Chapter 98
The cold wind fluttered the small flags planted along the park fences, their colorful vibrancy dotting the expanse of silver.
Shu Ci slowly zoomed out the camera lens, using the flags as the foreground to reveal the magnificent world of ice sculptures behind them.
In addition to the themed ice sculptures created by the park operators, a separate path had been paved for citizens to unleash their imaginations and create their own works.
In the open area at the very center of the garden, a display platform for voting on ice sculptures had been set up. Everyone could place their works there for others to admire. In this world of ice and snow, the winding tour route was lined with stalls equipped with full heating gear, selling mostly food and handicrafts. The ownersā fingers and cheeks were flushed red from the cold, but their faces were overflowing with smiles.
Shu Ci looked for angles to record the lively and rustic daily life of the Seventh District. When he stopped, someone who recognized him stepped forward to strike up a conversation.
“Mr. Shu, I’m your fan!” An Omega youth showed him his phone’s homepage. “I’ve been following you since the cruise ship incident. Before, when I saw all those leaks saying you were a useless flower vase, I got so angry I was frantically clapping back at people online!”
“Thank you, but… you don’t need to go that far for me.”
Shu Ciās eyes curved into a smile. He took a skewer of candied hawthorn that the stall owner had just wrapped and handed it to the youth. “But please don’t learn from my bad temper. Our anger is precious. The value of expressing anger and dissatisfaction lies in stating the facts to correct biases, letting Alphas know the logical loopholes beneath their arrogance. Thereās no need to waste time and breath arguing over meaningless trifles.”
The youth happily accepted the candied hawthorn, looked up at him, and blinked. “What you just said is very much in the style of our General. I guess that’s expected of his partner, right?”
Shu Ci took a bite of a hawthorn berry and paused. “How so?”
“Back when we ended the civil unrest, we needed to rest and recover, but in reality, the places bordering the Seventh District would always come to harass and provoke us from time to time. Everyone was feeling very impetuous.” The owner of the candied hawthorn stall joined the conversation. “General Lu was right here in this park back then, sitting on the marble steps by the fountain, and he said something similar to us.”
The youth continued, “He said that at least we can still feel anger, which proves that everyone hasn’t become numb from past suffering. He also said he hoped we would maintain our anger, our questioning, and our constant rebuttals, but not to become… easily triggered fools who can be provoked by anyone, anywhere.”
Shu Ci couldn’t help but chuckle. The rock sugar sticking to the corner of his mouth seemed to sweeten his heart.
It wasn’t so much that his style was like Lu Wanqing’s, but rather that he was increasingly leaning towards Lu Wanqing in this regard. This man, who had walked through desperate straits, had unknowingly become his benchmark.
He thought for a moment, pointed to the candied hawthorn he had bitten, and said to the boss, “Please wrap another one of the same flavor for me.”
He would give it to Lu Wanqing when he came to pick him up.
“Brother Shu Ci!”
Shu Ci was carrying a bag of food in one hand, and since it was inconvenient to adjust the camera parameters in the freezing weather with the other, he was just shooting some wide shots and empty scenery when suddenly, a happy voice called out to him.
In the lens, within the ice sculpture playground of the park, a little girl burst into his view. Panting, she climbed to the very top of a structure and waved vigorously at Shu Ci.
Shu Ci zoomed in and saw the person clearlyāit was the little Omega who, on the day of Lu Wei’s farewell, had said she hoped to be just like Lu Wei.
The Omega’s parents slowly walked over to Shu Ci. “It was only after watching the promotional film you shot that we understood what General Lu meant that day. She heard she was qualified to become a Golden Shield, and she’s been training very seriously lately.”
Shu Ci looked over. On the rock-climbing facility built of ice, without looking closely, it was almost impossible to tell who was an Alpha and who was an Omega just by their movements and stamina. They bathed in the same sunlight, enjoying the same happiness.
Shu Ci filmed a short video clip and sent it to Shen Lin.
He was also someone struggling to survive, just like Lu Wanqing. But at least Lu Wanqing had him, whereas Shen Lin was all alone. Now that he held a high position, he would become even more isolated and cold.
After sending the video, Shu Ci added a message: [Brother-in-law, don’t get too tired from work. Watch this when you rest. Everything is getting better in the direction you hoped for.]
The scene in the video was a life that Song Shiyu had never experienced over a decade ago, and it was also the world Shen Lin wanted to create for her.
Just as he finished typing, the little Omega girl slid down the ice slide from the heights, ran with large strides to her parents, and looked at this General’s spouse with shining eyes.
“Can I be like Lu Wei and General Lu?”
“Of course.” Shu Ci smiled and rubbed her head, then turned to her parents. “Actually, whether Alpha or Omega, the training content is largely the same. It’s just that Omegas have to endure more hardship to overcome their innate physical conditions. If you can give her enough encouragement, it will be easier for her to persist on this path. I wish for your dreams to come true.”
After speaking, Shu Ci’s gaze softened.
Whether Alpha or Omega, people only become stronger by breaking through their limits. This was a truth Lu Wanqing had taught him. His growth and strength began on Juqing Road.
Lu Wanqing wasn’t by his side today, yet he found himself constantly thinking of him unconsciously. However, it was said that fully marked partners could sense each other’s state, so he allowed his longing to spread wildly.
As a result, after strolling around the park, Shu Ci was carrying more and more things. Besides food, he also asked a carving master to sculpt a pair of ice dolls symbolizing him and Lu Wanqing, and a pair of father-and-son dolls.
He took a picture of the small father-and-son ice sculpture and sent it to Shen Ti: [This is a specialty of the Seventh District I’m sending to the baby. Take good care of your health and get through the pregnancy safely.]
Shen Ti wasn’t as busy as Shen Lin, who had no time to reply. He sent a message back a minute later.
[Thanks, Ah Ci!]
[By the way, if there are only two dolls, don’t post it publicly. Cui You has been swamped lately. I’m afraid if he sees it, he’ll think I’ve decided to divorce him again and it’ll provoke him.]
Shu Ci: […You still haven’t divorced?]
Shen Ti sent a helpless emoji: [To avoid divorcing me, he’s almost broken ties with his family. He took the initiative to take over the task of rectifying military affairs after Brother Shen Lin took office. He’s now a gun that points wherever Shen Lin directs, even daring to bite his own Cui family members.]
Shu Ci momentarily didn’t know how to evaluate this.
If Cui You relied on his ability to secure a status like Lu Wanqing’s, the Cui family would have to listen to him. But this method was too desperate; it meant binding himself entirely to the Shen brothers.
He wasn’t sure if Cui You was using such means to make Shen Ti feel sorry for him.
He thought about it but only said: [Think it through for yourself. Never wrong yourself.]
Shen Ti: [The person who could make me wrong myself hasn’t appeared yet, otherwise I wouldn’t have moved out directly.]
[As for you, take care of your safety over in the Seventh District. I just heard on the news that the Northern Suburbs Prison collapsed. Isn’t that where what’s-his-name’s whole family is locked up? What if he escaped death and broke out?]
Shu Ci’s face turned serious. The emergency meeting Lu Wanqing went to was likely inextricably linked to this news.
He stood up vigilantly and walked toward the park exit.
As the originally designated Alpha male lead, Gu Lanzhu wouldn’t march toward his demise so easily. Was the prison collapse a “golden finger” granted to him by the original plot that refused to give up?
“DĆ©jĆ vu? Why is it this explanation again?”
Yi Xingshui ended the interview call, leaned her head back against the chair, kicked off the ground, and drifted her wheeled chair in front of Li Yi. The temperature on Dragon Spine Island was still a bit high; she saw a thin layer of sweat soaking through Li Yi’s white lab coat.
“I originally thought researching Disorder Syndrome was a field for medical biology. Now I think these patients should all go see a psychiatrist.”
Li Yi’s gaze remained fixed on the screen in front of him. He raised his hand, extended a finger, and pushed away Yi Xingshui’s head, which was about to rest on his arm. Her soft short hair slipped through his fingers.
He turned his head indifferently and asked, “Can you be more specific?”
“Basically, all these patients with Disorder Syndrome mentioned that during periods when their glands felt uncomfortable or their pheromone release was abnormal, they would experience strange psychological senses of dĆ©jĆ vu. The things they were currently experiencing felt exactly like things they had experienced at some unknown time.”
“DĆ©jĆ vu?” [1]
“Yeah, the description sounds like that phenomenon.” Yi Xingshui turned around, draping herself over the back of the chair with her chin resting on her arms. “Does this mean pheromone disorder also affects the cerebral cortex? Brain science isn’t my area of expertise.”
“Isn’t Mr. Shu also a patient with Disorder Syndrome? Have you scheduled an interview with him?” Li Yi asked.
“Not yet. They should be enjoying their blissful time of ‘breaking the fast’ recently. I don’t want to actively go over there and get force-fed dog food.” Yi Xingshui pursed her lips. “However, combining this with Mr. Shu Changze’s notes, I’ve basically figured out the reason why his pheromones constantly change.”
Li Yi opened a webpage and pointed to a news report about the Seventh District Ice and Snow Feast. “News released three minutes ago. Mr. Shu was photographed alone. Calling now shouldn’t disturb them.”
Yi Xingshui glanced at the anatomical diagram on his other monitor, which she couldn’t understand at a glance, and looked serious. “Did you discover something you need to report to him?”
Li Yi nodded.
“You should have said so earlier.” Yi Xingshui quickly dialed Shu Ci. As soon as it connected, she struck first. “I saw the candied hawthorn you bought on the news! I heard there are flavors made with special Seventh District fruits! Can we start a group buy on Dragon Spine Island for delivery?”
Shu Ci: “I’ll ask the boss if he offers that service. If not, I’ll have the operations company send someone to buy them and bring them to you.”
Yi Xingshui: “…”
She was just running her mouth; she didn’t expect Shu Ci to answer her so seriously. He was so much better than her senior brother who constantly went MIA and didn’t reply to messages!
“Cough, cough, actually, Li Yi and I have some research progress we want to report.” Yi Xingshui returned to the main topic after the banter. “The cause of Disorder Syndrome is currently unclear, but Senior Brother Li Yi has been doing dissections recently. Corresponding with Mr. Shu Changze’s data, the consensus we can reach is that people with Disorder Syndrome have a different gland structure than others.”
Shu Ci asked, “Does a different structure mean the manifestation of the disorder is also different?”
“From the current dissections, that seems to be correct,” Yi Xingshui said. “Mr. Shu Changze saved your physical examination data from when you were a child here, but he didn’t have time to research it deeply before… I continued researching based on his notes and discovered that your gland likely possesses a structure similar to an olfactory receptor.”
Shu Ci stood in front of a snack stall, listening to Yi Xingshui explain with great animation how humans smell scents.
Material molecules trigger receptors in the nasal cavity, and the resulting excitation is transmitted to the brain via the nervous system as action potentials. [2]
“In other words, your gland seems to possess a similar function. It screens specific molecules that contact the gland after evaporating, and through some method within the gland, it turns the captured scent into a component of your pheromones.”
“So that’s it. No wonder every time the scent changed, it was something I had come into contact with at that moment.” Shu Ci glanced at the barbecue stall very close to him, steadied his emotions, and moved a few steps away.
He didn’t want to become a barbecue-flavored Omega.
“Although the gland structures are different, during my recent patient interviews, I found that every patient with Disorder Syndrome said they experienced a sense of dĆ©jĆ vu during their episodes. Things they clearly hadn’t experienced felt like they had happened at some point.”
Hearing this, Shu Ci couldn’t help but frown.
Before, he might have thought that sense of dĆ©jĆ vu was just a dream.
But upon learning that Lu Wanqing had repeated the original novel’s plot over and over, and now that all the timelines he had experienced along with his interpersonal relationships were superimposed, this sense of dĆ©jĆ vu might be a different matter entirely.
Could that sense of dĆ©jĆ vu be the predetermined “plot” that those people had experienced in one of Lu Wanqing’s repeated cycles?
“Actually… among the glands of Disorder Syndrome patients we’ve been able to dissect so far, there is also a commonality.” Li Yi leaned close to Yi Xingshui’s microphone, his gaze landing on his screen. “The internal structure of every gland is different, but there is a mass of extremely unstable matter present. It’s very small, hidden within the folds, and hard to observe.”
Yi Xingshui looked at Li Yi’s screen. She watched him maximize every cross-section of different patients and scan them one by one, then suddenly froze.
“The structure of these unstable substances seems to be identical.” Her voice trembled slightly. “Hey, hey, why do I feel like…”
“It looks like an implanted program.”
Li Yi calmly finished her sentence.
He had trembled just like Yi Xingshui earlier; the sweat stains on his lab coat had appeared after he reasoned this out in his mind.
“Mr. Shu, if Mr. Shu Changze was killed because of research in this area, then it’s very likely that this structurally unstable substance doesn’t exist solely in the glands of people with Disorder Syndrome.”
Yi Xingshui glanced at him sideways and analyzed along that line of thought: “Perhaps Disorder Syndrome is just a manifestation of this substance stimulating the gland. Those feelings of dĆ©jĆ vu… might be sensations produced after this substance controlled their actions.”
Both of them inhaled sharply at the same time.
If that were true, it would be too terrifying!
“But I completely can’t imagine how such a thing exists within the human body.” Li Yi’s voice showed rare confusion. “From my perspective, this is an existence that violates science.”
“You have already analyzed things to the extreme within your fields,” Shu Ci said after a long silence.
Yi Xingshui frowned slightly. His attitude was shockingly calm, which puzzled her greatly. “You… accepted that way too quickly, didn’t you?”
Could anyone really accept such a thing so fast?
Shu Ci didn’t know how to explain it to them. That existence which violated science was perhaps simply a destiny that could not be violated. From his perspective, the unstable structure was the incarnation of the “plot settings.”
The people of this world had long been trapped inside the book’s settings, experiencing everything over and over again.
Lu Wanqing was merely the one who had awakened self-awareness.
“Ah Ci, why aren’t you speaking?” Yi Xingshui asked with some concern.
On the other end of the line, while Shu Ci remained silent, a person walked toward him from the park entrance. The moment he saw the person’s face clearly, his grip on the bags loosened, and everything tumbled down.
Clatter. The candied hawthorn he bought for Lu Wanqing fell into the snow.
“Ah Shui.” Shu Ci’s voice turned cold as he stared fixedly at the person not far away, whose red pupils burned with a terrifying light.
“Contact the military through the research institute immediately to issue a warrant. Gu Lanzhu… is currently in the Seventh District.”
Translator’s Note: [1] DĆ©jĆ vu: French for “already seen,” referring to the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before. The opposite is “jamais vu” (never seen) ā the phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognizes in some fashion, but that nonetheless seems very unfamiliar. [2] The scientific explanation of smell here is simplified/adapted for the story logic.
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