The fire was blazing, yet it couldn’t be extinguished directly. The two of them gazed into the fiery passion in each other’s eyes and couldn’t resist getting closer, their lips meeting.

Zhu Man was the first to give in. He enjoyed the faint electric currents released by the AI. Lips alone weren’t enough for him; he grabbed He Feng Hui’s slender, lifelike hand, placing it between his own waist and hips, guiding him through his body like a tour guide.

Just as he was sliding those hands into his waistband, He Feng Hui pulled his hand away.

The rational AI leaned down and kissed him, saying, “I don’t want them to come in and see you like this.”

—The implication is that only I can see it.

Zhu Man found the AI’s possessiveness frightening, yet he tilted his head, seeking a kiss. As he was being kissed, he thought about the terrifying contradictions within human nature.

In the end, they had to focus on discussing important matters to put out the fire.

He Feng Hui released Zhu Man and asked, “Is Jiang Huai here?”

Zhu Man, still catching his breath, answered after a while, “Yes.”

“Your suspicion is correct,” He Feng Hui replied with certainty.

Zhu Man was momentarily stunned before realizing that He Feng Hui was referring to the suspicion that Jiang Huai was the murderer of Ye Ying. He asked, “Why?”

He wanted to know more evidence against Jiang Huai, delve deeper into the working mechanism of He Feng Hui, the advanced AI, and also find out if He Feng Hui was perhaps diverting attention by accusing others–Even though he often forgot that He Feng Hui should also be a suspect.

He Feng Hui took out a miniature sphere, and it projected a holographic screen. The screen started playing the surveillance footage from Jiang Huai’s room at the time of the incident.

He Feng Hui raised his chin slightly, gesturing for Zhu Man to take a look.

Zhu Man gazed at the holographic screen and asked, “Is this the footage that the owner hacked from the police?”

“No, I just decrypted it from Ye Ying’s intelligence system home that I hacked into,” He Feng Hui replied.

Zhu Man was puzzled. Wasn’t the surveillance footage obtained by the police from Ye Ying’s home intelligence system?

He Feng Hui sensed his confusion and answered, “This surveillance is different from what the police have.”

Different? Zhu Man widened his eyes slightly.

He immediately focused his attention on the screen but couldn’t discern any anomalies. The surveillance footage showed a person sleeping with their head covered on a bed, consistent with the video obtained by the police previously.

“Look inside the blanket; there’s a human figure, right?” He Feng Hui guided him.

Zhu Man nodded.

The screen switched to infrared imaging, and Zhu Man knew it was controlled by He Feng Hui through his neural network system.

“The infrared imaging is correct too; this is a person with body temperature,” He Feng Hui said, then controlled the screen to switch to X-ray imaging. “Does X-ray imaging seem fine as well?”

Looking at the skeletal body under the blanket, Zhu Man hesitated to draw a conclusion. After all, he only knew Jiang Huai’s skin, not his bones.

So, he could only look at He Feng Hui, with innocence and confusion in his eyes, a mixture of half-truth and half-pretense.

He Feng Hui caught his gaze and said, “The body under the blanket has a height of 187.33cm and a weight of 70.65kg. I retrieved Jiang Huai’s body data, and the data matches, including Jiang Huai’s silhouette and body shape, with no discrepancies. However—”

He Feng Hui paused on his words, and the screen on the control panel began fast-forwarding, eventually stopping at 22:38.

— 22:38, the time of Ye Ying’s death.

Zhu Man frowned.

He Feng Hui continued, “At 22:38, Jiang Huai, or more precisely, the body under the blanket, experienced fluctuations of 0.5cm in height and 0.3kg in weight.”

Data fluctuations?

Zhu Man looked at He Feng Hui, and He Feng Hui looked back, raising his eyebrows slightly, indicating he was waiting for Zhu Man’s deduction.

So, Zhu Man voiced his speculation, “This suggests that the person in the bed is not real but rather digitally inserted into the surveillance footage through data fitting?”

He Feng Hui raised an eyebrow, signaling for him to continue.

Zhu Man cautiously continued, “And since Ye Ying’s home intelligence system is connected to Ye Ying’s neural network, the damage to Ye Ying’s chip led to data fluctuations?”

He Feng Hui extended a lifelike finger and lightly grazed his chin. “Very smart.”

This compliment raised Zhu Man’s suspicion. After all, for an AI, having a human at home who was too clever might not be a good thing. However, as he looked at He Feng Hui, the slightly narrowed eyes seemed genuinely appreciative.

Yet, He Feng Hui’s next words made him skeptical, “How did you reach this conclusion?”

It felt like a probe into his investigative reasoning.

“Ah, isn’t this… obvious?” Zhu Man didn’t lie but sounded a bit more innocent.

In reality, he wasn’t sure how his brain had completed this deductive process. It was like some people could go from the first step to the third step directly when solving a math problem, while others needed to take an extra second step.

Holding his suspicion of He Feng Hui for now, Zhu Man asked again, “Did the police also find this data fluctuation?”

“As per my current understanding, it seems they haven’t.”

“The police are that incompetent?” Zhu Man exclaimed, then quickly added, “Ah, I mean…”

For the umpteenth time, he bit the back of his tongue as a self-reminder. Once his brain entered a high-speed processing state, there was hardly any spare time to feign innocence. The wolf’s tail would always accidentally slip out.

He Feng Hui caressed his waist, signaling the impudent human pet not to explain. Then he said, “The police have more centralized and abundant data and technical resources, so they wouldn’t overlook such crucial information naturally.”

Zhu Man was startled: This could only mean that the data copied by the police had been tampered with by the murderer!

But soon, he realized that this logic couldn’t form a closed loop: The murderer could infiltrate the police system to manipulate data but couldn’t bypass the electronic blockade the police imposed on Ye Ying’s home to directly tamper with the source data?

However, he didn’t dare to reveal his reasoning and could only pretend to look innocently at He Feng Hui.

The cold AI, still without expression, just said, “Go call Jiang Huai in.”

When Zhu Man walked out of the room, Lin Lang happened to be answering a phone call in the living room.

She was initially sitting on the couch, legs crossed, when she suddenly froze for a moment. Immediately after, she sat up straight and respectfully said, “Boss.”^[1]English in the raw.

Zhu Man halted behind her.

If Lin Lang was the second-in-command in the Human Pool, then the person she referred to as boss could only be the leader of the Human Pool.

With cameras scattered throughout the house, discreet eavesdropping was crucial. So, Zhu Man continued walking, naturally heading towards the kitchen. He told Jiang Huai that he was hungry and wanted some food, asking if he could bring it into the room.

Jiang Huai glanced at him, as if seeing through his intentions, and maintained a gentle smile while continuing to fry the eggs.

Ignoring Jiang Huai’s gaze, Zhu Man pretended to grab a glass and pour some water, moving with an unhurried pace, with his ears perked.

From behind, Lin Lang’s voice came:

“Yes, boss.”

“Understood, boss.”

“But boss, the brain-machine interface project is already treading on the legal gray area, and now you want to forcefully push ahead—”

“I dare not, I have no objections.”

“I will unconditionally comply with everything you say.”

Every word Zhu Man heard, along with her humble and deferential attitude.

Just a while ago, Lin Lang had said to him, “The law is dead; thoughts are alive,” but now, she was reminding her superior about the project being in a legal gray area. After the futile reminder, she still unquestioningly followed the orders of her superior.

He suddenly felt that he had thought wrong just now. Lin Lang and Ye Ying were not of the same kind. Ye Ying was a true iron rose, while Lin Lang was just a seemingly powerful AI, still unable to escape the instinct of “following orders from superiors” and “unable to resist program instructions.”

When Jiang Huai entered the room, he carried an exquisite tray with steaming sandwiches and hot milk on it.

He handed the tray to Zhu Man.

Although both items were exactly to Zhu Man’s liking, especially the milk heated to his preferred scalding temperature, he still didn’t take them.

Jiang Huai didn’t seem offended either. He smiled and placed the tray on a nearby table. His gaze shifted to He Feng Hui as he said, “It seems there’s something else behind calling me in.”

He Feng Hui met his gaze and directly concluded, “You lied to me.”

Zhu Man knew He Feng Hui was referring to what Jiang Huai had said to him in the Human Pool. Glancing between these two suspects, he felt like he stood at both ends of a scale, unsure of whom to believe.

Jiang Huai’s smile remained, and he nodded at He Feng Hui, saying, “I’m eager to hear the details.”

“The night Ye Ying had an incident, were you at home? Don’t lie. This is your last chance,” He Feng Hui warned.

The threatening words were ice-cold, and Zhu Man couldn’t help but shift his gaze between He Feng Hui and Jiang Huai. He saw the AI’s face turn frosty.

It was the first time he had heard He Feng Hui speak in such a cold tone. Even when angry before, it had never reached this extent. Zhu Man didn’t know what conclusion to draw – Whether this AI was exceptionally secretive or if he was just excessively indulgent towards himself.

With no time to dwell on it, Zhu Man redirected his gaze towards Jiang Huai.

Jiang Huai’s smiling eyes disgusted him. Thinking of Ye Ying’s lively and cheerful demeanor, Zhu Man was enraged to the point of trembling. How could Jiang Huai do such a thing? And how could he still wear a smiling face after the slaughter?

While Jiang Huai, who had been locking eyes with He Feng Hui, suddenly shifted his gaze toward Zhu Man.

Almost instinctively, in that moment of locking eyes with him, Zhu Man unconsciously leaned slightly towards He Feng Hui.

The balance tipped from this moment onwards.

Seeing Zhu Man’s movement, Jiang Huai raised an eyebrow, and Zhu Man interpreted his meaning. He was suspecting that Zhu Man had betrayed the Anti-Intelligence Alliance and chosen He Feng Hui. Zhu Man, from an angle unseen by He Feng Hui, disdainfully curled his lip and responded with the same meaning:

—You killed Ye Ying, you’re the traitor.

Jiang Huai seemed to understand his smile. He lowered his gaze, shook his head, and then looked back at He Feng Hui, answering his question, “Yes, I was at home.”

He Feng Hui didn’t immediately respond, staring at him for a while. His voice turned colder, “Your physical condition is alarming.”

Physical condition? Zhu Man was puzzled. What happened to Jiang Huai’s body? And how did He Feng Hui know about it?

“Yes,” Jiang Huai admitted with a smile, “I have had trouble sleeping lately and often dream of Ying-jie.”

—Hypocrite!

“You still dare to bring up Ying-jie?!” Zhu Man’s anger flared up.

Jiang Huai shifted his gaze towards him, smiled, then looked at the sandwich and milk on the table, whispering, “I intended my heart to be directed towards the bright moon ah, but alas, the bright moon shines on the ditch.”

Zhu Man’s heart tightened inexplicably, and he followed Jiang Huai’s gaze to the food on the table.

The fried egg in the sandwich had a runny yolk, and it spilled onto the tray. The milk was still steaming, and the rising heat created an atmosphere reminiscent of the everyday scenes at an ordinary family’s dining table.

For some reason, Zhu Man suddenly felt that the person he was before losing his memory had once experienced such simple happiness.

Even more surprisingly, the poem recited by Jiang Huai sounded oddly familiar. Not a familiar familiarity, but one that echoed from the depths of his distant memories, much like the way he had once found Ye Ying strangely familiar.

Yet, he had clearly lost his memory.