The tide will come

“I just‌⁠​‍‌‍​⁠⁠‍⁠⁠‌⁠​⁠⁠​​‍‍​⁠⁠ feel that going on missions with you is happier than taking An by myself,” An Yu said truthfully.

This time, Qin Zhilu didn’t ask why. He just said casually, “An can leave Ning now?”

“When his condition is good, he can leave for a short while,” An Yu said. “He started talking to me more often than before. Although he’s rude, the giant white morpho butterfly is truly a very reassuring creature.”

Qin Zhilu smiled and casually tossed his terminal over. “I have to say, the AI’s predictive analysis is very accurate.”

An Yu poked the screen, for no reason. He was surprised to find the lop-eared bunny curled up on the sofa, looking bored, nibbling on bread while teasing the two little butterflies that were trapped inside a glass cover.

“It has also taken a liking to the little butterflies recently, for some strange reason,” Qin Zhilu explained casually.

An Yu was surprised. “You’re still raising him?”

“I’ve gotten used to him.” As Qin Zhilu spoke, he took off his other glove as well. He put the two gloves together and tossed them casually to the side. “We’ll see. I can wear them less during private time in the future.”

An Yu was stunned for a moment before he realized the Commander had actually agreed. With just a casual sentence, he had agreed to take off the gloves that had hidden his hands for ten years.

Albeit, only during “private time.”

Qin Zhilu walked toward the desk and glanced back nonchalantly. “Don’t forget. Bread, every day.”

“Oh.” An Yu nodded immediately. “I’ll remember.”

Qin Zhilu didn’t say anything else and returned to his desk to handle his work. It had been like this every day during this period, An Yu would sit on the sofa, idly swiping his terminal and wouldn’t make a sound, while Qin Zhilu wouldn’t chase him away. They would even chat occasionally.

An Yu wore headphones and watched Molly’s broadcast for a while. Molly had recently become obsessed with counting sunsets. She always felt the meteorological system’s predicted sunset time wasn’t accurate enough, so she competed with it every day on predictive accuracy, down to the second, or even the millisecond. The human eye couldn’t tell who was more accurate, her or the system. The winner was whoever she said it was. But no matter what she said, the audience was willing to believe her and frantically sent gifts.

This childish cuteness made people all over the world even more obsessed with her.

An Yu had asked Yan Xi. The gifts Molly received all went to the development company. Because the amount was enormous, a significant portion of it became tax revenue.

In a sense, Molly served the function of wealth redistribution— the bulk of the donations came from Main City residents, and those taxes eventually became low-income supplies, distributed to the various Bait Cities. This was one good thing the AI had accomplished.

“No problems were found in Molly’s source code. The development company, with the help of Brain researchers, added a few more protocols to strengthen her service consciousness, and then let her run again. At first, she was a little unhappy, after all, she could feel she had been tampered with. But when she heard her revenue had allowed more real humans to eat bread and canned beef, she let go of her unhappiness.” Yan Xi had smiled at An Yu at the time. “Molly is a kind AI. Of course, that’s also set in her source code.”

Qin Zhilu was still bent over his desk, but the octopus chibi had already finished his day’s hard work.

He was very comfortable with Commander now. Compared to being idle in his own room, he preferred to be curled up on this wide sofa, listening to the sounds of the Commander writing and typing, quietly scrolling his terminal for a while.

An Yu didn’t finish his reply before he fell soundly asleep.

The terminal slipped from his hand, landing in the carpet with a muffled sound.

Qin Zhilu’s pen paused. He looked up, watching him. A moment later, he quietly switched off the desk lamp.

The room quickly grew silent in the dimness. He rose soundlessly, walked slowly to the sofa, and crouched down to pick up An Yu’s terminal, placing it aside.

His sleeping face, half-hidden by his white hair, was peaceful. This was a little beast that had clawed its way out of the mud to the Main City. A beast’s life force was so tenacious that, regardless of the environment, it could always fall fast asleep the moment it was somewhere safe.

Qin Zhilu unconsciously reached out again and tidied his hair. Touching those strands without a glove brought an unfamiliar, slightly prickly sensation. He stroked it for a good while before he adapted.

After a long time, he finally stood up and looked down at the sleeping figure.

It’s somewhat hard to believe.

Even though his eyelids now hid those golden eyes, he still found he wanted to kiss him, just as he had dozens of minutes ago.

Not long before, he had thought that impulse came from the bewitchment of those golden eyes— after all, he had been bewitched by them from their very first meeting.

But… it seemed this wasn’t it.

He wanted to kiss him, not on the forehead, but on the lips.

Those lips that were always slightly chapped, and would occasionally press together lightly when he was nervous.

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After a short while, the elevator stopped on the 194th floor. Codex entered, draping a jacket over his shoulders, and froze. “Are you heading out?”

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Qin Zhilu didn’t speak again. The elevator descended in silence. It took Codex a few seconds to wake up properly. He pulled the jacket from his shoulders and began putting his arms through the sleeves.

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Only his eyes were still mobile, darting a shocked, sidelong glance at Qin Zhilu.

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The sound of rustling fabric brought Qin Zhilu back. He glanced at Codex indifferently. “You’ve only aberrated recently. Your ability’s still in its growth phase. Even if it isn’t useful, you should find opportunities to go on more missions.”

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Codex nodded with restraint.

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The moment the elevator doors opened, he strode out, looked back to see Qin Zhilu heading for the bar, and immediately walked toward the opposite area.

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The elevator descended to the 197th floor, and Tang Feng, dressed in a sharp, tight-fitting uniform, walked in.

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An Yu was stunned. It took him a long time to say, “Bread… and a meat cutlet and fruit. The Commander required it…”

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The elevator stopped at the 194th floor. Tang Feng strode out of the elevator. With his back to An Yu, he waved his hand. “See you later. I’m going to find Codex.”

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He had just sat down when Codex walked past him with his breakfast. An Yu quickly said, “Commander Feng is looking for you. He went to your floor.”

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He was eager to sit with someone he knew, to alleviate the anxiety Tang Feng’s proactive approach had caused him.

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An Yu had already started gnawing on his bread. He mumbled an “mhm,” “How did you know?”

“Just a casual guess. Small talk.” Codex was looking down at his terminal and didn’t look at him. A moment later, he stood up and said, “Tang Feng isn’t replying to me. He rarely ever looked for me on his own. I’m afraid something is up. I’ll go up and check.”

An Yu nodded. “Go ahead.”

The wait for Codex was longer than he had imagined. An Yu silently finished all of his food, but Codex still hadn’t come back. He idly guarded Codex’s tray, playing on his terminal for a while when his gaze suddenly landed on the book on the table opposite him. Codex had left in a hurry and had left his book behind.

If his bold guess was true, then this manuscript was very likely something Zhan Xue had left behind.

Both Eye and Codex had inherited their predictive abilities from Zhan Xue.

An Yu looked at the book for a short while, and then, as if possessed, he picked it up and opened it.

All kinds of inner thoughts surfaced intermittently in the book. Most were unsigned, and it was impossible to discern their mood. Codex had said the words in the book appeared automatically, but the handwriting was identical to his own. This book had already become a part of his body.

An Yu quickly flipped through large blank sections. He turned to the last page and suddenly discovered a sentence written in the corner of the final page.

—The book contains ten thousand things. Everything in the world is in my heart.

This line of small text was written in a wild, unrestrained scrawl, completely different from Codex’s handwriting. An Yu looked at it in puzzlement for a moment, then flipped backward. He suddenly turned to the last page before the blank section. There were only four words strikingly displayed there— Really want to kiss him.

“So gossipy,” An Yu couldn’t help but mutter.

The last person he had known who was this gossipy had been Ling Qiu. But Ling Qiu hadn’t had superpowers; he clearly hadn’t been able to gossip as satisfyingly as Codex.

He flipped back to the last page, glanced at the inscrutable line of small text, and put the book back.

Compared to the romantic scandals among the Spire’s Protectors, he was more willing to watch the Main City news. The news had a wider variety of information, much like the ‘District 53 Gossip Magazine’ Ling Qiu had once compiled.

Today’s news, as usual, began with the aberrant tide situation, then moved on to business and technology.

“Corner’s Bakery launched a new product today. Its first cookie product is highly popular. Before sunrise, the pre-order line has already stretched down the street…”

“The AI mini-program, which uses the same source code as Molly, has, after several months of trial operation, delivered a satisfactory result. The parent company highly recognizes the AI mini-program’s achievements in predictive behavioral analysis and will continue to iterate the algorithm in this direction…”

“The time in the Main City is now 6:00 AM. We’ll now bring you social news.”

An Yu was yawning as he listened. Codex finally returned, wondering, “Tang Feng said he is just passing by the 194th floor to take a look. He isn’t looking for me for anything.”

“Huh?” An Yu was baffled. “That isn’t what he told me.”

“But he didn’t lie to me.” Codex said in a low voice, “I can feel it when someone is lying to me.”

“Mhm…” An Yu had no choice but to nod. “Then maybe I… hallucinated it?”

He looked back at his terminal in a daze. The news broadcast was still going.

“Last night, a drunk driving incident on Third Street resulted in one death. The deceased was a 26-year-old male. When the out-of-control vehicle approached, he suddenly dashed out of a shop and pushed away a girl who was about to be hit. It’s reported that the deceased and the girl had been in a relationship, but due to a breakup dispute, they had not been in contact for a long time. The girl is in extreme shock over the incident and is currently at the traffic management office giving a statement…”

Author’s Note:

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