don't open your eyes [unlimited]

Warm drops hit his knuckles.

The liquid quickly turned cold, or maybe his hands were too cold, and the skin eagerly absorbed that bit of warmth... Zhuang Die seemed to have noticed this too, and buried his face in silence into his palm.

Ling Su moved his fingers and touched his cheek lightly.

This action seemed to turn on some switch, Zhuang Die shuddered slightly, as if he had suddenly woken up from a certain state, took Ling Su's hands, and pressed them on top of his head.

Those soft little wool rolls trembled slightly, trying to squeeze into his fingers.

The room was very quiet, and the somewhat hurried, choking sound that seemed to be fighting for air could suddenly be heard clearly.

……

Obviously, Zhuang Die does not lack any relevant scientific and psychological common sense, but he himself is not at all familiar with this form of emotional expression commonly used by humans.

Ling Su hadn’t even seen a child over five years old crying like this for a long time—Mr. Xiao Zhuang was even startled by his own tears, and bounced off his palm suddenly, quickly curled up into a small ball, It took a few seconds to make sure that it wasn't a water leak, and I frantically wiped it while clutching my sleeves.

"It's okay...it's okay, little curly hair."

Ling Su was still half-hearted at first, but after seeing the situation in front of him, he still couldn't hold back, coughing and laughing: "Don't be afraid of them."

"This is the most common transparent saline solution, with at most some antibodies and enzymes... nothing else."

Ling Su hooked Zhuang Die's cuff with his finger, tugged it gently in two circles, and assured him patiently: "Tears will take away ACTH, also called adrenal corticotropic hormone, which is an important indicator of stress response. "

He tried his best to think about it, and searched his stomach and said: "Emotional tears, it is said that there is an enkephalin compound more than cutting onions, remember? The one that is similar to painkillers..."

"Captain." Little Curly sniffed, "I know, I'm just worried that I'll suddenly become a watering can or a shower."

Zhuang Di hugged his knees, curled up into a small ball, and wiped his face with his sleeves: "Also, in the training books I've read, when children are crying, it is generally not recommended to teach them about hormones and enkephalins."

"……Correct."

Ling Su was dumb for a while, and confessed in a low voice: "I was too nervous and didn't know what to say."

During college, when he was not taken away by President Yan for "special training" and had the right to do what he liked, Ling Su did work part-time as the anchor of the ghost story radio station - this memory must have not been modified .

During this period, his main goal was to scare people to tears.

In the following extremely long years, his main task was to study and research the various emotional manifestations that can lead to crying, and to interpret their physiological and psychological mechanisms.

Later, the ruthless Instructor Ling told the children that there is no Ultraman in the world without hesitation, and he never considered the consequences of such behavior.

"Teach me, Teacher Xiaozhuang." Ling Su asked him softly, "You teach me, I learn things very quickly..."

Before he could finish his words, the little ball of curly hair came out of the invisible air elf ball and hugged him.

Zhuang Die got into his arms, put his chin on Ling Su's shoulder meekly, buried it in his neck, and held Ling Su's arm behind his back.

Ling Su's heartbeat seemed to stagnate uncontrollably at the same time.

The action of "holding the little curly hair in his arms" is certainly not unfamiliar to him at all... But for some reason, when Zhuang Die's heartbeat posted and buried his face in his neck, Ling Su still couldn't help it. It felt as if the surrounding area had completely quieted down.

It is not quiet in the physical sense, but in an absolute sense—no noisy tinnitus, chaotic noises that torment people's nerves, no lingering whispers, and all sounds seem to be infinitely pulled away.

Beside his ears, there was only the little curly hair that could not be controlled well, and the somewhat rapid and choked gasping sound, and the warm air mixed with moist breath swept over the roots of his hair.

Ling Su folded his arms unconsciously, and with all the strength he could use at the moment, he pulled Zhuang Die into his arms.

"Don't cry, don't cry." Ling Su was a little at a loss, holding Zhuang Die gently shaking, kissing those curly short hair little by little, "Blame me, I didn't think carefully, in the future——"

"Come and find me in the future." Zhuang Die interrupted in a muffled voice, "Captain, you can't find a place by yourself and just get through it."

He opened the locked memory boxes.

Last night, after explaining the origin of the first cocoon to them, within a few minutes, Ling Su's face suddenly became a little strange.

He said he had something to do, told several people to pay attention to safety, stay where they were and wait for him, and left the ward in a hurry.

An hour later, Ling Su still hadn't come back.

Zhuang Die was really worried, and the three of them left the ward quietly, wanting to see what happened... and the process of exploration was far simpler than they thought.

At the corner of the stairs on the next floor, they found Ling Su who had fallen to the ground and lost consciousness.

When he first entered this dream and was unable to move for a few minutes, he saw the younger number zero a few years ago, tied up on the bed with a restraint belt, doing "treatment" that he couldn't understand at all.

He was taken to the conference room where he was being hypnotized, and a broken scalpel was silently thrown on the operating table, and then repaired without any traces like a show of skill.

……

"You are not allowed to modify my memory anymore." Zhuang Die raised his head, "Captain, I know you did it."

Zhuang Die tried his best to keep a sullen face, staring at him seriously, but unfortunately, the wet eyelashes, red eyes, and occasional sobbing just like a five-year-old child...seriously caused the momentum of this action to be greatly reduced.

Ling Su raised his hand to help him wipe off the transparent saline solution bit by bit.

"It's not exactly like this." Ling Su staggered his eyes and said in a low voice, "Little Curly, listen to my explanation..."

If possible, he would also like to admit his mistakes and make promises without hesitation—as long as he can coax Teacher Xiaozhuang well by doing this, Ling Su will never lock any of his memory boxes again, and is willing to help redecorate them Go through that memory palace.

But the problem is... This matter is a bit complicated. What Zhuang Die said cannot be completely controlled by him at the moment.

Zhuang Die let out a "hmm", supported his body with his arms, and waited quietly for his next words.

Ling Su met his gaze and was silent for half a minute: "...I did it."

"I know." Zhuang Die nodded, "Captain, what then?"

Ling Su: "..."

Zhuang Die: "..."

...then there is nothing more to say.

Ling Su didn't expect this, he raised his hand and ruffled his hair vigorously: "...Ah!"

Even he himself felt that the development of this dialogue seemed to have no possibility of leading to other endings other than "Hehe, are you angry?"

Ling Su's head started to hurt again.

At a certain moment, he even began to think about whether to throw some garbage on the ground and ask Dr. Yan to interrupt his crazy plan...

In the next second, Zhuang Die, who was still staring at him seriously, couldn't hold back, and suddenly burst out laughing.

Ling Su was a little surprised: "Little Curly?"

"It's okay, I've changed my mind."

Zhuang Die also coughed a bit from being choked by himself. He pursed his lips, quickly grabbed Ling Su's hand, and rescued the captain's hair countless times: "Captain, you can do everything you think is necessary directly. .”

Ling Su froze for a moment, raised his eyes and looked at him.

"Captain, look at me...I'm talking to you about this very seriously."

Zhuang Die said: "I just figured it out. We have fallen into the inherent thinking pattern. In fact, there is not only one solution to the problem... Besides this, I have another very important thing to tell you."

"You have a lot of things to think about, and a lot of things that limit you, and it's exhausting."

"Unlike Dr. Yan and Chairman Yan, you don't want everything to be like this..."

Zhuang Die looked at Ling Su intently: "I don't want our agreement to make you work harder, this matter is more important than everything else."

Ling Su's shoulders tensed unconsciously.

He closed his eyes abruptly, and his whole body seemed to freeze for a few seconds in this sentence.

"Teacher Xiaozhuang."

Ling Su's voice was a little hoarse, and he put his hands around the back of Zhuang Die's head: "You can't just use me as a demonstration just to show me that you know how to make children cry."

Zhuang Die's plan revealed something, but he was not guilty at all. He took out the content that had just been popularized and applied it: "Tears can take away stress and relieve pain..."

"You can too." Ling Su said softly.

This time it was Zhuang Die's turn to be startled.He opened his eyes wide, and Ling Su gently rubbed his hair, and the pinnae of his ears became hot without warning.

Ling Su smiled, and he also imitated Zhuang Die's operation, giving Xiao Curly a superficial artificial respiration - he kissed Zhuang Die's forehead lightly, and hugged him into a ball: " That'll be fine."

Zhuang Die shook his head: "This is not right."

Ling Su slightly raised his eyebrows and lowered his head to ask clearly.But before he could regain his senses, the little curly hair came up to him and quickly touched his lips hotly.

...Ling Su felt that he might be frozen or petrified.

His eyes were engulfed in white light without warning - under normal circumstances, this level of emotional fluctuations would definitely touch that warning line.But at this moment, his conscious world has completely stopped, not to mention breaking the cordon, even the "training" and "treatment" he received at the beginning seemed to be evaporated by that bright white light in an instant.

It's not like he didn't think of doing it.

It's just that he really doesn't know how much future he has, so even if he is full of selfishness that he dare not admit, he still can't muster enough courage to pull the little curly hair into the trajectory of fate again without authorization.

It's like he's not as good as a five-year-old crying kid who doesn't even dare to say "I like you" to Mr. Zhuang frankly.

"Captain." Zhuang Die's voice was also different from usual, he was stunned in Ling Su's arms for a few seconds, and asked in a low voice, "Did I... kiss you?"

First rule out a wrong answer, which of course cannot be artificial respiration.

Ling Su answered a hundred "yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes", but he couldn't find his mouth, so he just hugged the little curly hair in his arms motionlessly.

"So it's this feeling..." Zhuang Die paused for a while, and muttered something in a low voice.

Ling Su heard the sound of the notebook opening and pages turning.

He really couldn't help but wanted to go up to see what Zhuang Die would write, this thought supported him to regain control of his body, and sat up: "Little Curly—"

Zhuang Die walked around in the captain's arms, trying to cover his handwriting with his hands.

Just as he was about to jump out of bed and find a corner to write down the experience and experience of "doing artificial respiration according to the captain's guidance for the first time", he seemed to notice something suddenly. The little curly hair on the top of his head Suddenly branched up.

Zhuang Die put away the notebook in an instant, pressed Ling Su's arm with one hand, and sharply raised his gaze.

Ling Su's reaction was faster than his, he had already embraced Zhuang Die, and hid him neatly under the bed.

Footsteps sounded in the empty corridor.

Ling Su supported the edge of the bed to stand firm. Although he hadn't recovered to his best condition, after the rest just now and the special "artificial respiration" given by Little Curly, his condition was undoubtedly vastly different from before.

The sound of footsteps passed through the corridor, and within a short dozen seconds, Ling Su quickly restored the lounge to its original state.

His movements were strangely steady and neat, even though the footsteps outside the door were getting closer, Ling Su seemed not to be affected at all.He methodically put away everything on the surface, stuffed the trolley behind the light blue medical screen in the corner, and pulled the bed sheet evenly.

The sound of keys rattled outside the door, and the lock cylinder turned slowly.

Ling Su just smoothed the last corner of the bed sheet.

The lounge door was pushed open.

Chairman Yan in a white coat appeared at the door.Holding a record in his hand, he looked up at the house number while comparing.

The room was empty, as if anyone had ever been there.

"Haven't you woke up yet?"

Chairman Yan glanced around: "It seems that this experiment is indeed a bit too much...Let's reduce the intensity a little next time."

He didn't have any kind of walkie-talkie in his hand, and he did seem to be talking to something,

"His will to survive has been getting weaker and weaker recently. This is not a good sign... Also, in the last few missions, his 'knife tip' seems not so sharp."

"It should be that the emotional hints have been loosened-this is also impossible. If you don't give him some emotions, there is no way to make him want to live."

"This balance is a tightrope walk. It is necessary to enter the second round of experiments as soon as possible to create situations and introduce negative factors such as regret and self-blame."

"It doesn't matter, as long as you control the level and don't shake the cage that keeps that monster."

Chairman Yan flipped through the records and said a few words to the invisible "cocoon".

He had no doubt that "Number Zero" at this moment didn't have much mobility, and he didn't think that the other party could clean up the lounge and hide there without being found.

After finding that there was no sign that anyone had been in the house, he closed the door and turned to leave without checking too much.

"It must be almost after lunch, and that's when."

Outside the door, Chairman Yan arranged: "The guard relaxes a bit, it's time for him to watch a movie."