"Quick, take the western passage!"
Li Baiyu tossed the access card over, the photo of the boy on the card was the crying child from the memory fragments.
The swarm of rats surged like a black tide. Shen Jingqi slammed open the rusted iron door and found an ambulance parked at the end of the passage. The blue light on the roof blurred to purple in the rain, the license plate number was inverted: THX-1138. When he pulled open the car door, a constantly struggling figure was tied to the foldable stretcher in the back seat — it was himself, with blue luminescent fluid flowing from his temples.
The countdown jumped to 65:00:00. The whole world began to distort. The asphalt road twisted like intestines, streetlights transformed into giant neuron synapses. Shen Jingqi reached for the medical kit under the passenger seat, inside, the defibrillator electrode pads were smeared with ginkgo leaves, the leaf veins flowing with a cold light matching Uncle Li's eyes.
The ambulance suddenly started on its own. The navigation screen displayed the destination: Song Mountain Sanatorium. This was the fictional childhood residence in Shen Jingqi's files. In the rearview mirror, the trapped "himself" was melting, silver mucus filled with code seeped from beneath the skin.
The wipers etched new bloody numbers: [Find the real teddy bear]. Shen Jingqi tore open his shirt collar and found a barcode emerging below his clavicle, the scan result was a thirty-year-old issue of The Lancet — a paper on personality dissociation syndrome caused by memory transplantation.
The tunnel lights flickered on and off. Every seven seconds, a white shadow swept past the car window, its outline gradually becoming clear. On the ninth flash, Shen Jingqi recognized Lin Shuwang holding a teddy bear, but the left eye of the toy had turned into a surveillance camera.
With the tremendous sound of a tire burst, Shen Jingqi shattered the windshield and flew out. In the moment of weightlessness, he saw a huge crack open on the asphalt road, revealing the circular corridor of an underground lab. Qin Si and seven "Lin Shuwangs" looked up smiling, the syringes in their hands forming a constellation pattern.
The fall lasted seventy-one seconds. Upon landing, there was no pain, only a damp feeling. Shen Jingqi found himself kneeling in his childhood bedroom, twenty-six teddy bears laid in front of him. Each missing different parts, their wounds stuffed with glowing memory chips.
Thunder clapped outside the window. In the lightning flash, he saw his father's face appearing on the wallpaper — the same face belonging to the masked chief surgeon in the surveillance video. Suddenly, all the teddy bears cried in unison, twenty-six sound waves condensing into the shape of a scalpel in the air.
At the moment the countdown reached zero, Shen Jingqi grabbed the nearest teddy bear and tore it open. A thorn ring fell out from the stuffing, engraved with Li Baiyu's initials on the inside circle. As the ring rolled to the corner, the whole wall began to peel away, revealing neatly arranged incubation cabins behind.
Inside each cabin was him at different ages. The seven-year-old was using blood to draw symbols on the glass, the seventeen-year-old was tearing at implanted chips in his scalp, the present-day him was repeatedly saying: "Be careful."
Real thunder came from the dimension of reality. Shen Jingqi awoke in the storm, clutching bedsheets soaked with cold sweat. The phone displayed 3:17 AM, the inbox had seventy-one unread emails, all from Lin Shuwang's deactivated account.
The first attachment was a surveillance screenshot: Li Baiyu was injecting a syringe into the comatose Shen Jingqi's temple, the electronic clock in the background displayed — 71:59:59.
"Time to wake up, Dr. Shen."
Shen Jingqi looked up; Zheng Lin had arrived.
"Just now, Lin Shuwang entered Sensory Paradise's online mode."
Shen Jingqi then realized, everything that had just occurred was a projection.
He packed away the neuron connection sensor and returned to the VVIP room,
Li Baiyu had already packed up, and together with Shen Jingqi, they were discharged.
Outside, Uncle Li was already waiting in the car. Googlᴇ search ɴoᴠel Fɪre.nᴇt
"Miss, welcome home." As Uncle Li took the suitcase, the metal clasp on his cuff reflected indigo under the sunset.
This cold light reminded Shen Jingqi of the nutrient fluid in the incubation cabins, which also emitted the same hue as last night's melting USB drive in the virtual world.
The sports car cruised smoothly through the night.
Watching Li Baiyu, Shen Jingqi recalled the experiences in the application, somewhat struggling to distinguish between reality and the virtual space.
It wasn't until the car stopped at the villa that Shen Jingqi gained a more realistic feeling.
A shaded silver cat came out to greet them.
"Tuantuan, I'm home." At the moment Li Baiyu called out, the cat's cry suddenly rose three octaves. It ran over, its paws softly patting the sun-warmed stone slabs, making a faint plopping sound.
The grandfather clock in the villa's hall stopped at 7:11. The bronze pendulum was carved with thorn patterns, lifting fine glowing dust with every swing. Suddenly, the shaded silver cat leaped onto a bookshelf, knocking over a photo frame from which an aged photo floated out — fifteen-year-old Li Baiyu standing in front of a laboratory door, an electronic screen behind displaying the red code THX-1138.
"Come here, Tuantuan."
Li Baiyu cradled the cat, surveying the room.
"You've taken very good care of the place, it's spotless and fragrant."
Shen Jingqi was squatting on the ground, adding cat food for the shaded silver cat.
Li Baiyu set down the cat, "Come eat, come eat!"
Shen Jingqi got tangled in the cat's tail, its fluffy face lifted up, pink nose twitching to smell his pants cuff.
"This is Brother Shen," Li Baiyu squatted, gently scratching the cat's chin with her fingertips. "You must get along well in the future."
"Meow~" Tuantuan suddenly flipped over, showing its milky white belly, four paws gripping onto Shen Jingqi's leg. Sunlight plated its silver-gray fur like platinum, resembling a cloud that breathed.
Uncle Li chuckled as he picked up a suitcase: "When Miss brought it back that year, the little guy wasn't even as big as a slipper."
Wisteria flowers draped over the villa porch, bees danced among the blossoms. Tuantuan suddenly jumped onto Shen Jingqi's shoulder, its warm belly pressed against the back of his neck. "Seems it likes you," Li Baiyu watched from the side.
Cat toys were scattered on the living room carpet. Tuantuan slid down from Shen Jingqi's shoulder, grabbing a feather wand with its mouth and placing it into his hand. "So you want me to play with you?" Shen Jingqi wiggled the wand, the shaded silver immediately lowered its body, tail excitedly slapping the ground.
Later, Tuantuan spun around Li Baiyu's room door.
Li Baiyu smiled, pulling out a yellowed "Introduction to Neurology," the end page bore kitten bite marks. Li Baiyu stroked the indents, chuckled softly, "When writing papers back then, it always napped on this page."
"It's time to refill the catnip."
Li Baiyu shook the empty metal can as she approached. Tuantuan instantly rolled over, showing the heart-shaped white fur on its belly. Shen Jingqi teased it with a grass blade, the shaded silver gently bit his wrist, the tooth marks resembling a plum blossom stamp.
Night fell. Shen Jingqi was still sleeping in the cat room.
Tuantuan lay on Shen Jingqi's knee, licking its paws, its pads faintly pink. In the living room, Li Baiyu flipped through the album, mixing with the crackle of the firewood. Tuantuan suddenly lifted its head, touched Shen Jingqi's wrist with its moist nose.
Those marks from the laboratory were now tenderly enveloped by the warm breath exhaled by the cat.