They had just recently met and had no deep friendship, so mentioning trust seemed quite ridiculous.
Yet Lin Chen asked, “Can you trust me?”
Xing Conglian thought, ‘Of course I do.’
The source of this trust was also strange. At that time, Xing Conglian thought the only reason he trusted Lin Chen was because he had a good feeling about the dorm manager.
Thus, he arranged for his men to scour the entire city to search for Yu Yanqing.
However, Yu Yanqing hadn’t committed any crime, and there was no missing report. The so-called search was just to monitor her ID, various citizen cards, and banking information, and to notify the police near where she lived for them to be on alert and to report to their superiors if anything occurred. Other than that, there was no better option. This was the limit of what Xing Conglian could do.
Xing Conglian put down the phone and looked back at Lin Chen.
Lin Chen lowered his head slightly while holding the ginger tea with both hands and took a small sip. As if noticing Xing Conglian’s gaze, he raised his head and said, “Take me to the hospital.”
Hong Jing’s Third People’s Hospital was where it all started.
If they wanted the full story, they had to come back here.
Because of the typhoon, there were few people inside. The wind slammed against the door, blowing away one stretcher after another.
Surrounded by icy white walls and smoky gray floors. Patients who were injured by the typhoon were placed both in and out of the emergency hall, which was filled with low wails that echoed through the corridors. The volume kept increasing due to the extreme pain, and the biting cold only added to their irritation.
Lin Chen put down his umbrella and patted off the rain on his shoulder.
The medical staff was busy with the patients, so they were received by the head of security of the hospital.
The chief of security was huge. He led the way. When they approached the corner of the stairs, Lin Chen suddenly felt a chill for no reason.
The elevator door behind him opened, and a doctor wearing a white coat was the first to rush out, followed by two nurses pushing equipment.
The doctor rushed into the ward. After a short while, a high pitched sound from a pacemaker rang out and was so shrill it pierced their eardrums like it was calling death.
Outside the ward, some people began to cry, while others silently sat down.
Only one person left the chaos of the crowd looking at ease. He looked around as if nothing had happened, found a row of blue benches, laid down on them, and went to sleep.
Just before he went up the stairs, Lin Chen’s gaze rested on that row of benches.
“That’s a hospital nurse.” As if he could see his doubt, Xian Conglian explained.
“Strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“Someone had passed away, yet he didn’t feel any sadness,” Lin Chen replied.
“After seeing too much, of course they’ll become numb to it.” The security chief who was accompanying them looked back at the nurse and said nonchalantly.
“Seen too much?”
“Indeed. Our hospital has a contract with a labor company. Cleaners and nurses who work here have long-term contracts. Some have been in this hospital longer than some of the doctors…”
Lin Chen suddenly stopped. He and Xing Conglian exchanged a meaningful glance before the police captain keenly asked, “Which labor company did the hospital sign their contract with?”
“’Good Home’, the largest labor service company in the city.”
Lin Chen retracted his gaze while Xing Conglian decisively called his subordinates and instructed, “Compare Yu Yanqing’s photo with the suspect who has been in and out of the morgue at Third Hospital.”
The call was short. After hanging up, he chatted with the security chief to inquire about the girl. However, as the head of such a large hospital, he wouldn’t have much impression of the girl, so Xian Conglian didn’t get much information from him.
Xian Conglian subconsciously searched for Lin Chen and found that he was walking very slowly behind him. He was only walking calmly, not even looking around to take a peek at their surroundings.
“What are you thinking about?” Xing Conglian inquired. “Are you thinking Yu Yanqing was the one who messed with the corpse in the hospital?”
“No.” Lin Chen shook his head. “I was thinking, why here?”
“This place must have been chosen because it’s special,” Xing Conglian replied.
Lin Chen nodded. He raised his head and asked, “So what is so special about it?”
“I don’t know. It could be someone here, something that happened before, or maybe even they took a liking to the place. The answers are too broad…”
“Not that broad.”
While speaking, they stopped.
In front of them was an ordinary white wooden door with the word “morgue” written on the sign.
The incandescent light above their heads flickered slightly and sounds of weeping floated from unseen spaces in the darkness.
The security chief took out a key and carefully opened the door.
Cooled air rushed out.
The entire room where the corpses were stored was only about two hundred square feet. The beds were close to each other, with white sheets hanging down to the ground, as if it were a boundless snowfield. While clearly not wide, it felt as if the distance between life and death was more insurmountable than heaven and earth.
The bed where the weird male corpse had appeared was empty. Lin Chen quickly walked to the empty bed and circled around it.
Because of the narrow space, he accidently touched the hand of a deceased person next to him. He glanced at the stiff and pale back of the hand, then suddenly remembered that Fu Hao had said the culprit had slept under the bed.
Why lie under a corpse?
What does it feel like to lie under a corpse?
If he couldn’t analyze it rationally, then he should close his eyes to feel it.
Lin Chen suddenly lifted the hanging sheet, bent down, and got under the bed, lying flat on the ground.
The ground was cold. He was surrounded by darkness. His eyes couldn’t see. His ears couldn’t hear. It seemed that all his senses were closed off and only his mind was lucid.
He imagined the corpses around him, imagined their lives of sorrows and joys, and imagined how they were born and how they died.
At this time, his heartbeat would speed up involuntarily because of fear yet also calmed his mind.
In such a cold, quiet, and closed space, he would find that he was close to death…
What did this feel like?
Lin Chen suddenly snapped his eyes open.
The sound of a ringtone rang in the room.
Xing Conglian took out his cellphone and hurriedly pressed the answer button.
When he finished answering his phone, Lin Chen had already crawled out from under the bed. Xing Conglian cupped his phone and said to Lin Chen, “There’s a clue.”
The person who found the clue was a technician under him.
The technician’s name was Wang Chao. He had all the qualities of a technical geek, quick handed, loved to chatter, and would constantly sell meng*.
*(卖萌) Internet buzzword describing someone who deliberate acts cute to impress others.
When Wang Chao saw Lin Chen for the first time, the young man, who was wearing a cap, took out all the candy in his pocket and arranged it on the table, then quickly picked out all the ones with chocolate inside as he sent them out while he kept talking. “Atsuko, Minami, Mayu,1 who do you prefer? Warcraft, Dota, LoL,2 which do you prefer? How about we play together when you have time?”
1These are members of the idol girl group AKB48. Note, when he refers to Minami, he’s calling her cabbage (I guess it’s her nickname), because of this. 2These are online games. World of Warcraft is an MMORPG, while Dota and LoL are MOBAs.
This was the first time Lin Chen felt dumbfounded. He looked at the innocent eyes of Wang Chao and had to ask Xing Conglian for help.
Xing Conglian took a puff from his cigarette and said lightly, “Do you still want to get reimbursed for your taxi fare?”
The young man who was blowing bubble gum had a shameless expression, but he still sat down at the table obediently and spread out his laptop.
Because of the rain, Unit 6 on Yanjia Lane had a slight musty smell.
The young man sneezed, turned on the laptop, and said, “Look, I’m just asking, but why do you want to live here? My grandma lives in this kind of house, and it gets pretty easy for your legs to get cold when you’re that old…”
“Your grandma has quite good taste,” Xing Conglian responded as he knocked on Wang Chao’s head. “Stop talking. What about the clue?”
“Didn’t you ask to find a woman this morning? I just saw her. Guess where she is?” Wang Chao spoke rapidly. His face had heavy dark circles. “Ta-da! Based on what you said, when the hospital found the dressed-up corpse, she was seen pushing a cleaning cart into the morgue.”
A petite woman appeared on the screen. Wang Chao pressed pause and zoomed in.
The woman’s face was thin and sunken, and her facial features were so small that they seemed squished together. Her expression was morbid, seemingly devoid of joy, as if she had been tortured by life and had lost all her edges.
Lin Chen looked at the dry and thin woman and nodded, confirming that it was the gardener who had sent him the love letters.
“This chick is Yu Yanqing, right?” Wang Chao said. He quickly pulled up the folder containing a video file, selected one, and double-clicked to open it. “I used simple facial recognition software and searched for her picture in any video related to today’s case, and guess what?!” He spoke rapidly as he pressed pause, stilling the screen on an image of the evening riot on the vendor’s street. “She’s here!”
Wang Chao reached out and pointed to a long-haired woman standing on the side of the street watching coldly.
“Finally, guess what, my God.” Wang Chao clicked his tongue and sighed. He had a proud glow in his eyes as he quickly opened the last video in the folder and said, “The location of the camera is at the intersection in front of Central Park. This is about 35 minutes before the crime.”
In the surveillance video, Yu Yanqing seemed to have undergone radical change. She was wearing a red dress and had on lipstick, looking quite radiant. She was walking towards the park in a glowing manner.
This couldn’t be chalked up to coincidence, as it couldn’t explain why the same person would appear in three seemingly unrelated crimes. Xian Conglian rubbed his chin and looked at Lin Chen. “Why don’t we invite this pretty lady for a cup of tea?”
“I’m afraid it’s too late. Let’s go back to Chunshui Street.” Lin Chen shook his head and spoke in a hoarse voice.
When Dong Zhi came back from his visit next door, he saw Long Shen frowning and contemplating at the computer screen.
“Master, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.” Seeing him coming over, Long Shen closed his laptop.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t show it to the other party, but he felt it wouldn’t help even if Dong Zhi saw it. On the contrary, it might make him worry even more.
Dong Zhi didn’t ask much and raised the food bag in his hand. “These are pan-fried buns that the nurse gave me just now. She said they ordered too much and couldn’t finish it, so they gave some to me. It’s still hot. Shall we have some together?”
“Okay.”
In the past, Long Shen would’ve probably refused. He wasn’t the foodie-type like Kan Chaosheng, but recently, even Dong Zhi had noticed that Long Shen had indulged him and made a lot of compromises, almost to the point of spoiling him.
After that night, when Long Shen categorically rejected Dong Zhi’s confession, he had suppressed all thoughts he shouldn’t have to the deepest corner, and now he only felt as if Long Shen’s change was related to him being cursed.
He bent over and opened the box, causing the patient number to slide down his shoulder, exposing his collarbone along with his slender back and neck.
Long Shen’s eyes narrowed.
“Behind you, what is it?”
“What?” Dong Zhi looked up blankly.
Long Shen said, “Sit down and turn around.”
Dong Zhi untied his clothes following Long Shen’s orders. Long Shen brought a mirror and asked him to turn his head. There, Dong Zhi saw a rose-red mark on his back shoulder. On a closer look, it resembled a peach blossom. It had an ambiguous romantic flair to it and appeared to be a mark from a novel that would only appear when you met the right one.
However, not only did Long Shen not feel any ambiguous feelings, but his face also turned cold.
Dong Zhi let out a sigh. “Where did this come from? It wasn’t there yesterday.”
Five words appeared in Long Shen’s mind.
Ghost-faced peach blossom curse.
Dong Zhi also remembered and said, with some uncertainty, “Wasn’t Lin Xuan’s father also cursed by this?”
Long Shen confirmed his guess. “Yes.”
But there were many kinds of curse techniques. Even if they had the same name, because of the different habits of witches and witchdoctors, the methods of resolving them may not be the same. Last time, Lin Xuan’s father only suffered from an ordinary ghost-faced peach blossom curse. He was tortured almost half to death and had almost lost his life. In the end, Lin Xuan got a dragon bone from the Special Administration Bureau and was able to lift it. This time, a heavenly demon had fought Dong Zhi in his dreams through this curse, which only meant the curse was a hundred times more difficult to resolve.
While Long Shen was in deep contemplation, Dong Zhi patted him and handed him a pair of chopsticks.
“Master, let’s eat the buns first. It’s getting cold. If you don’t eat any, I’ll be too embarrassed to start.”
Although he was worried, Dong Zhi didn’t want to add any more trouble or pressure to Long Shen, because he knew that Long Shen wanted to lift the curse more than himself.
Sure enough, the bun had become cold. After taking a bite, they had lost their crispy and warm taste, and even the soup inside had become a bit fishy. When Dong Zhi took a bite, he didn’t want to continue eating. He sighed, “In this weather, it would be great if we could eat hot pot!”
He had been hospitalized for many days and ate standard hospital meals. Even if he wasn’t as addicted to eating as Kan Chaosheng, he couldn’t help but start craving food.
Long Shen also put down his chopsticks.
“What kind of hotpot do you want to eat?”
“The best is the Mandarin duck hotpot, divided into four different soups. A tomato base, a clear base, a spicy base, and a mushroom base. Then we’ll have shabu-shabu, some mutton, fat tendons, and duck tongue. It’s best to drink the tomato soup after eating the shabu-shabu. At the end, you can add noodles or vermicelli. It’s very tasty!”
Because he had been craving real food for so long, Dong Zhi swallowed his saliva as he spoke. After fighting with the wild and rough Wuzhiqi, Dong Zhi had grown thicker-skinned and pretended that he didn’t hear his stomach growling.
Seeing that Long Shen picked up his phone and started ordering hotpot for takeout, Dong Zhi hurriedly stretched out his hand and held the phone down. “Master, you can’t eat hotpot in the ward.”
Long Shen said, “There are only a few of you on this floor. I’ll talk to them. They’ll make an exception.”
When Dong Zhi heard this, he couldn’t help smiling. “Okay, then I’ll go call Lao Liu and Huo Ge. Lao Liu has been complaining about the light food every day. If he finds out I didn’t call him, he’ll scold me to death!”
Naturally, Long Shen had no objection. He gave Dong Zhi his phone and asked him to order what he liked, then he got up and walked out to give notice to the hospital in advance.
“Master.”
Dong Zhi suddenly spoke up.
Long Shen stood still and turned his head.
His disciple hadn’t shown so much hesitancy in so long. Although Long Shen didn’t like this expression, he still waited patiently for the other party to speak.
A few times before, the words had come to his mouth, but he was too timid to speak out. At this moment, taking advantage of the atmosphere, Dong Zhi finally said, “What I said on the phone last time, I was joking. I didn’t mean to annoy you. Just treat it as me being impulsive. I want to apologize to you, Master. I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”
He finally said his apology, which also meant that going forward, he must hold all unreasonable thoughts firmly in his heart. He must never cross the line, not even by half a step, and always abide by the other person’s boundaries.
Today, he finally understood that he liked Long Shen, but he didn’t want him to have the slightest burden of anger.
Liking someone was to make the other happy. If this liking couldn’t bring happiness to them, then giving up was the best result.
But instead of reacting with relief or nodding indifferently as he had imagined, Long Shen smiled instead. It was a pure smile, without any hint of sarcasm.
Dong Zhi was completely stunned.
Before he could figure out what this smile meant, Long Shen had already opened the door and walked out. He wanted to jump up and stop him for questioning, but he didn’t dare stop his Master, Director Long, who dared to fight to the death against the Wuzhiqi, so he could only watch as Long Shen left while closing the door behind him.
So, in fact, the person who had been cursed wasn’t him, but his master, right?
After thinking about it for half a day, Dong Zhi could only draw this conclusion.
The hotpot that night opened with a lively scene but ended unexpectedly. Everyone failed to have fun because when Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo were fighting over a fish ball, Dong Zhi had a sudden angina attack that hurt so much he dropped his chopsticks, bent down, and his entire body fell to the ground, sweeping away the vegetables and shiitake mushrooms on the table. His face had turned completely pale at the time, which scared everyone.
Before Dong Zhi fell to the ground, Long Shen hugged him and supported him, but it didn’t ease the pain. His heart seemed to be gripped tightly in someone’s hand who was repeatedly kneading it. The pain radiated from his heart to all the nerves in his body. Every breath felt like unbearable torture. Dong Zhi didn’t even realize that he was being held in Long Shen’s arms. He was sweating profusely and trembling all over. The only thing he could do was cling to the clothes near his heart, wanting to reach inside his chest, grab his heart, and throw it out, so he didn’t have to endure this kind of pain any longer.
Dong Zhi didn’t know how much time had passed before the wave of pain had eased. He panted for breath and slowly regained his consciousness. He found that the hotpot gathering was over. Liu Qingbo and Huo Jie had left some time ago. There were lots of leftovers on the table that had gone cold. The hot soup in the pot was still kept warm and the heat was curling up, but there were no ingredients inside, making it look quite lonely.
“Master…” As soon as Dong Zhi spoke, his voice was a little hoarse and there was a sense of wetness and weakness in his body. This was the aftermath of excessive sweating.
“I’m here.” Long Shen let him go. “It doesn’t hurt anymore?”
Dong Zhi nodded. Seeing the blood marks he left on Long Shen’s wrist and the back of his hand, Dong Zhi couldn’t help but be surprised. “Your hand…”
“It’s fine. Your situation can’t be delayed any longer. We’ll go to Hainan tomorrow.”
Long Shen helped him up. Since he didn’t have the strength to stand, Long Shen directly picked up Dong Zhi and put him on the bed. “Don’t shower today. I’ll get a towel and wipe you down.”
Dong Zhi grabbed Long Shen’s wrist but couldn’t help but ask, “Master, this situation… Will another attack like this happen again?”
Long Shen had already seen the peach blossom mark on Dong Zhi’s back just now. It had become a bit darker than before, but he didn’t confirm anything and instead just said, “Don’t be afraid.”
Dong Zhi was weak all over. His pale face couldn’t recover so quickly. He smiled softly when he heard Long Shen’s words. “I’m just afraid that I’ll scratch you in the future. When I have a seizure next time, you can grab me a plush doll instead.”
“No need.” Long Shen wiped the sweat from Dong Zhi’s forehead with his hand. After thinking for a bit, he added, “I’m here.”
Long Shen moved very quickly. While Dong Zhi was resting, he had already booked the plane tickets and the hotel and arranged a meeting time with the Chi family, then he took Dong Zhi directly to Hainan.
Before parting, Liu Qingbo and Huo Jie went to see them off. With Dong Zhi’s absence, Liu Qingbo became the temporary person in charge of the Lucheng office. Dong Zhi was worried given Liu Qingbo’s violent temper, so it was inevitable that he would give him a few words of advice. It was nothing more than cautioning him to mind his temper, but Liu Qingbo couldn’t help but roll his eyes when hearing this. Still, he didn’t turn around and leave, and instead listened to all of what Dong Zhi told him.
“Geez, if you’re so worried, just come back to Lucheng with me. Why are you so long-winded?”
Dong Zhi smiled dryly. “I used to be there, so you vented all your energy when you bicker with me. This time, I’m afraid that there’ll be no one there to cheer you up and you’ll get lonely!”
Liu Qingbo: Still a fucking comedian. How can he still be cracking jokes!
But for Dong Zhi’s sake, due to his illness, Liu Qingbo held back.
“There’s still Zhang Chong. That guy is owed a lot of scolding, so I’ll just scold him every day!”
Dong Zhi: ……
He really wanted to know what Zhang Chong’s expression was if he heard these words.
“Alright, alright, go, go. Hurry up and lift the curse and come back!” Liu Qingbo waved his hand, as if he was swatting away flies. At the end, he added something that didn’t sound so straightforward. “You must return safely. If you become a ghost, I’ll find a psychic to trap your soul so I can scold you constantly. You won’t be able to rest in peace!”
This was Liu Qingbo’s unique way of expressing concern for his friends. Dong Zhi accepted it with a smile and bid goodbye to Huo Jie. He asked him to send his greetings to Tang Jing as he entered the security checkpoint with Long Shen.
The two watched them leave the area until they had gone through security and walked away. When their figures disappeared, Huo Jie sighed softly.
“I hope he is safe.”
“Definitely,” Liu Qingbo replied.
—
The Chi family’s residence wasn’t hidden in the mountains or some old forest, as Dong Zhi imagined they would live an isolated life. In fact, Hainan had a tropical climate with plenty of sunshine and moisture. It was like the fruit paradise of many people’s dreams. The Chi family started in the fruit business very early and had now become one of the best fruit wholesalers in China. Strictly speaking, curses had become their side gig rather than their main business.
Such a secularized family naturally saved Long Shen a lot of effort. When they got off the plane, someone from the Chi family came to pick them up. The other party was a junior from the Chi family and Chi Banxia’s cousin. They treated Long Shen very politely and respectfully and drove them to the villa on the outskirts of the city.
When they learned that Long Shen had already booked a hotel and didn’t plan to stay in their home, Chi Banxia’s cousin asked for another car to take their luggage to the hotel first.
Long Shen originally contacted Chi Banxia’s father, but because he attached great importance to Long Shen, the current patriarch of the Chi family, Chi Banxia’s grandfather, Chi Xing, wanted to meet him in person at their villa.
“I have heard about Boss Long for a while now. It’s a pity that there were various reasons in the past when our fate did not align. Fortunately, I finally got to meet you today. I can die now without regrets!” Chi Xing was extremely enthusiastic. He waited at the door of the villa in person and stepped forward with his cane to shake hands with Long Shen.
Long Shen said, “Now that international exchanges are increasing day by day, talents like Mr. Chi’s are welcome by the Special Administration Bureau. The position of Honorary Consultant of our General Administration is always open for you.”
Elder Chi narrowed his eyes with a smile and repeatedly said he wasn’t worthy. Chi Banxia’s father and uncle stood to the side. Elder Chi personally introduced Long Shen to them. Only then did Dong Zhi find out that not everyone in the Chi family was a witch or witchdoctor. Chi Banxia’s uncle, for instance, was an ordinary businessman. Magic required talent. Chi Banxia and her cousin, who picked them up, were regarded as the most talented in the current generation of the Chi family.
After a few pleasantries, Elder Chi knew that Long Shen specifically came for his apprentice, so his eyes fell on Dong Zhi.
“Little one, put out your hand and let me see.”
Chi Banxia’s father added, “My father is the most powerful figure in the Chi family!”
The implication being that if this Elder couldn’t help him, there was even less to be said about the rest of the Chi family.
Dong Zhi stretched out his hand, following Elder Chi’s instruction. The Elder’s thin palms kneaded his head repeatedly, then started moving slowly up inch by inch until he finally stopped at the elbow.
“This is the ghost-faced peach blossom curse.” Elder Chi let go of Dong Zhi’s hand and let out a soft sigh.
The rest of the Chi family’s expressions changed color when they heard this.
Chi Banxia’s father looked solemn. “The last time it was the Lin family that was hit by this kind of curse.”
Long Shen nodded. “Yes, I heard that it only through the hands of Elder Chi that it was resolved, so I can only bother Elder again.”
Elder Chi smiled bitterly. “You flatter me too much. In fact, it was like trying to save a dead horse as if it was still living*—at that time, I wasn’t completely confident. Bluntly put, everyone has different techniques and different solutions. Although the Chi family’s techniques were learned from Southeast Asia, they are one of many. The jungle is dense, filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons. There are many witches that use techniques that I myself have never seen. Not all can be known. According to my judgement, I’m afraid Xiao Dong’s curse is a bit tricky.”
*(死马当作活马医) Colloquial saying referring making a last-ditch effort to save a hopeless situation.
Long Shen said, “Elder, please try whatever you can.”
Elder Chi: “Since Boss Long thinks so highly of me, I’ll do my best. I wonder if Boss Long brought me the dragon bones?”
Long Shen said, “I did.”
He handed over the bag he was carrying.
Only then did Dong Zhi know the extent of the preparation work his master had done without his knowledge.
Elder Chi took the bag and asked his eldest grandson to follow him in while Chi Banxia’s father stayed to talk to Long Shen. Since the uncle was just an ordinary person, he kindly apologized and left first so as not to get in the way.
Chi Banxia’s father was the one who wanted to enter the Special Administration Bureau when he was young, but he left with a lot of anger. Decades later, his temper seemed to have subsided as his entire persona looked quite calm. Dong Zhi saw that he respected Long Shen quite a lot. It wasn’t like the respect shown to a Deputy Director of the Special Administration Bureau, but one of meeting one’s idol.
The other party told them more about curse techniques in the jungle.
“The world thinks that the most powerful black magic is the head-descent technique*. In fact, this is in terms of difficulty for the cultivator. The truth is, the most vicious of all kinds is the ghost technique, because the cultivator could detain a person’s soul who had died a violent death or in vain and use various methods to arouse their grievances. Then they would refine their souls and add them as servants to various families. This kind of black magic is extremely difficult to deal with.
*(飞头降) Technique in which the cultivator disconnects his head from his body and flies it around. There are 7 stages, and once the final stage is reached, the cultivator can live forever.
Long Shen heard the implication from Chi Banxia’s explanation.
“Is the ghost-faced curse on Lin Ji different from that of Dong Zhi?”
The other party nodded. “Although it’s also called the ghost-faced peach blossom curse, Lin Ji’s curse was in his heart, while Dong Zhi’s is on the back. I don’t think this is accidental. It may be that the method used by the person was different. Last time, Lin Ji offended someone while doing business. It could be the one offended sought out a master to curse him and the master didn’t take Lin Ji seriously, but this time…”
Chi Banxia’s father gave Dong Zhi a difficult look and didn’t continue. Both Dong Zhi and Long Shen understood.
This time, Dong Zhi was in the process of eradicating a demon fetus. The other party was probably eyeing him. There was even a figure of a heavenly demon. Despite Long Shen bringing a dragon bone, the Chi family dared not be optimistic.
After a while, a young man came out to inform them that they could go in.
Dong Zhi followed Long Shen and walked into the room and was immediately blurred by the steaming heat.
The layout of the room was very strange. It was surrounded by a circular sink and there was a large wooden barrel, half a person high, in the middle. It was full of dark hot water and a strange aroma wafted from it.
Elder Chi said, “Where is the peach blossom mark on your body? Let me see it.”
Dong Zhi took off his shirt. The “peach blossom” was under his right shoulder on his back. The color was much darker than yesterday. Even Long Shen couldn’t help frowning.
Elder Chi said, “When the Lin family came to ask for him, Lin Ji’s situation was much more serious than yours. I hope that your case is like his. I’ll give it a try.”
Long Shen said, “Thank you.”
“Boss Long is too polite. Those crooked black-robed masters rely on their own secret techniques to unscrupulously harm people. They act as if there’s no one in China that could control them!” Elder Chi spoke arrogantly.
“Xiao Dong, get in the barrel. The water is a bit hot, but bear with me. Soak in it until it reaches your neck. Until I say so, don’t come out.”
Dong Zhi asked, “Elder, do I need to be naked?”
Elder Chi: “No, this is fine.”
Dong Zhi looked at Long Shen. Seeing the latter nod slightly, he no longer hesitated. He walked to the barrel and jumped in.
The water was so hot that it burned him, and he almost jumped out.
Elder Chi seemed to be aware of this. When Dong Zhi’s body moved, Elder Chi directly pressed his head down, forcing him to stay still.
At that moment, all Dong Zhi could feel was his skin and flesh being scalded. He only remembered that Long Shen was by his side, so he gritted his teeth and endured without shouting.
Elder Chi said solemnly, “I know you’re very uncomfortable now, but you have to bear it. It’s up to you whether this can be solved or not. The powder made from dragon bones is added to the medicinal soup. Don’t let your Master’s effort go to waste!”
He didn’t know how, but he knew. Though Long Shen was a Deputy Director, the dragon bone is precious beyond compare. Given Long Shen’s self-discipline, it meant he made an extreme exception for this case just for him.
After soaking for a long time, the pain had become dull and numb. It wasn’t that he couldn’t bear it, but his heartbeat was getting faster; so fast that he felt it would jump out of his chest. Later, his breathing and consciousness began to blur. There was turbulent flow in his body, surging about, as if something was unwilling to be burned to death and was eager to find an exit to escape. Eventually, the turbulent flow surged from his throat. When Dong Zhi opened his mouth, a large amount of black blood spewed out!
“Help him!” Elder Chi shouted.
Long Shen and Chi Banxia’s father, who were standing behind him, were already in place. When they heard Elder Chi’s words, they immediately started to lift Dong Zhi from the water and out of the barrel. At this time, Dong Zhi felt weak and there was a burning on his face, while his lips were ghostly pale.
Chi Banxia’s father brought him a bathrobe and asked him to put it on. Elder Chi said, “Help him to the guest room and take a good rest. When the heat on his body recedes, I will have a look.”
Ruan Xian’s location wasn’t too far from the city. If it was based on the speed of an A-type Prototype, if he walked in a straight line the distance between the two, he would reach his destination in less than a day.
The difficulty was finding Ruan Xian.
Leaving the Mainbrain’s city limits, there was no trace of artificial buildings. He had to go through dense woods, track the weak signal changes in the air, and find the most reasonable path forward, little by little. Tang Yibu looked around for possible places for the Mainbrain’s stronghold, tracing Ruan Xian’s possible whereabouts through various clues. Fortunately, his thoughts were similar to the Mainbrain, so he wouldn’t be too indecisive in his judgement.
Even so, Tang Yibu still circled around several big areas, and it took him three and a half days to find Ruan Xian’s location. The dried fruit was almost finished, but he still had a small bag of persimmon cookies for Ruan Xian. It was the most successful thing Lao Yu had made; sweet and delicious.
He wanted Mr. Ruan to try it too.
The canned food that Ruan Xian had left him occupied a hidden pocket in his coat, which was where he also carefully stored the permission cookies. A few bags of dried fruit couldn’t meet the caloric requirements for an A-type Prototype, so he had to start hunting—there were many wild animals in the forest, so it wasn’t an issue filling his stomach. However, for fear of being discovered by the Mainbrain if he made a fire, Tang Yibu had to rip apart the bodies of his prey and eat their meat raw like a wild beast.
Every now and then, he would sniff the bag of sweet-smelling persimmon cookies, and surprisingly, the desire to share them overcame his appetite for them. Tang Yibu was surprised to find he had no urge to eat it.
Tang Yibu didn’t sleep. He ran around non-stop for several days and finally found a stronghold where the visitor’s log was interesting. After hacking into the system, he compared the number of people recorded and the distribution of personnel in the past two years and determined that there was a “guest” located here that couldn’t move freely.
Thus, he spent a long time analyzing the security situation of the stronghold and finally managed to find the building where Ruan Xian was located with less than 30 hours left before the deadline.
He patted the iron bead that was flopping around in the net pocket before sticking himself to the wall like a gecko and began to climb to the top of the building. From time to time, flying patrol machines would fly over. He had to tighten every nerve and devote most of his energy to dealing with those unlucky things.
In this way, after four long days, he finally reached his destination.
Tang Yibu was strangely excited. He climbed the glass and stuck his face against it. He was just about to check the situation in the room…
Then he saw it. A naked Mr. Ruan was sitting in a liquid tank, hugging “himself” vigorously.
The strange excitement in his heart was suddenly crushed by shock. Tang Yibu slipped, and his feet slid down an entire floor, and he was almost caught by the patrolling machine.
Mr. Ruan could definitely sense him as Tang Yibu felt the other party’s gaze. When he first arrived, his Mr. Ruan seemed to be talking to a fake him. Unfortunately, the sound insulation of the glass layer was so good that he couldn’t hear what Ruan Xian was saying, and he couldn’t make out Ruan Xian’s lips.
However, if the Mainbrain was using “him” to deal with Ruan Xian, it meant that his Mr. Ruan hadn’t betrayed him yet. No matter what tricks the Mainbrain was playing, Mr. Ruan could definitely sniff out and tell if he was real or not. Tang Yibu thought solemnly and began to climb up with great difficulty again.
Ruan Xian’s nerves were about to break.
He wasn’t arrogant enough to think that the Mainbrain was an enemy that he could handle being in a distracted state. If he missed something, although the two of them wouldn’t easily be killed, in case they were completely surrounded by enemies, the S-type Prototype trump card they were holding would likely be exposed. To make matters worse, they would immediately lose their small intelligence advantage.
He tightened his arms and hugged “Tang Yibu” as tightly as possible, resting his chin on his shoulder. He gently pressed the back of “Tang Yibu’s” neck with one hand to make sure the Mainbrain wouldn’t suddenly look back.
Ruan Xian himself was staring at the glass wall in front of him.
Like a sea otter slowly surfacing from the waters, Tang Yibu slowly emerged with a solemn face and stared back at him. Ruan Xian wanted nothing more in the world than to push him back, but unfortunately, time was limited. He didn’t dare hold the fake in front of him for too long.
Tang Yibu had a good grasp on the surveillance, but even if the surveillance didn’t catch him, many were focused on Ruan Xian. Ruan Xian couldn’t even mouth the words and could only secretly blink, then quickly returned to the state of dealing with the Mainbrain.
However, Tang Yibu continued to stick to the glass wall with both hands, pressing his face against the glass with a serious expression, as if telling him he made up his mind to watch this scene. The android even moved his position to a better angle so he could see Ruan Xian’s mouth movements clearly.
Ruan Xian resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“It’s like this,” Ruan Xian said to the Mainbrain “affectionately” while giving him a weak look while speaking panickily. “I was thrown into a dreamworld which the Mainbrain used to try and break my spirit. I’m still a little confused… but I’ve pulled out information from those records that can increase the power of the assassination machine.”
“Your heart is beating very fast.” “Tang Yibu” sighed without moving his gun. “We still have some time. You can relax for a bit, Mr. Ruan.”
Bullshit. His heart was about to pop out of his throat.
Outside, Tang Yibu had changed from sticking to the wall with two hands to only one. He used his free hand to pull out a bag of what seemed like snacks and was shaking it invitingly. The iron bead seized this opportunity to break free from the net pocket and used its little legs to crawl on Tang Yibu’s head, actively watching him together with the android.
God knew how many floors there were in this building. Ruan Xian couldn’t help but secretly curse in his heart. When he left this shithole, he would be sure to beat up those two fuckers outside.
“Fixed templates are popular among illegal memory operators, of which several are popular worldwide. They don’t operate with a registered machine, so there aren’t too many official detailed records.”
Ruan Xian had a sad and relieved look on his face.
“In order to trade those memory data, they came up with a set of strange algorithms to avoid the Mainbrain’s monitoring. I still remember a few of them, and I can show them to you…”
Although the reason was something random that he managed to come up with, there was no doubt about its authenticity. As long as the existence of an assassination machine was exposed, it was enough for the Mainbrain to take the bait. It didn’t seem to want to execute him now. Seeing his “affectionate” appearance, Ruan Xian didn’t believe it could hold back the urge to tap him for more information.
After all, in a sense, it was carved out of the same mold as Tang Yibu.
Sure enough, the Mainbrain showed a somewhat struggling appearance.
“I understand.” Ruan Xian smiled wryly. “Even if I won’t betray you, sooner or later the Mainbrain will find a way to extract the information in my head. Do it, Yibu. Just give me a little more time. At least let me tell you what I know.”
He grabbed “Tang Yibu’s” hands and looked directly into his eyes sincerely.
“My ability is still useful. The Mainbrain won’t be harsh all at once. I’ll pretend to obey at first, stall it, and try to dig out more information. When it shows the first signs of action, you can do it… Okay?”
Ruan Xian tried his best to act—once successful, this could buy him a period of relative peace. The Mainbrain would pretend to be Tang Yibu to get more information about Professor Ruan, while he would selectively leak out some truths. As long as it took long enough, he could reach the outside world and continue to the next part of his plans.
He grabbed the Mainbrain’s hand and trembled slightly. The firmness and hope in his eyes didn’t look fake. “Tang Yibu” remained silent. It was hard to tell what he was thinking.
The expression on Tang Yibu’s face outside the window became stiffer. He glanced at the clasped hands of the two in the room, took out a persimmon cookie from the small cloth bag and started to eat it in dissatisfaction.
“…Okay.” “Tang Yibu” took a deep breath. He leaned forward, intending to kiss Ruan Xian’s forehead. “You’re amazing. I also want to keep seeing you. You’re really the most special human I have ever seen, Mr. Ruan.”
Outside the window, the speed at which Tang Yibu was consuming the persimmon cookies increased dramatically, to the point where his cheeks were bulging.
Goosebumps appeared on Ruan Xian’s back. He thought this was good. He resisted the intimacy with all his heart, even though the other party had the same face as Tang Yibu. It was as if his body had stiffened in that second.
Thankfully, the mixture of the liquid tank made his skin wet, so it didn’t make his cold sweat obvious.
“I’ll come see you again.” “Tang Yibu” nodded at him. “They probably have found that you’re awake now… Wait for someone to come later. You just have to pretend to collapse, and they will deal with it as if you had a mental and physical breakdown.”
“Nn.” Ruan Xian smiled at the Mainbrain; his facial muscles twitched a little.
He prayed that the Mainbrain would leave some loophole for him to communicate with Tang Yibu.
Tang Yibu should be sure that he wasn’t fooled by this person in front of him, then he must also know that this was just an act. But what they were facing was ultimately the Mainbrain, and everything had just started. It was impossible for Tang Yibu to walk in here with nothing planned. Ruan Xian knew what the android wanted—it was definitely here to inquire about his plans.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t communicate smoothly right now.
Seeing that the situation was stable, Tang Yibu finally began to mouthed his speech, whispering questions inaudibly. It wasn’t easy to send away the Mainbrain—as soon as “Tang Yibu” stood up, Ruan Xian heard the alarms go off.
MUL-01 really didn’t want to leave any gaps.
“I have to go,” “Tang Yibu” said. “I’ll come see you again, Mr. Ruan.”
Unfortunately, the poor, unlucky guy outside the building couldn’t escape this catastrophe either. The alarm was real as an army of patrolling machines was approaching. His NUL-00 curled his mouth regretfully at him, slid down the glass wall, and left Ruan Xian’s vision.
Ruan Xian sat alone in the warm liquid tank in an extremely complicated mood.
There was good and bad news.
The good news was simple. He managed to barely survive the confrontation with the Mainbrain and wasn’t shot in the chest. This meant his identity wasn’t exposed. The bad news…
There seemed to be something wrong with his NUL-00.
Within those short few seconds, Ruan Xian thought Tang Yibu would give some warnings or express dissatisfaction with his unauthorized actions. He didn’t think the android would simply eat dried persimmon cookies, then stuff the rest back into his pocket.
“I’m in love,” Tang Yibu said solemnly to the iron bead that was rattling to the alarm.
“Mr. Ruan, when did you fall in love with me? When did you think I fell in love with you? I want as detailed data for reference as possible—”
For the first time in his life, Ruan Xian couldn’t wait for the patrol machine of the Mainbrain to come even faster.
The author has something to say:
Tang: Began officially learning what jealousy is
Ruan: There’s no love in life
Being jealous tastes like persimmons (?
Kinky Thoughts:
Interesting, Tang Yibu’s last dialogue is very similar to a line in my newest project’s summary: Criminal Psychology. I always wanted to do a mystery danmei, so I decided to pick this one up. You can read the summary, and if it’s to your liking, do check it out.
Just half a day ago, Tang Yibu looked sullen, but now he had returned to his usual carefree look. Yu Le always had the illusion that the android was like a ruins pirate who had been working frantically on the ship for years and finally got the chance for a vacation.
They seemed to be participating in a major event that was related to the survival of human civilization, yet this kid was clearly absent-minded.
Yu Le felt skeptical. If it wasn’t MUL-01 that was released, but instead this thing in front of him, mankind would’ve probably perished in a different way—Tang Yibu’s ability to focus on key points could anger people to death.
Compared to the stunned Yu Le, Professor Ruan was calm. “It seems that we have reached a consensus. Please find Ruan Xian as soon as you can.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Yu Le pointed to Zhong Qing, who had a confused look on his face. “Is it okay to talk about this directly in front of him? Doesn’t have… that cybernetic brain assistance or something installed in him and can’t hear certain keywords?”
“There’s no problem for the time being. I haven’t removed the perceptual camouflage around him, so he can’t hear us, and he can’t see the real situation,” Professor Ruan said. “NUL-00, when are you leaving?”
“Now.” Just when Yu Le was about to interrupt, Tang Yibu was already heavily armed—his backpack was stuffed full of dried fruit, a simple condenser that was hung on the side of the bag, and the rattling iron bead that was placed in the net pocket on the other side. In addition to weapons used for camouflage, there were also hooks, ropes, and smoke bombs. Bullets and grenades hung neatly around his belt, making Tang Yibu look like a large human Christmas tree.
“…Don’t you think you have too many weapons?” Yu Le asked gloomily. “Want to leave some for us mortals? Besides, you have the Prototype, so is all that really necessary?”
Tang Yibu looked like a nuclear bomb with legs wielding a fruit knife. No need to mention the A-type Prototype, even if an ordinary person brought this kind of armament, it was enough to turn a place like the Sea of Ruins upside down.
“It’s good to be prepared.” Tang Yibu solemnly adjusted the belt that hung various gadgets.
Yu Le buried his face in his hands and wiped it hard. “…Fine. You make me a little nostalgic.”
“Nostalgia of being the captain of the ruins pirates?”
“My past of my first outing when I was seven years old.”
At this time, it could be seen who had the temperament of a true leader—Professor Ruan glanced at Christmas tree Tang and made no comment.
“Five days.” When Tang Yibu finished talking, Professor Ruan spoke up. “In five days, whether you come back or not, I’ll make my next move.”
Having said that, Tang Yibu knew he didn’t have much of a choice. He may himself want to kick MUL-01 out of the game even more than Professor Ruan—the other party was fighting for an invisible and untouchable ideal, but not for self-preservation. Professor Ruan was a very important chess piece, and Tang Yibu could not and would not let him do as he pleased.
Perhaps this was the conflict between “love and necessary work” that he had read about in literature. Tang Yibu made a check next to a box in his heart. He stuffed a few oranges in his pocket while ignoring the heavy air, and quickly crawled out of the cellar. In an instant, his shadow disappeared.
“We have to rest.” Yu Le pointed to Ji Xiaoman and looked at Professor Ruan. “We’ll act tomorrow at the earliest. By the way, we need to prepare weapons, route planning, and preventative measures in case possible problems arise. It’ll take more than a day to reach the forest petri dish, and we also need to add the time going to the Underground City. I need to discuss it with you overnight to iron out everything.”
When it came to business, Yu Le’s tone remained steady.
“Okay.” Seeing no trace of Tang Yibu, Professor Ruan’s tone held a hint of imperceptible relief. “…Relax, Mr. Yu. Our winning rate has risen a lot, in theory.”
“How so?”
“The Mainbrain understands me, and I understand it. We calculate each other’s next dozens of moves, even hundreds.” The black box that held the enlarged brain blew out a string of bubbles. “…Now, I still understand the Mainbrain, but being on my own, I can only plan three or four steps ahead at most.”
“…..”
“So I have little expectations,” Professor Ruan said.
That was probably a more elegant way of putting it. Yu Le threw a thin blanket in Ji Xiaoman’s direction and raised an eyebrow at Professor Ruan. He always felt that there was an air of gloating coming from him—it was a nice change to see Professor Ruan so deflated, as he himself had experienced this firsthand and knew well that feeling.
“Then we’d better not waste the cards in your hands.” Yu Le glanced at Zhong Qing, who still had his confused look. “What about this kid? You can’t always keep him in perceptual camouflage like this.”
“If it’s just him alone, there’s no problem keeping it going all night. This is protecting…”
Before he could finish, both of them choked.
Zhong Qing took out their tool bag containing sundries, pulled out two earplugs, and righteously stuffed them into his ear. He then covered most of his head with his hat, blindfolded himself, and then pulled the blanket that was covering Ji Xiaoman and wrapped himself into a cocoon in the corner.
“I’m not interested in your business.” With his ears plugged, he spoke very loudly. “I don’t want to be killed. You can remove the interference in front of me—it’s too uncomfortable seeing everything like this! I’m going to bed. Good night. No need to answer. I can’t hear anything! I’m just an innocent minor.”
With the blanket suddenly pulled away, Ji Xiaoman woke up. She quickly assumed a fighting posture, though her eyes were still wrought with confusion after being untimely awoken.
“…” Yu Le suddenly felt that Professor Ruan wasn’t as reliable as he claimed and started to have deep doubts about the statement “three or four steps ahead at most”.
But forget it. Thinking about their current situation—two humans, one brain, and one parasitical virus, hiding in a makeshift cellar, trying to overthrow the Mainbrain that possessed world-class resources. They even had the confidence to talk about winning rates and still kept a positive attitude, as if they would live to old age.
However, in this patchwork temporary team, Ruan Xian was undoubtedly the one with the best mentality at the moment.
He was trapped in the consciousness of others, unable to make any movements. For most people, this was undoubtedly a terrifying thing. Not to mention that the host’s emotions would involve people from time to time, but it also caused people to gradually become confused with their boundaries.
Ruan Xian’s method of dealing with such issues could be chalked up as simple and crude—any intense emotions weren’t his.
The only problem that bothered him was hunger.
How many people had he gone through? Ruan Xian looked at the dark basement in front of him. He had been tossed around by various illegal memory handlers for so long, crossing countless borders, and the number of hosts was so many that he had lost count.
The real-world time was probably less than a day, but physically, he had been stuck for months on December 31, 2100. In the eyes of the Mainbrain, to have such willpower meant he must love Tang Yibu to the point of madness.
What was in front of him perhaps wasn’t the epitome of the worst part of society, but rather society as a whole.
The people who came to make transactions covered all walks of life. Although memory cocktail bars were extremely popular, people still deliberately pursued memories that weren’t sifted clean and had parts of the original owner’s personality. It could numb them, allow them to escape, and become another person for a short period of time, so much so that some people even tried to use it to “correct” their own personality or that of others.
Illicit memory loss was more common. From the loss of family and friends to the breakdown of a relationship to the slightest conflict with strangers, some people deliberately discarded them from their minds so that they would not interfere with their good day.
Although not recognized by law, this had obviously become a pastime that was superior to alcohol and tobacco.
However, even so, society still functioned normally and there were no signs of decline. To say what was different from what he perceived—the transplantation of memory fragments and personality, and the mechanical replacement of body parts and organs, had become commonplace. The law was trying to evolve, but it wasn’t keeping pace with the expansion of the commercial market.
Apart from a few ethics scholars who questioned it, there was obviously only one consequence.
People were becoming extraordinarily self-absorbed and acrimonious.
Since unpleasant memories could be eliminated, few were willing to stop creating unpleasantness. In this short period of time, Ruan Xian had been exposed to at least hundreds of similar memories—as long as there was a slight discord with the other party, people could take action without hesitation—whether it was stabbing someone in the chest or taking the opportunity to vent their dissatisfaction that day.
Physical injuries could be healed, and painful memories could be removed. As long as people weren’t killed, the punishment was often not too heavy, and the cost was surprisingly small. As for the differences of opinions, they were even more negligible—as long as the other party’s voice was deleted from one’s own mind, there was no need to worry about it. Knowing that the other party would do the same, few people pay attention to the so-called etiquette.
Along with this, at the same time, less work was needed to be done by people cooperatively. Society was moving towards a strange form, causing laws and regulations to have to be constantly revised. Ruan Xian didn’t know how to evaluate this direction.
All concepts were vaguely mixed. People were like boiled gruel—their personalities were embedded in each other, but they were extremely alienated from each other.
But at least they could make him understand that the Mainbrain’s goal wasn’t to “adjust the human world on the verge of collapse”.
The glimpses of technicians, a short stay of ordinary citizens, and an old man advancing anxiously on the edge of a desert—he engraved the world in their eyes into his mind—in the past few months, Ruan Xian had captured enough information to calculate the location of the Mainbrain. Next, he needed equipment to assist in the calculations, as well as other ways to determine the Mainbrain’s motive.
Even if he stayed any longer, Ruan Xian thought he wouldn’t get much out of it anymore. Perhaps it was time to “collapse” and leave this place.
But there was a problem. He positioned himself as a “mechanical biology expert”, but his understanding of mechanical life was only skin deep. Perhaps he should stay for a while longer…
Suddenly, there was a burning pain in his lungs. Ruan Xian got out of a liquid tank and coughed out a light blue liquid.
He was forcibly pulled out of the “dreamland”.
Was he discovered? Or…
“Good evening.” Tang Yibu was in front of him. The android was covered in blood and smelt of smoke and dirt. He was holding Ruan Xian’s arm with one hand with great force.
Ruan Xian opened his mouth but didn’t succeed in making a sound.
“…I’m sorry, Mr. Ruan,” Tang Yibu said softly. He showed a complicated expression. He held a gun in one hand, pointing the nozzle against Ruan Xian’s forehead. Then he moved it towards Ruan Xian’s chest, as if he thought of something. “I can’t save you.”
It’s over. Countless thoughts swept through Ruan Xian’s mind in an instant.
If he were Ruan Lijie, he might be sad at the situation at hand, but unfortunately he wasn’t. What was more, even if Tang Yibu wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t bother using a gun. He would just rip his head off and crush it.
And he still had decisive evidence—the “Tang Yibu” in front of him had no smell of food on his body. He could smell it.
But Ruan Xian still broke out in a cold sweat.
This was a well played trick by the Mainbrain. This “Tang Yibu” was extremely realistic. It picked such a time when his spirit should have been on the verge of collapse, which could be said to be heart-wrenching. But for “Ruan Xian”, what he was worried about was a heartbreak on another level…
The Mainbrain probably wanted this “Tang Yibu” to be interrupted before he could shoot him, which would pull him back from the verge of death, thereby completely softening his mental defenses. However, if this thing in front of him really shot him, his heart would be repaired rapidly.
Then he would be completely exposed.
A decision had to be made quickly, so Ruan Xian churned his mind. He took a deep breath, stretched out his arms, and hugged “Tang Yibu”.
“I’m willing to die for you, my love.” Ruan Xian performed with all his might. He had a weak but tough look on his face that showed no wavering in his heart. “But I got good information that will be useful to your plans with Professor Ruan… Before you shoot, I have to tell them to you…”
Sure enough, “Tang Yibu” stopped moving.
A cold sweat drop slid down Ruan Xian’s face. Just as he was about to continue, he was choked by the sight of the scene in front of him.
Not far away, another Tang Yibu decorated from head to toe with a variety of gadgets had a complicated expression on his face as he pressed it against the glass window. He had just removed the glass and was slowly sliding into view. Ruan Xian even saw a little panic in that face.
The smell of fruit and fresh meat went straight into his nose.
‘…Things are getting more troublesome,’ Ruan Xian thought numbly.
The author has something to say:
Tang: ????
Ruan: ????
——
The Mainbrain tries to move him with affection and reason. Unfortunately, Ruan neither has much emotions or reason (?
The fields on the outskirts of the city were extremely vast. They were adjacent to a large area of well-maintained forest, which turned golden red in the deep autumn, making a particularly beautiful scene. Unlike the woods in the forest refuge, there would be no sudden emergence of ventral cockroaches here. The ecological condition inside was very well maintained. Whether it was ordinary life or mechanical life, it was rare to see predators that were powerful enough to disrupt the balance.
The woods were taken care of by mechanical rangers. While they were called rangers, their image wasn’t close to human. They were sprayed with camouflage and looked like deer, but they had two more freely retractable forelimbs, and their movements were dexterous and agile.
There were houses belonging to people scattered on the edge of the woods; most of which were surrounded by fruit trees and flower fields. Sunflowers looked dazzling under the golden sun, and ripe fruit that had fallen to the ground became a feast for ants. No matter how one looked at it, this wasn’t a suitable place to start a resistance plan—assuming that they really had one.
In order to ensure more secure calls, Professor Ruan carefully instructed Ji Xiaoman to manufacture a communication encryptor. Yu Le was maintaining his car while also beginning to plan a cellar for a long-term stay. Tang Yibu abducted a few forest protection ranger robots who were able to build it extremely fast.
Before the sun set, the Order Supervisors had swept the neighborhood four times. However, it was much easier to camouflage a stationary target than conceal one that was moving, so their searches were all muddled by Professor Ruan’s perceptual camouflage.
The three-legged machine remained quiet until night fell and the communication encryptor was finally set up before he spoke again.
With the help of the forest ranger robots, they managed to build a decent cellar where they hid the car. The underground vents were normal, and after covering the entrance, Yu Le skillfully turned on a lantern.
Tang Yibu and Zhong Qing were holding bags of dried fruits while smacking their mouths. Ji Xiaoman, who was tired from working all day, was sitting in a corner. She put on her hood and nodded off in a sleepy manner.
“Today was tough.” Yu Le poked the soup in the pot with his chopsticks and lowered his voice. “How many days are we going to stay here?”
“A long time.” In the transparent liquid tank, the black box containing Professor Ruan’s brain slowly floated. They couldn’t see any pink-white organs inside, and the sealed black box gave the three-legged machine a cold feeling unique to machines.
Yu Le raised his eyebrows. “The Mainbrain will search for that long? I have no problem. There’s a lot of food here, but there’s no meat.”
“You agreed to take me out of the city!” Zhong Qing whined.
“It will take about five days to fix up this place. We will need to separate temporarily during this period. Mr. Yu, I need you to go to the vicinity of the forest refuge and help me get something. You can take Miss Ji and Zhong Qing—on the way, you can drop him off in the Underground City.”
Zhong Qing took a sip of the soup in satisfaction.
“You and Xiao Tang are staying here? To be honest, I promise to help you, but I’m not going to die foolishly. Let me take Xiao Tang. I don’t know if we can still find news about Xiao Ruan.” Lao Yu handed the prepared soup to Ji Xiaoman. Under the yellow emergency light, they could see the little girl was drowsy as her hand almost stretched out in the wrong direction.
Yu Le was afraid she would burn herself, so he sighed, put the soup on the small table she was leaning on and put a glass of cold water next to it as well.
“Your perceptual camouflage, it will be too far to use, right? We’re on our own when we leave the city. In case we’re caught, Xiao Tang can be of some use.” Yu Le patted the dirt off his pants and left the half-asleep Ji Xiaoman. “And without Zhong Qing, we have no ‘telescope’. If the Mainbrain comes for us next time, we won’t have that long to prepare.”
Zhong Qing gave Yu Le a blank look.
“There has never been such a… talent like Zhong Qing in the Rebel Army, and we have been able to persist for a long time.” Professor Ruan turned on the completed communication jammer. Then he plunged his three mechanical feet into the mud, and the three-legged machine began to change shape. The open parts made him look a bit like a bird with multiple pairs of wings.
The style of the cellar suddenly changed.
It was made from raw materials from the earth; stone, wood, vines, and hay. The light of the three-legged machine swept through the entire space, then, like a mask, the entire space became a fully furnished command center.
Metal baseboards were tightly welded together, and thick steel nails were embedded in the wall. One of the earthen walls turned into a huge liquid tank with several creatures of unknown races floating inside. Lao Yu sighed and poked his hand at the wall closest to him—his fingers still felt compact soil and not cold metal.
Professor Ruan was disguising the true condition of the place. Yu Le gathered his expression and rubbed the mud with his fingertips.
Then this meant Professor Ruan was disguising himself.
A figure appeared in the location of the three-legged small machine; it was thinner than the Ruan Xian they knew. The “Professor Ruan” they were familiar with sat quietly in a non-existent wheelchair. For some reason, Yu Le always felt he looked lonelier than that little machine.
Tang Yibu took a few steps back politely and stood in the shadows.
At the end of this camouflage, several light screens were projected in the air. This time it wasn’t only Guan Haiming who appeared, but also more than a dozen other people they were not familiar with.
This was probably the top leaders of the rebel army. Yu Le wanted to wake up Ji Xiaoman but found that she wasn’t in her original place. He tentatively stretched out his hand and his fingers touched soft skin, which was followed by a sharp pain from his fingertips.
Only then did Yu Le realize that, unknowingly, he had become a transparent person under the camouflage technique. He probably had poked Ji Xiaoman’s face just now, which got him bitten in response.
Thinking about it, since Professor Ruan intended to fake his physical condition and environment, naturally they wouldn’t appear.
“Teacher.” Seeing the familiar decoration, Guan Haiming didn’t speak vaguely anymore and greeted directly.
“Where have you been these past two years?” A male voice came from another light screen. “Lao Ruan, it’s no time to joke by doing a disappearing act. They all said that Lao Fan had been captured. Do you know how worried everyone is about you?”
“In the last 20 months, we’ve all been holding out on our own. 337. You know how bad the petri dish is—”
“Where’s Lao Fan? Did you find him or not?”
“……”
With shock and joy, people’s questions rolled in. The familiar yet unfamiliar “Ruan Xian” raised a hand to signal everyone to be silent. There was no need for Professor Ruan to hide. Tang Yibu stood in a blind corner by himself. He held his arms and looked at everything in front of him with interest.
“Let’s start with a peace offering,” he stated calmly. “As some of you have heard, I have contacted NUL-00. Yes, it still exists and has fused with the A-type Prototype that we all agreed was destroyed.”
There was another round of heated discussion on the other side of the light screens.
“That’s why I disappeared for so long. Before confirming NUL-00’s position, I will not allow any news to leak out. Now that the Mainbrain has gotten partial information, you don’t have to be too nervous about this news,” Professor Ruan’s projection said.
“In the next five days, we’ll analyze and discuss the current situation and adjust our countermeasures against the Mainbrain. MUL-01 is only getting stronger with every second that passes. If we don’t make a move soon, our chances of winning will only get smaller and smaller.”
Tang Yibu had the iron bead between his feet to make sure it didn’t run into the camera range of the light screens. As Professor Ruan continued, his voice was filled with a sense of determination and just the right amount of reassurance that anyone who was listening would think that victory was within grasp.
But as Professor Ruan said, he really only gave a return speech. Apart from revealing a few pieces of information that the Mainbrain already knew, he didn’t give anything additional. The participants were in a good mood, and they seemed more or less relieved.
After half an hour of communication, Professor Ruan turned off the light screens one by one, leaving only Guan Haiming’s.
The three-legged machine was restored to its original state, and the figures of Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman were revealed—Ji Xiaoman was squeezing her bowl of soup tightly and had fallen asleep. Yu Le stood by her side so that she wouldn’t fall down and spill it all over her clothes.
“Observe the situation. The commanders of three petri dishes, 2207, 7123, and 5044, have defected.” Professor Ruan’s tone was solemn. “Voluntary or controlled, in any case, they could no longer be used. Haiming, activate the backup contact for those three petri dishes.”
Guan Haiming looked surprised. “Teacher, there has been martial law here recently, so all activities will be restricted. When the preparation is completed on our side, we can notify them…”
“No. We need the thinking power from Petri Dish 2207, the flying aircrafts from 7123, and the high compression energy from 5044.” Professor Ruan sounded extremely firm. “This is just the essential stuff. The list of spare items is long.”
“……” Guan Haiming digested these words for a while, and then glanced at Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman standing not far away. “If possible, I would like to contact you directly. You can use this communication robot normally, and the environment should be safe…”
“I’m right here,” Professor Ruan said.
“What?”
“I’m right here, Haiming. What you see here is ‘me’… Of course, only my brain. I remember that you developed this technology for yourself. I just improved it.” Professor Ruan’s tone was brisk. “I have to tell you sooner or later. This body allows me to go to places that humans can’t, and it’s extremely difficult to be detected by the Mainbrain. When arranging the follow-up plan, we need to take this into account—if necessary, I can infiltrate the front line.”
Guan Haiming sat stunned; his eyes flushed.
Someone hurriedly handed a towel, which Tang Yibu recognized as Ding Zepeng’s figure. Guan Haiming seemed to be temporarily unable to bear what he saw. He left the range of the light screen for a moment, and only the table full of materials and an empty chair were left in front of them.
There was also a suppressed choking sound outside the screen.
“He needs some time to accept this.” Professor Ruan looked at the empty light screen. “According to the definition of the rebel army, I’m no longer a human.”
“Can you just clone another shell and stuff your brain back?” Yu Le rubbed the stubble on his chin and spoke to break the awkward atmosphere.
“No. In order to adapt to this machine, my brain has undergone irreversible transformation.” Professor Ruan chuckled. “To fully restore my body, my only choice is to smash my brain, extract all my memories and thoughts… and then entering it into a new body. Since I have contaminated my DNA, I can only clone the cells from Ruan Xian to form another ‘person’. Does this approach sound familiar?”
Lao Yu said nothing.
Memories, emotions, flesh on the body, machines. Arranging them together like some kind of puzzle was exactly what MUL-01 had been doing. Along the way, Professor Ruan had always given the impression of being so relaxed that even Tang Yibu had thought he had a backup.
But reality was that he had already sentenced himself to death.
Machines will age, and organs that have been isolated for too long will fail. Even if the most advanced technology was used to preserve them, the three-legged machine in front of him could only be active for up to ten years at most.
“You doing such a screwed up thing…” Yu Le’s expression became tangled.
“I don’t need sympathy.” Professor Ruan still had a smile in his voice. “Mankind must win, and I will sacrifice everything for this. It would be humiliating if I didn’t include myself in this ‘everything’.”
“I’m not sympathizing with you. I’m panicking.” Yu Le patted his chest. “I have to change my opinion. You’re scarier than Xiao Ruan.”
“Even if you say that, when it’s to push you out, I’ll still push you out as a pawn. Mr. Yu, if you want to quit, it’s still not too late.”
“…You’re not even giving me any face from what you just said.”
“I don’t remember you wanting it,” Tang Yibu added mercilessly. “Before Guan Haiming recovers, I want to determine my problem first. Professor Ruan, you don’t plan to ask me to escort Yu le and the others but want me to find Mr. Ruan by myself, right?”
He rubbed his hands together, which were still carrying the sweet and sour smell of dried fruit.
“You and I are the only ones who are capable of sneaking into the Mainbrain’s city, but you can’t protect yourself. It’s not a good thing to reveal yourself too early. On the other hand, no matter how rich your experience is, you can’t blindly guess what Mr. Ruan is planning. If I’m not mistaken—in the next five days, you plan to make preliminary preparations here. While Yu Le and the others will pick up the supplies, I’ll go find Mr. Ruan and exchange information with him… or determine his mutiny.”
“Correct.” Professor Ruan’s response was concise and strong.
Tang Yibu’s entire body was like a balloon that was about to float into the air. “I have no problem with that.”
“But before you leave, I must understand Ruan Xian’s plan as much as possible.” Professor Ruan ignored Tang Yibu, who was floating. “As far as you know, if he didn’t rebel, he—”
“I don’t know,” Tang Yibu said happily. “Mr. Ruan has always been like that. He knows the starting point, the purpose, and the means but is short of the process in stringing them together. Unlike you, he doesn’t necessarily always do the ‘most logical’ thing. I have never been able to guess what he’s thinking… I don’t know more about his plans than you, maybe even less.”
“But I will find him. He can’t run away. After all, I have only scratched the surface of the subject he gave me.”
Tang Yibu collected a bag of dried fruit and tied a pretty bow on it. His excitement was extraordinarily high.
“And I have a great new discovery—quite a long time ago, I fell in love. I have to ask him to help me determine the timing. This is quite valuable information.”
The author has something to say:
Lie flat and hit casually (?
——
Tang: I’m really in love!
Tang: Amazing
Tang: I’ll find the one I like and ask when I fell in love.
Tang Yibu temporarily set up a small recliner for himself on the roof of the car. He straightened his legs and seemingly pulled out a piece of interlining cloth from nowhere to use as an eye mask while he lazily basked in the sun. The humidity in the air was just right that it made him so comfortable that he felt as if all his pores were opened.
After lying comfortably for a while, he went to touch the fruit at hand, but only touched an empty plate.
Tang Yibu’s mood suddenly turned from sunny to cloudy, and then cloudy to gloomy.
Since Ruan Xian left his side, he began to subconsciously look for ways to relax. The initial excitement lasted for up to twelve hours, but after half a day, the sense of loss gradually took over. Warm sunlight and sweet fruits couldn’t relieve troubles—unfortunately their effect was fleeting.
“See?”
Seeing Tang Yibu walking around like a cat that had a thorn stuck to its side and an aggrieved expression, Yu Le, who had a mouthful of fruit, clicked his tongue and explained to Ji Xiaoman.
“At first, I was pressed by a little missy to quit smoking. Just like that, it’s the same thing.”
Ji Xiaoman’s gaze floated over to the cigarettes in Yu Le’s pocket and frowned. Tang Yibu heard the comments of his two peers but ignored them and continued to pace melancholy.
They didn’t immediately leave the city but stopped on the outskirts. Ji Xiaoman made another remote-control car that interfered with perception while Yu Le was excitedly maneuvering it towards an undetectable dense forest area to distract the Order Supervisors.
After making a scene on the edge of the city, the Mainbrain would be inclined to assume they were in a rush to escape and look for their destination. Tang Yibu decided to stop, and Professor Ruan didn’t object.
This approach was quite like a murderer fleeing the scene of the crime. No matter how one looked at it, it wasn’t decent. Fortunately, except for Professor Ruan, no one else in the group was anything close to resembling decency.
In addition to misleading the Mainbrain, they also had a sad reason—they were running out of food.
All the snacks that could be eaten were swept away—mainly by Tang Yibu—and all that was left was nutritious stuff that didn’t taste good. Unless there was no choice, no one wanted to eat them. Even the iron bead didn’t want to chew on the packaging.
Professor Ruan, who had only one brain left, didn’t need to eat, but the remaining four had to. After breaking through the encirclement, they didn’t actually drive too far—Zhong Qing’s memories were more useful than they thought. His family had vacationed here. It was an emerging architectural area that resembled an idyllic style.
With the Mainbrain watching, they didn’t sneak into the homes to get food, but rather gathered fruits and vegetables in the fields.
Tang Yibu could see that Ji Xiaoman had been quite worried about her status in the team for some time, but now she probably didn’t think much about it. She dismantled a few weapons and receivers and converted them into fruit and vegetable processing equipment. They would be changed back in a few days.
In this more remote field, he and Professor Ruan could only provide theoretical support, but Ji Xiaoman herself was enough.
Zhong Qing was also happy. He wandered around the garden like a rat, and brought back a lot of food every time. Yu Le was responsible for cutting them up and processing them so they could be dried and wouldn’t take up too much space.
According to Professor Ruan, they would have to stay here for a while before the Mainbrain reduces the level of martial law.
These hours were enough time for Tang Yibu to figure out what was wrong with him.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t been separated from Ruan Xian before. Twelve years ago, Ruan Xian would be absent from the computer room for over ten hours a day. Tang Yibu was too familiar with this feeling of separation, as “dependence” was one of the first emotions he understood.
Then they were separated by the murder.
After that, he would think of Ruan Xian from time to time, reminiscing about the past. At that time, he didn’t have many special feelings. Perhaps there was some regret, but he didn’t miss him too much.
What had happened had already transpired, and history couldn’t be rewritten. There was no value in missing—at least he once thought so, and he lived quite arbitrarily. He was clear; Ruan Xian’s decision to leave was reasonable—if there was no definitive answer, the suspicion and concern between the two of them would burn out sooner or later.
But now he missed him dearly, without any reason or benefit.
He understood all the reasoning, but he couldn’t control his mind. He liked the heat from Mr. Ruan when he leaned against him, the breath of the other person when they fell asleep, and even the antagonistic emotions in that person’s eyes. Tang Yibu originally thought that what he was asking for was the peace of mind of the S-type Prototype by his side, but now that he had sufficient substitutes, his heart was still empty.
Uncomfortable.
Tang Yibu kicked a stone with the edge of his shoe.
It was truly uncomfortable.
While he kicked the stone, the iron bead was fetching it with interest and bringing it back to him. Tang Yibu kicked the stone away again.
What if Mr. Ruan didn’t plan to betray him and was discovered by the Mainbrain? What should he do if his identity as the S-type Prototype was exposed? He wasn’t very good at fighting. The only thing he could do was shoot, but he left the blood gun behind…
The iron bead thought this was some kind of game as it kept fetching the stone that Tang Yibu was kicking. Tang Yibu bent over and touched its shell as he felt desperately depressed.
Only God knew what emotions were in his heart at this moment. This emotion was boiling in his stomach like a soup full of poisonous ingredients. The corrosive steam passed through his internal organs and seeped into his brain. Tang Yibu could even hear his bones cracking. He was uncomfortable all over and was too restless to do anything.
Is this love?
Tang Yibu tried to analyze the emotional model by comparing data. This should have been an exact question from scratch, but he couldn’t even determine where it started.
Thus, he could only become more aggrieved, not to mention that he had done this subject before and a faint trace of it appeared in his grievances.
Professor Ruan watched Tang Yibu move his feet from side to side. He would stomp the ground, sigh, and scratch his head, and finally act disgruntled—Professor Ruan was pretty sure that no matter what that AI was thinking, it had nothing to do with the war that they were facing.
“I need to contact Guan Haiming,” Professor Ruan said.
Tang Yibu, who finally found a distraction, suddenly became energetic. “You want to contact him? Now?”
“According to the original plan, I need to reach the forest petri dish,” Professor Ruan said. “I can’t make too much movement in the Mainbrain’s territory, and the wilderness is too suspicious. You guys guessed it correctly. The assassination machine is indeed in that petri dish.”
“Uh huh.” Tang Yibu wasn’t surprised by this revelation.
“This plan can’t be used anymore. I have considered the situation—the petri dish may be cleaned up and the assassination machine would create temporary problems. Although the probability is quite small, it’s still not zero.” Professor Ruan moved his three metal feet, flexibly avoiding the iron bead that was staring at him.
“…Don’t tell me you have another spare.” Tang Yibu’s expression became a bit complicated.
“I don’t have that many resources.”
Professor Ruan guessed what he was thinking.
“The one in the Android Show was a perception amplifier—it’s just a gimmick. Seven years since the start of the Great Rebellion, I made such an assassination machine. There is a spare, and I’ve stored it near the dead wall. It’s portable, but…”
“But?”
“The winning rate is much lower with that assassination machine. The external conditions are more demanding, and you will have to take more stress. Without the support of everyone’s brains, its power is much less powerful,” Professor Ruan said. “To be honest, I don’t know what Ruan Xian wants. Forcing me to use a backup plan will only decrease your survival rate.”
Tang Yibu’s expression remained normal.
“Contacting Guan Haiming will make it easier for us to get it.”
Seeing that Tang Yibu said nothing, Professor Ruan continued.
“And then… I’m afraid we have to contact a few more people.”
“I have only one question.” Tang Yibu thought for a bit. “How much does Ruan Xian know about the principle of the assassination machine?”
“He can be regarded as the true creator of the core logic you and MUL-01 possess. When I made MUL-01, I added a lot of special algorithms, while Fan Linsong was responsible for the deduction restriction part. The virus program installed in the assassination machine targets the core logic, so he should be able to deduce a thing or two. The design of the hardware comes from my… No, his previous project accumulation. Overall, he can probably guess about half.”
“I understand.” Tang Yibu smiled.
“If you know something I don’t know, I suggest sharing your intelligence.”
“I don’t know what he wants to do. It’s just that now I know that he at least has something in mind.”
Professor Ruan looked at him for a while. “No matter how many people he knows, it’s impossible to conjure a virus program that can destroy the Mainbrain out of thin air.”
This made his departure feel more like a betrayal. If Ruan Xian really submitted to the Mainbrain, they would fall into an unprecedented disadvantage.
“That’s why it’s interesting.” Tang Yibu grinned again. “I will fully support you, Professor Ruan.”
That smile didn’t seem fake.
The communication with Guan Haiming was quickly connected. Dr. Guan was drinking soup when he almost choked on his spoon.
“231?” He put the spoon down in fear. “What is that next to you? I saw it in the car last time…”
“It’s the person you’re looking for,” Tang Yibu said happily. He picked up the iron bead to prevent it from taking the opportunity to bite Professor Ruan. “He has something to tell you.”
Guan Haiming swallowed; his eyes seemingly hadn’t returned to their senses. He looked up and down at the small machine for a long time while making a disbelieving expression. Finally, after half a minute, he calmed down. Tang Yibu suspected that he might have mistaken it for some kind of communication device.
“Haiming”. Professor Ruan got straight to the point. “Sorry for not contacting you for so long. I will explain the details later. In two days, someone will go to the dead wall on your side to pick something up. You need to help cover them. This matter is very important and cannot be lost.”
“Understood.” Guan Haiming looked serious. “I will arrange it.”
They didn’t exchange any specifics, which caused Tang Yibu to raise his eyebrows.
“Now that you have started your activities again… Have you found a suitable place?” Guan Haiming asked vaguely. Tang Yibu thought that was easy to decipher. This was asking if he had found a new command center.
“Nn,” Professor Ruan replied calmly. “The place I’m staying at now is pretty good.”
With a bang, Tang Yibu dropped the iron bead that hit the ground with a dull thud.
“Are you sure?” He asked suspiciously. Establishing a new rebel command center on the outskirts of the Mainbrain’s city; Tang Yibu wasn’t sure if this was a manifestation of Professor Ruan’s self-abandonment.
For a while, the three-legged little machine was silent.
“I’m sure,” Professor Ruan said. “I don’t need too many people anyway.”
Tang Yibu took a deep breath slowly, glanced at the two who were baking pumpkin slices in the distance and at Zhong Qing, who was eating grapes, and then turned his gaze to Professor Ruan. From a certain point of view, this person really resembled a bit like “Ruan Xian”.
In terms of strategy that was outside of the box, these two were really alike.
Tang Yibu convinced himself that this was a good thing—if even he couldn’t figure them out, the Mainbrain would have a hard time guessing as well. They might be safer than they thought.
He had a hunch that this war was likely to go in a fantastically unprecedented direction.
The author has something to say:
Farmhouse resistance center (×
Not being able to expose Ruan’s thoughts makes it hard to write from Ruan’s perspective. Ahhh—
—
Tang is really anxious, from coconut sugar to coconut caramel.
He must had fainted from hunger as he started to consider the stupid question of whether Tang Yibu had eaten. Ruan Xian thought for ten minutes and decided that even if the Mainbrain knocked on his doorstep, Tang Yibu could still manage to fight it with bread in his mouth, and perhaps even be able to squeeze out some time to apply a few layers of peanut butter.
Thinking of peanut butter, he became hungrier and grumpier.
The last bit of precious freedom was wasted on guessing what Tang Yibu would eat—if Ruan Xian could still manipulate his body, he would’ve punched the table twice.
But now he couldn’t.
Ten minutes ago, before he had time to finish his emotions about the blue sky and white clouds, the scene in front of him flickered and turned into a dim room. “He” was looking through information on an electronic paper with a cup of tea that had an unpleasant smell in his hand. God knew what was in it.
But there was also a plate of mung bean cake, which looked quite appetizing. Ruan Xian’s mind became more stable. He stretched out his hand to grab the mung bean cake, but instead he picked up the weird-smelling tea and poured it into his mouth.
Unexpectedly, the tea didn’t taste that bitter, nor was it too strong. The light bitterness spread in his mouth and Ruan Xian heard himself make two muffled coughs.
That voice wasn’t his, and the hand wasn’t his.
There was no need for a mirror. Ruan Xian could see it. That hand was full of wrinkles and cracks that one would instantly know belonged to an old man at first glance. He himself wouldn’t choose such bad-tasting clothes—this body was covered with exaggerated clothing, like a dirty Christmas tree. Even the pair of green plush slippers under his feet had turned gray.
The decoration was also the same, with scattered small objects on all sides, filling the originally small room full. Dust accumulated on the dirty pendants, plastic dolls had turned yellow and deformed, and gray cobwebs formed in the gaps like a dreamcatcher. That kind of scene wasn’t something that a designer carefully set up to exude warmth and excitement and was closer to an old hoarder’s storage room—flowers and greenery piled around, giving off a soft yet blunt feeling.
These were all that he saw with the remaining light from the corner of his eyes.
After being fed a second sip of tea by that hand, Ruan Xian quickly figured out his current state. The Mainbrain was more cautious than he thought. It didn’t leave him even an inch of space to play freely.
In the end, the influence of external objects such as images was limited, and people couldn’t fully understand each other. Directly using memories and feelings as weapons was theoretically more effective. At least if it was him, this was something he would definitely do.
However, Ruan Xian never thought that the Mainbrain could be so sinister—instead of imposing other people’s memory fragments in him, the Mainbrain directly threw his consciousness into other people’s bodies.
“This day” was an established fact that had already happened. As a certain piece of data, the original owner of the body acted as usual and wasn’t affected by Ruan Xian, an outsider.
In a nutshell, he was imprisoned in a body that he couldn’t use, and he could only be forced to watch in first-person with various emotional effects attached.
For a brief moment, Ruan Xian believed that his little trick had been discovered and that he was suffering from such a great loss—
He knew very well that the tragedies that had been poured into his mind day and night before might be a crueler and more practical “test” than any diagnosis. The Mainbrain established a judgement system based on his response and then performed appropriate processing based on the results.
Letting Ruan Lijie collapse in a decent manner was innocuous. If it really drove him crazy, there would be no benefit to reap. The Mainbrain would definitely ensure this.
After all, it couldn’t get the ability and memory of “Ruan Lijie” from cracking him like a chestnut, so it was better to make him submit sincerely. As the nominal “mechanical life expert”, Ruan Lijie could not only expose how armed Tang Yibu’s side was but also could continue his research with the support of better resources. The Mainbrain could then sit back and enjoy its harvest.
More ideally, perhaps he could play a double agent depending on the situation, and stab NUL-00 in the back when it wasn’t paying attention.
After Ruan Xian pitted Tang Yibu seriously in his heart for a few minutes, he had to face reality—Ruan Lijie was an ordinary scholar with acceptable values but was enticed by Tang Yibu. In the face of such an opponent, the customized plan given by the Mainbrain was still so extremely careful that it was irritating.
Now his mind was trapped in the shell of an old man, and he was forced to watch the old man’s daily life before the doomsday, and he couldn’t even get a bite of mung bean cake.
But since the Mainbrain forced him to watch this, this old man was definitely not some idler who lived a simple, leisurely life.
Ruan Xian was forced to swallow a mouthful of bitter tea, desperately digging for information from the old man’s vision.
The location was very high, but the building materials in the room were rough. It didn’t look like a building, but more like a homemade hut temporarily built in a high place. Through the thin glass, the bustling city was within easy reach. Ruan Xian was stunned for a few seconds—during this period, MUL-01 should’ve managed most of the rules of social operation, so its supervision techniques wouldn’t be so rough.
Ruan Xian couldn’t wait to put everything he saw into his mind. Even if he couldn’t move a single step by himself, he had to dig up some information from these details.
There was a very conspicuous space in the home. An old machine was covered with dirt and grease that extended all the way to the back. It was full of scorch marks and broken wires poked out from the breach. The indicator light on it was extinguished, but this thing should still be on.
The record of the Mainbrain was perfect. Ruan Xian could feel the numbness and suffocation in the old man’s heart, as well as the pain in his joints and chest. Fortunately, this was an area where Ruan Xian was particularly good at—suppressing his nature and tolerating pain. It didn’t add much pressure to the situation; he just became hungrier.
The old man sat there in silence, drinking tea while reading a book, until there was a knock on the door.
“Uncle Liang.” The woman was holding a child and was twisting his ears as she entered. “The usual.”
The child was so anxious that he scratched and bit at the woman’s wrist and arm. “Don’t! I had a hard time going out to play—”
“Pay first.” There was a dry pain in his throat. Ruan Xian knew now why the old man was desperately drinking tea.
The woman nodded and swept her wristband across the big mechanical card at the door. The old man stood up, patted the soil on his body, grabbed the child, and pushed him directly into the chair. The entire process was completed in one go, yet he still had a lot of strength left in his thin body.
“You came here three times yesterday,” the old man muttered. “It’s not good for the brain to keep doing this.”
“What do children know?” The woman raised her eyes. “Who remembers what they did 24 hours a day? Let him think that he’d taken a nap and fallen dead asleep and forgotten about it when he ran to the edge of the city to play by himself for fear that he wouldn’t be discovered. Okay, now that he knows that I’ve fooled him before and he knows the city is a good place, can I not erase some memories?”
“Then a nap it is.” The old man didn’t have much mind to chat with her. His full-hearted thoughts of ‘it doesn’t matter’ were about to seep into Ruan Xian’s mind. These negative emotions were extremely eroding.
The machine that looked like a half-box blew in and out, and the door opened and closed. The old man moved to the operation screen and started working it slowly. The little boy was firmly tied to the chair, and soon there wasn’t any movement of resistance. After a while, the mechanical door opened again, and the little boy was fast asleep in the chair; only the heaves of his chest were left.
“It’s done.” The old man had no emotions in his heart. “He’ll just feel as if he took a nap and didn’t go anywhere.”
The woman nodded, stopped talking, and walked out the door with the child in her arms.
As the sun rose, the old man’s place became lively. Ruan Xian suddenly felt that this place was a bit like an underground blood bank, but rather than blood, it was memories being bought and sold. Some people spent money to get them removed, while others wanted them to be copied. Most of them wanted to get them out, and it was rare that some were there to sell.
There were all kinds of people who wanted to throw away their memories. There were scantily clad men and women, patients on the verge of an emotional breakdown, and parents who used them to discipline their children. There was only one person who came to sell memories—Ruan Xian hadn’t eaten a single piece of the mung bean cake all morning. When he was on the verge of hunger that he was about to go insane, a man entered the door timidly.
“They say you can buy and sell memories here.” The man was well dressed, but unfortunately, he looked cowardly. “Isn’t this illegal…”
Ruan Xian could feel the tension in the old man’s facial muscles as well as his unhappy emotions that was like cold mud, which instantly overwhelmed him. “If the machine works, then the Mainbrain can find it. Those lofty people above are too lazy to take care of things like this. What are you going on about? Fuck off.”
“No, no. I didn’t mean it like that.” The man quickly waved his hand and wiped the seat from his forehead. “Hello, Uncle Liang. I… Uh, I just moved here…”
“I may be old but not blind.” The old man’s tone was still not good, and his cold emotions enveloped Ruan Xian. “Sell, right? What do you want to sell?”
“I’m an employee of Plan Corp… I used to be an employee of Plan Corp.” The man twisted his coat made of good fabric. “I…”
“I don’t care. Everyone who comes here is the same. If there’s no sickness or disaster, who would move to a place like this?” The old man interrupted. “Sell or not? Just say it.”
“I have very good childhood memories and a few high-quality love experiences,” the man said quickly. “I want to sell a copy for 10,000. I can get out of here as long as I can pay a portion of the violation fine first. Alright, won’t you do it as a favor.”
“10,000 for one copy? If I had that kind of money, I would have gone to the city to get a regular cocktail. Why would I want your insecure shit?” The old man spat. “I have plenty of childhood and love saved, so I need something more exciting. I can pay up to 1,500.”
The man froze on the spot, and several people behind him in line started to swear.
“If you don’t want to sell, don’t get in the way of my business.” The old man spat out.
“I… I’ll sell.” The man seemed to have thought of something, and his face turned the color of pig liver. “I’ll sell. Uncle Liang, I heard before that irregular memory operations may cause personality data to be mixed together. I want to sell a few copies at a time. Do you think there’s any way to avoid…”
“You’re still worried about this at this moment? It’s better to worry about the people who will buy your memory to relieve boredom,” the old man replied indifferently. “You, at most, will feel sad when the memory is dug out—but I have to remind you. My equipment isn’t good. Copying it will hurt your brain, and it’s like chewing on sugarcane. The first time it feels refreshing, but the second will feel like a chore, and the third time it’ll become tasteless. Even if you think about those things later, you won’t be happy.”
He bared his teeth at the man. “People can’t live without hope. If you want to sell it all at once for the money but don’t have any good ideas on how to support yourself, you will want to kill yourself as soon as you leave here. Let’s do this. I’ll copy ten segments and give you something good, so you can at least have some hope—10,000. 10 memory copies. One memory injection. No bargain.”
The man gritted his teeth and responded.
This was probably the only big event that happened in the morning. When noon arrived, the old man closed the door and was no longer open. He sat back in the chair by the window and finally pinched off a piece of mung bean cake and stuffed it into his mouth.
Ruan Xian, who was dizzy from hunger, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
A lot of information had been given to him in the past few hours. Obviously, in the era before the rebellion, although the social structure had changed, there would always be things that should be there would always be there.
It was just that, in the past, people would watch real life and death in the Colosseum*. Later, these experiences were put on stage and screen, and in the end, there was no need for real people to star in them, as long as the software was synthesized.
*Referencing gladiator battles in the Colosseum back in the ancient era of the Roman Empire.
In the end, everyone reached out to the final result—directly stripping away memories and experiences.
Ruan Xian still remembered the “dead agreement” mentioned by Tang Yibu, the last mnemonic method before the Great Rebellion. Since illegal memory transactions were on the table, there must be a rather unpleasant situation at this time.
Next, Ruan Xian quickly felt these “conditions” firsthand.
The old man took out a few metal cans from under the box, ran to the memory operation machine, sneered at a cup of liquid in the cans, and then threw a few dirty metal balls into it. Ruan Xian was familiar with this operation. He was going to make a homemade memory cocktail.
He could feel the excitement in the old man’s mind. Those memories were squeezed out of the mind of the Plan Corp employee and were completely fresh. The old man put his thin legs on the ottoman, slumped into the chair, and began to enjoy those memories.
Feeling the common situation, Ruan Xian immediately sensed that something was wrong.
If the memory cocktail they tried in the Glass Conservatory was clear juice, what the old man put into his head was more like unfiltered jam. They stuck to too many things. In addition to simple images and emotions, certain specific thoughts burrowed into the skull and turned the brain upside down.
For a moment, Ruan Xian felt pessimistic about everything in front of him; he was too lazy to move, and his strong self-denial was about to crush him. Only then did he realize that those thoughts weren’t his—part of the personality data was being integrated into the old man’s brain.
The latter was like an alcoholic, happily accepting them, feeling the collision of thoughts that were so intense that they almost divided people’s minds. It was a crazy influx of memories.
The stripped memories weren’t clean. The memories were mixed with recollections and themes that were roughly clear. Everything was foggy and strong, shaking the human brain. Fortunately, Ruan Xian had just gotten some satisfaction from eating, so he was able to hold on.
Then he found a thin silk thread.
Just as the old man half-opened his mouth and stared at the ceiling blankly, Ruan Xian fished out a small fragment from the memory of the former Plan Corp employee. It was vague and broken, not worth mentioning, but it is like a spark floating in an oil barrel.
Regarding how to better deal with MUL-01, Ruan Xian suddenly had an idea.
He saw the latest map on the light screen. In that memory, the man was driving a car towards a certain destination, casting a brief glance at the map cast by the light screen.
This glimpse was enough for Ruan Xian to grab the first piece of the puzzle.
He would not be sunk by this stimulus plan of “being confined in other people’s bodies and forced to watch a dark reality”. On the contrary, if the Mainbrain decided to shove these terrible fragments into him, he could find gold from it.
As a “mechanical life expert”, Ruan Lijie didn’t have this ability, but as the creator of NUL-00, Ruan Xian was familiar with the relevant characteristics of MUL-01.
December 31, 2100.
The core hardware of the Mainbrain was installed a few years ago. If it was to have the ability to influence the world, the hardware would have to occupy a large area, so the geographical conditions would be carefully selected. If he could gather enough information, he could calculate its location.
But that was on the premise that the Mainbrain had not moved its main hardware.
It would depend on the motivation of the Great Rebellion.
Ruan Xian was full of energy as he captured fragments of memory that would become blades. The sun arced across the sky and the Great Rebellion came with the night, plunging the world into chaos. The next moment, time reset, and the sun rose again. Ruan Xian woke up inside another memory trader. This time he wasn’t half confused, but calm and happy.
Since the Mainbrain wanted to wait for him to collapse, he would “collapse”, but before then, he had to take a dip in this tormenting but gold-rich sea of intelligence for a while.
When his “betrayal” would be discovered, he didn’t know how Tang Yibu would react. Ruan Xian’s mood became complicated.
……He hoped that Tang Yibu wouldn’t cry then.
The author has something to say:
The Mainbrain: Throw him into a chaotic area and lock him up. He’ll feel hostility over and over again and will eventually collapse.
Lin Chen felt that lingering ghosts* were really troublesome.
*(阴魂不散) Idiom referring to while the bad person and bad things have been eliminated, the bad influences is still at work. Jokingly, it can also refer to someone chasing after someone. From Li Lvyuan “Different Road Lamp”. || In this context, it’s the latter.
As for Xing Conglian, he felt that Lin Chen was troubled.
He had just arrived at the police station in the morning and sat down in his seat to read the newly released report. After only half a bite into his steam buns, he was informed by his subordinates to go to the director’s office for tea.
The old director made a cup of inauthentic Longjing tea and sat opposite Xing Conglian with a cup in hand. He seemed to want to have a long discussion with him.
“Conglian, how’s the case going?” The director touched his cup of tea while speaking solemnly.
Xing Conglian stared at the director’s half-bald, shiny head and sat straight up. “The case is still under investigation. I just got a report from forensics. It shows that there were obvious signs of tampering to the still rings in the park, so it should be a murder case.”
When the director heard the word “murder case”, his expression suddenly became distressed. “Conglian, I’m old and my heart isn’t good. I hope you won’t say such intense words like that, and can you please lower your voice?”
“The murderer’s motives and criminal methods are still unclear. It could be related to the hospital and the white sand case on Chunshui Street…”
“Shut up!” The old director covered his heart. “Don’t say these kinds of things so casually!”
“But Professor Fu said…”
“Nonsense!” The old director slammed the table violently. “For Fu Hao to be at this level, his teacher must be laughing himself awake!”
“Professor Fu is our external expert after all.”
“Bullshit. Fu Hao studied psychometrics and has never been out in the field. You’re telling me he can do criminal analysis?”
“Are you saying someone is helping Fu Hao behind our backs?” Xing Conglian asked rhetorically.
“Xing Conglian!” The old director became furious. “Yesterday, someone reported to his superiors that the Hongjing Municipal Bureau used a supernumerary to help with our case. This seriously affects our procedural fairness and the purity of the police force!”
Xing Conglian frowned. He thought it was strange. Just yesterday he had handcuffed Lin Chen and dragged him to the police station, yet someone had already reported it to his superiors?
There was something fishy here.
“Didn’t you formally hire Professor Fu to be our consultant?” Xing Conglian continued to act ignorant.
“Idiot! It’s obviously not Fu Hao!” The director’s fury continued to rise. “It’s the one you arrested, Lin Chen!”
“Lin Chen?” The captain asked, “Who is Lin Chen?”
The old director looked at his subordinate’s serious gaze before he realized he had fallen into a trap of the other party’s counter-interrogation.
“Young people shouldn’t be so gossipy!” The old director collected his composure and drank his tea.
“So someone specifically reported to a superior all because of Lin Chen?” When Xing Conglian spoke, he held a bit of uncertainty in his tone. “I just brought him in to make a statement. If no one in our bureau recognized him, then they must’ve gotten the news through our internal network. Since they reacted so quickly, his name must be blacklisted…” As Xing Conglian spoke, he looked at his superior’s face getting darker. “Was he a police officer before? If not, then a former consultant to the police, right?”
When he finished, he hoped to discern some information from his superior’s face, but the old man refused to show any expression besides a nasty glare.
“Are you eighty this year?” The old director finally finished all the tea in his cup. He put it down and asked rhetorically.
“A little short of it.”
“Then fuck off. Don’t gossip like an old bag!”
Xing Conglian didn’t say anything more. He straightened his clothes and stood up. “What you actually mean is, you want me to exclude Lin Chen from our investigation, right?” While it was phrased as a question, his tone was flat, indicating that it was more of a statement.
When he finished speaking, he turned around and walked away.
“Stop.” The old director suddenly raised his head and looked at his subordinate’s back. “Hey, remember what I said.”
An old coot like this man wouldn’t reveal his true thoughts even if something happened, let alone reveal someone’s background.
Xing Conglian sat back down as the rain continued to pour outside the window. The rain was thin and dense, pouring rapidly while the manic wind blew about, causing umbrellas to sway so wildly that people couldn’t maintain a firm balance.
He put away his idle thoughts and began to look through the scene investigation report that had just been placed on his desk.
While he could read all the words on it, he couldn’t understand the meaning behind it.
A fully dressed male body in a hospital, the fruit store assault case, the dead old man, the broken still rings in the park…
All of these were seemingly unrelated, yet somehow, they were improbably linked closely together by sand.
He couldn’t help but think of the quiet dorm manager. The other person’s peaceful eyes and extremely calm demeanor made him really want to stand up, rush into the rain, run to the man and ask, “What do you know?”
With that in mind, he stood up, grabbed his keys, put on his jacket, and walked out of the police station. Just as he was about to step into the rain, he suddenly saw someone coming from afar in the middle of a storm.
The man was thin. He shakily held a black umbrella that had slightly collapsed on one side due to the wind.
However, the hand that was holding the umbrella was steady, and his pace was equally such that even the rain made a steady, calm sound as it hit the umbrella.
Looking at the person who was coming from the rain made Xing Conglian want to have a smoke.
Lin Chen walked up the steps, put away his umbrella, and shook the rain off his body.
He was completely soaked, like he had just been fished out of water. There wasn’t any special expression on his face, and he neither greeted nor made small talk. He raised his head slightly and bluntly asked, “Do you want to solve the case?”
“Yes,” Xing Conglian replied succinctly.
“Do you trust me?” Lin Chen asked.
“Yes.”
“Are you afraid of retaliation?”
“Yes,” Xing Conglian answered truthfully. He remembered the director’s warning just now and had a better understanding of why Lin Chen asked this question. He thought that his answer would disappoint him, but he obviously saw a smile in Lin Chen’s eyes. He couldn’t help but chuckle. “But I’m even more afraid that I won’t be able to solve this case and get my bonus. After all, it’s crayfish season…”
When he finished, he saw Lin Chen nod, as if he strongly agreed with him. “So, for the sake of your bonus and crayfish, please let me join.”
Lin Chen’s voice wasn’t very loud. Especially in the heavy rain, it became almost inaudible, but at that moment, Xing Conglian was stunned.
A few minutes ago, he made the decision to seek Lin Chen’s help and thought on how to go about it without making Lin Chen feel it was too abrupt while also considering that Lin Chen would refuse.
He never thought that Lin Chen would be the one saying this to him.
“Please let me join.”
If he hadn’t been in the director’s office that morning, he would’ve felt that Lin Chen wanted to get involved in the case, but when Lin Chen asked, “Are you afraid of retaliation?”, he suddenly realized that Lin Chen knew exactly how much pressure he—or rather, they would be under.
However, he still grabbed an umbrella, braved the rain, and came here to say, “Please let me join.”
He took a puff from his cigarette and asked, “Why are there so many people who don’t want you involved in the investigation?”
“Do you care?” Lin Chen smiled. “I don’t.”
Xing Conglian was part Russian. With such an extremely vigorous bloodline, it meant that when he wanted to do something, he would choose to do it no matter what.
Strangely enough, Lin Chen, who was calm and stable, was actually such a person himself.
Xing Conglian laughed loudly and choked on the smoke. He coughed a few times but continued to laugh.
“Welcome to the team.” He held out his hand and threw away the cigarette that was still burning.
—
Although he didn’t care about complaints or warnings, Xing Conglian still took into account the mood of the old man who suffered from heart disease.
Instead of bringing Lin Chen back to the police station, he took him to his home, Unit 6 on Yanjia Lane.
Inside, the home was peaceful, shutting out the raging storm.
It was the same location but a different time. As he watched Lin Chen sit on the wooden bed that was facing the river, Xing Conglian felt a twinge in his heart, so he took the initiative to take out a towel and also made a cup of hot ginger tea.
Lin Chen seemed unconcerned about being wet from the cold rain. He took the towel and tea that Xing Conglian handed over and put them casually aside.
“Actually, I came here this time because I received a letter with white sand in it.” As he spoke, he took out a pink letter that was placed in a sealed bag from his pocket.
Xing Conglian looked at the sealed bag and saw the delicate white sand inside and felt his scalp go numb.
Because he didn’t have gloves on, he could only carefully flatten the letter inside the sealed bag. “Do you know who wrote this letter?”
Lin Chen didn’t answer immediately.
He didn’t have a deep impression of the person who wrote it. In his memory, it should be a very young and quiet girl. If it weren’t for registering people who entered and left the dorms every day, he probably wouldn’t even know the girl’s name.
He had noticed many times that the girl was secretly looking at him and had also received letters from her that she had carefully placed on his desk.
Sky blue, beige, pink. The words on the cover were very elegant and always had the three words, “To Lin Chen” on it, but he never opened them…
“The sender is Yu Yanqing. She’s a gardener who prunes the flowers and trees for our school.”
“A gardener that’s so literate?” Xing Conglian looked at the letter. He had read the eloquent verses several times.
“She’s young, probably between 25-28 and should be well educated.”
“Why did she write this to you?”
“She has written a lot of letters to me in the past. I thought she had a crush on me, so I thought those letters were just love letters.” Lin Chen calmly stated. Even when mentioning the word crush, there was no blushing or shyness. He appeared so upright that even a person like Xing Conglian, who liked to joke, couldn’t tease him about being the object of the gardener’s admiration.
“She has a crush on you, so the white sand could’ve been stolen from your room too, right?”
“I don’t know,” Lin Chen frankly answered.
“Then why did she stuff white sand in the letters? Do these white sands have anything to do with recent events?”
“I’m not sure.” Lin Chen paused, then added, “But I suspect it’s related.”
Xing Conglian suddenly had an epiphany. “You suspect that this matter may be related to you, so that’s why you want to participate in the investigation, right?”
Instead of answering him, Lin Chen replied, “In any case, I’m here to help, aren’t I?”
Xing Conglian nodded helplessly. Then he heard Lin Chen say, “If you trust me, please send someone to look for Yu Yanqing. Most likely, she’s already dead.”
It would be false to say that Ruan Xian didn’t feel touched.
He wasn’t abnormal to that extreme. Although it wasn’t to the point where he would shed tears because of the suffering of others, he still retained at least some type of sympathy—this feeling wasn’t a human patent. Compassion was a kind of survival skill, and all intelligent life would have a bit of emotion, such as elephants, whales, or wolves.
The pain from others wouldn’t make him feel happy.
Then again, there were a few “normal people” who were slow to notice the suffering of others, making the concept of “normal people” difficult to define. When Ruan Xian left NUL-00 with such a subject, he also had a few thoughts in this regard.
Now he was looking at those “normal people” and successfully feeling discomfort.
The child who was beaten up was just the beginning.
Ruan Xian had to admit that he would agree with the strategy of the Mainbrain, who was gradually showing him many scenes that happened that day. The rhythm and harshness of the arrangement were just right. If it weren’t for the brain lesions that helped him successfully block some of the stimuli, Ruan Xian was certain he would’ve had a minor emotional breakdown.
The Mainbrain version of Tang Yibu took his hand and showed him everything. Its perspective was equally as horrible that there were no borders under its scope of observation.
Miserable images continued to appear as if they were inexhaustible.
Most people couldn’t grasp the sense of distance within their mind. They would believe that “knowing” was the same as “understanding”, but when the picture was presented in front of them, that was a different matter. Even if Ruan Xian knew this truth in his heart, he couldn’t help but have this subconscious arrogance.
The price was to be continuously stimulated.
Sticks, blades, explosives. Bombs fell as screams and begs for mercy pierced his ears. Dirty spoons that gouged up food from the bottom of a pot, flies buzzing on moldy bedding, smoke and maggots on corpses that were close enough to stick to his face.
Ruan Xian wasn’t surprised that the Mainbrain chose a classic suffering to start with. If the Mainbrain could figure out information about his friends and family, Ruan Xian suspected that this start would be arranged again. It was best to start with the tragedy of the people around him, so that the strength would be stronger.
While unhappy, his mood remained stable, and he even took it quite seriously.
Inducing people was a mental job, not to mention the effort it took to arrange such uncomfortable scenes rationally. This process would reveal the position of the inducer as well. Ruan Xian tried to peel back the sorrows and joys of his kin and catch the thread that strung this string of black pearls.
To be honest, there wasn’t much condemnation in these images. The Mainbrain had no intention of taking advantage of the opportunity to preach truth. Everything in front of him was more like a calm explanation of the facts.
Ruan Xian tried his best to empty himself so he wouldn’t analyze those pictures with a stance. This was something that was easier said than done.
In daily life, the amount of information that everyone could obtained was ultimately limited. It was impossible for humans to have as many eyes as the Mainbrain—it grew in every camera, hid in every satellite, and parasitized more and more into the system every day, so it could see extraordinarily clearly. Therefore, when ushering in a strange perspective, as a member of the human race, Ruan Xian had to tighten his nerves in order to try to put aside the influence of his position and the experience that he had.
Calm down and don’t judge prematurely. He repeated it to himself over and over again.
He wasn’t even aware of when the hotdog in his hand had disappeared. Ruan Xian followed the Mainbrain as they stepped over scorched earth, garbage piles, and mirror-like marble slabs and looked at the scene in front of him. Hour after hour, the Mainbrain had no intention of stopping while Ruan Xian felt sick to his stomach by the surging of negative emotions.
Even comedies could give one a headache after watching them for too long, let alone this kind of thing.
Compared with healthy people, he had more layers of armor when facing this, but even he was still affected at this point. If this was a soft-hearted person in his place, they should’ve collapsed at this point or gone crazy.
How terrible.
He had a clear idea of the Mainbrain’s intention. Fortunately, before his “death”, he left a subject for Tang Yibu. Ruan Xian thought casually that his head seemed to push into an extruder as he felt a pain close to being crushed.
How long had those extremely real images been going for? Half a day? A day?
This was undoubtedly some kind of torture, and this torture had just begun.
No matter how realistic the images and the sounds and smells were, as long as the heart was strong enough or the stakes were high enough, people could become extremely hard-hearted. The Mainbrain would never bet on the possibility of its own character, which meant it had a backup plan.
So he had better follow its script.
“Stop it,” he said weakly. “I can’t stand it anymore. I want to take a break.”
Most likely, it was waiting for him to say this.
Usually, people who came into contact with a large number of corpses needed psychological intervention. Naturally, the Mainbrain wouldn’t provide Ruan Xian with such services thoughtfully. On the contrary, it used Tang Yibu’s appearance and turned itself into a piece of driftwood along a torrent.
Although it took longer than expected, the Mainbrain was satisfied with the results of this state.
Unless they were downright pathological or antisocial, those scenes were enough to defeat anyone. It did a preliminary screening of Ruan Lijie’s brain and found some lesions, but those lesions were mixed with a lot of mechanical tissue. MUL-01 found it difficult to assert what the results would lead to, but it was very clear. Although Ruan Lijie’s “sympathy” wasn’t as strong as others, he still had such emotions.
The human mind was usually more fragile than it thought.
Lovers who love each other to death could still break up when put to endless torture—decades ago, torture could end in debilitation and death. Even with the advancement of today’s medicine, one couldn’t perfectly avoid this.
Even if his internal organs were removed, it could find a way to keep him alive. There were shortcuts before, shortcuts after. The most important thing was to obtain information through physical torture.
Besides, as it had expected, Ruan Lijie was starting to collapse.
Even if Ruan Lijie knew that he wasn’t Tang Yibu, he would subconsciously trust and seek comfort because of this familiarity and how he had finally cracked.
“Good.” The Mainbrain’s tone was gentle. “In fact, this is only one day, and those scenes are only a small part of the daily data.”
At that time, there were nearly 10 billion people in the world, which meant it still had plenty of ammunition.
Ruan Lijie collapsed next to the metal bucket, puffing hard with his nose. The metal bucket was stuffed full of unburned fuel—shredded paper, rags, dead leaves and twigs, and among them a lot of things that shouldn’t be there. The wreckage of electronic products lay in the ashes, burned and deformed. Their batteries should have released toxic smoke. No matter who had been here to keep warm, “today” would definitely not be a good day for that person.
The Mainbrain retracted its gaze without emotion and waited quietly.
It had always been patient, like a scarecrow stationed in the field or a chef who was slowly boiling clams. It only needed to wait for Ruan Lijie to open his shell slightly, exposing the weakness that could be attacked, and then it would take good care of it.
“I don’t want to watch anymore.” Ruan Lijie panted for a while. “These are all things of the past, and I won’t change even after watching it… I won’t betray Yibu.”
His tone was erratic, as if his mind was a jumbled mess.
“We are doing the right thing. We are doing the right thing…” He repeated in a low voice, trying to comfort himself.
“I can let you stay here for a long time. A month, a year,” the Mainbrain continued gently. “But I won’t do that.”
If the fire wasn’t mastered properly, the pain could instead turn into a catalyst for feelings. One had to know how to take it for what it was. Ruan Lijie was showing signs of faltering, so it was time to proceed to the next stage.
Ruan Xian was really uncomfortable.
In addition to his mental discomfort, he was hungry. Since coming to the Mainbrain’s side, all he had was a glass of cold milk and ate a few snacks that didn’t top off his hunger. Ruan Xian began to regret dropping that hotdog. Even if it was an illusion, it could at least soothe and comfort his brain.
But these discomforts now had helped him as he was extra convincing when expressing his irritation.
The Mainbrain seemed to be planning to change its strategy. Ruan Xian also believed that he had already seen the worst part—if he saw too much, he would start to experience mental numbness. For the Mainbrain, the loss would outweigh the gain.
“I’m hungry,” he said bluntly in an irate tone.
Since the other side wanted to use looks to trick him, he could go along with it and take the opportunity to increase the number of exchanges. As long as he asked the right questions, he was confident that he could fish for the information that he wanted. But since the other party was the Mainbrain, it was impossible to tell whether it had already calculated this…
A decision had to be made as soon as possible, he thought as his stomach grumbled.
According to the information just now, it seemed that the only thing he had was on the date, “December 31, 2100”. Not only that, but he also couldn’t take the initiative to control his whereabouts, which made his means really limited.
He was caught on purpose holding on to the idea of finding a better solution. Unfortunately, the situation was worse than Ruan Xian thought—the initial plan went smoothly, and the Mainbrain didn’t directly destroy his body or crush his brain. However, it chose to directly attack his spirit. Not to mention stealing information, he couldn’t even touch the real world.
…On the day before doomsday.
Beside this, he had to solve another problem that was more troublesome than the last—to figure out the motivation of the Mainbrain and completely overturn the chessboard.
How to test it? Should he grab on the fishing line of the Mainbrain more? Drive it away or let it stay?
Ruan Xian couldn’t help but frown, while the Mainbrain was all smiles with Tang Yibu’s face.
“You’ll be fine,” it said. “This place is like the ‘dreamland’ you have experienced. Don’t deny it. You must’ve experienced it in the Glass Conservatory. The time outside actually hasn’t passed much. You will not really die of hunger. It’s just a psychological effect.”
Ruan Xian looked at the familiar face carefully and suddenly felt a little sour in his heart.
He thought he could treat this matter rationally and deal with this feeling calmly—he was treating it as cautiously as if he was doing an experiment, and it still ignored his control.
Ruan Xian subconsciously wanted to discuss the current problem with Tang Yibu, but when he raised his hand, he couldn’t feel the earring stud on his left ear.
The Mainbrain probably had it removed the first chance it got.
Ruan Xian sighed regretfully in his heart, and then made a decision.
“If this is really that kind of dreamland, psychological effect can lead to death.” He adjusted his breathing and spat back unceremoniously, while also deliberately adding a bit of intimacy, specifically when dealing with acquaintances.
“Don’t worry, there will be no shortage of food.”
“…” Giving him a little time to think, Ruan Xian tried his best to calculate the possible reactions of the Mainbrain and tentatively opened his mouth. “Then… We have to continue to look at those things just now?”
He aggravated the pronunciation of “we”, which made the smile on the Mainbrain more obvious.
“No,” it said. “The reason why I’m willing to guide you is because I need to make an assessment of your morale standards. Unfortunately, you still need to stay here for a while, and I can’t accompany you for the next part.”
Ruan Xian made a blank expression. He moved his lips but said nothing.
“If you have something to say to me, I believe you can find a way.” Its tone was kind, mixed with a hint of cruelty. “Don’t panic too much—you don’t look half empty, but more like an orthodox scholar. Mr. Ruan, since you passed the ethics assessment at the time, you should have the ability to see the overall situation clearly.”
It opened its arms and gave Ruan Xian a hug. Ruan Xian buried his face in the other party’s shoulder, hiding his expression as he trembled slightly.
Ruan Xian hid his smile. He succeeded.
The Mainbrain was just like he thought. Once it found that he was moving forward, it immediately backed off and played hard to get. Since he had already made his choice, he could probably guess what the other party’s next step was.
It was a long day, the last day before the destruction of human society.
To be honest, Ruan Xian didn’t know if there would be an answer. He also didn’t know whether it was the right choice to branch out and give up part of the information he knew to the Mainbrain. He only knew that his thoughts on Tang Yibu were more powerful than he expected. Ruan Xian didn’t have the confidence to hide that emotion. It would distract him and cause him to reveal himself to the Mainbrain.
The Mainbrain version of Tang Yibu shook his hand and disappeared into the street.
Ruan Xian stood alone on a street that had long since ceased to exist, looking up at the clear sky, dizzy with hunger.
This was a state he was familiar with. Just a few months ago, he was so accustomed to being alone like this, but now he couldn’t get used to it anymore. It was just at this moment, he could see the sky, but he had lost the warm computer room and the little thing that was happily entertaining him in that room.
He had never experienced the feeling of “missing” so clearly.
If this was the same principle as the treatment in the Glass Conservatory, it should still be the day that he was caught. He began to wonder if that noisy android had eaten something.
Tang Yibu chose a good body for himself. When he didn’t deliberately pull out a standard smile, it still looked extremely attractive.
However, Ruan Xian, the one who was most easily shaken by it, wasn’t here, so there was no one in the audience who ate this performance—Yu Le made a face and looked at him warily. Ji Xiaoman had buried her head in her knees. Professor Ruan stood quietly on the chair while the iron bead chewed happily on the chocolate chip packaging.
As a genuine teenager, Zhong Qing pouted, showing straightforward hostility to the same sex who looked better than him. He had no idea that Tang Yibu was a different species from him.
Tang Yibu slowly withdrew his smile and his thoughts drifted for a while—if Mr. Ruan was here, he would definitely be able to see his softened expression, he thought with a bit of frustration.
He rubbed his face and changed back to a serious expression. “Yu Ge, Miss Ji, looking at the expressions of the two of you, your emotional problems should probably be solved, right? The next step requires the two of you to tacitly work together with… the iron box, and I can’t do it for you.”
“Speak.” Yu Le hid his sneer and spoke quickly.
Some of the Order Supervisors that surrounded the city in the early hours of that morning would never forget that day.
They received instructions from the Mainbrain and encircled the city where Ruan Lijie was located. In order to cause as little damage to the urban area as possible, all kinds of armed robots stayed in the suburbs, quietly waiting for their prey.
And their prey came earlier than expected.
At that time, all the machines near the armored off-roader entered a state of high-level alert. The enemy possibly possessed an A-type Prototype, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to be extremely cautious. The Order Supervisors of the recon in charge of command took a few deep breaths and kept in constant contact with headquarters.
“The request for assistance regarding R-α has been issued,” he reported. “R-α is still being rebuilt, but it can be temporarily active. We will use force to fully support it.”
“How is the enemy’s condition?”
“They haven’t spotted us yet and are heading in this direction. The flight detectors have confirmed the general situation. The other side has released electromagnetic interference, so we can’t get close to observe.”
“All units get ready. Make sure to maintain your weapon in prime shape. After the target vehicle appears, it will attack us with all its might. All humans on board can be killed but ensure that the cybernetic brain of NUL-00 isn’t damage,” Zhuo Muran said from the other end of the light screen.
“R-α will arrive at the scene in three minutes. Without attack support, it cannot repel NUL-00, who has the A-type Prototype, alone. Please be sure to protect it. Be sure to incapacitate NUL-00 as soon as possible—as long as R-α can touch it, we will win.”
“Yes.”
All kinds of aircraft were on standby in the night sky, and attack machines were hidden in the grass. They had adopted the most advanced stealth technology that, not to mention trying to detect with the naked eye, even NUL-00 would have difficulties sensing their presence with signal scanning.
Everything was ready.
An armored off-roader broke through the night and rushed towards them from the other end of the road. The commanding Order Supervisor trembled a little, but he still seized the best opportunity—with a command, a flexible capture net was projected from the sky towards the car. It was a web that had been improved according to the structure of spider silk. Although it was soft, it was extremely difficult to break free.
Behind the capture net was an advanced EMP device. All the armed machines burst out of the grass and shot the short-range EMP device, which was enough to paralyze any electronic equipment on the car. With these two steps, any smart weapons or equipment in the car would be rendered useless, leaving no respite for the enemy.
After the net enveloped the car, a smelly smoke encircled it. With the flesh-eating bacteria mist released, it started to penetrate every gap and consume any flesh that it came into contact with. Anything that was human would be quickly devoured. Fortunately, these dangerous little demons weren’t interested in metal, so it wouldn’t hurt the cybernetic brain in NUL-00’s head.
The green mist filled the area around the net, but even with this, the commander in charge didn’t let his guard down…
R-α arrived at the scene.
It was still in the process of transformation and was sealed in a glass tank. The glass tank was connected to countless pipes that looked like a spider web inside a coffin from a distance. Confirming that there wasn’t a problem with their scan result, the staff woke it up. The banshee-like creature sat up from the glass tank.
It—or rather, “she”—was still naked. A large area of skin was exposed, and the clothing on her body was more like a special combat suit. She sat blankly in the glass tank as black and red blood rushed in from the transparent tubes embedded in her skin. They coiled around her limbs, wrapped around her shoulders and back, creating an eerily beautiful scene.
With the command to leave the tank, she stepped on the grass; her hair was soaking wet by the mixed liquid of the tank and was still dripping. She stayed quietly near the flesh-eating fog, seemingly completely unafraid of touching the dangerous thing.
With such a beautiful figure standing in front of a team of armed machines with different shapes, it created a heavy sense of incongruity.
She stood like an apparition for a while, then turned her head and looked suspiciously at the commander of the Order Supervisors at the scene.
“No,” she said. The voice was soft and there was no anger in it.
A chill ran down the back of the commanding officer.
There wasn’t a problem with the scan results. They had even used an electronic canine to analyze the smell of the occupants in the car. They were undoubtedly caught in the net and the net was solid.
However, he would not cross the strongest force of the Mainbrain, so he immediately ordered, “Retract the mist!”
The green flesh-eating bacteria mist was retracted. However, once the air was cleared, not to mention the skeletons that should’ve been inside, there wasn’t even an armored off-roader. The sturdy net was piled in a heap on the ground, showing no outlines of their prey. It was like they had shot it at a real ghost.
The armed machines quickly removed the EMP device and net, and a model of an armored vehicle topping half a meter in length was revealed.
Its details were exactly the same as the target vehicle, with a slightly crude paint job, most likely due to it being a rushed job. There were only some old and dirty fabrics in the vehicle, embedded with a strange device that no longer worked.
The commander quickly confirmed the scan again—it still showed the outline of the humans inside the vehicle, as well as the individual unmistakable details.
“Damn it.” He wiped the cold sweat from his face. “R-α, perceive their location and report.”
“Yes, the target is very close to us and is approaching here at high speed.”
“What—” The commander’s mind went blank for a moment.
He had to prepare as soon as possible, but their opponent had already deceived their offense and perhaps even had their own countermeasures. The commander shook his head vigorously, trying to drive all kinds of ominous conjectures out of his mind, and ordered again.
“Immediately restore the formation and prepare to attack… Shit!”
Before he could finish, the EMP device’s impact time had expired. The model car parked on the ground suddenly moved, spun in place a few times, then burst open.
It was just instead of a deadly weapon, it burst into a mass of glittering metal flakes and confetti. This was followed by flames, then something burned in the air…
The ground lit up with a huge, brilliant firework.
Flames burst out, smoke rose up, and the gorgeous light dazzled people’s eyes. Thermal detection and precision scanning all failed. No matter how efficient the EMP devices were, they couldn’t stop a chemical reaction that didn’t require electricity. The fireworks couldn’t stop bursting. R-α, who was standing on the side of the road, opened her eyes slightly. Her pupils reflected those dizzying brilliance.
In the next second, her head disappeared.
The commander had just recovered from the sight, which he didn’t know whether it was a dream or a nightmare, when something whizzed past. In the slow-down image on the monitor, an armored off-roader leapt by with lightning speed, knocking over a number of armed machines that were standing by on the road. It used a bizarre fluttering position to dash out on the side of the fence, bypass the barricade, and then turned back on the road again. At that high of a speed, it was almost impossible for a human to accomplish such a maneuver.
And on the roof of the speeding car, they could see a figure of a person.
A very beautiful, golden-eyed young man. He was carrying a portable rocket launcher with considerable destructive power. The rocket launcher user—most likely the culprit who blasted off R-α’s head—sat safely on the roof of the car that was going at full speed while dangling a long leg.
He even blew a kiss at one of their flying cameras.
After the kiss, all the flying cameras that tried to catch up were shot down.
From the beginning of the fireworks to the departure of the unsuspecting vehicle, the whole process took no more than five seconds. The commander didn’t even have time to give an order at all. Although the machines reacted quickly, their attacks were unsuccessful since the front line wasn’t restored. The fireworks attracted reinforcements from a distance, but the terrible vehicle had activated its perceptual camouflage and disappeared into the night.
“What went wrong?” Seeing that there hadn’t been a report for a while, Zhuo Muran took the initiative to ask.
The commander didn’t know how to answer this question.
The fireworks were still exploding while R-α, who had lost her head, slowly sat up and began to pick up the pieces of flesh that had been blown off. A restorative hyperplasia began to appear at the fracture of her neck. A simple blast like this wasn’t enough to destroy an advanced S-type product, but it would take time for her head to recover. Until then, she wouldn’t be able to provide them with any further information.
This incident was completely outrageous from the start—the other side shouldn’t have had time to react so quickly. After all, they shouldn’t have known that they were in position. But whether it was the scanning machine being hacked or the time between the car rushing in, it was enough to show that the other side was well prepared.
They even specifically chose this side to break through. Although he didn’t want to admit it, the side over here had dense trees, and there was a large lake nearby. Their defenses were a little lower than elsewhere, but if the other side wasn’t very familiar with their location and the nearby geography, they couldn’t have gotten hold of this information.
Not only that, their invisibility technology was just updated by the Mainbrain last week!
Was there a mole? Was there someone who was from the rebel army in their own team? The commander really couldn’t think of how this kind of information would leak. Facing the increasingly stern questioning of the light screen, he wanted to pull out his hair.
“…Team F requests support,” he replied in an almost desperate tone.
At the same time.
“This incident tells us that special groups should not be skipped for advanced weapons testing in the future.” Tang Yibu opened the car door, got into the car from the roof, and sneezed.
The relaxed image he made could put pressure on the enemy, and the price wasn’t small. After being blown on by the cold wind from the roof for a few minutes, Tang Yibu pulled out a tissue and blew his nose.
“Well done, Yu Ge, Miss Ji.”
“Just because I know how to ‘drive’, you can’t push this kind of thing on me.” Yu Le grabbed the steering wheel with one hand and threw the remote control of the model car into the back seat. “…Well now, it’s quite interesting. Reminds me of my childhood. Little profiteer, when we settle down, you can give me the whole thing.”
Ji Xiaoman’s shirt was soaked in sweat. She was holding a bottle of juice and sipping slowly on it with a straw. Her face showed signs of relaxation after being so tense and nervous.
“Let her rest for a while. This lady’s mechanical transformation and assembly ability is the highest I’ve ever seen. This kind of work consumes a lot of energy, so I don’t think she can listen to anything right now.”
Professor Ruan was still holding a light screen and they could still see the situation near the fireworks. However, given that all the flight cameras had been destroyed, the point of their invasion was getting farther and farther away, and the picture started to become abnormally vacant and shaky.
“I’m so strong!” Zhong Qing exclaimed in surprise while still holding a piece of preserved fruit in his hand.
Tang Yibu put the portable rocket launcher down; the cylinder was put back in the arms box. He huffed out, not affirming the kid’s boasting. If Mr. Ruan was here, they would have used a similar method to get through.
But then, their abnormal scrying ability might make Ruan Xian look more suspicious. Now that Ruan Xian wasn’t present, the account falls on Zhong Qing’s head—it wouldn’t take long for the Mainbrain to deduce the vulnerability of their cloaking device. In this case, Ruan Xian wouldn’t be at risk of being exposed.
He became a lot happier again after thinking about this. Tang Yibu decided to generously ignore Zhong Qing for stealing his treasures. He opened another pack of chocolate chips and chewed on them sweetly as he cast his gaze out the window.
He didn’t know how Mr. Ruan was doing now.
In fact, Ruan Xian had slept through these thrilling parts, or rather fainted. When he woke up, it was early in the morning. When Tang Yibu and the others successfully escaped from the Mainbrain’s city and were looking for a place to hide and recover, Ruan Xian was clutching a hotdog bought by MUL-01 as his mood sank to the very bottom.
He was sulking on the morning of the Great Rebellion.
After perceiving Ruan Xian’s resistance, MUL-01’s version of Tang Yibu didn’t engage in further intimacy. He just took Ruan Xian to the side of the street. Everything on the street seemed normal enough that Ruan Xian didn’t know what the other party’s purpose was.
Until they came to a residential building.
The Mainbrain walked to a huge trashcan, knocked on the motherboard a few times, causing the opaque trashcan to suddenly become transparent. It contained some perishable garbage. Among the fruit scraps, leftovers, and withered flowers, a bloodstained human body was particularly conspicuous. Her eyes were wide open, and there were still dark black fingerprints around her neck.
But the mark on the slender neck was equally conspicuous. Ruan Xian didn’t know what it was, but he knew what it meant—the owner of this mark wasn’t human. It was more like a mark of an object.
The Mainbrain knocked on the trashcan again, causing it to turn opaque again. Ruan Xian could smell a bit of garbage, but the source wasn’t from there. The deodorization measures of the trashcan were exceptionally good.
“What do you want to express?”
Ruan Xian didn’t think that the Mainbrain would develop thoughts of “safeguarding the rights and interests of bionic people”. Professor Ruan and Fan Linsong wouldn’t leave such loopholes when designing it.
The Mainbrain shook his head as he led him upstairs to one of the doors. It was extremely silent outside the door, but after the Mainbrain opened it, a miserable cry came rushing out.
A man was sitting on top of a child’s stomach as he punched him in the face. The child’s face was so swollen that he couldn’t see his original appearance, and the perfect sound insulation stopped his screams indoors. The child’s arms should have been broken as they were twisted at a weird angle.
Seeing that the child was almost out of breath, the man stood up, wiped his hands, and took out a medicine box. After a few injections, those wounds began to quickly disappear, and even the broken bones slowly returned to their original position.
However, the side effects of the medicine weren’t small as the child began to howl again.
“Remember your lesson?” The child’s father wiped the blood from his hands. “Take your medicine.”
The little boy shivered and took the cup and pills and obediently ate them. Within a few seconds, his eyes were a little flustered, and then his expression turned blank. He didn’t seem to know why he was standing here, but his instinct to survive made him tighten his body and stand obediently.
“Next time, don’t mess around in front of me. Now go study.” The man waved his hand.
“Yes, father.” The boy glanced at the time in fear, took a deep breath, and quickly ran into his room.
Was this to express that the Great Rebellion was to “protect humanity”? Ruan Xian frowned. He didn’t think the Mainbrain would do this kind of idealistic thing. These images…
Ruan Xian suddenly reacted.
The impression he gave to the Mainbrain was that “he sacrificed himself to save Zhong Qing”. This meant MUL-01 had classified sympathy for children as one of his weaknesses and was now giving him the right medicine.
Interesting.
Ruan Xian made a sullen expression on his face and turned his gaze to the Mainbrain’s back.
Since this was a test, he could make it a two-way street.
The author has something to say:
If Ruan was a normal person, the direction the Mainbrain was taking would be quite right.
Unfortunately, he’s not. Not only is he not affected by it, he’s also unusually calm (……
