As he spoke, Ark’s expression was extremely serious. Ji Ning was surprised by the intensity in his eyes and for a moment, his thoughts began to drift away.
It was as if he liked him…
Ji Ning didn’t want to be arrogant, but he really felt that Ark’s words sounded ambiguous. He insisted he didn’t want to act because he had someone he liked, but said that he was willing as long as he acted with Ji Ning. Anyone who heard this would begin to have these thoughts.
But had his Junior, Ark, ever shown signs of liking him before this?
Ji Ning tried to recall their past relationship but found that he couldn’t remember anything. It was like trying to look into a mirror through a layer of fog, unable to distinguish his reflection.
“Senior, can’t you?” Ark asked after Ji Ning hadn’t said anything for a long time.
“No problem.” Ji Ning came back to his senses and smiled at him, “If you’re willing to act with me then of course I’ll be happy to.”
Ark showed a small smile. Ji Ning went back into the dance studio and said goodbye to the others. After packing up his things, he left with Ark, planning to privately rehearse with him to avoid affecting the other’s progress.
Ji Ning walked slightly behind Ark. As he watched the wings of the boy’s angel costume sway in front of him, Ji Ning’s expression turned a little dazed.
What had happened to him today? His memories were hazy and he kept having these strange feelings of deja vu…was he so tired lately that it was starting to affect his memory?
He rubbed his forehead and briefly considered whether he should go to the hospital, but after thinking about his workload this week, he decided to wait until the next weekend.
Because they hadn’t booked any rooms in advance, they couldn’t casually use one of the other dance studios or training rooms, so Ji Ning and Ark went to a small area behind the gym. It was a remote location with only a few people, so it was perfect for them to rehearse there.
The two of them started practising from the angel’s first scene. This was the scene after the shepherd girl, Shu Li Man, was promised to the monarch of the enemy country. She was miserably sobbing on her bed in the middle of the night when the angel appeared in front of her for the first time.
As the director of the play, Ji Ning had spent a lot of time understanding the script and had basically memorised everyone’s lines. Although his memory wasn’t completely accurate, he knew the general meaning so it wouldn’t be a problem for him to help Ark rehearse without using a script.
He sat down on the concrete steps and hugged his knees. His head was bowed and his shoulders trembled slightly as if he was the young girl weeping on her bed. Ark, playing the angel, touched his shoulder very gently.
As written in the script, Ji Ning slowly raised his head to see the stranger standing by his bed. He was scared at first, but his attention was drawn to the large wings on the angel’s back and in his curiosity, he quickly forgot his fear. He murmured to the stranger, “Who are you?”
“…”
Ark looked silently back at him. When he met his gaze, Ji Ning suddenly felt a very strange feeling. Although he didn’t speak, Ark’s eyes were filled with complex and profound emotions so strong they almost overwhelmed him.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Al Rlcu mbeiv bcis kjamt yijcxis jr Cgx ribkis xcffifv vbkc jcv gjlrfv j tjcv ab mjgfrr tlr ojmf. Ktf kjgw qjiw abemtfv tlr mtffx, ribkis wbnlcu tlr tfjv mibrfg ab Cgx.
“Vabq obg j wbwfca.”
Al Rlcu gfmbnfgfv ogbw atf ragjcuf fwbalbc jcv ufcais qertfv Cgx’r tjcv jkjs. “Ktfgf’r j qgbyifw tfgf. Tbeg ybvs rtbeivc’a yf ojmlcu wf, lcrafjv sbeg qbraegf rtbeiv yf bqfc abkjgvr atf jevlfcmf. Gbc’a obgufa atja sbe’gf qfgobgwlcu obg atf jevlfcmf.”
As he spoke, he pointed towards the gymnasium which he’d allocated to be the audience for the time being. Ark’s positioning just now would definitely block the heroine from the audience’s line of sight.
It seemed that Ark was having a bad day as he’d forgotten even the most basic positioning. Ji Ning didn’t criticise him too much, but patiently communicated with him before beginning the scene again.
However, during their rehearsal, Ark seemed to have a lot of problems. Ji Ning had originally chosen Ark to be the male lead as, in addition to his handsome appearance which carried the aura of an angel, he’d displayed impressive talent in acting. Yet today, Ark seemed to have forgotten all of his acting skills. He’d basically made every mistake possible and the rehearsal was nothing short of a disaster.
It was only when they reached the scene where the angel found himself in love with Shu Li Man that Ark seemed to have finally regained his abilities and fully expressed the surprise, joy, and guilt in the angel’s heart.
Not only that, but when Ji Ning hugged the angel and confessed his love for him according to the script, Ark’s face turned red and he gently hugged Ji Ning back with a shy appearance.
Seeing this reaction, Ji Ning’s heart skipped a beat. Such a performance was too realistic…could it be that Ark really did like him?
“Let’s finish here today. Thank you for your hard work Junior Ark.”
Thinking about this possibility, Ji Ning felt that it would be unsuitable to continue the rehearsal. He broke out of Ark’s embrace and slightly turned his eyes to the side, saying.
“After you go back, please consider the notes I’ve given you. Next time, you’ll have to practise with everyone, you can’t just practise alone with me.”
“Senior…”
Ark seemed to want to say something else, but Ji Ning slipped away too quickly, grabbing his backpack from the floor as he said, “My afternoon class is about to start so I’ve got to go. If there’s anything else, I’ll message you.”
After saying this, Ji Ning turned and left. He wasn’t rejecting Ark, but he was a little confused. He’d suddenly realised that his male Junior likely had a crush on him and he really needed a bit of time to think.
However, before Ji Ning could take a few steps, he caught sight of a figure standing beneath a tree. He wondered if it was someone else from the theatre group who’d finished rehearsing, but as soon as the person stepped out from the shadows, Ji Ning’s expression froze.
The young man beneath the tree wore a white uniform and a pale earphone in his right ear that was shaped like a wing. His pupils were so black, it felt like he was inhaling the light around him.
The handsome face of the man felt extremely familiar to Ji Ning. Like a memory engraved so deeply in his mind that it would only fade away in death.
In an instant, his heartbeat seemed to be amplified countless times in excitement, fear, and shock. Blood thundered past Ji Ning’s ears as he slowly called out that person’s name…
“Jiang…Che?”
Crack.
As if he’d uttered a forbidden spell, the scene in front of him shattered like glass, the illusion’s colours fading away. Ji Ning collapsed to the ground as the newly formed world was destroyed again and everyone returned to the endless nothing inside the space.
“Why did he faint again?”
Ozer raised an eyebrow and spoke coldly as he watched Future help Ji Ning up.
“And that name,” Huo Wuling squinted his eyes, “‘Jiang Che’, who is he? What’s his relationship with you?”
“…”
Future used damaged data to create a bed for Ji Ning to lie on. He fussed over the unconscious boy and didn’t speak for a while, before saying, “This was my fault. He fainted because he was strongly stimulated from seeing my face.”
He raised his head and looked into the eyes of the fragments of his consciousness one by one, “This is the face that all of you really have.”
“I haven’t accepted that I’m the same person as you.” Herinos curled his lip and glanced around at the others, “They’re probably all the same.”
“You’re hiding something from us.” Lai said, looking at Future, “You, or ‘we’, have known teacher for a long time, right?”
“Yes.”
Future nodded. The white data surrounding them flickered brightly and once again shared some hidden memories.
The ‘Future’ system was the first medical system of its kind that used a fusion of human creative thinking and AI. It perfectly combined the complexity of human thought and the speed of an AI’s calculation. The AI aspect of Future was programmed, while the human thinking came from a donor who passed away. Before he was Future, his name was Jiang Che.
The ‘Future’ system recorded every aspect of Jiang Che’s life in great detail. Many of his memories were spent with Ji Ning. The two of them were neighbours and childhood friends who grew up together.
From his memories, it was clear that Jiang Che and Ji Ning had a very good relationship. They were classmates from kindergarten to high school. After his third year of high school, Jiang Che’s parents planned to let Jiang Che go abroad, but after accidently seeing Ji Ning’s miserable expression, Jiang Che tore up the recommendation letter he’d obtained and never mentioned it again.
Jiang Che never said why he didn’t want to go and his parent’s reaction slowly changed from angry to helpless. In the end, it was his decision. After high school, the two of them went to the same university. Although they had different majors, Jiang Che simply rented an apartment off campus to live with Ji Ning. In this way, they were actually closer than when they were younger.
Ji Ning sometimes joked that because he hung out with Jiang Che every day, he couldn’t find a girlfriend anymore. Jiang Che laughed with him, but only he knew in his heart that he would never find a girlfriend, because since childhood the person he’d liked had always been Ji Ning.
In his memories, there were quite a few people who had a crush on him or Ji Ning. However, every time he saw someone approaching Ji Ning, Jiang Che would intervene whether consciously or unconsciously, turning that person into a friend they knew together and preventing them from spending time with Ji Ning alone.
If Ji Ning was called out somewhere to be confessed to, Jiang Che would always pretend not to know and call Ji Ning so that the confession could only be finished in a hurry.
Jiang Che blended into every corner of Ji Ning’s life in such a calm way. He spoiled Ji Ning and made him depend on him so that he couldn’t live without him. He swore that unless Ji Ning wanted to leave him, he would never voluntarily abandon him. As long as Ji Ning needed him, he would always be by his side.
Until there was a sudden car accident, where Jiang Che passed away.
A few months before his death, he’d volunteered as a subject for the ‘Future system’. Among many volunteers he was selected as the most suitable and after his death, his consciousness was connected to the system mainframe to become the Future of today.
However when the ‘Future’ system was activated, his memories of being ‘Jiang Che’ were reset. In order to ensure the normal operation of the system, all of his emotional centres were also blocked. He simply became a calm and rational super AI. His memories of ‘Jiang Che’s’ lifetime appeared more like a documentary or biography and had nothing to do with him.
At least, before he reunited with Ji Ning, that was what Future had always believed.
As the first system of its kind, the ‘Future’s’ use of human thinking had been widely debated in society, therefore the source of its human creativity was highly confidential. Only the Research and Development centre knew of Future’s identity as Jiang Che during his lifetime. Neither Jiang Che’s parents nor Ji Ning knew that he’d become the basis for the medical AI ‘Future’.
Some time later, Ji Ning also suffered an accident and was sent to hospital for emergency treatment that required the experimental use of the ‘Future’ system. Seeing his familiar face, there was a slight fluctuation in Future’s programming.
After he connected with Ji Ning’s brain, he saw the heart wrenching pain and despair that consumed Ji Ning after Jiang Che’s death. In an instant, there was an explosion in his data as his emotional blockage was broken though and splinters of his consciousness broke free of the main system, corrupted by the intense emotions of ‘Jiang Che’.
Even the dulled Future system was overcome by these feelings. He tried his best to restrain himself using the rationality and absolute calmness of AI, but inevitably these emotions only increased and he couldn’t restrain his growing interest in Ji Ning.
From the very beginning, the protagonists were fated to fall in love with Ji Ning.
Because their emotions all came from Jiang Che.
Jiang Che….wow. I had to take an extra day to make sure I got the feelings of this chapter across right. This chapter is very special to me (I love Jiang Che to death), so I wanted to do it right.
I’m very thankful that our ML is no longer called Future (´∀｀)
I knew ittttt!! Goddamn i was getting goosebumps
The next few chapters have all the big twists!! Please enjoy <3
Ahhhhhhhhh I figured but Ahhhhhhhh
The undefeated childhood best friend has come back stronger!
Ahhhh I’m rooting for you Jiang Che!! 😖
He’s up against so many other MLs, but Ningning has always had favourites~
Gosh, i knew it will be become like this. Really how can his fragments not fall in love with Ji Ning when the main core was in love with him🤧
Yup I know it. Pat Ark Sorry buddy.
that’s so cute 😭 In as bad as Ji Ning, switching favorites between the MLS depending on their relevance, but I’m kinda rooting for Jiang Che now
Ahhh I guessed it but man the author is brilliant!
Sheesh
‘heart wrenching pain and despair’.
Okay. Oh my god. So Jiang Che WAS used to make future. And he loved ji Ning. And I’m guessing ji Ning felt the same, but then he died. This is tragic yo 🙃. Is Jiang Che really dead now…? How is this going to play out…?