Abyssal Wanderer

Chapter 72 NO.0047: Broken Toys

Liao Qi, who returned home, felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere.

Usually at this time, my mother should not be off work yet. But at the moment she was sitting in front of the sofa, and the ashtray was full of squashed cigarette butts.

He remembered how she hated smoking.

"came back?"

It sounded like she was trying, but not very successfully, to soften her voice.

Liao Qi didn't reply, but walked through the smoke into his bedroom with a straight face. Without looking back, he closed the door with his foot and threw the bag on the bed.

Don't want to talk, don't want to answer.

Wouldn't even want to meet her if I could.

If it wasn't that there was no other place to go, if she wasn't his last relative...he didn't plan to come back.

After an unknown amount of time, he heard a knock on the door.

"Xiao Qi, I know you've worked hard, but mom has something to tell you now."

Again.

always like this.

People say that a child is always a child in front of a mother.

Perhaps this is indeed the case, but whether this fact will make people feel warm or scary often depends on the attitude of the final choice.

Maybe Ma Wei didn't realize it herself, but Liao Qi knew very well that she acted it out for herself.

Once again, Liao Qi felt out of breath.

"Can you open the door, Xiaoqi?"

A soft, hoarse, tearful voice of grievance.

She knew she would go home today.

Liao Qi thought to himself.

Maybe she called the talent incubator to confirm it.

"I know you are under a lot of pressure, and I also know that my mother is usually coercive, but I am doing it for your own good..."

Knowing that she would be back, she purposely smoked cigarette after cigarette before she went home. So that I can see it as soon as I get home.

See the way she hurt herself.

She knew that she had neither reason nor the ability to convince herself that the only thing she could rely on was the constant affection between the two of them.

So she used this as her own weapon—to sting her son by hurting herself, so that he could obediently follow her own plan.

Resisting the urge to open the door, Liao Qi buried his head in the quilt and turned a deaf ear.

The smell of smoke wafted into the room with her voice, making him feel sick to his stomach.

After knocking on the door for a long time, my mother began to sob.

She kept blaming herself, blaming herself for putting too much pressure on her husband and her son.

Blaming myself for being useless, not smart, having no family background, not working hard when I was young, now I can only engage in the dishonorable profession of stealing and selling simian movies. She didn't give Liao Qi a happy childhood, she didn't stop Liao Qi's father from getting a prosthetic body loan back then, she killed him...

It sounds like it's all my fault, but it's actually complaining about why I'm so miserable.

In fact, she probably doesn't care if she ends up being promoted to a company intern.

Liao Qi suddenly realized.

She has never even seriously understood how little the probability of ordinary people entering a company through the company's talent incubation center is.

She would rather believe the advertisements placed by the company, and then pay after pile after pile. Regardless of the money he just threw into the water, his family has been able to live a pretty good life.

All she wants is to make herself obedient, not forced, but sincerely obedient.

Because she has nothing else to hold on to in her life, only her son.

For this reason, she must hold on to herself at all costs, even if Liao Qi would be suffocated by it.

Tears were already pouring out of the door, but Liao Qi still stubbornly refused to open the door or make a sound.

This is a confrontation between the wills of both parties. If you want to see a glimmer of light in your future, you must survive this hurdle.

The sound outside the door finally disappeared, but before Liao Qi could heave a sigh of relief, he heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock.

"Where did you get the key?!"

Liao Qi was shocked and angry.

"Xiao Qi, we are a family, it shouldn't be like this..."

Mother sat on the edge of the bed with tears in her eyes.

Liao Qi took a deep breath, suppressed his anger and sat up.

She wanted to hold his hand, but he threw it away.

"I know you are in a bad mood today, I checked your results of the unified examination..."

Ma Wei's tears flowed down again uncontrollably, Liao Qi turned her head to one side.

"I know it's not ideal, and I know you've tried your best..."

Liao Qi still pursed her lips without saying a word.

"It's your mother who is useless. After you pay the registration fee, you have no money to buy memory for your studies, so it is difficult to catch up with others...

"I saw the advertisement of Minerva Information Technology two days ago. It seems that the memory of 'Zhijing 6' is the most commonly used by your classmates, right?"

Liao Qi still didn't speak.

"Mom is not smart anyway, I plan to sell my pons and cerebellum to the Lobotomy Gang..."

Ma Wei couldn't finish the second half of the sentence, because Liao Qi stood up abruptly and clamped her shoulders with both hands.

Anger lit in his eyes.

"You... If you dare to betray me, I will die for you!"

Liao Qi, who was breathless as if drowning, finally squeezed out these words from between his teeth after looking at his mother for a long time.

Wake up, I am not your property!

Besides, he wanted to yell so loudly.

But he couldn't say it.

Mother was speechless for a long while.

After a long time, Liao Qi, who felt that his breathing was finally smoother, said:

"You don't have to do anything, keep the money for your own use in the future. I found a job on Haiti Street, 400 Ore a month, not including commission."

He let go wearily. Pick up the bag and plan to go out.

"The school..."

He heard his mother's desperate voice behind him.

"The guy who always came here to find trouble..."

What Liao Qi was talking about was a guy from the first floor in his class, who had a little money in the simian film business. Because he knew his mother's job, he would find trouble for him if he had nothing to do.

He had had enough of that guy.

"Before I went home today, I put a sack on him and gave him a good beating...I beat up a son who is a gold member, and the Talent Incubation Center will probably demerit me after that."

He said so.

After speaking, he felt that he had never been so relaxed.

"Liao Qi!"

After walking to the door, he heard his mother call his full name.

Turning around, Liao Qi saw her holding up the toy on the table.

The peripherals of the animation "Falcon Man", the limited edition crystal figure - very expensive, not something that families like them would be willing to buy.

Liao Qi remembered that his parents gritted their teeth and bought this in order to let him have the best ten-year-old birthday.

Therefore, this is also the thing that he has always regarded as the most precious thing.

It would be great if everything could be as it was back then, and it would be great if his father was still alive.

It would be great if this home was still intact.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be distorted into what it is now.

"Don't come back after you walk out of this door!"

She trembled threateningly.

Although it was a threat, Liao Qi knew that the other party was more afraid of it than himself.

It's just that if they don't do this and leave without heart, they will never be able to get rid of this sick relationship.

How can he continue to stay in this house when she plans to rely on things like selling brains to control herself?

Liao Qi opened the door without saying a word.

In desperation, Ma Wei broke the toy in her hand.

But that didn't stop his son from leaving.

In the future, Liao Qi set this picture as his own mandala.

…………

After Jiang Zhou finished speaking, he felt sad.

Bai Dong, on the other hand, didn't speak the whole time, until after Jiang Zhou finished speaking, she let out a long sigh.

Reaching out and patting the other person's shoulder to show comfort, she said:

"I can't say that you made the right choice to walk away like that. You were too impulsive... But if it were me, I don't know what I would choose."

"Thanks……"

Jiang Zhou nodded slightly in thanks.

For Liao Qi, having such an evaluation is enough.

Bai Dong picked up the instrument from the side, and while adjusting it, she said:

"When your mother wakes up, I will give her a comprehensive mental examination. Then I will prescribe a full three courses of emotional fine-tuning therapy. Anyway, it is all in the same community, so it doesn't get in the way. Of course, there is no guarantee that it will be cured. , or the possibility of being cured is so small that it can be ignored... But I can guarantee that her mental index will be stable for ten years and will not continue to deteriorate."

She paused as she spoke, looked up at Jiang Zhou, and said with some embarrassment:

"I'll do my best...if you can still trust me."

She probably recalled her previous disastrous performance.

"I believe."

Jiang Zhou nodded, then asked:

"The other three courses of treatment, what kind of standard is it?"

Bai Dong was silent for a while, then said:

"I'll treat it first, and you'll have to pay the money afterwards. As for the price, it's according to the fee standard in the organization..."

"Sorry to interrupt your conversation."

Before she finished speaking, the robotic arm on the ceiling projected the figure of the smart butler Jenny.

"Ms. Ma Wei's breathing rate has been detected to change, and she will wake up in about five minutes."

Jiang Zhou nodded and said, and then said:

"Understand, step back... Ah, by the way, please give this lady temporary access control."

"Authorized."

Jenny nodded, and then disappeared in place.

"It will be convenient for you to come here in the future..."

Jiang Zhou explained to Bai Dong.

But before he finished explaining, Jiang Zhou's private communication channel received an urgent message.

"On the negative floor, the bar in the dark blue section, gather urgently."

The sender is Booker.

By the way, looking at the time, Jiang Zhou remembered that it should be the time when the first batch of captives were released and Perth Fanny's studio arrived.

Let yourself rush over now, is something wrong?

…………

Aconitum-1 wrote a 5,000-word investigation report, which was used to state doubts about the guy code-named "Theseus".

At the end of the writing, he himself had to admit that there were indeed some personal grievances in it.

After all, it is similar to: the symptoms of this person's radiation sickness are suspected to be uploaded by using the ancient taboo technology digital personality scan, and he has written out this kind of inconspicuous guess.

You must know that after the big shock, all technologies related to digital personality have been destroyed. Even technologies related to it are blacklisted by the Anthroposophical Ethics Monitoring Committee, and it is impossible to have a connection with such a caveman.

But personal grievances are personal grievances.

Aconitum-1 thought to himself.

After the previous interrogation ended, although no one around him took the initiative to mention that incident, he could feel that his colleagues were secretly laughing at him behind his back.

After all, making a prisoner faint from laughter in the interrogation room is absolutely unprecedented in Tartarus.

And when he proposed to go to the prison cell to meet the caveman again, he was also stopped by his apprentice Aconitum-23.

According to his apprentice, it is not suitable to go there now.

Aconitum-1 has heard rumors that the caveman is about to become a prison hero now. As long as he mentioned his experience in the interrogation room, he would receive bursts of applause from other prisoners.

His apprentice was worried that if he went to the confinement room now, he would lose control of his emotions.

However, the only gratifying thing is that the interrogation of other dive members also did not ask why.

Although no one is as embarrassing as him, in terms of progress, everyone is the same.

The top executives of the company have never cared about such things as "face" - they only evaluate their subordinates based on efficiency and results.

And the result now is—no result at all.

It's possible they're even looking in the wrong direction.

Picking up the prepared report, he went directly to the director of Cerberus, intending to clarify his guess.

And just before he arrived at the office, he happened to see Perse Fanny coming out of it.

What is she doing here?

After bowing slightly to the other party, and the other party also bowed back to him, Wutou-1 thought to himself.

Some time ago, the breakthrough of the protein chip project made the company in front of us put in a lot of effort, and the brain neurologist dug from Apollo Bio was once again recognized by the company's board of directors.

As a reward, the company directly handed over the business of Nord resettlement area to her as a reserve for her future projects.

What is this popular person who is in the limelight in the company right now coming to Cerberus for nothing?

Are you not afraid of rumors of "being interviewed by hounds" when your career is on the rise?

He knocked on the door very puzzled, and after getting permission to "enter", Aconitum-1 pushed the door open and entered.

The director of Cerberus, prison D, is modifying something on the computer.

Knowing the manager's behavior style, he submitted the report directly without exchanging pleasantries.

Prison D quickly finished reading the report.

"In other words, are you planning to apply for a destructive inspection of the brain of that native, in order to try to dig out more information?"

he asked.

The tone of voice is as usual, so that people can't tell whether the attitude is good or bad.

"That's right. I think there are too many doubts about this native man code-named 'Theseus'. From my intuition, I'm 90% sure that he has something to do with the previous shock."

Aconitum-1 immediately replied.

In this regard, prison D director pushed back the report:

"If your unbelievable conjectures are true, then to verify your conjectures, we need to turn the other party into a cerebral palsy.

"But if you guessed it right, we can't get more information from a person with cerebral palsy... So, are you out of personal grudges?"

As usual, he saw the purpose of his subordinates at a glance.

Aconitum-1 responded with silence.

"The report is well written, but unfortunately, the proposals about you need to be dismissed in their entirety. Plus, you won't be responsible for this anymore."

Finally, the director of prison D said so.

"Why?"

Hearing this, Aconitum-1 suddenly became excited.

His proposal was rejected, I can understand, but why not let him continue to be in charge of this matter?

"Your proposal was dismissed because we have found the culprit that caused the previous shock."

The reason given by the other party is very reasonable.

With that said, he turned on the screen behind him.

On the screen, there is a sea of ​​chaotic data that has not yet constructed a base virtual environment.

And as the visual view continued to zoom in, a black dog model appeared in the corner.

"In the past ten years, there has been an existence that has been trying to float. The dark net AI that is inextricably linked with the Diana Lunar Development Company, Hecate. We found traces of its activities in the deep dive coordinates of the KZ quadrant .”