Chapter 235
When Shen Shuyu was little, Mother Shen and Father Shen’s company was going through a major restructuring. The two of them were overwhelmed with work and had no time to look after Shen Shuyu. The responsibility of caring for him naturally fell to his older brother, Shen Yisi.
Shen Yisi was only in middle school at the time, but he was smart and precocious. His maturity was leagues ahead of his peers. While others were sneaking around dating, he had to rush home after school to take care of his little brother.
They had nannies and household staff to look after them, but Shen Shuyu had been a picky eater since he was a child. If a dish didn’t suit his taste, no matter how beautifully it was remade, he wouldn’t take a second bite.
The nanny secretly told Shen Yisi about his pickiness, saying the kid only wanted to eat a few leafy greens. He was at a crucial age for growth, but Shen Yisi’s schoolwork was extremely heavy at the time. He was preparing for an academic competition and temporarily couldn’t focus on Shen Shuyu.
However, on the day he returned from his competition, he received a call from a teacher saying that Shen Shuyu had fainted and telling him to hurry to the hospital.
When he arrived at the hospital, Shen Shuyu burst into loud wails the moment he saw him. It was then that Shen Yisi realized his little brother had grown excessively thin during that period.
Unexpectedly, when the test results came out, they discovered that Shen Shuyu actually had traces of a sleep-inducing drug in his system.
Following this lead, the truth finally came to light. It turned out Shen Shuyu wasn’t a picky eater at all. Because Shen Yisi was busy and sometimes came home very late, Shen Shuyu often ate dinner alone. The nanny would cook a table full of good food, but she ended up eating most of it herself, even packing up the leftovers to take home.
Not only that, but Shen Shuyu was full of energy at night and often stayed awake until around ten o’clock. In order to get off work and rest early, the nanny began secretly slipping sleep-inducing drugs into Shen Shuyu’s food.
Being so young, the child couldn’t taste anything off. Besides, it was just a tiny amount—just enough to make Shen Shuyu sleep straight through to morning.
But one day, Shen Shuyu woke up unusually early. He was so hungry that he ran into the kitchen and dug out all the leftovers from the previous night that the nanny hadn’t had time to clean up. Because there was still residual medication on the food, the moment he got to school, Shen Shuyu couldn’t fight off the drowsiness and fainted.
Upon uncovering the entire story, Shen Yisi was murderous with rage. That was the most furious he had ever been in his life. The entire Shen household was thoroughly investigated from top to bottom, and anyone with issues was sent straight to prison.
“Back then, your brother was always on edge. Trying to learn how to cook, he nearly blew up my kitchen. On top of that, I was subjected to eating so many of his terrible ‘dark cuisine’ dishes.” Yue Cheng clicked his tongue. “But it’s great now. He can cook anything. If you want to eat something, you can just order off the menu.”
Shen Shuyu hadn’t expected the story to go like this.
Yet, he didn’t remember any of it.
He looked at Shen Yisi and said, “Thank you, Ge.”
“What are you thanking me for?” Shen Yisi placed the lid on the pot. He turned slightly, looked at Shen Shuyu, and meeting his pitiful eyes, he smiled and reached out to flick his forehead. “You are my little brother. Taking care of you is my responsibility.”
“But wasn’t my brother just a kid back then too?”
“Yeah, a middle-school kid who was almost 1.8 meters tall,” Yue Cheng muttered softly from the side.
Shen Yisi looked over Shen Shuyu’s head at Yue Cheng. “You say that as if you weren’t the exact same.”
During their third year of middle school, it was as if both of them had eaten some magical growth potion—they shot up like weeds, each trying to outgrow the other.
However, it was all traceable. The two even differentiated around the same time, and both turned out to be Alphas.
Honestly, compared to Shen Shuyu and Shen Xili, Yue Cheng and Shen Yisi seemed more like the ones sharing a symbiotic bond.
Noticing Shen Yisi’s gaze, Yue Cheng turned his head and asked, “Why are you staring at me?”
Only then did Shen Yisi withdraw his gaze and return his focus to the dishes in the pot.
For a split second, Shen Shuyu felt like an absolute third wheel.
Damn it, I’m so redundant here.
But despite feeling like a third wheel, he stuck around. Shen Yisi and Yue Cheng began chatting about recent movies, suggesting they could watch one together at home later that afternoon or evening.
After becoming the CEO of the Shen Group, Shen Yisi had invested in several entertainment ventures, including cinemas. It could be said that aside from Amor, other planets also had cinemas exclusively owned by the Shen family.
So whatever they wanted to watch, with just a phone call, someone would specifically deliver the film to the house.
Yue Cheng said, “There’s an AI-replacement themed movie that’s been quite popular over the past two days. Shall we watch that? Though watching it at home always lacks a bit of atmosphere. We should still go to the cinema.”
Hearing “AI”, Shen Shuyu’s hand paused. In this world, AI was extremely common—androids, robots… if he recalled correctly, the Shen Group also had research domains in this field.
Shen Shuyu thought again about the Luck System in his head, as well as Xiao 1.
Shen Shuyu asked, “What is that AI movie about?”
Yue Cheng thought for a moment. “Looking at the promotional angles, it’s about whether AI can replace human beings. It’s probably a suspense thriller.”
Shen Yisi had also heard a bit about this movie. It seemed they had previously approached the Shen Group for investment. Relying on his powerful memory, he said, “Roughly, it’s about an Alpha who encounters an AI. Through various calculations and data control, the AI wants to replace the Alpha and become a new human. But later on, it’s revealed that this Alpha had long been corrupted by other AIs.”
AI had always been an enduring theme. Many similar films had been released over the years, but this one offered a fresh perspective. Explained using a previously popular internet catchphrase, it would be: “Surrender now, it’s all AI out there.”
Yue Cheng said, “You just spoiled the whole thing. What am I supposed to watch now?”
Shen Yisi’s lips curled up. “Watch whatever you want.”
Shen Shuyu paid no mind to the ambiguous tension between his two older brothers.
His gaze rested on the sink. The flowing water seemed to morph into all kinds of data codes in his eyes, continuously flying into his mind.
Controlling humans through various calculations and data?
Why didn’t I think of this sooner?
He had previously asked Xiao 1 to temporarily take over Meimei’s body. Meimei’s soul remained inside, but because Xiao 1’s data was too powerful, Meimei fell into a temporary coma.
What about the Luck System?
It surely knew this as well.
It desired such a massive amount of energy, likely so it could suppress someone’s soul and take control of their body.
Shen Shuyu felt his temples throbbing violently.
Noticing his abnormality, Shen Yisi asked, “What’s wrong?”
Shen Shuyu snapped out of his thoughts and said, “It’s nothing.”
He went back to washing vegetables seriously, but his mind remained highly active.
If it truly wanted to control a human, that would explain why it was so desperate to force the world’s progression back to the novel’s original plotline.
It couldn’t reside in his body for too long. He guessed that after the Luck System and the original Shen Shuyu were forced apart, it had no choice but to use various words to bind itself to the secondary center of this world—Chi Yanxun.
Chi Yanxun inherently possessed enormous energy. Once it helped Chi Yanxun accomplish his goals, it could harvest a massive wave of energy. Then, it could randomly find someone to control and live out a carefree human life.
A human lifetime might even be understating it.
After all, AI wouldn’t die.
It would just loop infinitely until it found its next host.
Recommended Reads
