Puzzle Madness

Chapter 92 The End of Summer [Thanks to Alliance Leader Li Xiaoxiu]

"I'm your father! I'm your dad!"

Doudou lowered his voice and recited classic lines from Star Wars. He also clenched his hands into eagle claws and turned around the room. But nothing floated up according to his will:

"Ah, no. I can't do telekinesis, teleportation, or anything like that. Is that really too surreal?"

Ai Xi didn't play around with Dou Dou, but returned to his desk and continued working on the model parts.

"Don't study the Force yet. The most important thing right now is to make sure you're safe. Even though you've returned safely this time, it's hard to say if they have any secret weapons."

"Doudou, you better be careful - we don't know the limits of your body."

"According to what you said, the kinetic energy of conventional weapons, such as piercing and laceration, doesn't seem to be able to cause much damage to you. High temperatures, flames, and explosions are also ineffective; but what about low temperatures? Everyone has weaknesses, such as-"

Doudou suddenly put his head next to the desk and stared at Ai Xi assembling the model:
"Like The Terminator!"

Ai Xi nodded and began to put the polished parts together:
"--Yeah, didn't the two robots T-∞ and T-9999 in the Terminator end up falling into a steel furnace and dying? They also seemed invulnerable at first, with some half-human, half-machine thing and some weird alloy."

"Using this example, talking about weaknesses doesn't seem quite right. Let me change it: Look at Achilles in Troy. He was shot in the ankle and died. And then there's Superman and Kryptonite. Although, Doudou, you're not an alien either."

"Well, your eyes can bounce bullets off, but what about your other internal organs? Generally speaking, isn't the stomach the most vulnerable? Oh, and you said earlier that you were fine eating rockets, so there's no problem in that regard."

Ai Xi pinched his fingers together and put one leg together with a click:
"But hunger and lack of water are also dangerous. You're constantly hungry, clamoring for egg burgers and fried chicken wings, but I wonder if starvation for too long could render you incapable? Unable to move, or perhaps reduced combat effectiveness? So, you could try clearing out a certain amount of food within your area."

"You don't farm, cook, or eat wild plants like flowers and plants, right?"

"Not to mention that given your athletic ability, the caloric intake you normally get isn't enough—it feels like there are a bunch of little people burning coals in your stomach."

Hearing this, Doudou patted his stomach in agreement, then clasped his hands tightly against his chest:
"It could also be nuclear-powered. Maybe I'm some kind of cyborg. With a reactor in my stomach, like Astro Boy or something? One hundred thousand horsepower!"

Ai Xi narrowed his already narrow eyes:
"Well, I'm more inclined to believe that your energy actually comes from an external source. Remember that Tesla you mentioned last time? The wireless power supply."

Doudou nodded rapidly. This was something he had originally said to Ai Xi:

"I remember, remember, the Tunguska explosion. I saw it described on TV in a very complicated way."

Ai Xi put down the parts in his hand and spoke more and more attentively, as if he was studying a difficult problem:

"There's still so much we don't know: like will you drown, or die from lack of oxygen?"

"Well, I might try that—using a heavy object to quickly lower you into the bay and then bring you back up again. Even if the water pressure doesn't kill you, the rapid change in pressure might destroy your internal organs."

"Or, change your mindset from trying to kill you to trying to seal you. That's also a solution."

Doudou, who was listening carefully, also had his eyes light up:
"Oh—yes. I don't understand that either! Summer vacation isn't over yet, so why don't we try it out and see what my weaknesses are?"

When Ai Xi heard the word "practice", he froze.

She suddenly reached out and grabbed Doudou's arm. Her face was full of seriousness, even the huge scar was tense. She turned her head and looked at the thick curtains that had been drawn:
"Of course not! That's all for now. We should never try to find your weaknesses again, nor verify our previous guesses!"

"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have talked about this. I was just saying I was happy, and I accidentally thought too much about it - ignorance is actually safer."

"You understand, don't you? You understand why you shouldn't seek verification of this."

Doudou was stunned, not knowing how to react:
"Huh? Why are you apologizing all of a sudden?"

But when he started to think, he immediately understood what Ai Xi meant:
"Oh, oh, oh! I get it! No matter who wants to deal with me, they don't have room for trial and error. They only have one chance. If they fail, I won't give them a second chance."

"By testing ourselves, we can help people eliminate a wrong option or provide a correct solution."

"If you spend a lot of money, manpower, and material resources, but still can't kill me—and instead end up being completely wiped out—this kind of loss is unnecessary; it's likely to be a losing business."

"So smart people won't touch me, and stupid people aren't much of a threat either."

Ai Xi suddenly raised his arms, covering his mouth with one hand and his pockets with the other; his voice sounded a little muffled:
"That's right—it's to deter bad guys. Don't help them eliminate wrong answers. It would be even worse if they happened to find the right answer. Who knows if someone will be watching when they verify it."

"No one has enough trial and error costs when facing you; this is the best! This way, you won't have any enemies - let's try to maintain this; this is safer."

Doudou looked at Ai Xi, who was trembling a little, and patted her back carefully:
"Oh, don't be afraid. I understand what you mean: don't worry! Then let's talk about something else."

So they started talking about the upcoming movie *RoboCop 5*, and then grabbed the unfinished Dr. Torture figure on the table, waving it around; *The Demon King* was also a very popular animated series among the students. Ai Xi rubbed her scars with the back of her hand, then slipped Dr. Torture's arm into the shoulder clip. After a gentle twist, everything slid smoothly.

"Here, the base set is ready. I won't paint it for you. I still don't know how to paint anything clearly, and the model airplane class didn't teach it."

Doudou carefully picked up the six-inch action figure by the waist and weighed it in his palm. Although it was just a skinny old man, this character was still quite popular:
"It has to be you, Ai Xi! I accidentally crushed the box of MG I bought earlier."

Ai Xi looked at the movable model in Doudou's hand, and a look of satisfaction appeared on his face. His scar bulged with smile:

"It's just a model, it's normal that you're not good at it; no one is perfect: no one is perfect. It would be strange to be truly perfect, right?"

Doudou held Dr. Torture and placed it on the cabinet beside him.
"I'm planning on participating in that city-level model airplane competition at the Children's Palace at the end of the year. I hope I don't come in last; that would be so embarrassing."

Ai Xi stood up and stretched. Then he nudged Dou Dou's waist with his elbow:

"What's there to be afraid of? The most important thing is to participate. At worst, after I win first place, I can just lend you the trophy to put at home."

The two of them sat in front of the TV and played Streets of Rage 2 together for a while - to be honest, Doudou doesn't usually like playing side-scrolling games.

But before that, Ai Xi came to help him finish the model, and Dou Dou couldn't find a cartridge that allowed two people to play on the same screen - he usually bought single-player games such as role-playing games: later, Ai Xi brought a copy of "Streets of Rage 2" to play together.

At noon, the sun shone through the veil of dark clouds, casting its warmth and making the city buzz with cicadas. Ai Xi and Dou Dou found some frozen food in the refrigerator, microwaved it, and after eating, they said goodbye and left Dou Dou's house.
She also wants to borrow videotapes from the provincial library; she likes watching basketball star Michael Jordan play basketball and plans to borrow this year's playoffs to watch.
-
After leaving Doudou's house, Ai Xi took out her small notebook from her backpack and wrote a line on today's date with a red three-color pen:
[August 19th: Helped Doudou assemble a model and played Streets of Rage 2 with him.]
She turned her head again and looked at the gap in Doudou's window--
Through the small space in the corner, I could see Doudou still sitting cross-legged in front of the TV; and the model I had assembled for him was neatly placed on the cupboard.

Ai Xi's eyesight is amazing. Even though she often read borrowed books under the covers with a flashlight since she was a child, she still has no signs of myopia.

This not-so-big booklet is Ai Xi's notebook or memo.

Originally used to record homework assignments, daily moods, and free time reflections, I don't know when it started to contain a lot of things related to Doudou: words, pictures, and even rough sketches with numbers and scales.

Conjectures, emotions, observations, and records of their trips together; the A6-sized notebook was filled with everything about Doudou's specialness, and a lot of the content was about Doudou's superpowers that she had discovered.

Ai Xi walked out of Tianhu Community and tore off the piece of paper he had just written.

She folded it once, then again, and then tore it into long strips with all her might; the scars on her face burned and itched in the sun, but she had no time to care about them.

She looked at the scraps of paper in her hand and crumpled them into a ball. As Ai Xi walked, she wanted to find a trash can on the side of the road.
But when she was about to throw the paper ball away, Ai Xi stopped. She weighed the paper ball in her hand: and the booklet she had been writing in for a long time.

It was torn into pieces, but not impossible to restore; it would even be easy for Ai Xi to spend a little more time.

Strictly speaking, while it was Ai Xi's notebook, the content wasn't about her. It contained a lot of information about Dou Dou from the time she'd known her: it was probably the most detailed information about Dou Dou ever, perhaps not even "one of the" details.

"Well."

Ai Xi exhaled lightly, shrugged, and put the paper ball into her mouth. She chewed it carefully with her big teeth, letting her saliva soak the paper ball; when it was soft and soft enough that she wouldn't choke, she swallowed it.

"Memory bread. Eat it and you'll never forget it. Memory bread. Eat it and you'll never forget it. Memory bread."

The paper balls stuffed in her cheeks made her mumbling unclear.

It tasted terrible: the notebook had been sitting there for a long time, and the paper had a damp smell. The texture was raw and rough; the tip of the paper cut my lips, and swallowing it made me want to cough.

She pressed the notebook against her forehead. The things written in it were not just embellishments of ordinary life; memories were precious treasures, and friendship was even more so, transcending everything.

But now, it is more likely to be turned into a weapon against one's friends.

Then, the contents can no longer be retained - although Ai Xi will always keep the memory in his heart.

She opened the notebook and tore off another page, this time tearing it into smaller strips to make it easier to swallow; she put it in her mouth like other students eating spicy strips from the canteen.

Passersby, sweating, looked at her sideways, but Ai Xi was busy chewing. By the time she reached the library, she had finished her meal.

She put the rest of the notebook—the cover, the back pages, the unused white paper—back into her backpack.

She knew that summer vacation was about to end.
And I will never open this notebook again.

(End of Volume 1: Dysplacement of the Mind)

　Crab leader Li Xiaoxiu~! The support of Crab friends~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)