Due to a plane failure on the way, Li Haojun and Qin Wenjing could only take a commercial quadcopter with vertical take-off and landing capabilities to complete the rest of the journey. The speed was naturally much slower, and it was already night before they could see the city lights of Las Vegas from afar.
The sparse lights below the suburbs, in this winter with Christmas approaching at the end of the year, have increasingly aroused people's attachment to home. Looking around the dark gray of the night outside the cabin, fortunately Qin Wenjing was accompanying him. When looking at each other, her gentle smile and the swaying black hair at her temples made Li Haojun grateful for her company from the bottom of his heart.
As they approached the main urban area, air traffic became busier and busier. Since the West Coast was flooded, many local commercial and technological companies have moved to Las Vegas. Now the city has been built into a three-dimensional city, and the busy urban traffic air corridors in the night are becoming clearer in the flashing navigation lights. Soon, the quadcopter that Li Haojun and Qin Wenjing were riding also joined the traffic flow and finally landed on the roof of the reserved hotel.
Taking the elevator to the reserved room floor, Li Haojun took Qin Wenjing's hand, walked out of the elevator, and counted the room numbers along the corridor.
"1216, 1214, look here, 1208, 1206...1202, we're here,"
He opened the door, looked back at Qin Wenjing, and pulled her into the room. Turning back, he was surprised to find that Malaya was also in the room, sitting on the bed, facing the door, with legs together, body leaning back, arms spread out to support the bed.
Malaya slowly opened her eyes, her face calm,
"Welcome to Las Vegas, please sit down," she said, stood up, stepped away from the opposite side of the two people, and stood beside them.
Li Haojun was a little surprised at first, but her voice and figure soon turned into his inner surprise and collision. His eyes followed her stillness and movement until Qin Wenjing came forward to greet him. Li Haojun reacted and hurriedly introduced the two people. After all, this was their first meeting.
After the greetings, Malaya copied some safety precautions to the two people's terminal devices and emphasized some of the content. It turned out that she came to accompany them for this reason. During the whole process, Li Haojun kept looking at Malaya's eyes and seemed to listen very seriously. Qin Wenjing looked at Malaya for a while and then at Li Haojun for a while. It seemed that there was something good, relying on her unique female sensitivity.
After all the key points were announced, Malaya looked at the two people separately and said,
"Okay, I won't bother you any more. Go to bed early. I will meet you tomorrow morning and set off together. I will be in the room opposite." After that, she got up and left.
Li Haojun and Qin Wenjing also got up to follow him, but Li Haojun stopped at the door because Qin Wenjing was there and Malaya was alone, so it was not good to interfere too much with her privacy. But Qin Wenjing did not stop. She followed Malaya and sent her into the room, and then closed the door casually.
Li Haojun had no choice but to stand at the door and wait there foolishly. After waiting for a long time, Qin Wenjing came out with a smile. After holding back, she returned to the room. Li Haojun couldn't help asking,
"What did you say to her that made you so happy?"
"I won't tell you," Qin Wenjing said, making a face mischievously.
"Aren't you jealous of her?"
"Why should I be jealous of her? You already belong to me first. Even if she takes advantage of me, I will just give her a little bit of you."
"Oh, good attitude, good logic," Li Haojun praised, thinking of the schedule for the next day, and kept urging Qin Wenjing to rest early. But no matter how hard she said, he still had to take good care of her, lying beside her with his right hand facing her, and holding her waist. But in his heart, he was still thinking about the lonely Malaya across the corridor, and thinking further, there was Keshia who was alone at home... Alas, he couldn't take care of so many things at the moment, so he had to rest quickly.
The next day, before dawn, Li Haojun planned the bus route and the transfer route, and then walked out of the hotel. It was already bright. Crossing a small road, there were market stalls on both sides. Li Haojun didn't have time to pay attention to what was being done on both sides. Time was running out. Walking out of this commercial street, turning right and walking a distance should be the bus stop for the pre-planned route. Along the main road, high-rise buildings stood on both sides, blocking out the sun. At this time, Li Haojun suddenly remembered that he was not alone here! Standing on the street and recalling the events, he should turn right now and turn right again to return to the block where he came from. Li Haojun calculated the distance while walking back, but the road became darker and darker, and the buildings on the roadside were no longer prosperous, and the scenery became more and more desolate. In order not to go too far, Li Haojun turned right again and tried to return to the commercial street he had just walked through. However, the road was suddenly dark, and twos and threes of construction workers wearing safety helmets rode bicycles on the road in the opposite direction, seemingly leaving get off work. Li Haojun was completely confused. The road ahead extended into an apartment complex. There was no light and it was pitch dark. Li Haojun touched the flashlight in his trouser pocket and was about to take it out. The weak light behind him saw a bicycle passing by. The rider looked like an aunt. Li Haojun hurriedly asked, "Excuse me, is it evening or morning now?" The other party answered evening. Li Haojun wanted to check the time with his watch, but the watch pointer was in 12-hour format and it was of no help at all. He recalled the direction of the commercial street on the map he had seen, which was facing north, and recalled the intersection where he turned and the distance he walked. It was too tiring to walk forward in the dark while recalling. Li Haojun wanted to open his eyes because the road was too dark to see clearly. He tried to open his eyes and finally a ray of light shone in... He opened his eyes.
I am so tired. It turns out that I have been running around all night in a dream. Li Haojun glanced at the time. It was still early. He recalled the details of what had just happened, wondering why he had such a dream, and calmed his heart rate and emotions.
The morning was not as complicated as in the dream. Maraya led the two of them to take the scheduled flying taxi to the gathering place.
The fall of the West Coast caused many businesses, entertainment and population that originally belonged to California to move here. The main city of Las Vegas relied on three layers of ellipsoidal tower-shaped column structures to build a new three-dimensional city. Maraya and her group flew from the outskirts of the city to the edge of the three-dimensional city, and then changed to the hyperloop capsule to go to the West Tower Exhibition Hall. On the way, Malaya emphasized again, "The three-dimensional city formed by the West Tower, South Tower and Central Tower belongs to the interstellar communication zone. There may be different creatures. Maybe they look like humans, but they may not be human inside. Some of them we can't see at all. The biggest impact on us is that they may have the ability to perceive and control human consciousness. There are also biochemically modified people or people with special abilities, who also have similar abilities." Malaya looked at Qin Wenjing, "You are a kind lady, especially pay attention to the self-protection barrier," Qin Wenjing listened to her, and the smiling face on her face just now gradually faded. Malaya continued,
"Keep a distance from others, always imagine that there is a spherical protective shield around you, and you do not agree to others entering your space."
"Oh," Qin Wenjing nodded in agreement, and then suddenly seemed to think of something and asked,
"Malaya, how do you know this knowledge?"
"The company's safety instruction manual,"
"Oh, this is the first time I know about it," Qin Wenjing looked at Li Haojun and continued,
"I have never been here before, so I have never seen such safety tips,"
"So, what about Spokane?" Li Haojun looked at Qin Wenjing and then at Malaya,
"There is no Spokane," Malaya replied.
During the conversation, the hyperloop capsule had arrived at the main building of the West Tower, and entered the open-air vertical elevator after passing through the hyperloop operation pipeline airlock. There is a good view here to observe the structure of the three-dimensional city up close.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Each tower-shaped building is a black steel structure, with an aluminum silver ellipsoid hall, light green, light blue, light purple, rose red lemon yellow, seemingly random colors, and irregular large glass windows.
In the middle of the triangle surrounded by the three towers is a spherical building, with a blue base tone dotted with emerald green, earth yellow and snow white. Yes, it is the global village. According to the country, region, ethnicity, and geography, cultural arts, ancient monuments, and humanities are displayed.
Arriving at the reserved floor, the super loop capsule exits the vertical lifting mechanism and moves horizontally to the available entrance. The three people reach the reserved activity hall through the escalator corridor.
This is the industry's year-end event, and people from scientific research, production companies and related user companies in the same industry have received invitations to participate. The garden waterfall in the center of the hall is used for water curtain projection, playing the industry dynamics and achievements over the past year.
Li Haojun glanced at Qin Wenjing beside him, and the two smiled at each other. Li Haojun said self-deprecatingly,
"Actually, I'm not even one year old,"
Qin Wenjing smiled, took his arm, and walked beside him. At this time, Li Haojun suddenly realized that Malaya was not with them. He pulled Qin Wenjing's arm and looked around. It turned out that Malaya was walking alone behind. Today she wore a black formal dress and a high and simple single ponytail. For some reason, she also chose to wear a pair of black-rimmed glasses today, a proper office girl image.
The two waited for her to approach, and Qin Wenjing stretched out her right hand to pull her along. She smiled and did not refuse. The three of them walked past the landscape garden together. Qin Wenjing held Li Haojun's left hand and Malaya's right hand. Looking around, she couldn't help but giggled. She pulled Malaya's hand and turned to Li Haojun and asked,
"It would be great if we were a family," she said, and then looked back at Malaya. She just smiled and said nothing. Li Haojun also looked over and looked into her eyes for a moment. Fearing that Malaya would be embarrassed, he shook Tan Wenjing's arm and said, "Why are you saying this at this time?" He used his eyes to indicate that there were many people around, and then reminded softly, "Let's remember the safety tips she gave us," Tan Wenjing grinned and stuck out her tongue.
Following Maraia's instructions, we saw our company's booth from a distance. Some people had already arrived and were talking there. From a distance, Sophie Martinez, in a big red dress and orange waves, sat at a round table, talking to people and tasting the drink in her hand.
Inside the booth, Ava Bishop from Boise was still stunningly beautiful, with black hair in a bun, no makeup and red lips, and a pure white tight fishtail dress. She stood in a corner very low-key, chatting face to face with another lady.
There were also some people gathered together, most of whom were unknown, but some of them were familiar. They should be colleagues from the East Coast.
After a brief greeting with our colleagues and cooperative customers, Li Haojun and his group left our company's booth and visited the booths of other companies in the same industry. Li Haojun just didn't like noisy social activities. He was a technical worker and couldn't get any sense of superiority or value from socializing. Qin Wenjing was only interested in following him. As for what to do and where to go, she didn't care.
Malaya was very active, introducing the products, technologies, and business areas of various companies along the way. After a while, Li Haojun felt a little curious and asked, "Malaya, how do you know so much?" Malaya looked back at Li Haojun, smiled slightly, pointed to the glasses she was wearing, and said, "Smart," and continued to lead the way. Her long hair was tied up in a high ponytail with big waves. When she looked back, the braid not only swayed left and right with her posture, but also fluttered in height with her steps, full of youthful vitality. After a round of the pleasing exhibition, Li Haojun returned to the position of the company where he worked. The booth was very lively. A man was dressed in formal clothes, a black tuxedo, a wing-collared white shirt, a 28-point back hair, bright hair wax, a wide forehead, high eyebrows, deep eye sockets, a pair of blue eyes, a straight jaw, and a handsome temperament. Standing surrounded by beautiful women, he was talking freely. Li Haojun stepped into his own exhibition area and just happened to make eye contact with him.
"Hi, Ethan, long time no see, welcome back." He greeted enthusiastically, but his voice sounded glib.
Li Haojun didn't know him, so he had to smile and nod. Thinking about his amnesia that was not too long ago, there was really nothing he could do. The other party knew him, but he didn't remember anything. He thought, maybe he was just welcoming him back to the company's booth.
"Ethan, Ethan, don't you remember me?" He leaned out and stared at Li Haojun and asked,
"Zane,"
"Zane, don't," the ladies around him felt that it was inappropriate and reminded him softly,
Li Haojun didn't know if he had offended him in the past, and left directly with a frozen smile on his face. After calming down his inner resentment, he looked at the beauty beside him and said softly,
"Let's go, we're taking a lunch break."
At the transportation transfer area at the edge of the West Tower, Li Haojun boarded the hyperloop capsule again. He browsed through the tour projects of the Global Village and asked Qin Wenjing and Malaya to choose a project they were interested in. As a result, the two agreed to experience the time and space tunnel of the Global Village, a nostalgic panoramic experience amusement project, which collected all the audio and video files and data of all human beings to restore the historical surface scenes of various places.
After arriving at the experience space, several people took their seats. This was a closed interference projection room. Qin Wenjing selected the location and time from the operation interface, and used the joystick to fly the perspective. In the projection room, he showed everyone the campus where he went to college in the past, changing his position while explaining the purpose of the building and his experience in the past. After the show, Qin Wenjing was full of confidence and his words were overflowing.
It was Malaya's turn to choose the time and place. She smiled faintly,
"Haha, I don't remember when and where it was,"
Hearing her say this, Li Haojun immediately felt that Tan Wenjing's high profile just now seemed to hurt the orphan. Thinking of this, he glanced at Tan Wenjing, but she smiled and didn't notice.
As Malaya spoke, she chose the brainwave interaction helmet, closed her eyes silently, and leaned back in the chair. The lights in the room gradually dimmed. In the darkness, there was a rustling sound from far to near, accompanied by a cycle, and layers of accumulation from far to the front. A ray of light in the darkness gradually brightened in the chaos of the swirling darkness.
Gradually, the chaos began to open, and the sky and the earth separated. A silver plate hung in the middle, and some bright silver fragments were thrown below. The breeze blew gently in front of them. As the light and color blocks in front of them gradually stabilized and became clear, Li Haojun and Qin Wenjing gradually saw that it was waves. The waves in the dark night, covered with the brilliance of a full moon in the night sky, surged towards the shore. The bright moon that had just risen on the skyline not only illuminated the vast sea, but also set off the deep night sky and the floating clouds like silk.
The rustling sound from far to near before was the waves of the breeze blowing across the sea, draped in silver clothes, rushing to the beach in rows, erasing the footprints just stepped on.
Following the slender footprints, the moonlight illuminated the outline of the girl in the night, her swaying figure, her graceful steps, and her elegant single ponytail in the sea breeze.
As Malaya took off the brainwave interaction helmet, the projection of all these beautiful scenery gradually solidified and faded, and finally only the coconut tree background in the distance remained.
Li Haojun and Qin Wenjing were both shocked by the scenery just now. After a long time, Qin Wenjing asked a series of questions,
"Where was that just now? It was so beautiful. Was that little girl you? She was so beautiful, just like you."
"Well, I don't know. I don't even know if it's my memory or my fantasy."
"Oh, check it out," Qin Wenjing said while busy querying the system.
"Oh, it might be the Spanish coast, oh, or it might be the Maldives, um, Australia, Hawaii, oh, it seems I can't find it."
Li Haojun said nothing, silently looking at Malaya, thinking, what exactly did this little girl go through? And is all this too heavy for her young age?
"It's your turn," Qin Wenjing smiled and turned her attention from Malaya to Li Haojun,
Malaya silently handed the brainwave interaction helmet to Li Haojun.
Li Haojun was originally resistant to the brainwave device, perhaps because of his amnesia experience, but in front of Maraya, although he hesitated for a moment, he finally took the helmet and put it on his head.
In fact, Li Haojun didn't have any memories of the past, but he was really bothered by his past dreams, so he took this opportunity to see if he could find some clues.
As Li Haojun sat down calmly, the projection room gradually became brighter, the hot wind blew on his face, and the cicadas were heard. It was the bright summer sun, and the floor tiles were baked with heat waves. This was a quiet time at noon in a residential square.
The small square was surrounded by brick-concrete multi-story apartment buildings. There were slides and swings prepared for the children living here to play. They were all made of steel pipe frames, painted with shiny red, light blue, and yellow paint. At noon, there were no children playing in the hot sun, maybe they all went home to take a nap.
But behind the still swings and slides, there are the laughter of children who once played here. The joyful shouts and words seem to travel through the background of time and space, pulling every audience back to their happy childhood.
The sun shines on the tung tree, and the branches and leaves emit a faint fragrance, mixed with the summer heat that mixes into the nostrils. The shadow cast by the tree canopy is in sharp contrast to the dazzling reflection of the square bricks on the ground where the sun shines directly. In this color block divided by light and shadow, in the weak summer heat of the breeze, the noon time and childhood memories are solidified.
With the faint sobbing sound coming from the side, Li Haojun's attention returns to reality from the dream memories. Taking off the brainwave sensing helmet, the scenery in the projection room also fades, and the lights slowly light up.
It turned out to be Qin Wenjing, who was crying for some reason.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Li Haojun asked while holding her face.
"Nothing,"
Li Haojun didn't ask any more questions, but just gave her a gentle hug to comfort her, and glanced at the location prompt, which was in northern China, and the city could not be determined.
It seemed that Malaya also noticed the location prompt at the same time, and exchanged glances with Li Haojun, but said nothing.