Chapter 407: The Fallen Penguin Monster, Sun Changkong’s Birthday (asking for monthly tickets)
On the F2 floor of the Salvation Society, in the environmental simulation space.
The black-haired boy and the white-haired girl in hospital gowns sat on the floor, their heads turned and their eyes met. They looked into each other's eyes and were silent for a while.
Then someone broke the silence.
"The moon?" Kong Youling asked softly.
"Yes, the moon." Ji Minghuan blinked. "Have you really never left the base with your instructor before?"
Kong Youling thought about it, then shook her head silently, and the snow-white hair covering her forehead swayed gently.
Ji Minghuan was silent for a moment. "Then I asked you, 'Where might the Salvation Society's base be?' You drew the moon in your sketchbook. Was that really just a lucky guess?"
Kong Youling suddenly stopped talking.
She opened her mouth slightly and hid her eyes under her snow-white hair. After a while, she raised her head to meet Ji Minghuan's gaze, then slowly lowered her eyes.
Ji Minghuan looked at her silently. Based on his understanding of Kong Youling, she must be hiding something.
From another perspective, he also didn't believe that the name that Rukawa Chiba read from Zhong Wujiu's memory was fake.
Suppose that Rukawa Chiba was misleading Xia Pingzhou, but as an outsider, how could Rukawa Chiba know that there was a girl named "Kong Youling" hiding in the Salvation Society?
The only possibility is that Kong Youling did appear in Haifan City ten days ago and hypnotized Zhou Jiuya and Zhong Wujiu.
Zhou Zhong and the others were not as alert and suspicious as Zhuge Hui, so it was not surprising that they would let down their guard around a girl. However, a psychic ability user like Kong Youling could declare that he had completed mental control once he got close to the other party.
There was a long silence, then Kong Youling shook his head.
“I have a little impression,” she said.
Did she have some recollection? The instructor shouldn't have been able to penetrate her mind, so...was Kong Youling controlled by someone from the Savior Society at the time? Perhaps someone with the ability to control someone's body, bypassing their mind and giving them physical commands? No, that possibility is very low.
Thinking of this, Ji Minghuan raised his head and stared at her curiously: "You didn't lie to me?"
Kong Youling puffed up her cheeks slightly.
"If you lie to me, I will never talk to you again." Ji Minghuan said, lowering his head slightly, and his drooping hair covered his eyes.
"...I'm serious." After a while, he emphasized again.
Kong Youling was stunned for a long time. She lowered her head and remained silent for a while.
Ji Minghuan stopped talking and just picked up the remote control on the ground, looking at the buttons with words written on the surface of the remote control.
After a long time, the white-haired girl suddenly took out a notebook and a paintbrush, bent her knees and squatted on the ground, slowly writing, and then turned the notebook towards Ji Minghuan who was standing beside her.
Ji Minghuan turned around and looked at the words on the notebook with an expressionless face.
The notebook reads: "My mentor told me..."
"What?" he asked in a deep voice.
Kong Youling continued writing, his pencil rustling. "If he helps me with one thing, he can help me regain my hearing."
"Why did you agree to him?" Ji Minghuan was silent for a moment, then whispered, "You know he's a bad guy, right? What you do for him might harm others."
"Because... I want to hear your voice." Kong Youling wrote slowly on the notebook.
Ji Minghuan was stunned for a moment, then shook his head, a hint of blame still in his voice: "There's no need to rush, there will always be opportunities in the future."
"He also told me..."
Kong Youling put down the notebook and suddenly spoke in a low voice, interrupting him.
Ji Minghuan raised his head towards the ceiling, closed his eyes, and took a breath with a hint of impatience.
"What else did the mentor say?" he asked.
"As long as you help him, we can celebrate your birthday." Kong Youling whispered, "He took me to that city and picked out a birthday cake for you, and we brought the cake back."
Ji Minghuan was startled and looked up into Kong Youling's eyes.
He was silent for a long time, then slowly lowered his head. The trace of annoyance in his eyes gradually faded away. Kong Youling lowered her head and said nothing, her snow-white hair covering her eyes.
After a moment, Ji Minghuan gently raised his hand and rubbed her hair.
He said, "From now on, no matter what your reason is, you are not allowed to help those bad guys anymore. Do you understand?"
"Um."
Kong Youling nodded.
Ji Minghuan continued, "It's not a big deal if I miss a birthday meal... Although the instructor promised you that he could help you regain your hearing, if you do something bad for him, you'll degenerate into an evil penguin monster."
He paused and said, "I hope you can be safe and sound, and stay by my side forever."
After saying that, he raised his eyes and looked at Kong Youling quietly.
In fact, Ji Minghuan couldn't tell for sure whether the use of Kong Youling to brainwash Hu Lie was instigated by his mentor or by his restricted supernatural powers.
After all, in addition to killing the Ripper, Xia Pingzhou's last mission related to the "White Crow Brigade" is to "assist the brigade in killing a Lake Hunter member."
After being brainwashed, Zhou Jiuya just facilitated the completion of this task.
Perhaps Zhou Jiuya was brainwashed by the Savior Society because of his restricted supernatural power, in order to make Lin Xingshi realize the danger of the Savior Society and to create a grudge with the Savior Society, so as to lure the remaining three people from Lake Hunter to Iceland.
After all, thinking back, Ji Minghuan discovered that all his body missions so far were built around the goal of "how to help his original body escape from the Salvation Society."
Without exception, his supernatural powers have been predicting and guiding the future.
Therefore, the possibility of this idea in his mind at this moment is very high.
However, there was one exception. There was an unexpected event in the prediction of the aircraft's mission, a huge unexpected event.
That was Li Qingping's death.
Because Li Qingping died, the No. 1 machine "Black Pupa" directly lost a main task - from this we can see that the ability of the restricted superpower to distort reality is not strong enough to be omnipotent, but it must be more or less affecting the course of history, and even affecting the will of the people around it.
"Are you angry?" Kong Youling suddenly asked.
They have known each other for many years, but she has never seen Ji Minghuan speak to her in this tone. This is the first time that Ji Minghuan has looked fierce in front of her.
"Nonsense, I was so worried about you. I always thought you were controlled by your tutor or something, so you didn't tell me about this!" As he said that, he turned his head and glared at Kong Youling.
Kong Youling was stunned for a moment, picked up the paintbrush and put it down again, and finally just lowered his head.
"You're almost pissing me off, okay? We clearly agreed not to have any secrets." Ji Minghuan said, suddenly lunging towards her while stretching out his voice, "You, a penguin monster, actually dared to break the agreement and even aid the evildoer. You're finished!"
After saying that, he threw Kong Youling onto the silver-white floor and tickled her hard.
Kong Youling giggled so much that Ji Minghuan finally let her go after a while. The two children in hospital gowns lay on the floor, staring blankly at the blank ceiling.
After a while, Ji Minghuan suddenly said, "We are family... right?"
"Um."
"Then don't hide things from me anymore." Ji Minghuan sighed, "We blackened elementary school students are the most insecure and easily suspicious. Besides, I hate it most when others lie to me."
Kong Youling nodded silently, "I promise you."
"Forget it, let's put all these worries aside for now." Ji Minghuan shrugged, "Let's celebrate my birthday today. We can't talk about heavy topics on birthdays."
"Birthday?" Kong Youling was stunned. "Whose birthday?"
"Big sister's."
Ji Minghuan said as he slowly straightened up from the floor and sat cross-legged on the ground. He looked up at the surveillance camera above his head and said, "Did you hear that guy called mentor, why don't you hurry up and prepare the cake and candles for us?"
Seeing that the instructor remained silent, he continued, "Since you dared to threaten our penguin monster, wouldn't it be basic etiquette to take out a piece of cake or two to apologize?"
In fact, he couldn't say for sure whether the tutor would do so.
After all, the mentor now has the trump card of restricted level 1003, and he is fearless. For the mentor, there is no need for him to continue to care about Ji Minghuan's feelings, so it is not surprising if he is rejected.
However, Ji Minghuan didn't take the fake restricted-level version 1003 seriously.
He thought that the instructor had never even seen what a real restricted-grade film looked like, and naming 1003 as restricted was just based on his narrow understanding.
But he had seen what a real restricted-level explosion looked like in the memory of restricted-level 1001.
On the way here, Ji Minghuan chatted with 1001 in his mind about his views on 1003.
The explanation given by the restricted 1001 video is: "You can't create an artificial human with your genes, so you use your brother's low-energy genes to mix them together?"
Ji Minghuan nodded at that time: "Yes."
"Then what will be produced will only be a low-energy version. What is there to worry about?" said Restricted 1001.
Since even 1001 said so, Ji Minghuan naturally didn't take 1003 seriously. But for safety reasons, the plan to rescue the original body should be done as soon as possible.
Ji Minghuan remained silent, waiting for his mentor's reply.
The surroundings were silent, with only a silent silver-white. It was a bit creepy to look at it for too long, as if one would be swallowed up in this swamp made of metal.
After a while, just when he thought his mentor had begun to play dead, he heard a warm voice coming from the broadcasting equipment:
"Okay, I've asked someone to prepare a birthday cake."
Hearing his mentor's voice, Ji Minghuan raised his eyebrows and looked up, "No way? You really prepared her birthday cake in advance?"
"Yes," the instructor replied, "You guys have fun, but... you have to think about how to convince Changkong first. I have a feeling that with her personality, she wouldn't be willing to celebrate her birthday early."
"It's not a big deal. You just need to prepare your things. I'll be responsible for convincing her."
"We will deliver the cake and candles in ten minutes," said the tutor.
"Okay." Ji Minghuan nodded.
When the instructor stopped talking, the broadcasting equipment fell silent and no sound came out.
Ji Minghuan was a little surprised, thinking that the tutor had a good temper. Even though they had already fallen out, he was still here playing house with them.
It seems that this man really has a place for these children in his heart, he thought.
"Isn't Big Sister's birthday September 5th?" Kong Youling pulled Ji Minghuan's sleeve and asked in confusion.
"Yes, but that day is a little too far away."
"Is it far?" Kong Youling murmured.
Although she didn't know the current time, Ji Minghuan's last birthday was in August. So August was almost over, so wouldn't the big sister's birthday be in early September?
"It's so far away. I can't wait for that day." Ji Minghuan snorted, "Rules are dead, but people are alive. Living is about being flexible. There's nothing wrong with celebrating your birthday early."
Kong Youling nodded as if she understood, she only knew that Ji Minghuan was starting to give her a perfunctory answer again.
As the two were chatting, the metal door of the simulation space suddenly opened.
They turned their heads and saw a group of children in hospital gowns.
At this moment, the children of the rescue team still felt a little awkward when they saw Ji Minghuan. They all remembered what Ji Minghuan said, "Then you all might as well die." When they saw his face, they couldn't help but look away.
They passed by Ji Minghuan as if they didn't see him, walked over and greeted Kong Youling, who nodded quietly.
Only Sun Changkong wanted to touch Ji Minghuan's shoulder, but then retracted his hand.
Ji Minghuan looked at them quietly, then pressed the remote control in his hand. The surrounding environment changed and turned into a mountainous field with the setting sun covering the fields.
As the sun sets in the west, a gentle breeze blows over, and cattle, sheep and herdsmen can be seen on the top of the distant mountain.
The other children were stunned for a moment, and then they quickly realized that this was the effect of the environmental simulation space, and the surprise slowly faded from their eyes.
Mario sat down on the golden field, playing his game console with his head down. Firio ran around the hill excitedly, watching the flock of sheep floating across the hill like a white cloud.
Shang Xiaochi raised her eyebrows, picked a small yellow flower, and strolled in the fields.
Sun Changkong sat on the somersault cloud, enjoying the evening breeze and staring at the setting sun on the top of the mountain in a daze.
At this moment, Ji Minghuan suddenly put down the remote control, raised her head and asked her, "Big Sister, how about celebrating your birthday in advance?"
"Why in advance?" Sun Changkong was stunned for a moment, then turned his head to meet his gaze.
"Wouldn't it be better to do it in advance? Then we don't have to wait." Ji Minghuan asked.
He thought to himself, the fight is going to start on September 1st, and you don’t even know if you can live until September 5th. How will I have time to celebrate your birthday then?
After hearing this, Sun Changkong was stunned at first, then realized that something was wrong.
She wanted to fly into a rage and raise her arms to yell, "Popcorn Chicken, what the hell are you trying to do? Birthdays are only meaningful if they are celebrated on the birthday itself!"
But at this time, Ji Minghuan said seriously: "Isn't the day I celebrate my birthday different from my actual birthday? Look, my birthday is actually August 15th, but I celebrated my birthday a week early. What's wrong with that?"
Sun Changkong was slightly stunned.
She lowered her head, frowned slightly, thought for a while, blinked her eyes, and thought to herself, yes, if I celebrate my birthday in advance, isn’t that the same as Ji Minghuan?
So he smiled happily.
"What are you laughing at?" Ji Minghuan glanced at her.
Sun Changkong frowned again, "I...will just wait and see for now."
"Big sister, don't be so stubborn." Ji Minghuan said, sighing softly, "Don't let it be a memorial day before you can even celebrate your birthday. That would be terrible."
Mario spat out the boiling water he had just drunk with a "puff" sound, while Firion shook his tail and looked at them blankly, as if he didn't understand what the memorial day meant.
"What does the memorial day mean?" Sun Changkong raised his fiery red eyebrows.
"nothing."
Ji Minghuan coughed twice and silently looked away.
He also knew that as soon as he mentioned a sensitive topic, the tutor would immediately activate the mental imprint in the minds of several children.
Therefore, it is extremely difficult to convey some information to Sun Changkong and others, and they cannot understand if it is too obscure.
Kong Youling suddenly made a "cooing" sound. She was obviously more educated than Sun Changkong and understood Ji Minghuan's sarcasm.
"Well... okay then." Sun Changkong nodded, "I'll celebrate your birthday today, but I have one condition."
"You are worthy of being our big sister. Why do you have conditions for celebrating your birthday?" Mario asked.
"Next year, I don't want my birthday to be brought forward. I want it to be on September 5th," Sun Changkong said. "Even popcorn chicken is not allowed to be brought forward."
"Okay, okay, but please don't call me Popcorn Chicken."
"Popcorn chicken, delicious," Mario said. "I ate a bucket of it when I went to the movies before."
“That’s popcorn.”
Ji Minghuan looked at them speechlessly.
"It's an early birthday, but we don't have a cake." Shang Xiaochi said indifferently, "Traitor, you don't care at all. As punishment, you will ride the Big Sister's Somersault Cloud Bungy Jumping Machine 100 times."
"yes!"
As he spoke, Sun Changkong suddenly became angry, thinking that he had been fooled by this popcorn girl, and he had no intention of celebrating her birthday at all.
"That's easy. I've asked our instructor to bring us a birthday cake." Ji Minghuan raised the corner of his mouth.
"real?"
After a while, the metal door of the prison cell slowly opened, and several experimenters walked in, carrying a birthday cake and walking down the mountainside.
A red monkey wearing a golden hoop and holding a long stick was painted on the cream cake, with candles stuck on it. The candlelight flickered a fiery red light in the sunset.
Ji Minghuan took the cake from them, and they took the elevator away.
Sun Changkong turned her head from her Somersault Cloud and stared blankly at the large cake, her small tiger teeth showing in shock. Then she swallowed a mouthful of water and pointed at herself to Ji Minghuan:
"Is this mine?"
"Or it's still mine?" Ji Minghuan tilted his head and asked, "I don't mind celebrating my birthday twice a year."
"Happy birthday, big sister." Mario lowered his eyes and played the game console, taking the lead without raising his head.
"Happy birthday, have a happy birthday." Firion wiped his nose and smiled.
"Be happy."
Shang Xiaochi walked over with his hands behind his back while talking, and then handed a small flower picked from the field to Sun Changkong.
"Sister Xiaochi is the best." Sun Changkong took the little red flower with surprise, hugged Shang Xiaochi tightly, and rubbed her cheek. Shang Xiaochi blushed and dodged away.
Sun Changkong held the small yellow flower in his mouth and took two bites. Then, under Shang Xiaochi's shocked gaze, she turned her head to look at Kong Youling, who was staring at the candle in a daze.
"Gugu gugu." The white-haired girl said seriously.
"No penguin language," the red-haired girl said viciously.
"Happy birthday."
Kong Youling slightly raised the corners of her lips, her snow-white hair swaying in the evening breeze, dyed golden by the setting sun.
"That's right."
Sun Changkong said this lightly, and finally looked at Ji Minghuan who was holding the cake, staring at him silently.
"Happy birthday, Big Sister."
Ji Minghuan spoke softly, his face expressionless. The setting sun cast a shadow over his face, and the breeze from the mountainside blew his hair, revealing his forehead.
Sun Changkong stared at him blankly for a few seconds, then nodded and looked away:
"Um."
"Don't rush to eat, blow out the candles and make a wish first," he said again.
"What was your birthday wish?" Sun Changkong asked him.
"My wish is... I hope we can all die together happily." Ji Minghuan said, looking up at her eyes. "How is it? Isn't it a good wish? Don't imitate me, please."
Sun Changkong was stunned.
The other children around were also stunned. This was the second time they heard Ji Minghuan say such words, but the last time Ji Minghuan was obviously absent-minded.
Ji Minghuan raised his eyebrows and said, "Why are you so surprised? What I mean is, even if we can't leave the Salvation Society for the rest of our lives, at least we can celebrate our birthdays here every year and get together every few days."
He paused. "Then, we can grow old together and die happily together. What's wrong with that?"
He sighed, "Actually, this is what I wanted to say last time. I don't know why you were all scared by me."
He pinched his fingers and added, "Look, doesn't that TV drama called Romance of the Three Kingdoms often say 'We don't ask to be born on the same day, month, or year, but we do ask to die on the same day, month, or year'?"
Having said that, he curled his lips and looked up at the children in the field.
They were finally convinced by him.
"Traitor... stop saying scary things." Shang Xiaochi said coldly, "Chuunibyou."
"You have the right to say that I have a middle school syndrome." Ji Minghuan smiled unhappily.
Firion wagged his tail happily and said, inexplicably, "World peace."
Mario lowered his head to play the game console and said expressionlessly, "I'm so scared. He's really an adult. He'll throw the collar and beat us up."
Ji Minghuan looked at the girl sitting on the cloud. She lowered her head, her fiery red hair dancing in the sunset. The wind was filled with the fresh scent of the fields, and the mountains and clouds were a wine-like red.
"What about you? Have you forgiven me?" he asked.
"Well... considering that you celebrated my birthday, I'll forgive you for your previous nonsense." Sun Changkong said, patting Ji Minghuan's back hard.
After a moment's silence, she hugged him tightly again, lowered her eyes slightly, and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Wow, what are you doing?" Ji Minghuan was stunned and hurriedly pushed the cake down. "What if the cake gets on your clothes?"
Sun Changkong lowered his eyes and stammered, "Hmph... I haven't even asked you for a birthday present yet, wouldn't it be nice to hug you?"
Ji Minghuan fell silent and stopped trying to break free.
At this time, Firion also crawled over from the field like a husky, with yellow petals all over his body, and stretched out his arms to hug the two of them.
He put his head close to Sun Changkong and Ji Minghuan, and rubbed their cheeks with his soft wolf ears.
Shang Xiaochi was stunned, her cheeks slightly reddened as she watched this scene, and she suddenly turned her face away:
"No... shameless."
At this time, Kong Youling rushed over and hugged her, and threw Shang Xiaochi onto the field. Shang Xiaochi was panicked and her face turned red. The two of them swayed back and forth in the field covered by the setting sun.
"Boring." Mario snorted coldly and played the game console silently. Just as he lowered his head, he was knocked away by the oncoming somersault cloud and fell on the flowers in the field.
"What are you doing?" He got up and glared at Sun Changkong from a distance.
"What are you doing?" Sun Changkong said with a smile, "I felt sorry for you being all alone, so I wanted to hug you with my somersault cloud."
"I hate you." Mario rubbed his red nose, hugged his knees and sat down with a frown, and simply stopped playing the game console.
But a moment later, Firion pounced on him like a wolf cub and knocked him down in the field.
Sun Changkong held his belly and pointed at Mario, laughing.
Ji Minghuan watched the scene quietly, with the breeze blowing on his cheek.
Suddenly, he and Sun Changkong met eyes. At this moment, the setting sun had completely sunk below the horizon, and the fields were dark except for the flickering candlelight.
(End of this chapter)
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