Dow and Carbon-Based Monkey Breeding Guidelines

Chapter 979: Poems of the Dead (Part )

Xiao Rong was a little flustered when she answered the video call, like a student caught playing cards by the class teacher. She kept glancing at the camera, not noticing that Luo Binhan was wearing sunglasses in the room. Luo Binhan glanced at the background behind her and estimated that she was in a meeting room belonging to the Finance Department, perhaps secretly catching up on sleep. He didn't care about this, but just asked: "What time did you return to the city last night?"

"I arrived a little after eight."

"Everything went well, right? Are all the auditors here today? Are there any latecomers?"

"No." She answered nervously, and then in order to appear positive, she hastily added, "Teacher Xiao Zhou didn't come. He, he said he asked for leave in advance."

"Nonsense," Robin Han said, "Of course I know he didn't come. I was the one who sent him back yesterday. Where are the others?"

While Xiao Rong was still organizing her words, a shadow on the wall behind her swayed slightly. Luo Binhan noticed that the shadow had long hair tied up. "Who are you with?" he asked maliciously, "Hidden away so early in the morning to slack off?"

He guessed it right. Xiao Rong was still speechless and in a daze, and a second person appeared next to the camera. She waved at Luo Binhan and said, "Manager Luo, I'm sorry to bother you last night."

"Teacher Fang, what are you and our Xiaorong doing in the conference room?"

"There are a few issues to discuss."

"Is it a serious question?"

"What counts as a serious question?" Fang Qi asked with a smile. Luo Binhan suddenly heard a crisp sound coming from the speaker, like some small metal object falling to the ground. An idea flashed in his mind. "Could it be," he said, "you are still discussing metaphysical questions?"

Xiao Rong's face immediately turned red, and she was too embarrassed to speak. But Fang Lu still smiled like an innocent cat passing by: "Don't tell our team leader, okay? It's the first day of work! Let us go!"

"That's something I'll have to think about."

"How about I buy you some coffee later?" Fang Qi said, "You have a really nice pair of sunglasses. What brand are they?"

"Don't try to change the subject. Who are you two telling fortunes with? Teacher Xiao Zhou went back to his hometown last night."

"Xiao Yang can do it too." Fang Qi said, stretching his hand towards the camera. The screen turned and revealed a third person sitting next to him. The boy surnamed Yang also greeted the camera awkwardly, holding the coin he had just picked up. Luo Binhan looked at him and laughed: "You three again!"

"Don't tell our team leader, okay?"

"I don't care if you guys slack off at work," Robinson said. "I'm not in charge of attendance. Besides, you're going to run away this weekend, and I don't think you'll work hard this week."

"You understand very well."

"Please don't lead our Xiaorong astray again. Seriously, is fortune-telling so fun?"

"Because it felt pretty accurate last time. I just want to test my fortune this week."

“Want to get out of the stock market?”

Fang Qi stared at the screen with wide eyes. Luo Binhan pretended not to care. "Don't believe this too much," he said. "Just listen to it for fun."

"Don't you want to try again?"

"The fortune I told you last time was pretty good, why do you need another one?"

"Luck can change, too, Manager Luo."

Fang Yan's thick and slightly thick eyebrows were stretched out because of happiness, and the ends were almost inserted into her temples, which showed the casual and even slightly wild side of her personality. Luo Binhan paid attention to the details of her expression, and the doubts left in his heart that night by the sea were gradually dispelled. This is indeed an optimistic and positive person, a person who is not entangled by the various shadows of society. She is either really living a happy life, or she has a cheerful nature that keeps her mental health healthy. In fact, she is a little bit like Yu Xiaorong, just a little bit, in terms of wildness and talking to herself. I'm afraid Zhou Wenxing can't provoke such a person.

"Manager Luo?"

"Ah," said Robinson, "OK, let's do it again. I'll pledge my loyalty, and then you'll believe I won't tell on you, right?"

Fang Yan proudly gave Xiao Rong a victory sign and prepared to call their new fortune teller to come on stage. The boy named Yang had already held the coin in his palm, but Luo Binhan stopped him: "Don't play the coin tossing trick, I can't feel it anyway. Let's try something new."

"Manager Luo, are you going to invent a new method of divination?"

"No new method is needed." Luo Binhan said, "I had a dream after I sent Teacher Xiao Zhou away yesterday. It was actually a very boring dream, but there was a scene that remained in my mind and I couldn't get rid of it no matter how hard I tried: I dreamed that the sea water was boiling like a pot of hot soup, constantly rolling and bubbling, and there was a flame under the white foam - yes, that's it, the fire burning under the water. After I woke up last night, I kept thinking of this picture. What does this mean in metaphysics? Is there any moral?"

The boy surnamed Yang listened seriously, as if he regarded his question as some kind of qualification test. "Water is above and fire is below," he said, "there is such a hexagram, called... um..."

"Don't remember?" Luo Binhan said, "Look it up. Tell me when we meet again."

He found an excuse to hang up the phone, and started to ask Li Li about the progress of cracking the black box. He always had a feeling that Li Li didn't want him to care about the box.

As expected, she changed the subject again. "I can try to give you an interpretation of the dream you just mentioned."

Luo Binhan pretended to be confused by her. "You also understand metaphysics?"

"No, it's psychological: the unforgettable image is the work of your fear."

“I think that’s a bit far.”

"Then call it anxiety. You were still anxious after you killed your target, because of what happened on the ship."

"I am anxious because of the curse - it is magic, supernatural forces, the revenge of demons and ghosts, not because of anything on the ship."

"You knew the curse existed before you decided to carry out your plan."

"Li Li," Luo Binhan finally asked impatiently, "can the box be opened?"

"Still trying. The investigation team is also looking into the sources of other items."

"We have to open the box, as you know. As long as we don't find the accomplice, the problem on the moon will not be solved. If the flower grows in the end, all our previous work will be in vain."

"But what if the contents of the box don't lead us to his accomplices?"

"Well," Robinham said indifferently, "we lost the bet. We screwed up - but at least we got our revenge. It's an outcome in which no one wins."

"You are so used to taking things to extremes."

And you are too used to keeping things, thought Luo Binhan. He was sulking for no reason again, unable to stop caring about the mysterious and unknown "five percent" and - don't think he forgot - Li Li had tried to get rid of him. She had admitted that she was hiding something from him, and now she was still keeping such a little secret! But he didn't want to argue, because they had experienced life and death together, and it could be said that he owed Li Li a life. No matter how many things Li Li had hidden, they had to work together now, and it was definitely not the time to split up.

He sat in the room waiting. Miffy, who was well versed in the world, secretly observed from a corner of the jar and never participated in the conflict. Another two hours passed. Finally, Li Li told him that the box would be sent here, and he and Miffy would try to crack it, and then it would be sent to a safer private laboratory for storage. She repeatedly persuaded Luo Binhan not to really use a knife to pry it open - Wuyuan people's spiritual field characteristic value detection technology is very mature, in layman's terms, they are very good at identifying magic items. And 0206 is one of the founders of Wuyuan Death Order School, and the core of their theory is based on the premise that the law class is not alive.

"He was working with Zhou Wenxing," Luo Binhan pointed out. "After his death, the box remained in Zhou Wenxing's hands."

"Have you never had a time when you despised something but still had to use it?"

"Are you referring to me? Or my cousin?"

"I just wanted to talk about the braces you were wearing. I noticed you tried to adjust them several times."

This is true. The two medical braces on his body made him very uncomfortable, and he was clumsy like a zombie when walking, sitting or lying down; they were not designed to help people move more smoothly, but to restrict people's movements to protect injuries. When he tried to use his right hand or left knee to exert force, the braces would clamp him tightly, preventing him from adding pressure to his bones and tendons. With these two magic weapons tied to his body, he would not be able to have a thrilling battle for at least a month. Even if they really found clues in the box, they would have to ask Li Li's people or Cai Ji to deal with it.

He was a little discouraged and decided to let Li Li have the final say this time. "I'll just take a look," he said, "and ask Miffy to try. If there's a gap in the box, maybe it can get in."

"I'm afraid the success rate is low."

Before she could explain to him why it was not possible, the box had already been delivered. Luo Binhan estimated that the temporary research room of this technical team was also in a corner of this old industrial park, and the actual distance from his workshop might not exceed three kilometers. He heard the electronic door of the workshop open automatically, and three fully armed people (including long pants, boots, long-sleeved jackets, gloves and helmets, without any skin exposed) walked in. The two leading and the last two were tall, and their upper bodies were too bulging. Only the one sandwiched in the middle was thin and short, and it was obvious that he was physically exhausted, and his legs were a little shaky when he walked. Luo Binhan was not sure whether he was tired or hot for the time being. The poor guy was holding an inconspicuous blue-gray box tightly in his arms. The surface of the cotton cloth was a bit like a takeout delivery box, and it didn't look that heavy. He put the box carefully on the ground, turned the mask of his helmet to Luo Binhan, nodded politely, and then walked out of the workshop with the other two suspected security guards. The electronic door clicked shut again, ensuring they wouldn't be able to see what was going on inside.

Luo Binhan limped to the cloth box and gently pushed it. The box made a heavy friction sound on the cement floor. It was really heavy. "Li Li, is the box in here?"

"Yes. This is a shipping safe. It needs my personal approval before it can be opened."

"What will happen if I force it open?"

"The traditional way, sir. It will explode, try to destroy the storage."

"Don't do that all the time," Robinson said. "Come and see what's inside. Open sesame!"

The box was opened, and the storage space inside was unexpectedly small. There was only a palm-sized groove in the center of the metal cover, and the black box was stuck in the groove, with a layer of translucent soft plastic at the bottom. Luo Binhan stared at it with bated breath, and his eyes began to blur, and then he sighed in disappointment.

"It's more ordinary than I thought," he said. "It's no different from your box. It doesn't even have a pattern. Don't these Wuyuan people have any aesthetic needs?"

“They actually exist, but they are not usually placed in the public domain.”

"What do you mean by that?" Robinson asked habitually, but he soon shook his head indifferently, "Oh, forget it, just pretend I didn't ask. Can I take it out?"

"I suggest you let Miffy try it first."

"Is it necessary to be so careful? Your people must have touched it."

Li Li didn't say anything, but just flipped open the top cover of the glass tank. Miffy slowly climbed out along the wall of the tank, and the cameras on the roof and the glass tank closely tracked its movements. Luo Binhan felt that she didn't need to be so careful - Miffy could indeed become very dangerous, but the prerequisite was to digest enough food. Unfortunately, there was enough explosives and fuel in the warehouse next to the workshop. Before Miffy had a chance to do anything bad, it would definitely have been blown up by the cruel Cyber ​​King.

Miffy did not show any particular enthusiasm for this new thing that appeared in her territory. At this time, its total volume could fill up two buckets, enough for it to twist into a circle around the box, and grow a row of eyes on the top of the circle, carefully and comprehensively looking at the box in the box. This scene was enough to make the three people scream and run away (or they might be ecstatic, it's hard to say, some of them are perverts who don't even let go of the toothbrush of the dead), but Luo Binhan was already used to it. He began to think about the shadow's vision again. What did Miffy see when she didn't grow eyes? Visual organs are not necessary. Miffy can directly generate photoreceptor cells in her body. Anyway, her thinking system does not exist in the form of central nervous system. It is like a super-evolved form of amoeba, the fruit of wisdom in the protist world. It may have far surpassed him in the stage of biological development, so it can only be catalyzed in the laboratory. It and Li Li should both be considered artificial creatures.

But how can a shadow sense emotions? It's neither brain wave analysis nor chemical molecular sensors, as if emotions are something more special than material particles, and Reed's spiritual thoughts are greater than the material universe... Isn't this narcissism in a sense? Just like the brain thinks that the most important organ is the brain, people regard themselves as the defining standard of intelligent races... He watched Miffy absent-mindedly as her silky tentacles slowly approached the box. It doesn't matter, Li Li will stare at it, he is just a foil here.

The filamentous tentacles completely covered the surface of the box, as if a thin layer of gel was brushed on it. Sometimes the surface of this layer of gel would change color, produce bubbles, impurities or various strange textures. Luo Binhan estimated that this was Miffy's way of doing various tests. It might be trying to find a gap in the box, or capture the mechanical vibrations inside, but in either case, it failed in the end. The filamentous tentacles were retracted from the surface of the box, and the ring surrounding the box turned into a ball of wriggling green mucus. "I can't get in," Miffy said with its harp-like vocal organ, "I didn't find anything... I don't think I can help."

"I can't blame you," Robinson said. "This is something a psychopath did."

He waited until Miffy returned to the fish tank before he staggered back to the box and leaned over to examine its plain surface. There was indeed some disappointment and anxiety gnawing at him, but it was not serious at the moment. He just felt that he was being eroded by a deeper fatigue. After killing Zhou Wenxing, that dangerous but strong vitality disappeared from his spirit again, but he did not feel the great happiness of being reborn, but just became indifferent to everything again... Is this the revenge of the curse? No, he didn't think so. He didn't feel that some supernatural power descended on him and turned him into a completely different person. He was just exhausted like all mortals. Exhausted but unable to rest, because this damn thing kept pestering him and it was endless...

He wanted to squat down and take a closer look at the box, but he stumbled. It was completely unintentional, or perhaps his worry and disappointment exacerbated his leg injury. He leaned forward, and his left hand naturally wanted to support the raised platform in the middle. Fortunately, he reacted in a flash and tried his best to lean to the left, pressing his palm on the metal cover inside the box - more than 20 centimeters away from the groove where the box was located. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to see that all the cameras were pointed at him, and the red light of the indicator light was flashing.

"gentlemen?"

"I'm fine," Robin said. "Sorry, I can't keep up."

"You were supposed to be recuperating."

"It seems that I have no choice but to stay in the sanatorium." Luo Binhan said self-deprecatingly, "Remember to come and talk to me about your latest progress when you have time, and about that thing in the store..."

At this moment, he heard it. Just twenty centimeters away from his left hand, he felt the shockwave like an earthworm. Now he could distinguish this kind of mental vibration from the real sense hearing. In fact, he heard nothing. The melody roaring in his skull was a melody imagined by his brain, because it did not understand what it was receiving. In addition, there was another indicator for him to refer to: his left hand was trembling because of the dampness and coldness, as if it was soaked in deep ice water. He did not have time to think or say anything. The plain Pandora's box quietly opened its lid and opened in front of his face.

Robin Han froze there, his mind blank. The first thought that flashed through his mind was that he was finished, and the box was a trap for him - this desperate thought occupied him for a long time, until Miffy asked anxiously in the fish tank: "Are you okay?"

"Alive." Robin Han said woodenly. The tremor in his head disappeared, and he did not feel any new pain in his body. Only then did he overcome the pain and dizziness in his eyes and see the details of the box. He had taken off his sunglasses long ago and placed them on the camp bed. The colors of everything were sent to his perception by the light. It was dark green. The dense pattern of pine trees, the whole forest was squeezed into a narrow square.

Luo Binhan wiped his right eye and finally understood what he saw. Isn't this a notebook? A most ordinary, cheapest, thinnest paper notebook. It's not even a business memo wrapped in dark leather, but a soft copy - something he used to take class notes or just doodle to kill time when he was in school. It must be a note for a secondary class because it is too thin - the cover of the notebook is a dark green forest pattern. Damn it, does Zhou Wenxing have his own werewolf jokes in private?

He reached out and took the book out of the box. After he held the book in his hands, he remembered that it might not be prudent to do so. Zhou Wenxing might have hidden anthrax in the manuscript... Alas, this is pure bullshit. There is no way he can stop now. He didn't even think about it for half a second. Anyway, no one asked him to stop. The cover of the manuscript was opened. There was no signature on the title page, only a few lines of handwritten Chinese characters. The font was beautiful and fluent, but the bones of the characters were unusually square and hard, and the strokes were deeply chiseled into the back of the paper. He never thought that Zhou Wenxing's handwriting was this kind of iron painting and silver hook style.

"What are you reading?" Miffy asked. Her voice was not as slow as usual, revealing her strong interest in the development of the situation. Luo Binhan read the contents of the title page word by word, and then put down the book in a daze.

"I don't know," he replied to Miffy. "I don't know what it says."

"Written in a foreign language?" Miffy asked. "Some kind of secret code?"

"No," Robinson said. "I guess it's a poem, or a lyric, or a riddle... It's written in my native language, but I can't understand it. Maybe he copied it from somewhere to practice calligraphy."

"This is his practice book, then?"

"No, I don't think anyone would lock up a calligraphy book like this," Robinson said hesitantly. "I think, uh, this might be his diary."

"Diary," Miffy repeated.

"Diary," Robinson said. "I think people only write things like this on the front page of a diary."

“Have you ever kept a diary?”

"I haven't written it. But I've seen others write it. I have a younger brother who has written it. I thought it was his composition book, so I opened it, took a look, and then put it back."

“Why put it back?”

“It’s not very glamorous,” Robinson said. “It’s not very, uh, respectable. If the owner of the diary finds out, your relationship will probably be over.”

They were silent for a moment, and then Miffy asked again, "So, do you want to put it back now?"

"Absolutely impossible." Luo Binhan said ruthlessly. Yes, this is his moral view as a local second-generation rich man: Stealing a dead enemy's toothbrush? Purely shameless perversion. Peeping at a dead enemy's diary? Natural intelligence review! He flicked the book open with one hand and glanced at the middle page - it was inconvenient to turn the pages one by one with one hand - but he didn't see any words anymore, all of them were complicated and cumbersome lead drawings: overlapping and repeated lines and patterns surrounded a fixed center, generally circular or elliptical, very similar to mandala patterns, but asymmetrical when looked at closely.

"They are just some scribbles," he said with disappointment.

Miffy once again asked to participate in the reading. It might understand what these patterns mean, so Robinson walked to the fish tank and showed it a picture of one of the patterns through the glass. It didn't bring him any surprises. "Let me see the first page." It said, "What is the poem you just mentioned?"

  Luo Binhan used one finger to move the notebook to the title page, and then moved closer to the glass tank. With the help of the plant light in the tank, the words on the title page that were so strong that they could penetrate the paper appeared in his eyes again:

The goddess of mountains and swamps who chants myths,

Wearing a laurel wreath, holding a poem;

Struck down to earth by the light of the stars,

The stubborn stone that turned into Samothara.

  The rose fairy who witnessed the tragedy,

Let lovers listen in their dreams;

  The inspiration of jasmine and bodhi leaves,

Leading to the land of beautiful birds singing.

"Any ideas?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Miffy replied, "I don't know your language well enough yet. I've managed to learn a little during this time, but not enough to understand the background... What is Shamotra?"

"How should I know?" Luo Binhan said. He tried to close the notebook by shaking it, but he heard something snapping between the pages. He stopped immediately, put the notebook on the ground, and checked it one by one. He finally found the foreign object on the penultimate page. It was a very thin, snow-white card, about the same size as a hotel room card or office door card, but it was very thin and felt quite flexible. It was fixed to the blank paper page with several pieces of tape. Luo Binhan carefully tore it off and turned it to the other side to take a look. This side itself was also blank, but there was a label sticker stuck in the center. The sticker read:

Room 206, 3rd Floor, No. 1 Dongyun Road, Chilabin, Acting Chairman

Luo Binhan read the passage again. "Chilabin," he read, "Chilabin—this name sounds a little familiar, but I can't remember it. What's your impression of it, Li Li?"

He waited for a moment, then turned to look at the phone on the cot. "Li Li?"

The camera on the roof was still flashing, but it no longer moved as he walked. Luo Binhan suddenly realized that he had not heard Li Li's voice since the box was opened.

(End of this chapter)