The sun was shining brightly this afternoon, and there was no trace of clouds in the sky. From a distance, the white walls of the prevention shelter seemed to be glowing on their own. The trees and flowers that surrounded it were very well matched, and it looked more like a rich person’s vacation villa than a so-called shelter.
After living in the Underground City for many years, Ji Xiaoman had seen a few similar pictures at most.
She had thought that if there was really paradise in the world, then it would be nothing more than that. But now she had an intriguing illusion, as if she had returned to the poisonous foggy junkyard in the Underground City.
It was different from the ideal paradise in the picture. There were electronic eyes that rotated regularly hidden in the bushes, and the mechanical guards were patrolling around the periphery of the courtyard all the time, with uniformed movements, like a projection of a herd of metal beasts.
There were also humanoid guards. She didn’t know if they were in-the-flesh or remote-controlled humanoids—they were in groups of three, carrying heavy weapons, and looked around behind the patrol machine.
Faced with such a lineup, the iron bead cowered. It no longer had the mechanical shell of the assistant as that got in the way and was now, in its true appearance, tightly attached to Ji Xiaoman’s feet.
The latter’s breathing didn’t even fluctuate in the slightest.
The wreckage and garbage machinery she used to avoid in the past were now replaced by bushes. The clear air wasn’t conducive to hiding but allowed her to perform more dangerous actions without the need to breathe excessively and choke on the poisonous fog. Her prey was still the same.
It was just that the former mechanical hunter wasn’t fighting alone this time.
After making sure that the distance was close enough, Ji Xiaoman picked up the wristband sent by Ruan Lijie and quickly connected it.
“How’s it going?” She spoke extremely fast.
“Wait for the signal,” the other party responded quickly. “Yu Le will pick you up.”
They stopped the conversation before the Mainbrain detected a possible abnormal signal. Ji Xiaoman lowered her body—The information coming from the wristband was brief with very little instructions on what she had to do, so it was more like giving her free reign to act.
There was only one requirement in the plan. She needed to contain the guards in the hospital.
There was no explanation of the preparatory plan, nor was there a backup in case she failed to deal with the situation. She didn’t know if the planner had calculated her strength, or if they had everything under control so that it could withstand the consequences of her failure.
…Or they were planning to use her as a distraction and then abandon her.
She knew that there was no binding treaty between them, and that at most it was a loose alliance of interests. In terms of strength, Ji Xiaoman didn’t think she was an indispensable part. The first two situations were fine, but the last situation could cost her her life.
But she still came.
Ji Xiaoman poked the raspberry sticker on her arm with her metal fingertips, stuffed a few parts at the nervous iron bead, lowered her body, and stared at the moving machinery in the distance.
Maybe it was a stupid thing to talk about trust between them, but Ji Xiaoman just felt that even if Tang Yibu and Ruan Lijie abandoned her, Yu Le would at least try to do something.
She let the bushes tightly cover her thin body and melted her breath into the rustle of the trees. There were no smart electronic devices in operation on her body.
This was the hunting she was familiar with, she thought. Now she just needed to wait…
As a result, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, the signal suddenly appeared.
Although she was prepared for the coming changes, Ji Xiaoman was shocked by the signal in front of her. This was no longer a simple message used to tell companions to act, but a clear provocation.
A huge blood-red smiley face exploded above the prevention shelter, and then quickly copied and spread in all directions—Tang Yibu must have hacked into the weather balance system and used micro-drones floating in the sky to project this.
The red lines wove into a web of light, binding the blue sky tightly within. The nearby electronic surveillance turned towards the sky at almost the same time. The mechanical guards on patrol stopped moving, while the humanoid guards were in disarray and began to communicate in a panic.
Now.
Ji Xiaoman leapt out. Her long sleeves were completely shredded by the blade that just popped out. She split the electronic eye like a fruit, then picked up its incomplete parts and spent a few seconds reconnecting the lines, causing it to become a mini bomb. She threw it towards the group of mechanical guards.
The Mainbrain kept a tight watch on all materials that could be related to dangerous goods, but she had the knowledge obtained during her purgatory and the junkyard. Not a single rotten bone would go to waste.
Without weapons, it was natural to seize the opponent’s resources to the maximum extent possible. Such was the natural life in the Underground City.
The effect of the mini-bomb explosions wasn’t satisfactory, but it raised enough smoke. Ji Xiaoman walked through the smoke alone as her prothesis blade vibrated at high-speed while cutting through the mechanical guards that were thrown into disarray due to the changes.
The iron bead dawdled in the bushes for a while and saw that the protective net woven by the opponent was broken. It stretched out its four legs and sneaked out. Every time Ji Xiaoman split a mechanical guard, it filled itself up with two mouthfuls to ensure the other party couldn’t get back up.
The destruction didn’t last for half a minute before the human-looking guards reacted. They didn’t make a sound as more than a dozen bullets lased along with a destruction beam.
Ji Xiaoman directly raised her arms and flipped her body dexterously in midair. She avoided most of them while the rest were blocked by her metal arms.
Under the red sky, the smoke and dust raised also showed a lot of blood. The peace and tranquility of more than ten minutes ago disappeared without a trace.
At the same time, thick smoke rose from the corners of the white building in the distance, and several alarms rang out simultaneously. The patients evacuated from the building with the help of the assistant robots and ran head-on into the chaos stirred up by Ji Xiaoman. The scene faintly showed signs that things were getting out of control.
“Encountering a combat bionic. Requesting backup.” One of the guards finally spoke. After he asked the communicator for help, he immediately turned to his companions. “Not good. Turn on the cyberbrain shield—Ugh.”
As a result, before he finished speaking, Ji Xiaoman flashed away and stepped on his shoulder. Her sharp fingertips gently cut the guard’s neck, revealing the bionic tissue underneath, without any blood oozing out.
“Remote control humanoid,” Ji Xiaoman murmured in a low voice.
The next moment, she simply cut off his head.
The vision in the sky didn’t disappear, and the remaining guards quickly activated the cyberbrain shield, but unfortunately, it didn’t affect Ji Xiaoman. Seeing the confused face of the guard operating the machine, she couldn’t help but smile at him.
The long-sleeved shirt originally used to cover her prosthetic limbs had already become tattered. Her metal arms and legs were all exposed, reflecting a little red light from the smiling face in the sky.
“This is impossible.” The man finally felt a little flustered. “A human? How can there still be disabled humans now—”
“There are,” Ji Xiaoman said softly, and then used the blade to cut the support joint of the nearest guarded machine. “There are many of us.”
The sharp sirens pierced her eardrums, and more and more machines were drawn over. Ji Xiaoman expressionlessly coped with the situation while starting to look around for a way out. The beam of light shooting over became more intense and one happened to graze her left arm, leaving it half burnt. The iron bead closed its mouth in fight and clung to her backpack, pretending as if it was a large pendant.
This wasn’t a battle that could be won from the start.
The people under the Mainbrain weren’t as easy to fool as those gangsters in the Underground City. After finding out she was a human, the rest of them had no plans for any more discussion. After relying on crowd tactics to deplete her combat ability, the guards directly put down their backpacks and took out their sonic weapons.
Ji Xiaoman reluctantly raised her head. Not far from the sky, dozens of small aircraft were swooping over, and the ground reinforcements increased.
The response from the Mainbrain was too quick.
The sound of metal falling to the ground, the heckling and shouts of the guards, mixed with shrill sirens and the sounds of weapons, all combined together like a fist that punched her stomach. Ji Xiaoman gritted her teeth as her ears started to ache.
‘Must retreat,’ she thought as she took a step back.
Her ears were numb. It wasn’t until an arm wrapped around her waist and lifted her out of the battlefield that Ji Xiaoman noticed the hoverbike behind her.
“Good job, little profiteer.” Yu Le’s driving speed was frighteningly fast.
The hoverbike looked like it was temporarily welded together with various medical equipment. Yu Le drove as fast as the wind. The surrounding scenery became a mass of colors. She felt as if she was sitting on an accelerated rocket. Ji Xiaoman clung to her seat, gripped her hands in terror, and stopped breathing—God only knew how Yu Le could see the road going at this speed.
The hoverbike circled the battlefield for several large circles, leaving behind the various attacks that swarmed after it. It even hit a few machines that tried to attack it at close range.
Yu Le smiled sullenly a few times, while Ji Xiaoman could feel the vibration in her chest.
“It’s still so refreshing.” His voice was blown away by the wind, and Ji Xiaoman almost couldn’t hear it clearly.
“What about the other two?”
“Coming soon.”
Gong Siyi only hoped that he could faint or report to the Order Supervisors early so he could become a patient.
He thought that the guys lurking in the hospital were greedy for materials and forged a few accidents that weren’t too excessive. Naturally, they would leave after they were satisfied. The prevention shelter was one of the key places for the Order Supervisors. No one would think about doing something so big in such a place.
It turned out that some people really did think so.
When he saw the blood-red smiley face spreading along the sky dome centered on the prevention shelter, his newly replaced remote-controlled humanoid almost choked on a mouthful of water. Then, when the evacuation alarm sounded, Gong Siyi tasted the cruelty of life for the very first time.
He should start his own employee emergency aircraft and evacuate first.
Countless damage points flickered on the light screen. A fire broke out from the data room in the prevention shelter. It was obvious that it was calculated to leave a clear pathway for personnel to evacuate while doing enough fatal damage to the building. No matter who the Red Ghost were, looking at their actions, they sure liked to make a big splash.
Wrong. Gong Siyi suddenly panicked.
With such a loud noise, most of the people hiding here would escape. As long as he pulled out the patient’s data and compared it one by one, he would naturally be able to find those who disappeared afterwards.
Anyway, this body was just a remote-controlled humanoid. Gong Siyi simply didn’t intend to escape anymore. Along the flames, he hurriedly connected to the database that had begun to show anomalies, confirmed the permission, and tried to save all the information from this week that hadn’t been uploaded to the Mainbrain yet.
Even if this body was burned down, as long as there was time to rescue part of the information, there may still be a chance for him to earn some merit…
Gong Siyi panted with joy, ignoring the hot air, and began to operate quickly on the slightly distorted light screen.
However, the data that appeared wasn’t a list, not a medical record, but just another huge smiley face.
“Fuck—”
The aircraft that should have been completely under his control rose into the air, smashed through the window, and rushed into the thick smoke. Gong Siyi raised his head blankly, and through the thick smoke, he could vaguely see two figures above.
Dr. Gong stopped breathing, rolled his eyes, and simply disconnected his connection with the remote-controlled humanoid.
The edge of the city.
“Go back.” Zhuo Muran suddenly spoke.
“Commander, the course has been set. I’m afraid it’s not appropriate to change direction now.”
“Prepare a single-person aircraft.” Zhuo Muran spoke decisively.
“There are enough garrisons in the city. There won’t be any problems. If you’re really worried, I can help you contact the city administrator.”
“Pre-start the aircraft. I need to set off within 20 seconds.”
“…I need your justification, sir. Emergency calls to the aircraft on board must provide appropriate requisition records. Even if it is you—”
Zhuo Muran looked at the blood-red smiley faces covering the sky and tightened his brow.
Mr. Ruan was clearly describing an almost impossible thing, but it could be inferred from his tone that the other party thought it would happen. This confused him—since they stepped into Luo Fei’s ward, everything that happened had confused him. Mr. Ruan hadn’t had much contact with Luo Fei. He only had a few encounters with the young man, yet he was able to make his conjecture so certain.
The night was about to end, and his Mr. Ruan, who hadn’t closed his eyes since the start of the joint therapy, was now sleeping heavily. Though he was fused with the S-type Prototype, the body wouldn’t be too fragile, but mental exhaustion still existed.
Tonight, they just simply stuck together. Tang Yibu hugged his Mr. Ruan to sleep—he gently rested his chin on top of the other’s head, hugged the person in his arms, and stared at the dark blue sky dyed by the night.
Tang Yibu couldn’t sleep.
The cybernetic brain could recognize hormones, and the endorphins brought about by affectionate behavior should have had a positive impact on his emotions, but he still couldn’t sleep, as if a hedgehog was walking in his stomach.
It was difficult for people born in the jungle to distinguish distance by size and difficult for those with color blindness to distinguish colors. These differences aside, most humans observed the world in similar patterns, with the brain instinctively absorbing what it observed. In fact, most of the information was sifted out, leaving only bits and pieces of memory left in the brain.
It was difficult for people to remember every signboard they passed by, every stone brick they stepped on, or even the repeated patterns of the stone brick road.
The information was chopped once, sifted through, and chopped again.
This wasn’t the case for him. Tang Yibu had always observed the world greedily. When he stared at a flower, he imagined it from its germination stage to when the flower would wither. Countless details and calculations tumbled in his mind, nonstop. The texture of the leaves, the folds of the petals, the number of stamens, then its state, life span, and finally the moment of decay.
In this noisy world, only his Mr. Ruan was covered in mist.
Originally, Tang Yibu thought so.
Although he had hit a series of walls on the subject; twelve years without a solution, he was still very confident in his computing power and information reserves—he just hadn’t collected the key information and human samples were limited. However, this problem could be solved with time.
But if the inference of the person in his arms was correct, then it could be true that there were many uncovered truths he hadn’t seen over the years, and he didn’t know how much information he had missed. This idea made the hedgehog in his stomach give up walking and start tap dancing.
Tang Yibu breathed anxiously and decided to shift the center of his thinking to planning how to escape this place.
Commander Zhuo of the Order Supervisors had left, which meant security would go through an adjustment process, shifting from strict to lax. Ji Xiaoman, who was outside, could use her own skills and seize the opportunity to create a wave of chaos. Then they could take advantage of the chaos and escape here silently.
Tang Yibu thought about the plan from beginning to end twice, back and forth, but still couldn’t fall asleep. Seeing the sky outside the window gradually light up, Tang Yibu huffed in dissatisfaction, then lowered his head and kissed his Mr. Ruan.
Mr. Ruan should be awake, but apparently was too lazy to care about Tang Yibu. He let the other party bite his lower lip and continue to sleep. However, when Tang Yibu used his tongue aggressively, he had to wake up.
Wrapped in the body temperature of the android, and exhausted to the extreme. Ruan Xian slept so happily that he gave birth to the notion of just staying in bed. Unfortunately, Tang Yibu had no intention of letting him go as he gave him an overly intense good morning kiss.
Ruan Xian didn’t hesitate. After the other party turned the pecking kiss into a deep kiss, he turned over and held down the unprepared Tang Yibu, and kissed him back fiercely, until the android began to make a serious whining protest because of lack of oxygen.
“Strange for you to have insomnia.” Ruan Xian noticed Tang Yibu’s malaise. “Is it because I put the blood guns under the pillow?”
“…Aren’t they hidden in the assistant machine?” Tang Yibu stiffened.
“Well, I feel it’s more exciting to play like this. I’ll put it back in a while.” Ruan Xian yawned and laid unceremoniously on Tang Yibu’s chest. “What’s the matter with you?”
For a moment, Tang Yibu looked a little aggrieved.
“Why are you so sure that Luo Fei will ‘do stupid things’?”
“His emotional state, combined with the resources in his hands… What’s wrong?” Ruan Xian got out of bed first and started to get dressed. “It’s not like it’s a problem that can stump you.”
“The long-dead ‘Luo Fei’ and him have nothing to do with each other, and Pear Blossom is on the verge of collapse. He’s not an important member, and he doesn’t have the kind of assertive personality that dares to reverse the situation on his own. On top of that, it’s impossible to immediately accept the situation on the outside. Even if there was emotional influence, Luo Jian’s final decision was obviously in his favor, so he shouldn’t be—”
Tang Yibu hesitated on the wording for half a second.
“—He shouldn’t have a hurt appearance. Why can you understand it so easily?”
Ruan Xian’s movements stopped. He didn’t know how to explain the problem.
This wasn’t a question that could be expressed and understood by language alone.
Tang Yibu sat on the edge of the bed, holding his hands on it, looking over with burning eyes. The sun was rising behind him, gradually breaking through the dark blue shadow in the room. Ruan Xian was in a daze for a while, and a certain scene passed through time and space, gradually overlapping with everything in front of him.
It was also early in the morning. After New Year’s Eve, it was the first morning of the new year.
Except for a few people who must preside over the project, most of the employees in the institute had already gone home for New Year’s. He was almost left alone in the underground living area of the institute. Ruan Xian simply got some food and went to the computer room of NUL-00 to pass the time.
When he entered the door, NUL-00 was trying to adapt the rustic old songs used at New Year’s into a grand and mournful symphony. The walls projected a lot of sketch-like stick figures, making the computer look like a murder scene.
For a moment, Ruan Xian seemed to turn around and leave, but the hot air in the computer room was really comfortable, and he hesitated for a few seconds before directing the wheelchair to enter.
[Dad.] NUL-00 threw the word head-on.
[…I told you, I don’t accept this kind of name.] Ruan Xian sighed, feeling a headache coming on.
[Combining real-time information from various places, this is the most intimate name for today’s atmosphere.] NUL-00 solemnly stated. [According to custom, now you should give me New Year’s money.]
At that time, Ruan Xian was very sure that if his condition worsened prematurely, most likely it was due to anger from this thing.
[I’m not your father, and there’s no New Year’s money.] After taking a deep breath, Ruan Xian said gently.
[:(]
[Let’s watch a movie.] Ruan Xian had become accustomed to dealing with NUL-00’s increasingly disconnected expressions.
[:D]
Ruan Xian chose a murder film unexpectedly while heating the liquid food used for breakfast on the radiator of NUL-00. As a result, the plot had just reached its climax, and NUL-00 had gone into the 100,000 reasons mode.
[According to the current mainstream values of humans, the male protagonist has no reason to be angry. It’s just that he has repeatedly denied it with reference to reality. No one has attacked him with language or actions that exceed the standard. His socioeconomic status is middle or upper class. Why would he show a state of being hurt?]
This was its first question, and it threw an entire long paragraph along with it.
[The rating of this film is not low. Why can humans easily understand it?]
This was the second question.
Thinking about it now, it was one of the few warm moments in his life. It was a pity that because the project was scrapped by “Professor Ruan”, NUL-00, who had spent five years with him and should have accompanied him to the end of his life, disappeared from this world first.
Ruan Xian couldn’t help but stretch out his hand and pat Tang Yibu’s cheek lightly.
[It’s hard to explain.] At that time, he once replied like this.
“It’s hard to explain.” Ruan Xian salvaged those answers from the past.
[But in my delicate situation, I can understand a thing or two now.]
“You know my condition. Despite the personality defect in me, I could understand a little bit.”
[So I think one day, you can too.]
“…I think one day, you can—” Ruan Xian failed to finish.
The hand he used to caress the side of Tang Yibu’s face was clenched tightly. The android’s gaze was unprecedentedly complicated, so much so that he couldn’t understand it.
“It’s time for us to have breakfast, Mr. Ruan. Today’s breakfast is xiao long bao with gravy.” Tang Yibu stood up, and his tone was somewhat irrefutable. Ruan Xian raised his eyebrows and drew his hand back forcefully.
“Tang Yibu, what are you—”
“Mr. Ruan.” A knock on the door was accompanied by a familiar female voice. “I, ahem, this is Li Han. Please open the door.”
Ruan Xian glanced at Tang Yibu with a subtle expression, then walked to the door and opened it.
Li Han’s eyes were severely swollen, her voice sounded lost, and her mental state wasn’t right. She struggled to smile and showed sadness mixed with eerie exuberance.
“I’m here to deliver a message. Luo Fei wants to talk to you.” The girl didn’t seem to be planning to quit Pear Blossom.
“Luo Fei?”
“…It can be said that it is Luo Fei.” She used a rather ambiguous statement. “If it’s convenient for you two…”
“Let’s go now,” Tang Yibu said, and his expression became a little more complicated.
“I would like to provide more information about Professor Ruan.”
When they found Luo Fei, the young man had already eaten his xiao long bao at Luo Jian’s old sitting spot. His appearance hadn’t changed, but his eyes looked more mature, and the sharpness unique to young people was heavily exuded in his body.
“Why did you change your mind?” Ruan Xian sat down opposite him and accepted it very naturally.
“I was… My dad was too cautious before, and he had a deep relationship with that person. I’m not the same.” Luo Fei took a bite of the xiao long bao and smiled embarrassedly, claiming to be still a bit confused. “His trust and protection of Professor Ruan were too over the top. I don’t have that kind of heart. I want to make a deal with you two.”
The tone of this sentence was very similar to the Luo Jian he knew.
“My place, no, my dad has a disposable communication device that can evade the detection system. He hasn’t had time to use it yet. You can take it.”
“Let’s talk about the content of your deal first.” Ruan Xian raised the corners of his mouth with interest.
“Zhuo Muran is leaving today, and you guys are done talking to my dad, so I guess you’ll be leaving as well.” Luo Fei put down his chopsticks and took a sip of his millet porridge. “Cause chaos and leave quietly, right? At the beginning, Professor Ruan also discussed a similar plan with my… dad.”
“So what?”
“I hope that you two will leave with a bang.” Luo Fei gave a rather old-fashioned smile.
“…I guess this means more than a test of strength.”
Luo Fei’s eyes floated for a few moments, showing a bit of praise and relief that wasn’t normally seen on a young man. “The next piece of information is my advance deposit. According to what I know about Professor Ruan, there’s a high probability that he’s still watching this place, and I have a guess about his whereabouts. If you guys make it out alive, I’ll share my conjecture with you.”
“I hope the Red Ghost is strong enough to get you two out of here. If you perform well, Professor Ruan might really be willing to cooperate with you.”
“And this will create an environment for Pear Blossom to raise morale and excite the people.”
“More than that.”
Luo Fei, who had mixed Luo Jian’s memories into him, raised his head and spoke in a flat tone.
“You can also think of this as a signal. I want to convey this news and let Professor Ruan open his eyes and take a good look. His fire is far from being completely extinguished.”
Ruan Xian turned his face and looked at Tang Yibu, only to find that the android happened to be watching him too.
“Okay.” Before he could speak, Tang Yibu spoke first. “This is my opinion.”
“I agree too.” After thinking about the escape route for a while, Ruan Xian didn’t have much resistance to this crazy request. As a cover-up, the name of the Red Ghost would become known sooner or later. He could confirm Yu Le’s opinion afterward. As a great ruins pirate in the Sea of Ruins, Yu Le would probably not object.
“It seems that the cooperation is basically settled, so I will make more preparations.” Tang Yibu took off the collar of the doctor’s uniform and, in a rare moment, didn’t touch his breakfast.
“I’ll wait for good news from you,” Luo Fei said as he sipped his porridge. “…Xiao Han, try this xiao long bao. It tastes really good.”
Seeing that Tang Yibu was in the wrong state, Ruan Xian didn’t have much thought to continue eating breakfast. He nodded to Luo Fei and walked out of the cafeteria with Tang Yibu.
“I didn’t expect you to be quite straightforward,’ Ruan Xian said in a chatty tone. “Doing this kind of big move under the eyes of the Mainbrain… The previous you wouldn’t agree to this.”
“I have estimated the risk, and the risk is within my tolerance.” When he said this, Tang Yibu didn’t look at him. “Since all three of you want to see Ruan Xian, it’s more realistic to seize information from a reliable source than to try our luck.”
“What else?” Tang Yibu had never had the habit of sacrificing himself for the sake of others, and Ruan Xian had no intention of being fooled by the other party in this way.
Tang Yibu stopped and turned to Ruan Xian.
“There’s a problem with my subject. As far as I know, Professor Ruan will have very important reference materials.”
“…What else?”
“I questioned my ability to judge.” Tang Yibu’s voice was very soft. “…Mr. Ruan, I’m also a little curious about the answer to your question: ‘Is it the real Ruan Xian?’.”
“I recorded the potential positioning and route in the wristband, but I can’t seem to locate Ji Xiaoman. You can use the data in advance.” Ruan Xian’s expression was serious. “Don’t eat it, π.”
“Gwah.” Under the opened assistant robot shell, the three small eyes of the iron bead gleamed.
Ruan Xian fixed his wristband to the iron bead and used the parts obtained yesterday to make a simple data transmission device to ensure that this little thing could easily obtain data. It couldn’t understand very complicated problems, but it was enough to find someone.
“After finding Ji Xiaoman, you give her the wristband and act with her.”
“Gwah?!” The iron bead shook the two blood guns hidden in the assistant mechanical shell.
“It doesn’t matter. As long as we don’t push Gong Siyi too hard, he can meet some of our requirements. I’ll get a real assistant machine and transform it.”
The iron bead couldn’t express its emotions on its face, but Ruan Xian could feel a weird aura. The reaction of this little thing was a bit like that of a cat in a documentary that found a new pet in the house.
“We’ll leave here soon and meet up with you,” he hurriedly added, and sprinkled a handful of parts into the shell where the iron bead was hiding. Only then did the iron bead turn its head, put a few parts in its mouth, and wandered out the door.
It was difficult for people to leave, but if the iron bead was hidden in the gap of a mechanical transport vehicle, there was no problem with leaving quietly.
Basically, everything that should have been prepared was ready. Ruan Xian rolled his shoulders and glanced at the time on the light screen. Seeing that it was time for dinner, Tang Yibu still hadn’t shown up.
Having said that, they didn’t make any agreements. The fake second hand on the light screen slid round and round. Ruan Xian hid the blood guns, stretched out his waist, and decided to have a meal first. With the iron bead gone, he was the only living thing left in the room. For the first time, Ruan Xian felt a little empty here.
It was just that before he had time to step out of the room, Tang Yibu flashed to the door while humming a tune. He was accompanied by a stifled Yu Le and a dull-witted mechanical assistant.
“Mr. Ruan!” The android still looked carefree, spreading his arms open as if asking for a hug. “I’m done with my side of things.”
“Me too.” Ruan Xian smiled subconsciously.
“Ahem.” Yu Le coughed loudly, breaking the weird, relaxed atmosphere in the room. “It’s not fucking dark yet. Let’s talk about the things we need to discuss first.”
“I figured out how Luo Jian snuck into the hospital. Unfortunately, it’s of little value to us—Ruan Xian got him a device to store memories repeatedly. Now he’d taken out his real memories and poured in fake ones.”
Tang Yibu spoke in a narrator-like tone.
“Even if Mr. Ruan and I can complete the installation quickly, it’ll take a long time and suitable materials to make artificial memories. The people here are waiting for Mr. Ruan’s ‘memory to recover’. Afterwards, they will make him undergo memory screening, so it’s unrealistic to leave in the same way.”
Yu Le drew a breath from between his teeth. Ruan Xian didn’t speak. They didn’t need Tang Yibu to explain too many details. However, two seconds later, Yu Le grasped the point of the matter.
“Wait, wait, what do you mean? If Xiao Ruan can’t leave like this, what about me?”
“Isn’t it good for you to live here?” Tang Yibu blinked. “We have made a fairly safe fake identity for you. The reason you came in has nothing to do with abnormal memory, so you won’t undergo memory screening. There’s food and water here, and you don’t have to work yet. You can wait for the time to pass before you’re discharged from the hospital.”
“Then how do I go back to the Sea of Ruins?”
“The difficulty of leaving here is lower than entering. With your ability, you should be able to figure out a way by yourself.” Tang Yibu sounded confident. “The most appropriate thing for us to do now is to kill you and fundamentally ensure our safety, but you’re very interesting, and the egg custard you make is really delicious—”
“Do I still want to thank you?” Yu Le’s voice was weak.
“You’re welcome,” Tang Yibu responded very solemnly.
“Fuck you. Forget it. That’s it, Xiao Ruan, I want to go with you.” Yu Le rolled his eyes and quickly lost his willingness to communicate with Tang Yibu. “I’m starting to get annoyed with this shit from the Mainbrain. When you find Professor Ruan, I want to talk to him too.”
The former great ruins pirate was quick. Before Ruan Xian could speak, he continued, “If I go with you, you’ll get a car. It’s always convenient to have a car. The little profiteer is too arrogant and you two are too whimsical. At a critical moment, at least I can somehow help. The things I have seen are disgusting, but this journey is also quite exciting.”
“Mr. Ruan, I still have to say, don’t get too close to humans—” Tang Yibu seized the opportunity to interrupt.
“Let’s talk about something unrelated. I still have a lot of Carol Young’s old songs in my car. If we get some fresh ingredients from here, I can cook good food on the road.” Yu Le quickly shot back.
Tang Yibu immediately closed his mouth, pretending that he had never said anything.
“I have no opinion.”
Ruan Xian really didn’t mind. Yu Le had a quick brain, was ruthless, and had a good talent for operating large-scale machinery. It was hard to say when such a person would come in handy but taking Yu Le with them meant they could protect their own information.
“There are also fresh eggs in the kitchen here.” Tang Yibu began to make strange remarks.
“The transaction has to be fair.” Yu Le gave Tang Yibu a sideways glance. “Just like before, I want a whole novel.”
“Deal.”
“Regarding the whereabouts of Professor Ruan, have you found anything there?” Ruan Xian pinched the bridge of his nose and decisively interrupted the unintended conversation between the two.
“No.” Tang Yibu quickly broke open the assistant robot and took out a memory storage device the size of a can with the brand of the prevention shelter printed on it. “Luo Jian changed his memory too fast. I promised the little girl to help him make a memory backup before I knock out this information.”
He tossed a metallic glowing jar into the air. “Something happened with Luo Jian halfway through, so she ran away. Now I have to send it over.”
“Can’t you look at what’s inside?” Yu Le obviously didn’t care much about the usual moral concepts.
“Can’t. Memory screening is only a fixed-point identification, and it requires a large processor and time to sift through the memories aimlessly. Of course, it’s easier to inject the memories directly into a cybernetic brain or into the human brain, but then there’s an increased likelihood of a personality breakdown.”
Tang Yibu turned to look at Yu Le. “Yu Ge, if I pour this thing into your head… Mr. Ruan and I can make a bet that you will think you are “Yu Le” or “Luo Jian”, or simply go crazy.”
“I was just asking,” Yu Le clicked his tongue loudly. “So now we send something to that little girl and then—”
“Then wait for the commander of the Order Supervisors to leave and escape from here.”
“This can be discussed after dinner.” Tang Yibu held the jar in both hands, lengthening his tone as his voice became a little softer. “Do you want to go together, Mr. Ruan? The original version is still in Li Han’s hands. Aren’t you curious about Ruan Xian’s design?”
Yu Le shuddered. “Fuck, I’m not going to join the fun. Since we’re leaving tomorrow, I’ll go and see if there’s anything I can take away.”
After arriving at the scene, Ruan Xian knew what Tang Yibu meant by “Luo Jian had an accident”.
Luo Jian and Li Han were both in Luo Fei’s room. Luo Jian’s expression was uneasy and disturbed. Li Han’s eyes were swollen while Luo Fei’s entire face was pale, with a little despair in his eyes, as he was holding an old wooden box tightly in his hands.
“Miss Li, I found something that you had dropped.” Tang Yibu smiled and handed over the metal jar wrapped in fabric.
“What is it?” Luo Fei’s had a hard inquisitive tone.
“My stuff…” Li Han’s voice was very low.
Luo Fei stared at her with red eyes.
“What are you arguing about?” It could be seen that Luo Jian tried to stabilize the scene with the authority of an elder, but unfortunately, he wasn’t successful. “Feifei, I know you feel uncomfortable. I’ve been confused these past few years and given you a hard time… I’m getting better though. We can go home together soon. Xiao Han is just a junior that I take care of in passing. You, quickly return other people’s things.”
“Does a junior have such a valuable thing?” Luo Fei secretly shook the memory storage device in his hand, trying very hard to suppress his voice. “I’ve seen promotional materials for something like this in bars, and the large-capacity model ‘Game of Life’ has only recently been released. But this… This looks very old.”
Luo Fei’s lips were shaking, and Tang Yibu raised his eyebrows.
In his impression, Luo Fei couldn’t be called brave. The young man did make a small resistance against the Mainbrain, and he had the unique vigor of youth, but he wasn’t impulsive. He was just an ordinary young man with a little bit of ideas in his head.
The other party didn’t seem injured, and he also had a healthy father, but Luo Fei looked as if he had been stabbed in the chest with a poisonous dagger as tears pooled around his eyes.
“It has nothing to do with you how they got it. Luo Fei, have you forgotten what I taught you?” Luo Jian’s tone became stern. “This is a prevention shelter. Are you thinking you haven’t stayed here long enough, ah? Are you in a hurry to cause trouble?”
“Did you really teach me that?” Luo Fei spoke in a dreamy tone.
He walked forward and stretched out his hand to Luo Jian, with a small object lying in his palm. Tang Yibu had seen it. It was the only other thing left in the wooden box. In terms of value, it was indeed useless scrap.
A candle head that was covered with dirt and was yellowed by the passage of time was lying in Luo Fei’s hand.
It was something that could never exist in this city.
“Dad,” he said. “Are you really the one who taught me?”
However, Luo Jian looked at the candle with a confused expression. He frowned and looked carefully for a while.
“What is this? A candle?” He replied like this. “Xiao Han, where did you get it? What age is this where candles still exist?”
Luo Fei stood quietly for a long time, like a puppet without clockwork. When he raised his head again, his expression was quite calm, and his gaze swept past Tang Yibu meaningfully.
“Ah, it’s just a joke.” He rubbed his eyes twice. “Li Han, I’m sorry. Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll have a good chat with Xiao Han in a while.”
Both Li Han and Luo Fei were a little confused by this sudden turn in the atmosphere.
“I want to know more about my dad’s time here. Looking at the current situation, he has basically forgotten about the past two years.”
“…Yes.”
“Can I keep this box here for now?”
Li Han clenched her fists tightly and then let go. “Nn.”
“I have something that must be confirmed.” Luo Fei’s voice still had a tremble in it. “Please understand.”
Tang Yibu showed a little bit of disappointment from missing the drama. Ruan Xian’s gaze swept over the three people in the room who had different expressions before finally stopping at Luo Fei’s hand holding the candle tightly.
He had seen this candle head, but not in reality. It was lighted in front of a simple grave.
“Let’s go, Yibu,” he said, pulling out the memory stick from Tang Yibu’s hand and putting it on the small table closest to the door. “Memory backup… Although I guess you didn’t have this idea, you probably made a good move.”
Tang Yibu turned his face slightly and looked at Ruan Xian with curiosity written on his face.
“Before leaving tomorrow, we can meet with them again and ask about the information from Professor Ruan,” Ruan Xian said softly.
“But the memory has been taken out. Li Han wanted to quit. Neither she nor Luo Fei had participated in core activities, nor do they have the personality to become leaders.”
“Sometimes people do stupid things, especially when they are stimulated,” Ruan Xian said. “Out of personal desire, people do stupid, impulsive, and incomprehensible things… In most cases, those behavior won’t have any result and even negative impact, which contribute no value to personal development.”
“Yes.”
“But that probability is never 100%.”
Early the next morning. Auntie Yan, who couldn’t sleep, lit a cigarette in the shop.
‘It’s all over,’ she thought. This was the first day of true “freedom”. She knew Luo Jian and knew how he would deal with this situation.
The hub had disappeared, and the party had ended. After all, it was destined that the question of “whether to give up” couldn’t be held on for too long—it only took one core member who intended to give up and come forward and cross the line to destroy the fragile web. It was always easier to destroy than to build and operate, and those who decided to persist remained at a disadvantage.
It turned out that this was indeed the case.
Ruan Xian’s disappearance made her gradually tired, and now that she was suddenly liberated, the exhaustion still lingered. Auntie Yan simply closed the small bar and connected herself to the temporary spiritual space again.
This time there wasn’t anyone in the small house.
She threw off her shoes and walked barefoot on the thick carpet. Her eyes swept over the vague decorations, as if she was bidding farewell to them in silence. Unconsciously, she walked to the familiar door again.
When she opened the door, this time, only an ordinary room would be waiting for her.
But she still dawdled with her keys, counting them one by one, and then inserted them into the keyhole.
‘So stupid,’ she thought.
The door opened in response, and the sun shone into the dim corridor. A few pear flower petals flew in and fell on the thick carpet. The sky across the door was blindingly blue, and the building was hauntingly familiar.
On the other side of the door was a prevention shelter, but there were no patrolling electronic eyes, no mechanical guards, and no signs of patients. There was only a short boy standing by the blooming pear tree. As if aware of her arrival, the child turned his head. It was a face she had seen before.
She remembered a child of about ten years old, but he had already died and should’ve been buried under the distant permafrost.
Auntie Yan covered her mouth with both hands so that she could swallow her screams and choke.
The boy in a hospital gown opened his mouth, looking as if he wanted to subconsciously call out “Xiao Yan”, but stopped in time. He stood in a daze for a while, his eyes finally became firm again, but slowly reddened.
“Auntie Yan. I… I’m not skilled enough, but I’ll finish this place. I will find a way to stay in the prevention shelter while Dad recovers. No one will suspect me.”
“What Professor Ruan was worried about still happened,” Luo Jian said.
He didn’t show up at lunch, leaving Li Han alone to eat in silence. It wasn’t until the sun set that Ruan Xian saw Luo Jian in the activity area. He hadn’t seen him for most of the day, and the man who was originally cold and hard looked like he had aged a lot more.
Li Han wasn’t by his side this time.
For the prevention shelter, what happened today was at most a minor incident. The people who were locked up entered one by one, like raindrops that were merging into a stagnant pool, and the clouds had scattered, leaving no trace behind.
The snow-white corridor was dyed orange red by the setting sun. Luo Jian leaned against the corner of the corridor and looked at the young man in the hospital gown from a distance—the latter still had his back straightened, but he had a sense of bewilderment.
Luo Jian stared blankly for a while without any intention of stepping forward to talk to him.
“What was Professor Ruan most worried about?” Ruan Xian didn’t ask for the identity of the young man. The information from Tang Yibu was sufficient.
Luo Jian’s dead son was pulled back from the void by the Mainbrain and lived in this artificial fairy tale, firmly believing that his father had lost his mind because of too much stress.
And during this time, he “grew up” successfully.
“That’s right.” Luo Jian looked at Luo Fei again. “You have also read the diary, so you can feel some of Professor Ruan’s emotions. I relied on the system he designed to intervene in order to successfully take root here. After he contacted me, he sent in some rebels who weren’t fit for manual labor. You know this.”
“Nn.”
“Everyone came from all over,” Luo Jian said. “There aren’t many good places in those petri dishes. There’s a mess of dangerous creatures in the forest petri dish, the Underground City is full of poisonous fog, the Sea of Ruins is a giant garbage dump… Where I used to be, it snowed all year round and you had to gather together to just fight for some warmth.”
Ruan Xian listened quietly.
“To put it bluntly, resistance is a matter of struggling. Despite the Mainbrain’s abilities, Professor Ruan has worked extremely hard. I can be regarded as the earliest group of people with him, but even I was shaken in this hellish place.”
Luo Jian smiled self-deprecatingly.
“What kind of life did everyone lead before? Desperately hiding from the Mainbrain, living like street rats, just trying to survive. Resistance is not just a matter of exerting one’s strength. You have to slowly penetrate the truth, hoping that individuals will find a way to deal with the Mainbrain. The psychological pressure is very high… but people can adapt. After encountering tragedies once or twice, their blood remains hot, but over time it starts to become numb. Everyone understands the principles taught by Professor Ruan, but everyone wants to know how many cities we have taken back and how many people we have liberated, not what stage of the plan we’re in.”
“To put it bluntly, how many people can really rise to the level of righteousness? Everyone just wants to live an easy life. I’m only supporting them due to my personal enmity. After so many years of boiling blood, enthusiasm will shrink… Professor Ruan told me that the Order Supervisors had hit the rebels hard. I wasn’t surprised. At that time, he was definitely hiding other things and didn’t say anything else, but he must have realized the seriousness of the problem. Well, it’s time for a red ghost or green ghost or whatever to stand up and continue to respond to the Mainbrain.”
“There are still people in the Shade Refuge who are holding on,” Ruan Xian responded quietly, but they both knew this comfort was closer to polite words and had no practical effect.
There were people who could hold on all the time, but there were few that were truly enlightened. No one could stand against the flood.
“Although it may not be good for cooperation, let me be honest. Before the accident, Xiao Yan and the others quarreled for a long time. In this current state, the rebels can’t rise no matter what they think… As a result, an accident on my side probably pushed them past their limit. Sending these young people in is a warning to me.” Sure enough, Luo Jian skipped the topic directly.
The young didn’t want to continue and had no deep consideration. Young people who grew up here were the easiest to soften. They had no obsession and weren’t guilty of any serious crime. Most of them could leave after being locked up for a period of time.
Everyone knew that resistance was the “right” thing, but they knew better how difficult it was to keep holding on by doing the right thing.
Luo Jian’s state was really low, so it was a bit impersonal to inquire about his backup plan at this time. Not long after they separated, Ruan Xian had already begun to miss the feeling of communicating with Tang Yibu without scruples.
“Don’t you want to talk to him?” Ruan Xian tried his best to guide the topic in a gentle direction. “That’s Luo Fei, right?”
“My son died a long time ago.” Luo Jian’s expression was stiff. “I buried him in the cellar with my own hands. You have seen his grave. That way, his body will not be dug out by the wolves. The bodies we bury in the snow can always be found by the wolves.”
“Mr. Luo, what are you going to do next? I remember you said you wanted to wait for Ruan Xian.” Seeing that this topic couldn’t go further, Ruan Xian immediately changed to another one.
“I will wait for him, but not ‘like this’. I have all the information about the rebels in my mind. You see, they won’t warn me like this for no reason. Goodbye, Mr. Ruan. You saved me twice, but Pear Blossom had become like this. I’m sorry.”
Luo Jian glanced at Luo Fei again, making it clear that he was saying goodbye.
“I’m afraid I can’t provide you with more information.”
Ruan Xian didn’t plan to pursue it further. He watched Luo Jian walk out into the sun and stepped into the shadow at the end of the corridor.
“Zhuo Muran will leave tomorrow.”
Tang Yibu flashed out of the shadows, hugging Ruan Xian in a seemingly intimate manner to make sure the surveillance would capture this.
“I talked to Yu Le, and unsurprisingly, Pear Blossom only exists in name only. What are Luo Jian’s plans?”
“He had no intention of opening up. He’s quite shrewd, so I can’t force it too hard.” Ruan Xian turned his head, bit Tang Yibu’s lower lip, and whispered back, “Auntie Yan isn’t here. Except for Luo Fei, none of the members here have seen you. I’m counting on you next, Dr. Tang.”
“Mr. Ruan, this level of espionage shouldn’t be difficult for you.”
“I have other things to do.” Ruan Xian smiled slightly. “It seems that Yu Le left Ji Xiaoman alone outside. I don’t think our lady mechanic will stay put honestly.”
Tang Yibu looked at the smiling person in front of him.
It was like plucking away layers of candy to reveal the candy within. The other party’s data was carefully entered into his mind and gradually became three-dimensional. Tang Yibu touched his pocket—During their date, he also got himself some parts and secretly used them to make something else.
He made a more delicate and deadlier black earring.
Tang Yibu knew that he should put it on for his Mr. Ruan as soon as possible and completely regained the initiative to put his mind at ease, but instinctively he felt that somehow it felt inappropriate.
He had many opportunities to do so, such as last night.
With the permission of the other party, Tang Yibu came up with quite a long list of tricks he could try. He was quite sure that for a while, Mr. Ruan would be completely fooled by him and wouldn’t realize it.
He could have bitten the other party’s earlobe and replaced the earring stud as quickly as possible, but he didn’t do it. Perhaps it was because the other party was holding onto him too tightly, or perhaps it was because the other party showed a little—just a tiny bit—unreserved sense of vulnerability.
It was like a wolf showing its soft belly or a lion showing its fragile throat. He couldn’t be sure if the other party was occasionally out of control or deliberate, and he wanted to see more.
Forget it. He could wait until they escape from here. Tang Yibu maintained the smile on his face and kissed the corner of Ruan Xian’s mouth.
“Okay,” he replied, very happily.
It was a pity that the atmosphere was heavy on the side of their observation.
“Xiao Han.” Luo Jian chose the corridor closest to a pear blossom tree that was facing an open window. The little white petals fell smoothly to the floor, like flakes of snow that couldn’t be melted.
Li Han stood beside him with dodgy eyes.
“Just say it if you’re afraid. I get it.” Luo Jian smiled encouragingly.
The windows were large. As long as they faced out towards it and kept their voices low, the surveillance wouldn’t catch them. This place was found by Li Han herself, and it could be said to be the freest window in the entire prevention shelter.
“I like painting and I want to be recognized. I also feel that the current environment isn’t right.” Li Han twisted her fingers. “But everyone has been caught, and I don’t want to be discovered by the Mainbrain. What you’re doing isn’t wrong, but those things will not… Will not make me…”
“I understand. You have been assisting me in the joint dreamland for the past two years and I’m very grateful.”
Luo Jian wasn’t surprised. The dreams and hope of freedom after the rebellion had always been attractive to the young. He had always tried his hardest not to put too much pressure on this young woman who had grown up in The Glass Conservatory, but his abilities were ultimately limited.
He always had a limited ability to hold onto the people around him.
Now that he had revealed his flaws, he no longer seemed to be in control and omnipotent, and thus she finally realized the true price of resistance.
“Thank you,” he repeated. “The reason for your admission has nothing to do with Pear Blossom, nor have you met anyone other than Auntie Yan. Those people won’t get along with you. Leave Pear Blossom.”
“But don’t forget what I once told you. The Mainbrain has no right to define you… No one can define what you should like and what you should hate.”
Li Han began to sob in a low voice.
Tang Yibu hid well. He pretended to be observing the rebuilt botanical garden nearby, hiding in the blind corner of the two people’s sight and eavesdropping silently. Although not as sensitive as the S-type Prototype, he could still distinguish unwillingness and fear from the girl’s sobs.
“I don’t want to leave. I really don’t want to. But…” She stopped talking again.
“I want to ask you one more thing, Xiao Han.” Luo Jian’s voice became gentler. “It’s the same as the task I gave you at the beginning.”
“What? I don’t want it!”
“It’s okay.”
“Although I don’t have the right or am qualified to say this, Lao Luo, are you going to give up too?”
“Professor Ruan knows what I did. When he comes back and sees my situation, he’ll naturally understand what to do… I will still be me then.”
“But in case he doesn’t plan to come back…!”
“I believe he’ll come back,” Luo Jian said softly. “If I believe in the wrong person, then so be it. After all, if I don’t erase those memories, those people who were just sent in won’t feel at ease. Don’t cry. Maybe I can be discharged from the hospital with you.”
Li Han really cried this time.
Luo Jian sighed, turned around, and hugged Li Han.
“Good girl,” he said. “I’ll see you in an hour, okay?”
“I want to go with you,” Li Han murmured, her voice slurred by her swollen throat. “In that case, I want to… I want to go with you.”
Tang Yibu quietly followed the two of them all the way to the nearby botanical garden.
The botanical garden was rebuilt extremely quickly. Although only a few days had passed, there was no trace of it being burned down at all. The plants under the glass dome were still vibrant and green, and the pear blossoms were still in full bloom in their old location. The two of them, barely dodging surveillance, stood still under the pear trees.
Another perfect blind spot. Tang Yibu raised his eyebrows with interest and walked quietly behind the bushes.
Without activating any secret machinery, Luo Jian just dug out a small wooden box the size of a palm from the ground. The box had a simple style, was covered in dirt, was deeply buried on the side of the ditch, and was tightly stuck on the metal frame used to shape the terrain.
Then Luo Jian opened the box and took out a needle-like tubular machine from inside.
Tang Yibu couldn’t help but snort softly. It looked a lot like a small version of a memory cocktail, but the structure was much more complicated. The light rotating in the glass tube wasn’t blue but was emitting a dazzling white.
“You… Do you really want to do this…?”
“Professor Ruan made it so that it’s reusable. Most likely, he was prepared for this situation.”
“I don’t like him.” Li Han’s voice had a crying tone again. “He clearly guessed that this kind of thing would happen, and he also gave you a tool to replace the false memories. What is the difference between this approach and the Mainbrain—”
“Don’t say that.” Luo Jian flicked her forehead. “At least he has my consent.”
“But……”
“But you are right. Professor Ruan is indeed a bit cruel.” Luo Jian smiled with a complicated expression. “Good night, Xiao Han.”
He didn’t give Li Han time to react as he pierced the thing straight into his neck.
The dazzling white light gradually dimmed, and a gleaming golden light gradually lit up. Those lights seemed to be inhaled by the wound and spat out again. Luo Jian shook in place for a while, as if drunk, and stood still for a long time.
“Xiao Han?”
After finally standing firm, he struggled to open his mouth.
“Why are we here again? ……Why are you crying? What’s going on? This is… Oh, oh, this is what we are going to bury, right? I remember this. You wait for me for a while, I’ll bury it first. Then you have to tell me who bullied my Xiao Han.”
Li Han threw herself into Luo Jian’s arms and cried loudly.
“Don’t… Don’t bury it. It’s not safe here. Let me take it with me,” she said in a broken and desperate voice. “No one bullied me. I let you down. It’s me who let you know.”
“You child, what are you talking about—”
“Do you remember who asked you to bury it?” Li Han wiped away tears vigorously. “You don’t remember, do you? You just… You just feel like you want to bury it, right?!”
“Take it easy. Just calm down. I’ll give it to you.” Luo Jian’s entire person looked a lot gentler, without that cold and harsh aura. “Sorry, Uncle Luo’s brain isn’t very good, so he’s often confused.”
Tang Yibu frowned in the bushes. He stopped hiding, walked straight into the center of this inexplicable chaos, raised his hand, and grabbed the box. Seeing that someone in a staff uniform suddenly appeared, Li Han’s legs were weak, and she almost fell flat on her ass.
“Give it back to me!” she screamed with tears.
Luo Jian frowned. “Are you a staff member here? Don’t bully the little girl.”
Tang Yibu ignored the reactions of the two people and observed the small and exquisite mechanical device in his hand with interest. It was indeed similar in structure to a memory cocktail, but in terms of structural complexity, it could hold much more memory than a memory cocktail.
Enough to accommodate a person’s life.
“Interesting,” he said. “Little girl, if you don’t want Mr. Luo’s efforts to be in vain, I hope you’ll ask him to back off and we’ll talk alone.”
Li Han finally collapsed on the ground. Her fingers dug into the soil, turning her knuckles pale. Her face was full of tears as she shook badly. It could be seen that it took a lot of willpower for her not to faint.
“Lao Luo…No, Uncle Luo, you can go first.”
“You look like this. How could I—”
“Go!” Li Han nearly broke down and roared in a low voice. Her eyes were fixed on the mechanical device in Tang Yibu’s hand; her whole body was nervously twitching.
Luo Jian seemed to be frightened by this gesture. He slowed his movements, sighed, and retreated some distance away, looking at the two from afar.
“No need to be scared like that. Mr. Ruan should’ve introduced himself to you. Like him, I’m also a member of the Red Ghost.” Tang Yibu casually picked up the fragile machinery the size of a needle tube. The last trace of blood on Li Han’s face was given away by fear.
“I can also see that this device use to hold a lot of memory. Is this Luo Jian’s way of avoiding memory screening?”
Li Han bit her lip and said nothing.
“Unlike Mr. Ruan, I never thought about getting along with you. Stalling won’t work on me.” Tang Yibu shook his head. “Besides, let’s not talk about what I think first. My intention is to cooperate with you guys, but if you don’t say anything, there’s not much I can do.”
He paused meaningfully for a while.
“There was a fire here not long ago. It’s really not safe to bury things here, and it’s risky to carry them around. If you’re willing to talk, we can provide the tools so that you can leave a backup. Listening to Luo Jian’s statement, you don’t know the sensitive information related to the rebel army. Personally, I think this deal is quite good.”
Li Han was silent for a long time.
“This was made by Professor Ruan. It took him a long time to make this thing… He took out all Lao Luo’s memories and stored them in it. Then he made a false memory and poured it back into Lao Luo’s brain. When Lao—Lao Luo came in, from a memory level, he was indeed just an ordinary resident who had been pitted by Pear Blossom. Memory screening couldn’t find anything.”
After nearly five minutes, Li Han finally spoke.
“Then… Then Professor Ruan added hints to his memory, just like he did just now. I followed the instructions and brought Lao Luo here and asked him to change his memory according to the hints. At that time, Lao Luo had already lived for a full month, and it was impossible for another memory screening unless he became seriously ill.”
“Use fake memories to deceive the prevention shelter, and then draw them out to get back the real memories so he can be the hub for the joint dreamland. Is that right?”
“……Yes.”
Now that the matter was clear, Tang Yibu felt very satisfied.
Things weren’t complicated. The rebels had a mole and they sent people here as a threat. Unable to contact Ruan Xian, Luo Jian simply showed weakness. He injected the fake memories and would get discharged from the hospital in a fair manner, thus signaling that he, as the hub, would not carry out further activities to reassure the whistle-blower.
This could temporarily save those members of the rebel army who were still loyal, as well as the young “spark” who had not yet been reported.
Judging from the conversation just now, if Ruan Xian came back, he knew where to find Luo Jian’s true memory, and he would certainly restore his veteran. If Ruan Xian had no intention of coming back…
“How do you plan to deal with Luo Fei?” After speculating about the situation, Tang Yibu turned his attention to other issues.
“Lao—Lao Luo had just been admitted to the hospital for a week, and Luo Fei appeared before his memories were changed back.”
Li Han wiped away tears again.
“Professor Ruan… Professor Ruan said that it was a clone temporarily created by the Mainbrain. It found someone to get Luo Fei’s information, and made some simulated memories about his son, and added it to Lao Luo at that time. Thinking about it now, he knew at that time that Lao Luo would have to use that false memory sooner or later…”
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Tang Yibu nodded solemnly, interrupting Li Han’s words. “When do you want to get the backup?”
“The sooner, the better.” Li Han stared at the mechanical device in Tang Yibu’s hand sternly.
“No problem, you are welcome to supervise.” Tang Yibu put the device in his pocket. “It’ll be fine before dinner.”
“Can you return the box to me first?” Li Han whispered, pressing back a sob.
Tang Yibu glanced at the box. There were only useless fragments left inside. He gave the wooden box to Li Han readily with a standard smile.
Humans were always like this.
The future of these people was spread out in front of him. Most likely, based on the current situation, Luo Jian wouldn’t wait for Ruan Xian and is destined to spend the rest of his life in The Glass Conservatory with false memories. The rebel army sent in by Ruan Xian would be silenced, and without a central guide, the young people who develop locally wouldn’t be able to systematically persist. After her instant enthusiasm died down, Li Han, who was weak in character, would eventually leave here and return to her original life.
Pear Blossom would vanish in a few years, and perhaps the Mainbrain would create a similar organization for it to be observed as an alternate variable.
Considering each person’s characteristics, no matter how he calculated it, the possibility of this future being established was infinitely close to 100%.
He thought there was no longer a need to observe here.
The author has something to say:
Tang is still the same ruthless Tang. It’s impossible to be bought for a few cars*, and it’s impossible he can be soft. (ψ°▽°)
*Slang for sex. || In this context it means a few rounds (of sex).
The two are confused by the strange impact of their relationship (??
The next day, sunshine sprinkled in. Ruan Xian considered for a while whether he should backtrack and pretended to forget that he still owed Tang Yibu a gift.
Famine and cold, blood and fire; everything appeared to have vanished. The room was clean as a refreshing wind poured in from the window and the sky was particularly dazzling. Tang Yibu was sleeping on his pillow, breathing evenly and deeply. His slightly long hair slid along the pillow’s depression, and a bit of sunlight fell on his handsome face.
A gentle and harmless appearance.
It was a pity that Ruan Xian was pretty sure that the calculations in this guy’s heart were louder than anyone else’s. During the date, he was able to coax him with a few sentences and promised that he would pick him up another gift. As a result, judging from the situation last night, he had absolutely paid back the other party for the blood gun schematics with interest. For the first time, Ruan Xian realized that his understanding of a certain field was extremely lacking.
Although he had the support of the S-type Prototype, his entire body still felt like it was falling apart. The intense sensory impact was so great that he couldn’t even close his eyes for most of the night. At this moment, Tang Yibu hurriedly took the time to take a nap while maintaining his innocent expression.
Ruan Xian stretched out his index and middle fingers, making them into the shape of a gun, and tapped Tang Yibu’s forehead.
“Bang,” he said.
“Mr. Ruan.” Tang Yibu opened his eyes, yawned, and wrapped the blanket comfortably around his body. “Good morning to you too.”
“The battle last night didn’t ‘leave me with the strength to speak normally’.” Ruan Xian took the lead and sat up, turned on the light screen, and checked today’s news. Although all the information had been carefully modified by the Mainbrain, a little effect could still pluck out some useful information.
“We have finished exchanging information properly, and you still have the strength to speak afterwards.” Tang Yibu moved his body lazily as he crawled to Ruan Xian’s side without hesitation and reached for a glass of water by the bed. Ruan Xian clicked his tongue and handed him the half-drunk glass.
Tang Yibu propped up his body and leisurely drank the water without any intention of crawling back. Ruan Xian stroked his hair soothingly. “Then do you remember what I said?”
“Remember. The diary records of Ruan Xian’s route and what happened on the road. He concealed a lot of key points and mentioned the matter of sending the elderly rebels into The Glass Conservatory, but he didn’t write about his conflict with Fan Linsong.”
As they guessed, since the information could be exposed to the Mainbrain, there wasn’t any sensitive content in the diary. It could even be said that it was biased towards the sentimental side. There wasn’t much information worth taking out, but it proved that there was nothing wrong with their search route.
But putting aside the intelligence perspective, it made Ruan Xian uncomfortable.
The words contained a person’s will, and Ruan Xian could sense that the diary’s writer was almost the exact opposite of himself. He could tell from reading the content that the writer, the other Professor Ruan, was passionate, had a love and care for life beyond the norm, and was unusually pure in his emotions. The joy and anger were extremely clean, and even the sadness was very typical.
It was like an overly clear ocean in the tropics.
Ruan Xian understood why people were infected by him. The other Professor Ruan had the qualities to become a leader and the mind to use them freely. There was only one hidden problem—that person was too stubborn in some ways, to the point of near paranoia.
At the end of the diary, he did discover the loss described by Luo Jian and the others.
It was a very deep and sincere disappointment and sadness. Professor Ruan didn’t write the reason, but just let the emotions filled the words slowly overflowing between the lines. The records in the diary were indeed trivial matters, and at a later stage, Professor Ruan’s mentions of others gradually became less frequent, and his descriptions of dead things became more frequent.
The diary after that was blank. According to the information obtained by the two of them, Professor Ruan rarely had contact with the people in The Glass Conservatory until he lost contact completely. At this point in time, they were a lot closer to him than when they first met Guan Haiming, but they still didn’t know his specific whereabouts.
This was also one of the reasons why they had to talk to Luo Jian. Ruan Xian moved his body and continued to look at the light screen that was reporting the latest news.
[Mr. Zhuo Muran, Commander-in-Chief of the Order Supervisors, arrived in our city yesterday and delivered a speech on crime prevention…]
“This is why the scanning system became stricter yesterday?” Tang Yibu seemed to treat Ruan Xian like a pillow as he lazily stretched his limbs.
“It seems so.” Ruan Xian stared at the man with a straight face and a cold expression on the screen. “The security level in various regions will also rise by 80%. I don’t know when he will leave.”
“Mr. Ruan, when you find Ruan Xian and get an answer, do you have any other plans?” Tang Yibu didn’t respond but instead changed the subject.
“No,” Ruan Xian replied quickly.
“If it makes no difference to you whether you are Ruan Xian or not, why do you have to go to so much effort to confirm?” Tang Yibu rolled over, lay on Ruan Xian’s lap with a blanket, and looked at Ruan Xian’s face curiously.
“I didn’t have any goals at all.” Ruan Xian looked at the bright green plants on the light screen and the dazzling sunlight that sprinkled on them. “So I just try to solve the problem that interests me the most.”
He had always lived like this and that had never changed. It wasn’t for a certain dream, or for satisfaction after success, but simply to get used to doing so.
After all, as long as there was plenty of food, water, and a place to sleep, people could live, and it was too boring not to do anything for the rest of the time.
“What about the second most interesting thing?”
“It depends on the answer I get.” Ruan Xian easily avoided this question. “Get up. You need to go to work as usual. I have to go see Luo Jian.”
“Then I’ll continue to look at the guards outside. You’re still resisting here as you failed to relax completely last night.” Tang Yibu stepped up and bit Ruan Xian’s earlobe.
Tang Yibu should have guessed something about his past, but he didn’t ask, and Ruan Xian didn’t take the initiative to mention it. They continued the conversation tacitly, pretending that the other party already knew themselves.
“If I relax a little more, I’ll be torn apart.” Ruan Xian quickly put on his clothes. “…Go.”
When the light screen was turned off, the camera was still facing Zhuo Muran’s direction. The sound of reporting continued.
[…Recently, there have been small conflicts in the border area of Country B. There are suspicious people wandering nearby. Please be vigilant and actively report abnormal behavior in the near future…]
Luo Jian was really waiting for him near the cafeteria.
“There was an accident yesterday, probably because of Zhuo Muran’s visit.” Luo Jian obviously also watched the news this morning. Seeing Ruan Xian coming over, Li Han walked behind Luo Jian, as if she wanted to say something.
“I saw it.” Ruan Xian nodded, found that the other party was still looking at him anxiously, and simply continued, “Gong Siyi only did basic emotional tests on me, nothing happened. Mr. Luo, I want to talk to you again, I wonder if you have time?”
Luo Jian nodded very lightly and sat down in his fixed position. This time it was like there were three people having breakfast together while the rest of the other patients whispered, laughed loudly, or talked about random topics like usual. The cacophony of voices drowned them out like clouds.
“About last night—” As a result, Luo Jian hadn’t had time to finish speaking when a sudden change occurred.
There was a noise outside the window, as many aircraft slowly landed. The verdant grass and leaves were swept around by the wind. The cafeteria was closest to the gate of the prevention shelter. From this perspective, Ruan Xian could barely see more than a dozen people being taken off the aircraft. Most of them were about 30 years old, well-dressed, and with angry expressions.
Among them was an acquaintance of his own.
Yu Le curled his mouth and rolled his eyes. His ruffian aura was incompatible with the people around him. Ruan Xian rubbed his temples. He and Tang Yibu hadn’t slipped out yet, but one of their own came in.
Luo Jian’s reaction was much more intense.
At first glance, the man sitting opposite him didn’t react excessively. However, Ruan Xian could hear his heartbeat beat several times faster, and his hand holding the fork trembled, causing the bottom of the plate to clatter. Li Han almost dropped her chopsticks but still held on firmly and didn’t lose her temper.
“Acquaintances?” Ruan Xian lowered his voice.
“People from Snow Blossom.” Amidst the laughter of the surrounding patients, Luo Jian mouthed his reply.
“Rebel army? If the rebel army is there, it would be more appropriate to send them to the Order Supervisors.” Ruan Xian bit into his beef pie. “Is the situation serious?”
“No, that’s the problem. All of the people there aren’t core members.”
Ruan Xian glanced again but didn’t see Auntie Yan but only found a very dazzling young man. The young man’s eyebrows and eyes were a bit like Luo Jian’s, and his back was straight, revealing the arrogance unique to young people.
“It seems that you don’t have the mind to continue chatting with me.” Seeing Luo Jian speeding up his eating speed, Ruan Xian shrugged. “Keep in touch?”
“Keep in touch.” After finishing the meal quickly, Luo Jian quickly stood up and left the cafeteria.
He himself had new things to deal with. Ruan Xian sorted out the restraint clothes on his body and walked straight to the staff area.
Gong Siyi was collapsed on the chair.
The single room in the confinement room was blown up by the two bastards, and he had to carry all the blame. His social debt had almost doubled.
Not to mention the failure to successfully get Ruan Lijie’s abnormal report, he also provoked two additional calamities who claimed to be the Red Ghost. The other party must have manipulated his remote-controlled humanoid. He only remembered the words of those two people, but their faces and voices had been disguised.
As soon as he sent Ruan Lijie away with his front foot, he got entangled with two figures with his back foot. The one surname Ruan was also quite suspicious. Gong Siyi specially called up the surveillance record of bed 231, but as a result, he was hit head on with hot restricted-level X-rated content. When he was being torn apart by two unknown figures, the person surnamed Ruan was getting hot and heavy with the person surnamed Tang again.
Looking at the concentration and dedication of those two people, as well as all the tricks that could make people’s blood boil, Gong Siyi dispelled most of his doubts—this time, Tang Yibu almost ate that poor young man surnamed Ruan alive. The madness and cruelty of those two were many times more than any kind of tenderness he’d ever seen. He didn’t know how many times they went at it, but it was completely unlike any tacit intimate relationship.
As an employee of the prevention shelter, Tang Yibu had also undergone an extremely rigorous systematic review and shouldn’t be involved in this kind of thing.
On the other hand, Tang Yibu manipulated a humanoid machine, so it was still fine, but Ruan Lijie was a real person in the flesh. Assuming that he was related to the Red Ghost but allowed himself to be tossed to the point where he could make that kind of look… If something really happened and there wasn’t any supply of advanced medication, he might not be able to escape.
The two Red Ghosts were still wandering around in the prevention shelter, and he was helpless to do anything about it.
Gong Siyi anxiously confirmed the inventory of recovery medication and asked the assistant robot to take two pictures. Then he asked another robot to go to Ruan Xian’s ward to find traces to make sure that the records he saw weren’t deliberately altered. Other than that, he could hardly do anything. Even if he used his memory as a basis to infer the identities of the two, his memory was completely unreliable.
This feeling made him inexplicably nauseous. Gong Siyi faintly felt that something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell what it was.
Even now, the two lurking ghosts refused to let him go.
They didn’t appear again, but left a light screen note in his office, claiming that his remote-controlled device would stop working at a specific time, so that he could be prepared in advance so he wouldn’t collapse in an inappropriate place.
There was also an annoying blood-red smiley face at the end of the message.
‘Impossible,’ he thought. The Red Ghost had captured his weakness, so he didn’t dare take these things to report to the Order Supervisors. In case he was judged to be mentally disturbed, he may be changed from an employee to a resident here.
Gong Siyi lowered the back of the chair sadly, leaned back on it, closed his eyes resignedly, took a nap, and allowed his consciousness to be kicked away from the remote-controlled device.
The next second, the handsome humanoid sat up and moved his hands.
When Yu Le approached the consultation room of the prevention shelter, his eyes were still rolling.
“If you got something to say, spit it out.” Yu Le dug in his ears while staring at the strange doctor in front of him. “I’m in a bad mood.”
“Tell me what’s going on.” The doctor’s expression was subtly familiar. Yu Le frowned and stared at him for a while. “I have your record here—Yu Le, 36 years old, abnormal behavior… Let’s see, privately creating erotica books. After reviewing the content, it was determined that you have a serious degree of psychological abnormality and was hereby sent to a prevention shelter for correction.”
The doctor turned a few more pages. “Luo Fei in the back was also charged with a similar crime. Did the Order Supervisors bust an illegal assembly?”
“So you still want me to tell you what’s going on? Should I recite the contents of the book to you?”
“I’m even more curious why Miss Ji is not here.” The doctor smiled like a fox.
Yu Le suddenly stiffened. He squinted his eyes and looked at the doctor in front of him again, focusing on the name tag on the doctor’s chest. “Tang Yibu? When did you get a face-lift and change your name to Gong Siyi?”
Having said that, he raised his chin towards the surveillance in the corner.
“It’s just a remote-controlled humanoid. Don’t worry about surveillance. I know your personality well, so I have replaced our dialogue with a simulated one in advance.” Tang Yibu, who was manipulating Gong Siyi’s shell, replied. “Mr. Ruan informed me that Pear Blossom was directly caught. What went wrong?”
“Most likely it’s an inside job.” Yu Le then relaxed his body. “Yesterday, after we left, Luo Fei came out and Auntie Yan woke up, but her state wasn’t right. I guess something happened inside. This morning we just went out and bumped into Luo Fei, who told us to turn ourselves in quickly—he’s afraid that there was a mole in Pear Blossom, and they had reported our names.”
“…And you quickly surrendered?”
“Well he thought we couldn’t escape. In fact, he isn’t wrong. It’s not easy to run away from here.” Yu Le rubbed his chin, clearly dissatisfied. “Xiaoman is nominally my android, so I asked her to go home and get something, and then pretend to malfunction so she could escape this predicament.”
“In order to earn themselves more points for their meritorious service, it’s estimated that in the past, the informants only reported the dissemination of illegal text. It just so happens that the wind has been tight in the city recently, so they managed to round up everyone.”
Tang Yibu suddenly thought of the conflict in the spiritual world.
“I don’t know the specific details. You can just ask Luo Fei. Damn, thinking about it, laozi came in because of your book. What will happen to us? Do you know?”
“At least you’re not dead.”
“Bullshit.”
“Let me check… According to the way Gong Siyi usually handles it, you can take the initiative to admit that you are crazy like Luo Jian and your abnormal memories are all false, so you’ll actively undergo transformation here. If you refuse to receive treatment, your memory will be forcibly erased and filled with standard law-abiding memories.”
Tang Yibu quickly counted the cases in front of him.
“But there is a very troublesome place.”
“What?”
“When Mr. Ruan came in, he took memory inhibitors to avoid possible memory screening in the test. He knew that we would definitely leave before the theoretical efficacy expired, but those people are different. Not to mention whether they have time to prepare memory inhibitors, even if they are taken in time, it will be difficult to escape from here. They can only hide for a while with no means.”
“From another point of view, the average age of you, Luo Fei, and those other people isn’t too old. I guess that those that were reported are all members who are unaware of the situation in the rebel army.”
“Internal conflict. Kill the chicken to make an example of the monkey.” Yu Le reacted quickly.
“I’m a little curious.” Tang Yibu’s reaction was elsewhere.
“What?”
“If the rebels themselves are so taboo about memory screening of the prevention shelter and had no countermeasures for it, how did Luo Jian get in?”
Kinky Thoughts:
Despite what he may think, Gong Siyi is the luckiest character in this novel… He gets to watch the adult channel for free, while we readers have to just imagine what’s going on.
When Tang Yibu successfully returned to the prevention shelter, it was nearly an hour before 5 AM. After they had finished exchanging information, he started to become nervous again.
In order to calm these unnecessary emotions, Tang Yibu decided to observe the other party’s movements first. The joint treatment had been over almost a few hours ago, and Mr. Ruan was probably in his own ward.
He specially chose bed No. 231 for the other party, and this approach to tagging his property made him happy.
Unfortunately, after avoiding all the surveillance and arriving at the room, he found the bed was empty.
The blanket was neatly folded by the assistant robot, and the iron bead stood blankly by the bed. The moment it saw Tang Yibu, it rushed over at a speed almost comparable to a cannon. Tang Yibu darted decisively, popped open the lid, and held down the iron bead’s mouth in a fluster of actions that were executed in one go. If he had been a second slower, the aggrieved bark of the iron bead would have resounded through the corridors.
“Mr. Ruan never came back?”
The iron bead whined agitatedly. Tang Yibu petted it soothingly, then checked out all the surveillance videos in the prevention shelter. The whereabouts of the other party weren’t difficult to find—his Mr. Ruan was surrounded by a group of mechanical assistants and was taken to the most remote corner of the shelter.
The confinement area.
Tang Yibu knew that the treatment methods there were cruder than the relatively mild procedures of editing memories here.
Tang Yibu was deep in thought about his difficult decision. Now that they have seen Ruan Xian’s diary, their purpose for coming here has been achieved. Should he go ahead and see Mr. Ruan in advance and get him out of that terrible place… Or should he go to the kitchen to steal some hot milk for a meal and then attend the date as scheduled?
After all, this was their first date. If he didn’t prepare a suitable gift, it would be easy to trigger the other party’s dissatisfaction. The original prepared schematics for the blood gun were already given in advance. Considering that Mr. Ruan might still have strong hostility towards him, he had thought about a backup plan in case he didn’t send out those design drawings.
For example, some exquisite snacks served with warm milk also sounded quite appropriate.
Tang Yibu rolled on the empty bed, spread out his limbs comfortably, and calculated carefully in his mind—being there on time was an important part of human etiquette. On top of that, hot milk and walnut crisps and vegetable cookies after a day spent in the freezing snow was very much on point for gifts given the setting. However, if he went in advance, he could spend more time with the other party and maybe observe reactions that he normally didn’t see.
But without the hot milk, they could only use distilled water with the walnut crisps, which didn’t sound very good.
The iron bead jumped anxiously by the bed, hitting Tang Yibu’s heel that was dangling down. Tang Yibu struggled for a while and decided to go observe the situation. Although hot milk was scarce, it wasn’t something that could only be obtained here. It was better to collect more data.
Seeing Tang Yibu get out of the bed, the iron bead finally stopped bouncing and rattled wearily.
After 4 AM, there wasn’t a figure in sight along the corridors. Tang Yibu quickly revised the surveillance along the way and walked to the confinement area with the iron bead. Unfortunately, Mr. Ruan wasn’t alone at the moment.
Tang Yibu arrived at his destination quickly. He didn’t immediately enter after confirming the condition of the room, but instead carried the walnut crisps and the iron bead and deftly climbed on the door.
A door away.
The straps on the bound clothes were connected to a mechanical table beneath him. Ruan Xian was firmly fixed to the mechanical platform. There was a familiar-looking machine parked above his head, but it was more refined, and the ends of its slender metal feet weren’t stained with black and red blood.
The one in the Underground City was a machine that removed brains, and the one he was currently facing must be something similar in function. It hadn’t started yet, as it was working on something else—four long metal needles pierced into his legs and shoulder, puncturing the parts where his nerves were densest and avoiding his internal organs.
Gong Siyi was operating the light screen by the mechanical table; his expression was extremely relaxed.
“You’ll be fine. It’ll only hurt a little at most,” he said. “This is a professional device, so the damage done to the human body is actually very small. It also comes with healing-related medication, so it won’t leave any sequelae, including scars. Please feel free to vent any of your emotions. I won’t mind.”
“But this treatment doesn’t look very formal.”
The needle should have done some tampering as it was injecting pain into his body in a simple and crude way. Ruan Xian instinctively became short of breath, but his voice remained steady.
Fortunately, Gong Siyi was now focusing on his emotional index and not his physical body. Before the other party found something strange, he could stall a little longer and find an appropriate way to deal with this.
The pain became more intense, and his muscles started spasming. Ruan Xian didn’t make a sound. He looked up and down at the small confinement room, focusing on the humming machinery, and finally his eyes swept over the small round window on the far side of the door.
Before he had time to think about whether it was suitable for escape, he couldn’t help but let out a puff.
Tang Yibu was outside the door, and Ruan Xian could see those iconic golden eyes. The doorway could have pressure monitoring installed on it, as Tang Yibu’s eyes were upside down. The bangs that normally covered most of his forehead had drooped down and were hanging softly towards the ground.
His beast-like golden eyes bent slightly as he noticed Ruan Xian looking over. Ruan Xian could see from those eyes that the android was smiling.
Tang Yibu even took out a delicate packaging box without any tension and shook it at him happily. The iron bead that occupied the other round window shivered as its breath of anxiety almost broke through the glass.
Hearing the stifled laugh, Gong Siyi turned around and frowned as it didn’t match the current scene they were in.
He was following the process, trying to use pain stimulation to amplify Ruan Lijie’s emotions, but the other party’s emotional index was like a pool of stagnant water. He almost suspected that this person had dementia, but he finally fluctuated a bit, but it went in a positive direction.
It was clear that everything was going well before—Ruan Lijie and Luo Jian clashed, and he successfully reproduced the other party’s undetectable hostility. Next, he only needed to take advantage of the opportunity of the other party being locked up in the confinement area and justifiably test Ruan Lijie’s emotional condition to obtain first-hand information.
Gong Siyi made sufficient preparations.
When Ruan Lijie was stimulated to the limit by the pain and became extremely hostile to him, he would open the other party’s skull and insert a detection probe into his brain for state sampling. With sufficient medicine and assistant machinery at hand, he was confident he would restore the other party’s state to its original condition before sunrise.
It was just that, in order to ensure the other party was sane, he couldn’t use anesthesia during the entire process. The craniotomy process may be a bit troublesome, but as long as Ruan Lijie’s memory was eliminated with no traces left, the other party wouldn’t experience any loss at all and he himself wouldn’t violate any rules set by the Mainbrain.
But contrary to the joint therapy, he had hit a wall right from the beginning—Ruan Lijie’s emotions were completely out of his control. Being stared at by the other party’s beautiful but dim black eyes, Gong Siyi felt like he had a poisonous stinger stuck in his back.
Unlike what he had expected, all the elements used to exert mental pressure didn’t have any effect. Instead of escaping the terrible scene of being pierced, Ruan Lijie carefully observed the machine that was inflicting pain on him.
‘It didn’t matter,’ Gong Siyi thought as he increased the dose of pain.
His real body wasn’t here. This was just a remote-controlled humanoid, so it was impossible for the other party to hurt him. Everything was fine.
This time the pain increase took effect. The young man who was tied up turned pale and began to whisper in a low voice. His brows were tightly locked as sweat kept flowing down.
“Don’t force it.” Gong Siyi tried to make himself sound gentle, and slowly turned around. “It’s okay, just let it out. Mr. Ruan, this isn’t joint therapy. If you endure it, you will only suffer longer. You…”
He was halfway through speaking before he couldn’t go on.
The man on the mechanical table was smiling. It wasn’t a sneer, nor a fake smile, or even an angry cackle. The young man, who was currently being pierced by a metal needle, smiled sincerely with a hint of cunningness attached to it.
“You’re not good enough to hear me scream,” he said. His black hair was soaked in sweat that clung to his skin. “I addition, I don’t like being called ‘Mr. Ruan’ by you.”
The scene in front of him had a cruel beauty. A pang went through Gong Siyi’s heart. He knew what kind of pain the other party was suffering.
Lunatic.
It stood to reason that this level of pain was enough to make most people lose consciousness, and he would have gotten a few blurry, hate-filled screams instead of rational words. ‘This person is very dangerous,’ Gong Siyi thought. After obtaining the data, he would hand him over to the Order Supervisors and get rid of this hot potato.
Even if his behavioral score was deducted, he would admit to it.
He had dealt with many patients with mental problems, and no one had ever come to his level of abnormality. At this moment, the other party was baring his fangs at him unreservedly. He might have even prepared for this in advance, and this thought only made Gong Siyi’s internal organs churn.
Gong Siyi took a deep breath and raised the pain by another level.
However, the emotional value monitoring system seemed to be broken as it continued to maintain a positive index. There was no anger, hatred, or hostility. If he wanted to define the state of this patient, his attitude towards him was… Ridiculous.
Gong Siyi’s heart sank and became colder. He was obviously the one in charge, but he was so flustered that he became a little scared.
“Don’t force it, Doctor Gong. It’s better to let me go.”
Seeing that the other party’s face quickly turned to the same color as the wall, Ruan Xian slowly spat out his words one by one. While Gong Siyi was repeatedly trying to confirm the emotional index, he would look outside the door from time to time.
There was a little light from the light screen on the other side of the round window. It seemed that Tang Yibu was busy cracking something. The android occasionally poked his head out and squinted his eyes at him.
“I promise I won’t get angry again. You see, I’m doing well right now, right?” Ruan Xian smiled back at Tang Yibu and continued to add fuel to the fire.
The pain wandered all over his body. It was like the blood in his veins had turned into boiling oil. Unexpectedly, Ruan Xian didn’t feel much pain but felt relaxed. Compared to the pain caused by the wound on his wrist, this current pain wasn’t worth mentioning.
Tang Yibu’s hypothesis was correct. This was the first time he had accurately captured the “pain” that really belonged to him, not anger.
Ruan Xian was really in a good mood. Poor Gong Siyi, who was next to him, was about to have a nervous breakdown.
“I didn’t want to go this far.” Dr. Gong murmured quickly. “There’s no other way. It seems we can only switch the order. Honestly, why do I bother.”
A shaking shadow passed across his face. Ruan Xian raised his head and saw the brain-taking machine start to move.
“I have to make a small incision in your head. You’d better not move.” Gong Siyi seemed to have made up his mind. “I should have been more direct. People like you… Who can contribute nothing to society, this is considered the best way to make use of you.”
Ruan Xian didn’t respond. From the corner of his eyes, he looked in the direction of Tang Yibu.
The light from the light screen had disappeared. Tang Yibu leaned against the window, pointing to the gun in his hand.
“I only have one question.” Seeing those thin metal limbs getting closer, Ruan Xian spoke again.
Gong Siyi stopped his movement and tightly pursed his lips.
“…What time is it now?”
“Around 5,” Gong Siyi gritted his teeth and replied.
“Thank you.” Ruan Xian twitched his fingers twice, turned his face in the direction of the door, nodded vigorously, and the smile on his face became brighter.
Gong Siyi turned around abruptly, but it was too late.
The door slid open silently, and at the same time, the program restraints malfunctioned. Ruan Xian broke free as the long needles that pierced his body slowly withdrew. Ruan Xian didn’t even wait for them to completely withdraw as he forcibly sat up from the mechanical table and let the needle cut into his flesh. Tang Yibu jumped into the room lightly, grabbed Gong Siyi’s head and pressed him directly against the wall.
Ruan Xian flashed past tacitly as the iron bead rushed in while whining, circling around Ruan Xian’s ankles at high speed.
“Done observing?” Tang Yibu asked softly.
“Nn.”
Ruan Xian rushed to the console, imitated Gong Siyi’s operation just now, and summoned countless light screens. Knowing the activation method was like opening the door to a room, it was only a matter of time before he could take the contents inside. Since Gong Siyi intended to store his brain state in this machine, it was likely that it wasn’t equipped with strict data monitoring or was simply offline to prevent others from accidentally discovering it.
It turned out that his speculation was correct.
“What about you? Have you observed enough?” After confirming that this thing wasn’t connected to the network, Ruan Xian successfully called up its assembly structure diagram with a smile in his voice.
“Not enough.” Tang Yibu’s tone had a hint of regret, which made Ruan Xian’s fingers stop.
“I have a guess. It was the same during the joint therapy, and also now. You seem to like watching me get messed up.” Ruan Xian raised his eyebrows and flicked the light screen containing drawings in Tang Yibu’s direction.
“Because your reaction is always very special and worth recording, but if I want to do it myself, in case I don’t grasp the right degree, our cooperative relationship won’t be stable again.” Tang Yibu looked at the light screen solemnly and directly tore off one of Gong Siyi’s arms with his other hand. Fine parts of the remote-controlled humanoid were scattered all over the place, but Gong Siyi didn’t scream and only shivered frantically.
“You two…”
“Oh.” Ruan Xian took the robotic arm thrown by Tang Yibu and began to organize the parts inside calmly, completely ignoring the restraint clothing that was soaked in blood from being cut by the steel needles. “Indeed, under normal circumstances, pain isn’t a good thing.”
“Right.” Tang Yibu also had a smile in his voice as he casually removed Gong Siyi’s arm. “This date is a bit different from what I thought, but it’s also quite interesting. Speaking of this, Mr. Ruan, I brought you a very delicious snack.”
“You guys…” Gong Siyi cried weakly, trying to add a sense of existence to himself.
“Mm-hmm,” Ruan Xian responded half-heartedly. Not waiting for him to continue, he changed the subject. “Yibu, give me the gun.”
However, Tang Yibu didn’t have any intention of throwing over the gun. He looked at Ruan Xian in horror, as if his worldview had been shaken. “Where’s my gift?”
Ruan Xian almost laughed out loud again. He pushed away the iron bead that was drooling on the table, turned around, and asked back with bad intention. “What gift?”
“I gave you the schematics and even brought you walnut crisps.” Tang Yibu grabbed the snack bag aggrievedly. “According to the information, shouldn’t the first date be like this? Even if you brought some kind of plant, that’s still fine with me. This kind of cooperation is unequal, so I hereby protest.”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. Actually, I prepared it. I confirmed it just now. I think you will like it.”
Tang Yibu hid his pericardium and shook the blood gun in his hand again. “Tell me about it?”
“Don’t worry about our partnership. You can make a mess of me on certain occasions. I don’t mind.” Ruan Xian took a few steps forward, kissed Tang Yibu’s lips teasingly, and took the blood gun out of his hand. “Sometimes pain isn’t so bad.”
“Well—” Tang Yibu deliberately lengthened his voice, “According to the degree to which a particular someone seemed to be endless, I’m not the only one who likes this kind of thing. Isn’t it inappropriate to treat this as a one-sided gift*?”
*Clarity: In case you’re missing it, Tang Yibu is unhappy that the gift Ruan Xian is preparing for him is sex because to him, Ruan Xian also enjoys it as well, so this would be just as much of a gift to him as to himself.
This cunning android almost rebuked what he had said, and the worst thing was that he wasn’t good at fighting back. Ruan Xian finally laughed. He dipped his thumb in the remaining blood on his clothes and gently wiped Tang Yibu’s soft lower lip.
He suddenly understood the other party’s obsession with writing his name on things.
“I didn’t think about it thoroughly enough.” Ruan Xian kissed Tang Yibu again and stole some of the other party’s body heat. “I’ll prepare some more gifts to compensate you.”
“You two!” Gong Siyi was almost roaring this time. “What do you want to do? Why can’t my consciousness go back? Who are you guys?”
“Bad people,” Ruan Xian replied indifferently.
Gong Siyi: “……”
“You know the answer yourself,” Tang Yibu’s response was solemn; so serious that it seemed to be straight up sarcastic. “I must disconnect you from the outside in advance. If I let you go back, you’ll attract the attention of the Order Supervisors.”
“I know!” He didn’t know if it was their intention, but these two people weren’t answering the main point at all.
They were really together, and everything had been calculated. This idea raced through Gong Siyi’s mind, and he could hardly think about it. “No one can do this. The remote-controlled humanoid was designed and developed by the Mainbrain… No, what the hell are you trying to do?!”
As soon as he was about to start explaining, the two demons turned their heads with an obvious lack of interest, leaving Gong Siyi dumbfounded.
“Isn’t it obvious? Robbery.” Ruan Xian quickly disassembled the blood gun and began to install parts inside. “Yibu, the drawing number PT-0871 helped me process it, but the size is a bit different.”
Under Gong Siyi’s horrified gaze, Tang Yibu glanced at the schematics from Ruan Xian, peeled off the heavy shell of the emotion detector like a chestnut, took out a part, and began to mold it into another shape with his fingertips.
The iron bead took the opportunity to lean forward and quickly ate the parts that were broken by Tang Yibu.
He had no idea what was going on. Fear accumulated to its peak and began to transform into numbness. Gong Siyi’s remote-controlled humanoid was missing a leg, its two arms, and had a small cavity in its chest. He stopped making sounds and shrank silently against the wall, like a broken piece of machinery.
A few steps away, Ruan Xian finally assembled his new blood gun. He moved his sore fingers and gently kissed the barrel of the gun.
“I forgot to say, I like this gift very much. Thank you.”
A puffed-up Tang Yibu finally exhaled some air and took out the snack. “Is the matter with Luo Jian over? Can we leave tonight? There are still too many restrictions on activities here.”
“Tomorrow. There’s something wrong in the joint dreamland, and I still have information to collect.” For example, Luo Jian’s backup plan. It wasn’t a bad thing to know more about ways to deal with the Order Supervisors. He was taken away in front of Luo Jian and didn’t have time to communicate with him. Considering the previous situation, the other party probably had a lot of questions to ask.
“It’s too vague. I want to hear a more detailed explanation, including things about the diary.” Tang Yibu took the blood gun and checked it carefully while protesting.
“It’s still not even 6 yet. I’m going to have breakfast at 9 at the latest.” Ruan Xian smoothed out Tang Yibu’s hair, then picked up a piece of walnut crisps. “We can go back to the room first. Let me give my gift sincerely, and slowly explain things—Remember to leave me some strength so I can speak normally.”
“Don’t leave me here!” Seeing that the two of them were leaving, Gong Siyi panicked. There had never been a case of a consciousness trapped in a remote-controlled machine before, and the unknown made him panic like crazy. “What if I don’t arrive on time tomorrow. The Order Supervisors will start to become suspicious. If you can’t escape by then, let me go. I won’t say anything. I definitely won’t say anything—”
Ruan Xian sighed and squatted in front of the broken remote-controlled humanoid.
The original handsome humanoid appearance of this machine had completely disappeared, and the fine parts under the simulated skin were hideously exposed. The only intact mechanical eyeball was spinning in circles, full of panic, but not even a drop of tear could be shed.
“You have a point.” He smiled at Gong Siyi. “But I don’t believe your promise.”
“I apologize. Can’t I apologize!” Gong Siyi panicked. “I’m just an ordinary person who wants to make a little money. I didn’t break any rules… You can’t do this to me. I obviously didn’t intend to hurt you. Don’t leave me here…”
“I don’t care about the rules set by the Mainbrain.”
Ruan Xian shook his head gently.
“Here, let me tell you what’s going to happen. According to the hospital’s data, you sent me back to my room in the middle of the night, and then I had a good time with my boyfriend while you returned to this room. Due to some mishandling, the offline equipment exploded.”
“No……”
“You will return to your body and remember the real facts. However, considering security concerns, before we let you go back, we need to blur certain information… Like our appearance, voice, and conversation. After all, we still need to fuck.”
Having said that, Ruan Xian stood up, put one hand around Tang Yibu’s waist, and squinted his eyes as he enjoyed the heat radiating from the other party’s body.
For the real human brain, this operation was quite difficult, but for the consciousness projected into the remote-controlled humanoid, memories were nothing more than pure data… And Dr. Gong never used his real body to work.
Gong Siyi couldn’t move anymore and remained silent, as if he had lost consciousness. Dr. Gong’s brain wasn’t bad, so Ruan Xian suspected he knew whatthis meant…
Either he knocked out his own teeth and swallowed the blood and honestly bore the responsibility of blowing up the Mainbrain’s property, or he would make trouble for the Order Supervisors without any real evidence to prove his case and get rid of all his guilt.
“Why make it so complicated. Just delete all my memories.” A few minutes later, Gong Siyi spoke again. His tone was mixed with resignation.
“In fact, wouldn’t it be a pity to delete it?” Ruan Xian said softly. “In case someone gets your account, this is also a good opportunity for publicity.”
Gong Siyi raised his head with difficulty.
“Tell them that this was all done by the ‘Red Ghost‘.”
The author has something to say:
The anxious iron bead, despairing over Daddy Tang’s ability to capture the key points.√
Dr. Gong who rushed into the Order Supervisor’s office: Don’t be afraid of what I’m going to say. (Omitted)
Kinky Thoughts:
Can I just say how much I love Tang Yibu. Best gong ever. I also love the dynamic in their relationship. Ruan Xian ain’t no fragile shou. He knows what he wants, and he takes it. Tang Yibu had better step up to the plate and last more than 2 hours.
At that moment, Ruan Xian didn’t know what was going on in the android’s mind.
Luo Jian had already revealed enough information this time and pursuing it further would only arouse suspicion. Ruan Xian stopped talking. He walked a little further and carefully engraved the contents of the diary that had a pale golden cover in his mind.
It was probably the first time that Li Han came into contact with a strange force other than the rebel army. After Ruan Xian walked far enough, she barely overcame her nervousness and successfully constructed the carriage with two fat pigeons attached.
“Xiao Han, urgently notify the people in the city and let them leave first.” Sitting firmly in the back of the carriage, Luo Jian calmly ordered.
Li Han secretly glanced at Ruan Xian, who was sitting nearby, and gulped. Ruan Xian was accustomed to that kind of unfriendly look and simply leaned towards Luo Jian’s side. Even if he saved her in a sense, in the eyes of that girl, he was still some kind of unknown danger.
When she commanded the pigeon to fly away, her hands were still shaking.
“Don’t take it personally.” After noticing Ruan Xian’s movements, Luo Jian began to whisper in a low voice. “It’s not that she’s not thankful. She’s just not used to things she can’t understand.”
“I don’t mind.” Ruan Xian didn’t lie this time.
The girl looked younger than Ji Xiaoman and she grew up in The Glass Conservatory. Most likely, she was able to join the rebel army due to the enthusiasm of youth. All previous emergencies were under Luo Jian’s control, and problems could be explained. However, this incident made her sense of security pop like a bubble, so it was natural to have an overreaction.
Luo Jian turned his head to look at him. The smile on his face was a bit complicated.
What followed was a long silence.
The carriage was creaking in the snow. Auntie Yan was driving, while Li Han shrank in the corner. The trees on the side of the road were sparse, but Ruan Xian couldn’t see any traces of Tang Yibu. Perhaps seeing that he had the diary, the android left here early. Ruan Xian subconsciously touched his earring.
He wasn’t too worried about Tang Yibu. On the contrary, he had a wonderful premonition—different from the morbid confidence when facing death—even if Tang Yibu ran into the Mainbrain at this moment, he wouldn’t be late for their date.
Li Han’s mood wasn’t very stable as the car was moving at a pace slower than walking, yet he was unable to find Tang Yibu. The slowly retreating snow scenery made people drowsy
“I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Do you have any experience in this area?” Now that he had enough information, it was time to think about how to leave.
Unfortunately, he waited for a long time, yet Luo Jian didn’t give a response. Ruan Xian thought he hadn’t heard him clearly, so he changed his question. “How do we leave on our own initiative?”
But Luo Jian still didn’t answer, so Ruan Xian could only turn his gaze away from the snow scene.
Luo Jian was still sitting next to Ruan Xian. Without clothes covering his skin, it revealed signs of cracks, as if there were invisible insects constantly gnawing on his flesh. The blood was particularly conspicuous in this pale world. Luo Jian didn’t make a sound but turned his face away from Li Han’s direction.
Ruan Xian didn’t react in a panic, but instead the indifference that was unlike ordinary people at this moment took effect.
“The scanning specifications are different from before,” Luo Jian hissed. “What did you do to the scanners?”
“Erase the relevant data and wait for it to disappear naturally so it won’t have a record of us.”
Luo Jian curled up his fingers, and the back of his hand looked severely burned. “It seems that I’m quite unlucky that a big guy happened to be here… The scanner programs fusing means that they encountered a difficult object to deal with. Usually, it’s fine, but now… Even if they don’t find suspicious records, they’d rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one go.”
He slowed down his speech, but his bad appearance didn’t improve.
“This used to happen occasionally, but this time we unfortunately hit a bump in the road. I’ll have to forcibly eject you guys. Sorry. I’m probably being targeted… Now they are going to completely destroy my memory.”
“Lao Luo.” Auntie Yan didn’t look back as she spoke with a little suppressed tremor in her voice.
“It’s okay, I won’t die. Xiao Yan, you can withdraw first.” Luo Jian was very calm. “I hope that the group of guys in the city will see the warning and run faster. Passively withdrawing will leave them with a headache for a year and a half or so, but at least you can leave by yourself. Now I can only take these two into account.”
“Send Li Han away first, I’m not in a hurry,” Ruan Xian said decisively.
He was a little curious about how Luo Jian planned to deal with this matter—right now he still had an ace in his hand he hadn’t used. Although it was a bit dangerous, the probability of it being feasible was still quite high.
Auntie Yan disappeared into thin air, and the carriage gradually came to a stop. The surrounding snow scenery slowly became blurred and turned into patchy whiteness. Li Han didn’t choose to leave immediately. The young girl’s lips trembled as she looked at Luo Jian sternly.
“You should go,” Luo Jian said. “If you leave a second early, the shock will be one point less.”
“What about you?” Ruan Xian held his arms.
“I’m prepared.” Luo Jian was frighteningly calm.
“If your preparation is to delay time and deliberately let your will be destroyed in order to fundamentally protect the information in your mind… I personally hope you will reconsider.”
Li Han who sat on the side, suddenly raised her head and stared at Luo Jian.
“…This way, everyone will be safe.”
Despite having his thoughts seen through, Luo Jian’s voice remained calm. The blood almost soaked all of his winter clothes.
He could stay here, let his consciousness disappear with his memory, and let his brain be destroyed. Even if the worse happened and his brain was taken away and cracked, they wouldn’t be able to get anything out of the damaged brain.
“As the hub, I can’t take the initiative to leave. Although other preparations can be made in advance, the treatment time is set by Gong Siyi. There’s no need for anyone to take risks in order to save me alone.”
“You said you have a way!” Li Han’s tears dripped down. At this moment, she no longer cared about Ruan Xian, and rushed directly to Luo Jian as if she wanted to hug him but dared not. “Without your leadership, Pear Blossom will definitely fall apart. Didn’t you say you would be fine?”
“Good girl.” Luo Jian hugged her and patted her on the back. “It can’t be helped. Sometimes that’s how luck works.”
“But you’re the leader—”
“My life is no more precious than yours.”
Li Han cried even more severely, while Ruan Xian, who was expressionless on one side, seemed a bit out of place.
“Stop for a moment.”
Ruan Xian pinched his eyebrows. He knew he should try his best not to look like an asshole in this sad atmosphere, but he had become lazier about pretending lately. “I can understand that you don’t want to forcibly evacuate and arouse more suspicion, but Mr. Luo, you have more than just this backup plan.”
According to Guan Haiming, Luo Jian was the master of infiltration of the rebel army, so he wouldn’t use his own death as a foolproof solution.
“If it will only cause a general degree of vigilance and allow the treatment to end normally, I have a way.”
The skin on Luo Jian’s face and hands began to peel off. He didn’t have much fear of the coming death, and his voice only sounded more exhausted.
“It’s a pity that the situation is special this time. We’ve only been here for a day. It’s impossible to wait until treatment ends properly. Mr. Ruan, thank you for your help. I hope that this diary will be useful to you.”
“It’s still a bit early to say goodbye.” Ruan Xian walked up to Luo Jian.
“What—”
Luo Jian only saw the young man raise his hand, accompanied by a shrill scream from Li Han.
There was a coolness in the neck, followed by tingling, and finally turned into severe pain. He could feel blood gushing out. Luo Jian was a little stunned. He stretched out his hand and touched the wound carefully.
The “Mr. Ruan” had used a spoon to slit his throat, causing an extremely deep wound.
The next second, Luo Jian sat up abruptly from the liquid tank and coughed out the liquid in his lungs. Gong Siyi was standing by his side, with a weird expression, looking as if he was both worried and happy.
Luo Jian looked at him blankly, catching sight of the syringe in the corner of the other party’s pocket.
Not far away, Li Han was holding the edge of the liquid tank. Her tears still hadn’t stopped. The young man surnamed Ruan also sat up, looking angry.
“You…” Luo Jian didn’t react for a while.
“Fortunately, I knew that you and Ruan Lijie had conflict, so I watched from the side. It seems something happened.”
Gong Siyi sighed. “After all, this is your first joint therapy. There won’t be any good places in a doomsday fantasy. Young people are still too fiery. I’ll take care of Ruan Lijie.”
Luo Jian tried to cast a puzzled look at “Ruan Lijie”, but the young man’s acting skills were very good. He didn’t even look at him once, as if some unsolvable hatred had really broken out between them.
Under the supervision of the mechanical assistant, the man slowly put on his restraint clothes, then was tied tightly, and was quickly taken away from the treatment room. Li Han was still crying as medicine slid down Luo Jian’s intact skin, trickling over his fingers and falling drop by drop to the floor.
“You guys go back and rest early,” Gong Siyi said with a smile. “A good night’s sleep will do you guys good.”
“Ruan Lijie, he…”
“He will be transferred to the confinement area until his mood stabilizes. Don’t worry, I won’t let him participate in joint therapy again in the future.”
Luo Jian slowly clenched his fists, not knowing how to express his feelings at the moment. Gong Siyi was completely avoiding the crucial point while taking things lightly. This wasn’t a question of whether he was angry or not.
He was the memory provider for the joint therapy and the center of the spiritual world. In order to prevent vicious medical malpractices, for patients inside the joint treatment like Ruan Lijie and Li Han, the emotional index detection was much more stringent than in the real world.
In theory, even if his memory was on the verge of annihilation, Ruan Lijie couldn’t take the initiative to kill him. The moment Ruan Lijie developed a strong hostility against him, the system would automatically eject him.
But Ruan Lijie was able to use the spoon and cut his throat directly without any hindrance.
To achieve this level, in addition to circumventing the system’s emotional monitoring, it was always necessary to be 100% sure that Gong Siyi happened to be on the scene, rather than using the system to manage it autonomously. It was almost impossible for emotional monitoring to go wrong, so even if Ruan Xian slit his throat, the system would first need to feed this anomaly back to Gong Siyi and alert him so he could deal with it.
The reaction time for this was enough that he would calm down by then.
Based on his own investigation of Gong Siyi, Dr. Gong was a typical resident of The Glass Conservatory. He was extremely obedient to the Mainbrain, so there was absolutely no possibility of mutiny and he could only be misguided.
It seemed that the organization that called itself the “Red Ghost” was deeper than he thought.
“Lao Luo.” Li Han put on her sick uniform and stumbled over. The liquid in her hair hadn’t dried yet. “What happened just now? I don’t understand. I don’t understand… Were you really lying to me?”
“Sorry.” Luo Jian glanced at the girl’s pale and trembling lips and held back the urge to sigh. Only then did he have a real sense that he had come back from the dead. The world in his eyes seemed to be shaking. “…I’ll give you a good explanation, but…”
“But what?”
“Before that, I have to find a chance to talk to Ruan Lijie.” Luo Jian closed his eyes.
Seeing that Auntie Yan was being monitored by Ruan Xian, Tang Yibu took the initiative to withdraw from the joint dream first. However, it wasn’t accurate to say that he took the initiative, but more like he was forced out by a botched information notification.
Before he took two steps, the nearby snowflakes turned into scattered white text. They were incredibly hard to make out, and it made him uncomfortable. Tang Yibu watched the snow for a long time before he barely managed to understand the information it carried.
[Lao Yu has withdrawn. Please return.]
Most likely, this flow of foreign information was from Ji Xiaoman. The little girl knew a lot of research on the cybernetic brain, but her skills were still limited. They were poured into his brain and turned into crude visuals and tactile cues.
Tang Yibu shook the words, ignored them, and planned to stay a little longer.
As a result, those words crackled and fell, not stopping as the word “quickly” was added. Tang Yibu shook off the white characters that circled his head, causing the “Yu” character to fall onto the snow.
He didn’t really care about the safety of those two humans, but considering that his precious body was still with them, Tang Yibu had to yield. He mulled for a while, flipped through the additional system data of his environment, and forcibly kicked himself out.
As a result, when he opened his eyes, Yu Le was eating a small bag of fresh walnut crisps with Ji Xiaoman. Luo Fei and Auntie Yan hadn’t woken up yet, and there was nothing going on in the store.
After making a sweep of the few plates of snacks left, Tang Yibu only felt that he had received a double blow. The two humans didn’t know how lucky they were as all the remaining snacks had teeth marks on them.
“What about the emergency?” Tang Yibu took off his breathing mask and grinned, showing an unfriendly smile.
“I was afraid you were lost.” Yu Le squinted at him. “I was having a hard time over here too, you know. The android I brought in hasn’t said a word and was lost in its own world.”
“Lao Yu, get down to business.”
“Alright, alright, business.” Yu Le scratched his head. “I pried out some information from Luo Fei and probably have some ideas about the situation here. Aren’t you in a hurry? It’s better to make things clear sooner rather than later… Don’t look at me like that. Like I said, if Luo Fei woke up and you were still knocked out, how would I explain that?”
Tang Yibu huffed.
“Anyway, go back first. I have something to talk about.” Yu Le stood up. Tang Yibu seemed to be stuck to the stool as he remained motionless. Ji Xiaoman had already walked to the door. When she saw that her companions hadn’t followed, she turned her head suspiciously.
Yu Le rolled his eyes. “Little profiteer, go next door and order a pack of walnut crisps to go.”
Tang Yibu stood up.
“Two packs,” he said. “There’s also Mr. Ruan’s share.”
Yu Le was shocked to find that the android had kept his word this time—Tang Yibu listened to his account of Luo Fei’s tragic past while sweetly nibbling on the walnut crisp, seemingly enjoying it, but he didn’t even touch the share left for Ruan Lijie.
“I understand.” After listening to the story, Tang Yibu didn’t look touched at all, as if he had just finished listening to a wildlife observation. “The technique is somewhat interesting, but not appropriate.”
“…” Yu Le began to seriously contemplate whether he should really continue traveling with this guy.
“Luo Fei’s generation had a comprehensive genetic record at birth, so it’s not difficult to make a clone. As for his memory, it should have been instilled later in life. The overall quality of the people here is high, and they have no idea about the Great Rebellion of the 22nd century. If the workload is too large to eliminate one by one, it’s better to directly replace it with a full set of false memories.”
“His memory is basically consistent with Luo Jian’s situation. At most, it’s just a changed version. This can’t be a coincidence.” Yu Le scratched his head. “I originally thought the same as you, but it doesn’t make sense.”
“Luo Fei’s age may not be what it looks like. You’re a bit preconceived, Mr. Yu.” Tang Yibu licked the residual crumbs leftover from the snack on his finger. “What if he’s also part of the correction method?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Luo Jian came here four years ago, and Auntie Yan came with Ruan Xian two years later. Luo Fei told you that the starting point of his contact with Pear Blossom was through Auntie Yan. Based on this alone, we cannot be sure that this Luo Fei existed four years ago.”
Tang Yibu spread out his hands with a natural look on his face.
“Luo Jian got a fake identity, established Pear Blossom, and looked for young people who might become the ‘spark’ for the truth. Then Ruan Xian came and brought Auntie Yan and let Pear Blossom develop and grow… As far as what I observed in it, he sent not only Auntie Yan but also some older rebels who couldn’t fight outside.”
“Pear Blossom developed to a certain scale. In order to ensure the safety of their members, Luo Jian, the leader, pretended to be ill and became a fringe member of society, then put himself into a prevention shelter and became the hub that provided a safe place for the rebels to operate. In other words, he made himself an anomaly in this perfect city.”
Tang Yibu looked as if he was solving a problem with quite a bit of interest.
“Even if Luo Jian disguises his identity, his DNA cannot be modified, and hiding DNA would be suspicious. Combining the information obtained from the doctor and giving him a new relative is a very effective means.”
“……”
“If Luo Jian is a real patient, this can be used as a means to experiment and try to treat him. If Luo Jian has other purposes, this can also impact his psychological defenses. Isn’t there a broad statement humans use in the face of the death of a loved one? ‘It would be great if everything was a nightmare.’ In short, no matter what the situation is, the Mainbrain won’t suffer.”
The inhuman feelings of the other party surfaced again. Yu Le put away the expression on his face and tightened his muscles. He knew that bionics didn’t need to consider things from a human standpoint, but Tang Yibu’s tone of speaking about the matter was very flat, as if he was explaining a certain natural phenomenon.
The blandness made him uncomfortable.
“According to you, if you want a perfect city, the Mainbrain shouldn’t let Pear Blossom exist.” Yu Le couldn’t help choking back.
“After all, this is still a petri dish.” Tang Yibu wiped the oil on his hands with a handkerchief. “Of course, when doing experiments, you have to observe multiple control groups, and you use all the materials you have at your fingertips. Personally, it seems that the Android Show, the self-developed Pear Blossom, and Ruan Xian’s thoughts were all tools to distinguish the observation groups here.”
Tang Yibu didn’t explicitly say it, but Yu Le could guess what the subject of observation was after all this was gathered. Ji Xiaoman, who had been listening in silence next to him, also turned blue. She was a smart girl and must’ve noticed the chilling possibility…
The human body could be repaired at will, or simply replaced with machinery. The human mind could be replaced with a cybernetic brain, and memory can be grafted, but at least, in the petri dishes they came in contact with before, the Mainbrain didn’t touch anything regarding personality itself.
This was indeed a glass conservatory.
For the flowers to flourish and become beautiful, unnecessary mental branches needed to be pruned away. Those with impure colors needed to be eliminated and improved, and weeds couldn’t exist. It gave people different guidance and pushed this society without wind and rain forward autonomously.
It was shaping them, and when they got off track, it conducted therapeutic experiments with almost cruel curiosity, allowing the garden to gradually thrive.
Yu Le became nauseous.
“…That is my conclusion.” Finding that the faces of the two of them had changed, Tang Yibu made a simple summary and picked up the bag of walnut crisps. “If there’s no other information to be exchanged, I’ll go first.”
“Wait.” Yu Le opened his mouth.
“Hmm?”
“You sound indifferent to this approach. If the positions were switched and it was you, would you do the same?”
“Of course not.” Tang Yibu leaned against the door, looking like he was doing his best to fight against the aroma of the packet of walnut crisps. “The problems of human society have nothing to do with me, and I have no need to intervene. What’s more, I haven’t even completed the basic course given by Ruan Xian.”
“…Then why are you helping us?” Yu Le breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s not to help. It’s to use each other,” Tang Yibu corrected solemnly. “Your cooking is delicious, and Miss Ji is also very useful when we need to cooperate our actions.”
“Okay, okay. Get lost.” Yu Le wiped his face. Unconsciously, the chill on his skin had dissipated.
“Goodbye.” Tang Yibu waved his hand and walked out with the snacks.
“Which AI do you think this guy is from? I don’t think he’s from Plan Corp.” After Tang Yibu’s figure disappeared, Yu Le collapsed onto the sofa. “I can’t imagine who would do such a dangerous thing. They probably drank too much when they wrote the instructions.”
“I don’t know.” Ji Xiaoman’s face still didn’t look good. “Do you still want to go with us?”
“Fuck no, but I can’t stay here either. To be honest, I’m still curious about who’s behind those two people. Not to mention the issue of outrageous personality, the strength of that android is quite scary. Speaking of which, Ruan Lijie’s brain isn’t normal either… Forget it. If I had to choose between a shithole and a firepit, I rather jump into the fire with you.”
Yu Le looked at the snow-white ceiling. Lying in such a city made him uncomfortable all over.
“At least compared to the Mainbrain, our android has one advantage. He’s still willing to communicate with us and between him and Xiao Ruan…”
After sighing for a while, Yu Le continued.
“You summed it up quite right. They really seem to be serious.”
Kinky Thoughts:
Turns out utopia isn’t what people imagined it to be, for those who realize the truth anyway. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
For most people in The Glass Conservatory, it was a clear and peaceful morning. Under the purification of regulating machinery, the air was fresh and pleasant, and the greenery inside the city was just right. There was no annoying mechanical sound, and only pleasant birdsong could be heard.
There was an extremely tall building in the center of the city. From the topmost room, one could see the entire city and its surrounding lush forests.
The indoor electronic fireplace was burning, and a hearty breakfast was placed on the adjacent table. A well-dressed android attendant left the table and began to choose the music and indoor fragrance for the morning.
Perfect temperature and humidity, a well-organized, spotless space, and an elegant style without the slightest accumulation of the elements. This luxurious residence had more than one floor, with an indoor pool and other recreational facilities on the lower floors and an open garden on the roof.
In terms of living conditions, no matter how discerning people were, they wouldn’t be able to spot an issue here.
There was a visitor here today.
Looking at the appearance, it was a handsome man in his thirties. His short black hair was neatly trimmed, and his gaze was like a falcon. Although the visitor wasn’t very old, his gestures faintly revealed a heavy majesty.
He walked into the door, took off his gloves neatly, and was guided by the attendant to the table.
There was no expression on the man’s face. From entering the door to sitting down at the table, there was no extra movement.
As soon as he sat down, countless light screens were automatically turned around him. The man drank hot tea and quickly reviewed the images and text on the light screen. Just by looking at his actions, it seemed that he was the owner of this luxurious space.
Five minutes, ten minutes. He was still the only one sitting at the dining table. Finally, the man raised his eyes. “Where is he?”
“Mr. Fan isn’t in good condition.” The android leaned slightly. “Please wait a moment, Commander Zhuo.”
“Nn,” The man known as Commander Zhuo replied coldly. “What kind of death did that old man think of again?”
“Mr. Fan Linsong hasn’t made dangerous moves for a while. He just drastically reduced his activity frequency and spent most of his time lying in bed.”
“Gave up?” Commander Zhuo slid the light screen in front of him twice and continued to deal with his affairs. “Then he should at least have a minimal courtesy.”
“…Zhuo Muran.”
At that moment, an old voice sounded from the door.
An old man, who was not much different from the living skeleton, stood at the entrance of the dining room in standard clothing, supported by an attendant. His voice was full of sadness.
“Mr. Fan Linsong.” Zhuo Muran greeted politely. “How are you doing lately?”
“You should already know.” Fan Linsong’s voice was hoarse, and his eyes were bloodshot.
Zhuo Muran took a sip of tea and glanced at Fan Linsong, who looked like a mummified corpse. He didn’t speak, but there was a bit more irony in his smile.
“Today’s not a scheduled meeting day.”
Fan Linsong stumbled to the table, not touching any of the tableware.
“As the Commander-in-Chief of the Order Supervisors, you are also quite busy. Cough, and now that you’ve seen my situation, I won’t see you off.”
“The scheduled meeting has been changed.” Zhuo Muran had no intention of leaving his seat. “The Mainbrain should’ve notified you.”
Hearing the word Mainbrain, Fan Linsong’s hand shook.
“You should feel honored to be supported by the Mainbrain like this. Or do you have any dissatisfaction with your current life?” Zhuo Muran put down the teacup. “It will meet all your needs, you know that. Now you live in the best place in the world to survive, enjoy the most advanced medical treatment, and don’t even have to do anything.”
Having said that, Zhuo Muran waved his hand and motioned to the attendant to pour himself another cup of tea.
Taking advantage of the attendant turning away, Fan Linsong somehow mustered up the strength and suddenly grabbed a fork on the table and stabbed viciously towards his throat.
The attendant who was pouring tea for Zhuo Muran tilted its head slightly before one hand came off its wrist. The slender hand popped out like a bullet, connected to the body by a metal tube, and in the next moment firmly grabbed Fan Linsong’s wrist.
Everything happened within an instant.
When he was stopped, Fan Linsong hadn’t had time to exert his strength. The tip of the fork was more than two centimeters away from his throat. A few steps away, the female attendant restrained him from a distance with just one hand as she poured tea steadily with the other.
“It’s useless.” Zhuo Muran took a sip of tea. “Like I said, you’re being looked after by the most intelligent creature in the world.”
“Bullshit,” Fan Linsong gasped. “Since it meets my every need, why won’t it let me die, huh?”
“It determined that you have no reason to seek death. This is just an impulse. Speaking of this, isn’t it you who took the first step, Professor Fan?” Zhuo Muran raised his eyes. “The person who understands us best should obviously be you, yet you went and joined the rebel army with Ruan Xian.”
“Because this is not normal, this is not normal…”
“MUL-01 has passed all tests. It won’t apply unacceptable practices by human standards to humans. This is one of the basic restrictions you have written yourself.”
“I didn’t build the core program. As I have said many times, it’s Ruan Xian… Xiao Ruan… I don’t know what the consequences of a small error can cause after repeated calculations.”
“There is no error.”
“It’s impossible to be error-free!”
Fan Linsong looked like he was half dead. There was no brilliance in his eyes, his face was sallow, closely resembling a ghost that was imprisoned in its grave. He pulled his short gray hair, disregarding all his former academic temperament, and his mouth babbled nonsensically.
“…There’s definitely something wrong somewhere. There has to be a guidance error in our daily inspection…”
“It’s a pity. You could’ve been our hero and fought Ruan Xian. What you call the ‘Great Rebellion of the 22nd Century’ may be crude, but it was the most efficient and reasonable approach. You cannot deny that.”
Zhuo Muran seemed to be accustomed to this scene.
“You are indeed our inspiration. But now I have to say that I am very disappointed in you. Mr. Fan, I’m sorry. Sooner or later, we will execute Ruan Xian and let this farce end quickly… He’s alive and kicking and it’s all thanks to you when I think about it.”
Fan Linsong calmed down. He stared at the still steaming milk in his cup without looking at Zhuo Muran.
“I told you about Xiao Ruan, and I also told you that it was one of the things I regretted most in my life. Thanks to me? How many times do you want me to correct this statement?”
Fan Linsong’s voice suddenly became a little empty.
“After all, I didn’t treat him at all. That’s…”
“This is one of the reasons why I came here early this time. The Mainbrain believes that this isn’t a question worth asking repeatedly. You did treat Ruan Xian properly, but there was a deviation in his thoughts and opinions. Since you have been struggling with this issue, the Mainbrain is willing to give you more information.”
Fan Linsong finally turned his gaze to Zhuo Muran.
“On April 21, 2095, Professor Ruan Xian fell into a coma due to the deterioration of his physical condition. After a month of treatment, as a collaborator, you successfully found a way to stabilize his condition and took the opportunity to use personality correction-related treatment as well. After that, Professor Ruan Xian quickly recovered and devoted himself to research again.”
“According to the feedback from people who have been in contact with Ruan Xian, Professor Ruan has talked a lot. Afterwards, the prevention agency re-measured his personality, and his mental abnormality index had been significantly reduced. His mental health far exceeded that of an ordinary person—this was the most widely circulated statement.”
Muddy tears welled up around Fan Linsong’s eyes, and his shriveled lips shook. “…No.”
“Do you think we believe this statement and regard you as our inspiration?”
Zhuo Muran shook his head.
“Ruan Xian was studying a variant of the nanobot α-092 at the time, and he had the habit of recording work summaries.”
“…I know that every day after he gets off work, he would always go back and record some details and analysis related to the experiment. I know this.”
“Judging from the medical records during that time, his health deteriorated further. NUL-00 should be aware of this matter.”
“At that time, NUL-00 was still under development, and we strictly prohibited it from actively contacting external information. What does this have to do with it?”
“NUL-00 exploited the rule. It really didn’t have permission to ‘see’ the content of those materials. In order to reduce the burden on Ruan Xian’s recording, it just added a simple synchronization log externally. It distinguished the research image records under Ruan Xian’s name and synchronized them with Ruan Xian’s personal computer in real time, then automatically classified them into auxiliary research materials.”
“Ruan Xian originally had permission to call this data. This logic wasn’t complicated, nor did it violate any regulations. It succeeded.”
Fan Linsong froze in his seat.
“Mr. Fan, you did modify the part of the image stored in the official database, but you didn’t modify the backup stored on Ruan Xian’s personal computer. After that, you were too obsessed with Ruan Xian’s talents and kept all the data on that computer. And after completing MUL-01, entered them all into MUL-01 as a research reference.”
“The above is the data analyzed by MUL-01. Now that we have seen the original image, we all know what happened that day and how you ‘treated’ Ruan Xian.”
“It never told me—” Fan Linsong’s voice became high-pitched.
“Because the Mainbrain thinks your approach is logical, there’s no need to tell you specifically. This incident is enough to prove that the instability of NUL-00 is quite large. Combined with the personality report of the original prevention shelter, its designer, Ruan Xian, most likely had a plan.”
Fan Linsong’s tears dripped down the wrinkles on his face.
“I repeat, we agree that you did treat Ruan Xian properly at the beginning. As for why you and he embarked on the current path, I can’t understand, and the Mainbrain is also very curious. If you are willing to provide information in this regard, we would be very grateful.”
Fan Linsong’s attention was not on him. The old man slowly covered his face and murmured quickly, as if trying to explain something to a non-existent person.
“He only had a few years left to live and he was slow in his progress of NUL-00, which passed the basic test and could be put to use. One person dragged out the entire project by himself… As his collaborator, I know how dangerous he is and have seen his abilities… If he was a healthy and mentally sound person, I clearly know what kind of well-being he could bring to humanity…”
Fan Linsong staggered to his feet, and the familiar pain overwhelmed him again.
Why couldn’t God give talent to the right people? Regardless of whether he gave it to him, there was no shortage of young people in that institute who could show a real smile and still live a long life.
But it gave that talent to a cold-blooded and short-lived lunatic.
The prevention agency signed a surveillance agreement with him, asking him to carefully monitor Ruan Xian, who was like a ticking timebomb. It was through this terrible agreement that he found out about Ruan Xian’s past. After that, every time he saw his terrifying collaborator, he always felt a chill from the bottom of his heart.
Ruan Xian smiled kindly to everyone and behaved in an unobtrusive manner. People were most frightened by the corroding disease, but only he knew the real abnormality of that young man.
The “normal” on the surface was matched by the “abnormal”, which was particularly creepy.
“…I thought I could fix that problem,” he said to himself. “I was wrong, I was wrong.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.” Zhuo Muran acted as if he didn’t seem to see Fan Linsong’s tears. He sighed and clapped his hands. “Fan Linsong’s current mental index?”
“On the verge of collapse.” The android attendant standing next to Zhuo Muran spoke in a flat tone.
“Well, erase his memory data for the last 30 minutes, and remember to pass the backup to the Mainbrain.”
“Yes.” The other attendant nodded, and a needle pierced directly into the back of Fan Linsong’s head.
When the expression on the old man’s face disappeared, they stretched out a handkerchief, gently wiped the tears from the old man’s face, and then sprayed some medicine spray.
Fan Linsong’s red and swollen eyes immediately returned to normal.
“If it weren’t for MUL-01’s insistence on keeping this person alive, it would be enough to just forcibly crack his brain.” Zhuo Muran folded his hands; his expression didn’t fluctuate at all.
“Cracking can only obtain memory data and personality patterns. It cannot determine the thoughts of a particular time—”
“I know. I’m just too lazy to watch him cry over and over again.” Zhuo Muran didn’t bother to look at the vocal attendant. “How much longer?”
“Nine seconds.”
“Remember to adjust the time display in this building and don’t let him find that his memory is missing.”
As soon as Zhuo Muran’s voice fell, Fan Linsong woke up from a trance.
He frowned. “Zhuo Muran, the meeting date hasn’t yet arrived.”
“The Mainbrain has changed the meeting time, I’m just here to make a routine report.”
Too lazy to repeat the same set of conversations again, before Fan Linsong spoke again, Zhuo Muran interrupted him first.
“There is only one problem to be determined—the Sea of Ruins, where waste is disposed of, and the Underground United City in 1315. Recently, interesting changes have occurred in those two regions in succession, and these two petri dishes are very close to each other. There are also traces of technological manipulation beyond the level of a local civilization. We suspect there are remnants of the rebel army still active. Have you heard of the organization called the ‘Red Ghost’?”
“No.” Fan Linsong’s tone was cold and hard, and the appearance of collapse not long ago seemed to be just an illusion.
The other party showed no signs of lying. Zhuo Muran glanced at the real-time physiological data on the screen and sighed.
“Understood. Next is the ecological briefing of each petri dish…”
“Even if MUL-01 insists that I know this.” Fan Linsong’s tone was a bit rough as he quivered a little. “Video, text, any form is fine. Whether it’s making a report or inquiring about problems, there’s no need to trouble you to come here in person for these trivial matters, Commander-in-Chief Zhuo.”
The old man aggravated the pronunciation of those last words.
“I also don’t think it’s necessary.”
Zhuo Muran smiled detachedly and scooped the sweet porridge in front of him.
“But the Mainbrain believes that regular contact with real humans is good for your psychological condition, and I obey its arrangements.”
Luo Jian’s memory world.
Ruan Xian scooped some canned beans with a spoon, hesitated for a while, then put it in his mouth, and tried not to think about what the spoon had poked not long ago.
A few steps away, Li Han failed to build for the third time.
Relying on a painter’s solid structural understanding, she seemed to be trying to imagine a small carriage that could hold four people out of thin air, but Ruan Xian could feel that the girl’s gaze swept over in horror from time to time. With this level of concentration, no one could succeed.
He went through half the canned beans, but there were only four horseshoes and two wheels on the ground.
“Xiao Han, don’t panic.” Even Luo Jian, who had slowed down, began to explain to her. “It’s possible to change his appearance due to changes in his mental state.”
Ruan Xian also knew that his image wasn’t good right now. It wasn’t easy to add an underarm holster to his winter clothes, so the blood gun was directly pinned to his waist. The wound had disappeared, but blood and debris remained on his clothes. His face had no expression as he was too lazy to put on a disguise, making him look completely like a thug.
“Thank you for your help.”
He didn’t know if it was to distract him or relieve some pressure off of Li Han as Luo Jian pulled Ruan Xian aside. Auntie Yan cooperatively walked to Li Han’s side and began to comfort her softly.
“If you didn’t make a move, I would probably have become a lunatic by now and everyone else would be in danger of mental traumatization.” Luo Jian didn’t seem to be the type that’s good at thanking people. His voice was still a bit stiff. “Earlier, Xiao Yan met with a child who was behaving abnormally. He should have gone to see you. You two…?”
“Not familiar.” Ruan Xian spoke as he chewed the beans.
“He claimed to work for the Red Ghost. I have never heard of this organization.”
Luo Jian patted the snow on his body. “What about you? Why did you save us?”
Ruan Xian almost instantly understood the cunning android’s intention and couldn’t help tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“He and I belong to two departments, each performing our own duties.” He lied fluently. “He wasn’t very willing to take action before, right? He doesn’t have to be responsible for my safety.”
Tang Yibu was making smoke, a smoke bomb.
They had done a lot of unconventional things along the way, and no one could guarantee that there would be no clues left behind. If MUL-01 was really made based off of NUL-00, its filtering and processing power was by no means bad. There would be no good consequences if they took the enemy lightly, and it was also good to add more stumbling blocks to their opponent.
Chaotic, illogical, crazy behavior, mixed with some misinformation, was good. Besides, they had no ambition to change the world, and they had no intention of deliberately leaving an impact.
On this basis, it was feasible to increase the difficulty for the Mainbrain to extract information by lacing it with confusing, counter-reconnaissance intelligence.
Luo Jian frowned and glanced at Auntie Yan. “Sorry, human sympathy is one thing, but I have to and should ask. If you want information from us—”
“We know that Ruan Xian has been here, and we also know that he has had contact with you.” Ruan Xian put down half of the canned beans he had eaten. “You mentioned Ruan Xian’s diary.”
“I was talking nonsense,” Luo Jian replied decisively.
“Looking at your reaction at the beginning, I don’t think so. Just relying on pure lies, you can’t stay in a place like a prevention shelter for too long… The next step is just our guess. You can listen to it.”
Ruan Xian looked at Luo Jian.
“Ruan Xian did leave a diary as a ‘charm’ for Pear Blossom—I’m afraid the Mainbrain has already asked the Order Supervisor to investigate that diary. There shouldn’t be too many technical-related things recorded in it, but it’s true.”
“People who really don’t know anything about the doomsday wouldn’t be aware of the hostility between Professor Ruan and the Mainbrain. I guess it’s not difficult to obtain the diary. When a person like Mr. Luo who needs to ‘break free’ from Pear Blossom appears, giving this information can minimize the suspicion of the outside world. A real insider will hear those words and just think you’re nothing but ordinary people who know nothing and are just swaggering around with works banned by the Mainbrain.”
Luo Jian’s expression became more vigilant.
“But there is a danger in this approach. Once you’re caught and exposed, you will immediately be targeted by the Mainbrain, so you organize small offline gatherings with a lack of disguise to promote forbidden text. This method is so clumsy that everyone knows about it… After all, in this city, the Order Supervisors monitor all abnormal behavior, so it was better to just play dumb.”
“In order to give a little more sweetness, you will even organize a small-scale ‘Joint Dreamland’ book club to give the Order Supervisors the information they want. If our investigation isn’t wrong, there should be many people in Pear Blossom that are really unaware of what it truly is. Hiding the woods in the forest, it’s a good technique.”
Luo Jian moved his arm, and Auntie Yan pulled him back. Ruan Xian pretended he didn’t see. He casually held the loose snow that quickly melted into a pool in his hand.
“Those small gatherings won’t make them too vigilant. They are too unstable and will be scattered by the scanning program after a few times. To achieve regular communication between multiple people, it was necessary to cooperate with real-world meetings and communication, but that was too easy to be exposed by the Mainbrain.”
Then he grasped a small snowball close to the ice core and kept wrapping snow around it.
“…If they can quietly access a sufficiently stable spiritual world, this problem will no longer be an issue. Mr. Luo’s memory is like a hidden lighthouse. When it appears, those temporary small spiritual spaces can directly access it. As long as you can avoid the scanning programs, this is the safest place to be.”
Ruan Xian stopped moving, and the snowball lay quietly in his palm. Although it was still melting slowly, there was no sign of cracking.
“The above is just our conjecture. There is only one piece of information we want to know… He established an intelligence network here, and then left you without contact and disappeared on his own. What are Ruan Xian’s plans?”
“You didn’t immediately take off our heads and analyze them for the Mainbrain. Let me just believe that you are not with them.” After half a minute of silence, Luo Jian spoke again. “Why do you want to know this?”
“Only after I know will I decide if I want to cooperate or not,” Ruan Xian said solemnly, as if such a thing was even on the table.
“Everyone knows that the rebels were overwhelmed by the Order Supervisors, and Ruan Xian and Fan Linsong broke out into conflict, and their whereabouts are still unknown. Nowadays, even if there’s fresh blood that wants to resist the Mainbrain, you have to weigh them before letting them into the rebel army. We also think that the Mainbrain isn’t very pleasing to the eye. Before, you guys were in the forefront, so we simply hid and watched how things would develop. Now is a good time.”
After speaking, he specifically paused. Luo Jian just looked at him and realized that he was caught.
The kid hadn’t mentioned the rebel army before, but now he suddenly talked about it and then replaced “rebel army” with “you”. The conversation was moving too fast, and his energy was focused on other aspects that he missed the most suitable time to deny it.
“Of course, if Ruan Xian just gives up like this, or plans to break the jar*, it’s fine not to cooperate.”
*(破罐子破摔) Metaphor referring to after having shortcomings, mistakes, or setbacks, allow the progress to flow without correction or contrary, and intentionally let it develop into a worse direction.
After getting the desired reaction, the snake-like young man continued to narrate with a steady tone.
“If he is still wavering, you can help us by letting him know that there’s an opportunity. That’s pretty much it.”
“Unfortunately, you asked the wrong person.” Luo Jian breathed heavily, “If this is what you want, it’s fine to tell you. Here. This is Ruan Xian’s diary. I remember every sentence. You should also be able to write it down.”
He took out a book with a pale gold cover from his backpack and threw it at Ruan Xian.
“Professor Ruan’s approach has never changed. No matter what the situation of the rebels is, we must leave a ‘spark’ in each petri dish. Where there are pure humans, there must be people who know, so that everyone won’t forget the true definition of being human.”
But Luo Jian’s expression didn’t seem to be excited or uplifted.
“I infiltrated to complete this work and stayed here for four years. Because there’s no way to contact the outside world, I could only set up an organization like Pear Blossom as the base. About two years ago, Professor Ruan came here and brought Xiao Yan…”
“I’m a survivor, wandering outside. I’m older and the environment here is more stable. Professor Ruan brought me in along the way and got me an identity.”
Auntie Yan interjected and patted Li Han on the head. “This kid is a local. This is one of the areas where the Mainbrain focuses on management, and there are not as many rebels as you think.”
Luo Jian sighed again.
“The rest is similar to what you investigated. Professor Ruan personally created this system. At first, he would occasionally bring some people in, telling us to be vigilant at all times and try to absorb good seedlings with independent ideas. But then something happened… How to put it, everyone’s thoughts are not the same.”
Ruan Xian was quickly memorizing the contents of the book, and when he heard this, he stopped flipping the pages. “What do you mean?”
“It’s too comfortable here and there are… Well, replicas of our relatives. A perfect replica; the kind that even their personality flaws are repaired. You get it, right? On the other hand, you also see the level of surveillance here. Except for a few stubborn people like me, many people want to quit. After all, most of the people who are still resisting aren’t young…”
“To be honest, when Professor Ruan first arrived here, there was something wrong with his mood. Disappointed? Lost? At least, that’s how it felt. Later, after this incident, he no longer lives in the city and will only contact us when he has the intention.”
The more Luo Jian spoke, the more unpleasant it became.
“It’s true that we haven’t heard from him for a long time. That’s all I know. To be honest, I want to find him more than you guys. I don’t think he’s the one who will give up, but… Haa, I’ll still wait for him.”
“Got it.” Ruan Xian nodded solemnly. “Thank you for your information.”
Not far away, behind a tree, Tang Yibu looked up at the sky where the snow was still falling. He slowly stretched out his fingers and clasped them together, fiercely clenching them.
He had complicated feelings for the human individual “Ruan Xian”, so complicated that he couldn’t completely sort it out himself. If there must be a definition, that feeling was more like a mixture of grievances, rejection, and persistence after being abandoned.
In that silent computer room, he and his maker had five years.
Ruan Xian appeared as a teacher most of the time, and even when he talked about his own affairs, he mostly avoided topics that were too in-depth. Tang Yibu didn’t know how that person usually got along with others. He only knew that most of the time, that person came to him alone.
Quiet and lonely, like a tombstone full of snow.
He could occasionally catch a glimpse of Ruan Xian’s relatively cold part, but the other party seemed to be consciously hiding it. Even when he was most relaxed, he wouldn’t let the negative emotions show too obviously.
That person used to take care of himself so carefully. Most of the time, he was very strict, occasionally a little jerky and clumsy. Tang Yibu really liked the feeling of being taken seriously.
Tang Yibu once thought that he was the same kind as the other party.
But on the other hand, Ruan Xian didn’t want to involve himself too much. It seemed that he didn’t want to establish too many emotional connections with him.
It didn’t matter. There were no rules in this world now. He learned quickly, thought even faster, and always found a way to achieve his goals. Tang Yibu once hoped that that person would stay by his side for a long time. He used to enjoy the time they communicated with each other.
On the day Ruan Xian saw him for the last time, the skin on his fingers was completely swollen and festering. At that time, he played a clever trick and quietly stuffed a simple synchronization command into the monitoring system.
In the small talk that day, Ruan Xian once complained with a smile that typing was troublesome, voice input was too slow, and the daily work summary was getting harder to organize. Maybe this little gift could surprise the other party, so that Ruan Xian won’t be too disappointed when he found out that he failed to complete the task successfully…
He had made progress. At least he understood the meaning of “active concern”, Tang Yibu thought.
But Ruan Xian never came back.
He narrowly escaped being destroyed. Hearing what happened in The Glass Conservatory, Tang Yibu didn’t seem surprised.
Luo Jian and the others were not much different from his abandoned self at the time.
Tang Yibu slowly exhaled white steam and turned his gaze to his Mr. Ruan again.
To be honest, he didn’t buy much of Mr. Ruan’s claim that he was Ruan Xian. His Mr. Ruan was indeed similar to Ruan Xian in his memory, but it wasn’t the same.
Tang Yibu liked the other’s unpredictability and madness. The most important thing was that his Mr. Ruan had never reneged on his agreement with him, nor had he firmly drawn a line between them.
That human being exposed him to complex and novel emotions for the first time. It was like brushing off the dust on a painting; the whole world became a little brighter.
He could see a lot of things that he had never noticed before, and he could throw some information into that unfinished subject every day. As long as he completed it, he would be able to gain true freedom, and would no longer have such a heavy problem.
He was getting better every day, he thought.
After this subject was over, he could change his next subject to study Mr. Ruan. Observe him, touch him, kill him, or live with him.
Tang Yibu found himself wishing for a rare moment…
For the first time, he hoped to be able to define his emotions as soon as possible so that he could find the best way to deal with them.
For the first time, he hoped to complete the project completely before his Mr. Ruan found Ruan Xian.
For the first time, he hoped that his Mr. Ruan was just his Mr. Ruan.
After all, statistically speaking, once a person committed an act similar to betrayal, there was a great probability that there would be a second time.
There was an extra hole in the rock wall above the two of them. Gradually, strong light dropped in from it. The sky wasn’t clear, but it was brighter than before. The falling light was like some kind of aggressive plant as it suddenly covered the light reflected from the lantern.
Tang Yibu smiled. Ruan Xian knew it was him at a glance. He would never mistake those eyes.
The program monster slashed straight at Tang Yibu with one of its sharp claws. The latter seemed to have eyes on his back and dodged lightly. Ruan Xian wanted to take that hand because this sudden change had made his mind blank.
“Can you still stand up, Mr. Ruan?”
The voice of the trumpet, Tang Yibu, rang clear. As an android, Tang Yibu shouldn’t have a childhood stage like a normal human. This image was most likely something he made himself. Ruan Xian had to admit that this guy had studied human aesthetics very thoroughly—the face had the shadow of an adult Tang Yibu, but it was mixed with some softness, which made it easier for people to relax their guard.
“I’m fine,” Ruan Xian simply responded.
Compared to Tang Yibu, who was disgraced but still neatly dressed, the situation on his side could be described as tragic. His simple winter clothes were soaked in blood, torn and tattered, and there were injuries everywhere on his body. Those weird scales had disappeared unknowingly, but the burning sensation still stayed on the skin.
“You don’t look like you’re okay.” Tang Yibu looked at Ruan Xian up and down, smacking his lips. “Anyway, let’s get rid of this thing first.”
“Nn.”
Tang Yibu’s fighting style was still simple and crude. He grabbed the claws of the program monster and jabbed a shiny metal weapon into it. Ruan Xian looked at it several times before he was sure it was a spoon.
After shrinking in size, the android’s movements were a bit less imposing, but he was a lot lighter and more flexible. Facing the behemoth up close, Tang Yibu flexibly stepped on the stone wall and jumped around, briskly avoiding all attacks. Ruan Xian was unable to make sense of what was going on, as when the metal spoon penetrated the monster’s claw, the deformed claw began to fester quickly before dissipating with the wind.
The attention of the program monster gradually shifted to this more threatening enemy. Ruan Xian, who had been focusing on attacking from a distance, got his chance—he wove an almost perfect guard of blood bullets for Tang Yibu, quickly adjusting the target of his attack with the other party’s movements. When Tang Yibu attacked, he used bullets to suppress the monster’s evasive actions. When the android retreated to defend, Ruan Xian began to identify the weakness of his opponent and struck hard.
There was no communication, but Tang Yibu quickly discovered Ruan Xian’s intention. He began to consciously step on the rock and turned his body to create an angle for Ruan Xian to attack.
His shooting became much smoother. Ruan Xian raised his eyes to look at the other, as Tang Yibu happened to turn his face and smiled brightly at him.
The movement of the hybrid made up of a pile of programs became slower and gradually stopped. It shrank into a ball and began to twitch horribly.
Ruan Xian put down the muzzle of his gun and took a long breath of relief. The sweet, fishy blood in his throat almost choked him. Tang Yibu approached the blackened mass of programs and leaned down to take a careful look.
“Our attack is beyond its preset response range. It overloaded.” Tang Yibu poked the mass but did not immediately erase it.
“No action?”
“This thing is too large. If it disappears completely, it will arouse the suspicion of the Mainbrain.” Tang Yibu retracted his hand and turned the spoon in the other hand. “When it starts to disappear, I will take the opportunity to intercept part of the data.”
After that, he stepped over the gravel on the ground and happily rubbed himself against Ruan Xian. Tang Yibu, who looked like a teenager, was a little taller than he was. Instead of lowering his head, he bent down slightly while his golden eyes curved from smiling.
As a real AI, Tang Yibu’s ability to observe and analyze programs was mostly above his own. Ruan Xian couldn’t find a point to question it since the other party made this conclusion.
“I know what you want to ask. I only arrived here after tracking a member of Pear Blossom and happened to find you using the scanning program. This joint dream world is fixed and connected to a lot of small spiritual spaces.”
He stretched out his hand and wiped the blood stains on Ruan Xian’s face with his thumb.
“It’s almost dawn, Mr. Ruan. Would you like something to eat?”
Ruan Xian didn’t move, letting the other party’s thumb graze his cheek. “I’m not hungry.”
“Eating here has no practical effect on your body, but it can make you feel better.” Tang Yibu took out the onions and potatoes from his pockets; one in each hand. “Look, I brought food!”
The onions and potatoes were covered with a suspicious black liquid. Ruan Xian swept his gaze over and raised his eyebrows. “What about the member you were tracking?”
“Waiting outside. Luo Jian’s condition is a bit worse. She’s outside taking care of him and won’t leave for a while. Hearing that I helped, they asked me to come over to confirm your condition… In order to achieve this effect, I went through a lot of trouble to steer the conversation.”
Tang Yibu wiped the black liquid from the potatoes with the corner of his clothes. There was a bit of pride in his voice, and his face was full of “come and praise me”.
The effect of hormones was slowly fading. Looking at Tang Yibu, who was smiling openly in front of him, Ruan Xian suddenly felt a dullness that was close to comfort.
The feeling was especially strong when he had just broken free from that memory. The coldness disappeared, and all over his body felt relaxed, as if he had been soaked in warm water.
“Thanks,” Ruan Xian said, and began to wipe the blood from his body in a daze. Seeing this, Tang Yibu approached thoughtfully, ignoring the dirt and blood on his body, and gave him a big hug while rubbing Ruan Xian’s temples with his nose affectionately.
There was a smell of onions. Ruan Xian held back a sneeze and patted the android’s back, which was wrapped in soft winter clothes.
“What is the result of the investigation?” Reason was slowly returning, and Ruan Xian didn’t let himself indulge for too long. He didn’t deliberately control his tone of voice, nor did he think about how to modify this question.
“Pear Blossom isn’t a simple organization. It’s probably related to Professor Ruan.” Tang Yibu let go of his embrace. “Now it seems that they probably have found a certain strong-willed person to act as the hub, and then connected other spiritual worlds that weren’t stable enough to this stabilized world.”
Seeing Tang Yibu speaking so solemnly with the appearance of a teenager, Ruan Xian began to lose control of his smile.
“In this way, they can meet regularly without contacting the outside world too frequently and being monitored by the Mainbrain,” Ruan Xian added with a smile. “I have confirmed that their ‘hub’ is Luo Jian.”
“But the Mainbrain isn’t so easy to fool. It should have noticed the abnormality here, so it repeatedly sent scanning programs to scan, diluting the memories repeatedly, and destroying the stability of this spiritual world.” Tang Yibu stretched out his hand and gestured.
“They call it a ‘Wolf Attack’,” Ruan Xian picked up the conversation, enjoying this relaxed form of communication.
“…I thought I could give you a surprise.” Tang Yibu’s shoulders collapsed, and the boy’s face became a bit aggravated with a hint of pitifulness. “By the way, there’s—”
“We have plenty of time to talk about this.” Ruan Xian couldn’t help patting Tang Yibu’s face. “I’m more concerned about another ‘investigation’.”
Tang Yibu stopped talking immediately, and his aggrieved expression disappeared without a trace, looking like a fox who had just stolen chicken. “Oh, you found out.”
“After all, we are not the types who easily enter into a hot love period, and you know that I will not be easily killed by that thing. The timing of your debut is a bit too appropriate, Mr. Hero.” Ruan Xian retracted his hand. “Yibu, how long have you been watching before you came out?”
“Just for a while.” Tang Yibu showed his signature innocent expression again.
“For a while…”
“After all, you call yourself ‘Ruan Xian’, and I am very curious about your spiritual image and strength.” Tang Yibu solemnly handed the potatoes in Ruan Xian’s direction. “It was a rare opportunity for observation.”
“What else?”
“I also want to know what you’ll become and how far you’ll go.” Tang Yibu was still smiling as the words he uttered were frank and cruel. “Don’t worry, I’ll be on the edge to pull you back.”
Cold guy.
However, Ruan Xian wasn’t surprised by the android’s approach. Rather, such a Tang Yibu inexplicably made him more at ease—the android’s feelings seemed to have a special processing module, which wouldn’t interfere with each other, wouldn’t tangle, and were extraordinarily well understood.
Tang Yibu’s fondness was very pure. Even the careful calculations and cruelty weren’t concealed. There was no similarity to any human he had ever come in contact with, and his own abnormalities seemed insignificant under this bizarre emotional state that was beyond common sense.
“Now I’m completely convinced that you’re a human. It’s impossible for you to know that I was present beforehand, and you couldn’t fake such a complex emotional shift on the spot.” Seeing that Ruan Xian didn’t respond, Tang Yibu stuffed the potatoes into Ruan Xian’s hand again. “Are you angry?”
This time, the android’s face openly had “I would dare next time” written all over his face.
Ruan Xian couldn’t help laughing and took the dirty potato. “I’m not angry. It’s fine, but Yibu, a potato, can’t buy me off.”
He had never trusted Tang Yibu wholeheartedly, but this abnormal relationship was just right.
“Is that so?” Tang Yibu gritted his teeth and took out the can of beans from his arms. “Then I will give you half of this too? This is… huh?”
As a result, before he finished speaking, he was attracted by the wound on Ruan Xian’s wrist—After the battle stopped, the wounds on Ruan Xian’s body, both large and small, gradually disappeared as his mental state recovered. Only the wounds on his wrists were still stubbornly bleeding.
Tang Yibu stuffed the can of beans back into his arms, slid the onion into his other hand, and gripped the wrist with both hands.
“This is a previous wound,” he said with certainty, touching the blood with his fingertips. “Do you mind telling me what happened?”
“I made it by myself. You’ve seen what I look like just now—I was still young at the time.”
“But it appeared here, indicating that you still mind it.” Tang Yibu didn’t mean to let him take the topic lightly. “Maybe I can try to help you analyze it.”
Very familiar words.
To explain the causes of these scars, the causes and consequences alone would take time to explain carefully. Ruan Xian originally planned to reject this topic neatly, but when he heard this sentence, for some unknown reason, he gave a summary.
“In my memory, my mother committed suicide because of me. I did this after that and wanted to figure out her psychology at the time.”
Tang Yibu’s expression was quite serious. He turned his head slightly and motioned for Ruan Xian to continue. Unlike when talking with Meng Yunlai, even if he didn’t explain the intelligence collection part, Tang Yibu seemed to understand it effortlessly. He still had a smile on his face, only showing pure curiosity.
“Then for some reason, it was hard for me to stop. That’s how it is.” Ruan Xian tried to withdraw his wrist.
“I have encountered a very similar situation.” Tang Yibu didn’t let Ruan Xian succeed, as he still held tightly on to the wrist.
“You?” To use an inappropriate description, Tang Yibu was more like the heartless type. Ruan Xian couldn’t imagine the way the android in front of him would hurt himself.
“But I didn’t go as far as you did.” Tang Yibu showed an expression close to nostalgia. “I always liked to cross my fingers, fold them, and then crack my fingers. It’s quite painful.”
“……”
Tang Yibu didn’t seem to care about the difference in degree at all. “I can give you my own situation as a reference. The premise is that you are sure that you don’t want to attract the attention of others or use it to punish yourself.”
“No.”
“Then you are probably in a similar situation to me.” Tang Yibu gently kissed the deepest wound. “For me, understanding ‘emotions’ is a very troublesome thing. I have no similar kind to provide a reference, so I can only explore it by myself. Based on my experience…”
He paused, with a little blood on his lips.
“I guess you were very sad at that time, Mr. Ruan.”
Ruan Xian didn’t move. He stopped breathing, and his heartbeat seemed to stop. His gaze focused on Tang Yibu’s blood-stained lips, and a burst of sourness spread throughout his nerves.
“Because of my inability to understand pain in my heart, unable to explain my abnormality, I simply transform the pain into a more understandable and logical form. This is some kind of… Well, it’s not an appropriate instinct.”
The android smiled at him again, still looking carefree and heartless.
Ruan Xian had never thought about this.
His personality problems were accompanied by disease. Everyone around him constantly reminded him of this in different ways, from the moment he understood the matter to his “death”. His mother died in front of him, and he was locked in the same room with her rotting and swollen corpse for several days. His younger self wasn’t noisy, let alone he would suddenly collapse and cry; calm to the point of abnormality. He was just thinking, thinking non-stop all the time.
This kind of behavior couldn’t be called “pain”.
But facing Tang Yibu, who wasn’t human, he suddenly felt that this explanation was a bit ridiculous. Ruan Xian opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.
Tang Yibu finally let go of his wrist.
“Mr. Ruan, you’re more sluggish than I thought.” Ruan Xian didn’t know what his expression was at the moment, but Tang Yibu clearly noticed the abnormality. The emotions in those golden eyes began to become complicated. “No, maybe I’m about the same as you—Even if we understand the reasoning, we will still instinctively look for the humans around us as an emotional contrast.”
“Did you forget I am indeed a human?”
“Previously, in area X, both men and women would be arrested for showing their arms in public. Country Y stipulates that contact between men and women is strictly prohibited before marriage, but in Country Z, adults without lovers would be considered ugly and impotent. Isn’t this interesting? They are all humans of the same era, yet their behavior is completely contradictory, as they consider each other’s behavior absurd.”
Tang Yibu softened his voice.
“Humans can be domesticated, just imperceptibly. Just let them get used to it—habits can always smooth out all irrationality. Looking at this petri dish, most people here consider themselves very ‘happy’.”
Living in a safe and limited world, everything was extremely stable on the surface. People lived in a planned grid, so even their hobbies were pre-defined to be very similar. Not to mention collisions of ideas, different voices rarely appeared.
Once they did appear, the Mainbrain would get rid of them, carefully constructing this perfect information cocoon. Here, there would be no fierce heat or cold, no storms or thunder, so there would be no flowers or falling snow, and no rainbows above the mud.
He could clearly see this, but he was bound by a larger cocoon. The effects of the hormones had long since subsided, but stronger emotions had poured in. It was no longer incomprehensible anger, but closer to the grief that revealed its true face for the first time.
Ruan Xian thought it didn’t make him cry this time. It just made his eyes sour. He couldn’t help but take his gaze away from Tang Yibu’s face and looked into the distance as he blinked hard.
This unexpected action gave him an unexpected discovery—just behind Tang Yibu, the program monster that had shrunk into a ball in the shadows, twitched suddenly.
“Yibu…”
“You are just defined by people from one era and one region, Mr. Ruan. This definition may not be complete or reasonable, but you seem to use it as a measure subconsciously.” Tang Yibu continued with interest. “That’s why I’ve always been reluctant to get too close to humans—”
“Yibu, behind!”
Ruan Xian’s body reacted faster.
The thing finally recovered from the overload, and it showed faint signs of collapse and dissipation, but it didn’t stop there. It used its corroded claws to pierce Tang Yibu straight into the back of his neck.
Ruan Xian grabbed Tang Yibu, who was still chattering, and took the blow with his arm. The blow was so heavy that his small arms almost completely snapped off.
The severe pain that followed made him react to what he had done. Tang Yibu’s surprise wasn’t much worse than his own. The android was stunned in place and seemed to be tongue-tied.
“It’s going to disappear. Remember to process the data.” Ruan Xian barely squeezed out his words from between his teeth as he half knelt on the ground. The pain made his breathing extremely short, and his broken arm hung limply. The blood gun slowly slipped from his hand.
Tang Yibu stood in a daze for more than ten seconds before turning his back to deal with the dying mass of programs. After digging out the part carrying the data and crushing it, he slowly moved to Ruan Xian.
“I’m sorry.” His tone was a little dazed.
Ruan Xian narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t know why I’m saying sorry.” Tang Yibu thought deeply for a few seconds, then added, “I mean, with what I know about you, you can’t…”
“Now it seems that I don’t know much about myself.” Ruan Xian tugged at the corners of his mouth and changed the subject. “You know it will attack you before it disappears.”
The second half of the sentence wasn’t an interrogative question.
“Yes, but I can’t grasp the timing of taking the data if I deal with it in advance.”
Tang Yibu didn’t play dumb on this issue. The surprise remained in his eyes.
“And I wanted to see your reaction so that I could make the next decision… It can’t really hurt me. I never thought you would rush out.”
He looked even more shocked. “Do you like me that much?”
Ruan Xian almost laughed angrily at this reaction. “No, the information you gave was very informative. Consider this a gift in return.”
“No, you didn’t want to see me hurt.” Tang Yibu looked at him brightly.
“Seems like your brain regressed along with your appearance.” Ruan Xian wanted to punch the android, but unfortunately, he was defeated by those beautiful eyes that were gazing at him. He decided to focus on dealing with his severe pain first.
However, as soon as he looked away, Tang Yibu pressed his face forward, nailing himself within Ruan Xian’s field of vision, looking quite happy.
“Be nice to the injured. Thanks,” Ruan Xian said angrily, throwing out the little bit of emotion he had into the clouds.
“I’m very happy,” Tang Yibu announced gleefully. “It seems that you can’t fully control your emotions and behaviors. We are at the same starting line again.”
Ruan Xian glanced deeply at the broken arm that was still emanating a lot of pain and inwardly cursed at himself a few minutes ago.
“Although there is still a while before our date, I decided to send out the prepared gifts first, and then prepare a new one.” Tang Yibu kissed Ruan Xian’s forehead. “Do you want to take a guess?”
“Stick to what you’ve learned.” Ruan Xian said dejectedly. “Either that or stop imitating humans.”
In the face of a date covered with blood, Tang Yibu created an atmosphere as if he was taking a walk in the park. In contrast, he was simply a standard normal human, which was why he could be moved.
Tang Yibu picked up the blood gun that fell to the ground and threw it into the air.
“I won’t give you such things as a plant*.”
*Clarity: This whole exchange here is a bit confusing, but basically Tang Yibu is asking do you want to take a guess what present I’m going to give you, to which Ruan Xian responded, stick to what you’ve already learned (about humans and dating) because you often don’t do/give things that humans would consider “normal” (and thus he would have a reaction because, after all, he’s human). Tang Yibu responded by saying he’s not going to give something like a plant as a gift (like flowers, succulents, ect. like normal humans who are dating would do).
The gun fell back in front of Ruan Xian, but the shadow stayed in the air, like there was an additional floating blood gun that appeared out of thin air.
“Mr. Ruan, in fact, I found out the last time I planned to kill you—Your design ability is above mine, but the modification of small instruments is a bit old school.”
The phantom began to disassemble automatically in the air, and Ruan Xian recognized every part of it. He maintained a half-kneeling posture, ignoring the raging pain and flowing blood, staring at it.
Countless formulas, data, and lines flickered in the dark. The indicator lines were connected to various parts, and even the most fragmented ones weren’t missed.
“…So I studied it and made a more powerful modification.” Tang Yibu let the scene solidify in the air, and his bright smile faded slightly. He stretched out his hand to Ruan Xian again; his tone was a little stiff for the first time.
“I hope you won’t use it against me.”
Ruan Xian stared at the flickering numbers and letters without answering. Tang Yibu frowned. He just thought he could let go of those emotions, but he didn’t expect them to come back even more strongly this time.
If he had been holding this gun when they were fighting before, Tang Yibu most likely wouldn’t have survived. He suddenly understood how Tang Yibu felt just now—he never thought Tang Yibu would do such a thing either.
Their relationship should have been twisted but clear, but now it has become more complicated.
This wasn’t the product of Tang Yibu’s whims when he saw him block the attack. Even if it was an advanced artificial intelligence, to think of such a complicated plan would require simulating the usage scenario countless times.
“Now it’s my turn to ask. Do you like me that much?” Ruan Xian threw the question back with a wry smile, staring at Tang Yibu’s outstretched hand.
“Well, in fact, I have been thinking from the beginning that although there are hidden dangers in doing this, there are also certain safety guarantees.”
Seeing that Ruan Xian remembered, Tang Yibu scratched his head with his other hand, and the design slowly disappeared in mid-air. He chose to skip this question.
“This is the spiritual world. Your appearance comes from the period when your will is strongest, plus the various elements that make you persistent.”
“I know.”
“But you’re still wearing the earring I gave you.”
When he said this, Tang Yibu didn’t smile. On the contrary, he solemnly put his hand forward.
“Promise me, at least don’t use this gun against me, okay?”
Ruan Xian finally grabbed the hand firmly.
That annoying android always smiled when he shouldn’t, and when he was motivated, he just did his own thing, but he would occasionally stop smiling where people would normally smile.
There was no joy in that sentence. It was neither coquettish nor pleading. It was so calm that it made people’s hearts throb.
Ruan Xian looked at his outstretched hand. That hand was covered with blood and was no longer its original size. It took him a while to stand firm, and he found that he needed to look down at Tang Yibu, who was in front of him.
Something had changed.
The wound on the wrist was still there, but it had turned into a scar that he was familiar with. Although covered up by blood stains, Ruan Xian could still recognize that his hands were his most familiar appearance. The pain in his arm was gradually subsiding, and everything returned to calm.
“Okay.” He heard himself answer like this.
The small Tang Yibu titled his head up for a while, as if he wasn’t used to this perspective. After a burst of data corruption-like distortion, the android also returned to the appearance that Ruan Xian was most familiar with, except he kept the ugly knitted scarf and the lips that were still stained with his own blood.
Maybe this was another test to control him, but it didn’t matter, Ruan Xian thought. This weird game was destined to continue, and now he was willing to play along and be content with it.
“Well, now you have to explain your change to those people.” Tang Yibu stretched out his hand and rubbed Ruan Xian’s hair. “As a Samaritan passing by, I have to continue to follow Auntie Yan in the shadows. Yu Le and the others are still waiting for me. Regarding things here, we can—”
“—Talk about it on our date.” After a slight pause, Ruan Xian didn’t avoid the hand and accepted the conversation quite naturally. “But I still have one more question to ask.”
Tang Yibu blinked.
“Now that you have confirmed my original mental state, what is the conclusion?” This time, Ruan Xian smiled. “Am I like the ‘Ruan Xian’ you know?”
Tang Yibu was silent for a few seconds, then returned a familiar and irritating smile. He didn’t fall into the trap.
“This question is difficult to answer. After all, I am not familiar with him.”
He then put on his hood again, but this time there weren’t those cloth ears on it. The android thought for a moment and didn’t dwell on the potatoes or onions anymore, but silently put the can of beans in the palm of Ruan Xian’s hand.
“It’s really delicious.” Before leaving, he added another sentence.
Yu Le had a headache.
Auntie Yan was as slippery as a loach, and he wasn’t good at bending words. When he was still at the Walking Stones, Tu Rui was usually responsible for this kind of negotiation. Now that his deputy captain wasn’t around, Yu Le could only try his best, but the result wasn’t ideal.
He wasn’t able to pull out too much information from Auntie Yan’s mouth. The woman simply chatted with him for a few minutes without revealing anything, as if they were really a small organization that was bending the rules.
She then made an excuse to leave when they were about to broach the subject related to the rebels. Yu Le was quite irritable as he tried his best to punch cotton.
If it weren’t for the fact that Luo Fei was still present, he would’ve grabbed Tang Yibu and just left directly.
Then something strange happened—he walked around in this confined space twice, almost lifting up toilet lids and trash cans, but he couldn’t find a trace of Tang Yibu. The troublesome android had turned into dry ice and evaporated silently in the air.
Yu Le felt a bit weak.
However, Luo Fei was watching him from the side, either intentionally or unintentionally, so it wasn’t easy for him to completely let go or show his emotions too clearly. Tang Yibu wasn’t a soft persimmon that was easy to pinch. Perhaps something went wrong, and it wasn’t good to act chaotic in advance.
Thus, the former captain of the ruins pirate made a carefree look and slipped back to his original place and began to fool Luo Fei—He was limited in what he could do, and as long as Tang Yibu didn’t have an accident, he would eventually return to him, so it was better to wait here.
“It’s really not much fun here. There isn’t even a bed,” Yu Le said critically.
“Where’s Xiao Tang?” Luo Fei’s focus was quite apt.
“Who knows which nooks and crannies he went to again. That guy’s brain isn’t very good; an old model.” Yu Le poured himself a cup of tea. “Auntie Yan left quite quickly. Are we still waiting for her?”
“She should be back in a while. You’re a guest, so she wouldn’t keep you waiting. It may be that something urgent came up.”
“Urgent? I haven’t even seen a decent book yet. Did she go to make an emergency purchase or something?” Yu Le didn’t hide his ruffian temper.
Luo Fei smiled embarrassedly.
“I’m bored as hell, so let’s talk about you. Anyway, you have all investigated me, so I have nothing new to say.” Yu Le took a sip of tea. “To be honest, I have someone in the prevention shelter that knows something about your dad. I didn’t expect to run into you here, which surprised me.”
Luo Fei’s expression dimmed.
“Isn’t your dad part of Pear Blossom? Are you concerned about him?” Yu Le pretended not to understand the other party’s expression.
“It’s not Pear Blossom’s fault.” Luo Fei fumbled with his teacup. “My father… My father is a very serious person and has always spoiled me. We had been living here very well before, but one day, he suddenly changed his temperament and disowned me.”
“Have you always been living well?” Yu Le tried his best not to accentuate “always”.
“Yes, my family is local, and I have been here since I was born. My dad also works very hard, and the conditions in our family used to be okay.” Luo Fei was a little dazed. “What’s the matter?”
“No, no, you continue.”
“He started talking about some strange doomsday-related things from time to time after his accident and then was taken away by the prevention shelter two years ago. At first, I thought the same as you, thinking that Pear Blossom had harmed him, and then I found Auntie Yan.”
Luo Fei smiled a little embarrassedly.
“I looked deeper into it and found out that Pear Blossom is really just an ordinary organization, and I haven’t heard of anyone going crazy before because of them. Although they preach about the end of the world, I think it’s closer to a kind of spiritual…”
“Stop, stop, get to the point.” Yu Le hurriedly interrupted the young man’s speech.
“Later, I paid for the prevention shelter to do a few more tests, and my dad’s brain showed signs of lesions. It may be due to physical reasons. Maybe he’s too sensitive to stress… It’s all clear data. He had been in an inexplicable high-pressure state. Haa, I just didn’t notice it in time.”
Luo Fei’s eyes were red.
“At first, he joined Pear Blossom without telling me, presumably to relieve stress. Mr. Yu, if you really have friends in the shelter, I want to ask…”
“I have a friend in that lunatic asylum, but he’s on the side that’s being treated.” Yu Le smiled. “I’m sorry.”
Luo Fei’s expression stiffened but didn’t freeze. Yu Le thought to himself that the young man had a good temper.
It was a pity that the experience sounded like an illogical literary film.
“I didn’t mean to tease you. To be honest with you, my friend also went in because of similar symptoms.” Yu Le’s tone became serious. “He kept yelling about the end of the world, and he also thought he was in love with an android. He wore a white coat and spoke nonsense every day. As a result, some time ago, he swallowed a bunch of memory inhibitors and got himself admitted.”
It may be that his expression recalling the past was so real that Luo Fei didn’t doubt it at all. “Oh my god…”
“What are your dad’s symptoms? Not joking. Maybe there are other factors besides Pear Blossom.”
“…He collapsed once, saying that I wasn’t his son.” Luo Fei lowered his eyes to the teacup. “I went to the prevention shelter to see him. He said that his son died more than ten years ago, killed by him, and told me to get out.”
Yu Le’s joking mind suddenly faded, and he hummed dryly. “Didn’t mention anything else?”
“Not really. At that time, he was on some brain-influencing medication, so his narrative was all over the place. I could barely understand what he was saying.” Luo Fei laughed a little hard. “My mother died early, and I had a brother who also died unexpectedly. He and I are dependent on each other, and these facts are consistent with his fantasy. It’s just that in his consciousness, they all died in some disaster.”
“Doomsday?”
“That’s right.” Luo Fei took a sip of tea as if he was venting his anger. “He also worked hard and tried to give me better conditions, but he thought it was a bad place to live—a very cold place.”
Yu Le said nothing.
“He clearly remembers a lot of things. He remembered that I waited for him at home every day and insisted that the house be cold, so I would wait with just candles on. He also asked me if I remembered I liked playing with candles. I… What kind of age are we in where there are even candles?”
“…” Yu Le didn’t know what to say. He had a bad feeling.
“According to him, the climate was bad, and I have a lung disease. In order to provide me with good food for a change, he worked several times more than others in the snow. Then he said that when I was ten or about that, thinking that I would drag him to death, I ran out of the house without authorization and was frozen to death. God knows why he fantasizes about this.”
“In order for him to recover early, I went to see him every day at first, but then he didn’t even want to see me anymore and wasn’t willing to talk to me.”
Luo Fei’s became red all over. “Forget it. If I found out earlier…”
“Don’t think too much,” Yu Le said in a muffled voice, patting the young man on the back. “Sorry, brother, I can’t help you. My friend doesn’t even want to share the details of his fantasy, but I… Well, I understand this feeling of powerlessness.”
“It’s fine. I haven’t mentioned this to anyone for a long time, and I haven’t seen him for a while now. It’s more comfortable to be able to talk about it.” Luo Fei wiped his nose. “My dad is under fifty. Now that science and technology are developing so fast, he can always be cured.”
“Yes, there is always a cure.” Yu Le laughed dryly, as if there was a fishbone stuck in his throat.
“Anyway, that’s it. Now that I think about it, I might be just trying to chase his shadow.” Luo Fei struggled to smile. “I always thought that Mainbrain’s planning was perfect before, but how can I put it, these books are quite interesting, right? I have never come across such things before. Did you know that people used to create things like zombies or dragons that didn’t exist? There are also particularly cruel wars, weapons of destruction…”
“Very interesting,” Yu Le said. “Alright, seeing you like this, it seems like you need to calm down for a bit. I’m going to have a cigarette first.”
He left the room quickly, with only a thought in his mind.
‘Fuck. What an asshole,’ he thought.
Yu Le ruthlessly smoked the cigarette and tried to squeeze it out of his memory. After smoking half of it, he put it out and folded it back.
“Forget it, Xiao Luo.” He scratched his hair irritably. “I still have something to do, so I won’t wait. When Auntie Yan comes back, you can tell her on my behalf.”
“But the reward of that book…”
“I can get it when we meet again. It’s not a problem.”
“Oh, okay, you just need to walk to the room over there and turn off the lights.”
When Yu Le woke up from the enhanced memory cocktail, Ji Xiaoman was slowly eating snacks. The little girl cut the snack into four equal portions and ate them very cherishingly, little by little. Seeing Yu Le taking off his breathing mask, she pushed the two untouched portions in front of Yu Le a little uncomfortably.
There were no new customers in the store. The beautiful woman behind the counter, the remote-controlled humanoid manipulated by Auntie Yan, had half her eyes closed, making a fake appearance of being asleep.
Talking and laughter came in through the window. The night was illuminated by brilliant lights, and occasionally electronic eyes flashed everywhere. In general, the atmosphere was quite peaceful, until Yu Le’s gagging cut through.
He haphazardly took the two neatly cut snacks, stuffed them into his mouth together, and chewed hard.
“Where’s Tang Yibu?” Making sure no one was looking, Ji Xiaoman frowned.
“Still inside.” Yu Le’s voice sounded hoarse. “I can’t find him, but this kind of thing involves the cybernetic brain, so you should have a way, right?”
“Not necessarily, but I’ll try.” As always, Ji Xiaoman didn’t talk nonsense. She secretly summoned a light screen, connected it to the “cocktail bottle” that was still operating, and began to quickly invade.
Yu Le leaned on the edge of the table, carefully adjusting his movements to make sure that Auntie Yan and Luo Fei wouldn’t see Ji Xiaoman at a glance if they were to wake up.
Ji Xiaoman remained frowning. She bit her lip as the characters jumping on the light screen reflected a little blue light in her eyes. Yu Le stared at her for a while, then turned his gaze to those fast-dancing metal fingers.
“Little profiteer.”
“…What are you doing?”
“I originally thought the Sea of Ruins would be pretty fucked up. Fan Baiyan was one of the most disgusting people I have ever seen in my life.”
“Oh.”
“Later, I found out that Mr. Qian Yigeng in your Underground City was also about the same, causing you all to live an oppressive life.”
“Oh.”
“As for this place… At first, it just felt dull and boring. Now it seems that it may not lose in terms of fuckery. Do you think this place where the Mainbrain is in charge is disgusting?”
“……Well.”
“You want to save your mother; those two little bastards want to find Ruan Xian. On my side, that kid Tu Rui asked me to find a place to mix in for a year and then go back, but looking at this shitty world, where can I mix in?” Yu Le’s voice was getting lower as if he was having an inner monologue.
Ji Xiaoman stopped moving and raised her eyes to look at him.
“If you find Tang Yibu early, I have to discuss with them. Anyway, according to Lao Tu’s statement, if there’s anyone else in the world who can fuck up the Mainbrain, it’s estimated that only Professor Ruan is left.”
Yu Le looked out the window at the bustling city.
“Laozi has changed his mind. I want to go with you to find Ruan Xian.”
Kinky Thoughts:
Tang Yibu likes Ruan Xian to the point where he would give his most treasured food to him… That’s how you can tell, dear, that he likes you.
Everything in Luo Jian’s memory was extremely real, and it was completely different from the common situations recorded in data.
According to the theory Ruan Xian had seen, unsubstantiated fantasies injected, or transplanted memories would be more or less problematic. The joint therapy should prove that the doomsday in Luo Jian’s head was a flawed imagination, or artificially synthesized—fabricated things and real memories were often far from this quality of details.
Psychiatrists sent people into the mind so that they could witness those terrible loopholes with their own eyes, thereby puncturing the fantasy bubble. He and Luo Jian had the same “fantasy”. Depending on Li Han’s arrangement, there were more than two victims of this “doomsday fantasy”. This kind of joint therapy was obviously not the first time they’d done it.
However, what he was facing right now was obviously not that kind of world. Let alone this scene looking extremely real, it didn’t even have the normal memory that it should have as it was almost the same as the real world.
Ruan Xian walked in the snow one foot deep and one foot shallow. The thick snow almost reached his knees. A teenager’s body was quite troublesome as he soon fell quickly behind the rest of the team.
Luo Jian moved forward without turning his head, while Li Han occasionally looked back worriedly. It was probably because she was worried about the soul of the adult in his shell that she didn’t take any actions of substantial assistance.
The lead-gray sky became darker, and the snow that could have been a little white was gradually painted gray-blue by the night. Occasionally, the outline of a frozen corpse or the black cross-section of a stone could be seen from under the snow. The dead branches of shrubs hung with a thick layer of frost, and the only vitality came from the withered grass stubble sticking out of the snow.
Although he used his imagination to put warm clothes on himself, the skin that was exposed still felt pain as if it were being cut by a knife. The figures of Li Han and Luo Jian gradually blurred until only the patient mark on their wrist was still lit up, revealing a very uncomfortable red light in the dim air.
A faint wolf howl was mixed into the wind. Ruan Xian held his breath, took a few more steps forward, and barely caught up with Li Han, who was walking behind Luo Jian.
Li Han breathed a sigh of relief. Her gaze moved from Ruan Xian’s blood-stained wrist to the face that belonged to a teenager. After hesitating for a moment, her attitude softened a little.
“It will be fine when you enter the city.” She brushed away the snow from her sleeves. Thin ice beads hung from her eyelashes. “It’s about another half hour at most. Don’t worry.”
Ruan Xian obediently grunted and looked at Li Han’s face for a while. This ordinary girl revealed a strange temperament here. She didn’t become sharp or lean; just like a bird that had popped out of a bird cage and once again was able to breathe smoothly.
Half an hour later.
Joint therapy had a peculiar characteristic. The principle of its realization included some theories related to lucid dreaming. Just like people’s dreams, the perception of time flow in the mental world was completely different from the real world and was usually much slower.
The half-hour memory in the snowfield was just a blink of an eye in the outside world. Even if this treatment only took two hours, if Gong Siyi wanted, the three of them might stay in this cold spiritual place for two days or even two months, depending on the external conditions of the joint therapy.
This was also the only thing that the outside world could interfere with. Ruan Xian sighed at the ungloved hand.
Luo Jian’s memory was obviously extremely bad, and the damage suffered here would affect his body. If enough time passed, even friends would have conflicts, let alone strangers with different personalities that didn’t seem to get along. Fortunately, Gong Siyi had no greater authority than to adjust the passage of time. As long as he delayed the point of conflict with Luo Jian, then he would have enough time to spend with him.
This was an opportunity that Gong Siyi personally provided.
After all, as far as Luo Jian’s current performance was concerned, the other party had no intention of making a move on him.
“After entering the city, what are we going to do?” Seeing the shadow of the city in front of him get clearer, Ruan Xian tightened his voice a little. “Sorry, I’m a little nervous. This is not the same as the propaganda I saw…”
“Go into the city, eat, and sleep,” Luo Jian replied coldly. “Think of it as a vacation in a different environment.”
“Aren’t we here to find flaws? Do we have to eat here too?”
“As long as your subconscious knows that you’re still breathing, you have to also sleep and eat.” Luo Jian stopped in his tracks. His voice was dry. “It follows your biological clock. Get it?”
“But…”
“Talk less and save more energy. If you die too early, it’ll be very troublesome on my side.” Luo Jian put up his collar and rudely interrupted Ruan Xian. From beginning to end, he never once looked at him.
The night became thicker, and a large amount of off-white smoke gushed out of the various sized chimneys. The snow-covered steel frame revealed a glow of orange and yellow light, whose light seemed to carry temperature. Just looking at them would make people feel a little illusory warmth.
Luo Jian took them to the outskirts of this spooky city and found a dark storefront at random. He rubbed the snow on his soles on the blanket outside the store, crossed the dead tree in front, and gently opened the door.
“Lao Luo.” The person behind the counter nodded at him.
“Three cups of hot water, add some salt.” Luo Jian pulled the scarf that was covered in ice around his neck downward. It was so stiff that it looked like a plaster model.
Ruan Xian was the last to enter the door, and he closed it carefully. Without the cold wind, the room was a lot warmer, and the fingers that were frozen unconscious began to tingle slightly.
The woman behind the counter was holding a rough handmade pipe, with heavy bags under her eyes, messy gray hair, and no patient mark on her wrist.
It could be someone who lived in Luo Jian’s memories.
“Three people, huh.” She knocked on her pipe. “Why did you even bring a kid?”
“Auntie Yan, three cups of hot water.” Luo Jian didn’t answer her question. “Add some wine to my cup and some juice powder for Xiao Han. You don’t need to add anything for that kid.”
“Women don’t like men who are too harsh on children.” The elderly woman took out three dirty cups from under the counter. “Lao Luo, you can’t go on like this.”
“He’s not a child.” Luo Jian took the steaming water and emphasized again.
“Tch.” The woman glanced at Ruan Xian a few more times. “It’s a pity. I was just thinking how a person like you could abduct such a good-looking child. Dare I say it’s a fake? What, he…?”
“Never mind that. Do you still have a bed here?”
“Yes. There’s also dinner. Do you want it?” The woman smiled, revealing yellow teeth due to her smoking.
Luo Jian nodded. “We estimate that we’ll stay here for two days. If there are guests from other places—”
“No. You know what this place is. I haven’t seen a new face in months, and you’re willing to come over to support the show.”
“What about the wolf attack?”
“Same as always, coming in regular waves. Oh, the last time was less than a week ago. I’m guessing they’ll come back in the next few days. If you don’t plan to enter the city for the time being, you better watch out.” The woman exhaled a puff of smoke. “Are you going into the city? I have to go tomorrow, and I can buy the things you want. Turnips, onions, or potatoes? Recently, a shipment just came in.”
“I’m just here for a change of mood, and I have no other plans for the time being. Just take a look and get whatever you can.” Luo Jian shrugged.
“Look and get, ah.” There was a hint of disappointment in the woman’s tone. “Okay, then let Xiao Ma take care of you first.”
A short young man peeked out from the back of the store in response. His gaze wandered around and finally settled on Ruan Xian with a friendly smile. Luo Jian rolled his eyes as if he was too lazy to explain anymore.
Xiao Ma looked ordinary, with a standard popular face. He had an unobtrusive scar at the base of his ear, which was mostly covered by black ash. He slapped a towel around his neck, with beads of sweat on his forehead. For some reason, Xiao Ma’s entire body revealed some weird sense of incongruity, like a puzzle piece was misplaced in a box.
Ruan Xiao glanced at him but couldn’t find anything unusual, so he had to temporarily give up.
Dinner was a simple bacon and potato soup with a lot of chilies to keep out the cold, which made the entire pot of soup red. Li Han swallowed in small sips while tears pooled around her face from the spiciness. Ruan Xian dipped the dry and hard noodles in the soup and chewed slowly.
‘It was an illusion after all,’ he thought. Although the food in his mouth had a taste, it lacked a lot of “details”. The difference was as subtle as listening to a song on the spot and repeating the melody in the brain. Fortunately, there was still a sense of satiety, and he didn’t intend to be too picky about this issue.
The woman behind the counter went out at night, while Xiao Ma was busy cleaning the store. There weren’t any electric lights in the house. A strange smell wafted in the air; he wasn’t sure if it came from the burning oil lamps or the wood-like chimney outside the house.
Luo Jian’s arrangement was more monotonous than he thought—After finishing dinner, Luo Jian pulled a bunk out from the corner and fell asleep without the slightest willingness to talk to others. Li Han asked Xiao Ma for chalk-like white stones and painted casually on a rough stone slab.
Ruan Xian sat down by the only window in the house.
A lot of wooden strips were nailed sideways on the window, obscuring his vision, so he could only see vague lights outside and boundless darkness. He stared at the darkness for a while before lowering his gaze and looking at his left wrist, which was wrapped in blood.
Those wounds showed no signs of healing. The flesh was turned out, slowly seeping blood. The flowing blood also didn’t drip on the table but was like a living thing that crawled around his wrist.
Xiao Ma was wiping the table with a rag, acting as if he didn’t see the blood.
Ruan Xian covered the wound with his sleeve. At the moment, it could only bring out a little paralysis and didn’t affect his flexibility in movement. This was enough. He took a breath, raised his elbow, and made it easier for Xiao Ma to continue his cleaning.
But as soon as he raised his elbows halfway, his movements suddenly froze.
…The scar on the base of Xiao Ma’s ear was gone.
Ruan Xian narrowed his eyes and looked carefully at the young man in front of him. As if perceiving this sight, Xiao Ma turned his head and smiled at him again.
This time, Ruan Xian discovered the sense of dissonance.
Under his careful gaze, Xiao Ma’s features flickered slightly and began to blur, like a wax figure with no fixed facial features. When he turned his gaze away and just glanced casually, Xiao Ma looked the same as a normal person again.
“What’s the matter, little guy?” Xiao Ma himself seemed unaware of what was happening to him. “I still have some baked apple slices here. Do you want to eat them?”
Ruan Xian thought for a moment, glanced at Luo Jian, who was asleep, and Li Han, who was immersed in her own world, and nodded slowly.
“Thank you.” He tried to make himself sound like a shy child or an exceptionally reticent adult.
Outside the artificial dream world created by joint therapy.
Tang Yibu set aside half of his energy to listen to the conversation between the two in front of him. The communication between Yu Le and Luo Fei was very simple, so this half was enough. As for the remaining 95% of the other half, Tang Yibu was thinking about the amazing situation he was in, and the other 5% was dedicated to being nervous about the date.
He couldn’t help but raise his head again and look at the brilliant lights outside the alley.
Round patrol electronic eyes floated on the streets. After the curfew, except for those who did supervision work, only those who had reached a certain level of citizenship were allowed on the streets. The city swayed a little more than during the day, and it seemed more orderly. People were talking and laughing as they walked in the floating light, and the air was clean and fresh, with just the right amount of humidity.
Less than 30 seconds ago, an electronic eye floated past them, scanning their pupils one by one. One of them had told Luo Fei, who was holding the booklet, of his rapid heartbeat and abnormally high temperature. It checked each side of the light screen floating in the air while completely ignoring the handwritten book in his hand.
The light screen showed a scenic wildlife documentary. Luo Fei followed the light emitted from the light screen while his face remained flushed as if he was dripping with blood.
There was no unexpected emotion on Yu Le’s face. He was responsible for answering Luo Fei’s questions in a whisper and making a surprise attack when the other party was in a bind, such as now.
“I say you’re not young anymore. Don’t be like a kid under ten years old.” Yu Le crossed his arms and pretended that he had never been attracted to that booklet. “This can calm you down, and I think that’s the case with your collection.”
“I just haven’t seen anything like this.” Luo Fei sounded a little frightened. “People can really do this… My god, this kind of thing doesn’t even appear in war documentaries.”
“Oh, I know that.” When he was bored, Yu Le also found some documentaries to pass the time. However, the excessively brutal and gory bits were all trimmed away, leaving only dry text summaries. He didn’t know if it was to maintain this illusion of “world peace” as many conflicts had been deliberately downplayed or just simply glossed over.
Over time, fewer people remember them, and things that no one remembered weren’t much different from them ever having happened.
“It’s too barbaric,” Luo Fei muttered, turning the page with trembling hands. “So barbaric, my god.”
At first, Yu Le found it funny, and from time to time he would glance at Tang Yibu, who was dumbfounded, but as Luo Fei’s breathing or amazement became stronger, he began to be unable to laugh.
Luo Fei didn’t exaggerate; he really couldn’t understand what Tang Yibu wrote. As an adult, Luo Fei undoubtedly showed an expression of shock, like a mouse who saw a cat for the first time—he was already frightened before he could figure out what he was looking at.
But the horror was mixed with a lot of subtle emotions and blended into a certain expression that Yu Le didn’t like very much, so he deliberately sneezed, pulling Luo Fei’s attention away from the book.
“Doesn’t Pear Blossom communicate with people in other places?” The other party’s level was a bit low, which made Yu Le begin to feel uninterested again. “Then I have to consider whether to contact you. The book you brought me last time really wasn’t interesting. I was hoping for something exciting and fresh for a change.”
“You wrote this?” Luo Fei’s tone was extremely serious.
Yu Le glanced at Tang Yibu, who was still in a daze. The android didn’t even move his eyes, and he didn’t have the slightest reaction of wanting to participate in the dialogue, so he just scratched his head. “Sort of.”
Luo Fei began to look at Yu Le up and down with a strange gaze, which made Yu Le a little irritable from being stared at. He immediately regained the initiative on the topic. “Like I said, it’s not that there’s no blood here. The Android Show isn’t finished. Isn’t that thing also very exciting?”
“As you know, the audience for the Android Show needs to be strictly screened. It can be regarded as only accessed by the very top of this society that basically have zero possibility of committing crimes, not to mention that it costs a lot of money to watch the show itself. At least I can’t afford it.”
Luo Fei touched the booklet in his hand with a complicated expression.
“The Mainbrain thinks that this society is perfect enough. If you can’t make money, most people who are placed in the lower and middle classes are considered inferior products with insufficient intelligence or personality… ‘We’ don’t have too much discernment and touching things that shouldn’t be touched will only lead to trouble.”
“The information on the Android Show is strictly controlled, so it’s impossible for us to get access to it. Those who are able to watch the show don’t need Pear Blossom. However, looking at your work… Have you ever seen the show? Your current job—”
“You have also seen my age. In the past, the show wasn’t as strict, so I have seen a bit of it. At that time, you haven’t even grown hair yet, so it’s not surprising you don’t have any impression,” Yu Le said jokingly, as he casually carried the topic.
Luo Fei thought for a while but didn’t question this statement. “Then I’ll ask directly, Mr. Yu, what do you need?”
“How can I know without seeing your inventory? Laozi even showed you his true skills. It’s not too much to ask for a recipe, right?” Yu Le deliberately made his attitude seem harsher.
Yu Le had full experience of being a wicked person. Prisons were like barren grasslands with prey and drinking water. People had to rely on silent intimidation with gestures to live in peace. He used to be able to frighten criminals with that hostility, not to mention the young man in front of him who was sweating after reading a piece of text.
Luo Fei’s expression froze for a moment. After a while he said, “We have our rules, but I can recommend you… You can call your female android over.”
Yu Le grinned. Right as promised. It was like a dream, letting the other party show all their cards at once. They only needed a breakthrough.
As a result, before he even took a step, Tang Yibu moved decisively in the direction of the store as fast as he could. Yu Le bitterly retracted his outstretched foot and took the opportunity to adjust his standing position. Not long after, the expressionless Ji Xiaoman followed Tang Yibu over. She put her hands in her wide coat, looking terribly serious.
The pockets of the jacket were bulging. Yu Le glanced at Ji Xiaoman thoughtfully, noticing that her face was extremely stiff. His gaze immediately swept across the snack crumbs at the corners of Tang Yibu’s mouth. For a moment, Yu Le was a little envious of comrade Ruan, who was locked up in the prevention shelter.
Yu Le swiped the light screen casually. The money in his account had indeed decreased by a little.
Not so long ago, he only had to worry about how to stabilize people’s hearts through discipline and how to beat Fan Baiyan to death. These nanny-like piecemeal tasks were all handled by his deputy, Tu Rui.
‘Lao Tu, I really blame you. Taking care of children is so fucking troublesome.’ Yu Le wiped his nose in amusement.
“Let’s go.” He retracted his gaze.
“Tang Yibu and I want to get some weapons.” As he walked through the bright lights, Ji Xiaoman walked on Yu Le’s right side and whispered to him. “I bought a memory cocktail and made a simple modification. In order to get a discount, I bought the snack package… This saves more money. I didn’t hold back and hacked into your account again. Sorry.”
Yu Le raised his brows and couldn’t help laughing—she was very decisive when hunting mechanical life, and she was also slightly indifferent to the life and death of others. This girl seemed to have a great sense of guilt for hacking his account. If he was in her position, he was afraid that he would immediately steal all the money.
Compared to a certain someone who had an upright face and hadn’t wiped his mouth clean, Ji Xiaoman had a strange personality and was quite honest.
“It’s good to know that the money wasn’t all eaten by that android,” Yu Le responded in a low voice. “Don’t worry. Spend it if you think it’s reasonable. I just ask that even if you charge food, don’t let that kid get the biggest share.”
He didn’t know if it was intentional, but Tang Yibu, who was in a daze this whole time, coughed hard. Ji Xiaoman was quiet for a moment, then suddenly stretched out her hand and quietly stuffed a snack into Yu Le’s hand.
“I left you a piece.” Her tone was a bit stiff.
“Yo, the profiteer is enlightened.”
“In the end, you’re still an oaf.” Ji Xiaoman quickly snatched the snack back.
“Here.” Luo Fei stopped walking and pointed to the shop in front of him.
This was a smaller bar. Compared to the one Luo Fei recommended to them the first time, the one in front of him had a more retro taste. The gloomy decoration was particularly unobtrusive among the bright storefronts, like an empty gap, with very few guests.
The only conspicuous thing in front of the store was a pear tree, which was in full bloom, making it look like the branches were covered with thick snow.
The habits left by the Sea of Ruins were very stubborn. Yu Le first estimated the structure of the building in front of him in his mind. He kept the key details and subconsciously went through all the retreat methods in his head before stepping inside.
The tables and chairs here were all wooden, with rare traces of craftsmanship. He didn’t know if the rough shape was unskilled or deliberate—there were even oil lamps burning on the wooden tables. The light shook like a living object, and even the shadow of all things trembled on the wall.
Behind the counter stood a beautiful woman with smooth, black, and bright straight hair, hanging from her shoulders to her plump breasts. She was holding a delicate, fragrant pipe in her hand, but it was a pity that it looked more like some kind of ornament. She didn’t take a single puff, but just smiled brightly at them. Her smile was full of absent-mindedness.
“Geez, Feifei.” She winked at Luo Fei.
“I brought guests.” Being greeted affectionately by a beautiful woman, Luo Fei didn’t show the slightest unnatural look. His tone was very respectful. “It’s the person I mentioned last time, Auntie Yan.”
“I see.” The woman had a lazy tone, as if she hadn’t woken up yet. “And you brought him here? Let me see the stuff.”
Luo Fei put his hands on the booklet. “He said he wrote it himself.”
The woman casually flipped through a few pages, rolled her eyelids and glanced at Yu Le. Her reaction was much smaller than Luo Fei’s. “I know a lot… Ah, have you checked this person’s background?”
“Checked. No problem for the time being.”
“Well, then the usual rules.” The woman raised her hand with a smile. “Prepare something for this gentleman to get to the top.”
“Mr. Yu, this way, please.” Luo Fei pointed to the only table with a guest.
Leaning on the seat close to the recliner was an elderly woman. Her gray-white hair was simply groomed and the bags under her eyes were quite conspicuous and looked as if she had pasted them on. She also had a pipe in her hand, but the style was as crude as the shop itself. In addition to the temple patch commonly used for tasting memory cocktails, she was currently wearing additional equipment, like a breathing mask. Her shriveled chest was undulating soothingly, and it looked as if she was sleeping.
Yu Le’s gaze moved along the pipe connection of the breathing mask and stopped on the large glass jar in the middle of the table.
The cocktail device they had seen before was about the size of a cup, but the one in front of them was more like a beverage can in an old-fashioned cafeteria. It was fixed directly on the table, and there were four breathing masks sticking out. In addition to the one being used by the woman, there were three more placed end to end in front of the empty spots.
The blue light in the jar was much brighter than that in the cup, and it swam around as if it had life. There were already metal balls floating slowly in the liquid. Under the dim lighting of oil lamps, the electric light cruising between the metal balls revealed a full sense of unreality.
“Here, put this on, and Auntie Yan will explain it to you.”
“Can I bring my people in?” Yu Le didn’t immediately take the breathing mask that Luo Fei handed over. “I saw the promotion of the bar. It seems that androids can also use this thing.”
“That’s usually for… Uh, fun.” Luo Fei scratched his nose. His tone was a little uncomfortable. “In theory, it’s indeed possible. After all, this thing only requires the mapping of thinking data and algorithms, but this can’t be used as a protective measure. Without the connection to the Mainbrain, the android’s mental level is so low that, let alone protecting you, they’ll be even more vulnerable than you. In the event of an unexpected situation, the human brain can last for a while, but the cybernetic brain is likely to burn out.”
As he spoke, he glanced at Tang Yibu and Ji Xiaoman. “Androids aren’t cheap these days. There’s really no need.”
“I agree,” Ji Xiaoman said coldly. “I need to be out there to keep you safe, Mr. Yu.”
While Luo Fei looked at Tang Yibu, Ji Xiaoman quietly shook her head at Yu Le and nodded. Yu Le immediately understood—No one knew what special reactions an android would have under the action of a memory cocktail. Tang Yibu was really an android, but Ji Xiaoman could easily reveal her flaws.
Besides, they needed someone to keep an eye on things outside.
“Well, I do want to have some fun along the way. If I see something good, I want to take a shot at it.” Yu Le’s face was full of regret. “Then let Xiao Tang go with me. It’s too boring if there’s no one to accompany me.”
He shrugged. “Anyway, according to you, androids aren’t a threat to you.”
Luo Fei looked at the counter, and the woman known as Auntie Yan nodded quite casually. He didn’t say anything more, and handed the breathing mask to Tang Yibu, who was dutifully pretending to play dumb.
“You’d better choose a gentler image.”
After Tang Yibu took it, Luo Fei opened his mouth a bit stiffly.
“According to the computing power of androids, it should be fine. Anyway, you have no such thing as a subconscious mind and willpower. Just choose whatever you want—cats and dogs are fine. Remember to choose something harmless. The image of a young man is too aggressive.”
Tang Yibu nodded politely and smiled, indicating that he understood. Ji Xiaoman leaned against the table and put her hands in her pockets, making a gesture of holding something.
Yu Le breathed a sigh of relief and rolled his eyes secretly. He dawdled on the recliner for a while, then carefully put the patch on his temples, and finally put on a breathing mask.
It was completely different from the memory cocktail he tried last time.
The feeling brought about by the memory cocktail was more inclined to the “past”, like remembering a dream when you woke up in the morning. Now it was as if he had entered the dreamland itself. Although everything around them had a weird sense of unreality, it really felt as if it belonged to the present.
Yu Le looked at himself subconsciously. His clothes hadn’t changed, and his hands were in a familiar state. Luo Fei, who was beside him, looked exactly like when they had just met. The woman who had been sleeping in the recliner was standing opposite of Luo Fei, talking with him and taping her pipe.
Inside the house were around four people, mostly dressed in ordinary clothes, reading books by the crackling fireplace.
Judging from the environment, they were standing in a small western-style building that was simply decorated. Yu Le could only see the spiral steps upstairs, and he couldn’t judge how many floors there were. The lightning in the living room came from lights and flames, and the curtains were tightly drawn. He strode to the window, opened the corner of the curtain, and saw only pure darkness that seemed to be painted on the glass.
If the glass here hadn’t been specially treated, then there may be a void outside of “this building”.
“Tang—” Yu Le turned around and tried to communicate with Tang Yibu, but he looked blank.
Tang Yibu, who was supposed to be by his side, disappeared.
Yu Le’s scalp went numb. He clenched his fists, and instinctively flashed to the nearest shelter. As a result, before he could figure out whether the shelter in this illusion could block an attack, he took aim at the guy who was suspected to be Tang Yibu a few steps away.
Tang Yibu had shrunk quite a bit that Yu Le had to lower his gaze to look at him—a young boy about 11 or 12 years old was looking at him with a smile and an inexplicably happy mood in his golden eyes.
“…” The corners of Yu Le’s mouth twitched.
“Luo Fei asked me to choose a harmless image. It’s inconvenient to communicate as an animal. Some people will be wary of the elderly, but few will be wary of children.” Tang Yibu jumped onto the table, swinging his legs casually, as if he was really a teenager. “I have also studied the looks that people like—”
“How fucking cute. Just shut up.” Yu Le pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. “I’ll be regarded as a fucking pervert. With Ji Xiaoman and you looking like this, my reputation… Haa, laozi likes women with big breasts and ass, not those with handlebars1 and washboards2, let alone little brats who haven’t grown up. Fuck, who can make sense of this?”
1Slang for men (because they have a “handle”). 2Slang for flat-chested girls.
Tang Yibu spread out his hand with a helpless look. Yu Le’s fist felt a bit itchy, but he had to admit that despite Tang Yibu looking like a beautiful boy that would break from a single touch, he really couldn’t beat him.
So he had to resign to secretly flip him off.
Tang Yibu pretended not to see Yu Le’s gesture and followed him obediently while carefully analyzing the people in front of the fireplace with his gaze.
In theory, it was safer here than in the real world. After all, the electronic eyes of the Mainbrain couldn’t penetrate into the human mind.
It didn’t take long for Tang Yibu to figure out how this place worked—the memory cocktail was packed with memory fragments that had been purified in advance and stuffed directly into the guests’ brains. It was more like multiple people sharing an instant process of memory generation, like stepping into an ongoing dream.
Bluntly put, the former was like watching a random video clip of an adventure, while the latter was more like participating in a holographic adventure game.
There were troubles too.
Although Tang Yibu had full confidence in his mental endurance, the A-type Prototype didn’t have a powerful healing function, so he couldn’t attach it to his spirit. Here, he would not have much of an advantage in terms of combat power. If he was “killed”, the possibility of damage to his cybernetic brain wasn’t low.
The most troublesome thing was that in order to kill someone, he had to make sure they realized that they were fatally wounded…
After all, it wasn’t the real world, so poisoning wouldn’t work and hunkering down in the shadows for a surprise attack wasn’t useful either. Only a frontal assault could be done. All medical knowledge was invalid, and only by inducing the “subconscious to think that they will die” was the only way to cause death.
Tang Yibu would subconsciously assess the extent of his injuries and would instantly come to the conclusion that it “may lead to death”. Although he could control his thoughts as much as possible, he didn’t want to take any risks.
It was better to use the fragile appearance to deal with a crisis relatively peacefully. Even if the situation was different, Yu Le, who was tall and sturdy, would be a more conspicuous target, which would allow him time to escape.
Tang Yibu thought about it quite realistically with a smile on his face that couldn’t be picked out. As if perceiving Tang Yibu’s thoughts, Yu Le glanced over coolly.
“You’re thinking crooked again, aren’t you? I don’t plan to act with you.” Yu Le habitually cleared his throat and turned up his volume. “…Hey, what about the things I want to see?”
“Auntie Yan will take you to the study.”
“Hmm? Isn’t Auntie Yan the one—” Yu Le tutted in surprise.
“The one behind the counter? That’s just a remote-controlled humanoid I use. Isn’t it beautiful?” The older woman scratched her off-white hair and knocked on the wooden pipe in her hand. “I can manipulate it here and use it as a distraction… What’s with that look? It’s according to my appearance when I was young. Haa, another superficial man. Forget it, come here.”
She looked down at Tang Yibu’s appearance, and there was a bit more disgust in her eyes when she looked at Yu Le.
“This is what the kid surnamed Luo asked for. I’m not interested in this kind of thing.” Yu Le explained with a stern face. “Xiao Tang, you can go explore by yourself first. Tell me about the situation later.”
This meant go take care of yourself and investigate on your own. Auntie Yan seemed to be accustomed to this reaction as she didn’t have anything special to say.
Under the guise of being Yu Le’s android, Tang Yibu didn’t have many options. He curled his lips in dissatisfaction and walked obediently to the spiral staircase.
The western building had only two floors. A spiral staircase connected to a thickly carpeted corridor, and the curtains on the windows were still tightly drawn.
Tang Yibu looked out. It was no different from when Yu Le explored the first floor; it was still a chaotic darkness. There were small tables next to the windows with long tablecloths that draped to the floor and vases of flowers placed on them. The original snow-white flowers were dyed light orange by light.
There were many doors on the opposite side of the window, each of which was tightly locked.
Tang Yibu paid attention to the keyhole and tried to find a way to pry open the lock, but found that the more carefully he looked, the more blurred the scene in front of him became, so he had to give up. There was no one else in the corridor, and there was nothing remotely resembling surveillance equipment. Tang Yibu walked around briskly and quickly explored the floor.
The place wasn’t big. Most of it was based on someone’s brain. Using dream-related principles to build out a mental space and then briefly open it to others, if the equipment was in place, it was indeed a good idea and several times safer to gather under the nose of the Mainbrain.
However, the theory was quite simple, but the actual operation wasn’t as easy…
Based on Yu Le’s reaction last time, it was conservatively estimated that the speed of time passing here should be different from the outside world. To get online for a short period of time in the outside world without arousing the suspicion of the Mainbrain wasn’t something that a layman could do casually.
Pear Blossom’s way of gathering was cleverer than he thought. However, to start from scratch and create an illusory space in these layers of cobwebs was tantamount to battling directly against the Mainbrain.
It seemed that Professor Ruan had indeed been here. Tang Yibu lowered his gaze.
Considering that they were newcomers, this was probably not an important meeting place. Whether or not Pear Blossom was doing something small in private other than reading and propaganda, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to lead strangers to their intelligence location.
Yu Le wasn’t a fuel-saving lamp*, but his ability to spy was passable. At present, he’d better behave harmlessly and exchange information after he got out. Then… He still had his date.
*Metaphor describing someone who’s not easy to deal with.
Tang Yibu leaned on one of the small tables, glanced at the flowers in the vase, and began to be silently nervous again.
Fortunately, this tension didn’t weaken his vigilance. More than ten minutes later, as soon as a figure emerged from the stairs, Tang Yibu leaned down and hid under the small table covered with a tablecloth.
A pair of high-heeled shoes belonging to a woman stepped on the velvet blanket. Tang Yibu slightly lifted the folds of the tablecloth and saw the familiar wooden pipe. Auntie Yan stopped in front of a door with her back to the small table. She quickly took out a bunch of old metal keys and fiddled with them one by one.
Tang Yibu surveyed Auntie Yan’s standing position for a bit. The moment she opened the door, he slightly drilled out of the tablecloth and moved carefully to her blind spot. The carpet in the corridor and the figure of a teenager made this matter a lot less difficult. At most, before pushing open the door, Auntie Yan simply looked around, which made things a lot easier to deal with.
The door was the most easily exposed link.
Tang Yibu followed her like a ghost. He minimized his sense of existence, like a thin page glued to the other party’s shadow. Auntie Yan’s movements were familiar and decisive. Tang Yibu held his breath and moved like a cat, adjusting his movements to the rotation of the other party’s body, and flashed into the door with Auntie Yan like a gust of wind.
Then he was really greeted with blowing hail that was blisteringly cold. They blew up a few snowflakes and slashed at his cheeks mercilessly like knives. Tang Yibu was pretty sure that they didn’t enter a room but into another world—the door that led them here by Auntie Yan had closed and disappeared within a few seconds.
At that moment, they were standing in a dilapidated steel city, with huge chimneys spewing billowing smoke not far away. The air was filled with the unique smell of charcoal burning, but it was so subtle that it lacked a bit of realism.
There were few people on the street, and all the buildings closed their doors and windows tightly. It was extremely dark, and there were only a few houses with lights on, reflecting the icicles hanging from the eaves. Auntie Yan was holding her wooden pipe as she stepped across the muddy and snowy road. The dark and heavy sky was glued to the top of this dilapidated city, with a vague tendency that it would crush the earth. Under this suffocating pressure, the woman’s back bent down a little.
Tang Yibu recognized this place.
It was the long-destroyed Petri Dish No. 1024 that stood in front of him.
Tang Yibu had spent some time there and could almost say that he had witnessed its destruction. The cold winter was like a chronic poison; a drug that soaked its victims in despair before slowly killing them one by one.
The last fire was extinguished, and the burning smoke dissipated. Before MUL-01 did a cleanup and reset, Petri Dish No. 1024 was destined to turn into a frozen city of death. Now, its ghost was floating in front of him, as if it was struggling before death.
It was impossible for a person’s mind to lead directly to reality. He himself dared to follow only because Auntie Yan’s real body shared a device with him, and he wasn’t in an unknown and dangerous situation because of the different device configurations.
The premise was that he followed her closely.
Tang Yibu wiped away the snow that melted on his face and didn’t have much time to recall the past. He rubbed his frozen red hands and imagined the robe he used to keep out the cold.
Not long after, Tang Yibu had a wide-standard black robe on his body. The thickness was just right, though the sleeves were a bit long, covering most of his hands. If you pulled the hood with plush edges down slightly, you could only see half of his chin from an adult’s point of view.
Tang Yibu tied up the collar but felt that something was missing.
He went through the main points of disguising as a human child in his head again and added two more furry cloth ears to his hood. Although he couldn’t see what kind of animal it was, the depressing look on his robe dissipated quite a bit, and it was more like a style that normal children would wear.
Coupled with a hand-woven scarf with an unsightly pattern that covered the lower half of his face, this outfit should minimize people’s suspicion. It stood to reason that he should also change the color of his eyes to ordinary brown, so that the risk of being seen through would be minimized.
However, he was slow to visualize exactly what he was doing—once he put his mind on his eyes, the memory of Mr. Ruan kissing them would appear on its own, accompanied by the soft touch of lips and moist, warm breathing.
The other party really liked these eyes.
Forget it. The security brought about by this detail was only icing on the cake. Tang Yibu pulled the edge of the soft hood down again.
Now wasn’t the time to count how much influence Mr. Ruan had on him.
Auntie Yan walked in front by herself. Her thin back seemed like it could be blown away by the blizzard at any second. Tang Yibu followed quietly in the dark; the snow on the ground almost reached his ankles.
He watched her walk near a chimney, and then entered the largest club in Petri Dish No. 1024.
In the never-ending harsh winter, this used to be the only place where people could have some fun. When people gathered, the air would be much warmer. They lit a fire indoors, played some silly, simple games, and drank spicy bean soup cooked in cans.
Now, the fire in the room was still burning, and the bean soup was tumbling in the pot. There were not a lot of people. Auntie Yan entered and sat down at a table with the most people. There were about six present, and each had a serious expression.
If he walked in through the main entrance, he would be exposed in an instant. Fortunately, he had spent a lot of time in the real Petri Dish No. 1024 and knew the structure of this building well.
Tang Yibu walked around the back of the building and squeezed into an exceptionally narrow dark alley. The old hole he knew well was still in place.
This hole has existed for a long time, and the alley was blocked by a wall. No matter the cold wind or wild cats and dogs, no one could get in. For an adult, the entrance of the hole was also slightly too narrow. Supplies were limited, and in the end, no one cared about it.
It was just right for his current body shape.
Tang Yibu squeezed into the interior of the building and struggled out of the pile of dry branches and withered grass. This was the back kitchen of the club. Imagining that the food was time-consuming and exhausting, he simply opened a cabinet and grabbed himself a few cans of cold beans.
The back kitchen was emptier than the hall. Tang Yibu stuffed a can of beans into his pocket, and with a spoon in his mouth, crept close to the hall, hiding in the corner full of cardboard boxes.
“What took you so long?” A man with a beard spoke impatiently.
“Luo Fei brought a newcomer, so I have to keep an eye on him.” Auntie Yan slowly exhaled a puff of smoke. “A man who’s quite a looker came over with a pornographic book. Based on his age, he most likely saw the world before the Great Rebellion.”
She knocked on the pipe and glanced at the man. “He brought two androids, a little girl and a young man, who both look pretty good, but they’re not the most popular faces… The details are like that. I don’t think it looks like a person who’s from the Order Supervisors, so I’m thinking about observing him more.”
“Be careful, I’d rather have a stupid kid like Luo Fei than let an Order Supervisor in.”
“Does that even need to be said?”
“How is Luo Fei’s situation?”
“Still the same. He really thinks we’re just a book club.” Auntie Yan’s tone wasn’t contemptuous or sarcastic, but her smile was a bit bitter.
“Keep talking about your situation.” The man she was talking to decisively skipped the topic. “The news from the center this time…”
“There’s no news. Business as usual. It’s true that there are new people coming in, but there’s no intention of testing at the hub. I specifically asked. There may be more observations. The wolf didn’t seem to act either, so there’s no need to worry for the time being.”
“There’s no wolf attack on my side. Recently, the monitoring of the Mainbrain has been a bit loose. This isn’t a good sign…”
They didn’t intend to break their words apart, so Tang Yibu couldn’t understand the meaning of those words. He curled up and hid himself as much as possible in the pile of cardboard boxes, listening more carefully.
“If the pattern remains the same, the attack should be in these two days. I’ll go back and keep an eye on it.” Auntie Yan was silent for a moment before she spoke again.
“This is by far the most stable hub. There must be no mistakes.”
“Nn.” Auntie Yan spewed out a smoke ring. “What about the Android Show? How long has it been without news? If the professor hasn’t given instructions, there’s no need for us to gather so often.”
“No instructions,” the other man interjected. “According to the professor’s meaning, we must insist—”
“Insist? Except for us old antiques, who remembers how the world was before? When we’re all dead, the most rebellious person to them will be equivalent to Luo Fei—shouting slogans and doing harmless little tricks in private; getting back what they should have and thinking they will reap major benefits.”
Auntie Yan sneered.
“In my opinion, saving lives takes precedence. Since Professor Ruan hasn’t come back with news for so long, we shouldn’t face the wolf attack and settle down for a while first.”
“I agree with Xiao Yan.” The oldest looking one spoke. “Everyone could see that there are fewer ‘people’ outside. This hub, although powerful, in the end, still has its limits. Sooner or later, this hub will collapse when the wolf eats this place. Since Ruan Xian hasn’t sent news, we should also adjust according to the current situation and protect ourselves. Blindly following instructions will not yield good results.”
People, wolf attacks, the hub, Android Show… and Ruan Xian.
Tang Yibu carved those seemingly unrelated words into his mind, slowly exhaled, and pursed the spoon in his mouth.
This place wasn’t a simple “spiritual world”, or “joint dreamland”. It was operating according to a strange set of rules. His own knowledge wasn’t enough to sift through this information.
“I object. At least I don’t think I’m smarter than Professor Ruan. We have to be ready at all times.”
“I think…”
The table of people suddenly clamored. Auntie Yan let out a long sigh and stood up. The irregularly shaped wooden chair scuffed across the floor, making a harsh sound.
“You guys are giving me a headache. I’ll go back first. After all, I still have to take care of the hub,” she said wearily. “Anyway, there will be no results for a while, so everyone can sort out their ideas and get together another day. If you come to an agreement, you can find someone to tell me.”
Having said that, she ignored the reaction of the others, grabbed a gray wool shawl from the table, and walked in the direction of the door.
“Auntie Yan, the weather—”
“I’ll go and get the things to be repaired. It will be dawn in a few hours, so I can probably make it back in the morning and sleep then.” Auntie Yan waved her hand without looking back.
Tang Yibu clenched the canned food in his pocket. He glanced at Auntie Yan’s direction, then bent down, and quickly got out of the building from the opposite way.
A simple carriage stopped at the side door of the building, and several people were loading bulging bags onto it. Tang Yibu smelled potatoes stained with wet mud and slightly rotten onions.
They were once the main food in Petri Dish No. 1024, and the smell they emitted was no different from what he remembered.
But the carriage, horses, and people were another matter.
The people looked okay, dressed in bulky, tattered cotton coats or down jackets bunched up with nylon straps. Their figures were clear, but when they turned their heads, their faces seemed to be separated by layers of frosted glass.
Their facial features were like colored mist, so Tang Yibu couldn’t tell their true appearance. The situation of the horse was even more exaggerated—its body structure was slightly shifting and changing. It looked like a horse when you glanced at random, but it didn’t look like it when you carefully paid attention to it. It became more like a blurred human face.
They carry the blurred features characteristic of a remembered scene to a much greater degree.
Auntie Yan turned a blind eye to the distorted monster in front of her. After all the bags were loaded into the carriage, she got into the position of the driver and began to whip the vague horse with a wire-altered whip.
Tang Yibu rubbed his hands, jumped into the body of the car with a hearty step, and buried himself in a pile of gray bags. The strong smell of onions almost choked him and he had to spit out his spoon.
After holding the spoon firmly again, Tang Yibu squeezed the side full of potatoes. The snow followed the wind through the top of the dilapidated carriage, and thick snow quickly accumulated on the sack, almost burying him.
Looking out through a little gap in the snow, the ghost of Petri Dish No. 1024 was soaked in the deep night.
The current time in the dream was about 4 in the morning. According to Auntie Yan, it would take them at least half a day to reach their destination. Fortunately, the passage of time in the dream was different from the real world. Tang Yibu wrapped his clothes tightly and twitched his nose.
Next, he should have enough time to investigate the “hub”, find the thread connecting those words, and then use it as a small surprise for his date.
It was just that the environment was really bad, so he should find a way to regain some energy. Tang Yibu put the canned beans in his arms, clenched the spoon, and fell into a state of half-asleep and half-awake.
At the same time.
Ruan Xian touched the baked apple slices on the paper with his fingers. The fruit that had lost most of its moisture felt a little stiff to the touch and rather odd. Coupled with his fingers that didn’t match his actual age, the scene in front of him had a weird sense of incongruity.
It was roughly estimated that it should be the latter half of the night. Li Han was tired of painting, so she lay in a corner inside a simple sleeping bag that was to the side of a pile of broken wooden boxes that had little practical use, then fell asleep. Luo Jian kept sticking to his corner, breathing very lightly. Most likely he was still tense.
Xiao Ma skillfully stuck a metal latch on the inside of the door and dragged out a recliner that was half down, then took out a dirty blanket off the ground. He tied a metal rope to his wrist that was attached to the bell on the door.
The size of the bell was almost the same as that of a ping-pong ball. Neither the movements of Xiao Ma nor the blowing of the wind against the door were enough to shake it. It seemed as if it was used to guard against other things.
Within a few minutes, Xiao Ma also fell asleep. Only the oil lamp in front of Ruan Xian was left in the room. The lights were dim, and without the assistance of the S-type Prototype, it was difficult for him to see the contours of the other three.
The flames continued to quiver as Ruan Xian played with the apple slices without any intention of sleeping.
He hadn’t experienced this feeling in a while—even if he knew that the chances of something happening to him were extremely low, once he entered an unfamiliar environment, it was always difficult for him to sleep, unless there was a fuse with relevant interest and comparable strength—and said fuse that was surnamed Tang wasn’t around at the moment, so he had long lost his desire for sleep.
Forget it.
Since there was nothing else to do, he could think about his next plan. For example, how to use these strange conditions to sidetrack and dig out some information from Luo Jian’s mouth. This current boring situation was likely to cope with the “stranger”, being him, present.
However, if Luo Jian just wanted to deal with him simply, he didn’t have to choose such a dangerous memory. After all, Li Han was also here. If he wanted to kill him without a trace, this inconvenient environment wasn’t suitable. Once he saw that something was wrong, he could easily find an empty room to hide in, and Luo Jian may not be able to find him before the treatment ended.
Still, this wasn’t a reason to relax…
As far as the current situation was concerned, either the other party just wanted him to suffer so he would refuse joint therapy the next time it was proposed… Or maybe this memory had some special meaning that Luo Jian “has to” choose it. If it was the latter, all the previous inferences wouldn’t be valid.
After all, compared with most memories, its details were too rich, which meant most likely this was an extremely important memory for Luo Jian. The other party’s choice of it may also be based on some reason that had nothing to do with Ruan Xian.
Unfortunately, the information he had currently wasn’t enough to draw a precise conclusion. Ruan Xian took a bite of the dried apple and looked out the window again.
In the crevices of the wooden boards that sealed the windows, dozens of blood-red spots of light flickered in the darkness.
He tightened his back abruptly. Those ominous lights looked like mechanic police dogs that he encountered in the forest petri dish. Ruan Xian subconsciously extinguished the oil lamp in front of him while mentally tracing his blood gun repeatedly in his mind.
The cold metal slowly spread across the palm of his hand.
Items outside Luo Jian’s memory must be created by outsiders. The more complicated things were, the more difficult they were to create—the creator needed to refine every last detail. Clothing and food were doable, and simple cold weapons weren’t difficult to make, but to bring in a complex machine out of thin air, the imaginer must be familiar with its structure and operating principles. Otherwise, they would only produce an empty shell.
He made the blood gun himself. Although there was no steady supply of blood bullets, in theory, he could rely on the limited “blood” in his cognition. There was no Tang Yibu here, so he only needed to be responsible for attacking.
Here, Ruan Xian’s blood gun stabbed into the left wrist of his wound. Suddenly, the bell hanging on the door began to ring violently.
Luo Jian woke up quicker than Xiao Ma. After the rustling noise, a metal bump sounded. “Xiao Han, get up!”
In the darkness, Ruan Xian hid the blood gun under his cloak to keep out the cold.
“Wolf attack.” Luo Jian’s voice was a bit hoarse after another sound of fabric rubbing.
At the same time, something outside—whatever it was—began to slam the door frantically. The fragile little house started making shrill sounds. Several places that weren’t sturdy were torn apart, and the things outside poked their heads in, gnawing on the cracked walls.
It wasn’t a “wolf”.
Ruan Xian didn’t know what those things were, as they were pure black. Even in the dim night, they were strikingly black. If everything in front of him was a dimly hued photo, those things were like the darkness that came through after a nail pierced the photo. The last time he saw this kind of blackness was at the dead wall that divided the petri dishes.
This was the Mainbrain’s handiwork.
Their shapes looked a bit like wolves, and their blood-red light eyes were embedded in a similar head structure. Their eyes moved everywhere on the head of the dark shadow, converging towards places where there was sound.
“Don’t attack. Run!” Luo Jian only shouted one sentence, and then quickly left. As soon as he left his spot, the place where he was standing was packed with a group of strange wolves.
Li Han ignited charcoal and skillfully ignited the roof. The structure of the roof was special as it didn’t raise much smoke. The fire instantly tore through the darkness.
Those strange wolves sucked up all the light and were busy devouring everything that was closest to them—tables, chairs, firewood piled in the corners, and Xiao Ma, who hadn’t had time to escape.
Ruan Xian ran behind Luo Jian at the first opportunity, keeping an eye on the strange wolves with his spare attention.
Seeing Xiao Ma being attacked, Luo Jian remained unmoved. He stretched out his hand and grabbed Ruan Xian’s collar and ran towards the back door of the store, half-dragging him along. Li Han followed closely behind; the soft-hearted girl also ignored the screams of Xiao Ma.
Despite Xiao Ma’s leg being torn off by the wolves, the wound didn’t shed the slightest trace of blood. Only a vague red smoke spread out. Before Ruan Xian had time to take a few more glances, he was taken away from the room by Luo Jian.
He was distracted and gave a horrified look.
Luo Jian took them directly into the storage room behind the store. He quickly pushed away the debris and opened the lid of the cellar, which emitted a choking musty smell. “Quick, go down. Hurry up.”
This sentence was almost said in exasperation.
Ruan Xian took a deep breath, grabbed the rope by the pothole, and quickly slipped down. As soon as they landed, Luo Jian quickly fastened the metal door at the entrance of the cellar. The thick metal door had many layers, with varying degrees of erosion, making it obvious it had existed for a long time.
The cellar was very deep and was covered with the smell of mud, moss, and snow. There was an air filter installed here. The cold wind from outside seeped into their clothes, causing a biting chill that froze and numbed their feet.
After going deep underground, the chaotic sound became much weaker, leaving only faint tremors. Luo Jian somehow managed to get a candle and made a small light. In the swaying candle, his expression was particularly ugly.
“What are those things out there?” Ruan Xian played his role brilliantly. “Isn’t this your memory? What are you remembering?”
“It’s all the work done by Pear Blossom. Look, it’s all messed up monsters, so it’s normal for my brains to be messed up.” Luo Jian’s tone was stiff. “There are no such things in the real world. Do you understand now?”
Li Han pursed her lips and didn’t speak.
Ruan Xian didn’t answer directly. He wiped the wet walls of the cellar with his fingers, and his tone was uneasy. “How long will we stay here?”
“It’ll be fine at dawn,” Luo Jian replied in an extremely perfunctorily manner.
“I mean, when will the treatment end?” Ruan Xian stared at Luo Jian’s face tightly.
Despite the tension, Luo Jian still showed a relaxed expression. The muscles on his face twitched twice. “It’s early. It also depends on Gong Siyi’s mood. Joint therapy is like this, or can you tell me an alternative treatment that’s easier and more comfortable, and we can do that, yeah? Xiao Han, follow me closely and stay on the path.”
“I read some information before the treatment. Even if Xiao Ma is someone in your memory, he should bleed when attacked, not turn into something strange like that.” Seeing the other party wanted to change the subject, Ruan Xian pulled the focus back.
“Didn’t I already tell you? It’s because I’m crazy. The things in my head are messed up.”
“But…”
“If you keep talking nonsense, I will leave you here.” Luo Jian obviously didn’t want to entangle with this topic for too long. “Kid, I thought you were ambitious, but it turns out that the time when you were most serious was when you were a kid—just shut up if you have no idea. We have dealt with this situation hundreds of thousands of times, and we don’t have time to play commentary games with you.”
Luo Jian no longer spoke and led them into the darkest place. For some reason, Ruan Xian felt that the world around him was becoming clearer.
The slope first went downwards, then up. Ruan Xian made a rough estimate that they were getting closer to the surface.
Finally, they reached the end.
Unlike the Shade Refuge, the underground fortifications here were extremely rough and not much different from mines. The cold wind that penetrated into the ground became colder, indicating that the surface was just above their heads and there should be an emergency exit nearby.
“Go to sleep.” Luo Jian put the candle holder casually on the ground and sat down by a small mound of soil. “It’s still a while before dawn.”
Having said that, he sighed and stared at the void in front of him.
Then Ruan Xian saw Xiao Ma.
At first there was a vague outline, and then it gradually became clear. Unlike in the store, Xiao Ma appeared in front of them out of thin air. He was panting, and his hair was stuck to his forehead by sweat. His facial features distorted even more, and his figure appeared even more unnatural.
“Lao Luo.” Xiao Ma wiped the sweat off his face, as if he was unaware of what had happened just now. “Did the wolves come again?”
“Nn, but it’s alright now.” Under the swaying candlelight, Luo Jian’s eyes looked a bit sad. “Thank you for your hard work, Xiao Ma. Hurry up and take a break.”
“Okay.” Xiao Ma laughed humbly. His facial features were frighteningly distorted, and his voice was a bit indistinct. “Oh, pay attention to your side… Pay attention… attention…”
Halfway through speaking, the young man’s figure shook suddenly, spreading out in the air like a flame that was blown out.
Li Han twitched her nose loudly, while Luo Jian lowered his head, expressionless.
“Just now that was—”
“Shut up!” Luo Jian roared at Ruan Xian with a touch of anger.
“Lao Luo, don’t do this. He doesn’t know anything,” Li Han persuaded, her voice trembling a little.
Luo Jian took a few hard breaths and slammed down on the ground. The flame of the candle was shaken by the wind, illuminating a slate in front of the small mound.
A grave.
“I lost my temper. Sorry.” After a while, Luo Jian apologized in a blunt tone. Turning his back to the humble, lonely grave, he didn’t seem to want them to see the expression on his face.
“It’s okay. Wait until dawn. When things calm down, we can talk about it.”
Ruan Xian hid himself in the darkness.
“Now, I just want to ask one question. Why can’t we attack those… things? I checked some information about joint therapy before I came in. Even if they are things in your memory, as long as you know enough about them, they can be destroyed.”
If it was a real wolf pack that struck, Luo Jian didn’t have the slightest need to stop the attack. Even if they were monsters born of insane fantasies capable of reaching such a clear and stable level, Luo Jian, as the master of this spiritual world, knew them well enough.
Usually, understanding meant being able to control it. Unless…
“Forget it. Yes, I lied. That stuff is from the Mainbrain. Not my memories.”
“…The Mainbrain?” Ruan Xian frowned.
“Nn. In my memory, it has always been real wolves who attacked the village.” Luo Jian looked at the top of the cave absent-mindedly. “So I imagined a time when the wolves didn’t come and enter the city. But they still came, howling, so we call this a ‘wolf attack’.”
Li Han nodded in silence.
“It’s probably not mentioned in the pile of things you read, as they’ll only appear in abnormal memories that are too clear.”
Luo Jian grimaced and made a bitter smile. “These days, it’s impossible to be completely free of ideas. Just think of them as an antivirus program for the human brain.”
“Abnormal memories?”
“The doomsday doesn’t exist, but I have such a clear delusion and will share it with others. The Mainbrain has to find a way to dilute it. Why do you think this is called ‘therapy’?”
Ruan Xian understood.
When he attacked Gong Siyi before, the system put forward a suggestion to erase his memory. There were also means to erase recent memories according to the time spent at the Shade Refuge. But for the past that wasn’t within the immediate degree and had been deeply rooted in one’s mind, it was difficult to solve with a rough one-size-fits-all approach.
Thus, the method taken by the Mainbrain was more likely setting up key plots for people’s thoughts and memories, and then using a program to dilute these abnormalities at regular intervals. The way to dilute it was probably…
“They made you forget Xiao Ma.”
To say completely forget wasn’t quite apt. Ruan Xian could probably imagine the technique the Mainbrain was using—the spiritual world was mainly derived from human memory. If the things in it were erased, people needed to recollect those long-standing memories to recall and imagine again.
But people do forget.
Time and time again, with the destruction and recollection of long-past memories, every reconstruction represented a loss of details.
First, the less important scenery, like the withered grass on the side of the road, the dead trees, and the clouds on the horizon. Then there were the decorations of the buildings, the contents of paintings, the rusty candlesticks, and the dusty cobwebs in the corner. Last would be the person, how they were dressed, their body shape, their voice, and finally their appearance.
All of this until there was only a vague impression left and the person could no longer think of it systematically.
Ruan Xian suddenly understood why there were so few people in this city.
“Sort of.” Luo Jian lightly touched the topic. “If you resist, even if it’s just a little, the system will recognize you as a threat.”
“Can’t they identify you as a patient?”
“We don’t know the definition of resistance set by the Mainbrain, and no one ever explained it.”
Seeing that Luo Jian didn’t mean to explain anymore, Li Han replied on his behalf, and there was an uncontrollable anger in the young girl’s tone.
“If the Mainbrain thinks you resisted, then it’s considered resistance. There’s no room to make sense of it. You can only hide. After all, being stomped on by those things, as a human you will instinctively struggle, and can’t help but become hostile. Who could control their emotions at that point?”
“And it’s impossible to win against them… That’s a program made by the Mainbrain. No one can stop it before being killed.”
Ruan Xian didn’t ask any more questions.
These two people were hiding something from him. While their explanation seemed reasonable on the surface, there were still holes.
If it was true as Luo Jian said, as the spiritual world that needed to be disclosed, it would require to be repeatedly scanned by the Mainbrain. Then, before the “disinfection” was completed, it was impossible for Gong Siyi to use such a dangerous environment for joint therapy more than once. This was equivalent to making a joke out of his future career.
It was likely that Gong Siyi was busy monitoring their emotional index at this moment and guessing whether they were struggling.
Ruan Xian subconsciously rubbed the rough cave wall with his fingers, and the cold and hard stones stung his fingertips.
Judging from the previous dialogue between Luo Jian and Auntie Yan, there was a wolf attack just a week ago, and the frequency was quite high. If the scans were such a common occurrence, it would be impossible for them not to be mentioned in the joint therapy information he was given.
It seemed that his previous thoughts may have been right. For some reason, Luo Jian had a reason to choose this memory. At the same time, this memory had already attracted the attention of the Mainbrain, so it was scanned repeatedly with the Wolf Pack program.
“Miss Li, you guys used to come here a lot, right? Nothing will happen to us, right?” Ruan Xian changed his perspective.
“Um, it’ll be fine.” Li Han smiled reluctantly at him. The patient mark near her wrist was still flashing red. “Believe me, we have been here—”
“Xiao Han!” Luo Jian, who had his eyes closed and was pretending to be asleep, interrupted Li Han’s words.
Li Han closed her mouth instantly.
“When you guys wake up, I’ll take you guys somewhere else.” Luo Jian took over the leadership and closed his eyes again. “Save some energy first.”
Li Han looked downcast and nervous as she moved a few steps in the direction of the candle. Her eyes were watching the dancing flames without rest.
It seemed that this joint therapy was more interesting than he thought. Ruan Xian nestled into the dark shadows again.
But he still didn’t feel sleepy at all.
There was still something wrong. He seemed to have missed a certain detail. Ruan Xian broke apart all the memories after the start of the joint therapy and went through them over and over again in his mind in order, but there were so many details that he couldn’t determine the source of this feeling.
Ruan Xian began to unconsciously play with the studs on his left ear.
[…Follow your intuition. You need to abandon your logical habits as a researcher.]
Perhaps it was this action that guided his subconscious, and what the android said surfaced in the depths of his mind, light as a fleeting bubble in boiling water.
Ruan Xian didn’t let go of this memory.
The first time he felt an inexplicable sense of dissonance was with Xiao Ma. After Auntie Yan left, the scar behind Xiao Ma’s ear disappeared, and his facial features began to distort. After being attacked by the strange wolves, Xiao Ma’s facial features distorted even more severely, and then just disappeared completely.
He didn’t feel this sense of dissonance in Auntie Yan, but Auntie Yan’s wrist was empty and there was no patient mark.
Rich details and dangerous memories. Frequent scans. Xiao Ma that changed inexplicably at the beginning…
“Miss Li.” Ruan Xian didn’t ask Luo Jian his question this time. He left the shadows and leaned next to Li Han. “For a change of mood, look at this.”
Luo Jian raised his right eyelid and secretly watched Ruan Xian’s movements. Ruan Xian didn’t notice it—he opened his palm and a six-petal pear blossom lay quietly in his hand.
Ruan Xian deliberately imagined one more petal and adjusted his posture to make sure Luo Jian could see it too. Luo Jian just glanced at it briefly, but the flowers didn’t change at all.
“Thank you, it’s beautiful.” Li Han smiled with a pale face, “But pear blossoms have only five petals.”
Before her voice fell, the flower turned into five petals, and even the structure of the stamens became a bit clearer.
“Ah, no wonder why I thought there seemed to be something off.” Ruan Xian put away his fingers to cover Li Han’s eyes. After her attention turned elsewhere, the stamens of the flower began to blur again. “I don’t know much about them.”
His guess was correct.
As outsiders of the memories, they could “fill in” the details of this world. Li Han, who sat by the window every day and liked to paint, would be keen knowing that pear blossoms only had five petals. She may have a clearer understanding of the details of pear blossoms than everyone present.
This kind of cognitive feedback could reverse consolidate the memories of the master of the spiritual world and make their world stronger.
What if Xiao Ma was also a member of the “replenishment”?
The Xiao Ma they first saw was most likely a “supplementary” version. As the master of the memories, Luo Jian must have known Xiao Ma, but he probably didn’t know him too well. At least he hadn’t noticed a scar near Xiao Ma’s ear.
When Auntie Yan left the scene, that was the only other person who could provide details.
In this way, it was natural for Auntie Yan to have no sense of dissonance—she wasn’t part of his memories, but another person that was involved in this joint therapy.
That was, if this was considered “joint therapy”.
Auntie Yan wasn’t a patient but an acquaintance of Luo Jian’s. She knew Xiao Ma, who only existed in memory, and she had obviously lived in a place that was related to this memory. Thinking from this perspective, it was worth pondering why she left in the middle of the night, combined with the frequent scanning procedure of those strange wolves…
Most likely there were other visitors here.
Now Ruan Xian was completely sober. He squeezed the blood gun hidden under his jacket.
It stood to reason that joint therapy couldn’t accommodate too many participants. There were too many intervening foreign minds. If the will wasn’t strong enough, the provider of the spiritual world would likely fall into chaos, which would lead to longer recuperation in light cases, and a mental breakdown in heavier cases.
But thinking backwards, if he wanted to establish a stable enough place for multiple gatherings, the most suitable place for the provider was undoubtedly a prevention shelter.
Did Luo Jian really think that he was a victim of Pear Blossoms? Did he really think the end of the world didn’t exist?
…Or is it that Luo Jian made the gesture to himself in order to keep it secret?
Ruan Xian stood up, leaning on the wet and cold cave wall.
If the idea of “this is a secret gathering place to avoid the Mainbrain” was established, the participants wouldn’t simply come to drink tea and chat. Combined with the information that Professor Ruan had been here before, perhaps the answer he was looking for was closer than he thought.
At this moment, the wall of the cave suddenly trembled badly, and the sound of collapse rang out in the distant darkness.
“Don’t panic.” Luo Jian’s first reaction was to extinguish the candle. The red text marking them as patients on their wrists was particularly dazzling. “This is normal.”
“The wolves will come.” Li Han’s voice trembled a little.
“They won’t chase us so far. There are still many active people on the ground. We just need to not show hostility.”
“If they really come…”
“We can escape. If you really can’t escape, get down, don’t move, press your hands under your body, and don’t resist.” Luo Jian’s voice was calm. “The scan may be a bit uncomfortable, but just bear it until it passes.”
Li Han hummed uneasily while Ruan Xian remained silent—he wouldn’t be locked as the primary target by the scanner as this was his first time entering the spiritual world, but it was difficult to say regarding these other two who had been frequently here. If Luo Jian were to die now, it would also be troublesome for him.
Not long after the air was quiet, the sound of collapse also came from the other side of the cellar.
It was deliberate as the three of them weren’t tightly blocked into the cellar.
Soon, red eyes of light began to appear in the darkness. Luo Jian lit all the candle holders on his body—He kept taking out short candles that looked similar to each other from his pocket, showing some weakness due to the rapid consumption of energy.
Countless white candles were placed on the ground, and the cellar became much brighter. The atmosphere was a bit out of touch with the times and had a sense of desolation with the small grave on the ground.
“Don’t worry. If something happens, I will forcibly eject you. Even if the mind suffers a little shock, it’s better than losing your life.”
“Luo Jian, don’t coax me! With the scanning program here, you can’t leave—”
“This is my memory after all.” Luo Jian smiled. “Besides, you’re talking about the worst-case scenario. Don’t worry. Take care of that useless kid over there. In case something happens to me, you know what to do.”
As the dark monstrous wolves approached from both sides, the red dots became denser and denser. The bright candlelight seemed to be swallowed up in one bite. Luo Jian didn’t risk running away. He walked to the small grave and sat down facing the rough tombstone.
Ruan Xian stared at the wolves without blinking. He didn’t let go of any details about their movements. From the trajectory of the light from their eyes and the way they gnawed on the stones inside the cave.
Comprehend, think. Everything can be unraveled.
Finally, the first monstrous wolf attacked—it ignored Ruan Xian and Li Han on the side and rushed straight at Luo Jian.
Luo Jian didn’t get down but didn’t resist. He sat among the burning candles, rubbing the small tombstone. Ruan Xian could feel a burst of cold being pulled away as his whole body felt as if he was stepping on air.
Forced ejection.
The moment he felt the abnormality, he fired directly.
The wolf that pounced on Luo Jian was bombarded with blood bullets into a rock wall, then fell softly to the ground. It let out a hoarse and unpleasant howl, only to stand up again after a while. The entire pack of wolves retreated together, and for an instant, all the red eyes pointed at Ruan Xian.
Time was limited, and he failed to completely unlock the scanner, but logic wouldn’t betray him—every pattern and detail he understood had taken effect, and he was able to hurt them, which was enough.
Ruan Xian took a deep breath, ignored Luo Jian and Li Han, who were stunned, and shot at the side of the strange wolf.
The entire process took no more than five seconds. Not a single bullet missed. After opening one side, Ruan Xian turned around and sharply pointed his gun at another group.
This time, the strange wolves no longer showed even the slightest semblance of animal characteristics. They didn’t attack anymore. Instead, they stood upright and formed a phalanx, just like a copied image. The blood-red eyes on their heads were turning frantically, looking quite disgusting.
“Now I’m the one they are most interested in.” Ruan Xian spoke with his juvenile voice, which he didn’t like very much. “Li Han, you and Luo Jian walk in front. I’ll take the back.”
He couldn’t kill them yet, and there was no point in fighting a battle of attrition.
While the wolves were immersed in their weird state, Ruan Xian retreated while shooting as Luo Jian and Li Han ran in front.
“You injured them.” Luo Jian’s voice was still shocked. “You know that they are from the Mainbrain, yet you managed to hurt them… Even if you can analyze the system, you think you have a chance of winning against the Mainbrain?!”
In the end, this was a spiritual world constructed by cognition. If the person believed from the bottom of his heart that the Mainbrain couldn’t be defeated, then he couldn’t hurt these monsters in the slightest.
Ruan Xian wasn’t surprised at Luo Jian’s concern.
“Maybe because I’m truly crazy.” He clenched the blood gun in his hand. “Are you from the rebel army?”
“…” Luo Jian didn’t answer.
In the next second, a huge paw poked out of the darkness and almost covered Ruan Xian.
The strange wolves were merging but hadn’t fully fused together yet. The densely packed eyes of light were all gathered in one place, and just the sight could make a person watching go numb. The fused monster’s behavior completely changed. Ruan Xian couldn’t eliminate the influence of the opposite giant on his subconscious—the effectiveness of his blood bullet began to weaken.
The monster, which was now huge in size, began moving down the tunnel. Several claws flickered like data failures surged forward. The sound of collapse became particularly clear. The wind from the outside was getting stronger, indicating they were close to the exit.
In the end, this was the spiritual world of the living, and the Mainbrain wouldn’t have complete control. These programs shouldn’t belong here. Luo Jian’s subconscious would gradually weaken them. As long as they can last for a while, they would have a chance to breathe.
The only question was, how long was this “period of time”?
Luo Jian and Li Han weren’t indecisive. They didn’t talk nonsense and quickly climbed out of the cellar along the soft ladder. Ruan Xian controlled the rhythm of his shooting, trying his best to aim each bullet to hit the monster’s light eyes so it would delay it longer.
The dark monster roared more grotesquely, causing the flimsy rock wall to crack and quickly shatter. Ruan Xian estimated the distance he was from the monster and the time it would take to stop attacking and climb the ladder.
“Is there any other exit in the back?” The blood gun kept drawing blood from his ready-made wound on his wrist. Ruan Xian’s shooting rhythm was getting faster, but his face remained steady.
“Yes, there is…”
“You run away first.”
The sky outside was already lit up. Ruan Xian ignored the soft ladder that was now illuminated by the snow but retreated deeper into the darkness behind him.
“Ruan Lijie!”
“…I’ll catch up later.”
Having said that, Ruan Xian no longer attacked the monster, but instead shot at the already fragile rock wall near it. This attack was more targeted—hitting a specific rock that started to crack before finally collapsing, which created a strong, solid wall between him and the monster.
As a result, the entrance of the cave that was originally used as an exit was also destroyed, separating him from Luo Jian and Li Han, who were relatively safe on the surface.
Next, he just needed to follow the wind while delaying the monster’s speed as much as possible.
Ruan Xian walked around while stumbling forward in the dark corridor. There was a constant scratching sound behind him, but he didn’t feel the slightest tension.
This was the first time he had acted alone since entering here. His mind turned frantically. With death close at hand, it inexplicably made him feel excited. The cold metal and the faint smell of blood stimulated his nerves. Ruan Xian smoothly constructed the same lantern he got when he was at the Shade Refuge, allowing the darkness to wrap itself around him just right without dropping its illumination too badly.
Perhaps this was his most liberating moment. If he had to pick one flaw…
He felt a bit cold.
Finally, the initial wall was torn apart by claws, and the monster’s cry became clearer. As Ruan Xian deduced, it ignored Luo Jian, who had fled to the surface and was difficult to track and chose to continue chasing him.
‘Very good,’ he thought.
After providing such a favor, he didn’t have to worry about digging up something from Luo Jian.
Above the snow, Tang Yibu choked on the onion smell and woke up. He wiped away two hot tears from his eyes and plucked away a little layer of snow as he looked out.
It wasn’t yet dawn, and the carriage had just reached the edge of Petri Dish No. 1024. Tang Yibu saw billowing smoke in the gradually lit sky, and the buildings in the distance were burning, spitting out thin smoke into the surreal sky. The street was unusually quiet, with only a few people who had blurred faces walking crookedly, like zombies from an old horror movie.
Auntie Yan took a breath and snapped her whip. The carriage suddenly accelerated its speed and headed straight in a certain direction.
She stopped in front of a shop that was destroyed beyond recognition. There was a dead pear tree in front of the store, and its nearly black branches were still caught in flames. The trunk looked as if it had been chewed by something, as several large pieces were missing.
Judging from the remnants of the building structure, it was similar to a small bar with rough decorations in the real world. When he was still in Petri Dish No. 1024, he didn’t pay special attention to this place. Although that petri dish wasn’t as big as the Underground City, it was still the size of a small city. There weren’t many survivors in marginal areas. Unless there were special observation objects, Tang Yibu rarely stayed on the dangerous edge of the city.
While Auntie Yan was watching the wreckage, Tang Yibu jumped out of the carriage, pulled down the brim of his hood with both hands, and ran towards the ruins.
There wasn’t much cover here. Auntie Yan should have seen his back and regarded him as a resident here, since she watched him run towards the ruins without meaning to stop him.
Tang Yibu’s footsteps became more cheerful.
He took the potatoes and onions that came from the carriage in his arms and found a great place to hide among the pile of rubble. He planned to observe Auntie Yan from a different angle.
As a result, he saw something extraordinary.
A strange, dark thing was devouring someone’s hands and feet. The figure falling to the ground almost became a cloud of fog. The part of the thing that resembled its mouth was overflowing with red mist from time to time as it ate very happily, and the only eyes of light that glowed on its head turned.
Tang Yibu suddenly found himself hungry. He rubbed his stomach and decided to figure out what this inexplicable thing was before finding a place to solve his breakfast problem.
Happily making his decision, Tang Yibu quietly took a few steps closer and tried to observe more carefully.
This thing wasn’t difficult to recognize. MUL-01 was based on NUL-00 as its core foundation. Regardless of hardware strength, they weren’t too different from their logical construction. Tang Yibu looked at this thing as kindly as the handicraft of his twin brother.
The visualized scanner in the spiritual world carried a high probability of carrying data packets that it would regularly transmit to the outside world. It was similar to the detection birds in the forest Petri Dish.
When he was there, he estimated that there were dozens of detection birds that he abducted from the Mainbrain. As long as he aimed at single ones, Tang Yibu was confident he wouldn’t be discovered.
The program monster, who was by itself, was still chewing on a human leg and knew nothing about its upcoming tragic fate.
He had become a lot smaller and had lost most of his strength, so he could no longer simply control them as he did before. Although it would be better to change back to his original appearance, Auntie Yan was not far away, and it wasn’t as if much power could be enhanced by changing back, so Tang Yibu gave up on this idea.
His coat was buttoned up, with potatoes in one pocket and onions in the other. The can of beans was fixed in the inner pocket of his front chest, close to his heart. The spoon was firmly clenched in his hand as if he was holding a dagger; everything was ready to go.
Tang Yibu chose a suitable angle, approached lightly, and pounced on it. Before the monster scanner could react, it was hugged from behind.
It released the memory data that was being destroyed in its mouth, intending to attack this humanoid object that didn’t know the height of the sky, but it didn’t expect that its opponent was one step ahead—Tang Yibu opened his mouth and bit the back of the black monster fiercely.
Once bitten, the scanning program would be overloaded.
Tang Yibu wasn’t interested in the mood of the scanning program—or the internal computing logic—as he gleefully swallowed the gnawed pieces he had chewed off and quickly analyzed its program composition and recently stored data.
The taste of this thing was a bit like frozen pudding, but unfortunately, it had no sweetness and couldn’t bring him the slightest pleasure from eating it.
Tang Yibu let go bitterly, gave up the idea of using it for breakfast, and began to focus on detecting the dissociated data. When he saw Luo Jian from the image recorded by this thing, he wasn’t really surprised.
If more than one organization could appear in a place such as The Glass Conservatory that was so closely monitored, it was better for the Mainbrain to check it out as soon as possible rather than interfere with human civilization.
Luo Jian was here, and so was Li Han. There was also a young man who he had never seen before who was knocked down. After a brief search, he didn’t find his Mr. Ruan.
Tang Yibu frowned and sifted the data again.
Only for a brief moment, he spotted an unfamiliar short boy behind Luo Jian. From just a quick glance, it was enough for Tang Yibu to distinguish him. That was the face that was 90% similar to Mr. Ruan’s, and the indifference in his expression made up for the other 10% of uncertainty.
Feeling inexplicably better, Tang Yibu took another bite of the program monster, and then decisively pierced his finger into its “wound”. The red-light eyes on the head of the dark monster turned frantically for a while, stopped abruptly, and turned to a beautiful blue color.
As soon as he finished processing on his side, Auntie Yan let out a scream. Tang Yibu quickly poked the program monster’s head with his spoon a few times and moved it towards Auntie Yan’s direction.
Auntie Yan was lying on the ground in a weird posture, pressing her hands under her body. However, even though she made a gesture of surrender, she still failed to escape the attack of two nearby program monsters. One of the beasts tore a piece of flesh from her calf and blood gushed from the wound. The other was staring at her neck, obviously thinking about how to deal with her quickly to make her realize that “she was dead”.
Tang Yibu rode on the back of the program monster, lowered his body, and gave the order to attack its companions with the greatest force. The dark monster rushed towards its former companions like a cannonball, knocking the program monster that tried to attack Auntie Yan’s neck about six meters away.
Then he grabbed his mount by the back of its neck, reversed direction, and stabbed the one who was biting at Auntie Yan’s calf with his spoon.
After figuring out their internal programming, rewriting it became easy. Not long after, the red eyes of the three program monsters turned blue, and they lay on the ground obediently.
Auntie Yan, who survived the catastrophe: “…”
She didn’t know how to describe the scene in front of her and thought she was stimulated into insanity.
In front of her was a comically dressed… teenager, or child, who was riding the “wolf” that they were afraid of. The strange boy’s face was tightly covered by an ugly scarf, the edge of his furry hood blocked his eyes, and the top of the hood was covered with cloth ears; she didn’t know if it belonged to a leopard or bear.
What the little knight was holding in his hand wasn’t a sword, but a spoon with an unknown black liquid stuck to it. One side of his pocket was opened, revealing the purple-yellow skin of an onion. No matter how she looked at it, this boy didn’t seem like a match for those three dangerous creatures that were surrounding him in obedience.
“…What are you?” This was her first reaction amidst her shock.
Neither she nor Luo Jian could use their minds to create creatures that could compete with the creations of the Mainbrain. Taking a step back, their taste wasn’t this strange.
An intruder?
Auntie Yan almost forgot about her injured leg as all her energy was concentrated on Tang Yibu, who was tightly wrapped. The situation was too bizarre; she couldn’t decide whether to approach or say thank you.
“Just a good Samaritan passing by,” Tang Yibu responded modestly.
“…” With his appearance tightly covered, she couldn’t see too many characteristics of the young man’s figure. It clearly seemed that the other party didn’t want to reveal his identity.
Auntie Yan didn’t pursue it further. She sat up, concentrated desperately, and constructed a roll of bandages, which she used to bandage up her injured calf. She glanced at the young man riding on the program monster, who was just staring quietly at her as she was bandaging herself up without any strange actions.
“What do you want?” Barely standing up, Auntie Yan got to the point.
“A large army of these guys chased after the people here. Seeing your expression just now, these people are your acquaintances, right? A good person sees things to the end and send Buddha to the west*. I can take you to them.” In this way he could make the excuse to meet up with Mr. Ruan and won’t lose Auntie Yan either.
*(送佛送到西) Metaphor for doing good deeds to the end. || In this context, he’s seeing this good deed to the end by not just saving Auntie Yan in this moment but seeing it through to reunite her with her companions.
“…What do you want?” Aunt Yan’s tone was heavier this time.
“To collect a little information and address the Mainbrain along the way,” Tang Yibu answered smoothly. “I know what you’re worried about; whether I’m an Order Supervisors taking advantage of this situation in order to penetrate into your organization. I’m not interested in you at all, as this is just a matter of convenience.”
Auntie Yan wiped the mud from the wooden pipe with the corner of her coat and took a shaky puff from it, still not buying what he was saying.
“This is Petri Dish No. 1024. The club at the center of the city will provide delicious spicy bean soup. If you have a good relationship with the boss, you can also get a little onion pie that’s handmade by the boss herself. Every Wednesday, a man who yells extra loud would come to play poker, and he always loses. You can confirm with the master of this spiritual world—Seeing the fineness of the place, he should know a lot about Petri Dish No. 1024.”
Tang Yibu tugged the knitted scarf back towards his face.
“The Mainbrain will adopt a strategy that avoids suspicion. Once the Order Supervisor who had worked in a Petri Dish is transferred away, they will no longer be exposed to things related to the Petri Dish to prevent emotional problems… You should have some understanding of these rules since you can do something like this to avoid the Mainbrain.”
“Taking a step back. I believe what you say. Who do you work for?” Auntie Yan’s expression softened a little.
The question almost tripped Tang Yibu, but fortunately, their last stop provided him with a ready-made answer…
“The Red Ghost.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Well, I’m not surprised.” Tang Yibu snapped his fingers and the two programmed monsters that had originally attacked Auntie Yan slowly fused and transformed into a size more suitable for a human mount. “Are you going to follow or not? If you continue talking nonsense like this, your companions will be eaten clean by these things.”
Auntie Yan no longer refused. She stepped on the monster with a shiver and held onto its pitch-black neck.
“Let’s go.” After confirming the other party was sitting firmly, Tang Yibu lowered his head and whispered happily to the program monster of his. “You go find your companions. I’ll go to my Mr. Ruan.”
His Mr. Ruan wasn’t in good condition right now.
Ruan Xian didn’t run into any fatal danger. The huge program monster was slowed down by the various obstacles he created and couldn’t catch up for a while. He didn’t get lost, and he was pretty sure he didn’t miss the exit.
But his state wasn’t right.
Starting from the separation from Luo Jian and the others, his mood started to become clearer, and another feeling gradually grew in the dark. At first, Ruan Xian only regarded it as a side effect of energy loss; an abnormality caused by a little fatigue, but now he couldn’t ignore it anymore, and he began to feel the anger and irritability that had no origin. They were like charcoal stuffed into his head, making it impossible for him to think smoothly.
Making sure that the monster was still at a safe distance, Ruan Xian created another pile of obstacles, stopped, and gasped against the rock wall.
He was becoming upset, losing patience and composure. Judging from the symptoms, it was very likely that it was hormonal abnormality that was man-made. They wouldn’t hurt him, and the S-type Prototype wouldn’t interfere with it. He also didn’t have a cybernetic brain like Tang Yibu that could artificially adjust his hormone levels.
Someone had acted.
If placed in a normal person, these abnormalities may be regarded as part of a stress response in a high-pressure environment, but Ruan Xian had an almost paranoid desire to control his emotions, and he would never let go of such unnatural details.
Gong Siyi was more impatient than he thought.
The other party probably saw that they were in an abnormal state through their heartbeat and brain waves, and easily added firewood to himself, a “novice” with no experience in joint therapy, hoping to provoke a conflict between him and Luo Jian faster.
It wasn’t fatal at the moment, but it had a chemical reaction with his current mental state that made Ruan Xian quite uncomfortable.
The wound on the wrist that wouldn’t heal was illuminated by the text marking the patient’s information, and it became more dazzling in his eyes. Ruan Xian held back the desire to shoot indiscriminately to vent his anger and tried his best to suppress the boiling memories in his mind.
His steps slowed, but the speed of the monster was the same. The sound of rocks cracking behind him was getting closer.
[What are you doing?]
It was a certain winter after he was adopted by Meng Yunlai. A little older, as Meng Yunlai’s assistant in a sense, Ruan Xian, who was free to obtain professional equipment, turned up a scalpel.
He didn’t think too much about it at the time, and now that he thought about it, he didn’t know why he did it—he looked at the falling snow outside the window for a while and tried to cut his wrist with it.
The scalpel was very sharp, but the wound he made wasn’t fatal. He had a good grasp of strength. The pain spread rapidly from the blade of the scalpel, but Ruan Xian didn’t make a sound, and instead watched quietly. Meng Yunlai, who was supposed to be at a meeting, had returned home early, just in time to witness this scene.
She didn’t scream, didn’t rush forward, but just calmly asked that question.
[I don’t know.] Ruan Xian didn’t know his motivation for doing this as he looked at the wound fascinatedly.
At that time, the rotting corpse of his mother had been hanging in his mind for several years. He deduced the scene countless times and looked for a way to break it, but no matter how hard he tried, he could never understand his mother’s way of thinking and emotional expression.
Perhaps like her, if he let the crisis of death get closer, he could grasp more information.
But he knew very well that he was doing this for more reasons than just that. That pain gave him a very wonderful feeling that he couldn’t accurately describe.
[Xianxian, put the knife down.] With the amount of bleeding, Meng Yunlai could naturally see the severity of the wound. She took out the hemostatic spray and gauze for bandages from the medicine cabinet on one side, but her tone was still flat.
She communicated calmly and expressed herself rationally. In addition to that, her superficial role as his grandmother made it much simpler to communicate with his adoptive mother. This way of getting along did make him feel a lot better, but Ruan Xian always felt that something was wrong.
Ruan Xian didn’t answer her this time, nor did he follow her instructions. He slashed his wrist again, and fresh pain swarmed through him.
[Ruan Xian!] Meng Yunlai raised her voice. [I have to submit your guardianship report to the prevention agency at the end of the month, and they will check your body then. If you want to continue, I won’t hide it from them.]
He knew what this meant. He was engaging in B-level risky behavior and would likely be taken away again by the prevention shelter. The blood trickled down his wrist, accumulating into a pool of red puddles on the clean white wooden floor.
[I don’t want to stop, but I don’t know the reason.] Ruan Xian clenched the scalpel tightly.
[You can do it if you don’t let go. According to the current situation, there are still more than ten minutes left before you faint from blood loss.] Meng Yunlai sat down at the table. [I can try and help you analyze this problem.]
Ruan Xian sat still at the other end of the table, as blood kept dripping down, creating a dazzling trail on the floor. After he rested his wrist on the table, the white table was gradually covered with blood, and its smell permeated the air. An old woman and a young man sat staring at each other across the bleeding table with equally expressionless faces. The scene was quite weird for a while.
[Why did you want to do this in the first place?] Meng Yunlai didn’t look at the flowing blood.
[To study the psychological state of my mother killing herself, I created a near-death experience, and tried to collect information.] Ruan Xian answered truthfully.
Meng Yunlai sighed. [Have you ever thought of killing yourself?]
[I don’t think so. I have no reason to kill myself.] Ruan Xian felt the severe pain and cold caused by the wound, but his voice remained calm. [But I also don’t have a special reason to want to live.]
This was quite normal. Life was just a certain form of energy operation, and he currently had no good reason to change it.
Meng Yunlai showed an expression of “sure enough” just as he thought. For some reason, Ruan Xian wanted to add another wound to his wrist.
He knew that she wouldn’t ask him if he wanted to punish himself for his mother’s death, or if he felt sad, because she knew he wouldn’t. His personality tendencies had been tested over and over again, and the data was clearly recorded by the prevention shelter, so she knew what he was.
But he would still feel anger; an unrelenting, pitch-black rage that burned all the time.
[From the perspective of a scholar, you are probably attracted by these fresh experiences and stimuli, which is normal.] Meng Yunlai took off her glasses and pinched the center between her brows. [You can think of it as a kind of curiosity.]
‘That’s not true.’ Ruan Xian thought for a while, but he couldn’t find the answer himself.
[According to our agreement, I will not force you to do anything.] Meng Yunlai lowered her voice, and a little sadness flashed across her taut face. [Let’s put it this way, I have a suggestion you might want to listen to.]
Ruan Xian didn’t miss the flash of emotion on the other party’s face.
[I told you, I don’t want to lie to you. I can’t accept you or love you like an elder. That hasn’t changed, but you… Haven’t done anything wrong.] The elderly Meng Yunlai crossed her fingers. As blood flowed through the sleeves of her expensive coat, she didn’t even look at it. [You haven’t done anything wrong.]
Ruan Xian stared at her quietly.
[I’m getting old, and I don’t think I’ll live long. Ruan Xian, I’m not a selfless benefactor, but I’m not unkind either. In short, you don’t have to pay attention to the rejection and disgust of others. To be honest, if you can keep pretending, I hope you can live well.]
[Live. With your ability, you can always find something interesting. Of course, the result may also be bad, but no one can tell.] Although there was still fear in Meng Yunlai’s eyes, it softened a little. [You’re still young now. No matter how smart you are, experience won’t grow out of thin air. I suggest you disguise yourself well, live as smoothly and low-key as possible, and start collecting information from this perspective.]
She stretched out her hand and picked up the hemostatic spray. [Give me your hand.]
Ruan Xian didn’t respond to her.
[Indeed, I don’t want to give up your talents because of possible risks. You are the most talented child I have ever seen. And with the limitation of the disease in place, you… Forget it.] Meng Yunlai added with a wry smile.
[I won’t live long, so it’s manageable.] Ruan Xian completed her statement for her, and finally stretched out his arm.
[From another perspective, this is a win-win cooperation.] Meng Yunlai did a simple hemostasis for him, and then went to get a powerful wound gel.
Then she hesitated for a while, but still spoke.
[More than that.] She said, [I’m sorry, I can’t accept you from the bottom of my heart, Xianxian.]
[I know, you once told me.]
[No, the point is, I’m really sorry.] She tentatively stretched out her hand, as if trying to rub his hair.
Ruan Xian instinctively leaned forward slightly, but the hand finally fell on his shoulder.
[…I hope you can understand.] She spoke.
[Nn.]
But he couldn’t understand.
Ruan Xian complied with the agreement with his adoptive mother, Meng Yunlai, disguised himself, and lived a stable life. Facts have proved that the growth of experience was indeed effective. Having been exposed to enough tragedies, Ruan Xian was finally able to analyze his mother’s collapse and fear from a purely theoretical perspective.
And the reason she chose to die.
But everything just remained from a theoretical point of view, and he still couldn’t find the most suitable solution. New problems also followed. He also failed to figure out the complexity in Meng Yunlai’s expression at the time, nor could he figure out the reason for cutting his wrist in the first place.
Three questions were strung together on cause and effect.
Meng Yunlai had long since passed away, and this scar represented the three most difficult puzzles in his life, and it was also the closest thing to “obsession”.
Ruan Xian himself wasn’t too surprised that this was his appearance in the spiritual world. However, the artificially injected hormone compound caused him to lose control of his emotions, and then pain, doubt, and blood swept over him. The narrow and cramped space intensified the fermentation of his emotions. He was so anxious that he didn’t know what he was anxious about.
His heart was beating furiously, his head became a little dizzy, and his steps started to become unstable.
Ruan Xian simply stopped.
With the program monster chasing after him, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to hurt himself at this time. Even if it was clear that Gong Siyi wouldn’t kill him, Ruan Xian didn’t know how long this abnormal state would last. The emotional effects were particularly serious in the spiritual world. It ate away at his energy, causing his exhaustion to become stronger.
Ruan Xian had never liked to fall into a passive situation, let alone leave his safety completely to luck, betting on whether the program monster would disappear first, or he would run out of strength first. It was better to take advantage of his own state and simply turn it into an offense.
Instead of being dragged down by the abnormal state, it was better to release this hostility in turn.
It was cold here, but the world in his eyes seemed to be burning. The patient’s marked wound began to bleed faster. Ruan Xian’s chest became stuffy, and the faint desire for pain resurfaced.
The collapsed stone was finally cracked open, melting into the vast darkness of the program monster with outstretched claws. The converging light of its eyes tightly locked onto his movements, and it seemed to want to tear him apart from head to toe to analyze him carefully.
Ruan Xian ignored the roaring darkness on the opposite side. He let go of his thoughts and focused all his energy on observing the monster.
He no longer suppressed his emotions, and he saw his anger.
Black flames rolled over his skin, burning the original intact skin to patches. Under the burnt skin, disgusting scales were revealed, somewhat resembling some kind of snake.
Perhaps this was what had been imprisoned deep in his heart that he took all this trouble to hide.
Ruan Xian didn’t care about it this time. He let his anger turn into destructive desire and murderous intent as blood bullets poured towards the huge program monster. He put defense on the back burner and was badly scratched by the monstrous claws. The skin that had been burned out of shape cracked into a larger wound.
Unprecedented pain exploded outwards from the inside of his skull.
‘He won’t die here,’ he thought. As long as he had this thought, he wouldn’t die. Now this wasn’t a desire to live, but more like a recognition of his curse.
No need to worry about it.
He only needed to be concerned about his opponent’s movement patterns, find out the weaknesses of the program’s operation, and break it. However, taking most of his attention away from defense had its price—the monster was also staring at him and had managed to pierce his shoulder with its claws.
It was getting colder all around. The pain gradually became unbearable until he dropped the lantern to the side, which illuminated his hands. There was only blood, burnt skin, and weird scales on it.
At most, he was mentally distorted and had fallen into madness, but he wouldn’t die.
Ruan Xian held his breath and broke free of the claws. The opponent’s mode of operation was becoming more obvious. Not only could he defeat it, but he could also completely destroy it. As for what the effects of this emotional outburst would be after the hormones faded, he didn’t bother to think about it.
This was the scene he was used to, struggling alone in the dark, as it always had been. However, some of his skin was still mottled as some pale skin stubbornly refused to turn into scales.
Ruan Xian didn’t know what he was struggling with. He didn’t really care about the opinions of others, and now he didn’t need to pretend to survive—he had been pretending for too long that he had lost most of his interest in his true self. It was enough to accept negative definitions smoothly and live as himself.
There was nothing wrong with being a demon. It didn’t matter if he became a real lunatic.
‘Perhaps the question he had been pursuing wasn’t that important,’ Ruan Xian thought in a daze. Besides, he just gave himself an answer. What he had done so far wasn’t much different from a game. There wasn’t anything he had to do anyway…
Wrong.
An inexplicable thought suddenly hit him.
He still owed the android a date.
Comically, that trivial thought stopped him for a moment. The anger was like ice that touched a soldering iron and immediately hissed and part of it melted. He didn’t know why, but every time he thought of Tang Yibu’s extraordinary, innocent face, he couldn’t help but want to laugh.
Those unsightly scales began to slowly disappear, and the heat and madness that almost burned his brain began to fade. Ruan Xian held the blood gun firmly in his hand, intending to continue to deal with the situation in front of him, when another cracking sound came from above his head…
The next moment, a strange object slammed into him. It looked like a teenager, wearing a hood decorated with animal ears. His face was facing the ground.
Ruan Xian’s movements stopped for half a second.
The young man struggled on the ground a few times before jumping up lightly. He pulled down the ugly knitted scarf, tore off the fleeced hood, and finally wiped the dirt off his face.
“Mr. Ruan.”
Tang Yibu’s trumpet* smiled brightly as he stretched out a hand towards him.
*Buzzword for alt account. || In this context, it’s basically saying his alternative form.
“I’m here to see you.”
Kinky Thoughts:
Oh my Jesus, this chapter was hella long. It’s basically like 8 normal chapters combined. Just a note: “spiritual/mental world” all refers to the same thing. It’s the world created in the mind/memories of Luo Jian.
I really want a fanart of Tang Yibu in kid form with the animal ear hoodie. So cute!
Kinky Translations 