When the law of conservation of isolation is broken

Zhang Luotuo suddenly raised his head, leaning against the head of the bed, as if suddenly ordered to stop by a computer program, the bed sheet slowly slipped out of his hand.

He looked at Joad without blinking.

Dead silence enveloped them like a vortex at this moment.The remaining shouts came from the window, laughing female voices, dirty mouth, these voices sounded out of reach, Qianhui Market was so far away from them, like in another urban jungle.

"Are you joking?..." After a long time, Zhang Luotuo said dryly. He shook his head and tried to force a smile, but failed, and his smile collapsed.

But Joad was unmoved, he didn't even show a joking expression, his face was still extremely serious.

"You've never thought about this, have you?" he said, his voice very soft, which had nothing to do with the cold.

Zhang Luotuo's heart was beating wildly, a great panic and uncertainty enveloped him, his hands were sweating, maybe his heart was also sweating.His head was dizzy for a while, and there seemed to be a piece of iron in his throat sucking his vocal cords, making him unable to make a sound. He shook his head reluctantly, and asked, "Don't be kidding, it's not funny." He even laughed , this is ridiculous, he thought.

Joad didn't answer his words, his expression remained the same.

"You're not serious, are you?" Zhang Luotuo looked at Joad's expression, and said with some horror, he felt his ears buzzing and his mouth was dry, "I'm a human being, just like you."

He thought for a while, wondering if Joad was confused, or fell into a blind spot of knowledge, so he took the trouble to explain: "I'm not an imitation person, does the imitation person refer to a real human being, like a waiter in a restaurant , the police, they will follow all kinds of orders and help us... Another example is idols, like Li Xiangxiang—"

Joad was still very calm after listening to his words. He didn't even mock Zhang Luotuo's panic or retort, but maintained a state that was almost calm and observed him carefully: "Are you disgusted with imitation people?"

Zhang Luotuo was stunned for a moment, then he shook his head in bewilderment: "That's not what I mean—" He thought for a while, and those imitation people and human images kept pouring into his mind, like a computer flash. Screens flashed one by one, and he thought of Li Xiangxiang's eyelashes and sighs, those impersonators who kept saying "Welcome", and then his tone became firm, "It's really not, but I'm not an impersonator."

Joad looked at him and said softly: Then why do you think you are not a counterfeit? "

Zhang Luotuo frowned, this question is very strange.He thought for a while, and said as a matter of course: "Because there is a clear difference between me and them."

"What do you think is the difference between you and them?" Joad asked softly, looking straight into Zhang Luotuo's eyes.

Zhang Luotuo's eyes wandered to the blue canopy outside the window, and then came back: "It's the difference between imitation people and human beings." He felt that he couldn't use better words to summarize this.

"What's the difference between an imitation human and a human being?" Joad asked him again before he finished speaking.This made Zhang Luotuo feel a little uncomfortable. He felt Qiao De's aggressiveness. The last time he felt this way was a long time ago, when they were at Qiao De's house, and Qiao De asked him personal questions one after another: He, Zheng Zheng, everything Everything, Teresa Teng's singing is like a fire that ignites dynamite, making his heart uneasy.

Zhang Luotuo was a little irritable, and the discomfort of being constantly questioned and doubted covered him like a virus: "The difference." He muttered, a little angrily, but he immediately noticed that there was nothing in Joad's eyes. Like last time, full of taunts or hostility, he was just asking calmly, like any question in the world.Zhang Luotuo thus understood that Qiao De had no other malice, and it was uncomfortable to press it down.

He lowered his head, sighed, and replied earnestly: "It depends on what you say. Let's divide it into physical and conscious, although in fact the difference between them and us is already very small."

Joad sat in front of Zhang Luotuo: "Then if a person is physically and consciously identical to a counterfeit, then can it be considered a counterfeit?"

Zhang Luotuo thought for a while, and he felt that this statement didn't seem quite right, but he couldn't tell what was wrong, so he just nodded hastily: "That's what the book on imitating humans says, so we should be able to think so."

Joad nodded, as if a doubt had been answered: "Go on."

Zhang Luotuo touched his left arm, feeling a little itchy: "For example, in imitating human physiology, they will not die like us, and their lifespan is broken rather than dead - which also means that they can be destroyed. Successfully repaired again and again, within a day they come back to life, the body can be reassembled, disassembled and reassembled at any time, there will be no—”

When he said this, he suddenly stopped and trembled.

Then, as if he realized something, the hand touching his left arm stopped.

...and that arm is as radiant as new.

But it fit him so well that the blood flowed smoothly through it.

Joad noticed his movement, blinked, and looked at him calmly.

After a long time, as if guessing what Zhang Luotuo was thinking, he asked softly, "How does your Xin'an's left arm feel?"

Zhang Luotuo raised his head and stared at Qiao De in a daze.

Joad nodded slightly: "Maybe it's because of technology? And your left eye too, you didn't even mention it."

Zhang Luotuo heard that Qiao De was slightly mocking him.Panting, he quietly held his own left hand, the nails dug into his palm, and the pain was transmitted to the nerves, all the way to his eyeballs.He didn't even notice that his own thoughts were completely blank.

Qiao De may have seen something wrong with him, so he didn't continue to ask, but became quiet, letting Zhang Luotuo sink into endless thoughts.

Zhang Luotuo lowered his head and let his head sink in the palm of his hand.

But he felt he couldn't hold on to those thoughts.

Joad's voice suddenly sounded again.

"You just said that there is a physiological difference between an imitation human and a human? So can you tell me what the difference is in consciousness?" He changed the subject and asked softly.

Zhang Luotuo raised his head in a daze.The difference in consciousness, at this moment he almost forgot about this topic.

"The difference in consciousness..." He walked out of his huge and scattered thoughts, thought for a while, and then replied.

"It's memory," he said.

"Memory?" Joad looked at him, not knowing why, with a strange expression on his face.

Zhang Luotuo nodded: "Yes." He slowly memorized the sentences in the book describing the imitation humans. The memories of the imitation humans were born when they started to operate, which means that their memories often start from A specific node where the day begins.This is different from human beings. Human beings have long-lasting memories since birth. There will be no boundaries in memories, and it is impossible to have blank memories. Even if they can’t remember clearly, the brain can still produce fragmented memory pictures.But once the imitation people's memory reaches a certain point, and then pushes forward, it will be blank, like a desert.

... It is impossible for a person to not have a long memory.The last words of that book echoed in his head.

"Humans have fragmented and endless memories, but the memories of imitation humans disappear after reaching a certain point." Zhang Luotuo said, "This is the biggest difference in consciousness between human beings and imitation humans."

Joad nodded, seeming to agree with what he said: "Then I want to ask, what is your memory like?"

Zhang Luotuo frowned and froze for a moment.memory.This simple and familiar word.

He saw Joad's purpose, but he felt that Joad would not get what he wanted this time.

"Same as everyone else." He said slightly relaxed, with a sigh of relief, "fragmented, continuous."

"Since it's fragmented, don't you actually remember it clearly?" Joad accurately grasped his words.

Zhang Luotuo understood his words, and nodded hesitantly: "Yes, because memory is not so easy to get." That thing is so natural, Zhang Luotuo will not even think about it or doubt it, because it will always be there , will not betray him, memory is like the air that will be ignored in a room, it exists between his breath at any time, but it is always fuzzy and intangible - the memory of yesterday begins to dilute today, that is like One dream after another, a pure white space that only exists in a certain distant place, no one can catch it.

"You don't know whether it suddenly disappears at a certain point or is fragmented." Joad confirmed, "Because it is vague and difficult to capture."

"You can think of it this way." Zhang Luotuo felt a little tired. It was the numbness that started in his left arm, and then the feeling spread to his whole body.He suddenly realized that his limbs were so coordinated, as if they were born there, and it made him panic, and he lowered his eyes, resisting the feeling with all his strength.

"But I don't doubt my memory," he added.

"But you can't prove it either," Joad said.

"That's what it means." Zhang Luotuo thought for a while, then nodded hesitantly, not wanting to admit it.

Joad looked at him contemplatively for a while, then suddenly said again: "So do you want to break through the barriers and see the memory clearly?"

Zhang Luotuo raised his head: "What do you mean?"

"If you are given a chance, through certain methods, you can break through the barriers and see all your memories and the boundaries of your memories, will you see it?" Joad repeated and extended his words once.

Zhang Luotuo thought this sounded absurd and strange, but Joad just looked at him, looking extremely serious without the slightest hesitation, as if he had already decided on something.

Zhang Luotuo stared into Qiao De's eyes for a long time.He didn't understand why Qiao De was so sure and persistent, but at the same time, Zhang Luotuo could feel his heart trembling slightly, and he didn't know why—maybe he knew.Through those long urban jungles, incomparably deep sleep, those doubts that Zhang Luotuo has never solved before, everything he keeps digging out.

Joad put them here clearly.

His voice gradually became incoherent, even he himself could not hear clearly.

He didn't even notice himself nodding.

He saw Joad get up and go out the door, and he came back with a pill in his hand, a blue one, and he handed it to him.

"What is this?" Zhang Luotuo asked.

"You could call it a mnemonic, but we call it Firmeril, that's what it's called," Joad said. "It goes back—to the furthest reaches of your memory."

Zhang Luotuo scratched his chin in confusion: "Why didn't I know there was such a medicine?" If there was such a medicine, the whole of Chongqing should react, and the news would be widely reported: this is the rapid progress of science and technology.

"For some reason," Joad said.here we go again.His tone of voice, his demeanor, his attitude of hiding a secret, made people feel that he was hiding something.But Zhang Luotuo had gotten used to it to a certain extent, so he didn't ask any further, but just took the blue pill.

It's small, like a twinkling pixel.

"How will it work?" he asked Joad.

But Joad just nodded slightly at him: "Eat it, and wait."

Zhang Luotuo put it into his lips and swallowed it.

After 1 minute passed, there was nothing. He looked at Joad in confusion, but Joad just signaled him to wait patiently, so Zhang Luotuo decided to wait.

After 1 minute, a sense of spinning began to revolve around him.

Zhang Luotuo felt a strange vibration.

He blinked and saw that the surrounding bedroom and even the view of everything disappeared, replaced by countless uneven gray colors like the sky.Then the colors began to fade, entering his retinas like an hourglass.

He rolled his eyeballs a little, and the colors began to deform, into geometric shapes, and down, down.

He saw them become pictures.

Those pictures and sounds passed through his eyeballs, were smoothed out by him, and turned forward.Zhang Luotuo didn't react at first, and then realized that they were his memories, they flowed before his eyes like a movie.And they look very clear, the colors are vibrant, and every detail is so perfect, it seems that it has not been worn.

This is because of the pill, which stimulates your brain and visualizes your memory, and you can see your memory more clearly than you normally would.A distant voice came from afar.Zhang Luotuo was stunned for a moment, only to realize that he had spoken the exclamation just now, and now it was Qiao De's voice that answered, he spoke in his ear, but the voice sounded like a god from afar.

what do you see nowZhang Luotuo heard Qiao De ask him.

memory.Zhang Luotuo replied without realizing it himself, he saw himself running away from R-63, it felt a bit strange, watching another himself running past.

Is this tablet, like C33, a combination of illusion and reality?he asked a little suspiciously.

But before Joad could answer, he himself denied it. Pills can cause hallucinations, but the hallucinations are all random. It is impossible for them to present the memory in front of his eyes in such a clear and complete way as a vein.

He felt a little pain in his head—maybe from the drug.

Zhang Luotuo rolled his eyes again, if only these memories could move forward.he thinks.

Before he finished thinking about it, those pictures immediately rushed forward, in other words, the memory was reversed.

He took a deep breath in some surprise.

That's because your brain sends out an order, the nerves receive it, and your memory follows your brain.Joad explained.Only then did Zhang Luotuo realize that he had spoken again.

He saw the memories spinning rapidly on the retina, those R-63s that flew over the building, and walked on the road of the company, those memories were so dense that they seemed endless.He couldn't help stopping, looking at those memories carefully with some surprise and dizziness.

He was lost for a while, and then he remembered Joad's words: His purpose is not to see these memories.Instead, find the end of the memory and see whether it is blurred like fragments or disappears suddenly as if it encounters a certain dividing line.

Only then did he come to his senses, and quickly turned his memory forward.He felt the effect of the medicine was very strong, because he had just thought of it, and those memories were pushed back quickly.Immediately, he saw many more memories, more memories from before:

He bought Mao Mao, and it got into his arms.

For countless nights, he fixes software.

Joad looked at him icily.

Joad had just joined the company and stood on the conference table to introduce himself.

……

These memories are a little different from the previous ones, they have become slightly blurred from the clarity and bright colors at the beginning, perhaps because of the age.

Zhang Luotuo continued to push forward.

Slowly, his memory seemed to be diving into deep water, and even with the help of the pills, it changed from being extremely clear to just colorful colors and movements.

He fixed the coal.

He began to find joy in his work.

He went to a certain street with Zheng Zheng.

He met Zheng Zheng for the first time and became friends with her.

He blinked, and those memories began to become a little strange, no longer played like a movie, but flickered in fragments.

Fragments flash by.

He saw that he was alone in the company, and no one contacted him, because no one here wanted to make friends.

He wanders through the ghetto, buying various records, and some boxer's brawl comes crashing through.

The pictures are drawn out one by one, and swallowed again.Going forward, going forward, is like passing through a space-time tunnel.

He found that his memory began to become less and less clear fragments and blobs, flickering like fragments.

I have no problem, just like everyone else.Zhang Luotuo secretly confirmed, looking at those memories.

Because of some relaxation, he continued to let the memory move forward, constantly moving forward.Countless memories were left behind him.

He blinked, and suddenly saw a white light in front of him.

An extremely clear picture appeared in front of his eyes.

That's Eleven's building, and it shines brightly.Zhang Luotuo saw himself in his memory raising his head, standing at the gate of the company, next to the majestic statue of Q.

He was thinking: my new life.

After a while, Zhang Luotuo could even hear his own voice.

Zhang Luotuo was taken aback by this voice. This was when he first came to the company—he vaguely remembered it, but he didn't understand why this memory was so clear.

He was only thinking about it, and accidentally interrupted his memory, so the picture in front of him was like a picture of snowflakes coming out of an old TV at two o'clock in the middle of the night.

He rolled his eyes, allowing himself to reconnect with the frequency generated by the pill, and continued to think forward, preparing to remember the previous content again—the content before he came to the company, his life, his boyhood, Childhood--until those memories went from fragments to blurred chunks of color that no one could see clearly, and he would step back and tell Joad all the facts.

His memory opened his legs, ready to run forward.

But he was stopped immediately.

Zhang Luotuo smelled the rotten smell, which was his thinking and memory.

He couldn't remember, something instinctively blocked him from recalling the longer past, like a cleaned tape.

In the blank rainy night, the symbols drawn on the glass were erased one after another by the raindrops.

He frowned, trying to concentrate, and with the help of the blue pill that stimulated his brain, let the memory go back to a long time ago—he revisited, starting to think of things from the past few days, rolling his eyes, and began to let the memory dive, let Dive yourself deep enough until you can unearth something without a hitch.

He remembered that he was standing at the door of the company, thinking, my new life.

He took a deep breath, ready to continue pushing forward.

But he couldn't, a blank spray held him back and made him float upwards.

His mind was blank, there was nothing, even fragmentary pictures disappeared.He couldn't even think of a sentence, his thoughts were not blocked by his brain, but simply had no thoughts.

It's like a CD with nothing recorded on it.

Zhang Luotuo moved in fear, closing his eyes even tighter.

But still nothing.

Nothing.

Everything is blank like a piece of paper, a piece of pure white space, a boundary line.

He opened his eyes suddenly and raised his head.

Joad stood in front of him, watching his terrified expression.He seemed to have expected it, did not show the rest of his expression, but said calmly, word by word: "What did you see?"

Zhang Luotuo didn't answer, but he knew that Qiao De saw everything from his expression.

Zhang Luotuo's heart was beating wildly, he knew what it meant that the memory stopped at a certain moment, but it was as blank as white when pushed forward.

But he couldn't believe it, and he didn't want to believe it.This is ridiculous, Zhang Luotuo had never thought of applying this situation to himself before.

His newly installed left arm trembled in shock, as if it had been one with him since birth, sensing his emotions.

He lowered his head and said nothing. It took a long time before he spoke again: "...I saw a blank at the end."

"How could this be?" he murmured, looking up.

He felt a slight pain in his head and looked at Joad: "Have you tried this pill?"

Joad shook his head. At first Zhang Luotuo thought he meant that he hadn't tried it, but Joad quickly said: "I tried it, but it doesn't work for me. I can only see a piece of black when I close my eyes. .”

Zhang Luotuo frowned, but didn't understand: why? "

Joad looked at him: "This pill only targets the nerves of the imitation person, and people cannot get stimulation from it to recall."

Zhang Luotuo was stunned.

Zhang Luotuo buried his head, he felt his brain was going to explode, but in contrast, his left arm and left eye were still swimming mercilessly and smoothly as usual, moving together with his body without any discomfort.The tide after the memory faded beat him, one after another.The clear and bright image of him standing at the door of Eleven Company flickered, disappeared, flickered, disappeared again and again.

Imitate people.He thought about the vocabulary, and for the first time it felt like a foreign language, overwhelming and headache.

"What you're really trying to tell me is not the end of my memory, but that the pill, once it starts to work, will prove that I'm different?" he thought, and couldn't help but say it.

Joad didn't answer him, but Zhang Luotuo saw acquiescence in his eyes.

Zhang Luotuo lowered his head.

He put the clues together one by one and lit them up.

He felt connected even to himself—by those real but hidden truths that he hadn't understood why before, but at this moment, they all graciously embraced him.

Zhang Luotuo sat for a long time, until he didn't know how many hours passed, or a few days—maybe it was a long time, maybe it was just a moment, but at that moment, he completely sank into his own thoughts, like sinking into sleep.He felt that Joad was sitting opposite him, seeming to be staring at him, but Zhang Luotuo couldn't feel anything.He slowly sorted out those thoughts one by one, but fell into the vortex of doubts in the next second, and he had to spend a longer time sorting out himself, the information, and what he heard, and then crawled out of the thoughts .

"...Besides these, do you have any concrete evidence that can directly show that I am a counterfeit?" He heard himself say dryly, as if he was dying.

Qiao De didn't speak, and those who are not familiar with him would think that he was stumped, but Zhang Luotuo could tell that Qiao De was not so much stumped, but more like hesitating.

After a long time, Joad stretched out his left hand and gently held Zhang Luotuo's right hand. The cold temperature spread in Zhang Luotuo's palm, as if trying to comfort him.Zhang Luotuo raised his head and looked at Qiao De with some confusion.

The next second, Joad spoke again.

"The thumb of your right hand," he said.