Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1230: He Helped Me Too

How many [eBay] users were there?

Lin Sanjiu couldn't recall the exact number, but she knew it wouldn't exceed a few hundred. In the vast and desolate world after the doomsday, the [eBay] users were only a handful, and the chance of her becoming friends with another user was a small probability, yet not impossible.

Another possibility crossed her mind.

She fixed her gaze on the former guard and put away her [eBay]. Judging solely by his expression and demeanor, the former guard seemed genuinely puzzled, as if he couldn't grasp why his casual remark had elicited such a serious reaction. Indeed, he appeared to be the most innocent person there.

However, Lin Sanjiu couldn't trust mere appearances.

On the other hand, perhaps she was connecting unrelated events, creating a crisis where there was none. Even if both Ya Jiang and the former guard were problematic, it didn't necessarily mean... It didn't mean...

"You didn't finish your sentence," Bohemia interrupted, as she sensed something was wrong. "You said, 'Fate likes to play jokes.' What happened?"

Lin Sanjiu wiped her palm across her cheeks, exhaling slowly. If she considered everything to be her own imagination, she still couldn't explain why Wushi Ming had recovered from an empty corpse to a healthy living person...

"I've known Gong Daoyi for a very long time," she said, the words slipping out of her mouth unconsciously, and as they hung in the air, it felt as if she could hear the dark and bloody winds over the Garden of Eden arena once again. "During that time, I met a very strong-willed woman named Xueqin."

The former guard looked both puzzled and cautious. "Um... should I step out for a moment?" he asked quietly, gesturing towards the door.

"What happened to her?" Bohemia signaled for him to stay, not fully understanding Lin Sanjiu's implication but instinctively feeling that she should not let the former guard leave.

"Gong Daoyi did her a big favor, you could say that without Gong Daoyi, she might not have had the chance to..." Lin Sanjiu searched her mind for a while for the right word, and only one jumped out, familiar enough to make her shudder. "Be reborn."

The room fell silent as both Bohemia and the former guard stared at her. The former guard's confusion seemed to deepen.

"However, after she escaped, Gong Daoyi turned around and handed her over to a group of people who wanted to torture her to death. At that time, she wasn't a posthuman yet. Fundamentally, it was because of Gong Daoyi that she found herself in trouble and needed help. I've always felt that Gong Daoyi seemed to appreciate the irony in that."

Both Bohemia and the former guard couldn't help but let out a breath.

"I can't reveal Puppeteer's past, but from what I know and speculate, Gong Daoyi helped two people, including Puppeteer, during that time." She couldn't help but think about how Gong Daoyi had brought back the AI system as everyone wished. Ironically, at that time, the hope for the AI system was as urgent as that of the other residents.

When Gong Daoyi stood behind Ah Yun and gently handed him the device that could destroy Minstral 9, his hand seemed to emerge from a dark abyss, chilling the latter half of Ah Yun's life.

"I don't need to say more about what happened next, right? One person rotted and festered before dying, while the other person became Puppeteer as we know him today."

Regardless of how powerful Puppeteer's abilities were, no one who had seen him would wish to become like him.

Bohemia understood. She stood up abruptly, paced around the room, her mind in turmoil, unable to find words to express her feelings. After several seconds, she suddenly stopped, saying, "For Wushi Ming to survive that situation, someone must have saved his life!"

"Yes, after that life-saving moment," Lin Sanjiu continued slowly, "he discovered something that made him wish he were dead. His sister was dead. And we did not cause his sister's death."

In other words... the only person who had the means to enter the patient room and kill was Ya Jiang.

"I'm wondering if I'm overthinking things," Lin Sanjiu said, turning her head while keeping the former guard locked in her peripheral vision. "Life is full of ups and downs. We can't just conclude that it's Gong Daoyi—"

"Don't console yourself," Bohemia interjected. "Without help, how could Wushi Ming, an ignorant and unconscious empty shell, put his organs back by himself? Magus brought Gong Daoyi here, and he might have arrived much earlier, probably even communicated with you through a message. Everything points to the fact that the guy is nearby! What do you want? I'll heap a pile of sand and let you bury your head in it—"

Bohemia suddenly choked on her words, her voice stopping abruptly.

"You've also thought of it?" Lin Sanjiu said, observing Bohemia, and managed a bitter smile. "If Gong Daoyi is really here, then I must consider the times in the lower level of the hospital when he helped me a great deal."

"Which means, you might be facing another..." Bohemia's face grew paler with each word. Her long golden-brown eyelashes trembled, and shadows flickered in her watery eyes, as if they were concealing honey. "Facing another... bad thing."

Lin Sanjiu fell silent.

She was now trying hard to move the heavy stone in her chest.

Whatever awaited her in the future, she must first confirm one thing: Where was Gong Daoyi?

Ya Jiang had the key and could enter the patient room to kill Wushi Ming; Ya Jiang could also subsequently enter the room to take away Wushi Ming's head; Ya Jiang had [eBay], assuming the former guard was telling the truth; when they entered the hospital, Ya Jiang was conveniently with Wushi Ming.

Could Gong Daoyi be impersonating him?

Looking at it from the other side, it was highly unlikely that the former guard was Gong Daoyi. After all, when Wushi Ming was resurrected, the former guard was just an ordinary guard in the basement of the hospital. If he wasn't Gong Daoyi, then he wouldn't have realized the significance of two [eBay]s appearing simultaneously, and he wouldn't have thought to take action in that regard.

As Lin Sanjiu pondered this, she realized she had missed asking a crucial question.

"When you were alone with Ya Jiang, you felt he acted differently," she said, scrutinizing the former guard's expression, still doubting if this was his attempt to sow discord. "You haven't told me exactly how he was different. Was he arrogant or indifferent towards you?"

Frankly, Lin Sanjiu found it hard to believe that if Ya Jiang was really Gong Daoyi, he would change his demeanor the moment she turned around. Such a mistake didn't seem to fit Gong Daoyi's style.

"Oh, no, it's not that," the former guard replied, suddenly finding himself under scrutiny. He hesitated for a few seconds, trying to find the right description. "It's just a feeling I have... he still talks to me when he should, and tells me what to do when he should... it's not that his specific behavior or attitude has changed..."

Bohemia grew impatient. "What's different then?"

The former guard's face wrinkled as he tried to put his feelings into words, "Well, how should I put it? Let me give you an analogy. It's like he was originally someone who didn't need to breathe, but when he was around you guys, he was constantly... constantly forcing himself to breathe, which was very exhausting."

Forcing himself to breathe? What kind of analogy was that?

"And then, when you guys weren't around, I guess maybe because I looked clumsy and weak, had a low presence, and didn't have a deep relationship with him, he would sometimes... forget to breathe. Because forcing himself to breathe was too exhausting, I think he subconsciously needed to rest." The former guard seemed to be getting confused himself and quickly added, "Not that he really stopped breathing. It's just an analogy—"

After reflecting for a few seconds, Lin Sanjiu concluded, "So, what you're saying is that there's something unnatural about him. When he's around us, he conceals this unnatural aspect."

The former guard seemed relieved and nodded eagerly. "Exactly! It's because of this that I feel scared!"

This entire conversation could very well be something he made up on the spot, as there was no visible evidence of this so-called unnatural behavior other than making people suspicious of Ya Jiang. However, for some reason, the word "unnatural" seemed to ring a bell deep in Lin Sanjiu's mind. She vaguely felt like she had encountered this unnatural phenomenon before.

However, no matter how hard she tried to recall, she couldn't remember any abnormal behavior from Ya Jiang when they first met. At that time, he seemed completely unfamiliar with her.

"You're overthinking it," Bohemia muttered to the former guard. "You only know about Ya Jiang from what he told you—"

In her memory, there was a sound of a 'click' from a camera, and a bright flash suddenly illuminated the Polaroid camera in Lin Sanjiu's memory. It was held in Ya Jiang's fingers, slowly spitting out a picture of Wushi Ming's horrifying state.

Ya Jiang took a photo of Wushi Ming's grim situation.

As this thought crossed her mind, Lin Sanjiu didn't even realize it herself as she hurriedly rushed toward the door.

At that time, Wushi Ming was almost dead, completely unaware of what had happened to him. If she were Gong Daoyi, how could she make Wushi Ming aware that she had saved him and gain even temporary trust?

She tightly grasped the doorknob and pulled the door open.

Ya Jiang was standing by the door, with his hands in his pockets, looking into the distance. When he heard the sound, he turned his head and smiled at her. With his somewhat feminine eyebrows and eyes, there was an extra layer of familiarity.

"Is Ah Yun awake?"