Qiming Chapter 93

Chapter 93

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As soon as Gu Yunfeng finished speaking, Huang Chen rushed out, flinging open the door and glancing left and right. Once his gaze settled, he spun around and shouted angrily, "Gu Yunfeng, are you messing with me?"

"Huh?" Gu Yunfeng's earlier excitement and restlessness instantly vanished. He took a few steps forward, his mood doused like cold water had been poured over him. Outside in the hallway stood a cleaning lady, dressed in a grey uniform, holding a broom. She looked at them with a stern expression. After a brief pause, she turned around and emptied her dustpan into the recycling bin.

"This is...?" Gu Yunfeng's bewildered and indifferent expression made Huang Chen burst out laughing, completely ignoring the disdainful look from the cleaning lady.

"Move aside." Gu Yunfeng waved his hand irritably and, while walking out, dialled Xu Chengyue's number. But the phone rang for a long time with no answer.

Where had he gone?

The snow had stopped, leaving footprints of varying depths scattered about. Rubbing his reddened nose, Gu Yunfeng suddenly sneezed. Turning to Huang Chen, he asked anxiously, "Captain Huang, did you see the friend I came with?"

"That handsome guy?"

"Yeah." Hearing this, Gu Yunfeng couldn't help but feel secretly pleased and immediately started describing him with all sorts of flattering adjectives, barely stopping short of saying, "He's mine, mine, mine."

"I really didn’t pay attention to him." Huang Chen shook his head, pointing to the unclear footprints in the snow. "How about you check the footprints? What shoes was he wearing? What pattern was on the soles?"

"......"

“I don't remember any of that.”

Though he said this, Gu Yunfeng actually bent down and began searching through the snow, which had mixed with ice and dirt, for the footprints. Relying on his faint recollection, he finally traced the tracks of Professor Xu.

– He had headed towards the detention centre.

Gu Yunfeng, unable to laugh or cry, followed the blurred tracks. Moments ago, he had been dissatisfied with their plans to visit the detention centre for a date, but in the blink of an eye, he had thrown away his principles and was running there himself to meet Ying Han. The key issue was that going alone meant he wouldn’t be able to enter, nor would he see anyone. He was merely a university professor now, with no ties to the criminal investigation team or any familial relationship with Ying Han, so no one would let him in for no reason.

As he walked towards the detention centre, the footprints on the ground grew sparser until only Xu Chengyue's remained.

It seemed Xu Chengyue was eager to meet the doctor who had saved his life, as if he wanted to learn something crucial during this unusual time.

That morning, when they had left the house, Gu Yunfeng noticed that Xu Chengyue's wrist was bare. It had been some time since he last wore the watch that contained a built-in GPS and vital signs monitor. Wearing the watch would have put his observers at ease, ensuring his relative safety and avoiding spooking the snakes.

But now, Xu Chengyue had resolutely taken off the watch, disregarding the advice and showing no fear of the person lurking in the shadows, watching him.

Gu Yunfeng suddenly realised that, despite their shared experiences of life and death and living under the same roof, he could never fully understand all of Xu Chengyue's secrets and thoughts. Even though, biologically, Xu Chengyue might not be considered a true human being, by this point, he had developed emotions and self-awareness as complex as any human’s.

These complexities left Gu Yunfeng feeling confused, unable to grasp them, and deeply uneasy.

Holding the visitation permit Huang Chen had given him, Gu Yunfeng followed the trail of Professor Xu's footprints to the detention centre. From a distance, he saw Xu Chengyue, wrapped tightly in his black coat, standing beneath a bare tree. The branches, laden with snow, swayed under the weight.

Through his glasses, Xu Chengyue's clear gaze pierced the grey building. His eyes lifted upwards until they were level with the sky. He blew into his hands, rubbed them together, and then tucked them back into his pockets.

Gu Yunfeng strode over to him with large steps, slipping his right hand into Xu Chengyue's pocket and gripping his cold fingers.

"What do you want to ask him?" Gu Yunfeng teased, "Weren't you just saying you didn’t want to come?"

The rows of barren trees lined the roadside, and it seemed like the entire world had been silenced by the snow, leaving only the sound of their breathing. "Well, since we’re here now, I thought I might as well ask him something. Ask him where I come from, ask him how he felt when the surgery succeeded, ask him if, when I woke up, he thought of his compassion or the countless souls wronged by his hands." Xu Chengyue’s exhaled breath turned into mist, warming the cold air. He looked at Gu Yunfeng in surprise, then lowered his head with a self-mocking smile. In the large pocket, his fingers interlocked tightly with Gu Yunfeng's, "I know what the answer will be, but I still can’t let it go. Stay here, maybe he’ll be more willing to tell the truth if I go in alone."

—————

"Uncle Ying." Xu Chengyue bowed slightly in greeting. Ying Han hadn't shaved for days, and there was a noticeable smell of smoke on him. From what Xu Chengyue remembered, Ying Han had always been someone who took pride in his cleanliness, rarely smoking or drinking. His favourite pastimes had been brewing tea and maintaining his health, certainly nothing unhealthy.

"Chengyue?"

The moment Ying Han saw Xu Chengyue, a flicker of excitement appeared in his eyes, though it was quickly overshadowed by timidity. Ying Han was the sort of middle-aged man who still carried a good temperament, even at fifty. However, the stress of overtime had accelerated his hair loss, and the current grim circumstances had left him looking defeated and worn out.

"I didn't expect you to come and see me." He forced a smile. Ying Han was currently under investigation, which meant he was cut off from the outside world except for contact with his lawyer.

"Have they been giving you a hard time?"

"It wouldn’t be right to say it's hard," Ying Han sighed, "My lawyer visited last week, and they’ve just been asking me the same questions over and over. I don’t have the answers, so I’ve stayed quiet."

"I’ve been interrogated a few times now, and I keep repeating that I don’t know anything, after all, I was only hoping to save more lives through surgery." He stressed this last part, repeating it for emphasis.

"You really don't know anything?" Xu Chengyue interrupted him with the question.

"I'm just a doctor, my job is to cure illness and save lives."

"So you needed a lot of test subjects to achieve your goal of saving lives?"

"Test subjects?" Ying Han forced another smile, "You sound just like them, asking questions I don’t really understand."

"Where would I have gotten test subjects from? I was just performing routine surgeries."

"What about me? Was I just one of those routine surgeries?"

"You were."

Ying Han hesitated for a moment before confirming with a nod.

Xu Chengyue chuckled, "Then what about the chip implanted in my brain?"

Ever since Ying Han had stepped into the detention centre and become a suspect, he'd been evasive, dodging every direct question. He didn’t want to be labelled a criminal, didn’t want to be judged, didn’t want to lose his freedom.

Watching Ying Han’s increasingly strained expression, Xu Chengyue leaned forward, eyes fixed on the older man. This posture exuded an aggressive energy, enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable.

"Xizi hasn’t been well lately. She’s worn out, and she’s not happy. In her mind, you’re not like this." Xu Chengyue’s voice was steady as he spoke from his seat, staring at the man across from him.

"There are no cameras or bugs here, Dr. Ying, you can..."

"I’m just a doctor."

"Fine, then as a doctor, can you help solve my physical problems?" Xu Chengyue’s feelings toward this man were complicated. Ying Han had saved his life, given him the chance to live as a human being, but at the same time, he'd lied and treated life and death so lightly.

"I only need you to clear up my confusion, the rest is for the lawyers to handle."

Seeing Ying Han lower his head in silence, not denying anything, Xu Chengyue finally relaxed and pointed to his own head, "Let’s start with my first question."

"After I fell off the building a year ago, was I ever brain-dead?" When he saw Ying Han’s pupils dilate and the light dim in his eyes, Xu Chengyue’s brow furrowed.

"Let me be more direct, Did Xu Chengyue die?"

"No."

"Did he never die, or did he suffer brain death before you managed to resuscitate him? Or did you implant something to keep him alive, like a walking corpse?"

"There was never brain death." Ying Han hesitated briefly before raising his head to meet Xu Chengyue’s gaze, "Your limbs took most of the impact, and a tree broke your fall. By the time you were brought in, there was still a slim chance of survival, but the likelihood was that you’d end up in a vegetative state."

His straightforward response caused Xu Chengyue to clench his fists, his veins bulging as rage threatened to explode from within, "Then why did you first issue a brain death certificate, only to later claim the resuscitation was successful..."

"Some people wanted you dead, but others wanted you to live," Ying Han replied calmly. "Chengyue, it was all a game of power. The people who wanted you to live won, that’s why you’re standing in front of me today."

"I'm a doctor, and you were my patient. I wanted you to live, I always hope my patients can pull through. But I'm also a husband, a father, a weak, ordinary man."

"Who wanted me dead?"

Ying Han’s sudden honesty left Xu Chengyue momentarily at a loss. His anger subsided, and he clasped his hands together, leaning his elbows on the table for support, "And who wanted to keep using me?"

In that moment, he thought of Lu Yong. The person who wanted him dead had to be Lu Yong. His memory had been altered, so he couldn’t remember the grievances between him and Professor Lu, but to make him fall from the laboratory roof onto the concrete below, only for him to be taken to the hospital half an hour later, he clearly had no intention of letting him survive.

"That I don’t know."

Ying Han didn’t seem to be lying, so Xu Chengyue didn’t push further. The dark room reeked of mould, and insects crawled in the corners along the damp patches. Light barely filtered in, only a few snowflakes drifting through the cracks, melting into puddles on the floor.

He replayed everything that had happened over the past few months, those sudden fainting spells, the autonomous vehicle that had tried to kill him, the dolls and Hello Kitty figure that had smiled at him from the car windows.

All of these events intertwined into a complex web, a game of strategy constantly in motion.

"The chip in my head, did you put it in?"

After a long silence, Ying Han finally spoke, "I don’t know what it is."

"I only performed the surgery to connect your brain’s nerves to an external device via an artificial neural network. The chip you mentioned is probably that external device."

"But as for its function, its dangers, or its core, I know nothing."

At that moment, it seemed as though something dawned on Ying Han. He rubbed his temples and asked, "Chengyue, you asked me to help with your physical issues. Is it this external device causing them? I remember you once suddenly lost consciousness and were brought to me. At the time, the diagnosis was a rejection reaction from the implanted neural prosthesis."

"And in reality?"

"In reality, it wasn’t." Ying Han’s eyes were filled with complicated emotions as he stared at him, "It was the original synapses in your brain beginning to repair themselves, gradually resuming their ability to transmit information, which conflicted with the implanted device."

"Chengyue. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I understand." He nodded, feeling a lump in his throat. He turned to look at the snow outside the window, swirling in the wind, and eventually landing on the ground, in the water, on the lake, and on the treetops. A vast whiteness reflected in his clear but conflicted eyes.

The real Xu Chengyue was close to waking up.

If he continued to do nothing, one day the original Xu Chengyue would wake up fully.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: September 18, 2024 by Angel

Edited: January 7, 2025 by Angel