Program restoration failed….

Retrieval failed…

Try again. 

Restoring again, preparing…

“I told you it wouldn’t work.” Outside the big boiler, the ST Base’s technicians were scrambling. Even the RZ Unit’s Chang Dou had been dragged in. As his attempt to repair the system suffered a setback, Wu Xiangxiang gloomily spoke behind him. 

Chang Dou turned his head, his whole face scrunched into a frown, thinking, How can this person be so annoying? He really wanted to shave off his damn beard. 

Wu Xiangxiang stroked his goatee, looking at him calmly, and, asking for a beating, said, “Even if you scrunch your face up like SpongeBob SquarePants, it still won’t change the fact that your features have determined your low IQ.” 

Then he floated away. 

Chang Dou followed decisively. He saw Wu Xiangxiang pull out a control panel, access administrative mode through the internal network, then explain to Chang Dou, “I think that you probably don’t understand. All of our high-grade equipment here can be accessed through administrative mode by means of emergency mode.” 

Chang Dou thought, Such a basic method of resolution definitely won’t be any use.

As if guiding a feeble-minded child, Wu Xiangxiang said, “During an emergency, administrative mode can locate a conscious subject with one small command—I’ll input the order slowly. If you’d like, you can take notes.” 

Chang Dou thought, Hmph! 

Then the screen said: Searching…

Chang Dou silently recited, Don’t find anything, don’t find anything…

After a while, a dialogue box popped up on the screen. There was a big X on it: Search failed! 

Wu Xiangxiang: “…” 

Chang Dou thought, Oh, yeah! 

Wu Xiangxiang pushed up his glasses. His goatee trembled. He seemed a little out of sorts. Chang Dou deliberately said, “Looks like it won’t work. How about I keep inspecting and repairing the instrument’s faults?” 

Wu Xiangxiang looked at him, then turned and left. In his eyes, Chang Dou had read one word: Hmph! 

So he tossed his head in satisfaction and nearly pranced back to his own station. He also turned his head and excitedly waved to Fang Xiu, who was looking his way from not far off. 

Fang Xiu sighed and glared at him—Shit, this good-for-nothing, he’s out being a disgrace again. 

Chang Dou persisted in waving. It was as if he was a great hero who had just won a battle and wouldn’t give up until the “beauty” had acknowledged him. Fang Xiu at last could do nothing else. He feebly pulled up the corners of his mouth, giving him a false grin. 

Only then was Chang Dou satisfied and eagerly went to work. 

The RZ Unit’s Su Qing was just chatting with General Zhong to get an understanding of the situation. When the conversation reached Huang Jinchen, Su Qing, not quite catching up, said, “Who is Huang Jinchen?” 

General Zhong gave a dry laugh. “The planted agent I placed in Utopia, a very famous sniper with the code name 11235. Since retiring, he’s held a nominal position at our base.” 

A complicated look of misery appeared on Su Qing’s face. 

General Zhong could only say, “You know, Jinchen’s position was special at the time. In fact, he didn’t target you deliberately. He needed to have the other side’s trust, and that’s why he had a few clashes with you…” 

Su Qing forced himself to say, “Yeah, I understand. Now this sniper is in there with Dr. Kou?” 

General Zhong nodded. “I heard the technicians say that their consciousnesses were drawn in together, and they became compulsory conscious subjects.” 

Su Qing rubbed the center of his brow. “How monstrous must that space be if that psycho sniper is in there, too? Will Dr. Kou survive?” 

General Zhong was silent. The two of them looked at each other in dismay, both rendered speechless. 

Kou Tong had picked up the missing teenager He Xiaozhi, and now he had also picked up the genius girl Manman. He was picking them up all over the place like a scrap collector.

They soon ran out of guest rooms. After the crisis of the earthquake had passed, He Xiaozhi had to sleep in the living room. As for Manman, she received the treatment of sharing a room with the lady of the house. 

Kou Tong’s mom quickly discovered Manman’s peculiarity, but she accepted it virtually without obstacle. 

In her own words, the more people, the better; it would be best to fill up every room in the house. Kou Tong couldn’t resist opening his big mouth and asking, “Aren’t there too many people? I can take them somewhere else to stay.” 

But Kou Tong’s mom smilingly said, “It’s fine, it’s fine, I like bustle.” 

After a while, she added, “It’s probably because you never come home that I keep having the feeling that I’ve been alone my whole life.” 

This sentence hit Dr. Kou right in the heart. His health points fell to negative numbers. He was utterly defeated. 

The first night passed in considerable turmoil. The next day, they could finally return indoors to sleep, but there was still turmoil. 

Kou Tong bought rat poison and spread it in every corner, enough to make his mom very bewildered. “Are there rats in our house?” 

“Just in case,” Kou Tong said. He seemed to have suddenly become a germaphobe, turning the whole house upside down. Even in the corridor, he cleaned out and swept every nook. 

Huang Jinchen, stroking Manman’s head, insolently said, “Take a good look, little girl. That’s rat poison, not candy. You can’t go picking it up. If you eat it, you’ll drop dead.” 

Manman raised her head to look at him, and the old rabbit doll with the lascivious expression that she was holding also raised its head. This gave Huang Jinchen a false impression—it seemed that he was an idiot being observed by the masses. 

Manman said, “I know that it’s rat poison. It’s composed mainly of Tetramethylenedisulfotetramine. If you eat it, you’ll be like this.” 

Saying this, she started to walk crookedly, stuck out her tongue, and contorted her face, twitching irregularly. 

Huang Jinchen: “…” 

This unpleasant feeling like having a fishbone caught in the throat truly ought not to be mentioned to outsiders. So he asked, “Why are you so interested in rat poison?” 

Manman said, “In case someone who doesn’t know accidentally eats it and gets like this…” As she spoke, she began to stick her tongue out. 

Huang Jinchen took two deep breaths, thinking, Why does this annoying little whelp keep looking at me when she talks? 

Kou Tong came over and quietly asked Manman, “Apart from the rats, is there anything else?” 

Manman thought about it, then precisely said, “I haven’t found anything for the time being.” 

“OK.” Kou Tong thought for a moment and nodded. When his mom had gone to the kitchen to cook, he quietly said, “Everyone, I currently don’t have sufficient basis to judge what our position is. A multi-person overlapping consciousness space is very dangerous. All kinds of incredible things may happen. And according to Manman, we may also have some hidden enemy… So I request that none of you act on your own at random.” 

“Watch out for rats,” Manman added in pretend earnestness. 

Huang Jinchen patted the back of her head. “Enough, child, this is none of your business. Go watch some cartoons.” 

Manman said, “OK.” 

Then she obediently sat down in front of the TV, stared at the screen for a while, then raised her head and said to Kou Tong, “Uncle, does your TV have an instruction manual?” 

Kou Tong turned the TV on and picked up the remote. “The little genius doesn’t know how to turn on a TV?” 

“I can’t watch TV at home.” Manman was sitting on the couch. The couch in Kou Tong’s house was a little high. In order to lean back against in, her two short little legs were hanging in the air. The kid very calmly said, “My mom has a neurosis. I can’t make noise, or she’ll beat me.” 

Kou Tong’s hands stopped moving. He silently patted her on the head and used the remote to find her a channel showing cartoons. He put the remote next to her and asked, “Did you see how I did that just now? Have you learned it?” 

As was to be expected, Manman nodded. Without any of the curiosity and clumsiness of touching a new thing, she took the remote and familiarly changed from one channel to another. 

Yao Shuo looked at them, nodded to Kou Tong, then returned to his guest room. 

Since calming down from his initial amazement, he no longer took part in group activities, and he normally didn’t especially communicate with the others. He only stayed in the guest room in Kou Tong’s home. When it wasn’t mealtime, he basically wouldn’t be seen. During occasional encounters, when he was forced to talk to others, he still didn’t seem as overbearing as he had been when he had first shown up. 

If forced to describe it, Yao Shuo was like a kid who had just made it through the high pressure of a university entrance exam. The heavy burden he had carried for a long time was suddenly gone; all the things that had been pressing on his shoulders were gone. This seemed to make him so relaxed that he didn’t quite know what to do. Every day he seemed to be sleepwalking; even the look in his eyes was blank. 

He Xiaozhi was simpler. He was like a wandering soul, his condition sometimes good, sometimes bad. When it was good, he could be like an ordinary person, thought his reactions were a little slow, and he didn’t seem very energetic. When it was bad, he was miserable; though they had told her ahead of time, Kou Tong’s mom was still seriously frightened by this teenager’s periodic sudden emotional explosions. 

He could be talking and talking and suddenly flare up, then refuse to speak anymore, or simply lock himself in the bathroom as though bearing some colossal suffering. From inside would come intermittent crying and the sound of him using his nails to pick desperately at the wallpaper. 

His crying was truly too wretched. Kou Tong’s mom could hear it even through the roar of the range hood. A little anxious, she stuck her head out of the kitchen and looked in the direction of the bathroom. She quietly asked Kou Tong, “Is the child all right?” 

Kou Tong’s excuse to her had been that this was a patient whom he had temporarily brought home to stay for a couple days to assist in his treatment. He dropped the bag of rat poison, washed his hands, and stuck up an index finger towards her, making a shushing gesture. Then he knocked on the bathroom door. He quietly said, “Xiao Zhi, open up, it’s me.” 

A tearful, hysterical voice came from inside: “Go away!” 

Kou Tong put a hand on the bathroom door and found that it was locked from inside, so he simply sat down leaning against the wall. He couldn’t be seen through the frosted glass door. Looking out, you could only see the shadow of a person sitting outside waiting. 

Kou Tong, not making a sound, listened to the bitter weeping coming from inside. He lit a cigarette and patiently waited at the door. 

Huang Jinchen raised his head and looked at the living room’s ceiling light. Rather helplessly, he said, “Your house really does seem like a shelter for mental patients.” 

Manman’s gaze shifted from the TV. The TV was playing an old cartoon. The quality of the art and animation weren’t very good. For some reason, looking into her big eyes made Huang Jinchen feel a little uncomfortable. Probably all things that were too pure would make people feel discomfort. 

Manman asked, “Uncle, are you also a mental patient?” 

Huang Jinchen thought about it, then said, “I don’t think so.” 

“Oh,” Manman said. “I don’t think I am, either.” 

“Then why don’t you use your mouth to speak?” Huang Jinchen asked. 

Manman thought about it, then very profoundly told him, “The real is the rational¹.”

Huang Jinchen: “…” He had at last determined that this little devil had read all the books. 

A long time passed, and He Xiaozhi finally wore himself out. He came out of the bathroom and found Kou Tong sitting on the ground with his back to him with a small ashtray at his feet and some thin cigarette butts in it. Hearing a sound, he raised his head and softly said, “Calmer now?” 

He Xiaozhi was so exhausted he could hardly speak. He nodded lightly. 

Kou Tong stood up. Suddenly, he opened his arms and put them around He Xiaozhi’s shoulders. The teenager’s head just reached his nose. He gently held the back of He Xiaozhi’s head with one hand, pressing the teenager’s face to his shoulder, hugging him like one would hug a small child. 

His embrace had a particularly pleasant fragrance, as if scented with some wood, like sandalwood, but softer and lighter than sandalwood. Inhaling it deeply, there also seemed to be some sweetness in it. 

He Xiaozhi closed his eyes. He heard Kou Tong say, “It will pass.” 

What could deal the human heart a sudden blow sometimes wasn’t a sentence but a temperature, a smell, or the form that seemed to be waiting by the edge of the precipice at the end of the line to pull you up. 

Without warning, He Xiaozhi began to cry again. This time he didn’t shout; even his sobs were almost inaudible. But when his tears fell lightly, they had the warmth of life. 

Huang Jinchen looked on objectively. Suddenly, there was a gentle tug at his clothes. Manman, holding her doll with one hand, demanded: “Hug.” 

Huang Jinchen was silent. 

“I want a hug, too,” Manman persisted. 

Huang Jinchen looked down on her from on high. The cynical smile faded from his face, revealing the deep indifference that seemed to be carved into his bones and soul. 

“You can line up over there,” he advised Manman. “Dr. Kou the savior will hug each of you in turn.

“I don’t like holding things if it’s not for the purpose of movement, especially not people.” Then Huang Jinchen stroked Manman’s head, turned, and went into the bedroom.