NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 10: Chapter 10
The door handle of the unit in Building 3 of Sunshine Community was still stained with dew. I held the "hot code" order in my hand and rubbed the words "never cool down" in the remarks column with my fingertips - the edge of the handwriting was light gold, the same tone as the YSL 03 color of SUSAN powder. Kailan was holding Nuannuan downstairs, the "03" gear in the interlayer of the incubator was getting hot, and the broken chain of her silver bracelet was burned with tiny flashes.
"Brother Zhang said that the eighth node is on the top floor of Unit 3." Kailan suddenly pressed my wrist, and the burn on my palm resonated with the mark on Nuannuan's wrist. "The popsicle on the back of Dad's note may be related to the old-fashioned refrigerator here." As she spoke, the electronic lock of the unit door suddenly made a "click" sound, and "1378" popped up on the display screen - my work number, which is also the password of the refrigerator.
The sweet smell of old popsicles wafted through the corridor. Grandma Wang on the third floor was carrying a cardboard box downstairs. She suddenly smiled when she saw us: "Xiao Ming, are you here to deliver orders again? The refrigerator you helped me repair last time still has mung bean soup frozen in it." The faint light from her wrist swept across the cardboard box, revealing the old newspapers inside. The front-page photo was Professor Kai standing in front of the laboratory freezer, holding a melted popsicle in his hand, exactly the same as the reverse mark on Nuan Nuan's wrist.
The metal stick fragments in the incubator suddenly "clanged", and I dragged Kai Lan into unit three. The iron door on the top floor was ajar, and the logo of Xinyuan Technology was smeared with sausage oil to make a smiley face, and the old-fashioned freezer in the middle of the room was humming, and the ice flowers on the inner wall formed the pattern of "Eros's Eye" - but the center was not warm light, but a group of black fog emitting cold air.
"Finally here." Brother Chen's voice came from behind the freezer. His mechanical arm had been replaced with new gears, and the sausage spiral pattern on the edge was completely smoothed. "Do you know why the eighth node is a popsicle? Because all hot codes are afraid of this thing." He opened the freezer, and there was a transparent popsicle frozen inside. A miniature metal box was embedded in the ice. It was the backup of the first-generation controller that Professor Kai took away when he disappeared.
Nuannuan suddenly struggled in Kailan's arms, and her little hand pointed to the freezer. I only then discovered that the power cord of the freezer was wrapped around a sausage skewer, and the skewer was still stained with chili powder from last week's delivery. Kailan suddenly remembered something: "Dad's notes said that high temperature can make the reverse code invalid! Just like the sausage skewer poked into the ice will emit white smoke!" As she spoke, she pressed the powder dispenser on Nuannuan's palm, and the golden light instantly wrapped the entire popsicle.
Chen's mechanical arm suddenly ejected an electromagnetic cannon, but it stopped when it approached Nuannuan - the burn on his wrist was glowing, forming a strange resonance with the mark on Nuannuan's wrist. "Do you think I really want to activate the reverse code?" He suddenly pulled off the outer shell of the mechanical arm, revealing the four words "Protect Nuannuan" engraved inside, "Professor Kai transformed me into a cleaner so that I could hide this."
The freezer suddenly trembled violently, and countless data streams emerged from the black fog, just like the garbled codes of electronic scales that were interfered with in the morning market. I picked up the incubator and smashed it against the freezer. The sausage oil paper in the box burned in the golden light, and it actually burned a "XM+KL" mark on the ice surface. Kai Lan took the opportunity to pour the oden chili oil into the black fog, and the chili fragrance mixed with the ice fog exploded, revealing the curled metal box inside - the popsicle pattern on the lid was melting, revealing the laboratory number "1903" underneath.
"This is Professor Kai's real plan." SUSAN suddenly jumped down from the ventilation duct, holding a half-sliced sausage in her hand, "Use the hot air to melt the reverse code, so that the system can remember warmth and coolness at the same time." She stuffed the sausage into Nuan Nuan's hand, and the little guy's golden light suddenly split into two streams, one melting ice and one warm mist, as if playing a game of "ice and fire".
The gears of the mechanical arm began to reverse, and Brother Chen's lens flashed the last line of bullet screen: [Bidirectional emotional data detected, the system completed the ultimate update]. He watched the popsicle in Nuan Nuan's hand slowly melt into water, and suddenly laughed: "I always snatched Professor Kai's popsicle to eat back then, and he said, 'The system should be like this thing, it can be cold and hot to be alive'." As soon as the voice fell, the mechanical arm "clanged" to the ground, and a yellowed sticky note rolled out of the gear. It was a little sun drawn by Kai Lan when she was seven years old.
The black fog in the freezer completely dissipated, and the metal box automatically popped open. There was no code inside, only a family photo of Zhang Quan - Professor Kai was holding the young Kailan, and Susan and Brother Chen in white coats were standing next to them, each holding a sausage in their hands. On the back of the photo was written: "A coming-of-age gift for Xiaoming and Kailan: The best system is a life that can remember all the flavors."
Wang Mengmeng's shouting came from downstairs. She rushed into the corridor holding the "Eye of Eros" bracket that Brother Zhang had just welded. The solder points on the bracket formed "1015" - Nuannuan's birthday. "Electronic devices all over the city are playing the sound of sausage roasters!" She pointed at the screen of her mobile phone, and every APP turned into a convenience store. "Brother Zhang said this is called 'hot air coverage'. Xinyuan Technology's servers are all dead!"
Nuannuan nibbled on the melted popsicle in Kailan's arms, and the mark on her wrist finally faded to ordinary pink. I took out my work badge and looked at the back. The little sun sticky note was soaked with sweat, but new words were visible underneath: "Next order: Sunshine Community Building 3, Li Xiaoming, delivery target: Kailan, item: all the warm days of the rest of my life."
SUSAN leaned against the freezer and stuffed the last half of the sausage into her mouth: "Professor Kai said a long time ago that the ultimate patch for the system is not the code, but the half sausage you are willing to leave for each other after every quarrel." Her phone suddenly vibrated, and a text message from Professor Kai popped up on the screen: "Tell the children to remember to heat up the mung bean soup in the refrigerator."
When I started the electric car, the gears and metal rod fragments in the incubator made a last soft sound, as if saying "goodbye". Kailan sat in the back seat holding Nuannuan, the broken silver bracelet chain touched the baby's laughter, in the same rhythm as the bubbling sound of the convenience store oden. The sun shone through the sycamore leaves in the community, casting spots of light on the sausage machine in the basket, like countless unspoken "thank you".
(As the sun sets, on the top floor of Building 3 in Sunshine Community, a new mark quietly forms in the ice compartment of the freezer - a pattern of a grilled sausage and a popsicle holding hands. In a laboratory on the other side of the city, a forgotten server suddenly starts up, and a new line of code flashes on the screen: [Human Fireworks Operating System V1.0 is online, core program: a heartbeat that never cools down].)