The night before the promotion

Chapter 115 Body and Mind

When all the dust settles, all those involved in the incident will be promoted and punished, and Shenwei Technology will be completely restrained by the Supervisory Bureau and become a part of order.

The "524 Draft" will be successfully implemented in the near future. Human society will recognize the existence of the disease of consciousness loss and re-evaluate the two major technologies of the incarnation body and the consciousness network.

Dong Yuan's future will be bright, and Li Weiyu and others under his command will become his trusted team. As Dong Yuan rises step by step, they will be valued in the Supervisory Bureau.

Although Ruan Linrui is a member of Shenwei Technology, as Shenwei Technology is further restricted by the Supervisory Bureau, Ruan Linrui will become a bridge of communication between Shenwei Technology and the Supervisory Bureau due to her involvement in the incident, and may even be able to step into the center of power in one fell swoop.

As long as this incident can be concluded smoothly, it seems that everyone can get a happy ending.

Except Zhou Si.

Where should Zhou Si go?
He couldn't figure it out, couldn't find his way home, and didn't know how to face the rest of his bizarre life.

But Zhou Si knew that he would always survive, just like the Xianyue accident. No matter how full of suffering and torture fate was, it would not kill Zhou Si.

Zhou Si will still survive.

only……

"There was a moment where I didn't want it to end like this."

Zhou Si confessed to Ruan Linrui, clearly telling the dirty secret in his heart, but he said it so easily, as if he was telling an insignificant story.

"I hope the immortal will continue to escape and I will continue to chase him, like a hunt that will never end."

Having said that, Zhou Si was amused by his own ridiculous idea, and an awkward smile appeared on his face.

Zhou Si walked slowly, and Ruan Linrui followed him silently. She was probably thinking of some words of comfort, but no matter how hard she racked her brains, she couldn't come up with a single word.

The two walked like this for a long time, and before they knew it, they had turned into a quiet street. The towering high-rise buildings were no longer there, but were replaced by residential buildings.

Zhou Si looked around. This place seemed unfamiliar and he didn't know where he was. However, this unfamiliarity and confusion about the environment brought back memories from long ago.

“It seems like that’s what we were like back then.”

Zhou Si recalled, "I was driving the car, and you were sitting in the passenger seat. We wandered aimlessly around the city, turning right when we saw a red light, and never stopped."

Ruan Linrui nodded silently, her lowered eyes filled with sadness.

"That's really weird, Zhou Si."

"what happened?"

Ruan Linrui raised her head and looked straight into Zhou Si's eyes, as if she was launching a duel.

"I have always wondered, what is the carrier of human emotions?"

Ruan Linrui also rarely confessed, "I think I still have feelings for you, just like you do for me, but it's hard for our relationship to go back to the way it was before."

Zhou Si smiled calmly and motioned Ruan Linrui to continue.

"So during this period of time, I often wondered, what do human emotions rely on?"

Ruan Linrui showed a distressed look, "Should we rely on a purely spiritual level, or should we look for a carrier of spiritual reflection in the material world?"

Zhou Si was like a mentor, patiently asking, "What conclusion did you come to?"

“No conclusion.”

Ruan Linrui shook her head apologetically, turned around and sat on a bench nearby. The bright light from the street lamp enveloped her evenly.

"I once placed this emotion in you... the real you, the flesh and blood you."

Zhou Si stood beside Ruan Linrui and listened quietly.

"You can see and touch it. Even though I know that our relationship has broken down, you will still be the carrier of my emotions and the key to open my memories."

Ruan Linrui organized her words and tried to describe the complicated feelings, "But as you were seriously injured and joined the immortality plan, you kept switching your incarnations..."

Ruan Linrui's words stopped abruptly, and then they started again after a long time.

"Maybe it's because of the times, Zhou Si."

Ruan Linrui tried to find a culprit for all these troubles, like a bad judge who pinned the blame on one person.

"The unity of consciousness and body has been broken. Once upon a time, the complex and changeable side of our personality was only hidden in our hearts, but now it has been materialized with different bodies."

Ruan Linrui was very troubled. "I always remind myself that you are not here. The one talking to me is just a shell. The real you is in the container..."

"But the body in the container won't talk to you," Zhou Si continued, "it can't even open its eyes."

Once again, Zhou Si and Ruan Linrui fell silent at the same time.

In this new era, new technologies bring new troubles. They challenge the traditional worldview of mankind and tear fresh wounds on it.

Zhou Si understood Ruan Linrui's troubles. As a doctor with dementia, the confusion she faced was something Zhou Si had seen in many of her patients.

The relationship between consciousness and the body has been the subject of much discussion since ancient times, but in today's era, the incarnation of the body has fully materialized this issue.

To explain it using existing knowledge, it is probably the "mind-body problem" in philosophy.

This is a core issue in exploring the relationship between consciousness and matter. In traditional philosophy, this question is often expressed as how consciousness interacts with matter, or whether consciousness is just a manifestation of matter.

Ruan Linrui's doubts are reflected in her confusion about her emotional sustenance after the change of her body.

After realizing this, Zhou Si was a little flattered. It was always good to be cared for and cared about by others, but the sense of anticipation it brought was also suffocating.

Ruan Linrui originally placed her emotions on Zhou Si's "flesh and blood", but as Zhou Si was seriously injured and joined the immortality plan, constantly switching bodies, this reliance became complicated and uncertain.

This computer genius can easily crack a tight firewall, but he cannot figure out the underlying code buried deep in his mind.

In order to make her logic self-consistent, Ruan Linrui could only attribute all these problems to the changes of the times.

The development of science and technology has produced a fierce conflict with human emotions and identity. The unity of consciousness and body has been broken, and the continuity of identity has been interrupted.

Whether they are made of flesh and blood or steel, they are all Zhou Si. Zhou Si is no longer an entity, but a spiritual manifestation.

But unfortunately, this is a real world made up of matter. Pure spirit is like a kite with a broken string. It will only sway and dance wildly in the air, and can never find the center of gravity to land.

Things that cannot be seen or touched always make people worry about gains and losses.

Faced with Ruan Linrui's hardship, Zhou Si had nothing to say, and there was no need to say anything.

Some questions have no answers, and the only thing the person involved can do is to endure the suffering and pain until time allows them to reconcile with everything.

Zhou Si suddenly comforted, "Forget it, it's nothing, Ms. Ruan." He was not a person who liked to talk nonsense, but if his nonsense could make Ruan Linrui feel better, Zhou Si was willing to become more talkative.

Zhou Si noticed a green tree not far away. It was a banyan tree, growing very lushly. If it was in a forest, it would have grown stronger, but in the city, it had limited space to grow and could only be confined to this secluded corner.

But even so, its roots still spread out from the soil and grew along the cracks in the floor tiles, like fungi in a petri dish, crisscrossing in search of more nutrients.

Zhou Si came to the banyan tree and gently stroked its bark. The rough texture was converted into electrical signals through various feedbacks, and then transmitted through the consciousness network, depicting its reality in Zhou Si's mind.

"Just like we were taught."

Zhou Si comforted her, and also comforted himself, "Life will always find its own way out."

Everything in the world seems to follow this iron law.

Ruan Linrui gave an unexpected answer, "But life also has the right to choose to linger in the same place."

"Whether you accept it numbly or self-destruct as if in denial, it's both a choice," Zhou Si said calmly, "The worst thing is to be stuck in the middle, neither going up nor down."

"I can neither convince myself to accept this reality nor give up everything and move towards self-destruction. I can only wander between these two extremes, like a drowning person, sometimes gasping for air, sometimes suffocating, enjoying the endless pain."

Ruan Linrui lowered her head and sighed deeply after a long time.

"It's really infuriating."

"me?"

"No...partly, but also probably out of resentment for everything that happened."

Ruan Linrui raised her head and smiled helplessly. She spread her hands and said, "I can't help it. Emotions are a complex chaotic system."

Zhou Si responded, "If it can be perfectly explained by 0 and 1, then it can no longer be called emotion."

“But sometimes, I hope to use 0 and 1 to write complex emotions, so that many unsolved puzzles will have answers, and the obsessions that are difficult to eliminate will also disappear.”

Ruan Linrui looked forward to it, "If that happens, our lives might be a lot easier."

"But it sounds like this will lose a lot of uncertainty. I mean..."

Zhou Si thought carefully and came up with an appropriate word.

"A sense of romance."

"romantic?"

Ruan Linrui was amused, "Zhou Si, you are not a romantic person. Many people in the world do not have the so-called romance."

“But humans need romance and some random ideas, not neat codes.” Zhou Si, who always prided himself on being rational, protested against human sensibility and romance.

"Maybe romance is a sign of cowardice?"

Ruan Linrui crossed her legs, propped up her arms and lifted her chin. "It's a defect that should be optimized away in evolution, just like human wisdom teeth and appendix. We don't need it anymore."

"You feel that humans no longer need this kind of thing, but you are trapped by it and suffer terribly."

Zhou Si's counterattack was so powerful that Ruan Linrui lost her temper and swallowed back the words that were about to come out of her mouth.

"yes……"

Soon, Ruan Linrui seemed to admit defeat and sighed, "It is precisely because it makes people feel so painful that I hope this kind of thing can be optimized, so that life can be spared a lot of pain."

"But it also saved us a lot of happiness," Zhou Si sat down carefully. "Although it's over, we did spend a happy time together, didn't we?"

"Hmm... that's true."

Ruan Linrui nodded, she leaned back and sat down relaxedly. The cool night breeze gave people a just right feeling of comfort.

"What did we talk about at the beginning?" Ruan Linrui asked.

"I forgot," Zhou Si looked ahead, "This isn't a debate. Do we need a topic for casual conversation?"

"Isn't it necessary?"

Zhou Si casually spoke of a great truth, "Chatting is just chatting. If it must have a certain purpose, don't you think it's too utilitarian and too tiring?"

Ruan Linrui turned her head and looked at Zhou Si in disbelief.

"After being stuffed into steel, you become more humane."

Zhou Si was stunned for a moment and asked doubtfully, "Really?"

She thought about it and said, "I guess so."

After saying that, Ruan Linrui looked at Zhou Si with a smile, stretched out her hand, and pinched Zhou Si's cheek hard. The touch of the bionic skin was very real, but it didn't have much temperature and felt cold.

She kneaded it vigorously, and slowly Ruan Linrui loosened her hand. Her arms trembled slightly, and tears welled up in her eye sockets.
Slowly, Ruan Linrui lowered her head and faint sobbing sounds were heard.

"what happened?"

Zhou Si asked at a loss. He didn't understand why Ruan Linrui's emotions fluctuated so greatly, even though he had already noticed her sadness just now.

Human emotions are so complex, like a huge chaotic system that it is difficult to establish an ironclad order in the storm even if one spends a lifetime.

Ruan Linrui waved her hands and covered her face with her hands to prevent Zhou Si from seeing her ugly appearance.

"I just... I just feel sad..."

Ruan Linrui spread her fingers, revealing a pair of crystal eyes, like gems sparkling in the darkness.

She looked at Zhou Si, the familiar facial contours, delicate facial features, fine hair and fine pores... All of these were like pieces of a puzzle, interlaced strokes, and finally wrote the name "Zhou Si".

Ruan Linrui was extremely sad.

"It's more like you than you are... more real than the real person."

Her words were light, like goose feathers, but in Zhou Si's heart, it was like a mountain collapsing, sending rubble all over the sky.

A long peace descended upon this place.

Zhou Si wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say. He looked around in confusion, but didn't know what he wanted to do.

He is neither here nor there.

Like a kite with a broken string, it drifts aimlessly and follows the current.

(End of this chapter)