’t large and had no valuable resources or strategic value. Most likely, it was mainly used as a transit station for supplies. Now it had been dessimated by bombs. Flames engulfed the ground while the hull of the ship crushed it to pieces. The Order Supervisors stationed there had no intention of fighting for their lives. They got on hoverbikes and quickly retreated.
As Tu Rui said, there was no reason for them to stay—there was an attack far beyond the accepted range of this small stronghold. The Mainbrain would deploy manpower from nearby strongholds as soon as possible to eliminate the scourge. The ruins pirates could at most perform a surprise attack on a small stronghold, but in front of the Mainbrain’s regular army, they could only scatter like birds and beasts.
Once a former rebel, Tu Rui was obviously familiar with the management methods of the Mainbrain. The deputy captain propped his hands on the deck railing; the worn glasses reflected the monstrous fire.
‘Just like well-trained and seasoned robbers,’ Ruan Xian thought. He did hear movement in the distance. The flying troops of the Mainbrain were rushing towards them quickly and would reach the scene in five minutes.
“Lao Tu, I said, get a ship to save us.” Yu Le opened his voice in a deafening rumble. “Did you need to fucking drive the main ship?”
“What else can I do!” Tu Rui, who was observing the situation at the bow of the ship, roared back. “If this side was more troublesome than we thought, an average ship can’t save you!”
“Help me to the cockpit!” Yu Le grabbed Tu Rui. “Cut the land travel mode. I’ll sail the ship—the enemy is about to slap our faces, how can this ship be handed over to young people!”
“Then I’m afraid you have to wait a bit.” Tu Rui took off his glasses and put them in their case. “Almost there. Find a place to lie down! All of you, hurry!”
The rumbling of the hull became louder. Ruan Xian quickly reacted and grabbed Tang Yibu, who was still watching the excitement, and got down on the ground. Tang Yibu slammed to the ground and was squeezed between Ruan Xian’s arms and the deck railing. He looked around as he happily clung to Ruan Xian’s waist.
Ji Xiaoman also quickly slipped to the edge of the railing. She cuffed the railing tightly with one mechanical arm, while the other extended out, spinning around Yu Le’s and Tu Rui’s waists, leaving a wide nylon lock.
Except for the few who insisted on observing the situation, all the other pirates rushed into the cabin.
There was another series of steam whistles.
Something was ejected from the bottom of the ship with such a force that Ruan Xian almost mistook it as an explosion. In an instant, the entire giant ship swayed and floated in the air. Then there was a roar so loud from the stern that it could pierce a human eardrum. The main ship of the Walking Stones seemed to have turned into a hovering jetboat, pointing diagonally towards the sky.
“…This scene is a bit familiar.” Yu Le’s face was blown by the wind so hard that he could bare spat out a word.
When he had initially attempted to die during the “disinfection”, he had also done something similar. Yu Le thought that the scene he made was big enough, but he didn’t expect Tu Rui to think even bigger than him.
“Thank you, Captain Yu, for your inspiration.” Tu Rui clenched the railing tightly, keeping his feet away from the gap at the lower end of the railing. The entire ship rushed straight into the sky with a roar, crossed the high dead wall, and rushed back to the endless wasteland of the Sea of Ruins. “But after this, our resources have almost bottomed out—set sail!”
When the Walking Stones rose to its apex, the side of the ship opened, and exaggerated metal gliding sails stretched out. Coupled with the gray hull, the entire Walking Stones looked like a giant manta ray. After entering the gliding state, the vibration on the hull finally stopped, and the bumps became a lot smaller. Only then did people start to stagger to stand up; some leaning on the railing and panting.
“Yibu, let go.”
Ruan Xian patted Tang Yibu’s arm—the android looked like he hadn’t played enough, as he still happily hugged Ruan Xian’s waist and lay comfortably on the ground. Instead of looking at the wasteland that was retreating under the ship, he turned his face sideways and looked at the magnificent starry sky above the Sea of Ruins.
Seeing that the other party was in a surprisingly good mood, Ruan Xian maintained his lying posture and turned his head very naturally. “Go directly to the Sea of Ruins? I can see it, but it’s still far away. I’m afraid we’ll still need to walk for a bit after we land.”
“Yeah, we don’t have as much energy as the Mainbrain, so that’s it at most.” Tu Rui stared at the two of them who were lying on the ground speechlessly. “When we land, we’ll switch to land travel mode, which will take about a few hours to get there, in order to save energy. To return to the Sea of Ruins, we needed to use the jet device. Otherwise, if the ship is stranded outside, we’ll be beaten thoroughly by the Order Supervisors.”
“Most likely, the Mainbrain won’t just let us go like this.” Yu Le interjected. “I’ll sail the boat for a while and send you guys back. Lao Tu, what’s the situation in the Sea of Ruins now?”
“There’s a new guy named Duan Feng, who claims to be Duan Lili’s younger brother. He persuaded Feng Jiang to rebuild Elysium.” Tu Rui sneered. “You haven’t been there for a few months. I’ve been fighting a good fight with them. Knowing that Duan Feng is an Order Supervisor, things are easy—just give them the illusion that we’re ‘evenly match’. Isn’t this convenient?”
“You picked a fight in the Sea of Ruins?” Seeing that it was business as usual, Yu Le put away his angry expression.
“Well, the opposite side thought we would fight them to the death. The entire Sea of Ruins was in chaos, attracting the attention of the Order Supervisors, so I was able to sneak out… But now that the stronghold is destroyed, the Mainbrain will be able to determine what’s going on.” Tu Rui looked at the ground that they were getting closer to. “I have already thought about it. This ship is the best way. When we get to the Sea of Ruins, everyone…”
“Everyone will separate into smaller ships and take down Elysium while taking the main ship to the annihilation point. In this way, unless they kill everyone in the Sea of Ruins, the Mainbrain cannot quickly confirm the target.”
Ruan Xian lay across the floor while taking in Tu Rui’s words.
Tu Rui’s plan wasn’t difficult to guess. One ship for another. Since this ship was exposed to the Order Supervisors of the stronghold, it was destined to embark on the road of destruction. However, Yu Le may not like the way of dealing with this, so the bad news was more suitable for Tu Rui to say.
Tu Rui glanced at Ruan Xian deeply.
Sure enough, Yu Le’s face became a bit ugly. However, considering he was the rescued party, he didn’t lose his temper and just sighed heavily. Ji Xiaoman had never seen the night in the Sea of Ruins. She was busy looking around but suddenly closed her eyes, worried about looking at the companion beside her.
“Tell me about your plan, Xiao Ruan.” Yu Le turned his back to everyone and stood alone against the wind. His voice was a little hoarse. “The ship is about to land, and I have to sail for a while. The Mainbrain’s flying pursuers are behind us and will definitely catch up. Most likely it won’t be safe for a while.”
This time, Ruan Xian broke away from Tang Yibu’s arm, stood up, and took a few breaths of the dry and cold night breeze.
“If our plan is successful, this ship may not need to be destroyed.” Ruan Xian chose a tempting opening. “It’s almost the same as when you were disinfected. As long as Mr. Tu can last for one day, he won’t need to worry about the Order Supervisors anymore.”
Yu Le squinted his eyes. “You just told me and the Little Profiteer not to take neutralizers. Is it for this? What are you planning to do? Does Professor Ruan know?”
“One question at a time.” Tang Yibu also stood up. He finally glanced at the bright milky way and hugged Ruan Xian’s neck from behind. “Let’s start with ‘What are you planning to do’—Mr. Yu, we plan to beat the Mainbrain within 30 hours.”
“I see. You’ve gone completely crazy,” Yu Le stated in a deep voice. Ji Xiaoman, on the other hand, stood frozen in place and almost lost her balance as she wasn’t paying attention.
“The next part, we will need Mr. Tu to recuse himself.” Ruan Xian pretended not to hear Yu Le’s response.
“Tu Rui, stand there and listen. He’s my brother.” Yu Le grinned.
“Are you sure?”
Ruan Xian bent his eyes unhappily. At this moment, the Walking Stones was quite close to the ground, and he could clearly see the dust hitting the withered grass.
“I hear the sound of engines, kind of like the armored off-roader.”
“Lao Tu, go to the cockpit first,” Yu Le said solemnly. “I’m worried about those youngsters driving the boat.”
Tu Rui glanced at Yu Le meaningfully and waved his hand. “See you later, brother.”
“Can we talk now?” When Tu Rui’s figure disappeared from the deck, Yu Le squinted at Ruan Xian. “What are you guys trying to do? 30 hours? Are you fucking dreaming…?”
“Mr. Ruan and I have determined the plan.” Tang Yibu rested his chin on Ruan Xian’s shoulder and stated in a serious manner, “I think the win rate is quite high.”
“…As long as we have the best pilot and the best mechanic.”
Kinky Translations 