Chapter 148 Yu Qingzhou, this is your name.
—Is it just my imagination?
Yu Qingzhou felt that ever since she bumped into Shen Yun by chance at the corner last time, she had been seeing her more and more frequently in her life.
"It's actually quite normal, after all, it's a school." Lan smiled and handed a bottle of fresh milk to Yu Qingzhou.
The latter instinctively took it, but after seeing what it was, he couldn't help but frown.
"I don't like this."
"Drinking more milk will help you grow taller."
Lan maintained her smile and casually gestured between the two of them: "We're the same age, aren't we?"
"..."
Yu Qingzhou didn't speak; the only response Lan received was the soft sound of a glass bottle being unscrewed.
Seeing the boy tilt his head back and resolutely drink the fresh milk in one gulp, Lan's eyes curved into crescent shapes even more, and she reached out to pat Yu Qingzhou's head: "What a good boy."
Yu Qingzhou didn't dodge in time and was caught red-handed.
He reached out somewhat disgruntledly and waved his hand at the other person as if shooing away a fly: "That's enough."
Yu Qingzhou dislikes being touched by anyone, no matter who it is... Touching her from the outside always triggers unpleasant fragments of memories deep within her mind.
There was a huge hole in his body.
Right behind the ribs, where the organ called the heart should be beating, is now silent.
Moreover, there are large gaps in his memory.
When he first woke up, he was in a room full of medical equipment.
He stared blankly at everything around him, like a fledgling bird that had just hatched.
I don't know who I am, where I am, or what I should do...
Until the old man appeared.
The old man told him that he was a student who had been receiving treatment in the hospital due to a serious accident, and that the old man himself was his teacher and guardian.
[...guardian?]
The boy pondered the word, as if he understood something, then asked uncertainly, "Then—"
"Feel free to ask me anything," the old man said kindly.
The boy nodded, then asked softly, "Teacher, where are my parents? Why don't they come to see me? They...?"
At this point, the young man paused, as if he had read something from the old man's expression.
"Are they no longer here?" he asked.
The old man nodded silently.
I see.
The boy nodded again, without any particular feeling. He was slightly surprised that he accepted it so easily.
The boy then felt relieved.
Just because he doesn't remember doesn't mean the body doesn't remember; subconscious reactions don't lie.
This precisely demonstrates that one's subconscious had already been prepared for this news.
Conversely, this proves to be an undeniable fact.
Moreover, the boy did not feel any sense of incongruity.
Although in my current memory this should be the first time I've met the old man in front of me, there is indeed a subtle sense of familiarity.
Especially the deep and intense emotional fluctuations in the old man's gaze, which did not seem to be feigned.
So, they must actually know each other.
Perhaps, as the other party said, it is a relationship between guardian and ward.
The boy wasn't entirely without doubts, but it seemed there were no better alternatives.
So he obediently accepted the only option presented to him, acknowledging his role as the old man's student.
However, having a status alone is not enough for a person.
Although the boy lost almost all of his memories, he still clearly retained some of the most basic common sense and cognition of a human being.
So he asked the other person his name.
[Name...] The old man paused slightly, and whether it was because of the boy's sudden question or something else, a complex emotion flashed across his face and eyes in an instant.
But then, randomly, he smiled kindly at the boy.
[That's right, I even forgot that.]
As the old man spoke, he took out a small notebook from his shirt pocket, quickly wrote something on it, tore off the page, and handed it to the boy.
Yu Qingzhou, that is your name.
Yu Qingzhou...that's my name.
Yes, your name.
The boy stared at the three words on the paper and repeated them word by word, like an infant learning to speak for the first time, but his pronunciation was much clearer than that of an infant, and his tone was more determined.
He silently memorized his name, folded the paper, and put it in his pocket.
When I looked up again, I was surprised to see the old man's eyes were moist.
—The teacher actually cried.
But...why?
At that time, he didn't understand, and after thinking it over, he could only find one word to explain the situation.
Overjoyed, she wept.
So you're happy, right?
For him...
For Yu Qingzhou...
And he is Yu Qingzhou.
After that, Yu Qingzhou was taken to live with her teacher at his residence.
Back then, the teacher was like a patient parent, teaching him little by little about the world he lived in and how to continue to survive in this place.
He also absorbed this useful knowledge with great eagerness.
As time went by, the sense of unfamiliarity that had separated him from his surroundings, like a layer of mist, gradually faded away.
Aside from the fact that he has not yet recovered the memories he lost due to the accident.
Yu Qingzhou's life seems to have completely returned to normal.
Just then, the teacher made a new request: that Yu Qingzhou go to school.
"That's all you can learn from me."
The old man said, "Next, you need to receive more systematic training, and you also need to meet more people your own age, instead of always staying with this old, decrepit man like me."
To be honest, Yu Qingzhou was not very willing.
For Yu Qingzhou, in this unfamiliar world, her teacher was the only person she could trust.
However, after he showed a slight reluctance.
The teacher suddenly got angry.
This left Yu Qingzhou feeling bewildered.
Before this, although Yu Qingzhou had always referred to the other party as "teacher," in his subjective perception, the other party was more like a loving grandfather who treated him like a beloved grandson, almost giving him whatever he wanted.
Therefore, Yu Qingzhou unknowingly developed a misconception.
So, it's okay to be a little willful sometimes...
Unfortunately, an illusion is just an illusion.
Realizing this, Yu Qingzhou quickly adjusted her mindset. She proactively bowed to the teacher and earnestly expressed her longing for campus life.
With the end of the Cold War, their relationship seemed to have returned to what it was before.
It wasn't until the day Yu Qingzhou moved into the school with her luggage after completing the relevant enrollment procedures that she finally arrived.
The teacher did not appear.
The assistant said that the teacher had an important meeting to attend.
Seemingly noticing the boy's disappointment, the assistant added with some sympathy, "Actually, we've already tried our best to turn down everything we could."
"...However, there has been too much work piling up recently, and this meeting involves important decisions, so it is really necessary for me to attend in person."
Yu Qingzhou understood the unspoken meaning behind the other party's words.
The assistant's intention was to comfort the dejected-looking young man, but the latter took it to another level.
"So much trouble has already been caused because of me."
The teacher was already in such a difficult situation, yet he still stubbornly wanted to continue taking up the other person's precious time.
That's really too selfish.
No, actually I didn't—
"I understand, thank you, sister," Yu Qingzhou said earnestly.
Hearing this, the assistant looked at the boy's changing expression with increasing frustration. "Don't let your imagination run wild, kid..."
However, the scene I saw when I first met the boy, through the one-way glass, flashed before my eyes.
The boy, surrounded by instruments and data cables, had a human form, but he felt more like the machinery surrounding him.
That feeling of being neither human nor inhuman was a common characteristic of almost all the experimental subjects.
At the same time, the experimental subjects also possess a strong ability to mimic. Each trained individual is able to communicate and interact with natural humans almost flawlessly.
Every word and action perfectly replicates that of a natural person.
But there's an indescribable, subtle sense of unease.
The assistant guessed that perhaps it was because they lacked a heart.
However, after two weeks of meeting, the inhuman feeling emanating from the other person seemed to have dissipated.
Even if the assistant didn't know the inside story—no, even if he already knew the boy's identity—he would still be captivated by the boy's vibrant energy.
A sudden thought struck the assistant, who couldn't help but wonder—could this be the reason why the old man valued E025?
Because the other party is a non-human being that is infinitely close to being human?
He then chuckled to himself, realizing what nonsense he was thinking.
After finishing everything, on the way back, the assistant, who was focused on driving, was suddenly attracted by a figure standing by the roadside.
At that time, they had not yet left the school grounds, and the person looked like a student.
It's a bit strange that they're standing motionless by the roadside.
—Could it be that something went wrong?
The assistant couldn't suppress his overflowing sympathy, so he pulled over to the side of the road and rolled down the window.
"Why are you here alone, student? Did something happen?"
The man, who had been looking down at something, raised his face when he heard the question.
They were young faces, just as I had expected.
She looks to be around the same age as E025, but gives off a more mature vibe.
"Excuse me, do you know which way to go from here?"
What was handed over was a map. The assistant was very familiar with the place her finger was pointing to, because it was the dormitory building she had just left.
So he readily gave me directions.
And I received a sincere thank you.
"Thank you very much," the boy said with a smile, his fair face radiating an almost dizzying gentle smile in the sunlight.
Until the other person walked away.
The assistant finally came to her senses and patted her wildly beating heart.
Wow, really wow, so promising for his age!
Even someone as knowledgeable as her almost fell for it.
But speaking of which, is that person a new student who just arrived? How come they don't even know where the dormitory building is?
And that face...
That face...
The assistant's eyes widened in surprise.
She suddenly realized that in such a short time, she had already forgotten what the boy looked like.
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