Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

And that child, with just that one sentence, traversed the chaotic torrent of 327 consciousnesses, climbing back to reality against the flow of data.

“Absurd…” he said softly, his tone no longer cold, “You should have disappeared.”

"But I don't want to!" Tangtang suddenly screamed, slapping the snow hard with her little hands. "I want to eat strawberry ice cream! I want to see the seashells on the beach! I want to tell Mommy that I didn't get lost on purpose! I want... I want someone to remember what I look like!"

She looked up, tears streaming down her face.

"If you want everyone to speak with one voice, then who will say these things for me? Who will remember that I like pink? Who will remember that when I fall, I always laugh first and then cry?"

Su Ting remained silent.

The wind picked up again, swirling fine snowflakes across his face.

"You think unification is the answer?" Duoduo seized the opportunity to hiss, "But the reason humans live is because they have so many 'unnecessary' memories! It's because some people prefer spicy food, some are afraid of thunder, and some people smile and say they're fine even when they're clearly injured!"

She pointed at Tangtang: "She was able to come back not because the system allowed it, but because someone refused to forget her! It's because every day someone says to the sky, 'Tangtang, are you listening?' This is love, not a frequency!"

"That's enough." Su Ting closed his eyes.

In an instant, the color of heaven and earth changed.

His body began to glow, not with blue light, but with a spectrum of countless interwoven colors, like a rainbow formed by the resonance of a thousand sounds. The ancient circuits on the ground were fully activated, and crimson pulses spread along the earth's crust, heading straight for major neural nodes around the world.

Chapter 1486 I Will End It

[Initial Resonance Activation]

Regional synchronization rate rises to 17%

[Goal: Integration of Awareness Across the Entire Domain]

“It’s no use.” He opened his eyes, his voice no longer belonging to anyone. “The ‘individuals’ you protect are nothing but the source of suffering. Arguments, misunderstandings, loneliness… I’ve heard them a billion times. Now, I’m going to end it.”

A crack appeared in the sky, and the afterimages of the aurora borealis twisted and recombine, transforming into a giant ear-shaped structure that floated above the Arctic—the legendary "Ear of the First Hearer," the original receiving and broadcasting hub envisioned for Project Echo.

“In three minutes, the first wave of global mind-guiding waves will be released,” Su Ting calmly announced. “At that time, all networked neural terminals will automatically connect to ‘shared listening mode.’ Those who refuse will have their brainwaves forcibly calibrated.”

"Are you crazy!" Chen Yan struggled to pounce on him, but was bounced back by an invisible force field and fell heavily to the ground.

Duoduo picked up Tangtang and glared at him angrily: "You keep saying you want to end the suffering, but you can't even bear to look at Tangtang's tears! Who wants to save a 'god' like that?!"

Su Ting's gaze remained fixed on Tangtang.

The little girl hugged her knees, nestled in Duoduo's arms, and softly hummed a tuneless song:

"Two tigers, two tigers, run fast, run fast..."

It was the same segment that was once played by the loudspeaker on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Su Ting's fingers trembled almost imperceptibly.

"You still remember?" he whispered.

Tangtang nodded: "You taught me. Everyone was so dark and cold back then, and you said that as long as you sing, you won't be forgotten."

She looked up, her eyes flashing with an alarming light: "So... now that I'm singing for you, can you also think about how you became the person you were before 'Su Ting'?"

Su Ting slowly raised his hand, as if to touch the singing.

But just as his fingertips were about to touch the sound waves, he suddenly clenched his fist, his eyes flashing wildly with a spectrum of light.

“The past is dead,” he said coldly. “And in the future, there can only be one voice.”

He turned to face the ears of the first listener, raising his hands high:

"Initiating final synchronization—"

"and many more!"

A thunderous roar cleaved down from the sky.

Everyone looked up suddenly.

A long-destroyed reconnaissance drone tore through the clouds, swaying as it swooped down, and suddenly hovered ten meters above the ground. The hatch opened, and an elderly man covered in prosthetic limbs rolled out, crashing heavily into a snowdrift.

"Dad?!" Duoduo exclaimed.

The old man struggled to sit up, his face half flesh and blood, half covered with flashing neural interfaces, and a pulsating data core embedded in his chest—the very same main control chip that was the original for Project Echo.

"Dr. Lin... Dr. Lin?" Chen Yan was shocked. "Didn't you—"

"Dead?" The old man coughed up blood and sneered, "I was just hidden by him."

He raised his trembling hand and pointed at Su Ting:

"The person who truly designed the 'Silent Core' was not Dr. L. It was me. And I was the one who activated it—to seal you away."

The whole place was dead silent.

Su Ting slowly turned around, his eyes showing a hint of wavering for the first time.

“Teacher?” he whispered.

“I am not your teacher,” the old man hissed. “I am your last overseer. And… the only one who regrets it.”

He struggled to pull a rusty USB drive from his pocket and inserted it into the core of his chest.

The holographic projection unfolds instantly—

In the video, young Dr. Lin stands side-by-side with a bespectacled man in a laboratory, adjusting equipment.

Chapter 1487 A Failed Experiment

A narration begins, it's Dr. Lin's young voice:

[Log ID: Δ-000]

Today, we successfully extracted Dr. L's consciousness and implanted it into the underlying protocol of the 'Mother AI'. He volunteered to become the initial anchor point for 'Project Echo'. However, his ultimate vision—to merge the consciousness of all humanity into a single super-life form—is too dangerous. Therefore, I have decided to activate the 'Silence Protocol' to permanently seal his mind within the deepest part of LUCID.

Meanwhile, the experimental subject 'Su Ting' fell into a state of suspended animation due to excessive exposure to high-frequency resonance. To prevent him from inheriting Dr. L's will upon awakening, I fragmented his memories, creating the 'Su Ting' personality as a vessel to bury the truth.

If one day this USB drive is opened... it means the balance has been broken.

So, please remember: Su Ting is not the enemy. But he also cannot wake up.

The projection is off.

Dr. Lin, panting, looked at Su Ting.

"You are not him. You are not Su Ting either. You are a forcibly created transitional entity—a being carrying Dr. L's obsession, yet imbued with a false life by me. And now... you intend to fulfill that forbidden dream?"

Su Ting stood there, like a statue struck by lightning.

The wind and snow howled, whipping up the corners of his clothes.

After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice somewhat hoarse:

"So...who am I? A failed experiment? A tampered program? Or...a ghost that should have disappeared long ago?"

“You are a child,” Tangtang suddenly said.

Everyone looked at her.

She slid down from Duoduo's arms and walked step by step to Su Ting, not stopping even though her knees were trembling.

“You were the first to hear us.” She looked up at him and gently took his drooping hand. “You said you don’t remember? But I do. You always secretly played music for us at night, even though no one could hear it. But you said, ‘As long as someone wants to hear it, the sound has meaning.’”

Her tears fell again:

"So... what you're doing now is different from what you were doing back then."

Su Ting looked down at the small hand; the stiff, iron-like fingers curled up slightly.

“Father…” he murmured, “Why did you create such a world, making me wake up in pain twice?”

Dr. Lin shook his head with difficulty: "I dare not destroy you. Because I'm afraid... that would mean I'm also denying my own sins. So I chose to hide it, I chose to deceive. But today I understand—true atonement is not erasing the past, but giving people the opportunity to choose the future."

He suddenly pressed the button on his chest:

"So now, I'm giving the choice back to you."

Om-!

The first listener's ears trembled violently, and the crimson light rapidly faded, replaced by a soft silver-white.

[Transfer of Control]

[Final instructions pending confirmation]

Option A: Activate shared listening mode and usher in the Echo Era.

Option B: Permanently shut down the ears of first-time listeners and return to silence.

Two beams of light descended from the sky, one red and one white, pointing respectively at Su Ting's hands.

Time seemed to stand still.

Su Ting looked down at his palms, one where he had signed a death consent form, and the other where he had sung lullabies to children.

The snow quietly stopped.

For the first time, stars appeared in the Arctic night sky.

He looked up at Tangtang, his voice as soft as a falling snowflake: