Memory inheritor

Chapter 229 Night Talk

As Wei Hongsi left the office, he saw Xia Shiyu walking over. The three of them took the elevator together to the underground parking lot.

Xia Shiyu took out the car keys, and Liu Lu said, "Let me drive it."

Xia Shiyu looked at Wei Hongsi, and seeing that he nodded, she handed the key to Liu Lu and asked, "Do you also live in the company dormitory?"

"Yes," Liu Lu nodded with a smile, "From now on, we'll commute to and from get off work together, and I'll be the driver."

"Oh, that's so embarrassing," Xia Shiyu said with a smile.

He didn't know Liu Lu's background and wouldn't ask, but he knew that someone who could be Wei Hongsi's assistant and sit in the same office must be quite extraordinary.

Liu Lu got into the car, started the engine, adjusted the seat, and then drove out of the parking space. Xia Shiyu sat in the passenger seat, and Wei Hongsi sat in the back.

There were several bags on the back seat. Wei Hongsi glanced at them and knew that Lu Jiaqi had bought clothes for him. There were about seven or eight sets in total, costing nearly 30,000 yuan.

Wei Hongsi had never bought so many clothes before, nor had he ever spent so much money on clothes. He was quite frugal with his clothes; even after seven years of studying at Yuecheng University, he hadn't spent this much on clothes in total.

His take-home pay this month reached 36, a significant increase compared to last month; otherwise, he wouldn't have had so much money to buy clothes. It's estimated that his salary will increase again next month, which is a recognition of his work performance.

Liu Lu drove smoothly. There weren't many cars on the road at this time, and she arrived at the company's apartment building in seven or eight minutes.

Xia Shiyu was initially a little worried, after all, she was a young girl, but once she found her, she quickly parked the car in the parking space.

Without bias, one can tell that her skill level is quite good. This was Liu Lu's first time driving this car, and her ability to perform at this level demonstrates her considerable experience.

The three got out of the car, and Wei Hongsi took all the clothes off the back seat. Xia Shiyu offered to help him carry them, but Wei Hongsi said, "No need, they're not heavy. We'll be there in the elevator."

Xia Shiyu lived on the 12th floor and got off the elevator halfway. When they arrived at the 16th floor, Wei Hongsi and Liu Lu came out together. When they reached the dormitory door, he entered the password to open the door, and the two of them went inside together.

Wei Hongsi tossed the pile of clothes he was carrying onto the bed and said to Liu Lu, "Sit wherever you like."

Liu Lu sat down on the small sofa, placed her backpack beside her, and asked, "Mr. Wei, you won't mind that I didn't help you with your things, will you?"

Wei Hongsi said, "I understand that your situation is special."

He guessed Liu Lu had some kind of set of rules to follow, but he didn't think much of it. She brought it up herself, probably to avoid any misunderstanding. He was used to doing things himself; if someone was willing to lend a hand, it was help, not an obligation.

"Thank you," Liu Lu said with a smile.

Wei Hongsi moved a chair over and sat down opposite her. "I reckon we'll be spending a while longer together, so you don't need to be so formal. Just call me by my name when we're not working. You should know me pretty well, right?"

Liu Lu said, "The content on the document is always different from the real person, and we should always consider this a work setting."

"Well, actually I need to think of a way. It doesn't look right for me to always stand by empty-handed when we go out on errands together."

Wei Hongsi smiled and said, "Then you can think about it yourself. I can cooperate with you."

Liu Lu smiled and asked, "Where shall we begin?"

Wei Hongsi said, "Let me first introduce you to the relevant information about the book 'The Story of Time'."

Liu Lu's identity is quite special. Although the two have only just met, they can fully trust each other regarding matters related to the case. Therefore, Wei Hongsi didn't hide anything from her. Apart from matters related to his "system," he told Liu Lu in detail what he had previously reported to the task force leaders and the current progress he knew.

During their earlier conversation in the office, Wei Hongsi mentioned that the author of the book had a rather unusual background, a question that Liu Lu was also very interested in. Hearing Wei Hongsi speculate that it might have been written by Zhang Shuqiu's mother using her daughter's pen, Liu Lu was extremely surprised. Even with her considerable knowledge, she still found it somewhat unbelievable.

After listening to Wei Hongsi's explanation, Liu Lu pondered for a while and then said, "I have a question. Why do you think that Zhang Shuqiu's mother is very likely dead?"

Wei Hongsi said, "If she were still alive, there would be no need for Zhang Shuqiu to write the book 'The Story of Time.' Of course, this is still my speculation, and it cannot be confirmed simply because Zhang Shuqiu said 'my mother's book.'"

"I think that's quite possible," Liu Lu said after thinking for a moment. "Do you think it's possible that the 'mother' in Zhang Shuqiu's mind wasn't the same person?"

"Hmm?" Wei Hongsi's gaze sharpened. "Why do you say that?"

Liu Lu said, "Based on what you just told me, Zhang Shuqiu didn't have any memory of her mother's appearance. It seems unlikely that she actually inherited her mother's memories. From a woman's perspective, under normal circumstances, if you don't look in the mirror a few times a day, no one would be unaware of what they look like, right? This kind of memory should be very deep for women."

Wei Hongsi nodded slowly, finding Liu Lu's words to be very reasonable.

Liu Lu added, "You also mentioned that people who are implanted with memories always receive many memory fragments, and these memory fragments will merge in a special way. So, could Zhang Shuqiu's memories of her mother also be a merged memory? It's like a person who has never seen her mother since childhood and doesn't know who her mother is, but if her father tells her who her mother is, she will believe that is her mother."

Wei Hongsi said, "That is indeed a possibility."

Liu Lu said, "There's another point of doubt. According to your speculation, Zhang Shuqiu's mother was about the same age she is now when she passed away, which should have been about twenty years ago, right? If 'The Story of Time' was written by her mother, doesn't that mean her mother knew about the major drawbacks of memory implantation technology a long time ago?"

Wei Hongsi nodded and said, "I understand what you mean. Her mother was very young when she passed away. If she was already very familiar with the drawbacks of this technology, then others in their organization should have discovered this mechanism over the years, instead of waiting until Zhang Shuqiu was sixteen or seventeen years old to write 'The Story of Time'."

Liu Lu said, "Yes. The research and development of this technology was a collaborative effort of the entire organization, and the key information shouldn't be known by only one person. Could it be that during Zhang Shuqiu's upbringing, she continuously received memory input, and that knowledge merged in her brain, ultimately leading to the analysis and summarization of those patterns?"

Wei Hongsi pondered for a moment and said, "The memory instilled into Zhang Shuqiu should also consist of many memory fragments, but the main body should still be her mother's memories. This is determined by the characteristics of the consciousness anchor. Otherwise, the fragments of consciousness in her brain would be out of balance."

"As for whether the memory subject she was implanted with is her mother, I think the probability is higher. Because this memory subject also contains fragments of consciousness. If this external consciousness does not recognize Zhang Shuqiu as her daughter, which contradicts Zhang Shuqiu's own cognition, a serious conflict will occur, causing the consciousness anchor point to collapse."

"You could say that the memory fragments Zhang Shuqiu received may not have come from her biological mother, but at least this consciousness had to acknowledge her as her daughter."

"However, your analysis also makes sense. The memories implanted in her brain may not have initially contained knowledge about the major drawbacks of this technology; they were gradually integrated and analyzed from the memories she received later."

Liu Lu recalled what Wei Hongsi had just said about anchor points of consciousness and nodded, saying, "I see. I knew this book felt strange to read; indeed, the author's situation is very unique."

Although she used a special strategy to read "The Story of Time," she still understood the content of the book quite well. She felt that it was written by one person's multiple personalities in relay, and many scene descriptions had a magical realism flavor, which made her feel that the author was a schizophrenic.

Wei Hongsi said, "I just thought of something else. Do you think the author intentionally or unintentionally wrote the scenes in this book, apart from the one using the pigpen code?"

"Unintentional?" Liu Lu paused for a moment, thought carefully, and said, "I don't quite understand what you mean. This kind of encrypted text information should be intentionally designed."

Wei Hongsi said, "Based on our current understanding, the conscious anchor and the subconscious firewall are integrated; it can prevent those who receive memory implantation from leaking core secrets. However, the book 'The Story of Time' clearly contains some important secrets of that organization, only they are written very cryptically."

Liu Lu suddenly realized that this was the very question she had asked before leaving the office that evening: "You mean, there's some content in the book that the author wrote unintentionally?"

Wei Hongsi said, "I believe this situation is inevitable, and this phenomenon is called the author's unconscious textual traces or psychological projection in creation." When the author focuses on constructing plot, characters, scenes, and dialogues, conscious thinking is operating at a high load, and the brain's self-monitoring function will weaken.

"In this situation, information that has not undergone in-depth processing and is stored in the subconscious will bypass the censorship mechanism and be directly converted into text. Similarly, important information belonging to that organization may also bypass the subconscious firewall in this way."

Liu Lu understood what he meant: "You want to distinguish which important content in the book was intentionally written by the author and which was unintentional, in order to determine whether the relevant information is the organization's core secret?"

Wei Hongsi nodded and said, "That's right! I used the Light Guide Society as a reference. For their members, things like totems and creeds are top secrets, blocked by the subconscious firewall. We only learned about this information through dream interpretation."

"In the book *The Story of Time*, the words 'Lucifer' and 'Venus,' which you deciphered, if they are indeed the name of that organization, should be highly classified information. The fact that the author could write them in Morse code suggests either that he unintentionally bypassed the subconscious firewall, or that he found a way to break through it."

Liu Lu nodded and said, "Understood. I will expedite the decryption of the encrypted information in this book and find a way to effectively verify the decrypted content."

Wei Hongsi said, "You don't need to rush. Just follow the schedule you mentioned before. Two days should be enough to decipher the content first. Then I have other work to give you."

Liu Lu asked in surprise, "There are more? So many clues?"

Wei Hongsi said, "It's just a try. You know, Zhang Shuqiu is now an online writer. If you have time, you can take a look at her books and see if there are any encrypted text messages in them. This might be a reference for you to identify and decipher the content."

Liu Lu's eyes lit up, and she said, "That's great! It makes things easier with a reference. Send me the book she wrote."

Wei Hongsi asked, "You're not going to watch it tonight, are you?"

Liu Lu said, "It's still early to go to bed, there's still time."

Wei Hongsi was silent for a moment, then said, "Could I arrange something else for you?"

Liu Lu smiled and said, "Just tell me what to do. During our time as colleagues, you are my boss."

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Wei Hongsi said, "I read the book through tonight and did some analysis. I'll send it to you later so you can take a look. Then, compile my analysis, your interpretation, and our conversation tonight, and send them to the task force."

Liu Lu nodded and said, "No problem, I'm a professional at this."

Wei Hongsi said, "Then I'll leave it to you."

"Okay, please rest assured, leader." Liu Lu said, slinging her bag over her shoulder and standing up.

Wei Hongsi escorted Liu Lu to the door, and seeing her open the opposite door and go inside, he couldn't help but shake his head and smile.

He closed the door, sat down at the corner table, turned on his computer, and jotted down some thoughts.

During his conversation with Liu Lu, he thought of something else.

Based on the current understanding, the objects to which the anchor of consciousness is anchored are all autonomous consciousnesses, and this consciousness cannot contradict the major cognition of the "id".

The anchor point of the consciousness of the members of the Light Guide Society is the "elders" of their organization, which goes without saying.

Wei Hongsi's own anchor of consciousness is the lofty ideal of contributing to human society, but it is not an abstract concept; rather, it is embodied by his second personality. In other words, the autonomous consciousness of his anchor object is his second personality.

Zhang Shuqiu's anchor point was previously her mother. Her mother's memories were implanted in her brain, naturally containing fragments of consciousness, which fits the above situation.

So Wei Hongsi wondered, how did Xiao Qiu's consciousness anchor point later become him?

It's normal for Zhang Shuqiu to have memories of Wei Hongsi in his brain, but logically, these memories should also contain fragments of Wei Hongsi's consciousness, which is not normal.

Could it be that Zhang Shuqiu was implanted with fragments of his memories? That would be quite chilling, and even absurd.

Of course, it is more likely that Zhang Shuqiu herself imbued the Wei Hongsi in her memory with consciousness.

This may sound strange, but it's a perfectly normal ability for writers. That's why skilled writers are often said to bring their characters to life.

Wei Hongsi felt that if the underlying principles could be understood, they could also be applied to breaking the "circuit breaker mechanism." While the idea was still fresh, he thought he needed to organize it properly. Delegating the task to Liu Lu wasn't because he wanted to slack off.

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