CH 241

Villainous Singer (13)

About a year had passed, just as Lin Ruoyu had said. A new group of children arrived at Proxima Centauri. From these children, Song Xu Yi heard news about the group of students who had been ordered back by Song Yi and had become teachers.

Why did Lin Ruoyu know so much about the news on Proxima Centauri?

Song Xu Yi had a vague understanding that Lin Ruoyu’s decision to confide in her about this further demonstrated her trust in her.

But Song Xu Yi didn’t have much opportunity to inquire further. After receiving the new students, Lin Ruoyu went with her manager to the next performance. She seemed to suddenly become very busy. Although Song Xu Yi could still reach her when she contacted her, seeing Lin Ruoyu’s exhausted appearance on the other end, she couldn’t bear to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere between them. She reduced the frequency of contacting her, but still tried to share happy things she encountered in life through messages with Lin Ruoyu…

What surprised Song Xu Yi even more about Lin Ruoyu’s identity was that as Song Xu Yi continued to improve her skills and disassembled and reassembled most of the robots in Lin Ruoyu’s room, she found a piece of clothing with blood stains on it in the core component of one of the robots—

At the beginning, Song Xu Yi didn’t realize that this was a robot. She initially thought it was a lifelike model of a gentle woman, kept inside a box in the corner. One day, for some reason, the cleaning robot flipped this model out. It wasn’t until Song Xu Yi touched the robot’s arm and felt an unusual texture that she realized it was a machine.

Later, Song Xu Yi discovered that this was the only lifelike robot in Lin Ruoyu’s room. However, at that time, Song Xu Yi was highly interested in robot technology and didn’t think much. She directly started dismantling the robot —

Compared to the other dazzling and multifunctional robots in Lin Ruoyu’s room, this robot’s capabilities were outrageously simple — it could only produce voice, with no other functions, not even the ability to stand up.

But Song Xu Yi couldn’t decipher the voice production mechanism of this robot — it was equipped with a self-destruct program. If someone forcibly broke through, it would self-destruct.

Furthermore, the internal system of this robot seemed incredibly sophisticated, featuring an extremely precise security system.

The cores of many robots include their main programs. Some companies, in order to maintain secrecy, set up confidential systems within the robot’s body. Song Xu Yi didn’t notice anything unusual at first. The more sophisticated the confidentiality system, the more it ignited her determination. She spent a day not taking it apart, engrossed in technical study. On the second day, she continued, and this pattern repeated for five days until she finally dismantled the robot’s confidentiality system.

Song Xu Yi didn’t expect to find a piece of clothing with blood stains on it inside.

It was only at this moment that Song Xu Yi vaguely realized the resemblance between this beautiful robot model and Lin Ruoyu…

What shocked Song Xu Yi even more was that the piece of clothing had a hidden pattern created through a complex method.

In theory, Song Xu Yi shouldn’t have recognized this hidden pattern, but the original owner had an exceptional memory. The original owner’s mother, who died in the turmoil of war, was a renowned embroiderer who had taught the young original owner how to recognize patterns. The hidden pattern on this piece of clothing could only belong to someone from the former royal family of Ruo Shui.

Could it be that Lin Ruoyu is connected to the royal family?

When Proxima Centauri invaded Ruo Shui, the royal family refused to surrender. The people in the entire palace were slaughtered by the beings from Proxima Centauri, and the palace itself burned for several days, symbolizing the decline of Ruo Shui…

And designing this confidentiality system would require an extremely high level of expertise in robot research. Could Lin Ruoyu really entrust such a private matter to someone else…

Countless questions arose in Song Xu Yi’s mind, something was on the verge of coming to her thoughts, but she resisted delving deeper, hurriedly reassembling the model.

She didn’t know if Lin Ruoyu would later realize that she had dismantled this model, but the current Song Xu Yi didn’t want to investigate further —

Song Xu Yi had a premonition: whenever Lin Ruoyu wanted her to know something, she would eventually find out. In the current situation, the more they knew, whether for Lin Ruoyu or for herself, sometimes it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

As long as they understood each other without needing words, and both were working towards the future of Ruo Shui, that was already enough.

With the experience of the students who returned to Ruo Shui to become teachers, the students who later came to Proxima Centauri were no longer arriving blindly. Among them, a larger portion was dedicated to reporting back to Ruo Shui. They were patient and silent, no longer as radical as the first batch of students. Even at a young age, they handled things with composure.

Growth comes with a price. Song Xu Yi was certain that those students who were called back by Song Yi had advised these children on how to survive on Proxima Centauri.

These children were the future of Ruo Shui.

Even though their progress seemed minuscule, the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next would eventually ignite tremendous energy on some future day.

Perhaps, this was the situation Song Yi had always hoped to see.

After becoming the Guardian, Song Yi became increasingly busy. His communication with Song Xu Yi grew less frequent, and she could only learn about the situation on Proxima Centauri through social media —

The support they gained from interrupting their studies, like Luo Xi and the others, quickly faded away. Despite this ordeal, many Proxima Centauri residents were aware of the pitiful situation of the people on Ruo Shui. However, as beneficiaries of the status quo, most Proxima Centauri residents maintained a pretentious silence. The voices of the few Proxima Centauri residents who genuinely sympathized with the people of Ruo Shui were incredibly weak and had virtually no impact.

The only silver lining was that, with knowledge of Ruo Shui’s current state, Proxima Centauri’s social media recognized it as a powerful point for publicity. News about Ruo Shui began to spread widely, and Song Xu Yi gradually understood from these news reports: Song Yi had become the most despised Guardian in recent years, with countless people wishing they could kill him for their own satisfaction.

As a result, the people of Proxima Centauri had an unwavering trust in Song Xu Yi and began to no longer hold back in their studies.

Time flowed gradually in this atmosphere, and in the blink of an eye, eight years of study had passed by.

When Song Xu Yi was sixteen years old, she faced the graduation examination of Colin Academy — among the graduating students, only ten individuals would be granted the opportunity to proceed to higher institutions.

The teachers and classmates from Proxima Centauri were extremely surprised that Song Xu Yi had reached this stage. Over a hundred people had initially applied, and now, there were only thirty left in the Robotics Research Department. The rest had been eliminated and transferred to other majors. Song Xu Yi still appeared to be a trailing student among them, yet she managed to be among those thirty and secure a graduation certificate from the notoriously difficult Robotics Research Department.

“But she’s limited to just having a graduation certificate,” Song Xu Yi had overheard teachers discussing privately with others. It wasn’t just the teachers; even many Proxima Centauri residents thought the same: “For her to have come this far is already quite good, but she’s ultimately a person from Ruo Shui and can only reach this point…”

For the final exam, Song Xu Yi needed to face a live webcast.

The Proxima Centauri Robot Alliance was the largest research institute in the robotics industry. They selected upcoming models from existing major companies that hadn’t yet been released to the market. These selected models were distributed to the participating students. The students’ abilities to disassemble and assemble the robots quickly, as well as their skills in assessing the robot’s functionalities, were observed.

This kind of activity served as excellent promotion for the unreleased models of various major companies. It garnered sponsorship from many of these companies, as they needed to generate viewership. With annual graduation tests, Song Xu Yi’s participation undoubtedly brought a significant flow of viewership to these companies. As a result, even before the graduation exam began, news of Song Xu Yi’s participation in the graduation test spread throughout Proxima Centauri. Everyone wanted to see what the first-ever robot developer from Ruo Shui looked like…

Song Xu Yi paid no heed to these rumors and gossip. She was fully focused on her own training. However, at that moment, another piece of news captured most people’s attention — Lin Ruoyu had terminated her contract with the management company and announced the establishment of her own studio.

Lin Ruoyu was now 21 years old.

Throughout the year, she spent less than a month at school. She was constantly busy with various performances and events, earning a substantial amount of money for the management company. Although her age was considered mature in this era, the management company repeatedly postponed Lin Ruoyu’s graduation exam under the pretext of a busy schedule. The school also wanted to retain Lin Ruoyu as a prestigious attraction, so they readily agreed to the management company’s requests.

As a result, Lin Ruoyu even became the oldest student at Colin Academy who hadn’t yet graduated.

The announcement of Lin Ruoyu’s contract termination with the management company clearly hadn’t been communicated to the company itself. Shortly after, the management company quickly claimed that it was a false announcement made by Lin Ruoyu after drinking too much.

However, it seemed that Lin Ruoyu had anticipated such a response. Amidst the swirling voices on the internet, Lin Ruoyu soon after released her itinerary for the past ten years and displayed the contract she had signed with the management company at that time.

Lin Ruoyu had a strong fan base on Proxima Centauri. Even without considering her fan base, her busy schedule and the harsh terms of income sharing she displayed were enough to evoke indignation. Moreover, Lin Ruoyu hadn’t breached the contract; in fact, she had been defrauded by the management company —

Lin Ruoyu had signed a ten-year contract back then, and she announced her contract termination after the ten-year period had ended. However, the management company threatened Lin Ruoyu that if she wanted to terminate the contract, she would have to pay a substantial amount of money according to the contract terms. Lin Ruoyu’s displayed bank transfers showed that she had already paid this amount, but unexpectedly, the management company tried to turn the tables at this moment…

Indignant Proxima Centauri residents criticized the management company, hoping to pressure them into returning the money they had taken from Lin Ruoyu. As the saying goes, “misfortune never comes alone.” On that very day, a wave of resignations swept through the management company. Countless artists nurtured by the company chose to leave…

As the management company faced turmoil, and amidst the intense public outcry, the instigator behind all this, Lin Ruoyu, remained absent throughout. No one knew where she was at the moment —

Song Xu Yi was initially unaware of these events.

She was busy preparing for her graduation exam, which required filling out a significant amount of information. By the time Song Xu Yi learned about these matters, it was already noon. After completing the paperwork, Song Xu Yi got a nutritional supplement from the cafeteria. While overhearing a conversation between two Proxima Centauri girls about Lin Ruoyu, she paused for a moment. Without hesitation, Song Xu Yi immediately rushed back to the top floor of her dormitory, opened the door to Lin Ruoyu’s room…

“Xu Yi, why did you come at this moment?”

Almost as soon as Song Xu Yi entered the room, she heard Lin Ruoyu’s familiar voice. They hadn’t seen each other for three months, yet the meeting felt completely devoid of unfamiliarity.

Song Xu Yi hadn’t noticed the several extra large boxes behind Lin Ruoyu.

She looked at Lin Ruoyu’s clear and beautiful eyes and the smile at the corner of her lips. Thinking about the efforts Lin Ruoyu had put in to terminate her contract over the past two years, she felt a deep pang of sympathy. Hurriedly biting her lip, Song Xu Yi retrieved her Lightbrain…

“Do you feel confident about your graduation exam? I’ve bought a few more robots; you can try applying them. Maybe you’ll find some inspiration…”

“Do you still have money? I’ve saved up quite a bit over these years. As long as you spend carefully, it should be able to support you for a while—”

Two distinct voices sounded in unison at that moment.

Song Xu Yi was taken aback, her face turning slightly red in an instant. Lin Ruoyu squinted at Song Xu Yi, then glanced at the numbers on her light-brain. It seemed like she understood everything and suddenly burst into laughter, a smile brighter than ever before —

“Xu Yi, all this money… Have you been saving money for me all these years?”

“Or do you want to play the role of a sugar mama and financially support me?”