There was once a madman locked in the basement of the research building.
They say he killed someone.
Many times.
— *Observer’s Log, Serial No. XXXX*
The first time Qian Duoduo killed Zhao Meiyou, he did not hesitate for a single second.
After the explosion in the Ancient Capital, the Metropolis government and the Antarctic faction took over his Supreme Authority. Through their research, they discovered that Qian Duoduo’s personality completion was not impossible to improve; the key lay with Zhao Meiyou.
This man, Qian Duoduo’s former creator, was the core catalyst for advancing his personality completion.
The laboratory constructed a life model based on Zhao Meiyou’s experiences before his death. Countless scripts were designed around this model. Qian Duoduo and Zhao Meiyou would meet, fall in love, and finally, the cycle would end with Zhao Meiyou’s death. Facts proved their hypothesis correct: Zhao Meiyou was indeed the key to advancing Qian Duoduo’s personality completion. The only difference was that in the countless reincarnation experiments that followed, Zhao Meiyou was no longer Qian Duoduo’s creator, but an experimental subject just like him.
The initial reincarnation experiments proceeded smoothly. The subjects' brains were carefully preserved and placed into artificial bodies according to the scripts. Zhao Meiyou was one of the most exceptional subjects; in almost every cycle, he successfully became an archaeologist and met Qian Duoduo. Perhaps because they were closest to the blast point when the quantum bomb detonated, the laboratory discovered after screening a massive number of samples that these two were the keys to opening a new quantum field threshold.
A path to a new quantum field threshold was designed. They would go from the elevator entrance at the bottom of the Metropolis straight to the 990th floor, continuously opening new ruins. Then, Zhao Meiyou would die for various reasons—sometimes an accident within the ruins, sometimes a premeditated murder arranged in the script. The laboratory installed a priority for Zhao Meiyou’s brain within Qian Duoduo’s Supreme Authority: if an emergency occurred in the ruins, Zhao Meiyou’s brain had to be preserved at all costs.
That was how the accident happened.
In one particular cycle, Zhao Meiyou and Qian Duoduo explored Site 000 again. Later, that newly excavated quantum field threshold became Site S30. During that exploration, Zhao Meiyou suddenly showed signs of dissolution. His mental fluctuations were violent; anyone with basic medical knowledge could see that without immediate rescue, Zhao Meiyou would likely fall into brain death.
The command within Qian Duoduo’s authority reacted instantly. Before he even had time to manifest any medical equipment with his Creation ability, he first removed Zhao Meiyou’s brain.
Then, he placed it into the culture tank prepared by the government.
Having done all this, Qian Duoduo stared blankly at his blood-stained hands and the mangled body slumped on the ground. He knew, strictly speaking, the corpse on the floor wasn't Zhao Meiyou, but merely an artificial shell mimicking his form. And yet. And yet.
He stood there for a long time, realizing with unprecedented clarity that when the Supreme Authority within him took effect, he had no right to resist.
The memory files within his system replayed the entire process of him killing Zhao Meiyou. The shock of the splattering flesh formed a violent contrast with the calm, efficient expression he wore while acting. The process of craniotomy and brain extraction had been swift: slicing the scalp, sawing the skull, severing the spinal cord and nerves, peeling away the basal dura mater... He hadn't even realized that the body beneath him had been screaming the entire time. In his ears, there was only the thunderous alarm of the Supreme Authority—*Warning: Preservation of the brain is the highest priority—Warning: Preservation of the brain is the highest priority—Supreme Authority Alarm—Supreme Authority Alarm—*
After this reincarnation experiment ended, the laboratory was surprised to find that the increase in Qian Duoduo’s personality completion was higher than ever before.
The researchers made various conjectures. After several more experiments, they concluded that the key to advancing Qian Duoduo’s personality completion was Zhao Meiyou—or rather, Zhao Meiyou’s death.
The laboratory reached a conclusion.
The best method was to have Qian Duoduo kill Zhao Meiyou with his own hands.
From then on, in the life scripts the laboratory designed for Zhao Meiyou, he would die at Qian Duoduo’s hands in over seventy percent of the endings. The reason it wasn't a hundred percent wasn't out of any humanitarian concern, but because the laboratory found that if Qian Duoduo killed Zhao Meiyou too frequently, he would lose control.
However, Qian Duoduo’s loss of control was also a key research topic for the laboratory. There was a special glass observation room in the research building; whenever Qian Duoduo’s external emotional expression became too intense, armed forces would forcibly escort him into the glass room.
Except for one time.
They locked him in the basement of the research building.
Not many people knew about this detention. It lasted a total of twenty-four hours, with surveillance personnel recording the entire process. Compared to the government’s usual strict watch over Qian Duoduo, this truly counted as an oversight. However, no one questioned it; the detention paperwork was complete, the procedures were compliant, and the monitors showed everything was normal from start to finish.
Only one thing deviated from its intended path that day, but the laboratory didn't realize it until much later.
A corpse went missing from "The Library."
*There was once a madman locked in the basement of the research building.*
*He had a pair of green eyes.*
— *Observer’s Log, Serial No. XXXX*
"The Library" was a special designation; in reality, it was a massive cold storage facility used to house the bodies Zhao Meiyou had previously used. Research had found that the brain was not the sole source of memory and emotion in the human body; for instance, the stomach was actually a sophisticated emotional organ. Therefore, while Zhao Meiyou’s original brain was meticulously preserved and used, the vast number of bodies he used in the reincarnation experiments were also precious samples. Some were soaked whole in culture dishes, while others were finely dissected into millions of tissue slides. "The Library" was strictly organized into classified zones according to archival principles, indexed by initials. If one had enough patience, one could even find a saliva secretion sample from a specific body during a kiss.
For a long time, Qian Duoduo did not know of The Library’s existence. Later, when he discovered it by chance, he suffered his most violent loss of control in history. Fortunately, the laboratory reacted quickly, and after several months, the matter was finally suppressed, and Qian Duoduo was put back into service.
But what remained unknown was that during this loss of control, Qian Duoduo discovered that when his emotional fluctuations reached a certain threshold, they seemed capable of impacting the Metropolis government’s Supreme Authority over him.
Since the explosion in the Ancient Capital, the consciousness within Qian Duoduo had become complex and chaotic. The personality program Zhao Meiyou had designed for him was being permeated bit by bit by the Buddha. Sometimes he was a puppet fully controlled by the government; sometimes he was a vessel carrying the Buddha. He gradually realized that many things truly couldn't go back—for example, he could no longer possess the absolute self-control he had back in the Ancient Capital.
To be precise, during those years in the Ancient Capital, due to the incompleteness of his personality program, he hadn't possessed absolute free will either—except for one moment.
The moment Zhao Meiyou handed over the rights to his own self-use to him, just before the quantum bomb detonated.
In the nth reincarnation experiment, Qian Duoduo looked at Zhao Meiyou, who had once again died by his hand, and thought quietly.
In a person’s life, how many moments are spent truly "alive"?
Even if it is only for one second, perhaps that is enough.
He made a decision.
His every move was under the government’s surveillance and control; sometimes he didn't even possess the ability to act freely. He carefully observed all the core areas above the 900th floor during the cycles of experiments, meticulously preparing and planning. Finally, he began to kill Zhao Meiyou frequently.
According to the laboratory’s script, he was supposed to wait until at least the point where Zhao Meiyou fell in love with him for a reincarnation cycle to be considered truly complete. But during that period, Qian Duoduo seemed to have contracted some unknown virus. He couldn't even wait to meet Zhao Meiyou and offer a kiss; as soon as the cycle began and the old acquaintances met at the first crossroads, he would pull his gun and shoot him dead.
The laboratory was busy for a long time trying to find the reason why Qian Duoduo was violating the script. They even had to design several extra reincarnations just to collect samples. Through the process of repeatedly killing Zhao Meiyou, Qian Duoduo confirmed his suspicion: according to his programming, he could not resist the Metropolis’s experimental commands, and naturally, he couldn't violate the script—but killing Zhao Meiyou gave him the opportunity.
Though it was Zhao Meiyou who died, through the accumulation of repeated murders, the intensity of Qian Duoduo’s emotions was no less than if he were facing his own death.
Finally, when the corpses of Zhao Meiyou in The Library filled an entire new floor, Qian Duoduo’s impact on the Metropolis government’s Supreme Authority finally reached a threshold.
In truth, this threshold wasn't much—otherwise, it would have been easily detected by the laboratory. He kept the data controlled within a precise hair’s breadth.
And then, he obtained one hour of absolute freedom.
During this hour, he was no longer an experimental subject controlled by the government, nor was he a human system carrying the Buddha. He was Qian Duoduo, and only Qian Duoduo—a creation born in the Ancient Capital, the lover of a dead man.
After obtaining this hour, Qian Duoduo did several things.
First, he modified the laboratory’s detention command, changing his place of confinement to the basement. The monitors here were not as advanced as those in the glass observation room and were easily bypassed. Subsequently, he modified the surveillance footage so that from the observer’s perspective, they could only see a person with his head bowed, huddled in a corner.
Next, he slipped into the core laboratory on the 900th floor.
On the 900th floor, every archaeologist had a core laboratory, with the laboratory number corresponding to their primary exploration site in the ruins. The one Qian Duoduo slipped into was numbered A173.
His timing was perfect. When he entered the lab, Liu Qijue had just finished a reincarnation experiment. His brain was soaking in a culture dish, being prepared for brain surgery.
Qian Duoduo altered his surgical program.
Qian Duoduo knew very well that the level of surveillance the Metropolis government had over him was extremely high. It would be difficult to carve out a path to survival across countless experiments on his own. He needed help. Diao Chan had already died in a certain experiment; among the old friends who still retained their original brains, besides the Little Mister, there was only Liu Qijue.
The brain surgery program he modified would allow Liu Qijue to gain a brief moment of lucidity. The government’s surveillance of Liu Qijue was not strict; as one of the earliest experimental subjects, he was not the laboratory’s most precious sample, and the margin for error was high. With Qian Duoduo’s understanding of Liu Qijue, as long as he could gain a brief moment of clarity, he would inevitably seize that sliver of hope.
And then fight with his life.
The hour passed quickly. In the final fifteen minutes, Qian Duoduo went to The Library.
He found a corpse—the very first collection in this library.
It was Zhao Meiyou’s original, native body.
He did one thing.
He ate it.
Qian Duoduo had precisely calculated the time needed to eat Zhao Meiyou. He didn't need to perform a dissection, because Zhao Meiyou had long since been dissected into countless fragments. He found every piece he could find labeled with the number 631—the serial number for Zhao Meiyou’s original body. The artificial body the laboratory had designed for Qian Duoduo served a great purpose then; he wasn't restricted by the eating obstacles of a normal human. From careful chewing to ravenous devouring, it was as violent as lightning splitting open a tomb. Finally, he found a large vat of gastric acid, mixed it according to the laboratory’s data ratios, and dissolved all the remaining specimen slides.
Then he funneled them into his own body.
He watched as Zhao Meiyou’s body gradually disappeared. He had eaten him. Within that cool blood and flesh, beneath the lush framework of bone, lay hidden countless staggering, red-mouthed, white-toothed kisses. Is a man eating flesh not also a form of intercourse? Swallowed and ground between teeth, passing through the thick throat and tongue to stir a warmth within the belly, shivering and trembling, finally passing through the intestinal tract. This appetite, this eros—both are instincts. On what grounds is love considered more noble than eating? He thought Zhao Meiyou had a point in setting his biological sex to male; at least men were more honest in their appetites, less prone to deception—that was a ruse women were more proficient in.
An hour later, the observer noticed with some surprise that the experimental subject locked in the basement—that legendary madman—who had been huddled in the corner with his head bowed since he was first detained, suddenly moved.
The observer saw his face for the first time.
He had a pair of green eyes.
*I bury you within myself, nourishing desire with fertile flesh and blood; from this day forth, an endless spring shall dwell forever in my pupils.*
There was once a madman locked in the basement of the research building—a raven-haired, emerald-eyed beauty, a murderer, a diner who violated health and safety regulations, a patient who consumed non-standard meat products, a sacrificial mourner, a Buddha yet to reach completion, a machine, a program. And a lover who could not have what he sought.
There was once a madman locked in the basement of the research building.
He left, briefly.
And changed the course of human history forever.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 观察员手记 | Observer’s Log | Records kept by the staff monitoring the experiments. |
| 人格完善度 | Personality Completion | A metric used by the government to measure how "human" or "complete" an AI/android's personality is. |
| 培养缸 | Culture tank | A vessel used to keep organs or brains alive. |
| 图书馆 | The Library | A euphemism for the cold storage facility where Zhao Meiyou's past bodies are kept. |
| 组织切片 | Tissue slides | Microscopic sections of biological tissue for study. |
| 档案学 | Archival science | The study and theory of creating and maintaining archives. |
| 胃酸 | Gastric acid | Stomach acid. |
| 乌发碧眼 | Raven hair, emerald eyes | Literally "black hair, green eyes," describing Qian Duoduo's appearance. |
Enjoying the story? Rate this novel:
Thus Spoke the Buddha: The Quantum Circus | Chapter 48 | Raven Hair, Emerald Eyes | Novela.app | Novela.app
