The vast ocean... a coal ship...
Is this what Irene and Eric hid deep within their consciousness and resonated with?
Memories can be forgotten, but traces of existence cannot be completely erased. If one digs carefully, one will surely notice obvious inconsistencies and gaps.
If someone deliberately “hid” something instead of abandoning or forgetting it, they would surely leave “anchors” for later retrieval.
Li Andy frowned, touched the ring on his hand, closed his eyes, adjusted his spiritual energy, and resonated with Irene and Eric’s thoughts—then invaded their inner world.
The next second, illusion connected with reality.
Gusting winds lashed their faces, and torrential rain choked their noses. The four of them, Li Andy included, suddenly stood on the deck of a sea vessel.
“Cough, cough!”
“Damn it, Andy, why didn’t you warn us?!”
Sophia choked on some water, soaked to the bone, but she reacted the fastest, quickly grabbing Youxi and Molly who were about to be blown away.
Li Andy steadied himself, looking a bit embarrassed, and quickly elevated his and his sisters’ dimensions, adjusting them to a ghost-like state.
Only then did the four of them escape the swaying wind and rain, floating steadily in mid-air.
“Sorry, first time trying this, still not very proficient.”
Li Andy apologized while removing the rainwater from the girls.
Sophia was still indignant, but after seeing Li Andy thoughtfully help her re-button her jacket and conceal her exposed cleavage, she slowly lowered her pouting lips and temporarily forgave him.
“Gege, how did you do that?”
Youxi suddenly asked,
“Invading someone’s inner world, and also, altering these things...”
Li Andy was stumped by the question, Stunned. He paused.
To be honest, he didn’t know either. It was as if it was a forgotten instinct. As if he had done this many times before.
Had he really done these things in the past?
Seeing Li Andy’s pupils dilate, Youxi quickly grabbed his hand and wrapped it in her embrace:
“Gege, it’s not too late to think about it after we get out. Let’s deal with the main business first!”
Li Andy snapped back to reality, his mind focused. He looked at the girl’s sincere eyes and nodded gently.
Perhaps… his anchor point wasn’t the ring, but them.
“Alright, let’s go.”
After briefly adapting to the environmental changes, the four of them ignored the wind, rain, and gravity, floating into the ship’s cabin, like a group of high-dimensional observers transcending time.
It didn’t take long before they found their target.
“Let go of me!”
A white-haired man, taking advantage of the ship’s sway, broke free from the sailors’ restraint, crashed open the cabin door, and stumbled into a laboratory.
Inside, on a swaying experimental table, crimson liquid and crystals were displayed, emitting a faint glow that dyed the laboratory as if it had a dangerous filter applied.
“Irene... Irene! Tell me, what research did you participate in?!”
“Dad? You’re awake!”
Irene, who was stabilizing the experimental equipment, paused for a moment. Facing the interrogation, she looked excited instead,
“Dad, that is the greatest discovery of this era! I don’t think you should refuse, so, I agreed to them on your behalf.”
“You!”
Professor Youge was so angry he couldn’t breathe, clutching his chest with his right hand.
“Dad!”
Irene’s expression turned flustered. She quickly called for assistance to help her father up, but the ship swayed, causing many experimental instruments to fall, and the scene became chaotic for a moment.
The four of them, Li Andy included, watched all of this, and couldn’t help but be stunned.
Sophia couldn’t help but exclaim:
“The person participating in the experiment was actually Irene?! Is that real or fake?”
In addition, Li Andy also noticed that Irene’s father was not Eric in disguise, but the real Professor Youge.
After a period of commotion in the cabin, Professor Youge was helped to a bed, and the storm outside seemed to have subsided a little.
“Professor Youge, long time no see.”
A man dressed as a captain came to the bedside.
“It’s you!”
Professor Youge struggled to get up, but his will was strong, though his body was weak. He could only clench his teeth and ask angrily,
“Didn’t you promise me you’d let me retire?! Why are you still looking for my daughter?!”
The captain adjusted his hat, his demeanor like an old-fashioned butler:
“Professor Youge, I think you misunderstood. We weren’t looking for your daughter; your daughter actively sought us out, wanting to become a ‘Wild Goose’.”
“What?!”
Professor Youge clutched his chest again with force.
Wild Goose was their industry’s nickname for spies. It meant bringing information from the north back with the migrating birds.
He had spent most of his life trying to escape the past, but his daughter was going against him!
“Why?” He looked at Irene with trembling pupils.
Irene was silent for two seconds, then looked directly into her father’s eyes:
“Dad, I actually haven’t forgotten that memory.”
“That day, the fire, that day, Mom, died in front of me in that bizarre, bizarre posture!”
“You found a mind doctor to hypnotize me, but that was just making me deceive myself.”
Professor Youge froze, opened his mouth, but couldn’t say anything.
It was as if all of this seemed to be his fault.
His fault for bringing those dirty things home.
“Dad...”
Irene paused, her expression returning to normal, and she said with a relaxed smile:
“Mom and I actually always knew your work was dangerous. But in the years you sent me away, I found them and realized that you weren’t stealing ordinary secrets, but touching upon those secrets of the mysterious side! I was also very sad about Mom’s passing, but this shouldn’t be your reason to escape self-blame.”
Professor Youge’s lips trembled:
“Since you know about those things, why are you still touching them? Don’t you know that if you touch them...”
“If you touch them, you might never be able to get rid of them.”
Irene smiled and added the rest of the sentence,
“In the years you sent me away, those things had actually already found me.”
As she spoke, Irene’s shadow subtly wriggled, as if hiding something dangerous.
“Irene is part of the circle?!”
Sophia, who was observing, was stunned, shaking Li Andy’s arm and saying,
“Is this really her true memory? You didn’t add anything, did you?”
Li Andy frowned; he didn’t think he had unconsciously added anything.
At this moment, Molly gently tugged at his sleeve and whispered:
“Andy Gege, Senior Irene actually only came to the academy half a year before us. Before that, she seemed to be studying in France.”
Molly’s mention of this made Youxi recall the previous sense of incongruity.
It seemed everything had already been hinted at.
Professor Youge jumping off a building, Eric inexplicably inheriting memories, and then, after waking up, pointing directly at Irene...
And Irene, as both daughter and girlfriend, seemed like an outsider, completely unaware.
One should know that as a sister, she clearly understood what positions her brother liked and when he would release.
Truly unqualified family members!
Li Andy nodded, seemingly not too surprised:
“Mm, let’s keep watching.”
“Professor Youge,” the captain said with a smile, “Miss Irene’s talent is much higher than you imagine. Among the new recruits who survived that batch, she is the one who ‘borrowed’ the most.”
“Talent? That’s a curse leading to the abyss!”
Professor Youge’s expression was pained, yet he was powerless.
He had always strived to give his wife and daughter an ordinary and happy life, but fate was so ironic.
“Cough, cough... cough...”
“Dad.”
Irene leaned down and embraced her coughing father, saying sincerely,
“Perhaps if we just unravel these mysterious secrets, they will no longer be mysterious, no longer terrifying, and can even be used by us!”
Professor Youge’s body trembled; he didn’t know how to respond.
He only knew that he was old and couldn’t stop anything.
The captain, seizing the opportunity, said:
“Professor Youge, don’t forget your true bloodline and nationality. All empires are exploring, and we naturally cannot fall behind.”
“Furthermore, compared to Wild Geese stealing knowledge in others’ territories, isn’t it safer for Miss Irene to now reconstruct techniques in the rear based on fragmented information from the front lines?”
Youge finally gradually stopped coughing and asked:
“Since you all have made your decision, why do you still want an old man like me, who’s almost in the grave, to join?”
“You jest, wisdom does not fade with age,” the captain replied with a smile.
“Then... what do you need me to do?” Youge’s tone softened.
Irene said excitedly:
“Dad, this is my personal request to the organization. I need your knowledge, memories, personality, and also... your life! I will make you... reborn perfectly!”
“What?” Youge froze.
The expression on Irene’s face became increasingly morbid:
“Dad, don’t worry, I’ve already arranged everything. You won’t age in the future, and you can even achieve a certain kind of immortality!”
“That way, we can research any experiment together forever! We’ll never have to be separated again!”