Ice skates forward, regardless of east or west.

1

The walls of the post office seem to breathe.

It's not a rhetorical device.

The concrete wall was indeed undulating and warm, close to body temperature.

Gu Xidong pressed down and could feel something wriggling underneath.

He smashed the wall with the butt of his gun.

The fragments peeled away, revealing dark red flesh membranes and glowing blue veins.

His veins were pulsating, and the frequency was synchronized with his heartbeat.

The entire building is a giant node in a biological neural network.

Gu Xidong recalled Ling Yaqin's words:

"Testing the child's remote connectivity." This post office was the amplifier, and he became the electrode in the experiment—

His fear, anger, and despair were all transformed into nerve signals, amplified, and transmitted outwards.

To whom should it be sent?

The answer is above your head.

A cluster of nerve bundles hung from the center of the post office ceiling, with the ends connected to a culture chamber the size of a football.

A brain is submerged inside the cabin.

The label on the culture chamber reads: [Ye Shen - Brain Specimen - Status: Partially Active]

Ye Shen is not completely dead.

At least his brain is still alive and has been connected to this neural network, becoming a signal relay station.

"Can you hear me?" Gu Xidong said to the incubation chamber.

The brain's neural activity suddenly intensified. Text appeared on the outer wall of the culture chamber—biofluorescence imaged directly in mid-air:

[Hurry...she's using you...to calibrate her frequency...]

"What frequency are you calibrating?"

[The child's...neural resonance frequency...once locked...can be remotely controlled...]

Gu Xidong continued smashing the wall, aiming at the point where the veins intersected. The flesh membrane ruptured, and blue liquid gushed out.

He climbed upwards on the solidified gel, tearing away more of the fleshy membrane, and finally saw the night sky outside.

He squeezed through and fell onto the snow.

The post office emitted a low, mournful wail behind him.

He sped toward the snowmobile, started it, and turned it all the way up.

Two hours. The deadline Ling Yaqin mentioned.

One hour and forty minutes had passed when the motorcycle sped into the outskirts of the northern city.

There were signs of battle at the entrance to the ice cave. B-3 lay dead at the entrance, with a burn wound on its abdomen caused by an energy weapon.

"They...came after us from the glacier..." B-3 grabbed Gu Xidong's hand.

"Special clones... twenty... Ling Wuwen ordered us to disperse and evacuate... but she herself carried the child... and headed towards the core area..."

"Why go to the core area?"

She said...the child wants to go.

Gu Xidong helped B-3 up, and the two of them, supporting each other, walked into the depths of the ice cave.

The further you go in, the higher the temperature gets.

Glowing biological tissue appeared on the wall.

The foundations of the entire northern city seem to be alive.

The sound of a baby crying came from ahead.

It wasn't a sad cry, but a rhythmic cry.

2

They arrived at a huge circular space.

In the center of the ground is a bottomless vertical shaft.

The edge of the shaft was surrounded by a ring of special clones—twenty in total, fully armed.

Ling Wuwen stood at the edge of the shaft, holding the baby in her arms. The baby struggled in her arms, its little hands reaching into the depths of the shaft.

"Leave the child, and you can live," said the lead special clone. His voice was exactly the same as Gu Xidong's.

"What do you want her to do?"

"Evolution," the other clone replied.

"This child is the first naturally born 'node,' and she will lead us to complete the leap from the individual to the collective."

Before he could finish speaking, Gu Xidong fired a shot, hitting the ground beneath the clone's feet.

Blue liquid splattered, and the clones instinctively stepped back.

He rushed into the encirclement and stood back to back with Ling Wuwen.

"You're late," Ling Wuwen said.

"There's a traffic jam on the road."

The baby stopped crying as soon as it saw him.

Her little face scrunched up, and then—

All the clones simultaneously covered their heads.

It wasn't a physical attack; it was a nerve shock.

The baby's eyes turned completely silver-white. An invisible wave spread out from her, and the special clones knelt down one after another.

"She's attacking their brains," Ling Wuwen whispered. "She can sense... that they are 'fakes'."

"Can she control it?"

"Not entirely...she's learning."

Sure enough, the baby's expression quickly turned to pain.

She started to cry, to cry for real. The nerve shock subsided, and the clones struggled to their feet.

"Grab her!" the leader roared.

Gu Xidong pulled Ling Wuwen and jumped into the vertical shaft.

They descended quickly down the maintenance ladder along the well wall. Gunshots rang out from above, but the clones did not give chase.

After descending fifty meters, they reached the bottom of the well.

This is a larger space, but the lake isn't filled with water; it's filled with some kind of luminous blue liquid.

Countless culture chambers float in the liquid, each containing a dormant clone.

There is a platform in the middle of the lake, and Ling Yaqin is standing on the platform.

She was wearing a white lab coat and holding a tablet computer.

Upon seeing Gu Xidong and Ling Wuwen, she looked up, her face showing no surprise.

"It was three minutes faster than expected," she said.

"The child's level of neural stress exceeded the model's predictions. Excellent, this proves that naturally conceived individuals do indeed have unpredictable advantages."

"What do you want?" Gu Xidong pointed his gun at her.

"Put down your gun," Ling Yaqin said calmly.

"If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead. I'm keeping you alive because you still have value."

"What is its value?"

"The value of evolutionary samples," she said, pointing to the baby.

"This child is the first 'node' born naturally. Her genes come from you, but her neural structure was optimized during the embryonic stage. I want to observe her growth and record how she integrates pre-set abilities and free will."

Ling Wuwen hugged the child tightly: "Don't even think about it."

"I'm not asking for your permission." Ling Yaqin pressed a button on the tablet.

The surrounding incubation chambers opened simultaneously, and the clones inside sat up and opened their eyes. Their eyes were bewildered, like those of newborns.

"These are the latest batch of clones," Ling Yaqin said.

"Their brains are blank, like a newborn's. I want to see what happens if I get this child to connect with them."

"Establish a connection?"

"Neural resonance. Just like she did with the special clones, but this time it's an active, continuous connection. She will become their 'guide,' teaching them what feeling is, what choice is, and what freedom is."

Gu Xidong and Ling Wuwen looked at each other.

This proposal is too bizarre; it sounds as if Ling Yaqin is helping them, but at the cost of making the child the "brain" of all the clones.

"Why?" Ling Wu asked. "Why are you doing this? Haven't you always wanted to control everything?"

Ling Yaqin remained silent for a long time. She walked to the edge of the platform and looked at the glowing liquid.

"I spent thirty years researching how to create the perfect human being," she said slowly. "I created thousands of clones, each stronger, faster, and smarter than the original."

She turned around, a rare weariness in her eyes:

"But they are all incomplete. Because they have no 'accidents.' No unplanned mutations, no sudden inspirations, no irrational love and hate. They are as perfect as works of art, but also as empty as works of art."

"So you're using us as experiments? To create 'accidents'?"

"Yes." Ling Yaqin nodded.

"Your escapes, your battles, your arguments, even your love—all these irrational, chaotic, unpredictable behaviors generate valuable data. And this data tells me one thing: perfection presupposes imperfection. Evolution requires randomness, it requires mistakes, it requires... cracks."

She pointed to the baby:

"This child is the crack. She was an unplanned product—although I intervened in her embryonic development, her birth, her upbringing, the love and fear she received were all beyond my complete control. She could become a catalyst for evolution, or she could become a fuse for destruction. I want to know which one."

Gu Xidong lowered his gun: "What if we refuse?"

"Then you can leave." Ling Yaqin's words were unexpected.

"Take your children, take your living clones, and go wherever you want. I will erase all your data in the Northern City, making the club believe you are dead."

"What is the price?"

"They send me my child's medical data every six months. Not genetic data, but neurodevelopmental data. I want to observe how she grows up, how she faces the world, how... she becomes herself."

This deal is too tempting, and too suspicious.

3

Ling Wuwen suddenly said:

"There's one more thing. I need to know the real cause of Ling Wufeng's death."

Ling Yaqin's expression froze.

She put down her tablet, walked over to Ling Wuwen, and the two stood face to face.

"Ling Wufeng wasn't killed by the club," Ling Yaqin said. "He committed suicide."

"What?"

"He discovered his true identity—he was also a clone. Ling Wufeng's original form died of illness at the age of three. The older brother you remember who grew up with you was a replacement we created. When he discovered the truth, he couldn't accept it. So, on the night before the final, he switched your skates, and then..."

Ling Yaqin paused for a moment:

"Then he hanged himself in the gym's equipment room. But we disposed of the body before anyone found it, making it look like the club had covered it up."

Ling Wuwen staggered backward, and Gu Xidong helped her up.

Her face was deathly pale, and her lips trembled.

"So those memories... those memories of his death..."

"It was transmitted to you via neural connection before he died," Ling Yaqin said.

"As clones, you share a faint neural resonance. When he died, you 'received' his final moments."

There are lies upon lies.

Gu Xidong felt a wave of dizziness. Everything they fought for, everything they sacrificed, was built on one lie after another.

The baby suddenly made a sound. It wasn't crying, but some kind of syllable.

"Mom..." she uttered two syllables, clearly audible.

Ling Wuwen looked down at her.

The baby's eyes had returned to their deep brown color and were looking at her, its little hand reaching towards her face.

"She called you," Gu Xidong said.

Ling Wuwen's tears fell, dripping onto the baby's face. The child smiled, a real baby smile.

"Okay." Ling Wuwen looked up at Ling Yaqin.

"We accept the deal. But on one condition: we want to take all the clones that still have self-awareness. Not just B-3 and the others, but all of them."

"Okay." Ling Yaqin nodded.

"But I suggest you go somewhere first, before you leave."

"where?"

"The core laboratory of Nirvana 3.0." Ling Yaqin pointed to the depths of the lake.

"There you will find everything you need to know—about the future of children, about the end of evolution, and about...yourselves."

She turned and led the way.

Gu Xidong and Ling Wuwen followed, as did B-3 and the other surviving clones.

After crossing the glowing lake, they came to a huge metal door.

The sign on the door reads: the outline of a brain surrounded by a DNA double helix.

Ling Yaqin opened the door using her iris and fingerprint.

Inside is a circular laboratory with a huge incubation chamber in the center—placed vertically.

There was one person inside the cabin.

An adult male, with his eyes closed, is completely immersed in blue liquid.

His body has countless interfaces that connect to the surrounding devices.

Gu Xidong approached and saw the person's face clearly.

It was him.

But older, perhaps fifty. He had wrinkles on his face, gray hair, and surgical scars on his chest.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"Gu Xidong's prototype," Ling Yaqin said, "your father."

Gu Xidong froze. His father had died of a heart attack five years ago, and he had witnessed his burial.

"Your father isn't dead." Ling Yaqin walked to the incubation chamber, her fingers lightly tracing the glass.

"He is our earliest success story—through genetic modification and neural enhancement, his brain activity is maintained at its peak, and although his body ages, it is maintained by mechanical systems. He is the first volunteer of the 'Nirvana Project'."

"impossible……"

"Look at his wrist," Ling Yaqin said.

Gu Xidong leaned closer.

On the left wrist of the "father" in the incubation chamber was a scar—it was from when Gu Xidong was seven years old, when his father fell and cut himself while teaching him to ice skate. He remembered the shape of the scar clearly.

Exactly the same.

"We extracted his genes to create you," Ling Yaqin continued.

"So in a sense, you are his clone. We've just made improvements, making you younger and stronger. As for Ling Wuwen..."

She looked at Ling Wuwen: "You are Ling Yaqin B, a clone of my sister. The 'mother' in your memories is actually your original self. She died in childbirth, and we had to create you to replace her."

The laboratory was deathly silent.

Everyone—Gu Xidong, Ling Wuwen, and the clones—stood frozen in place.

They thought they were rebelling against the creators, but it turned out they were the creators themselves.

The baby suddenly let out a sharp cry.

This time it wasn't an attack, it was pure fear. Her eyes turned silver-white again, staring intently at her "grandfather" inside the incubation chamber.

The "father of Gu Xidong" in the cabin opened his eyes.

His eyes were silver-white, with no pupils at all. He looked at Gu Xidong outside, his lips moving slightly.

Text appeared on the outer wall of the culture chamber:

[Child...run...she doesn't want data...she wants the container...]

Gu Xidong suddenly turned to look at Ling Yaqin.

She had already retreated to the doorway, holding a remote control in her hand.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"But I need a younger body to continue my research. My current body has reached its limit."

She pressed the button.

The liquid in the incubation chamber began to drain. The "father's" body convulsed, his silvery-white eyes fixed on the baby in Ling Wuwen's arms.

"He's trying to distract himself." Gu Xidong understood.

"It's not about the data, it's about possessing the child's body!"

Ling Wuwen hugged the child tightly and turned to run. But the laboratory door was already closed. B-3 and the other clones rushed to the door, only to find it locked.

The culture chamber is fully opened.

The "father" sat up, and a robotic arm helped him out of the liquid. He was unsteady on his feet, but his eyes remained fixed on the baby.

"Give me the child...," he said in a hoarse voice. "I need... a young brain..."

Gu Xidong stood in front of Ling Wuwen, raising his gun and aiming. But there were only two bullets left in the gun.

The "father" laughed, a terrifyingly twisted laugh: "You can't kill me... I am you... and you are me..."

Just then, the baby stopped crying. Her eyes turned completely silvery-white, but not an empty silvery-white; it was a bright, living silvery-white.

She stretched out her little hand and pointed to "father".

All the clones—including B-3, the surviving clones of the special forces, and even the newly awakened clones in other incubation chambers around the lab—simultaneously turned to "Father."

Their eyes also began to turn silvery-white.

It's not about being controlled; it's about proactive synchronization.

4

The baby is calling them.

Not as a tool, but as... one of our kind.

The father's expression changed. He realized what had happened and began to back away.

"No...it can't be...she's just a baby..."

But the clones had already surrounded them.

Their movements were coordinated.

They grasped their "father," not to attack, but to... connect. Their hands pressed against him, and neural interfaces automatically docked.

"Father" screamed in agony. His consciousness was being extracted, not transferred to one body, but dispersed into the brains of hundreds of clones.

"She's dissecting him," Ling Yaqin whispered at the door.

"Using a collective consciousness network, dismantle a powerful consciousness into fragments... so that he can no longer harm anyone..."

Gu Xidong watched this scene unfold.

The baby calmed down in his arms, its eyes slowly turning back to dark brown, then closed, as if it had exhausted all its strength.

"Father" collapsed to the ground, his eyes losing their light. He was still alive, but his consciousness had shattered into hundreds of pieces, scattered in the brains of the clones.

The clones released their grip and retreated.

Their eyes returned to normal, but their gazes held something new—fragments of memories that didn't belong to them.

B-3 walked up to Gu Xidong: "I 'remember' something... When you turned seven, your father gave you your first pair of ice skates..."

Those were memories known only to Gu Xidong and his father.

The baby did what she promised.

She solved the problem in a way that no one could have predicted.

Ling Yaqin opened the laboratory door. She didn't run away; she just stood there, watching everything unfold.

"I lost," she said. "Not to you, but to evolution itself. True evolution cannot be designed."

She threw down the remote control and turned to leave.

This time, no one stopped her.

Gu Xidong picked up the baby, and Ling Wuwen leaned on his shoulder. B-3 and the other clones stood around them.

"Where to now?" B-3 asked.

Gu Xidong looked at his daughter in his arms.

She was asleep, breathing evenly, completely unaware of what had just happened.

"Let's go south," he said. "Let's find a sunny place."

They left the laboratory, they left the city of the North.

When we emerged from the ice cave, it was already daylight. The blizzard had completely stopped, the sky was azure, and the sunlight shone brightly on the snowfield, reflecting a dazzling light.

Before leaving, Gu Xidong looked back one last time at the entrance to the underground city.

Ling Yaqin stood there, waving goodbye.

Her lips were moving to say: Thank you.

What should she thank? For providing the data? For proving that evolution is uncontrollable? Or for showing her the possibilities of humanity?

Gu Xidong didn't ask. He turned around and followed Ling Wuwen and the clones toward the snowmobile.

The baby stirred in his arms and opened its eyes.

Those deep brown eyes looked at the sun in the sky, then looked at him and smiled.

This time, there was no silvery shadow in the smile.

It was just a pure laugh.

The snowmobile started and headed south. Behind them, the northern city slowly sank beneath the glacier, as if it had never existed.

But deep inside the incubation chamber, the "father" opened his eyes.

It's not silvery-white; it's a normal eye.

He sat up, disconnected the tubes from his body, walked to the control panel, and pressed the communication button:

"Nirvana 3.0, Phase 1 complete. Mother and daughter bodies have safely evacuated. Awaiting instructions for Phase 2."

The reply came from the other end of the communication channel: "Received. Phase two will begin after the offspring reaches adulthood. Code name: Homecoming."

"Father" turned off the communication and looked south. His face was expressionless.

On the snowmobile, the baby suddenly shivered, as if sensing something.

She turned to look behind her, but all she saw was an endless snowfield and a horizon that receded into the distance.

The sun shines brightly, but some shadows remain forever buried beneath the ice.