Xing Bi’s warning was very untimely, but its accuracy was 100%
As they had just crossed about half of the river, their flight altitude had noticeably begun to drop. The wind on the water’s surface was very unstable, and Qiu Shi gave up on the idea of struggling to pull up any higher.
He definitely needed to find a good angle for entering the water. At their current speed, if he didn’t get the angle right, he could end up crashing directly into the water and killing himself.
About ten seconds later, as they approached the water, he took a deep breath, pulled his outstretched arms back to cover his head, and aimed to dive into the water in a streamlined, torpedo-like posture.
Just two seconds after he had braced his head, he felt the splash of water on his face, followed by a deluge of water and immense resistance.
He bounced up from the water’s surface.
And then fell back down.
Twice in total.
Qiu Shi felt like a small stone being skipped across the water.
When his brothers went to bathe in the hot spring behind the mountain, they always played in the largest pool. He liked skipping stones there…
His memories were forcibly interrupted.
Before hitting the water, he only heard Xing Bi say, “Don’t panic.”
In an instant, his ears and nose filled with icy river water, and even his eyes were inundated. He could feel water flooding in through his collar, sleeves, and pant legs, wrapping around his entire body.
Everything around him was dark; the only thing he could see was the splash of water in front of him, and all he could hear was the muffled sound of water.
For Qiu Shi, who only ever took baths in hot springs, all he could do now was hold his breath and wait for Xing Bi to save him.
But even until he fell into the water, he hadn’t seen Xing Bi.
If Xing Bi was too far ahead of him, he might drown before Xing Bi could turn back to save him.
Qiu Shi stretched out his arms, trying to move upward.
But everything around him was dark; he couldn’t tell up from down or left from right. The wind-catching bat wing flight suit he was wearing now felt like a big pocket, full of water, and his limbs were wrapped up and unable to exert any strength.
Don’t panic.
Indeed, he wasn’t panicking too much.
He could still pretend to be calm.
When he finally felt himself sinking, the water around him began to ripple irregularly.
Xing Bi grabbed him by the back of his clothing from behind and tore open his flight suit at the collar.
Qiu Shi quickly followed the pull and shed the suit.
Then, the backpack on his back was also pulled off by Xing Bi.
What impressed him was that Xing Bi didn’t throw the backpack away but stuffed it into his hands from the front.
He, someone on the verge of drowning, actually caught the bag steadily.
The fake calm he had been maintaining turned into real calm with Xing Bi’s appearance.
Xing Bi grabbed his back and started swimming upward. This process felt lengthy because Qiu Shi had been holding his breath since before he hit the water.
Not knowing how much longer it would take to reach the surface and get some air, Qiu Shi began to try kicking his legs, holding the backpack with one hand and paddling with the other.
After hitting Xing Bi twice, Xing Bi stopped grabbing his clothes and instead scooped him up by the waist from behind, significantly speeding up their ascent.
Although the actual time was probably less than thirty seconds, it felt like several minutes to Qiu Shi before Xing Bi finally pushed him out of the water.
“Shit!” he cursed, “Ah—”
“Catch your breath before you curse,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi took a couple of deep breaths and then coughed for a while, grabbing Xing Bi’s arm. “Whose visual estimation was off?”
“Both of ours,” Xing Bi said, treading water, “Get out the life jackets.”
Qiu Shi said nothing.
Xing Bi looked at him.
“They’re on the mountaintop,” Qiu Shi said. A gust of wind blew over the water, making his face feel like it was pricked with needles from the cold. “Out of trust in a top-level Special Operations Soldier, I believed we could make it to the other side with his precise visual estimation.”
“I’ll swim you over,” Xing Bi didn’t dwell on the life jackets. He still held Qiu Shi by the waist, “Don’t move. Don’t try to help.”
“Mm,” Qiu Shi, now lying face-up on the water’s surface, felt a bit nervous again. “Wait, wait… my ears will fill with water.”
“Do you breathe through your ears?” Xing Bi didn’t stop, swimming sideways while pulling him toward the opposite bank. “Relax. Keep your nose above the water.”
“The only ones who can relax in this situation are the bioroids.” Qiu Shi tried to relax.
Xing Bi was swimming fast. Qiu Shi could feel his body continuously breaking through the water under Xing Bi’s lead.
“That wound of yours,” Qiu Shi said, “will soaking it in water cause any issues?”
“No issues,” Xing Bi replied.
“Are we heading in the right direction?” Qiu Shi asked. A splash hit his face, filling his mouth with water. “How much farther?”
Xing Bi didn’t answer.
Qiu Shi coughed twice and stopped asking.
Before long, Xing Bi stopped and gave him a push from behind. “Stand up.”
Qiu Shi quickly kicked downward, feeling the stones at the bottom of the river. When he turned around, he saw they had finally crossed the river. They just needed to walk another ten meters or so to reach the shore.
However, those ten meters weren’t easy. The current was swift, his clothes clung to him, and he was carrying a bag. On top of that, the rocks underfoot were slippery. Qiu Shi felt like those ten meters were a chaotic and difficult struggle.
Finally, he struggled to reach the shore, threw down his things, and lay directly on the rocks at the edge.
“Find wood,” Xing Bi said, “Make a fire.”
“Let me lie here for a bit,” Qiu Shi didn’t move.
Xing Bi didn’t rush him and walked away.
Qiu Shi lay there for less than a minute before getting up. “It’s too cold.”
The terrain on this side of the river was different from the other side. There were no mountains or trees, only some low hills and shrubs.
Without any cover and being near the river, the wind was much stronger here than on the other side.
Completely soaked, Qiu Shi was so cold he couldn’t say another word. He clenched his teeth and quickly started rummaging through the shrubs, collecting a pile of dry branches with Xing Bi.
The items in the bag were all packed in waterproof bags, but after all the tossing around, some of the bags had opened, so although the clothes weren’t completely wet, they weren’t exactly dry either.
The oil for starting a fire was still intact, and the packs of cigarettes Li Feng had packed for him were also dry.
After starting the fire, Qiu Shi emptied the contents of the bag, set up a wooden rack by the fire, and hung up everything that needed drying.
The medical kit was still in the bag. Qiu Shi took out some disinfectant and called, “Xing Bi.”
“Hmm?” Xing Bi responded.
“Use this to disinfect your wound,” Qiu Shi said.
“No need,” Xing Bi replied.
“I know you’re tough,” Qiu Shi said, “but that’s still a wound. I felt inside it; it’s not made of metal frames, screws, or gears. Who knows if the water is polluted?”
Xing Bi looked at him.
“Take it off,” Qiu Shi said, looking back at him, “Or do you need me to turn away?”
Xing Bi smiled and took off his shirt.
“I’ll help you with the wounds on your back…” Qiu Shi looked down to open the disinfectant and, when he looked up, saw that Xing Bi had taken off his pants as well, leaving only his underwear. He was momentarily stunned, “You didn’t need to strip down this much… Do you have wounds on your butt or legs too?”
“No,” Xing Bi sat down next to him, “I’m drying my clothes.”
“Oh.” Qiu Shi dabbed some disinfectant on a cotton ball and applied it to the wounds on Xing Bi’s back and waist, getting closer to inspect them. “These don’t look like they can heal on their own.”
“They won’t heal in just a short while,” Xing Bi said.
“Alright,” Qiu Shi said, “If it were me, I wouldn’t need to heal. I’d be dead.”
Xing Bi didn’t respond.
After disinfecting Xing Bi’s wounds, Qiu Shi took off his own wet clothes. Being wrapped in water, he felt like he was freezing solid.
The half-dry clothes in the bag still needed some drying, but since he wasn’t a bioroid, wearing wet clothes made him cold, and being naked was also cold. So he put on the half-dry clothes and sat by the fire to warm up.
Xing Bi didn’t seem to have any plans to put on clothes. He stared into the fire, lost in thought.
Qiu Shi sat down, opened a can, and felt that Xing Bi, without clothes, seemed very simple and devoid of his usual steady demeanor.
He suddenly became curious: “Did you have a childhood?”
“What kind of childhood?” Xing Bi asked.
“A child’s,” Qiu Shi said, “Little Xing Bi.”
“No,” Xing Bi said, “Bioroids are all adult bodies.”
Of course, it wouldn’t make sense to need to raise a tool before using it. Qiu Shi took a bite of his canned food. He couldn’t quite understand Xing Bi’s feelings towards humans.
In this regard, Xing Bi indeed possessed very complex emotions, even more complex than the emotions between ordinary humans.
“What about your childhood?” Xing Bi asked.
“My childhood wasn’t interesting,” Qiu Shi finished his can and glanced at Xing Bi, wiping his hands on his pants, “I was always hungry. The food given to refugees in the outer city wasn’t enough, and I had to scavenge for food everywhere.”
“Li Feng said you’re an orphan,” Xing Bi said.
“Yeah,” Qiu Shi nodded, “Who isn’t? In this regard, you can be infinitely close to humans.”
Xing Bi laughed, “That kid earlier probably isn’t.”
“Is that why?” Qiu Shi turned to look at him, “You didn’t kill him because they looked like a family?”
“No,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi waited for a moment, but Xing Bi didn’t elaborate. He had to speak up himself, “Weren’t you always quick to respond? Why aren’t you now?”
“Because of humanity,” Xing Bi said.
“Humanity?” Qiu Shi was silent for a moment, “Whose humanity, yours or theirs?”
“They kill bioroids,” Xing Bi said, “because they believe bioroids have betrayed them. They also kill humans because some people side with bioroids, which they see as betrayal. It’s vague and cruel.”
“Yeah, and no one knows what they’ve been through,” Qiu Shi reached for his cigarettes and took one out, “So what is betrayal? Maybe they can’t even define it themselves, just giving their hatred a tangible target.”
“They believed I would kill that kid,” Xing Bi said.
“The kid believed it too,” Qiu Shi said.
“So adults are unwilling to sacrifice children,” Xing Bi said, “and children don’t want adults to be constrained because of them.”
Qiu Shi didn’t respond.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to judge what they will do,” Xing Bi said, “Every time I face such a situation, it feels… very complicated.”
“Wouldn’t you know? What would a bioroid do?” Qiu Shi asked.
“Under normal circumstances, there wouldn’t be such a conversation,” Xing Bi said, “There would be a mutual understanding to give up.”
Qiu Shi looked at the fire and sighed, recalling the scene when Xing Bi had him aim at the hostage, Xiao Jia, during a mission.
“What about you?” Xing Bi asked.
“Aren’t I being coerced right now?” Qiu Shi said.
“First protect yourself, then save others,” Xing Bi said, “That’s what you told your brothers.”
“Yeah,” Qiu Shi nodded, “I might not be able to do it, but in this world, you can’t tell who is worth saving or what the consequences of saving someone might be. The simplest thing is to save yourself first and ensure an ‘I don’t die’ outcome.”
Qiu Shi thought for a moment, “I’ve realized that I put ‘I’ into many things, which makes the outcomes uncontrollable. Besides needing the enhanced abilities of bioroids, we might also need people who don’t have this ‘I’.”
“Maybe,” Xing Bi said.
“I haven’t thought about these things,” Qiu Shi glanced at him, “Maybe I haven’t lived long enough.”
Xing Bi laughed.
“What’s your programmed age?” Qiu Shi asked.
“Twenty-eight,” Xing Bi said.
“And what about your appearance?” Qiu Shi asked, “Your face, your… build, and so on.”
He looked at Xing Bi, who indeed had a good physique.
“There is an optimal range of reference values,” Xing Bi said, “Generated randomly within that range.”
“Well, your randomness turned out pretty well,” Qiu Shi said, “You look good.”
“In this aspect, it’s better than humans,” Xing Bi said.
“Yes, humans don’t have a range. At least there’s no limit to how ugly they can get,” Qiu Shi said, “One careless move and you end up looking like Zhang Qifeng.”
Xing Bi looked at him and laughed, “You have a big issue with him.”
“He always wants to kill me,” Qiu Shi said, “Once they create a bunch more like you in the lab, I’ll have to escape with my brothers.”
“Then you should escape now,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi turned his head and looked at him for a long time before speaking, “Why don’t you put your clothes on first?”
“I’m not cold,” Xing Bi said.
“Aren’t you supposed to be almost like a human?” Qiu Shi said, “Normally, no one sits naked chatting by the fire. When I turn my head, I forget what I wanted to say.”
Xing Bi took his clothes and put them on. The clothes in his bag were still dry; the waterproof bag hadn’t been damaged during the fight, which indirectly proves that biotic entities had better shock resistance and stability than humans.
After dressing, he sat back by the fire, then lay down, using his arm as a pillow to look at the sky.
He looked very comfortable.
Qiu Shi also lay down, using his arm as a pillow, and looked at the sky with him.
The sky was empty now, with nothing to see. But this boundless emptiness could make people stare for a long time.
“I often lie on the top of the shelter and look at the sky when I have nothing to do,” Qiu Shi said.
“I haven’t done this in a long time,” Xing Bi said.
“The other day outside the city, did you stay on the mountaintop all night without returning to the shelter?” Qiu Shi asked.
“Yes,” Xing Bi responded.
“If we manage to bring Xiaoling back successfully,” Qiu Shi said, “Will you go back to that pod?”
“Yes,” Xing Bi answered.
“If other bioroids can replace you,” Qiu Shi said, “Wouldn’t you be free? If they no longer need you…”
“They will either store me away or destroy me,” Xing Bi said.
“Fu*k,” Qiu Shi frowned, “If they planned to use you this way from the start, why make first-class bioroids have their own thoughts?”
“Because it wasn’t like this at the beginning,” Xing Bi said, “At the beginning, we were free.”
Qiu Shi turned his head, “Why did it change later, with storage, memory locks, and even the concept of partners?”
“I don’t remember,” Xing Bi said, “Maybe when you are almost like humans, that vow becomes harder to keep.”
Qiu Shi looked at him.
“Do you remember what you wanted to say earlier?” Xing Bi asked.
“What?” Qiu Shi was puzzled.
“What you forgot because I wasn’t wearing clothes,” Xing Bi said.
“…No,” Qiu Shi clicked his tongue and sat up, “The way you put it sounds very weird.”
“Then show me how to say it,” Xing Bi said.
“I wanted to say something, then turned my head and saw you weren’t wearing clothes,” Qiu Shi said, “Then I forgot.”
“Is there a difference?” Xing Bi asked.
“No difference?” Qiu Shi said, “Don’t play dumb.”
Xing Bi laughed, “So, have you remembered now?”
“I have,” Qiu Shi looked at his arm, “In the cave, when Li Feng mentioned Lin Sheng, who is he?”
“A first-class hidden guard,” Xing Bi said, “A bioroid like me.”
“Why did Li Feng ask you about him?” Qiu Shi frowned.
“He wanted to tell me they’ve activated Lin Sheng,” Xing Bi said.
“Then you should tell him, ‘What does activating him have to do with you?'” Qiu Shi said.
“Lin Sheng is very strong,” Xing Bi said.
“So what,” Qiu Shi said, “Are you two competing for the job?”
Xing Bi didn’t respond and continued to look at the sky.
“You mentioned there were other bioroids undergoing symbiosis experiments, and Li Feng asked about you,” Qiu Shi said, “Is he one of them?”
“Yes,” Xing Bi said.
“Can he replace you?” Qiu Shi asked.
“No,” Xing Bi lifted his arm and looked at his hand, where the black marks had reappeared faintly, “But if I can’t control these, he might control me.”
Qiu Shi fell silent.
Xing Bi kept his arm raised, staring at his hand for a long time without moving.
Qiu Shi pulled Xing Bi’s hand down and asked a question he hadn’t intended to ask.
“If given the chance,” he asked, “Would you run away?”
“I haven’t…” Xing Bi said, “given up hope yet.”
Qiu Shi lay back down. Many of Xing Bi’s words he couldn’t fully understand. Maybe he hadn’t lived long enough, or life outside the city wasn’t complicated enough. He had seen many kinds of death and knew how to survive outside the city, but that was all.
His brothers were just like him. They were as simple as the dead, not thinking too much. The most obvious difference was that they didn’t want to die.
“Go to sleep,” Xing Bi said, “I’ll know if anyone comes.”
“I can’t sleep,” Qiu Shi said, “Crossing the river just now was too thrilling. I’m still excited.”
“I thought you’d choke on the water,” Xing Bi said.
“No, I was holding my breath,” Qiu Shi touched his rib, “But when I fell into the water, I bounced twice like skipping a stone. I was afraid my rib might have broken again.”
“What’s skipping a stone?” Xing Bi asked.
“As a partner supposed to ensure my safety, shouldn’t your focus be my rib?” Qiu Shi said.
“Your bones are not broken,” Xing Bi held his wrist, “Your pulse is strong, you are not in danger.”
“You’ve never skipped stones?” Qiu Shi asked.
“No,” Xing Bi replied.
“Come on, I’ll teach you,” Qiu Shi sat up.
“So excited?” Xing Bi asked.
“Are you coming?” Qiu Shi asked.
“I’m coming,” Xing Bi sat up.
Qiu Shi walked to the water’s edge, squatted down, and found a few stones to place in Xing Bi’s hand: “Use these.”
“Okay,” Xing Bi looked at them.
“Watch,” Qiu Shi tossed the stone in his hand a couple of times, then threw it at the water. Despite the rapid current, the stone skipped four or five times on the surface.
“It does look like it,” Xing Bi said.
“…No need to be so serious,” Qiu Shi said.
“Let me try,” Xing Bi said, and then threw all the stones in his hand.
“You…” Qiu Shi wanted to say, aren’t you a highly capable first-class bioroid? Didn’t you see how I threw it?
But he didn’t get the chance to say this.
Because the stones Xing Bi threw out all skipped multiple times on the water, creating a series of joyful skips.
“You’re amazing,” Qiu Shi watched the water.
“It’s beautiful,” Xing Bi bent down to pick up a few more stones and threw them out again, creating more long skips.
“You have fun,” Qiu Shi turned and walked back to the fire, “I’m tired.”
“Not excited anymore?” Xing Bi asked.
“Are you doing this on purpose?” Qiu Shi turned to look at him.
“No,” Xing Bi’s mouth twitched into a slight smile.
“You’re barely holding back your smile,” Qiu Shi lay back down by the fire.
Xing Bi walked back and sat beside him.
Qiu Shi thought for a moment, resting on his arm: “Does it get boring? Learning everything so easily.”
“No,” Xing Bi said, “I only just learned to skip stones now.”
“Who taught you to snap your fingers?” Qiu Shi asked.
He hadn’t thought about it before, but those little details about Xing Bi, those things that made him almost human in emotion and thought, where did they come from?
“My former partner,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi paused: “Is he still alive?”
“Do you need me to answer that?” Xing Bi asked.
“Damn,” Qiu Shi laughed, “No need.”
Xing Bi also smiled.
“Do you still remember him?” Qiu Shi asked.
“That part of my memory is within the locked range,” Xing Bi said, “I don’t remember.”
“You don’t really want a partner, do you?” Qiu Shi said, “This so-called partnership is just a way to restrain you.”
“But because of you, I can be reactivated,” Xing Bi looked at him.
______
Author’s Note:
Ah, underwater breath transfer and such things are actually very difficult in practice and not very useful ⊙▽⊙.
Qiu Shi: I’m not so weak that I’d faint from falling into the water.
