"You really know?" Yi Heye muttered to himself suspiciously, then turned around and saw Mr. Jian and his old man Yang off.
With only one person left at home, Yi Heye felt completely relaxed. His throat was no longer sore, his legs were flexible again, and everything felt better.
He removed his prosthetic leg, took a hot shower, and lay in bed watching some LIFE-related game videos. His body, which had not yet fully recovered, began to feel tired.
So he shrank deeper into the blankets, and as he closed his eyes, he suddenly felt an emptiness in his arms—he rarely felt this way anymore, and this illness had probably awakened some of those feelings from the past.
He looked up and saw the chubby sheep pillow embroidered with "MOMMY" next to his pillow. Remembering its fluffy feel, he reached out and pulled it into his arms.
The loss of his right arm made it difficult for him to hug, and holding the pillow with one hand was uncomfortable, which made him a little unhappy. So he put the pillow back and turned off the light in a huff.
Just before going to sleep, he suddenly felt something was missing. He snapped his eyes open and stared at the pitch-black room for a long time.
Even though I've been living alone for over ten years, I suddenly feel like something is missing.
Yi Heye frowned and pondered for a long time. He turned over and saw the cushion next to the pillow. He remembered that the sheep had said it wouldn't be coming tonight.
"Oh, you're really not coming?" Yi Heye was stunned for a moment, and then closed his eyes tightly when they could no longer be opened.
In a daze, Yi Heye dreamed of "Mom" again, dreaming that her cold arms were right in front of him, and he wanted to hug those hands—but he didn't know how to hug them.
Without an arm, Yi Heye couldn't hug. He used his remaining, lonely arm to desperately try to pull the arm in front of him into his arms, but it was destined to be no match for the figure getting further and further away from him.
Goodnight, Ono... Good morning.
A familiar sense of panic jolted him awake from his sleep. The sudden palpitations made him feel a little short of breath. He sat up abruptly in bed and found that it was already daylight.
"Good morning!"
A familiar voice rang in my ears, and when I turned around, I saw a little sheep wearing an apron riding a robot vacuum cleaner into the room.
This time, the robot carried a cup of freshly prepared milk on its forehead and slowly delivered it to his bedside, controlled by the little sheep's voice prompts.
Yi Heye calmed down amidst his rapid heartbeat, slowly bent down, picked up the milk, and took a sip.
Having not drunk milk prepared by someone else for a long time, Yi Heye felt his emotions gradually calming down, and his panic and unease slowly fading away.
He looked up, and the little lamb began to flutter proudly again. This time, he simply stood on one foot in front of Yi Heye's cup, nose to nose with him: "Looks like the little leopard isn't planning to wean."
The familiar tone and manner of speaking made Yi Heye vaguely see Jian Yunxian's face. He instantly took a step back and tried to call the guy away with his hand—then naturally passed through the projection.
It has to be said that this sheep's face is really too deceptive, and coupled with this guy's recent inexplicable show of goodwill, Yi Heye has almost lost his vigilance.
He patted his face, trying to wake himself up, when he heard Little Sheep feign surprise and say, "Punishing yourself so early in the morning? You can't be that serious, can you?"
Yi Heye glanced at him, and the small feeling of being tricked by that cup of hot milk immediately dissipated. He stood up expressionlessly, turned around and walked to the power switch.
The little lamb immediately chickened out, grabbing his fingers in mid-air to stop him: "Hey, I have something important to tell you."
Yi Heye was too lazy to listen and reached for the power switch.
"We have news from the police," Xiao Yang said.
Yi Heye glanced at him and withdrew his hand.
Perhaps spurred on by Yi Heye's harsh words before leaving, the Security Department's work efficiency has increased exponentially recently.
While Yi Heye struggled with nightmares all night, thousands of people from An Yuxi Department stayed up all night, conducting a thorough investigation of this suspicious "Mr. Beep".
Finally, good news arrived before the sun went up—the person who had been forcibly erased by big data had finally been found to have a clue.
"Holy crap...does anyone even want people to live anymore...?"
At the cybersecurity headquarters, Song Zhouzhou sat in front of his computer with red eyes and a broken expression. He had been woken up at four in the morning by a call from the security department, who wanted him to trace back the viewing history of a video to find out where Lan Yang had been online before his death, so as to reconstruct his true identity.
Actually, searching for individuals wasn't that painful for him. What was painful was that the security team members were all social bullies who would constantly try to video call him, and some even wanted to visit him in person, which was driving him to the brink of a mental breakdown.
Sweating profusely, Song Zhouzhou said to the AI assistant beside him, "Hang up all video calls, send them a text message saying I'm not available to answer, and ask them to send me a message."
He typed painfully on the keyboard, saying weakly, "If anyone comes to visit again, just tell them I'm dead. The obituary is on my desktop; I can just change the date and send it out."
Song Zhouzhou felt he needed oxygen—let alone faking his death, if a group of uniformed men actually came to his door, he could put on a live-action death act for them.
Unlike other department leaders, Song Zhouzhou had no subordinates and did not want any. He repeatedly emphasized that his efficiency as a single person was thousands of times higher than that of a group, thus avoiding the terrifying scene of others appearing in his office.
At this moment, he was fighting alone, feeling dizzy and disoriented, until he thought his time was coming to an end, when suddenly a glimmer of light flashed before his eyes.
He glanced at the information in front of him in disbelief, then pieced it together with the fragmented clues from before, before cursing, "Holy crap... how could it be him?"
Pei Xiangjin received a call from Song Zhouzhou and was patiently communicating with Siwei Networks—now, regardless of Siwei's stance or whether they had done anything wrong, they had become a key link in the fight against Lan Yang.
After all, the person and the game belong to them, but even though the matter has been exposed, the other party still insists on denying the existence of such a person.
“No, Officer Pei,” Liu Siwei told him. “Ms. Four has been retired from frontline work for a long time. The robot is old and in disrepair, just like the elderly are prone to Alzheimer’s disease. It’s talking nonsense, which is not its intention.”
Pei Xiangjin was so angry that when she saw Song Zhouzhou calling, she hung up on Liu Siwei without even thinking.
He listened to the socially awkward person's stammering explanation for a long time before finally asking, "What? It's your senior?"
"Yes, yes," Song Zhouzhou said nervously, "His name is Fang Chunyang. He was a very, very impressive person in college. His major was game design..."
Song Zhouzhou studied at Turing University of Information Science and Technology, a world-class engineering university. Its disciplines, such as cybersecurity and computer science, have consistently ranked first in the world. Fang Chunyang's ability to enter this university to study game design also indicates that he is destined to be a leader in this field.
"This...this person...is not in the same field as me, so...so I don't know much about him..." Song Zhouzhou stammered, "I've already recovered his relevant information, you can take a look for yourselves..."
There are very few people in this world who can cross paths with Song Zhouzhou, and Pei Xiangjin was not surprised at all: "Okay."
"Then, then I..." Song Zhouzhou was sweating profusely and wanted to hang up the phone, but Pei Xiangjin interrupted him again.
What impression do you have of this person? For example, did they have any paranoid tendencies during their university years?
Song Zhouzhou felt the world spinning around him, but under pressure to end the call quickly, his mind suddenly started racing.
“I remember he was taken away before for violating the restricted area regulations,” Song Zhouzhou said. “Back in college, this caused quite a stir…”
Pei Xiangjin frowned. For ordinary people, the restricted area refers to Area A, a mysterious social circle that only elites can enter and exit, which is also where Jian Yunxian was born and raised.
"Ask someone else for the rest..." Song Zhouzhou picked up the oxygen mask, gently lay down on the sofa, folded his hands over his chest, and his expression gradually became peaceful. "This is all I can do..."
Pei Xiangjin hung up the phone and immediately began investigating this person.
Song Zhouzhou was very meticulous in his work, and the information he found was very comprehensive, even including some of Fang Chunyang's past private blog records.
He didn't have the time to patiently read through each word; instead, he used keywords to search and picked out the content he wanted.
This screening gave Pei Xiangjin a real shock. This person had been searching for all the photos and videos of Area A online for a long time, including official ones, secretly taken ones, and some even underground materials that could only be found on the dark web.
Looking at his diaries and university assignments, almost every word reveals a disdain for real life and a fervent passion for naturalism—
"I developed a red rash all over my body. The doctor said it was caused by pollution, but there's nothing we can do. Pollution is a gift shared by all mankind, and it's something we have to face as cities expand."
"The buildings to the east have been upgraded again. I finally moved to the top floor, but now there's no sun. I really feel like throwing up. I want to escape from here. I can't even see the blue sky here."
"I'm going crazy. These buildings and factories are suffocating me. The modified aircraft outside my window start roaring at midnight. I'm suffering from neurasthenia... I want to listen to the birds sing. I want to have my own garden."
"Suddenly I don't know what the point of studying hard is. Even if I go to a top 10 company, I will never have the right to go to Zone A. Damn it, some people are destined to be trapped in the city's cage for life from birth."
Pei Xiangjin frowned as he looked at the documents.
His personal blog reveals that, over time, his longing for Area A gradually turned into a burning obsession.
Here is a school report record showing that Fang Chunyang, during the second semester of his junior year, attempted to fly a drone over the no-fly zone of Area A without permission. He was shot down by the Area A security team and sentenced to half a month of detention by the chief referee of Area A.
It was this criminal record that prevented Fang Chunyang from working for a top 100 company after graduation. Instead, he started a game company with his mediocre peers, which is now known as "4D Network".
However, his daring adventures did not seem to diminish his yearning for a better life; instead, they compelled him to transform his goals into a different kind of spiritual sustenance.
"Gardens, trees, streams, villas, plains, kingfishers..."
"I will recreate that world in the game, and if I could, I would choose to live in that world forever."
Author's Note:
The Death of Song Zhouzhou: The Whole Story of Officer Pei's Murder Case
Chapter 32, No. 032
Fang Chunyang's appearance gradually made the clues behind the case clearer.
Based on the recovered files, this person was a very radical environmentalist. As the student council president in high school, he led other students to sit in front of a chemical plant and wrote articles on the subject, using strong language and extreme views.
According to his medical records, he has suffered from allergic asthma and urticaria since childhood. He has very high requirements for environmental hygiene, and his family has moved him to different places time and time again, but it seems that his condition has not improved.
Starting at the age of twelve, he developed vitiligo due to industrial pollution. The changes in his appearance seemed to alter his personality and mental state. His diary revealed that he had been bullied multiple times, and his emotional state never recovered.
Later, tinnitus, neurasthenia, and migraines continued to plague him. In his junior year of college, his grandfather, who had raised him, passed away from esophageal cancer. Shortly after that, he impulsively took the action of trespassing into a restricted area with a drone.
Looking at the man's medical records, Yu Yili couldn't help but sigh, "He's a pitiful person."
“There are many people like that,” Pei Xiangjin said. “When I was a child, I experienced that massive outbreak of toxic smog. A group of my classmates died, and half of them were affected, resulting in physical development problems, deformities, and rickets. They were directly eliminated by the environment.”
Yu Yili was a little younger than Pei Xiangjin, and his knowledge of this toxic smog was limited to having heard about it.
"Holy crap!" Yu Yili exclaimed in surprise, "That one in Zone E..."
“Yes.” Pei Xiangjin interrupted him, clearly not wanting to bring it up again. “I also had pneumonia for a long time back then. Fortunately, I was in good health and didn’t suffer any lasting effects. I can only say that this is not just his suffering, but a tragedy for our generation.”
He looked exhausted. After thinking for a moment, he lit a cigarette: "But that's not a reason for him to kill innocent people indiscriminately."
After pondering for a long time, Yu Yili mustered his courage and took the cigarette out of Pei Xiangjin's mouth: "You should smoke less, so as not to cause severe air pollution in some parts of the office."
Pei Xiangjin glared at him but didn't say anything. He only said, "Now there is another very crucial question: who provided that so-called consciousness retention technology, and is there any way to cut it off from the outside?"
The self-immolation incident of the "Doomsday Wheel" bar owner has been confirmed as a suicide, and a so-called suicide note has been found online. The note roughly states that he has lost hope in life and hopes that his family and friends can understand.
Clearly, this was just a smokescreen, and the reason for choosing self-immolation was simple—the skin tissue after the body was burned underwent degeneration, and current technology could not distinguish whether it was natural human tissue or artificial skin.
If it weren't for Yi Heye, such an irrational intuitive machine, the police would almost never have associated him with "non-human."
And clearly, even now, with Yi Heye having almost pointed them in the right direction, they still haven't found any decisive evidence to definitively categorize the issue.
The other party is indeed a very cunning individual.
"I think the most urgent task is to bring Lan Yang to justice," Yu Yili said. "His existence poses a significant security risk to the online environment."
Pei Xiangjin nodded: "Indeed."
Compared to forbidden research conducted in the shadows, the dangers posed by Blue Sheep are now plain and obvious.
He's still entrenched in LIFE, which is temporarily shut down, but who knows when his evil clutches will reach other parts of the internet and harm more innocent lives.
“Didn’t Yi Heye say he wanted to work with us from the inside out?” Pei Xiangjin said with a smile. “Ask him how his preparations are going, and tell him not to hold our security department back.”
At this moment, Yi Heye, who was being gossiped about, sneezed in a low voice.