After Xing Conglian finished surveying the outside of the bus, he bypassed the ground full of debris and walked inside. Yang Dianfeng followed behind him.
Lin Chen stood outside the bus and talked with Wang Chao.
“You’re saying the tablet he took appeared in the city?”
“Yeah, strange, right? And the route was weird. It looked like the GPS was broken.” Wang Chao looked at the man who was following the back of Xing Conglian’s ass and poked Lin Chen. “I suspect there’s a problem with that one.”
After listening to Wang Chao’s words, Lin Chen frowned lightly. “On what basis?”
“Ah, haven’t found it yet. It’s just that his appearance is too flattering, so there must be something wrong.”
Looking at the police officers investigating the scene in the bus, Lin Chen only felt that this case was very strange and dangerous.
A teenager who could hijack a bus yet only took candy led the police to track him for ten kilometers and then completed an impossible smuggling mission. These actions were pretty great, but though great, they were meaningless.
No one would spend such a high price doing something so meaningless, which, in and of itself, was the strangest part about this case. This was worthy of being vigilant.
Suddenly, the roar of an engine came from a distance, interrupting Lin Chen’s thoughts.
Lin Chen turned his head and found that the other lane was unusually empty, and dozens of cars were coming from the distance at a high speed in the opposite direction.
The leader was a white police car, followed by some large and small commercial vehicles. Without exception, those commercial vehicles were sprayed with the logos of major television stations. It was obvious they were from the news network. At the end of the convoy, there was a highway clearance vehicle.
In the blink of an eye, the convoy arrived in front of Lin Chen. The white police car slammed on the brakes, screeching over the white divider, making a sharp sound. After that, more than a dozen cars stopped one after another, spilling out countless smoke and dust, but no one got out of the car.
At that moment, several workers jumped off the clearance vehicle. They moved in a uniformed manner and quickly removed the section of the guardrail. Dozens of cars passed through it, and finally they all stopped outside the yellow cordon.
Looking at the pure white police car nearby, Lin Chen had a bad feeling in his heart.
With a click, the door opened, and someone stepped out. The leather boots were shiny, and the pants were straight. It was Huang Ze.
If Lin Chen saw Huang Ze, then obviously Huang Ze also saw him. It seemed as if he was being closely followed.
However, Huang Ze ignored him.
It seemed that Inspector Huang had more important things to do. He turned around, walked to the rear of the police car, and opened the door. He behaved upright and gentlemanly, attracting a series of flashes from the cameras.
Then, Jiang Zhe got out.
Lin Chen was stunned, but what surprised him even more was that just after Jiang Zhe got out of the car, all the spotlights and microphones were quickly pulled away from Huang Ze’s side and focused in front of the young man with messy, curly hair.
“Mr. Jiang, what’s your analysis of the scene?”
“Mr. Jiang, do you think another hijacking will happen again?”
“Mr. Jiang, can you analyze the psychological condition of the teenage hijacker?”
“Mr. Jiang…”
The reporters asked many questions and spoke very quickly.
Jiang Zhe had just returned from abroad and served as the host of an emotional talk show on a famous TV station. He was known for his sharp and merciless style. This was the first time he had taken over a case after becoming a consultant for the police force. All reporters received the news in advance. Teacher Jiang would first go to the rest stop and interview the victims. Then he would do an on-site inspection, and he welcomed the media to follow him throughout the process. Naturally, the reporters were extremely excited.
What was more, the case of the Candy Bandit was very interesting. The hijacker was just a cute boy who was stealing candy. He acted decisively and was humorous. He was playing the police like a fiddle. He could be chewing bubblegum at one moment and maybe mixed in with the passengers at the rest stop the next.
The Candy Bandit, coupled with Jiang Zhe, who was popular himself, made the media love this combination.
“According to the age analysis of the teenage hijacker, he should be in a rebellious period of his youth, and this rebellious behavior is to attract attention, similar to an exhibitionist who takes off his pants and orgasms when someone looks at him.” Jiang Zhe was as sharp as ever. With his own explosive points, the atmosphere of the scene became more enthusiastic. The sound of shutters followed one after another as every reporter’s face was full of excitement.
“Is that so?” Seeing a large number of people arriving, Xing Conglian stepped off the bus and stood beside Lin Chen.
“He’s quite right.” Looking at the interview scene, Lin Chen said, “Because he’s right, it’s scary.”
“Indeed,” Xing Conglian said.
Wang Chao was confused. “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“You see, if he did all this to attract attention, he undoubtedly succeeded.” The reporter’s solemn broadcast and the sound of the interview drifted in the wind. Jiang Zhe was in high spirits, amusing the reporters. Lin Chen paused, then glanced at Xing Conglian. “Then, this begs the question, why does he want to attract attention?”
“Adolescent second-year teenagers are like this,” Wang Chao replied disapprovingly.
“That’s right. The onset of puberty will cause young people to urgently need social attention. There’s no problem with this. But young people with this kind of problem are bound to be unbalanced. They have extreme paranoia in their hearts and their reactions would match the state of their behavior. However, that teenager behaved decisively, gracefully, and spoke in a funny way…”
“If you talk about it, you will think the persona is a bit cute!”
“Yes, he gives off the feeling of being cute and cool. He’s an armed robber, yet you have this idea. Isn’t this the scariest thing?”
“He’s not right in the head. Don’t pay attention to him.” Xing Conglian grabbed the technician by the collar and dragged him back.
“How was it?” Lin Chen asked.
“The bus is clean.” Xing Conglian took off his gloves and stuffed them in his pocket.
The so-called cleanliness that the police captain spoke of, naturally, didn’t refer to the hygienic state of the bus, but to the fact that the teenager didn’t leave any clues that could be used for tracking.
“There are no fingerprints, no hair. He even took the candy wrappers with him.”
“Bold, cautious, and deliberate,” Lin Chen said.
“His purpose must not be as simple as just wanting attention.” Xing Conglian looked at Jiang Zhe and Huang Ze, who were isolated outside the interview site as he spoke coldly.
Lin Chen looked at the reed field that stretched out endlessly and finally spoke, “Xing Conglian, close off this entire area.”
Before his words fell, the first reaction of the transportation manager, who had been quietly listening, was, “Are you kidding me?!” The Hongjing Highway had a total length of 317 kilometers, starting from Qiong Mountain in the west to the Yongchuan River in the east. It was a transportation hub connecting two provinces. The average daily traffic flow was more than 30,000 a day. Even if it were closed for only half an hour, there would be a long line at the highway entrance stretching endlessly. What was more, it was unheard of to close the entire highway for the sake of a highway robbery that had already occurred.
Xing Conglian looked at Lin Chen’s face as if he was joking. In fact, he, like Lin Chen, had a very bad feeling in his heart.
In his experience, whether it was the tablet running around the city or the women’s perfume in the reed field, it was all a distraction for the police. Now that the police forces were dispersed, it meant the teenager who kept hijacking buses was about to take his final action.
However, this was purely conjecture, without any substantial evidence, so they could only watch the danger come.
“I don’t have the power to do that,” he said very sincerely.
Lin Chen seemed to see the unease in his heart. He pointed to the upright inspector in the distance and asked, “Then can he call the shots?”
“Captain Xing, the superior who kicked you off the investigation, is it Young Master Huang?” Yang Dianfeng suddenly made the connection.
“Yes, that’s him,” Xing Conglian answered casually and continued to talk to Lin Chen. “Want to try?” he asked.
“Young Master Huang is a well-known hardliner, and he already has preconceived notions about you. Why do you want to make a fool of yourself?” Yang Dianfeng persuaded anxiously.
Xing Conglian glanced at him and said indifferently, “Persuading Huang Ze is a shortcut, and if there’s a shortcut, we have to try it.”
Lin Chen nodded, obviously having the same attitude as him.
At this time, Huang Ze had already walked in front of them. He didn’t look at Lin Chen but said to Xing Conglian, “Captain Xing, this case doesn’t seem to be under your jurisdiction anymore. Please take the unrelated people and leave immediately.”
Naturally, the unrelated person Huang Ze was referring to was Lin Chen.
“Huang Ze, this is all so meaningless.” Xing Conglian lowered his head slightly and looked at Huang Ze as he spoke calmly.
“Captain Xing, don’t you have other cases to investigate? Why are you still here? Taxpayers don’t pay you so you can go sightseeing.”
“I have no cases at the moment that are more important than this one.”
“Oh, important? You really think this case is important? Then why has there been no progress in the investigation for months? Now you come to talk to me about importance, don’t you think it’s a bit late…”
“There’s no point in quarreling. If I want to quarrel, I can quarrel with you for three days and nights, but you’ll definitely lose. Now listen to me carefully.” Xing Conglian interrupted Huang Ze. “We suspect the criminal is likely to make a big move. I hope you can contribute to a higher level of reaction by closing down the highway, just in case.”
Xing Conglian felt that this matter was starting to get interesting.
He wanted to let Lin Chen stay for a while in order to punish him for silently and ruthlessly cheating death, but he didn’t expect that along the way, the person who experienced the torment became himself.
He had imagined several situations when he saw Lin Chen again, but when he waited downstairs, he heard Jiang Zhe’s words, and all the countermeasures that he thought of weren’t enough.
He held onto the stair handle as he walked up, feeling how fate was always so interesting.
The stairway on the second floor was occupied by the angry Huang Ze and Jiang Zhe, who seemed even angrier than the former.
Across from them, Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian at the same time Xing Conglian looked at him. When he saw Lin Chen, all the scripts that Xing Conglian prepared seemed to have lost their effectiveness in an instant. It was like as if water would always flow to the sea, and spring would always come after winter.
It seemed that reuniting was a very common thing, and since it was so common, there was no need to get too excited.
Lin Chen wiped the corner of his mouth, only to see Xing Conglian ignoring Huang Ze and Jiang Zhe. He passed by them as if they weren’t there and stood in front of Lin Chen.
“He hit you?” The captain of the police force was tall and wearing a police windbreaker. He had the cold air of the spring breeze on his body, mixed with the smell of mint tobacco. It tasted cold yet sweet.
“Yes.”
“Does it hurt?”
“It hurts.”
Lin Chen finished answering, but he didn’t hear a response. He raised his head and happened to look into Xing Conglian’s eyes. Those eyes were green with hints of blue that were as deep as the ocean.
Only then did Lin Chen realize that Xing Conglian had cut his hair to no longer than an inch, which only accentuated his mixed-race appearance, making him look extremely handsome.
He rarely paid attention to the appearance of others. He normally looked at things that had nothing to do with appearances, such as emotions or attitudes, but today, he was purely looking at the face of Xing Conglian.
Xing Conglian probably didn’t even know that he was being admired for his appearance, because when he saw Lin Chen staring at him, he thought for a while and then said, “It’s okay.”
For more than half a years, 180 days, Lin Chen occasionally thought in his free time, if Xing Conglian knew he wasn’t dead, what would he say? Based on that person’s lineage, he expected Xing Conglian to utter something strange, but he didn’t expect that he would say something as light as this.
It’s okay…
No sentence was lighter than this. No sentence was heavier than this.
Lin Chen felt moved.
After Xing Conglian finished speaking, seeing that Lin Chen hadn’t moved, he felt he hadn’t done enough, so he took half a step forward and stretched out his hand and hugged him. Xing Conglian’s hug was very shallow, lasting no longer than at most three seconds.
Lin Chen seemed to smell the scent of incense on Xing Conglian’s body and let out an inaudible sigh.
From their conversation to the end of their hug, it took no more than a minute, but in the eyes of Huang Ze, it was blindingly excessive.
As Huang Ze watched Xing Conglian and Lin Chen hug, his gaze fell on Lin Chen’s cheek. It was badly bruised, and the corner of his mouth was cracked with blood oozing out. Huang Ze realized that he had been too rough. At that moment, he saw Xing Conglian turn his head and glare at him.
Xing Conglian’s eyes were cold, as if he was saying, “If you want to pick a fight, come at me. What qualifications do you have?”
The gaze was the kind of indifference mixed with contempt and ridicule.
Being despised by others was something Huang Ze had never experienced since he was a child. With only one look, Xing Conglian successfully ignited all his anger.
Huang Ze held back Jiang Zhe, who wanted to retaliate, and said coldly to Xing Conglian, “It’s been nearly two hours since the incident. It’s only now that Captain Xing arrived?” Before Xing Conglian could answer, he spoke again. “If it weren’t for knowing that Lin Chen is here, how much longer is Captain Xing going to make the passenger wait?”
As the Police Inspector*, Huang Ze’s words were relentless. He ignored the police who had arrived earlier at the scene to first appease the passengers.
*Note: Depending on which country, the “inspector” position varies. Since the setting of this novel is in China, the Police Inspector is basically the supervisor of the police department. An American equivalent would probably be like the superintendent or chief of police.
There was a slight commotion among the passengers, who seemed to be in agreement.
Xing Conglian had many reasons he could use to justify his tardiness; the emergence of new clues or the traffic jam, but if he said this at this time and place, it would sound inappropriate, as if he was shirking from his responsibilities.
In that case, not defending himself was the best defense.
He patted Lin Chen on the shoulder and then nodded to the passengers. “When the bus comes to the bus terminal, you can leave. Thank you everyone for your time and patience.”
“Captain Xing, you’re just going to let the passengers leave like this? Have you finished interviewing everyone? Can you afford to miss a major clue?” Huang Ze sneered.
“Are you in a hurry to go?” Xing Conglian asked Lin Chen.
“Nothing major right now.”
Xing Conglian nodded, then pointed to Lin Chen and said to Huang Ze, “The clue says he’s not leaving for now.”
Huang Ze was so angry that he was momentarily speechless.
“The clue? Is Captain Xing referring to the criminal suspect of a major homicide?”
It seemed that Jiang Zhe couldn’t help speaking up, trying to curry favor when he saw Huang Ze gradually becoming disadvantaged.
“Consultant Jiang.” Xing Conglian stopped him sharply.
Jiang Zhe was taken aback.
Xing Conglian smiled slightly and said, “We’re a country under the rule of law. We should pay attention to the evidence before we act and speak.”
“What do you want to know? I can tell you.”
“Jiang Zhe!”
Huang Ze suddenly spoke up and interrupted Jiang Zhe. “With the rank of Captain Xing, it’s unsuitable for him to access this top-secret information.”
After hearing this, Jiang Zhe stared coldly at Lin Chen and stopped talking.
“Is Captain Xing not going to follow regulations?” Huang Ze’s words turned his words around and his tone became austere.
The attitude of these two people was so boring. Xing Conglian replied, “Certainly not. I’m going to the crime scene to inspect it right now. Does Inspector Huang want to join?”
“In that case, Captain Xing can have a good time catching up with Mr. Lin. This case is now in the hands of the City’s Provincial Police. Captain Xing can have a good rest.” Huang Ze took a few steps forward and patted him lightly on the shoulder.
It had been more than a month since Xing Conglian started investigating the series of highway carjacking, yet Huang Ze had now kicked him off the case with just a word, without even giving a reason.
Anyone who heard this would be angry or make noise, but Xing Conglian didn’t react. After all, he really scorned Huang Ze.
“Fine. You’re the highest rank here, so you’re in charge.” He nodded to Lin Chen, put his hands in his pockets, turned around, and walked away.
Lin Chen naturally followed him. As they walked, they talked in low voices.
“How did you find me?”
“Before that kid made his move, you glanced at him.”
Inspector Huang, who was standing aside, heard the scattered questions and answers floating in the air and became even more angry.
——
When Lin Chen reached the side of Xing Conglian’s jeep, he realized there was a person sitting in the front passenger seat.
“Yang Dianfeng, the manager of the transportation company where the incident occurred,” Xing Conglian said, pretending to be causal about it.
Lin Chen nodded and sat in the backseat.
“Well?”
Seeing Xing Conglian getting into the car, Yang Dianfeng asked him with concern.
“It’s fine. My superior won’t let me investigate.”
“How could this be?!”
Xing Conglian didn’t care. He closed the car door and looked at the backseat. “It has nothing to do with you. Huang Ze is just targeting me…”
“I know, but in accordance with the regulations on Inter-Provincial Collaborative Case Handling, Chapter III, Article 4, in the event of a major case, in order to ensure the reasonable allocation of police resources, the local criminal police should obey the unified deployment of their superiors, but under the premise of not affecting the investigation, the local criminal police of the case also has the right to independently investigate.”
“It’s really familiar having you back.” Xing Conglian lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Like a long-awaited plan, he quickly started the jeep. “Investigate together?”
“Nn.”
Hearing his answer, a smile rippled across Xing Conglian’s face.
Ten minutes later, they came to the real crime scene.
There was a bright yellow cordon outside the bus, and two Belgian Shepherds with bright coats happened to be returning. One of them had a bright yellow sneaker in its mouth and refused to let go.
“What’s the matter?” Xing Conglian asked as he got out of the jeep.
“They said after tracking for more than ten kilometers, only one shoe was found.” Wang Chao, who came to the scene ahead of time, crouched down and petted the search dog.
The trainer was trying to wrangle the shoe out of the search dog’s mouth as Lin Chen silently came to Xing Conglian’s side. When Wang Chao looked up and saw Lin Chen’s face, he couldn’t help but punch Xing Conglian’s back. “Captain, how can you be so heavy-handed? My A’Chen is a scholar!”
When he was attacked, Xing Conglian was wearing gloves and was examining the sneaker. He staggered, almost slamming his face into the sneaker. He was just about to shout his grievances when he noticed something strange.
Following Xing Conglian’s movement, Lin Chen also sniffed. In addition to the soft smell of vegetation like green bamboo shoots, there was a faint aroma in the air.
“This smells like perfume?” Yang Dianfeng suddenly appeared and squatted beside Xing Conglian, also sniffing.
“Hmm?”
“It smells very much like LANCOME MIRACLE, but I can’t be sure.”
“What is that?”
“It’s a women’s perfume. Many girls like it.” Yang Dianfeng was familiar with it. “However, according to the degree of fragrance retention, it’s very likely that he sprinkled the perfume on his shoes purposefully?”
“In order to disturb the line of sight,” Xing Conglian said.
“Is that so?” Yang Dianfeng looked at Xing Conglian and smiled, his gaze full of respect. “Fortunately, you are willing to continue investigating this case.”
Kinky Thoughts:
Based on this, it seems like Huang Ze is probably Lin Chen’s ex, because homeboy is so jelly that I need some peanut butter and toast to go with it.
The injected potion gradually took effect as Yu Le started to feel the power of this thing. At first, it just made him energetic and his mind extremely clear, but as time passed, he discovered its horror—it made him completely lose his sleepiness.
His body had already begun to feel tired and weak, and his heart started beating faster. His hands and feet were cold and numb, but his brain felt awake like it never had before, as if it was quenched by ice water. Even if he closed his eyes forcibly, he couldn’t fall asleep.
He should have been here for more than 24 hours since he woke up, but he hadn’t even yawned.
It seemed the Mainbrain had given him a very hard drug. He felt a burning inside and his brain was in its most excited state.
This was really a bit like juicing. Yu Le was dealing with the problem of the projection in front of him while thinking widely—the method of obtaining living memory in the Underground City was very crude, like covering fruit with a tarp in order to capture some of its fragrance. Later, Qian Yigeng gained access to more proficient technology, but knew that crushing fresh people’s heads was at best squeezing out already cut lemons.
The Mainbrain’s approach should be more sophisticated. It was preparing them carefully, like ingredients as it cooks. When their brains reached their most mature state, they could be juiced and crushed completely without wasting a slight bit of data.
When he thought of this, Yu Le felt even worse.
The projection of his sister knew his situation well. The pace of questioning was getting faster and the coverage of the questions was getting wider. Yu Le had a rather bad premonition—he could only roughly estimate the time since he had been locked up and he didn’t know the detailed process of how the Mainbrain crush human brains. The more he and Ji Xiaoman fully recollected their memories, the less time they had.
Under the pretext of persuading Yu Le to obey and cooperate, Ji Xiaoman stopped this painful interrogation several times. Unfortunately, there was surveillance in all directions, and she could only utter meaningless words at most to buy Yu Le a short respite.
He felt that his brain was turning faster and opening up wider. This abnormal state of excitement was eroding his stamina and adding to his fatigue. When the conversation was interrupted for the last time, Ji Xiaoman gave Yu Le a hug, buried her face in Yu Le’s shoulder, and spoke to him in a very low voice.
They both knew that the Mainbrain could still hear them.
“Tang Yibu and the others won’t come save us.” She carefully chose her words. “We’re running a low fever, Yu Le. We’ve passed the most suitable state for escape. The Order Supervisors are right. Even if they come, they are more likely to come and kill us before we are crushed. It’s not worth it to them to spend effort trying to save us.”
She wasn’t even sure if that was a lie, as that statement almost convinced herself. She prepared for the worst in her heart—even if she was crushed and remade, her love for her mother should still exist in her memory. Then, the next “her” would continue to take care of her mother, so the situation wasn’t at the point of despair.
Looking at the current situation, they could only hope that the reinforcements they had arranged would arrive on time.
Yu Le smiled but didn’t answer. For the first time in his life, he wanted to dig out his brain. His brain became more active, but his body couldn’t keep up with the speed of thought. It felt like he was stuck in wet cement, and every move brought uncomfortable stagnation and dizziness.
Suddenly, the whole room trembled and fell into darkness. Silence filled the ears of the two.
Was this a test? Or was it someone coming to pick them up?
In short, if this continued, they would lose their mobility sooner or later, so it was better to just fight now.
“Little Profiteer, do it.”
Without saying a word, Ji Xiaoman touched her prosthetic limbs. After a gentle click, the corrosive liquid melted the shackles around Yu Le. However, because the environment was too dark, a bit of the mixture also splashed onto the back of Yu Le’s left hand, corroding a piece of skin.
Yu Le held back his groan from the pain and tired standing up. Unfortunately, he wasn’t good at hand-to-hand combat like Ji Xiaoman. The excessive sensitivity in his brain also made him unable to coordinate his limbs well, so when he stood up, he fell flat on his ass.
“Our lock structure is similar.” Ji Xiaoman pulled Yu Le up. “I have checked the alarm. Melting it will buy us about 30 seconds. The next thing is to watch—”
The room suddenly exploded and covered them with countless pieces of rubble.
“…Wait, what did you instruct Tu Rui to do?” Ji Xiaoman carried Yu Le and dodged a large metal plate in horror. “Does he know what you did to the car?”
“Lao Tu isn’t that much of an asshole. Let’s escape first!” Yu Le was doused with gray dust and ash from head to toe.
The originally sealed room collapsed with a big hole. Ji Xiaoman gritted her teeth and supported Yu Le as they ran out of the room. At this moment, the uniform of the Order Supervisor she was wearing had taken effect. The other Order Supervisors were busy dealing with the current crisis. All she needed to do was say she was “transferring important people”.
While they didn’t know the situation outside, it was stupid for them to just sit still.
As the building collapsed, the lights went out and a gradual fire ignited around it. Ji Xiaoman took a deep breath and ran towards the dark ruins, trying to avoid all the still intact surveillance cameras.
“Lao Yu, hold on. Don’t fall asleep,” she repeated sharply.
“I would like to sleep… Don’t panic, Little Profiteer. Laozi is still far from death.” Yu Le rolled his eyes. “You see, I’m really fucking prescient. Don’t mention flickering grass or fireflies, just this active drug from the Mainbrain can turn me into a sandbag.”
Right now, smoke was rising, and sirens were blaring. This was Yu Le’s favorite kind of battlefield. Unfortunately, he was now like a tortoise that had been turned over. He couldn’t do anything except pull his limbs while being supported by a little girl as they ran for their lives. Yu Le exhaled sadly and began to pray that Tu Rui would come a little late—at least until he could move normally again before their meeting.
Otherwise, he would definitely be ridiculed by that surnamed Tu for the rest of his life.
Ji Xiaoman was obviously very good at hiding and escaping. Even with Lao Yu, she successfully melted herself into the shadows. The explosions all around us were getting louder. The two of them looked around but saw no signs of the ruins pirate ship nearby. To say that the instigator of this chaos wanted to save them wasn’t quite right either—the ceiling above their heads had collapsed. Ji Xiaoman had to drag Yu Le to narrowly dodge its impact, barely managing to avoid getting their legs crushed.
“According to the plan, we will first go to the scheduled landing site of the Walking Stones and wait.” Ji Xiaoman was in shock. She pulled Yu Le’s arms around her neck. However, they were both sweating profusely, enough that Yu Le’s arms became slippery. The little girl thought for a moment, then put Yu Le down and decided on a different course of action.
A few seconds later, Yu Le’s suppressed screams sounded in the narrow space.
Dozens of meters away.
“How’s it going?” Tang Yibu said happily while asking Ruan Xian, who was riding on a hoverbike. When he said this, he was still holding a bomb the size of a small drawer.
“They’re still alive and have no missing arms or legs either. I don’t smell their blood.” Ruan Xian drove at the maximum speed and circled above the stronghold with Tang Yibu. “I saw the Walking Stones. It’s flying here… At this speed, they’ll arrive in at most fifty seconds. They must have modified the catapult mechanism of the ejection net.”
“Then I’ll continue,” Tang Yibu said happily.
“You’re throwing that down? Wait… Hey, it’s me. We don’t need ammunition support anymore. Consider your safety and back off.”
Ruan Xian gave Tang Yibu a hand signal and casually shot down two small sniping machines that tried to approach him with his blood gun. He turned to the electronic wristband and spoke to the supply team from the Glass Conservatory in the distance—they just happened to be helping deliver a batch of supplies to Professor Ruan, so they also delivered his portion along the way.
“…When you return to the Glass Conservatory, please give my thanks to Mr. Luo for his support.”
“Throw it?” Seeing Ruan Xian hang up the communication, Tang Yibu dropped the bomb.
The bomb’s target was the stronghold’s arsenal. The defensive dome protecting it had been hacked by Tang Yibu. The giant bomb successfully broke through the barrier and created a dazzling explosion, turning all the mechanical robots in the area into scrap metal. Thick smoke obscured the sky, and the scorching wind almost overturned Ruan Xian’s hoverbike.
“Let’s welcome Mr. Tu, who we haven’t seen in a while.” Ruan Xian stabilized the motorcycle, released the handlebar, and maintained his balance beside Tang Yibu. He then took out the items he had mixed on the road and threw them into the fire beneath them.
A dazzling red light soared into the sky, forming a huge red smiley face in the air.
In the next second, the bow of the Walking Stones hit the mark. The giant ship continued to move forward due to inertia and stopped on the open sand next to the stronghold.
Tang Yibu didn’t let gravity pull him back. He tilted his body, got on Ruan Xian’s hoverbike, and hugged the waist of the person in front of him tightly. Ruan Xian adjusted his angle and rushed straight to the deck of the Walking Stones. After landing, the bottom of the bike rubbed against the desk, creating a harsh scratching sound, and stopped just in front of a person.
“You scratched my deck.” Tu Rui pushed up his glasses and looked at the blackened marks on the deck.
“Well, I helped rescue your captain, so we’re even.” Ruan Xian titled the semi-scrapped hoverbike to the side.
Tu Rui looked suspiciously at the sea of fire in front of him—the main strength of the stronghold was armed machines. Now, the arsenal was completely destroyed and the Order Supervisors were in a state of chaos. The ruins pirates of the Walking Stones saw the fresh ruins of the stronghold and their eyes turned red. Ignoring the smoke, they rushed into the ruins and began to scavenge for supplies that were still usable.
“Rescue? Where’s Lao Yu?” Tu Rui glanced around. Except for the ruins pirates and Order Supervisors, he didn’t see anyone else.
Ruan Xian pointed to the place where the fog was the thickest, which wasn’t far away. Tu Rui raised his chin, and several young pirates on deck lifted an air pump used to disperse poisonous gas and sprayed it straight towards that direction.
“Fuck, Tu Rui, stop spraying!” Lao Yu’s roar came from the other end, a bit out of tune. “Give me a sec. I’ll be there in a bit. Don’t spray, don’t spray, don’t fucking spray—!”
“Increase the wind.” Tu Rui pushed up his glasses.
The gray-black smoke was finally blown away, and two figures appeared, but there was something wrong with their posture.
Yu Le, who was tall and big, was being princess carried by Ji Xiaoman. It seemed she didn’t think there was anything wrong with this action, as her expression was solemn, while Yu Le could only smack his face and exuded an aura of complete despair.
“Please pick him up.” Tu Rui nodded solemnly. “I’ll go and get some medicine.”
This lie was quite out of place. Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian watched as Tu Rui walked into the cabin with a sullen look. In less than five seconds, there was an uncontrollable burst of laughter coming out of it.
“It seems that Mr. Tu will be laughing for a while.” Tang Yibu pointed this out seriously. “Let’s pick Yu Le up first—someone has to drive the ship to escape.”
“Yeah, but don’t mention this matter for a while, Yibu. We will need those two’s help next.”
Ruan Xian had already begun to untie the ladder used for rescue on the deck as a smile glinted across his face.
“…Our Mr. Yu still has a chance to show off.”
The author has something to say:
Lao Yu was carried by the princess.jpg
Tu Rui: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
However, Ji Xiaoman’s resistance to the drug is true √
The weather in the Glass Conservatory today was good. The wind poured in from the half-open window, slightly blowing the curtains. The light wasn’t too bright, and everything was just right.
Unfortunately, Luo Fei couldn’t relax. To be more precise, he was annoyed that his brain was hurting.
It took him a long time to digest Luo Jian’s memory and stabilize his self-awareness. After his mind was clear, his attitude towards Professor Ruan wasn’t very cordial—the admiration and recognition that belonged to Luo Jian were still there, but the rejection that belonged to Luo Fei also survived. Luo Fei’s own pursuits weren’t high. He wanted to be free. However, “wanting to be free” and “overthrowing the Mainbrain” weren’t the same order of magnitude.
And even if he agreed with Professor Ruan’s philosophy, he couldn’t accept the fact that his father was under a lot of pressure, abandoned his family, and turned himself into some kind of “tool”.
He may not even be considered his father’s son, which bothered Luo Fei in particular. He deeply resented the war that gave birth to him to the very core of his bones.
So when he received Professor Ruan’s call not long ago, Luo Fei chose a relative compromise—he didn’t intend to directly participate in Professor Ruan’s resistance plan. It was fine to help pass on the information and provide supplies, but the Glass Conservatory wouldn’t get too involved. Luo Fei decided to show Professor Ruan the spark, but he also wanted to let the other party know the price of being burned.
Having said that, he still had to do his best.
Luo Fei only wanted to guarantee one thing. The Glass Conservatory must be kept as low-key as possible throughout the plan. In this way, even if the rebels retreat again, his own people wouldn’t be implicated.
Things would have developed like this until two acquaintances came to the door—Ruan Lijie and Tang Yibu once again passed through the cyber defense wall, escaped the layers of screening with difficulty, and slipped all the way into his room at the Prevention Shelter.
With these two hot potatoes here, if Luo Fei left them alone and they were discovered, his side would definitely become the investigation of the Mainbrain.
“I thought we were already even.” Luo Fei sat expressionlessly on by the bed.
Since Luo Fei successfully got himself into the Prevention Shelter, Luo Jian, who had been discharged, would visit him from time to time and bring large bags of food with him. In order to ensure that his father wasn’t implicated, Luo Fei didn’t completely disconnect from Luo Jian, but their communication was very strained. He usually used the food sent by his father to give it to others to make connections, so he rarely ate alone.
However, said food was almost bottoming out now.
After obtaining Luo Fei’s permission, the two uninvited guests were eating at the table, like starving ghosts who had been imprisoned for 800 years. Luo Fei thought they were only padding their stomach, but the horsepower of those two were like vacuum cleaners. Boxes of snacks disappeared into the air one after another—even the snack container was eaten clean by the mechanical life they brought.
They were probably extremely hungry. Luo Fei didn’t know whether to show sympathy or pain.
“It’s clear. You two are here to talk about business.” The speed at which the two of them ate finally slowed down. Tang Yibu swallowed the food in his mouth and burped loudly. Only then did he respond to Luo Fei’s words.
Tang Yibu’s spirit had lifted a lot now to the naked eye compared to the half-dead appearance when he first entered the room.
Luo Fei glanced at the tears reflecting in the corner of Tang Yibu’s eyes. “I have nothing here.”
“You’re not fully supporting Professor Ruan.” Tang Yibu patted his stomach comfortably while wiping the corners of his eyes. “I think you don’t want to be implicated.”
“My father is very loyal to Ruan Xian, and I can feel that loyalty. It’s a pity that my thoughts are a bit different from his, and I’m not as persistent as him.”
Luo Fei glanced at the crumbs at the corner of Tang Yibu’s mouth as he spoke.
“If you’re worried that I’m hiding something in support of the rebels, you don’t have to. My primary goal is to keep my father, Auntie Yan, Xiao Han, and the others safe. When it’s really time to choose between broken jade or brick tiles*, I will choose the latter.” Luo Fei was calm. The sentimentality they first saw in him had disappeared without a trace.” If you’re here for this—”
*Referring to “A man would rather be a broken piece of jade than a complete piece of pottery.” (宁可玉碎，不能瓦全) It means that people would rather die heroically (like broken jade) than live kneeling (like a piece of brick) (AKA It’s better to die standing than live kneeling). || In this context, Luo Fei is saying he would rather live kneeling (choosing the brick) than die heroically (broken jade).
Tang Yibu happily picked up another cookie. “It’s similar to what we expected. Mr. Luo, you’re the most suitable partner.”
This was supposed to be a serious conversation, but unfortunately, the two people in front of him were in rags, with cookie crumbs all over the corners of their mouths, which made the atmosphere anything but tense. Despite that, the two of them were outstanding and very pleasing to the eye, so Luo Fei showed full patience.
“What you need to provide is very simple—at present, the Mainbrain has raised the alert level and we can no longer fabricate information out of thin air. We need a hiding place. It won’t be long. Twelve hours is enough.”
“My house?” Luo Fei quickly understood what Tang Yibu meant. Since he was locked up here, his father had moved into his previous residence.
“You can ask your father to come here for half a day. I remember that the Prevention Shelter provides temporary housing services for family members.” Tang Yibu gulped down a glass of water and squinted his eyes contentedly. “We can guarantee that your home will not be exposed.”
After thinking for a bit, Luo Fei asked, “Is this Ruan Xian’s request or yours?”
Without directly participating in Ruan Xian’s meetings, Luo Fei only had a list of the necessary materials in his hand. Although they would also help Ruan Xian’s people deliver messages, for self-protection, Luo Fei didn’t know the content of those messages. All he knew was that Ruan Xian was planning another resistance plan. As for whether the two in front of him were involved and what role they played, he had no clue.
“Our request.” Ruan Xian finally spoke. The colic in his stomach had disappeared, and his eyes were no longer seeing black. He was finally able to calm down. “Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Luo.”
Luo Fei waved his hand absent-mindedly. “Don’t be quick to thank me. To be honest, this is all verbal stuff. I don’t plan to believe you. Let’s hear it first. Since it’s business, what do I get in return?”
“I can encrypt and upgrade some of your contact systems.”
Although Ruan Xian stopped eating, Tang Yibu had no intention of stopping. It was obvious he was very hungry.
“You know what I can do. This is also good proof. I can show it to you live in a bit—it can help you contact people more easily. You see, in case Ruan Xian falls, the Mainbrain will no longer need to observe you and obtain relevant information. It will immediately start to rectify the irregular organization here, and your Pear Blossom will bear the brunt.”
Tang Yibu swallowed the last cookie in his hand. “Well, as a technical test, I’ll help you invade Ruan Xian’s command system later. I’ll open up part of the battle situation to you alone. You can prepare for refuge in advance or keep a low profile depending on the situation. It just proves the safety of our operation and also the fact that you’re ‘not Ruan Xian’s person’. If you have Luo Jian’s memories, you should be able to distinguish the authenticity of the content.”
If he and Mr. Ruan won, the situation would have no practical value. If he and Mr. Ruan lost, Luo Jian and Luo Fei both knew the temperament of Luo Fei. He wouldn’t take this information and defect to the Order Supervisors.
This was a deal that was destined for only those in the know.
Tang Yibu wiped his mouth contentedly.
“Just for the use of my house for twelve hours?” Professor Ruan didn’t use this kind of confidentiality as a bargaining chip. Luo Fei let out a sigh. “Battle situation sharing, system encryption… Suppose that I approve of your technology, say it, what other requirements do you have?”
“Clothes, shoes, simple equipment. This is something that’s easy to get.” Ruan Xian smiled as he took over the conversation. “In addition to these things, we also need a bit of rarer parts, which you will have to borrow from your contacts here Mr. Luo—you guys have been helping Ruan Xian transport supplies, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get this stuff within twelve hours.”
“…I can. Then, Mr. Tang, show me what you can do.”
The subsequent negotiations went smoothly, and they got an empty apartment. In order to ensure that everything was secure while they waited for the parts to be delivered, the two made ample preparations and then contacted Fan Linsong after ten hours—by hacking into the mechanical maid in Fan Linsong’s room, it took them another hour or so to obtain the information.
There was still an hour left of their time.
“After this, we have 36 hours—about a day and a half.” Tang Yibu collapsed on the sofa.
After disposing of the dirty compression robes, the two of them put on new clothes that were easy to move in. Ruan Xian even got a new holster and a white jacket. Unlike in the past, Ruan Xian’s backpack was empty this time, waiting for the parts to be delivered so it could be filled in—those parts were quite heavy, but fortunately, they weren’t enough to affect his movements.
Tang Yibu’s backpack was stuffed with brand-new weapons and fresh food, with each of the pockets bulging. Not to mention the iron bead, even a piece of candy wouldn’t fit in it. Tang Yibu’s clothes were relatively tight-fitting, making the various props in his belt and pockets particularly conspicuous.
If it was just ordinary scouting, they would be fully armed, but considering that this was the last outfit they were wearing before facing the Mainbrain, it looked ridiculous based on how simple it was.
As the sun rose, the apartment became brighter. Ruan Xian stood up and decided not to waste precious time—he poured two glasses of water and pushed one of them in front of Tang Yibu.
The latter looked sideways at him, showing a smile without hesitation. During the conversation with Fan Linsong just now, in order to gain control of the mechanical maid, the two of them had a little tussle—Tang Yibu’s already somewhat long black hair was disheveled, and the clothes on his chest were wrinkled. The fury of his combat outfit was all but gone.
Ruan Xian was taken aback.
The room was bright. Tang Yibu was lying on the sofa, using his backpack as a pillow. Luo Fei’s apartment was originally full of life, but now there was no hunger or fatigue plaguing them, which softened the atmosphere. The current situation was special, and there wasn’t much mutual suspicion between them.
In that short moment, the surrounding crises, war, and the Mainbrain no longer seemed to exist. Ruan Xian held the water cup, hoping this second would last forever.
The apartment wasn’t his, the peace and quiet wasn’t his, but the smile of the person in front of him was.
The scene was closer to a “home” than anything he had ever seen. Ruan Xian glanced at Tang Yibu’s mottled injuries—in order to get to the Glass Conservatory as soon as possible, Tang Yibu suffered a lot of scratches while running. The injuries weren’t serious, but the cut was quite deep, which made it look jarring.
Ruan Xian put down the water cup in his hand, sat by the edge of the sofa, and leaned over to kiss Tang Yibu.
He would kiss him, then bite the tip of his tongue and send as much blood as possible before the tongue healed. Ruan Xian was very familiar with this process. Tang Yibu had once rejected him on the way. At that time, it was just a slight burn, and perhaps it was just an overreaction on his part. Now that they were well supplied and in stable condition, it was always good to heal when he could.
As a result, seeing Ruan Xian kissing him, Tang Yibu shrank his neck and titled his face to one side, just avoiding the kiss.
Still mad? Was he angry with him for interfering with his conversation with Fan Linsong just now?
Ruan Xian stroked Tang Yibu’s ear soothingly with one hand and moved it gently. As a result, Tang Yibu suddenly stretched out his neck and avoided the second kiss. Seeing the android shaking his head flexibly like a seal, Ruan Xian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “…Do you have any questions?”
He grabbed Tang Yibu’s wrist and shook the finely scarred hand in front of him. “Don’t you want a hand?”
“Let’s talk about the bouquet patch.” Tang Yibu’s eyes wandered, and his tone was serious.
“It won’t take a whole hour to talk about this.” Ruan Xian raised his brows. “We can talk about it in a minute. Now, stop messing around and let me treat your injuries.”
“This level is fine by tomorrow.” Tang Yibu insisted on not looking at his hand.
“But I don’t feel comfortable when I see it.”
“This relationship has really made life a lot more difficult.” Tang Yibu’s tone was quite strange. It sounded like he was complaining, but there were hints of excitement. “It hurts when you bite your tongue.”
“I’m used to it.”
Tang Yibu frowned instead. He turned his gaze and looked at Ruan Xian for a while, then he opened his arms and pressed the other party into his body.
“Is this related to when ‘you feel pain’?” Tang Yibu pulled Ruan Xian’s face with one hand and asked suspiciously. “You are ‘used to it’, so it doesn’t matter if you inflect new pain? What kind of logic is that? Unless there’s no other option, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Ruan Xian didn’t answer. He just took advantage of the posture under the other’s gaze, propped his body forward, and kissed Tang Yibu’s eyes.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s my misjudgment.” A few minutes later, Ruan Xian propped himself up and felt an inexplicable pleasure from his emotions. “Now, let’s talk about the bouquet patch.”
Tang Yibu sat up, took a sip of water, and almost spat it out—
“What are you doing?”
“Preparing supplies in advance,” Ruan Xian replied casually. At that moment, he was standing in the kitchen, using a vial to catch his blood. “Next, we’re going to Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman. Although there’s a lot of free time on our journey, who knows what will happen, so I plan to make some early preparations—don’t look like that. This is necessary, Yibu. I plan to prepare earlier and make several small batches, so I won’t be too weak all at once.”
Tang Yibu held his tongue, unable to find a reason to refute him, and could only let out a brief grunt.
Ruan Xian carefully filled three vials, sealed them, tied them with soft straps, and then sucked on the wound on his wrist. The preparation was completed quickly. He handed the packed vial to Tang Yibu and then accurately caught the other’s lips.
In fact, Tang Yibu was good at coping with figuring out the rules of getting along with Ruan Xian. Ruan Xian held back his laughter and tried to maintain a serious expression.
The effect was immediate. The wounds on Tang Yibu’s hands slowly healed, leaving not even a scar behind. After a long while, Ruan Xian ended his kiss and looked at his favorite golden eyes.
“Mr. Ruan.”
Tang Yibu pondered for a while before opening his mouth.
“If you want to kiss me, you don’t have to be so… shy. I won’t refuse. It’s better to say I quite welcome it—also, when I want to kiss you in the future, I don’t want to say it upfront.”
“…” Ah, this guy isn’t as easy to deal with. Ruan Xian coughed.
Tang Yibu tried his best to squeeze out a sincere expression but couldn’t hide the trace of banter in his eyes.
“We can stay here for 40 minutes.” Then Tang Yibu carefully stuffed the vials of blood into his arms without dallying. “Next, I’ll explain to you the principle of the bouquet patch and how we may use it. When we see Yu Le, we won’t have that much time to prepare, so we must make plans in advance.”
“I understand.” Ruan Xian looked at the room with a little nostalgia, then adjusted his new acquired wristband and summoned a blank light screen in front of him.
“Let’s get started, Yibu.”
The author has something to say:
Luo Fei: I reasonably suspect that these two people are here to destroy me.
The chessboard between the Mainbrain and Professor Ruan is about to crash and burn (?
Fan Linsong knew that his memory had been altered. Ever since he came here, every day was more or less the same, with the exception of the rotation of meals and the books in the study, which would be updated at all times, in his memory, there had never been any visitors.
There were also maids and butlers in the room. These semi-mechanical androids would occasionally talk to him to prevent him from going crazy because he hadn’t communicated with people for so long. However, the content of the communication was also very limited. Fan Linsong was tired of the faces that came and went. Over time, he usually didn’t even bother making eye contact except for the necessary help.
Besides, these androids wouldn’t talk to him about anything. Whether it was the body or the core, their level of humanization wasn’t as good as their android partners before the doomsday—these “people” diligently played their role and only talked to Fan Linsong for a short time. Knowing that everything was an illusion, such a disguise was particularly tiresome.
After discovering his negative mood, the Mainbrain would regularly replace him with a group of android servants, but the situation didn’t improve much.
“We’re back from hell.”
The maid, with a beautiful face, finished pouring tea and gave him a sweet smile. For a while, Fan Linsong decided that this was the Mainbrain attempt to enhance his desire to talk.
But that didn’t feel right. The Mainbrain wouldn’t use such an inexplicable topic as an opener. Whether it was a malfunction or a passive intrusion, there must be something wrong with this android maid.
Fan Linsong had no intention of asking for help. He even remotely closed the door at the far end of the room, ensuring that he and the maid with the problem was “alone” in the room. It would be great if she was here to kill him. For a moment, Fan Linsong was full of anticipation.
“Who?” He hadn’t spoken for a while, so his voice was dry and hoarse.
The beautiful maid pressed the tea tray to her chest and straightened her waist. The smile on her face was a bit odd. “The Institute’s underground destruction room. Destruction samples L-013x9or1 and L-013x5nl7.”
Fan Linsong’s hand quivered, causing him to drop the freshly poured tea all over the table, dyeing the snow-white tablecloth a light golden color.
He was very familiar with these two strings of code. They were imprinted in the depths of his mind and represented the most wrong decision in his life.
L-013x5nl7—the waste liquid of α-092-30 trial work was what he used to dissolve Ruan Xian’s body in. Later, he went to the department responsible for the destruction of waste to inquire. The response he received at that time was, “It has been processed in accordance with regulations.” Fan Linsong thought it had been destroyed long ago.
L-013x9or1—after the key data and records of NUL-00 were backed up, this was the number assigned to destroy its cybernetic brain.
Through two short series of codes, he personally buried the era of Ruan Xian.
The one who came wasn’t the Mainbrain. He was convinced that it knew that both were destroyed and how long he had regretted such a decision. It was possible that Ruan Xian had found out, but he wouldn’t contact him in such a… strange way.
It said, ‘We’re back from hell’,we.
…He must be going crazy to have such an illusion. Fan Linsong’s breathing became shallow. The hot tea was flowing across the back of his hand, but all he felt was numbness.
“Xiao Ruan,” he muttered in a dreamlike voice. “NUL-00?”
“You guessed it,” The mechanical maid replied happily while wiping the tea on the table. “You seem to be doing well, Lao Fan.”
“This is impossible.” Fan Linsong’s eyes widened, and he stiffened like a piece of wood. “It’s impossible. I personally—”
“Put a bullet in my head? I remember. In order to prevent you from dwelling on those issues for too long, I’ll finish the rest for you—I am indeed not the Professor Ruan who’s currently active. For example, he couldn’t have known that at the time of the initial NUL-00 program, you almost choked to death on a small cupcake brought by Xiao Yang from the Technical Department. At that time, Xiao Yang had to do the Heimlich maneuver on you and almost broke one of your ribs.”
“He also wouldn’t know that at the beginning, we had a big fight about whether NUL-00’s cybernetic brain was more suitable for thermal-conductivity advantage or compression advantage. If necessary, I can repeat that quarrel we had.”
“…” Fan Linsong was so dumbfounded by the conversation that he was speechless. His lips trembled and his eyes were full of tears.
“I’m sorry.” When the maid stopped talking, he opened his mouth tremblingly. “Xiao Ruan, you were right. MUL-01 had not been perfected and was not marketable… How did you do it? How did you survive? I can’t imagine—”
“We’re not here to play catch up.” He wasn’t sure if it was his own illusion, but the maid’s tone had changed and was no longer so familiar. “If you really want to apologize, I suggest you tell us all the information you know. As for chatting, save it. I refuse on behalf of Mr. Ruan.”
As the maid spoke, her left hand slowly raised a middle finger, which was then snapped shut by her right hand. The maid was wresting with herself between her right and left hand, which made quite an odd scene.
“…NUL-00?” The tone obviously didn’t belong to Ruan Xian. Fan Linsong didn’t mind the attitude of the other party. His heart was on the verge of exploding.
“Yes,” the other party responded angrily.
After getting an affirmative answer, Fan Linsong was silent for some time. The maid’s movements change from fighting with her arms to crossing them. She didn’t say a word, but quietly observed Fan Linsong’s reaction.
After a long silence, Fan Linsong let out a sigh. He could clearly feel that his withered heart was like charcoal that was about to go out, and the last of its heat was being dissipated by the strong wind. The guilt that had corroded his soul for so long suddenly became a little lighter and he was able to think clearly again.
“What do you want to know?” He didn’t ask any more questions.
He didn’t care how Ruan Xian and NUL-00 survived, nor did he want to know. They were still alive, which was enough to prove the madness of reality—under the methodical rule of the Mainbrain, madness meant hope.
“The weak point of the Mainbrain is its body.” The woman in front of him was still using that unceremonious tone. There was no doubt that NUL-00 didn’t have the slightest affection for him.
“The Professor Ruan you made—I’ve learned about the situation. MUL-01 used the core data, design concepts, and neural system construction records that were backed up during the NUL-00 period. Professor Ruan himself adjusted it on that basis and added a complicated moral judgement system under your order.”
The woman’s face twisted subtly for a while, and when she spoke again, her tone had eased. Probably seeing that NUL-00’s attitude wasn’t very good, Ruan Xian had taken control again.
“That’s right.” Fan Linsong adjusted his breathing. His withered heart had never beat so vigorously.
“In my impression, you’re better at hardware design. Since you’re the main person in charge of the MUL-01 project, it’s up to you to perfect its ontology,” Ruan Xian continued. “Tell me its possible weakness.”
“No problem, but I have a request,” Fan Linsong said lightly.
The maid’s left hand seemed like it was about to move again.
“After asking what you want to ask, kill me,” The old man didn’t wait for the opposite side to respond and continued abruptly. “There’s no way the Mainbrain would let me live out my days here in peace. There must be visitors from time to time, but my memory has been tampered with. I don’t remember anyone coming—if next time the Mainbrain comes and finds clues from me, I can’t even warn you afterwards.”
“I don’t care what you guys want to ask. Besides, looking at the current situation, there’s no way you’re working for the Mainbrain. Use this to hide from or attack the Mainbrain. This is what I owe you, Ruan Xian.”
The maid raised her arms again and gave no response.
“Promise me.”
“Okay.” After half a minute, the maid tilted her head and accepted.
“The Mainbrain has a weakness that it can’t eliminate by itself,” Seeing that the other party agreed, Fan Linsong continued tremblingly. “It once had a more serious bug. At that time, Ruan Xian… Professor Ruan made a patch to fix it. That patch interfered with my hardware production, which impressed me.”
“It’s incredible that you know its weakness, yet the Mainbrain actually kept you alive.” The tone of disgust appeared again. NUL-00 had interjected again, and the maid’s mouth was snapped shut by her right hand.
“The patch indirectly affects the ‘hardware group spacing’ of the Mainbrain’s body. In order to ensure that the Mainbrain is functioning well, I can’t use the original perfect value. So once the calculation amount exceeds the established range, its core would overheat and cause damage.”
Fan Linsong didn’t care about the hostility of the other party.
“I think the Mainbrain has considered this issue, but even if we’re given this opportunity, we will not be able to take advantage of this weakness, because after the patch was run, it gradually became mixed with the initial core program of MUL-01… After all, Professor Ruan isn’t the one who wrote the initial core by himself. Unless MUL-01 opens up all its permissions to him and asks him to carefully review the logic and data, he can’t do anything with this information alone.”
“I see,” the maid responded calmly. “What is the specific situation of that patch?”
“Professor Ruan called it the ‘bouquet patch’.” Fan Linsong glanced at the time on the screen and sped up his speech. “There was a previous emotional problem MUL-01 had. During its operation, it raised questions about some sensitive issues, such as memory therapy and the Immortality Program, and such. At that time, Professor Ruan answered it, and in my opinion, it was an appropriate answer.”
“I know about this,” NUL-00 interrupted again. “Professor Ruan told me… Wait, wait, Mr. Ruan, I’ll tell you later.”
“But it didn’t accept the answer we gave as smoothly as before. MUL-01 stewed on the arguments for days on end, which was something it had never done before.” Fan Linsong ignored the maid’s abnormality. “Professor Ruan finally answered this question by saying humans are different, and I don’t think he would lie on this point.”
“What does this have to do with the disorders of MUL-01’s emotional system?”
“One month after receiving the answer, it was Ruan Xian… Professor Ruan’s birthday. It gave him a bouquet of rare orchids, which was his favorite flower.” After saying this, Fan Linsong looked away. “To be precise, it was Ruan Xian’s favorite flower, so I defined it as Professor Ruan’s as well… During that month, it probably studied ‘differentiation of humans’ for a long time.”
“It thinks he’s unique, I can imagine.” NUL-00’s tone was flat. “And I can also imagine what happened next.”
“Yes, it cannot treat different individuals differently.” Fan Linsong stared at the spreading tea stains on the tablecloth. “As the auxiliary manager of the world, MUL-01 must maintain absolute impartiality, so in accordance with the recognized regulations at the time…”
“Professor Ruan must maintain it.” It was Ruan Xian who spoke this time. “He modified its emotional judgement system.”
“That’s not a big change in maintenance.” Fan Linsong tugged at his gray hair. “Professor Ruan wasn’t happy about it, which I can understand, but MUL-01 didn’t make any protests and just peacefully accepted the update.”
“The ‘bouquet patch’ just erased all the characteristics of the contact before MUL-01 was put to market—we changed the images in the record to a unified faceless model, making it impossible to find any special targets. We never thought that such a simple change could expand on its own like a snowball and affect its core system.”
“I probably know the situation, Mr. Ruan.” For a while, NUL-00 was heard whispering to himself. “We don’t need him anymore.”
“Tell me.” Fang Linsong touched his wrinkled hand. “At least I want to understand before I die.”
“It’s very simple.” For some reason, NUL-00 looked proud of itself. “Mr. Ruan has created a neural and emotional system that is very close to normal creatures. Even if it’s different from human standards, I can use them happily. Since MUL-01 uses a design similar to mine, the difference in this regard won’t be too big.”
“I know this.”
“Even so, I have put a lot of effort into studying my subject—about the various emotions and feelings of humans. I even recently overturned a wave of it.”
The maid showed a bitter look, and then her expression became inexplicably cheerful again.
“Because I found that whether or not I have ‘felt’, it has a huge impact on cognition. I don’t think of myself as a human, but Mr. Ruan and I are in love, so I can’t help but hate you. This is a very complicated set of a logical judgement chain. In terms of the results, hating you makes me feel good.”
“…What state are you and Ruan Xian in?” Fan Linsong choked.
NUL-00 ignored the horrified Fan Linsong. “After discovering this, I will leave a certain amount of judgement on the state or emotions of other humans—how to put this, space? Differentiation is indeed a good answer, but ‘logically understanding’ and ‘understanding’ are not the same. You see, if you don’t count the ontology, at least I’m a little bit better than MUL-01, right? Even I was pitted almost to death by Mr. Ruan’s subject. MUL-01 was originally lame, and you cut off its only remaining leg.”
“No… You and Ruan Xian…?”
“I’ll apply a simple analogy. The bouquet patch turned MUL-01 into a painless patient, and then you asked it to judge everyone’s pain and distinguish its nuances.” NUL-00 showed an expression close to pity. “This definitely affects the emotional core build.”
“You and Ruan Xian in the end…?” Fan Linsong couldn’t let go of this point.
“We’re lovers. You heard it right. Alright Yibu, no need to further stimulate him.” Ruan Xian took back the use of the maid’s voice.
“I see,” Fan Linsong said slowly while staring into the air. “It seems that I’m really crazy. I have been talking to a hallucination for so long.”
“Whatever you like to believe.” The information was already in hand, so Ruan Xian had no intention of delving into this topic.
“Even if it’s an illusion,” Fan Linsong continued, “you have to keep your promise and kill me. Even if it’s an illusion…”
The mechanical maid sighed. She stretched out her right hand and tapped Fan Linsong’s forehead with her fingertips. Fan Linsong closed his eyes and waited for the other party’s fingers to smash his skull and crush his brain. He could finally let go of his sins and leave this heavy…
“Bang.” However, the next second, he only heard a short onomatopoeia.
The maid android, or Ruan Xian, made a gun gesture with her right thumb and index finger, and poked Fan Linsong’s forehead with it, but she didn’t break any skin.
“What do you mean by this?”
“The project you started by yourself, witness it to the end.” Ruan Xian wagged his finger. “And why should I give you relief? If you want to die, do it yourself.”
“…Didn’t I say—The Mainbrain might get something out of me—”
“It may not have the time.”
The mechanical maid dropped one last sentence before returning to normal.
“…And regarding my relationship with NUL-00, I am looking forward to your reaction when you realize this isn’t a hallucination.”
The author has something to say:
It is impossible for Fan to die so easily.
Ruan: ? Did you believe me when I said yes?
Kinky Thoughts:
MUL-01 needs to take lessons from Delia, or rather Fan Linsong and Professor Ruan. (See Chapter 209 of Stray).
Fu Xingchuan didn’t go back to the dormitory. He pulled out a folding bed from the emergency management department and flattened it, then laid down. At this moment, the elites of the entire department were present. Everyone was accustomed to the style of this “#1Ghost General”, so no one was surprised.
There was still important work to be done.
The small room was crowded with nearly a hundred people, making the temperature of the room rise a few degrees. There was no strict dress code, so the employees wore whatever they wanted. A small number of people were sitting at workstations, staring at the computer display with bated breath. Most people who were standing in the front row had their eyes tightly locked on the screen wall.
People were speaking in low tones; the whispers buzzing like waves as they washed over the entire area.
The blackout curtains were closed tightly, so it was impossible to distinguish whether it was day or night. Dozens of the screens on the walls had changed their content, showing pictures from different angles at a restaurant.
Everyone present recognized the restaurant.
It was an independently owned restaurant located in the small, round building. There weren’t many visitors right now. It was just after noon. The sun was shining down on the mahogany tables and chairs that were neatly arranged.
The protagonists of the surveillance footage were two young people.
To be precise, at first, it was only Zhong Chengshuo who was sitting by the window. The restaurant provided a la carte service, and when selected, the food would be delivered by the canteen logistics. It could be said that the standards of the canteen of the Shian Group were outstanding, but it was a pity that some people didn’t know how to cherish them.
In front of Zhong Chengshuo was a bowl of white rice porridge with two boiled eggs, a plate of stir-fried greens with garlic, and a plate of sautéed beef without any sauce. He ate in a gentle manner, chewing slowly. His phone was placed not far from him, and the screen was dormant.
The restaurant had large floor-to-ceiling windows and was equipped with air conditioning that kept blowing from the top, so despite sitting by the window, it wasn’t too hot. The bright sunlight enveloped Zhong Chengshuo as he ate the bland lunch in front of him, looking like a harmless herbivore.
However, this peace didn’t last long, as it was broken by Anonymous.
Anonymous didn’t seem tired. Unlike Zhong Chengshuo, who had been sleeping in the lounge all morning, he came to the restaurant as soon as the inquiry was over.
As soon as Anonymous appeared, the whispers in the department suddenly rang out. The foods that Anonymous had chosen were extremely normal—he chose a salted egg Lion’s Head, honey mustard fried chicken, and a large bowl of golden egg fried rice.
The tray of food looked tempting and greasy, which was more in line with “contemporary young people” than what Zhong Chengshuo was eating.
What was more, Anonymous’ eyes were glowing brightly. His face was full of curiosity and expectations, and his vigor was simply outrageous. He sat quite naturally opposite Zhong Chengshuo, exuding a friendly aura.
If it weren’t for that outstanding face, everyone would have gone to check to see if there was a missing salesperson.
Zhong Chengshuo paused with his chopsticks and looked at Anonymous for a moment. “Someone told me the general situation. I’m sorry about last night. I was in a rush, so I spoke nonsense. I actually don’t know you.”
He spoke in an unassuming manner. His tone was more like a statement of fact rather than someone trying to hurriedly clear the air.
“Meeting each other is fate. I don’t remember anyone anyway. It doesn’t matter if we know each other or not.” Anonymous poked the rice in the bowl. “I’m just curious—when can we leave here?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never encountered…”
Halfway through Zhong Chengshuo’s speech, a dull ringing sounded.
In the surveillance room, one of the display screens immediately changed screens, bringing Zhong Chengshuo’s phone into closer view. Everyone could see it. It was a caller named “Zhong Youde”.
There were no blind spots in the restaurant. Zhong Chengshuo looked around and decided to stay in his seat, picking up the phone while giving Anonymous an apologetic look.
“Hello, dad?”
A male voice on the other end of the line asked a lot of questions in a hurry. The old man had a slightly heavy accent and spoke so fast that everyone could barely half-understand what was being said, but they could hear real concern and worry based on the tone.
Zhong Chengshuo’s reply was a lot easier to understand. “I’m eating lunch right now. The food at Shian is pretty good. Don’t worry. It’s nothing big. Tell mom not to worry.”
“Yes, I’m still at the Shian building. I’m assisting with their investigation… Well, I must cooperate… Got it, got it. Don’t wait for me for dinner.”
“Family?” Seeing Zhong Chengshuo hang up the call, Anonymous stuffed a piece of fried chicken into his mouth and squinted contentedly.
Zhong Chengshuo nodded. “How about you? Do you remember anything?”
“It’s not that bad, you know. Look, I can still remember how to use chopsticks. This is delicious. Do you want a piece? ……Listening to your tone just now, are you familiar with this place?”
Zhong Chengshuo looked at the fried chicken and an imperceptible struggle flashed across his face. He stared at it for a few seconds, then refused the “bribe”, but he still answered politely. “I just got an offer from the Drug Research and Development Department here a few days ago—ah, um, a job opportunity.”
“Oh…” Anonymous lowered his eyes.
“Don’t be nervous. Things shouldn’t be as serious as you think. Shian isn’t an official agency. It only occasionally takes on auxiliary appraisals.”
“Drug development? Auxiliary appraisals?”
“Well, it’s also involved in hardware and software development, among other projects, so all in all, its business is quite complicated. Shian cooperates with many hospitals. Since they are willing to take over, they won’t leave you alone.”
Anonymous was silent for a moment before giving a leisurely smile. “Well, since it’s like this, I’ll just take it step by step and see what happens.”
He said it with such sincerity that anyone with ears could sense it.
Having said that, the two of them continued to eat their food. In the surveillance room, there were no alarm sounds that went off, indicating that the two didn’t lie during their conversation just now. No matter how anyone looked at it, this was simply a short chat between strangers.
Still, the staff didn’t let their guard down as a result. Seeing that the situation was uneventful, many people subconsciously turned their faces and looked at one person…
Next to the sleeping Fu Xingchuan stood a middle-aged man with a long, thin face.
His cheekbones were high, and there was some nervousness mixed in with his serious expression. With a crumpled gray suit on, this person was like the embodiment of the dean in a student’s nightmare. His fingers were long and thin, and on his ring finger was a conspicuous wedding ring.
Another head of the Emergency Management Department, Professor Li Nian.
Although the room was crowded, there was still a “vacuum zone” around Professor Li.
Li Nian himself didn’t care. He looked at one of Fu Xingchuan’s assistants. “In the previous inquiry, did Fu Xingchuan find any flaws?”
The male assistant replied nervously, “Report, no! The two of them had stable emotions, clear thinking, and normal physical indicators of concentrations of evil qi on their bodies.”
“Other related cases?”
“There is no progress. To be honest, those two seem the most normal.”
“Normal.” Li Nian harped on this word for a while. “Not to mention Anonymous, this Zhong Chengshuo isn’t considered ‘normal’.”
“Minister Fu conducted a polygraph test on him last night.”
“I’ve seen it. ‘Telling the truth’ doesn’t mean there are ‘no reservations’. Fu Xingchuan is good at fighting, but he’s not adapted to reading people.”
Professor Li turned to the male assistant. When he saw the other party’s blank face, he clicked his tongue unceremoniously.
“If you take away the ‘taking care of his parents’ excuse, despite graduating with excellent grades and honors, he defied his mentor’s wish to retain him. After he graduated, he spent two years traveling around the country alone, going to all the remote, third-tier cities.”
“After returning to Haigu, he found a job that didn’t match his qualifications but had access to us. Last night, it’s suspected that an Evil Spirit had broken a seal, and coincidentally, Zhong Chengshuo “just happens” to go out in the heavy storm late at night and run into Anonymous of unknown origins… Don’t forget, Haigu is plainly inconspicuous, and it’s the only place in the country that has raised a live Evil Spirit.”
As Li Nian spoke, he stared at the screen unblinkingly.
“Raise the level of suspicion on Zhong Chengshuo by one. You can say it’s under my instructions based on the chain of doubts I have just told you. In addition, the accent of Anonymous is not quite right. It has characteristics of an ancient language from the Gong Dynasty. Make sure to add this description to the inquiry information as well.”
“Understood!”
“Now, zoom in on monitor No. 28 and take pictures of Anonymous’ iris. I’ll show them to Zhao Bo later.” Professor Li crossed his arms while still maintaining his gloomy expression.
“Iris?”
“I have never seen that color,” Professor Li said in a very natural tone.
The assistant didn’t dare ask too much. He quickly adjusted the hidden camera, cut out a separate screen, and began to shoot Anonymous’ iris with high precision.
A camera hidden in the corner of the restaurant turned. It twisted like a crooked head—from this angle, it could capture the front of Anonymous’ face.
In the picture on the screen, at first there was only Anonymous’ smiling face, then it was enlarged to his eyes, and eventually there was only one huge eye left. It occupied a 55-inch display screen, clearly showing all the details.
Anonymous’ pupils were round and dark, and there were layers of cobweb-like folds on his iris. The color of his iris wasn’t ordinary brown; it looked more like dry blood, though this color wasn’t abnormal to the eye. Once they zoomed in and observed it carefully, the more they looked at it, the redder it seemed.
Professor Li snorted and paced forward half a step.
His leather shoes made a soft sound as they stepped on the floor.
At the same moment, the huge pupil on the screen shrank. Immediately after, the screens flickered at high frequency, and the contents on the screens were distorted into clusters of colored particles. There was an ominous low noise inside the display screen, and a faint burnt smell exuded in the air.
After a brief “malfunction”, the entire room was silent—
The multi-angle shots of the restaurant disappeared.
On the entire wall, all the images cut to an auburn pupil, except they weren’t exactly the same.
On each screen, the rotation of the giant eyes was different. It seemed that the wall in front of them had become a living creature that had grown eyes all over the wall through the monitors. Dozens of pupils seemed as if they were watching them; their oppressive gaze came from all directions, all locking in on one focus…
Where their lines of sight converged stood Professor Li, who had taken half a step forward.
The moment they saw him, dozens of eyes bent slightly, undoubtedly as if they were smiling.
The next moment, all the screens went off at the same time, and when they lit up again, dozens of surveillance screens returned to their original appearance. It was still the sunny restaurant, with two young people eating quietly in a relaxed atmosphere.
The “wall of eyes” that drenched people in cold sweat had completely disappeared, as if it never existed in the first place.
All this happened within ten seconds.
In the terrible silence, Fu Xingchuan got up with a disheveled face. His brow furrowed so much that it could kill mosquitoes.
“Something wrong? Something happened just now… Oh, Professor Li Nian is here. Tell me quickly.”
Li Nian was still standing in his original position, unmoving. He squinted his eyes and carefully observed Anonymous for a while. It took about half a minute before he turned his gaze to Fu Xingchuan.
“Nothing major. I’ll have someone follow up later.”
Professor Li’s face didn’t change color. He took out his phone and looked at it.
“There’s been progress in the mental health facility just now. A patient claimed to have witnessed Anonymous. The report has just been sent. Fu Xingchuan, there’s something fishy about those two people.”
“Hey, not bad, old partner. I think so too.”
“Keep an eye on them?”
“Yes, we’ll be keeping a very watchful eye on them.”
In the restaurant.
Yin Ren was happily enjoying his lunch. The salted egg Lion’s Head had just the right amount of fat. It melted in his mouth, and the oozing soup mixed with rice was so fragrant that he almost lost his senses. The fried chicken was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. With one bite, delicious juices instantly slid over his tongue. He was accustomed to eating fishy animal flesh and cold food in the ancestral hall that the Great Ghost King almost wanted to cry.
It stood to reason that “ordinary humans” should eat vegetables, but he really couldn’t resist the temptation of refined meat.
‘The diced cucumbers in the fried rice should be considered a vegetarian dish,’ Yin Ren thought impartially.
Opposite him, Zhong Chengshuo had just finished his clear soup and put down his chopsticks. All his dishes were eaten clean, and there weren’t even soup stains on the table. At the end of the meal, he took the lead in confirming information on his phone, then glanced at Yin Ren.
Yin Ren knew how attractive his face was to mortals, but he continued to enjoy his delicious food, pretending not to notice the gaze.
But Zhong Chengshuo never looked away.
His eyes were not explicit. There was no appetite for food or surprise or appreciation in those eyes. Despite staring at Yin Ren in silence for a long time, Yin Ren only found traces of doubt in them.
Could it be that his “little trick” of teasing Shian was discovered just now? It shouldn’t be? He was quite sure he had hidden himself well. Wasn’t this kid unable to see the Resentment Basket?
He didn’t tease those security personnel for fun—Yin Ren had to make sure that his situation was suspicious, but he didn’t overdo it. In this way, he would ensure that Shian would take care of him for a long time without locking him up.
At this juncture, things must not go wrong.
“Do you want some of this?” Yin Ren smiled and took the initiative to strike. “You keep looking at me… Here, there’s still a piece of chicken left or do you want to take it to go?”
“No thanks.” Zhong Chengshuo shook his head. “Sorry, I just thought—”
Yin Ren held his breath.
“—I was just thinking that since you lost your memory, I’m not sure how long it’s been since you’ve eaten. It’s not good for your stomach if you eat too much.” Zhong Chengshuo pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose and opened his waist bag.
“I have digestive tablets. Do you want them?”
Yin Ren: “……”
Yin Ren: “…Oh, thanks.”
The other party had already reached into his waist bag, so he really couldn’t refuse.
Zhong Chengshuo took out a packet of unopened tablets. He tore off a few pill plates and handed two pieces to Yin Ren, who naturally accepted them. Without the rain wetting Zhong Chengshuo’s fingers, they felt dry and warm.
Unknown whether it was intentional or not, Zhong Chengshuo’s fingertips crossed Yin Ren’s palm and they closed as soon as he touched it.
Zhong Chengshuo’s nails were short and rounded, and the touch felt like a bird’s beak lightly brushing one’s hand. It was an ordinary touch, but Yin Ren had an odd feeling of unease—obviously, Zhong Chengshuo was of no threat to him, but he felt that something was amiss.
After giving the medicine, Zhong Chengshuo no longer looked at Yin Ren. He picked up his phone and was typing on it intently. Yin Ren took advantage of the situation and glanced at the word “family” at the top of the phone. The two digestive tablets had a scent of hawthorn in them. It seemed they were genuine goods, and there wasn’t anything unusual about them.
As for the slight sense of unease, it had since dissipated without a trace.
Yin Ren could only think that perhaps he was just being too paranoid.
There was a saying that every reunion was for the next separation.
The potential meaning of this phrase was that reunions weren’t necessarily a good thing.
For Lin Chen, he was unable to determine whether the reunion arranged by fate was good or bad. He only knew that waiting for this reunion was a difficult thing.
The sun shone silently in the dining hall, which was quiet.
The staff at the rest stop had brought brown blankets for everyone. A group of policewomen who were the first to arrive were pouring tea for the passengers. Seeing the unhurried policewoman’s movement, Lin Chen realized that Xing Conglian had found him.
“When will you be taking statements? We are in a hurry here!” A passenger held his paper cup as he spoke with slight impatience.
“That’s right. Just leave a few people back and they can talk about it!” A passenger on the other side agreed.
“Please wait a moment.” The policewoman smiled very gently. “Our colleagues at the forensic department haven’t yet finished cleaning up the scene. The highway is currently limited right now, so there’s a lot of traffic. The transfer cars that were dispatched are currently stuck in traffic.”
“Forensic department? It’s like we’re shooting a drama!”
“It’s almost been two hours. Haven’t you finished yet, huh?”
“Why make such a big deal? We’re fine. It’s just a child’s prank!”
Several older women expressed their opinions together. Lin Chen was still sitting in a corner. It was a little cold, but also quiet. He carefully observed everyone’s expressions, and a strange feeling gradually rose in his heart.
When the hijacking was mentioned, everyone’s faces were relaxed and indifferent. Not only did they not have any PTSD* reactions, but they were also blaming the police for making a fuss. His gaze finally fell on the policewoman’s face, who was currently tucking her long hair behind her ears. Unfortunately, he didn’t find any emotions belonging to tension or solemnity on the policewoman’s beautiful face.
*Post-traumatic stress disorder. A mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event.
Then, the reason why everyone was still here, in addition to the orders from Xing Conglian, was probably because there really was a traffic jam.
Lin Chen gradually felt that the situation was somewhat serious.
He looked out the window, where the lime green reeds stretched endlessly. When the wind blew, the reeds rippled like the sea.
The space gradually quieted down to the point where it became too quiet.
Suddenly, Lin Chen heard some footsteps downstairs. It was the sound of typical police leather boots hitting the marble floor. The sound became denser. It seemed there were a lot of people coming downstairs. Most likely, the police bridge had arrived.
Those people stepped into the hall, walked around the corner, and went upstairs…
Realizing this, Lin Chen suddenly felt nervous. This tension wouldn’t make his hands sweaty or his body tremble, but it was enough to interrupt all his thoughts in an instant. He felt a rapid heartbeat and his mind became blank. At this moment, he couldn’t recall any psychological adjustment method he had learned.
He was nervous; nervous because of the person who was about to come.
There was a click.
When the leather boots stepped its last step, Lin Chen subconsciously raised his head.
The figure at the entrance of the stairs stood upright, like a rocky lone peak on a frosty winter night, but also very craggy.
The man’s police uniform was straight, with silver stars shining on his shoulders. His surname was Huang, the Huang that was part of the elite four families of Zhou, Wu, Chen, and Huang.
—
When he received the call from Wang Chao, Xing Conglian walked into Fengjing.
“Fuck, not good captain. Inspector Huang is going to take the consultant to the rest stop to take statements. You better hurry up. I’m afraid that my A’Chen will be murdered if you’re too late!”
On the other end of the line, Wang Chao’s words came at him like a cannonball of jumbled words. Because he pronounced it too fast, Xing Conglian didn’t hear it clearly. “What inspector are you talking about?’
“Huang Ze! Huang Ze! Huang Ze!” Wang Chao shouted as if he was about to die. “I have already sent you the best route to your phone to avoid the traffic jam. You can thank me later!”
Before Wang Chao even finished, Xing Conglian heard a message notification sound on his phone. He looked down and saw that it was a new email.
“Is something wrong, Captain Xing?” Yang Dianfeng seemed to vaguely feel that the voice on the other end of the line had extreme urgency, and he couldn’t help but ask with concern.
Xing Conglian frowned, then quickly turned around and ran towards the Jeep parked on the side of the road.
The noise carried by the spring breeze outside the school was because of the students, while the noise inside the dining hall was because of the arrival of several police officers.
The passengers in the corner of the hall stood up one after another. Sunlight streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling windows and the raised transparent ceiling. Huang Ze stood at the entrance of the stairs but could not hear any sound around him.
The sun was extremely bright, and the beige marble reflected most of its light. Huang Ze felt something pierce his eyes and fell into a daze.
He seemed to have seen Lin Chen, and it was indeed Lin Chen.
But Lin Chen’s body should be beneath that rolling river, and his soul wandering some cemetery…
But Lin Chen was standing among the passengers. His eyes were clear, and his hair was slightly moistened by the sun.
Huang Ze suddenly wanted to laugh.
He saw Lin Chen put down the paper cup in his hand, turn around and put a scarf on the old man beside him, said something that seemed to soothe his emotions, and then walked over.
Sure enough, it was Lin Chen. The Lin Chen who could tell a big lie or get punched on the spot and would still remain calm and unapologetic.
The closer Lin Chen got, the tighter Huang Ze’s fists became.
Finally, Lin Chen stopped in front of him.
He condescendingly looked into Lin Chen’s eyes, hoping to see any apology or guilt, but no. Lin Chen was still calm and indifferent, as if he was looking at a stranger.
At that moment, Huang Ze could no longer restrain his inner anger and punched Lin Chen in the cheek.
It was a punch that exhausted all his strength and staggered Lin Chen violently, but it didn’t relieve his hatred. He saw Lin Chen cover his face and take two steps back. This only made him clench his fist tighter and swing again.
Lin Chen was still shaken by the first punch. The pain was second to none. He fell into a brief darkness and lost his ability to move. He realized that Huang Ze was swinging his fist at him again. He felt he should avoid it, but his body didn’t listen to his command.
However, the second punch didn’t land as expected. Huang Ze didn’t know what was wrong with him. His fist seemed to change position in mid-air and landed on Lin Chen’s shoulder. It opened up and grabbed the man, as if it was going in for a hug.
By the time Lin Chen could react, his ears were ringing badly. His face felt like it was on fire and his mouth was full of blood.
Lin Chen felt his face being pressed against hard fabric, and he finally realized he was being hugged tightly by Huang Ze as he could feel his heartbeat.
“Why didn’t you die?” He heard Huang Ze say.
He could feel that Huang Ze’s voice was a little choked up, but why?
Lin Chen felt strange. The situation was awkward, and he didn’t know where to put his hands, and Huang Ze didn’t seem to want to let him go.
In the end, it was a question from someone next to Huang Ze that rescued him.
“Are you Lin Chen?”
The speaker had a head full of fluffy, messy, curly hair. Those hairs were so long they almost covered his eyes. Lin Chen glanced at the person in silence.
Huang Ze woke up like a dream. As if he was throwing away garbage, he abruptly pushed him away.
Lin Chen covered his face and looked up and saw a fluff of messy curly hair.
“You’re not dead yet Captain Xing has been sad for so long?” The man’s tone was very casual, as if he had expected this.
“I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Jiang Zhe.” Seeing that there was no reaction from Lin Chen, he was stunned. Jiang Zhe’s face showed a trace of mockery. “The new psychology consultant for the Hongjing Police.”
Oh, it turns out to be a colleague of Xing Conglian’s.
Lin Chen nodded and stretched out his hand naturally.
However, Jiang Zhe didn’t reach out. “In the 1111 extra-large murder case, your suspicion hasn’t been cleared. I will not shake hands with a murderer.”
Jiang Zhe’s voice was so loud that all eyes in the hall gathered towards him.
Oh, it turns out it’s Huang Ze’s friend.
Lin Chen retracted his hand and bowed politely. Since he had already greeted them and had nothing else to say, he walked back to his seat.
“Why are you here? Is this hijacking related to you? Do you still want to be famous that much?!”
Jiang Zhe’s questions came from behind him. Lin Chen stopped and turned around again. Looking at Jiang Zhe’s slightly raised brows and mocking lips, he thought for a while, then answered seriously, “No, I just happened to pass by. I’m just an unlucky victim.”
As if provoked, Jiang Zhe suddenly raised his voice. “Yes, a victim. Like last time you were also the victim of Feng Peilin’s case. I have read the file. You jumped into the river with the victim in your arms! You are so intuitive, but you didn’t know that someone was watching you for three years? You were simply helping Feng Peilin escape, but in the end, he died. The result was like that, yet that idiot policeman won’t doubt you!”
Jiang Zhe spoke very quickly. His voice was cold, and it seemed to make the glass window shake. Because he raised his voice so loudly, he ran out of breath while talking and had to pause.
At this moment, a very soft and casual voice came from downstairs. “Ah, ah, Consultant Jiang. It’s not good to say bad things about people behind their backs.”
Knowing that Lin Chen was at the rest stop and couldn’t leave, Xing Conglian wasn’t in a rush. He knew very well the ingenuity of his friend, so Lin Chen must have known that he was already exposed.
It would be quite interesting to watch a man, who was usually known for his calmness, become extremely anxious.
On the north side of Heping Road, the traffic police stopped a school bus from presumably turning onto Changping Avenue going northbound.
When Xing Conglian arrived, the school bus driver was arguing with the traffic police who had stopped him.
“Sir, you haven’t broken any laws. The police just want to ask you some questions.” The traffic police officer stood by the school bus and tried to patiently persuade.
“Students are trying to get to class!” The school bus driver slammed on the steering wheel.
Xing Conglian circled around the bright yellow school bus.
The students on the bus had already gotten out so they could inspect it. The boys and girls were all wearing private school uniforms and standing in twos and threes on the side of the road.
The girls wore sailor skirts that came to their knees. When the wind blew, it revealed the lines of their youthful, energetic legs; the boys, without the slightest air of arrogance, were quietly waiting to be questioned, despite the delay.
“Fengjing* Private School?” Xing Conglian set his gaze on the school emblem composed of a golden maple leaf and silver laurels on the left side of the school bus.
*Maple [Feng] (枫) View [Jing] (景). This is why the school’s emblem is a maple leaf.
“It’s the city’s famous private school that offers courses from kindergarten to high school. The tuition fees are quite high!” Wang Chao pointed to a little girl with a mushroom head on the side of the road. The little girl was also wearing a navy blue school uniform skirt and was being held by a tall boy.
“For such a young child, her parents are comfortable letting her go to school by herself?” Xing Conglian couldn’t help but click his tongue.
“In Fengjing, kindergarteners are picked up and dropped off one-on-one by special senior students, so how could it be unsafe?” Hearing this question, the manager of the transportation company that was standing to the side couldn’t help but speak up.
“Do you have children going to Fengjing?”
“My youngest brother. He’s a high schooler.”
“Must be rich, huh?”
Hearing what Xing Conglian said, Yang Dianfeng gave him a meaningful smile and replied, “After all, the quality of education is good, so it’s only right to spend more money. If Captain Xing also wants to send his children to it, I can introduce you to the principal.”
“We criminal investigators are very poor and can’t afford such tuition.”
While chatting with Yang Dianfeng, Xing Conglian suddenly noticed the police officer who was assisting in handling the scene had pulled something out of a girl’s schoolbag.
The police officer sealed the items in the evidence bag and handed them to Xing Conglian.
Xing Conglian glanced at the contents of the bag and walked up to the female student. “Young lady…” As soon as he opened his mouth, Wang Chao kicked him in the sides.
“Classmate, you said this thing isn’t yours?” He quickly changed his tone and held up the evidence bag in front of the female student. Inside was the tablet computer that was taken away by the teenage hijacker not long ago.
The girl nodded. “When I packed my schoolbag this morning, I didn’t have this thing.”
“Then you have never touched it?”
The girl’s eyes were clear. “You can check for fingerprints.”
“Makes sense.” Xing Conglian rubbed the stubble on his chin.
“My schoolbag has always been on me today. Unless someone put it on me when I was walking to the bus stop, but that’s not very likely.” The girl looked at her schoolbag, which was securely fastened by an iron clasp.
“Makes sense.” Xing Conglian continued to rub his stubbles. “What time did you leave the house?”
“7:35.”
“Where do you live?”
“Ruoshui Street.”
“Oh?” Xing Conglian looked at the girl but didn’t ask any other questions.
“Well, uncle, can I go now?” After she spoke, she started walking in the direction of the school bus.
“Interesting.” Xing Conglian stared at the girl’s ponytail as he said it aloud to himself.
Wang Chao found it unbearable. “Captain, quickly give me the tablet and hurry up and go to the rest stop and find A’Chen, please!”
The captain of the police criminal division, who was about to catch a turtle in a jar*, ignored the pleas of his subordinate. He handed over the tablet in a leisurely manner and waited to the side with his arms folded.
*(瓮中捉鳖) Idiom referring to a sure catch.
Wang Chao looked at Xing Conglian’s happy face and had to swallow his anger and resigned himself to work.
He quickly connected the tablet to his laptop and tapped out a bunch of dazzling codes.
A complex red path was outlined on the map, showing the specific location of the tablet after it was stolen by the hijacker.
The cobweb-like road map was completely confusing, but Wang Chao seemed to suddenly realize something. He took out his phone and entered two locations.
“What the hell…” Wang Chao looked at the phone, then at the road map on the computer. He subconsciously shouted at Xing Conglian, “Captain, there’s a problem with the GPS on this computer. This is simply impossible!”
Hearing this, the general manager of Tu’an changed his expression. “Mr. Police Officer, this on-board system is the latest equipment from our company. It’s impossible for there to be any problems!”
“Look, I just did a simple calculation using my phone navigation app. From the Shifang section of the Honjing Highway to our current location, it’s a total of 165 kilometers. That would take more than two hours to drive.” As Wang Chao spoke, he flashed his phone to Yang Dianfeng, then tapped on the estimated time in the upper right corner of the phone. “But look, it’s just 8:00. It’s only been an hour and a half since the bus was robbed, and his driving path is complicated. How can it be possible to get from there to here in such a short time.”
“Maybe he took a shortcut. Can’t you analyze these paths? Shouldn’t there be clues?”
Wang Chao wanted to refute, but after thinking about it, Xing Conglian could have a point, so he brought up the map of the surrounding area of Honjing and began to study it carefully.
Xing Conglian looked at the entire map. The roads were densely packed like blood vessels inside a human body.
“The young lady just said she went out at 7:35. She was pretty sure that this tablet wasn’t in her schoolbag before that, so focus on studying where our lovely tablet passed through and how that tablet got into that young lady’s school bag during the magical time between 7:25 to 8:00.”
Wang Chao’s eyes lit up. He started to retrieve the data according to what Xing Conglian said, but soon became depressed.
“Manager Yang, to be honest, there’s still a problem with your system.” The technician looked frustrated. “Why doesn’t your GPS system have a ‘location-time’ record?”
“What do you mean?” Xing Conglian asked.
“The system only records the location and driving path of the machine, but it doesn’t record when it passes through these places.”
Yang Dianfeng spread his hands helplessly. “For us, we only need the GPS to control and monitor the driving path of the vehicle. I’m sorry.”
“We’ll have to combine this with surveillance to investigate. I’ll ask the school bus driver to show us his daily driving map for you to compare with.” Xing Conglian was also a bit disappointed. He patted Wang Chao on the shoulder as if to soothe him.
“But it doesn’t make sense, Captain!” Wang Chao rubbed his hands together. “Even if the comparison is made, what can it prove by knowing how it got into that young lady’s schoolbag?”
“Prove what?” Xing Conglian’s tone became a little cold. “Prove that a criminal has the ability to do something that we usually can’t do? Prove that we’ve been taken for a ride by him? Prove that we don’t know what his purpose is yet? What proof do you need?”
After Xing Conglian finished speaking, he didn’t even look at Wang Chao and walked towards the driver.
Wang Chao looked at the back of his boss and felt that after the autumn full of torrential rain and blood, his captain seemed to be quietly undergoing some changes, but it was hard to say what the difference was.
“Captain Xing, please wait a moment.”
Before having walked two steps, Xing Conglian was stopped by Yang Dianfeng.
“I have the latest map of Hongjing in paper form.” Yang Dianfeng ran to his car, took out a map from the glove compartment, and trotted over to deliver it. “Let him draw directly on the map so you can see it clearly.”
The school bus driver found that the captain of the criminal division had a bad look on his face, so he surprisingly cooperated. He marked his daily route on the map and clearly marked each stop he made. Xing Conglian glanced at the map and then gave it to Wang Chao.
Wang Chao compared the route on the map and compiled the driving path on the computer. A simple and clear path in yellow began to overlap with the red route recorded by the tablet system.
“What the hell?” Looking at the map, Xing Conglian couldn’t help but repeat what Wang Chao had just said.
Because the earliest overlap between the two routes was at the entrance of Fengjing, and after that, the red and yellow lines separated and overlapped many times, which was completely baffling.
“If there was a matching timeline, this would be much easier,” Wang Chao said exasperatedly.
“I’ll go around this section of the road again.” Xing Conglian pointed to the school bus route.
“I’ll go with you,” Yang Dianfeng said with a smile.
Outside the car window, the road signs kept changing. Yang Dianfeng was sitting in the front passenger seat and saw that while Xing Conglian was looking at the map, he didn’t make a wrong turn.
“Captain Xing has a good memory.” The handsome bus company manager leaned against the window and propped up his chin with one hand, letting the spring breeze blow into his hair.
Xing Conglian took out a cigarette and didn’t bother responding.
Xing Conglian stopped the car at the intersection close to Fengjing. It was currently school hours. The boys and girls got off the bus from a place outside the intersection and walked past the school gate.
Yang Dianfeng followed Xing Conglian briskly along the tree-lined street full of camphor trees.
Xing Conglian walked slowly with his hands in his pockets.
The chilly spring breeze was loud as it passed him, but he moved without hesitation.
“What are you thinking?” Yang Dianfeng finally couldn’t help but ask.
“Once, a friend of mine told me that if there’s something I don’t understand, just feel it.” Xing Conglian closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Then, do you feel anything?”
The captain of the police force opened his eyes and didn’t answer.
Wang Chao slammed on the pause button at the end of the video and froze the picture on the hijacking boy who was blowing a kiss.
The young and talkative technician exclaimed excitedly, so unsurprisingly, he received a blow from the captain.
“Do you think this is funny?” Xing Conglian asked as he looked at the young boy in the video.
“Hijacking, in order to steal candy. This is ingenious, perhaps too ingenious…” Wang Chao chattered on, only to realize that the surrounding atmosphere was wrong. He raised his head, only to find that Xing Conglian’s face was livid. “Captain, are you serious? Lighten up. No one was hurt, so it’s all cool, right?”
“No one was hurt? Fortunately, no one was hurt!” Xing Conglian grabbed the mouse and dragged the progress bar. The screen stopped at the moment the young boy raised his gun to shoot. “Did you even think that if he accidently missed and caused the bullet to rebound, it’s likely that it could kill someone?!”
On the screen, the young boy’s hand that was holding the gun was very stable, like a rock.
Such a posture would never appear on an uninitiated teenager, so he was not just some ordinary teenager.
The passenger inside the bus may not have noticed it, but from the time the young boy raised his gun, his eyes never once left the security camera.
He was watching the surveillance; watching those who were monitoring him.
Wang Chao was admonished so hard that he didn’t dare argue, so he pretended to drink tea. Because he was inattentive, he accidentally drank the entire cup in one gulp.
Fortunately, the avatar in the lower right corner of the computer began to flash, saving his life. Wang Chao quickly clicked on the dialogue box and the latest picture popped up from the police investigating the scene.
In the photo was a bullet just found from the hijacked bus.
Xing Conglian leaned down and glanced at the photo. “It’s another 9mm revolver again?”
As he spoke, he brought up the video and zoomed in on the gun the teenager was holding.
“It must be the same one.” Wang Chao gritted his teeth. “This case is also very strange. Is there anything wrong with that little brat? Do you really don’t want to ask an expert to look at this?” He asked tentatively.
Since Lin Chen’s disappearance, Professor Fu Hao, the original psychological consultant for the police force, chose to return to his alma mater, Yongchuan University, to teach because he couldn’t stand the blow. The post of psychological consultant had become vacant. In order to fill the vacancy, the higher-ups had appointed an expert who was rumored to be a rising star in criminal psychology to the Hongjing Police Department for the Criminal Division.
When Xing Conglian heard this, he immediately glared at Wang Chao. “You mean go see that afro head who asked me to go see a doctor when he saw me?”
“He said that I’m hyperactive, but I didn’t know what that meant at the time.” Wang Chao slapped the table, becoming furious. “Later, I went home and checked it. Guess what, he said that I have ‘ADHD*’. How could laozi have ADHD?”
*Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. A neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inappropriate.
As Wang Chao spoke, he leaned back in his chair angrily while twirling a pen with one hand and patting Xing Conglian on the shoulder with the other. A handful of ash fell from Xing Conglian’s shoulder. Wang Chao rubbed the soot and asked, “You’ve gone to A’Chen’s tomb again?”
“Can you focus on badmouthing others?” Xing Conglian stood up embarrassedly and quickly patted off the ash in Wang Chao’s hand.
It had been a long time since Lin Chen fell into the river; so long that it seemed as if he had never appeared in the city in the first place. Xing Conglian would occasionally go and sit in front of Lin Chen’s grave when he was feeling lost.
And this serial robbery case was particularly bizarre, even more mysterious than Feng Peilin’s case. An armed robber that specializes in robbing buses on the highway. He was agile and had received professional shooting training. He could often take control of a bus within thirty seconds, but the funny thing was, he was willing to take huge risks to hijack a bus, but all he asked for was candy.
The young man was so gorgeous like Skittles that the media started to call him the “Candy Bandit”. Children loved him, girls admired him, and even the business of Tu’an Transportation Corporation improved because of this hijacker, so this whole thing looked like some kind of game being played by a special interest group.
Xing Conglian felt uneasy. He couldn’t tell where this anxiety was coming from. He felt like they were playing a game of defusing a bomb. If they cut the wrong wire, the bomb would immediately explode.
His hands were covered with water stains from the cup holding iced tea. He rubbed his face with the hand covered in ice water and got ready to leave.
It was also a coincidence that his vision became blurred by the water stains, and at that time, his mind wasn’t even on Lin Chen, but his eyes inadvertently swung past the computer screen. He saw a person sitting in the backseat of the bus, and his heart started to pound uncontrollably.
The man sitting in the aisle was wearing a black cap and looked like he was sleeping soundly, but Xing Conglian knew very well he wasn’t asleep.
Just before the boy reached into his pocket to get his gun, the man raised his head and looked at the teenager’s back.
This was a very slight action, but also extremely meaningful.
Even if it was only a 0.1 second precognition, it was still precognition.
So whether it was a coincidence or not, it didn’t matter, because that person’s face was far too familiar to Xing Conglian.
He was so familiar with it that even through the low-resolution black and white surveillance video, even if he was shown just a pair of eyes, Xing Conglian would be able to recognize them.
That was Lin Chen.
Xing Conglian pressed the back button again and again then pause the screen. With white pale fingers, he drew a circle on the screen, circling a face.
Wang Chao stared at the video for a while, then asked, “Captain, are you saying there are accomplices of that little bastard in the car?”
“That’s Lin Chen!”
Wang Chao was stunned. He hurriedly took a screenshot and enlarged the picture. Even with the pixel particles enlarged to the size of a thumb’s fingernail, he couldn’t connect the person in the picture with Lin Chen.
He could only turn his head solemnly and stared at Xing Conglian’s eyes and said solemnly, “Captain, honestly, I think the expert may be right. You should go to the hospital and get checked out.”
Xing Conglian smacked Wang Chao on the head with a fierce slap, leaving the technical nerd holding his head in pain and crying without tears.
—
No matter how many times the people at the police station watched the video, the teenage hijacker that flew into the vast reed was destined to disappear. The rescued passengers were sent to the nearest rest stop canteen for food and to wait to be interviewed.
The air at the canteen was a bit greasy and the temperature was still low.
Most of the passengers were sitting on the side near the floor-to-ceiling windows, letting the warm sunlight bake their bodies. They talked among each other and didn’t seem panicked despite having experienced the hijacking just now.
On the edge of the crowd, in a somewhat dark corner, a young man was removing the scarf around his neck. He put it around an old woman who was dragging her heavy luggage next to him.
The old lady seemed very happy to have such a good-looking young man sit next to her. She touched the scarf around her neck and smiled, then took out an orange from the bag she was carrying and stuffed it into the young man’s hand.
The orange was cold.
If Wang Chao was present, he would definitely kneel and swallow back his previous words.
It was indeed Lin Chen, the one who had fallen into the rushing river with Feng Peilin, and the Lin Chen, whose body was never found.
Lin Chen touched the cold orange and looked in the direction of the exit a little inadvertently.
For the first time, he discovered that his life wasn’t very good.
Since he lied to people in order to cheat death so he could escape, including friends who cared about him, he was afraid to see those friends again whom he had deceived.
Maybe one day, he would meet his friend in the vast sea of people. This was one of the scenarios he made for their reunion.
However, in those scenarios, it didn’t include a robber who got on a bus and hijacked it right under said friend’s jurisdiction.
The setting was too outrageous and tricky.
Fate, really, was too relentless.
—
While one was lamenting fate, there was a certain police captain of the police criminal division who had been sad for more than half a year.
“Tell the guys at the scene to tell all the passengers in the bus to have a good rest at the rest stop. The police will arrange vehicles in a unified manner and send everyone off. Remember, before I arrive, let, no one, go.” Xing Conglian hooked the corners of his mouth and emphasized each word of the last sentence.
When he finished speaking, he turned his head to leave. As he reached for the door, someone opened it first and walked in.
The visitor seemed to be a business elite. He was wearing a camel windbreaker that was knee length and a smoky gray rhombic scarf around his neck.
After shaking hands with Xing Conglian, the other party took out a gold business card from his pocket and handed it to him with both hands: [Yang Dianfeng, General Manager of Tu’an Transportation Corporation]
Because of the series of bus hijackings, Xing Conglian had many dealings with the public relations of Tu’an Transportation Corporation. These groups of incompetent businessmen weren’t very cooperative with their investigation, so Xing Conglian put away the business card and sat on his desk impatiently. He lit a cigarette and stuffed it into his mouth. “Something wrong, Mr. Yang?”
“Regarding the cases on the Hongjing highway, we ask that you please pay more attention, won’t you, captain?”
Hearing his business-like tone, Xing Conglian took a puff from his cigarette and blew out a smoke ring. “Aren’t you quite happy?”
“Why would Captain Xing say that?”
“What a strange bus thief. He’s worth his weight in prime-time advertising.”
“Captain Xing believes that the serial robbery is the work of our company?”
The scarf Yang Dianfeng was wearing had a small trademark on it. It was a limited-edition scarf from a high-end specialty store. The scarf alone was worth half a year of his salary.
“No such thing,” Xing Conglian replied absent-mindedly.
“Captain Xing might think this is a game played by our company to boost business, but in fact, it’s not worthwhile to take such a big risk just to increase market share by a few percentages.”
“Manager Yang came all the way here just to say this?”
“Actually, I’m here to provide a clue to Captain Yang.” Yang Dianfeng took out a silver laptop from his handbag. “All the buses in our company are equipped with an autonomous call-for-help system based on GIS1 and MEMS accelerometers2. The on-board computer on the robbed A7645 bus was taken away by the robber today, but the bus signal remained.”
1Geographical information system is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. 2Used to measure linear motion, either movement, shock, or vibration, but without a fixed reference. They measure the linear acceleration of whatever they are attached to.
Wang Chao got up abruptly. He grabbed Yang Dianfeng’s laptop and tapped on it for a while, then suddenly said, “Captain, the direction is north of Heping Road, heading southbound.”
Yang Dianfeng crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair, raising his eyebrows at Xing Conglian with a smile.
When Dong Zhi “walked” forward out of the disordered jungle, he could “see” a small path. The road was the most rudimentary dirt road in the countryside, as if it had been formed by being trampled thousands of times by humans. It was muddy and difficult to walk, but Dong Zhi didn’t have much feeling. After all, he wasn’t an entity now. When he moved forward, he got a wider view and could “see” the smoke from the distant village, and nearby was an abrupt and conspicuous stockade.
The stockade stood by the water’s edge, just across from the village. The villagers on the other side of the river were extremely careful when drawing water. They didn’t dare cross even half a step past the river.
Dong Zhi took a few “glances” in a daze, then turned his gaze on the house in front of him. He floated into the house along with his own mind.
The light suddenly dimmed.
A dark-skinned young man was kneeling in front of a middle-aged man, listening to his teachings.
They communicated in the local language. Dong Zhi “listened” but didn’t understand, so he turned to “look” at the surrounding furniture.
Everything around could be considered weird. The walls were hung with skeletons and animal skulls of different shapes and sizes, along with a mess of talisman papers with runes painted on them. Dong Zhi carefully examined it and determined that it wasn’t a Chinese talisman. He couldn’t identify the runes on the talismans at all. There were colorful feather arrows on the table and a row of urns in the corner. Looking at them at a glance, he counted about ten in each row.
The urns’ shapes ranged from fat to thin. Although he didn’t know what was in them, it would inexplicably arouse a feeling that it wasn’t anything good.
Since he couldn’t understand what they were saying, Dong Zhi didn’t stay long and floated from the passage behind the door to another room.
The same darkness.
The furnishings were pretty much the same as well.
The difference was that there was a messy head half-hidden in the dark. Its cheek was still moving like a living person.
There was a mass of trembling flesh on the ground. When Dong Zhi looked closely, it was a fat person. She was holding a rag in her hand and was wiping the floor.
At this time the head actually spoke.
“Ugly woman. Just the sight of you disgusts me. Get out!”
The woman’s fat body trembled for a while, as if trying to get up, but eventually she knelt on the ground and kept shivering.
Before Dong Zhi got any closer, the middle-aged man, who was in the front room just now, came in.
The woman was finally pardoned under the instructions of the other party, and she retreated quickly. The middle-aged man began to communicate with the head and spoke very quickly. For a short time, the two seemed to be having an unpleasant conversation. The head began to speak loudly in an angry tone. The middle-aged man snorted coldly, but didn’t continue to argue with him and instead walked to the back of the room.
At this time, Che Bai’s voice no longer sounded in his ear. Intuitively, Dong Zhi felt he wanted to follow the middle-aged man instead of staying where he was, so he quickly followed him closely. He went through a corridor and came into a hut without a trace of light.
He kind of understood the spell that Che Bai used on him. It was a bit like “clairvoyance”. He was following the breath of the witchdoctor who cursed him and had directly traced it to someone in this hideout, so he was now equivalent to a cloud of illusory consciousness. He had no entity or even a soul.
This kind of spell that could trace thousands of miles was naturally extremely powerful. So far, although Dong Zhi couldn’t identify who the person who cursed him was due to the language barrier, he had received enough information.
In the hut, the middle-aged man, who had been arrogant and calm in front of the young man and the head, had become like a sheep in a blink of an eye. He knelt down on his knees in front of an offering table. Even his tone of speech was pious and respectful. There was a person sitting in the dark with his eyes slightly closed, but the middle-aged man didn’t even dare raise his head as he whispered softly. His forehead remained on the ground for fear of disturbing the other party.
Most of the time, it was the middle-aged man talking. The person in the dark occasionally responded to a sentence or two. His tone was strange. His voice didn’t seem to come from his throat, but rather from the void. With a sense of haziness, there seemed to be an invisible barrier around him that prevented Dong Zhi from moving forward.
However, Dong Zhi wasn’t reconciled. He had a hunch that this person was important and perhaps related to the witchdoctor who cursed him or perhaps even the heavenly demon, so he tried his best to break through the barrier with his consciousness and observe the man closer.
The barrier was like plasticine with excellent elasticity. He tried his best to move forward but was always fiercely rejected. However, Dong Zhi refused to admit defeat. He chanted the spell for the sunlight talisman and finally tore a hole in the barrier. His “entire being” rushed in.
The man suddenly opened his eyes!
Dong Zhi looked straight into it, and his heart couldn’t help but be shocked. He couldn’t help but think, ‘Bad’, believing that he had been discovered.
At this time, he saw the man’s face clearly. It wasn’t the monstrous face that he had seen in his dream, but an ordinary middle-aged face. There were still traces on his face that showed proper maintenance from the past, but now it was green and black, like an evil ghost, and it looked somewhat familiar.
Then he heard the man laugh coldly and actually speak in Chinese.
“Look, you have brought guests. Do you not know how to entertain?!”
The middle-aged man looked up blankly, obviously unable to see Dong Zhi’s existence.
The man in the dark stretched out a hand and pointed towards Dong Zhi.
“He is there. There.”
Before the middle-aged man was ordered to attack, Dong Zhi went straight to the man in the darkness to “attack” him.
He was extremely fast. At that moment, he quickly recited the heavenly thunder incantation, hoping that his consciousness could attract lightning so he could use it to kill this person directly, but at that moment, a sneer suddenly sounded in his ear.
The laughter was even more gloomy than just now. It was cold and creepy, as if the ice and snow covering a rotting corpse in the depths of a primeval forest on a winter’s night were poured directly into one’s bones. Dong Zhi felt his “eardrums” trembling and in pain. His “body” seemed to be blocked by something. He was far from his opponent, but he could no longer move. He guessed that his body was likely to react, but he didn’t put much thought into it. He recited the incantation over and over again, and the cold laughter never stopped, echoing repeatedly in all directions, hauntingly as they got closer and closer.
“You’re so bold. I didn’t go to you, but instead you came to me. It’s better that you stay!”
The last word that was spat out was as if there were a mouth right next to his ear. It felt like a hammer hitting his mind hard, and Dong Zhi’s consciousness started to blur. He could no longer recite the heavenly thunder incantation and was almost led away like this.
But soon, Che Bai’s voice sounded from above.
“Om!”
The morning bells and evening drums and the Sanskrit sounds washed away like dirt. All the turbidity was swept away. His mind was greatly shaken as it slowly returned to clarity from the chaos!
This was the first word from the Dharma mantra1. Legends had it that the bodhisattva2Avalokiteśvara3 granted this mantra to mortals so that they could cleanse their minds from earthly asceticism, suppress the sounds of demons, eliminate all diseases, purify karmic hindrances, and remove all evil spirits.
1[Om mani padme hum] Six-syllable Sanskrit mantra associated with the four-armed Shadakshari form of Avalokiteśvara. The precise meaning and significance of the words remain much discussed by Buddhist scholars. The literal meaning in English has been expressed as “praise to the jewel in the lotus”, or as a declarative aspiration possibly meaning “I in the jewel-lotus”. 2A person on the path towards bodhi (‘awakening’) or Buddhahood. Basically, reaching enlightenment. 3A bodhisattva who embodies all the compassion of all Buddhas. He has 108 avatars, though in Chinese Buddhism, he has evolved into a female form called Guanshiyin.
Dong Zhi clearly saw the man’s face change heavily. The pressure that imprisoned him suddenly became clear.
“It turns out rescuers are brought in. No wonder you have nothing to fear!”
The man sneered again, but Dong Zhi had no time to listen. His consciousness was quickly dragged back by a force, escaping the room, the stockade, and the dense forest.
Dong Zhi’s body shook suddenly. Blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth, but this time it wasn’t black but normal bright red blood. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Long Shen and Che Bai sitting in front of him.
“Boss Che?”
Che Bai also happened to open his eyes and look at him. “How do you feel?”
Dong Zhi said, “My chest hurts a little.”
Che Bai said, “This is normal. You just confronted a heavenly demon. Even if it hasn’t been fully resurrected, it’s still a legendary heavenly demon, nonetheless. Just now, you only had a ray of consciousness, not even your soul. If you rashly try to summon thunder, you won’t attract it and instead will get burned in the end.”
Dong Zhi said in shame, “I was reckless. Thank you, Boss Che, for rescuing me.”
Che Bai said, “You’re not in the wrong. I didn’t tell you what to do in advance just now. I just wanted you to sneak up on the demon. If I had mentally prepared you, he would have noticed your vigilance. It’s just…”
He sighed. “I’m far less powerful now than before. In the end, I still couldn’t lift your curse. I can only suppress it temporarily, so you won’t have an attack for a period of time. Treating the symptoms won’t eliminate the cause. If you want to completely resolve this problem, you have to find the one who cursed you. The demon has not yet formed, and he was just injured again by me, so he won’t recover so quickly in a short period of time.”
Long Shen said, “You’ve bought us enough time.”
Dong Zhi said sincerely, “Thank you, Boss Che. I thought I was going to die. It’s all thanks to your hard work!”
Che Bai waved his hand and smiled wearily. He looked obviously much older than he was just now. The lines in the corners of his eyes became a bit deeper.
“Even if you didn’t mean a lot to Long Shen and was just an ordinary member of the Special Administration Bureau, if I can, I will do my best.”
Dong Zhi suspected that Che Bai had seen through his relationship with Long Shen, but Che Bai had spoken as if it was uninteresting.
Watching Che Bai go back to rest, Dong Zhi couldn’t hide his uneasiness.
“Master, Boss Che’s body won’t be affected because of me, right?”
Long Shen shook his head. “No one in the world can live forever, not even spiritual weapons. This is simply the cycle of life and death. Boss Che is simply reaching that point, and it has nothing to do with you.”
Since Dong Zhi learned of Che Bai’s original form, he had subconsciously regarded the branch director as a walking ancient tree who was extremely precious. He couldn’t help but sigh when he heard this.
Long Shen smiled when he saw that Dong Zhi still had time to worry about others.
“Boss Che has bought us some time. We must use it to find the witchdoctor. What did you see just now?”
Dong Zhi described the jungle and stockade he saw. He had a good memory, and he was an artist. The description was very pictorial, and he could remember it all at once.
“That stockade should be the lair of the witchdoctor, and it seems he worships Mara, so he must have a lot of ties with him… Regarding that man, it should be Han Qi’s gold master, Hong Rui, and that fat woman should be Han Qi’s former agent, Dong Qiaolan. I have seen their photos before. It seems that they also have something to do with Mara!”
Having said that, Long Shen frowned. “It’s strange. The man I saw in my dream last time was shaven and was very young and beautiful. Why does Mara look like Hong Rui this time? Could it be that Mara, like the Archfiend, can wear different human skins?”
Long Shen said, “Mara has not been fully resurrected and formed. What you saw in your dream is the real form of his consciousness condensed, and what you saw just now should be him temporarily possessing Hong Rui’s body. Most likely, it makes it more convenient for him to act.”
Dong Zhi was surprised. He didn’t expect a great demon with an evil nature like Mara would have such a beautiful appearance.
Long Shen seemed to sense what he was thinking and said, “Demons are invisible and colorless, but in order to confuse the world, naturally they will give birth to bodies that appeal to the world so they can recruit more believers. Although Mara hasn’t taken shape yet, it can still fight Boss Che through the void. Most likely, the day for its resurrection is not far off. Once Mara is resurrected, wherever it goes, it will become hell on earth.”
A heavenly demon didn’t necessarily need to kill in person. It could use its demagogue to compel and manipulate human sanity and use them to its will, just like turning Hong Rui into its own believer to set up a pit for Han Qi. Playing with human lives like they were at the palm of its hands. It was true that Han Qi also had weaknesses. If she wasn’t greedy for fame and fortune, wanting to climb over the dragon and attach to the phoenix*, she wouldn’t have been taken advantage of by Hong Rui, but everyone had weaknesses. If someone liked honey today, the demon would transform the poppies into honey. It was tempting to become addicted, and one wouldn’t be able to stop it. Tomorrow, if someone gave birth to traces of evil thoughts, under the influence of a demon, their evil thoughts would expand unknowingly and eventually make them do heartless things.
*(攀龙附凤) Idiom referring to attaching yourself to someone powerful in order to achieve prosperity.
After all, everyone had demons in their hearts. It was only dependent on whether they could stick to their original intentions and prevent evil thoughts from prevailing. However, that was simple to say, but many in the world couldn’t do it.
Although the curse on Dong Zhi was suppressed, they still faced a great problem now.
As soon as they go abroad, the name of the Special Administration Bureau would no longer be useful. It was also in Southeast Asia, which was usually not an issue to travel to. However, once you wanted to do something serious, you would face all kinds of forces, which were bound to make things difficult to move. In some areas where armed forces had seceded, even the local government wouldn’t be good.
Under such circumstances, finding an unnamed black-magic master was tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack. Long Shen had asked the White-Robed Association for help, but it would be impossible to find anything for a while. He was unwilling to tell these things to Dong Zhi as it would only add to his troubles, and Dong Zhi naturally didn’t ask, remaining calm so as not to put any pressure on Long Shen.
When the stone tablet was unearthed last time, the Northwest Branch had become quite lively. Now that the seal on the stone tablet had been strengthened and there were people stationed there to guard it, the manpower had been dispatched elsewhere to look for other stone tablets, so it had suddenly become deserted, which was a good thing as, contrary to what one may think, if it was lively it usually meant there was trouble. Since there was no liveliness, there was no need for Long Shen, a deputy director from the General Administration, to supervise and inspect. He had long been accustomed to working, but now that he was free, he felt a bit out of place.
Dong Zhi proposed they go to the natural history museum. In fact, he had already been to Xi’an. The museum was naturally a must-see place for art students. However, since he became a practitioner, he couldn’t help but look at antiques through a different lens, as they remind him of his master. Though he wasn’t able to witness the moment his master transformed, when he looked at ancient swords, it made him feel a bit better about his regret.
Long Shen shook his head and said he didn’t want to go.
While those artifacts were rare treasures to the eyes of ordinary people, in Long Shen’s view, for various reasons, they no longer had the opportunity to take form and turn into humans. It wasn’t beneficial to look at them but, on the contrary, actually added to the sorrow.
Dong Zhi held his master’s slender hand and felt that his master had not seen enough.
Long Shen thought for a while and said, “Let’s go to the food market.”
The food market, regardless of the season or whether it was a holiday or not, best reflected the eating habits of the people of the country because it was bustling all year round. It was packed with people walking shoulder-to-shoulder. Dong Zhi thought Long Shen would dislike such a place, but he didn’t expect for him to take the initiative to come.
The two of them ate hot and sour dumpling soup and hulatang. After eating a few barbeque skewers, Dong Zhi felt full. He could only look at the roasted chicken he had just packed up with a tangled face. If Kan Chaosheng were here, let alone this roasted chicken, the food market would be emptied.
Though it was Long Shen’s suggestion to come, he didn’t eat much himself. The two of them found a place to sit and watch the noise. White smoke was steaming out, and they couldn’t hear what each other were saying unless they spoke loudly.
In the midst of the excitement, Long Shen’s expression was peaceful and calm. He didn’t care about what to eat or whether it was noisy or not. It seemed he was far more interested in the crowd than the food itself.
Upon seeing this, Dong Zhi joked, “Master, are you here to people watch?”
Long Shen nodded.
Watching the fireworks and the various states of the world, seeing the joys and sorrows of all beings, and truly feeling those living their lives were precious existences that needed to be guarded. Of course, there was countless darkness in the world, which often discouraged the weak-willed, but anyone who put in effort, even if it was like Jingwei filling the sea1, or Kuafu chasing the sun2, one could not say that the world was hopeless.
1The original idiom tells of the god bird Jingwei bringing wood and stones, determined to fill the sea. In the old days, it’s a metaphor for deep hatred and determination to take revenge. Now, it refers to a firm will that’s not afraid of difficulties. You can read the story by clicking the Wikipedia link. 2The original idiom tells a story of Kuafu wanting to pluck the sun, so he began to race against it. Eventually he died of thirst, and after his death, his walking stick turned into a peach forest, and his body turned into Kuafu Mountain. It’s now used to refer to people who are brave and optimistic and willing to overcome all obstacles to reach their goal. You can read the story by clicking the Wikipedia link.
Dong Zhi’s heart was moved.
Somehow, he now understood Long Shen’s thoughts more. With just a look and one sentence, Dong Zhi could understand the other party’s words and what he was thinking.
In fact, Long Shen had never been difficult to understand. He could even be called pure and simple, but no one had ever been willing to patiently understand him before, and he had never stopped to wait for others to understand.
By chance, Dong Zhi became this person, not only because he was willing to take the initiative but also because Long Shen was willing to open up and let him in.
The man he loved had great love in his heart and a heavy burden on his shoulders. His eyes could hold the entire world.
At this time, it would be too petty to make a joke and ask what would be more important, him or the world, but Dong Zhi stilled joked, “Then am I a small responsibility attached to master?”
Long Shen lowered his head and looked at the hands that were tightly clasped together. He suddenly smiled slightly.
“You are a small caprice of mine.”
Responsibility was deeply imprinted in the bones, but capriciousness came from the heart.
Dong Zhi was stunned. The hot feeling immediately spread from the neck up, as if he had just drank a bowl of spicy soup. His stomach was burning, but it wasn’t uncomfortable when it dissipated into every pore of his body.
He used to see Long Shen as cold and stern, but he didn’t know that such a person would be so deadly to pick up. Every sentence Long Shen said could hit the softest part of his heart, take root, sprout, and never be pulled out again.
“Master, when did you change your mind about me and discover that… there is more than just a relationship between master and apprentice?”
After the huge impact from a few days ago, he started to calm down. This question lingered in his heart for a long time. It may not be that Long Shen mistook his sympathy for love, but perhaps out of curiosity or puzzlement.
If he said it was on the beach that night and it was simply a random idea, that would certainly be impossible.
Long Shen talked less and often did more, but every time he did something, he always considered the outcome of his decision. He was by no means an impulsive person.
But if it wasn’t that night, then when?
After thinking about it carefully, when they were separated for a period of time after they became master and apprentice, during that time, Dong Zhi experienced many things in Lucheng. He saw Long Shen’s past from the illusion derived from the Changshou Sword, and his state of mind changed a lot.
But what about Long Shen?
Long Shen thought for a while, then shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Facing Dong Zhi’s faintly expectant and instantly dim gaze, Long Shen smiled.
“I have something to show you when we get back. I can’t explain clearly here.”
As soon as his voice fell, Dong Zhi’s phone rang.
The caller ID displayed Chen Guoliang.
Dong Zhi raised his brows and looked at Long Shen, who motioned for him to answer.
Pressing the accept button, Dong Zhi smiled and said, “Master Chen, are you planning to come to the mainland to develop your business again and are calling me to report in advance?”
“No, no!” Chen Guoliang laughed. He would never set foot back on the mainland for at least another 3 to 5 years. He was afraid that this master would catch him and send him to the bureau for ideological education again. “It’s good news. I found the person you asked me to pay attention to last time!”
Dong Zhi sat up straight all of a sudden. “Qi Rui?!”
After Han Qi’s incident, Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo investigated Qi Rui. She was best friends with Han Qi’s former agent, Dong Qiaolan, and she was the one who was most likely to know the whereabouts of Dong Qiaolan and Hong Rui. She was so addicted to gambling that she owed a lot of debt on the mainland, so she went back to Hong Kong to escape her debts. Since then, her whereabouts have been unknown. At the time, Dong Zhi speculated that Qi Rui might’ve gone to Macau to avoid the limelight. There was a casino there, so she could satisfy her addiction, but after several undercover searches, they didn’t get any news about her.
Now Cheng Guoliang called and said he knew her whereabouts.
Also known as Avalokitasvara, is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He has 108 avatars, one notable avatar being Padmapāṇi. He is variably depicted, described, and portrayed in various cultures as either male or female. In Chinese Buddhism, he has evolved into the female form called Guanshiyin.
a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She was first given the appellation “Goddess of Mercy” or “Mercy Goddess” by Jesuit missionaries in China. Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means “[The One Who] Perceives the Sounds of the World.”
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