Overturned Tower

So Dai Lan didn't reply to the emperor's words, but just thought about this sentence like a ghost, and followed the emperor back.

"Bingshui said something to me before."

While pouring Coke for Russell, the emperor said in a low voice, "If one day, Qunqing doesn't like drinking Coke...then he probably won't be the same person he was in the beginning."

"Do you know why she said that?"

After the foam faded, Russell saw that there was only half of the Coke left in the glass, and couldn't help laughing: "You really haven't poured the Coke."

"Bingshui and I are both emperor penguins. If you don't strictly control sugar, you will easily gain weight."

The emperor said calmly: "She can maintain such a slender figure because of her strict restraint on herself for 20 years. Not to mention Coke, she has never even drank fruit juice. The only drink she drank is probably It's mixed vegetable juice."

"That kind of life is really boring."

"She worked really hard."

The emperor did not deny Russell's words, but nodded seriously: "I am sorry for her. If it is not because of my status, with her cleverness and intelligence, she must be able to obtain her own happiness more easily."

"You just don't understand your daughter."

Russell raised the iced Coke with one hand, but didn't finish it, just took a sip.

He glanced at Dai Lan, as if thinking of someone.He looked away again and looked out the window.

Russell's ears trembled slightly, and he said softly with nostalgia: "You know, Bingshui and Xia grew up together."

"They are good friends." The emperor replied.

"Then you definitely don't know how they became friends," Russell replied very positively, "because Xia is a confused hero, and Bingshui is a born hero.

"She admires you very much. She said that she wants to be a hero like her father. But if the hero's road fails, then she will become a reporter. If the reporter can't do it, she can become a host. If the host can't, she will become a writer. If you can’t be a writer, you can be a nun. If you can’t save others and uphold justice yourself, you can at least use your own life to tell the truth. Do something good that you can.

"—As long as people want to do it, there is always a way."

Bingshui who said these words was only 16 years old at the time.

At that time, neither Xia nor Russell knew why Bingshui, who was only 16 years old, had such an awareness that no one else could imagine at the age of 26 or 36.

"...Is it because of Bingshui's mother?"

Dai Lan at the side immediately thought of the secret she just learned.

She was taken aback as soon as she said it, thinking that she had slipped her tongue.But Russell nodded: "You're right. She has endured such pain since she was a child, and after gaining insight into the truth of the world, she still chose to become a hero and save the world. The heroes in her eyes are not well-known by people." A partner of justice' is not a 'plaything of power' in Xia's eyes. Xia thought she knew the truth about a hero, so she tried her best to prevent Bingshui from becoming a hero... but Bingshui knew it earlier and deeper than she did.

"The hero she wants to be, from the very beginning, is the kind of 'hero' who endures pain and loneliness and saves the world with her own suffering—a person like her father.

"Do you understand, Emperor? For Bingshui, the career she is practicing and dedicating to is happiness itself. It is not happiness in everyone's eyes, but enjoying power and wealth, fame and sex. If Bingshui If she is that kind of person, then it is impossible for her to promise you to hide all this from the very beginning.

"You are too arrogant, Emperor. You have walked this lonely road for too long, and you have begun to refuse to think and accept others to approach you."

"Because I don't need a partner, and I don't need a companion."

The emperor said in a deep voice: "[Hero] is a spider web-like lie woven by me. It is thin and easy to destroy, but it does exist, and it can indeed catch some mosquitoes. Fujishe is also something parasitic on this spider web. , is the successor of 'professional hero' - so you should know that I don't need a successor."

"'Need to exist' and 'should exist' are two different things. You don't need to be your business, whether it should be determined by justice and righteousness. Bingshui is a sensible and smart child, so she can see you clearly and see Qingxia...can also see me clearly."

Russell looked at the Coke in the glass and sighed: "Do you know why I like to drink Coke?

"Let me tell the truth, Emperor. In fact, at the beginning, I didn't like drinking Coke at all. Or, I didn't like drinking Coke that much.

"It's not such an expensive thing, it's just a mass-produced commercial drink with almost zero cost. Even though my life on Sogo Island is very poor, at least this kind of thing can be drunk casually-I'm not boasting, but I was really cute when I was a child, much prettier than I am now.

"My mother, when I was a child, was like a kid. People called her big sister, and she mixed with her peers. But I was different... I was very aware of how cute and likable I was since I was a child. It's the level where you can easily become a child actor. And I'm not clumsy, dull, and selfish like a real kid... I usually hang out with elders who are not my age.

"Use my appearance, age, origin, and words to make them pity me, trust me, and love me. This is a very simple thing for me-for me like this, how can I lack snacks And drinks? The small gifts and treats I received cost far more than that.

"The answer is simple... because Coke has a special characteristic: it is difficult to drink in one breath. And its taste and texture will drop a lot after it becomes room temperature-as the temperature rises, the sweetness will fade , the solubility of carbonic acid will decrease; coupled with the satiety provided by its gas, it can be said that the first sip of Coke is the most delicious. The more you drink, the more painful it will be.

"Not only will the bubbles numb the taste buds, but you will also feel flatulence in your stomach after drinking too much; you will also feel abdominal pain after drinking too much iced drinks."

Having said that, Russell glanced at the emperor who was still frowning, and couldn't help chuckling.

His dim yellow pupils looked at Dai Lan, which made her subconsciously feel nervous and frightened: "Did you guess it?"

"...Because, do you want to share it with someone?"

Relying on her experience of playing with her peers when she was a child, Dai Lan guessed tentatively.

Russell nodded.

She was even stunned—she really guessed right?

"Because I'm afraid of being alone."

Russell said softly: "My appetite is small... If I drink too much Coke, my appetite will become smaller. Because Coke itself is a drink that can easily provide satiety. When I was very young, I would Sharing the same bottle of Coke with friends - we all can't get enough of it, and Coke is the best drink at that time.

"Actually, I don't have a particular preference for beverages. When I first started, I drank lemonade, I drank milk, I drank alcohol - I'm actually pretty good at drinking. When I really want to drink, Generally, I don’t drink iced Coke, but I choose a champagne, and it’s not sweet champagne. I was often taken to a reception by my mentor, and then I was drunk and vomited in a mess-if I didn’t know how to drink, she wouldn’t bring I'd go, it would be a bummer. She'd also bring me some spirit drinks when we were together...and I'd drink coffee when I was working overtime. How could there be so many opportunities for Coke?

"I started drinking Coke, partly because the hairdresser liked to drink Coke before, but then he became an idol and wanted to maintain his appearance, so he didn't have the opportunity to drink it. At that time, I was also doing it for He made up for some regrets, and felt that the iced cola was really sweet.

"...and then, it was because of a big stupid dog who used to come to my house and fight for a Coke in my refrigerator. He drank so good that I thought I had to drink some too. We fought for a Coke together , rushing to eat snacks... That's when I think Coke is the best.

"Afterwards..."

Russell paused: "Actually, it comes from a kind of masochistic psychology. When I drink Coke, I actually hope that Delphinium can stop my unhealthy behavior, or join me in it.

"Whether it's stopping me, or pampering me, or joining me, it's love for me. I haven't read her heart, and I know not to test other people's love...but I'm addicted to it. Later, before I knew it, I developed a habit—I really started to like drinking Coke. I habitually wore a mask, performed a lovable personality, and used small flaws that made people feel close. A knowing smile. Over time, even I almost believed it myself.

"Or, it's not that I lied to myself...but because Coke reminds me of the peaceful and beautiful daily life when I first came to Happy Island. With the bad days, with the delphiniums and the bad ones. Together...you don't need to worry about these troublesome things now, you don't need to think about disasters and fateful enemies, you don't need to think about the future of the world and the future of all living beings.

"It makes me feel like I'm not alone...I'm still human, just like everybody else."

Russell crossed his fingers and placed them on his chest.

His tone became as calm and clear as a barber's: "So from this point of view, ice water is not wrong at all. If I don't like Coke, then I am no longer the original me.

"Now, I am no longer a mortal. The day of my destiny is approaching, and I can no longer numb myself.

"—So, I gave up Coke. And myself who can still dream."

Chapter 8 Raise the Ultramarine Flag

Happy Island, Tianen Park, Special Executive Department.

When Wuming just climbed to the door, the door was opened by remote control from the inside.A tired and familiar voice came from the office the moment the door was opened.

"...Ah, yes, I'm the stack. Um, no problem...Okay, I'll keep an eye on it."

Sitting in the position of minister at the moment is a young man.There are two black lines on his face, which cover half of his face like spreading black eye circles, and the tail with black and white rings droops behind him.

He is A Zhan.The direct executive officer trusted by Delphinium and Russell, and his real code name is "Stack" - the stack of [Stack].

At this moment, Zhan was wearing the standard suit of the head of the executive department, but for his social animal temperament, this dress seemed a bit out of place.He looked very sleepy, with steaming coffee on the table, trying to talk to someone on the phone.

"...Well, I know. Okay. It's okay, you worked hard too."

After entering the door, Wuming, who was plated up by the table by himself, just opened the tea pot and prepared to make tea for himself.He is no longer the same as before, wearing high glasses, like a blind man - after being fitted with a high-end prosthetic eye by Russell, he can now clearly see the azure blue light in Minister Ah Zhan's eyes with just a glance The halo dissipates, which means the video call is over.

Seeing Ah Zhan scratching his fluffy curly hair in distress, he asked slowly, "What's the matter?"

"What else could it be?"

Zhan sighed, stretched out his hands to press his temples, without the airs of a minister at all: "The board of directors is looking for something again."

Not long ago, Stack was suddenly appointed by the board of directors as the acting minister of the special executive department.

Ultramarine and Delphinium had been missing for two weeks.In terms of Zhan's character, he is of course unwilling to accept this position - Delphinium is the senior who brought him up single-handedly, and Ultramarine is an idol he admires quite a lot.Most of these two people were assassinated by the company... At least they were betrayed.

If he picks up the leak at this time, it will look like he has betrayed the two of them.After they came back, Ah Zhan couldn't explain it at all.

So he tactfully rejected the transfer order from his superiors, and recommended this appointment to other people who seemed to most people to go straight to the top and change their fate easily—for example, the girl Paradise Bird was very good.She has a strong working ability, and she is very serious about her work and has a strong affinity.It's almost like the second delphinium minister, and everyone else must be able to accept it.

But not long after, Chairman Sai Lun personally issued the order.Appointed him as acting minister - he was the only candidate considered by the board.Otherwise, the Special Operations Division would be vacant.This means that Paradise Bird and the two angels will be sent back to the church headquarters... which is tantamount to using another method to disband the Ultramarine faction.

Ah Zhan really has no choice.If he refuses at this time, it will undoubtedly be tantamount to a greater betrayal.Not only will people who are close to Qunqing be driven away, but the Special Executive Department will be completely controlled by the company.

But he knows his own details - he doesn't know how to fart.Because he is not a professional person at all.

His education is quite high... a graduate student of Tianen University.Although the grades are not particularly good, it can be regarded as publishing a few academic papers.The only problem is that Ah Zhan is actually a computer engineering major.

His original research direction is weak artificial intelligence.Ah Zhan's graduation thesis is to cultivate artificial intelligence for deep learning by calling the camera videos all over the happy island, so as to analyze the information of people's height, weight, stride, age, destination, action route, etc. Seeing the other party's face can call up the information base of the other party's identity.

And his ultimate goal is to use the artificial intelligence he cultivated, combined with the physical data, purchase records and browsing records provided by each person's chip, to predict in advance whether the other party has criminal intent.

——Yes, that is the weakened version of the Three Sages system.As a student, Ah Zhan hoped to use this system to reduce the crime rate on Happy Island so that people can live a peaceful life.

This is what he has wanted to accomplish since before he went to college.

It's not that he has any bitterness and hatred in the past... His own life is quite peaceful.

To put it bluntly, he used to admire his neighbor's elder brother. He was much smarter than Ah Zhan, and he had a gentle and cheerful temper.When Ah Zhan was young, he often went to his neighbor's brother's house to play games together.The neighbor's brother will also teach him to write code-his code name "stack" is the concept he learned at that time.

If you want to go to university in Happy Island, you must learn the basic skills of the corresponding major in middle school.

And this kind of knowledge is not taught in class at all, so you can only go to cram schools or find acquaintances to teach.

For example, if you want to become a pilot or a network security engineer in the information department, you must have performed jumping or deep diving in high school; if you want to major in computer engineering, you must at least master the ability to write basic code proficiently during the college entrance examination .The more advanced the university is, the harder it is to take the exam... When Ah Zhan took the college entrance examination back then, the exam questions included simulating the code results, filling in the blanks, correcting program errors, and solving complex logic problems through programming, And perform simple operations on two-dimensional arrays.

The high school teachers didn't even teach what a two-dimensional array is, and they didn't teach how to write code at all.

The elder brother of the neighbor, because he went to the cram school to study too late, when he came back, he happened to encounter a scuffle with mercenaries from uncoded people.A stray bullet wounded his leg, but he gritted his teeth and survived.But in the end he lost blood and fell to the ground... It wasn't until he went into shock that his parents finally found him.

But the prolonged shock hurt his brain.Although it was cured later, it was delayed for two years one after another.Because of falling too far behind in homework and lagging far behind his peers who were not as good as him, the originally gentle and cheerful neighbor brother began to become anxious, aggressive and pessimistic.He stubbornly wanted to be admitted to Tianen University, and repeated his studies year after year, and other schools looked down on him—this was easy for him, but there was no news of him enrolling until Ah Zhan graduated from graduate school.

He didn't know whether the neighbor's elder brother committed suicide or was killed by someone without a code, or he gave up studying at Tianen University, or he was still repeating his studies.After all, Tianen University's exam questions are getting more difficult every year.

But this incident left a deep impression on Ah Zhan.

People who were able to obtain happiness and a bright future, who are obviously talented and good people, will directly change the trajectory of the entire future because of the tragedy caused by the uncoded.How many people like him are there on the entire Happy Island?

If the mercenaries had been apprehended at the start of the shootout, wouldn't these misfortunes have ceased to exist?

Therefore, Ah Zhan has always held such a stubborn point of view.

His mentor had also stopped him.His mentor also explained to him that Chongguang Island has more advanced technology, and he hopes that he can change his research direction.

But Ah Zhan is also an iron brain.

He recognized death, but he was unwilling to give up.He believes that even if Sogo Island has the relevant technology, they must charge a very high price-this is the reason why Tianen Group does not buy it.The company is based on profit. If he can develop this technology and buy it cheap and sell it to the company, the company can popularize it, so that crimes can be monitored and stopped in time.

He waited until Ah Zhan graduated and joined Tianen Group.

Only then did he gradually realize that he didn't have any unique talents.

It is also reasonable that no one has conducted research in this area; there is also a reason why Happy Island has not adopted this technology.

If the Tianen Group had access to this technology, they might be able to stop crime—but maybe they wouldn't stop crime.

But what really fascinated Ah Zhan was that he really understood how far Sogo Island's technology has developed...and the crimes, killings, frauds, and uncoded people that still exist in Sogo Island.

Why do you choose to commit crimes knowing that you are being watched by surveillance cameras?Why do you still harm others and benefit yourself knowing that you will definitely pay the price, and even know that your crime will be prevented in advance?Are they not afraid of death?Are you not afraid that your plan will fail?

A stack can't understand.

In order to allow himself to have a deeper understanding of the criminal's thinking, he applied to be transferred from the product department to the execution department.But because he is a relatively precious technician after all, Delphinium did not transfer him to the front line at that time, but let him stay in the headquarters to serve tea and water.And Ah Zhan stayed here to conduct his anthropological observation and research.

His decision is correct.

In the executive department, Ah Zhan met all kinds of people and things.He gradually understood his own naivety in the past.

But it also means that the dream he once had was wrong.

So what is he going to do?

Ah Zhan was very confused.

He originally came here for research, but he no longer wants to go back.Although he doesn't have a dream that he can speak out with confidence, but whether it's Ultramarine, Delphinium, Wretch, Paradise Bird...they are all shining people, and everyone has their own dreams.Working in this kind of group can heal his inner emptiness.

He has no dreams and no road.

But he is envious of those who have dreams and paths—and he is willing to turn himself into firewood and dedicate himself to a cause greater than his own life.

Once he followed Delphinium, and later he followed Ultramarine like this.But now, he has joined the Aid Society... Relying on his own ability, he helps others as much as he can.

However, with the disappearance of Qun Qing, the entire Happy Island gradually fell into chaos.This is true for the Executive Department, so is the Tianen Group, and so is the Fuji Society.All he can do now is to try his best to keep everything that Qunqing values.

Special Enforcement, Relief Society, and others.

So Ah Zhan forced himself, who knew nothing, to communicate with the bishop of Paradise Bird.

After the exchange, the gentle Miss Paradise Bird gave her encouragement.Under her efforts, Ah Zhan pushed up very reluctantly—and then on the first day, he was knocked down by the accumulated work and pressure.

All kinds of interview arrangements and various emergencies that require the participation of the executive department are just trivial matters.

The members of the executive department who were passive and slowed down because of the disappearance of Ultramarine, the members of the relief society who caused chaos because of dissatisfaction with the disappearance of Ultramarine, the execution list issued by the Ministry of Network Security for "spreading harmful speech", the church that made various demands, and the church that made various demands. The board of directors with various demands, as well as the individual director who secretly made another request, the high-level executives of large and small companies who wanted to meet him, the big shots who raised certain expectations for him, and other big shots who made opposite demands...