Chapter 23: It’s That Super Scary Baby!

A moment of silence.

Chi Liu frowned slightly in confusion: “Did you guys… hear something?”

To be precise, that faint sound seemed to be directly stuffed into his mind…

He didn’t hear the content of that sentence clearly, but he seemed to catch a faint “Mommy?” Was he hallucinating?

Wen Xi opened her big eyes and nodded rapidly. Qi Teng twitched the corner of his mouth, not daring to speak.

Xiang Xiang pointed to Chi Liu’s abdomen and said seriously, “The baby is talking.”

Chi Liu paused, then smiled helplessly, not taking Xiang Xiang’s childish words seriously.

How could an embryo of only two months or so be able to talk?

Wen Xi and Qi Teng were not aware of the baby yet. Chi Liu was just about to dismiss the sound as a collective hallucination and change the subject when a loud rendition of “Two Tigers” began to play—

“—One has no ears, one has no tail, how strange, how strange~”

Chi Liu: “…?”

The four of them looked towards the door at the same time, only to see the building manager leading a mushroom-headed little boy in.

The boy was holding a small music player in his hand, which was constantly playing this children’s song.

The manager gently ruffled the boy’s black hair, turned off the player first, and then introduced him to Chi Liu: “Little Chi, this is my son, Mingming.”

After saying that, he looked hesitant: “Little Chi, I wanted to ask you for a favor…”

Chi Liu smiled at the little boy first, then looked at the manager: “You can speak frankly. I’ll definitely help if I can.”

Wen Xi consciously took Qi Teng and Xiang Xiang away. Only then did the manager say, “Sigh, my son recently made a friend who also doesn’t like to talk…”

Mingming has mild autism and usually attends a special school, always alone.

Recently, he happily said that he had made a friend, so he excitedly changed all of his family’s ringtones to “Two Tigers” and filled his player with the song, playing it all the time.

“But these past two days, his friend suddenly disappeared,” the manager said. “Before disappearing, he told Mingming that he was going to find someone named Chi Liu.”

The manager gave a sheepish smile to Chi Liu, saying, “I assumed your name was Chi Liu. If it’s truly a coincidence that he’s searching for you, please let him know that my son cherishes his friendship. My son is about to relocate to another city, and I wish for him to see his friend one last time before he departs.”

Chi Liu blinked in surprise. He bent down slightly and looked at Mingming, gently saying, “Can you describe what your friend looks like?”

He hadn’t had time to meet many people in this world, so he couldn’t think of anyone who would be looking for him.

The autistic child couldn’t make eye contact. Mingming hid behind his father, shyly and nervously handing Chi Liu a crayon drawing.

Chi Liu took it: The drawing depicted two small characters holding hands. One mushroom-headed character was clearly Mingming. The other character was slightly taller than Mingming, dressed in black, with the top of his head colored black like a hood.

Chi Liu stared at the hooded figure: He had seen someone wearing a hoodie like that recently…

At this moment, Mingming’s small finger pointed to the two little people, his voice small and childish: “One has no ears, one has no tail, but they are friends… then they are complete.”

They both have flaws and hang on the outskirts of the crowd, yet they can be friends and have fun together.

The manager’s nose twitched, and he hugged his son tightly.

Mingming then said, “His name is Number 28.”

Chi Liu paused: Is that even a name?

Then he softened his gaze, making it warmer. He promised Mingming, “Don’t worry, if your friend comes looking for me, I will definitely let him see you.”

Mingming lowered his head and quietly said thank you, then left the bar with the manager. The player continued to play “Two Tigers,” the lingering sound echoing in the bar.

Chi Liu watched the father and son’s figures and decided to try his luck at that hospital again in the next few days, to see if he could run into that hooded man.

Thinking this, a hint of doubt crossed his face: that thin, neurotic man instinctively made him feel uncomfortable. Could he really be Mingming’s friend?

…

On the main street.

Secretary Wen temporarily set aside the strange man and walked unsteadily, carrying an exaggerated stack of books, cursing the damned evil capitalist god countless times in his heart.

At this moment, the phone in his pocket rang urgently. Secretary Wen wished he could knock himself unconscious on the stone wall by the roadside, so he wouldn’t have to work!

He hadn’t even had lunch yet!

But, with a twitch of the veins on his forehead, he steadily placed the books on the ground and dutifully answered the phone.

He thought it was another harassing call from his boss. Still, it turned out that Zheng had some real business to discuss: “Lao Wen, those two identical people you sent to the public security bureau—the ones who were going to attack Mr. Chi—we’ve been investigating them, and now we have some progress.”

Secretary Wen’s expression became serious: “Tell me.”

Lao Zheng: “The first piece of progress is about the origins of those two people. We found the numbers ’12’ and ’35’ engraved on their tongues, respectively. That might be their identification number.”

“Lao Wen, have you ever thought about a question? Their food is humans, and their demand is extremely high. Still, they are lurking here, and to avoid exposure, they rarely engage in concentrated, large-scale predation, committing only sporadic crimes. So, where does their daily food come from?”

In fact, there is another important question: What is the source of food for the players in “that world?”

This question has long troubled their experts, and perhaps they can find an answer this time.

Secretary Wen paused, thinking of those two identical faces, and suddenly widened his eyes.

Lao Zheng’s voice grew cold: “That’s right, someone among them can likely replicate human bodies.”

However, the conditions must be extremely harsh; otherwise, there wouldn’t be just one identical face now.

Secretary Wen’s tone was notably cold: “What is the second piece of progress?”

Lao Zheng was silent for a moment before saying, “It’s about that person’s identity—I mean, the identity of the original body of the replicant. A year ago, the copy designed and architected by Wen Xi’s team was breached. Their copy designer died, and the reason for the breach was that there was a traitor in the base. Later, the traitor disappeared.”

Saying that, he sighed: “We consulted a large number of archives and compared the faces of the two replicants, and the laboratory also conducted genetic comparisons. The result is: the original body of that replicant is the traitor from back then.”

Secretary Wen’s pupils shrank:

In “that world,” each copy has a designated NPC copy designer and architect. They fight side by side as partners. Generally, no one changes the team.

At that time, Wen Xi’s team was responsible for Qi Teng…

It was because the team broke up that Qi Teng had to run around helping with various copies.

Later, perhaps still unable to let go of that dead copy designer, Qi Teng became unusually resistant to working night shifts there, so he wandered around in the vacation world to escape…

Lao Zheng had said a few days ago that Wen Xi, who was originally just an architect, had also desperately deepened her research on copy design after that incident, and soon became able to stand on her own…

“We recently conducted a sweep based on Wen Xi’s copy,” Lao Zheng continued at this time. “There is one last small player hideout that we haven’t found yet. Those replicants are likely to be there as well. I don’t know why they are so interested in Mr. Chi, but please remind him to pay attention to his safety.”

Secretary Wen solemnly agreed and hung up the phone.

He thought for a moment, decisively dropped the stack of books, and strode back to the bookstore.

…

“Achoo.”

Wen Xi held an empty tray in one hand and rubbed the tip of her nose.

There were too many customers in the afternoon, so she started working as a waitress.

After delivering the new order to the bar, Chi Liu, who was mixing a drink, looked at her: “Are you okay?”

Wen Xi shook her head and shrugged: “Someone must be talking about me behind my back.” After saying that, she glared at Qi Teng.

Qi Teng: “!!!” He nervously raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, saying, “It really wasn’t me this time!”

Wen Xi “Heh heh” and left with the new drinks.

Chi Liu looked thoughtfully at Wen Xi’s back and chuckled, “Did you guys know each other before?”

Qi Teng paused. The usually cheerful and unrestrained person lowered his head, sadly saying, “We used to be a team…”

Chi Liu “Ah”. Team, what a beautiful word. Qi Teng must have had a nostalgic moment.

Chi Liu curved his eyes and refrained from asking about others’ privacy, continuing to lower his head and mix drinks.

At that moment, a blonde with tattoos covering his arm stood in front of the bar, slamming a large bill on the table with a sharp and flamboyant voice: “Hey, I heard there’s a little bartender here who’s pretty good-looking? Hurry up and call him over to keep me company! I have plenty of money!”

Qi Teng, who immediately revived, raised his head and leaned over, innocently pointing at himself: “Me!”

An NPC praised him for being good-looking!

The blonde curled his lips in disgust: “Get lost, too muscular!”

Qi Teng was heartbroken: “QAQ”

At this time, the blonde finally saw Chi Liu, and his eyes lit up. He excitedly walked over, striking a pose like a bully, and said, “Keep me company for a drink, I’ll give you three thousand, how about it!”

Chi Liu: “…”

Ah, he remembered, he would occasionally encounter these cannon fodder-like young customers in the original world…

It’s so speechless, can’t you use this energy to read more books?

Chi Liu casually raised his eyes, glanced at the bill, and smiled slightly: “First of all, this is one hundred. Secondly, this is a counterfeit.”

The blonde became exasperated: “You can insult my body, but you can’t insult my personality and dignity!”

Chi Liu: “…” What is this guy even saying?

He was about to call security when suddenly, with a “smack,” a glass of wine flew up and poured all over the blonde’s head.

The blonde stared at Qi Teng in disbelief and fury: He, the third young master of the Qiu Hai gang, would make this store pay the price today!

Qi Teng looked at his empty hand in astonishment: “N-not me! It was—”

It’s that super scary baby!!

Little One: “Mommy, I told you I’m really super powerful! Mommy, I’ll continue to help you drive away bad guys in the future!”

Chi Liu came back to his senses and subconsciously gently stroked his slightly bulging abdomen: Did he just hear “Mommy” again?

At this moment, there was another loud “bang.”

The arrogant young master blonde, who was just now so arrogant, somehow fell to the ground, as if some invisible weight was pressing on his back. His eyes rolled back, and he was about to suffocate, unable to get up.

The lively store instantly fell silent, everyone looking towards the bar.

Chu Qi stood elegantly next to him, smiled slightly at Chi Liu, his voice magnetic, clear, and affectionate: “Darling, can we get intimate here now?”

The damned subordinates didn’t bring back those books in time! He could only look up those headache-inducing things on the internet!

It was mentioned earlier that dating requires intimacy.

And he was about to go on a business trip, not having time to accompany him to the amusement park to see a movie, or even to accompany him to the hospital for a check-up…

Dating (intimacy) here isn’t bad either.

The people around couldn’t help but “wow.”

Chi Liu froze there, his eyes wide, his face completely red:

Who would say such things in front of so many people?

He now wished he could kick this man into the river outside!