Click——! !
The entire space collapsed!
The cage constructed by the program crumbled in the resonance of pure emotion.
In the distance, a brand-new flight path lit up on the star map, winding its way to a region that had never been marked before.
There were three words written there:
"Family Name Belt"
Su Ting wiped his face, turned to look at Xiao Yao, and grinned:
"So, lead singer? Where should we hold our first concert?"
Xiao Yao tiptoed, poked his dimple with her finger, and blinked:
"Brother, what if we set off fireworks on the day 'Jiaming Belt' launches, and then let the entire Milky Way sing along with us..."
She paused, then smiled, revealing a set of small, white teeth:
Do you think Mom will hear you?
Chapter 1586 Tell Me First
Su Ting didn't answer immediately, but reached out and pinched her chubby cheeks, smiling like a child who had just stolen candy.
“Tell me first,” he lowered his voice, the lingering glow of the song still flickering in his eyes, “that question you asked just now, ‘Will Mom hear me?’...were you really looking for the answer, or...were you waiting for me to lie?”
Xiaoyao tilted her head, her eyes shining like they held fragments of the Milky Way.
“I know you wouldn’t lie to me,” she said softly. “Last time you said ‘strawberry candy is the best in the universe,’ and then you secretly slipped the last one into my pocket while you ate three lemon candies yourself, your face scrunched up like a bun from the sweetness—do you remember?”
Su Ting's throat tightened, and his face burned, but he still stubbornly insisted, "That's because lemon candy can refresh you! If you don't refresh yourself after singing, you'll sing the next song off-key all the way to the moon!"
“Then can you tell me now?” she suddenly leaned closer, her nose almost touching his chin, “why is that photo you secretly hid inside your tactical vest showing Mom outside the incubation chamber, holding my hand?”
The air grew still.
Even the data debris floating in the air seemed to hold its breath.
Su Ting stood at a distance with a cigarette in his mouth, then suddenly extinguished it and silently turned away.
Lin Zhiwei's fingertips were still stained with blood, but she gently gathered the remnants of the energy core into her palm, as if holding a handful of unextinguished sparks.
Xiao An quietly tightened the lid of the glass bottle, and the fireflies quietly settled on the bottle wall, no longer flying around.
Lin Xiaoya stood motionless. Her shadow was stretched long by the starlight, so long that it seemed to touch the woman who had long since vanished into the core of the system, holding a baby and humming a lullaby.
Su Ting's Adam's apple bobbed.
He didn't answer.
He slowly pulled a faded photograph from his inner pocket.
The photo shows a woman wearing a gray-white medical bodysuit, her fingertips gently touching the inner wall of the culture chamber through the glass.
On the other side of the glass, a tiny baby is raising its hand, inch by inch, struggling and clumsily reaching towards her palm.
She didn't cry.
No fuss.
Only those eyes, clear and focused, seemed to... have already recognized her.
“She’s not dead.” Su Ting’s voice was soft, but it made people’s eardrums vibrate. “The system said she’s dead. Data deleted, memories archived, emotions erased—she didn’t even leave a number.”
He paused, his fingertips tracing the corner of the photograph, where there was an almost invisible crease.
"But I know she's always been there."
Xiaoyao didn't ask, "How did you know?"
She simply reached out and gently pressed the photo against her chest.
“So now,” she looked up, her smile undiminished, “where should we go?”
Su Ting looked at her, then suddenly grinned, revealing a row of neat little white teeth.
"Go to a place... a place the system never dares to mark on the star map."
He raised his hand and pointed beyond the dome—the rift torn open by the song was now slowly widening. Deep within the rift, there was no longer the cold, programmatic black mist, but countless shimmering, vibrant points of light that flickered like heartbeats.
They are arranged in a blurry pattern—like the lines of a mother's hand, like the arc of a cradle, like countless deleted, forgotten, yet still refusing to be extinguished dreams.
“There’s no number there,” he said in a low voice. “No system logs, no security protocols.”
"Only... an echo."
Xiaoyao's eyes lit up: "An echo?"
Chapter 1587 They're all there
“Yes.” He took her hand, their fingers intertwined. “Everyone who was erased, every child who dared not cry, every bug who thought they were just a mistake… they are all there, softly humming a song.”
He paused, looked down at her, and his eyes held an unprecedented tenderness and certainty.
"So, little lead singer—"
“You want to,” he said in a low, husky voice, yet as clear as a bell tolling into the soul.
"To let the entire universe hear her echo?"
Xiaoyao didn't say anything.
She simply tiptoed closer to his ear and softly hummed that off-key nursery rhyme in a volume only he could hear—
"Little bunny, open the door..."
The sound was intermittent and terribly out of tune.
But just as that last syllable fell—
In the distance, deep within that crack, countless faint yet persistent songs, like stardust, awaken, slowly converging, and gently echoing:
"Open it quickly, I need to get in..."
A warm tear fell onto Xiaoyao's eyelashes.
She didn't wipe it.
She just smiled even brighter.
"Brother," she whispered, "did you hear me?"
Su Ting closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he wanted to inhale the echoes of the entire universe into his lungs.
Then he opened his eyes, took her hand, and stepped into the abyss of light.
"heard it."
he said softly.
"She sings better than me."
The light spots deep within the crack suddenly boiled over, no longer sporadic responses, but a surging wave of sound—millions of nursery rhymes, cries, whispers, and hums, interwoven into a silent yet deafening net that enveloped the two of them.
Xiaoyao's skirt moved without wind, and her hair swayed gently as if brushed by tender fingers. Her fingertips were still pressed against the photograph on her chest, warm as if it were a beating heart, not just paper.
Su Ting didn't let go; instead, he gripped it even tighter, his steps steady as he walked step by step toward the abyss of light.
The metal floor beneath my feet began to ripple with blue waves, like a galaxy reflected on water. Every inch of the corroded alloy plate resonated. One by one, the surveillance cameras in the distance automatically turned off, their screens shattering, but no longer flashing red alarm lights—they simply turned to dust in silence.
"The system... is retreating," Xiaoyao suddenly said.
“It’s not retreating,” Su Ting said with a slight smile, “it’s… making way.”
They passed rows of long-abandoned culture chambers. The doors were rusted shut, the glass dusty, but as they passed, the dried-up nutrient solution inside each chamber began to glow faintly again, rising and falling like a heartbeat. The inner walls of the chambers were densely covered with countless crooked, small characters:
"Mom, I'm afraid of the dark."
"I secretly hid the medicine again today. The doctor said it would make me well-behaved... but I don't want to become well-behaved."
"I want to hear you sing 'Little Rabbit, Be Good'."
"Am I wrong? Why do they all say I shouldn't exist?"
Each line of text bears the marks of fingernail scratches, and some even bear dried bloodstains.
Xiaoyao stopped and reached out to gently stroke one of the lines.
The moment the fingertip touched the ground, the words turned a pale gold, slowly floated into the air, transformed into a string of musical notes, and gently drifted into the depths of the crack.
“This isn’t a memory…” she whispered, “This is… proof that they’re not dead.”
Su Ting turned to look at her, a sharp glint in her eyes: "Why do you think the system deleted them?"
"Because...they rebelled?" she probed.
Chapter 1588 Out-of-Control Individuals
“No,” he sneered, “it’s because they…are too obedient.”
You'll Also Like
-
Night Watchman: Linked to the Legend of Sword and Fairy game, strongly promoting Huaiqing.
Chapter 240 11 minute ago -
Crayon Shin-chan: As someone who's traveled through time, all I want is a huge reward!
Chapter 272 11 minute ago -
Land of Light: The strongest support system, sweeping through nebulae.
Chapter 244 11 minute ago -
Ling Cage: I am a spiritual master, devouring source matter to become a god.
Chapter 263 11 minute ago -
Food Wars!: I Became a Fantasy Ingredient Supplier
Chapter 195 11 minute ago -
Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard
Chapter 828 11 minute ago -
Film and Television: A Man in White Horse, Begins by Becoming an Apprentice of Yu Sheng Demon
Chapter 282 11 minute ago -
Memorable scenes from various anime and manga crossovers: Starting with Emiya the Great Hero
Chapter 1238 11 minute ago -
Zhenguan: I, Dou Fengjie, will not be the first cuckold.
Chapter 91 11 minute ago -
Beast Taming: My first spirit beast was a frog junior?
Chapter 115 11 minute ago