The night before the promotion

Chapter 51 Waking up to reality

2042, April 7.

Li Weiyun turned the steering wheel and turned onto the overpass. The dense traffic gathered together, like a school of fish swimming in the deep sea, moving in unison.

Sitting in his co-pilot seat, Zhou Si, as usual, looked out the window at the city scenery that he had examined countless times.

Li Weiyun complained, "Can't you go to the sanatorium for a follow-up visit yourself?"

Every time he drove somewhere, Zhou Si would give him a ride if he had the chance. Li Weiyun felt that he was becoming more and more like a driver, but he couldn't do anything about Zhou Si.

Zhou Si yawned and said, "You are going to visit Shi Tong at the nursing home anyway, and it just so happens that it is time for my regular checkup, so just take me with you."

Li Weiyun glanced at Zhou Si and said, "If you ask me, why don't you just stay in the sanatorium? You won't have to run back and forth.

Didn't Ms. Ruan get you a super luxurious suite?"

"No matter how luxurious the suite is, you'll still be locked up in the medical cabin," Zhou Si shook his head and asked, "Team Leader Li, have you ever been in a medical cabin?"

Li Weiyun replied, "No, I have never been injured so seriously that I need to be put in a medical cabin, and I am not rich enough to experience that kind of technology."

"Then you are really lucky."

Even Zhou Si couldn't help but feel awe when talking about the experience of using the medical cabin. "If you are unconscious, it feels good to soak in it, just like falling asleep in warm water."

"If you're awake, it's terrible," Zhou Si continued to complain, "with a trachea in your mouth and a urinary catheter in your lower body, living on nutrient solution, thirsty, hungry... You can't do anything but lie there obediently, letting people around you touch you and look at you with scrutiny."

Zhou Si gritted his teeth and said, "And I just spent a week in the medical cabin in a sober state."

"Okay, stop talking," Li Weiyun simply imagined, "You sound like a specimen soaked in formalin."

The car stopped at a red light, and Li Weiyun had time to carefully examine Zhou Si's current situation.

After the Golden Dream incident, Zhou Si received emergency treatment. He had many wounds all over his body, but the most serious ones were undoubtedly the double swords that Shan Jun stabbed into his body and the bullet in his thigh.

The bulletproof vest and polyethylene plates worn by Zhou Si blocked most of the impact for him. Ruan Linrui stopped the bleeding, Li Weiyu provided battlefield first aid, and the artificial organs in his body continued to function during the fierce battle.

Due to various factors, Zhou Si's health condition was much better than expected, and even the doctor who treated him was surprised.

The only bad thing was Zhou Si's mental state. The continuous fatigue and the influence of hallucinogens made his dementia disease begin to take effect.

According to the doctor's advice, Zhou Si should stay in the medical cabin for a few more days, but Zhou Si had had enough of this terrible water dungeon and protested to be discharged from the hospital two days ago.

Being discharged early did not have much impact on his body. Only the wounds on his abdomen and thighs had not yet healed completely. Zhou Si needed to continue taking painkillers every day and inject biological treatment agents on time.

Li Weiyun couldn't help but sigh, "The biological treatment technology is really good. In just one week, you have almost recovered."

"I have to thank Ms. Ruan for her kindness." Zhou Si could only be grateful to his ex-girlfriend.

Just like before, Ruan Linrui paid off Zhou Si's debt using Shenwei Technology's public account.

The joke was over and the car became quiet again. Li Weiyun never liked this kind of quiet atmosphere, not to mention that Zhou Si was sitting next to him. With him around, the quiet atmosphere would always become inexplicably depressing.

This time it was Zhou Si who took the initiative to start the conversation. He patted the storage box in front of him curiously.

"Come to think of it, it's already 2042, why are you still driving a gasoline car? Do you have feelings for old internal combustion engines? Or is it that the Supervisory Bureau doesn't provide corresponding subsidies?"

With the rapid rise of thought networks and avatar bodies, related industries are also booming, such as the materials industry for creating avatar bodies, or the battery technology that drives the avatar bodies to move.

It is through this series of technological innovations that the driving battery has achieved a qualitative breakthrough, with greater energy density and smaller size.

Nowadays, the streets are full of new energy electric vehicles, but Li Weiyun is still driving an old internal combustion engine car, like a conservative old man, out of place in this new era.

Li Weiyun didn't think about it carefully. After thinking for a long time, he said, "How should I put it? I just prefer this kind of 'backward' sense of history."

"Think about it, Dr. Zhou. Take online videos as an example. Now 4K, 8K and even higher resolutions are everywhere. Even the 480p quality that was not good to look at before has been reproduced in high definition by AI. All of this gives me the feeling that... it's too new."

Zhou Si didn't quite understand what Li Weiyun meant, "Too new?"

"Yes, it's too new. Things now are no different from those ten or twenty years ago. It's as if human society has reached a certain point and everything has stagnated."

Li Weiyun stroked the leather steering wheel and said nostalgically, "I like this kind of old stuff, as if it can prove that the old era existed."

Zhou Si nodded and said, "Hmm...it sounds good. I haven't really thought about it."

The atmosphere became harmonious again. Li Weiyun felt that this was a good time. He asked tentatively, "Actually, you are a little anxious, right?"

Zhou Si was confused by his sudden question, "What do you mean?" "As for the medical cabin, even if the experience of soaking there is like being in a water dungeon, with your mental quality, it shouldn't be a problem for you to lie there for a month."

After the Golden Dreamland incident, Li Weiyun felt that he understood Zhou Si a lot. He said, "You just can't stand being there and not being able to do anything."

"After all..." Li Weiyun paused and continued, "After all, the tiger is still at large, the paradise is hidden in the fog, and Chen Wen Ge's death is still a mystery."

"The most important thing is..." Li Weiyu didn't continue.

Zhou Si understood what he meant and continued, "The most important thing is that they killed Pei Dong, my friend."

Li Weiyu didn't say anything, and Zhou Si turned his gaze back to the window.

Pei Dong is dead.

After knowing that her self-consciousness could only be trapped in the body forever, she chose to jump off from the golden dreamland. This was Pei Dong's first flight in the real world and also the last time.

"In fact, I didn't have much psychological fluctuations about Pei Dong's death," Zhou Si said indifferently, "In fact, when she turned and left, I knew what she was going to do. It sounds very cold-blooded, right?"

"No," Li Weiyun denied Zhou Si's thoughts and comforted him like a psychiatrist, "You just guessed Pei Dong's ending a long time ago."

Recalling that haggard body in his mind, Zhou Si reluctantly admitted, "Yes, when I saw her at her house for the second time, I guessed this possibility."

"As for watching Pei Dong walk towards death... just like I killed her ascended consciousness, for Pei Dong at that moment, death was another better choice."

After a moment, Zhou Si's voice sounded again.

"I know that this is the path Pei Dong chose himself, but I don't think that we can just let it go like this," Zhou Si muttered to himself, "I want to vent my anger on the Elysian Fields, find them out, and kill them all."

Zhou Si took a deep breath and said frankly, "So, I agree to Ms. Ruan's request. Next, I will fully participate in the investigation of Chen Wen Ge's cause of death. What about you?"

"The Golden Dreamland incident caused a big stir, but thanks to this incident, the Supervisory Bureau and Shenwei Technology stopped their endless wrangling, and the top leaders of both sides reached an agreement."

Li Weiyun said the good news, "Soon, all the closed doors will open to us."

A dense forest rises at the end of the street, and gradually, a hospital surrounded by iron bars emerges from it. At some point, the hustle and bustle of the city disappears, leaving only peace and tranquility.

Zhou Si looked at the wall covered with ivy. The metal plaque at the gate was rusty with a line of words engraved on it.

Ammonium City Sanatorium Center.

Li Weiyun parked the car, took out the flowers he had bought on the road from the back seat, picked up the bouquet, and looked nervous like a recent graduate preparing for a job interview.

"Are you ready to meet her?"

Zhou Si leaned on a crutch. He had to carry this thing until his leg injury was fully healed.

"Let me take it slow."

Li Weiyun took deep breaths repeatedly, straightened his clothes, smoothed his hair, and practiced smiling repeatedly until a soft, friendly, standard textbook smile appeared on his face.

"Let's go, Doctor Zhou."

Zhou Si looked at the long green path in front of him. The cool shadows were lined up one after another, like guards guarding the throne, extending to the end of the fortress.

Ammonium City Sanatorium Center.

Every time he came here, many complex emotions would emerge in Zhou Si's heart: nostalgia, sadness, fear... joy.

"It's as quiet here as before," Zhou Si whispered, "Team Leader Li, although this is called the Sanatorium, do you know what people outside call it?"

Li Weiyun, who was walking in front, paused for a moment and said without turning his head, "I know, the insane asylum."

Hearing this reply, Zhou Si showed a self-deprecating smile on his face.

He followed Li Weiyun's steps and then said with emotion, "If this place is considered a university, I should be an outstanding graduate here."

It hasn't been many years since Zhou Si came back here, but every time he steps into this place, he always has a completely different mood.

Depression, doubt, pain...

Zhou Si tried hard to throw away the chaotic noise in his mind, and only tranquility covered his body and mind.

(End of this chapter)