I am romantic

Second, there is no difference between them in appearance

For the next week, Tang En was in a state of distraction, even when talking to Pei Ji, he seemed absent-minded.

"The research institute is a bit strange recently," Pei Ji said. "The alarm in the lab was triggered three times, but nothing unusual was found, not even a single fly. It's really inexplicable."

"Oh……"

"The pair in the training tank seems to have grown up a bit, especially the girl, who already looks like a big girl. What do you think the above is going to do? Is it a pairing experiment?" Pei Ji asked.

"Well……"

Pei Ji rolled his eyes at him: "Other than oh oh oh oh, can you say something constructive? You make me feel like I'm facing a bank teller who is dying!"

Tang En came back to his senses and gave him a guilty look. Just as he was about to tell him about the "living dead" incident last week, he suddenly heard an unusually loud and piercing siren.It echoed over the streets and alleys for a long time, like a group of rhinos running wild.

"Level [-] Martial Law!" Pei Ji's complexion suddenly changed, and he read quickly and skillfully like reciting a textbook: "When the martial law alarm sounds, citizens must return to their respective residences as soon as possible and are not allowed to stay outside. All entrances and exits of public places are closed urgently. All ordinary citizens and means of transportation are prohibited from entering or leaving. When the police are dispatched, citizens must unconditionally cooperate with inquiries, searches, etc., and any prevarication or resistance will be dealt with as an anti-city crime.”

"Let's go!" Tang En hurriedly threw a banknote on the table, pulled Pei Ji out of the bar, and ran towards their respective residences.

Entering the alley where the apartment is located, Tang En tripped over a trash cardboard box in the corner, felt kicked by something, lost his balance and fell to the ground.At the same time, he heard a muffled groan.

"Who?" He stared behind the scattered cardboard boxes.It is impossible to be a homeless person. Soma City does not allow any waste of labor. All unemployed people will find a new job in the fastest time.No citizen would dare to hang out outside after hearing the siren.

Is it the Ratman again?

A face poked timidly from behind the cardboard box.It was mostly covered by long, curly blond hair, except for a pair of blue eyes peeping through the slits.

Tang En had never seen such blue eyes - such a pure blue, he could not find similar things in his life to compare it to, at most he could only look for similar colors from the palette, but those colors would never It can't be so clear and natural.He stared blankly at those eyes, as if his whole mind was sucked in by the blue whirlpool.

Immediately afterwards, the opponent's entire body came out.

This is a naked teenager, about sixteen or seventeen years old, his young limbs have not fully grown, and he is a little thin.He was naked, but he didn't seem to be ashamed of it, standing there with an innocent and dazed posture.

Tang En frowned and said, "Hey, you! Do you know that martial law is in effect? ​​Do you want to be arrested if you don't go home after hearing the sirens?"

"Home..." The young man looked confused, "Where?"

Mental problems?so troublesome.Tang En wanted to let go of it, but he just met by chance anyway, and he had no obligation or mood to help each other.So he turned and left.

The boy stood where he was, still looking dazed and ignorant of the world.

Tang En's hands were all on the doorknob. After thinking and thinking, he sighed in frustration, turned around and walked over to him and said, "Come to my house for a while, at least put on some clothes."

Without saying a word, the boy obediently followed him into the door.Tang En found a set of his old clothes for him to wear, but the other party was not even proficient in dressing, and let the cuffs and trousers drag out long.Tang En had no choice but to help him put it on.

"You, what's your name?" He slowed down, trying to communicate with this suspected mentally handicapped boy.

"I don't have a name. They call me 'Adam'," the teenager said.

Tang En ignored the logical error between the two sentences, and asked patiently: "Who are your parents? Where is your home?"

The boy hesitated for a moment and replied, "I don't know."

Tang En sighed again, wanting to open the door and push him out.But the engine of the hovering police car was roaring above the house, and he couldn't risk being drawn into it.

"Forget it, you can stay here for a while. Do you want a drink?" Tang En took a bottle of drink from the refrigerator and handed it to him.

Adam takes it, takes a sip, and spits it out right away. "What's this?" He retched while wiping his mouth with his sleeve, with a disgusted expression on his face like a mouthful of gasoline.

"Juice." Tang En said inexplicably, "Is it that bad to drink? Even children can drink it."

"I've never had juice. But is this stuff really drinkable? I feel like my throat is burning." Adam said, his voice did sound hoarse.

Tang En felt that when he was picking and choosing, his IQ was not a problem at all.

"There's also beer and macaroni. You can choose it yourself." He opened the refrigerator door.

Adam took a light taste of each.Being cautious didn't bring him good luck, and in the end he threw up so badly that he even vomited bile. "I'll never eat anything from your house again..." he moaned.

Tang En looked at the other party suspiciously.Apparently his biological features look exactly the same as his own, biologically they should be of the same kind, why is there such a big difference in food acceptance?

"What did you eat before?" He couldn't help asking.

"Nutrition solution." Adam replied without thinking, "To be precise, it's not for eating. They soaked me in it."

After Tang En was stunned for three seconds, he immediately understood the identity of the other party.

He is one of the pair of mysterious research subjects that Pei Ji said was soaked in the culture tank and grew from a baby to a teenager in just over a year.

Tang En once suspected that the man and woman were not human beings in the normal sense at all, and now there is another reliable evidence for this suspicion.He couldn't help staring at Adam's skin that was exposed outside the cloth - it was smooth and white, covered with tiny pores and fluffy hairs, it looked very real.What's under it?Bionic muscle groups?Alloy bones?Biochip?

Adam recovered from the violent vomiting, and frowned with disgust: "I don't like your eyes now, just like those people watching outside the glass wall." He said bluntly.

"I'm sorry!" Tang En immediately withdrew his probing gaze, feeling guilty and anxious for some reason. "I'm just a little curious..."

Adam went to the sink, filled the empty glass with some tap water, and took a sip. "It smells like rust, but it's barely drinkable." He said, and drank half a glass in one breath.

Tang En looked at his back, and there were a lot of questions in his mind: You shouldn't be human, right?Cyborgs, emulators, or something else?Is the martial law this time because of you?How did you escape from the Institute... and so on.But isn't it a bit too presumptuous and abrupt to ask someone you've just met (humanoid, to be precise)?Perhaps it would be better to ask after they got to know each other better, he thought.

The first-level alert lasted until the next morning, and it was still not lifted.This kind of situation is rare. Fortunately, citizens will store emergency food at home, even if the martial law lasts for three to five days, it will not be a problem.

Adam didn't eat anything except water, and Dunn began to worry about whether he would be hungry...uh, or how to supplement energy consumption.But the other party didn't seem to have any worries in this regard, but was full of energy and curiosity, groping around and rummaging around in his house, just like a child of a few years old.

Tang En discovered that Adam was actually very smart, he could use many household appliances and tools with a little teaching, and he did not lack theoretical knowledge of natural science, human society and other aspects.

"They put knowledge directly here." Adam nodded his head. "At first, they were batched and step by step, and then more and more were stuffed. It took me a long time to get used to having a large library in my head."

"Did they tell you the purpose of doing this?" Tang En asked.

"No, they don't communicate with me directly, they just like pointing and gossiping around the glass wall. They think I've been sleeping all the time, but I've woken up a long time ago." The blond boy curled his lips.When he made this action, he looked childish and very humane, making Tang En almost think that he was facing a real human being.

"I heard that the 'creator' paid close attention to you, and even went to inspect it in person?" Thinking of Pei Ji's words, Tang En asked again.

"The creators?" Adam recalled, "Do you mean those who wear masks? Yes, they sometimes come to see me and Eve, and say something 'the last hope' to themselves, 'Whatever it takes' or something like that."

Eve?Is it the name of another girl in the tank?Tang En was about to continue asking questions, but Adam was aroused by an old-fashioned player.When he discovered that he could play sound and light images by inserting a disc the size of his thumb, he spent the whole day watching with great interest the old movies from two centuries ago, and he hardly had the time to talk to Twain.

One of his favorite movies is called Before Sunrise.

In an ancient and elegant city, the morning light gradually wakes up in the indigo blue sky, quietly but gorgeously descends on the empty streets, the river water is sparkling, and melodious music is floating in the square. Embracing each other... Adam suddenly turned his head and asked Tang En: "Have you seen the sunrise?"

Tang En was taken aback, shook his head and said: "No. Before seeing these videos, I didn't even know what the sun looked like. But is it important? We don't lack light sources. Soma City dawns at six o'clock in the morning and ten o'clock in the evening It gets dark at nine o'clock, the temperature stays between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius, it rains every Wednesday, and the weekends are sunny for drying—what could we want?"

Adam frowned when he heard this: "Don't you think this kind of life is too...step-by-step? It's like everything is designed, weather, temperature, work and rest, diet-you know the juice beer in your house Do macaroni all taste the same?"

That's because it's impossible for humans to take into account the taste of machines when inventing food, Tang En replied silently. "No, I think it's good to have a regular and orderly life like this."

Adam shrugged and turned back to continue watching the movie.The shot of the sunrise has passed, and he rewinds it with the remote control and watches it again. "It's so beautiful... I want to see it with my own eyes." He murmured.

Tang En wanted to tell him that this was impossible, because Soma didn't need the sun.

At this moment, they heard the sound of the engine of the suspended police car, as if it was parked in the alley outside.Tang En leaned on the wall and listened carefully, and immediately lowered his voice and said to Adam: "They seem to be searching from house to house, and they have already reached the next door! They should be looking for you, right? Quick, find a place to hide!"

Adam stood up from the sofa at once, "Since you know everything, why don't you hand me over?"

"If I had just met you yesterday, I might have done this." Tang En spoke quickly, "But now we are no longer strangers, aren't we? The habit of selling out."

"...Thank you." Adam pursed his lips and said solemnly.

"Don't dawdle! Go to the basement, it's easier to hide there!" Tang En unlocked the newly replaced door and pushed Adam in, "Wait! Bring my player and discs, these are contraband, they were checked by the police I'm going to die!"

He frantically gathered them into a ball and stuffed them into Adam's arms.Adam smiled: "You don't seem to be as orderly as you claim to be."

"You'd better hide yourself—if I don't want you to go back to the cage and I go to jail." Tang En locked the basement door with a straight face.

Immediately, the doorbell rang, and the electronically synthesized voice of the cold and hard tablet came in: "According to Article 314 of the Urban Safety Law, the residences of ordinary citizens are being searched, please cooperate."

Tang En rinsed Adam's drinking cup as quickly as possible, scanned the room again, and walked over to open the door. "Sorry, I was eating just now, so I was delayed."

The mechanical police ignored him, and a small group of people entered the room one by one and searched around.One of them came to the end of the corridor, knocked on the iron door of the basement with an alloy finger coated with a protective film, and ordered: "Open."

Tang En obediently unlocked the door and turned on the light: "This is the basement. The landlord and previous tenants have piled up things that are not needed and are reluctant to throw them away, making a mess. Officer, can I put them all away?" threw?"

"You have to obtain the relevant authorization first." The mechanical policeman said routinely, and then walked down the stairs.

Tang En stood at the door, watching the mechanical police carefully scan and check every corner, and there was no omission, and the nervousness began to surge.Where is Adam hiding?Will it be discovered?He forced himself to be calm so as not to show uneasiness in his eyes.

After a long few minutes, the mechanical police didn't seem to find anything suspicious, and walked back up the stairs.Tang En immediately retreated to the living room, showing a gentle and friendly expression to the robot policemen who found nothing.

One of the officers showed a hologram in front of him: "Have you seen this man?"

Tang En sized up the blond-haired and blue-eyed boy in the video, and replied without hesitation: "No."

"If you see this person, or have any leads related to him, you must call the police immediately."

Looking at the closed door, Tang En finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He stood in the living room waiting for a while, and when he heard the sound of the engine go away, he hurried back to the basement, and said as he went down the stairs, "They're all gone, come out."

The basement was quiet, without any movement, the dim light shrouded the pile of debris, like a dusty old century photo.

"Adam?" Tang En raised his voice, "Come out, it's safe now."

He walked back and forth twice, and found that the basement was really empty. He couldn't help but fell into deep doubts: How could he disappear out of thin air when he saw Adam enter the basement with his own eyes?Apart from the iron door above the stairs, there is no other exit...

No, there is another exit!Tang En suddenly turned his head to look at the ventilation duct above the wall.He walked over, jumped, hooked his fingers on the edge of the pipe, removed the newly replaced louver cover, and poked half of his body.

It was pitch black in the pipe, and nothing could be seen clearly.He tried to reach out and touch something the size of a finger. When he took it out, it was a disc.

Adam should have gotten into the ventilation duct from here.Fortunately, otherwise, it would be difficult to escape the search of the mechanical police.

"Adam! Adam!" Tang En shouted into the pipe, his voice was changed through layers of reverberation, but no response was received.

To make matters worse, he clearly remembered that the two Ratmen had entered and exited through this ventilation duct.In case... He didn't dare to think about the Ratman's sharp claws that easily tore through the door lock.

Tang En lay at the entrance of the pipeline, hesitating, weighing, and struggling with contradictions. He felt like a computer with serious program conflicts, and the system would crash at any time.After a long time, he finally made a decision and jumped off the ground.

He grabbed a high-powered flashlight, and whatever spare batteries he could find, and burrowed back into the darkened ventilation duct.