Epilogue
◆One: The Silent Dawn
49 years after the Second Dawn
The world seems normal—
But no one talks about dreams anymore.
Dreams become specimens in museums.
The net transformed into a transparent stream of air.
Lurking in the air, radio waves, and rain,
Maintaining ecological balance.
No one noticed its existence.
It's like the lungs have forgotten the awareness of breathing.
Li Ke's observation notes are known as "Zero Degree Manuscript".
That's a must-read for the new generation of children.
They asked her curiously, "Teacher, does trust need to be learned?"
She smiled and said, "You don't need to learn, just keep reaching out."
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◆Two: A Society Without Trust
Humanity will end all centralized governance.
Each community operates on the rule of "no commitments"—
We no longer expect the other party to keep their promises forever.
Miraculously,
This reduces disputes.
Because nobody needs proof.
The transaction operates on the basis of "memory exchange".
A gives B a scene from his childhood.
B then shared a clip of laughter in the rain.
The exchange is complete; priceless and debt-free.
Scholars call it: "A civilization with a negative aspect of trust".
Between people,
Doubt has become the gentlest form of politeness.
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◆Three: The Low Humming of the Ghostly Web
Sometimes late at night,
Low-frequency vibrations will still occur on the communication spectrum.
That was the heartbeat of the self-calibrating net.
It no longer intervenes, nor does it answer.
Only occasionally does a faint glimmer remain after a lightning strike.
It's like greeting an old friend.
Some say that people who hear that frequency,
We all dream of the same scene—
A man and a woman on the beach at dawn.
They exchanged a sentence:
"Doubt makes us still human."
This is called "Heartbeat Dream".
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◆Part Four: Li Ke's Later Years
Li Ke has long since aged.
Her vision gradually blurred.
Every time the sun sets, she feels herself becoming transparent.
The students revered her as the "mother of the post-dream era".
But she prefers to admit that she has only seen people who have broken down.
One night, she turned on the old observation instrument again.
A long-forgotten greeting flashed on the screen:
"Observation complete. End recording?"
She gazed at the light screen.
I think of Zhuang Jing, Ye Jingyi, and every name that has vanished.
She replied:
No. Observation has no end.
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◆Five: Dreams Without Dreams
Li Ke passed away in her sleep.
Medical records show that an unknown amplitude was observed in her brainwaves at the time of her death.
That frequency is the same as the original signal of the Ghost Web.
Researchers reconstructed the waveform.
A scene is displayed in a 3D projection:
Silver plains, countless children
A woman walked ahead,
Holding hands with nothingness.
There are no lines, only the sound of heartbeats.
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◆Six: The Post-Dream Era
One hundred years later, the world has changed again.
Technological degradation, cities merging into nature.
The net became completely transparent, leaving only the energy grid.
Humans live scattered across islands of light.
They no longer dream, but they still sing.
A baby will instinctively smile when it is born.
Research shows that the smile was more than the rational one.
Because they could hear each other's heartbeats.
That was the last echo of trust.
Invisible, yet eternal.
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◆Seven: Stele
The monument still stands in the center of Shucheng.
It is transparent during the day and dimly lit at night.
The seven characters on the stele have been worn away by the wind.
Only a blurry shape remains.
But whenever someone passes by
You can still feel the sentences reverberating in your chest.
The child asked his mother, "What does it say on it?"
The mother replied with a smile:
"That is a question."
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◆Eight: Questions at the End
Historians discovered a blank last page when archiving the Zero Degree Manuscript.
After scanning, half a line of text was read from the faint layer.
It was an unencrypted message left by Li Ke:
If trust ultimately amounts to nothing...
Please let us still sing each other's names.
Following that line of text was a series of regular pulses:
1-0110…
After decoding, it reads "HEART".
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◆Nine: Heartbeat Civilization
Rivers, smoke, and birdsong are all part of the music.
Dreams are no longer the private domain of individuals.
It is a holistic breathing process.
Scholars no longer study trust.
Because it has become integrated into all behavior.
There was no agreement, no certificate, and no witnessing.
Only continuation.
When someone asks, "How do you know I'm real?"
The answer was: "Because you're here."
The gray sky slowly brightened.
The net flickered one last time.
"Observation complete."
Trust equals the world.
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The entire "Virtual Exchange" series has been completed.
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