Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 92: Official Shot

Ruan Xian stopped at the door of the room where Qian Yigeng was located.

Just like last time, they took the clothes and disguised themselves as his subordinates. This time, Yu Le was lucky enough to find a fatter man, so his pants didn’t need to be stretched tightly over his muscles. Only it had gone to the other extreme—he didn’t have enough fat to support the clothes and the excess fabric fell loosely off his body, like skin after too much liposuction.

However, since Qian Yigeng’s subordinates weren’t a strict mercenary group, nor did they have a military-like mindset, most of them would only look at him twice. The three of them surrounded Tiantian-Q2, which wasn’t much different from other groups escorting goods.

At the moment, the subordinates were busy taking care of Ji Xiaoman’s android mother, who was huddled in the corridor with the rest of the other androids. Compared to the other androids who cursed and trembled in a low voice under the ends of the guns pointing at them, the beautiful female android was indeed visibly slower to the naked eye.

The room was masked with a soundproofing device, so there were no abnormal sounds, but this didn’t prevent Ruan Xian from hearing everything clearly. Now wasn’t the time to make a move against the battle between the sandpiper and clam*. The fisherman needed to consider the timing of his appearance.

*(鹬蚌相争) Idioms referring to the dispute between two parties will inevitably result in both losses and a third party will benefit. It comes from a historical fable, which you can read in my Kinky Thoughts.

The struggle indoors continued, and there were few human heartbeats left.

Across the door, Qian Yigeng glanced at his subordinates who fell to the ground, his expression becoming more displeased. The fat on his face was clustered together as he sighed pretentiously.

“Although I’m really angry, if you two stop now, I can still consider letting go of the past and forgetting about it.”

He glanced at Ji Xiaoman, who was moving on the ceiling, and the acrimony in his voice disappeared, turning into hypocritical regret.

“I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but over the years, you and I have become old acquaintances. It’s really hard to talk about. Why do you want to do business like this?”

He pressed his goggles again, as if he was wrapped in a walnut shell. “Find someone to create a fake organization, destroy my property, and force me to use Return South Wild Geese. Then pretend to come and save your mother and join forces with He An to take the opportunity to attack me… Tsk, tsk. That’s a good idea. It’s just that I’ve been here for so long and have gone through the sea of those who want this needle.”

Ji Xiaoman’s hands and feet were cold, and she was ready to throw a bomb. The bomb exploded at Qian Yigeng’s feet. Logically speaking, it should have blown up his calf, but it didn’t even shred a piece of the fat man’s trousers.

As if he had noticed Ji Xiaoman’s sight, Qian Yigeng patted his chest. “If you want to kill me, this little firepower isn’t enough. Okay, now the time I gave you two to repent is almost up. There’s no backtracking after the expiration.”

He An was obviously not the type who would be easily moved. He knocked away Qian Yigeng’s men in front of him and rushed directly towards Qian Yigeng. Ji Xiaoman understood the other party’s plan almost immediately—as long as they get close, they might not need to really rely on firepower to win. Even if a knife can’t penetrate Qian Yigeng’s protective clothing, with He An’s size and strength, he could at least choke Qian Yigeng’s neck so that the opponent would quickly suffocate.

Following the same idea, He An beautifully bypassed several people who came to obstruct him, stretched out his muscular arms, and directly hooped Qian Yigeng’s stubby neck wrapped in protective cloth.

Then He An’s face changed, he frowned, and he didn’t say a word as usual.

In the previous battle, he was shot several times in irrelevant parts, which stained red with blood on his clothes that were particularly conspicuous, but He An had always looked painless and his movements were always stable. The muscles on his arms bulged under his clothing and tightly locked around Qian Yigeng’s throat.

Everything should have gone very smoothly. Ji Xiaoman could see the force. Although Qian Yigeng could rely on his weight advantage to struggle for a while, if this trend were to continue, he would soon lose consciousness.

However, just as Qian Yigeng’s struggling movements were about to dwindle, He An suddenly let go of his hand and gasped with difficulty. He fell backwards and stood staggeringly against the wall, as if he had been stabbed in the lung by an invisible enemy.

“As I said, there are many people who want to find a chance to kill me.” Qian Yigeng rubbed his neck, “Don’t touch me. Do you hear me? This is poison. The medicine is very powerful. It’s pretty labor-intensive to make He An’s shell again, and now I have to find a way to explain to Fu Yu.”

Ji Xiaoman’s hands and feet were cold.

She might be able to jump down and attack Qian Yigeng in the same way, but even if her metal arms would not be poisoned, it was impossible for her entire body to remain untouched. Qian Yigeng usually dressed casually, and He An, who had a lot of encounters with him, didn’t warn her. She thought the other party wouldn’t be so shrewd.

Just as she was stunned, another bullet flew over her shoulder, and the severe pain caused her to almost fall to the ground. Ji Xiaoman gritted her teeth and threw a few more bombs in the direction of Qian Yigeng.

Thinking about it, Qian Yigeng, a type who was as timid as a mouse and was extremely afraid of death, would obviously go to the extreme in preparation. She thought it was her own preparation that wasn’t enough. This wasn’t like a game; even if she found her pitfalls now, she couldn’t just restart again.

The pain and fear of near failure were so intense that the air turned to liquid, choking her to the point where she almost lost consciousness.

What should I do?

The rubble from the explosion passed across the side of her face, and warm blood flowed down her cheeks. He An stood silently against the wall and continued to shoot at Qian Yigeng’s men who were trying to attack him. He could no longer move as nimbly as before and could now only stagnantly move, trying his best to ensure that his mobility wouldn’t be lost too quickly.

That handsome face was blank. The cybernetic bran wouldn’t be deactivated by death, and Qian Yigeng wouldn’t easily erase the memory specifically provided for Fu Yu. For He An, the so-called death was nothing more than a period of functional cessation.

But for herself…

“Last chance.” Qian Yigeng raised his head, obviously intending to focus on Ji Xiaoman. “I can spare your life, Ji Xiaoman.”

“Then what?” Ji Xiaoman said hoarsely. “Lock me up and make me work for you until I die?”

“That can’t be helped. I can’t give He An another chance to do stupid things. It’s safest to not be exposed, don’t you think?” Smothered by protective clothing, Qian Yigeng’s voice sounded a bit breathless.

He An finally didn’t have the strength to move any longer. He barely maintained his standing position as blood accumulated into a small pool under his feet. He still had that lurid smile on his face, but there was a bit of sarcasm behind it.

The other party was standing a few steps away from him, and he couldn’t do anything about it. Ji Xiaoman began to feel that her limbs were unable to exert strength. Her mother was still outside the door, so she should consider saving her life. Since she destroyed a lot of Qian Yigeng’s industry, the next life wouldn’t be too far from hell, but as long as she still had value, she and her mother could still live… By continuing to create new pain, barely surviving.

There was only one spider silk left in her hell—Her mother’s intelligence wasn’t enough to cooperate with Qian Yigeng, but she was simply used. Maybe over the years, she would leave a trace in the heart of her illusory relative.

Otherwise, she really would have nothing left.

This brief rebellion, as well as her only remaining sense of morality, suggested that it was time to draw a line in the sand.

Finally, Ji Xiaoman couldn’t hold back the tears that fell from her eyes. After all, she made the wrong bet. She shouldn’t have been disturbed by that group of outsiders and temporarily come up with a new plan.

“I…”

Ji Xiaoman finally fell from the ceiling. An electronic chain restrained her hands and feet. She was forced to lie on the ground as one of Qian Yigeng’s remaining subordinates stepped on her spine. The words in her throat seemed to be stuck. “I…”

Qian Yigeng was right. She was indeed easily emotional. Even now, she still couldn’t say a sentence that showed weakness.

Seeing that the other party was still shaking, Qian Yigeng shook his head. He gasped, enjoying the pleasure of giving hope for a while before crushing it, and then used his wristband to give instructions to the people outside.

“Bring that woman in,” he ordered.

Three heavily armed men wearing gas masks took her mother in like a sheep and also brought in Tiantian-Q2 that should have been hidden outside. Tiantian-Q2 collapsed beside Ji Xiaoman; the latter’s face was as white as a sheet, and her lower lips were trembling uncontrollably.

After knowing the origin of Tiantian-Q2, this scene made her uncomfortable.

“Still unconvinced, right? How exciting.” Qian Yigeng’s voice was still a bit tense, but it was slowly dissipating. “Dumbass. Who asked you to bring Q2 in too? Forget it. The effect may be better. Make sure you step on her, and make sure you watch her well.”

He took out a long, blood-stained needle from the depths of his protective clothing.

It was about the length of a chopstick. The thickness was not much different from a knitting needle, and a rough metal chain was fixed to it at the end. The surface of the mind access needle was black, with not much reflection; only fluorescent blue fine lines were all over the needle like cobwebs, some bright while others fading.

He An, who was leaning against the wall, struggled for a while, as if trying to pounce on it, but he was quickly held down by Qian Yigeng’s men. He couldn’t get anything except more serious blood loss.

“Don’t you want to know where the real Ji Xiaoman is? Sitting right next to you. Speaking of which, you still gave her the opportunity to move around.” Qian Yigeng waved his hand in the direction of Tiantian-Q2, and the girl looked at Qian Yigeng in confusion.

“Thinking of this, this was the first batch of goods I got. I smashed this woman’s cybernetic brain with my own hands. Alas, at that time, the rebellion had just begun, and I didn’t know how to do it.”

Qian Yigeng walked up to Ji Xiaoman, who was firmly pinned down and squatting down his obese body.

“Who made the little girl next to you so beautiful? It’s a pity that while she had a good shell, she was a mentally retarded person who had been driven crazy due to memory therapy. At the beginning, I was able to survive by relying on the supplies she had ‘contributed’ to me… But when the Underground City developed, there are few that would like to play a fool.”

Qian Yigeng smiled.

“Without this needle, it’s not easy to get memories into a cybernetic brain. People need to live, and time is long. Some of the little girls outside have started their own businesses, so it was hard to find a pure one. At the beginning, I could only sell second-class goods. It was thanks to you that I was able to develop new products… Ji Xiaoman’s beautiful shell, coupled with your memory data, the Tiantian series has been the most popular since the very beginning.”

“No,” Ji Xiaoman murmured weakly, shaking her head desperately. Her world was darkening uncontrollably, and despair gave her the illusion that there was an abyss under her.

“Now you understand. Businessmen have to be a little superstitious. If it weren’t for this matter, I wouldn’t keep you because of a little ingenuity. Do you know how much of my fortune you have blown up? Xiaoman, hurry up and apologize. Or should I call you Bai Tian?”

He stepped on Ji Xiaoman’s head and kept talking, not paying attention to the door being quietly locked by the big “subordinate” whose clothes didn’t fit well. The soundproofing device left by He An began to operate quietly again.

“…” Ji Xiaoman clenched her imprisoned metal palm tightly. Her face was full of tears, but she still remained silent.

Tiantian-Q2 sat paralyzed among the shell casings and debris on the ground. Her sweet and beautiful facial features were distorted.

“It’s true you don’t shed a tear until you see the coffin*.” He beckoned to the android known as TCR-mother05 to step forward. The female android did so meekly. Qian Yigeng held her shoulder with one hand, motioned her to kneel down, and then inserted the needle straight into the back of her neck.

*(不见棺材不落泪) Metaphor referring to refusing to be convinced until one is faced with grim reality. Not giving up until you completely fail.

Ji Xiaoman let out a suppressed scream.

The wound didn’t bleed much as countless light screens with operating interfaces emerged around the needle. Qian Yigang simply poked a few buttons.

“This was still the most expensive nursing style at the time, and the identification system was first-class. I put her next to Tiantian-Q2 and occasionally her broken system would function normally. Just as well, now I can make her more sober. Don’t you want her to be free? Don’t you want to fix her? Well now, let me show you the results in advance.”

As the needle gradually deepened, the expression of the female android slowly changed.

The gentle smile that was originally a little silly slowly disappeared, and a bit of shrewdness surfaced in her empty eyes. She straightened her back, and her whole body exuded a bit of elegance, as if she was a noblewoman that had just walked out of a movie.”

“Mom,” Ji Xiaoman whispered.

The familiar person was no longer clumsily knitting sweaters, and no longer had the slightest soft breath. For a moment, she thought it was a stranger standing across the room, instead of the mother who urged her to sleep every day and would tenderly hug her.

She started to become a little afraid.

The female android turned her head in the direction of Ji Xiaoman without showing too much emotion. Just like facing a vocal object, she just stiffened her face and didn’t respond to Ji Xiaoman’s call. Then she turned her gaze to Tiantian-Q2, who was kneeling on the ground, and finally looked around the entire environment, obviously studying her current situation.

“Report, the current year is 2107. The plan was delayed by external forces,” she recounted to the void, her voice clean and powerful. “Recovery priority is determined. TCR-mother05 continues to perform the mission.”

In the next moment, most of the humans could barely see her movements. The female android took Qian Yigeng’s gun and shot straight at Ji Xiaoman’s neck. She acted like a well-trained soldier.

Tang Yibu had no intention of acting. Ruan Xian instinctively wanted to move, but someone took advantage of the distance and was one step faster than him—Tiantian-Q2 covered Ji Xiaoman first. The bullet hit her lungs from the back, and she let out a small scream.

Although in the junkyard, the female android still looked like she cared about Tiantian-Q2. Now, she didn’t say a word, not even showing her programmed look of appeasement.

“Mom, it’s me.” Ji Xiaoman’s voice trembled.

The blood of the other person kept dripping into her short hair, drenching it. ‘What should she do?’ she thought, but she was so firmly pinned down that her entire body ached. She turned to Qian Yigeng with difficulty. “You sealed her memories, didn’t you? Qian Yigeng, you…”

“I don’t have such awesome skills.” Qian Yigeng shrugged. “Hey, didn’t I tell you? When I found her, she was about to kill that retarded little chick, just like right now.”

TCR-mother05 squatted down in front of the injured Tiantian-Q2. She stretched out her hand expressionlessly. The skin on her hand was horribly cracked, revealing the complex components under it. She bent this deformed hand to the point where it was impossible for humans to do, and then caught Tiantian-Q2 left arm that was holding Ji Xiaoman.

Less than five centimeters from Ji Xiaoman’s eyes, the left arm slowly turned to ash from where it was touched.

“…Stop it, mom.”

She had never shed so many tears in her life. No matter what effect Qian Yigeng wanted to achieve, he succeeded. Now she had only regret and fear, wishing she could turn back time so that she could forget these desperate truths.

“Exciting, right? You see, it’s troublesome when it’s fixed. Stop crying. If she laughs, that means she loves you and wants to take care of you, right? Children are so easy to cheat.”

Qian Yigeng yanked the metal chain, and the needle inserted into the back of the female android’s neck was dragged out. The android froze in the air, while the laughter in his voice became more obvious.

“Hurry up and apologize. Then you can continue to live with your stupid mother.”

“Right now…”

As a result, before he could finish speaking, Qian Yigeng was punched back a few steps by a man who rushed up.

“Laozi has seen a lot of salacious things over the years.” Yu Le used the extra length of his clothes to tie them into a makeshift boxing glove. “I used to think Fan Baiyan was the most disgusting person, but now I feel like I’ve wronged him a bit.”

As Yu Le spoke, he gave Qian Yigeng a fierce kick in the crotch.

“Fuck you. It’s you who should apologize.”

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The author has something to say:

Captain Yu is officially angry (×

This is the real relationship between Ji Xiaoman and Bai Tian… Tiantian-Q2 is a composition of the two (.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Below is the fable of the Sandpiper and the Clam and a little historical lesson about its origin.

The Sandpiper and the Clam

One day, taking advantage of the sunny weather, a clam opened up its hard shell to bask in the sun on the river of the beach. A sandpiper saw it and quickly put its beak into the clam shell to peck at the meat inside. The calm hurriedly closed its hard shell and sealed the sandpiper’s mouth shut. The sandpiper couldn’t peck at the meat, and its mouth was sealed shut, so it threatened the clam and said, “If you don’t loosen your clamp on me, you will eventually die of thirst.” The clam responded without showing weakness, “Your mouth has been clamped by me. If you can’t pull it free, you’ll starve to death!” In this way, the clam and sandpiper fought each other on the beach, and neither would relent. Over time, they became exhausted. A fisherman happened to pass by, and when he saw that they were tightly entangled and neither could move, he easily caught them and took them both home.”

This story was told during the Warring States Period, when the Qin Empire was strongest. On one occasion, the Empire of Zhao declared war on the State of Yan. At the time, the king’s younger brother, Su Dai, was entrusted to go to the Empire of Zhao to persuade the King of Zhao to not send troops. When he arrived, the King of Zhao demanded what he was doing here, to which he told the fable.

After finishing, Su Dai said to the King of Zhao, “If the Empire of Zhao and the State of Yan go to war, the two sides will inevitably be at a standstill for a long time, eventually becoming exhausted. In this way, the might Qin Empire will be like the fisherman, who just needs to sit back and reap the benefits. Your Majesty, please consider it carefully before making a decision.” The King of Zhao felt that what Su Dai said was reasonable and dispelled the idea of attacking the State of Yan.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 91: Killing Intent

The group of androids in the room seemed to have been dealt with by Qian Yigeng. Ji Xiaoman could see scattered blood stains on the ground, but there was no sign of the mind access needle.

“Yo, you want to engage in your identity at this time.” Qian Yigeng glanced at Ji Xiaoman’s sharp metal fingertips and shrank his neck.

Ji Xiaoman pursed her lips. Just a few steps away, her “mother” returned to the dull appearance she was familiar with. The female android’s fingers twitched slightly, as if she was knitting something with invisible needles and threads.

Qian Yigeng absolutely knew something, and Ji Xiaoman was sure of this. It was better to say that a possible guess was screaming against the back of her neck, and she was trying to ignore it.

“What can you do if you know? Alright, stop it. He An, take her to the isolation room and wait for me to deal with this wave—”

“Tell me.” Ji Xiaoman didn’t move. “I… We still have to cooperate. Just like you said, I can’t do anything even if I know.”

Qian Yigeng narrowed his eyes and didn’t bother to hide his impatience. “You’re an expert. You should know better than me about your mother’s cybernetic brain. If you give her some time, she will call all the little girls ‘Xiaoman’. You personally recognized the name Ji Xiaoman, which is definitely not you.”

Having said that, he squeezed into the piles of men again so that more flesh could block him. “Commodities are even more unlikely. It’s not that I deliberately provoked it. I don’t make goods that are born with physical defects, and there are very few people who are good at this. Stop thinking about it. He An, go, lock her up first.”

Ji Xiaoman’s eyes were slightly sour.

Even if she knew Qian Yigeng was an asshole, the other party’s apparent attitude of not taking her seriously was extremely infuriating. Besides, it’s not like she didn’t think about what he said.

As a born handicapped, the possibility of her being Qian Yigeng’s “commodity” was very low. Although she came here with the tide of androids, Ji Xiaoman didn’t feel the existence of “Return South Wild Geese” so she was likely human.

But too many things couldn’t be explained.

For example, the first reaction of her “mother”, who didn’t have much sense of autonomy, was to raise her in the ruins instead of bringing her back to her residence. For example, why did her mother only rely on a small amount of stolen drugs to suppress her extremely serious injuries… For example, why was Qian Yigeng unaware of her mother’s periodic outings with supplies.

These questions once crossed her mind, but Ji Xiaoman never wanted to think about them. She was fine now, and so was her mother, who was living by her side. She would rather the other party be an android who retained a little emotional logic and chalk it up to being a small miracle.

“I met Bai Tian, which is your Tiantian-Q2 series.”

Now, she cruelly woke herself up.

Ji Xiaoman hit the mechanism on her prosthetic leg. A sharp blade instantly popped out, and with its support, her entire body looked almost a head taller for a moment. She was originally slender, so at a glance, she looked like a tall cheetah.

The mechanical hunter who fought for precious parts finally bare her fangs at this moment.

“It’s just the same name. Don’t be too sensitive.”

Qian Yigeng let out a chuckle, and the men around him raised their guns one after another. Even He An raised his gun and pointed it straight at Ji Xiaoman’s chest. The female android a few steps away didn’t run. She raised her eyes and looked at the black hole in the muzzle of the gun and continued to weave her air fabric.

Ji Xiaoman smiled. Her facial features were exquisite and beautiful, but now they were squeezed into a slightly ugly smile.

“I never told you my real name,” she said slowly. “How do you know that my name is also Bai Tian?”

“Okay, I took your memory. How many years ago was that? You were dying at the time—hey, you, be careful. Don’t aim at my precious merchandise.” Qian Yigeng waved away the nearest barrel of guns closest to him so that the female android could continue to stay out of the attack range. “…At the time, I happened to lack a memory sample of a normal little girl, so don’t blame me. Besides, I wasn’t familiar with the business, so I could only take the memories of living people. You still have to thank me…”

“Thank you for copying my memory, humiliating my life, and using my memories on a group of girls as sex toys for others?” Ji Xiaoman didn’t withdraw the blade from her legs. Her voice was icy cold. “…I don’t think my mother just took a random walk before she stumbled upon me.”

“Hey, hey, hey. No need to put it like that. I didn’t specifically target you.” Qian Yigeng glanced at the android that was woodenly knitting in the air. “She calls every little girl Xiaoman, and she takes them and leads them here. I was simply just making the best use of it.”

Those vague fragments buried by hyperthermia began to emerge from her mind. She had thought those fragments were simply nightmares. The memory of it all was a blur and her head hurt so much like it was about to explode.

What followed was the smell of garbage and the endless stench of decay.

“But I was the first one you lost, because you can’t use my shell, can you?” Ji Xiaoman trembled a little. The chains hanging on her body rattled softly. At that time, she couldn’t piece them together, but now she knew enough about Qian Yigeng. “After you copied my memories, you threw me to the junkyard. When mother saw that the residence wouldn’t take me, she took me to another place… And after that, after that…”

She was shaking more severely.

After that, her mother took care of her awkwardly, and Qian Yigeng was probably aware of it. She didn’t quite believe that the other party suddenly discovered his conscience and was likely waiting for the so-called “making the best use of everything” and relied on this nurturing feeling to concoct another plan.

It was really beating the bones and sucking out their marrow*. He got all the slightest places that could be sucked.

*(敲骨吸髓) Metaphor referring to extreme exploitation.

However, the sad thing was, as Qian Yigeng said, even if she knew the truth, nothing could be changed. Even if her mother was just Qian Yigeng’s puppet in a sense, she had been unable to break free from the warmth and smile of the past few years. Ji Xiaoman clenched her fists and got chills all over.

No, maybe there would be a change. Then she could give that bastard a few more cuts.

Thinking of this, she slowly took a deep breath.

“Okay, okay, I’ve wasted a lot of time wrangling with you.” Qian Yigeng waved his hand like he was swatting away a fly. “What, do you want me to pay the copyright fee? Don’t be pretentious. It’s just a few machines have stored your memories. You have nothing to lose. I have things to do. He An, He An! Are you happy watching the show? I told you several times to take her away first—”

“To be honest, it was quite enjoyable…” He An tugged at the chain in his hand. “Let’s go, Miss Ji, or do you prefer the name Miss Bai?”

He used his spare hand to drag the female android, who was still engrossed with knitting in the air and motioned for the other party to go out first. Ji Xiaoman’s face grew long as she followed him. However, just as Ji Xiaoman’s “mother” stepped out the door, the moment Qian Yigeng’s men lowered their guns, He An slammed the door and temporarily isolated the female android on the other side of the room.

Then he smashed a soundproofing device to the ground, completely isolating all the sound in the room. At almost the same second, Ji Xiaoman threw off the loose chains on her body.

She first fired a few shots with He An and repelled the first few subordinates. Unlike He An, who continued to shoot and move like a ghost, she kicked her feet and jumped directly onto the wall. The barbs on her prosthetic limbs allowed her to move forward like a gecko.

Like a legendary maiden possessed by a demon, she crawled fast and creepy, straight towards the heavily armed Qian Yigeng. The bullets fired by He An’s gun weren’t ordinary bullets. The warheads exploded on the bulletproof jackets of his subordinates, and each shot took away a large piece of flesh, as if an invisible fire-breathing monster was eating them.

It wasn’t until the fourth person fell that Qian Yigeng reacted. He gritted his teeth, took out his gun, and fired a few shots at Ji Xiaoman. The first two bullets bounced off the metal prosthetics, while one drilled into her shoulder. Ji Xiaoman suppressed a miserable scream without staggering her crawling movements—Qian Yigeng’s subordinates hurriedly tried to knock her down while dealing with He An. If she slowed down her movements by a step, she would become a sieve on the spot.

The room wasn’t small, but it couldn’t be said to be large either. It was completely different from the junkyard, with a vast space and complex terrain. The options for escape were really limited. The young mechanical hunter ate a few more bullets, one after another, dyeing the ceiling with blood.

“See? That’s why I want the memory of the little girl.” Qian Yigeng screamed at the top of his lungs. There wasn’t much fear in his voice, but rather anger. “Stupid and short-sighted, disregarding everything for a momentary grievance. That’s what the customers like. Do you know how well the Tiantian-Q2 series sells? The Red Ghost is your doing, right?”

“Shut up! “Ji Xiaoman roared.

He An, on the other hand, was very quiet; the bulletproof equipment of the City Defenders was several grades higher than Qian Yigeng’s men’s equipment. The bullets fired at him were frequently blocked by a transparent cover, leaving only small ripples like a wave in water. It was just as the number of bullets that hit increased, the ripples became unstable, visibly to the naked eye.

He An lowered his gaze and sighed quietly.

Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

The number of corpses in the room was increasing. Although Qian Yigeng was vigilant enough, the raid could be considered going smoothly—but Ji Xiaoman didn’t have the slightest emotion of joy. Her stomach felt like lead.

Qian Yigeng looked very anxious but still didn’t show much fear.

…Something was wrong.

At the same time, less than five hundred meters away.

Tang Yibu was looking at Ruan Xian with interest. The other party was using a blood gun to pierce the heads of Qian Yigeng’s men at close range, and a little blood splashed on his fair skin, which was quite thrilling in comparison. At first glance, his partner was completely different from when he was in the refuge, but that strange aura still lingered.

“They exchanged fire. Qian Yigeng’s side is fine for the time being.” His partner pretended to check his wristband and turned his dark eyes. “But we need to hurry.”

“Nn,” Tang Yibu responded, casually breaking the neck of the person in his arms. Two light thuds sounded as a blade hit the ground along with a corpse flopping softly.

Yu Le no longer supported Tiantian-Q2, he protected the girl behind him, and almost every shot could take a life. The captain of a pirate ship obviously had eyes comparable to machines—his bullets seemed to have eyes, as they specifically hit the weakly protected areas of the enemy.

As they moved forward, there were more than a dozen corpses lying on the ground. Tiantian-Q2 stepped on the bloodstain but didn’t show more fear. She was still pinching her pocket tightly, not knowing if she was groping for the boozy heart chocolate or the gun.

Tang Yibu retracted his gaze and touched the blood-stained shell of the iron bead. The blood-stained metal felt a bit slippery, and the iron beads tried to rub itself clean on Yu Le’s pant leg, narrowly avoiding being kicked away.

After the environmental observation was completed, regardless of their mental state, his companions were almost uninjured. After reaching this conclusion, he glued his gaze back to his partner’s head again.

It was a wonderful feeling.

Tang Yibu knew very well that his maker, Ruan Xian, who had always abhorred memory manipulation and androids, would not put his own memories into a cybernetic brain. Even if he was forced to do so, the memories he put in would definitely have to go through countless processes and become shriveled information without emotions. However, Tang Yibu didn’t think that anyone other than Ruan Xian had the ability to make such perfect work.

Unless the android was strictly induced, he rarely changed his entered personality, but the other party was constantly metamorphosing before his eyes, and he couldn’t estimate the direction of this metamorphosis.

It was like watching a never-before-seen bird break its shell.

Uncontrolled, dangerous, and elusive. The danger of this so-called “partner” was increasing day by day. He should find an opportunity to destroy or replace the other party’s cybernetic brain and turn him into an obedient living machine—this was the logically safest solution.

However, he wanted to watch.

The uncontrollable urge to observe was gradually dominating him, and Tang Yibu liked the inexplicable shudder. He couldn’t parse his complex emotions, but the more he couldn’t parse them, the more he wanted to continue.

Tang Yibu moved his fingers, leaving a smiley face stroke trajectory in the air with his fingertips.

This person was completely different from Ruan Xian in his memory, but he was extremely similar from a certain angle. In the distant past, when he and his maker were still able to meet, Tang Yibu didn’t miss a single opportunity to record.

At that time, in addition to his terrifying appearance due to illness, Ruan Xian was more like the perfect friend people expected—funny, gentle, and optimistic, and even a little too considerate for the sake of others. Although he occasionally discussed some strange and dangerous topics with him, the biggest expression Tang Yibu recorded on the other party’s face was “blank.”

It was the feeling of not knowing how to express true emotion that there was only desolation after completely removing the mask. That was the most impersonal side of Ruan Xian.

If Ruan Xian at that time was a round pearl, the android partner in front of him was more like a cursed blood diamond. His smile was morbid and dangerous, and his personality soundness was obviously not in the normal range—that was, he had not indiscriminately attacked humans—but if such a day ever occurred, Tang Yibu wouldn’t be too surprised.

But they were very similar.

Under the positive mask, Ruan Xian and “Ruan Lijie” had a weird sense of humor about death, and they didn’t seem to take it very seriously. And on a few occasions, for a very brief moment, they had the exact same look on their faces.

Ruan Xian, who used to lean on his warm external chassis, chewed homemade candy, and look at the falling snow outside through the small window of the computer room, and when he kissed “Ruan Lijie”, the other party also showed the same emotions.

Loneliness was mixed with a certain kind of despair of isolation, and there were some distorted desires in it—like wanting to reach out and hold time firmly in the palm of your hand so that it no longer flowed.

The differences were far apart, yet highly consistent.

…Could it be that someone else took Ruan Xian’s memory fragments and added them after the android was created?

Tang Yibu looked at the back of the other party’s neck, and his fingers moved slightly again.

When they take care of Qian Yigeng and figure out where that wheelchair and the mind access needle came from, things might be clearer by then. And if the other party’s odd gravitational pull on himself continued to get stronger like this, things would probably get out of control.

Tang Yibu picked up the iron bead running laboriously at his feet and moved his gaze from the back of Ruan Xian’s neck to the earrings in his left ear. The line between studying precious samples and maintaining self-preservation was extremely ambiguous, but he had to draw it.

When he figured out Ruan Xian’s whereabouts and got the needle, depending on how fast this odd attraction grew, maybe he could back up all the information of “Ruan Lijie’s” cybernetic brain…

Then he would personally stop the other party’s thinking and turn him into the most precious data specimen in the world.

---

The author has something to say:

Tang, your thoughts are super dangerous (……

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 90: Dive In

“Keep up.” Ruan Xian made a split-second decision.

Now it seemed that Ji Xiaoman’s intention was obvious—use them to create enough chaos to force Qian Yigeng to start the Return South Wild Geese program. Once a large number of androids with old-fashioned brains gathered, Qian Yigeng was likely to need the mind access needle. In this chaotic world, he wouldn’t hide it on somebody else.

Then Ji Xiaoman only needed to meet with Qian Yigeng and wait for the opportunity to attack and torture or simply kill him. She only needed to determine the location of the mind access needle, which was enough. They had used her information to wreak havoc and successfully threw Qian Yigeng into a stressful environment, and now she found a great opportunity to break into Qian Yigeng’s headquarters.

In terms of mutual benefits, this was a good cooperation, but it ended here. If Ji Xiaoman were to find and kill Qian Yigeng one step ahead of them, they would lose the source of information that they were about to get.

Fortunately, the other two present were experienced, and no one asked questions. The three of them were just about to bypass the moldy refrigerator and move forward, when an earth-shattering thud came from an old hover bike that had fallen to the ground.

This was then followed by a long, crying “gwah”.

Ruan Xian pinched the center of his eyebrows and retracted the foot that he had just stepped out. Ji Xiaoman and He An had already chased the female android some distance away, leaving only a pile of corpses and Tiantian-Q2, who was still panting on the ground.

“π, don’t make trouble.” Ruan Xian neatly pried open the basket, and the iron bead immediately stopped screaming. It opened its mouth and gobbled up the rest of the parts in the basket, then stretched out its four thin legs and ran around Ruan Xian’s left foot a few times before rubbing his ankle affectionately.

Ruan Xian bent down and picked up the bowling ball-sized mechanical life. He knocked on its cool shell, then touched the corner of his mouth. That inexplicable smile had appeared again—the situation was getting more distorted, but his smile was subconsciously growing.

He crushed two green poisonous snails that were trying to climb onto his trousers, shook the slime off his white coat, and quickly met with Tang Yibu, who was walking behind. Seeing Tang Yibu, the iron bead became excited and leaped towards him like a cannonball, almost choking on the parts in its mouth.

“Wait.” A female voice sounded behind him. “Please wait a minute.”

Tiantian-Q2 didn’t know where she got her strength from. She stubbornly propped herself up on the iron pipe and stood up again. “Can you take me with you?”

“You have limited mobility. Going there is very dangerous for you and will cause us trouble.” Tang Yibu refused matter-of-factly.

“You can leave me at any time, or… You can use me as a hostage.” The girl’s voice trembled a little, but her tone was firm. “For example, if it’s true that I have an old-fashioned cybernetic brain in my head, they wouldn’t just watch me be destroyed, right?”

“What do you want?” Ruan Xian was more direct.

The girl grinned with difficulty, didn’t answer, and had no intention of giving up. Ruan Xian stared into her eyes for a while, then sighed. “Forget it. Yibu, take her.”

Yu Le stood in the back, silently sizing up his new teammate.

“It’s harder to walk here than last time.” When the burly pirate spoke again, his tone had returned to his usual rambling. “I say, what if Qian Yigeng is not here? It can be dangerous to make people figure out the next step.”

“According to my observation, he doesn’t have the courage.” Tang Yibu quickly denied.

“You have only met him once and that counts?”

“Plus Ji Xiaoman’s decision,” Ruan Xian responded casually. Even through the gas mask, the peculiar stench of the junkyard rushed straight to his nose, and he decided to divert his attention. “Although she’s still young, she’s not stupid. He An was right. She looked more like a winning ticket than a desperate one.”

If it weren’t for a Tiantian-Q2 halfway through, the young mechanic might be in a better mood.

Tiantian-Q2 didn’t wear a gas mask anymore. She was easily carried by Tang Yibu; her sense of existence was even less than that of the iron bead who was chewing on Tang Yibu’s shoulder. She didn’t seem trouble by the stench that overflowed the air, but showed some inexplicable sadness.

“I grew up in an orphanage.” She suddenly opened her mouth. “Because of my deformed arms, no one wanted to adopt me.”

Ruan Xian didn’t answer, just glanced at her two arms in good condition. Tiantian-Q2 realized the other party’s gaze and smiled self-deprecatingly.

“As I said, I had a fever for a while, and when I woke up, my arm was healed. At that time, I thought it might be Qian Yigeng’s gang got some special medical equipment or got me micro-plastic surgery. After all, they wanted me to go… Forget it, it doesn’t seem to make sense to lie to myself now.”

She took a breath, as if she was reorganizing her words. Even if the fog was thick, Ruan Xian could see the girl’s unstoppable tears. Her voice was small, and their footsteps were light. It was like a continuation of a certain narrative stage, and the whole space had an unreal sense of floating.

“But I remember it very clearly.”

The girl clenched the iron pipe in her hand and continued to murmur, not caring if anyone was really listening.

“In the summer of a few years ago, two rich people came to the orphanage as guests, and the dean prepared piney raspberries. When I washed the raspberries, I secretly tasted one that was bad. Its taste and touch, the water temperature, the smell of rain in the air, the buzzing cicadas outside… I remember it all.”

The end of the metal tube plunged into thick piles of garbage, and several green poisonous snails climbed onto her calf, but she didn’t pluck them off. She didn’t sob this time, but her tears fell faster.

“If those are all fake, all someone else’s stuff… What the hell am I? I obviously remember it all.”

Seeing that the girl was on the verge of collapse, Yu Le clicked his tongue and waved away the unresponsive Tang Yibu. “I’ll do it. What a cold-hearted guy.”

He politely picked up the girl’s arm and tried to avoid too much physical contact. After hesitating for a few seconds, he took out a piece of candy from his pocket, held it with two fingers, and threw it into the girl’s pocket.

“Boozy chocolate,” he said. “Eat it later when you have time. It’ll make you feel better.”

Tiantian-Q2 still seemed a bit repulsed by male contact, but she smiled with all her might. “Thank you.”

“If ask me, don’t think too much about it. Just have fun until it’s over. Who cares who’s who,” Yu Le said in a hoarse voice. “If you say your name is Bai Tian, then you can be this Bai Tian. Hey, I know it’s useless to say this. This is a hurdle you have to overcome yourself…”

He shrugged. “But you got this far, which is quite amazing, little miss.”

Tiantian-Q2 sniffled and hiccup. She lowered her head and stared at the small new bulge in her pocket, and her eyes became terribly red.

Not long after, the four of them moved to a square iron manhole cover. Ji Xiaoman and He An figure couldn’t be seen, but their footsteps were still echoing not far underground. Ruan Xian gave Tang Yibu a wink, who then set aside the iron bead that was trying to attack the metal pipe, opened the heavy manhole cover, and made a “please” gesture to the other three.

Farther underground.

Qian Yigeng was busy calibrating the cybernetic brain. As soon as the explosion happened, many androids were frightened.

At this moment, the side effects of realistic emotions became apparent—these brains stuffed with human-made things were injected with memories of others, and they firmly believed in their own human identity. Many of them had just been restarted not long ago, and they were still in the stage that needed to be “tamed”.

As soon as Return South Wild Geese started, this part of the goods was the most severely frightened. Even if his subordinates had already bound them in advance, the androids continued to scream and cry, pouring all their vicious words on Qian Yigeng.

Unfortunately, human aesthetics weren’t effective on androids, and it was difficult to stun them. If you wanted to do something too serious, whether you hurt the shell or the inside, it’s your wallet that was unlucky.

Damn it, he must be getting too old. Qian Yigeng bared his teeth.

Right now, there was no place for him to make precise corrections to these cybernetic brains. Qian Yigang had to take out his precious mind access needle and insert it into the back of the merchandise’s head one by one to erase most of the memories in their cybernetic brains. After being reset, the androids would become more honest than frozen rabbits.

When he dealt with the eighth android, Qian Yigeng put the blood-stained needle into the inner pocket of his clothes and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He always felt that something was wrong—Ji Xiaoman was kidnapped, his shops were destroyed, and then he had to use the Return South Wild Geese program…

“Call more people and add more men outside.” He tugged at the bulletproof undergarments, trying to make them tightly wrap around his round belly. “Are my helmet and goggles here? Prepare emergency medication in each room, replace all food with sealed food at the bottom of the warehouse, and water. Do you hear me?”

“But your meal was just…”

“Toss it, find someone to eat it, whatever.” Qian Yigeng waved his hand irritably. “First take these people back to the warehouse and freeze them, then wait for the limelight to pass.”

The subordinate who had just trotted out of the room ran back within a few seconds.

“Boss, He An is here.”

“Call him in! What are you doing, running back? You should be guarding the door and catching mice.” Qian Yigeng quickly put on his bulletproof helmet and adjusted the position of his goggles.

“…Because I caught a big one.” He An entered the door with a smile, carrying a chain in his hand. He wasn’t wearing a gas mask, and his gaze swept across the heavily armed men in front of him. “This is enough for two extensions, isn’t it, Qian Yigeng?”

He tugged on the chain, and Ji Xiaoman, with a gloomy face, was pulled into the door. Her “mother” obediently followed He An, looking a little dazed.

It was conservatively estimated that there were twenty subordinates in Qian Yigeng’s room, all heavily protected, making things a little tricky. Ji Xiaoman tried her best to control the burning anxiety in her heart and tried to look angry.

“My, look who this is.” He An didn’t rush forward. He took a few steps back and greeted the men who were armed to the teeth to come forward. “Finally remember to come back?”

“You have a stranglehold on my mother’s memories. I don’t seem to have many choices.” Ji Xiaoman pulled the chain irritably. “I escaped, okay? Qian Yigeng, do you really need to do this?”

“To be safe,” He An replied for Qian Yigeng. “How’s it going, boss?”

“Very good, very good.” Qian Yigeng didn’t have much of a smile in his voice. “What a coincidence at such a time. You came back as soon as something happened to me that I thought something was wrong.”

The fat man’s voice was cold and sticky, as suspicious as ever, but this time, there was something Ji Xiaoman didn’t like very much—when facing her, Qian Yigeng had a disgusting aura of confidence.

“I don’t care what plans you have with this little girl, and I don’t want to care.” He An’s dragged his voice. “Surname Qian, this should be considered good for my reward.”

“We’ll talk about this later.” Qian Yigeng glanced at the android standing to the side. “Xiaoman…”

‘Here,’ Ji Xiaoman thought to herself.

She lowered her head and quietly looked at the positions of the subordinates around the room, then poked her back with her hands, trying to use the pain to wake herself up.

It was time for her to break free from the tight chains, cut a few blood vessels with her sharp fingertips, and kill all the way until she reached Qian Yigeng. But a new flame was constantly cauterizing her internal organs, and her feet seemed to be stepping on needles made of ice. Intuition drew the deeper darkness closer, and she couldn’t muster the courage to stay away.

Ji Xiaoman didn’t move. She extended her acting time but considering the despair and panic at this moment were real, she wasn’t sure if she was truly acting.

“Am I one of your ‘commodities’?” Her throat seemed as if it had swallowed sandpaper. “…Who the hell is Ji Xiaoman?”

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Kinky Thoughts:

Oh okay, so the mind access needle is literally a needle that you just poke into machines to reset them. LMAO, but I guess this makes sense.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 89: TCR-mother05

Tiantian-Q2’s stumbled as she walked. She was running faster, but not conspicuously enough to stand out in the crowded streets. The curfew was over, and there were quite a few people running hurriedly on the streets. Almost everyone wore all kinds of gas masks, and occasionally there were a few who didn’t wear them—An elderly man was huddled in an alley; his face was as pale as a corpse. The loud and difficult gasping sounds were like bellows piercing through the poisonous mist and into one’s eardrums.

The thin Tiantian-Q2 clutched her mask tightly and whimpered through the crowd. Not many people bothered to pay attention to her, and helpless sobs on the streets weren’t uncommon. If she laughed at this moment, it would be more noticeable.

With the tracking device in his hand, Ruan Xian deliberately distanced himself to ensure that people wouldn’t associate him with the running girl. Tiantian-Q2 ran straight to the junkyard where Qian Yigeng’s headquarters was located. When she reached a relatively sparsely populated area, she didn’t even dare to make sobbing sounds anymore.

There was more than one person running towards the junkyard. Many beautiful men and women, wrapped in faded coats, moved stiffly towards it, like a group of marionettes. Coupled with the rotting and smelly garbage, Tiantian-Q2 couldn’t help shaking again.

But her legs kept dragging her forward.

“The little girl is quite strong.” Yu Le, who arrived at the edge of the junkyard, sighed, “Laozi is sweating. This is just heinous.”

“There are fewer old-fashioned cybernetic brains than I thought.” Ruan Xian hid behind the wreckage of a refrigerator that had mold gushing out of the freezer as he stared at the zombie-like figures without blinking. They ignored the cybernetic brains that weren’t activated, but before detonating the bombs in the basement, he and Tang Yibu had created enough chaos to give the androids on the ground time to escape.

Counting the numbers, there must have been hundreds of people who fled, but the number of people currently drilling into the junkyard was less than 20.

“Judging from the distance of influence of Return South Wild Geese, there should be others on the way. This is the nearest batch.” Tang Yibu poked at the yellow gushing mold. “Calculating the time, Ji Xiaoman is almost…”

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by a slight engine sound. Ji Xiaoman rushed into the junkyard on a dilapidated floating hover bike, especially conspicuous among the unnatural people. Her android mother was quietly tied by a safety belt. Seeing Ji Xiaoman’s speed slowing down, her struggling movements became more obvious. Her entire body was stretched towards the center of the junkyard.

“Hold on a little longer, Mom.” Ji Xiaoman stepped off the motorcycle and raised her gun.

Almost at the same time, Ruan Xian turned his gaze in the same direction—seven or eight men in black jackets rushed out of the depths of the fog, each with a gun in their hand.

“Get out of the way.” In a rare instant, Ji Xiaoman raised her voice. “I want to see Qian Yigeng.”

“I have been looking for you for some days.” A familiar voice came from behind the mask of the leading man. The man sighed and took off his mask. “As your supervisor, I have suffered a lot.”

“It’s very simple. I was kidnapped, and now I managed to escape because of my mother.” Ji Xiaoman straightened her waist and barely shielded her mother, who was trying to move towards the center. “Qian Yigeng started the Return South Wild Geese. I have no other choice. Let me say it again, get out of the way, He An.”

He An simply smiled. He made a gesture, and the men behind him instantly aimed at Ji Xiaoman with their guns. Ji Xiaoman didn’t intend to shirk in the slightest, even if those guns were enough to turn her into a sieve.

“It stands to reason that the emergency passage doesn’t allow humans to enter. No, he asked us to come out and watch to see if there were any unseen followers that gathered.” He An himself raised his gun. “…In short, it’s all a mess now. Do understand. Now put the gun down. Don’t make the friends behind me too nervous.”

He An had golden eyes that were extremely similar to Tang Yibu. Ruan Xian held his breath and observed carefully for a while but failed to find the same strange beauty in those eyes. However, he hadn’t looked at it for long when a hand stuck to his face and slowly forcefully pushed his face in the direction of Ji Xiaoman—Ruan Xian slanted his gaze and saw Tang Yibu looking serious, as if that hand didn’t belong to him.

Ji Xiaoman didn’t say a word, and slowly put away the gun. Ruan Xian could perceive the opponent’s subtle movements—Ji Xiaoman was secretly adjusting her center of gravity and bowed slightly to He An, showing a calm expression unique to hunters.

“I think Qian Yigeng will be very happy to hear what you have to say. Your mother’s memory refresh deadline hasn’t arrived yet, right? What are you panicking about?”

He An seemed to know nothing about the coming danger as he continued.

“Oh, in this situation, I suppose the mind access needle will come out again. Trust me, you’ll have to set aside a portion of your time budget to allow Qian Yigeng a whole hour of bragging on how he got the needle from Ruan Xian.”

Behind the android, several men in stormtroopers had already shown a little tired posture.

“One last time. Get out of the way, He An.” Ji Xiaoman obviously had no plans to talk.

“You really don’t know how to give up.” He An shook his head. “Do you really believe you can get that needle and then crack Qian Yigeng’s—”

“I can.” Ji Xiaoman sounded quite determined and had some anger in her tone. “It’s you who just quit your job as a City Defender and directly became Qian Yigeng’s dog…”

She didn’t have time to finish.

He An fired, but not in front of him. The android twisted his body to a level that was impossible for humans to do. A series of gunshots ran out and all the others who were behind him fell down as red blood slowly seeped from the gaps in their bodies. The one with the fastest response only fired two shots, but none hit He An.

He An had shot everyone squarely in the throat, leaving a large gaping hole behind.

In the gap between their conversations, most of the androids that came disappeared into the thick mist. The area was full of mechanical garbage that made it look like an isolated stage with only two people left. Tiantian-Q2 was hit in the thigh by a stray bullet, and the severe pain and blood loss slowed her movements. Her breathing became extraordinarily difficult, so she took off her sultry gas mask and gasped for breath.

A dozen steps away, Ji Xiaoman reacted quickly. She didn’t ask much, nor did she hesitate. Like everyone who had lived in this chaotic Underground City for a long time—Before He An had adjusted his posture, she attacked him without saying a word.

He An didn’t dodge. He let Ji Xiaoman’s fingertips pass through his shoulder. Blood quickly soaked his coat, and the color became pitch black against the fog.

“It’s more convincing to have some color.” He took advantage of the situation to grab Ji Xiaoman’s wrist. “How about cooperating? I’ll help you get rid of Qian Yigeng, and you can help me get rid of the thing in my head.”

“What an appropriate time to cooperate, City Defender.” Ji Xiaoman quickly withdrew her hand, too lazy to hide the sarcasm in her voice. “If you were willing to bring it up even a month or two earlier, I would have thought about it.”

“You can’t say that. Who can guarantee that you’re telling the truth? As the saying goes, don’t lose the falcon until you see the hare*. If you don’t have the ability, would I lose out?”

*(不见兔子不撒鹰) Idiom referring to if there’s no clear goal, you will not take practical action.

The smile on He An’s face was motionless, as if there was no pain near his wound.

“I need to see a real guarantee that ‘the brain device can be removed’—for example, daring to take your mother to the door in person, yet not looking desperate. Is it more useful to deliver charcoal in the snow*, or are you willing to take a greater risk just to get out?”

*(雪中送炭) Idiom referring to giving people material or spiritual help in times of difficulty or crisis. || What he’s saying here is that she’s coming to help Qian Yigeng (deliver charcoal) or fight against him (taking a bigger risk).

He didn’t even look at Tiantian-Q2 who was trying to suppress a groan not far away. He pointed to the female android who was struggling behind Ji Xiaoman with his chin and raised his hands with confidence.

He An’s deduction was indeed correct. It was impossible for her to gamble with her mother’s safety. Ji Xiaoman’s expression became gloomy.

“All right, little girl.” He An shrugged and simply bandaged the wound that was still bleeding. “My things are still in your hands, so surely you can trust me that much?”

Hearing this, Ji Xiaoman’s expression twisted strangely. She was stunned for a few seconds, and finally let out a long breath. “…I see. Take me to see Qian Yigeng. Mom, don’t move, come with me… Mom?!”

The female android finally broke free from her restraints. She changed direction and walked slowly but firmly down the other path. Tiantian-Q2, who hadn’t had time to put on her mask, gulped and moved to the far side with strong support.

“Nursing model TCR-mother05. Target age confirmed, gender confirmed, appearance confirmed. Visual fingertip command restarted. Open secondary permission.” The expression of the female android changed convulsively for a few seconds, finally resting on an extraordinary gentle smile. “…Xiaoman, why did you run out?”

She stretched out her hand to Tiantian-Q2, who was paralyzed on the ground. The latter shook her head with difficulty, with a confused expression on his face.

“A leg wound? How naughty. Come back with me—go back. There’s still memory therapy to be done on Sunday.” The female android had become relatively fluent in communication, and the expression on her face had become gentler. It was a pity that with the junkyard full of corpses lying in the poisonous fog as the background, this only made the scene bizarre.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Tiantian-Q2’s voice became sharp. She squeezed the gun in her pocket tightly, waved her head helplessly, and finally determined her target to ask for help—she reached out her hand to Ji Xiaoman, the only suspected human present and also related to this woman. “This this—Is this your android? There seems to be something wrong with her!”

But Ji Xiaoman didn’t look much calmer than her. The young female mechanic held her breath with a blank expression.

He An raised his brows and let out a slight sigh. “No wonder Qian Yigeng never puts them in the same shop.”

“Xiaoman, come home with me.” The female android still maintained her body and hand posture, but her expression became sterner. “You have shed too much blood. You have to go home and take your medication… Ji Xiaoman, do you hear me?”

“I’m not Ji Xiaoman!” Tiantian-Q2 grabbed an iron pipe for support and finally stood up, shivering. “My name is Bai Tian. I don’t know anyone named Ji Xiaoman. You have the wrong person. You…”

“I won’t mistake your face, child.” The female android was unrelenting. “Be obedient. Don’t let your parents worry. Put down that dirty stick. Otherwise, I can only execute… Only…. Only…”

Her expression became wooden again. Return South Wild Geese’s priority was obviously higher than the thought program she planned to run. The female android stood up again and headed towards the center of the junkyard, while Tiantian-Q2 gritted her teeth and looked as if she was still trying to restrain her uncontrolled legs.

Ji Xiaoman was silent for a long time.

Finally, seeing that the familiar figure of her “mother” was about to disappear into the fog, Ji Xiaoman stepped forward quickly and took out the syringe from her backpack. She injected a little potion into Tiantian-Q2, who was trying to resist the procedure, causing the latter to slide softly along the steel pipe to the ground, gasping for breath.

“You… What did you do?” Tiantian-Q2 asked with difficulty, touching the hidden gun in her hand again.

“A little special paralyzing agent for the cybernetic brain. Don’t worry, your limbs still have the ability to move, but your legs can’t hold your weight anymore.” Ji Xiaoman spoke extremely quickly with a pale face. “Anyways, in short, go find a place to hide and wait for me to finish things… I have something to ask you.”

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 88: End

He An irritably pinched lit the cigarette in his mouth.

The residence of the City Defenders was outside the entrance of midtown. There were just 60 square meters in total. It looked no different from other buildings on the outside; the gray cement walls still had fine holes left by air bubbles. The interior was very similar to the scene before the end of the world. If the curtains were drawn, some people would believe that this was a normal era residence.

A glass table was wiped clean, and there were fake flowers in a vase sitting atop of it. Fu Yu opened the freezer, took out a pile of raw meat, and put it in a large bowl. A somewhat gray flour mixture was quietly fermenting, and the air had a bit of sourness unique to raw dough. The garlic had been crushed into puree and the cut wild vegetables had an inspiring bright green color.

“Let’s have meat pies tonight.” Fu Yu didn’t take off his apron and wiped his hands on a towel. “…Don’t smoke inside. The air filter is a pain to fix.”

“You have to wear a gas mask outside, so I can only go to that old coot, Qian Yigeng’s to smoke.” He An extinguished the cigarette that had just been lighted and he briskly spoke. “Put more pepper in the meat pie, thanks, honey.”

“…Don’t make such jokes.” Fu Yu frowned; his expression serious. “Has the organization against Qian Yigeng been found?”

“I went to all three layers of town for four or five laps. It’s been a few days and there’s still no news. They seem to have emerged out of thin air.” He An stretched. “But it’s also very interesting. I suspect that Ji Xiaoman wasn’t simply kidnapped.”

Fu Yu paused for a moment as he grinded pepper. “What makes you say that?”

“If another major power did it, there would always be buzz in the market.”

He An sniffed the pepper with satisfaction.

“Ji Xiaoman isn’t Qian Yigeng’s daughter after all, so kidnapping her is useless. It’s also unreasonable to target technical talents when there’s no news of any new products, and it’s not like Ji Xiaoman has deep feelings for Qian Yigeng. Her mother is also in his hands, so it’s impossible not to cooperate. The people we have inserted on Chang Yaqi’s side said they didn’t know anything about it. Qian Yigeng is more anxious than us right now, so his tentacles are far more reaching than us.”

“Hmm.” Fu Yu continued to grind pepper. “Qian Yigeng urged me again yesterday. It seems he hasn’t gotten any news either.”

“Intuitively, I’m guessing Ji Xiaoman is throwing smoke bombs.” He An sat down on the sofa and crossed his legs. “She may be the leader and want to do something in the name of this non-existent organization. Qian Yigeng’s most treasured store was bombed, and it wasn’t at the hands of some major power, so other possibilities are quite small.”

“I also have this thought. By the way, there’s mint tea in the fridge.” Fu Yu stretched his shoulders. “Let’s put this matter aside for now. No need to go deeper. The other party has moved from uptown back to lower town. Seeing that they don’t plan to make a big noise, it won’t attract the attention of the Order Supervisors.”

Fu Yu put the crushed pepper next to the minced garlic. “After all, we are not Qian Yigeng’s bodyguards. Recently, there was a problem with the drug market in midtown, and they just called for reinforcements. We can go together.”

He An didn’t answer.

“…Qian Yigeng gave you a hard time?” Fu Yu turned his head. “Your face is a bit bad.”

“No, no, it’s just that I still have something waiting for Ji Xiaoman to repair.” He An bent the corner of his mouth. “Now that she can’t be found, I’m afraid it’ll be lost.”

“Oh, I remember you mentioned it.” Fu Yu’s attention was taken away. “Seriously, what do you have to fix? The broken watch at home has been repaired.”

“A little personal belonging.” He An suddenly found this statement a bit funny, and he laughed. “My little secret video diary.”

Ruan Xian didn’t return to the off-roader for three consecutive days.

Counting the time, the time limit for Ji Xiaoman’s mother was coming up. No matter what the young mechanic planned, she would not be silent to the end. The armored off-roader and the iron bead were still in Ji Xiaoman’s hands while the destruction continued. She wouldn’t think that they would just leave without saying goodbye.

Tiantian-Q2, who called herself “Bai Tian”, came to the ruins every day to pick up supplies. She ate like a little cat, but her bullets were slightly consumed. Ruan Xian was sure that he smelled the unique smell of gunpowder on her. Since discovering her memory problem, she had lost more of her communication ability—in fact, they didn’t know what the little girl was thinking about right now.

Blood-red smiley faces ignited in the sky for three consecutive nights, and a strange excitement was spreading among the muddled crowd. There were obviously not many new things in this steel corpse-like city. Many people would violate the curfew and run out to see those red lights, as if they were some kind of holiday fireworks.

Ruan Xian knew that Qian Yigeng had given them the ornamental name “Red Ghost”, and he also knew that the overly cautious fat man was becoming more and more anxious. Everything was developing as they expected, accompanied by good and bad news.

The good news was that the Order Supervisors gave the Underground City a broader environment. In other words, they didn’t care too much about the people who lived in the poisonous fog of lower city. The bad news was that Tang Yibu was in a visibly bad mood.

Since issuing the creepy warning, the time the android spent with him had greatly increased. Ruan Xian could feel the spider-like soft and sticky gaze. It was like Tang Yibu was looking at him like a hungry child eyeing the remaining strawberry on a cake.

But as time passed, the gaze gradually changed in flavor.

Now the android looked like a wolf that had been raised on processed food and was seeing flesh for the first time. The curiosity, confusion, caution, and subtle longing from the other party’s sight were twisted into a ball, stabbing him like needles.

Ruan Xian sighed against Tang Yibu’s gaze and carefully adjusted the parts of his blood gun.

Yu Le, on the other hand, rarely joined their conversation. The former pirate leader either clutched his previous wine bottle and gawked at the air or got some food from elsewhere and gave some of it to the little girl in the ruins. Most of the time outside of curfew, he would sit on the wall of a certain street with a gas mask on, observing people coming and going.

For example, like now.

Both of them looked melancholy. Ruan Xian shook his head and stuffed the blood gun back into the holster under his armpit.

They were staying in an abandoned house not far from Tiantian-Q2. The place was full of dust and rotting plants, and there were still smelly puddles on the floor, which wasn’t suitable for temporary residence, but when most of the ruins were littered with stinking human corpses, options were often limited.

Seeing that Ruan Xian finished the work in his hand, Tang Yibu moved his position and sat down on a barely clean plastic cabinet. The lights on the street passed through the gaps in the ruins, revealing a bright orange-yellow line with a halo around it. Ruan Xian admired the beautiful scene calmly for a moment, trying to suppress the mixed emotions in his heart.

Tang Yibu wasn’t the only one who was affected by those words.

As soon as the other party spoke, Ruan Xian immediately sobered up. Those indistinct emotions were gone, and he caught them smoothly. Tang Yibu was undoubtedly one of the most attractive creatures he had ever seen in his life. Although he could always feel the inhumanness in the android gestures, when the other party didn’t bare their fangs, he would still be confused by that appearance and subconsciously treat the other as a human with more flair.

Now he would no longer have that illusion.

Being understood and affirmed, the vortex-like attraction made him eager to capture the other side and keep the android by his side. And that danger made him subconsciously want to destroy Tang Yibu; to make a move before the other side unleashed their true killing intent. Finally, and also the most novel—he liked the temperature, excitement, and desire that the other side brought.

The dance in the Sea of Ruins had long been over, but Ruan Xian always felt that they were still continuing that terrible dance in a murderous atmosphere.

Ruan Xian didn’t avoid Tang Yibu’s gaze but stared at those eyes and smiled generously.

There was only one question left.

With Tang Yibu’s warning, he used the understanding of a “test” to cover up the past, but if that statement was true, then the android was really willing to give up a little bit of his origin, which meant he was related to his creator…

In addition to the designers on the hardware, counting the testing and underlying architectural logic of NUL-00, there were a total of about five or six people who knew. These people weren’t only at the top of the pyramid in China but were highly ranked throughout the world. In the past ten years, including Fan Linsong, it was theoretically possible for them to develop their own AI projects.

He should have concealed the characteristics related to the identity of “Ruan Xian”. If Tang Yibu was really related to the research institute, in terms of knowledge reserves, it was reasonable for the other party to figure out his possible identity. But no matter what the real situation was, it was always right to be more cautious regarding his identity…

“Don’t smile.” Tang Yibu held jujube-flavored hardtacks in both hands, sounding a little sullen.

“What?” Ruan Xian casually turned the blood gun in his hand. “I thought you wanted to see it.”

“If you smile again, I might want to kiss you.” Without Yu Le on the sidelines, Tang Yibu seemed to be seriously distressed. “Can you wait for me to analyze it clearly before you smile?”

Ruan Xian’s smile became bigger. He clenched the handle of the gun and took a few steps forward. The muzzle of the gun rubbed against the other party’s ribs intentionally as he quickly kissed the corner of the other person’s lips.

“Continue to analyze.” He was happy to increase the difficulty of the android’s emotional observation.

“Oh.” A voice sounded at the door. “It’s daytime right now, so it’s best if you two restrain yourselves.”

Yu Le wrapped a bottle of wine with a nylon strap to protect it. There wasn’t much joking in his face. “Come out and have a look. That girl’s condition isn’t right.”

Ruan Xian neatly inserted the gun into the holster and followed Yu Le out the door…

“Help me.” Behind the gas mask, Tiantian-Q2’s voice was a little mute and full of fear. She rarely stood outside the gap between the ruins, and her body was twitching unnaturally. “…Help me. I can’t control it…”

The gun was hidden in her loose clothes and could barely be seen. Her arms seemed to be free and were trying to grab something by her side, but her legs and feet seemed to have their own consciousness, pulling her in a certain direction. The girl struggled to hold on to the bare steel around her, trying to stop her body, but another dominant force was apparently stronger—the end of the steel left a deep, bloody gash in her hand, and she finally couldn’t hold on to it any longer.

“Return South Wild Geese.” Tang Yibu touched the corners of his lips and lowered his voice. “Qian Yigeng activated it.”

“What’s wrong with me?” Tiantian-Q2’s was harsh. She was walking towards the crowded street. “What’s wrong with me?!”

“Can you stop it?” Yu Le was obviously uncomfortable with the scene he was seeing.

“It’s basically impossible. Unless the cybernetic brain is removed from the body.” Tang Yibu shook his head. “If you use a program to forcibly suspend it, not to mention whether it can be done… The operation takes time. If you chase her to modify the program, everyone outside will know that she’s an android with an old-fashioned cybernetic brain, and they’ll rip her apart.”

Yu Le tsked. “So that monster specially chose daytime…”

“There are many people during the day. Even if the androids are recalled, they won’t be stupid enough to ask for help at will. Being recalled still means they have a ‘way to live’ and being discovered by someone basically means death.”

While they were talking, Tiantian-Q2 was already slowly moving forward. As Tang Yibu speculated, she didn’t dare ask for help loudly and instead pressed on her gas mask tightly, trying to suppress her sobbing.

Ruan Xian made a quick decision and directly summoned a small light screen for tracking. “I activated the tracking device. Let’s followed.”

“What about Ji Xiaoman?”

“I guess this is the effect she wants.” Ruan Xian smiled dryly. “If nothing else, we’ll see her.”

The red dot that symbolized Tiantian-Q2, moved at a steady pace and was heading in the direction they were familiar with. In the most chaotic area of lower city, Ji Xiaoman strapped on the last two seat belts for her mother, and then stepped onto the front seat of the floating motorcycle. The iron bead was nestled in the front basket, enduring the bumps as it ate parts.

Before speeding up, Ji Xiaoman took a few deep breaths, and with one free hand, touched the ceramic dagger hidden in her waist as well as the improved bionic paralyzing agent.

“Let’s end this.” She gave a wry smile.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 87: Real Name

A somewhat large gas mask hung on the little girl’s chest, and her small face was covered with dirt mixed with sweat and soot. She was looking at them carefully from the crevices of the damaged ruins—mainly staring at the hardtack that Ruan Xian had crumbled most of.

Tang Yibu released Ruan Xian’s waist. Ruan Xian had never felt the two facts so vividly. First, the beast in front of him could never be tamed. Second, he seemed to become accustomed to this kind of murderous intent.

Realizing that Yu Le was still watching, he took advantage of the situation and pinched the tip of Tang Yibu’s nose, making his movements look intimate.

“Most people will try to express good feelings and hide malice. It’s rare for you to do the opposite.”

Tang Yibu wrinkled his nose and didn’t answer, just showing a slightly sweet smile.

“It’s not that easy to set me up, baby. I don’t even know your origin, so how can I know who you’re familiar with?” Ruan Xian made his tone sound relaxed and determined while his back was soaked in cold sweat. He didn’t look at Tang Yibu’s expression anymore, but instead stretched out his hand to the little girl and gave her some hardtacks that had been crumbled to small pieces.

Tiantian grabbed it and stuffed it directly into her mouth with her dirty hands. She choked on the pieces and coughed. Yu Le finally put away his awl-like gaze. He scratched his hair irritably, pulled back the little girl who was rushing towards the dirty puddle, and slapped the hardtack crumbs out of her hands.

“Wipe your hands first.” He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket, removed the water cup from his belt, and poured a glass of water. “Don’t drink from the ground; it’s too dirty.”

At the first sight of the ruthless-looking Yu Le, Tiantian couldn’t stop shivering. Although her eyes were grateful, fear still prevailed, and she almost couldn’t hold the water cup due to her tremors.

“What a sin.” Yu Le didn’t ask much, and took a step back thoughtfully, smacking his tongue for a while.

With clean water, the little girl broke off pieces of the hardtack and stuffed them into her mouth. Then she began to pick up the pieces that had fallen and were mixed with dirt on the ground. She carefully picked out the hardtacks, wrapped them in a handkerchief solemnly, and then stood up tremblingly.

“…Thank you.” She stuck back into the gap between the ruins. The bruise on her face hadn’t disappeared, and her whole body was like a frightened rabbit. “How did you know I was here?”

“As soon as something goes wrong in that peacock’s shop, Qian Yigeng will definitely have eyes on you. If I were you, I wouldn’t run around. Instead, I would stay in the ruins to observe the situation. It’s not too late to come out after the limelight has passed.” Ruan Xian took out a pack of hardtack from her pocket. “And I have seen it briefly. This is one of the few places near the ruins where water can be obtained, and it’s the most hidden one.”

In addition, he also smelled his own smell nearby—she would not easily discard the gas mask that he gave away, which has now become equivalent to a physical locator.

It was just that this reason wasn’t suitable to be disclosed. The reason he gave should be sufficient for the little girl and Yu Le.

“I see.” Despite being saved, Tiantian’s eyes remained vigilant. “Thank you for your help. I…I’ll go first.”

“Wait.”

The little girl’s back stiffened, and her whole body tightened.

“Old-fashioned cybernetic brain, right?” Tang Yibu happily pointed out the facts as he pointed to his golden eyes. “We didn’t come here to smash your head off, right Mr. Ruan?”

Tiantian’s face turned a little blue.

“Old-fashioned cybernetic brain… Impossible.” She clasped her hands unconsciously. “My name is Bai Tian. Those people caught me for two weeks. They…They treated me…”

Her eyes were blank for a while, and she changed the subject as she lowered her voice. “In short, I remember a lot of things before the end of the world. I was seriously injured when I first fell, and the scar on my face was still there. I can’t be an android…”

“Do you remember the current year?” Tang Yibu’s tone became gentle.

“One year or two years after 2100, right? I… I don’t remember very clearly. I was burned badly for a while.”

“It’s 2107. I’m sorry, Miss Bai Tian.” Tang Yibu shook his head. “It seems to be an old-fashioned cybernetic brain, Mr. Ruan. She doesn’t seem to remember much useful information.”

The little girl took a step back. She didn’t seem to be too shocked, but there was a sad paranoia in her eyes.

“We’re willing to provide food and water and will not touch you. You can take the supplies and hide them wherever you want. I can even give you a gun.” Ruan Xian stretched out a hand, gesturing for a handshake. “In return, the cooperation is simple. You just need to bring this with you.”

He pulled out a communicator from his pocket. The communicator was as big as half a coin, and the thickness was about three sheets of paper. He tore off the viscose behind the communicator, raised it with his fingertips, and made a “please” gesture to the female android.

“Tracking, huh?” Yu Le raised his eyebrows. “You deliberately brought us here just to put a tracker on a little girl? Seriously, this girl is scared. We can take her to Ji Xiaoman…”

“Ji Xiaoman doesn’t need to know about this.” Ruan Xian put all the remaining food in the bag in front of him, still holding the communicator that had tracking on it. “We also have to have our own little secrets.”

Tiantian, or rather Bai Tian, swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva to the food on the ground. After about half a minute, she took a deep breath and stuck the small communicator behind her ear. The girl was still shaking, and she was quiet for some time.

“First, give me a gun.” She stretched out a thin hand.

She held the weapon tightly in her arms after getting it. The android who was loaded with the memory of “Bai Tian” didn’t ask for their purpose, nor did she collapse or cry. She just wrapped the food in the plastic cloth she had pulled out from somewhere and dug back into the gap between the ruins.

“Thank you.” Putting her face close to the gap, Bai Tian’s expression was a bit dazed. “Just throw things in from here. I’ll get them myself… You will come again, right?”

Meanwhile, in the modified truck, Ji Xiaoman was looking at the iron bead solemnly. Her mother had finished eating and was taking a nap with the unfinished knitted fabric in her hand.

She was finishing the final part of Ruan Xian’s medicine and filling up a syringe. The iron bead bypassed her feet rather unkindly and quietly rolled towards the densest area of parts. Unfortunately, before the iron bead could enact even half of its sneaky plan, it was stepped on by Ji Xiaoman.

It rolled over and nibbled on Ji Xiaoman’s shoe while making a threatening whimper.

Ji Xiaoman sighed, picked up a scrap part from the table, and threw it into the air. The iron bead instantly loosened its bite on her shoe and caught the part steadily. It clicked and chewed off the metal parts with satisfaction, rolled lazily on the ground, and then stopped again at Ji Xiaoman’s feet with its three small eyes gleaming.

Ji Xiaoman hesitated for a few seconds, then picked out a few badly worn screws. This time she pinched them with her metal hands, squatted down, and sprinkled the screws on the floor in front of the iron bead. The iron bead lowered its head and ate very happily. Ji Xiaoman gently touched the metal shell of the iron bead with her metal fingertips and her eyes softened.

“Good boy,” she whispered.

Then Ji Xiaoman seemed to think of something, and her eyes dimmed. She scratched the shell of the iron bead with her sharp fingers again, and then slowly retracted her hand.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured again. “If something happens to them, I won’t throw you away.”

The young mechanic stood up, pulled the blanket over the bed, and gently covered her mother. She kissed her mother’s forehead and carefully pushed back a few strands of loose hair with her fingers.

“Mom, I love you.” Ji Xiaoman sighed cautiously.

There wasn’t much time left before the reset, and she knew it well. She believed Qian Yigeng knew better than her. These strange outsiders were more capable than she thought, but they were strangers after all. Putting your hopes in people who you didn’t know would be a great folly, and everyone in the Underground City knew this.

Relying on the information she had obtained, if the three of them did enough damage, and enough androids that were equipped with the old-fashioned cybernetic brains had escaped, as long as they persisted for a while, based on Qian Yigeng’s temperament, that bastard would definitely activate the “Return South Wild Geese” and forcibly recall all androids equipped with an old-fashioned cybernetic brain.

If her deduction was correct, He An would definitely pressure Qian Yigeng’s stores to ensure that people don’t get carried away by the benefits and smash open the brains of those androids.

Yes, it was just a matter of time.

If she hit the jackpot and was able to find a few experts, then she could really obtain the mind access needle as promised. If the other party failed, she also had the opportunity that wasn’t considered a chance—in addition to giving in to Qian Yigeng, she could take advantage of the opportunity to propose a plan to “create reproductions that confuse thieves based on pictures”, so as to gain access to the information about the mind access needle.

She didn’t think the combat power of these outsiders should be underestimated, as they had provided her with a new path.

As long as she succeeded in entering Qian Yigeng’s headquarters with her mother, faced with such a large number of old-fashioned cybernetic brain androids, Qian Yigeng must use the mind access needle to process their memories in batches, so as not to damage these precious resources.

In extraordinary times, the overly cautious Qian Yigeng would assuredly keep the mind access needle on him. She could use this opportunity under the guise of providing enemy information to kill Qian Yigeng and steal the needle.

She didn’t really need to rely on anyone.

After that, whether the three men succeeded or not had nothing to do with her. As long as the car was repaired, then the agreement would be fulfilled, and thus her obligation as a mechanic.

It was just…

Ji Xiaoman glanced at the iron bead burping at her feet and bit her lip.

Perhaps she still hoped that they would succeed—the people who wanted their cars fixed would get their wish, Qian Yigeng would be overthrown, and the nearby area would be able to achieve temporary peace. Even if she knew full well that the people of the Underground wouldn’t really give up the sex market, right now there were bad precedents, while the latecomers would be relatively restrained.

And she herself could not only remove the deadly time bomb in her mother’s brain, but she could also use the mind access needle to find damaged areas within the brain and make real repairs. She would have a real mother. The repaired old-fashioned cybernetic brain was bound to be equipped with rich feelings and a stable personality. Her mother would no longer talk nonsense, have a stiff smile, and call her by some unknown name.

This was the most important part; the heaviest bargaining stake, and she would not stupidly expose it to those three people.

Then they would have a real home, just like two ordinary humans. Her mother—whether she was willing to recognize this bizarre mother-daughter relationship or not—would be able to call her by her real name.

Instead of repeating “Ji Xiaoman” hundreds of times like before, as that was the only name stuck in that female android’s head, perhaps in a week or two, she could be touched by the person that was in front of her and call her “Bai Tian”.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

What, what, what?

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 86: Memory Therapy

Indifference in the bones could still be useful on occasion. Ruan Xian didn’t have the slightest worries about being misunderstood by his companions or any grievances. He put his hands in the pockets of his white coat and frowned slightly.

“I said that statement is only theoretically true. There are many things that are established in theory. I have a similar idea to MUL-01, so what? Can this be used as evidence? After all, before the end of the world, I myself was a scientist in the related field.”

He stepped on the blood on the ground indifferently, and the dark red blood left boot marks on the cement floor.

“If I remember correctly, Order Supervisors can also get information from the brains of fresh corpses. Assuming that I am MUL-01’s dog, it would be better to just take the heads of the two of you than keep you alive. Besides, how many opportunities had I had to act… Speaking of this, is the fried bun delicious?”

The other party had always been taciturn and indifferent and was moderate when he smiled. This was the first time Yu Le saw Ruan Xian show a cold smile full of murderous intent. He rummaged through his memories desperately, but he couldn’t find the relevant details related to Ruan Xian touching those buns.

Indeed, only Tang Yibu and himself foolishly ate them.

Yu Le touched his stomach subconsciously with one hand and was about to turn the muzzle of the gun, but Tang Yibu pressed it down with one hand. The android shook his head at him with an unpredictable smile on his face.

“I lied to you.” Ruan Xian shrugged. “I wouldn’t specifically give a delayed poison.”

“The buns aren’t spiked, unless you could bribe a shopkeeper you’ve never met. But maybe you want something else from us, such as pure tracking and observation.” Tang Yibu kept his smile. “That possibility holds true in ‘theory’.”

“Well, you caught me.” Ruan Xian raised his hands and winked. “Do you want to punish me? Let’s do it when we finish things here, hm?”

That kid surnamed Ruan was avoiding the obvious and Yu Le could see this. In any case, normal people didn’t divert their thoughts using the most brutal means, and it seemed that he could do it within minutes, without any psychological barriers.

But as the other party said, all he had was suspicion.

Captain Yu thought he had an eye for people. This kid was closer to a viper more so than he thought. Whether his words were true or false, this was an extremely crazy situation. The kid didn’t even have the slightest suspicious physiological reaction and didn’t even shed a single sweat drop, as if he had lived in this kind of setting since he was a child.

It was difficult to distinguish between what was real and fake; he was completely watertight.

He had only seen this in two such people. Either a wily old bird who had waded through all kinds of muddy waters, or a lunatic with serious mental problems. Ruan Lijie couldn’t fake his strangeness and curiosity about this desolated area, so he didn’t look like the former.

He looked at Tang Yibu, but Tang Yibu showed a thoughtful look, as if he was seriously considering the content of the so-called “punishment”.

Alright, two lunatics.

Lao Yu clenched the gun tightly. His palms were sweaty, and he almost lost his grip.

“Bombs. The explosives and smoke bombs are in place. Joke’s over. Let’s withdraw.” Ruan Xian gestured. “Anyways, I won’t run. If you have questions, you can ask when we return.”

After that, Yu Le no longer regarded this as the usual heckling random acts of vandalism. His deputy captain wasn’t here, nor was his crew. These two young men didn’t show much sharpness in their words or actions, so he had subconsciously put down his vigilance. Now, Yu Le tightened the strings in his mind again—Perhaps this was why Fan Baiyan was fooled by them.

He couldn’t be careless.

Time passed slowly. They had long left the store, where an extra corpse was added. This process became smoother after a few stores—the smoke bombs were installed near the old-fashioned cybernetic brain, while the explosives were tied to important bearing points in the basement. They waited for just the right time and blew up the “precious property” in Qian Yigeng’s basement.

Qian Yigeng’s shops were all in relatively lively areas. Unlike the headquarters, security still relied on old-fashioned machine and human eye detection. Among the three of them, none of them were silly enough to get caught, so it wasn’t difficult for them to infiltrate.

The sky turned from slight darkness to complete darkness, and the curfew declaration began to be widely broadcast again. Ruan Xian stopped the floating motorcycle that came from behind a certain store and stepped on the stagnant water in the alley.

“Have something to eat.” He took out three bags of hardtack from his backpack. “This is tightly packed, don’t worry.”

“If you’re really Lord Order Supervisors, let alone strict packaging, I won’t even believe the canned food that was just dug up from the ground,” Yu Le snorted.

“You picked this one yourself. There are still π’s teeth marks on it.” Tang Yibu looked at the bag in Yu Le’s hand, and then at his own. “Mr. Ruan, can I try the scallion oil flavor? My bag is jujube flavor. I just tasted it yesterday—”

Ruan Xian took two steps forward and stuffed his bag into Tang Yibu’s hand. Tang Yibu happily took the small bag with some metal reflections and rubbed his face against Ruan Xian’s cheek quite naturally.

Ruan Xian’s body was taut for half a second, then he stepped over the puddle as if nothing had happened and walked back to his original position.

It wasn’t ventilated here but the air quality was barely passable since they weren’t far from the air filter. Unfortunately, the water pipe by the wall was damaged and no one had actively repaired it. Steam filled the alley and water droplets trickled down on the side of moldy green pipes, mixing in with the rust and soot and silting up into a dark pool on the ground. A little layer of transparent water was still left on the top part of the sewage as the jet of a floating motorcycle passed by, muddying the murky soup.

He shifted his gaze from the puddle to Tang Yibu, who had already eaten the hardtack and had crumbs around his mouth. The android was still looking over with curiosity and enthusiasm, and Ruan Xian felt like he was being dissected by the other party’s gaze.

In comparison, the intensity of Yu Le’s gaze could be said to be a drizzle. Ruan Xian shook his head secretly as he nibbled on the hardtack while thinking about other things.

Yu Le had a big reaction to the infusion of memory data into a human brain. It wasn’t a reaction of ordinary suspicion, but more like he had touched some kind of taboo, and Tang Yibu obviously knew about it. As far as the information he currently had, it seemed that humans would only inject personality and memory into a cybernetic brain. When they were in the Shade Refuge, he did see the operation of injecting memory data into a clone’s brain—but what was inside the clone was a real normal brain.”

After thinking about it carefully, it was true that only the people on the MUL-01 side have used this method. However, a clone’s brain may not be used as a clear reference. If his inference was correct, the human brain in those jars was considered a blank piece of paper. Even if part of the environmental memory remained, it wasn’t much different from what a baby remembered in its mother’s uterus.

No one would really remember such details.

But what if memories were injected into an adult brain that already had memories? Had anyone really done it? Looking at the fearful reaction of Qian Yigeng’s flunky…

“Chapter 22, Article 13, Paragraph 1, of the Memory Law, the naturalness of human memory is part of human rights. Unless the application is made spontaneously by the person himself and witnessed by three or more reputable guarantors, no organization or individual may tamper with it arbitrarily. The scope of permission for applications includes memory fragments that have been determined by a medical institution to have ‘adverse effects’ on the person, such as major disasters, death of a relative or friend, and personality disorder. The addition, elimination, and transplantation of memories must be operated by a designated medical institution…”

Tang Yibu licked the hardtack crumbs around his mouth and finished reading this passage like it was verbatim. “Mr. Ruan doesn’t remember this, right?”

“Nn.” Ruan Xian didn’t hide his surprise this time.

“This is the last common regulation to be adopted by the global agreement before the Great Rebellion of the 22^nd century.” Tang Yibu patted off the crumbs on his hand. “Everyone calls it a Dead Can Pact”—You can only use a special can opener to open a dead can, otherwise, there’s no point in even talking about it. The amount of text in the memory method itself is amazing, so forgive me for choosing just one paragraph.”

Yu Le squeezed the packaging bag in his hand and stopped chewing.

“Before the law officially came out, many things were messed up.” Tang Yibu looked at Ruan Xian unblinkingly, without letting go of any micro-expression from the other party. “Memory therapy was very prevalent before.”

Ruan Xian swallowed the sweet and greasy hardtack in his mouth and gradually became alert. He didn’t know why Tang Yibu said this suddenly, but he did hear the word “memory therapy”, which Ji Xiaoman’s android mother mentioned not long ago.

“Memories affect personality to a large extent. The memory here is not a separate visual or other perceptual record but contains the thinking and emotions at the time.”

Tang Yibu continued, taking another step closer.

“Humans have had many similar records—the death of a loved one, the breakdown of feelings, and the like. People will subconsciously write down the food and music they come into contact with at that time and have a certain rejection of them. This is not something that can be determined by genetics.”

Finally, the android stopped in front of Ruan Xian. The tip of his nose and fingertips were less than five centimeters away. “Similarly, coupled with a memory of ‘it’s like eating filth for a certain food’, it could make people dislike certain foods. If that was a little more serious…”

“The memory of being abused or injured can also cause a person’s personality to change. The memory implanted with regular habits also has a high probability for the implanted person to acquire these habits.” Ruan Xian continued calmly and didn’t back down.

“Yes, humans are easier to domesticate than they think. They discovered this, which saved a lot of things—you know, there are quite a few ‘problems’ that would have had to be fixed decades ago by criminal punishment, illegal imprisonment, incarceration, and abuse.”

Tang Yibu smiled.

“It was much more convenient at that time. Future generations will have intolerable behaviors or ‘defects’ that could be fixed with memory correction. From hobbies to sexual orientation, there was nothing that hurtful memories couldn’t interfere with. The torturers also didn’t need to worry about the serious damage they did to the subject of torture. They only need to keep them alive, inject different fragments of the deceased that were submitted to torture… Take that man as an example just now. If you completely pour the memory of another person into him without any integration process, if he’s lucky, he’ll develop a split personality. If he’s unlucky, he will go directly go crazy.”

“Why?” Ruan Xian clenched the hardtack in his hand and clearly heard the crumbling sound of it being crushed. Under Yu Le’s gaze, he couldn’t speak too freely, and out of some unknown emotion, he always felt that Tang Yibu could understand.

“Because you have been confused about the past, baby. I’ll help you review it.” Tang Yibu hugged his waist affectionately, rubbing the tip of his nose against Ruan Xian’s nose. “This time, I know you didn’t mean it. Next time you say something out of line, I may not be able to stop Captain Yu.”

Tang Yibu stretched out his slender fingers, slowly scratched from the corner of Ruan Xian’s eyes to the corner of his lips, dabbed up the crumbs, and then licked his fingertips.

“The jujube flavor is also good,” he muttered, moved half a step naturally, and touched Ruan Xian’s face ambiguously with his other hand, completely turning his back to Yu Le.

[Be honest.] Ruan Xian pursed his lips tightly and used the earring to convey the message. [What are you trying to say?]

“Personally, I don’t agree with the practice of memory replication and transplantation.” Tang Yibu silently mouthed his words with a gentle smile. “Every individual is unique, and this kind of thing is very arrogant, especially if the other party has specially copied someone you are familiar with…”

The pupils of those golden eyes shrank slightly.

“It’s like putting inappropriate parts into a precision watch, don’t you think?”

The other party had a relaxed expression of chatting, but Ruan Xian’s scalp was numb instinctively. “Forgive me for not being able to imagine it.”

“If it were me, I would take a good look at how the parts work. Finally, I’ll disassemble the watch and get the parts back.” Tang Yibu’s expression was quite innocent, but the hands around Ruan Xian’s waist tightened firmly.

Ruan Xian almost wanted to pull out his gun and fire a few shots at the person in front of him. However, this hair-raising situation was interrupted by a timid female voice, and only then did Ruan Xian remember the purpose of bringing the two of them here.

“It… It’s you guys.” Tiantian-Q2 pulled down her dirty hood and stared at the hardtacks. “Can you give me some?”

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The author has something to say:

Don’t forget that Tang is also a ruthless character… He thinks his father is still the Ruan in a wheelchair.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 85: Atypical Torture

The basement of this shop was much dirtier than that of the flower peacock’s. The cybernetic brains on the shelves were still stained with blood. There were many cracks on the cement floor and there were black and red tissue fragments inside of them. The visceral smell in the air had a tendency to change into corpse odor.

“Return South Wild Geese*,” Ruan Xian repeated Tang Yibu’s words. “Such a name is wasted.”

*[Hui Nanyan] (回南雁) It refers to the migration of geese, which is a bit applicable to its program it. Just like clockwork, every year geese migrate south. This program will make these androids return to Qian Yigeng if they run away. || Ruan Xian makes the comment about it being a waste because I believe it’s supposed to be a beautiful name/thing and not meant to be used like how Qian Yigeng is using it.

“In other words, assuming that Qian Yigeng thinks that things are irreparable, he may forcibly recall the old-fashioned cybernetic brains of those androids whose bodies can still move, including the Tiantian-Q2 who ran away.”

Tang Yibu put the blood-stained cybernetic brain neatly on the shelf, pausing to consider the orientation.

“We need to master the speed of advancement. It’s best not to let him have the idea of fighting to the death*.”

*Either the fish dies or the net breaks (鱼死网破) Idiom.

“True.” Ruan Xian frowned. “But Yibu, the program of the old-fashioned cybernetic brains, shouldn’t be so easy to modify… Otherwise, implanting the tracking program can solve most problems, right?”

“In order to prevent third-party arbitrary modification as well as virus infection, the programs of the old-fashioned cybernetic brains were extremely secure.” Tang Yibu nodded. “Return South Wild Geese is considered the best modified part of the program. Sometimes it’s necessary to consider the site of relocation or climate issues. The permission to modify is relatively loose…”

“Ji Xiaoman has studied the old-fashioned cybernetic brain for so long, so she must also know this.” Ruan Xian finally found the unnatural feeling in his subconscious. “Once we pressed Qian Yigeng, her mother may be forcibly recalled, but she has never mentioned this to us.”

Tang Yibu tutted softly. “Mr. Ruan, we…”

“Wait.” This time, Ruan Xian remembered to open his perception. “Someone’s coming.”

A soft whistle sounded outside the basement door. Tang Yibu grabbed Ruan Xian, and the two squeezed behind a dark shelf. Lao Yu reacted quickly, and in the next second he hid himself in a large pile of metal buckets.

A pair of boots that clearly belonged to a man appeared in everyone’s vision. The owner of the boots entered the laboratory alone while whistling. Tang Yibu subconsciously assumed an offensive posture but was held down by Ruan Xian.

[Take a look first.] Seeing that the man was tying a butcher’s apron on and was planning to do something, Ruan Xian stopped Tang Yibu through the earring stud.

The man finished tying on the blood-stained apron, opened the glass cover on the body preservation pool, and pulled out a slender juvenile body. He tapped the latter’s skull familiarly with his fingers, sighed, and then turned on the light screen.

“Didn’t you say that you took care of one?” The man squeezed the boy’s shoulders casually and threw the unconscious body back into the pool. “How come I can only find solid ones here? God, the reservation is coming up, and I’ve got less than an hour. I can’t do this whole thing in that time, so either you come down here and help me—”

“Help me my ass. I’m busy.” The person on the other side of the light screen spat. “Five shops have just been blown up in uptown. Everyone knows that those guys like to do it at night. Now they choose to play during the day. The ones I finished are in the medical cabinet. You went fishing in the pool, right? Those that are stupid will die and are tossed in the pool. I’ve said it 180 times now. Are you an idiot?”

“Fuck you. Damn it.” The man cut off contact irritably, walked angrily to the metal cabinet in the corner, and dragged out another white shell body from inside. He threw the body onto the operating table roughly and then walked towards the shelf where Ruan Xian was.

Ruan Xian couldn’t sit still this time. The distance was too risky, and they were likely to be seen. However, this time he was severely held in place by Tang Yibu—The android shook his head solemnly, motioning him to continue watching.

The man fiddled with the cybernetic brain on the shelf angrily, picked up one within five seconds, and returned to the operating table. He tapped the light screen with blood-stained medical gloves and started playing an audio loop.

“I want a boy between eighteen and twenty years old.” A hoarse voice came from the light screen. “The hair has to be slightly long. No need to dye it. If you have a face, M06 and M47 can be used. The height should not be too high. It must be under 1.75 meters. Not too fat or strong. Slender is best. It can’t be too different based on the body shape modeling I gave you…”

“Picky old thing,” the man scolded in a low voice as he washed the cybernetic brain in the tube of light blue transparent liquid.

Ruan Xian was firmly imprisoned by Tang Yibu in the shadow of the debris behind the shelf, so he had to listen obediently.

“The most important thing is character and personality. Qian Yigeng said you guys have everything, so I spent a lot of money.”

The hoarse voice on the light screen continued. “Well, I want a child from a good family that has never suffered any kind of hardship. It’s best to erase the memory of the apocalypse. The next process may be a bit troublesome. I want some trauma. Yes, you can have someone act as if they are sick. Arrange a scene at an ordinary house and prepare some porridge. The expression of the young who think they caught a lifeline only to fall into despair is very attractive…”

“Them old coots have a lot of tricks, but they waste good money on this shit.” The man started whistling again. “Where is the character library. Good boy, good boy… Hm…”

“I’m going to throw up,” Yu Le said calmly.

His voice was loud just enough for the man to hear it. While his reaction speed was much faster than flower peacock, in the end, it was no match for the former pirate leader. Yu Le roughly threw out an iron bucket, and while his opponent looked away, he struck the opponent’s throat in one fell swoop, knocking him to the ground.

Yu Le didn’t knock him out.

“Mind coming out to help me, you two? You two shouldn’t have to fight like this, right?”

He simply stepped on one of the man’s hands and roughly yanked a blood-soaked rag and stuffed it in the man’s mouth. Then Captain Yu pulled out a scalpel from his waist bag and stuck it precisely to the man’s neck. “If you want to live, be good.”

Tang Yibu got out from behind the shelf and took off his collar. Seeing those pale gold eyes, the man’s struggling movements stagnated for half a second.

“You didn’t knock him out. It seems you want to do something else.” Ruan Xian leaned down and checked the body on the operating table.

The young body lay lifeless on the cold operating table without an inch of hair. His skull was open, and the edges around it were roughed out, covered with extremely thin metal edges and a built-in rotating shaft. The empty head was coated with a layer of nail-thick gel, and the flickering blue light was particularly eye-catching.

The back of the torso near the spine was followed by a fist-sized device, like a shiny metal tumor lying on the back of the teenager’s neck. It made a hissing sound, and one of the few display lights flashed blue light at the frequency of normal breathing. It was likely to be a substitute for the brainstem to maintain basic life functions.

The cybernetic brain was still soaked in a light blue solution. The opening of the torso’s head was just big enough to shove it in, like an empty battery space waiting for its battery. The machine on the operating table had been activated. The slender metal feet were stretched straight, and the tip of the needle at the end was ready to go.

“This business is more diabolic than I thought.” Lao Yu gave the man a kick. “If the net starts with women and children, then there’s nothing it won’t catch.”

The man whimpered a few times, causing Lao Yu to raise his brows and remove the rag from the man’s mouth.

Seeing that he was outnumbered, the man didn’t yell but bared his bloody teeth. “At least you don’t have to worry about being sold.”

“Yes, laozi doesn’t look like a soft persimmon at all. Some people like the feeling of crushing soft persimmons, right?” Lao Yu cut the man’s neck with a scalpel, and blood quickly flowed down the shallow wound to the floor. The man swallowed with difficulty, bobbing his Adam’s apple up and down. “Well, does your boss have any new explanations? Let’s hear it.”

“Hear your mother,” the man sneered. “Boss Qian is our… ugh!”

Yu Le said dryly, “I remember that we nearly have an hour to spend with you. We…”

“Do you have no feelings?” Tang Yibu suddenly spoke, in a very soft tone that was more like a gentle psychiatrist counseling a patient. It wasn’t until the android squatted in front of the man that Ruan Xian and Yu Le were sure the other party wasn’t talking to himself. “They are your kind and you’re hurting them.”

“You dig out their brains, stuff cybernetic brains into their bodies, and then infuse them with other personality data of the same kind. Until the cybernetic brain is reset, they identify themselves as humans—Don’t you have any feelings about this?”

“And where are you from, you son of a bitch?” The man spat out our bloodied saliva. “Nice face. Although you’re a little sturdier and a bit bigger, I think there will still be a lot of people who want to make you— Motherfucker!”

Ruan Xian stomped on the opponent’s finger, causing the man to howl in pain.

“Answer the question,” he said blankly.

“Another little beauty. I see, I see. You did a good job on the contact lenses.” A smirk appeared on the man’s distorted face to the point of pain. “You two ran out of a store, didn’t you? Want to pursue some equality and justice? They’re just living dead that had some broken iron added to them, yet you really take it seriously—”

Yu Le rolled his eyes.

“Answer the question,” Ruan Xian reiterated again, using some force in his feet to crush his opponent’s finger.

“I’m so sorry. I’ve been injected with pain tolerance enhancement. Those cute little things in my veins won’t make me talk easily—listen, if you stop here, I can still find you two some gentler guests. A nice combination of personality and appearance. Boss Qian himself won’t make this change that easily.”

The distortion on the man’s face slowly disappeared, and the sarcastic smile became thicker.

“And you, who do you give your head to? What’s wrong with the same kind? This kind of business has been operating for thousands of years. We’re not the first. Before the apocalypse, it’s not like slaves had disappeared, but now you want to come give me a morality exam. Are you worthy?”

After that, he turned to Tang Yibu. “There’s no such thing as bullshit of the same kind or different kind. A children’s playground has been everywhere since the advent of mankind. Genocide has been committed. Is it true that everyone involved is a lunatic? Special measures in special times. Anyways, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, especially now that the world is even more insane.”

“Morality exam,” Yu Le snorted. “To be honest, I don’t think I could pass it.”

“Your answer is very moving.” Ruan Xian took off his feet and glanced at the machinery on the operating table. “It’s best to avoid stalling with long speeches. Now it’s my turn to ask. How many imitation brains and how many old-fashioned cybernetic brains are working in your store now? By the way, let me know about Qing Yigeng’s movements as well. Thank you.”

“Sure, as long as you stay with me for one night—”

“This machine is used to inject personality data into the cybernetic brain, right?” Tang Yibu’s expression was a bit stiff, but Ruan Xian didn’t look half as angry. He paced to the operating table. “I guess you use it to pierce the cybernetic brain and input specific electrical stimuli into the corresponding area at high frequencies. But in fact, if the operation is done properly and the electrical signal is slightly adjusted, the difference between the human brain and the cybernetic brain isn’t too big.”

He took the body down, let it lean against the shelf, and patted the empty operating table. Tang Yibu knowingly took off the wristband from the man’s wrist, cracked it lightly, and opened the light screen. “What personality did you want to pick just now? A good boy with no doomsday memories? Guess what would happen if I punched in a complete set of personality data into your head?”

The man’s face changed, and there was a deep fear on his face. “No, it’s impossible… You can’t have that kind of technology…”

“Do you want to take a gamble?” Ruan Xian pulled out the operation light screen of the injection machinery and quickly analyzed how it was used. “Lao Yu, bring our good friend up. What a great opportunity for us to practice.”

Yu Le’s brows tightened.

“…Qian Yigeng asked us to take pictures of every customer who comes into the store to see if there are any strangers. He also told us to dispose of more than half the goods, pack the brains, and be ready to leave at any time.” The man’s voice changed instantly. “There are 3 old-fashioned cybernetic brains in this store, plus 117 imitation brains at work. That’s all that’s in the basement for backup, sir. That’s all I know. You, turn that thing off first—”

“Thank you for your cooperation.” Ruan Xian turned off the operation light screen, and the man breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good information. We need to adjust our strategy.” Tang Yibu calmly concluded.

Yu Le didn’t say a word. He raised his eyelids and glanced at the man on the ground, then pulled the trigger mercilessly. Then he turned to Ruan Xian, showing a sharp expression they hadn’t seen for a long time.

Yu Le didn’t put down the gun in his hand.

“Are you serious about those words just now?” he asked with a stern face. “Those that infused personality and memory…”

“It’s theoretically true. It was just to scare him.” Ruan Xian shrugged and stepped over the blood that kept spreading on the ground. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.” Yu Le still stared at Ruan Xian’s eyes tightly, “I just want to know—”

“—Why is Mr. Ruan so privy to this special torture method?” Tang Yibu continued for him with a smile.

“I’m also very curious. After all, only the Order Supervisors have that kind of technology.”

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The author has something to say:

Showing a mysterious smile (???

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Kinky Thoughts:

I just have to say I find this arc fascinating, on both a moral and philosophical scale. I mean, morally, I find it reprehensible what they’re doing with these androids, even if they’re technically not “human”, but it begs the question of ethics. If the world ever gets to a point where androids are a thing, would they be considered and treated like humans or just like soulless robot? As the guy said, even humans treat other humans as badly not to mention androids. Anyways, some nice food for thought.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 84: Red Ghost

Unless you acted strictly according to the clock, there was no real day and night in the underground. Yu Le woke up early, exhaled, and pulled off the iron bead that was napping on his belly.

Captain Yu pulled out a bag of snacks from the drawer in front of the car, and a high-calorie, greasy sweetness stuck in his throat. Yu Le threw the package at the rattling iron bead, changed his clothes, then moved to the back of the car and got himself a cold glass of water.

There was no one in the back of the car.

The iron bead didn’t make a fuss, so it seemed that Tang Yibu and that kid surnamed Ruan hadn’t returned last night. Up to now, Yu Le never thought that those two in the backseat were simply survivors with a bit of skill. Defeating Fan Baiyan in the Sea of Ruins and personally saving him was something that a normal survivor wouldn’t be able to do. Yu Le didn’t believe in coincidences. Most likely, they were also involved in the destruction of the flickering grass.

But as long as they weren’t people from the Order Supervisors, he didn’t care much about their true identity.

Anyway, they were only passersby, and they were destined to walk on different sides of the road. It was just that the so-called “couple status” was something Yu Le thought was just a cover to hide their behavior, but now it seemed that it may really be true.

Forget it. That had nothing to do with him.

Yu Le threw an effervescent tablet into the water, happily turned on the car music, and began to listen to a song. After this trouble was over, he would take the two boys for a walk around the old rebels’ site, and then have nothing to do with them any longer. Next, he would just hang around this shithole for a while, find a way to get a plastic surgery machine, and then rush back to the Sea of Ruins as soon as possible.

He was satisfied with the current atmosphere, although he couldn’t figure out the details of those two boys who were quite bloody.

Seeing that Qian Yigeng wasn’t pleasing to the eye, Yu Le admitted that there were some personal reasons. He didn’t really expect the two young men to mess around with him together. After all, even if they wanted to get something from Qian Yigeng, there were simpler ways.

“Your two dads haven’t come back yet.” Yu Le comfortably adjusted his newly changed pants and tore some plastic wrapping paper for the iron bead. “Who knows where they went to shoot. You will have to make do with me for now. If they don’t come back before 9, we can only go to the little girl.”

As a result, not long after he laid down again, the two of them directly opened the door and entered the car. Tang Yibu was carrying about five boxes with an indescribable sense of satisfaction on his face.

“I went to uptown to get something to eat,” Ruan Xian explained simply without concealing it. “I got the news from Ji Xiaoman yesterday, so we stopped by uptown to verify. It is indeed Qian Yigeng’s shop. She didn’t lie.”

“Oh—” Yu Le twitched his nose and tilted his eyes at Tang Yibu. “Did you two do it alone?”

“Just a few explosives. Five stores were enough for the two of us. With too many people, it would be easy to attract attention.” Ruan Xian took out a box from Tang Yibu’s hand, stretched out his arm, and handed it to Yu Le through the car window. “I’ll call you when there are more shops. Here, fried buns from Uptown.”

The expression on Tang Yibu’s face froze slightly. He looked at the box with some pain, but his gaze quickly slipped back to Ruan Xian, as if the other party was a large fragrant fried bun. Ruan Xian noticed the other party’s gaze, and instead of avoiding him, he looked back with a smile that had a bit of banter and gentleness.

Since he gave Tang Yibu a joke gift, the other party’s attitude had been a bit off. If Tang Yibu was previously a behemoth with sharp claws that had a touch of ferocity and murderous intent behind the warmth, now he was more like one that retracted his claws and was revealing the soft squishy pads underneath.

Ruan Xian thought for a while but couldn’t figure out which string he had moved from the android. Tang Yibu used to observe him a lot, but now there was a clear upward trend.

Since the other party didn’t mind his craziest side, Ruan Xian naturally didn’t have any shame about it.

If it had to be said, Ruan Xian even enjoyed the other party’s gaze that seemed as if it was about to drill a hole into his bones—The beautiful poisonous butterfly stopped at his fingertips, and while it was still dangerous, he still wanted to kiss its wings.

He stretched out his hand and gently touched Tang Yibu’s eyebrows. “It’s delicious when eaten warm. Don’t let it get cold. You can watch it after eating.”

Yu Le was shivering with numbness. He quickly took the box and stuffed a fried bun into his mouth. “Indeed. Uptown is quite far from here. You two sure can run around. I’m not as strong as you youngins. Laozi has limited physical strength.”

After that, he glanced at Ruan Xian, whether intentionally or not. “You two are quite capable. I’m guessing Qian Yigeng won’t be stupid enough to open his stores in the same place.”

“It was enough for us to steal hoverbikes, so I didn’t call you.” Ruan Xian returned his gaze with an unblemished smile.

“How nice that you have objects to bully. We had a lot of trouble yesterday. What are your plans for today?” The fried buns were stuffed with leeks and eggs, and while the noodles tasted a bit bitter, the other flavors weren’t much different from before the end of the world. Yu Le swallowed and started chewing as tears almost ran down his face. “Do you want to bring that girl?”

Not to be outdone, Tang Yibu also opened his plastic box and stuffed buns into his mouth. The iron bead desperately gnawed at the packaging box given by Yu Le while staring at Tang Yibu in the back seat in a dazed posture stance as if it wanted to go to both sides.

“We verified the accuracy of the store yesterday, so today we have to verify the accuracy of her other information.” Ruan Xian broke the buns apart and stuffed them with Tang Yibu. He only took the two boiled eggs. “We are going to rob people. Interested?”

“Don’t forget what laozi originally was,” Yu Le responded enthusiastically as he sucked the leek leaves from his teeth. “Where are you going?”

“Nearby.” Ruan Xian smiled slightly.

After arriving at their destination, Yu Le began to regret eating so many buns for breakfast.

Instead of robbing people directly, the two young men went into the basement of another store. The same blood-stained operating table and the same pool of bodies. This time the brain barrel was fuller than the previous one. The fried buns started moving back to Yu Le’s throat and began to dance around it.

He heaved for some time and took some medicine in the corner to settle himself. “What are you two doing? Are you addicted? Hurry up and finish it. Laozi is going to throw up.”

“Just a minute.” Ruan Xian looked at the light screen in front of him. “We need to calculate the location of where to set the bombs. Wait a moment.”

In order not to alarm the people in the store too early, they had no plans to take away the cybernetic brain, but this didn’t prevent them from investigating these cybernetic brains. Ruan Xian was responsible for reviewing Ji Xiaoman’s initial programs of those imitation cybernetic brains, while Tang Yibu began to crack the contents of the old-fashioned cybernetic brains.

When it came to the cybernetic brains, Ji Xiaoman didn’t hide anything, as Ruan Xian did find the exact same trigger in those imitation cybernetic brains. They were exactly like those detonating bombs, enough to blow open the head containing the cybernetic brain and also the heads of the customers as well. The emotional simulation circuit also had the same damage. Other than that, there were no other problems.

But during the discussion last night, the little girl’s expression was indeed a bit weird. Ruan Xian didn’t quite believe that he would read it wrong, but he always felt that something was off with the old-fashioned cybernetic brain.

“Mr. Ruan,” Tang Yibu called softly, his voice as low as a whisper between a couple.

“Hmm?”

“There is something wrong with this batch of old-fashioned cybernetic brains.” Tang Yibu leaned closer. “The original program inside prohibits the embedding of external positioning programs. This has not been destroyed, but in addition to the memory-erasing hardware, there are other things added to it.”

“Sure enough, Qian Yigeng will not simply use ‘properly imprisoning them’ to solve the tracking problem.”

“I remember this program. They called it Return South Wild Geese,” Tang Yibu said. “It was originally a procedure used by the manufacturer for recall, but the tracking was modified by an external procedure.”

“The effect of the modification?”

“If it’s forcibly activated, the android equipped with an old-fashioned cybernetic brain will return to Qian Yigeng by themselves.” Tang Yibu lowered his gaze. “There is no individually designated effect; they will all go back together.”

At the same time, Qian Yigeng was furious.

“The City Defenders are useless! There’s not even a single clue. There are no news or any suspects!” Qian Yigeng gritted his teeth. There was a hot breakfast on the table, but he didn’t take a single bite. “I have invested the most money in the stores in uptown and the goods are of the highest quality. Now? Except for those counterfeits made by Ji Xiaoman, there’s not a single old-fashioned cybernetic brain left. Fuck… Son of a bitch!”

Someone must be jealous of his cake. Qian Yigeng wandered gloomily around the table. His subordinates, standing not far away, all frowned and lowered their eyes, staying silent as they weren’t much use either.

The subordinates had run a big circle and returned without any success. There was no movement on the side of Chang Yaqi, his biggest opponent, ‘General Chang Sheng’. Even if Qian Yigeng had always disliked the one surname Chang, he wouldn’t meddle in his shit. Chang Yaqi wasn’t a low-key person. If he did this, he would definitely run in front of him and brag.

His opponent was more vicious and dangerous. They swung around in lower town, kidnapped Ji Xiaoman, robbing him of his best mechanic, and turned around and blew up five properties that he was most proud of, hitting all his sore spots. All they left behind was a signature, as if they were a shadow.

What did the other party want? Swallow his market, or just want to drag him into the quagmire? Qian Yigeng kept pacing around the round table. The xiao long bao, made from refined white flour, that sat on the table was gradually getting cold, but he still had no appetite.

“Regardless of Ji Xiaoman, did you find Tiantian-Q2?” He took a deep breath and decided to focus on the losses that could be recovered. “That little girl can’t run far in that dress. Put out the word. If anyone dares to hide my goods…”

“Not found.” the original shopkeeper, flower peacock “Piebald” took a step forward. The bruises on his face hadn’t disappeared. “It’s like she just evaporated… No, no. We’ll keep searching for her again today. We’ll definitely find her for you.” Seeing that Qian Yigeng’s face was turning purple, Piebald quickly changed his tone.

“I also heard some wind.” The Loach, who was unlucky to be with flower peacock at that time, also moved two steps forward. “There were big changes in the Sea of Ruins. Two big guys fell at the same time. The two big ruins pirates on the east and west side both died. Well, even if the Order Supervisors killed them, one of them was killed by the other.”

Qian Yigeng stopped. “Continue. “

“Could it be that the rebels are back? The one who was killed was playing with drugs. Didn’t Ruan Xian oppose these very much at the beginning, including us… Maybe it was to kill the chicken to warn the monkey*.”

*(杀鸡儆猴) Metaphor referring to punishment of one person to warn others.

“You’re the fucking chicken!” Qian Yigeng’s entire neck flushed. “Isn’t Chang Yaqi a ready-made target for those who mess with drugs? Besides, laozi’s in the machine business. Ruan Xian himself didn’t do anything to me! Aren’t they more concerned with the Order Supervisors? What kind of shit are they up to engaging with ordinary people? What dumbass rebel army?”

“That’s right.” Piebald hurried to help. “The rebel army wouldn’t use such a creepy logo as their signature. That thing looks like the mark of a fucking serial killer.”

Qian Yigeng took a deep breath. “Keep looking for me. If there’s no useful news today, no one will be paid. In addition, find someone to contact the cripple. Ji Xiaoman can’t be found, but the goods can’t be broken.”

He grabbed a xiao long bao with his hand and bit hard. He glanced at the clocks all over the wall and said, in a muffled voice, “The mind access needle is in my hand. Whether Ji Xiaoman is willing or forced to follow those people, she will come out when the time is almost up. That girl is a hard bone to pick. I’ve been very gentle with her. If she really causes trouble for me…”

Qian Yigeng swallowed the buns and wiped the oil from his mouth viciously.

“Then she shouldn’t even think about playing house anymore. Tools are tools. Ordinary computers have administrator rights. Do you really think you can keep them as individuals who will stay by your side?”

“We brothers need to have a name.” Loach quickly changed the subject. “There’s no banner and all day long we just keep saying ‘that gang’ ‘that gang’. How can they respond? Since it’s not the rebel army…”

Qian Yigeng squinted at Loach, then at the blood-red smiley face in front of him before huffing out his nostrils. “Just make up one. The signature is like a horror movie. Let me see. Ghost… Just call it the Red Ghost.”

Loach glanced at the red ghost crystal ornaments on the table, thinking that the name was really not much of a deterrent. Unfortunately, Qian Yigeng had a rare expression on his fat face, so he had to smile and say, “It’s good, very good.”

“Boss Qian.” Before Qian Yigeng had time to put away the light screen, a new message jumped out. “He An is outside. He wants to see you. “

“…Tell him to come in.”

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The author has something to say:

Me: Red Ghost.

Gay friend: Red (underwear) Ghost.

Me: ………………….

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 83: A Small Gift

Ruan Xian held his breath, his mind turning at full speed. Tang Yibu stared at him solemnly. He had never seen such a solemn expression on the other party’s face before.

Have to think quickly.

His source of information was simple and direct. Ruan Xian thought that he might have been soaking in that precious modified α-092 sample for more than ten years.

After all, it was something he made himself. If the nanobots α-092 he was researching when he was killed were a sample of the S-type Prototype, it would make sense.

Ruan Xian had observed countless times the tissue solution mixed with the improved α-092, and its characteristics were firmly etched in his mind. He considered that it was impossible for him to be wrong. In other words… Assuming that his memories hadn’t been tampered with by anyone, Fan Linsong must’ve directly dissolved his corpse into a warehouse full of modified α-092, trying to get rid of the evidence.

It was just that the warehouse wasn’t destroyed for some reason, and his body was repaired and preserved, then became active twelve years later.

During the time he was sleeping in the waste liquid chamber, another Ruan Xian—whether real or fake—continued his research based on the experimental data he left behind, and finally succeeded in developing something like the “Prototype” after a period of time. In order to ensure that the Prototype wasn’t replicable, the other Ruan Xian modified the improved version of α-092 to ensure others couldn’t get clues about the Prototype from it.

Using his own memory as a primer, the timeline was roughly the same.

The current information could explain why when he first woke up, he had abnormal sensory enhancements and even explain his tendency to physically collapse afterwards. His improved version of α-092 had a good effect, but the stability was lacking and had great side effects.

However, there was always a problem that challenged the rigor of this logic chain.

Why did the S-type Prototype without self-consciousness take the initiative to attack him? Was it arrange? Or…

Got it.

“I do know.” Ruan Xian put his backhand on Tang Yibu’s wrist. “All this was arranged. Can’t you see?”

Tang Yibu stared at Ruan Xian quietly, as if frozen in the air. He didn’t answer but pursed his lips, still squeezing his hands tightly.

“Like you said, I carry a scholar’s personality data and didn’t get enough intelligence information.” Ruan Xian didn’t struggle anymore and didn’t even bother to erase the traces of his lies.

He himself didn’t know if this was truly a “lie”.

“If the destruction fails or is artificially awakened, I will not disclose key information and will have the basic ability to protect myself.” Ruan Xian tightened his fingers. “…And will stand on the side of mankind because of my human characteristics.”

“You’re not acting like that now,” Tang Yibu finally said.

“You have to ask Ruan Xian about this. Maybe his design has a deeper meaning.” Ruan Xian pulled the corners of his mouth stiffly. “It may also be that there’s something wrong with this personality data. Who knows?”

“In short, what I want to say is that the improved version of α-092 is most likely a fragment directly implanted by Ruan Xian. As a scholar, I can be sure that my body is an S-type Prototype, not some messy super healing magic. As long as I recognize this special characteristic, coupled with physical changes, even if you don’t tell me, I will be able to figure out what’s going on with my body sooner or later… Science never lies.”

“You can’t be sure that the data you remember is ‘true’.”

“I saw you when I crawled out of the ruins. Who else has the opportunity to access my memory? In addition, Ruan Xian will not be incompetent enough to expose important information to untrustworthy people. Even for my creation, he only gave the information for the improved version of α-092, not the original Prototype information.”

Ruan Xian’s wrist was still grabbed tightly by Tang Yibu, but he didn’t struggle.

“…Unless those researchers personally stand up and disprove it, I’m not just taking anyone’s bullshit seriously. And being infused with knowledge also gave me a safeguard—even if someone wants to pretend to be a top researcher, they will have to deceive me.”

“A safeguard which allows you to verify the existence of the Prototype in your body…” Tang Yibu released his fingers slightly, looking a little disappointed.

“That’s right. First, let me have a sense of identity with humans, and then let me determine my importance through investigation. These links are difficult to interfere with. After all, the enemy can’t predict where and when I will study my own blood.” Ruan Xian withdrew his hand. “Are you satisfied?”

Instead of being satisfied, Tang Yibu seemed a little lost. He didn’t keep hold of Ruan Xian’s wrist any longer, and his eyes dimmed a little.

“It seems that this is not the answer you want.” Ruan Xian lowered his gaze, ready to clean up the remaining blood in the blood testing machine.

“Even if it is an infused memory,” Tang Yibu’s voice revealed a bit of bitterness, “I originally thought…”

But he didn’t finish what he wanted to say. He just sighed in a low voice. The emotions of the android had always been very simple and direct, so the sorrow he revealed now didn’t have much deep and complicated meaning. It wasn’t much different from the iron bead that Yu Le forcibly carried away from the container.

This time Tang Yibu forgot to lower his voice.

“Is the discussion over? Remember to keep your voice down.” Ji Xiaoman cleared her throat, looking a little drowsy. “I also know a little bit about the technique of memory perfusion… Let’s not talk about this. I’m done here. What are you going to do about Qian Yigeng’s shop?”

She let out a big yawn, then poked her thigh with the tips of her sharp fingers.

“Let’s talk about the situation.” Ruan Xian pulled a chair over and sat down, and then glanced at Tang Yibu, who was still inexplicably depressed.

“Qian Yigeng has 146 stores, large and small.”

Ji Xiaoman pulled up a light screen, sighed, and drew a few strokes on the map with her metal fingertips. Dense spots of light appeared instantly, covering the map.

“There are many others in the upper, mid, and lower town, but most are here. The good news is that his territory is suppressed in the area to the north, and the shops are basically within a radius of 20 kilometers. The bad news is that this area includes the upper two-tier cities.”

“You know very well.” Ruan Xian wasn’t shaken by the news, but politely asked his own questions.

“That’s what I’m going to say next.” Ji Xiaoman bit her lip. “Generally, the store will be equipped with equipment to manufacture new… new products, but the ‘new model’ must be returned to headquarters and approved by Qian Yigeng. I usually make five to ten cybernetic brains for him every week. I have added a spy program to them to locate and observe where they are.”

“Five to ten every week…”

“It doesn’t sound like much, does it?” Ji Xiaoman’s face was a little pale. She crossed her hands and put them on her tight knees. “Don’t forget, even if the body is injured to the point where it can’t survive, the cybernetic brain can be taken out, wiped, and reused. Do you know why my cybernetic brains are durable? When despair and pain simulated by emotions reach its tipping point, the cybernetic brain will burn out… But mine destroys the emotional simulation device, so there won’t be such a problem.”

This time she raised her head and looked straight at Ruan Xian. “This means that every week, five to ten cybernetic brains will be worn out and scrapped simply because ‘the body is replaced too quickly’. Based on this data, it’s estimated that those stores will ‘kill’ an average of ten to twenty products every day.”

Anger made her entire body tremble, but Ruan Xian simply nodded. “Okay, but Miss Ji, we originally planned to deal with him. I’m glad you gave us some credibility, but unfortunately, this information is useless—we burned the store in the southwest today and thus already have a sense of the atmosphere.”

A trace of disbelief flashed in Ji Xiaoman’s eyes, as well as a little weird joy.

She took a deep breath, and the next explanation was more succinct. “I will pass the information about those stores to your wristband, and when necessary, I can detonate my cybernetic brains… I think this information is useful to you.”

“Xiaoman, Xiaoman.” The woman had woken up at an unknown time. She was wearing a pair of wool slippers with some slits and walked out from behind the metal plate. “Xiaoman, it’s already late. Good girl, go to bed.”

“Mom, you go to bed first.”

“Don’t do your homework too late. It’s not good for your health.” The woman was still unresponsive, and she was stumbling, not like an ordinary stammer. “If it doesn’t work, I can submit a health report to… To the teacher. The Prevention Agency stipulates—”

“Okay mom, I’ll go to bed in a while.” Ji Xiaoman stood up and held the woman. “You are weak. It’s true that you have to rest quickly. “

“Be obedient, be obedient.” The female android insisted with the momentum that she won’t lie down if Ji Xiaoman didn’t sleep. “Xiaoman, if you don’t obey, you’ll have to go to memory therapy on weekends.”

“I see.” Ji Xiaoman waved her hands at the two people who were still in the container, motioning them to leave. “I’m going to sleep now.”

Tonight was destined to be an uneasy night for Qian Yigeng.

Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu didn’t return to the off-roader. There were only five shops in uptown. Bringing Yu Le would cause a lot more trouble. If it was just the two of them, Tang Yibu could act faster.

In addition, the android was in a really bad mood. If they went to sleep like this, Ruan Xian intuitively felt that the other party would lie next to him and stare at him all night, like he did when they first met.

Rather instead of suppressing these emotions, it was better to use destruction to vent them.

Due to geographical factors, the air in uptown was much better than that in the lower town. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the influence of visibility, but the buildings looked a little bit more refined and cleaner. However, this was also limited to “a little bit”. Those messy advertising projections were still there, and the number of people who violated the curfew wasn’t small either; about a quarter of the number in lower town.

Many young people roamed the streets, spraying 3D graffiti in the air with fixed spray paint, or painting a few exaggerated nude bodies. Many people who didn’t violate the curfew were also awake as bursts of alcohol music came from brightly lit building floors.

The monster-like city didn’t disappear, but rather came closer to them. From a vague shadow in the dark to a clear image, every poisonous scale gleamed.

However, for Ruan Xian, the “good view” was enough.

After loading the bombs, he didn’t detonate them right away. He led Tang Yibu to sit in an area with relatively sparse buildings—although they were still surrounded by dark walls and dim lights.

The tops or ends of most buildings could be seen here, and the streets and alleys under them were gone, turning into the bottom of a dark abyss.

Ruan Xian sat on the edge of the building, not looking at the thick darkness under his feet. He stretched out his hand and rubbed Tang Yibu’s soft black hair beside him.

“No one is listening here, and those monitors have been bypassed by us,” Ruan Xian said softly. “Do you want to think about it and finish the half of the sentence you didn’t say? Who do you want me to be?”

Tang Yibu looked at him steadily for a while, then suddenly leaned over and touched Ruan Xian’s cheek lightly with his lips. Then he stretched out his hand and kneaded the other party’s left ear, all the way to the soft earlobe with the earring stud embedded in it; his expression slightly sad.

Although Tang Yibu said nothing, Ruan Xian understood what the other party meant.

‘Sure enough, it was too early,’ he thought. Even if the android was really shaken, he was definitely not softened. It was necessary to control the degree well, and he had to know how to take things as they came.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to say it. It’s only fair… Since I’m not honest with you either. I’m just a little curious.” He turned his gaze to the dim space in front of him. “Look over there. A small gift. Cheer up.”

Five dots in the dark urban area became brighter and brighter, and as the alarm sounded, five blood-red smiley faces were sprayed into the sky above the building. At this distance, they were at most the size of five grapes, but fortunately they were clear enough.

“Smile when you don’t know how to deal with emotions.” Ruan Xian looked at the bright red pattern in the distance. “Even if it’s a smirk, as long as it’s realistic enough, the brain will give a little pleasant feedback… Although I don’t know if this theory applies to a cybernetic brain.”

If Ruan Xian looked at Tang Yibu at this time, he would not miss the enlargement of the other party’s eyes at this moment. The android stared at the side of the person next to him and even stopped breathing.

[A small gift.] In his long memory, his maker sneaked into the machine room again. [NUL-00, look at this.]

Ruan Xian drew a crooked and clumsy smiley face on the light screen. He thought the technique was very poor.

[Recognized as a smile, one of the ways humans express positive emotions.] He still responded honestly, [The drawing is terrible.]

[…] His maker in a wheelchair showed an almost equally crooked smile that would be terrifying to humans. The disease had paralyzed most of the muscles in Ruan Xian’s face. [You’re really merciless.]

[Because this is your gift to me, I have the right to express my feelings.] Or so NUL-00’s own very fair-minded self said.

[Are you happy?]

[Unable to judge.]

[When you don’t know how to deal with emotions, it’s always good to smile.] His maker directed the wheelchair to approach and patted his interactive display. [In humans, even if it’s a smirk, as long as it’s realistic enough, the brain will give a little pleasant feedback. But for you…]

He reacted very quickly in his memory, and he knew how he should react. However, he had no face, no hands, and could only make a slightly stiff synthetic sound, unable to complete this extremely simple action that humans could do.

But he still found that way.

NUL-00 activated the light screen projection and projected two simple characters in front of the other person…

[:D]

Now he had no interactive display screen, nor did he have the ability to project light screens, but he had hands and…

Tang Yibu reached out his hand and pulled the face of the person in front of him to face him, and then he smiled.

“I’m smiling,” he said.

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The author has something to say:

Tang: Confused (???

Ruan: Running the train with your mouth full* (×

*(满嘴跑火车) Has three meanings. 1. Derogatory context describing someone who is bragging/being smug. 2. Derogatory term describing people who have no control over what they say and speak irresponsibly. 3. Describing someone who is well-spoken and articulate. || In this context, it’s most likely referring to 2 in the sense that what Ruan Xian said (about smiling) had inadvertently potentially exposed his horse’s feet (his identity as Ruan Xian to Tang Yibu).

Tang is starting to unveil the cover of the horse’s feet.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Ahhh Tang Yibu’s about to find out!

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