"Forget it. I'm still in quarantine. I don't want to bother him."

Wang Congshan scratched his head. "After all, this meme is quite contagious, so it's still dangerous."

"Oh-ho-ho."

Wei Linglan immediately pouted, her voice tinged with jealousy. "So considerate, huh? I'm talking to you through glass right now, and you're not worried about me getting infected."

"Cousin, you're a player."

Wang Congshan rolled her eyes. "He's capable, but he's still just a regular person. How can he compare to you?"

"Yes, yes, yes."

Wei Linglan crossed her arms, her tone sarcastic. "Ah, being a player is so tragic. Not only do you have to risk your life all the time, but you don't get any concern from others. After all, you're a player, so you have to be able to handle anything. Ah, you used to call me Sister Lan, but now new people replace the old, and it's just Cousin now."

She made a variety of expressive faces, showing none of the cold goddess demeanor she displayed in front of others.

"Okay, I'm done teasing you."

Wei Linglan, having enjoyed Wang Congshan's embarrassed expression, straightened her face, picked up her tablet, and tapped it a few times.

One of the wall tiles in the isolation room immediately flipped up, revealing a hollow duct.

A transparent sealed bag containing a cell phone slid out of the duct.

"We took your old phone. This is a new phone provided by the Meme Control Center, suitable for use during the meme infection observation phase."

Wei Linglan said, "It can only receive information, not upload it. That means you can browse most apps except social media platforms, but you can't socialize with people and won't leave any interactive traces. Other than that, it works like a normal phone. You can use it to watch videos, read novels, or take online courses."

As a frontline member of the Mobile Task Force, Wei Linglan wasn't very familiar with the research department.

However, as far as she knew, the Meme Control Center, as a newly established department, had many novel ideas and plans.

For example, they were worried that hostile forces might create a deadly meme that spreads through the internet, disguised as ordinary pictures (emojis, funny memes, "gkd" pictures), spread it widely, and then suddenly erupt,

like Sadako in *The Ring*,

killing everyone who had spread the image at once.

To prevent this from happening, they were creating a system called "Electronic Patina" that could be implanted in most internet social media platforms.

Once a user uploads and shares a picture, audio, or video,

the Electronic Patina system would quickly intervene,

slightly tampering with the electronic information of the picture and audio, causing the meme it carries to change and no longer be reproducible,

thereby preventing the large-scale spread of deadly memes.

In addition, they also envisioned an extreme situation: in the future, a deadly meme might arise that could be spread through a short phrase.

As long as it is said, it will immediately cause everyone within a certain range who hears the phrase to die.

It would be like every ordinary person holding a nuclear bomb button in their hand.

Everyone would be wary of other humans.

Everyone would be forced to stay at home, isolated from the world,

relying only on delivery personnel and drones wearing special protective suits that could isolate meme infections to deliver living supplies to each household.

Compared to that hypothetical extreme situation, the Sheng Nan Wang meme wasn't so bad.

At least the situation was under control, and the anomalous entity itself had been contained.

Wang Congshan tore open the transparent sealed bag, poured out the new phone, and couldn't wait to turn it on and start exploring. "By the way, my parents..."

"I already called them."

Wei Linglan nodded and said seriously through the small window in the dormitory door, "Your parents are very worried about you, but because of the regulations, they can't come to see you yet. They have to wait until the quarantine is over."

"Ah, okay..."

Wang Congshan sighed, took a few steps back, leaned back, and fell onto the single dormitory bed, holding a blue shark plush in one hand and scrolling on the new phone with the other. "Argh, this is so annoying!"

"Hey, hey, hey! That's my shark plush. Don't break it,"

Wei Linglan's eyes twitched, and she patted the dormitory door, saying, "You stay here first. I'm going home after work. If you need anything, just use the button on the wall to talk to my colleagues. Dinner will also be delivered through that delivery window. It's made by the base cafeteria, and it tastes pretty good. Put the dishes in the window when you're done."

Wang Congshan lay on her side on the bed, pressing down on the shark plush, and said in a muffled voice while playing with her phone, "Okay, okay!"

"..."

Wei Linglan pursed her lips and shook her head helplessly, then turned and left the isolation room.

As a frontline operative in the Mobile Task Force, Wei Linglan's family had previously moved into the Special Affairs Bureau's employee dormitory, which was very close to the base.

It was the weekend, and the frontline operatives had a rare day off.

It was already time for dinner, so Wei Linglan didn't go to the crowded cafeteria. Instead, she chose to go home.

First, the food at home was more delicious.

Second, she also had to explain the situation to Wang Congshan's parents—the two families now lived together, and the elders in the family were very worried about Wang Congshan.

Wei Linglan turned left and right in the passage, greeting her colleagues along the way. She swiped her personal identification badge on the detector at the entrance of the passage, walked out of the base, and walked back home.