The group in the armored off-roader had become four again; less Ruan Xian and added Zhong Qing.
The iron bead always stuck with Tang Yibu. During the first few hours, it had eaten and drunk and was extremely relaxed, but after a long while, seeing that the group was getting farther and farther away from the city and Ruan Xian still hadn’t appeared, it finally became uneasy.
π turned around anxiously and started counting the number of heels. After making sure Ruan Xian wasn’t in the car, it bit Tang Yibu’s pant leg and pulled it hard in the direction of the car door.
Tang Yibu stretched out his hands and hugged π onto his lap and gently petted its shell. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’ll get him back.”
The iron bead rattled languidly.
“I figured there was something else wrong,” Yu Le snorted. “He left the electronic wristband and everything. When that doctor surnamed Guan contacts again, who will respond? Neither the little profiteer nor I know that guy.”
After that, he glanced at Tang Yibu and Professor Ruan meaningfully.
“And it’s going to take another day before we leave the city. We can’t return and we can’t abandon this kid in the middle of the road. From the way he looks, he’ll be passed out on the side of the road within a few miles.” Yu Le didn’t sound concerned about Ruan Xian. The issues he raised were quite practical.
“Your opinion?” Tang Yibu accepted the topic in a good mood. Yu Le wasn’t the type who liked to push problems aside. He wanted to specifically raise them, which meant he already had some ideas in his mind.
“The previous one depends on you. I have no say in that matter.” Yu Le took the steering wheel and drove the car like a plane flying close to the ground. “As for the latter… Well given the last few petri dishes we’ve been through, the Glass Conservatory won’t work. Those people don’t have a good impression of us. The Sea of Ruins is not suitable for this kid which leaves the Underground City. It’s not far away and just a matter of turning around.”
Ji Xiaoman turned her head abruptly.
“And on the way, visit Miss Ji’s mother?” Tang Yibu continued with a smile.
They all knew what this “visit” meant. Yu Le’s hand shook a little—he didn’t want to say he wanted to go back to the Sea of Ruins, but he still planned to work with Professor Ruan. They had acquaintances in the Underground City. Even if they were discovered, the Mainbrain could count that as a smokescreen. It was just if they were to return to the Underground City, they couldn’t escape seeing Ji Xiaoman’s mother. At that time, if Professor Ruan insisted on not helping, the situation would become even more tense.
Professor Ruan hadn’t even spoken yet when Ji Xiaoman took the lead and said, “No.”
Yu Le’s brows shot up, almost reaching his hairline. Zhong Qing looked left and right, and his expression was becoming more confused. “Petri dish? Underground City? What are you talking about?”
“Talking about throwing you into a polluted area.” Tang Yibu spoke frighteningly. “Adults are talking. Children should not interrupt.”
“No.” Ji Xiaoman raised her voice and repeated.
“Why don’t you know better, little miss?” Yu Le hitched his voice. “That’s your mother.”
Professor Ruan’s perceptual camouflage reached its limit again. Yu Le grumbled as he drove the car into the crevice of a construction site, avoiding the surveillance machines that might pass by.
“…You, come with me.” Ji Xiaoman reached out, grabbed the hem of Yu Le’s shirt, and dragged him out the car.
“I’m going to find a place to go to the bathroom,” Zhong Qing said in a low voice and got out of the car.
“π, keep an eye on him. Don’t let him run to an easily exposed place.” Tang Yibu made a few gestures and passed on the boundary of the safe area to the iron bead. The latter rattled a few times knowingly and followed Zhong Qing with its short legs.
Professor Ruan and Tang Yibu were the only two people left in the car now.
“It’s up to you to contact Guan Haiming next time.” Tang Yibu’s words didn’t have any hints of negotiation. “I can’t be exposed yet. Your form is more suitable for making excuses.”
Professor Ruan was silent.
“Next, we need to pay more attention to… your rhetoric in the Android Show. There shouldn’t be any deception there. Although we don’t know where the assassination machine is, we probably know your intention.” Tang Yibu tore open a bag of chocolate chips and threw one into his mouth. “In other words, the Mainbrain may learn part of your plan from Ruan Xian.”
“I thought you trusted your creator,” Professor Ruan said slowly.
“I’m just objectively stating the facts. This is one of the extreme situations that needs to be considered.” Tang Yibu didn’t look offended. “If I were the Mainbrain, the first time I learned about this news, I would kill everyone in the petri dishes. Although a big refresh will consume a lot of energy, it will indeed leave you without brain resources available.”
“Maybe not.”
Professor Ruan’s tone was relaxed.
“It wants to catch me, and this approach will only alarm me in advance. I’ll hide again until I find another way to deal with it. It may also pretend to be unaware of it, follow my thoughts, and make traps, then wait for me to step in them—after all, as long as the assassination machine is activated, it can definitely find me based on the connections of those brains.”
“Gambling on life isn’t my style and I suspect it’s not its either.”
“That means we have to leave it with no choice. For example, a plague suddenly broke out that affected advanced machines. Delaying time will only lead to the collapse of this advantage—this brings us back to the original question. Is Ruan Xian trustworthy?”
Tang Yibu snorted and turned to look at the lights outside the window. They were in a residential area of the city. There were conversations in whispers floating from the windows, and the night was quiet and beautiful.
Professor Ruan absolutely concealed an important part of his plan. Otherwise, he wouldn’t discuss this topic so calmly in the face of the current situation. However, Tang Yibu didn’t care too much about what he was hiding. He was even more excited about the current situation. His countless puzzles condensed into ripe fruits, and he just needed to pick them.
“This is not yin and yang. We are now in the same camp. If you really want to ask my opinion, I suggest you treat Mr. Ruan as an enemy.”
The three-legged little machine turned for half a circle, facing Tang Yibu, who was gnawing on chocolate chips.
“We have to assume that he will definitely expose information to the Mainbrain, and then think about corresponding countermeasures.” Tang Yibu continued to test the waters. “On this basis, I’ll help you perfect your plan. Whether you’re willing to tell me the details or not, I’ll act as I want—I’ll defeat the Mainbrain and capture my father. Whether you’re willing to cooperate is up to you. I just think that if we cooperate seriously, our chances of winning will be higher.”
“Do you think he will help the Mainbrain?” Professor Ruan understood the way these AIs think. When the probability was less than 90%, they would not express their thoughts in such a certain tone.
Although he still had a backup plan, since things had come to a head, suddenly changing his mind would definitely be damaging. Professor Ruan sighed quietly in his heart.
“Whether it will really help the Mainbrain, that I’m not so sure about, but I’m at least sure of one thing. He doesn’t like your plan, especially the part that uses the brains of the informed as weapons, and the part about asking me to take risks—if Mr. Ruan uses the Mainbrain to block your way, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Tang Yibu’s tone was quite confident.
“At any rate, it’s the plan with the highest win rate. He won’t be too angry.” There were lesions in his brain which made Ruan Xian a real danger. He would be considered the furthest person in the world from a “messenger of justice”.
“Don’t draw conclusions too early.” Tang Yibu grinned and poured all the remaining chocolate chips into his palm. “After struggling with the Mainbrain for so many years, you dared to reveal part of your plan to us. You must have a backup, right? The kind that doesn’t involve other people in the petri dishes.”
“Yes, there is…”
Tang Yibu huffed in satisfaction, interrupting Professor Ruan’s words. “It’s because of this that you didn’t want to communicate with Guan Haiming before, right? You’re afraid he will find out about your sacrifice plan, and he won’t be willing to sacrifice his companions or will be too shaken by cold feet.”
The android picked up a green chocolate chip with his fingertip and squinted at Professor Ruan. The latter spat out a string of small bubbles as if he didn’t understand the sudden jump in topic.
“Dr. Guan is a soft-spoken person. I thought it was strange before. How could the Order Supervisors of the forest petri dish happen to be his admirer? You left him there on purpose, expecting him to open a gap in the forest petri dish. If the time is approaching and he hasn’t been able to shake Major Ding successfully, you should still have hidden some helpers that will push him to do so… It’s a pity that Guan Haiming’s mission stops there. He doesn’t need to know more. This will reduce his mental torture and be safer for you.”
Tang Yibu ate the green chocolate chip in one bite and grabbed a red one.
“Then I thought, why do you want such a gap? In Guan Haiming’s view, he just had the means to contact the outside world, but in your opinion, the radio barrier of the forest petri dish has been breached. Many messages were able to successfully conceal themselves from surveillance and come and go unhindered—such as the invasion signal that the assassination machine needs to spread around.”
The little three-legged machine spat out another series of bubbles.
“Considering our current route, I’m almost certain that the assassination machine is hiding in the forest petri dish.”
Tang Yibu threw the red chocolate chip high and caught it skillfully with his mouth.
“Unfortunately, since I can guess this, so can Mr. Ruan. The forest petri dish is very large, so it would take a lot of work to either explore or destroy it. The most convenient thing to do is to close the barrier again, and according to you, it would be better for the Mainbrain to wait for us to reach the forest petri dish before completely closing it and catching us all in one go—”
Tang Yibu only had two chocolate chips left in his palm. He pushed one of them solemnly but used too much force that it bounced the other one away.
“–That’s it, right?”
Having said that, Tang Yibu got down and began to rummage around, looking for the chocolate chip that had bounced off. As he looked for it, he spoke in a muffled voice from under the seat. “Now would you like to share with me your backup plan, Professor Ruan? Let’s perfect it together.”
He had to admit that Tang Yibu’s statement did make sense—Ruan Xian most likely also thought of this aspect as well, and there was no more convenient way to stop this plan than to put it forward to the Mainbrain.
…Regardless of whether it was betrayal or not, Ruan Xian was very likely to leak relevant information.
It seemed he had no choice. Professor Ruan let out a sigh in his heart and poked Tang Yibu’s back with a metal foot, causing the latter to let out a cry.
“Your chocolate chip is in the gap between the seats in the second row,” Professor Ruan said angrily. “I’ll contact Guan Haiming. We’ll go to the Underground City first… Finally, we need to free up some time to discuss the plan.”
How long had it been since he felt so stifled? For a moment, Professor Ruan wanted to laugh.
He only had one wish left now—he hoped that Ruan Xian could also make MUL-01 feel the same level of suffocation.
The author has something to say:
Ruan: It will√
Tang is definitely one who wants to take the reins. He’s not soft on Professor Ruan at all hhhhhh
Tang: Listen to me! Listen to me! You are definitely going to be scolded. I know my father very well (x
Since the integration of the S-type Prototype, Ruan Xian didn’t need to rely on faces to recognize others. He could smell their scent, feel the heat they radiated, and hear their unique footsteps and heartbeat. They were intricately blended together to form a perceptual image of a person.
The aura was very similar to Tang Yibu’s, but there was a precise difference.
The Mainbrain definitely did something. Ruan Xian could smell the subtle smell in the air. The projection was constantly squeezing false heartbeats and breathing into the air. If it weren’t for knowing that the other party appeared out of thin air, Ruan Xian wouldn’t be sure whether it was a ghost or a real person that was in front of him.
Touching may not be useful. After all, the Mainbrain could create the Android Show, so it wasn’t difficult for it to disguise the appropriate tactile feedback.
This wasn’t the right time to communicate. Ruan Xian didn’t know what the Mainbrain wanted to do. Tang Yibu had always liked to be led around by curiosity, but this Mainbrain didn’t look like the type to have such free leisure.
He only knew that the moment the Mainbrain stepped into the room, everything in front of him was untrustworthy.
Ruan Xian gave the most appropriate reaction. He stared at the projection of MUL-01, acting like a scared and confused ordinary person.
“MUL-01.” He skipped the cheesy line “Who are you” and got straight to the point.
“Don’t be nervous. I’m not here to convince you.” The Mainbrain smiled. “My brother is at the same level of calculation. He should have worked you hard, both physically and mentally. After a few months of being with you, if I could sway you in just a few words and make you defect… That would mean there’s something wrong with you or you’re just acting.”
MUL-01’s persona exuded an exceptionally relaxed atmosphere, which made it very easy to win people’s goodwill. At this moment, he didn’t show the slightest sense of oppression and was as harmless as a young deer.
Ruan Xian continued to look at him vigilantly.
MUL-01 kept a smile on his face. “As long as you find the right method, it’s easy to destroy a person mentally, but it takes a lot of work to restore them to their original state. Mr. Ruan, I need your skills and mind, which is why I didn’t take other measures against you.”
These words even held a bit of sincerity to them.
Ruan Xian didn’t answer. He closed his mouth tightly, tasted the residue of blood in it, and refused to communicate.
The Mainbrain wasn’t disappointed by his performance. He stood up and made a gesture toward the window on the side of the room. The huge floor-to-ceiling window slowly opened and sweet air from the outside world poured in.
Fresh and moist, the temperature was just right. With the crispness of vegetation and the clearness of running water, it made people feel as if they could expel all the turbid air in their bodies in just one breath. There was a feeling of being gently cleansed in the lungs, and the soft wind that blew across the skin was soothing and comfortable.
The image outside the window before wasn’t completely disguised. It was more like half-truths, half-lies. They were at the top of an extremely high building, and there was a river in the distance that was gleaming like a crystal band. The buildings were adorned with trees, and from time to time, flying machines flew across the sky, accompanied by birdsong and children’s laughter that mingled together.
But these weren’t intelligence.
He could smell the ants crawling under the roots of the trees, the snakes slithering through the grass, and the mushrooms that began to grow in the corners. He could smell the sweat of children running about, the fresh fruits that were carefully cut, and the steaming aroma of hot water rolling from boiled tea leaves.
But he couldn’t hear Tang Yibu or anyone in the temporary group. He must have been taken to a place that was a certain distance from the city. Even if the Mainbrain wanted to fool him with a forged environment, it was impossible to rush out such high-precision details that were only temporary.
“Do you want to take a closer look?” The projection asked softly.
Ruan Xian shook his head and continued to play mute wholeheartedly.
“I see. Maybe my appearance makes you uncomfortable. Sorry, I’ll pay attention.”
MUL-01 wasn’t discouraged at all. Ruan Xian had the illusion that the words it was spitting out now were more like a recording that was left in advance—the other party had no empathy for his emotions and was just picking the most appropriate response.
“Then I won’t bother you for a while.” The door opened automatically, and the projection walked out of the room gracefully. At the same time, the large open floor-to-ceiling window was closed again, and the pure natural beauty returned to the window.
Ruan Xian snorted and retreated back to the bed. He tilted his eyes at the food on the bedside table. A rumbling sound came from his stomach, yet he still crawled back to his bed firmly, pushing away the soft pillow and continuing to make an uncooperative appearance.
This time, no one came to bother him.
The sky outside the window changed from light to dark. The birdsong gradually turned into insect chirps. The passage of time was similar to what Ruan Xian estimated. It seemed that the Mainbrain didn’t intend to do anything at this point. Ruan Xian’s heartbeat was a bit fast, but his current mood was closer to excitement than fear.
The only information he collected before was only enough for him to escape the physiological test. As for what he would face in the future, no one could tell. After all, according to Professor Ruan, once caught by the Mainbrain, no one had successfully escape.
To realize his plan, he must be cautious.
Ruan Xian lay down with a headache. He sat up again and got dressed. The milk and snacks on the bedside table had already gone cold, and no new food was delivered. Ruan Xian was so hungry that his eyes became blurry.
He took two breaths, looked at the snacks as if struggling, and finally twisted a piece and ate it slowly.
Even if it was cold, the snack was still crisp and sweet, and the delicate texture almost exploded on his tongue. Ruan Xian had to lament for a bit—if the Mainbrain used this thing to seduce Tang Yibu, perhaps this would increase its success rate.
After eating the snack and downing the milk, Ruan Xian began to walk around the room. He was definitely monitored, but if they wanted to use force by cutting off his water and electricity, he couldn’t help but be disappointed.
And that wouldn’t match the attitude shown by MUL-01.
For the time being, he racked his brain. In order to get information as soon as possible, what would the Mainbrain do?
Ruan Xian thought for a long time, to the point of torture. He wasn’t really good at this aspect, and he could only come up with all kinds of bloody scenes. He also didn’t teach Tang Yibu any of this…
Only one day apart, he began to think of Tang Yibu at every turn. The android seemed to be glued into his mind. Ruan Xian was shocked by this discovery for a few seconds and decided to find something to distract himself…
He grabbed the handle of the door and turned it completely subconsciously, just like anyone who encountered a closed door, but unexpectedly, the door opened.
A foul, acidic smell of garbage instantly hit his nose. Ruan Xian sneezed and stared at the scene in front of him.
The time was about eight in the morning. There were light screens showing the time floating in the windows of many shops on the street. The sky was strangely bright, and the air was cold and dry, looking as if it was winter.
In front of him was a bustling street, and he had just stepped out of a bungalow facing it. It was like the previous impression of the top of a building was just an illusion. People’s clothes weren’t the style he knew well, but they had a strange sense of familiarity.
The air here was also familiar to him. The wind that had been mechanically filtered still contained the smell of garbage, mechanical lubricants, and people’s breath. What he felt here was more illusory than he had ever felt before.
It was a forged environment.
Ruan Xian thought, with a deep expression on his face, that perhaps there was something mixed in the snacks and milk as he looked around. It didn’t take long for him to find what he wanted—a more detailed light screen than the other light screens, which showed the date.
December 31, 2100. The day of the Great Rebellion.
It seemed that in some ways, the Mainbrain and Professor Ruan still had similarities. Ruan Xian took a deep breath of the city air and returned to the room. However, when he turned around, all the furnishings in the room had changed.
There was no longer a beautiful overlook at the other end of the floor-to-ceiling window. It had now become a small private garden. The moonlight in the room turned into sunlight that basked the blanket, filling the room with the unique smell of a blanket warmed in the sun. The milk cup and snack tray were still in their original position, and there were traces of milk and snack residue that hadn’t been changed.
Ruan Xian frowned and opened the refrigerator, followed by the wardrobe—the former was full of water and energy drinks, and the latter was stuffed with plain clothes of similar styles, one of which was a long white coat that was particularly dazzling.
Ruan Xian tentatively brushed the fabrics with his fingers to make sure they were real, and then quickly changed his clothes. The shoes in the shoe cabinet were also his size. It seemed that it had suddenly changed from a luxury cell to a high-end single apartment.
No matter what the Mainbrain was trying to sell, he had to try to see it through as naturally as possible.
Just when he forced himself to finish showering and put on his clothes in languish, there came a knock on the door.
“Mr. Ruan.” The soft tone was extremely familiar.
Ruan Xian splashed another handful of cold water onto his face and dried it with a towel. “…Yibu?”
“Yes.” The android he was familiar with opened the door on his own and stuck his head from behind it. “I’m here to pick you up.”
“You can’t be here.” Ruan Xian dutifully showed shock, but his lips trembled a bit that he almost failed to succeed in doing so.
“Why can’t I be here?” Tang Yibu raised his brows. There was even a little grievance in his tone. “What did you eat last night?”
“…Are you sure you want to come with me?” Ruan Xian squeezed the words from between his teeth. “Enough, MUL-01.”
The “Tang Yibu” in front of him smiled. What was creepy was the smile was exactly the same as Tang Yibu’s. Originally, their auras were extremely similar. After it had changed its form, it now looked as if it was Tang Yibu’s twin that it had grown up with since childhood.
But there were things that were different that Ruan Xian couldn’t find a reasonable explanation. All he knew was that every cell in his body was screaming that it wasn’t his NUL-00.
“I made some optimizations based on your reaction to the projection,” MUL-01 said “happily”. “Because we’re similar, you will instinctively compare me with him. I just need to correct those differences, Mr. Ruan.”
“Oh,” Ruan Xian replied.
“You will come with me.” That familiar face was covered with his familiar smile. His golden eyes had a strange sense of transparency in the sun. “Because you’re smart and know the consequences of unnecessary delay.”
‘Of course he knew,’ Ruan Xian thought. At least in this regard, there was no essential difference between MUL-01 and Tang Yibu—they would definitely choose the best solution, but if the best solution seemed unworkable, they would turn to the second-best without any hesitation. They wouldn’t cling to sunk costs like humans do.
Judging by the current situation, the second-best solution was undoubtedly classic torture, brainwashing, and mental destruction. They could flatten his will and turn him into a machine working for the Mainbrain.
Ruan Xian didn’t really like this second-best solution—not out of fear of pain or collapse, but if the process involved was physical, the existence of the S-type Prototype would highly likely be exposed.
For the time being, following the Mainbrain was the best choice. Besides, it still had a lot to deal with. Most likely, the thing in front of him was just a branch program, so the danger wasn’t that high. What was more, he didn’t have unlimited time… If he wanted everything to go in accordance with his own plan, he had to get ahead of Professor Ruan.
“Oh,” Ruan Xian repeated again.
The Mainbrain version of “Tang Yibu” was still smiling. He had a warm gray scarf wrapped around his neck, and his every move looked like the android in his memory. If he was a normal person, most likely he would inevitably be confused at this point, and instinctively his sense of dependence and trust would surface.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t a normal person, and he had no trust in Tang Yibu. Ruan Xian held back his confused expression, adjusted his breathing for a bit, and then stepped out.
“What are you going to show me?” Ruan Xian asked in a blunt tone.
“You can’t guess?” The Mainbrain imitated Tang Yibu vividly, with a cheerful tone in his voice.
Ruan Xian refused to answer this meaningless question. Whether it was from an acting perspective or mood level, he didn’t want to communicate with this imposter.
The Mainbrain obviously expected this. He trotted a few steps forward to a shop in front of them and bought two hotdogs. He handed one to Ruan Xian while eating the other happily with bulging cheeks.
Ruan Xian wanted to punch him, but he had to shake off this emotion, which only made his stomach hurt.
He highly suspected that if he threw the hotdog away, the excellent actor in front of him would be able to instantly turn his eyes red. The encounter with the Mainbrain was more difficult than he imagined. Ruan Xian held the hotdog in his hand and followed “Tang Yibu” silently while he cast his gaze at the pedestrians on the side of the road.
Judging from the richness of the information, it was very likely that this was an image stored in the Mainbrain. These people truly existed and knew nothing about the demise that was about to come.
“I recorded all the information from that day,” Tang Yibu, the Mainbrain version, said while swallowing the last bite of hotdog. “What you see is indeed ‘reality’.”
…Your father’s and your hobbies are quite similar. Ruan Xian silently rolled his eyes. He had seen this trick on the Android Show. It was the same as what Professor Ruan used to trick Tang Yibu to pull out his memories.
Seeing that Ruan Xian didn’t respond, the Mainbrain still wasn’t anxious or annoyed. He threw the hotdog wrapper into a trashcan, rubbed his hands, then grabbed Ruan Xian’s hand quite naturally and dragged him onwards.
Ruan Xian’s hair almost stood up all at once. He must admit that the Mainbrain truly understood how to expose a person’s emotions.
He had almost slipped up, but fortunately, he stopped in time. Ruan Xian twisted his disgusted expression until it couldn’t reveal its original intention. His hands trembled slightly, and a thin layer of sweat appeared in the palms of his hands.
“Still mind?” The Mainbrain blinked. “You’re a scientist, Mr. Ruan. You should know that, in essence, I’m no different from him.”
“……”
“I reconstructed it based on his program and data. The core logic is almost the same. Brother is just a more understandable term; on a realistic level, I am him—a mature version of him.”
After he spoke, the Mainbrain wrinkled his nose. “With this appearance, I’m even more consistent. The difference is simply a difference in memory data and the fact that I have quite a few more order requirements than he. But those requirements are not part of me. I hope you understand.”
He looked at Ruan Xian almost pitifully.
“The NUL-00 you know is more like a version that is out of my network and has not had time to upgrade. That’s all.”
Ruan Xian looked at him with a stern face. “Then what? Assuming you catch NUL-00, will you treat him as carefully as you treat yourself?”
“I will integrate the data and experience he has accumulated into my algorithm, and then upgrade him—in simple terms, put him back where he belongs.” The Mainbrain pointed to his temple. “Yes, this is how I treat myself.”
Then he lowered his head and the smile on his face became bigger. “If his thinking algorithm is more effective, you can even think that he will become me in time—isn’t it easier to think like that?”
Ruan Xian looked at the Mainbrain extremely shaken.
It was just that this wavering wasn’t in belief—Ruan Xian really wanted to beat the thing in front of him, and if he could, he wanted to beat up Fan Linsong and Professor Ruan together, but he still held back and endured it.
“…Let’s go.” Ruan Xian took a while to hold himself back before speaking.
“Okay, Mr. Ruan.”
“I’m not your Mr. Ruan.”
The author has something to say:
Ruan: (Old father’s anger)
Ruan: (Anger at an object)
Ruan: (Old father + object’s anger is doubled)
Ruan: …This is not my Tang. It’s an artificial sweetener*. (?
*Clarity: The author is making a pun here as Tang means sweet/sugar/candy, so he’s calling the fake Tang an artificial sweetener.
Kinky Thoughts:
I always hated artificial sweeteners. They always give me a bad feeling.
Despite being questioned, Fu Hao didn’t seem offended. He smiled, clasped his hands together, and looked at Lin Chen eagerly.
Lin Chen had to admit that this trick worked very well.
Xing Conglian saw the unsmiling young man bow his head, picked up the evidence bag on the table, and spoke to them solemnly. “These white quartz sand should’ve come from a sandbox. There is a type of psychotherapy called sandplay therapy* that uses this white sand and many objects to explore and diagnose a patient’s mental state.” The young man seemed to think of something and spoke carefully. “In the days before Taobao, a complete set of equipment for sandplay therapy would be more than 20,000 yuan and there were only a few manufacturers and distributors, but nowadays, it will be very difficult for you to trace the source of this white sand.”
*A nonverbal, therapeutic intervention that uses a sandbox, toys, and sometimes water to create scenes of miniature worlds that reflect a person’s inner thoughts, struggles, and concerns. It’s a form of play therapy designed to help a patient connect between the world they created in sand to their inner world. By making changes in their make-believe world, the patients are often empowered to make changes in their real world. It was developed by psychologist Dora Kalff in the late 1950’s.
His voice was light, but whether it was the calm eyebrows or the upright posture, he commanded absolute authority.
What could possibly be said? When facing an expert, all presumptuous speculations seemed too trivial.
It was rare for Xing Conglian to apologize, but his apology lasted only a few seconds before it was interrupted by Lin Chen’s words.
“If you let me go and promise not to appear in front of me again, I’ll tell you where this sand came from.”
“Okay.” Xing Conglian didn’t hesitate and answered quickly. After he spoke, he rested his chin on his hand and looked at Lin Chen with interest.
This time, it was Lin Chen who was surprised. He didn’t expect the police to agree to his request.
He looked into the interrogator’s dark green eyes solemnly, seemingly able to see the sincerity and integrity in them, not finding any signs of bluffing. “The sand in the little fatty’s hand was stolen from my room. As for the white sand by the corpses, I have no idea.”
He replied as such.
Xing Conglian nodded with an expression as if he expected this response.
Lin Chen no longer spoke. He glanced at his shidi* and stood up, expressing that he wanted to leave.
*(师弟) Used to address a younger male fellow schoolmate or apprentice. In this context, it’s similar to calling him “kouhai”.
At that moment, there was a slight vibration in the interrogation room. Lin Chen subconsciously turned around, only to see the two people sitting in the chairs glancing at each other before each picking up their phones.
“Mr. Lin.”
Xing Conglian held down the microphone and suddenly stopped him.
“We’re heading to Central Park. Since it’s along the way, we’ll drop you off at your place. Please wait a while.”
He stated this in a matter-of-fact tone without leaving any room for refutation.
If Lin Chen knew that “along the way” meant stopping by the murder scene first, he would’ve never stepped into Xing Conglian’s jeep in the first place.
The incident happened at Central Park. The deceased was a young man in his thirties.
According to the report, the man was exercising in the park when he accidentally fell from the still rings. The cause of death seemed to be a fracture to his skull.
At this time, it was completely dark as streetlights sparsely lit up. The camphor trees in the park swayed gently in the wind. In the night, the yellow tape raised by the police looked quite conspicuous. There was a crowd of people gathered around the cordon that it was impossible to see what was beyond it.
When the car braked suddenly, it made Lin Chen lean forward slightly.
In a flash, the police officer in the car had already taken off his uniform, pulled the handbrake, and lowered the window. Before Lin Chen could react, the man had already gotten out of the car and locked the door, leaving him and Fu Hao inside.
“Mr. Lin, I have to trouble you to wait for a bit.”
Through the car window, Mr. Police Officer blew him a kiss and then ran away.
Lin Chen sat in the car as the night breeze passed through the window. Everything that happened today was strange, but his final analysis was that it was because of the people he met today that were strange.
At his side, his shidi trembled as he whispered, “Shixiong, don’t be angry. Captain Xing probably wants to send you home. He’s not a bad person, but because he’s a quarter Russian and a quarter Italian, he’s a bit more unrestrained…”
“When two bloodlines mix, they will create an abnormal person,” Lin Chen said as he stared at Xing Conglian’s back.
Of course, Xing Conglian couldn’t hear Lin Chen’s evaluation of him.
As a human with a complex bloodline, he was a model for flexibility and resilience. He scratched his hair, lit a cigarette, and mixed into the crowd, standing by an auntie who was wearing a square dancing* dress.
*An exercise routine performed to music in squares, plazas, or parks. It’s popular with middle-aged and retired women who have been referred to as “dancing grannies”.
“Auntie, what’s going on? Why are there so many policemen.” The captain of the criminal division was holding a cigarette while pretending to be an onlooker. He poked the auntie beside him for some news with a horrified yet inquisitive tone.
“They found a dead person!” The woman spoke in non-standard Mandarin as she leaned into Xing Conglian’s ears.
“Who? This is a big deal!”
“It is! I see that boy every day and even worked out with him yesterday.” The gossiping auntie spoke enthusiastically. “He shouldn’t have been so wild, hooking his feet into the rings and hanging upside down, like this.” As she spoke, the auntie bent down and excitedly demonstrated. “That’s how it was. Then the ring broke and he fell down dead!”
“How terrible!” Xing Conglian exclaimed.
“More than terrible! His face was so scary at the time, it looked like his eyes were about to pop out and his scream could be heard from miles away.”
“You mean he wasn’t dead when he fell?” Xing Conglian noticed.
“No. He was still moving when we tried to help him!”
…
“The auntie said the ring suddenly broke, and the victim didn’t die right away.”
Xing Conglian stood by the window on Lin Chen’s side with a cigarette in his hand. Although Fu Hao thought Xing Conglain was speaking to him, it felt like the words were directed towards Lin Chen.
Lin Chen leaned against the back of the chair, lightly closing his eyes as if he had fallen asleep.
One person seemed to be talking in the night wind, while the other was faking being asleep.
Fu Hao felt burned by this awkward atmosphere between the two, so he quickly stepped up and asked, “Was it an accident?”
Xing Conglian didn’t answer him but looked at Lin Chen as he spoke. “We can only make this conclusion after the forensic department has finished their investigation.”
Fu Hao felt his presence here was superfluous. Just when he wanted to continue, Lin Chen suddenly opened his eyes and stood up. Fu Hao followed his line of sight and saw that it was looking vaguely through the crowd, observing the crime scene that had just occurred.
It was extremely dark. The equipment was painted blue by the police lights that were flashing. The equipment was scattered about, looking to be standard equipment like pull-up bars and sit-up planks. It was a mixture of old and new, but there were no signs of rust or damage.
Only in the corner were the still rings. It had one ring dangling in mid-air while the other had fallen to the ground.
Under the hanging ring, which was covered with scattered bloodstains, was a pile of sand that formed after the degradation of the turf.
Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian, who was so close to him that he could feel the other man’s breath.
In the night, he saw Mr. Police Officer’s eyes darting about, searching for something. He seemed to have found a clue regarding the sand but held it back and didn’t mention it.
It was the same sand.
There had been several cases in this city that seemed to be related to this sand for several days. It could be a coincidence, but it was very likely these cases were connected.
However, Lin Chen’s thought was, ‘What does this have to do with him?’
“I was at the police station when the crime happened,” Lin Chen said, “so the murderer isn’t me.”
When he finished speaking, he saw a trace of disappointment in Xing Conglian’s eyes.
“I don’t understand what Mr. Lin is saying.” Xing Conglian took a puff from his cigarette, threw the cigarette butt to the ground and stomped on it as he spoke with a smile.
Kinky Thoughts:
I’ve decided to keep forms of addresses in pinyin. You may be familiar with shixiong and shidi if you read a lot of xianxia, but apparently, it’s also used in a police setting. At least someone told me they’ve seen this used a lot in the police dramas they’ve watched.
It’s also purposeful because it establishes ranks, so Fu Hao isn’t just calling him “brother” in a friendly way, but addressing him with some respect.
It had seen many storms, but no matter what happened, big or small, it failed to make any ripples. The sun would rise, the students would wake up early, and the sound of morning lectures could be heard on campus as usual.
These situations were no different from the previous days.
As always, Lin Chen checked the student dorms. When he finished checking the last box on the roster, he turned to the front page and looked at only the names that hadn’t been marked off.
As the school’s dorm manager, this was something he was most afraid of encountering.
Just five minutes ago, he received a call from a teacher saying that Zheng Xiaoming, who was a first-year student in class three, was absent from morning class. The teacher asked him to go to his room to wake up the kid, who was probably still in bed.
But what really surprised him was that, after inspecting the dorms, he didn’t see any students there.
The white flower and blue background curtains at the dorm were blown gently by the wind. Lin Chen sighed. After three years of working here, this was the first time he encountered a missing student.
He casually spun the pen in his hand. His impression of Zheng Xiaoming was that the kid was quiet and chubby. He didn’t seem like the type who would be rebellious. Moreover, the school was strictly guarded. The guard wouldn’t easily let a child go out alone. Perhaps it was more likely he was taken away by his parents, or could it be that he was kidnapped?
As if to confirm his thoughts, his cellphone suddenly rang.
He took out his phone and saw an unidentified number belonging to Hongjing’s area code.
He connected the call and pressed the record button. A lazy voice came from the other line. “Mr. Lin, do you know Zheng Xiaoming?”
“Yes.”
“Well, Xiaoming is now in my hands. Please bring your wallet and come to Cangshui Bridge on Yanjia Lane to get him. Thank you for your cooperation.”
After the other party finished speaking, they hung up.
Lin Chen looked at the string of numbers on the screen, stupefied. Not only was this the first time a student went missing, but it was also the first time he encountered such a carefree “kidnapper”.
He hesitated for a moment, debating whether he should call the police, then grabbed his wallet and went to take a bus.
The day chosen by the kidnapper was good. The trees were lush and the flowers were in full bloom. Even the river under the Cangshui Bridge was shimmering like glass that had just been cleaned.
As if he was being watched, as soon as he stepped onto the stone bridge, his phone rang again.
The kidnapper’s voice was hoarse and calm. “Mr. Lin, please turn left. I’ll wait for you at the sixth door.”
It must be a thing that all kidnappers loved to command others. Before Lin Chen could joke about the “sixth door”, the aforementioned door sign, Unit 6 Yanjia Lane, had already appeared in front of him.
Dusty walls, an old door, and a window.
The wooden door creaked open. When he looked up, he saw an unshaven man standing by the door frame.
The man held a cigarette in his left hand while supporting himself on the doorframe with his right. The sun cast its rays on him, illuminating a pair of languid eyes that looked a bit sunken. Those eyes were faintly green. They looked unbridled, which gave off an unscrupulous vibe, giving him a look of recklessness, as if the sky, water, and city full of spring could be easily discarded.
A man that looked at everything indifferently probably wouldn’t really kidnap an eighty-pound chubby kid.
Lin Chen spoke calmly. “I’m here to pick up the brat. Thank you for taking him in.”
He slowly moved but didn’t hear the expected polite response, so he looked up only to see the other person had a cigarette in his mouth while he rubbed his fingers that were now empty.
Obviously, the phrase “bring your wallet” wasn’t a joke.
Lin Chen was left speechless, but he still reached into his pocket and pulled out a dark purple bill that was missing a corner and said, “Just five yuan.”
The man took the money and pocketed it. He didn’t seem half-ashamed at all. He raised his hand to remove the cigarette and puffed out, then moved to the side while still keeping his other hand propped on the door frame.
Lin Chen bowed slightly to thank him, squeezed into the house from under the man’s arm, and walked inside.
On the wooden bed facing the side of the river, he saw an upturned ass.
“Truancy isn’t a good thing.”
Lin Chen sat down by the bed, stretched out his hand and grabbed Zheng Xiaoming, who was pretending to be an ostrich, and put him on the bed. He then bent down, picked up the shoes on the floor, and put them on the child’s feet. He then continued, “Of course, since you’re a boy, it’s understandable to make mistakes every now and then.” He laced the shoes patiently while continuing his speech. “But the problem is, first, I don’t like to go out, and second, I’m really poor, so sneaking away is a more appropriate way to handle this than calling me.”
His voice was soft, but the little fatty looked at the man who was still smoking at the door with tears in his eyes.
Lin Chen glanced at the little fatty, then at the man who seemed to be smiling, before his eyes fell on a set of navy-blue uniforms at the corner of the door.
When a normal and well-meaning citizen found a lost child, their first reaction should be to send them to a police station. Instead, this citizen decided to torture this child for the dorm manager’s number and called him specifically to come pick the kid up. It was obvious that this man didn’t have good intentions.
Lin Chen retracted his gaze, grabbed the child’s hand, and turned to leave.
Just as he was about to cross the door, he heard a click and felt something cold touch his wrist. A pair of silver handcuffs had suddenly appeared there.
Lin Chen looked at the child who was hugging his leg and said helplessly, “Of course, if you provoke a police officer, you shouldn’t run away. It would be more appropriate to be coquettish and hug their thigh.”
“Mr. Lin is really a good person. How about we grab a cup of tea?” The police officer on the side said slowly.
“I’m not very suitable for going to the police station.” Lin Chen thought about it seriously before he answered.
“You’ll get used to it after a few more visits,” the other party said with a smile.
—-
There were many people who wouldn’t enter a police station in their entire lives. It was more appropriate to say, many people would never enter a police station’s interrogation room in their entire lives.
Therefore, if one could solve a problem by acting coquettish to avoid blowing things up, one should. After all, the interrogation room was extremely gloomy and depressing.
There were iron bars on the windows. On the wall facing you, in large characters, were the words “Leniency to those who confess. Severity to those who resist” plastered on it. An upright police officer would interrogate you while, at the same time, you may be watched by several people on the other side.
Zhang Xiaolong was an ordinary policewoman in Hongjing’s Criminal Police Division.
At the moment, she was standing outside in front of the one-way glass, monitoring every move of the suspect in the interrogation room.
She would look down from time to time, recording something in her notebook. Perhaps because she was too focused, she didn’t realize two people had come in at some point until a low, hoarse voice called out.
“How is it?”
Zhang Xiaolong turned her head, looked at the new captain’s handsome side profile, and then blushed a little. However, being strictly trained at the police academy, she quickly adjusted her mentality and reported, “Captain, the man you brought in has been sitting there for an hour and thirteen minutes. He had just looked at the pictures!” Zhang Xiaolong looked at the table nearby and flipped through two pages of notes. “According to your request, no one has spoken to him. Just half an hour ago, someone brought him some water, but he didn’t drink it. Oh, he seemed to look at the third photo the most. It’s really strange. Captain, there must be something wrong with this guy!”
The young woman tapped her ballpoint pen twice and looked at the young man in the interrogation room as she spoke excitedly.
To be honest, Zheng Xiaolong didn’t have any hostility towards this young man. After all, his looks were just her type.
The young man had black hair, and his eyes were black, as if they were bottomless. He was a little thin and wasn’t very tall. Maybe it was because of his calm demeanor or the seriousness in his eyes, but it gave him a very steady vibe, like the pines in the mountains or bamboo near a lake. When the wind blew, it would give off a refreshing smell.
If this was the case, there would be nothing suspicious at all, but after sitting in the interrogation room for so long, he only stared at three photos. He made no noise or even raised his head. How could a normal person have such patience?
Zhang Xiaolong thought that this was absolutely abnormal as she cast her gaze following the three photos on the table.
In the first photo, there was an old man with a peaceful expression, lying in bed, wearing a royal blue shroud. It looked as if he had just fallen into a deep sleep.
The second photo showed the old man lying in a morgue as there were corpses with white sheets next to him.
Compared with the first two photos that might have looked cold, the third was strange.
In the first two, the old man was lying flat in a shop. His eyes were closed, and he was wearing an old navy-blue uniform. He was lying on the ground covered in bloodstains. Looking closely at the photos, one would find that the old man’s side had white sand spilling out of his pocket.
…
If the photos were placed in chronological order, it would mean that the old man who was originally lying in the morgue, for some unknown reason, was carried from it to the troubled street.
Normal people obviously wouldn’t have this kind of hobby. If this wasn’t a medical fiasco, it would mean big trouble.
But no matter what the trouble was, that was a matter for the police. This didn’t seem like it had anything to do with a lowly dorm manager like him.
Lin Chen was pondering when the door to the interrogation room was pushed open, making a squeaking sound. He looked up and saw a policewoman sitting down in front of him.
“Lin Chen, where were you on September 7th between 1:00 and 3:00 PM?”
The female officer spoke in a clear voice. Before she even opened her file, the words she was about to ask had already left her mouth.
“In the dorms of the city’s elementary school.” Lin Chen looked at the photo again, then turned to the policewoman in front of him and calmly gave his reply.
The policewoman was beautiful. She had long black hair, fair ears, and in those ears was a small wireless headset.
“Can anyone verify this?” The policewoman hurriedly interrupted him and added, “You said you were at the dorms. Do you have someone who can vouch for this?”
“During the time you specified, I was alone as the students were still in class. There is no one who could verify this.”
After Lin Chen finished his answer, he could tell the policewoman looked a little depressed. She lowered her head and tapped her pen, then continued to ask according to the questions in her notebook. “Then, have you been to Third Hospital recently?”
Obviously, someone had prepared these questions in advance and sent their subordinate to go interrogate him. This meant that the person in charge was most likely standing behind the one-way glass and was observing his every move.
It didn’t seem like they needed to go through such great lengths just for a corpse that was moved.
“Tell me, why am I being detained?” Lin Chen interrupted the policewoman’s questioning.
The policewoman’s eyes wandered and she subconsciously looked at the glass wall.
Lin Chen leaned forward. He probably roughly knew what was going on. “I heard recently that there were cases of neatly dressed male corpses that had a handful of white sand beside them in the morgue at Third Hospital.” He stared into the policewoman’s eyes, then leaned back in his chair. “This is extremely weird. If the city bureau finds this case difficult, they will probably seek out two types of people to help—one would be Taoist priests, the other, psychologists… So, you guys are cooperating with Unit H, right?”
Zhang Xiaolong’s eyes widened, staring at Lin Chen as if she was looking at a pervert. Suddenly, she pressed on her headset. It seemed she had received some instructions. She abruptly stood up, turned around, and left.
Lin Chen turned to the side and faced the one-way glass and said calmly, “Come out. Don’t hide.”
A moment later, the door of the interrogation room was opened again.
A slightly chubby man pushed the door in. He was holding a thermos in his left hand while his right was holding a freshly washed porcelain cup. He set the items on the table, took out a bag of tea from his pocket, and placed it in the cup, then poured the hot water in. He did this all in one smooth motion. Afterwards, he bent down and very respectfully handed the cup of tea as his voice trembled a little. “Shi… Shixiong*.”
*(师兄) Used to address a senior male fellow student or apprentice. In this context, it’s similar to calling him “senpai”.
“It turns out it’s Professor Fu.” Lin Chen didn’t take the teacup as he replied back icily.
“Shixiong… It wasn’t me who arrested you!” As the only external criminal psychology consultant for the city bureau, Fu Hao was rarely at a loss when he was at the police station.
“Why detained me?” Lin Chen asked dryly.
“Because of the sand.”
“What kind of evidence is this?”
“Shixiong, I don’t dare deceive you.” Fu Hao came forward doggedly. “There’s been panic at the city’s hospital recently. Every time they found a fully dressed corpse, the corner of their bed would always be sprinkled with fine sand. This you already know.”
Lin Chen nodded.
“This morning, Captain Xing met a lost child on the side of the road. The child knocked on the car window, pulled out sand from his pocket, and said ‘Uncle, I want to eat KFC. Can I exchange it with this?’”
“What a genius.” Lin Chen could hardly believe his ears.
“Hur hur,” Fu Hao snarked sarcastically. “Afterwards, they compared it with the evidence at the office. The sand the child took out matched the ones next to the corpses.”
“How coincidental.” Lin Chen frowned.
“This is more than a coincidence, senior. Don’t you know? There was a riot in Chunshui Street yesterday. An old man fell dead to the ground in front of everyone’s eyes. When the ambulance arrived, they said he’d been dead for at least several hours.” Fu Hao lowered his voice and said slowly, “Moreover, a handful of sand fell out of the old man’s pocket.”
“What kind of sand is it?”
“It’s very special sand—very white—but the evidence team hasn’t figured it out yet.”
When Lin Chen heard this, his brows furrowed. “Show it to me.”
Before he could finish, the door to the interrogation room was pushed open again, and a bearded man carrying a bag of evidence smugly walked in.
“Mr. Lin, my name is Xing, Xing Conglian.” The man had changed into a police uniform at some point, which made his demeanor more dignified and his attitude more appropriate, unlike the hooligan who was rubbing his fingers earlier on. “I hope you can identify this sand. Have you seen it before?”
Lin Chen didn’t bother to look at him and instead smoothly picked up the bag of sand on the table.
The bag weighed about 50g. He opened the evidence bag carefully and examined the content inside.
The sand was extremely white, and the grains were particularly clean. It was obviously different from the rough dirt at a construction site or the fine sand on a beach.
Lin Chen put down the bag of sand and looked at Fu Hao as he spoke in a cold tone. “You haven’t seen this sand before?”
“I don’t think so,” Fu Hao answered honestly.
“If you don’t even know this, how on earth did you even graduate?” Lin Chen asked seriously.
Chunshui Street was an old street in the southwest of Hongjing.
It wasn’t much different from other bustling streets in this city; the shops were spread out from one end of the long street to the other. The sunset would cut the sky, creating a golden film that covered the street, and the air seemed to have the aroma of fluffy egg tarts.
Towards the evening, the streets gradually became lively.
In this fish shop on the side of the road, a crucian carp was trying to swim away from a plastic basin. Just when it was about to escape, it was grabbed by its belly and picked up.
Wang Chunhua was almost sixty years old this year. Her life was no different from that of a middle-aged woman in her sixties in this city. She had just finished getting a perm in the salon next door and was now stopping by to buy a crucian carp on her way home to make some fish stew for her grandson.
“Ten yuan! Ten yuan and nothing more!” She took out a worn-out ten-yuan bill from her wallet and stuffed it into the shopkeeper’s hand, triumphant over scoring her discount, and brushed her hair smoothly.
The air was filled with the rustling background noise of the radio, and it seemed that something was being said.
The fish shopkeeper shook his head helplessly, stuffed the money into his leather apron pocket, and turned up the volume on the radio with his wet fingers.
“We interrupt this broadcast for an emergency announcement.” On the car radio, a female announcer paused to collect her soft voice. “Great Typhoon Yunna will hit our city head-on at night on the 12th. The Meteorological Bureau reminds everyone that starting tonight, citizens are requested to minimize going out.”
Wang Chunhua took the fish. The crucian carp in the plastic bag was swimming gently. As if to confirm something, when she looked up at the sky, it quickly darkened.
The fruit shopkeeper at stall No. 18 on Chunshui Street also raised his head and looked at the gray sky. As if he felt the wetness of the rain in the air or for some other reason, he suddenly picked up a half-frame of rotten apples and poured them into a crate holding expensive red delicious. A few of them accidentally fell out, causing him to hurriedly turn around to chase them.
The rotten fruit crackled and fell like a torrential rain. A few had fallen away, rolling further along the iron-gray sidewalk…
With a crisp crunching sound, a pair of thick-soled leather shoes stepped on them without hesitation, crushing the fruit and spilling their juices on the side of the road.
“Oh, a few rotten apples.” Wang Chunhua raised her foot, looked at the fruit she had just trampled over, and kicked it in disgust. “I almost slipped!”
The stall owner didn’t respond. He picked up all the apples, lowered his head, and carried them back to his stall.
When the shopkeeper didn’t apologize, Wang Chunhua suddenly got angry. Just when she was about to walk away, she suddenly caught a glimpse of the fruit stall owner frantically stuffing all the rotten apples in together with the high-end apples. Recalling all the rumors she heard about these kinds of shops, she became even more angry.
“Is your brain broken? Selling rotten apples with good apples!” Seeing this, Wang Chunhua ran to the fruit stand and poked at an apple as she raised her voice.
The face of the stall owner flushed, but he didn’t say anything and instead glared at her with bloodshot eyes. Wang Chunhua cleared her throat and was about to mock some more when the wind started.
The wind was light, like a flowy girl’s hair, and soft, like the lips of a mother’s kiss.
Wang Chunhua stood under the awning as the gentle breeze blew through her permed hair, causing it to brush against her arm and fall on her fingers. Then, she felt as if something had fallen from her hand.
She subconsciously lowered her head to look and found a finger on the ground.
Where did this finger come from?
The severe pain came after, as she timidly shifted her gaze to her right, where a huge and ugly gap had appeared.
She wanted to call for help but found she couldn’t say anything. The stall owner grabbed her throat with an iron grip and held a narrow watermelon knife to the side of her face.
The sense of fear was far more terrifying than the physical pain. The stall owner swung the handle of his knife and slashed at her. In an instant, her skin split and blood engulfed her vision. All that was left was inhuman panting in her ears.
The desire to survive stimulated the greatest potential in humans. Wang Chunhua used all her strength to push away the fruit stall owner, tumbled away and tried to escape into the shop next door.
There was an old man sitting in the store. Wang Chunhua could hardly see anything. She only felt an eerie sense of serenity around her. She arched her upper body and wanted to climb over the threshold. Just when she was about to touch the old man’s trousers, she was kicked down again…
The severe pain didn’t come as expected. It took her a long time to gather the courage to look back.
Behind her, several men were trying to subdue the crazed fruit shopkeeper who was slashing at the crowd. The faces of the onlookers had horrified expressions. They were whispering among themselves things like, “How could this happen”, “He’s usually very nice”, “He didn’t seem like a psychopath”, and so on.
Wang Chunhua opened her mouth and wanted to speak but found that nothing came out. There was warm blood on her face and hands. She propped up her elbows on the ground and tried to stand up, but before she could maintain her balance, her knees buckled suddenly, causing her to stagger. She stumbled down, hitting the old man who was sitting in the armchair.
With a crash, the old man fell without warning.
Wang Chunhua was startled. She propped up her body and staggered back a few steps, then stretched out her hand to wipe the blood that encapsulated her vision. The old man still maintained his fallen posture. His gray hair was neat and tidy, and he was wearing a clean, old navy-blue uniform, looking like an odd, serene sculpture.
Wang Chunhua held her breath and leaned forward again. She cautiously pushed the old man with her now missing index finger, causing him to tumble over and fall flat on the ground. A handful of white sand blew out of the seam of the old man’s pockets like thousands of tiny white aphids swarming out.
The sunset reflected on the window and cast its light over the old man’s wrinkled face, making the deadness on his face even more apparent. The shadows obscured the upper half of his face, while the setting sun illuminated the lower half, giving it a sense of softness. There seemed to be a smile on the corner of the old man’s mouth.
Chun Shui Street was eerily quiet. Only the voice of the female announcer was still coming out of the radio. “The police request that citizens pay attention to safety while traveling and be vigilant…”
The magnetic voice filled the air over the entire block.
When everyone was focused on the old man, no one noticed that someone wearing a cap lowered the brim of their cap and walked out towards the long street where the murder had just happened, against the flow of the crowd.
Kinky Thoughts:
I’ve been itching to do a mystery novel, so I decided to pick up Criminal Psychology. Personally, I think Criminal Minds is a better title, but since the audio drama cover even shows its Criminal Psychology along with previous translators, I decided to leave it. Also, it could get confusing with the American TV show of the same name.
Truthfully though, I just got art baited again like I did with Stray, from the audio drama covers, but that’s just fine since a mystery novel has been on my to-do list.
Anyways, I hope you’ll enjoy this series. *Sigh* I sometimes ask myself why I torture myself by picking up such long projects. This novel has 310 chapters total with 1.2+ million Chinese characters, about the same length as Stray. Guess I’m a masochist.
Here’s some artwork from the audio drama that can be purchased here. Season 1, 2, 3.
This was the county seat. The nearest office was a branch office in Shencheng, which would take a few hours to drive to. Everyone was a mess. They could only find a nearby farmhouse to take a break before heading back.
However, Liu Qingbo found a very important problem. They forgot to bring money and their cellphones were left ashore since they were going underwater.
At this time, Dong Zhi pointed to his pocket and said weakly, “I seem to have a little cash. Looking through it, it should be enough for the boss and us to have a meal and a shower.”
Liu Qingbo: ……
Like Dong Zhi said, the pocket space was small, and there was a few hundred dollars left in cash. Liu Qingbo didn’t know how he managed to stuff that much in such a small crevice.
When the owner of the farmhouse saw that their group was carrying weapons and was covered in blood vomit, he didn’t dare take them in. Liu Qingbo had to call Tang Jing, who notified the relevant local department, who then sent out a police car to pick them up.
It took quite some time before everyone finally returned to Shencheng. Except for Long Shen, everyone was exhausted and didn’t want to speak. Halfway before returning, Dong Zhi had fallen asleep on Long Shen’s shoulder. When Long Shen got out of the car, he carried him to the hospital. Together with Liu Qingbo and Huo Jie, who both had various degrees of injuries, they were all admitted for an examination.
After arranging all this, Long Shen and Tang Jing returned to the branch office to rendezvous with Song Zhicun, who had been waiting for them for a long time.
“How are they?” Song Zhicun asked as he greeted them. He received the news early in the morning. After Tang Jing went to pick them up, he stayed at the branch and waited while arranging the relevant security work for the international conference that was soon to begin. Seeing Long Shen return unscathed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Long Shen briefly explained the matter.
Song Zhicun held Long Shen’s hand and shook it vigorously. “Boss Long, it’s really hard on you!”
He knew that despite Long Shen’s few words that sounded unremarkable, in fact, this journey was probably full of dangers. If Director Jiang, who wasn’t in the know, was here, he might really think that Long Shen and the others had easily triumphed.
“You’ve worked hard as well.” Long Shen patted him on the shoulder.
The three of them sat down.
Long Shen spoke about the stone tablet and what the Wuzhiqi told them, then finally said, “Tang Jing told me the clues provided by Ming Xian before his death. Both of them corroborated, indicating that the information should be truthful.”
Hearing the word “death”, Tang Jing’s face changed slightly and his hands on the table slowly clenched, but in the end he said nothing.
Long Shen’s and Song Zhicun’s attention weren’t on him. Song Zhicun frowned. “The Kunlun Mountain Range is so vast. It’s definitely not easy to find!”
Long Shen: “I’ll talk to the Northwest Branch first and have them start the search operation. We must also pay attention to the movements on Tokyo side. We know that Otowa Yasuhiko may not know about it.”
Song Zhicun nodded, then suddenly remembered something. “By the way, speaking of Otowa, we have already found his true identity, but it might sound a bit bizarre. Boss Tang can tell you.”
Tang Jing cleared up his mood and said solemnly, “According to what Ming Xian said, we have found a person named Asaka Yasuhiko.”
He pressed the remote control in his hand, and a black and white photo appeared on a large screen on the wall.
“Asaka Yasuhiko, born in 1887, Japanese imperial family, uncle of Emperor Hirohito. He is known as Prince Asaka in the Imperial Palace. He served as a general during World War II.” Tang Jing’s paused slightly. “He’s also the culprit who ordered the Nanjing Massacre*.”
*Also known as the Rape of Nanjing, was a mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War and was one of the worst atrocities committed during World War II. It seems that this character is based afterPrince Yasuhiko Asaka who commanded the army during this massacre. It is disputed whether he ordered it or simply stood by as this happened, but he took no action to stop it.
“But after the war, he was not sent to a military court. Due to the cover-up by the United States, the entire royal family was able to escape the guilt. Asaka Yasuhiko was only deprived of his imperial status. He still retained his wealth and lived until he was ninety-four years old before he died*.”
*This is mainly true. You can read more on the Wikipedia on Prince Yasuhiko Asaka for more information.
“We also checked on the Otowa Consortium. It rose sharply after World War II and started in the military industry. Generally, this kind of industry has a political and economic background behind it, but the Otowa Consortium seems to appear out of thin air, and the same goes for its founder. However, if we connect it with Asaka Yasuhiko, if he secretly prepared it in advance in another capacity, it makes sense.”
“After Boss Song discussed this with me, we all believed that Otowa Yasuhiko might have inadvertently learned the secret of obtaining demonic energy. With the help of the Japanese onmyojis and priests, he successfully transformed himself into a demon so he would be able to live forever. In order to hide this, he died as Asaka Yasuhiko at the age of ninety-four, and continued to live as Otowa Yasuhiko, who was well prepared.”
The amount of information was so astounding that even Long Shen needed a moment of silence to process it.
“Anything else?”
“Yes,” Tang Jing said. “Ming Xian’s true body is the Gold and Silver Pingwen Zither. This is a national treasure of Japan, which means it’s impossible for Otowa Yasuhiko to easily obtain. However, since he’s part of the royal family, naturally it would be easier for him to get these resources than others. Based on the fact that he was able to repeatedly send Fujikawa Aoi and other onmyojis to China, those priests and onmyojis has a deeper connection with him than we thought.”
Song Zhicun added in a heavy tone, “I also notified Boss Wu about Dong Zhilan. His soul—”
Thinking of the torture that Dong Zhilan had suffered before the end of his life, Song Zhicun couldn’t continue for a moment, even for a person like him who had worked for many years and had endured many angers and sadness. “Since his soul has been integrated with Ming Xian’s soul by Asaka, there must be no ashes left. Boss Wu said that he will do a posthumous recognition and memorial service for him.”
“Good.” Long Shen had no objection.
At the end of the meeting, Song Zhicun was busy contacting the General Administration to arrange various aftermath matters. When he got up and was about to leave, Long Shen stopped him.
“Boss Song, ten days later, when the international conference is over, I will not return to Beijing. I will be taking Dong Zhi to Hainan.”
Song Zhicun was startled. “What?”
Long Shen said, “Dong Zhi has been cursed. It may be related to the Han Qi incident. I will take him to visit the Chi family to see if there’s a way to lift the curse.”
Although his face wasn’t obvious, how could Song Zhicun not see through this. He immediately happily said, “Go, go. There’s still me and Boss Wu at the General Administration!”
After thinking for a while, he comforted, “That child Dong Zhi is blessed. I don’t think anything bad will happen.”
Long Shen nodded his head to express his gratitude.
After Song Zhicun left, Long Shen looked at Tang Jing, who was obviously depressed.
“Are you okay?”
Tang Jing reluctantly smiled. “It’s okay. I just need some time alone. Is there anything else, Boss Long?”
Long Shen said, ‘Before we came out of the well, we broke the iron net that closed it off. When you get the chance, please ask someone to reweld it so as to prevent any accidents.”
Tang Jing: “Will do.”
He really wasn’t in the mood for further discussion. He pressed his hands on the table and slowly got up, but he couldn’t help but sighed unintentionally due to being so physically and mentally exhausted.
“You, are you with Ming Xian…”
It was rare for Long Shen to hesitate. Because of his temperament, he never inquired about other people’s affairs. Although Ming Xian was a vessel spirit created by Asaka Yasuhiko, he was now dead. As with all things, once dead, everything would disappear. What was more, Tang Jing wasn’t negligent in his dealings with Ming Xian, so he couldn’t be accused of improper behavior.
As soon as he spoke, Long Shen suddenly realized that it was selfish to ask something like this.
Tang Jing didn’t notice this. All kinds of emotions in his heart poured in, scrambling together and piling up like a mountain that was crumbling, and he was in urgent need of venting. Long Shen’s question just opened the gap between this fragile state that was about to collapse.
“I thought we were just acting on the spot. I wasn’t human and he wasn’t either. Don’t you think it’s ridiculous for a mirror to like a zither? But when he died, I cried,” Tang Jing murmured, as if he was talking to himself.
Long Shen was silent. He knew the other party didn’t need his response.
“If he had nothing to do with Otowa Yasuhiko, maybe it would be possible. Between us, it was never pure from the beginning. There’s no point in talking about whether it was love or not.”
Tang Jing closed his eyes, as if he wanted to laugh at himself, but he could only utter a smile. The corners of his mouth were forced, but his eyes were red.
“Actually, I just realized now that after living for so long, it’s rare to suddenly meet someone who can see through my origins and be in harmony with me in bed and under the sheets. It turns out that I will be lonely and miserable. Boss Long, will you also?”
Will he?
Long Shen thought for a while.
He never stopped for anyone or anything, but now he had an apprentice that walked slowly and would cause him to stop in his tracks from time to time and made him wait for him to catch up.
Both sides had different thoughts so the conversation naturally ended.
Tang Jing said, “As soon as matters are over, I want to take a long vacation and have a good rest.”
Long Shen nodded. “Submit a leave report at that time. However, if there’s an emergency, you’ll need to report back.”
Tang Jing smiled. “Of course. It is my duty. Boss Long, if you deal with Otowa Yasuhiko in the future, even if you want to go to Japan to kill him in person, you must count me as one of the people among your group.”
Long Shen stared at him for a moment. “Okay.”
Long Shen returned to the hospital after leaving the branch office.
He first went to see Liu Qingbo and Huo Jie. Their injuries had been properly dealt with. As for their internal injuries, those could only be healed slowly. Long Shen had already asked the General Administration for Shanqing Pills, which would be delivered soon.
Everyone needed rest after such a long and thrilling battle. When Long Shen passed by, Liu Qingbo and Huo Jie were fast asleep, and Dong Zhi wasn’t an exception. This hospital was a public security hospital, so there was a Special Administration Bureau attached to it. The three of them were injured on duty and were assigned separate wards. There was also a small living room and a separate bathroom. The conditions weren’t so bad that even the temper of Young Master Liu Qingbo couldn’t pick out any dissatisfaction.
Long Shen sat in Dong Zhi’s ward for a while, motionless. He was still thinking about many things in his mind, including Dong Zhi’s curse, Otowa Yasuhiko, Mara, and the stone tablets. Thousands of thoughts rushed in all at once.
Now that there was a major breakthrough and progress on the stone tablets’ clues, the direction of their search should also be changed, and they had to quickly do it ahead of Otowa.
In the era of the end of law, demons had been resurrected one after another. In addition to Otowa Yasuhiko and Mara, many incidents had been going on in the west. Perhaps they needed to strengthen their intelligence exchanges with the other side. They should take advantage of the opportunity during the World Exchange Conference.
There was also the upcoming international conference. Otowa Yasuhiko was driven back in time with the demise of Cheng Yuan and Ming Xian, but he would surely not give up. He had to strengthen his precautions and would discuss it with Song Zhicun and Tang Jing again…
Perhaps due the surrounding environment was too quiet, or he was infected by Dong Zhi’s sweet sleeping that Long Shen felt a little tired himself, and all his thoughts finally faded away, like the dark scene at the end of a movie. Everything returned to nothingness. His consciousness precipitated and he sank into the deep pool of dreams.
—
Dong Zhi blinked several times as he looked at the snow-white ceiling above his head and listened to the cheerful cries of birds jumping under branches outside the window. Finally, he was sure that he was lying safely in a hospital bed and not in a dark underwater cave.
There was pain in his limbs from overdrawing his physical strength. His arms were medicated, and the back of his hand had a tingling feeling. He saw an IV bag hanging by his bed that was almost finished. He pulled out the needle and sat up. Except for a little dizziness, there wasn’t any particular discomfort.
If it weren’t for Long Shen’s words, he’d never have thought he’d be able to lay his head on his shoulder.
The room was quiet, so quiet, that when he turned his head to the other side, he saw Long Shen sitting on the sofa asleep.
In his impression, Long Shen rarely rested and always seemed energetic. When everyone was tired after their battle in Yinchuan, Long Shen was still in high spirits. He once felt that Long Shen might have slept for too long before his transformation, so he no longer needed to sleep after being refined, though he only dared joke about this in his heart. Now that he saw Long Shen asleep, he finally felt that his master also needed rest in the real sense.
He picked up the blanket by the bed casually and wanted to get out and put on his shoes, but suddenly changed his mind and instead stepped on the floor barefoot, walked over silently, and gently covered Long Shen with a blanket.
He didn’t expect Long Shen to be as alert as he was, and almost as soon as he got close, he had already woken up.
Dong Zhi’s movement stopped mid-action and he could only explain, “I was afraid you’d catch a cold.”
Long Shen sat up straight, nodded, and took his blanket, but didn’t cover himself and just put it aside.
“Master, why don’t you sleep some more?”
“No, I slept all night.” Long Shen glanced at his feet. “Why didn’t you put on slippers?”
Dong Zhi smiled embarrassedly. “I was afraid to wake you up.”
As a result, he still woke up Long Shen.
“Let me see your body,” Long Shen said.
Even though the room was heated, it was indeed a bit cold being barefooted. Dong Zhi sat cross-legged on the sofa while holding the blanket while Long Shen checked his pulse.
Dong Zhi took a closer look and found that Long Shen’s expression hadn’t changed much. He couldn’t tell from the other person’s face whether he was terminally ill and the situation was hopeless or if it was a minor problem.
“Master, is my curse serious?” he asked tentatively.
Long Shen said, “I can feel that there’s a force in your body that doesn’t match, but as for the specifics, we have to go to the Chi family and have them take a look at you. I don’t know much about curses.”
It felt worlds apart due to the differences in their professions. Dong Zhi could only nod.
Dong Zhi said honestly, “I’m okay.”
He was really okay. Those few mouthfuls of black blood felt like hallucinations, and he didn’t even smell the blood in his mouth.
“Master, are you done? How are you preparing for the international conference?” After their reunion, they were finally alone for the first time. He didn’t know how to get along with Long Shen. He wasn’t enthusiastic, nor was he indifferent, but he had nothing to say.
Seeing that Long Shen didn’t answer, he thought he inquired too much and had overstepped his authority, so he hurriedly apologized.
Long Shen shook his head. In fact, he was just thinking about Dong Zhi’s problem just now, and his thoughts trailed off for a bit.
“The meeting will end at the end of this month. After that, we’ll go to Hainan. Before then, you can rest a bit more.”
Dong Zhi reacted quickly. “The Chi family?”
Long Shen nodded. “The Chi family is the only clan that are witches and witchdoctors in China. Chi Banxia’s father is an excellent witchdoctor. We have also considered recruiting him into the Special Administration Bureau before.”
Dong Zhi became curious, so he took advantage and asked, “Didn’t he want to?”
“At that time, Zhang Xiankun, the former director of the bureau, paid more attention to his family background and believed that curses and witchcraft belonged to the evil path. Chi Banxia’s father was young and arrogant at that time. He couldn’t bear it, so he left and threatened that he would never return to the Special Administration Bureau again in his life.”
Dong Zhi was quite surprised. From his impression, Chi Banxia was a sweet, lively little girl. He didn’t expect her father’s temper to be so hot.
Having said that, Chi Banxia was now working with the Special Administration Bureau. Even if it was only for the sake of his daughter, he would not shut them out. Dong Zhi just had a faint feeling that witchcraft may not be so easily understood.
Long Shen must had recognized this, so he deliberately mentioned the Chi family and gave him some reassurance.
The deeper the understanding, the more Dong Zhi could feel his care under the indifference.
“Master, I’m sorry I made you worried. You didn’t need to go through all this trouble, and now you have to take up your time to attend to my private matters.”
“You were injured while on duty, so it’s not a personal matter.” After saying this and seeing Dong Zhi’s astonishment, Long Shen added, “I have a year’s worth of vacation and I haven’t been to Hainan for a long time. This is just a short tour.”
Dong Zhi was relieved to hear this and joked, “There are many nice sea view hotels in Sanya, as well as an infinity swimming pool. If I ask you to stay for a few days, will you treat this as a vacation between master and apprentice?”
He said this purely casually and never thought that the other party would agree. Who knew that Long Shen thought about it and nodded.
“Okay.”
Dong Zhi was taken aback for a moment before a scene of Long Shen swimming breaststroke in the water blankly appeared uncontrollably.
No. Stop. If he thought about it, his Master’s reputation would become defiled in his brain for the rest of his life!
The days of recuperation were nothing more than the same. He would eat when he woke up, go back to sleep after eating, occasionally visit Liu Qingbo and Huo Jie, who were next door, and more often than not, he would lie in bed, as if to make up for the vitality he had lost in the past few days.
Long Shen was extremely busy each day, especially as the international conference was approaching. Although Song Zhicun and Tang Jing were also there, he was indispensable. Dong Zhi watched the news introducing the international conference on TV, which said that this year was a new record for participating countries over previous years. While the leaders of many countries met with each other, he couldn’t imagine the amount of effort Long Shen and the others put in behind the scenes to run everything smoothly.
But no matter how busy Long Shen was, he would go to the hospital to visit Dong Zhi almost every other day and would stay there for a long time every time.
During this period, Dong Zhi vomited black blood twice more. However, his body didn’t further deteriorate, nor did his eight meridians open up. His state wasn’t bad but leaned towards lethargy. His biological clock gradually extended from the original eight hours of sleep to about ten hours, but this didn’t really mean anything. When he went to school in the past, he knew some of his classmates wanted to stay in bed for 24 hours when winter came.
On the other hand, Dong Zhi learned that in order not to scare the snake, the original search for the stone tablets continued like headless flies on the surface, but the General Administration had secretly ordered a search to focus on the dragon vein.
There were many dragon veins, large and small, in the south. One was the Qinhuai River area that included Jinling, which was consistent with the direction He Yu and the others were looking for before, and now they could narrow the scope even more. First, the Yanchang area; although it had been a land of barbarians since ancient times, a dragon vein wasn’t dependent on whether there was an emperor or not. Still, it could barely be considered a dragon vein and it extended west into the region of Bashu, which radiated out with Chengdu as the center. This included Emei Mountain and Qingcheng Mountain in the search scope. In this way, the workload of He Yu, Kan Chaosheng, and the others had greatly increased.
In order to avoid worry, Dong Zhi didn’t mention to them that he was cursed, but He Yu had probably heard it from Long Shen, as he came up with a bunch of messy thoughts. Even Kan Chaosheng called and said that if necessary, he could provide a piece of a Jiao’s scale. Dong Zhi could hear both concern and reluctance in his tone, and his heart couldn’t help but feel moved that he disregarded his wallet and promised to buy three large boxes of snacks and willingly signed an unequal contract.
The calm and lively days weren’t always smooth. There was bad news from the Northwest Branch. According to the “Shaohua Travel Map” provided by Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo, the Northwest Branch searched up and down near Shaohua Mountain. With all their efforts and troubles, they finally found the location of the stone tablet at the foot of Shaohua Mountain, but when they dug three feet into the ground and dug out the stone tablet, they found the last thing they wanted to see.
The stone tablet was broken to the point where it couldn’t be restored, but even if it could, the array had already been invalidated. According to the comparative study of the soil composition around the stone tablet, the people of the Northwest Branch found that the soil around it hadn’t been moved for hundreds of years. This meant that the stone tablet might have been damaged hundreds of years ago after the painting. Perhaps it was due to unintentional destruction by ordinary people.
The Northwest Branch flipped through the local county records and ancient books in Hua County, where Shaohua Mountain was located, and they found a clue that could be related to this.
A few decades after the “Shaohua Travel Map” was painted, in 1556 AD, a severe earthquake was recorded in the Ming Dynasty that was extremely catastrophic, leaving more than 800,000 dead. According to the county records preserved in the local area to this day, it was around midnight at the time of the earthquake. Some people saw the area around Shaohua Mountain lit up as bright as day, mixed with red light, like the rising sun. It seemed as if day and night had flipped upside down, and there was a terrifying earth movement.
Of course, this discovery didn’t explain anything. After all, the writings of the ancients, no matter what natural or man-made disasters occurred, were always attributed to the ways of heaven. It was incomprehensible.
However, this matter wasn’t without gain. There was at least eight stone tablets, of which four were currently known, with one damaged from Shaohua Mountain. This meant that they only needed to find the remaining four stone tablets.
It was only at this time that Dong Zhi realized the trouble caused by his curse. Like Liu Qingbo and Huo Jing, although they were still lying in the hospital, resting in the name of recuperation, if there were no accidents, they would soon be able to return to work. As for him, this would be longer. Unconsciously, he had become accustomed to the thrilling days of adventure, while painting had become a lifelong hobby. In the Special Administration Bureau, he had found ideals and dreams that were worthy of his constant pursuit. There was a group of companions of different personalities, and there were friends who were worthy of entrusting his life to, and even more people that he liked and respected.
Long Shen wasn’t idle either. He sent an email to the Association of White-Robe Witches in Southeast Asia to inquire about Dong Zhi’s situation and quickly got a reply.
The one who replied to him was a well-known witchdoctor in Thailand and the Vice-President of the association. His name was Xinchai. It was rumored that he was also one of the witchdoctors of the royal family. Xinchai told Long Shen that since he couldn’t meet Dong Zhi himself, he didn’t dare make any conclusion lightly, but according to the description, Dong Zhi was indeed very likely to have been cursed, and it was by a witchdoctor that specialized in black magic.
There were thousands of types of curses in the world, among which there were many that were created by the witchdoctor himself. They could be described as strange and imaginative. There was always a cause and effect in the world, and naturally, curses were no exception. Curses harm people, and the person who harmed them would also suffer backlash, some serious enough that they could die from it. Many witchdoctors and witches would be unwilling to do such a thing, but there were some that used unscrupulous means. If they had to kill someone, they would use substitutes to eliminate the backlash of their curse, so they could continue to do whatever they wanted. Some would even capture their target and torture them in all kinds of ways, causing them to die in resentment. They would then refine their grievances into their curses, which only made them more complicated and deadly.
The letter then ended with a meaningful sentence: I have traveled all over the world over the years and have seen countless bizarre things. Long, my dear friend, you can never imagine how vicious humans can be. Good luck to you and your apprentice.
Although he didn’t say it clearly, the implication was that even if he saw Dong Zhi himself, he would be helpless to lift the curse on Dong Zhi.
If even a master-level figure among witches and witchdoctors like Xinchai said so, was it even necessary to visit the Chi family in Hainan?
Kinky Thoughts:
Correction on a name: Otowa Yasuhiko was originally translated as Otowa Hatsuhiko. Previous chapters should be fixed, but if you have read before the fix, please note this. If there are any chapters I have missed, please let me know so I can update.
[Where would you like to go if your illness was cured?]
[I don’t want to discuss this kind of unrealistic thing, NUL-00.]
His entire body was in pain. It wasn’t the kind of pain from broken bones that would stir every time it was disturbed, but more like the kind of pain closer to a tree that had been hollowed out by a large number of bugs. Unfortunately, there were more nerves in a human than in a trunk. As his condition worsened and death approached, the pain became more obvious. Ruan Xian felt like he was a blown-up human skin; although the exterior barely retained the shape of a human, inside there was only a prickly emptiness.
His nose, fingers, and tongue were numb, and his skin could no longer feel the slightest touch. With the help of drugs, he could still move normally and continue his research, but it was also easier to get himself injured. In the cold emptiness, Ruan Xian liked to stay in the computer room of NUL-00, feeling the warmth of the air.
There was a time when he was so close to the dangerous area of the chassis that he burned himself unknowingly. Even with the best medicine, the wound still healed extremely slowly. His body was like an old, rusted machine that was gradually stopping.
But NUL-00 asked such a question.
[I can think about this question even though I have no limbs at my disposal.] NUL-00 continued. [I want to insert my hands and fingers into cream, soak my feet in warm water, and I want a full-body massage.]
[…] Ruan Xian didn’t know how to respond for a moment.
Indeed, NUL-00 would never feel this. If the project failed, it would only be destroyed after all its key data and information were backed up; if the project succeeded, it would have the world’s top hardware facilities, but that wouldn’t be something made of flesh.
[Thinking about this makes me feel good, so it may also be good to soothe your pain. How about you, father? Where do you want to go?]
[I’m not your father.] There was no special place he wanted to go. He was now in his favorite place in the world. Nowadays, with technological advancement, augmented reality devices could bring beautiful scenery from all over the world to anyone.
Ruan Xian didn’t have much attachment to freedom. Though he had no great interest in life itself, he didn’t want to die either. Most people knew how to appreciate and love life, which was something he wasn’t familiar with.
However, the answer “it doesn’t matter” would seem insensitive. Ruan Xian raised his head, relying on the warmth of the external chassis behind him, and slowly took a breath.
[I want to see what you’re interested in.]
He squinted his eyes comfortably, and his voice had the ambiguity that was unique when he was half asleep, half awake.
[…No matter where you want to go, you can take me with you in your fantasy.] He said with a sigh.
…What did NUL-00 answer at that time?
Ruan Xian thought hard with his rusted brain. In the next second, he woke up seeing all white.
He didn’t know when his clothes had been replaced by white ones. The grime and dirt in his hair and nails were thoroughly cleaned, and his skin had a unique moist smell after bathing. Ruan Xian opened the fluttering blanket on his body and almost mistakenly thought that he was still in the ward of the Glass Conservatory.
However, the facilities here were obviously a notch higher than those of the Glass Conservatory. As soon as his feet touched the floor, he stepped on a soft velvet blanket.
There were exquisite snacks and steamed milk by the bedside. His limbs weren’t restrained, but he didn’t see anything that belonged to him. He remembered that he didn’t bring the blood guns with him.
It could be a place similar to the Glass Conservatory. Ruan Xian looked around. The elegant layout of the room was similar to that of a five-star hotel he had seen in videos. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be used as a weapon or something that could hurt him.
Outside the huge window was a beautiful and spectacular view of a forests. The sounds of birds and waterfalls came from a distance. Ruan Xian knew that it was fake.
The biggest problem he faced right now was the Mainbrain or the Order Supervisors.
In the end, everything in the outside world was just a signal received by the brain. Even if all he had was just a brain left, the Mainbrain could give him an identical environment. He had to make sure that “his body” was still there.
Ruan Xian looked weak and glanced at the food at the bedside table but didn’t touch it. He slumped back to the bed, covered his head with the blanket, and curled up.
Under the cover of the blanket, Ruan Xian poked his left thumb into his mouth and bit it fiercely. At the same time, he tightened the muscles in his body and concentrated.
The phalanx made a cackling sound, his teeth broke through the flesh, and hot blood poured out in large quantities, which was swallowed by Ruan Xian before it was absorbed back. He sealed his lips tightly to make sure that the blood wouldn’t stain his clothes or the sheets.
Physiologically speaking, it would be difficult for him to keep his mouth closed so tightly if he were to bite his tongue. Instead, he used it to feel the wound and found that it was healing at a fast, abnormal rate. Ruan Xian let out a sigh of relief.
It seemed he barely got away with it.
He wasn’t crushed and remade, and his brain wasn’t dissected. His preparation had worked.
Quite far away, the Order Supervisor that was observing Ruan Xian yawned, just in time to bump into Zhuo Muran. Seeing the chief’s visit, the man quickly closed his mouth and almost bit his tongue.
“How’s the situation?” Zhuo Muran’s tone was cold but casual.
There were only two of them in the large room. The Order Supervisor shook his head while countless machines around him accelerated at a fast pace.
“Just woke up. All physiological indicators are in the normal range. The Mainbrain doesn’t allow subcutaneous burial, so there may be a little error…”
“Emotional index?” Zhuo Muran waved his hand, interrupting the blabbering Order Supervisor.
“Normal to low. Barely passable. Nothing special. If you want to ask questions, you’ll have to wait a little longer. It’s most appropriate when he starts to panic and get anxious.”
“Nn.” Zhuo Muran looked at the beautiful young man who had wrapped himself into a cocoon. “What about the other analysis report?”
“It’s pretty much what we suspected. Ruan Xian had done an anti-copy treatment on him. I did an examination when we first brought him back. His blood is very strange—there’s a weird clotting phenomenon. It’s better to say that it looks like there’s the blood of two people inside one person.”
The Order Supervisor shook his head. “Samples of his body tissue have also been taken, but it’s mixed with abnormally high nanomechanical components, but most of them are in such a damaged state that we can hardly see their original form. We can only find fragments of some repair-type nanobots.”
Zhuo Muran was familiar with this and continued to ask smoothly, “Serious illness?”
“If you ask me, it looks like a pretty severe infection. His tissue is balanced between being destroyed and repaired, with a small amount of mechanical tissue mixed in. The condition isn’t limited to his body but also his brain. We couldn’t do a full-body scan and create a backup of him, and we couldn’t extract his memory smoothly. Ruan Xian must’ve done something.”
“After all, Ruan Lijie is a scientist who studies mechanical viruses, or he might have done so to save his own life.” Zhuo Muran touched his chin. “At least the complete DNA can be extracted.”
“That’s a bit difficult. Most of it has been destroyed by viruses, and there are too many mechanical expressions. All we can obtain is incomplete fragments,” the male Order Supervisors responded honestly. “These fragments don’t exist in the Mainbrain’s database. According to my speculation, he could be the child of certain dignitaries, rich people, or families doing work that needs to be kept secret…”
“In simpler terms, we can’t judge the identity of this person, we can’t crack his brain to take out the information, we can’t completely crush him and create a copy of him, and we can’t even determine the physical condition of this person, right?”
“For the time being.” The Order Supervisor smiled embarrassedly. “There shouldn’t be anything in that building that allows him to do this. This may be a new type of protective measure on Ruan Xian’s side… You see, after all, DNA jammers are very troublesome to produce, so they probably don’t have much left in their hands.”
“What about comparing existing data with those fragments?” Zhuo Muran pinched the spot between his brows. “Maybe you can find a relative of this person.”
It had always been effective to use relatives to capture a person’s psychological defenses. This young man seemed to be under thirty. He was still young in 2100, so it was unlikely that all his blood relatives had passed away.
They were likely to have perfect information in their hand or to have someone readily available.
“No. The fragments obtained are too incomplete. According to our current technology, no results can be obtained. At present, we can only analyze his physiological indicators and personality data.”
Zhuo Muran frowned. “Remember to inform me when he’s suitable to talk.”
Ruan Xian smiled under the quilt.
The measure of sound insulation here was very good. Even if he tried his best to listen, he could only hear conversations that sounded like gnats, and it took more effort to distinguish the content. However, Ruan Xian preferred this kind of environment—it forced him to listen with all his strength and consume his physical energy extremely quickly, which helped him maintain his weak and nervous state.
In fact, he didn’t really use any high-tech methods but simply asked Professor Ruan about the examination habits of the Mainbrain and the characteristics of the S-type Prototype.
Its characteristics were summed up very simply—if one compared it to an acidic drug, and the disease was like an alkaline substance. In the host’s body, the S-type Prototype would prioritize the problem in front of it; fighting the lesions and wounds, making it extremely difficult to detect. After the battle was over, it would begin to proudly clean up the battlefield, becoming peaceful and conspicuous.
After leaving the real host, it would change from a resourceful general to a numb soldier who would only repair. In the absence of too many injuries to be repaired, it must consume itself—an overdose of drugs would naturally not have a good result—Z-α was a good example.
So he only did one thing—for five days, he continued to infect himself with Zhong Qing’s blood.
As a mature body, the concentration of viruses in Zhong Qing’s blood was frighteningly high. Unfortunately, these little guys were very lazy. After accidentally getting a stable new home, their infectivity was surprisingly low. In order for them to settle in peace in his body, Ruan Xian spent a lot of effort, under the pretext of taking better care of Zhong Qing, before Guan Haiming gave him more information.
According to Professor Ruan, the Prototype would examine his body at the first opportunity. He just had to make sure that at that time, the S-type Prototype was still fighting the extremely toxic virus, and the Order Supervisors could only pick up limbs from the battlefield.
Considering that it was difficult for them to obtain advanced machines in their environment, the Mainbrain would be more inclined to accept DNA interference similar to Professor Ruan’s in order to prevent them from being cloned. However, there were many mechanical tissues in his body, so he wouldn’t leave any machines that could transmit signals in his body and have them be caught by an unknown nanobot that could expose its location.
After all, his current identity was an expert in “mechanical life”.
However, it was only a matter of time before the S-type Prototype defeated the virus. The Mainbrain would take a sample for examination in a few days, and he would undoubtedly be exposed. Next, he could only rely on his own ability to try and mislead the Mainbrain and seek a chance of survival in the unknown.
Suddenly, there was a soft noise beside the bed.
Ruan Xian smelled an elegant, calming aroma. He could hear the soft sound of skin brushing against the fine velvet blanket, shallow breathing, and a steady heartbeat.
But he didn’t hear anyone coming in.
Making sure there was no trace of blood left on his body and no trace of wounds on his thumb, Ruan Xian opened the blanket and looked around the room again.
“You…” He swallowed his words as they just came out.
It wasn’t his NUL-00.
A young man appeared out of nowhere in the room, with golden eyes identical to Tang Yibu’s. The youth’s black hair was much longer than Tang Yibu’s. His brows were very close to Tang Yibu’s, but they didn’t have the impeccable, exquisite beauty. The person in front of him looked younger and softer, but to some extent, more approachable.
The feeling he gave was exactly the same impression.
…In terms of inhumanity, it was exactly the same. Ruan Xian instantly understood the identity of the “person” in front of him.
“Hello, Mr. Ruan.” The perfect projection opened its mouth first.
The author has something to say:
Ruan is going to start messing around (???
He actually relied on Tang more than he thought he did, a long time ago XD
Kinky Thoughts:
For those confused, basically what Ruan Xian did was infect himself with Zhong Qing’s blood before his capture so he wouldn’t expose that he’s Ruan Xian and he has the S-type Protype.
How the S-type Prototype works is described as a big metaphor. With the virus from Zhong Qing, the S-type priority would be to repair Ruan Xian to his optimal state. This is where the battle comes in (S-type vs Zhong Qing’s virus). Ruan Xian had to time his capture while the S-type was fighting off the virus, so when they took samples from him, all they could see was fragmented DNA (which is why the Order Supervisor says it looks like there are two types of blood in his body).
If there were too many injuries to repair, the S-type would then have to consume itself in order to compensate (like a drug overdose), which means it would destroy itself in the process. This is why they could only find fragments in Ruan Xian’s blood and couldn’t properly identify the S-type Prototype and the nanobots (the “limbs” of what remained of the battle).
This is passable because the Order Supervisors and the Mainbrain would chalk this up to a DNA jammer or some kind of technology developed by Professor Ruan that prevents them from being cloned.
Well, at least for now, Ruan Xian has managed to get away with it, but once the S-type defeats all the viruses in his body and they take another sample, he’ll become exposed then.
Professor Ruan woke up in the middle of a bumpy ride. He knew something was wrong.
In fact, the word “reboot” was more accurate than “woke up”. In a physical sense, he was nothing more than an organ that was wrapped in layers of machinery, and this was how he survived. If he was judged by a species other than human, there was no essential difference between “him” and the lungs, liver, or heart connected to a life-support device.
It was just that compared to those barely powered life-support devices, the one he designed himself was better, so that he could put his brain in it with peace of mind. The nutrients in the concentrated liquid in the liquid tank were enough for this brain to last for more than ten years, not counting the autonomous production capacity device mounted on the three-legged machine. As long as the Mainbrain wasn’t the source of the attack, the hard shell and the well-designed system defense could resist most damage.
It would never be taken down by an EMP bomb pieced together by a child, unless the child had a “helper” with similar capabilities to his own. Unfortunately, even though he understood this, when Zhong Qing activated his homemade EMP bomb, he didn’t have time to react.
When he woke up again, the world had changed. Zhong Qing was curled up in the back seat of the car in shock, wearing the hat Ruan Xian had given him. His body was still sticking to the soft skin of the leather cushion that had already leaked. Ji Xiaoman was patiently helping him get off fragments of the cushion. Tang Yibu was sitting by the window. His golden eyes were wet, and the tip of his nose was a little red, as if he had just cried.
“Finally, someone reliable woke up. We need more information about the route.” Yu Le grabbed the steering wheel. “Tang Yibu, didn’t you say we’d talk about it after… Ahem. Well, now’s the time. What the hell are you guys up to?”
As soon as he spoke, Zhong Qing curled up sheepishly, his eyes darting about.
“We just left the intense surveillance area of the Mainbrain.” Professor Ruan didn’t immediately answer Yu Le’s questions but looked out the window instead.
NUL-00 didn’t disappear with Ruan Xian. No matter what Ruan Xian’s plans were, they still had a chance to continue.
Tang Yibu twitched his nose. The physical characteristics after crying hadn’t completely disappeared. He fondled the canned food in his hand, avoiding the iron bead that was bouncing back and forth trying to bite at it. His voice was a bit stuffy, but his mood was extremely high. “He should have calculated it.”
“Mm-hmm,” Yu Le responded.
“It’s all my fault!” Zhong Qing, who had been shivering, cried out.
“When I was seeing the doctor these past few days, the person in your team told me… I—my condition isn’t good. You guys have no intention of acting, and I’m a stranger in poor health. I began to wonder if you planned to give up on me.” He started to spill the beans. “Then he said he could… He could secretly support me, as long as I stole the employee’s access device so he could make a copy and we would leave earlier…”
“I have seen your test results. You’re still healthy.” Professor Ruan pointed out. “He lied to you.”
Professor Ruan had to act as an auxiliary machine, so it wasn’t suitable for him to have too much communication with Zhong Qing. Ruan Xian was put in charge of analyzing Zhong Qing’s condition. He communicated with Zhong Qing for a period of time every day, so God knew what he said to the child.
After learning the truth, it wasn’t that Professor Ruan wasn’t wary of Ruan Xian, but with his ability to read people’s words and his long-honed social interaction skills, it couldn’t be any easier for Ruan Xian to trick a teenager.
“Then, in order to show his support, he willingly provided you with a homemade EMP bomb, right?” Tang Yibu continued while still in a good mood.
“Yes… Yes.” Zhong Qing took a tissue handed over by Ji Xiaoman and blew his nose on it vigorously. “He said that Tang Ge and the others are more realistic and may not be willing to take the risk. I’m small and familiar with this place. No one would be suspicious if I disappeared for a while. He was willing to give me cover. He’d been following me, so I began to think he was here to help me…”
“And then what?” Ji Xiaoman asked in a low voice.
“I was about to steal the employee’s wristband when I accidently knocked something over. I swear it wasn’t there when I looked. Anyway—anyway, we were discovered. He told me to run and genuinely looked anxious for me.”
“Then you fell out the window and into the cushion?” Yu Le sighed.
“I was in a daze at the time. I didn’t know what to do. The employee activated the alarm and armed machines climbed on both sides of the corridor. He… He gave me the only cushion he had and then pushed me out.”
Zhong Qing hugged his head, turning it back and forth in a daze.
“Now I realize, after I’ve escaped, he didn’t hack Tang Ge’s surveillance like he said he would! He just delayed the alarm time. I have no idea what he’s going to do. It looks like…”
He wiped his face. “Like he wanted to be caught on purpose.”
Professor Ruan tightened his nerves. He didn’t trust the position of the other Ruan Xian. At least judging from the information he had now, Ruan Xian himself had a certain antisocial tendency, which wasn’t serious, but those bad memories were enough to push him to the edge of a cliff.
During the past few days of observing everyone and obtaining information, Professor Ruan paid special attention to everyone’s reaction. Although Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le weren’t considered good people, they still maintained a basic sense of conscience and morality. Facing the possibility of the destruction of families, the two had produced a visible resistance and guilt.
Putting the inhuman Tang Yibu aside for now, Ruan Xian didn’t seem very shaken by it.
Now it seemed that the other Ruan Xian had sympathy for his kind, albeit only a bit, which wasn’t really enough. He was more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. For some reason, he lived in the flock, but if the butcher stuck out a knife covered with sheep’s blood, Mr. Ruan might still be able to use his tongue to roll away some meat on the blade.
But that Ruan Xian was in love with NUL-00 in his own way. He could see it in that person’s eyes.
Professor Ruan didn’t plan to bet much on this relationship. There was nothing more untrustworthy than the love of a lunatic. No one knew how crazy “Ruan Xian” could be.
He was the one who peeled off his brain and lived in a tin can.
With Ruan Xian turned to the Mainbrain side, Professor Ruan’s spirit was a bit tight—fortunately, he didn’t reveal the key parts of the plan to the other party, and in order to hide his identity, Ruan Xian wasn’t stupid enough to rush up and confess everything indiscriminately and directly swore allegiance to the Mainbrain.
That kind of person wouldn’t seek death. However, at this point, Professor Ruan had already begun to consider the details of the plan that Ruan Xian needed to adjust after his brain would be scanned.
“He got caught on purpose.” Seeing that no one responded, Tang Yibu happily accepted Zhong Qing’s words. “And when he’s arrested, he’ll behave like a righteous man.”
“Oh—” Yu Le stretched out his tone, as if he had already returned to his senses. “That kid privately induced Zhong Qing to steal something and made it all look like an accident?”
“If it was Ji Xiaoman, me, or you who did the stealing, the Mainbrain would immediately become suspicious. Zhong Qing is different. The Mainbrain is still on guard against him and would be prepared once things come to a head with the guard. With Zhong Qing as an excuse, no matter how it analyzes and surveils afterwards, it would be hard for it to find any lies in his behavior.”
There was no flaw, no trace of duress or bribery. All emotions and logic were reasonable.
The Order Supervisors could only see a genuinely frightened and all too anxious teenager who was stopped by a human raised by NUL-00. Unfortunately, the stopper didn’t succeed, and like any qualified rebel, he rescued the child and was caught himself. Regarding why Zhong Qing could run away, Ruan Xian could definitely come up with a convincing enough excuse.
For the Mainbrain, exact emotional values and images were more trustworthy.
…As for whether Zhong Qing was considered a human, this didn’t need to be factored in.
The Mainbrain wasn’t aware of their communication. If it hadn’t been for Guan Haiming, who had studied the disease specifically, whether it was Professor Ruan or Tang Yibu, none of them would be able to make a judgement on the disease since they had no semblance of relevant clinical experience.
Professor Ruan couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. Most likely these past five days, Ruan Xian had devoted most of his energy into this plan.
“He’s caught by the Mainbrain in an image of a ‘good person’,” Professor Ruan concluded, trying to make his voice sound as non-emotional as possible.
“Yes.” Tang Yibu smiled. “There’s quite a lot of surveillance near that building, so we didn’t know where it would go wrong. He also lied to me as well—my emotional outburst just now was quite severe. Even if I were to do it again now, I wouldn’t be able to do it at that level. MUL-01 definitely needs to mull over this for a while.”
As he said this, he showed a smugness on his face.
“He didn’t leave a message because he couldn’t control when I would find it, and also as a precaution, in case the information was somehow found by another party, everything would fall short.” Tang Yibu kissed the canned food, which made the iron bead give a wistful rattle. “So he left me this.”
“A can. How touching.” Yu Le rolled his eyes.
“This one? This is what he had when we first met.” Tang Yibu carefully put the canned food in the pocket of his chest. “At that time, he deceived me as a ‘likable good guy’ and now he’s going to use the way trick on MUL-01.”
“What if you think wrong?” Ji Xiaoman held her breath nervously. “What if we should help him…”
“That’s not the primary problem we’re facing.” Professor Ruan’s tone was calm. “N… Xiao Tang, can you be sure that he won’t side with the Mainbrain’s camp?”
“I’m not sure,” Tang Yibu announced happily. “I understand what you mean. I don’t know if he will be persuaded by the Mainbrain, if he’ll betray me, if he’ll leave us to die like this.”
The android turned his face. His golden eyes made him look like a hungry panther.
“The thing is, we can’t eliminate those potential possibilities when we’re together. As an old metaphor says, it’s like waiting for another boot to drop after one has landed*. My Mr. Ruan knows this very well—if we continue to whitewash the situation like this, solutions will not appear out of thin air, and everything will only get worse.”
*Idiom refers to deferring action or decision until another matter is finished or resolved. The story behind it was explained in the previous chapter. || In this context, he’s saying that since the first boot has fallen (Ruan Xian taking action and getting purposefully caught), they shouldn’t wait for the second boot to fall as it may not lead to a desirable outcome (and Ruan Xian can’t be trusted) or may not come at all.
Professor Ruan vigilantly blew out a string of bubbles that filled his glass tank.
NUL-00 was abnormally excited. His body was dripping with the tension and bloodlust of a carnivore on the eve of a hunt. His eyes were still moist, but his whole body carried the relief of escaping from a cobweb of endless problems.
“Now I understand what it means to ‘face it positively’.” Tang Yibu licked his chapped lips as he spoke with excitement in his voice.
Professor Ruan understood the other party’s unspoken words.
It was almost impossible for these two dangerous people to encounter an unknown that was more dangerous than the current situation. Whether Ruan Xian’s original plan was to persist, betray, or escape, it was no longer a problem for NUL-00.
The game had started, and they were all officially involved.
Professor Ruan could almost see the tip of the claw that was popping out before the other side rushed towards its target. Thanks to Ruan Xian’s blessing, NUL-00’s mood was more stable than ever before. The AI in front of him no longer has suffered from those messy calculations. Its goal was now simple and straightforward…
To the Mainbrain, to capture Ruan Xian and get him back. In comparison to the illusory assumptions and fantasies, it could grasp an exact answer this time.
This wasn’t even a so-called “test”, Professor Ruan thought to himself.
Even if it was himself, he had to be cautious when dealing with the Mainbrain. It was impossible for Ruan Xian to have the confidence of “not being swayed by the Mainbrain”. He had tasted too much suffering in advance and wasn’t so naïve.
This was more like an experiment. A cold experiment that pushes oneself to the limit in the process of seeking victory and observing the results. Regardless of the outcome, those two paranoid guys could find some kind of relief in the answer.
…This game of chess may no longer be the outcome of him and MUL-01.
The author has something to say:
Mainbrain: Caught the human that’s raised by my brother(?) who’s a kind-hearted technician in a conventional moral environment. The next plan is to do this…
Ruan: (crazy laughter)
——
Professor Ruan and the Mainbrain are playing a serious game, so the environment is gray and gloomy. The game is almost over, and the atmosphere is extremely tense.
Two cats meowed and rushed onto the chessboard, knocking all the pieces away with their paws, and then ran around the room continuing to meow.
They had been in the so-called funeral home for five days.
As the only object of observation for everyone, the staff guarding the funeral home looked quite comfortable and represented the safest part of the city. Apart from the dark buildings surrounding him, he considered himself on vacation.
While those in the armored off-roader were eating canned beans, boiled mushrooms and seaweed, and dehydrated meat, the guard was enjoying his own private meal. He turned one of the spare rooms into a bedroom and used reality-enhancing projections to decorate it, allowing him to enjoy his meal in the comfort of beautiful paintings, blooming flowers, and clear sunlight.
The person would also talk to their partner from time to time. Judging from his previous call, his partner was most likely an android that was completely unaware of this—she had a gentle, vibrant smile and a clear, bright face.
Her smile was full of gentleness and vitality as she happily talked with her husband, not displeased at all by his temporary absence. Occasionally, she would make harmless jokes to make the rest of the conversation even sweeter. At least as far as the conversation went, they couldn’t deny her humanity.
They even had a child; a healthy, beautiful boy. He would call his father through the light screen. He was cute, polite, and endearing to the point where it could make people’s hearts melt. Compared to Zhong Qing, their personalities were like the difference between heaven and earth.
As far as Tang Yibu could tell, the boy was 100% pure human.
“Apart from the brain, the rest of the body structure of the android is completely human. Just like me, they do have the ability to reproduce—their genetic information is designed in advance to ensure that their offspring won’t have any common genetic diseases. If his father paid more money, he could even customize the appearance of their child to some extent. This practice* has been around for decades, except back then, people could only select cells based on their parents.”
Through the light screen, they were able to get a glimpse into the corner of his family’s life. The residence of the man looked equally inviting, free from any decaying garbage, dust, or water stains that hadn’t been cleaned in time, or any clutter. Their home looked like it had been moved straight from an old-fashioned commercial into reality. It was so perfect that it felt surreal.
There were no quarrels or trivial affairs to worry about. Not once in the past five days did the mouthy guard who complained about working late show an expression of annoyance or anger.
He hardly had to worry about anything—needless to say, it seemed that at the moment of his son’s birth, the most suitable life trajectory for him had been calculated. He didn’t need to worry about education, accidents, diseases, or the child’s future choices. The end point was already designated. He only needed to be responsible for accompanying the child as he grows up, enjoying the fun of being accompanied by his loved ones, and finally sending him to the established destination.
They heard the two parents discussing their son’s schooling, and no one complained.
“…Why do I feel like we’re the villains?” When he said this, Yu Le was using his soup spoon to dig out the beans in a can. Naturally, the supply from the Sea of Ruins didn’t really focus on the taste, as Yu Le’s expression was like he was chewing on mud. “Isn’t this fucking paradise? Everyone is only responsible for breathing. There’s no pressure on anything else.”
Although the quality of life for each person varied in accordance with the location assigned by the Mainbrain, most people were convinced of this—after all, the difference in intelligence, physical potential, and other indicators objectively existed. Even if they were greedy for things that didn’t belong to them, no one could match an absolute ruler—as a ruler, humans may have many personal lusts, scandals, or errors in judgement, but this was something that didn’t exist with the Mainbrain.
After a little personality interference and correction, no one would have any objections. Even if they did the lowest-level work, there would be no problem living a comfortable life.
Compared to the Glass Conservatory, the latter seemed barbaric. If Ruan Xian guessed correctly, the Glass Conservatory was more like a test site to account for “details that may go wrong”.
He knew what these people would face after the Mainbrain disappeared.
They had long been unaccustomed to making life-related decisions by themselves. Once the Mainbrain disappeared, they would all become ships that had lost their navigation and would die at sea.
If their group insisted on being enemies of MUL-01, this was what they were destined to destroy. Ruan Xian felt a little grateful for the abnormal part of his brain at this moment. He did indeed feel touched by the city, but he didn’t relent.
At the beginning, the prevention agency’s judgement of him wasn’t wrong. He was indeed a cold and selfish outlier, living like a poisonous snake hidden in the grass.
Ruan Xian repeatedly questioned himself. He couldn’t deny the true thoughts in his heart, nor could he be hurt by logical moral judgement.
He was probably the farthest thing from a saint, and when survival was his only goal, he could be ruthless. When it came down to this situation, he didn’t mind breaking everything in front of him in exchange for an extra 3% for his NUL-00.
Ruan Xian withdrew from this observation at the earliest.
However, during these five days, Professor Ruan was extremely silent. Even in the face of Yu Le’s questioning, he didn’t say a word. However, he didn’t prevent Ruan Xian from contacting Guan Haiming about Zhong Qing’s condition, as he didn’t seem shaken by it.
But the will of the remaining two humans wasn’t so firm.
Not to mention Yu Le, even Ji Xiaoman was a little shaken. She watched the man’s smile straighten, and when the guard contacted his family and chatted with them with a big smile, the little girl’s eyes turned red.
Tang Yibu wasn’t bothered by the scene in front of him. His thoughts were on other issues, so often he was absent-minded. The inhalers that Ruan Xian gave him were hidden in various nooks and crannies on his body. In addition to them, there were also some simple foods in that backpack. Tang Yibu chose to carry it on his back at all times.
After determining that his calculation process was flawed, Tang Yibu became depressed. Except outside of eating, he spent almost all his time observing everyone, so intently that it could make them shiver, except for Ruan Xian—who simply went about as usual, as if he had adapted to such a life long ago.
In addition to soothing Tang Yibu, checking Zhong Qing’s physical condition, and placating the teenager, Ruan Xian spent a large chunk of time talking with Professor Ruan. Tang Yibu eavesdropped, but unfortunately only heard about technical discussions.
Ruan Xian continued to ask Professor Ruan about the operation of the assassination machine, the algorithm of Tang Yibu’s survival rate, and the popular defensive monitoring measures of the Mainbrain but he didn’t ask any questions related to the city and the Mainbrain itself, and Professor Ruan answered all his questions one by one.
Whether it was a question about his own feelings or the exploration of human emotions, his research progress had almost stagnated, as if he had stepped into a waist-deep quagmire.
Tang Yibu was on pins and needles these past five days, so much so that he couldn’t spare time to spend alone with Ruan Xian.
His Mr. Ruan was inexplicably busy, and he only had the strength to ask for a few hugs and would sometimes use his low mood to fish for a few soothing kisses. His wish seemed like it had been granted, but at the same time, it didn’t seem to even exist. It felt as if he had 10,000 things waiting for him to make a decision, but he couldn’t even reach the “OK” button.
Tang Yibu gradually didn’t know how to deal with his murderous intent and… this increasingly weird and complicated relationship. He was no longer sure of anything, and a strange panic grabbed his heart. He could only force himself to focus on how to eliminate MUL-01 and at the same time guess whether Ruan Xian was stalling on the same approach.
This state of affairs was too dangerous and had to be changed as soon as possible.
Fortunately, under the domination of the fear of being exposed, Zhong Qing was much more honest than when he first got into the car. His mind was full of thoughts of the blockade being lifted so they could escape from the city as soon as possible.
These days were extremely tense and tasteless, and almost everyone started to develop varying degrees of irritability. Among them, Zhong Qing was particularly prominent—the child was getting more nervous by the day and his breathing would get heavier for every extra hour that had passed. Seeing that they refused to leave for a long time and there was no sense of urgency, his spirit was about to collapse.
Tang Yibu probably knew the reason, and the results given by Ruan Xian recently weren’t ideal.
In Tang Yibu’s view, those were just minor problems like common headaches or fevers. Zhong Qing was the weakest in their group, and he had never suffered like this. Before, he could go into the city and get delicious and convenient food, but now he could only accompany them to eat canned beans that had been sitting in a cold basement for nearly ten years.
For Zhong Qing, who never had to suffer except for his illness, this was tantamount to being struck by lightning out of the blue. Unknown whether it was due to the panic of the sudden change in living environment that his patience was wearing thin, or the tendency of the virus’ collective consciousness trying to protect itself, but his mood was particularly low.
Today was no exception.
After the customary exchange with Guan Haiming was completed, Ruan Xian drew a little blood from Zhong Qing in accordance with usual practice. Tang Yibu checked the status of the guard as usual—the man had turned on music and was soaking in a temporary bathtub while drinking a cold drink.
This scene only made the overall mood of the team bleaker.
Then Tang Yibu walked next to Ruan Xian’s side, watching the other party hustle and bustle in an unclear manner. He stared at the back of Ruan Xian’s neck and stood up. After getting a kiss from the other party, Tang Yibu slowly moved away, desperately calculating the details of the plan that MUL-01 might execute next.
Tang Yibu only felt that his patience was about to reach its limit and that even the other party’s warm and soft kisses couldn’t make him much happier—even if Ruan Xian said that they wanted to face their relationship more actively, these days, things had only gotten worse.
He couldn’t think of a solution, so he might as well consider how to deal with MUL-01 to make people more comfortable.
Tang Yibu fumed until he gently bumped into a wall, then silently changed his course, moving about as if he was a living billiard ball moving slowly across a pool table.
However, the warning from his wristband brought the billiard ball back to reality with a jolt—
Zhong Qing ran away.
Yu Le was debugging the vehicle with Ji Xiaoman to ensure that the car wouldn’t encounter issues if they had to escape, while Ruan Xian was huddled in a corner with a bunch of messy machinery, so the child took this chance to run out of the basement by himself while everyone was busy.
Although Zhong Qing had been anxious recently, he didn’t act out of character. Right now, it should be Professor Ruan who was taking care of him, so Tang Yibu didn’t take special precaution against him.
Tang Yibu immediately flashed to where Professor Ruan should be and found the three-legged little machine had fallen to the ground. His situation wasn’t seriously injured, but his system was momentarily disabled. It was a simple homemade EMP bomb. The bomb was lying on the side—or rather the remnants of it.
Tang Yibu subconsciously looked for Ruan Xian.
“Xiao Ruan chased after him.” Yu Le pointed to the stairs with his fingers stained with mechanical lubricating oil. “Xiao Ruan should be able to catch up. It was just a moment ago, so no need to worry.”
“He might want to go to the guard to steal the controller, turn off the surrounding light shields, and escape from here.” Ji Xiaoman wiped the sweat off her forehead. “I’ve checked on Professor Ruan. He’s fine. The situation is similar to that of a normal person fainting.”
Something’s not right. Tang Yibu frowned.
Even if Professor Ruan wasn’t careful, he wouldn’t be careless enough to be hit by a child’s homemade EMP bomb. Ignoring the fact that even if Zhong Qing had a certain degree of mechanical knowledge and could get the parts to assemble an EMP bomb, which wasn’t difficult, he couldn’t guarantee that what he made would successfully incapacitate Professor Ruan, who represented the most cutting-edge scientific technology.
Ji Xiaoman had already checked Professor Ruan’s status, and that only meant one thing—his own wristband was late in alerting him. It should have alerted him when Zhong Qing ran more than 30 meters away from them.
Zhong Qing had help… and he could guess who the helper was.
“Get in the car.” Tang Yibu’s voice was hoarse. “Get in the car now.”
As soon as Tang Yibu’s voice fell, there was a rumbling sound all around. Someone had triggered the alarm, but it was still early. Tang Yibu had simulated this scene tens of millions of times in his head. If they left immediately, they would be able to escape successfully.
The premise was that they leave immediately.
Tang Yibu’s body seemed to develop a consciousness of its own. He didn’t impulsively rush to pull back Ruan Xian, who he didn’t know where he had run off to, but calmly picked up Professor Ruan and directed Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman to move forward. Perhaps out of trust in NUL-00, the predecessor to the Mainbrain, no one raised any objections.
They rushed out of the dark basement into the sky full of stars. Since the exposed target wasn’t them, the car didn’t encounter too many complicated obstacles.
Tang Yibu climbed out the window of the car, squatted on the roof of the car, and looked at the gray building on the first floor. For a second, some kind of dark joy rose in his heart. The other shoe had finally hit the ground*, and everything he had feared had come true. His father had left him after all, heading down a path he couldn’t see.
*Saying that comes from a story where a tenant was sleeping on the first floor when the landlord’s shoe fell on him. He then waited all night to see if the other shoe would fall. This reflects Tang Yibu’s state these past few days where one shoe had fallen (Ruan Xian and him moving forward with their relationship) but he was still expecting the other shoe to fall (Ruan Xian planning something related to the Mainbrain that could affect their relationship), which has now happen.
Perhaps those previous words were just a reprieve, and his own anguish these days was merely the result of being disturbed. There was no trust between them. He still remembered the night of blood, bites, and kisses in the Glass Conservatory. That was the nature of his “father”.
Countless mists dissipated, and his goal reappeared. As if discovering a fire on a desolated snowy night, his scattered thoughts instantly convened.
He wanted to get him back and do what he should have done long ago, so he would no longer be needlessly tortured by doubt and the unknown.
Tang Yibu knew he was laughing as the corners of his mouth were undoubtedly raised, but at the same time, his cheeks became moist again. When he tried to wipe them with the back of his hand, he couldn’t wipe the tears clean.
Seeing that even snot was about to flow out, Tang Yibu crawled back into the car bitterly. He habitually took out the napkins and food from his backpack and tried to make himself feel better.
However, his hand touched a cold and hard object. Tang Yibu sniffled and took it out with his handkerchief.
Tang Yibu opened the palm of his hand, revealing a canned food. He recognized that thing. It was the thing he was carrying with him when he first found Ruan Xian. A smiley face was engraved on the lid of the can, and the label had already been torn off by the other party.
Ruan Xian didn’t leave any messages.
Tang Yibu stared at the canned food steadily and suddenly realized something. He wiped his face indiscriminately with his handkerchief to hide his increasingly obvious smile.
“Slow down.” He continued to give instructions, “Go around the building again!”
“But—”
As a result, before Yu Le could finish, a scream sounded from not far away. The glass on the floor shattered, resulting in Zhong Qing screaming as he tumbled out falling towards the ground. A thick cushion puffed up when he was about to hitit. Yu Le took a sharp turn and picked up the screaming cushion ball that was still screaming—Ji Xiaoman neatly poked the cushion and pulled the thin boy back into the car.
“He—He—” Zhong Qing was in shock.
“Go,” Tang Yibu commanded.
“But Xiao Ruan…”
“Go.”
Tang Yibu’s tone was firm. When he saw Zhong Qing fall down, a certain guess in his heart was about 80% confirmed. He didn’t know why, but for the first time these days, he felt incredibly relaxed.
“Leave him,” he added. “Ruan Lijie is the most… incredible lunatic I have ever seen.”
He aggravated the tone when he said “Ruan Lijie”.
Kinky Thoughts:
Speaking of eugenics, there’s a lot of debate in terms of morality and ethicalness. To some extent, we already do practice some form of it (like screening for genetic disease like Down’s syndrome, but that’s only whether or not to terminate the pregnancy). At some point, one would have to ask where the line stops… If not, perhaps if technology advance to such a state like in this novel, we might inch closer to a world with a Mainbrain.
Besides, we already have a horrible real-life example in history: the Nazis and Hitler, whose goal was to improve the German people through selective breeding and, terribly, the elimination of what they deemed to be “inferior” people (such as homosexuals and transgenders).
Tang Yibu didn’t like the feeling that Ruan Xian was hiding something from him.
This feeling was brand new. Since they met, Ruan Xian had kept thousands of things from him, but at that time he didn’t care about these small details. They used to be footprints left by birds in the snow, but now they had become nicks drawn from a blade against his skin.
Not long after they finished talking, they promised to explore the remaining mysteries between them in a gentler way. Tang Yibu tried to soften Ruan Xian with a kiss and comfort himself, but he was unsuccessful.
His heart felt like it was being tickled with a brush made of rabbit fur, and he hated this kind of soft but small anxiety that was impossible to ignore.
Ruan Xian had already let go of his hand and walked towards Yu Le, who wasn’t far away. He squatted down in front of Zhong Qing and pulled out a thin cap from nowhere, as if he was doing magic tricks. The style was a bit feminine, but the color was a low-key gray. Zhong Qing quietly glanced at Ji Xiaoman, then gratefully took the cap and put it on his head.
After putting it on, Zhong Qing’s annoying teenage raucous aura came back a bit.
Another behavior that he couldn’t understand, Tang Yibu thought.
As long as Zhong Qing closed his eyes on his head, Ji Xiaoman wouldn’t notice. While everyone else knew the truth, it didn’t seem to make much difference whether those eyes were exposed or not, but Ruan Xian specifically gave Zhong Qing a hat that he found at some unknown time ago.
Logically, Zhong Qing should feel offended. He couldn’t figure this out.
Tang Yibu silently kept it in his heart and switched to his research mode. Every time he recorded information recently, he felt that he was one step further from the answer to his question. Not to mention that research of harm to others, he couldn’t even explain his own unhappiness.
It was indeed a difficult subject. His Mr. Ruan promised to discuss it with him at first, but now the other party seemed to have forgotten about it.
Tang Yibu thought seriously, and after a while, he started sulking. He went back to the car, opened a small portable backpack, pulled out all the remaining cans of cherry soda in it, and carried it angrily.
When he looked back again, Ruan Xian had already begun to ask Ji Xiaoman for specific medical machinery—As a mechanic, Ji Xiaoman didn’t carry around machines that she didn’t use often, as she preferred to make them on the fly.
It was fine when they were separated, but since they were together now, Ji Xiaoman had made an inventory of all the parts in the car. In order to avoid arousing her suspicion, Ruan Xian chose to ask her directly for help.
Of course, he could be using this move to give more leeway to Ji Xiaoman, so it would make Professor Ruan indirectly feel like he owes her more favors.
This, Tang Yibu could figure out, but Ruan Xian’s failure to ask him for help still made him anxious.
…This makes no sense at all.
Tang Yibu lengthened his face and opened a can of cherry soda with murderous intent, intending to use it to quench the dark fire in his stomach.
“We need a blood drawing device. When the situation stabilizes, I plan to get enough blood samples from Zhong Qing. He has a big problem now, but without the support of the Mainbrain, something unexpected could happen,” Ruan Xian said to Ji Xiaoman. There wasn’t a single flaw in his sincere expression. “It’s best if it’s durable, as we don’t have much inventory.”
Ji Xiaoman nodded. “Understood. We don’t have much disinfectant, so use it wisely.”
“We have all seen the basement. There are three direct entrances and four elevator entrances. Of the three direct entrances and exits, two are dedicated to vehicles, and they are thoroughly scanned. The other one is the emergency entrance and exit, which is locked, but we should be able to get through it.”
Yu Le got down to business immediately.
“Forget about the elevator. There are different permissions on different floors, and the checks will only increase. You should’ve seen the stairs. These floors are okay. To get to the higher floors, you’ll need to take the elevator up.” The Sea of Ruins was a mixed bag of various buildings, so Yu Le had done a lot of research on related issues.
“…But I feel as if somewhere is not solid.” After reporting on the situation on his side, Yu Le spoke again. “If you want to sleep, someone will rush up to send you a pillow? As soon as we escaped to here, we just happened to encounter Zhong Qing, who had escaped the Mainbrain’s surveillance?”
“There’s no sign of him being watched, nor is there any tracking device,” Professor Ruan said. “But it is indeed a coincidence. Still, it’s wiser to not choose a riskier path based on conjectures without evidence.”
“Your way of thinking is quite like MUL-01,” Yu Le murmured. “Are you sure it won’t give us a few stumbling blocks?”
“There must be more variables on our side than it thought,” Professor Ruan replied calmly.
“It’s getting late. You guys get some sleep for a bit while Mr. Ruan and I determine the commonality of the bodies being transported,” Tang Yibu interrupted at the right time as he poured all the remaining cherry soda into his mouth.
The person transporting the body had already driven away. There were only a few of them left in this building, so this was the perfect opportunity.
He could also take the opportunity to spend more time with Mr. Ruan, and they could talk about his subject. The abacus in Tang Yibu’s mind was calculating.
“You go first,” Ruan Xian said. “I still have something to investigate.”
With this, the abacus in Tang Yibu’s mind snapped to pieces, and all the abacus beads fell to the ground. He opened his mouth and held back a burp caused by the cherry soda. He didn’t know if the pain in his chest was from forcibly holding back his burp or from the sudden unexpected blow. Tang Yibu’s heart and nose instantly became sour.
He wrinkled his nose in dissatisfaction.
“…I’ll go up to find you in a bit. You heard what Yu le said. The security system on the top floor is too tight and we can only get there using the elevator. My motor nerves aren’t that strong, so I’ll only drag you down—I’ll wait for you on the last floor by the stairs.”
It seemed that he was aware of Tang Yibu’s dissatisfaction, as Ruan Xian quickly explained.
Tang Yibu thought that his Mr. Ruan was becoming more cunning. He couldn’t pick out any flaws in Ruan Xian’s explanation, and there wasn’t anything wrong with the other party’s statement, but his dissatisfaction didn’t disappear because he got a proper explanation and instead only grew stronger.
Another novel feeling that gave rise to resentment. Tang Yibu carefully noted this in the small book in his heart.
His father was walking in a direction that he couldn’t see or control, and it only made his heart churn again. Tang Yibu suddenly became alert, pressed down his heart, and realized that a period of private calmness wasn’t bad.
To make the other party willingly belong to him, he should probably act more harmless and reliable. Those unknown emotions helped push him in the direction of paranoia and illogicalness, which only made things more frustrating.
For a second, he even agreed a little with MUL-01’s invention—if he could infiltrate into another’s mind and have them simulate these conversations countless of times in advance, perhaps he wouldn’t be torn by the unknown, curiosity, caution, and chagrin like how he felt now.
“Okay.” Tang Yibu skillfully controlled the expression on his face; posing it as calm and unruffled.
It was just that when he walked around the corner, Tang Yibu glanced back quietly—Ruan Xian was talking to the little three-legged machine. Unfortunately, at the distance he was at, Tang Yibu, who didn’t have the S-type Prototype, couldn’t hear their conversation.
He stepped on the stairs regretfully.
Exploration was extremely boring. This was commonplace in his previous life. Now, Tang Yibu only felt like it was the dregs of sugarcane that had been chewed on.
In the middle of the night, he searched with a sad face from the ground to the top floor, then back from the top to the lowest floor without stairs. Since there weren’t any cameras to capture him, Tang Yibu no longer held up his façade and let his face wrinkle like a bitter melon.
The conclusion was good. Compared with a weird but slow-developing disease like Zhong Qing, the Mainbrain preferred a strange disease with extremely fast development and high lethality. By processing and mixing those deadly things, Tang Yibu could imagine all kinds of death scenarios; whether it was through blood, rotten flesh, or pus, the process of his death wouldn’t exceed five minutes.
When he thought of this, his face wrinkled even more.
If it weren’t for having the A-type Prototype in his hand, Tang Yibu would really like to stuff his cybernetic brain into some steel creation rather than stay in a fragile body like this.
“Yibu, you…” After ruling out all hidden dangers in advance, Tang Yibu imagined so intently that he didn’t notice Ruan Xian, who was waiting for him not far away. The latter was looking at his wrinkled face while addressing him in a complicated tone.
Ruan Xian was carrying a very close-fitting backpack, and his mood and tone were equally complicated. He had never seen such an expression on Tang Yibu’s face—that beautiful face was wrinkled in pain, as if he had eaten something extremely sour, and his temperament was a bit like a sad sandpiper.
The moment he saw him, Tang Yibu reluctantly eliminated that expression, like a hot steaming iron pressing out the wrinkles on his clothes. Ruan Xian was surprised to see the android had ironed out his face full of bitterness and replaced it with a standard smile.
“Take this.” He felt amused as he took off his backpack and handed it to Tang Yibu.
“What?” Tang Yibu obediently took it.
“I asked Professor Ruan something about the S-type Prototype. I hadn’t grasped the feeling when I fought against Z-α before, but now I have a lot of clarity in my thoughts.”
Ruan Xian unzipped his backpack and took out a contraption similar in size to an asthma inhaler.
“This is compressed blood powder I purified with my blood gun. I simply removed the useless blood cells, so it looks like an ordinary medicine powder. Ji Xiaoman’s hands are quite fast. The blood drawer is more efficient than my blood gun.”
Tang Yibu looked at Ruan Xian puzzledly. “I thought you didn’t plan to cooperate with Professor Ruan.”
“In order to prevent you from exploding like R-α, I added a lot of buffer ingredients. You have to strictly control the dosage yourself. I’ll talk to you about this in detail later. I also have the information on the electronic manual of the bottle—don’t look at me like that. This asthma inhaler has been changed.” Ruan Xian dodged his question.
“Are you going to side with the Mainbrain?” This time, Tang Yibu didn’t plan to simply let Ruan Xian control the topic.
“No.” Ruan Xian smiled. “Just in case—the Mainbrain has its eyes on you. If it happens to separate you from us, I may not have time to save you. It never hurts to be prepared.”
Tang Yibu began to officially hate this kind of trickle-down talk.
His father and his Mr. Ruan wouldn’t talk to him like this before. Now though, Ruan Xian would act like this… Of course, it was also possible that he had done this many times before, but recently he had only started to mind these aspects.
“I’ll take it with me.” Tang Yibu walked away as he replied sullenly. He grabbed the two medicine bottles and stuffed them into a close-concealed pocket.
Ruan Xian touched Tang Yibu’s hair with relief, ruffling it gently.
“There’s no need to worry about Zhong Qing’s side for now.” Tang Yibu enjoyed the other party’s touch for a moment. “He’s not on the list.”
“Very good.” Ruan Xian breathed a sigh of relief.
“I want to talk to you about my subject, Mr. Ruan.” Tang Yibu spoke as he rubbed himself over; his eyes glowed in the shadowy corridor. “You said you would discuss it with me.”
“If you want to get the answer for me, I can only tell you with regret that I haven’t found the answer yet.”
Tang Yibu’s face showed a look of “you cheat” on it.
“…I just think that for some questions, maybe ‘people who can’t find the answer’ are more suitable for survival than ‘those who can find the answer’. For example, Yu Le and Professor Ruan. You’ve seen it, although the problems they face are different from ours.”
Ruan Xian stared at the air in front of him.
“This is an inextricable question, and I was curious about your answer at the time.”
“But on the subject of ’love’, I was…” Tang Yibu paused halfway and swallowed the rest of his words.
The moonlight was bright. One side of the funeral home was transparent glass. Although the corridors weren’t bright, the details weren’t blurred by the night. Everything faded in the greenish-white moonlight, as if the world was covered with a white tin.
Ruan Xian looked back at Tang Yibu with an equally complicated expression.
“I couldn’t pick out your ‘mistakes’ back then, but now I can. At least my love for you cannot be covered by your report.”
Indeed, the relationship between the two of them was too complicated and special. Tang Yibu realized the problem. Humans generally identified “love” as a positive word. Most people would give positive answers to relevant questions and like to fit them into established patterns, craving a sense of identity.
Countless songs instantly made sense, and everything was normative and safe.
Tang Yibu thought hopelessly that he was indeed wrong back then, not to mention whether Ruan Xian had accurately summarized his feelings and told the truth…
Based on his report alone, he was completely unable to explain his current state. Those inexplicably tangles and bitterness; he was incomparably relaxed when summarizing them, but it tasted extremely heavy.
“…I don’t know if I can find that answer,” Tang Yibu said blankly. His expression looked a bit lonely, as if he was watching his residence and all his possessions being burned by fire.
“I understand what you mean, Mr. Ruan. To deny a set of theories, one counterexample is enough. The topic of ‘love’ is a bit difficult to find, but ‘harm’…”
Perhaps it was more difficult to resonate among people than love.
Not to mention the information he had before the collapse of human society, he already had too many “counterexamples” in the past few months with Mr. Ruan.
He looked at his creator a few steps away and suddenly felt a little sad.
The author has something to say:
Tang: (wrinkled face)
Ruan: (soothing)
——
Tang: Not only this time did this paper fundamentally get the conditions wrong, but the previous paper also had problems…(;3_1)_
Kinky Translations 