【Summer Five】Iron City Wall

Entering the house, Wutiao took off his blood-stained coat and threw himself on the bed.The stomachache was severe, so he turned over and wrapped himself in the beige quilt, like a cicada chrysalis.

"Isn't there an AI that can cook..." He muttered as he buried himself in the quilt, his knuckles still lingering from the dull pain from the fierce battle.Awakened by the keyword, the soft and low voice of AI came from the ear, "Sir, what are your orders?"

Wutiao struggled, barely stretched out a hand, and opened the personal consumption authority in the terminal. "Buy me some instant food, as long as you can eat it."

AI took the lead, and the electromagnetic sound disappeared like an ebb tide.Gojo shrunk himself into a ball, his mind spinning rapidly, for a while it was the future action plan of the Supervisory Division, and for a while it crossed over to Pierre's crying figure.

He closed his eyes and thought, trying to distract himself from the burning pain in his stomach.But the air and the bed were very cold, no matter how hard he tried to hide, there would always be an endless stream of chill pouring into his body.As a result, the place that shouldn't be hurting became more uncomfortable, like sparks bursting out from the nerve endings, only a little bit at a time, but crackled and ignited the whole tendon.

"Sir, the order has been completed, please go out to receive it."

Reluctantly, Wujo got up and pulled a piece of clothes to change, so that he didn't look so haggard.He staggered out the door, took the takeaway delivered by the courier in the corridor back to his house, and swiped his card to sign for it.

Although he said "you can eat as long as you can", AI made a special trip to buy him a bowl of hot porridge.Lean shredded pork and chopped green onion are mixed in plump and white rice grains. The ingredients are overcooked, and the aroma radiates out from the lid, and the palms are damp.Wu Tiao sat at the dining table to eat in silence, each spoonful was wrapped with evenly salty and light ingredients, which melted in the mouth, even he was extremely difficult to criticize.

"..." Wutiao always felt uncomfortable when he felt the overly humanized service of AI.It is clear that this assistant was independently built by him from the basic framework to the packaging, and all the functions were added by him, even the name—well, Wutiao admitted that the name was made up by him one day when he was drunk.

But artificial intelligence is not a human being after all, and it cannot distinguish the subtle emotions of the owner.Wujo finished his meal in silence, pushed the empty box to the corner of the table, and said, "Jie, don't do anything beyond the scope of my order in the future."

"—superfluous."

He walked back to the room with long legs, and AI answered respectfully, "Yes."

For a second, Gojo regretted it subtly.But he did not revoke the order after all, pulled the quilt over his head, and fell asleep with his eyes closed.

After a long absence, Gojo had a dream.

He can often realize that he is dreaming, so he has never had a sense of immersion, just as if he was watching a free movie.But this time he couldn't relax so easily - because the scene stitched together in the dream was not elsewhere, but the brightly lit East [-]st Street, District [-].

The stalls lined up the entire length of the long street, shouting one after another, competing with the heavy metal band on the open stage not far away.Hundreds of sky lanterns floated up slowly, and the people looked up to see them off, showing admiration and piety.Wutiao was in it, his mouth flustered, and in front of him was the person he knew the most in his life.

The alarm bells were ringing in my mind, Wutiao, who was watching from the sidelines, almost "jumped" to stop this dream, but in the end he could only watch helplessly, seeing how his young self looked at Xia You in the sky full of lights, with a pair of distorted blue eyes .

"No matter what the circumstances, I would never hurt you," he said.

Then he turned his head, bit a ball from Xia You's hand, and chewed it contentedly.

The promise of shit.Wujo thought desperately.Since he was a child, he despised promises the most, because they were the most easily used bargaining chips.But Xia You used to be too far away from his world, far beyond the reach of those dirty and dirty things, so he was unwilling to deal with it with skillful words, and began to rethink the meaning of his choice.

When he swore, he was so sure that the promise would never be broken.This stems from the five innate self-confidence. He knows that he is special, and it is easy for others to imagine things that are unimaginable, regardless of such "will not hurt you" words-as long as the interests do not conflict. There is no need to fight each other, and at that time he didn't think that Xia You would step into the field he tabooed, so he agreed very seriously.

The sky lantern is mighty, the young Xia You looks up, but the young Wu Tiao keeps watching him.

As if predicting what would happen next, Wujo, who was outside the dream, closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

"Bang!" is the sound of gunshots, glass collapsing, and bodies falling to the ground.The sharp and high-pitched sound shattered the brazier festival and dragged everything into the abyss.

Gojo opened his eyes and saw himself stepping on Subaru Lawrence's shoulder, the gun in his hand was still hot.He looked at the leader with an unfamiliar face, his eyes were empty, and seemed to be too full, but could no longer reflect any scene.

All he knew was that he didn't hesitate when he fired that shot.

Squeezing the trigger was easy, he just calmly loaded, aimed, and moved a finger as the target stalled in front of the window.As for the splashed blood and glass shards, as long as he didn't think about it, he couldn't hinder his actions.

Yes, perhaps he simply gave up thinking.

The dream continued, and they seemed to stay in the sentry forever, listening to Subaru's peaceful and quiet complaints.Wujo felt cold, but he couldn't feel anything other than cold.He thought aimlessly, maybe the moonlight this night was too cold, and after falling on his body for a long time, even the tips of his hair gradually froze.

But thoughts surged in like a wave, and Wu Tiao was distracted to resist, but the dam slowly collapsed under the impact.He instinctively restrained himself from thinking deeply, as if he had already understood that thinking would bring disaster—just like a person who has long been accustomed to being condescending, once he was on the ground overnight, he couldn't help but panic.

In the entanglement of the night and the mottled blood, all the vows he made once again echoed in his ears.

Those sentences seemed too raw, pale and powerless, all smashed to pieces in this moonlit night.Xia You didn't leave room for himself, let alone think about him; Wu Tiao tightly clings to this logical chain to absorb nutrients, trying to put all the blame on the other party, so as to find peace.

But the blame is that they know each other too well, are too smart and sober.Jay always knew what he was thinking, and he also understood Jay's choice from beginning to end.The dream mirrored the reality, and Wujo's eyes turned into Xia You in the backstage of the audience in the practice field, the blood-stained young man holding a gun in both hands.At that time, he was still in an overwhelmed mood and couldn't calm down. When he entered the battlefield, his heart was terribly confused, and he bumped into the opponent so unexpectedly.

The young man has returned to his original appearance, the left shoulder holding the gun is obviously off-axis, but his eyes are shining brightly under the cover of blood stains.

At that moment, when someone called him "Enlightenment" again with that voice, Wutiao's heart was suffocated, and all his emotions were blocked in his trachea by the cork, as aggrieved as wine fermented in a barrel.He had a straight face and a flat and indifferent tone, but he really didn't know how to deal with the situation.

Relieved?Lost and found?In this long dream, Wujo tried to find the answer again.But Subaru's bloodless face was always in front of his eyes, as if reminding all the vows and dreams that he had torn up with his own hands, and the future they might have had.

"who are you!?"

In the end, space and time are distorted and stagnant, the dream is transformed into an illusion again, and the ink-and-wash scene falls into a harbor.

The moonlight was just right, and the Grand Canal shone with silver light under the night. The boats were moored, and the chains swayed with the water waves.The five were stuffed in the narrow and long hull, with a tarp covering their heads, and their bodies were scorching hot.

He opened his eyes ignorantly, tried to pull the tarp, and freed a hand.

Then the cloth was suddenly lifted, and the moonlight fell down, covering the face that came into view.

Wujo rubbed his eyes, trying to see him more clearly.But the light was so bright that his eyes were watery, and he couldn't catch the facial features beyond the blurred outline.All he knew was that the man was staring at him, his gaze was like lightning, making him numb from his toes to his scalp, as if he was being roasted on fire.

"..." He spoke, but the words he said were indistinct.

I hope it's not another promise, Gojo thought bewilderedly.Nelson was right. Oaths are meant to be broken, and they are the most boring thing in the world.

—Oaths are shit.

"You have a new call, caller: Hui Yuanxiong."

The terminal vibrated, and the sharp ringing directly pulled Wu Tiao out of his half-dream and half-awake state.

The sky was bright and it was already noon the next day.

He reached out and fumbled beside the pillow, and it took him a long time to get the phone. He pressed the call button and said in a daze, "Hey, if you have something to say, hurry up."

Huiyuan quickly said: "Major General, two things. First, please ask the Second District Research Institute we contacted to communicate, and now we can arrange a medical examination for Corporal Polygonum cuspidatum and extract samples from his body; The results of the body fluid samples brought back have also come out, and it happens to be near the research institute, if you want to go in person, you can get the test results along the way."

Getting up from the quilt, Wujo yawned and said, "Okay, I'll go right away, you focus on Pierre and the Torch Club first, and let me know as soon as you find anything."

"Yes."

After hanging up the phone, Wutiao got up, pulled out a few casual clothes from the closet, changed into them, picked up the keys and went out.

Cross-country detour to the military area, picked up the expectant Knotweed.The boy was saying goodbye to his companions, and the others returned to the base first, while he and Gojo headed to the second area.When getting into the car, Hu Zhang was still talking about the gossip he had just heard from his seniors, he was having a good time thinking about it with himself, Wu Tiao looked sideways frequently, finally shook his head, and let him dance in the air.

Chatting all the way, Wu Tiao answered questions one by one, and even evaporated some of the burnout from not sleeping well.The vigor rising from the young man was enviable. The officer drove across the elevated road, conveniently using the knotweed as a refresher on the way, so that he would not fall asleep.

Arrived in the second area, cross-country and drove straight to the research institute on the west side.Knotweed still finds everything novel, but he is also afraid of disturbing the instructor, so he marvels in a low voice the whole time.

"Reka? It's his shift today, and he's going to the state university." In the staff room, the female employee browsed the computer and told Wutiao that the person he was looking for was not here. If he didn't have time to wait, he might as well go directly to the school laboratory to try his luck.

Wutiao was noncommittal, silently climbed the cross-country, and took himself and the knotweed to the state university.

The highest school in the iron city wall covers an area of ​​1.5 square kilometers, with excellent greening, and every corner is built by Gaoge designers, and the appearance is pleasing enough.Wujo asked the AI ​​to park the car, took the knotweed through the security check, and went straight to the laboratory on the third floor of the north.

State University has had many cooperations with the military in recent years, so Gojo is quite familiar with its campus and has been able to go smoothly all the way.On the contrary, it was quite a hindrance for the students to come and go - they couldn't take their eyes off when they saw the uniform of the knotweed stick, and they all stopped and talked, trying to identify him as a member of the Yexiao team.

The young man who was enjoying it didn't mind it, and he was really happy to chat with the students who came forward.Gojo had no expression on his face, and drove straight in with a blindfolded face, splitting through the group of students and going up to the third floor.Fortunately, seeing him like this, Hu Zhang knew that he was in a hurry, so he asked the students to move out of the way with a few words, and trotted to follow.

N310 is the main biological laboratory, and it is very spacious inside. Several white coats shuttle between the low temperature boxes without raising their heads.Wutiao opened the door, raised his voice and asked, "Is Reka Ivanov here?"

No one answered.A young man who looked like an intern came over and said softly: "Teacher Reka went out 10 minutes ago, and he should be coming back now, why not wait for a while."

Wujo leaned against the door and just waited.Within a few minutes, approaching footsteps and conversations came from the other side of the corridor. He closed his eyes and counted the distance for a while, then turned around and said, "Finally caught you, little bunny..."

He widened his eyes slightly, and bumped into Xia You.