Chapter 9 Not a Free Gift
作者:Zhu Congqian      更新:2024-02-23 10:42      字数:3154
    When opening her eyes again, Yu Sha felt the gravity, and again the pain reminded her to return to reality. She touched the floor tiles under her, until the cold touch came from her fingers and she realized she was far from a nightmare.

    “Sir, hurry up! Can I use payment code  here?” The guest’s urging and the aroma of flour came together, so that Yu Sha knew that she had returned to the human world, so was everything a dream? Yu Sha therefore felt relaxed. Two Dinomen pretending to be the old woman were looking at themselves, so the “old woman” supported by their hands lost its movements.

    “Damn it! You are the first to return so soon!” The round and larger Dinoman said wobbly.

    “Shut up! Busy with your work. Be careful not letting the cat out of the bag.” The Dinoman Zere expressed his dissatisfaction with the sharp teeth in the long mouth. The fat Dinoman quickly shut up wittingly.

    “Why am I here?” It was obvious that she ran into another corner, but now Yu Sha could not understand her situation. “Have I passed the test?”

    The eye of the small robot became a data display, and the Dinoman Zere browsed quickly.

    “Most results show that you are not different from other human interviewees, but……” The feather crown fell at the turning point, and the face of the Dinoman showed an incredible look.

    “You are popped out of the White Tower by the ‘system’, for some of your behaviors confused the ‘system’. The ‘system’ needs to collect more information to complete its judgment.”

    “So everything just now is not a nightmare?” Yu Sha whispered.

    “I knew you would say so! Every human interviewee says so from here!” When exaggeratedly waving the “old woman”, the talkative and fat Dinoman picked up. The Dinoman Zere continued to look at the data, showing a more incredible expression.

    At this time, the eye of the small robot did not display data any longer. It looked at the fat Dinoman, and then looked at Yu Sha, showing “Damn it!” in its eye.

    “Shut up! Wordy guy!”

    “Did I do something wrong? I shouldn’t be talkative! Sir, I apologize to you……” said the fat Dinoman in horror.

    The eyes of the Dinoman Zere were filled with wonder, “How can you hear a mute talking? Unless……”

    “Will you try another word?” The raised feather crown was like a huge question mark.

    “Can I speak? Why are you all staring at me?” Yu Sha murmured, and then she covered her mouth in astonishment like a kitten with her tail trodden on…… “Can I speak? Am I able to talk?”

    “Maybe, but I don’t understand why the ‘system’ gave you the gift before everything came to nothing.” The Dinoman Zere brutally said that expression could even be called jealousy, while the small robot next to him showed a sad expression, which surprised Yu Sha.

    Yu Sha remembered the gift that she once wanted to mention before she rushed into the corner——the gift from her Dad to her Mom. Originally it was a brand bag, but now it was replaced by some magic power, from her arm to her throat. Was it really magic power? Now she could speak.

    “But the ‘system’ does not give anything for free. They must want to get something from you.” said the Dinoman when Yu Sha left. At this moment Yu Sha was indifferent to this, for she only wanted to go home……

    Her Mom was surprised by this miracle that happened to Yu Sha for three days. At first she went to every temple to burn incense and then informed every friend of her own. Even during this period, her Mom became friendly when her Dad visited. However, all the good things only lasted for three days. In the following days, Yu sha vaguely felt that there was something wrong.

    The changes began when Yu Sha found that her Mom communicated with her more in words, less with eyes to understand her mood, which was understandable. Then Yu Sha found that her Mom’s eyes were more and more erratic, her attention was more distracted, and she had less time to concentrate on one thing. Recently, for most time her Mom held a mobile phone to watch the short videos one by one, and the voice of the short video was louder and louder. Then her Mom was silly to look at the content of the short video, following those exaggerated voices to cry or laugh.

    Such strange things were more likely to spread. Her Dad almost kept his mobile phone on his ears. He was so busy that a new call would come in when he just hung up. His face instinctively followed the call to be happy or frown. Yu Sha ever thought of changes for his parents’ abnormality……

    “Just say what you want. Remember, you can talk now. Good girl, go play yourself.”

    Every time, her parents responded with the same words, but Yu Sha did not know how to express her thinking. It seemed to be difficult to express the feeling of anxiety and worry in words.

    So Yu Sha had to constantly pray for the Dinoman to appear quickly…… until the third day of her prayer.

    “What’s up? Are you happy to speak? Are you still interested in our adventure? If so, I’ll wait for you in the old place.” It’s as if the Dinoman was staring at her these days, and the words in the text looked ironic to Yu Sha.

    When she ran to the basement of the courthouse, the Dinoman was leaning on the electric bicycle with its arms folded and its eyes closed, while the little robot squinted happily and walked to Yu Sha with a happy pace and “welcome” in its eye.

    “Have you found something wrong?” The Dinoman lazily opened its eyes with the rock pattern.

    “It’s so weird. Although I can speak, but my parents’ words are less and less, and they stare at the mobile phone all the day.” Even if she could speak now, Yu Sha held up for a long time, for no one could listen to her.

    “This is not surprising. Overall, this world is fair enough. Do you know how many words a person needs to say in their life?” The tail feather was like a fan, which was opened when the Dinoman told the truth. “If you say 1000 sentences a day, you will have 300 million sentences in your life……And since you were born unable to speak, these 300 million sentences are deducted from the total number of the sentences spoken by the people around you. The closer they are to you, the more sentences they will give you.”

    “No wonder my parents are getting increasingly abnormal. They have been bizarre enough.” Yu Sha’s hands clasped her shirt.

    “Is there a solution?” She asked in a low voice.

    “It cannot be said that there is no solution. If there are enough people to share, then everyone will be less affected. If 300 million sentences for your lifetime were shared by six hundred thousand people in Macao, it would be 500 sentences reduced for each person.”

    The Dinoman said carelessly, and kicked the empty Coke can near his feet for a long distance. The nearby small robot rushed up helplessly to pick up and send the Coke can into the trash can neatly.

    “Is it not good……” murmured Yu Sha.

    “Reducing 500 sentences for each person was not much for a person, as long as they say less hypocritical nonsense every day, such as ‘have you eaten?’……”

    “It makes sense!” Yu Sha felt that such a proposal was very good, so his melancholy turned into expectation in an instant. “But how to do it? Or can you just press some button to solve it?”

    “This cannot be achieved just by saying. We have to gather the crowd. The more people, the better……” The crest bloomed before the long month of the Dinoman, and its pupils of the rock patterns were all complex and unpredictable.

    “Gather? Will the Dinomen take the opportunity to wipe out the human?” She remembered that the little monster never gave up its idea of destroying the human.

    However, the Dinoman brought real benefits to her——Now she could speak.

    “We will destroy the human, but not now. Do you remember how you could speak?”

    “You participated in our experiment, and honestly the results of your experiment exceeded our predictions, which aroused the curiosity of the ‘system’, so it also needs more samples to confirm its speculation.”

    “Do you know why you suddenly can speak? That is because of a small stone.”

    “A small stone?” Yu Sha thought it was incredible.

    “Yes, we call that kind of stone ‘Horcrux’, which was valuable in our Dinoman World. It was said to be technology beyond the Earth……” The obsidian by the ear of the Dinoman lit up, “Although it became a liquid into your body, but in essence it was still a ‘Horcrux’, which means that if it works, it must be allowed to absorb energy……”

    “Energy?”

    “It’s the human heart, but it does not mean eating the human heart. Do you remember that experiment? Your dreams and all illusions arise from the ‘Horcrux’. In addition to making people dream, it can also explore people’s minds. Now we need it to collect more people’s inner thoughts and verify a conjecture. Of course this conjecture arises from you.”

    “Then just ask me. Why do you have to make so big a picture?” The sense of uneasiness was not dissipated by the Dinoman’s explanation.

    “We Dinomen believe that the human consciousness was like an iceberg in the Antarctica. Everyone is a unique iceberg on the sea, but that’s just part of the surface……As the icebergs under the sea are actually connected to each other, so we Dinomen also believe that the human thoughts are actually connected. When all the human subconsciousness comes together, it is like a huge map.”

    “Since everyone’s heart is connected to others’, why is there still the quarrel in the world?” said Yu Sha incomprehensibly.

    “Because you humans rely too much on speaking, but the spoken words do not mean the truth.” The Dinoman wanted to speak but then hesitated.

    Yu Sha was finally convinced that the Dinoman would not take the advantage of gathering the people, but more difficult problems would emerge soon.

    “How can we gather so many people to probe into their hearts?”

    “In fact, this just sounds troublesome, but it is not complicated at all. If you divide this event into two parts…… ” The more the Dinoman talked, the more mysterious it became. The small robot’s eye widened.

    “One event is the place to accommodate tens of thousands of people, and the other is to attract tens of thousands of people there.”

    She used to be unable to speak, but now Yu Sha wanted to stop talking. Nothing was easy to handle for these two separate events. Her hands wound uneasily around her shoulder-length hairline.

    “This is impossible!”

    “Why impossible? It’s better to use your brain more when you are in the mood to complain!” The Dinoman calmly closed its eyes and fell into thoughts. “Think about what kind of scene will bring tens of thousands of people together spontaneously?”

    “A concert?” That idea suddenly hit Yu Sha. “But no one of us can sing.”

    It seemed that it had gotten the answer, the Dinoman opened its eyes. “And? Go on!”

    “Or a celebrity meeting. But we are not so popular!”

    “Understood! Yu Sha are responsible for the venue. I am responsible for finding a popular star. No! A bunch of stars! Can we take actions separately?”

    Yu Sha did no know what the little monster was up to, but its raised crest showed that it was confident enough.

    “Hold this!” The Dinoman Zere then handed her a leaflet, which was printed with a picture of a successful old man overlooking life with a glass of wine. The figure of the old man was somewhat familiar, and Yu Sha even speculated whether he was the old man who appeared in the underground Dinomen’s world.

    “Grand opening of Glorious Casino?” Reading the words on the leaflet, Yu Sha felt nothing but incomprehensible. She knew that casino, which could be called entertainment world without any exaggeration. That building accounted for almost one third of the Taipa Island. There was unimaginable luxury in the casino, including all kinds of giant venues. But is it impossible to make this casino to provide the expensive venues for their own use?

    However, it could not be said that she was completely unfamiliar with Glorious Casino. When she was a kid, Yu Sha liked to go to the black-faced spoonbill reserve in Taipa to see these birds. At that time, Glorious Group even wanted to relocate the entire black-faced spoonbill reserve to build a casino there. Yu Sha prevented this in her own way. It was also strange to say that when people believed that a dumb girl loved the black-faced spoonbill here, they made concessions and even Glorious Group took the initiative to move away from the reserve.

    But all about the past were unpleasant things. However, Yu Sha once again noticed the old man on the leaflet. The small characters clearly read “Li Honghui, Executive Chairman of Glorious Group”, and Yu Sha had a strange idea.

    “Can you make a call……and tell them we need to book the venue the day after tomorrow?” That tone seemed like just ordering a cup of milk tea.

    “Do you know this old man?” Yu Sha asked.

    “Definitely your call would be answered by other staff, instead of him.” Obviously, the Dinoman did not want to answer this question. “I will go to prepare the day after tomorrow to ensure that popular stars who will be present, and the matter of the venue will be up to you.”

    When Yu Sha got back to her composure, the Dinoman and the small robot had gone far, and Yu Sha was left alone there.

    “It’s really not a good thing to be able to talk.” Yu Sha lamented that she just began to speak, especially not good at lies. When she remembered more and more silence at home, with her parents addicted to their mobile phones separately, finally Yu Sha summoned up her courage to call the phone number on the leaflet.

    “Hello, is anyone there?” This was her first time to speak on the phone, with redness then spreading to her cheeks, for she was ashamed of her talking incoherently.

    “Who is speaking?” The voice on the other end of the phone was quite cold, completely unlike the attitude that an enthusiastic wiring staff would have.

    “Oh, I forgot to mention that my assistant on duty today is ill and stays in Zhuhai , so he can’t make it today, but I don’t want to miss any call.” That voice seemed to be cold and old as if being tortured by some disease. A familiar figure appeared, but she could not be sure. “Tell me who you are, or I will hang up!”

    “My……my name is Yu Sha.” There was only so much Yu Sha could say about who she was.

    “……What do you want from me?” The old voice seemed to pause for a moment before answering.

    “I want to rent Galaxy Arena……to……to hold an event……” Yu Sha disturbed the ends of her hair, for she didn’t know if this was a lie. However, her anxiety made every word she spoke felt like nails spit out from her mouth.

    “When?” The old voice sounded like a piece of rusty old iron rubbing against granite of unknown age.

    “For……for example, how about the afternoon of the day after tomorrow?” Snap! The ends of her hair broke on her restless fingers, and Yu Sha’s voice trembled with tension.

    “OK, the afternoon of the day after tomorrow. Galaxy Arena. I got it.” After the phone was hung up with a snap, there was only a beeping busy tone, and Yu Sha who was at a loss with her mobile phone.

    “You see it’s not so difficult, right?” the little monster popped up and said.

    “I’m almost scared of myself to death. I didn’t lie, right? That’s not a lie, right?” Yu Sha shook the shoulders of the Dinoman vigorously, as if the little monster was the culprit of everything.

    Until the little robot arrived with a smile, and a number appeared in its eye——825, 600 MOP!

    Seeing that number, Yu Sha was a little disappointed, “No wonder that old man agreed so quickly, so it’s money that really matters, not my words.”

    Wasn’t the adult world dominated by money? Yu Sha thought sadly.

    “For some people, money is just a series of numbers.” Looking at the afterglow, the Dinoman said in a profound way. “Go back to have a rest. There are still other things to do tomorrow!”