After finishing breakfast, Xiaoyue's younger sister went to ask Leyi, the neighbor on the left, about what freshmen at Panshi University needed. This girl, a senior at Panshi University, had graduated from Jishi College, where she could smile while dissecting various small animals. On the first day the two siblings moved in, she had come over with two rabbits she had killed herself, a rather terrifying person.
Qinyue, who always bought fresh meat from the supermarket, admired such a capable woman like Leyi, but Chu Feiyue always felt that Leyi's gaze was strange.
It was more like observing a lab mouse, pondering where to give it a cut. Every time she saw such a gaze, Chu Feiyue wanted to stay as far away from this woman as possible.
While her sister went to seek advice, Chu Feiyue ran to the all-functional mini-supermarket at the entrance of the residential area and picked up a large handful of about twenty thermometers, which he then dumped on the checkout counter, leaving the bald little boss stunned.
"Brother, what are you doing? Thermometers don't appreciate in value," the little boss said, holding an unlit Yuxi cigarette in his mouth and looking up at Chu Feiyue in surprise.
"I need mercury. It's a banned item, so I can only do it this way," Chu Feiyue said helplessly.
If this were in Beijing, it wouldn't be so troublesome. Just a word to the homeroom teacher would do, no need for such a method.
Unfortunately, there's no going back...
"Mercury? Thermometers? You're really something," the little boss laughed, shaking his head. He picked up his bullet-shaped lighter from the table, lit the cigarette, and took a deep puff, exhaling an oval smoke ring.
In the pale blue smoke, the little boss's face was a bit blurry, making it hard to see clearly. "Don't make it so complicated. Show me the ID of the person who needs the mercury, is that convenient?"
The little boss tapped the iron-clad table lightly, looking at Chu Feiyue with a half-smile.
Since it wasn't a big deal, Chu Feiyue pulled out his "Household Appliance Transformation Laboratory" researcher card from his wallet and handed it over. "Is this okay?"
"Wow, you don't show your true colors, huh, tsk tsk tsk." The little boss inserted the card into the card reader, clicked a few times on the computer screen, and a list appeared. Scrolling down a couple of pages, the color of the items on the list began to turn a warning red.
Finding the item on the list, the little boss's finger stopped, looking at a line of black text amidst the red.
[Metallic Mercury, Requires Level 1 Permission, Current Permission Level 1, Meets Conditions, Limited Supply 500g.]
"You're lucky. For mercury, you can just pick it up here." The little boss handed the researcher card back to the somewhat stunned Chu Feiyue, stood up, stretched, and walked to the back storage room.
A minute later, the little boss came out holding a glass jar filled with a bright silver liquid.
"Here, your permission only allows you to take this small bottle, but it's also the only one I have. You're lucky." The little boss handed the small jar of mercury to Chu Feiyue.
Chu Feiyue felt a bit awkward, still unsure what this was all about. This was just a regular all-functional mini-supermarket at the entrance of a residential area, right? Why could it openly sell banned items like mercury?
Seeing Chu Feiyue's puzzled expression, the little boss knew what he was thinking. He laughed heartily and patted Chu Feiyue's shoulder. "Other supermarkets might not have these things, but we are special." He pointed to a logo next to the checkout counter, where two hands were intertwined. "See this? Any supermarket with this logo is a branch of our [Tongxie]. Our responsibility is to ensure the supply of special items in any area, specifically for people who need these special items."
Chu Feiyue chewed on the two words in his mouth but was still confused. "Tongxie?"
"Not Tongxie, it's the Material Circulation Association, abbreviated as Tongxie." The little boss explained, "Whether it's government departments or major companies, they all have shares in Tongxie. So members of these organizations can get items from Tongxie for free, and we will have your boss reimburse the cost, no need to worry."
Ah, the little boss thought Chu Feiyue's puzzled expression was due to a lack of money.
With the small jar of mercury, the main task was completed. Chu Feiyue picked five Chocolates and five Randoms from the mini-supermarket's fridge, and got an extra Dulan Shengxue from the little boss, then put the mercury in his pocket and left the "small" supermarket with a bag of popsicles, which had a [Tongxie] label.
The bright sun shone from the east, casting a rustling shadow on the ground. Chu Feiyue hid in the shade of the willow trees by the road, looked up through the dense leaves, and saw the white-hot sun above.
I'll hide, you can't reach me, you'll be angry.
On the street, all the advertisements pointed to a virtual reality game called "Dream." The ads were everywhere, starting a few years ago. At that time, they were still in high school, but now, in the blink of an eye, they had already graduated from high school, how fast...
It's just an online game. Chu Feiyue, who had only played single-player games like "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni," couldn't understand why so many people were so eagerly anticipating this game.
But he heard the scenery in the game was nice. After a while, when the game opens, he could buy a pair of tourist account helmets and take his sister to see the scenery inside. This was something they had agreed on a long time ago.
His sister's motion sickness was a real problem... She could only travel by train or open-top electric tricycles, neither of which could reach the deep mountain natural scenic areas. His sister had never been on a trip before, he hoped this game called "Dream" wouldn't disappoint them.
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Omitted, Grandpa in heaven, your grandson seems to have learned something that can be called a secret. It turns out that right at the entrance of the residential area where your son lives, someone is openly selling guns and banned drugs, and the most ridiculous part is, it's legal.
With this faint sense of dissonance, Chu Feiyue put the popsicle in the refrigerator, which looked to be about his age but still ran healthily, and then went down to the basement with the bottle of bright silver metallic mercury.
Chu Feiyue called softly, and a display screen popped out from the floor, almost giving him a perfect backflip. On the screen, a twin-tailed girl with barely noticeable chest movement tilted her head and looked at Chu Feiyue.
"I made a metal frame, take it to the high-pressure room. And this, fill the mercury into the grooves of the frame later." Chu Feiyue took out the jar of mercury, and a mechanical arm extended from the floor, picked it up, and then retracted.
Chu Feiyue turned his head and saw the display screen still in place, with the twin-tailed girl staring straight at him. "Is there anything else?"
"What are you doing now? The circular frame, there's no related information in my database. The special symbols are not recorded in any books." The twin-tailed girl's display screen disappeared underground and reappeared in front of Chu Feiyue. "I can't scientifically explain your current actions."
"This... " Chu Feiyue squinted his eyes and sighed lightly. "Because it's unknown, I have to try."
Saying something incomprehensible, Chu Feiyue shook his head and walked to the high-pressure room. Behind him, Xiao Ru turned the display screen, her fine eyebrows slightly furrowed.
In front of the control panel in the high-pressure room, Chu Feiyue closely watched the various data on the central computer screen. The 3D projection of the circular frame was right in the center of the screen.
"Xiao Ru, mark the mercury, then inject it."
Following Chu Feiyue's command, a bright silver line slowly flowed from the edge of the screen. The line followed the track and slowly flowed into the circular frame, smoothly flowing along the grooves, branching out, and merging, eventually filling the entire circular frame.
"Stop injecting the excess mercury, give me a separate screen, and delete the projection of the frame." As the mercury grooves were completed, Chu Feiyue's expression became unusually serious, his face hard like stone, his eyes fixed on the bright silver line that had formed a perfect circle on the screen that had just extended from the ceiling.
Under Chu Feiyue's gaze, the originally clear lines gradually blurred, turning into a silver glow.
A bright light point gradually formed in the silver glow. As the silver light converged, the dense gas in the high-pressure room began to vibrate irregularly, blurring everything behind the high-strength glass.
Just as Chu Feiyue widened his eyes, waiting for the anomaly to reach its peak, the silver light point suddenly flashed twice and then went out like an overloaded light bulb.
Through the reinforced glass, Chu Feiyue and Xiao Ru, who had already seen the mercury and the circular frame disappear, fell into the most terrifying silence.
Although he had some mental preparation, the shock of seeing the truth still left Chu Feiyue speechless.
Data streams rolled in Xiao Ru's eyes, but she still couldn't analyze the principle behind this phenomenon. This, it's not scientific.
"Really, it's really true... those memories, they're real!"
Chu Feiyue looked at the now empty high-pressure room, repeating this sentence in his heart.