Kou Tong believed that the moment his fingers pressed the key, he meant to pick up. But somehow he pressed the key to hang up. 

He kept his head down, his expression seeming unusually grave. At any rate, Huang Jinchen had never seen him so grave. It was as though he was facing not a phone but the end of the world. 

The three men’s gazes paused on the slider phone that seemed to have turned just now into the TV from The Ring. Half a minute later, it rang again. The words “Call from Mom” once again cheerfully popped up. 

This time, Kou Tong carefully distinguished left from right and picked up. “Hello.” 

A woman’s voice came from the phone, a very soft voice. There were some women whose voices could only tell you their gender but were hard-pressed to inspire others with any fine fantasies. But there were other women who could dazzle people the moment they opened their mouths. The woman on the phone was like this. 

Kou Tong’s phone was on speaker. He put it on the table. The woman gently said, “Why did you hang up on me?” 

The glib Kou Tong, who could pull a truck full of nonsense, was at this moment dumb as a wooden chicken, utterly speechless, like a child who had been sneaking out of class and was suddenly called to the podium by the teacher. He couldn’t say a word. 

Not getting an answer, the woman asked, a little doubtfully, “Hello? Tongtong, can you hear me?” 

Huang Jinchen was horrified by “Tongtong” and stamped on Kou Tong’s foot under the table. 

Kou Tong said, “Ow! Huh? Oh…I’m driving, can I call you back later?” 

He pronounced the lie unblushingly, as though he had it at his fingertips. He was obviously a practiced hand. Then he stamped at the place where Huang Jinchen’s foot was under the table. The latter dodged very nimbly. Since the floor of the coffee shop wasn’t made of gelatin, Kou Tong once again grimaced in pain. 

The woman was a little disappointed. “Oh…then be careful. I just wanted to ask whether you’re coming home for dinner this weekend?” 

“I’m not…” When the words reached Kou Tong’s lips, he suddenly stopped, frowned for a while, the said, “All right, I’ll be home tonight. And…can I bring two friends with me?” 

“Sure, that’s great! It’ll be lively with more people. I’ll make a few extra dishes!” 

Huang Jinchen noticed that Kou Tong seemed to be avoiding the places where he ought to be calling her “mom.” When he hung up the phone, Yao Shuo looked at him, frowning. “What’s wrong?” 

Huang Jinchen sincerely said, “Don’t rush, don’t be scared. When your hands stop shaking, we can take our time talking about it.” 

“I think I know approximately what’s happening now.” Kou Tong decided to follow along with Lao Yao, going the serious route, firmly ignoring Huang Jinchen. “In the initial stages of this Projector’s design, I had a tentative plan to develop a program with a treatment function—you said that you looked into it, so you should know that whether a person is screened off or the main conscious subject of the projection space, they don’t play a role in the projection space. In other words, there are other living beings in the space, but there aren’t people who interact with outsiders like us—in my planned program, the system’s automatic generation could set a character for an outsider using the projection system and let the conscious subject live inside.” 

“That magical?” Huang Jinchen sighed in admiration. “So if you wanted a guy, you could have a guy, and if you wanted a girl, you could get a girl!” 

Kou Tong shook his head. “It was only a tentative plan. Human psychology is too complicated. Even if you know where a person’s problem is, you still need to set a course of treatment according to their specific circumstances, and much of the time relevant drugs are also needed. At present, this tentative plan can’t especially be realized. The only part I could resolve with the program was the system randomly assigning the conscious subject a character. I did that, and it was an incomplete program. For some reason, it suddenly activated just now.” 

“So now you have a mom,” Huang Jinchen summarized. 

In that moment, Kou Tong’s expression went blank. After a long while, he quietly said, “When I planned it, I never thought there would come a day when it would operate, so the ethical problems involved…” 

But no one paid attention to him. Clearly the others didn’t especially want to discuss societal and ethical problems. Huang Jinchen had already eagerly called a server over, as though going to see Kou Tong’s ghostly mother was a very stirring great adventure. 

Yao Shuo, meanwhile, got out his own phone and stared at it blankly for a while. When Kou Tong and Huang Jinchen were standing and ready to leave, he finally came around and stood up as well in agitation. 

Huang Jinchen asked, “Chief Kou, do you know how to get home?” 

“By the back door,” Kou Tong said pithily—as though the coffee shop’s back door had turned into an Anywhere Door that could take you anywhere from the Ice Age to Messier 78. 

This time, the back door didn’t open onto the mountain susceptible to natural disaster. Instead, there was a not very wide alley, perhaps a little wider than the average alley, but still not reaching the level of a “street.” There were old-fashioned, mottled apartment blocks on both sides with iron sheets stuck on the doors, much of the writing on them already indistinct. You could just make out information like “So-and-so Family Floor.” 

This didn’t form a neighborhood, and it certainly didn’t amount to real estate. There were a few small stands in the alley—they must have been illegal. There were also many rooms rented on the ground floor that had been turned into little shops. There were bicycles and pedestrians coming and going, the ringing of bells rising and falling, seeming very lively. 

This was over a decade ago… This was the thought that came to the three men simultaneously as they stood at the mouth of the alley. Six or seven years earlier, according to city planning, these unruly residential areas that didn’t form neighborhood had nearly disappeared. 

Evidently, based on Dr. Kou’s face with its expression like a coffin and the complicated look in his eyes, Huang Jinchen judged that this must be his way home…or rather, his former way home. 

The old hedgehog Yao Shuo suddenly calmed down. He followed the two of them somewhat absent-mindedly. 

Whether because it had been too long or because Dr. Kou’s memory wasn’t very good, the tangled alleys seemed to pose a bit of an obstacle. Often, walking and walking, he would think that something was wrong, then retreat and turn down another path. 

Huang Jinchen bought a roast lamb skewer by the road and ate as he walked. He watched Yao Shuo take his phone out and at last get up the courage to dial a number. Then, probably not waiting for it to connect, he hung up. 

Huang Jinchen’s glimpse was very good. He saw that the person he had dialed was “Lianqing.” 

Dou Lianqing—Yao Shuo’s wife. 

Huang Jinchen ate, getting his mouth covered in grease, and silently came to a conclusion. Yao Shuo was scared of seeing his rabbit-like wife. 

At last, after Dr. Kou had taken them down countless paths, the three of them stopped outside an old apartment block, climbed the very poorly lit, very dim stairs to the third floor, and reached a door with a big upside down “fortune” character stuck onto it. 

This apartment’s security door was of the very, very ancient style. You could see the metal-barred door inside with a not very well-matched Spring Festival couplet pasted on either side. Half of the horizontal scroll over the door had fallen off. 

Kou Tong stood at the door for a long time, then lightly reached out a hand. His fingers touched the outdated Spring Festival couplet. One touch, and he drew back. 

On the wall next to the Spring Festival couplet, a kid rather lacking in public spirit had written “Kou Tong’s House.” The “Kou” character was even written incorrectly, missing a horizontal stroke; it was all crooked. 

Kou Tong lowered his head slightly. For a moment, Huang Jinchen, standing on the stairs, thought that a trace of wetness flashed in his long, narrow eyes. 

But it was only a moment. Then it vanished without a trace. 

The sound-operated light was very dim. Under this light, the man’s profile looked softer and more delicate than usual. It seemed to run counter to those acts of his that violated law and discipline. Kou Tong’s brows seemed unusually neat for a man, as if they had been plucked. They were also very long, their tips covered a little by his hair, with a lingering, unspeakably romantic air. 

For a moment, Huang Jinchen felt his heart throb. Then, deferring to his original intentions, he thought, This guy really is a looker. Looking at him makes your heart itch. 

At last, Kou Tong took a deep breath and reached out a hand to twist open the unlocked security door. Before he could knock, the door opened from inside. A woman still carrying a spatula in her hand came out to greet them with an expression almost of happy surprise on her face. “Tongtong, you’re back! Hurry, come in, I was just cooking and heard the door.” 

This woman looked very young—because she had been dead for fifteen years in the real space, her time seemed to be frozen back then. She looked like Kou Tong’s older sister. Kou Tong’s appearance took after hers quite a lot. 

Kou Tong pretended to search for his slippers, lowering his head, not daring to look at her. He only lightly said, “…Don’t call me that in front of people.” 

He still couldn’t call her “mom.” 

Kou Tong’s mom warmly welcomed Yao Shuo and Huang Jinchen, gave Kou Tong an understanding look, and accordingly said, “No problem. Expert Kou, please take your seat. We’re eating soon.” 

Then, extremely vigorously wielding the spatula, she returned to the kitchen. After a moment, she stuck her head back out. “Expert Kou, take your friends to sit in the living room. Oh, don’t forget to wash your hands before eating!” 

Huang Jinchen said, “Pfft…” 

Kou Tong pressed down on his temples, for once feeling a little awkward. 

The three of them went into the living room. Suddenly, Kou Tong stood still, raising his head to look at a photo frame hanging on the wall. In it was a photo of a somewhat younger Mother Kou and a little boy around two or three years old. Judging by the facial characteristics, the little boy must have been Kou Tong as a child. Mother and son were very harmonious, but…the composition of the photo was very strange. 

At a glance, it made you think that something was missing. 

Kou Tong narrowed his eyes. “Strange.” 

“What is it?” 

“This photo used to be a full family portrait.” Kou Tong drew a finger over the unnatural blank space to the little boy’s right. “This used to be my…father.” 

Huang Jinchen thought, Huh? “Mom” and “father”—these two forms of address don’t match. 

Yao Shuo, who had been taking a spiritual journey, suddenly turned his head. In a low voice, he asked Kou Tong, “Could it be that your father simply doesn’t exist in this space?” 

“That’s possible.” Kou Tong paused. “My programming installations were incomplete. Reasonably speaking, this program doesn’t have a unified standard—what identity it ought to give to the conscious subject and what surrounding people he has contact with are probably generated randomly. It’s very likely that someone who used to exist wouldn’t exist, or a person who didn’t exist may appear.” 

Yao Shuo took his phone out again. Huang Jinchen at last couldn’t resist saying, “If you want to call your wife, then call. You won’t lose face. It’s annoying watching you shilly-shally. Aren’t you finished?” 

Just as he finished speaking, Kou Tong’s mom came out of the kitchen carrying two dishes. “Call? You can use our phone to call. It’s a fixed rate, anyway, it’s already going to be paid.” 

Huang Jinchen quickly stepped forward and fawningly said, “Big sister, let me help you.” 

Kou Tong’s expression twisted. “What did you call her?” 

Huang Jinchen flattered: “Of course! Big sister, you look so young and pretty that I can’t call you anything else. It would be against my convictions!” 

Bursting with joy, Kou Tong’s mom asked, “Xiao Huang, do you like bamboo shoots?” 

“Bamboo shoots with fried bacon,” Huang Jinchen shamelessly ordered. 

Kou Tong’s mom clapped her hands. “There’s some bacon in the fridge. Wait, I’ll go fry some up for you!” 

Huang Jinchen laughed. From Kou Tong’s point of view, he seemed to have erupted into lechery. 

Yao Shuo looked from one to the next and at last called Dou Lianqing. He nearly held his breath, seeming to be planning what to say to her. But from the phone came a cold mechanical voice: “The number you have dialed is not in service…” 

Yao Shuo’s expression suddenly became very complicated. In an instant, all the blood drained from his face, but a trace of relaxation irresistibly appeared. 

Then he thought of something and called another number. It was once again not in service. 

Yao Shuo was blank for a long moment. He swayingly walked up to the couch and plopped down as though letting all the breath out of his body. Then, with great struggle, he put on a calm and objective expression. “My wife and son’s numbers aren’t in service. Does that mean…that they also don’t exist in this space?” he asked Kou Tong.