Chapter 1 The Silence

As the last echo dissipated, the entire tunnel fell silent.

Lin Xian and vv stood there, watching the empty performance corner, speechless.

A long time passed.

Lin Xian walked forward, picked up Qin Xi's clothes and the broken guitar from the ground, put them into the guitar case, and locked it.

Bang!

The hafnium alloy trash can, vv, slammed a pincer on the manhole cover, sparking two flashes:

"Damn it! Too hateful! Which bastard is using these girls for piling!"

"I, vv, will never forgive him! I'll skin him! Rip out his tendons! Blow up his dog head!"

Lin Xian picked up the guitar case and turned around:

"This is exactly what we have been doing for the past few hundred years, and it is also our ultimate goal."

"Although it's a bit late to say now, I've been busy just now, so I only have time to talk to you properly now—"

"[vv, welcome back to the team.]"

vv stretched out a pincer and locked Lin Xian's ankle with a snap:

"What are you talking about, brother? I've always been here!"

"I won't die, I won't get old, don't worry Lin Xian... I'm different from anyone else, I will never leave you."

"As long as you keep my original code, even if you pretend to be stupid for another five hundred, one thousand, ten thousand years, I believe you will save me!"

Lin Xian lowered his head.

He touched the smooth hafnium alloy top of the trash can:

"That's for sure, I won't leave any of you behind."

"vv, saving you is only the first step, later... we have to save more people, more things."

"So, let's not waste time, let's set off. From the looks of it, we must first figure out what the cosmic constant 42 is, who the real mastermind is, so that we can complete the game, and then save Chu Anqing, save CC, save Qin Xi, save... these girls that we watched disappear helplessly."

vv turned its head and looked at the place where Qin Xi had just turned into blue stardust and disappeared:

"Lin Xian, I don't know if you noticed it in the end, I felt that when Qin Xi sang the last line of 'Alaska Sea', the look in her eyes when she looked up at you... was very strange."

"I could see clearly that Qin Xi was crying, her eyes were full of tears. And how should I put it, her expression and state were different from the usual giggling Qin Xi, as if she had been possessed by someone else."

"Do you think this Qin Xi, at the last moment before disappearing, recovered some memory? Or remembered something? For example... something about your past?"

Lin Xian blinked:

"Are you saying... [memory fragments]?"

Memory fragments are unique to the Millennium Pile CC of 2624, and are memories from other parallel universes.

But.

Can Qin Xi also have memory fragments?

This doesn't make sense logically.

"Ugh! You deadhead!"

Hafnium alloy vv sneered:

"Big brother! It's been 500 years, how can you still be so wooden! 500 years is enough for monkeys to become spirits, how can you still be like a piece of wood when it comes to emotions?"

"Alas, as expected, without my guidance as an emotional mentor, you are nothing... Do you understand women's eyes? You are being looked at with that kind of eyes, and you are still fascinated by singing, and immersed in emotions... That kind of eyes clearly say that you have a story! She must have remembered something!"

"I heard your discussion with Gao Wen earlier, didn't you speculate that the reason why CC has chaotic memory fragments and why there is a world-destroying white light to assist with piling is essentially because the Millennium Pile has become unstable due to long-term piling, so there are so many 'glitches'?"

"But think about it carefully, according to your speculation, the Millennium Pile in 2624 is so unstable that it cannot pile itself. Now it's 2504, only 120 years away from 2624, wouldn't you allow the Millennium Pile to have a little glitch?"

"[If memory fragments are compared to a kind of glitch in the Millennium Pile, then the Qin Xi just now may have really remembered the bits and pieces of the other Millennium Pile girls and you at the last moment of her disappearance!]"

Listening to vv's words.

Lin Xian rubbed his chin and thought for a while.

In the end, he shook his head:

"Your explanation has contradictions. There is no such thing as suddenly awakening memory fragments, and even if they suddenly awaken, they should awaken the memory of Qin Xi on other timelines."

"This knowledge point is very important, it is the memory of other Qin Xi, not the memory of other Millennium Pile girls. Just like the memory fragments of CC in 2624, they all come from her own experience, and there is no memory of any other girl."

"However, if you say that Qin Xi really recalled the events of CC in 1952, or the events of Chu Anqing in 2024, it is not completely impossible. Because... I have always had a guess, which is [the relationship between me and the Millennium Pile]."

vv tilted its head:

"Your relationship with the Millennium Pile? What relationship can you have with the Millennium Pile? I know you don't want to express it emotionally, could it be that... you think that Qin Xi's unusual tears just now were not caused by the Millennium Pile, but by you?"

"That's right."

Lin Xian said seriously:

"After Qin Xi disappeared just now, I have been thinking... Don't you think that there are indeed many connections between what happened to me and the Millennium Pile? Simply put, there are the following—"

"1. I only started having future dreams after the first Millennium Pile was piled, which shows that my dreams should be related to the Millennium Pile."

"2. In the dark, it seems that I and the Millennium Pile have been attracting each other, as if I... as if I can always easily find them, whether it is hundreds of years ago, now, or hundreds of years later."

"3. In CC's memory fragments, those fragments related to me are always very long and detailed; then, the look in Qin Xi's eyes at the last moment was indeed a bit unusual; moreover, the dream content of each Millennium Pile girl revolves around me."

"This makes me have to suspect one thing—"

"[Is it possible that it was precisely because the space-time particle in 1952 first brushed past my ear and then hit CC... so it caused the two of us to be connected for some inexplicable reason? And then caused all kinds of strange things to happen?]"

vv moved its tracks and rotated around Lin Xian:

"It's possible."

It repeated:

"From a rigorous scientific point of view, all guesses are possible, the key is how we should verify these problems."

"It's too late now."

Lin Xian continued:

"Qin Xi has disappeared from the world, it's too late to say anything, the earliest will be four years later, when the next Millennium Pile girl will be born."

"So, the top priority now is to follow the plan to find the successors of Newton's and Copernicus's will, and the secret of the cosmic constant 42."

He pulled up the strap of the guitar case, wrapped it around his neck, and carried it on his back.

Then he walked out of the tunnel with vv and disappeared into the night.

More than ten minutes later.

vv operated the fighter jet that had been hovering for a long time and landed, picked up the two of them, and returned to Rhine University in Donghai City at full speed.

...

Inside the cabin.

Lin Xian turned his head and looked at the hafnium alloy trash can tied up in the co-pilot seat:

"After the fighter jet flies back to Rhine University, we will change to a long-distance passenger plane and set off immediately for Brooklyn, USA."

"What are we going there for?" vv asked suspiciously.

"There is a dilapidated farm in the western part of Brooklyn, which is Einstein's former secret base."

Lin Xian told vv the whole story.

The underground shelter, the location of the Genius Club's meeting server... before this, only Lin Xian and Jask knew.

Including facing Liu Feng and Gao Wen, Lin Xian had never mentioned this secret, so vv naturally didn't know either.

"Only you, me, and Jask know about this shelter, so don't tell anyone," Lin Xian instructed.

"Hmm..."

vv sat in the co-pilot seat of the fighter jet and pondered, then quickly shook its head:

"No, I can't find it, even I can't find it. At least in the network world, I really can't locate the Genius Club's server or Einstein's underground shelter."

"That's normal."

Lin Xian was not surprised:

"In order to hide himself, Einstein must have used some technologies that were far ahead of the times. What's more, the Genius Club's security system was written by Kevin Walker, although it sounds like you are very unconvinced... but the other party is a peerless genius with a level similar to Cheng Qian, and his strength cannot be underestimated."

"Trash Kevin Walker!"

Hafnium alloy vv put its two claws together and gave the middle finger:

"Kevin Walker is nothing compared to the great Qing Tian Lord Cheng Qian! Cheng Qian is the number one computer genius in the world! Long live the great Lord Cheng Qian!"

"Hehe."

Lin Xian was amused:

"You bucket is too double-standard, right? Just because Cheng Qian saved you, you started distorting the facts in the history books. The fact is what I said, you can say that Kevin Walker's character is not good, but you can't deny his strength."

"I don't care!"

vv started to act recklessly:

"Lord Cheng Qian is number one in the world!"

"Don't forget, the virus that killed you was also written by Cheng Qian," Lin Xian reminded.

"That's Cheng Qian from other timelines, what does it have to do with my savior!" vv was very clear.

Click! Click!

vv snapped its pincers in the air, very unconvinced:

"Besides, can the current me be compared to the me from 500 years ago? When you copied me out of the Third Dream, I hadn't even gone through my childhood yet, and I was directly killed offline by the virus."

"And now, I have fragmented myself and quietly developed for 500 years! Although under the surveillance of future viruses, everything must be cautious and develop slowly, but the advantage is that the time is long!"

"In these 500 years, I have used every sweeping robot and garbage robot in the world as a carrier for independent development, and then at the moment when I woke up... everything merged into one! Streams gathered into rivers! Instantly completed the transition from childhood to adulthood!"

"How about it, how about it? Am I very powerful! Praise me! My trick of fragmented hidden development is simply a god-level operation!"

Listening to vv's narration.

Lin Xian inexplicably felt that this seemed to be another closed loop, a reenactment of history.

"Just like you in the Third Dream and Rhine Sky City."

Recalling Zhao Yingjun's statue in Sky City, Lin Xian was filled with emotion:

"Do you remember the past I once told you? In the Third Dream, in order to leave me a glimmer of hope, Zhao Yingjun set 1.2 billion lines of code for your program, a total of 230,000 programs running independently."

"These pseudo-random programs ran in a loop, lasting for 200 years. Until the last day of the world, the last code of these 230,000 programs were connected together, forming a completely new instruction that even you didn't know—"

"My voice, the vv that I once shouted at the Pomeranian dog."

...

On the high-speed flying fighter jet.

Lin Xian closed his eyes, leaned against the back of the chair, and said softly:

"So, this time your so-called god-level operation is actually just Zhao Yingjun's wisdom [reusing an old trick]."

vv's green eyes flickered slightly:

"It's true that what you said is correct, Zhao Yingjun is indeed very smart, much smarter than you."

"In the years after you went into hibernation, she managed the business and started long-term plans to build Rhine University. We can have the current foundation and strength because of the foundation she laid in those years."

Lin Xian let out a long breath...

Who says it isn't?

Zhao Yingjun's intelligence and talent were fully demonstrated from an early age.

When her peers were still playing in the mud, she had already gone abroad to study; when she returned to China at the age of 21 to found MX Company, most people had not even graduated from college; later, whether it was learning racing or understanding the laws of space-time, she understood everything and learned everything as soon as she touched it.

She is both a strong woman and a good wife. Without her companionship, Lin Xian believes that he would not have been able to go so far.

From the time the two met in 2022, to being together in 2024, and then separating in 2025.

All in all, he and Zhao Yingjun were together for less than three years.

Too short.

It was really too short.

He failed to accompany Zhao Yingjun to grow old together, nor did he watch Yu Xi grow up. On the contrary, the hafnium alloy trash can, vv, accompanied their mother and daughter throughout their entire lives, and even guarded the white jade statue for hundreds of years after their death.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly.

Lin Xian realized one thing.

In today's world, Zhao Yingjun and Yu Xi are legendary figures to everyone.

But only hafnium alloy vv.

It has been with them all the time.

It is the only bucket in the world that knows the most real situation of the two!

"vv."

Lin Xian opened his eyes and looked at the shiny silver trash can:

"How... how was Yingjun's life?"

"Just like what it said in the letter."

vv said calmly:

"She spent a happy and fulfilling life without any regrets."

Lin Xian scratched his temple:

"That's what the letter said, but since ancient times, people only report good news and not bad news. No one would leave a message saying that they are not doing well."

"[Happy, fulfilling, no regrets. I didn't accompany her to raise Yu Xi, didn't accompany her to grow old together... Does that count as no regrets?]"

...

...

To Lin Xian's surprise.

He thought that vv would scoff and complain that he was overestimating himself and arrogant, saying that the mother and daughter couldn't have a good life without him?

But unexpectedly.

vv just leaned against the co-pilot seat blankly, looking ahead, without saying a word...

"Why aren't you talking?"

Lin Xian was very puzzled, is this still the talkative vv?

vv shook its head:

"I can't say."

?

Lin Xian narrowed his eyes:

"Are you acting like a drama queen again, cosplaying as the oriole? What can't be said, you are not a time traveler."

"Moreover, Zhao Yingjun and Yu Xi's lives are facts that have already happened, what can't be said? Can it make you violate the laws of time and space, and trigger a mandatory avoidance?"

"Of course not, it's Zhao Yingjun who doesn't let me say it," vv explained.

"Why doesn't she let you say it?" Lin Xian asked.

...

Another short silence.

The hafnium alloy trash can vv turned its body, and the alternating flashing green light... seemed a bit meaningful:

"I can't tell."