In his dreams, everything became increasingly vague, so much so that he had to admit the dreams were becoming bland, like continuously diluting sugar water with fresh water, year after year, day after day, becoming ever more bland.
So bland that eventually, he would forget them entirely.
Until recently, that unchanging, increasingly bland and vague dream began to take on a peculiar twist.
For example, two days prior, still on a boat with rough, turbulent waves, he stood at the ship's rail, while the waves leaping high on either side rushed at him like giant beasts. Instinctively, he gripped the railing tightly and turned to look. On the other side of the cabin, Shen Lan Ni was hanging her head low. The waves had already soaked her dress, yet she kept her head bowed, occasionally emitting a chilling, eerie cold laugh from her throat!
He knew very well that in such extreme weather with howling winds and crashing waves, it was impossible to hear such a low, eerie laugh. He even knew it was a dream, but in his subconscious, in countless identical dreams, his eldest daughter should have been crying her heart out in anguish...
"Why are you laughing?"
Shen Lan Ni just laughed, her laughter growing louder, even drowning out the sound of the waves.
"I asked why you are laughing!"
"Dad, you don't even have the courage to come find me anymore?"
"You, you are Yun Shu!"
...
That's right, in his dreams, the one who should have been swallowed by the sea had become Shen Lan Ni, and the one remaining on deck had surprisingly become Shen Yun Shu. Perhaps this was the outcome he had always desired, because only Shen Yun Shu resembled his deceased wife. In his subconscious, he had countless times chosen to let Shen Lan Ni drown in the sea!
Finally, his obsession had altered his dreams.
And on that day, Shen Lan Ni clung to the railing, weeping. The young girl already knew she might never see her obedient and quiet sister again. But she couldn't have imagined that after that day, her father would become melancholic, and whenever their eyes met, they could only read a shared sense of loss and sorrow from each other's gaze.
What frightened her even more was that she saw a hint of disgust in her father's eyes!
She understood then that if her father had a choice that day, it would have been her mischievous self, not her always gentle sister, who would have been buried at sea.
From then on, her personality became somewhat somber and reclusive, and she began to speak as little as possible in front of her father. She feared seeing his face, and even more, she feared seeing that kind of look in his eyes.
It wasn't until she met her master and senior disciples, and founded the Lan Ni Taekwondo Center, that this pain slowly began to dissipate. However, her meetings with her father became increasingly infrequent, and the knots in their hearts tightened.
They fell into a painful dream. When they came to their senses, the sky outside was already flashing with white light and rumbling with thunder.
Under the glare of lightning, the palm trees appeared like fleeting specters on the windowpane, casting distant, faint shadows. The white debris scattered across the courtyard was swept up by the wind, which howled like a tempest, swirling upwards as dark clouds gathered, casting a shadow over everyone's hearts.
"Miss Shen, yesterday, when you first saw your sister, didn't you already have your suspicions?"
Zhang Liang lit another cigarette, and as he exhaled smoke rings, he began to whisper again, "Because of your suspicions, you didn't contact your dad, did you? You're too heartless. Look, father and daughter are reunited now, all harmonious and happy, isn't that good?"
"How much, how much do you know?"
Shen Lan Ni's eyelids slowly blinked with the candlelight being lit in the room, her consciousness gradually clouding over.
"How much do I know? Of course, I don't know much. However, someone does know. I merely bought some information from him." Zhang Liang took a puff of his cigarette and then reached out to smear Shen Yun Shu's face. "Look at this fine skin, it's just like a newborn baby's, isn't it?"
Zhang Liang suddenly picked up Shen Yun Shu, slung her over his shoulder, and then lifted a portion of her white shirt from her back. A series of extremely small codes flickered in and out of sight under the lamplight!
"Miss Shen, I believe you saw this last night, didn't you? You must be very confused about what this is. Now, I can answer your questions."
Zhang Liang took out his phone. Indeed, in such extreme weather, network data signals had long been interrupted, but some data had already been downloaded by him.
On his phone screen were some dark photos, it was unclear who had taken them or under what circumstances. Vaguely visible in the frames were culture vessels emitting a green glow, but this vessel was peculiar, oval-shaped, somewhat resembling a bathtub at first glance.
Perhaps due to the lighting, the green liquid drops in the vessel seemed to be swaying with something. The green waves rippled, bearing some resemblance to the state of water just before boiling.
And what exactly was being cultivated in such a large culture vessel?
The answer lay in the next photo Zhang Liang was about to reveal.
He sneered and slid to the left. The circular black lens seemed to have zoomed in several meters, appearing to be the work of a high-precision pinhole camera capturing clandestine shots.
Upon seeing this picture, everyone felt their breath catch, and their heartbeats slowed again!
Within the culture vessel lay a person, unclothed. This person should have been female, with a slender physique. The rippling green water was precisely from her slightly raised leg!
"Now you should be able to guess what this is, right?"
Zhang Liang's gaze was like lightning, giving people the impression of a vulture circling above a tropical rainforest. His gaze was full of provocation. The answer that was about to be revealed was finally spoken by Zou Long.
"An android??"
"No, no, no, to be precise, it's called incomplete replication. Do you know about 3D printing? That's what they're doing in the Lionheart Building!"
Shen Wan Jun naturally refused to believe it. He was only willing to believe what he saw with his own eyes. For the nearly twenty years his younger daughter had been swallowed by the sea, he had thought of seeing her every moment. Yet now, someone dared to say she was an android!
He pressed himself against his back and slowly stood up. Where the strength came from, he didn't know. Like a cornered wolf, he lunged at Zhang Liang. However, Zhang Liang was from a martial arts family. Not to mention the current Shen Wan Jun, even twenty years ago, he would not have been Zhang Liang's match.
With a straight punch, Zhang Liang struck directly at Shen Wan Jun's face. He fell backward like a wall of flesh, just as he had desperately lain on the deck that day, unable to change anything, his heart deadened. But at that moment, he suddenly saw Shen Lan Ni stumble past him, blocking him with her frail body!