Chapter 60: Chengnan Bookstore 7
Yi Ke was awakened by the sound of a thunderstorm. He opened his eyes quickly, but upon seeing Zhuang Ningyu leaning beside him, he relaxed again. The dim yellow light of the hall filtered through the gaps in the tent’s screen. The rustling of voices could be heard. He casually grabbed a water bottle from the side and took two gulps, then raised his wrist to check the time. January 31st, 08:00. According to the original rules, Dou Dekai’s wedding should have been in four hours.
But now, the wedding was canceled.
“The new rules haven’t appeared yet,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “The monster has disappeared completely this time. Even Yao Qi couldn’t make him appear. Captain Zhang didn’t believe it and took his team to search again, but each floor was still just white fog.”
Yi Ke snuggled closer, wrapped his arms around his waist, and buried his head, saying muffledly, “Just a five-minute hug. I’ll go to work in five minutes.”
Zhuang Ningyu put down the materials in his hand. “What did you dream about last night?”
“Dream?” Yi Ke frowned, thought for a moment, and then vaguely remembered that he had indeed had a dream last night. He propped himself up. “I dreamed of the ‘programmer.’ I dreamed that under the effect of the model, the mass-produced rule games eventually swallowed the entire world. The AI further evolved into tangible ‘Grand Judges of Good and Evil’ who roamed everywhere. The most basic human definitions of good and evil were gradually blurred, replaced by the mechanical rulings of the Grand Judges. In other words, they became the sole definers of good and evil.”
Zhuang Ningyu touched his ear with the back of his fingers. “I won’t tell you horror stories before bed anymore, lest I scare the little kid.”
The corner of Yi Ke’s mouth curled up. He held his fingers and continued to ask, “Will it happen? Will that crudely made, sloppy program, just by expanding wildly through massive amounts of data, turn the world into a human prison full of bugs?”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head. “It won’t.”
Yi Ke obediently replied, “Okay.”
Zhuang Ningyu was amused. “You believe me just because I said it won’t?”
Yi Ke pressed his hand against his face. “What’s wrong? I believe whatever my wife says!”
Zhuang Ningyu pulled his arm back. “Get lost.”
Yi Ke did not get lost. Instead, he got up and pounced on him, asking with righteous indignation, “How did you know I was dreaming? Were you watching me the whole time?”
Zhuang Ningyu: “…” Careless.
Yi Ke was triumphant. I knew it, my wife loves me!
The next moment, the hidden buttons of the tent door were pulled open with a “snap, snap.” Zhang Hugang’s head immediately poked in. “Captain Zhuang… oh, my.”
He quickly withdrew his head. In his shock, he didn’t forget to press the hidden buttons back for the two of them, his mental fortitude both impressive and not. Looking up, he saw Fu Han across the way looking in their direction, so he quickly turned back to check again, making sure it was completely sealed and that the public wouldn’t see anything they shouldn’t. Only then did he clear his throat and stand up as if nothing had happened, walking away.
Zhuang Ningyu tapped the back of Yi Ke’s head with his phone. “Stop playing dead.”
Before coming back to life, Yi Ke grumbled, “This isn’t my fault, right?”
“It’s not,” Zhuang Ningyu coaxed him. “It’s the fault of the person who didn’t knock.”
Zhang “barges in without knocking” Hugang: “…”
Yi Ke put on his coat, bent down, and crawled out of the tent. Seeing that Fu Han was actually right across from them, his mood improved even more. Even the dilapidated hall looked a little more pleasing to the eye. Five minutes later, Zhuang Ningyu also came out of the tent. Zhang Hugang, who was waiting by the side, immediately put on a warm and brilliant smile, trying to let the wind blow everything away. He then respectfully offered a bottle of water with both hands. “Morning.”
“Morning.” Zhuang Ningyu washed up casually. Just as he finished wiping his face, a piece of bread appeared before him. After serving him food and drink with great diligence, Zhang Hugang felt that this great tribulation should have passed. So he brought the topic back to serious work. “The investigation team found no electronic devices in Tang Xiaoyuan’s home. Her phone call records are also normal. She should have a backup phone.”
“If Tang Xiaoyuan is a ‘volunteer’ for some organization, then she should have two tasks: one is destruction, and the other is to record the data changes in the rule zone after it’s destroyed. Only then would such an experiment be meaningful,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Judging by the amount of drugs she injected, she was determined to perish together with the monster and was not qualified to be an ‘observer.’ So among the remaining people, should there be an accomplice of hers?”
“Not necessarily,” Zhang Hugang said. “I discussed it with the leadership last night. There are two other possibilities. First, the Order Maintenance Department is their observer. Anyway, we record every mission in detail. Even if others observe, it’s impossible for them to observe in more detail than the Order Maintenance Department. They could just steal the data directly after the mission. It’s more labor-saving than training a professional observer. There are precedents for this abroad. Whether through technology, money, or seduction, if they want to corrupt, they can always corrupt. As long as they succeed once, they can obtain massive amounts of data.”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded. “And the second possibility?”
“The second is that it’s aimed at Fu Han.”
“Fu Han?”
“Xiao Yi might be more familiar with the grudges of wealthy families. Should we call him over?” Zhang Hugang asked cautiously.
Zhuang Ningyu stopped him on the spot. “No need to call him. You continue.”
“Fu Han has a half-brother, Fu Dong, who is currently the major power holder in the Fu Corporation. The two brothers have never gotten along, and Fu Dong was once suspected of having connections with the Invisible Giant,” Zhang Hugang said. “So the second possibility is that Fu Dong wants to make the mission fail by destroying the rules, in order to eliminate his rival. Fu Han is not an evolver. His body cannot withstand the distortion and expansion of space.”
“But the appearance of rule zones has, up to now, always been considered a random event,” Zhuang Ningyu frowned slightly. “If it’s really the second possibility, then is this a coincidence, or can rule zones already be manipulated by some means?”
…
Fu Han glanced at his watch. Ten o’clock sharp.
Zhuang Ningyu moved a chair and placed it opposite him. “I have a few things to ask you.”
Fu Han nodded. “Please.”
Zhuang Ningyu didn’t beat around the bush and asked directly, “Is it possible that this rule zone is targeting you?”
Fu Han was puzzled. “I have no connection with any of the people involved in the Zeus Grand Hotel incidents.”
Zhuang Ningyu explained further, “It’s not related to a specific rule zone. I mean, is it possible that someone wants you to stay in a rule zone forever?”
Fu Han frowned and, after a moment, said, “Are you referring to Fu Dong?”
Zhuang Ningyu looked at him and waited for a long time. “And then? You don’t think that just those two words will be enough to get all of us out, do you?”
Fu Han chuckled. “Fu Dong once attended a cruise party in his early years, on the high seas. At that time, the entire ship was swallowed by the white fog and completely cut off from the outside world. It wasn’t until three days later that the rule zone dissipated. The vast majority of participants were unharmed, but the party’s organizer was found dead on the deck.”
No one admitted to the crime. They blamed everything on the monster in the rules. Fu Han continued, “Fu Dong originally detested rule zones, but after the cruise ship incident, he may have discovered that rule zones are, in another sense, ‘high seas.’ In a place enveloped by the white fog, one can act with impunity. The monster is the perfect scapegoat.”
Of course, the “act with impunity” here, to be more precise, should be “acting with impunity without violating the rules.” There were still constraints; it was not one hundred percent freedom. Fu Han said, “If he could completely control the rule zones, I think Fu Dong would be very willing.”
“Can he?” Zhuang Ningyu asked.
Fu Han shook his head. “I don’t know. We’re in charge of different businesses, and we’ve had very little interaction these past two years.”
“Okay,” Zhuang Ningyu stood up and said politely, “If you think of anything else to add, feel free to find me anytime.”
Fu Han watched his retreating back and was reminded of their first encounter outside the flower shop years ago. The sunlight that day shone through the stained-glass window, casting a large, strange halo of light inside the shop, like a divine miracle from God, igniting the entire withered winter day.
However, the “divine miracle” himself was in no mood to play god right now. He habitually glanced at the time, then stopped in his tracks. January 30th, 16:32. This was the time everyone had been drawn into the rule zone yesterday.
“What’s going on?” The others also noticed this anomaly, and a small-scale panic broke out on the scene.
Zhang Hugang took his team members to appease the crowd. Time disruptions often occurred in rule zones, especially in recent years. Yi Ke strode back to Zhuang Ningyu’s side. “Combined with last night’s ‘programmer’ theory, could this be considered a ‘game rollback’?”
Because the appearance of rule zones themselves was completely irregular, when time paradoxes occurred within the rules before, both witnesses and analysts would generally only regard it as a type of rule. As for why some time paradoxes were related to the logic chain of the solution, while others seemed to be just simple time paradoxes, there was currently no unified explanation.
But if it was viewed as a system reboot after a crash, then the question of “why do time paradoxes completely unrelated to the logical chain appear” seemed to have an answer—because the actual situation in the rule zone seriously conflicted with the set logic chain of good and evil. For example, this time, Zhuang Ningyu said, “Is it possible that after Tang Xiaoyuan appeared, the rules suddenly discovered that Dou Dekai, whom it considered to represent ‘good,’ had actually become ‘evil’ in the whole story? But the existing model couldn’t calculate under what circumstances the ‘evil’ Dou Dekai could continue to follow the original plot that only the ‘good’ could have. So it simply and crudely chose to reload the save file, directly erasing Tang Xiaoyuan’s existence?”
“Just ignore the bug and force everyone to continue playing a game full of logical errors. And he still wants to be the grand judge of morality?” Yi Ke was disgusted.
Zhuang Ningyu gestured for him to be quiet. “There’s a strange noise.”
“Thump! Thump!” The familiar footsteps.
One big foot, then another.
Dou Dekai, dressed in a tuxedo, appeared before everyone again, looking the same as yesterday, with no dagger in his head and not beaten to a pulp.
With their previous experience, the trapped people were much calmer this time, all turning their gazes to Ni Ruiling. But this time, the monster’s choice had changed. His gaze first swept over everyone, then began to move back and forth between Ni Ruiling and Yao Qi, as if he were struggling to decide which of the two great beauties was more suitable for him. After a full ten minutes, he finally made up his mind, knelt on one knee before Yao Qi, and took out a ring made from a can’s pull-tab from his pocket.
A circle of men around them: We’re impressed. We have to apply for work injury compensation for Xiao Yao after this.
Yao Qi cooperatively put on the ring. Dou Dekai immediately stood up joyfully, trying to pick up his fiancée and spin her around romantically, but was stopped by Yi Ke’s hand. Zhuang Ningyu patted the monster’s shoulder. “Brother, you should be preparing for tomorrow’s wedding. Where’s the groomsmen party?”
Several tall and strong action team members immediately stood up and, with a combination of pushing and shoving, boisterously ushered Dou Dekai out the door. The name on the invitation changed to Yao Qi. The recruitment poster did not reappear, but it was no longer necessary, as the entire “wedding planning team” was now within the rule zone.
Zhuang Ningyu nudged Yi Ke. “What are you thinking?”
Yi Ke said thoughtfully, “I’m thinking, if the game has already reloaded, why are the one hundred and twenty people who came in later still here? Shouldn’t they have disappeared from the rule zone when the time went back to January 30th?”
“Because once a person enters a rule zone, they cannot leave safely unless the game ends normally. This is the first rule,” Zhuang Ningyu explained. “This logical chain is crude and simple, requiring no design, so it has never had a bug.”
“Captain Zhuang,” Yao Qi at the side suddenly said, “There are words on the pull-tab!”
She tried to take the ring off, but the damn thing seemed to have grown into her flesh. She had to hold out her hand. “It’s a date.”
“June 7th, New Calendar Year 898”
This was four years before the explosion. The words looked like they were carved by Dou Dekai himself with a small knife, crooked and with varying depths of marks.
Zhang Hugang released Yao Qi’s hand. “He even knew to find a Red Bull pull-tab. So he knows that gold looks good.”
Zhuang Ningyu checked the weather forecast. On June 7th, New Calendar Year 898, in Jincheng, there was a heavy rainstorm. He waved his phone. “This day must have had a special meaning for Dou Dekai.”
“Usually, a date engraved on a wedding ring should be the time the bride and groom first met, right?” Zhang Hugang said. “But Xiao Yao was still studying abroad at that time, how old was she? It’s impossible for her to have met Dou Dekai.”
Yao Qi also shook her head.
But if it was a date unrelated to the “bride,” why engrave it on the wedding ring, and even replicate the weather of that day?
The thunder roared loud enough to almost shatter the entire Zeus Grand Hotel. Rain poured into the dome, just like Dou Dekai’s ecstatic mood before his wedding.
The sky darkened again. Yi Ke sat beside Zhuang Ningyu. “What are you looking at?”
“The information on the explosion case,” Zhuang Ningyu moved aside, making a space for him. “I still feel that it’s a bit strange that Dou Dekai chose to commit suicide because of a house, but in the rule zone, he doesn’t mention the house at all.”
“Didn’t you say it?” Yi Ke held the computer for him. “It’s an increasingly crude game, full of logical errors.”
“That is indeed one explanation, but we can also analyze other possibilities. After all, this bug is a bit too obvious,” Zhuang Ningyu flexed his sore wrist and opened Dou Dekai’s post-mortem photo again. The blackened smile was magnified and shrunk, shrunk and magnified. After more than a dozen times, Yi Ke said, “I’m going to have nightmares.”
Zhuang Ningyu double-clicked to close it. “Dou Dekai’s suicide note was cynical, filled with resentment towards society. Even his final choice to become a ‘hero’ seemed more like a forced ‘heroism’.”
Yi Ke nodded and asked, “And then?”
“If that’s the case, then when he chose to perish together with the Bao father and son, his heart should have been filled with unwillingness and grief. Why would he have a smiling expression?” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Of course, you could say it was the crazed laughter of a TV show villain after succeeding, but I just feel that his smile… it looks quite genuine.”
Yi Ke pointed out, “Yesterday you said his smile was bizarre.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “That’s why I have to re-watch it repeatedly today to correct my mistake.”
“…Continue.”
“The bizarre part was mostly due to the color of his skin. If you ignore that, his smile is actually very normal.”
“What does that represent? That in the last moment of his life, he finally had a great epiphany and forgave the entire society?”
“It represents that he might not have known he was going to die.”
Yi Ke’s pupils dilated.
From Zhuang Ningyu’s angle, he could just see the fine hairs on his face stand up under the light. He then let out a “pfft” of laughter and reached out to pat his face. “Why is this little kid so easily scared?”
Yi Ke held his hand. “Are you saying Dou Dekai was murdered?”
There were many people in the hall. Zhuang Ningyu pulled his hand back. “You also felt before that ‘explosives bought on the black market having a delay, and the buyer not knowing’ was a bit unrigorous. So let’s assume that the reason Dou Dekai’s body appeared in the southwest corner, which didn’t have a good view, wasn’t because he was checking the explosives. He might not have even known about the explosives, but was simply trying to observe whether Bao Yuzhou had left through that narrow window in the southwest corner.”
The bag containing three million yuan was within reach. The ecstasy on his face could be explained. In addition, the question of “why the house wasn’t mentioned in this rule” also had a reasonable explanation—because before his death, Dou Dekai had already come to terms with the unfinished building. He had not only gotten his purchase money back, but also earned an extra million. That’s why his unfulfilled wish had returned to “getting married.”
“If it was really a murder, then Dou Dekai was just a tool. His social connections were simple. At most, he was a bit annoying on the subway, but he didn’t cause any substantial harm to any woman,” Yi Ke thought. “The real target of this explosion was actually Bao Mingming? As Bao Yuzhou’s only son, he could attract much more hatred than a minor employee like Dou Dekai.”
Zhuang Ningyu said “mm” in agreement. “Possible.”
Yi Ke thought for a while longer. “Then how do you explain the dozen-second delay of the explosion?”
If the mastermind only wanted to kill Bao Mingming, he could have detonated the bomb before Bao Yuzhou arrived.
If he wanted to kill both Bao Mingming and Bao Yuzhou, he should have pressed the button when Bao Yuzhou walked into the warehouse.
But he chose to do it after Bao Yuzhou had left the warehouse, before the car had started—giving Bao Yuzhou an open ending of life or death, all depending on luck.
“I lean towards him wanting to kill both father and son,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “The Zeus Grand Hotel is on open ground, and there were no tall buildings around at the time. For the murderer, the most convenient and safest method would have been to install a camera in a hidden spot in the warehouse to decide the timing of the detonation. I had the investigation team check, and they found that the base stations in that area were undergoing maintenance at the time. The shutdown or adjustment of equipment would cause a local signal weakening, and a SIM card camera would experience a delay when the signal is bad. So the Bao Yuzhou the murderer saw on the other end of the computer could have been the Bao Yuzhou from dozens of seconds ago.”
Yi Ke said, “Then Bao Yuzhou was also quite lucky.”
Zhuang Ningyu put his arm around his shoulder. “This is just my speculation. You can roughly organize it and send it to District Chief Yu and Director Huo.”
“Okay,” Yi Ke asked, “Where are you going?”
Zhuang Ningyu fished a bottle of water from his pocket. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m watching you write the report.”
“Don’t drink this, it’s too cold,” Yi Ke took the water bottle away and took out a thermos from the other side. The moment Zhuang Ningyu saw the familiar business-style cup, he immediately felt that his official duties were busy and he might need to go somewhere else to continue working for a while, so he patted his butt and tried to run. But Yi Ke was extremely quick-witted and fast, grabbing the back of his collar and pulling him back to his side. “I’m not lying to you. This time it’s really apple juice. Old Zhang’s late-night snack he just boiled.”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head vigorously, refusing to believe. You have lost your most precious credibility with me. The story of ‘the boy who cried wolf’ can only be told three times at most.
“The water I packed for you was finished yesterday. Old Zhang couldn’t have brought dried tangerine peel in with him,” Yi Ke helped him unscrew the lid. “Drink slowly, be careful it’s hot.”
Zhuang Ningyu was still skeptical. “Really?”
Yi Ke nodded. Yes, yes, yes.
Zhuang Ningyu took a sip from the cup, and his eyebrows and nose scrunched up again. He asked in pain, “What’s this taste?”
Yi Ke was stunned for less than half a second, then quickly reacted, reaching out to slap his back hard. “Spit it out!”
Zhuang Ningyu was caught off guard and really did vomit from the slap. He supported himself on the ground with one hand and coughed violently. Yi Ke took the cup and sniffed it, then leaned in to observe him nervously. “How do you feel?”
Zhuang Ningyu was utterly baffled and out of breath, unable to speak for a long time. Yi Ke became even more panicked, dropped the computer, and pulled him to go to the medical team for a check-up. Zhuang Ningyu was dragged several staggering steps, feeling dizzy. He finally managed to grab a broken window in the corridor to steady himself. “Wait… wait a minute.”
“What exactly does the water taste like?” Yi Ke held his face in both hands and continued to ask anxiously. “How much did you drink just now? Did you spit it all out?”
Zhuang Ningyu answered in a hoarse voice, “It tastes exactly like apple juice.”
Yi Ke: “?”
Zhuang Ningyu felt his head buzzing.
Yi Ke let out a sigh of relief, helped him wipe the water from the corner of his mouth, and apologized consciously. “I thought there was something wrong with the water.”
His thought process was as follows: Wife is so cute—kisses for wife—wife is so cautious—when wife discovers the cup is really his favorite sweet drink, he’ll happily gulp it down—what’s wrong with wife—damn, the water tastes wrong, someone poisoned my wife!
Zhuang Ningyu couldn’t forget the shocking feeling of being slapped and made to vomit just now. His chest felt tight, and his back still hurt. Yi Ke knew he was in the wrong. Taking advantage of the empty corridor, he pulled him into a hug and rubbed his back. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Does it still hurt?”
Being highly vigilant was a good thing, so scolding him wasn’t right either. Zhuang Ningyu had to reflect on himself for a while. He really shouldn’t have pretended the water was bitter to tease him during a mission. As a captain, he should act like a captain. That slap just now could be considered divine justice. Yi Ke rubbed his back for a long time before asking carefully again, “Are you still drinking the water?”
Zhuang Ningyu took the thermos and waved his hand wearily. “Go on, get back to your work!”
