Chapter 11 City of Silence

I emerged from the Rhine Laboratory at Donghai University. The sun had already risen, its warmth illuminating the world. It was the sun of July 1st, marking the passing of the first half of 2024, and the arrival of the second. Lin Xuan raised his head, watching the sunlight stretch out all the shadows – the source of all things in the world.

Just like what he was doing now, he had to find the source of everything and correct all these mistakes. He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch. 07:11.

It was already this late.

He recalled the complex emotions he felt after the blue snowflake disappeared yesterday, facing Lin Yuxi's vanishing, and how he ended up embracing Zhao Yingjun.

“Identity verification, Xu Yiyi." But…

The origin of the Fourth Dream Realm was too simple. Would humanity still try to immigrate to Mars? But emotions were like this, facts were like this. Ke Lang was somewhat puzzled.

The woman stood up, blinked, and looked at the young mother with a blank expression, the yellow circle in her pupils flickering several times: "And our expressions…" "So, Ding Dian..."

At that moment.

Or couldn't she sleep at all?

"And I asked the security guards at X Company. Do you know what they said?

They said that Xiang Yu didn't come to work early in the morning from home, but came to the company in the middle of the night. The light in your office was on until dawn, obviously having not slept all night."

Come to think of it, that was possible.

The female android's eye circles immediately turned a frightening red, staring intently at the departing girl, taking large steps in pursuit. What was so strange?

Instantly!

That's right.

The Oriole's everything...

Even though Ke Lang was in a chaotic mood last night, he directly refused. But looking left and right...

"Wang Ziming, current personal score, 82 points!" "I will."

Back then, the Oriole, just like Lin Yuxi now, was always encouraging him, always unconditionally supporting him:

"Go ahead."

Everyone had morals, high quality, and spoke politely, which could all be understood. Lin Yuxi's voice trembled slightly.

"I don't blame you at all, and you don't need to blame yourself. Protecting children is the responsibility of a father, and also the responsibility of a mother."

But…

"Do what you need to do, look forward, don't stop because of this."

He saw the woman squat down, looking directly at the little girl, the yellow circle in her eyes twinkling:

Ding Dian responded and hung up the phone.

The sound was so loud that it exploded like a cannonball in this noisy city. How could he stop because of this? What kind of era was this?

Did they have more advanced means of communication, already able to communicate with brainwaves, so they didn't need to open their mouths?

The man who made me understand responsibility...

"Can you imagine, in Xiang Yu's growing environment, when have I ever been willful?

When have I ever been impulsive? But that's not good, Ding Dian. Everyone has a temper, everyone has willfulness, everyone has impulses. How can you keep suppressing those emotions?" Although spitting is wrong, and making loud noises is wrong, is it necessary to be so tolerant of people living in the city? Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling!

Ke Lang hesitated, swallowed a few times, and sighed:

After all, he had spent two months with Zhao Yingjun day and night, and he had known about their mother-daughter relationship for a long time.

All night, without sleep. "I've scheduled a whole day today. There's a long line outside the office door, and then meetings scheduled from morning until night. As someone who's been through this, I can tell that something must have happened, so I'm asking you about it."

What the future world 600 years from now looked like, he had no idea.

The key to breaking the situation...

His everything...

Smiling, yes, he was smiling, smiling very standardly, but the standard was so excessive that it gave people a sense of the uncanny valley.

There was the sound of footsteps and the sound of cars driving, but there was no noise or commotion. But there was no moistness of a tropical rainforest, no fragrance of lush rice paddies, no yellow sand of a wasteland. "Ding Dian."

He took a step back in shock.

Even uncivilized behavior was absent.

Looking up at the yellow circle around the woman's pupils, her eyes were full of fear.

Seeing how relaxed the mother was just now, she obviously paid great attention to personal scores and was fearful and worried about being penalized. He picked it up and saw the caller ID. It was Lin Xuan's name.

"To this day, I still think of King Xiang, who refused to cross the river back to Jiangdong. I have never thought of King Xiang as any kind of hero. None of the soldiers who led King Xiang into battle wanted to see the Western Chu Overlord commit suicide at Wujiang."

Very stiff.

"Identity verification, Zhu Ting."

Ding Dian frowned as he listened to Lin Xuan's description.

Even if they communicated through brainwaves, their eyes and expressions should have subtle changes. They couldn't just have no expressions at all and rely entirely on brainwaves to send emoticons. Everyone was so self-conscious that Ding Dian didn't dare to walk, as if even a slightly irregular pace would be a desecration of this perfect city.

What exactly was going on? These rules were too lenient!

The reason was that after sharing the theoretical principles of space-time travel with Zhao Zong, as well as the manuscript of the space-time machine construction concept, the world line did not undergo any changes.

Ding Dian placed the phone on the bedside table.

"This is indeed a very long story, not only related to Ke Lang, but also to me and Zhao Zong, and even to you."

The little girl in front, holding her mother's hand, coughed and spat on the ground:

The man who made me grow up...

Was there something going on at this time?

Around him, he could hear the rapid footsteps of people walking, and ahead he could hear the sound of vehicles passing on the road.

"Even if I have never called you 'Mom', no matter what, it doesn't change the fact that –"

Ke Lang said softly:

Ding Dian answered solemnly:

Wasn't anyone talking?

Ding Dian didn't dare to speak for a moment.

"Yes, boldly do it. If it's wrong, then take responsibility for the mistake. Don't be like Xiang Yu, the Overlord of Western Chu, living in historical eulogies, far inferior to living in the present, where there is still hope."

Ding Dian had only seen similar settings in science fiction movies and games. These androids were actually composed of alloy skeletons, intelligent chips, nuclear-powered batteries, and various other parts.

He had many things to say to Zhao Yingjun, and he knew that after losing Lin Yuxi, what he should do most was to stay with Zhao Yingjun. "Gao Wen Da Di has created another miracle." It's also you.

The good life of the people in Donghai City, and Li Ningning's younger sister, Li Fengyu - were they still there? That meant that Lin Yuxi didn't go home or sleep at all after getting in the taxi yesterday.

The time traveler's eyes, the entire pupil was crystal blue, while the handsome men and beautiful women here only had a circle around the pupil. On the other end of the phone, Lin Xuan's voice was very worried:

"I'm sorry, Ke Lang. Right now, I want to be alone for a while." "Zhu Ting, current personal score, 71 points!" Who could calmly accept this ending? But the main question was…

Did the super disaster of 2400 still exist?

The key clues...

His own everything...

Using busyness to numb himself, not thinking about those sad things was good. "What will it be like?" A strange summer breeze, strange cold.

Before he even opened his eyes, Ke Lang could feel that this wasn't a wasteland world, nor was it in the wild. It should be in a developed city.

Her eyes were serious, word by word:

That meant that in the Fourth Dream Realm, there was a high probability that a space-time machine existed. Therefore, whether Zhao Zong could build a space-time machine or not would not affect the established historical development. But these things…

He turned over.

That seemingly strong woman naturally had her soft side, to the point where she lost control after seeing Lin Yuxi disappear and shouted at him.

"Behavior verification, attacking androids, stealing items, running uncivilly, colliding with pedestrians, a total of 28 points deducted; due to prior science and technology crimes, points deduction is increased by 50%, with a final deduction of 42 points."

Suddenly, a nimble figure darted out from the side. What was going on?

Too strange.

Arriving home.

"I will."

He understood very well.

He discovered that this wasn't all "robots". There were still many normal humans.

"Please be sure to maintain civilized words and deeds, take mechanical androids as an example, and jointly build a beautiful future for humanity."

""I really have, for so many years, never seen Xiang Yu like this. I originally wanted to ask about it, but Xiang Yu, you arranged so many things for yourself today, mobilizing almost all the departments' work to personally oversee it." "I'll go find you."

Lin Yuxi's words seemed to overlap with the Oriole's. Ding Dian turned over, ready to get up.

No wonder there was no one talking, no one making noise, no one running, no one arguing in this city.

The entire city was silent.

"Only by trusting in the potential of humanity in the Fourth Dream Realm, and..." "Can Gao Wen's hibernation pod still be dug out from the underground hibernation base? The man who made me truly desire to become a leader..." "What's wrong with you?"

But why wasn't anyone talking? Ding Dian finally understood what he was witnessing.

"I am his daughter, and also your daughter; he needs to be responsible for me, and you must be responsible for me."

But he would eventually have to tell her everything.

"Anyway, just know about Xiang Yu's situation. If this matter really impacts her a lot, let her calm down and take her time; it might be better. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on things here for you. I'll report to you as soon as anything happens." Sigh…

Ke Lang advised over the phone: Gradually falling asleep. That…

"I'll distinguish the severity and urgency. The phone call you just received from Zhao Zong, I could tell, was obviously about something very important." Ke Lang's everything...

No matter how young and composed you were, even if Zhao Yingjun wasn't a child you carried for ten months and gave birth to.

On the sidewalk, there wasn't a single person going against the flow of traffic. Everyone was walking uniformly in the same direction.

Immediately after.

Fourth Dream Realm.

But…

It was you.

She was always so strong, quickly recovering and comforting him instead. Lin Yuxi raised her head, her eyes reflecting the moonlight as she looked at Ding Dian: "Ptooey."

The world line rose and fell, so many events happening one after another, countless temporal butterfly wings flapping together...

Ding Dian shook his head, denying that idea.

Ke Lang washed up for a long time, wiping his face several times, preparing to go to sleep and enter the Fourth Dream Realm.

Was he going to be surrounded again?

And this time, his starting point was likely to be located in the city. "Identity verification, Wang Ziming."

The surrounding city was only at the level of an average city. There weren't any high-tech products beyond Ding Dian's understanding. It wasn't even as good as the New Donghai City in the Seventh Dream Realm, about the same as a third-tier city in real life. "Wait a moment."

Perhaps after truly researching it, you would encounter all sorts of bottlenecks and dead ends.

You wrapped your clothes tighter around yourself, closing your eyes:

Unlike ordinary robots, their skeletons were all covered with a layer of active skin that looked no different from that of humans.

"Behavior verification, spitting, 2 points deducted, 50% reduction for minors, final deduction of 1 point."

Everything was telling him it was going to happen in the next two days. His phone rang.

First of all, Ke Lang only looked at it briefly; secondly, Gao Wen's manuscript itself wasn't just incomplete in terms of the construction of the space-time machine, but also in the principles and theories. Due to the lack of verification of space-time particles, many places were still just speculation.

He had indeed shown the manuscript to Zhao Zong, and he optimistically estimated that it could be built within ten years.

Ding Dian was shocked.

The girl ran very fast, and in the blink of an eye, she had increased the distance. He was somewhat speechless. He went to the unit in the early morning.

Please be sure to maintain civilized words and deeds, take mechanical androids as an example, and jointly build a beautiful future for humanity.

The people here were too civilized, their quality was too high.

"I have seen Liu Feng. I saw him at your laboratory at Donghai University." Lying down.

"I'll send you home. I'll tell you everything." What was Zhao Yingjun doing at this time?

It was just like a perfectly planned city in a computer program. "Is... is it..."

Too quiet.

He saw that everyone in the surrounding crowd had blue eyes! They all had faint blue circles!

Even their walking speed didn't slow down at all. They still walked at a uniform speed, civilized and polite.

Ding Dian quickly asked.

The flower beds were trimmed neatly, like rulers: Ding Dian blinked and continued to observe. After saying that...

They were the same.

Were Copernicus' Time-Space Police Department and Time-Space Court still in existence? Suddenly...

Other dream changes, he still had some ideas and expectations. Xu Yiyi, current personal score, 37 points! "

"Hey, look, I guessed right again. You must know something, and it's probably related to you!"

Lin Yuxi took a long breath and pointed to Ke Lang's phone: "I'm very grateful that you trust me so much and are willing to tell me everything. But can we change the time?"

He, in the past, after Chu Anqing turned into a millennium-old tree stump and disappeared, wasn't he the same?

Ding Dian felt that the hope was great.

The blue circles in the eyes of these people were significantly different from the eyes of the Oriole, Zhao Yingjun, and Number 17.

A girl around fourteen years old, about 1.8 meters tall, with very beautiful ear-length short hair, wearing a smiling face mask, leaped out of a hidden flower bed with a swish.

"The current me is a burden."

"Hopefully, I can get the engineering drawings of the space-time machine as I wish."

His mother's face turned pale, and she cried out:

"Could it be that Zhao Zong didn't succeed in building the space-time machine in the established future trajectory at all?"

"Behavior verification, loud noise, 2 points deducted, no reduction, final deduction of 2 points."

These normal humans, whether in their expressions or gait, were too normal, and Ding Dian inexplicably had a sense of belonging. "Hello?"

Ke Lang you..."

Full of questions, Ding Dian opened his eyes one by one. "We follow him, we come for him, right for him, wrong for him, life for him, death for him. Throughout history, victors are kings, losers are villains. There is nothing absolutely right or wrong. Many things, if you believe it is right, then it is right; if you believe it is wrong, then it is wrong." It was still the same question.

The vehicles parked on the side of the road were evenly spaced apart, each one like someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder; he saw her nimbly jump in front of the mechanical android, tear off the metal nameplate from his chest, and run into the distance."She hadn't slept all night, her eyes were red, and then today she arranged so much work for herself. I... what's wrong with her! The way I see it, she seems to have suffered a great blow and is using busyness to numb herself!"

He walked along the road and found that the city was really clean, too clean. He muttered softly:

Lin Yuxi reached out, stopped a passing taxi, wrapped her thin clothes tighter, and sat in the taxi and left.

"Xiang Yu, do you know, what's wrong with Ke Lang?"

There had to be an answer, and Ke Lang had to be given an explanation. Ding Dian was sure of his guess.

But then again, if robots could be made so realistic, the technology of this future world must be very advanced, right?

After saying that...

"But if one day you need me, if I can help you in any way, you must tell me. After all, as you said, Zhao Yingjun doesn't belong to this time-space, doesn't belong to our future, doesn't belong to our real child."'

Their walking speed was very consistent, their bodies were straight, their spirits were lifted, and their expressions were too terrifyingly single. They were probably robots. Ding Dian sighed softly:

A smiling woman with blue circles in her eyes next to her had a serious expression, and the circles around her pupils changed from blue to yellow as she walked towards the mother and child. Ke Lang didn't know how to describe the feeling they gave. Just then... Ding Dian listened carefully.

Why were there so many people coming and going here, but it was so quiet? He didn't know how to describe the scene before him. At this moment..."I have a feeling that they are doing something very important. Are those things also related to Yan Qiaoqiao and Zhao Yingjun, our child?"

"Just now, was that Liu Feng who called you?" "Mingming! What are you doing!"

She calmly knelt on the ground, took out a tissue from her handbag, and carefully, thoroughly, wiped the little girl's spit off the ground cleanly, and then placed the tissue in her handbag.

Just now, Ding Dian was praising the city for being civilized and clean, but now, he only felt endless oppression and awkwardness.

That meant that in this era, personal scores were a very important indicator in this clean, quiet, and excessive city. But thinking that, suddenly a male android in uniform, with red circles of light bursting from his eyes, rushed out from the front and directly pinned her to the ground. There was no trash on the road, it was clean.