Chapter 71 Red Star
The triple-encrypted doors opened layer by layer.
The visiting room is very bright, with the pale white light illuminating every corner of the room. A transparent glass window made of special material in the middle divides the room.
Qi Cong saw Ruan Zhixian sitting opposite the glass at a glance.
He was wearing a pure white shirt and trousers, and his neck, wrists and ankles were all clasped with black rings as thick as his little finger.
Once he shows signs of attacking, the ring will immediately release high voltage electricity that is lethal and inject poison into the prisoner's body.
It has been almost a month since Ruan Zhixian was arrested.
The riot that was barely stopped half a month ago caused heavy losses to District 1 and its forces. The large number of bugs that were driven back underground did not give up, but just lay dormant, breeding quietly, waiting for their king who was imprisoned to appear.
When District One put in all their efforts and finally discovered the person behind the instigation, they were not surprised at all.
Qi Cong sat down and knocked on the glass. "How is prison life?"
"Not bad." Ruan Zhixian chuckled. "On the contrary, have you found the backup data?"
Qi Cong clenched his fists suddenly.
The database information that Ruan Zhixian made public was not all of it; he had deleted a very core part.
The original data base was attacked by them and all the data was deleted. The part that Qi Cong had backed up in advance and prepared to use to take credit also disappeared inexplicably.
Now that Ruan Zhixian has taken the initiative to speak out about this, it is a blatant provocation.
Qi Cong sneered: "How long do you think you can survive with that little thing? The Elders' House can only be restored and rebuilt in a month at most."
Ruan Zhixian: “A long time.”
After saying that, he showed a hint of irony in his lips again: "Is it because there is no progress at all that you come to me?"
Qi Cong came here for this purpose indeed. He was expected to be pointed out by Ruan Zhixian. He smiled calmly and said, "Of course not."
Ruan Zhixian leaned back in his chair with no interest.
Qi Cong hummed, opened the terminal and started playing the video.
In the video, the room was empty. After a few seconds, two men in uniforms, holding down a black-haired young man, entered the camera and stopped in the middle.
The other two men left the stage. The young man's back was slightly hunched, with purple bruises on his exposed skin from being beaten. He lowered his head, and his overly long bangs seemed to prick his eyes. He raised his hand to brush them away.
A cold and majestic voice sounded.
"Name?"
“Shen Yan.”
"age?"
"Twentys... twenty-five."
"Twenty-four? Why do you say that?"
The young man finally raised his head, and naturally pushed the hair on his forehead to the back of his head. He smiled at the person behind the camera and said, "I'm one year older now, and I forgot about it."
Qi Cong stared at Ruan Zhixian's expression carefully, but failed to find what he wanted from his face, so he gritted his teeth secretly.
Pack.
Let’s see how long you can pretend.
The video continued. The young man in the picture seemed to be a little tired of standing. He switched his weight between his left and right feet and yawned.
The man who was asking about the situation he already knew asked again: "Didn't you get enough rest?"
The young man was helpless and pointed to the dark circles under his eyes, "As you can see, I'm very sleepy."
The man laughed, "It's okay, I'll make you sober."
The scene that followed was horrific.
Qi Cong calmly crossed his legs and lowered the volume. The screams in the background became quieter. He spoke slowly and steadily amidst the sounds:
"Modern technology's torture methods are just so-so when used over and over again, but when combined, they work very well on most people. As expected of the person you like, he is indeed strong enough that he didn't reveal anything about you when he was dying. He just said he didn't know you."
Ruan Zhixian looked at the scene. The young man was dragged out, leaving a bloodstain on the ground, which was particularly eye-catching.
The video ended and the screen turned black. Ruan Zhixian withdrew his gaze and looked at Qi Cong.
No words.
Seeing that he didn't say anything, Qi Cong knocked on the glass and said, "Hey, are you stunned? Or are you so heartbroken that you can't speak?"
Ruan Zhixian: "Who do you feel sorry for? Are you feeling sorry for the creator under the skin of AI? He was also tortured?"
Qi Cong's expression suddenly turned cold. He opened the video and watched it again. Every composite frame was perfect. How did Ruan Zhixian know that?
Ruan Zhixian sighed, "I'm not stupid enough to be caught by you guys."
Qi Cong turned off the video in disappointment and asked casually, "Did you plan for him to go to Red Star?"
"Once he goes to Red Star, he can't come back. Are you just going to let him go? It's not like you to sacrifice yourself for others."
Click.
Qi Cong's eyes fell on the bracelet that was crushed by Ruan Zhixian, and his first reaction was not fear.
He was stunned for a few seconds, his gaze shifted from the bracelet to Ruan Zhixian's face. He sensed a possibility and his eyes widened with excitement.
"Ruan Zhixian, you don't think Shen Yan is still in Black Star, do you?"
The smile on Ruan Zhixian's lips froze, and the smile in his eyes disappeared, and all the smiles shifted to Qi Cong's face.
Qi Cong's heart was pounding. He leaned forward and stared at Ruan Zhixian. "You really don't know? I thought he told you that he went to Red Star and said he had a grudge against you and that you killed his boyfriend."
"What's going on, Ruan Zhixian? Isn't your brother very close to you? Why did he lie to you?"
"He didn't tell you anything, did he? No way?"
Bang!
With a loud bang, Qi Cong's heart skipped a beat. The glass that was hard enough to withstand hundreds of special bullets was cracked by Ruan Zhixian's punch.
Spider-web-like patterns instantly spread across the glass. Alarms rang out, and red light flickered in the pale room. Qi Cong was still frightened but couldn't control his mouth. He looked at Ruan Zhixian's shattered and blurred shadow in the glass patterns and laughed:
"Ruan Zhixian, he lied to me and lied to you. What's the difference between you and me to him? We are both from the same district. Why are you so arrogant? Do you really think the world revolves around you?"
Another punch.
The extremely hard glass was completely shattered. Ruan Zhixian took out the broken glass in the middle and grabbed Qi Cong's hair at a speed that was almost invisible to the naked eye, and pulled him into the hole in the glass that he had broken.
The broken glass scratched Qi Cong's face, leaving bloody wounds. The blood flowed into his mouth, but he became more and more excited, and his spirits were high. "It's been a month and a half. Has Shen Yan reached Red Star now?"
"With his ability, it's not difficult for him to get an identity and live in Red Star. Without the coercion of a dangerous person like you, he doesn't have to play any boring games with you, nor does he have to pretend to be nice to you. He can stroll on the street with his lover. Do you think he will still think of you?"
"Oh, if it were me asking, I would definitely recall it. A long, long time ago, there was a self-righteous idiot in Black Star who was fooled around by him. Hahaha, uh—"
Ruan Zhixian broke Qi Cong's neck.
The room fell silent, the flickering red light disappeared, and an old voice appeared out of nowhere.
"Ruan Zhixian, you disappoint us."
Ruan Zhixian said nothing. He picked up the bracelet that he had crushed on the ground and buckled it around his wrist twice.
Can't buckle.
He threw the bracelet away expressionlessly, without showing any emotion about anything, walked to the door back to the prison, and said calmly:
"Open the door, visiting hours are over."
.
Shen Yan raised a few pots of flowers. The small flowers were the size of a palm, and each of the five petals had a different color. The flowers shook their leaves excitedly when Shen Yan watered them.
He is now a legal resident of Red Star.
Shen Yan, who was arranged by Qi Cong to board the spacecraft as an experimental subject, negotiated terms with the Red Star people after faking his death.
After stealing the data related to the perfect human plan that Black Star did not disclose to them, Ruan Zhixian was the first to send it to his terminal.
Shen Yan was the mother with a matching degree of more than 80% in the experiment. Qi Cong had previously drawn a tube of his blood, which greatly advanced the progress of the entire experiment.
Shen Yan exchanged this information and the blood and body data he provided three times a year for a regular and legal Red Star life.
The living conditions in Hongxing are similar to those in Shen Yan's previous world, with order and harmony, and a reasonable system. When walking on the street, you don't have to worry about someone suddenly rushing out and stabbing you twice, then snatching your terminal and running away.
Shen Yan does not have to work. The Red Star government has arranged a house for him and gives him a living allowance every month. He also receives other bonuses after donating blood.
Shen Yan will go traveling when he saves enough money.
He is an outgoing person and good at conversation, and he made many friends along the way.
During the trip, I will pay more attention to jobs that he has not done, and apply for them if I think they are interesting. I will not be discouraged if I fail the job due to my lack of experience. I will add the successful applicant as a friend, chat with him more, ask more questions, and then do the job when I meet the qualifications.
Don't stop for a moment and don't give yourself time to reminisce.
Later, I suddenly remembered that I had flowers at home, and if I didn’t water them for more than two months, they would probably dry up and die, so I went home.
Unexpectedly, the flower was not dead, but just looked a little wilted.
Shen Yan gently poked its petals and watered it, and the palm-sized thing stood up again visibly.
The house that hadn’t been lived in for a while was covered in dust, and it was already afternoon when Ana Shen finished cleaning it up.
The smell of food came from next door, and soon there was a knock on the door.
The person living next door is a young man named Zhou Hui, a tall and thin boy, shy and socially anxious. He just graduated and has not found a job yet. He rented a resettlement house at a low price. He hides in his room all day long, tinkering with something.
This person was extremely thrifty and was reluctant to spend any money. Later, he fainted from hunger at the stairs and was discovered by Shen Yan. This was the first time the two of them met.
Chen Yan said he didn't know how to cook, and that neighbors should look after each other, so the two of them teamed up, with Chen Yan cooking on the first, third and fifth days and he cooking on the second, fourth and sixth days. On the last day, they would play rock-paper-scissors. If they really didn't want to cook, they would go to a restaurant and Chen Yan would treat them.
They became more and more familiar with each other as they ate together, almost treating each other's home as their own. Zhou Hui was engaged in game development and an independent game producer. He let Chen Yan try out the demo he made first, and Chen Yan would also share some of his own opinions with him.
Later, when Chen Yan went on a trip, they kept in touch. Zhou Hui looked quite shy, but he was actually very talkative. He said that he didn't dare to go out to play, and asked Chen Yan to take more photos and show them to him, as if he had seen them too.
After not seeing each other for a few months, Zhou Hui was almost turning into a homeless person. Ana Shen couldn’t bear to watch him, so she didn’t care whether he had food or not, and cleaned him up first. Only when he was clean and tidy did she sit down to eat with him.
Zhou Hui bought a few bottles of wine, the alcohol content was not high, he didn't know how to drink, but he kept clinking glasses with Ana Shen and gulping down the wine.
Ana Shen saw that he seemed to have something to say, so she didn’t stop him, but leaned against the edge of the bed and looked at him.
Zhou Hui clutched the wine jar and sat next to Ana Shen, staring at Ana Shen, wanting to say something but stopping himself, and then took a few more sips of wine, and finally made up his mind and said, “Ana Shen, you are that one too.”
Shen Yan: “What?”
"I like men."
Shen Yan said nothing.
Not speaking means not denying. Shen Yan's silence gave Zhou Hui some courage, and he said with a red face: "Then I will say it."
Ana Shen: “You like me.”
Zhou Hui paused, and squeezed the tin can hard, making it crackle.
His momentum weakened a bit, and he looked up at Ana Shen, “Yes, I like it very much.”
Ana Shen pulled the corner of his lips, “I have a partner.”
Zhou Hui boldly touched Ana Shen’s hand, “He hasn’t shown up for such a long time, what’s the difference between having him or not?”
Ana Shen: "He's in jail. I don't know how many years he's been sentenced to. I'll wait for him."
Zhou Hui was stunned for a few seconds, slowly withdrew his hand, and drank the last sip of wine in a somewhat dejected manner.
"My family asked me to go back and cancel the lease tomorrow. It's a good opportunity for you to come back. After thinking about it, I still want to talk to you."
He spoke a lot of words with a slurred tongue, and Shen Yan comforted him expressionlessly. It was not until the second half of the night that he sent the sleeping Zhou Hui back home.
The next day, Ana Shen prepared dinner and knocked on Zhou Hui's door, but no one answered.
Ana Shen stood at the door for a while and went back.
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