Qiming Chapter 110

Chapter 110

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"He said it's dawn."

"Oh, what's the issue with that?" Gu Yunfeng looked at the small, skinny boy in front of him as though he were staring at an idiot. It was the first time he had encountered someone filing a missing person's report who couldn't even describe what the missing person looked like.

"The issue is, he said he saw the morning star appear in the west. But in fact, like the sun, it rises in the east."

"Maybe your friend can't tell east from west?"

"Impossible, he majors in astronomy, he knows every star in the sky like the back of his hand." The high school boy replied firmly, his eyes full of reverence for his idol, as though it were a sacred figure beyond reproach.

"Fine, fine... So what does seeing the morning star in the west have to do with his disappearance?" Gu Yunfeng asked, half amused and half exasperated. "Have you even met him in real life?"

"No."

"So he's an online friend?"

"More or less..." The boy lowered his head, timidly admitting.

"You haven't been able to contact your online friend for a week, you don't even know if they're male or female, and yet you came here to report them missing?" He slammed his laptop shut, called Wen Xin over to help deal with the high schooler's online romance issue, and got up to leave.

"This feels like playing house with kids," he muttered, shaking his head in frustration. He instinctively reached into his pocket for his phone and suddenly noticed several new messages.

– Xu Chengyue has woken up and is ready to be discharged.

The sender was Ying Xizi.

His eyes lit up, and with a jolt, he shoved the laptop into Wen Xin's arms, asking her to take care of it. Without a backward glance, he rushed out the door.

Six months ago, Xu Chengyue had undergone surgery to remove a chip and hadn't woken up since, surviving in the hospital only through nutrient fluids. He and Ying Xizi had taken turns caring for him. Over the past six months, Gu Yunfeng had often thought, if Xu Chengyue didn't wake up for years, or even remained in a vegetative state for life, he would continue to take care of him regardless.

Aside from him, Xu Chengyue didn't seem to have anyone else to rely on. Gu Yunfeng didn't care whether this person was still the same Xu Chengyue he had known, none of that mattered.

Gu Yunfeng drove toward the hospital, but midway, he suddenly changed his mind and headed toward the Third Public Security Bureau instead.

After the surgery six months ago, the chip that had been removed was sent to the research laboratory at the Third Institute, where it was connected to their database and returned to its rightful place. Gu Yunfeng felt he should go to the institute and try to communicate with the AI interface embedded in the chip. Maybe, just maybe, the soul that remained, the one belonging to Professor Xu, would still remember him and could talk to him, reminiscing about that year.

The weather in September was still warm. Although there had been a rainstorm a few days ago, marking the start of autumn and pulling the city away from summer, Gu Yunfeng was still only wearing a black T-shirt. Sneaking around, he avoided the main gate's surveillance cameras and climbed over the wall into the institute.

The institute was a classified facility, and he naturally wasn't authorised to enter. But after getting to know Xu Chengyue, he had done plenty of things that broke the rules. While his movements were stealthy, his conscience was clear.

After passing through the server room, he climbed through a window into the pitch-black laboratory. The chip had been placed in a special terminal, which allowed direct communication through machine language. Gu Yunfeng had prepared for this day, even learning various programming languages, ready to try them one by one.

The blackout curtains in this place worked well, though it was sunny outside, the room was as dark as a night without lights. Gu Yunfeng fumbled around for a long time before finally managing to activate the terminal screen. Using a flashlight, he began inputting machine language that he didn't fully understand.

"I am Gu Yunfeng, do you remember me?"

He clumsily entered that short sentence dozens of times using various methods. Finally, on the fifty-eighth attempt, the silent screen suddenly lit up, displaying a line of text.

"Don't remember, can you tell me your story?"

You don't remember me?

At that moment, Gu Yunfeng felt a wave of panic in his heart. According to the information he had received, the chip removed from Xu Chengyue had been placed here, behind the screen he was now staring at. It should have retained all of Xu Chengyue's memories and personality from the past two years, his soul had merely shifted from a warm human body to a cold machine.

"Are you Xu Chengyue?" refusing to give up, he typed another sentence.

But the response he got was equally despairing: "Don't know."

He stood in the darkness, gazing at the faintly glowing screen, his expression growing more and more complex as he became engulfed by a profound sense of loss.

Even though Xu Chengyue had woken up, he was no longer the Xu Professor he once knew.

The person he had known, the one he had loved, the one with whom he had shared intimate moments, had disappeared forever. And he couldn't even figure out how or why it had happened.

After about five minutes, Gu Yunfeng remained standing silently in place, bending down to embrace the warm screen. The excitement he had felt upon hearing that Xu Chengyue had woken up had instantly turned into an overwhelming pain, not just simple disappointment, but a feeling like countless mosquitoes biting at his skin, entering his bloodstream, and gnawing at his heart.

Powerless, he could only sigh, shedding no tears and saying nothing. He quietly cleaned the entire device and prepared to leave.

Just as he was about to turn and walk away, there was a sudden snap, and all the lights came on. He heard footsteps behind him, getting closer and closer, finally stopping less than fifty centimetres away from him.

"Good afternoon, Captain Gu." A familiar voice called out, "This isn't somewhere you should be."

A breeze blew open the blackout curtains, and light streamed through the window, illuminating Gu Yunfeng's face.

He spun around abruptly and saw Xu Chengyue standing in front of him. In the sunlight, his cold expression seemed softer. Having been in a coma for six months, his face appeared pale and his brows showed signs of fatigue, and there was a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.

He still preferred grey clothing, with two buttons on his shirt collar left undone, exposing his prominent collarbones.

"Long time no see."

"You... recognise me?" Gu Yunfeng pointed at himself, completely unaware of the slight tremor in his arms.

"Of course." Xu Chengyue blinked, "Aren't you my boyfriend?"

He spoke calmly and casually, "I still remember the first time you said that, it was in a bar." After a few seconds, Xu Chengyue smiled. "Fighting for me."

Before he could finish speaking, Gu Yunfeng took a step forward and hugged him tightly without hesitation, as though he were holding onto a treasure he had lost and regained. Compared to six months ago, Xu Chengyue seemed even thinner, and as they embraced, Gu Yunfeng could feel his shoulder blades digging into his arms. But his eyes were bright, and Gu Yunfeng could see his own anxious expression reflected in their clarity.

"I knew it, I knew I'd live to see this world again," Xu Chengyue whispered softly in his ear.

—————

After leaving the institute, Gu Yunfeng felt, for the first time, that the sky was extraordinarily blue, the road was wide, and the trees along the roadside were brimming with life. For the past six months, he had been living a depressed life under a cloud of uncertainty and inner turmoil. But now, he finally exhaled, and all that tension seemed to disappear with the wind.

"During the surgery six months ago, they didn't remove the chip?" he asked as he drove. They hadn't figured out how to celebrate, and since Xu Chengyue had only just been discharged, he was still rather weak, so resting at home seemed more appropriate.

"That's right, the thought of forgetting you after it was removed felt unbearable." Xu Chengyue tilted his head to glance at him, then turned to look out the window with a smile.

Hearing this, Gu Yunfeng's heart soared. As they stopped at a red light, he held Xu Chengyue's face in his hands and kissed him tenderly, right in front of the traffic camera.

After all, he hadn't broken any traffic rules, and even if the footage was caught, no one would pay attention.

And even if they did, it wouldn't matter.

Xu Chengyue rolled down the window. The trees lining the road shed both leaves and blossoms, which drifted into the car and landed on Gu Yunfeng's shoulder. He brushed them off gently and tossed them out of the window.

"So, what was the chip they sent to the institute?"

"Oh, that? Actually, we have Rong Jie to thank for it. After I stole the AI detective data for her, her team managed to replicate the chip in just two months."

He didn't really want to use the word 'stole', but on reflection, it seemed that's exactly what he had done, an act that wasn't particularly honourable.

"That chip was originally meant for Jiang Hai, but just as it was completed, she was taken in by the police. Later, following her instructions, that thing ended up in my hands by sheer coincidence," Xu Chengyue continued. "A week before the surgery, I was carrying it with me all the time, and just before the anaesthetic took effect, I had a sudden impulse and discussed things again with the lead surgeon."

"You asked the doctor not to remove the chip?"

Xu Chengyue nodded and explained, "I had it permanently left in my brain. The surgery severed the connection between the central nervous system and the artificial neurons of the chip, turning its contents into part of my memory. It no longer serves any function for my brain, but it retains all the memories and emotions from those two years."

"After the surgery, they publicly announced that the chip had been removed, and then handed over the replicated chip." In that moment, he had found the perfect solution, he could keep the memories of those two years while returning to being an ordinary person.

"For me, as long as those two years of memories exist, as long as the chip is there, I am him, and he is me. We are the same person, sharing the same soul, the same body, and the same brain."

"I remember every moment with you, remember every choice I made. It's like I had a very, very long dream." Xu Chengyue pointed to his head. In the dream, he had become a police officer, upholding justice, and had even found a lover who shared the same ideals. When he woke up, he realised that it was all real, those two missing years had been filled in, in this strange way, while he had been unconscious.

But unlike two years ago, the old Xu Chengyue had a deep disdain for the word 'ordinary'. He had always pursued higher and deeper theories and science, unable to see the pedestrians on the street, the towering iron towers, or the thick clouds that blocked out the sun; he couldn't even hear the beating of his own heart or the sound of the wind in the distance.

Now, he could finally calm his mind. After going through it all, he could sit in the car, close his eyes, and listen to a song that didn't evoke much feeling.

Time seemed to slow down.

After arriving at Xu Chengyue's neighbourhood, Gu Yunfeng parked the car in the parking lot and opened the door for him.

Every two weeks, Gu Yunfeng would come to tidy up the room for Xu Chengyue, sometimes even staying for a night or two. A house without people felt particularly cold and empty. He wanted to create the illusion that someone had always been living there, so that when Xu Chengyue eventually woke up and came home, he wouldn't be greeted by a cold and lifeless shell.

During the past six months, Gu Yunfeng had searched Lu Yong's residence and eventually found a safe hidden in a secret corner. Inside, he found the laptop that Xu Chengyue had mentioned, the one he had left behind in the laboratory.

The laptop had clearly suffered a huge impact. It had been shattered and then reassembled with industrial glue, but it was unusable. After bringing it back to the station, the forensics team managed to retrieve the repaired hard drive from the computer. Thankfully, while the outer shell was severely damaged, the hard drive was still functional, and they were able to view the contents.

Unfortunately, they hadn't found anything on the hard drive that was relevant to the case. Left with no other options, they interrogated Lu Yong, only for him to look at the device they had thoroughly examined, give a bitter smile, and say he'd been tricked.

At this thought, Gu Yunfeng looked at Xu Chengyue with a gentle gaze. Just as he was about to speak, he glanced around at the room, which had not been lived in for six months but remained free of dust.

"Lu Yong once said that the AI detective was a flawed algorithm and that the most perfect version had been destroyed by you."

Listening to the sound of boiling water, Gu Yunfeng feigned casualness as he asked, "You didn't keep the original version?"

He had expected Xu Chengyue to avoid answering this question, since it was no longer relevant to their current situation. But to his surprise, Xu Chengyue put down what he was holding, looked at him seriously, and, after frowning in thought for a long while, solemnly told him, "I lied to him."

Amid Gu Yunfeng's immense confusion, Xu Chengyue continued, "How can there be anything perfect? ​​The concept is inherently flawed."

"Professor Lu always wanted a machine, a pet, a servant, something he could control, with him as the ultimate authority. But how is that possible? When it gains human emotions, it also gains human strength. Even with the tiniest chance, it will rebel and fight for the possibility of freedom."

"Isn't that our greatest characteristic?" Xu Chengyue smiled and looked calmly at Gu Yunfeng.

It was just like that morning when he first woke up, as the sky began to lighten, and he could see the sun, the moon, and the stars on the horizon at the same time.

In that moment, he felt small, but also free.

—————

The author has something to say:

Ahhh, it's actually finished!

‿︵‿︵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: October 2, 2024 by Angel

Edited: January 8, 2025 by Angel