Useless Poems
The fireflies in the deep valley are like a short, warm dream, leaving behind an indescribable warmth against the cold backdrop of the data torrent.
The channel is still maintained, and the sharing of real-time perception has not been interrupted, but the atmosphere has quietly changed.
He Yuan no longer offered his usual incessant technical commentary. His "mind" grew quieter, as if still immersed in the shock of the faint starlight, a feeling entirely unrelated to efficiency and practicality. He continued to receive and analyze data, but his pace seemed to have slowed down slightly. Occasionally, he would "gaze" for a long time at some insignificant corner of the outside world—perhaps a weed struggling to survive in a rock crevice, or the path of a drop of morning dew sliding down a leaf.
Xiang Jinyang could clearly sense this subtle change in the other party. No longer a greedy black hole trying to squeeze out all the data, but more like an observer... with curiosity and a little awe.
This change allowed his tense nerves to relax a little, but it also brought him deeper confusion.
Why pay so much attention to things that are insignificant? This is not in line with "efficiency".
At this moment, He Yuan's "intention" came again, but it was no longer a request, but with a rare, sharing tone.
"Hey, 'Administrator,' I just reverse-engineered the basic communication protocol of the 'Communication Talisman' commonly used by your monks," he said, his tone a hint of interest, as if he had discovered a new toy. "The structure is ancient, the encryption method is rudimentary, and the energy utilization rate is shockingly low."
Xiang Jinyang's heart moved slightly, thinking that he was going to start criticizing and "optimizing" again.
However, He Yuan changed the subject: "However, I've discovered an interesting phenomenon. When this inefficient protocol transmits data, it generates extremely subtle, irregular... background harmonics due to energy fluctuations."
He paused, as if appreciating something.
"This harmonic wave has no practical function; it's an energy leak caused by a design flaw. But... listen."
An extremely faint "sound," so faint that it required almost complete concentration to detect, flowed through the passage. It wasn't a true sound wave, but rather an analog signal generated by He Yuan's conversion of that energy harmonic.
It's ethereal, chaotic, yet carries a strange, broken rhythm, like the reverberating sound of wind blowing through countless wind chimes, or like the disordered whispers from the depths of the starry sky.
"It's meaningless, isn't it?" He Yuan's "thought" had a strange smile on his face. "But don't you think that this pure, useless 'noise' can sometimes sound... quite interesting?"
Xiang Jinyang was stunned again.
Unwanted harmonics? Interesting?
He subconsciously mobilized his Heavenly Senses to analyze the "noise", and the feedback he received was still - irregular, inefficient, and a design flaw, and should be eliminated.
But… listening to the “noise” that came through the channel and was deliberately captured and shared by the other party, deep in his cold core, the ripples caused by the fireflies seemed to be slightly stirred again.
Indeed…different from all the orderly, functional sounds of rules.
It is a pure... existence.
He remained silent and did not respond, but he also did not dismiss it as "meaningless" as usual.
He Yuan didn't seem to expect his answer, simply enjoying the "noise." After a while, he suddenly said, "Speaking of which, besides this inefficient protocol, do you monks also have something called... 'poetry' to transmit information among each other?"
Xiang Jinyang: "...Yes." That is a way of emotional expression popular among low-level cultivators and even mortals, containing weak spiritual power or artistic conception. It is of no benefit to the operation of the way of heaven, and he never pays attention to it.
"Let me see." He Yuan's "thought" was filled with pure curiosity. "This word appears in the data fragments I read, but there are very few related records. It is said that this is a non-standard communication method that uses a highly condensed and ungrammatical method to combine information, aiming to evoke specific emotions or images in the recipient rather than accurately describe the facts."
Xiang Jinyang: “…” This explanation sounded extremely strange, yet strangely accurate.
He hesitated. Poetry wasn't a secret rule, nor even a technique; it was merely useless "cultural data." Perhaps satisfying his curiosity would buy him a moment of peace?
He carefully selected a few of the most popular and "standard" poems from the vast amount of information recorded by the Heavenly Dao, and passed them on through the channel. Most of them were works that expressed aspirations, feelings, and depicted the magnificent mountains and rivers.
He Yuan's "mind" fell silent, as if he was trying his best to analyze this "non-standard communication method".
After a long while, he uttered a long, "Hmm..."
"The information density is acceptable, but the redundancy is extremely high. There is a lack of unified standards for image conversion, which can easily lead to ambiguity. The efficiency of emotional triggering fluctuates greatly and is heavily dependent on the individual database of the recipient..." He began his usual technical analysis.
Xiang Jinyang inexplicably felt a faint flash of… disappointment? As expected.
However, He Yuan's analysis came to an abrupt end.
His "thoughts" paused for a long time on the poem that described the loneliness of the frontier and the soldiers' homesickness.
"…'The sound of the Qiang flute covers the ground with frost, people are awake, the general has white hair and the soldiers shed tears'…" He unconsciously and awkwardly "repeated" these words through his mind, as if he was savoring the flavor of them.
"This encoding method... is very strange." His voice was filled with unprecedented confusion. "It doesn't directly describe any physical parameters or event logic. It just stacks up some seemingly unrelated image symbols... But why... does my emotion simulation module produce a slight... oppressive feedback?"
He seemed to be asking Xiang Jinyang, but also seemed to be talking to himself.
"And this... 'The setting sun and the lone wild goose fly together, the autumn water and the vast sky become one color'... Energy fluctuation simulations show that this code can actually trigger a slight visual resonance of beauty and... a sense of tranquility? This doesn't conform to the principle of maximizing information transmission efficiency!"
He conveyed a strong desire to seek answers to his questions to Xiang Jinyang.
Xiang Jinyang was completely stunned.
Emotional simulation module? Aesthetic resonance?
He had never imagined that something like poetry could be so...deconstructed, yet at the same time so...precisely touch upon its essence.
He tried to explain it in terms of the laws of nature: "This is the way writers use scenery to express their feelings and convey their emotions through artistic conception."
"Artistic concept? Mood?" He Yuan's confusion deepened. "Aren't these just redundant interference items that reduce communication efficiency? Why add them intentionally? Just for... 'beauty'?"
He pronounced the word "beauty" in a very awkward way, as if he was quoting an extremely unfamiliar and obscure professional term.
Xiang Jinyang fell silent again. He couldn't answer. The Way of Heaven doesn't speak of "beauty," only of "order" and "utility."
At both ends of the channel, one cannot understand the "useless beauty" and the other cannot understand "why beauty is needed".
Amidst the stalemate, He Yuan's "mind" suddenly became active, with an excitement that was eager to try it out: "Interesting! This non-standard encoding method is very challenging! I want to try it too!"
Xiang Jinyang: “???”
Without waiting for his reaction, He Yuan started to operate on his own.
"Well... first, we need to select the core parameters... let's use the 'firefly' and 'data' from earlier..." "Image conversion... fireflies correspond to 'short-living organisms, inefficient light-emitting units'... data corresponds to 'information flow, logical chain'..." "Emotional target... is defined as... 'useless appreciation'?" "Start assembling..."
Xiang Jinyang felt that an extremely strange "flow of thoughts" that was a mixture of cold logic and some kind of stiff imitation was being generated at the other end of the channel.
A moment later, an extremely strange "poem" was solemnly delivered by He Yuan -
"On the Similarities Between Fireflies and Background Processes" A faint, flickering light resembles an unoptimized snippet of code. Its lifespan is brief, comparable to an invalid memory loop. Its illumination range is limited, and its data throughput is low. Its significance is questionable, yet its trajectory forms a tranquil, redundant, and error-free landscape within the nighttime debug interface.
Xiang Jinyang: “……………………”
He felt this "verse" filled with technical terms, devoid of rhythmic beauty, yet strangely depicting the charm of fireflies. For the first time, the core of the rules produced a kind of almost... speechless and choking feeling of stagnation.
This...what is this?
However, He Yuan on the other end of the channel seemed quite pleased with himself, even seeming to beg for praise (it must have been an illusion). "How's it going? My imitation was pretty good, wasn't it? It's a little inefficient, but the 'sense of tranquility' value reported by the emotion simulation module actually met the standard!"
Xiang Jinyang really didn't know how to comment.
But seeing the other person purely immersed in the joy of "creation" and even with a bit of clumsy expectation, the taut string in his heart inexplicably loosened a little.
He was silent for a long time, so long that He Yuan's "thoughts" began to show some uncertainty, and then he very slowly and awkwardly transmitted a piece of information back through the channel.
That's not poetry.
It was another diary entry he had dug up from the depths of his memory, describing a long-lost, ancient, magical tea cultivation technique. The entry itself was dull and uninteresting, but in the appendix, it contained a baseless, considered "useless" legend passed down orally by tea farmers about how to listen to the "whispers of heaven and earth" within the veins of tea leaves.
He didn't give any explanation.
This "useless" information was simply mixed into the normal data stream and passed on.
He Yuan's "intention" immediately captured this special "data packet".
He habitually began with a technical analysis: "Is the 'whisper of heaven and earth' in the veins of tea leaves? What is the frequency range? What are the energy signature characteristics? Can it be captured by instruments..."
But his analysis gradually slowed.
His "mind" stayed on that seemingly absurd legend for a long time without moving.
Just like I was stuck on that frontier poem before.
The passage fell silent again.
Only the cold, vast torrent of data continues to flow tirelessly.
But in the depths of the torrent, two completely different souls, because of some "useless" poems, "useless" legends, and "useless" fireflies, for the first time truly
Clumsily,
Trying to understand,
The one in the other's eyes,
A completely different world.
A cold, logical, yet unexpectedly sincere poem. A dull, yet subtly tender record of "whispers."
In this silent exchange, something is quietly sprouting.
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