About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

Tallulah sighed and punched Black Snake in her mind, then looked at the boy in front of her. Her expression was not one of worry for him, but of silent encouragement and support.

"--Thank you, Tallulah. And Miss Black Snake."

Orson was stunned for a moment, then smiled at Tallulah.

"Hmm... Seriously, why do you have such an inappropriate smile like that, you idiot... Anyway, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."

[This kid...ah]

The young Fire Dragon blushed and turned his head to the side. The Black Snake lady, whose age was unknown, also snorted subconsciously.

Orson nodded, and then began to delve deeper into his forgotten memories.

The transcription module is at the heart of everything, so the next question is, where is this thing now?

The most likely possibility is that he was 'hiding' somewhere with the Doctor, but no matter how Orson recalled, he still had no memory of the Doctor's 'whereabouts'.

If it weren't with 'Dr.'...

Several fragments flashed through Orson's mind, those were the images of himself holding the cube and then placing it somewhere.

"--underground"

The answer was finally caught by Orson from the endless fragments. He recalled that he had a habit of hiding some very precious things under the house.

Is it here... No, it should be here?

Orson squatted on the ground and gently felt around for the cold, thick wood that was perhaps harder than steel due to the freezing. Finally, he found a tiny cut mark on the floor in the middle of the room.

Orson summoned a rest and inserted it into the gap, then gently lifted the floor, revealing a space about the size of a standard Penguin Logistics cardboard box.

I must have hidden the transcription module here, although I probably didn't even know what it was at the time.

But the only problem... Orson's increasingly dwindling memory was warning him that there might be more than just the small cube that was the origin of "The Doctor and Orson." There might also be something else he 'treasured' but had now completely forgotten.

"..."

Orson gritted his teeth and controlled the pause to take out the items hidden in the underground space.

As expected, Rest took out a cube with a strange texture engraved on the surface. It looked like electroplating, a motherboard, or some kind of logic circuit.

"This is it... This is the extremely important module that the Doctor always carries with him... Woo!"

His brain felt a sharp pain again as if it was being burned by a branding iron, and some fragments flashed back to Orson.

The fusion transcription module lacks energy, the doctor becomes depressed, sneaks into the mine, steals the Originium and purifies it, becomes infected with mineral disease, and the doctor wakes up -

"Orson—"

"I'm fine... I'm fine, Tallulah."

Although every time these fragments flashed back, Orson felt extremely strange and detached, the splitting headache was curbed when he touched the cube.

"I hope you're really okay—so, what is this?"

Tallulah looked at the cube in Orson's hand. She had never seen anything with a similar shape or appearance.

"This is probably what's called a 'Fusion Transcription Module'... I vaguely remember it was originally part of a device attached to the sarcophagus, but the doctor removed it. It seems the doctor used this module to prevent his own body from breaking down, and... to save me."

Orson looked at the strange cube. He had seen this thing countless times and even contracted mineral sickness in order to add fuel to it, but at this moment he had no intuitive memory of it.

"Fusion Module...Do you know how to use it?"

"No, I plan to ask Dr. Kelsey later."

"Black Snake, what about you?"

Talulah also asked the black snake beside her, and she projected her shadow beside the two of them, carefully observing the cube in Orson's hand.

Although the two of them were in the extremely cold northern region, the black snake, as a conscious being, was wearing her usual black lace dress that did not look very cold-resistant. This contrast made Tallulah a little uncomfortable.

"Hmm... This thing is probably ancient relic technology, right? Does the sarcophagus beneath the city of Che have this module? I've researched its function, but haven't made any progress."

Black Snake also said that he had never seen this thing. He only knew that this thing was like the keel of the Rhode Island. It was a relic from the previous civilization era that could not be replicated by current technology.

This thing is about the origin of "Orson". Although I don't know how to use it, or what other uses this module can have, it can be considered a step forward.

Orson carefully put the cube into his backpack. Just as he was about to leave the room with Tallulah, Halt once again took out another item from the small hole in the ground, a photo.

Photographs are a rarity in the North.

"What's this--"

Orson took the photo, his eyes unconsciously swept over the content on it, and then the next second, he seemed to be in shock, his pupils dilated and he stood there in a daze.

【Tallulah! 】

"I know—Orson!"

The black snake's voice made Talulah pounce on Orson immediately. The two of them crashed directly onto Orson's original bed. With the violent impact, the yellowed and cracked photo in Orson's hand also fell to the side.

Tallulah glanced at the photo out of the corner of her eye. It showed a family of three: two elderly Ursus men and women, and standing between them was Orson, who was obviously a child.

Tallulah had talked to Black Snake about Orson and the 'Doctor' before, and Black Snake brought up one thing at that time, 'physical memory will fall apart with the accumulation of new personalities'.

If Orson's memory is not completely gone, but just "sealed", then with the awakening of past memories, there will be an extremely strong sense of separation between the former Orson and the present Orson.

Black Snake had encountered such a situation before, and she almost went crazy because of it.

The current situation is that after seeing the photo with his family, Orson's past memories are completely unable to conceal the "sense of separation", resulting in two completely different experiences and memories, and even the possibility of a tearing of his "personality".

"Tallulah...? I... uh, are those my parents? But I should be... no, I'm—"

Orson stumbled and muttered to himself, and many memories flowed out from the cracks. These memories that had been buried in the dust were like sulfuric acid, corroding all of Orson's memories at this moment.

Originally, I should have been an ordinary student. My parents were ordinary company employees who always took good care of me. Usually, my family would go back to watch crosstalk performances nearby. Until I "traveled through time", I was still living an ordinary life.

No, that's not right—his parents were citizens who originally lived in Qie City. They ran a video rental store, and their best-selling items were always the crosstalk selections from Yan Country. Later, they were framed and exiled to the northern border, and then his parents died in another cold disaster.

“I… wu——”

With "parents" as a reference, two lives with almost nothing in common unfold in Orson's mind. It's like a tug-of-war, as if to tear apart the brain and personality.

And at this moment——

"Orson!!"

Tallulah's cry temporarily ended the division.

"Tah-uh!?"

Orson's consciousness had not yet come into focus, but the hot touch from his lips instantly wiped out all the noisy and eye-opening noises, leaving only the clearly audible heartbeat of the young fire dragon.

Tallulah stuck her whole body to Orson, and without any hesitation, she pressed her lips tightly against Orson's lips.

The two of them maintained this position until Tallulah realized that Orson might have difficulty breathing, and then she removed her pink lips.

"Are you awake now?"

Tallulah wiped off the saliva threads stuck on it with the back of her hand, ignoring her face which was already redder than the flames in the stove, and stared at Orson and asked.

"I...well, uh...yeah."

Orson shook his head, then nodded with a blush.

"That photo... I... that might be my former family. In other words, Tallulah, I might—I might not be the real 'Orson'."

Orson looked at the photo beside him. Although thanks to Tallulah, Orson was not completely torn apart by the confusion of his identity, this kind of loss and the shock of his entire life being turned upside down still made him unable to adapt for a while.

"you are you."

Unlike the hesitant and confused Orson, Tallulah gave her answer without any hesitation.

"In my eyes, you have always been the same Orson, the Orson I loved so deeply. That won't change now, it won't change in the future—and it won't change in the past."

"—"

It was just a short sentence, but coupled with Tallulah's expression without any hesitation, it made Orson feel calm from the bottom of his heart.

Indeed, just as Tallulah had said, perhaps her past wasn't "Orson." And the past that truly belonged to "Orson," when truly recovered, would surely be very different from the past she knew.

But even so...so what?

I exist here, Tallulah exists here, and this moment is pure reality without a trace of falsehood.

When there is a huge split in self-cognition, some people will completely lose themselves, while others will choose to escape...

But some people will become more determined about their "existence" because of this.

"Thank you... Tallulah."

Orson smiled, and Tallulah smiled too.

"Let's get married, Orson."

Tallulah said with a smile.

“Hey hey hey hey hey hey!?”

【Tatatatatatatala! ? 】

Orson and Black Snake were both furious, their eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

"Well, well... Tallulah—I... I'm actually... uh, well—"

Calm down, my daughter!? This guy is indeed quite good, and I'm quite satisfied with him... Pah, I'm not satisfied! No, I mean, calm down, okay?! I heard that the boss over there at Kjerag is young, promising, handsome, and rich. You should consider him...

Although Black Snake tried his best to bring the two together in order to make things difficult for Wei Yanwu when he was in Longmen, he was still so scared that he almost shed his skin when his daughter got married.

"I didn't say we're getting married right now...you idiot!"

[Poof!]

Tallulah punched the black snake with veins all over her head, then looked at Orson again.

"I don't mean right now... that. Actually, I want to wait until everything has settled down, and the infected, those voiceless weaklings, can survive in this land... before considering this matter."

Tallulah looked away slightly. It was obvious that although she was extremely shy about the direct proposal, she still mustered up the courage to say it.

"I...well, I promise you."

Orson originally wanted to say something, but in the end he chose to give a direct answer like Tallulah.

"Why are you so straightforward today, you idiot?! Damn it, think about it again—Pfft!"

Black Snake was killed twice by Tallulah.

"Orson...!"

Although Tallulah did not mean to hold the ceremony here immediately, but that it might be achieved a long time later, after hearing Orson's decisive response, Tallulah happily pounced on him again. At this moment, Tallulah no longer looked like a leader of the Reunion Movement. Instead, she looked like a little girl in adolescence who had mustered up the courage to confess her love and received a positive response.

"In that case... Although we can't exchange vows yet, let's consider this as early communication... Orson, don't you feel a little hot...?"

Tallulah looked at Orson, and there was a hint of dangerous fanaticism in her eyes.

"Hmm? I'm quite cold, not at all—No, no, don't pick me up all of a sudden, Tallulah!?"

Orson, who didn't know what Tallulah was up to at first, finally realized the seriousness of the matter after his pants were ripped open.

The Doctor once jokingly said, "Orson, if you keep being cute, maybe one day you'll end up getting fucked on the bed."

Orson never expected that this would actually come true.

【Tsk tsk tsk, the young people nowadays. 】

Black Snake shook his head, not knowing that in a few minutes he would be forced by Tallulah to come over and take over the shift.

----------

After returning from the North, Orson's paid leave was temporarily over.

He got a module related to the doctor, got photos of the past "Orson", and got a more determined self.

Not only that, Orson also...

Suffering second-degree burns and extensive frostbite—Xuetu claimed she had nothing to do with the incident, calling it pure fabrication and that she would bring the perpetrator to justice. Tallulah said she had no further information.

Finally, Orson got a promise that was not too far away.

01. The Queen Mother’s Invitation

"Is Dr. Kelsey here—"