qizi / 62
The recliner that was originally empty suddenly had a figure lying in it, but that man had both of his eyes shut tight; not a muscle moved, and even his breathing and heartbeat completely ceased to exist, as if dead.
A voice called for him anxiously from the side, but apart from this, there was nothing else this voice could do.
“Xing Lou, Xing Lou!”
It was only after the better half of the day had passed before the one called Xing Lou slowly stirred, his heart gradually resuming its beat alongside his wake.
“I did it,” he said somewhat excitedly after recovering a bit, “I can finally change time when traversing dimensions. I successfully turned time back by 600 years this time, next time…”
“There’s no more next time.”
Yue Ying said dejectedly.
“There is!”
“I just scanned your body. The load on your soul has reached its limits, it can’t hold any more data.”
“That’s impossible!” He didn’t believe it.
“It’s true, you have forcibly kept your memories for four consecutive lives already, and let’s not even talk about the ancient memories that exist too. Every time you travel through time, you’ll bring back even more memory fragments, that’s why your lifespan is shorter with each generation. Your soul has been overwhelmed, if you go against the flow of time again, it’s possible your soul will disperse in the endless river of history.”
Xing Lou’s expression was so dark it was terrifying. Why! He was clearly so close to success already, if he admits defeat now, what would his previous efforts even mean!?
“Don’t tell me useless memories can’t be washed away?”
“Forcibly destroying memories will only cause them to be corrupted. The only way to purge memories is to make the soul pass through the Purification Pool, but although they can be purged this way, it can’t restore a already damaged soul. Retaining the memories of reincarnations was a violation of this species’ initial set up to begin with, it’s possible your future lives won’t be able to inherit any of your existing memories anymore. As a penalty for violating the rules, your soul will decay with each life, until it can’t make it to awakening and die in the Nestling stage, completely extinguished.”
Xing Lou slowly stood up, “I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of living in complete ignorance. If my future life is going to completely forget its past hatred, its pledge, and even you, then I’d rather this life be the end…”
All of a sudden, he whipped his head around, exclaiming, “Who’s there?!”
The uninvited guest stormed in like a hurricane and grabbed Xing Lou’s collar without warning, “I need you to help me kill someone, I definitely need to kill him!”
Xing Lou leaned back a bit to look up, “Whoa, is that you Zhen He? Long time no see, you’ve changed so much I can barely recognize you. How did a staunch opponent of the Adult Ceremony like you end up this way?”
“It’s all because of Zhu Yue! You previously made me investigate Zhu Yue! He…”
“Sorry to interrupt.”
Hearing this voice, Zhen He stiffly turned towards it, and soon saw his nightmare.
“You fucking followed me here?”
Zhu Yue’s self-confidence was much stronger than it was before, but he was still slightly nervous, “It’s not exactly difficult for Qizhu to find their Qizi.”
Evidently, these words vexed Zhen He, so he released Xing Lou and went straight at the other fellow, but the fist he swung out abruptly stopped in front of his face.
Zhu Yue was so scared that he nearly cowered away, but he stubbornly endured it, “I really can’t believe it, the effects of the blood contract still work online. I thought your punch would hit me.”
Zhen He gnashed his teeth in hatred, turned his head, and snarled, “Xing Lou!”
Only then did Xing Lou, who had been spectating from the sidelines for quite a while, open his mouth to speak at a leisurely pace, “It’s like I finally get it…but also like I don’t. Are neither of you willing to explain it in more detail for me?”
“I can explain,” Zhu Yue took a step forward.
“Shut up, it’s obvious!”
Zhu Yue ignored Zhen He, “I know you.”
Xing Lou: “Oh? Maybe we saw each other on campus somewhere.”
The grin on Xing Lou’s face gradually disappeared, “Who are you?”
Zhu Yue took something out from his bosom. When Zhen He saw it, he wished so badly to snatch it over and destroy it. That was the root of all evil that caused his present day doom.
“The calming soul stone, I believe you should recognize it. Legends say it’ll awaken the soul’s earliest memories. You should have one as well.”
Xing Lou didn’t reply, but that was the same as admitting to it.
“Since we all have memories of the past, it’ll be much easier to communicate.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to join forces with you.”
“Xing Lou!” Zhen He cut in lividly, “He’s my enemy, are you still gonna work with him?”
Xing Lou patted his shoulder, “Relax, we’re just casually chatting. Stay here for a moment.”
The two people went to the room next door. Zhen He angrily smashed whatever he saw, but the things here were all virtual reality, so anything that was broken will reload again. When the two people in the inner room came out, everything outside was still in pristine condition.
Rather than saying anything this time, Zhu Yue simply left. Zhen He, having blown off some steam, finally calmed down, and began to stare daggers at Xing Lou with vicious eyes.
“Did you really decide to work with him? You saw what happened to me but you still don’t believe he’s a cunning one?”
“What do you want to do then?” countered Xing Lou.
“I want to kill him of course!”
“And you don’t think that’d be letting him off too easy?”
Xing Lou walked over and affably hooked his arm around his shoulders, “I know you hate him to death, but if you just kill him off like that, he’ll still reincarnate. Can you live knowing that?”
“Say it then, what’s your plan?”
“It’s probable that Tai Yin-daren’s experiments will soon reach fruition. Precisely at that time, you can dissolve the blood contract, regain your freedom, while he once more becomes a Nestling that’s unable to reincarnate; as soon as he dies, his soul will scatter…these two outcomes, which one do you prefer?”
Following Xing Lou’s words, the murderous aura in Zhen He’s eyes also increasingly precipitated, until it finally turned into a sheathed sword.
“I get it now. I’ll bide my time. Before the time comes, I’ll let him live happily, but there will come a day where I’ll let his soul dissipate in front of me.”
It was only after Zhen He left that Yue Ying’s waveform made its appearance on the wall again. He also fully heard the discussion between Xing Lou and Zhu Yue just now.
“Is what he said true?”
“Mm,” Xing Lou had his head lowered, as if deep in thought, “Your previous speculation wasn’t wrong. He’s indeed a survivor of your people, but now, he’s only mixed. I honestly find it hard to believe that he’s been using this method to survive all this time…no wonder he’s so weak…but, looks like he already used his own devises to obtain power.”
“What did you decide to do? Accept his offer?”
“His goals coincide with mine in some ways. I decided to work with him, but only temporarily.”
Voice low, he said, “I find this person truly unpleasant. Once our goal is achieved, even if he’s your last kin, I still don’t want him to stick around.”
Approximately 600 years ago.
“You can open your eyes now.”
With the cover on his eyes removed, Chang Jiang opened his eyes, and gaped at the all there was before him. In front of him lay a still golden-haired Nestling, and to the side of the Nestling displayed several strange apparatuses and computers.
“I heard you’re a rare genius in computing. Not long ago were you the one who hacked into the military’s mainframe?”
The young Chang Jiang was very nervous. It was only out of a moment of curiosity that he invaded the system. He just wanted to test his own abilities, and certainly hadn’t stolen any secrets, but this sort of action in itself was already a felony.
“It’s possible to not penalize you, but only if you do something for us.”
Once Chang Jiang heard that the punishment could be waived, whatever the condition may be, it was all acceptable, “What thing?”
“There was a small problem with the computer here three months ago. We tried everything but couldn’t fix it. We’d like to invite you to help troubleshoot it.”
He said it nonchalantly, but Chang Jiang knew, that since he said it that way, it meant that all of the computer experts in the military lost this fight. His heart felt perturbed, but if he couldn’t fix it, who knows how long of a jail time awaited him.
“I’ll do my best,” he gulped.
The man in front made way for him.
“But before that,” he shot a glance at the bed, at the golden-haired Nestling on it, inexplicably feeling very concerned about him, “Can you tell me who he is?”
“I’m warning you, it’s better to not ask questions you shouldn’t have known.”
Chang Jiang didn’t make a peep anymore. He walked straight to the computer and sat down to begin his work wholeheartedly.
One hour, two hours…several hours later, Chang Jiang still made no progress. Every piece of software in the machine had been completely tampered with, unable to run properly, but it didn’t seem like the manifestation of computer viruses. He had never come across anything like it before.
“How is it?” voiced the man suddenly, scaring the daylights out of Chang Jiang. He had been at the side monitoring him this whole time.
“It’s quite tricky,” stalled Chang Jiang diffidently, “I need a bit more time.”
The officer frowned and strode out. Not long after, two soldiers replaced him and stood guard at the door. Fortunately, they were rather far away, so the pressure on Chang Jiang wasn’t as huge as before.
Suddenly, a strange waveform appeared on the screen. Chang Jiang nervously slapped the keyboard. He clearly hadn’t done anything. The sounds attracted the attention of the guards.
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, it’s all good,” Chang Jiang hastily pressed the restart button, then used his body to block the screen, “Just a slight issue, already fixed it.”
The other party didn’t continue to interrogate him. Chang Jiang sighed in relief and returned his attention to the screen, but saw a strange phrase on it.
——I finally found you.
Chang Jiang was inwardly startled. He saw the flickering cursor on the screen, and hesitantly typed:
——Who are you?
The text on the screen actually refreshed.
——Yue Ying.
Chang Jiang swore he’d never seen that name before. He typed out a whole list this time around.
——What are you? Where are you? Why are you in the machine?
——I’m right next to you.
Next to me? Chang Jiang seemed to realize something, and stiffly turned his head. The person on the bed laid stock-still, and on his periphery was a transparent veil. Chang Jiang realized that it was a vacuum chamber.
This person was Yue Ying? And his consciousness was inside the computer? This was too much information all at once, and Chang Jiang had completely no idea how he should process it.
At precisely this moment, new text appeared on the screen.
——Save me.
Chang Jiang leaned forward.
——How?
It seemed that out of instinctual trust, he basically hadn’t considered the “why” nor the “what will happen if I do”.
——Find the calming soul stone, it’ll help you recover your past memories.
The door was opened once again, and the officer who just left returned. The contents on the screen disappeared in a flash.
“Not done yet?” asked the officer impatiently.
“That,” Chang Jiang hesitated, “I need some assisting software tool, can I bring my usual memory stick?”
“No,” shut down the officer, “Nothing can be brought in, nothing here can be copied out.”
“I can only code those necessary programs now then, it’ll probably delay things for a bit.”
“Then you’ll stay here. You’ll get to leave whenever you fix it.”
The officer left, and Chang Jiang’s gaze floated towards the neighboring bed once more. Yue Ying…
“…I’ll definitely take you away.”
“You’ve already taken me away.”
Yue Ying’s voice rang out. In the moonlight, Xing Lou opened his eyes and saw Yue Ying’s fiber strands glowing in the dark.
“Did you dream about the past again?”
“Yeah,” Xing Lou pinched the bridge of his nose, “dreamed about the first time we met at the Gene Center.”
He got up from bed, and opened the headboard’s secret compartment. Inside lay a calming soul stone that was awfully similar to the one that Zhu Yue had in his hands, except its color was light purple.
Ever since he got that message from Yue Ying, Xing Lou strenuously jumped through many hoops and hurdles to obtain this soul calming stone, and finally restored all of his memories from ancient times. Afterwards, he tried every means possible to copy Yue Ying’s consciousness out, and poured all of his efforts into constructing a shelter for him—precisely the so-called “Tianyuan.com”.
The genius of the computer world, in this way, unlocked a new chapter in the history of the Internet.
“Yue Ying,” he extended his hand, and without a word more, Yue Ying instantly interlaced it.
“I made a pledge to your ancestor that I would always care for his bloodline, but I ended up burying this pledge in oblivion for several thousand years. Several hundred years ago, I promised to take you away, but so far I’ve only taken your consciousness away. If this life is my last life, then no matter what, even if it means taking a gamble on my soul, I will free you from eternal slumber, and take you out of there completely.”
“This time, I will absolutely not forget my pledge.”
Zhu Yue was packing his luggage when the door suddenly opened. He turned his head in shock—it was the person he thought would never come back.
“Why’d you come back again? Didn’t I let you go already?”
“How could I be willing to part with you like that?” Zhen He closed the door with his hands behind his back, “Abandoning your Qizi is illegal. You took my heart-tip blood, so you have the obligation to take care of me until the end. Besides, all of my money is with you, so you weren’t planning to just take off so irresponsibly like that, were you?”
He walked over step by step; they lived together as Qizhu and Qizi for so long, but his presence still brought Zhu Yue pressure. Despite Zhu Yue’s growth, Zhen He was still a full head taller than him as a Qizi. As the latter watched him approach, he couldn’t help taking a small step back.
“Didn’t you say you’ll propose to your superiors to reduce the amount of blood drawn?” Ying Feng’s anger reared its head and was even more transparent than the last few times, “What happened to him now?”
As Ling Xiao laid on the bed, not a trace of blood could be found on his face, his body already on the verge of comatose.
“I-I did apply for it…” stammered Heng He. But the military didn’t approve it, and still demanded that he execute the original plan, so the amount of blood that he drew today accounted for no less than ⅔ of the blood in his entire body.
With a composed face, Ying Feng picked up the vulnerable Ling Xiao by his waist. He struggled feebly for a moment, then earnestly stuck his head into Ying Feng’s chest, and didn’t move around anymore.
Heng He’s eyes trailed after Ying Feng’s receding figure that left while carrying Ling Xiao in his arms. His heart felt uneasy. In the future, similar situations will only happen over and over again. How will he face Ying Feng’s ever-growing desire to protect Ling Xiao?
——Yao Tai (3928-4026), served as a healthcare practitioner for Bikong Academy since 3992, and she resigned in 4026. During her tenure, her approach to work was conscientious and her performance was stellar…
The principal sighed and put down his pen. The person was already gone, so was there any point to recording down this employment history?
It can only be used to enable future generations to remember, perhaps.
Once he walked to the window, a blur of yellow flitted by, and he recognized that it was Ying Feng and co’s ride. One day each week, they depart early in the morning, and only return when evening falls.
But soon, he’ll no longer catch sight of such scenery.
Nightfall at Bikong was as tranquil as usual. After tonight, some people will leave this place, some people will stay, and in the future, when they meet again, it will open a brand new chapter of turbulent times…
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