Fateful intersection
by M1zushi“So do not rashly join the revelry; a frozen river will one day resume its torrent. Its pace never falters, and it will never turn back.”
The Poet, wearing a black silk shirt and trousers and holding a nearly burnt-out candle, stepped into the circle of candles at the center of the church.
He stepped over the scattered wax drippings and placed the small candle stub into the giant central candle.
“The departed orphans have no lingering attachments.
“Tonight, strangers pray for every tender soul—
“May they be reunited with their loved ones, no longer subject to vigilance and scrutiny.
“May the great Creator remember the suffering they endured and grant them a little peace.”
An Yu and Codex stood side by side in the crowd, their hands clasped in quiet prayer.
With his eyes closed, An Yu’s mind was not on the deceased Chen Nian and Bai Jing, but on Intern Nol. 019, whom he had never met but who had died because of him.
The Poet led the crowd in reciting a final poem to soothe their sorrows, then smiled and said, “Not a single snowflake will melt away, just as every bit of care will leave an indelible mark. Goodnight, Main City.”
The crowd began to disperse. An Yu took out his terminal and tapped on the chibi octopus Qin Zhilu on the screen.
Qin Zhilu, who was at his desk using a dozen octopus tentacles to process files simultaneously, glanced up at him indifferently.
Just as An Yu was about to put his terminal away, another message from the Commander popped up on the screen.
The other party immediately replied with a “?”.
Codex leaned over. “Do you realize you’re talking to the real Law?”
An Yu’s lips curved into a slight smile. “It’s an AI, isn’t it lifelike?”
He remembered that Codex might not know about this mini-program and was about to generously share it, but he saw Codex looking at him seriously. “That’s not an AI. The last two messages weren’t.”
An Yu froze and his heart suddenly skipped a beat!
The chibi octopus was designated as “Commander,” and messages from Qin Zhilu were also automatically sorted under “Commander.” He had mixed them up!
He immediately held the terminal with both hands and carefully typed a reply:
An Yu let out a breath. “Lying is a necessary skill for a low-born to fight for resources and survive. I was systematically trained by my neighbor.”
It took a while for Codex to close his mouth.
“Keep this a secret for me. Don’t let the Commander know it exists.” An Yu pointed to the chibi octopus on the screen and said as he walked out, “I just kind of went along with the shopkeeper and got this thing in a daze. I want to delete it, but I can’t bring myself to, so I’m just keeping it for now.”
Codex nodded in agreement, then glanced back as if inadvertently at the Poet who was tidying up the candles by himself, and asked in a low voice, “Is he the one who sold you the lottery book?”
“Yes,” An Yu said softly. “His name is Eye. His genetic entropy is normal, and he hasn’t undergone non-biological aberration, but he does have some insight, a bit like you. But he’s better at perceiving things that have already happened but are unknown to people. If it’s about predicting the future, he doesn’t see too many possibilities.”
After he finished the introduction, he noticed Codex was still staring at Eye with a hint of confusion in his expression, so he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ever since the evening prayer service began, he’d felt that Codex was always intentionally or unintentionally watching the Poet. It was just that Codex was too small, and standing in the crowd, the Poet had never looked his way.
After a long moment, Codex shook his head. “I can’t quite put my finger on it. He just seems very familiar, like I’ve seen him somewhere before.”
He subconsciously stroked the cover of the journal. Seeing this, An Yu asked, “Does that book have to be with you all the time?”
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“At first, I didn’t realize it at all; I just subconsciously took it with me wherever I went. Later, my parents asked about it, and that’s when I felt something was off. I tried to destroy it, but not only was it useless, I also discovered that the things I was thinking were appearing on its pages one after another.” Codex paused. “I hated it back then, but over time, I’ve gradually come to feel that it’s a part of my own body. I can’t be separated from it.”
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In Ling Qiu’s words, there are always some high-class people who live in their own high-class world, a world the low-born can never enter.
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Qin Zhilu strode over, the hem of his windbreaker carrying the scent of the Black Tower’s signature cool air freshener. He stopped in front of An Yu. “Is everything at the shop taken care of?”
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Qin Zhilu gave a casual nod, then said to An Yu, “The senior staff dinner has been moved up to tonight. Let’s go back together.”
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An Yu’s face was numb. “Commander, but I’ve only been back for a few days…”
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If the Commander went on a mission, he had to follow. Ling Qiu had said you can’t go back on your word with two types of people: the powerful, and those who have never broken their promise to you. Qin Zhilu was both.
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An Yu nodded and turned to follow him. “Did you know anyone else at the orphanage?”
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All the praying citizens of the Main City had left, leaving only the Poet by himself. With his back to the church doors, he stood in the shadows under the staircase, gathering the candles. Hearing footsteps, he turned around. His smiling gaze swept past An Yu and fell on Codex, and for a moment, he seemed to blank out in astonishment.
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The staggered footsteps and their echoes intertwined. The church doors closed behind them, and An Yu suddenly stopped in his tracks.
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—Aside from Eye’s hostility toward Qin Zhilu, everyone else’s expression was normal; no one had noticed anything amiss.
But An Yu felt his consciousness growing more and more turbulent, as if some kind of medium in the space had suddenly vanished. The last time he’d had a similar feeling was outside the sleeping pods in Area A of the orphanage, at the very moment he perceived and devised a counter-strategy when Chen Nian was about to use the mirror mechanism to kill Slade.
But the so-called “moment” was a moment as perceived by others. He still remembered the feeling— at that instant, the surrounding air still existed, but it was as if another medium had been sucked out of it. He experienced an incredibly long second, a second that belonged only to him, in which it felt like he had enough time to do anything he wanted.
An Yu’s gaze drifted upward to the clock hanging high above— the second hand was still moving quietly and steadily.
Time didn’t seem to have stopped. He didn’t know where this sense of temporal distortion, so familiar, yet made all the more alarming by the silence, came from.
The Poet stood alone under the staircase’s shadow, facing the three of them in a standoff.
His expression was cold. “The prayer service is over.”
Qin Zhilu seemed completely unbothered by his hostility. Upon hearing this, he stopped a few meters away. “In that case, we’ll take our leave.”
The Poet immediately made a “please go away” gesture.
Qin Zhilu turned indifferently and walked out, with An Yu and Codex following on his left and right. As he reached out to push open the heavy door, Codex looked back and met the Poet’s gaze from a distance.
“Nice to meet you,” Codex said softly. “My name is Codex. I just arrived in the Main City. If you don’t mind, I’ll be coming to the church often from now on.”
Eye smiled at him again. “The church has night prayers every evening. I’ll always be here.” He then shifted his gaze. “Oh, by the way, An Yu, my inspiration has been good lately. I’ve continued painting and written new poems. If you’re interested, please feel free to visit anytime.”
An Yu nodded gently.
Stepping out of the church, An Yu let out a deep breath. The world seemed to return to normal in an instant. The dry, cold Main City air refilled his lungs, making him for a moment suspect that the previous sense of disorientation might just have been due to a lack of oxygen in the church. “Do you feel something’s off?” he whispered to Codex.
Codex tilted his head and whispered, “The Poet seems to really dislike Law.”
“That’s not ‘off’,” Qin Zhilu said emotionlessly. “He’s always been inexplicably like this. That’s why I rarely come to church. Last time, I came for District 53, and I deliberately avoided being alone with him.”
An Yu shook his head. “I’m not talking about that kind of ‘off’.”
Qin Zhilu stopped. “Do you suspect he’s an aberrant?”
“Not that either,” An Yu sighed. “Never mind. Let’s go.”
An Yu got into the Commander’s passenger seat. Codex sat alone in the back, softly saying, “I think I’ve seen the Poet somewhere before.”
Qin Zhilu looked at him in the rearview mirror. “Near the Equality Zone? He hasn’t left the Main City for at least three years.”
Codex thought carefully for a while, then shook his head. “No. Ever since I merged with the book, I can perfectly recall everything I’ve experienced, but I can’t think of any moment when I’ve seen him.”
“He looked at you a bit strangely too,” An Yu paused. “Not like he looks at others. His gaze was different.”
Codex softly said, “He must have been looking at me. All the time.” He paused after saying this, his expression bewildered, as if he didn’t understand why he had said that.
Qin Zhilu scrutinized him for a moment, then started the car. “The Poet is a bit of a trickster. If he truly becomes an aberrant later, it will probably be a mental manipulation type of ability. Don’t let him influence you.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Yes, sir.”
An Yu noticed that the Commander was different from others when talking about aberrants. The things that would make High Peak and researchers wary seemed to be just ordinary, predictable accidents in the Commander’s mouth. This state made everyone around him feel incredibly at ease.
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