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Ivy cried bitterly.

This was almost the first time I could remember crying so violently.

The last time she cried was when she was in the Dark Zone with Lorraine. She couldn't control her tears because of the excessive physiological tolerance. The last time before that was when she broke up with Yu Mo. She hid herself and shed a lot of tears quietly.

Yu Mo said that human emotions are terrible.

Emotions can make people lose their rationality, making it impossible for them to maintain clear judgment and distinguish right from wrong.

——What people need least is emotion.

He was right, Ivy thought.

If there were no feelings, she wouldn't be so sad now.

She always thought she was good at managing her emotions.

For humans today, emotional breakdown is all too common.

History books say that every time there is a population explosion, there will be a shortage of resources, and humans will eventually consume a large number of people through war to solve the problem.

If technology had not developed to the point of intelligent warfare, and capitalists had not used large amounts of advertising and cheap entertainment to consume people's energy, today's human settlements would have already rioted due to unequal resource distribution.

When she was still at the base, Nana had an emotional breakdown and went to Ivy to cry several times because she found that there was an error in a knowledge package that had been implanted in her brain. The implanted memory cannot be changed or forgotten, and even if she finds that it is wrong, she cannot correct it. Even the fact that "this knowledge point is wrong" will be corrected quickly.

She reminded herself through the notes she wrote down, and after realizing this for the nineteenth time, she hugged Ivy and cried until she was exhausted.

Lily's emotional breakdown was caused by her not-so-harmonious family background. After she broke up with him, Song Xu angrily punched a tree - the result was a broken right hand, and he received a fine of 5,000 yuan.

Not to mention Song Feng, he is just like an ambitious male concubine in the ancient court who has been neglected for more than 20 years. Every word he says either makes others collapse or makes others realize that he is collapsing.

Compared to them, Ivy thought, she was already emotionally stable.

She hadn't expected that her first outright anger and rebuke would be directed at Lorraine.

His calmness did not make Ivy feel better, because she realized that he still viewed her "emotional breakdown" like a teacher treating a student, from a superior, condescending perspective.

This was not the marriage she wanted.

Ivy cried as she read the information Lily sent over, and then wrote a simple analysis by hand;

Lorraine placed sticky notes and pens in many corners of the house. Ivy was not used to using such traditional writing tools, so she wrote two notes. Seeing her own bony handwriting made her even more sad.

With this frustrated mentality, she sorted out the other supplementary information needed by the Green expedition team and wrote two full reports on suggestions for the future development of the Green team.

I met Lorraine again at five o'clock the next morning.

He knocked on Ivy's door on time to remind her that it was time for her morning run.

"Machine! It's a machine!" Ivy yelled at him angrily. "We just had an argument yesterday. Why are you asking me if I can run with you now?"

Lorraine said: "There are only six days left before you set out into the wasteland; before then, moderate maintenance exercise can help your muscles store energy and you will be safer."

Ivy automatically translated the meaning behind his polite words——

If you want to survive in the wasteland, start running with me now.

Ivy said stiffly, "I don't want to run with you. I'm still mad at you."

Fortunately, Lorraine did not say "Why are you still angry?", otherwise Ivy would have punched him hard in the chest.

He leaned over, hugged Ivy through the half-open door, and said, "What now?"

Ivy smelled the fresh scent on him and found that this guy also took a shower after his morning exercise.

Shower after morning exercise, shower after running, shower after a meeting or extra activity, shower again before going to bed -

Oh my god, is this guy a crocodile? How many times does he wash in a day?

After the exercise, every muscle in Lorraine's body was filled with blood, and the blood was growing longer and longer. It hasn't subsided yet. Ivy was full of anger, and she calmed down for a while in such a warm and powerful hug. Lorraine raised his hand and gently stroked Ivy's hair. After his fingertips touched the crooked heart-shaped mark in her hair, Ivy pushed him away forcefully, even angrier -

"Beauty temptation is useless!" She said righteously, "Don't think that just because I like this style, you can do whatever you want based on my preference. It's useless!"

Lorraine looked down at her.

I found that Ivy now looked like a king crab with its claws and fangs bared.

"Don't look at me like that," Ivy said. "Close your eyes, or let me blind you. Your choice."

She felt like she was looking at an ingredient.

"Is this what Yu Mo meant by 'getting mad when waking up'?" Lorraine even laughed. "If he regards this as 'being angry', I suspect that he is too fragile to withstand any rejection from you - your relationship doesn't seem to be as harmonious as you said."

Ivy found his sense of humour really weird and irritating.

She said, "Don't mention him."

"Okay, let's not talk about it," Lorraine said readily. "If you were my subordinate, two weeks before entering the wasteland, I would ask you to run in the morning to exercise your endurance--"

Ivy said stiffly, "If I were your subordinate, I would have reported you for breaking the rules after we had sex yesterday morning."

"Have you accepted the invitation to run together?"

"What else?" Ivy returned to the bedroom and took off her pajamas. "You've made me not sleepy at all...but this doesn't mean we're reconciled."

She turned around fiercely: "I still don't like your attitude, even though you don't seem to care - I'm not your child, and I'm not your student now."

Having said that, she took off her pajamas and threw them heavily on the bed.

Lorraine saw her back, with smooth lines and very even proportions.

He didn't want to comment on Ivy's muscles right now; he wanted to feel the spine that held her body up.

Ivy continued to change her clothes in a gruff manner, and now she looked more like a struggling king crab trapped in some water plants.

"All of Alice's documents are legal. I have seen the report from District 5," Lorraine said. "There is indeed an 'Alice' in District 5 who looks very similar to you, but not the one now."

After finally putting on her T-shirt, Ivy turned around and was indeed attracted by someone's attention: "What?"

"Yu Bai still uses the same credentials as before. He is a resident of the Dark Zone, has no fixed job, and makes a living by being a bodyguard and doing bounty missions," Lorraine said, "but Alice's identity has changed. I have collected her DNA for testing--"

Ivy thought of the last time she collected body fluids.

She was nervous: "How did you get it?"

"You should ask Xin Lan for the details," Luo Lin said calmly, "I only know the result, don't make any assumptions."

"I'm not imagining things," Ivy yelled, "You know, our genetic match is 100 percent. If she has the same DNA as me, that means she has the same DNA as you—"

She couldn't say it.

It is because of this damn high compatibility and high attraction that they get married, have sex, and live together awkwardly.

——What if the person who matched Lorraine at the beginning was Alice? Ivy thought.

"The results show that the DNA sequences of important parts of your genome are similar," Lorraine said. "This is also the result of the Songfeng survey."

Ivy quickly put on a sports vest and understood why Song Feng was not surprised.

It has been proven decades ago that the more similar the important DNA sequences in the genome are, the more similar the human appearance is. Moreover, she and Alice have completely different temperaments, habits and behaviors, and their dressing styles are also very different.

Lorraine felt much happier when she saw a few teeth marks and strawberries on her peach-shaped cheeks.

"This can't be the truth," Ivy said, "What is the truth?"

"Memory or brain transplant," Lorraine said. "The Alice who lived in District 5 is dead. The Alice now has the brain of 'Alice' in her head."

"How pitiful..."

"There's no need to use the word 'pitiful' to describe it," Lorraine corrected. "Obviously, from the very beginning, Alice in District 5 was a backup body; or in other words, her similar DNA sequence was most likely adjusted for your DNA."

Ivy has already thought of more questions: "So by chance, she was able to cross the wasteland at this time, and she appeared in less than a day..."

“A.I. in the wasteland,” Lorraine said. “Meta.”

The first time Ivy heard the word "yuan" outside of the classroom, she was stunned for a long time.

It occurred to her that she had also received an old-fashioned scam email from someone claiming to be "Yuan".

"Only artificial intelligence can accomplish such a task in a short time, and only it has sufficient motivation," Lorraine said. "This is what I wanted to talk to you about last night. I'm glad you can listen to it calmly now. Great, Ivy."

Ivy pulled up her sports pants and ran to him: "You said my birth was related to Yuan?"

"Preliminary speculation," Lorraine said. He lowered his head and smoothed the hem of Ivy's messy sports T-shirt, carefully adjusted her crooked sports pants, and gently turned and smoothed the corners. "So you need to maintain sufficient physical strength and be vigilant. I don't want you to leave the wasteland with other people's stupid brains in your head."

Ivy wanted to get angry.

Lorraine's next words slowly calmed her anger.

"Listen," he said, "you have a beautiful brain now, take care of it."

It was the first time Ivy heard someone use the word "beautiful" to describe the brain, and he was really surprised.

She was dissatisfied: "Can't you really speak to me as gently as you did when we were making love?"

Lorraine's gentleness and patience seemed to be only on the bed.

“I prefer cost-effective communication methods,” he said.

It was during her breathless run that Ivy realized the true meaning of his words.

A cost-effective way to communicate.

When making love with her, the initial communication in the dark area was not smooth. Lorraine realized that without sufficient coconut juice, she would not be able to contain the apricot gum, or at least it would be painful and bitter to complete it. Lorraine knew about her daddy issue, so she would use a lot of compliments, tolerance and tenderness to make her relax, just like the time when she first moved in here, those nice words and gentlemanly behavior were just for the purpose of making love happily.

This is what Lorraine calls high value for money.

So that's how it is, Ivy thought.

This marriage was a "high value for money" for Lorraine, so he got married; exposing her identity as a clone was a "low value for money", so he kept it secret.

She didn't need to relax now, but needed to be alert and remember the questions as much as possible, so he would say it directly; and yesterday, including before, in order to make Ivy suspicious of Yu Mo, he would even induce her to doubt actively - because people are more impressed by the things they have deduced and are more convinced of them.

Lorraine is indeed a natural teacher.

But Ivy felt frustrated.

Ivy pressed her hand against her chest, and when she looked up, she saw Lorraine talking to a man in front of her. The man was dressed in ordinary clothes, but he had the posture of a soldier, standing upright.

Ivy realized that there were many plainclothes guards around this residence.

She walked over slowly.

The man had already left. Lorraine uncorked the cap of the water bottle and handed it to her: "Drink slowly and sip slowly. It's easy to hurt your throat."

The sound of cranes crying in the wind made Ivy even begin to doubt whether his deeper intention behind these words was to withhold the delivery.

After all, Lorraine had already done it for her twice.

She pushed the bottle of water away and strode away; Lorraine called her name from behind, but Ivy didn't even turn around.

That's too bad.

Ivy thought.

She had never felt this way before. It seemed that Lorraine would affect her mood changes every minute and every second. She didn't want her feelings to fluctuate with him. This feeling of being out of control was terrible, as if everything no longer belonged to her, but to the other person - Ivy didn't like it, she really didn't like it.

She had to doubt the 100% match result - someone with Lorraine's personality should choose a robot partner instead of a living human being.

There must be something wrong.

Now Ivy can find ten thousand flaws in Lorraine.

His life was as regular as a robot's, without any emotion or fun. Or rather, he was too stingy to arrange emotion and fun into his daily life, but always spent them on bed in order to get more coconut water. He paid great attention to his body functions and was very rigid in his diet, with a fixed amount of protein, fat, dietary fiber, and carbohydrates to eat every day. He had almost no hobbies that could be called "art", and his greatest pleasure seemed to be to make her laugh. He was extremely restrained in his work and life, but extremely indulgent here. He was so contradictory that he seemed like a half-human, half-machine chimera.

Fortunately, seven days passed in a flash.

Ivy redrafted the divorce agreement and gave it to Lorraine after her morning run on the day she left.

"I've already signed here. You sign it now and I'll take it. When the government allows us to divorce, I'll hand it in as soon as possible," Ivy pointed to the lower right corner. "The division of property is good for you. The salary the expedition team offers me is okay. I don't need your money. My parents own half of the house—"

"I can give them all to you," Lorraine interrupted her. He twirled the thin pieces of paper, frowned slightly, and looked at Ivy, "I thought we got along very harmoniously these days."

"Just in case," Ivy said, "what if I die in the wasteland?"

Lorraine slowly placed her agreement on the table and said calmly, "Look at it from another angle. If I died in a wasteland, you would not only inherit my huge estate, but also receive a large amount of pension. Of course, I know you don't care about this, but it can help your parents live comfortably... The title of your deceased husband and the support from the government will allow you to completely get rid of discrimination and even leap forward to gain a higher social status."

Ivy said expressionlessly: "...You're almost making my heart beat faster."

She said, "Don't you want a quick divorce?"

"There's no point in pursuing speed in this matter," Lorraine shook her head. "Ivy, you're really as fast as in bed."

Ivy was incredulous: "You still want to continue to mock me at this point?"

"It's not sarcasm," Lorraine sighed, "it's advice that we have a better solution."

He used "we" again.

Ivy seriously suspected that this was also his little negotiation technique.

Lorraine, who had just taken a shower, was wearing a black shirt. She didn't button every button, which revealed her beautiful collarbone and faintly visible pectoral muscles.

This was in perfect accordance with her aesthetic taste, so Ivy decided to listen patiently.

"Money is a good thing. Although it may not help you get everything, it can sometimes help you solve a lot of problems," Lorraine said calmly. "Your parents are already old, and the amount of pension they can receive is not high. You have also noticed that prices have been rising in recent years. You are a good child. You should not want to see them getting weaker and weaker and worrying about money, right?"

Ivy said nothing.

"Not having property during a divorce is the stupidest thing to do. It won't show your self-esteem, but will make your family sad," Lorraine said slowly. "Let me ask a lawyer to readjust some of the terms here. You can legally get money from me that will allow you and your parents to live comfortably - you don't have to feel guilty. It's completely reasonable."

Seeing Ivy's somewhat relaxed look, Lorraine stood up and changed the subject: "However, this will take some time. Ivy, you can seriously consider it."

Ivy asked, "How long will it take?"

"I can't be sure yet. I will tell you in time," Lorraine smiled, holding down the unsigned divorce agreement and not returning it to her. "I hope you can rationally analyze the pros and cons of our marriage."