Things Always Happen Around Him

Yu Sheng suddenly felt pessimistic about his creative prospects—very pessimistic. Mostly, he was pessimistic about the reputation he might leave behind in literary circles, which was bound to be rather unfortunate. Even though he had only encountered one special case like Ren Wenwen so far, that one case was enough to convince him he wouldn't come out of this well...

But this sort of thing wasn't exactly easy to talk people out of, especially when the person involved was from the Special Affairs Bureau, facing high-pressure, high-risk work every day (even if she was a clerk in the headquarters building, considering the nature of that headquarters, even someone watching the printer in the Special Affairs Bureau office had to be considered a special operations position). What if she relied on these twisted little hobbies as her spiritual support?

Ren Wenwen, however, didn't notice the shifting expression on Yu Sheng's face and enthusiastically continued, "Hey, hey, Teacher Yu, when is your next story coming out? Are you still writing suspense and mystery? Will any of the old characters get another chance to appear? I especially like Mr. Seventeen, who you mentioned briefly in 'Rain Harbor.' When will you make him the main character..."

Yu Sheng didn't say anything, but Ailin in Hu Li's arms was quick to speak, lifting her head: "The male lead's mount in the next book is a three-wheeler!"

Ren Wenwen's eyes instantly lit up: "Oh, that's interesting! A machine developing feelings for its owner over time—that kind of storyline!"

Yu Sheng: "...!?"

He finally realized—this girl was shipping humans and machine spirits, wasn't she!?

"Let's talk about something else," he said, waving his hand in exhaustion, then lifted his head to look at the sign above the collection point in front of him. "I figure this isn't just a collection point, right? I don't know the Special Affairs Bureau's standards for setting up a 'station,' but since this place counts as a 'station,' it can't just be two people assigned to deliver my packages and takeout. I'm guessing this is also an observation station?"

Ren Wenwen's expression immediately turned a bit awkward.

"Don't be nervous. I figured that out a long time ago," Yu Sheng chuckled. "Even now, you're probably still running observation posts nearby. And even if there weren't any, your director's eyes have likely been glancing this way pretty often. I'm just confirming—don't overthink it."

"It—it can be said that way, I mean, the term observation station," Ren Wenwen finally smiled sheepishly, speaking seriously, "This station does monitor the situation at Number 66 Wutong Road, but as you know, we can't actually observe your house at all, so this station's main role is to observe your surroundings—strictly speaking, the whole of Wutong Road..."

Yu Sheng looked bewildered: "What's there to observe on Wutong Road? Worth setting up a dedicated station?"

Ren Wenwen: "Because things always happen around you..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

"Uh, that's not what I said, that's what our Captain Song said," Ren Wenwen, feeling she had overstepped, quickly sold out her superior. "I don't know who he heard it from."

"...I have a guess," Yu Sheng said, twitching the corner of his mouth and shaking his head with a helpless smile. "Alright, I don't mind. It's like having two extra sentries at the door. At least picking up packages and takeout will be more convenient now. So, you keep busy. I'm heading back."

With that, he waved at Ren Wenwen, craned his neck to glance at the stuff still not unloaded from the truck, then slowly turned and walked away.

He had the air of a retired old man out for a stroll.

Ren Wenwen watched Yu Sheng walk away, watched him push open a door out of thin air in an empty space a few dozen meters away and disappear from sight. Then she let out a soft breath, turned her head to look at the big boxes still not unloaded from the truck—border scanners, fixed depth-sensing radars, entity detection radars, plus two field-type shield generators normally only issued to deep divers, and a bunch of other miscellaneous equipment.

A fully equipped border outpost would have about the same setup.

"Wenwen, do we really need those shield generators?" one of the Special Affairs Bureau officers muttered as he unloaded a heavy equipment case. "Even if they're necessary, why two?"

"The frontline units would love to tile the floor with these things and sleep on them every night," Ren Wenwen shot him a glance. "Move them in. They're good stuff. Normal in-country stations don't get this equipment."

"Oh."

...

In the Special Affairs Bureau Headquarters, Director's Office, Song Cheng was reporting the situation to Bai Liqing: "The Wutong Road station has made contact with Yu Sheng. Ren Wenwen was on site. The contact went smoothly. Yu Sheng has no objections to the new station and even seems quite satisfied."

"Most of the time, he's easygoing and lazy. As long as we don't substantially interfere with his life, he won't show resistance," Bai Liqing said flatly. "Our 'observation' is useless on him, but having an extra collection point brings more convenience to Number 66 Wutong Road, so of course he'd have no objections. Just remember to remind the stationed personnel that under any circumstances—mark that, any circumstances—they must treat 'Yu Sheng' as a human being. That's the most important thing."

"Understood. It's already been written into the rules, and all station personnel will be trained," Song Cheng said seriously. "I told them that even if they see Yu Sheng grab an entity right in front of them and devour it alive, they must remain calm..."

"Wrong. They should show appropriate surprise, maybe even complain about how he'll eat anything—because that's the normal reaction a human would have when facing another human eating something strange. Your thinking is flawed. Go back and redo the training content. If necessary, arrange for that young man named Li Lin to be stationed there, or find someone equally broad-minded."

Song Cheng stiffened: "...Uh, I understand your point. I'll adjust it today."

Bai Liqing nodded.

Just then, a knock came at the door. After receiving permission, the duty secretary appeared at the office entrance: "Director, Director Zhang from the Technical Department is here. He says there's a major breakthrough that requires direct reporting."

"Let him in."

A moment later, a middle-aged man in a white shirt, dark brown trousers, thin and balding, walked into the office, his face glowing with an inexplicable brightness.

He saw Song Cheng after entering, nodded in greeting, and his smile never faded.

Bai Liqing raised an eyebrow and glanced at the head of the Technical Department: "Xiao Zhang, what's got you so happy?"

"Director, the filtration system is a success!" Director Zhang's face was practically radiant. "The system that automatically identifies and blocks alarm signals and switches recording modes when Yu Sheng opens a portal—it's done!"

Even Bai Liqing's ice-like face showed a clear change at that moment. The corners of her mouth slowly curled up: "Excellent! I'll contact Yu Sheng as soon as possible to have him help us test the system and see how it performs."

Director Zhang was beaming, but then he hesitated a little and rubbed his hands together: "Director, there's another matter."

Bai Liqing: "Oh?"

"It's news I just got on my way here, reported by the test lab," Director Zhang said, his expression turning a bit strange as he spoke, and his already thinning scalp even seemed to glisten. "About that 'cast iron sample' sent from the cafeteria to the testing department last time..."

Bai Liqing quickly caught on: "Oh, the iron block that fox from the Inn used to pay for his meal? What did the tests find?"

"Well, routine composition tests showed nothing special—it was just extremely pure iron," Director Zhang immediately reported. "After completing a series of routine tests, the lab decided to try making 'something' out of that iron, mainly to see its mechanical properties after shape transformation. So they made a hammer..."

"Too much chatter," Bai Liqing interrupted the Technical Department head without ceremony. "Get to the point. Just tell me what happened."

Director Zhang spread his hands: "A machine spirit appeared..."

Song Cheng, who had been quietly eavesdropping on the excitement, instantly: "...(⊙0⊙)!?"

Even Bai Liqing was visibly shaken. She lifted her head sharply, her stare startling Director Zhang.

After a moment, the female director let out a soft breath: "...Now give me the details."

"Actually, there aren't many more details," Director Zhang said, his expression clearly less confident and brilliant than when he reported the 'filtration system success.' It was obvious that the strangeness and inexplicability of the matter had made him, as the technical department head, quite nervous. "A machine spirit just appeared. Main manifestations: a certain degree of self-repairing characteristics, the tool seeming to consciously coordinate with the user's force, and a tendency to communicate with surrounding machinery and equipment. While no one was present, surveillance equipment recorded the hammer gently tapping a nearby impact analyzer. The lab team analyzed that this might be some kind of social behavior..."

Song Cheng finally couldn't help but speak: "What kind of hammer did you make? A mechanical power hammer? A rocket-assisted impact hammer? Or did you stuff something inside..."

"Just a hammer," Director Zhang spread his hands. "We cut a small piece directly from that ingot. Didn't even recast it much—just pressed it into shape, drilled a hole, and temporarily threaded a wooden stick through as a handle..."

"And it developed a machine spirit?"

"Yes, it developed a machine spirit," Director Zhang sighed. "I've been in charge of the Technical Department for years and have studied many cases related to machine spirits. The conditions for machines to develop pseudo-conscious behavior are always a certain level of complexity, long-term contact with humans, and extremely rare coincidences. I've never seen anything like this... I even suspect that if they hadn't made a hammer but an ear pick, it would have developed a machine spirit too by now."

Song Cheng's expression was vacant: "Don't say you've never seen this, Director Zhang. Who has?"

"I haven't either," Bai Liqing said, rising from behind her desk. "So take me to go see it now."