My organs are too abstract.

Chapter 103 Isolation and Epidemic Prevention!

The movement of that shadowy finger was so slight that, unless one observed it closely, it would appear to be merely a blurry change in light and shadow.

"My shadow—how can it move on its own?" Xu Yuan wondered. "Does this have anything to do with Tongtong?"

He suddenly remembered the bizarre dream he had: when he participated in a running race, a cute little girl was cheering him on.

He initially thought it was just a dream and didn't pay much attention to it, but now that he thinks back, that little girl—seems a lot like Tongtong?

"Hiss, if that's the case—" Xu Yuan's thoughts wandered, and he suddenly connected the dream to other things.

The earthquake that happened inexplicably in my dream was just a sign that the old building was about to run away. As for the crystal that ran away on its own while playing the game, wasn't that just the old building running away, so my house was gone?!

"Damn, if that's the case, then that little bread I ate—" Xu Yuan's expression changed slightly, "did my idiot left hand accidentally eat someone on my way out of the old building?!"

Yu Hanqiu, who was sitting opposite him, was listening attentively to Xu Yuan's "bragging" and hoping to gain some valuable information from it. However, he did not expect that Xu Yuan would suddenly start shaking his head and changing his expression in an instant, with a speed comparable to the face-changing of Sichuan opera.

"Why do you look so pale?" Her cool voice rang out at the right moment. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing—" Xu Yuan was about to shake his head when he suddenly remembered something, his eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked, "By the way, you said you've been watching me do the horizontal bar, did you see me when I came out of that building?"

"Of course," Gu Yaxin said straightforwardly, "We've been following you ever since you came out of the old building."

"You've been following me since the old building entrance?" Xu Yuan was taken aback.

Yu Hanqiu assumed Xu Yuan disliked their following, and explained, "Don't worry, we didn't mean to spy on you." "That's great!" Xu Yuan's face lit up, completely ignoring the rest of her sentence, and he asked nervously, "Did you see me contact anyone else along the way?"

Yu Hanqiu was somewhat taken aback by his reaction and shook her head, saying, "No."

"That's good, that's good—" Xu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and murmured softly, "It seems I haven't harmed any innocent people."

He's not some prime minister who kills in his sleep. On the contrary, he always considers himself a beacon of the nation's future, and he would feel guilty if he harmed an innocent passerby for no reason.

"But what exactly was that little loaf of bread that spoke ill of me in my dream? Was it just a dream? Or was it—"

Xu Yuan recalled the dry, brittle texture of the food in his dream, which felt like cowhide. A guess formed in his mind: "Or was the thing I ate some kind of monster from the old building? And it even spoke ill of me—could it harbor some kind of hostility towards me?"

All this guessing was pointless, so Xu Yuan immediately questioned his left hand in his mind: "What were you doing while I was asleep?"

Your left hand indicates that you don't understand what you're saying.

"I'll ask you one more time—" Xu Yuan ignored its feigned ignorance and calmly asked, "Have you been eating something behind my back?"

His left fingertips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to continue feigning madness, but upon meeting Xu Yuan's calm gaze, he ultimately gave up quietly.

Suddenly, a line of pale white characters appeared in the void.

Your left hand indicates that you need paper and pen.

"Paper and pen?" Xu Yuan was stunned. He was only wearing pajamas now, where was he going to find paper and pen?

At this moment, he looked up at Yu Hanqiu and asked, "Do you have any paper or pens on you?"

Yu Hanqiu was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, but did not ask for the reason. He simply took out a ballpoint pen and a palm-sized portable notebook from his trench coat pocket and handed them over.

Xu Yuan didn't stand on ceremony. He took the item, casually flipped it open, and saw the cold, sharp, and distinct handwriting. Each stroke was crisp and fierce, giving off a sense of distance that kept strangers at bay. It recorded various kinds of intelligence.

"Is this the legendary 'Silver Hook Iron Painting'?" Xu Yuan glanced at it and couldn't help but ask, "Your handwriting is very similar to your own..."

They do look quite alike.

Gu Ya leaned closer curiously: "How so? Do you mean cold-hearted?"

"No, it's just quite pretty." Xu Yuan said casually.

Upon hearing this, Yu Hanqiu glanced at him indifferently.

Gu Ya blinked, muttering to herself, "This person—wasn't he usually so good with words? What was he doing acting like that before?"

Xu Yuan ignored their gazes and casually flipped through a few pages. The pages contained information about calamities, including where calamities had appeared, where calamity ruins had appeared, and what abilities they possessed. The information was written in great detail.

After flipping through several pages, all filled with similar records, Xu Yuan couldn't help but remark, "Writing so much, it seems you're quite busy with work."

Yu Hanqiu gently shook her head: "The frequency of calamities invading reality is getting higher and higher, so there's nothing we can do about being busy."

"I see—" Xu Yuan nodded thoughtfully, then, as if remembering something, asked, "By the way, can I ask you a question?"

"Can."

"From what you're saying, calamities seem to occur quite frequently," Xu Yuan asked, voicing a long-held question. "But why is it that in reality, almost no one knows of their existence?"

"Because the Sickness Control Bureau is secretly fighting them and blocking the news."

Xu Yuan pressed further, "Why the lockdown? Is it to prevent social unrest?"

"That's only one aspect." Yu Hanqiu's tone deepened, and his expression became more serious. "Ordinary people, and even the power of modern technology, can hardly inflict effective damage on the disaster. Revealing the truth to the public will have limited significance other than causing panic, but the more crucial reason is—"

He paused, then slowly said, "We believe that humanity's collective fear itself may be a 'culture medium' that summons or nurtures calamity."

"Collective fear—a culture medium?" Xu Yuan repeated in a low voice.

"That's right." Yu Hanqiu nodded. "The source of these calamities remains a mystery, but multiple observational data show that their frequency and intensity are closely related to the concentration and resonance of negative emotions such as panic and despair among human groups in specific areas."

"The first batch of calamities that descend upon us, in their form and power, often reflect the oldest and most universal archetypes of fear deep within the consciousness of human civilization."

Gu Ya added from the side: "Simply put, the more collectively people fear something, the greater the possibility that something else will be attracted to it. Many calamities do indeed take pleasure in absorbing and manipulating human fears, and even use this to strengthen themselves."

"Therefore, blocking information is not only about maintaining order, but also more like a form of isolation and epidemic prevention. It's about preventing the concept of 'disaster' itself from becoming a new source of fear, and avoiding a vicious cycle at the level of consciousness."

Cheng Tuo's expression was solemn, and he said in a deep voice, "But in recent years, the pressure on the defense line has been increasing, and the disasters have been appearing more and more randomly and frequently. It has become increasingly difficult to completely cover them up, and we don't know when they will be completely exposed."

"That sounds like a lot of trouble—" Xu Yuan stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Working at the Sickness Control Bureau would be like dancing on a knife's edge every day, wouldn't it?"

"It's more than just the tip of a knife." Cheng Tuo patted his neck with a wry smile. "It's like shoving your head into the noose of the guillotine, and you have to be careful not to sway too much."

Xu Yuan looked at him with pity, as if he were looking at a pathetic office worker.

"So dangerous, only a fool would join the Surgery Bureau?" A classic line popped into Xu Yuan's mind, and he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, "A few hundred dollars a month, why would you risk your life?"

"There's nothing we can do about it. Even if we don't join the Sickness Management Bureau, we'll still be targeted by the calamities, and it might be even more dangerous then." Gu Ya chimed in nonchalantly, "Besides, we make more than a few hundred yuan a month; we'd be making millions."

"Taking away the young master?!"

Xu Yuan abruptly turned to look at her, his eyes widening suddenly, his voice rising abruptly: "Millions?!"