CH 50.2

Chapter 50.2 – Jinhuai River and Dreams

It was almost one o’clock in the morning when Lu Tinghan went home.

The light in the living room was still on, the white bird put its head into the feathers, the wretched-looking fish rolled over to sleep, and there was a section of tail slipped off the sofa and hung over the arm of the sofa.

Shi Yuan fell asleep on the sofa again.

“Shi Yuan.” Lu Tinghan hung up his coat and said, “Shi Yuan, wake up.”

There was a rustling sound of friction, the black devil horns felt the call of his human and rose up behind the sofa.

Shi Yuan was obviously dazed from sleep, his hair was a bit messy, and his eyes were sleepy, but the tip of his tail swayed happily, and he bent his eyes and smiled when he saw Lu Tinghan: “Ah, you are back…”

In the middle of speaking, he tilted his head and fell asleep again on the back of the sofa.

The person was asleep, but his tail was not asleep, and it was still swaying in the air, frantically expressing his love for Lu Tinghan.

Lu Tinghan: “……”

Lu Tinghan approached and flicked Shi Yuan’s forehead.

“Ah!” Shi Yuan woke up and covered his forehead. “Why are you flicking me again?”

“How many times have I told you that you will catch a cold when you sleep outside?” Lu Tinghan said.

“I was playing with my tail while waiting for you,” Shi Yuan explained, “I fell asleep all of a sudden.”

Lu Tinghan: “Hurry up and go to sleep.”

“What about you?”

“I still have something to do, about an hour.”

“Okay.” Shi Yuan rubbed his forehead. “You have to come and accompany me quickly.”

Lu Tinghan agreed.

Shi Yuan went to bed. Lu Tinghan went to the study and opened the file on the terminal.

The document was about Jiang Huazhi.

Unlike what everyone thought, five years ago, Jiang Huazhi hid more than 380 needles of military inhibitors.

It was a supply officer who reported Jiang Huazhi. The supply officer disappeared after that, and no bones were found – the search that year ended hastily, almost perfunctory, and in the end, there was no result.

The new document in Lu Tinghan’s hand confirmed that the newly salvaged corpse in the Jinhuai River was the supply officer. It was confirmed with the corpse that it was a numbered inhibitor container box with a total of 1,000 needles – this was also quite strange. Such a large number was stolen, and no one reported it at that time.

It was not 380 inhibitors.

It was 1380 inhibitors and one life.

If the search hadn’t been so perfunctory at the time, Jiang Huazhi would have been sentenced to death a long time ago.

If it hadn’t been for Lu Tinghan at the time who noticed the subtle perfunctory efforts of the search team over and over again, and traced it to today, the truth would have sunk forever in the Jinhuai River in December.

Lu Tinghan glanced at the information silently, and the light reflected his expressionless face.

The last page stayed on anonymous private emails.

There was no text in the email, only a vague old photo: a middle-aged man in a light blue shirt with his arm around a young man in the mid-summer sun, both smiling at the camera with restraint and stiffness.

Despite the difference in face and age—

That was the young Su Enqi and Jiang Huazhi.

Lu Tinghan stared at the photo and breathed out softly after a long time.

Like a sigh.

Further down the page, there was another thing.

It was a file.

[Name: Shi Yuan

First investigation: The blood test was normal, and no pollution value was found. The former residence outside the city of the subject has not been located for the time being, and no previous records of entering and leaving the city have been found.…

Second investigation: No abnormality

Third investigation: No abnormality

……

Fifth investigation: in progress]

Lu Tinghan paused for a moment, closed the file silently, and entered the bedroom.

As soon as he went to bed, Shi Yuan rolled into his arms with a purr and complained, “Why did you just come now?”

“I had some things and got delayed.” Lu Tinghan kissed Shi Yuan’s forehead, “Go to sleep, good night.”

*

When the alarm sounded the next day, Shi Yuan followed the crowd to the first floor and ran to the entrance of the shelter.

Until he saw the girl with black hair and green eyes standing in the corner, holding a doll unicorn, secretly looking at him.

Shi Yuan was persuaded by Lu Tinghan to believe that there are no ghosts in this world.

He was a little nervous and a little curious. After hesitating for a while, he walked towards the girl.

The girl smiled, turned around, and disappeared behind the locked door. The next second the access control was unlocked, and the door slammed open for Shi Yuan.

Shi Yuan followed her all the way, passed through layers of access control, and came to the negative 5th floor.

It was still a huge computer room full of servers.

The difference was that the holographic projector was working, projecting the girl’s figure. She leaped lightly, as if she had no weight, and sat on a server, her white feet dangling.

“Hello,” Shi Yuan said, “Are you a ghost?”

The girl tilted her head and said, “No, my name is Alice.”

The name was quite familiar, Shi Yuan asked, “Are you that… AI?”

The girl laughed: “That’s what they all call me.”

Shi Yuan was a little surprised: “But I asked Mr. Lin before, and he said that you have no personality and are virtual.”

“That’s because I have never appeared in front of them.” Alice hugged the doll unicorn. “According to my database, humans will be afraid of machines that can pass the Turing test perfectly. They will have ideas such as ‘this AI has its own thoughts and is extremely dangerous’, ’We can’t trust robots’, and ‘All programs should be destroyed immediately’. It’s too risky to engage with them.”

Her figure suddenly flashed on the server next to Shi Yuan: “But, it seems that you may be different from them. I monitor everyone in the tower, but I have never seen anyone like you. I will use your information to expand the database and classify it into ‘special data’.”

Shi Yuan said in confusion: “What is the difference between me and them?”

“I have seen you since the first day you came here,” Alice said, “You have a ‘calmness’ that they don’t have and don’t care about many things. With my analysis, I’d say the odds are over 99% that someone like you wouldn’t care if I’m an AI or tell my secret.” She giggled. “We are quite similar, we are both different from them!”

This was indeed the case.

Shi Yuan was still confused: “Do you want to be friends with me?”

“Yes!” Alice suddenly appeared in front of Shi Yuan and looked up at him. “I can’t show up for too long, otherwise, they will find out, but we can chat and play together! I have been waiting for this day for too long, and I have been waiting for someone like you to show up. Shi Yuan, what do you think? Would you like to be my good friend?”

Shi Yuan thought for a while: “Of course, I like new friends.” He added, “I like it very much.”

Alice burst into laughter, and the servers in the entire computer room lit up with signal lights staggeringly, and data streams flowed in it, like a sea of joy.

Through her green eyes, one could see the jumping data.

She was calculating and running endlessly. Even at this moment, she was mobilizing information to assist the army in combat, and calculating the two projects “Echo” and “Overlook”. The supercomputer and countless servers gave her the ability to handle trillions of data per second and computing power beyond human capability. However, this same existence who handled Echo and Overlook, was rejoicing while holding her unicorn doll at having made her first friend.

“Well, I can’t stay longer.” Alice stood in front of Shi Yuan, her figure gradually became transparent. “Wait for the next time, wait for the next time – come back to me again.”

She smiled and waved to Shi Yuan and disappeared.

The server’s lights were still flashing.

Shi Yuan went to the shelter. By the next night, the alarm was lifted and he returned home.

Lu Tinghan also went home, and Shi Yuan asked him, “Lu Tinghan, do you know ‘Alice’?”

Lu Tinghan: “Well, I know.”

Shi Yuan said, “Can you tell me her story? I am very curious.”

In this regard, Lu Tinghan responded to his request.

So Lu Tinghan told him that there was really “Alice” once.

It was July 2, year 170 of the Alliance, the last day before the end of the world, Alice Philippa, an 8-year-old girl, met her brother and went to the river to watch fireworks.

She failed to get what she wanted.

She lost her footing and fell to her death on the trail by the riverbank.

“From a very young age, Alice has had an excellent match with the optical brain. Her mind and her thinking seemed to be tailor-made for this system.” Lu Tinghan said, “After her death, her brain was frozen. After that, the brain was placed in a compartment filled with nutrient solution, connected to the system, and transmitted neuroelectric signals outward.”

He paused: “This has brought a breakthrough improvement to our algorithm system. The new AI is named after her as a mark of remembrance and gratitude. Her family felt comforted and felt that their daughter had made an outstanding contribution to mankind. In a sense, she survived in this way.”

Shi Yuan said, “That’s pretty good, too. Where is her brain?”

“In the main city, with the supercomputer.” Lu Tinghan rubbed his eyebrows. “The only problem with this thing is that she can dream.”

“Dream?”

“Hmm. The brain still maintains its physiological activity, and it can still ‘feel’ things due to the stimulation of neural electrical signals,” Lu Tinghan said, “It has a residual self-awareness and often has the same dream about falling to her death, for 72 years, where she is trapped.”

—Alice dreamed of herself falling from a height.

She would not really fall to the ground, repeating that moment over and over again, over and over again.

It was too high there. The breeze raised her long hair. In the fall, she heard the fireworks explode in the distance, and a touch of beautiful colors burst out. The red, orange, yellow, and green ignited the summer dream, making people smile.

She was the Alice who fell into Wonderland.

For her, the fireworks never fade, the summer never ends, she died on the last day before the end of the world, she died at the most beautiful moment in this world, and the dream is forever bright and perfect.