Heavy shackles dragged along the hard ground with a rattling sound. The musty smell of summer hasn't cleared away, and the damp aisles have become cold. The early north wind blew in from the square hole on the top of the aisle wall, blowing on Zhao Pengcheng's thin body, making him shiver from the cold.

Winter clothes have been issued in prison, but only the coat is in charge, no matter what you wear inside. The clothes and pants are very thin, and he can't withstand the cold of winter, Zhao Pengcheng has no family to send him cotton clothes and pants, and he has no money to buy them. The correctional officer reported his condition to the public, and as a rule, he could be remedied. The prison leaders read Zhao Pengcheng's materials and knew that he was a literate person and had been an excellent surgeon, so they asked him to write an application for assistance and a repentance material at the same time.

This kind of thing is a great opportunity for a prisoner serving a prison sentence, and if he is asked to write a confession material, it often means that the sentence can be commuted, and if the material is well written, it will be regarded as a model of prison and get a lot of preferential conditions.

Zhao Pengcheng is a top student, and he has worked in a big hospital for so many years, not to mention just writing a confessional material, even writing a thesis is easy for him. But he was reluctant to do it. Show repentance? What sins do you repent of? And he doesn't really care about whether to reduce his sentence. How many years can you subtract again? From a reprieved death to an indefinite one.

Seeing his attitude, the discipline was anxious and angry, and scolded him with a little hatred: "Is it so difficult to type a few words on the computer?" ”

Zhao Pengcheng heard that he could use a computer to write materials, and his attitude made a 180-degree turn on the spot, and he readily agreed. So he followed the correction, dragging heavy shackles, through the aisle that he had never walked before, to the prison computer room.

The computer room is newly built. Wuzhong Prison is carrying out a pilot reform, and it is necessary to let the prison keep up with the pace of the times, let the prisoners receive modern education, and let the prisoners who have the capacity to use computers to study. Unlike the electronic classrooms in the past, the equipment there is generally not allowed to be operated by prisoners, and even if it is operated, it is strictly followed by procedures, while the computer room is a place where prisoners can use computers independently.

According to the prison's plan, in the future, labor reform can also be engaged in this kind of work, instead of blindly nailing buttons and sewing clothes, such as letting prisoners engage in game competitions, writing, being a gunman, and posting, etc., which is said to be done in some places.

Once the computer room is built, it naturally cannot be wasted, and rich prisoners can also spend money to buy time on the computer, just like an Internet café. Of course, the prison's computer room cannot be connected to the external network at will, but can only be connected to the prison's internal network. The speed of the intranet is very slow, and with the exception of some video and written materials on legal education that are made public, we can only brag and exchange ideas on internal forums. But that's it, and everyone is happy to do it. As for secretly playing Minesweeper and Super Mario on a machine in the corner, that's another very esoteric computer and human science.

Zhao Pengcheng walked into the computer room and saw some people sitting inside. The computer room is guarded by a special prison guard, and the warden leaves after a few words with the prison guard. The prison guard took Zhao Pengcheng to a computer and asked him to sit down, and asked:

"Computers can be used, right?"

"Yes." Zhao Pengcheng nodded.

The prison guard said: "You are writing materials, you didn't pay for the Internet, you can only write materials, you can't do anything else, don't hear me!" ”

"Yes, Instructor." Zhao Pengcheng agreed, and skillfully turned on the computer. While waiting for the camera to start, he casually asked, "Can I also access the Internet here?" ”

He thought that the prison guard would not answer, or reprimanded him impatiently, but he didn't expect the prison guard to be very patient and said kindly: "Yes, as long as you pay the money, you can go on, but you can only go to the intranet." ”

"How much does it cost?"

"Fifty dollars an hour."

The blue progress bar on the monitor is finally finished, and you enter the familiar indos desktop, which is clean and has only two icons, but it still feels familiar.

"It's going to cost hundreds of dollars in the first half of the day, it's a bit expensive!" Zhao Peng said while operating on the computer.

The prison guard was not annoyed, and said with a smile: "Then you have to discipline you to let you out for so long!" ”

Zhao Pengcheng thought about it, so he didn't ask more, but created a new PS document and began to write application reports and confession materials.

Seeing that he was very proficient in computer operation, the prison guard didn't seem to have any intention of paying money to surf the Internet, so he explained a few words and walked away.

Zhao Pengcheng wrote his materials very seriously, typing word by word, stopping to think for a while from time to time. At first, the prison guards came over from time to time to take a look, but then there was more text on the document, and he simply didn't bother to come and read it.

Originally, the application for relief for winter clothes and a confession material added up to two or three pages were almost enough, but Zhao Pengcheng was not in a hurry to complete it.

He's waiting.

Although in fact, he himself does not know what to wait for.

Every detail of the meeting with Aoki still lingers in Zhao Pengcheng's mind, and he can't figure out who he is and which world is real. He now, him in the past, him in his dreams, him in his dreams, and him before he became Zhao Pengcheng, which one is the real him?

Zhao Pengcheng agreed to Aoki's offer of cooperation, and at the moment when the prison guard fell to the ground and died, he could not turn back.

Of course, cooperation does not mean that he is a traitor, and he must help humanity. He has his plans. Now, he has learned to hide his thoughts, telling neither humans nor organizations.

As for Aoki, he thought that since it was cooperation, he should tell him selectively, at least there must be an equivalent exchange. Of course, he understands that with Aoki's strength, there is not much chance that he will be equal to the other party, but he believes in him. Moreover, it is precisely because of such a strong partner that he has the confidence to fight against other powerful existences and think about things that he would not dare to think of.

Zhao Pengcheng is now more and more able to understand Aoki and understand what he said - this world is a mystery, and they live to solve the mystery, not to live for a certain race.

Under the circumstances, although they reached a consensus on the intention of cooperation, they did not have time to discuss a specific plan. Aoki only gave him some vague hints, such as how to contact him in the future. That's fine, Zhao Pengcheng has his own ideas and doesn't want to be controlled by others everywhere.

Just as he was writing the fifth line on page five of his material, something strange happened.

PS The cursor on the document suddenly flashed, and then it started to enter text automatically. Zhao Pengcheng was very sure that he was in the middle of a pause in thought at that time, and his fingers did not touch the keyboard.

At first, he thought something was wrong with the computer. However, when the automatically typed words formed the first complete sentence, he immediately realized what was happening.

He quickly put his hand back on the keyboard, moving his fingers from side to side, pretending to be tapping on the keyboard as the text on the document increased.