Liu Zhi hurriedly ran over, bent down, and was about to pick it up when Xiao Yunduo's short legs reached for something and kicked it to Yi Heye's side.
Yi Heye bent down and picked up the USB drive.
Jian Yunxian glanced at it, then looked up at Yi Heye and said, "Hurry up, I'm fucking dying!"
Suddenly receiving the USB drive, Yi Heye's palms broke out in a cold sweat. He was just about to go over and take another look with Liu Zhi when he saw Jian Yunxian raise his hand, point at Liu Zhi, and yell, "You fucking stay away from me! Stand there and don't come any closer!!"
It seems he's trying to create distance and slip through? Yi Heye gripped the USB drive tightly, trying to find a suitable angle.
But Liu Zhi, who was still dazed from being kicked, only rubbed his eyes briefly before quickly regaining the initiative: "Fine, face me, I'll just watch you slap me from here. If you block me for even a second, we're done for today."
Damn it. Yi Heye pursed his lips again—what should he do now?
He looked up at Jian Yunxian again, but the man didn't make any eye contact with him. He just closed his eyes and urged, "Hurry up!"
He looked exactly like a drug addict, completely unreasonable. Yi Heye took a deep breath and could only slowly walk over.
Holding the USB drive, Yi Heye walked from the room door to the bedside. In just a few steps, he was so nervous that he was drenched in sweat.
He held the USB drive, came up behind Jian Yunxian, tossed aside his hair, and looked at the smooth nape of his neck.
This was the first time he had seen Jian Yunxian's brain-computer interface, and he couldn't see anything different about it compared to a human.
He took a deep breath and asked one last time, "...What should I do?"
"Insert it." Jian Yunxian coldly uttered three words.
Yi Heye's heart tightened, and the image of Chen Sang when she was in the throes of drug withdrawal flashed through his mind, causing his ears to ring.
He really had no confidence. Yi Heye's breathing became difficult. He looked at Jian Yunxian's brain-computer interface without reservation, and his vision even turned white with tension.
At this moment, Jian Yunxian reached out a hand and held Yi Heye's wrist. In that instant, he felt the person quietly draw a direction in his palm.
Looking up, I could see the little cloud still wriggling by the seam of the bed. Although it was moving very restrainedly, I could still tell that there was something extremely tempting inside.
In that instant, Yi Heye seemed to understand something.
The next second, Jian Yunxian gently pinched his little finger. Although it didn't have a clear meaning, Yi Heye understood—the person was telling him to do it without worry and not to be afraid.
So he took a deep breath and, under the watchful eyes of Liu Zhi and everyone else outside the camera, raised his hand.
With a "click," the USB drive was inserted into the back of Jian Yunxian's neck.
In an instant, Jian Yunxian trembled uncontrollably, and a suppressed sob escaped her throat.
Then I saw his pupils dilate, his breathing become rapid, an unnatural redness appear around his skin, and his expression become confused.
Half a second later, the indicator light on the outer ring of the brain-computer interface lit up—
Content import complete.
Author's Note:
[Highlight] Cherish life, stay away from drugs! Never try them out of curiosity! Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely do not touch them!!
———
Keep working on it, there should be more updates tonight.
Chapter 71, number 071
The moment the indicator light came on, the air fell into a deathly silence.
Liu Zhi stared intently at him, seemingly trying to confirm Jian Yunxian's condition.
At this moment, Jian Yunxian, who had just entered a brief but empty state, lazily tilted her head back, her eyes glazed over and her face flushed, looking like she had drunk too much and was feeling dizzy.
After a long while, a chilling laugh escaped his lips. He slowly turned his head, staring at the two people with an ambiguous look, his gaze seemingly unable to find its focus.
Meeting that empty gaze, Yi Heye couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat—the person in front of him had no life in the slightest, looking exactly like a lost ghost.
He even began to doubt whether there was anything wrong with the USB drive. Could it be that this guy had actually knocked it over?
Yi Heye didn't dare to think too much. He immediately turned around and pushed Liu Zhi out, saying, "Alright, that's enough. You've seen everything you needed to see."
He himself didn't realize that there was a genuine sense of anxiety in his tone.
Liu Zhi had almost lowered his guard and was about to leave when he heard Jian Yunxian call out from behind, "Hey!"
Yi Heye turned around with him and saw Jian Yunxian lying limply on the bed, squinting and lazily making a phone gesture towards him.
Yi Heye understood what he meant and whispered to Liu Zhi, "Leave your contact information, I'll come back to you next time I need something."
This method of contact was certainly not as simple as their previous nodding acquaintances within the band; it was a probe into the depths of darkness.
Liu Zhi looked back again, seemingly hesitant.
Yi Heye then said, "We don't have many connections here, and his addiction is so strong that it's never enough. If you can help him in his time of need, we're willing to give him more."
Hearing that he would be given more, Liu Zhi was immediately tempted. After leaving his contact information, he finally left the room.
The moment the door closed again, Yi Heye did not immediately breathe a sigh of relief. Instead, he casually brushed off the surveillance camera stuck to the wall and repeatedly checked that there were no other hidden dangers in the room.
At this moment, even without the audience, Jian Yunxian gradually emerged from the terrifying state he had just been in.
Yi Heye asked anxiously, "Are you alright?"
Jian Yunxian first gritted her teeth and pulled the USB drive off the back of her neck, then blinked hard, frowned, and rubbed her temples: "...Hmm."
As Yi Heye watched his eyes gradually come back to their senses, his tense nerves finally relaxed.
He bent down and moved the little cloud blocking the edge of the bed, and sure enough, he found a USB flash drive under the bed that looked exactly like the one in his hand.
The Little Cloud's processing system is relatively simple, but it is very sensitive to this kind of malicious USB flash drive with slight external signal contamination.
Like the time I was staring at the chip at the recycling center, and the time I almost swallowed Sister Qin's pink USB drive by the roadside, it was all because of the instinctive attraction of such things.
In that split second, Xiaoyunduo and Jian Yunxian worked together to successfully switch the real electronic drugs. The fact that it didn't chase after the USB drive that Yi Heye had obtained also proved the safety of the USB drive.
This time, the little lamb did a great job. Yi Heye patted its head to praise it, but the lamb didn't appreciate it. Watching Yi Heye put the poisonous USB drive into the shielded box, it started grinding its horns on the ground again, trying to express its indignation through violence.
Yi Heye once again blocked its head with one hand and asked Jian Yunxian, "Where did this fake USB drive come from?"
Jian Yunxian's face was still a bit pale, as if the interface was uncomfortable. He kept touching the back of his neck, and his voice was a little hoarse: "Before Liu Zhi came in, I was afraid that something might happen, so I asked Xiaoyunduo to find an empty USB flash drive in the nearby electronic recycling bin as a backup."
There are quite a few people in the fandom who smoke these things. If they can find the shells that have flown out of the room, they can definitely find more used and discarded electronic waste. These are empty USB drives that others have finished smoking, just like those empty syringes.
The brief contact also gave Yi Heye some understanding of this new drug—if file packages are cracked and copied, the source merchants will definitely not make any money. Therefore, these files are set to be used only once, and are destroyed immediately after the source files are transferred, leaving no chance for others to take advantage.
At this moment, Jian Yunxian got out of bed, his face pale. The theatrical flirtation on his face had faded, but no matter how you looked at it, he wasn't in good condition.
Yi Heye also noticed this and immediately became nervous: "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Jian Yunxian pinched the bridge of his nose, and after a long while, he finally spoke in a hoarse voice, "Um... a little..."
Upon hearing this, Yi Heye's heart leaped into his throat again: "What happened? Is it a problem with that empty USB drive?"
Jian Yunxian gritted his teeth and said, "It should be. There are some file fragments in here."
It's a very common problem that files can't be completely deleted after file shredding and cleanup. Even Kingsoft Antivirus can't solve this, let alone relying on the system's automatic deletion.
But this fact plunged Yi Heye into an unprecedented panic—this was a drug he was completely unfamiliar with, and he had no idea how much impact these incompletely deleted file fragments would have on Jian Yunxian, or whether they would lead to addiction.
He asked hastily, "What does this mean? What will happen?"
"It's alright." Jian Yunxian smiled, trying to keep her tone calm. "These fragments are like a few poppy shells. They're not good, but they're so small that they won't cause any problems."
But he didn't look like he was alright, and Yi Heye was still worried: "Then you..."
"I might be a little allergic to this stuff, but it has nothing to do with addiction." Jian Yunxian smiled wearily, then forced himself to say, "Take me home quickly, I should feel better after a good night's sleep."
His condition reminded Yi Heye of his tolerance to alcohol—perhaps because of its overly sophisticated structure, Jian Yunxian reacted strongly to things that interfered with the interactive system. In other words, the same small piece of file, which might not even elicit a reaction in others, would amplify the side effects countless times in his body.
Seeing the person in front of him in a predicament, Yi Heye suddenly felt a pang of guilt. He, who never apologized in ages, spoke with some difficulty: "I'm sorry."
"What?" Jian Yun asked with a casual smile. "What are you apologizing for?"
Yi Heye's apologies ran out of steam, so he stopped there, but he still couldn't help feeling guilty.
The reason this person took this risk was ultimately because he impulsively told Chen Sang that he was a drug addict. Going back further, it could even be said that Jian Yunxian's participation in this mission was inextricably linked to him.
But he only thought of that before quickly focusing back on reality—
Jian Yunxian's condition is obviously not good right now, and if she stays outside any longer, the risks will only increase.
Yi Heye quickly helped the man get ready and then helped him get out of the house.
"It's a bit cold," Jian Yunxian said, rubbing his arms. "I'll put on a coat."
Summer is gradually approaching, and even indoors, Yi Heye is sweating profusely despite wearing short sleeves. So, his claim of feeling cold at this moment is naturally due to a certain degree of malfunction in his temperature perception system.
As Yi Heye helped Jian Yunxian out, he hurriedly asked, worried, "You..."
“I’m really fine.” Jian Yunxian interrupted him with a light laugh. “Sir, can’t you have a little more faith in me?”
These words, though seemingly unrelated, inexplicably put Yi Heye at ease—that's right, this is Jian Yunxian, there shouldn't be anything he can't handle.
But he couldn't help but say, "Don't be stubborn, speak up if you have any problems."
At this moment, Jian Yunxian, who was getting heavier and heavier, still managed a weak smile and said, "Mr. Yi, it's really rare for you to care about me so much."
Upon hearing this, Yi Heye, unusually, did not scold him, but remained silent as he carried him to the car.
Just like last time, on the way back, this person was unusually calm and quiet, seemingly resting with his eyes closed in the back seat after turning off his phone.
When they got home, Yi Heye realized that the man's body, wrapped in a coat, was soaked with sweat.
Upon returning home, Jian Yunxian, who had kept his eyes closed, opened them and his pupils began to tremble uncontrollably, and his breathing became visibly disordered.
Yi Heye watched as the sweat on his face increased and the color faded. He gripped the door frame, seemingly enduring the pain for a while before finally giving in.
He gently touched Yi Heye's hand; his slender fingers were now completely cold, chillingly so.
"Excuse me, could I use the restroom for a moment..." After saying that, he rushed to the sink without looking back.
He didn't have time to close the door, he just turned on the tap and started gagging without being able to vomit anything, followed by a cough that made your heart clench.
Yi Heye stood to the side with a towel in his hand, looking at Jian Yunxian's pained expression, his hands and feet turning cold.
As he coughed, his skin began to turn red, and his expression became visibly irritable.
He first took off his coat in a flustered manner, then unbuttoned the collar, seemingly wanting to take it off further, but after thinking about it, he stopped.
Yi Heye had no time to think about lifting his clothes; he just noticed the way the man was fanning himself and quickly turned on the air conditioner.