Chapter 19
Feng Ran actually woke up when she got out of the car, but she didn't dare to move. She had a brief dream in which other people appeared for the first time, or more precisely, the people around Shen Shiqian.
Feng Ran and Shen Shiqian communicated via video using a massive, combat-command-level intelligent computer. They were on their respective ships, but Shen Shiqian's ship was a warship while Feng Ran's was an ordinary sailing ship.
The reason they had such a video call wasn't shown in the dream, but because the screen of the quantum computer was so big, she could see the expressions of everyone on the other end clearly. Shen Shiqian seemed to be tracing her coordinates along the communication signal, but Xing Tong maliciously threw him several garbled characters. Feng Ran in the dream was also malicious, allowing Xing Tong to set off fireworks on their location coordinate map.
Shen Shiqian radiated coldness with his cold face. The two technicians beside him were typing furiously on the keyboard, almost crying with anxiety. The guy who seemed to be the deputy commander was glancing at Shen Shiqian's expression while urging them to clear the virus quickly.
In the end, Shen Shiqian said nothing and hung up the call.
It was a dream that was neither good nor bad. In Feng Ran's dream, her relationship with Shen Shiqian seemed to be bad, even hostile, but she did not confuse the dream with reality.
However, the deputy commander in the dream looked exactly like Shen Shiqian's confidant whom he had just met today, so Feng Ran didn't dare to look closely at his face and snuggled in Shen Shiqian's arms pretending to be asleep.
If it's not a dream, then what is it? What could it be?
After entering the room, Feng Ran pretended to have just woken up, blinked sleepily, and then gently struggled to let Shen Shiqian put her down.
She carefully unleashed her mental energy, and apart from the slight numbness and swelling caused by the pressure as always, there was no longer the sharp, piercing pain she had felt before, which made her breathe a sigh of relief.
Shen Shiqian placed her on the sofa in the living room, squatted down facing her, and looked at her carefully: "Where do you feel uncomfortable?"
Feng Ran shook his head: "It's much better now."
An inexplicable restlessness troubled Feng Ran. Perhaps it was because of Salo, perhaps because of that dream, or perhaps because she discovered that she and Shen Shiqian were enemies, but none of them seemed to be the real reason.
Shen Shiqian took her hand. Feng Ran's body temperature was always low due to the effects of the medication; her fingertips were cold and looked somewhat pale. He carefully observed Feng Ran's reaction. She didn't seem to mind the contact. He asked gently:
Where were you feeling unwell just now?
Feng Ran's hand was enveloped in his warm, large palm, and she felt a little hot. She blinked and said, "The sound of the explosion was too close. My ears hurt, and my head hurts too."
Shen Shiqian: "If you don't want to go to the hospital, can I take a look for you? I'll check if you're injured."
Her ears were Feng Ran's most taboo and private place. Ever since Feng Xiqiao gave up on her, her private doctor stopped coming, and she never showed them to anyone again. Even the sensor she had implanted behind her ear was unknown to anyone, and she could never show it to anyone again.
So she pulled her hand away from Shen Shiqian's, her expression a mixture of fear and resentment, shaking her head and whispering, "No..."
Shen Shiqian: "Why? Is there something you're worried about? Can you tell me? I'm very worried about you, Ranran. You have to learn to trust me and rely on me. I won't do anything to hurt you."
To be honest, Shen Shiqian's face is indeed very deceptive. His features are exquisite and deep, and any expression is like a painting, which can easily make people fall in love. His eyebrows and eyes are slender, and his deep blue eyes are as quiet as the night. After removing his usual cold and aloof aura, he has a gentle and tender feeling. When those eyes look at someone with a faint sadness and affection, you have the illusion of being carefully protected and loved wholeheartedly.
Once upon a time, Feng Ran was also gazed at so tenderly. Shen Shiqian's gentle eyes were filled with a bright smile. He said something, but Feng Ran didn't know what it was. The scene stopped abruptly when he opened his mouth, but Feng Ran felt that the figure was particularly dazzling. The Sirius of the Empire, is this what it is?
Feng Ran looked at Shen Shiqian, her thoughts somewhat chaotic, as if someone was arguing in her mind: Trust? Dependence? On what grounds? She couldn't see through Shen Shiqian's thoughts, but that didn't stop her from thinking he was cunning. Why? A liar.
Feng Ran instinctively covered her ears to avoid him, and cried out in anguish, "Then why can't you trust me? I don't like this..."
Shen Shiqian wanted to wipe her tears, but Feng Ran slapped his hand away, jumped off the sofa, and quickly ran back to her room.
That's terrible.
Feng Ran felt that she was being affected. She hated those dreams, hallucinations, and images. They seeped into Feng Ran's mind relentlessly, forcibly severing the world she saw and felt. She couldn't tell which side was real.
She naively concluded that those images were merely hallucinations caused by nerve damage, and that as long as she could find a way to cure them, everything would be alright, and none of this would happen...
After all, she decided to give up. Feng Ran was a little tired, and she couldn't help but take two sleeping pills and lie down on the bed.
Go to sleep, we'll talk about everything after you wake up.
/
Shen Shiqian was still sitting in the living room. The conversation seemed to span two different time periods. He scratched his head in frustration and thought of the corpse that the central laboratory had carefully preserved, and the last video that had been played before the explosion, which had been hacked into all the Empire's media systems.
The young woman was dressed in an elegant black suit, with a diamond knot on her bow tie as bright as her eyes. In the background was the command room of the ship she used to frequent, which had long been confiscated by the Empire. She stood upright, smiling, and sent a greeting after a long time.
"Long time no see, Marshal Shen, Speaker Klarov, His Majesty Geno. Huh? That guy is already dead? What a shame. What's wrong, everyone? Don't look so grim. I am indeed dead, but that doesn't stop me from appearing before you in this form. After all, not being able to witness the destruction of my beloved home planet, the Empire's main star, Qilia, has always been my regret."
"Honestly, the thought that you all let it go astray for so long without realizing it makes me think how great the Empire is. The Academy of Sciences is indeed the most suitable place to retire. It doesn't discriminate against the disabled, and the threshold doesn't seem to be very high. It's just a pity that I'm just born to clash with you. It's really bad luck that I'll still be haunted by you even after I die."
"There are 42 minutes and 3 seconds left until the planetary collision. With the Empire's current energy reserves and the reload speed of the planet-destroying cannons, even if it hits completely, it can only damage one-fifth of the surface environment of 4601, and it won't even be able to penetrate its mantle. The orbital deviation angle will not exceed 17 degrees. The southeastern mountains of Qilia, Huaxin District, and the floating city should be smashed into dust and then sent flying. Will the brilliant Empire disintegrate and become an insignificant part of the history of the Sherlock system? But if the surface of the damaged planet is destroyed, the gravitational field will change, and it will deviate from its original orbit and become a homeless wandering planet until it collides with other large and medium-sized planets like 4601."
"If there is still an optimal solution, what should we do? Professor Ziers, could you answer the question of your former student? Why do you look so pale? Don't you know? You clearly wrote an article on the theory of energy multi-directional radiation time stop activity. If it weren't for your retirement life at the Academy of Sciences causing you to develop dementia prematurely, you should have understood it at a glance, right? The 4601 offset is the most perfect proof of that theory!"
"It quietly passed through the thermal expansion period right under your noses, using the cold season and energy stagnation as a pretext to complete the single-point fusion of its core energy, and gradually came to you. What were you doing while it was striving to reach the Empire? Oh, you were putting me on a wanted list throughout the universe. Should I thank the Empire for letting me participate in the formation of this grand ceremony? How delightful."
"Why aren't you laughing? Are you begging me to save you? Apologizing to me? How strange. Has the Empire ever done anything to wrong me? But too bad, the dead can't hear these things. If you really want to repent, why don't you come to hell to find me? I'm doing quite well here."
"Why isn't Marshal Shen tracking my location anymore? Is he afraid of accidentally stepping into hell? How boring. Why don't we just set off a fireworks display in the Empire's sky..."
Faced with a devastating disaster, the threatening, empty projections resembled a vicious curse. No one had the energy to delve into the hidden information in Feng Ran's words, or even the energy to hate. Pure, extreme fear enveloped everyone, followed by deep regret.
Feng Ran is a genius that the times need, and they have once again come to realize this deeply.
With 27 minutes and 48 seconds remaining until the planetary collision, and three minutes until the second planet-destroying cannon was fully charged and warmed up, medium-sized planet 4601 experienced a series of explosions at a distance of 3,358 kilometers from the planetary shield of Chilia. The explosions lasted for one hour, thirteen minutes, and twenty-six seconds. The planet's core shattered and burned out, and thousands of planetary fragments turned into daytime meteors, scattering across the universe along the planetary shield of Chilia, leaving damage and scratches on the Empire's planetary shield that might not be repaired for the next ten years.
That footage was not preserved. It should be said that as long as Feng Ran wanted to erase her traces, no one in the Empire could resist. Looking at the explosion and the scratches on the protective shield, all the survivors felt as if they had just woken up from a dream.
The rift between Shen Shiqian and Feng Ran is like a scratch on a planet's protective shield. It's not that Feng Ran doesn't trust him; she was betrayed by the Empire first, and Shen Shiqian represents the Empire, standing on the opposite side of her.
Before becoming a criminal, Feng Ran was actually quite unremarkable. Although the Feng family was wealthy, they were not among the nobility. She suffered criticism and slander at the academy and had no choice but to drop out. Sleika placed her under house arrest. Just when the public was about to forget that such a person even existed.
Feng Xiqiao died in an accidental explosion during the return journey. The Feng Group was exposed for product defects and accounting fraud, and went bankrupt overnight. The Sleica Group suffered a large-scale capital chain failure, and its stock price plummeted, almost leading to a besiege by shareholders. The Sleica couple escaped, but Luo Le died in a fire at his own villa. Feng Linye disappeared after being approached by loan sharks. Qin Xin was detained in court after failing to evade her debts. It was only then that they remembered there was such a person.
With the economy in a slump, the public's anger and malice were naturally directed at Feng Ran, with some even claiming it was all Feng Ran's malicious retaliation, forcing the court to accept the case.
But the key people she came into contact with were either dead or insane, and no one knew Feng Ran's past. The image of her pieced together by those who knew her was fragmented and shattered. In the context of the environment, she was tainted with the same suspicion and malice. No one could stand up and firmly believe that she would not do such a thing, which inevitably made people feel that she had lived a truly failed life.
But when this distrust backfired on him, Shen Shiqian began to feel pain, as if the heart that had been forced to undergo suture surgery had become his own, mercilessly turning into dust along with 4601 in the explosion.
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