Chapter 121 Fragments of Memory
When Conan opened his eyes, he saw Alice, wearing a white coat, smiling at him and saying, "Alright, the examination is over."
Alice lifted the little boy down from a high chair and put a rabbit in his arms: "You play with Qi for a while! I'll take you back later."
Conan remembered this laboratory; when he first arrived at the Twilight Villa, Osiris had brought him here. He couldn't quite recall the specifics of what happened, only Alice's last words: "From today onwards, you must behave and play with Osiris."
Yesterday was Conan's birthday. After Osiris talked at length about the organization's great cause, the image of Crystal couldn't leave his mind, and he surprisingly suffered from insomnia. He finally fell asleep, but when he woke up, he found himself here again.
"This laboratory shouldn't be inside the Twilight Villa."
"Where are Dad and Wakasa locked up again?"
Unbeknownst to Conan, Scotland was currently undergoing soul-searching interrogation by Osiris in a cell upstairs. The father and son were only three meters apart, but Conan couldn't reach them.
"Sister Alice, what were you checking just now?"
"Let's take a look at your health condition."
"I don't remember how I got here," Conan said as he stroked the rabbit's fur.
"It doesn't matter, you'll be back soon anyway."
"I won't remember how I got back either, right?"
Alice, who was busy with something, stopped what she was doing and said seriously, "Conan, didn't we agree? You have to behave. Remember, these things won't do you any good, you can understand me, right?"
"So, you erased my memory?"
Alice shook her head gently and sighed, "You really are a very inquisitive child... Well, I admit your guess is correct. We can manipulate memories; it's not a particularly complicated thing, and many people can do it."
"In reality, memory is very unreliable. Human memories are not stored and archived in an orderly manner, but are scattered in various places. Every recollection is a process of reassembling fragments, but fragments can be lost and can also be altered."
"Aren't you afraid that Osiris will find out about these things?"
Will you tell him?
Conan was stumped by the question, but not understanding why Alice would help him, he asked again, "Sister Alice, what kind of person do you think Osiris is?"
"The one who gives new life." Alice's expression was full of adoration.
"Give it to her, or the whole world?"
Alice knelt down and held Conan's little hand tightly, saying, "Conan, promise me you won't go against Osiris, okay? You may have had some misunderstandings about him before, but you are a very smart child, and I believe you will soon be attracted by his personal charm."
"If I become obedient, I won't be this smart anymore, right?"
Conan jumped so fast that Alice didn't react for a moment. She paused for a moment before answering, "Well... although Osiris thinks there's no problem, this experiment is actually very risky. I don't want to take the risk. He would be very sad if you died on the operating table."
"Or perhaps you really did experiment on me, but erased those memories?"
Alice stood up, patted the little boy's head, and said, "This is for the clever little detective to decide! Okay, I have work to do, so be a good boy!"
Alice left Conan alone in the room without a second thought, and the young detective naturally wasn't going to let this golden opportunity slip by. He guessed that the Twilight Villa wasn't far from here, and might even be located beneath the laboratory.
The kitten put down the rabbit in its arms, observed its surroundings, and, finding no surveillance camera-like device, swaggered out. But after only a few steps, it bumped its head with a loud thud, and the alarm immediately went off.
Conan winced in pain, clutching his forehead, thinking: I've never seen such clean, shiny, and non-reflective glass in my life! This is really weird!
Alice rushed over upon hearing the noise and, seeing the little boy sitting on the ground, asked with concern, "Conan, what's wrong?"
The kitten looked up with a pitiful expression and said, "Sister, I want to go to the bathroom."
"The restroom is right there, you don't need to go out."
"Good grief! They even gave me a room with a private bathroom, right?"
"Conan, if you need anything else, just ring the bell and let me know."
The little boy who came out of the bathroom said, "I'm thirsty."
Would you like some celery juice?
"Yay!"
The little detective watched Alice leave while sipping freshly squeezed celery juice. And let me tell you, the celery juice was really delicious! It had a unique, refreshing sweetness that didn't belong to celery, and it was incredibly invigorating.
However, if Conan knew that this drink was just made by Osiris in Scotland on his advice, he would probably spit out his water.
Unable to get out, Conan could only stand there in a daze.
What troubled him most was the crystal network: what would the world be like if Osiris's dream of utopia became a reality one day?
Can rabbits possess the same intelligence as humans? Will Qi Zai still be able to eat leafy greens peacefully, or will it also want to drink celery juice?
Oh no, Osiris was talking about all life, so one can imagine that a new civilization could be born from celery, and maybe Seven is gnawing on the head of a great philosopher.
"Clever Mr. Rabbit, why did the dinosaurs become extinct?"
"Respected Celery Master, why is it that among all the celestial bodies, only Earth has evolved intelligent life?"
Going further, when rabbits are no longer rabbits and celery is no longer celery, will people still be people?
Will crystals be the ultimate form of life evolution?
What did you mean by "the world of children" that I mentioned earlier?
...
A barrage of questions swirled in Conan's mind, driving him almost insane!
Conan shook his head, wanting to put this fantastical plan on hold for the time being.
Conan's gaze swept over the small room, the furnishings of which seemed to belong to Alice. The window was closed, and opening it abruptly might trigger the alarm again, so he refrained from doing so.
On the windowsill, Conan saw an exquisite ornament, clearly made by Osiris:
This is a green plant, but it's not a real potted plant; it's a model. With a gentle touch of the switch, a small water wheel will start spinning to water the plant.
Conan felt that the plant looked somewhat familiar, and after thinking carefully, he remembered seeing it on the holographic projection screen in the library yesterday.
If Conan had a little more knowledge of paleontology, he would know that it's called a Bennett's cycad. This is an extremely ancient gymnosperm; when the Bennett's cycad was still flourishing, dinosaurs were the rulers of the land. However, this ancient creature, which went extinct in the Cretaceous period, is now buried deep underground and has become coal.
Conan assumed it was just a little gadget Osiris made on a whim. But what he didn't know was that Osiris never made toys based on ancient creatures unless there was a real object to reference.
Alice's room was clean and tidy, with nothing particularly noteworthy.
Bored, the little detective returned to the rabbit's side; it was fluffy and soft, and very cute.
"Seven, do you think the root of all negative human emotions lies in being too smart? If humans were all like you, only knowing how to eat, drink, poop, pee, and sleep, wouldn't there be fewer worries?"
For some reason, Conan began to envy the rabbit: it was trapped here and deprived of its freedom, yet it was content. He, on the other hand, was like a caged beast, helpless and exhausted.
What should I do?
"How can we stop the organization's plot?"
Upon careful consideration, Conan realized that Osiris's grand ambitions were not his primary concern. He felt that such a far-fetched plan was impossible to realize.
Most importantly, how far has Osiris's plan progressed? What is the connection between the organization's actions over the past 20 years and the realization of his dream? There seems to be a crucial missing link in the chain of logic.
With so many things on his mind that he couldn't sort them out in a short time, Conan found paper and pen to write them down and organize his thoughts.
As he wrote, he thought of Haruko Horii. At this moment, he could roughly understand Horii's feelings when she wrote in her diary. It wasn't out of hope that someone would see it and seek justice for her, nor even for future convenience. It was simply to pour out the most genuine and intense emotions of that moment. When memories are still vivid, putting them on paper brings the past to life. Alice was right; relying solely on memory is far too unreliable.
"If Alice tampers with my memories again, this manuscript can serve as evidence!"
After an unknown amount of time, Alice returned.
Like an elementary school student playing on their phone during self-study class, Conan puts his "homework book" on top in order to appease his teacher.
Seeing how well-behaved the little boy was, Alice asked in surprise, "Conan, what are you doing?"
"I'm drawing a comic, a story about a white rabbit detective based on Seven-Eleven."
"That sounds really interesting! Can I take a look?"
However, when Alice received Conan's drawing, her anticipation turned into confusion: "Conan, is this catfish-like Seven?"
Conan, clearly hurt, exclaimed, "Nonsense! That's clearly celery!"
Alice's expression instantly changed from confusion to shock. She looked left and right but couldn't figure it out. She seriously doubted that Conan's fingers could keep up with his imagination: "Although I don't understand it, I guess it's a very interesting story."
"Of course, I can tell you about it after I finish drawing it."
"Great! Actually, I'm also writing a fairy tale about Seven. I wonder if you'd be interested in reading it? Osiris really likes it."
"I want it!" Conan was overjoyed, never expecting to get information from this.
However, Conan's feelings after seeing Alice's fairy tale were even more devastating than Alice's feelings after seeing Conan's detective manga.
Conan stared at the hand-drawn rabbit in his notebook, lost in thought, and asked a question that struck at the heart of the matter: "Sister Alice, what exactly is this rabbit doing?"
"Are you playing?"
"There should be some kind of meaning or significance, right?"
"Why must fairy tales have a moral? I'm not writing a fable. Don't use the adult world's rules to restrict children's imaginations."
Conan was speechless. The story was too absurd and bizarre. In his opinion, it was just a rabbit making trouble for no reason. What exactly did Osiris like about this story?
Alice said helplessly, "Forget it, it seems we don't have anything in common on this topic."
"Don't be angry, Alice!" Conan began to beg for forgiveness and act cute.
"I'm not angry, I understand your feelings. I've felt the same way when reading other works. For example, when I was reading 'A Study in Scarlet,' I was thinking: Uh, how could anyone write something so boring?"
“Conan Doyle’s novels are never boring!” the young detective argued vehemently.
"Oh, don't get so worked up! I was just expressing my opinion," Alice said nonchalantly, glancing at her phone and frowning slightly. "Conan, you'll have to stay here a little longer."
"Why? What's wrong with my brother?"
"It's nothing, he's just a little busy. You can take your time drawing your comics." With that, Alice left again.
Conan had a vague sense of unease: perhaps this was related to Scotland.
But he wasn't even sure where he was, let alone how to rescue Scotland.
Unable to offer any real help, the young detective continued to organize and record everything that had happened over the past few days. Since the dates were uncertain, he used yesterday, May 4th, as a baseline, working backwards and forwards, meticulously recording everything he remembered. Carefully choosing his words, he wrote furiously, producing a vast and detailed account…
However, when the dust settled, Conan could only wish that none of this had ever happened.
One of the things he regretted most in his life was leaving behind this manuscript.
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