Electronic Sheep had been pressured into blurting out those words, only to realize that everyone was staring at him. His heart immediately began pounding again, and he said awkwardly, "Um... I-I was just saying. You don't have to take it to heart."
"No, you were absolutely right," Qiu Ming said with a nod. "I didn't expect you to figure this out in such a short time. It's made me see you in a new light. Humans truly are a species with limitless potential. Even if your memories were rewritten to turn you into a shut-in nerd with exceptional networking skills but no understanding of the world, you still won't live forever along a predetermined track. Falling in love with Xu Qian, breaking into Shen Tang Morgan's secret headquarters, saying something so completely out of character...
"Shen Tang Morgan has done a great deal of research into this as well. In the end, they discovered that even the finest Memory Encoding couldn't prevent such things from happening. You can use Memory Encoding to control someone's past and thus influence their present, but you can never fully grasp their future. The company even had to establish a special department to handle situations like this."
Yet, to everyone's surprise, Xu Qian shook her head and persisted. "Sorry, I can't go with you."
"Why?" Electronic Sheep asked in confusion.
"Because I don't want to spend every day from now on running away, never knowing when I'll be caught and taken back. Over the past few days, I've had more than enough of living in constant fear, terrified every second of every minute. Maybe you won't believe me, but when Qiu Ming found me, the stone in my heart finally fell away. I was still afraid, and I still didn't know what would become of