Not long after Lu Fenghan left, Qi Yan seemed to realize that the aura surrounding his body had disappeared. His brows were tightly furrowed, and after a few rapid breaths, he opened his eyes.
Looking to the other side of the bed, the person was gone.
He sat up with his hands, and the soft robe clung to his body, showing his lean figure. Qi Yan touched his calf, and his fingertips touched a rough texture. Turning on the light of his personal terminal, he saw that his calf was wrapped in a bandage, and the end of the bandage was tied into a small bow.
He touched the bow carefully, and then touched it again, and then Qi Yan withdrew his hand with a feeling of unsatisfied feeling.
After sitting there for a while, Qi Yan slowly moved to the other side of the bed, and finally lay down where Lu Fenghan had just sat. He rubbed the remaining warmth on the pillow in a somewhat morbid manner, and at the same time, tapped his personal terminal and made a call.
The room was dark, with a little light coming in from the window, giving the furniture a vague outline. The blue fluorescent light from the personal terminal was dim, reflecting on Qi Yan's face, making his skin look even paler than usual.
Soon, the communication was successfully connected, and a kind female voice came from the other side: "Prayer?"
On the communication interface, the lines and contacts are prompted to “encrypt”.
Qi Yan had regained his composure. He said, "An hour ago, I once again became confused about reality."
The female voice on the other side asked, "Before this, that is, since you returned to Leto, how many times has this happened?"
His eyes fell on a certain point in the air. Qi Yan recalled carefully, looking a little confused, and finally concluded: "I don't know. I don't know how many times I have been confused."
"Don't worry, can you tell me the details of this time?"
"After finishing the psychological measurement form, I went downstairs, passed the living room, and went to the kitchen to get some water. When I returned to the door, I received your reply. Then, the cup fell to the ground. Lu Fenghan opened the door and came out of the bedroom opposite. I asked him what day it was today, and he answered me." Qi Yan finished the narration in order, and his voice became lighter. "The date I thought was indeed correct."
"What's not correct?"
Qi Yan's fingertips trembled slightly. He hugged the pillow that Lu Fenghan had leaned on little by little into his arms. His fingers gripped the pillow and tightened. "What's not correct is that in my memory, when I went downstairs to get some water, he was also downstairs, watching the news. But he said that he was in the bedroom the whole time and didn't come downstairs."
"Does 'he' refer to Lu Fenghan?"
The female voice on the other side seemed to be recording something. "You used the information stored in your memory to combine and fabricate the scene of Lu Fenghan watching the news downstairs, right?"
"Yes."
Qi Yan described the scene in his memory, "He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers. There was the sound of a cruise plane taking off and landing outside the window, which lasted for nine seconds. The news footage—" No, Qi Yan frowned, "In the news, a military spokesman was being interviewed by a reporter, but the date displayed in the lower right corner of the news footage was July 29th."
The fingers grasping the pillow suddenly loosened, and Qi Yan's eyes revealed a bit of confusion, but he quickly confirmed: "This memory was pieced together by me."
"Qi Yan, it's just a coincidence that you can find clearly marked times in the images of your memory." The female voice on the other side sighed softly, "Your memory surpasses most people. This is a talent. In just a few seconds, you can engrave a person's appearance in detail in your mind, and you can also remember a scene, including the position of light and the number of fallen leaves on the ground. Based on this information, you can easily construct a memory that has never happened."
Qi spoke slowly, with his eyes closed, and answered, "I am familiar with every inch of the living room downstairs. I am also familiar with Lu Fenghan's appearance, posture, tone of voice and expression. I have also seen Lu Fenghan watching the news before."
So, when he was unaware, he pieced together the scene of "Lu Fenghan watching the news downstairs", embedded it into his own memory, and thought that it was real.
The sound of a pen being placed on the table came from the other side, and the female voice made a judgment: "I originally thought that going to an unfamiliar environment, getting along with unfamiliar people, and being exposed to different things might alleviate your confusion about reality. But now it seems that the relief effect is very limited."
Qi Yan didn't say anything.
The female voice continued softly, "But it doesn't matter, Qi Yan. We can continue to try other methods, but it will be hard for you to analyze the memories in your mind to see whether they are real or fake."
"Eliza, we—"
Let's give up.
But Qi Yan was ultimately unable to utter these five words.
He just nodded in the dim light, his voice slightly hoarse: "Okay, I will try my best."
The communication was disconnected and the blue fluorescence gradually went out.
Qi Yan lay quietly in the darkness, with only the sound of his own breathing in his ears. He couldn't help but wonder, could it be that... Lu Fenghan didn't answer his question about today's date, nor did he carry him back to the bedroom, and even - he didn't get a response to the psychological measurement form he sent out
He knew Eliza too well, and the information stored in his mind was enough for him to fabricate a conversation between him and Eliza.
If everything is fake, he made it up.
So... what is real
Qi Yan buried his face in the soft pillow, which had completely lost Lu Fenghan's body temperature and breath.
He thought that the two-year contract signed with Lu Fenghan should be real.
Lu Fenghan carried him into the bedroom... This should also be true, right
Because Lu Fenghan had never hugged him like this before.
The abnormality that night was like a stone thrown into a deep lake, and it did not cause any impact. Qi Yan still appeared downstairs at around ten o'clock every day, reading a book and eating bread.
Perhaps the only difference was that every time after eating bread, Qi Yan would take out a thumb-sized transparent medicine bottle and swallow the pills inside mixed with water.
Although she is usually delicate and picky, she never frowned once when taking the medicine, as if she was used to it and could no longer feel the bitterness.
Not sure if it was the side effects of the medicine, but Lu Fenghan discovered that every time after taking the medicine, Qi Yan would obviously feel a little uncomfortable. For example, he would stop what he was doing and find a place to sit quietly, as if he couldn't concentrate.
Sometimes it was a step on the stairs, sometimes it was a chair in the study, and the specific location usually depended on where Lu Fenghan was at that time.
Lu Fenghan thought, what kind of minor problem is this? Does it mean that during the period of time after Qi Yan takes the medicine, there must be someone within his sight
Seeing the person opposite him eating bread and becoming dazed again, Lu Fenghan leaned back on his chair, naturally spread his legs, and asked, "Is the bread delicious?"
Qi Yan came back to his senses and looked at the half-finished bread in his hand: "It doesn't taste good."
Lu Fenghan didn't quite understand: "It doesn't taste good, so why do you eat it every day?"
"Because it has no taste, it doesn't matter whether it tastes good or not, and it doesn't matter whether I like it or not." Qi Yan stopped chewing, his left cheek slightly puffed up, and explained seriously, "My body needs carbohydrates, so I need to eat bread."
Lu Fenghan raised his eyebrows: "Then you have to eat the delivered... set meal A every day at noon and in the evening. Is it the same reason?"
"Hmm," Qi Yan agreed with Lu Fenghan's speculation, "It doesn't have much taste, and the nutrients are balanced and sufficient."
At this moment, Lu Fenghan felt a little regretful.
He thought that Qi Yan ate the same thing over and over again every day because he liked it! As a bodyguard, of course he had to be conscious of being a bodyguard and couldn't complain about the food provided by his employer.
Moreover, apart from the bland taste, there are no other shortcomings of the bread slices and set meal A.
Oh, and it’s expensive.
No one can eat the same thing for half a month without getting tired of it. Lu Fenghan suggested: "Why don't we give up set meal A and try something else?"
Qi Yan shook his head: "A lot of things out there taste terrible."
Thinking of how picky Qi Yan was when they went out to eat last time, Lu Fenghan twisted his fingers and said, "Then don't eat outside. I'll cook!"
So, with Qi Yan's permission, Lu Fenghan bought a lot of ingredients and semi-finished products. Since there was no household robot, he tied on his newly bought apron, called up the recipe on his personal terminal, and went into the kitchen.
For three days in a row, there was a strange smell coming from the kitchen.
During this time, Lu Fenghan brought out a dish that looked impressive, placed it in front of Qi Yan, and even handed her chopsticks considerately, saying confidently, "Would you like to try it?"
Qi Yan did as he was told, picked up a piece, put it in his mouth, and after a long time, he swallowed it whole.
Then he put down his chopsticks silently.
Lu Fenghan did not humiliate himself. He asked if the food tasted good, poured out all the food, and did not forget to comfort Qi Yan: "It's hard for you."
Qi Yan nodded: "Yeah."
It was quite difficult, he had never eaten such terrible food.
It was time for dinner again. Qi Yan flipped through the latest paper published by the alliance and read it from beginning to end in just over ten seconds.
The doorbell rang.
Glancing towards the kitchen, Qi Yan got up and opened the door.
Vincent Feng saw who opened the door, and the words he had prepared got stuck in his throat and he couldn't say them smoothly for a while.
After Monger found him and asked him to help solve the problem of his promotion being blocked by his superiors, he realized something and began to trace the clues upwards.
He soon discovered that Munger had no other plans two days before he came to see him.
Except for the Qi family’s celebration banquet.
So, after turning several corners, he stood here.
I just didn't expect that the person living with the conductor would look so... a little too good-looking.
"Are you looking for Lu Fenghan?"
Before Vincent had the chance to introduce himself, Qi Yan revealed his purpose. He nodded readily and did not deny it, but he couldn't help but feel a little confused in his heart -
Why was he so sure that I was looking for someone
After stepping through the door, Vincent politely didn't look around and just followed Qi Yan a few steps inside.
At this moment, a pungent smell of burning came from somewhere, and then a person walked out quickly.
Seeing the person coming, Vincent reflexively put his heels together, straightened his back, raised his hand halfway for salute, and then suddenly stopped in mid-air, which looked a bit funny.
At this moment, his former superior, Lu Fenghan, the expeditionary force commander who had accumulated great prestige on the front line of the Southern Cross Region and had massacred hundreds of enemy starships and caused the rebels to flee, was standing at the kitchen door with a gray plaid apron tied around his waist, holding the spatula with the amazing momentum of pressing the launch button of a high-energy particle cannon!