Chapter 7
◆One: A Frenzy of Doubt
Three weeks after the "Ash Investigation was closed," the city descended into chaos.
The message is circulating wildly on grey websites: "The truth has been censored."
No one knows where this phrase originated, but it is more effective than any call to action.
At night, crowds gathered in front of the government building.
Holding up signs—
"It needs to be transparent, not fake light!"
"Doubt is a freedom!"
At first, it was just sitting quietly.
Soon, the stone shattered the glass;
The trust sign was removed and used as firewood.
The crowd questioned each other: "Which side are you on?"
Anyone who remained silent was considered an "invisible believer" and was dragged away and whipped.
Suspicion becomes a license for atrocities.
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◆Two: The Trust Faction
In an effort to stabilize the situation, former officials who still adhere to the LUCIA order formed a "trust rebuilding committee".
They claimed online:
"Suspected to be a virus,"
We must restart the algorithm to clear the infection.
They replicated the data from the Ashes Survey.
Rewritten as "Public Trust Fix Code"
They developed a new signal tower called "IndexZero" under the name of "Civilization Guardian".
They guaranteed:
"This is not an algorithm, it is a human consensus recorder."
We only record consistent truth.
The masses couldn't understand, yet they yearned for stability.
The "trust faction" quickly regained partial control of the city.
A curfew was imposed under the guise of "temporary order".
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◆Three: The Skeptics
The opposing "skeptics" are unorganized and symbolic.
People simply instinctively refuse to be monitored anymore.
Like a herd of beasts escaping from a field of light.
Someone put on a mask covered in question marks.
Someone threw a malfunctioning surveillance camera at them.
They shouted:
"Who records whom! Who decides the truth!"
Everyone seemed to be trying to prove their continued existence.
*
Zhuang Yihang was caught between the two camps.
He photographed, documented, and photographed again.
The footage was seized by both sides.
Those who trusted him edited his clips into a promotional video.
Skeptics used the same footage as evidence of resistance.
His facts were cited by both sides.
He began to understand that in chaos, the truth is merely a prop.
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◆Part Four: Liang Yicheng's Posthumous Manuscripts
In the midst of a storm overnight, the headquarters of the Trust Reconstruction Committee was captured.
When the crowd broke down the door, they found an encrypted file in the underground cabinet.
Signature: Liang Yicheng.
Zhuang arrived at the scene and turned on the terminal.
Text slowly appears on the screen:
Draft Human Protocol v.1
1. Trust without consensus is invalid.
2. The right to doubt is listed as a fundamental human right.
3. When trust and doubt conflict, both should coexist, and the truth should not be determined by victory or defeat.
The last sentence is like a preview:
If ashes eventually cover the city
May it become the soil for a new agreement.
This document is known to skeptics as the "Covenant of Skepticism".
They regarded Liang as a prophet.
Trustists, on the other hand, consider it an antisocial document.
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◆Five: Mob
Violence spread.
Skeptics stormed the communications tower and burned down the "IndexZero" controller.
The city is without communication, electricity, or internet.
Under the cover of night, the crowd lit torches.
Street radios are still intermittently playing Lucia's early recordings.
"Recorders must remain honest."
But who's still keeping records?
Who can guarantee honesty?
Zhuang stood in the middle of the ruins; the camera was out of power, and the red light went out.
For the first time, he chose to see with his own eyes, rather than through a camera lens.
Smoke and firelight mingled.
He saw those people—
Some people cried, some laughed, and some tore off their masks and shouted into the air:
"I don't believe in anything!"
At that moment, Zhuang suddenly understood:
Doubt, if allowed to extend indefinitely, will lead to destruction.
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◆Six: Silence Protocol
The following morning, the survivors spontaneously gathered at the city square.
There were no slogans, and no leaders.
People stood empty-handed, staring at each other.
An old woman whispered:
"Perhaps we can learn to be uncertain first."
Zhuang wrote this sentence down in his notebook.
He later named it the "Silence Protocol".
The agreement consists of only one line:
"The CCP exists amidst uncertainty, and we continue amidst doubt."
No one signed it, but everyone acquiesced.
The riots gradually subsided.
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◆VII: Epilogue - The Second Dawn
Several days later, telecommunications were restored to the skies.
The same video was being shared among different locations.
Ye Jingyi's blurry figure
Traveling with the wind, light filters through the gaps in the scrap metal.
A line of text at the bottom of the screen:
"Human Agreement, ready to be drafted."
Zhuang looked up at the light.
I recalled Liang's words—"The ashes weren't destroyed, they just changed containers."
He turned on the new camera.
Write down the opening title:
The Human Agreement: An Age of Skepticism
The camera is pointed at himself.
This is not the end.
The moment they couldn't recognize each other,
Perhaps, this is the time for humanity to begin being honest.
The image freezes.
The firelight gradually cooled.
The first true dawn slowly rises.
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Chapter Seven - The End
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