Yu Hao turned around, and Chen Yekai shouted, “Go down!”
The sand wave crashed down, forming a passage, and Yu Hao utilised his experience with skateboards to the utmost as he brought Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai with him to rush through the passage with a whoosh. A dense mass of flying mosquito men rushed into the passage as well, and with a loud rumble, they were all buried within the gravel.
The sand wave swept them into the ancient city. The three of them shouted loudly at the same time as they brutally smashed into it.
Yu Hao’s head was spinning from the crash. Zhou Sheng’s left hand, clad in iron armour, began grasping around madly as his body was already buried. Chen Yekai and Yu Hao moved forward to drag Zhou Sheng out of the sand.
Zhou Sheng took off his helmet and a lot of yellow sand poured out of it. The three of them had already been swept into the city, and they were gasping for breath within the sandstorm.
“Go up.” Zhou Sheng pushed them onto a tower at the side, “Don’t ask any questions, I don’t know anything!”
Zhou Sheng took off his armour that was filled with sand as he walked. He took off his helmet, removed his breastplate and war boots, thereby exposing his chest. He put two of his left fingers together, drew a line on his chest and his iron armour turned into leather armour. He held Yu Hao’s hand and quickly climbed up to the top of the tower.
The top of the tower was beyond the sandstorm area. Yu Hao rushed into the top floor and realised that he had arrived at Fu Liqun’s safe haven —— the house they had rented together in the past.
Sofa, dining table, coffee table…all the decorations were exactly the same.
Chen Yekai went to the balcony, pulled the landing windows open, opened the balcony door, and looked out.
Zhou Sheng collapsed onto the sofa, gasping for breath. He spat a few times, and it was all yellow sand.
“I was planning to pick you two up…” Zhou Sheng said, “But that dragon turned dumb for some reason, just like data in the Matrix……”
Chen Yekai said, “Zhou Sheng, look at that in the distance.”
“I saw it.” Zhou Sheng said, then got up and went to the refrigerator for drinks.
Yu Hao treated Zhou Sheng’s wounds and went to the balcony. He saw that under the building near the center of the ancient city, there was a proliferation of insect breeding nests that looked like malignant tumours. The whole ancient city was filled with enough flying mosquito men to blot out the sky, and they were flying out of the breeding nests continuously like an uninterrupted flow of water. They were searching for their whereabouts.
The dream world began to shake. Yu Hao said, “Gege’s about to wake up.”
Zhou Sheng said, “Get ready to pack up once we’re awake. We’ll take a plane to the South.”
The dream world started collapsing, layer by layer. Chen Yekai said, “Okay, let’s meet in reality.”
The ancient desert city and safe haven disintegrated instantly; bricks and tiles fell and drifted away, and in the next moment, Yu Hao woke up from the dream. Zhou Sheng turned his head sideways, and Yu Hao shifted over and kissed him. Both of them got up a bit wearily. Zhou Sheng started packing up and called his company to take leave.
Work of the investigation office had reduced as it approached the Spring Festival. Zhou Sheng told his company that he needed to go back earlier in advance for the New Year, and the other side readily agreed. Yu Hao had just come over after brushing his teeth. He was still thinking about the words Chen Yekai said in the dream.
“Do you trust him?” Yu Hao roughly told Zhou Sheng what Chen Yekai had said. He could tell that Zhou Sheng seemed a little irascible. In fact, there was something off about him recently, like he had something on his mind.
“What about you? Do you trust him?” Zhou Sheng looked down to check the camera and placed it in his bag as he asked absentmindedly.
“Zhou Sheng.” Yu Hao said, “I think we need to talk.”
“What do we need to talk about?” Zhou Sheng looked up and glanced at Yu Hao. He quickly folded clothes, “About Gege?”
“No.” Yu Hao said, “About you. I feel like there’s something wrong with you recently.”
Zhou Sheng, “What’s wrong with me? Don’t overthink so much.”
Yesterday, the dispute over Fu Liqun was just a fuse, and Yu Hao had keenly sensed that ever since Zhou Sheng had come to Beijing, he seemed to be planning something. To be precise —— after he had found his new job.
Zhou Sheng placed his books in his bag. Yu Hao said, “Zhou Sheng!”
Zhou Sheng, “?”
Yu Hao, “Don’t avoid my question! We agreed on this.”
“There really isn’t any problem.” Zhou Sheng said, baffled, “What’s up with you?”
Am I the one overthinking? Yu Hao frowned deeply and sat at the edge of the bed. He used his phone to print out fake introductory letters. He rummaged around for a kraft paper document bag and stuffed materials and the introductory letters into it — the official seals on them had all been photoshopped. This was an important proof they needed to conceal their identities; it was better to be prepared just in case.
Zhou Sheng pushed a swivel chair over, sat on it, crouched slightly, and looked into Yu Hao’s eyes. He asked, “What do you think is wrong?”
“Chen Laoshi’s words.” Yu Hao said, “That dragon…you making so many Golden Crow Wheels…”
The furrow between Zhou Sheng’s brows slowly began smoothing out. A hint of a smile could be seen in his eyes as he patted Yu Hao’s face, then he glanced at the clock, “We still have ten minutes, what do you want to ask? Ask ba.”
There was a messy ball of thread in Yu Hao’s heart, but he didn’t know where the end of the thread was. Waking up in the morning while lacking sleep made him slow-witted. He thought about it over and over again, then said a little angrily, “Forget it.”
“Do you think he’ll betray us?” Zhou Sheng said, “You might have even guessed that right. But he has no way of activating the Golden Crow Wheel, right?”
Yu Hao said, “I don’t think he will, but that’s not the main thing I wanted to talk about…”
Zhou Sheng said, “Do you remember how I first evaluated him?”
Yu Hao’s heart almost stopped. Zhou Sheng threw him ambiguous blinks and smiled. Yu Hao clearly remembered that ever since Zhou Sheng met Chen Yekai, he hadn’t seemed to like him very much.
“What was in his memory?” Yu Hao said, “No, I believe he won’t betray us.”
“Don’t worry.” Zhou Sheng said, “I don’t trust who he is as a person, but I do believe in one thing — at the very least, he won’t harm you.”
Yu Hao said, “Why did we come back to this problem again in the end…?”
Zhou Sheng, “Didn’t you sense something yourself?”
Yu Hao, “I didn’t!”
Zhou Sheng, “Want to fight again? Our task today is to fish someone up, right?”
Yu Hao really didn’t know what to do with Zhou Sheng, so he could only jump off the bed. However, Zhou Sheng was extremely calm and said, “Come, change your clothes.”
“The South is hot.” Yu Hao said, “Don’t wear too much.”
Zhou Sheng put his windbreaker on Yu Hao and wrapped a scarf around him. Not long ago, Yu Hao had bought a black windbreaker for Zhou Sheng. It looked very fitting for Zhou Sheng’s tall stature, but appeared a little oversized on Yu Hao.
“I feel like I don’t really know you again.” Yu Hao said.
“I’ve always been me.” Zhou Sheng glanced at the full-length mirror and smiled, “Very cool today too, let’s go.”
“Cool your ass!” Yu Hao didn’t know if he should laugh or cry, “Your windbreaker is too long, it makes me look like Guo Jingmin!”
Chen Yekai called. His car was already parked below their building, waiting to pick them up. Chen Yekai glanced at Yu Hao in the rearview mirror and said, “Don’t worry. I called in advance for a guest service, so we won’t need to queue up for security checks before boarding.”
Zhou Sheng fastened his seat belt. Yu Hao sat at the back seat of the Porsche, still feeling a little sleepy. It was a little hot in the car, so he took off his windbreaker and said, “I’ll leave my clothes in your car, it won’t be cold when the plane takes off, and I’ll wear it when I get back.” Then he felt around the windbreaker’s pocket and found Zhou Sheng’s Golden Crow Wheel.
Yu Hao put it in his shirt pocket. Chen Yekai drove onto the expressway.
“Didn’t get anything on Fu Liqun’s location after asking around.” Chen Yekai said, “Do we have a direction?”
“No.” Zhou Sheng casually fiddled around with another Golden Crow Wheel. Yu Hao knew that the one he had was the real one, and the one Zhou Sheng held was but a handicraft. He frowned while scrutinising it for a long time as he still didn’t know what it meant.
“Be careful, don’t drop such an important item.” Chen Yekai said indifferently, “Where do we stay after arriving in the South?”
Zhou Sheng took his phone out. He looked down and said, “I’ll book a hotel. Wife, sleep first if you’re sleepy.”
Chen Yekai looked at Yu Hao through the rearview mirror, and the two happened to look at each other during that glance. Yu Hao shifted his gaze and looked out of the window, then closed his eyes.
Morning traffic in Beijing was still very jammed. Chen Yekai waited patiently on the overpass, his fingers tapping lightly on the Porsche symbol on the steering wheel. Yu Hao couldn’t sleep. For some reason, a lot of odd ideas surfaced in his mind, as if Zhou Sheng’s words in the morning had weaved strange thoughts; the flood of thoughts poured out and were impossible to get rid of…
Yu Hao started hypothesizing in his mind: the first time Chen Yekai took the Golden Crow Wheel from Zhou Sheng, he longed to see his lover, Ryuusei, again, so he found another path. He handed the Golden Crow Wheel to STA to examine it, but no one could understand the principles it operated by and couldn’t activate it either, so he had to return it to Zhou Sheng. Then he waited for another opportunity where Zhou Sheng used it again before trying to find a way to solve it…
In the meantime, Huang Ting got involved as well, and even the three middle-aged men from the investigation team started paying attention to this matter too. Have they questioned Chen Yekai yet? At that time, what Huang Ting told them was: Chen Yekai’s teaching, so he’s not free. Then before that, did they come into contact with one another?
Two years later, the three-men investigation team disbanded. Ren Chong remained as Huang Ting’s superior, Qin Guodong opened that office…Hold on, Yu Hao realised something off—— if Huang Ting already started suspecting him and Zhou Sheng, then when he introduced this job to Zhou Sheng, had they already prepared beforehand? The purpose was to bind Zhou Sheng to the office and search for all the opportunities they could get to investigate the Golden Crow Wheel, or to switch it out with a fake?
…Is that really the case? Yu Hao felt like this deduction was quite logical. After following Lin Ze for a long time, he had begun learning the way investigative reporters formed deductions. If they were at the office right now, Lin Ze would help him draw a diagram and plot out the time axis to analyze: assume the incident with Ou Qihang’s loss of memory two years ago as the beginning: if they were to draw a diagram, then Chen Yekai would have informed Huang Ting —— after Huang Ting got involved, he started investigating in secret —— after Ou Qihang lost his memory, Zhou Sheng felt danger for a moment —— he stopped using the Golden Crow Wheel for two years —— until they went to Beijing.
However, with Huang Ting’s personality, since he had already begun suspecting them, it would be inexcusable if he didn’t arrange for someone to monitor them, unless that person was right by their side…Yu Hao didn’t open his eyes.
Ever since he was a child, Yu Hao seldom cared about the environment around him. In fact, most people were like him. They thought that all signs of slight disturbances are always the result of natural phenomena or coincidences, and their world is only what is seen on the surface. Lin Ze however, had taught him that many things were inextricably linked. Just like how the boss of Guangxian’s battery plant would never know that while they were taking an afternoon nap, someone would sneak in and take photos to serve as evidence.
Beware of all the undercurrents that surge beneath this vast world —— this was what Lin Ze had repeatedly reminded him. After Yu Hao entered this profession, he had gradually developed a suspicious frame of mind. He started thinking, could there have been many meetings to scheme against them in places he and Zhou Sheng didn’t know, or could there even be a conference room or research laboratory that was carrying out a plan to deal with them?
However, Lin Ze also thought that the biggest difference between him and the rest of the world lies with Yu Hao’s background in Psychology. His professional knowledge influenced him a lot, such that during the times when he’s searching for the truth, he wouldn’t forget to try and understand people. He emphasised logic but also emotion.
So from a psychological perspective, Yu Hao trusted Chen Yekai. But he lacked evidence to support this view, so he couldn’t draw a conclusion, and Zhou Sheng deliberately hid some things from him as well…While Yu Hao was thinking, he heard Chen Yekai and Zhou Sheng discuss the Golden Crow Wheel in front.
“Wu.” Zhou Sheng answered, “The first ability I have is to enter the dreams of people who have dreamt of me.”
“That’s the same for Yu Hao.” Chen Yekai said.
Zhou Sheng, “But his ability can only be completed through my Golden Crow Wheel.”
Chen Yekai said, “Yes.”
Zhou Sheng, “Secondly, I can transport even more things, for example my dragon and Yu Hao’s army, into anyone’s dream. That’s something Yu Hao can’t do.”
Chen Yekai turned the steering wheel, thought about it for a bit, then asked, “And then?”
Zhou Sheng continued, “Aside from these, Yu Hao and I can kick people offline, that is, we can wake anyone up.”
Chen Yekai said, “The third jurisdiction, offline enforcement. And one more ability, which is to erase memories.”
Zhou Sheng said, “It can’t be considered as true ‘erasure.’”
Chen Yekai raised an eyebrow, puzzled. Zhou Sheng said, “It looks like it was ‘burned down,’ but actually, it’s the use of the Golden Crow Wheel’s sun’s fire to turn memories into fragments…”
Yu Hao knew that there was some important information they had to clarify between themselves, so he listened to Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai’s responses to each other. He recalled the last time in Ou Qihang’s dream, the golden fire Zhou Sheng used to erase memory fragments — it was homologous to the prominence spewed out by the Golden Crow Wheel.
Chen Yekai frowned deeply.
Zhou Sheng, “Becomes part of the subconscious.”
Chen Yekai crossed the toll station and extended a hand out of the car’s window to pay, “That is to say, the memories are still there, just that they have been sealed by you.”
“It should be said,” Zhou Sheng said, “That they were swept into a garbage dump, so they can’t be remembered for now.”
Chen Yekai said, “But I remember in Liang Laoshi’s dream, you and Yu Hao lit up the flames at the altars in her subconscious.”
“So the consciousness at the surface was reconstructed.” Zhou Sheng answered, “That kind of golden flame is a ‘medium’ that connects the surface consciousness and the subconscious in the depths. For example, if I burned all your memories of Ryuusei, you will forget him in reality.”
Chen Yekai frowned slightly.
