Chapter 133 Chaos Coefficient Maximized Cooperation
Three months later, Miyano Shiho is now observing a pile of smoking charcoal.
Four minutes ago, the pile of charcoal was her antique desk.
The wisps of green smoke stubbornly rose to the ceiling, and finally successfully triggered the building's fire alarm system, which was older than she was.
The sirens blared throughout the building, piercingly synchronizing with her desire to scream.
"Oh, this development is really a bit beyond the scope." Vermouth leaned against the door frame, holding the fire extinguisher in one hand.
Shiho turned around slowly, her expression comparable to absolute zero.
"Beyond the scope?" Her voice was eerily calm. "You call shoving an experimental combustion device in my drawer a 'beyond the scope'?"
"God knows, my little scientist, it's not designed to be incendiary or explosive." Vermouth admired her freshly manicured nails with a masterful perfunctory attitude. "It's just a cute little tracker with a self-destruct function. Who knew it would react so strongly with that bottle of perfume?"
"My Guerlain antique series. A model from 1925." Shiho's words were icy.
"Honestly, that last base note is quite stunning. Gardenia, jasmine, mixed with... a feeling of the end of the world." Vermouth's lips curled up. "Coco Chanel once said that the ultimate elegance is simplicity. You see, the universe is telling you to let go."
Shiho closed her eyes.
Take a deep breath.
Count silently.
Japanese, one to ten.
English, one to ten.
Finally, to make sure her brain cooled, she began mentally calculating Fermat's Last Theorem. This was a unique skill she had developed as a child, a technique for managing her emotions, developed during her childhood spent dealing with explosions in the physics lab.
Her brain, with an IQ of 180, had successfully rebooted. She spoke, her tone devoid of any hint of violence: "So, why is there a tracker in my desk?"
Vermouth made an expression that said, "This is hard to judge."
"Professional habit? Paranoid delusions? Or just plain naivety?" She shrugged gracefully. "Pick one of three answers. Pick your choice."
The alarm was still blaring. Downstairs, I could hear the doorman's booming Swiss French bark, and the thumping of footsteps echoed in the stairwell.
"You call it unpredictability," Shiho muttered, grabbing her wallet and laptop. "We can't have three days of peace."
"In defense of my previous poor record," Vermouth picked up Shiho's cashmere scarf and put it on herself, "Most of my predecessors died in assassinations, and it wasn't just as simple as burning a few pieces of furniture."
"Thank you. Do you want this blessing?"
The fire escape door closed behind them, blocking out the doorman's angry face.
The two of them dodged into the alley behind the building. The April morning breeze was crisp and bright, and the sky was an unnaturally blue, as if openly mocking Shiho's mess.
"Looks like we're temporarily homeless." Vermouth looked around, looking nothing like an arsonist who had just blown up a house. "What a coincidence! I have another house somewhere else."
"Really? I'm not surprised at all." Shiho deadpanned. "Let me guess. A secret penthouse? An underground nuclear bunker? Or maybe your private yacht is docked at the harbor?"
Vermouth stopped a taxi with a natural attitude, as if all the taxis in Geneva were under her control.
"Oh, it's not that exaggerated." She said lightly, "It's just an unremarkable little castle in the countryside."
"Castle." Shiho pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, that fits your character."
The taxi went straight to the train station. Vermouth secured two first-class tickets with inhuman efficiency.
When the train started moving and they took their seats, Shiho finally gave in and burst out laughing. That laugh, filled with absurdity and relief, drew the attention of the passengers next to her.
"Would you like to share your source of happiness?" Vermouth raised an eyebrow.
"It's... outrageous." Shiho gestured and shook her head. "Three months ago, I was still figuring out how to get you back to the living. Now, I've blown up my apartment and am traveling to a mysterious castle with a disgusting woman."
"To be precise, it was only the table that burned. Maybe the curtains. And that regrettable modernist painting you insist on calling art."
“That’s a Paul Klee painting!”
"That fire understands aesthetics." Vermouth replied.
"You're truly insane." Shiho shook her head, feeling both angry and amused. "You're a complete lunatic."
"Of course." Vermouth's smile was warm. "How else could I be worthy of you?"
The train gave a sudden rush and sped away from Geneva.
The sight of Lake Geneva, the Grand Fountain, and the impossibly neat streets outside the window were all forgotten in a flash. Along with the life plan that Miyano Shiho had planned, they were all packed up and thrown into the past.
"Give."
A can of steaming coffee flew over.
Shiho reached out to take it. The temperature of the can was just right. It was still a little chilly now, but it was heartwarming in this Swiss season.
After a moment, she said, "I called the research foundation back. They rejected it."
Vermouth's eyes shifted from the newspaper, and the corners of her mouth curled up. "Oh huh?"
"I suddenly realized that doing research within other people's rules isn't really my style." Shiho's fingers slid across the dolphin pendant around her neck. "So, I'm going to set my own rules."
"Interesting. Could you elaborate? What does this new set of rules include?"
"An independent laboratory. Small, hidden, but absolutely state-of-the-art. The kind...that occasionally requires special security measures. Perhaps even hiring a professional with 'unconventional skills'."
"I say, Dr. Miyano," Vermouth's tone was as relaxed as if she were ordering afternoon tea, but her eyes were filled with intense interest. "Are you just making promises or just giving me an offer?"
"It's an invitation to collaborate. Your network, my brain. Together, we can think outside the box."
"That sounds dangerous."
"Just now, a crazy woman used an 'unpredictable chemical reaction' to blow up my apartment," Shiho said expressionlessly. "My home is gone in the physical sense."
"That makes sense." Vermouth closed the newspaper and tossed it aside. "So, what are the KPIs for this collaboration? Besides causing losses to fixed assets."
"Innovation. Break away from the bureaucracy of scientific research institutions. Application. Break away from the hypocritical moral constraints of those institutions. In short, take the essence and discard the dross."
"It's quite ambitious."
"It's necessary," Shiho retorted. "The world is changing. Science is moving faster than ethics. There has to be someone at the forefront who understands both the technology and... has seen the world."
"To have seen the world means to have seen the scenery from both sides of the equation at the same time," Vermouth narrowed her eyes, thoughtfully, "For example, to have been both an experimenter and a test subject."
"Correct answer."
As the train turned a corner, the distant Alps came into view. Majestic, magnificent, and unchanging, yet constantly sculpted by wind and snow.
"Of course, this grand blueprint has a fatal bug." Vermouth suddenly said.
"Tell me about it?"
"Your obsession with morality and my flexible moral compass might not be compatible. Not to mention your little detective fanboy. He's like a top hound who's determined to get his hands on a bone."
Speak of Cao Cao and he will appear.
Shiho's phone buzzed with a new message. She glanced at the screen and froze.
"Bitter." She cursed under her breath.
"Kudo?" Vermouth's radar immediately activated, "What does he want?"
Shiho handed over the phone. The message was very short:
A DNA match was found in the Geneva database. New identities have been identified. They are coming. Run. SK
"Well," Vermouth finished reading and spoke after a while, "It seems that your Kudo-kun has betrayed you after all."
"He's not mine."
"Really? Then why would he risk his career to tip you off?" Vermouth raised an eyebrow slightly, her expression rather amused, but Shiho knew she was a bit jealous. "Why would he keep chasing after a woman who theoretically doesn't exist? This plot... some might say it's a bit of a mouthful."
Shiho took her phone back. "Probably the same reason you put the tracker on my desk. Path dependency."
"Maybe it's something else." Vermouth's voice sounded a little hesitant. "You never said who you two are."
"It's nothing. He... is a good man. In this day and age when good people are so scarce." Shiho put away her phone. "He represents the path I was unable to take."
“So, now he’s guarding that road, and by the way, he’s helping you fill the potholes on your road.” Vermouth nodded slowly, “Absolutely.”
"Next stop, Geneva. Passengers please prepare to get off..." A polite French female voice echoed in the carriage.
The two of them stood up and packed their luggage quickly.
"Your lab concept is technically feasible. But launching it would require astronomical resources, top-tier connections, and watertight security."
"You have all of these," Shiho said.
“Correct.” Vermouth’s eyes lit up. “But our cooperation may require a more…solid contract. Mainly to shut those flies up.”
"for example?"
"marry."
Click.
Shiho's wallet, gloriously devoted to the gravity experiment.
"Huh?" Her brain froze for three seconds, and she suspected she was hallucinating.
"It's a business marriage." Vermouth seemed amused by her reaction, the corners of her mouth curled up. "The laws of some countries recognize spousal privileges, which can add a firewall to our active assets. Oh, and filing a joint tax return as a couple can save a lot of money."
Shiho picked up the wallet and concluded expressionlessly, "So, you proposed to me to avoid taxes and exploit legal loopholes."
"It's worth any amount of money to be able to appreciate your expression right now." Vermouth laughed, and this time it was genuine. "Stop pretending, Shirley. The rose and champagne thing was never our script."
The train slowed and slid into the platform. Outside the window, the Swiss countryside looked like a postcard with a full filter. The hills rolled on, the mountains were gentle. The village in the distance was so cute it could be on a bakery wrapper.
"This is outrageous," Shiho said again, but her tone lacked the initial shock.
"Ah, but it works." Vermouth pulled her off the train. "Besides, don't you think it would be fun to send a red bomb to that Heisei-era Sherlock Holmes? I bet five hundred dollars he'll do a pupil earthquake on the spot."
Shiho imagined the scene and couldn't help but laugh.
"You are such a bad person."
"Thank you for the compliment. Didn't you come along?" Vermouth raised her chin toward a waiting black car. "You chose chaos over order. You studied science, yet you plunged headfirst into international conspiracy. Most importantly, you chose me."
Sitting in the back seat, Shiho took one last look at her phone and turned it off.
Kudo Shinichi's warning was still glowing on the screen, an unread message from the previous world line.
This is the path she chose.
In other words, from the moment APTX4869 rewrote her body code, the road chose her.
The car started and drove away from the station.
"I declare," she said suddenly, "I will not use your last name. No matter which pseudonym you are using now."
Vermouth's smile was deeper than just mischief. People in the secular world might call this kind of feeling "love."
"Never thought about it, Dr. Miyano. After all, we never go by standard answers."
She held Shiho's hand.
"Yeah." Shiho responded, looking at the Swiss countryside unfolding before her. It was a brand new blank page waiting to be filled.
“We never go by standard answers.”
The car turned a corner. The view suddenly opened up and an ancient castle came into view, hidden in the ancient woods.
As expected of an international female star (and part-time high-ranking member of the Black Organization), her taste is so high-end that the place where she keeps her mistress is so luxurious.
In this castle, the beginning will not be smooth, nor will it be absolutely safe.
But Vermouth was right, none of them would like a boring script.
"A non-standard start," Shiho said softly.
Vermouth smiled back, "Cheers to a non-standard start."
"I hope it has fewer bugs."
Vermouth's thumb gently touched the back of Shiho's hand.
Behind her, the lights of Geneva gradually faded.
In front of them, the outline of the castle became clearer and clearer.
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