In a rural earthen toilet, a six- or seven-year-old child squatted on a red brick and read with relish in his hand by the dim yellow light.

In front of him was a red plastic stool, on which were stacked with old books, in addition to "Story Club", "One Hundred Thousand Whys", "Bosom Friend", "The Unsolved Mysteries of the World", and so on.

It was used to pass the time, and there were no smartphones in those days, so when I was squatting in the pit, I always had to put some miscellaneous books.

Although the time was very fragmented, he finally finished reading those books one after another, and when he finished reading, he clamored to buy new books, batch after batch, and never got tired of it.

"Tomorrow at the temple fair, my mother will take you to play."

"What is a temple fair?"

"There's just a lot of good food and fun."

On the day of the temple fair, people came and went, and the streets that were uninhabited in the past were filled with vendors who came from all over the place, and the children had eaten mutton skewers and peanut candy, sugar gourds and tofu brains, and after eating and drinking, they stopped in front of the booksstand.

[Ten yuan and three copies], the standing sign has four words written on it.

"Robinson Crusoe", "Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales", "Grimm's Fairy Tales".

He chose three books, and his mother handed the bookseller a ten-dollar bill.

At night, he sat on his bed, flipping through the books and reading the words, as if he had entered another world.

After that, he was always interested in reading.

"Let's see together"

"See what?"

"Discs."

Two children were sitting in a room decorated by Shimizu, putting the round disc into the DVD player's reader, the blue fluorescent light up, and the picture appeared on the screen of the big head TV.

[Pokémon]

"I'll lend you this disc, take it back and watch it."

"Don't you see?"

"I've seen it."

One of the children took the packed CD and walked the dirt road in the countryside to return to his old house with red bricks and green tiles.

"Mom, do we have a DVD player at home?"

"You want to use it?"

"Mao Ziwen gave me a saucer."

The woman who was called Mom took the cover of the disc and glanced at it, went to a bedroom, took out a square box, and connected the cable to the TV in the living room.

"I'm ready to read it when I'm done with my homework."

"Hmm."

He sat on the couch and watched the TV with a twinkle in his eyes.

"It's nine o'clock, it's time to go to bed."

"I'll go to sleep after watching this episode."

"Okay."

His parents were always very tolerant of him, and he was able to spend a lot of time watching those discs.

Later, his friends gave him a lot of CDs, "Dragon Ball", "One Piece", "The Most Travelogue".

As a young child, he was shocked when he first came into contact with such a world.

As he grew up, he rode his bicycle on his own and went to the market on weekend mornings to find a familiar disc seller.

"Boss, change the plate."

The price of a single purchase is 5 yuan, but if you take the disc you bought back and watch it, you only need to make up another 2 yuan to get a new disc.

He is a regular customer, and he has watched a lot of CDs by relying on this method.

If he likes it, he will keep it, and if it feels average, he will change it.

His collection filled two cardboard boxes, and those small round discs contained many of his dreams.

"Pack your things and we'll move next week."

They moved to a new home and moved from the countryside to the county seat.

"Is there a kind of mobile phone that lasts a little longer?"

"Look at this one, there are two batteries, now buy and get a universal charger, you can replace the battery."

At the age of 13, he had his own mobile phone.

A black cube larger than his hand and heavy when picked up.

There is 30M of 2G data a month, and you can make calls and send text messages.

He searched on his mobile phone at night, there were a lot of them, he was fascinated by them, and when he lived in the school, he secretly nested in the bed every night to watch.

I especially cherish the power of my mobile phone, because there is no way to charge it in the dormitory, but fortunately he has two batteries and can watch it for an hour or two every night.

In addition, the class will also pass on "Bosom Friend" and "Painting", the single book "Dragon Family", "Laughing Cat Diary", "Little Times", he always has a lot of books to read.

"Your dad said buy you a laptop."

"Really!"

"I'll pick it up tomorrow."

"Buy Lenovo's, Lenovo's quality is good."

In order to reward him for his progress in the exam, his father took him to the computer city and bought a laptop for 3,000 yuan.

With broadband at home, he has been connected to the Internet ever since.

"Full-Time Hunter", "Sword Art Online". For the first time, he started waiting for weekly updates.

He found the homepages of the writers he had read back then, followed their news, followed their new works, and searched for those old books on the website.

High school, college.

He followed a normal trajectory, went to an ordinary high school normally, and went to an undergraduate university that was not famous.

In the depths of his soul, he hid a lot of dreams—things he loved.

————————

"That's my past."

A voice rang in my ears.

"There is nothing special, there are no wonderful youth stories, no wonderful adventures, no seeing the vastness of the world."

"I don't have a lot of things, but I'm satisfied."

"So, don't come to me again."

Aking from their dreams, they returned to the cathedral.

"Is it over?"

"It's over."

"So. That's his answer? ”

"No, it's just the answer to the 'superego' part, his 'ego' and his 'id', which has not yet been awakened."

"Does he know anything about this experiment?"

"Of course, how could I hide it from him, but I still took a little bit of a loophole, after all, the one outside is just an 'empty shell', as long as I follow the rules, he won't do anything to me, well, I can't disobey him."

"You said you were traveling in another world. Could it be?"

"It's very keen, the 'master's computing power exceeds your human supercomputer, I'm a 'doppelganger', I can borrow this part of the ability to a certain extent, so I use his memory, in the consciousness space to create a similar 'immersive game' function, I wander there, experience the world he knows, it's very interesting, I gave birth to my own 'self' in those fictional stories, and it seems that I gradually understand what feelings are."

"It's almost time to send you back, it's almost dawn."

"Are you going to continue experimenting?"

"It depends on whether you are worthy of cooperation or not."

"I want to continue."

"I haven't decided yet."

"You have a lot of time to think, so there's no need to rush too much."

"I still have a question for her. Did the previous Hella know? Or, with her current ability to understand, can she understand what is happening? I mean, does she know what's going on with that person? ”

"My sister is smarter than you think, she just doesn't care, she doesn't care about most of the things in this world, don't measure her by your universal human values, for her, as long as that person is still that person, she will always stay by his side, as long as it's him, the only thing she cares about is this one, even if it's an 'empty shell', she will hold that hand well."

"I lost to her, I always feel a sense of frustration"

"She has a lot more time than you do, so she won't care that much."

"Okay, it's over, and if I have the chance, I hope to see you again."

Brilliant white light shines and the view is obscured.

All is at peace.

A few days later.

"Have you really decided? Once you sign your name, you are not allowed to quit, and you must live on campus from Monday to Saturday. ”

"If I stay in power until the day you die, then I can continue that experiment."

"Do you have to survive until I die? Don't you try to convince me? ”

"I'll be nagging in your ear while I get through it."

"Okay, though, you're still welcome, we'll start classes next month, so don't be left behind."

"If you don't understand, I'll come to you and go through the back door."

Tang Xue and Su Wanqing hugged each other, and then separated.

"I have a meeting tonight, I'll find someone to send you."

"Just lend me your car."

"Okay."

Tang Xue took the car keys, said goodbye to Su Wanqing, and walked alone on the pedestrian street at dusk.

She parked in front of a fried chicken restaurant, bought a three-person package to take away, and drove on a familiar road.

In fact, the city is very close to the southern suburbs, and it only takes ten minutes to drive, and before dark, she came to the front of the house.

There are many cultivated fields in the vicinity, and there are vegetable greenhouses in the fields, and there are agricultural workers living nearby, so they are not the only ones living in this area.

She parked her car in the yard and got out of the car with a box of fried chicken.

With some surprise, the door was opened, and a small figure was waiting there.

When she came in, he took her hand.

For the first time in three years, this is the first time.

Speaking of which, it was also the first time she left home and did not come back for two days.

It turned out that she was not ignored, she smiled slightly, took the little hand, and sat down at the dining table, where the food was already arranged, and he was wearing an apron and pouring water into the pot.

"How?" He asked.

"The campus environment is very good, I have signed the paperwork, and classes will start on the first of next month."

"Are you going to move out in the future?"

"Well, it's only closed on Sundays, I'll be back if I'm free, and don't forget to come and see me."

"I'll remember."

She put the fried chicken box on the table, and when she opened it, it smelled very fragrant.

"Taste it, I bought it over there."

"Fried chicken," he stopped abruptly.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing. Just remembered something. He said.

"Was it a long time ago?"

"It's like. It's been a long time. So long that I almost forgot."

He didn't have so much nagging and so much crankiness this time, just a little nagging.

He was thinking that fried chicken really still needs to be served with Coke.

(End of book)

(End of chapter)