"Congratulations on successfully passing the verification."
Jiang Que reminded him at the right time with a smile in his eyes.
Song Yecheng smiled knowingly, leaving the people around him staring at each other, and turned around, reached out to open the unlocked safe drawer, and took out the file bag that belonged to him.
This file bag is much more normal than the file box upstairs last night. At least when you hold it in your hand, you can tell that it is of moderate weight and it is not stuffed with several kilograms of white paper.
Tang Yao, Ling An and others stretched their heads to take a look out of curiosity. After seeing the appearance of the file bag, they also had a general idea of what they were about to get.
"Open it and take a look?" Ling An urged.
Before Song Yecheng could say anything, Jiang Que was already cueing the process, "Mr. Song, you can go back to the dormitory and read the files now. I'll take you downstairs."
Song Yecheng hadn't intended to open it so hastily in front of everyone. After all, it was impossible to predict what would be in the file. When he heard Jiang Que say this, he knew that the program team also meant this, so he nodded and shrugged regretfully at Ling An, making an expression of "helplessness".
The current decryption session was over for him, but it was still going on for Tang Yao and the others, so he didn't delay their time in solving the problem. After saying "good luck", he followed Jiang Que to the door.
While going downstairs, Song Yecheng actually wanted to ask Jiang Que how he discovered that the password to his home door was a dictionary page number, but when he thought about the plot setting, that password was designed by him "personally", asking such a question in front of the camera would definitely be very distracting, so he had to give up for the time being and quietly suppress his curiosity.
Unexpectedly, before he could speak, Jiang Que asked, "When did you learn Arabic?"
When Jiang Que heard him casually translate the coffee packaging bag just now, he was actually a little surprised, because he had been a fan of Song Yecheng for so many years, but he only knew that he was good at English and never knew that he could speak Arabic.
Hearing this, Song Yecheng glanced to the side with a mischievous look in his eyes, and smiled mischievously and maliciously: "Guess?"
Seeing his expression, Jiang Que seemed to have a feeling in his heart and guessed uncertainly: "...You haven't learned it?"
Song Yecheng didn't answer directly, but asked: "There is a spinning top-shaped trademark in the upper right corner of the packaging bag. Did you see it?"
Jiang Que nodded. Song Yecheng leaned close to his ear and said with a smile, "That's a Lebanese brand that only produces white coffee."
Hearing this, Jiang Que couldn't help but laugh.
No one has ever learned Arabic.
He actually doesn't know how to do it at all.
This actually frightened He Jingsheng so much that he really believed that the devil is always stronger than the good.
Jiang Que said he would "walk him downstairs," so he really just walked him downstairs. After reaching the second floor, he didn't even enter the corridor. He simply gestured in the direction of the dormitory and said, "Go back and look at the files."
Song Yecheng guessed that he had some other tasks, so he didn't ask any more questions, nodded obediently, and walked across the corridor back to the dormitory alone.
After closing the door, he walked straight to the bed, bent one leg and sat on the headboard, then he finally unsealed the file bag in his hand and poured out the contents.
Just as he had felt before, the contents of this file bag were obviously much more normal. There was just a stack of documents filled with words, three photos, an old newspaper, and a few receipts in the middle.
The information seems overwhelming.
This was Song Yecheng's first reaction.
However, he was originally quite curious about this "forgotten memory", and now that he had it in his hands, he was not in a hurry. He patiently read it from the first page according to the order in which the materials were arranged.
Time passes by every second.
In the quiet room, the only sound that could be heard was the rustling of paper.
At first, the sound was neither fast nor slow, but as time passed, the further Song Yecheng read, the more rapid the sound of turning pages became. By the time he finished reading the entire stack of information and shook open the old newspaper, even his breathing suddenly stopped for a moment.
Good job.
Song Yecheng blinked in shock. He never expected that the so-called forgotten memories would be—
Four years ago, a murder occurred downstairs of the apartment building where he lived. A young man was hit on the head by a vase falling from a high altitude while passing by downstairs and died on the spot.
At that time, the police investigated the scene, but failed to extract any valid fingerprints or other biological samples from the vase fragments, failed to find the source of the fallen object, and based on the autopsy results, they could only determine the approximate height of the vase's fall, so until the end they were unable to identify the specific person who threw the object.
Because of this, all the high-rise residents on the same side, including him, who were unable to prove that they were not the ones who threw the objects, were ordered to bear joint responsibility and compensate the young man's relatives.
Things seem to have come to an end here, but in fact they have not.
The young man's parents were dissatisfied with the compensation result. They were deeply saddened by the loss of their son. They hated the sin of the man who threw the object, and even more so his cowardice of not daring to stand up and face the problem. So every night they cried, burned paper, and hung their son's portrait in the apartment building, keeping the entire building awake.
The whole building couldn't sleep at night.
But he was the only one who was frightened.
because--
He is the one who throws the object.
It was the person who accidentally dropped the vase.
This nightmarish memory tormented him for three years, leaving him filled with regret and anxiety. He was constantly worried that the truth would be exposed and that he would lose his brilliant career.
It was not until last year that he accidentally learned that this base had a "memory burial" project. He could not wait and applied to become a volunteer, grasping at a life-saving straw, and came here to participate in the experiment. Only then did he finally get rid of the past that terrified him.
——This is all the memory is.
The newspaper in the file bag was a report about the incident. The three photos were a daily photo of the young man, a scene of his parents burning paper in the corridor of the apartment, and an original picture of the vase. The documents were the receipt when he bought the vase and a taxi ticket, which clearly marked the time and place.
After reading all the information, Song Yecheng had a complicated feeling, but at the same time, he discovered that there was actually a small bug in the file -
Perhaps because he had watched too many mystery films, when he saw the "no fingerprints" in the case summary, he immediately and reflexively asked a question:
If he had simply dropped the vase by accident, why were there no fingerprints left? Could he have been wearing gloves when he picked it up?
If that's the case, doesn't it seem more like it was intentional?
Song Yecheng's thoughts wandered a bit too far. However, just as he was thinking about it and casually stacking the documents and preparing to put them back into the file bag, he suddenly heard a familiar prompt tone from the side:
"Ding Dong Ding Ling Dong——"
There's that dressing mirror again.
This time, Song Yecheng didn't hesitate any more. Before it rang a second time, he threw down the file, stood up and walked to the mirror.
Just like last night, a faint glow once again surrounded the mirror frame. After the glow faded, words quickly appeared on the mirror surface:
After reading the file, you couldn't calm down for a long time. It was clearly the memory you wanted to recover the most, but now that you finally got it, it felt like you had just picked up a piece of hot potato.
Song Yecheng put himself into the role and carefully thought about his psychology. For some reason, he suddenly remembered Jingming's words during breakfast: Why do you have to go to the haunted house when you know there are ghosts there?
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sneer and continued to look at the mirror.
The words on the mirror faded, and soon the next paragraph emerged:
You actually still remember the incident four years ago. You remember the bloody corpse surrounded by a crowd, the cordon surrounded by flashing red and blue police lights, the haggard couple kneeling and crying in the hallway in the middle of the night, and even the time you, out of pity, invited them into your house for two cups of hot tea.
[But you never imagined that the murderer who killed their son was actually you. And for so long, the reason you felt at ease when thinking about this incident was because you had long forgotten the part of the truth that made you feel guilty and terrified, "I am the murderer."]
This revelation left you shocked and bewildered, and beyond that, deeply perplexed. Although you were a lawyer with a near-perfect win rate, you swore on your life that you had never distorted right and wrong to secure victory in any case you had participated in, nor had you ever violated moral standards. Your loyalty to justice was once your greatest pride. You never imagined that one day, when you found yourself on the wrong side of justice, you would make such a despicable choice.
Seeing this, Song Yecheng was slightly surprised.
Because when he finished reading the file, his impression of this character was actually that he was selfish, timid and valued fame and fortune, but the psychological activity before him seemed to be completely contrary to his conclusion, which made his judgment waver.
However, the text on the mirror continued:
Why? You can't help but ask yourself, why would you do such a thing when you possess such high moral standards? Is it really true that a saint is not necessarily innocent and a villain is not necessarily cunning and cruel, that kindness and cruelty can coexist, and that anyone can do anything? [1]
Song Yecheng was quite familiar with this sentence, as it came from a classic American TV series. It was even one of his top ten lines, and he had even memorized the original text back then.
Song Yecheng didn't know if it was a coincidence that it appeared in the script, but because of this extremely familiar sentence, he surprisingly developed a slight empathy with the character.
So what do I do now?
He couldn't help but think.
At the same time, his eyes were fixed on the mirror, waiting for it to issue new mission instructions like last night.
A few seconds later, the final line of text, clearly different from the previous paragraphs and in bold red, finally arrived as expected.
So, what do you do now?
The moment he saw the line of words clearly, Song Yecheng was a little dazed, not only because of the wording that seemed to read his mind, but also because it was actually - not a task at all?
What does this mean?
Open plot, allowing players to play freely?
If that's the case, then isn't Chi Jinan taking things too far? Isn't he afraid that the plot might go too far, beyond the programming team's expectations?
——Boom boom boom.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
Song Yecheng subconsciously turned his head to look, then walked to the wall and opened the door.
"Have you finished reading the file?" Jiang Que asked outside the door.
The timing of his appearance was so clever, so clever that Song Yecheng reacted instantly -
Chi Jinan was not that careless and did not intend to let them play freely. Although the tasks were not issued in written form, there was still a DM-like existence like the experimental instructor.
"I've finished reading it." Song Yecheng said naturally.
Jiang Que did not delve into the contents of the file, but instead asked, "Is this the memory you are willing to retrieve?"
Song Yecheng hesitated for a moment, thinking about the psychological activities he had just seen in the mirror, and shook his head with a wry smile, "I'm afraid not."
Jiang Que didn't seem surprised and nodded, "If you want to erase it again, the base can continue to arrange experiments for you and re-enter the first stage."
Hearing this, Song Yecheng immediately understood that this was a fork in the plot, and his choice would determine the direction of future developments.
But Song Yecheng didn't agree or refuse directly. Instead, he asked, "Re-enter the first stage, and then what? Wait until the second stage next year, then regret it out of curiosity, regain your memory, and then repeat it endlessly?"
This question was actually a bit impromptu, but Jiang Que was not stumped. "In theory, that's true, but perhaps the email you write to yourself this year will be more convincing than last year's, and it might even quell your curiosity next year."
This tongue-twisting answer is not without reason, but it is ultimately mostly based on luck. A little thought will make one realize that the possibility of this "maybe" is quite slim.
"Has there ever been a precedent for this?" Song Yecheng didn't rush to refute, but changed his mind. "Didn't Instructor He say last night that we weren't the first to initiate the revocation process? Then what happened to those who regained their memories before?"
When he heard He Jingsheng's words last night, he was actually not sure whether it was a clue or just a line set to trigger the "retraction procedure". But now that he has to make a choice for the result of the "retraction procedure", he should not give up trying any ideas that may be clues.
And he did try the right thing.
Just after he asked this question, Jiang Que's expression suddenly became a little subtle. If you look closely, there is actually a hint of "his lines were taken away" in his expression.
So Song Yecheng understood——
This is not only a real clue, but it is probably the clue that Jiang Que originally intended to mention, but now he has taken the lead.
Thinking of this, Song Yecheng couldn't help but smile, and Jiang Que's eyes also showed a slight smile, and he quickly said, "Follow me."
"Where are you going?" Song Yecheng asked, but he followed without hesitation.
"The archives."
Jiang Que led him through the corridor and up the stairs. Unexpectedly, when passing the third floor, he ran into Tang Yao and He Jingsheng walking out of the office area.
"Huh? Why are you back again?" Tang Yao wondered.
"Let's go upstairs," Song Yecheng pointed upwards, and then saw her holding the file bag in her arms, "Did you get it?"
Tang Yao nodded: "Guess what the password is?"
Seeing her eyes gleaming with gold and her face full of eagerness to share, Song Yecheng and Jiang Que were both a little amused: "What is it?"
Tang Yao pronounced the six letters one by one: "SURONG."
Song Yecheng subconsciously thought it was an English word, but after spelling it out in his head, he didn't understand it for a long time. It wasn't until several seconds later that he suddenly realized: "...Instant?!"
Tang Yao suppressed a laugh and nodded gravely. She then glanced to the side at He Jingsheng, then withdrew her gaze and said sarcastically, "I must have been kicked in the head by a donkey when I set the password. Otherwise, who in their right mind could come up with such a bizarre password?"
He Jingsheng listened silently. Instead of getting anxious or angry, he showed a strange expression that was a mixture of pride and sweetness. Because although Tang Yao complained, she actually entered the password correctly the second time, which meant that she still remembered the little episode about "instant coffee" in the office that only the two of them knew about.
Song Yecheng and Jiang Que didn't know the meaning of the code, and even thought that Tang Yao was right. The answer was indeed a bit strange.
However, when they saw He Jingsheng's smug look, they quickly understood - there was probably a little secret between them that was similar to theirs and existed only between the two of them.
So Song Yecheng smiled, without making any further comments, and simply said "see you later" to the two of them, then turned around and continued walking upstairs with Jiang Que.
The archive room on the fourth floor was not much different from what I saw last night. The only difference was that it was no longer dark, and Song Yecheng no longer had to sneak around like a thief.
After swiping his card to open the door, Jiang Que walked straight to the closest, oldest row of filing cabinets. He casually pulled out a file box from the cabinet and handed it to Song Yecheng: "The precedent you asked for."
Song Yecheng took the box and opened it without saying a word. There were only a few pieces of paper inside, which looked very simple.
He took out the paper, put the empty box aside, and just stood there looking through it.
The part about memory in the archive is indeed very brief—
During an argument with his wife, the volunteer accidentally pushed her to the ground, causing her to hit the back of her head on the corner of the table and die. However, he later lied that his wife was already dead when he got home and that she had accidentally fallen, thus escaping legal punishment.
This memory only took up one page, and the rest of the paper was his experimental records.
After participating in the first stage, he erased the memory, and in the second stage, out of curiosity, he activated the regret process and got the memory back.
After getting his memory back, he felt like he was facing a formidable enemy. He immediately chose to re-participate in the experiment and erase his memory again. However, he started the regret process again the following year.
This process was repeated eight times. When he got the file again in the ninth year, he finally realized the reality that he was powerless to escape. He could no longer endure the painful torture year after year.
He chose to surrender himself.
After reading the file, Song Yecheng sighed a little. After thinking for a moment, he put the paper back into the file box: "Anything else?"
Jiang Que did not delay and casually pulled out another file box from the side and handed it to him.
The owner of the file this time was a painter. During a sketching session by the lake, two children nearby kept chasing and fighting each other, knocking over his drawing board several times. After repeated attempts to persuade them failed, he could no longer bear it and picked up a stone and threw it at them. One of the children was hit in the knee and fell to the lakeshore. The other child fell into the water while rushing to rescue him, and both of them drowned in the lake.
Like the previous volunteer, this painter also went through a long and repetitive experimental process - erasing memory, retrieving memory, erasing memory again, and retrieving it again.
In the end, his ending was exactly the same as the former -
Ended up surrendering himself.
Seeing this, Song Yecheng suddenly had some kind of guess in his mind, but because the sample was too small, he was not sure for the time being, so he asked Jiang Que again: "Anything else?"
He originally thought Jiang Que would pick another box for him, but he didn't expect Jiang Que to nod and then gesture towards the cabinets around him, saying, "You can look at any of the files here."
Song Yecheng couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
After all, this was not a real "archive room", but a filming location set up for the program. He thought that the archives Jiang Que took out were props with pre-fixed positions and confirmed contents, while the other archive boxes were model-like decorations.
If all archives can be viewed at will, it means that they are all "real and have content", which is a non-trivial project for the program team that needs to arrange the entire archive room and fill all the archive boxes.
Song Yecheng took a few steps forward suspiciously, and took down a file box from each of the cabinets as if he didn't believe it. Then he was soon surprised to find that they were not models.
Each archive box contains a complete story.
The owners of the files all had a sinful memory that made them terrified and regretful. Without exception, they all started the repentance process in the second stage, and then went through several years of repeated experiments and cycles. In the end, most of them chose to surrender themselves because they could not bear it.
There were even two volunteers who were more determined——
They chose suicide.
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