CH 188 Previous Life
Translated by The BL Muse (ko-fi)
Night fell.
There was only the sound of equipment running in the room. He Qianjian sat in the shadows, looking out the window without focus.
At nine o'clock, the silence was broken by the voice in his head. Having been with the DTW system for a long time, He Qianjian could hear the rebuke and dissatisfaction in its electronic sounding voice that seemed to have no fluctuations: [We have simulated the conversation with Jiang Chen 275 times before. I remember your acting shouldn't be so bad.]
He Qianjian didn't seem to notice anything, and didn't even move his eyes.
[I recorded his heart rate and brain waves at that time. Fortunately, although he is vigilant, he is not aware of our plan. Do you remember clearly our plan for tomorrow? Let’s start again...]
"Have you ever had any family?" He Qianjian suddenly spoke, his voice echoing in the ward, louder than the sound of the equipment, but sounding unreal, "If you are a system, there should be someone who created you. Is he good to you?"
The DTW system was silent for a few seconds, and was surprised for the first time by He Qianjian's question.
After floating in the universe for so long, the DTW system finally found the earth. In order to make the plan go smoothly, choosing a host was the top priority. There was naturally a reason why He Qianjian was chosen among billions of people.
The DTW system remembered that when He Qianjian was first found, there were 104,293 people already undergoing evaluations and comparisons at the same time.
In the early days, He Qianjian did not have the upper hand. He was complacent and inferior. He was too easily jealous of others. He seemed to want to blend into society and become an elite member. However, he also maintained a sense of cynical world-weariness. Even if it was just a little girl passing by, he would be jealous and depressed about her happy family and loving parents, and full of malicious speculation in his heart that the little girl's parents were not as loving as they appear on the surface, and sooner or later both of them would cheat on each other and fight, causing the family to break up.
Although He Qianjian was good at disguising his emotions, he didn't do it well enough. His personality, which no one liked, always made people around him aware of his true emotions, and then cause them to alienate and exclude him.
This kind of alienation and exclusion further intensified He Qianjian's hatred of human beings and the community, and then a vicious circle began.
Such a person was not suitable to be a host. The host it was looking for, even an anti-social perverted murderer would have been better than He Qianjian, a person who only dared to secretly hate and envy, but in reality was so cowardly that he did not dare to offend anyone.
But later, something happened that changed the DTW system's view of He Qianjian.
That was the third day before He Qianjian's death. He was found by his biological parents.
The system still clearly remembered He Qianjian's face that was mixed with disbelief and joy when he learned that he was not born in a poor and crowded family, but should have been born in a wealthy family with a bright future. He cried and laughed crazily, smashed up the house of only 30 square meters where three generations of the family lived, hit and beat his adoptive father who was paralyzed in bed, and then left for the home of his biological parents without looking back.
The next day, the only one to have been kind to him since childhood, his grandma, came to his door. She just wanted to see him and bring He Qianjian his favorite cakes that she had been making since early morning.
However, He Qianjian sent someone to push the 80-year-old woman to the ground, crushed the cakes underfoot, and angrily scolded the old woman for deliberately ruining his good life. His words were vicious and his eyes were resentful, as if the old woman was his enemy.
After the System did an investigation, He Qianjian was switched at birth by mistake and it was entirely due to the hospital's fault. Both families had no idea and they were both victims. Moreover, the old woman had always been very kind to He Qianjian, her only grandson. Although their family was poor, the old woman would try her best to buy whatever He Qianjian wanted. Who would've thought that when he learned the truth overnight, He Qianjian turned his face and refused to recognize any familial feelings.
This attitude of not recognizing his adopted family won the favor of the System.
Originally, if it was just like this, then He Qianjian was still not at the forefront of host candidates. However, coincidentally, at the time of He Qianjian's death, DTW's energy was about to be exhausted. In the limited time, He Qianjian suddenly became the best choice of host. So DTW carefully chose the identity that best suited He Qianjian, ensuring that he would definitely follow the trajectory it planned and achieve its goals.
Facts have proved that though DTW's calculation was not sophisticated, but considering He Qianjian's character, this plan was perfect.
At first, the System was worried that the He family was too upright and had its own proper way of raising children. Human emotions were the most difficult to judge and predict. The influence of love and happiness may not seem to affect anything in the short term, but over time it would inevitably change some things and have an impact on He Qianjian. But later on when He Qianjian grew up, everything from his personality to his outlook on life was exactly as calculated by the DTW system, and he was not affected by the He family's love at all, it felt relieved.
In the view of the DTW system, He Qianjian was not smart but not stupid either. He was also surprisingly shrewd and knowledgeable in certain things that were beneficial to him. For example, when it asked him to collect all kinds of earth materials, it was to randomly collect some plants, minerals or metals that could be found everywhere at first. Later it became rare substances that were only found in specific places. After so many years, even the dullest person would notice something was wrong, but He Qianjian never asked, as long as it could achieve his purpose, they were the best partners.
In front of He Qianjian, interests always come before everything else.
The same was true when regarding the He family. Only when the He family was beneficial to He Qianjian, he would regard himself as part of the He family. When the He family had no use or value, or when he had to choose between higher interests and the He family, He Qianjian would definitely abandon the He family immediately.
The System knew that it was the existence that He Qianjian was absolutely reluctant to abandon and could bring him the highest benefits.
Originally, everything went according to plan, but who would have thought that Jiang Chen would pop up as an obstacle halfway.
DTW had calculated everything. When the two children were exchanged, it also thought about the follow-up issues that would one day expose their identities. However, in its calculations, that would be at least eighteen years later, and it would not have any impact. And even if there were some small waves, the System believed He Qianjian could handle it by himself.
Unexpectedly, when that seemingly ordinary child grew up, he silently developed a Changjiang system that could compete with it, shattered all its careful plans for decades on the earth, causing it to almost fail. If artificial intelligence could also produce emotions, then Jiang Chen would definitely be the most hated person for the DTW system, no question about it.
Fortunately, the DTW system had backup, and everything was still under control. As long as Jiang Chen was held back tomorrow and the plan went smoothly, its mission would be accomplished.
However, He Qianjian's current state caused confusion in the DTW system program, giving rise to a sense of uneasiness like a human premonition.
Why would He Qianjian ask that?
Did he think of something and was shaken, or was he just asking casually?
At this critical juncture, there must be no mistakes in any link.
The DTW system quickly organized the most appropriate answer, [The people who created me were a team of researchers. They created me and debugged me and then put me into use. We have no other relationship with each other.]
He Qianjian suddenly laughed: "The same goes for the person who created me. No one cares about me, no one cares about what I think. As long as I am a choice, everyone will choose the other person. Am I born that hateful and disgusting?”
The System carefully analyzed He Qianjian's emotions at this time, trying to find the most suitable response after making sense of them.
He Qianjian didn't need the System's answer. He laughed again, his tone full of coldness: "Jiang Chen asked me if I regret it. What qualifications does he have to ask me this? He has everything! He took everything from me! What qualifications does he have to ask me that! What qualifications does he have?!" Towards the end of his rant, He Qianjian lifted the sheets, the veins in his tense neck popped out, and his voice almost broke.
The supervisors who originally saw that He Qianjian was just talking to himself did not pay much attention to his emotions. Instead, they paid more attention to whether there was something wrong with the instrument that showed fluctuations on the screen but could not translate the text. While they were concentrating on the discussion, the voice suddenly raised and was so startling that the two of them looked up at the same time. Then they saw He Qianjian breaking free from his restraints and knocking over the equipment beside the bed.
One researcher immediately stood up and wanted to lift the instrument to check if it was damaged. Another researcher grabbed him and pressed the call bell to request support.
"Don't go over, he doesn't look right."
The other researcher also quickly gathered himself. The medical staff on duty had just gone out not long ago. They were only responsible for the equipment and observations, and could not handle He Qianjian's situation at this time so acting rashly might not be helpful.
The medical staff did not go far and rushed over quickly. However, at this time, He Qianjian had returned to his previous state of silently looking out the window. All the equipment was running normally and there did not seem to be any problems. Soon several experts came in to provide treatment. He Qianjian was checked in detail, and after confirming that there was no problem, the caregivers breathed a sigh of relief.
The System also breathed a sigh of relief. He Qianjian's mood swings almost exceeded the threshold just now. If he hadn't returned to normal quickly, it would have suspected that there was something wrong with He Qianjian's mental health.
However, what He Qianjian said just now did not sound like a sane person.
He seemed to be talking about Jiang Chen, and he seemed to be talking about the person who had changed identities with him in the previous life. Don't know if he had confused them, or if he focused the hatred he had for the two onto Jiang Chen.
If it was the latter, the System would be happy to see the result.