Chapter 24: Escaping Death (Part 2)

  Mr. Lanzens frowned, seemingly quite dissatisfied with Eunice's response. With an expressionless face, he said to Eunice, "I've told you more than once not to repeat answers to these questions, and this isn't your first time executing such orders either. How can such idiotic routine errors still occur? Never mind, the experimental body's memory and reaction capabilities are ultimately not worth expecting." Mr. Lanzens finally waved his hand at Eunice and turned to leave the observation room.

  While O'Neill and Mr. Lanzhou were talking, Zhang Fan had been paying attention to O'Neill's expression. Seeing her remain calm under Mr. Lanzhou's obvious rebuke, those words seemed as ordinary as discussing the weather to her. This O'Neill was quite unfamiliar to Zhang Fan, with no expression, no joy or anger in her eyes, and no sorrow or happiness. Had something happened to O'Neill after they parted ways, causing her to become like this? Or was this the original O'Neill who had escaped from here, only recovering a bit of normalcy when she was with him?

  "Ou Ni..." Zhang Fan tentatively called out Ou Ni's name, sending a wave of consciousness towards her. Zhang Fan's consciousness easily reached Ou Ni's brain domain. This time was different from the last, there were no messy, related messages. It seemed as though she had been re-brainwashed. Her mind was empty and desolate, the rough spot he had discovered before still remained in its original place, unmoved. However, in Ou Ni's mind, they could no longer find any shadows of their past experiences.

  Everything here is eerie, and I don't know if their conversation has been eavesdropped on. If what they said fell into someone else's ears, Zhang Fan couldn't rashly mention some situations when he was with Ouni, which might bring great trouble to Ouni. So Zhang Fan could only try to probe her little by little.

  Upon hearing Zhang Fan's shout, Ouni's eyebrows slightly raised upwards, then lowered her head to look at Zhang Fan, as if waiting for what he had to say next.

  Seeing Ouni's reaction, Zhang Fan's heart settled down a bit. Compared to having no reaction at all, at least Ouni still knew her own name.

  Ouni looked into Zhang Fan's eyes, and her expression changed slightly. There was a hint of confusion, a hint of distraction. But that expression only lasted for 0.01 seconds, so short that if Zhang Fan hadn't been staring at Ouni's face intently, he would have thought what he saw was just an illusion. Maybe Ouni still remembered him, but it wasn't convenient to reveal her identity here! Zhang Fan comforted himself in his heart. But then he thought again, if Ouni really did remember him, why did she look like that just now?

  Before Zhang Fan could find a reasonable explanation for the situation, O'Neil had already taken her next step. She may have been waiting for Zhang Fan to speak, but Zhang Fan didn't say a word for half a day, so O'Neil didn't wait for him to speak either. Directly executing Mr. Lanzens' instructions before he left, she sent him to cell number one, where he would await the brainwashing operation scheduled for the next day in operating room number three.

  Ou Ni pushed Zhang Fan's hospital bed out the door, and to a person waiting for surgery, there was nothing to say. Anyway, not long after, he would also become someone similar to himself, just a tool executing work orders. To someone who would soon become a tool, saying anything was superfluous.

  Outside the door was a long corridor, with tightly closed doors on both sides of the corridor. The pendant lamps on the ceiling of the corridor stretched their shadows, shortened them, and then stretched them again. Except for the sound of their footsteps, there was no other sound to be heard. It was possible that there was no one in the rooms on either side of the corridor, as no light could be seen through the gaps under the doors. The world was quiet, with only Ouni's footsteps and their intermittent breathing sounds. And such breathing sounds reminded Zhang Fan of the wonderful times he had shared with Ouni.

  "Ou Ni..." Zhang Fan called out Ou Ni's name once again. "You really don't remember me?" This was the last chance, and perhaps it would be hard to find another opportunity for the two of them to be alone together, allowing him to try his best to awaken Ou Ni's memories of him.

  Ouni heard Zhang Fan's call and stopped in her tracks, staring at him intently. After a long while, she opened her mouth to ask: "Do... you know me?" Ouni's voice was still as sweet as ever, but to Zhang Fan's ears, it carried many different flavors - confusion, perplexity, a hint of hope, a hint of distance, and a hint of politeness.

  "Could it be that you really don't remember me? Don't remember our first encounter in the small wooden house?" Zhang Fan's voice was filled with a deep sense of hurt. This hurt had a considerable amount of pretence mixed into it, but also a considerable amount of genuine sensibility. Regardless of what reasons and emotions brought Ouni and Zhang Fan together, during their short time living together, something called affection slowly grew and spread in each other's hearts. Its influence even far exceeded the degree they both thought."

  When Ouni heard Zhang Fan's words, her heart was inexplicably touched. A vague and indescribable emotion began to spread in her heart, making her wonder if she had lost something that she didn't want to forget.

  "Have we met somewhere before?" Ouni asked Zhang Fan again. "But why can't I remember anything?" Ouni shook her head gently. The hair that fell beside her ears swayed lightly on her cheeks, causing a tingling sensation in Zhang Fan's heart, making him want to reach out and caress Ouni's cheek. And then deeply kiss her. But his limbs were all fixed to the hospital bed, he couldn't even touch Ouni.

  "Ouni, I really want to hug you, just like we used to do all the time. Oh... Ouni..." Zhang Fan whispered Ouni's name softly, perhaps the physical contact between the two could awaken the feelings deeply hidden in Ouni's heart. Those feelings would not be erased by brainwashing.

  "Who are you, anyway?" Ouni's voice turned stern. Her face also turned cold, although she often said that she was used to being with different men, but letting someone who was about to become a tool say this made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. And this discomfort kept appearing whenever she met Zhang Fan.

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  Here I would like to thank Xīn Lù Sī Yǔ (Heart's Whisper) classmates for their support of this book and myself.