The mountain path on Little Wilderness Hill.
The wheelchair slowly rolled over dead leaves.
Time seemed to crawl, the sunset glow stretching the shadows long.
"I always wanted to come here..."
The old man sat in the wheelchair, gazing at the withered and decaying scenery on both sides of the forest, murmuring softly, "Actually, it wasn’t a matter of no time."
As a member of the Da Du District with the greatest authority, his twenty-four hours were filled with various agendas; each day when he closed his eyes and then opened them, countless trivial matters were queued up waiting for him... But the real reason for not coming to this Little Wilderness Hill was not due to being busy with affairs.
It was because of that guilt in his heart.
No one in this world could understand Zhao Xilai’s feelings at the moment.
He watched the trees on both sides slowly receding; this was the barren hill grave of an old friend from years ago, whom he had once pledged to stand with at the pinnacle of the world with Huazhi.
Time flew, and upon reunion,
His hair had turned white, and Lu Cheng was now but a shroud of yellow earth.
Such is always the case in life.
Most things in this world cannot be promised or fulfilled as one wishes.
Meeting brings joy; reunions do not.
After the Lion Alley blood case, the Zhao Family took full control of the Huazhi Building... Regarding Lu Cheng’s death, there were many mysteries in the outside world, numerous speculations, but in reality, probably only a handful of people could guess the true reason.
Zhao Xilai was one of them.
"The cross-continental judgment has been canceled."
"The Source Tower claims to have no knowledge of the old case files."
Lu Nanzhi was pushing the elderly man, moving slowly towards the peak, and she asked softly, "It seems like everything has ended... But is that really the case?"
The blood case of Lion Alley seemed to have been clarified.
But in reality, the mysteries hidden within had yet to be solved.
While fleeing from the assassination... the bronze box that Old Lu left behind was destroyed, which seemed like a good thing at the time, but looking at it now, after the bronze box was destroyed, all the technical information about Lion Alley was lost.
This was a significant loss.
And it made the secret that Lu Nanzhi most wanted to uncover impossible to investigate.
"Let’s not beat around the bush." The lady looked at the last rays of sunlight disappearing behind the mountaintop, and asked seriously, "You should be clear about what Lion Awakening technology is... Is the ’Awakening Bill’ that the Federation Government is about to implement derived from it?"
The old man fell silent for a while.
"Huazhi’s ninth level has been conducting related experiments... After today, you’ll have enough authority to go and check it out yourself."
The lady was stunned.
Was he handing over the authority of Huazhi to her?
Zhao Xilai just smiled and continued, "Whether you believe it or not, in fact I am not very familiar with Old Lu’s Lion Awakening technology; I only know that it was the life’s work of a genius, and the greatest regret of East Continent, stillborn before it could be unveiled. And the Awakening Technology received by Huazhi from the transfer by the Federation Government came several years later... After the project was handed over to the Tomb Ghost and the professional research team, all we could do was invest money and wait for the outcomes."
By now, he had nothing left to lie or hide about.
This was also the reason why Huazhi was fighting a desperate battle, risking everything to push the Awakening Bill through in the East Continent.
"On top of the pushing and preparation of the bill, Huazhi has invested too much financially... This is the guidance and warning given by ’Deep Sea’ regarding the catastrophic crisis facing the Five Continents, as well as the grand gamble on the future of all humanity. As you have seen, the number of black spots appearing in the Five Continents is increasing, and the speed is accelerating, which is due to the proliferation of free-floating Extraordinary Essence."
Zhao Xilai cleared his throat and said, "If we can control the awakening, then it means... a great deal of Extraordinary Essence will be absorbed."
"Then... human social civilization will be pushed to an unpredictable state," Lu Nanzhi calmly retorted. "Once it starts, there is no turning back."
The old man shrugged his shoulders and said, "If the bill passes the parliamentary review, before it is officially promulgated, controlled experiments will be conducted within a manageable range. We would establish a fault-tolerant closed-loop ecosystem... and then control the survivors to gradually awaken within this ecological environment. ’Deep Sea’ needs further data to calculate and predict how far human society needs to awaken to cope with the risk of a collapsing order."
Lu Nanzhi fell completely silent.
"Beyond reason... it’s insane, isn’t it?" the old man said with a hoarse voice chuckling, "This is an answer we could not have imagined... Perhaps that is the difference between the Superbrain and humans. It considers only the outcome; if sacrificing a smaller part to preserve a larger portion of the group is acceptable."
No need to look back.
He knew what expression would be on Lu Nanzhi’s face at that moment.
"For the Five Continents, East Continent is that small part that can be sacrificed."
"For the East Continent... there is likewise a small part that can be cut away."
"The real difficulty of the so-called ’trolley dilemma’ lies in the fact that the number on either side of the track is not fixed, humans have to go through countless choices, and the scales always have a heavier and lighter side."
"So... sometimes, we don’t have a choice, or in other words."
"Why should sacrificing you be of any concern to you?"
This was the cruel reality of the Awakening Bill.
"It’s not quite accurate to use the word ’sacrifice’, maybe ’change’ would sound better," Zhao Xilai said in a low voice with a chuckle, "I remember a long time ago in the library, I read about... Before the birth of mankind, this land was inhabited by very strong reptilian creatures, with strong limbs, long tails, and massive bodies. They all perished due to some reason."
"What changed them... was said to be a stone that fell from the sky."
"The sad thing is, they had no say over their own destiny and couldn’t refuse the arrival of that stone."
"Of course, all this might just be a story, not to be taken as truth, but the same thing is happening today, only we are stronger and wiser than those creatures."
"That stone... we have the power to decide when it falls, where it falls, drop a part first, then another..."
Zhao Xilai muttered softly, "Although when that stone falls... it will be quite ugly, but at least, we can escape the fate of ’extinction’."
He asked earnestly, "So... after hearing all this, do you still firmly oppose the Awakening Bill?"
Lu Nanzhi did not hesitate in the slightest.
She repeated the phrase from the alternate legislator’s ceremony.
"Why?" the old man sighed softly.
He couldn’t understand how the young person he most admired could be so indecisive and compassionate when facing such a critical decision about the fate of the community. Was it because she didn’t want anyone to be sacrificed?
Lu Nanzhi said calmly, "I believe the stone hanging over the head of humanity’s destiny... is a lie from ’Deep Sea’."