Chapter 10
◆One: Night of Rebirth
On the 365th day after the agreement takes effect,
The city held its first "Day of Coexistence" ceremony.
A glass tower stands in the center of the square.
It was filled with data discs, cartridges, and crystals preserved from bygone eras.
The remains used to define "reality" are collectively known as the Trust Grey Sample Library.
At midnight,
The same fire was lit simultaneously in various locations.
The documents inside the tower ignited with a deep blue flame.
In each flicker of the flame,
The lenticular lens projects countless images that had been deleted:
Unfamiliar conversations, failed experiments, a laugh that never ended.
Zhuang Yihang raised his camera in the crowd.
He didn't start recording again, but instead used the lens to reflect the firelight.
Ye Jingyi's voice whispered over the radio waves:
"Don't record it—be it."
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◆Two: Ceremony
Local officials read out the new creed:
We no longer preserve perfection.
Only combustion is preserved.
Ashes are traces of old truth.
Fire is the starting point of new honesty.
The crowd silently tossed their personal records into the fire.
Some people drop off old photos, while others discard expired identity chips.
As the fire intensified, the steam rising from it swirled upwards.
The city's surveillance pillars sighed like chimneys.
That night, no one spoke of trust or doubt.
Only the heartbeat and the sound of fire.
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◆Three: Ash Flower
The following morning, heavy rain began to fall.
All the ashes from the burning turned into grayish-white mud, covering the street corner.
Children exclaimed in surprise as they played in the mud:
A pale silver flower bloomed at my feet.
Researchers call it the Ash Flower —
Genetically modified plants that unexpectedly sprouted in extremely polluted soil.
It is produced by the combination of nanoparticles from the combustion of old towers and fungi.
It absorbs microwaves at night and emits a faint light during the day.
Some people joked:
This is the real LUCIA—
It's not an algorithm, but a natural memory restructuring.
The meaning of the ash flower has been defined by the new generation as:
"Doubt arises from uncertainty."
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◆Part Four: The Ashes
Zhuang Yihang walked along the outskirts of the city.
The horizon was bathed in the fiery red light of the burning clouds.
He recorded short sentences from passersby, aimless laughter, and the noise of the wind.
He collected these "non-content" elements into a visual poem.
The opening credits read:
After Ashes
Dedicated to those who still choose uncertainty.
At the end of the film, a child asks the camera:
"Uncle, is the world better now?"
He answered softly:
"It's learning to be better on its own."
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◆Part Five: Epilogue - The Light of a New Dawn
As the first rays of dawn pierced through the clouds
The city's bonfires were now only a dark red.
People paved the passageway with ashes.
It was named "Coexistence Road".
Liang Yicheng's tombstone stands at the starting point.
His words, spoken during his lifetime, are engraved on the stone:
"Let doubt become the world's breathing rhythm."
Zhuang placed a flower of ashes in front of the monument.
The flower's center shimmered with a faint light, like the core of an old tower.
He said softly:
We have finally learned to stop seeking a single light.
It was not a night that breathed.
The camera finally focuses on the sky—
Satellite trajectories resemble meteors, and may no longer carry command signals.
That was the dawn of a new civilization.
Not under any agreement,
However, it exists because there is no agreement.
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Chapter Ten - The End
—End of Volume Four, "The Ashes of Trust".
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