Chapter 1572: Stepping onto the Road of Unknown Purpose

"I don"t feel guilty at all for accelerating the deterioration of this world. However... I am getting old after all. There are many things that I can"t do on my own. I need someone clear-headed and trustworthy. Therefore, I need you.

"If you are unwilling to bury it with your own hands, if you still want to try another way, then I alone cannot break this world. I can only continue to endure, hoping to see the day it dies before me. Of course, I won"t blame you. All the cards are on the table.

"The decision is ultimately yours to make."

After Wu Yiliu left Professor Qiao"s house, the words the old lady said before leaving would occasionally resurface in his mind.

After yesterday"s afternoon conversation, he didn"t sleep all night. He tossed and turned on the sofa, sighing until dawn, when he finally dozed off for a short while. On the other hand, the 70-year-old Professor Qiao was not much affected. She still got up on time, prepared breakfast, and went to work as usual.

His weakness, confusion, and contradictions were probably seen by the old lady, but she didn"t say much, only that he was clear-headed and trustworthy. Was that true?

Would a clear-headed person not know whether a Changeling was still considered human? Would a trustworthy person be unable to resist the thought, "I wish I had unknowingly transformed too"?

The bus that normally ran every ten minutes had not shown up after half an hour of waiting. Amid the complaints that the Changelings were "becoming more and more outrageous," Wu Yiliu simply walked. His face now concealed his fear of the Changelings, so he walked for an hour without even a second glance from any of them.

Wu Yiliu was not worried about being seen by cla.s.smates, and this was not because the school was in another part of the city. Honestly, he didn"t know if he could muster the strength to resist if a group of Changelings tried to infect him now—he didn"t even know if he would sigh in relief.

Whether it was because he was tired from walking or thinking, Wu Yiliu came to a shop window and sat down on the street with a "thud," pulling out his phone. The road was dirty, seemingly uncleaned for days; sitting there like a beggar might draw strange looks, but what did that matter?

"Mom," he called to a face that was unrecognizable on the video call, "get Dad too."

The thing that could hardly be called a face twisted and turned, perhaps smiling at him, and moved away.

After a while, his dad"s face, exactly as he remembered, appeared on Wu Yiliu"s phone screen.

He must have fully transformed by now. So quickly, he"d reached the final form where the face could be taken off?

Wu Yiliu gently rubbed his dry and sore eyes. He didn"t know how this conversation would go; he just suddenly felt an irresistible urge to see his parents again.

"What"s the matter? Need money again?" his dad said before even settling down.

"Are you coming home for the break?" the unrecognizable face asked.

"What are you doing all day... Why aren"t you in cla.s.s? Where are you now?" His dad seemed to sense something was wrong and peered into the background.

"Are you coming home or not?" his mother"s voice asked.

From the twisted and confused so-called face, a thumb-sized black hole suddenly opened, revealing a vague impression of his mother"s past face, the mouth opening and closing as if calling for help from a deep place. "Are you mute?"

Wu Yiliu suddenly cut off the communication.

He stared at the phone screen, watching it receive another call request, letting it ring until the caller hung up. A message came from his mom"s phone number, containing only the words, "Lost signal?" She probably didn"t think anything serious had happened.

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Previously, when he had learned about the s.h.i.+p of Theseus paradox, Wu Yiliu had believed that the s.h.i.+p of Theseus, after all its materials were replaced, remained the same s.h.i.+p. Now, he couldn"t recall the reasoning behind that belief.

Looking back, he realized he didn"t even know the last time he had heard his mother speak. What had she said then? Wu Yiliu would pay any price to go back and hear it again. His always confident and capable mother, was she confused or scared when she began to change?

What was he doing as his parents gradually sank and disappeared in the distance? Was he engrossed in chatting with a female cla.s.smate on the phone who was quietly changing, or looking for pirated resources of some movie?

"What are you doing?" The gla.s.s door of the shop was suddenly pushed open, and a woman"s voice, as if full of hatred that needed to be vented, shouted at him like a machine gun. "What are you doing in front of our window, blocking my business? Don"t you know? Are you begging? Don"t beg here, go away, go away!"

Wu Yiliu stood up, brushed himself off, and looked at the woman behind the door. Her eyes and mouth were long and sharply hooked downwards, almost like a character in an exaggerated cartoon; the corners of her eyes drooped to her cheeks, dividing her entire chin.

"I"m here to buy something," he said, pulling open the gla.s.s door. The woman immediately backed up two steps, her suspicion unabated even though his appearance had changed.

"You? This is a women"s clothing store; we don"t have clothes for you."

Not just a women"s clothing store, but a nearly empty one, as desolate as other shops on this street. Under these circ.u.mstances, refusing his business would be even harder.

"I know," Wu Yiliu said, sidestepping past her, not letting her gaze linger too long on his face. Professor Qiao had found more suitable makeup tools for his disguise, but they wouldn"t stand up to close scrutiny. "I"m buying for my girlfriend."

The Changeling female shop owner followed him skeptically. Where he went, she followed—he didn"t look like a vagrant, but that still didn"t rule out the suspicion that he might be a thief.

Wu Yiliu casually pulled out a few pieces of clothing, glanced at them without even really seeing the price or style, and handed her two skirts, saying, "Wrap these two for me."

Those long, sharp lines in her face suddenly hooked upwards, almost unrestrained, quickly slicing the shop owner"s forehead and temples—the whole face was cut into large chunks, revealing the high swelling on her forehead more clearly.

"What happened to your forehead?" he asked casually, pretending to consider another piece of clothing nearby.

The shop owner touched the swelling. "Unlucky to the extreme," she began. "Just the day before yesterday, a weird woman came in, flipping through the clothes without even looking at the prices. I thought I was about to make a big sale. You have no idea, she had a pile this high on her shoulder!" She gestured, and it was indeed high, at least dozens of pieces.

"And then? She hugged that pile of clothes and turned to leave! Just walked out! Can you believe that? Society is really getting out of control. I yelled at her, and she turned to look at me, her eyes crazy, I think her brain is not right. I heard crazy people are very strong..."

Even this ordinary narration required Wu Yiliu to steer her back on track. "She turned around, and then what?"

"You think she"d say something normal? She actually told me, "You can exchange these clothes for a life, what a bargain." Bargain, your leg! I didn"t care, I lunged at her... That crazy woman was strong." The shop owner got more and more angry, the long lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth were almost uncontrollable. "Made me look like this. I didn"t even see how it happened. So many clothes were stolen!"

Wu Yiliu feigned a few sounds of sympathy. "Did you report it to the police?"

"Reporting it was useless; they came and left, saying that the clothes weren"t worth much, so they couldn"t find the person. I told them I have her appearance on the surveillance camera, but they asked if I knew her name. How am I supposed to find her if I don"t know who she is? She vanished once she went out—"

Wu Yiliu was already struggling to hold back and immediately interrupted her. "You have surveillance? Can I see it?"

Afraid that she might refuse for whatever reason, he quickly added, "My cousin is on the police force."

Whether it was the clothes or his cousin, something worked, and soon, Wu Yiliu saw the posthuman on the surveillance screen for the first time.

Professor Qiao"s sense for posthumans was incredibly keen: she managed to locate this posthuman from a single angry comment on a local website.

So, this is what a posthuman looks like... The way she controlled her body was entirely different from ordinary people. It was as if each step was skimming over water, light and quick, as though she could spring high into the air with a slight bounce. Of course, the Changelings probably couldn"t perceive these subtle differences—much like they couldn"t understand the nuances of delicate emotions, only recognizing coa.r.s.e, simplistic divisions.

"It"s not just my store, I heard that she has. .h.i.t a few other shops in the neighborhood last week!"

So that meant... her base must be nearby. It couldn"t be confirmed with absolute certainty, but given the temporal distribution of the posthuman"s crimes, the likelihood of her staying nearby was higher. Wu Yiliu hoped he was not too late.

Wu Yiliu took a few pictures of the screen, paid with the card Professor Qiao gave him, and left with a bag of clothes. Once around the corner, he threw the clothes away. It seemed that his task for the next few days would be to inquire about this posthuman in the vicinity.

He went from one store to another, asking everyone he could, buying various trinkets to coax information from people. When dusk fell, a weary Wu Yiliu, who had found nothing, finally collapsed on the steps of a small motel with a neon sign.

Perhaps the posthuman had already left after gathering the supplies...

Someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

"I hear you were looking for me?"