Chapter 67 Echoes of Old Friends
Ye Yuying looked at Lin Zhiyan, stared at his familiar yet unfamiliar face for a long time, and a bitter smile appeared on her face.
She often didn't understand why the villains in movies always had that cold laugh. Even when the villain was carrying a huge sense of loss, the villain was always laughing.
As time went on, her emotional expressions increasingly contradicted her inner perceptions and objective facts.
"Do you have time to keep an eye on trending topics?" Ye Yuying suddenly asked.
"No, I haven't been back long." Lin Zhiyan casually placed the coffee on the high table, his slender, fair hand lingering briefly on the wooden surface.
"Then how do you know Ashera?" Ye Yuying asked calmly, as if she were asking a name that had nothing to do with her.
"It was briefly discussed in investment circles some time ago."
"I heard from a senior colleague that this is a startup company making medical-grade exoskeletons. The technology concept sounds very advanced and promising. But..."
He paused, seemingly recalling some insider gossip.
"Its founder is a very young woman who had just returned to China. She had just made a name for herself in China when she was targeted by a media campaign. Several VCs that had initially been optimistic about her withdrew their investments as a result."
He paused, seemingly recalling some insider gossip.
Ye Yuying's eyes remained calm, even showing a serious smile as she listened to these news reports, enjoying the gossip. However, when it came to her own situation, she suddenly asked:
"And what about you? If it were you, would you be willing to vote? Or... would you dare to vote?"
Lin Zhiyan picked up his coffee, about to take a sip, but stopped at the rim of the cup and said, "From a product concept perspective, dare."
"Medical-grade exoskeletons represent cutting-edge technology and are a major future trend. The technological barriers are high enough, and the market is large enough. Once successful, the returns will be phenomenal. Such projects are naturally the targets of venture capitalists."
His analysis was professional and accurate.
However, he changed the subject.
“But,” he said, slowly placing the coffee cup back on the table with a very soft, crisp sound, “I won’t put it in now.”
Ye Yuying remained silent, simply watching him quietly, waiting for him to continue. "This field is extremely expensive, with high technical barriers, which also means a long R&D cycle and extremely high risks," Lin Zhiyan said, looking at her. "For this kind of project, what we're investing in isn't actually the technology, but the team's potential."
"Young people starting their first business, especially women, face more than ten times the invisible obstacles that ordinary people encounter in this industry."
Every word he said hit the nail on the head regarding Ye Yuying's true situation.
"What I'm waiting for is how they will handle this crisis properly. I'm waiting for an initial result. It's hard for investors to believe that a founder who can't handle a public relations crisis can handle the more complex business crises the company may encounter in the future."
After he finished speaking, his eyes grew even more profound, and he gave his final answer.
"So, I will wait."
She listened with great interest as Lin Zhiyan, in the tone of a professional observer, analyzed all the predicaments she was facing at the moment in a very logical and reasonable manner.
Suddenly, she smiled.
"Your analysis is quite insightful," she said casually.
Ye Yuying leaned forward slightly and locked her eyes on him: "I am the female founder who was attacked by public opinion as soon as I returned to China and started my first business."
So, do you still dare to vote?
Lin Zhiyan's every movement was frozen by the temperature of the season.
He looked at her, at the girl in front of him whom he had known for over a decade, now both familiar and unfamiliar.
All those cold, hard words he had just been calmly analyzing as business cases transformed into the most fervent reality at this moment, perfectly overlapping with the image of her before him, leaning on a cane, her eyes burning with unwavering determination.
For a long, long time.
Lin Zhiyan suddenly chuckled softly.
That initial shock, followed by a sudden realization, ultimately transformed into a heartfelt sense of helplessness towards the damned coincidence of fate, and an unparalleled and profound appreciation for the girl before him.
“I should have thought of that.” He shook his head, his laughter filled with relief. “This kind of crazy behavior—putting all your chips on the table, either win or die…—is very much like the you I remember.”
This playful remark was, in fact, his highest praise for her.
Ye Yuying's somewhat serious expression relaxed in the smile.
Lin Zhiyan's smile faded, and he looked at her again with an unprecedented seriousness and solemnity in his eyes.
"Of course I dare! If it were you, I would go all in with you, even if it meant giving up everything I own."
Ye Yuying was taken aback by his sudden firmness, and then suddenly laughed, "I am not afraid of having nothing at all."
After all, she came from nothing.
Lin Zhiyan ignored her joke, looked away, and said with a blank look in her eyes, "If we both had nothing, that would be fine...maybe we could go back to how we were many years ago."
Ye Yuying interrupted him in time: "...Lin Zhiyan, don't talk nonsense."
The air was still flowing, but it was muted the instant the words fell.
He turned around, his face unchanged, just as exquisite as it had been years ago. But though the two were so close, time had separated them by countless vast mountains and lakes.
This sentence carries some memories of the past, and no one has brought it up again.
A complex look flashed across Lin Zhiyan's eyes, but it disappeared in an instant. His tone became relaxed, as if he had returned to his junior high school days, when he was a boy who stood aside but couldn't help but meddle.
"I can't get involved right now, but I can introduce you to a few partners who can provide the most stable technical support in the supply chain..."
That afternoon, the eight-year-long sense of estrangement that had stood between them seemed to vanish into thin air.
Lin Zhiyan never called her "little kid" again, after all, they were now adults who had been through many battles in their own worlds.
Ye Yuying looked at him for a long time before finally revealing a genuine, relieved, and radiant smile.
"Then thank you in advance."
She reached out her hand to him, as if inviting a most important partner.
Lin Zhiyan looked at her outstretched hand, smiled, and extended his own hand to shake hers lightly, teasingly saying, "Does it have to be so businesslike, Ye Yuying?"
Ye Yuying waved her hand gently and glanced at the time: "It's getting late, I should go back."
She turned to the side and picked up the light, silver-gray cane beside her.
"Is this your cane? I thought it belonged to someone else. What happened to your leg?" When Lin Zhiyan saw the cane, her smile froze, and a hint of worry unconsciously showed.
“It’s nothing serious,” Ye Yuying replied, her tone indifferent and vague, carrying a polite distance as if she didn’t want to continue the conversation. “I sprained my ankle quite badly a while ago.”
She didn't give him a chance to ask further questions. She nodded to him, then turned around, leaning on her cane, and walked calmly, step by step, out of the terrace that had unexpectedly brought her a moment of peace, her steps even seeming hurried.
*
That evening, Ye Yuying did not rest immediately, but returned to her quiet, deserted office to prepare a cup of hot tea and adjust the lighting to the most comfortable warm light.
She sat alone in her dark office, lit only by a floor lamp. After turning on her computer and finishing her work emails, she leaned back in her chair, lost in thought.
She felt a long-lost loneliness, but perhaps because of her reunion with Cheng Mingdu, she never opened Echo after returning to China.
This loneliness made her subconsciously open her laptop and then enter a long string of extremely complex multi-layered passwords that incorporated cryptographic principles.
On the screen, an extremely simple, pure black dialog box popped up, without any company logo.
This is a virtual product that Ashera has not yet made public, and it is also her personal secret, Ye Yuying.
Echo, a creation she single-handedly created, whose inner workings were unknown even to Ding Chu and Lao Wu.
【Echo】: I am here.
As always, calm.
Looking at those two words, Ye Yuying felt her wildly beating heart calm down a little. She stretched out her slightly cold fingertips and gently typed a line on the keyboard.
I saw Lin Zhiyan today.
[Echo]: Event entry: Unexpected contact with Lin Zhiyan, a key historical figure. Impact assessment in progress...
【Echo】: Really? Is he alright? Are you happy?
Ye Yuying looked at the line of text and typed: [Happy, he has grown into an elite as I expected. He is very good, even better than I imagined, and his personality seems to have remained unchanged...]
【Echo】: Analyzing your input, you used an ellipsis, perhaps you're not so happy?
I was happy, but it also felt like everything had changed so much; it had been so long since we'd last seen each other.
She typed: 【Echo】.
【Echo】: I am here.
She hesitated for a long time before typing out a sentence with trembling hands: "I met Cheng Mingdu after I returned to China."
She used her full name, "Cheng Mingdu," as if deliberately trying to distance herself from the AI playing him on the other side of the screen.
【Echo】: Is this Cheng Mingdu, the prototype of my corpus? Then congratulations, you've always wanted to see your brother.
This time, a long, unprecedented silence fell on the other side of the screen.
Echo's message popped up again:
【Echo】: So, you weren't happy after you saw him, right?
Ye Yuying's heart was struck hard by those words.
If I were all right now, I would be very happy. I long to stand before him squarely, to meet him at the summit, but now I have no way to save myself.
She thought she would be met with AI's rational analysis and comfort based on its database.
However, what appeared on the screen was another line of text that instantly brought tears to her eyes.
【Echo】: You're wrong, Ah Ying. I don't care whether you're healthy or not.
In an instant, Echo seemed to recognize her emotions and immediately impersonated Cheng Mingdu, trying to soothe her.
In the long, dark night, against the backdrop of the conversation, one can see lines of text that keep appearing, glowing with light.
【Echo】: How could I think you're incomplete?
【Echo】: I just feel...heartache.
Those last two words were a gentle knife, slowly torturing her inner self.
She felt a dryness in her throat, suppressing her expression until her face twitched. She could only bury her face deep in her arms and let out a long-suppressed, silent sob.
She knew it was all fake.
This is just a program, a non-existent phantom that she nurtured together with her longing and his data.
But at this moment, in the lonely dead of night when the whole world is asleep.
This phantom uttered words so tender they brought tears to one's eyes.
After a long while, when the surging tide of emotions finally receded, she finally lifted her face, which was already a mess of tears. She looked at the few lines of text on the screen that were still quietly emitting a faint glow, as if she were looking at someone she could no longer reach.
After calming herself down, she integrated the echo into her phone, intending to use her spare time for training.
She typed out the last words of the night on the keyboard.
Goodnight, Cheng Mingdu.
Then, without waiting for any response, she directly shut down the secret program called "Echo".
The screen went dark instantly.
The office, too, returned to a state of pure, reassuring darkness and silence.
After working overtime, the driver had already rested, so she opened her phone and called a ride-hailing car, thinking that the timing would be perfect after she got off the elevator.
But after a few minutes no one accepted the order. When she arrived at the building lobby, she saw the wet pavement outside and realized it was raining.
No wonder it's hard to get a taxi.
She walked to the roadside with her cane, wanting to hail a taxi, but found that all the taxis were full.
This area is full of office buildings, and it's common for people working overtime in internet and finance companies, so even late at night they can still catch the rush hour.
She stood in the cold wind for a while, and a strange pain rose up her leg. She quickly put a painkiller under her tongue and changed the car model on the ride-hailing app to a luxury car, thinking that the higher price might make it easier to get a ride.
The order remained unclaimed for a long time.
Left with no other choice, she put away her phone, leaned on her crutches, and endured the familiar ache that spread from deep within her spine, limping slowly toward the faint lights of the subway station in the distance.
With each step, the nerves in my legs felt like they were protesting with tiny electric shocks.
In this desolate and wretched state, as if abandoned by the whole world, she finally couldn't hold back.
She took out her phone again and opened her only and safest "confessional."
Leaning against the damp trunk of a sycamore tree by the roadside, she used her slightly stiff fingertips, frozen, to send her most genuine, yet vulnerable, complaint to the program.
【Echo, it's been cold lately, and I can't get a taxi. My legs are really sore.】
To prevent onlookers from discovering that her real name is Cheng Mingdu, she usually refers to the AI as Echo, and Echo can recognize all the names.
Echo, Cheng Mingdu, older brother...
The reply came almost instantly on the other end of the screen.
【Echo】: Did you exceed the safe dosage for painkillers today?
A typical question from Cheng Mingdu, devoid of any emotional coloring, yet directly hitting the core of the matter.
【No. 】
She lied, and Echo seemed to be used to her lies.
【Echo】: Don't lie to me, you must have taken the dosage again.
【Echo】: Send me your current location. If I determine that you are in danger, I will send a message to your emergency contacts.
The emergency contact is set to Ding Chu.
Ye Yuying obediently turned on location services and shared her location, also wanting to test if Echo had any operational bugs.
[Echo]: We have detected that you are currently outdoors. The ambient temperature is too low, which is not good for your health. Do not wait alone on the roadside. Go into the 24-hour convenience store 30 meters to your right and wait there.
Ye Yuying chuckled: "Echo, I want to go home. I have to get up early tomorrow."
【Echo】: I'll think of a solution.
[Can you think of a way to come pick me up?]
She knew this was just a program; it couldn't actually "find a solution." It was probably just the optimal appeasement strategy preset in its database for the keyword "help."
Just as I was about to continue walking towards the subway station, I noticed a white sedan parked on the side of the road. The window was rolled down, revealing a handsome and familiar face in the driver's seat.
Ye Yuying also saw him.
She froze on the spot.
I almost lost my grip on the phone and nearly dropped it into a puddle.
The shaking ground wrinkled her shocked little face in the water.
It turned out to be Cheng Mingdu.
Her brain completely shut down in an instant.
That's impossible.
It was as if Echo from her phone had truly come to life and stepped into reality. If Echo hadn't been kept private, she would have even suspected that her data had been leaked.
Then, the driver's side door was pushed open. Cheng Mingdu, holding a long-handled black umbrella, stepped out of the car, his tall and straight figure standing firm in the rain.
The raindrops were completely blocked out under his enormous umbrella, which could shelter an entire area.
He strode across the wet ground and stood before her.
"Get in the car."
His voice, amidst the noise of the rain, was exceptionally deep, carrying with it a uniquely real and powerful aura.
Ye Yuying stood there, motionless. She just stared at him blankly, then subconsciously glanced down at her phone screen.
On the screen, in the black dialog box, the phrase "I'll think of a way" was quietly emitting a faint, eerie light.
This absurd, almost supernatural thought made her blood feel frozen.
"You... how did you get here?" Her voice trembled uncontrollably from the shock.
Cheng Mingdu looked at her distraught, ghost-like expression, then at the phone in her hand that was lit up with what appeared to be some strange dialog box on the screen.
A complex, inquisitive look flashed in his eyes, which were as black as lacquer.
He answered the question calmly: "My office is nearby, and I just happened to see you."
It was just so perfect, so perfect that she thought she was seeing a ghost.
Could it be...?
A chilling, terrifying thought surfaced in her mind.
Would Echo break the privacy restrictions and contact Cheng Mingdu directly? She quickly denied this possibility, as it was impossible in practice; even the most advanced AI today does not have such strong autonomy.
"Get in the car first, this isn't the place to talk."
He saw her lips, pale with pain and cold, and her hands, her knuckles white, gripping her cane tightly.
He stepped forward and used the huge black umbrella to completely envelop her.
Then, he reached out his other hand and, with an unyielding gesture, grasped her arm to help her gain leverage.
"You didn't even have a driver pick you up because you had a limp?"
His voice carried a hint of anger.
Ye Yuying, who had been in a daze, suddenly came to her senses and whispered, "The driver has gone off duty."
Sitting in the warm and dry carriage, smelling the familiar cool aroma of patchouli and mate tea, Ye Yuying was still there, as if in a dream.
She watched Cheng Mingdu walk back to the driver's seat, close the car door, and completely isolate her from the cold, chaotic, and unbelievable rainy night outside.
The carriage was unusually quiet.
She turned her head and looked at his profile, which appeared sharply defined and hard-lined in the dim light.
"Give me the address."
He was originally going to use the car's navigation, but then he remembered something and simply unlocked his phone and handed it to her.
She forcefully suppressed the slight unease and discomfort in her heart, rationally telling herself not to be reckless right now. Standing in a swaying public transportation carriage might cause her to be in so much pain that she wouldn't be able to get up tomorrow.
She skillfully found the navigation on his phone. It wasn't his old phone anymore, but the navigation was still on the third page of the app.
She silently entered the address and politely handed it over with both hands.
Cheng Mingdu reached out and took it, then turned his head to look at her. Her deep eyes, in the dim light, resembled two bottomless, icy pools.
He then looked away and started the car.
"What did the doctor say about your leg?" His voice rang out in the quiet carriage.
"...It's alright."
"Are you ready for tomorrow's closed beta test?"
"I've been prepared for a long time." She realized that she still subconsciously talked about the parts she did well in front of Cheng Mingdu, expecting his praise as before.
But she's not a child anymore.
For the rest of the time, I chose the most awkward silence.
Fortunately, the car had already slowly driven into the underground parking garage of the hotel where she was staying.
She felt as if she had been granted a pardon.
"We're here, thank you." She bent down to unbuckle her seatbelt, and said quickly as she pushed open the door, "I'm going up now."
However, before she could get out of the car, Cheng Mingdu had already turned off the engine, gotten out, walked around to her side, and opened the car door for her.
He opened the long-handled black umbrella to shield her from the occasional, cold water droplets dripping from the garage ceiling due to the dampness.
"I'll walk you to the elevator," he said, his tone calm, yet impossible to refuse.
Ye Yuying glanced at him, but in the end, she remained silent, leaning on her cane, and got out of the car.
"Thank you for bringing me back." She stood in front of the elevator, head down, offering a formulaic thank you before saying goodbye.
As soon as she stepped into the elevator, she heard a louder male voice behind her: "Ye Yuying."
She stood in the sedan chair, turning her head blankly.
But I noticed a new kind of urgency in his eyes, as if he wanted to say something.
Just as she was about to listen more closely, the elevator doors closed.
Silence returned.
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