"Perhaps you are the one chosen by God to help humanity out of its predicament!"
After taking a few puffs of his cigarette, Mei Yiqiu reverted to his former self as a sprightly, somewhat cynical old professor with his white hair standing on end.
Huang Liang frowned and emphasized, "Professor, I don't like to joke. I'm just an ordinary doctor. Besides, since you know the secret between me and Mr. Qingmu, you should also know my background. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I'm 'human,' so how can I help humanity?"
"No, no, you've misunderstood something," the professor said. "You have the exact same physiological structure as us, and you have a life experience that's pretty much the same for everyone. You were born in your mother's womb, Guagua as you entered this world. You grew up on breast milk and food. You have people you care about and people who care about you. You have love and emotions. Everything about you is no different from ours. What makes you think you're not human?"
"I..." Huang Liang was speechless for a moment, unsure how to answer. Indeed, what gave him the right to doubt that he wasn't human? What right did he have?
Mei Yiqiu continued, "Of course, something special happened to your consciousness. You may have had a shadow, or you may believe that you are that shadow, which later drove away the original you and took over this body. But actually, you yourself are not sure whether you are that shadow or not, right? Your memories haven't deviated, except for some emotional fluctuations, nothing has changed. But emotional fluctuations are normal, as a doctor, you should know that. So why don't you treat those as a dream? It's just a dream about a shadow that wanted to kill you. Whether you killed the shadow or the shadow killed you, it's just a dream. The dream is over, so why do you start not treating yourself like a human being? Isn't that a kind of mental illness?"
Huang Liang was increasingly speechless. This was something he had suspected before. If it weren't for the existence of an organization, and if Howard hadn't been in constant contact with him, for a time, he really thought he had schizophrenia.
"I know you have a huge organization behind you. But that proves nothing!" Mei Yiqiu continued, "How many cults have existed in human history? They were all much larger than the organization you're in! Even pyramid schemes have been much more powerful than yours. How can you not be sure you've been misled by them? You're a doctor, you can't be unaware of things like psychological suggestion, can you?"
Huang Liang felt he couldn't remain silent any longer. He was a very independent person, both in thought and action, and it was impossible for him to negate his understanding of the past few years based on just a few words from the professor. However, in the process, he discovered something: the white-haired professor possessed immense Mental Power, which he displayed flawlessly. It was precisely because of this mental influence that his sophistry sounded so reasonable.
However, he still couldn't see through the professor's true nature. On the one hand, he dared not test him; caution remained his most important principle at this stage. On the other hand, he also knew that there were indeed some people who, although they had not undergone special awakening training, possessed extremely strong Mental Power, such as the late Mr. Lester. It was said that in order to invade his brain, the organization sent a leader-level figure, but in the end, he still perished together with Lester.
"Professor, I feel more like you're trying to manipulate me," he said.
Mei Yiqiu laughed and said, "I didn't expect to trick you into joining my team with just a few words, and I don't have any organization anyway. What you and Qingmu agreed on remains in effect. I won't ask anything more of you."
"Then what do you mean by telling me all this?"
"Oh, I just wanted to tell you not to get hung up on whether you're human or whether you're the same kind of person as us. The idea that 'those who are not of our kind must have different hearts' is outdated. In the past, humanity was divided into many races, each believing its own race was the superior one and others inferior. Today, we have long since discovered that humanity originated from the same place, and human races are slowly re-integrating. Even if you came from another planet, how do you know we didn't originate from the same place? Today we fight to the death, but thousands of years from now, it will all be a joke!"
Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I alive? Philosophically speaking, we all share the same confusion. But no philosopher would ever ask, "Am I human?" or "What makes me different from other people?"... How foolish are such questions! So stop worrying about which organization you belong to; just remember, we share the same ultimate goal.
"The ultimate goal?"
Huang Liang was starting to agree with Mei Yiqiu's words. Indeed, to confine oneself to a particular race was such a narrow-minded concept! Besides, at least humans have a common home they all recognize, and they all know how they are born and how they die, while he knew nothing about all that, yet he was still fixated on the life-or-death struggle between races—it was simply utterly foolish!
He didn't want to conquer the Earth; he just wanted to know who he was and why he was there. Only then could he determine his next move and understand the meaning of everything he did.
"The ultimate goal is the ultimate philosophical question!" the professor said.
"Okay, I agree with that." Huang Liang's hand, which had been in his pocket, relaxed, and his fingers loosened their grip on the scalpel. Fortunately, the scalpel was sheathed and wouldn't cut his pants.
"If it allows me to understand the ultimate meaning of life, even if I choose the wrong path, I am willing to bear the consequences of my choices. But I must make one thing clear: this does not mean I am willing to join your side to fight against my current organization or do things for you that I am unwilling to do."
"Of course!" Mei Yiqiu said, "I don't want you to join us. We don't really have any organization. I'm just a scientist, someone who has studied more, knows more, and is more clear-headed when facing fate than others. But being clear-headed isn't necessarily a comfortable thing. We're like the people Lu Xun described, locked in an iron house, about to suffocate. Being clear-headed means enduring the irredeemable agony of our impending death."
Mei Yiqiu a pipe in his mouth, looked somewhat serious. "The world we face now is a bit complicated; it can no longer be simply divided into enemies and friends. First, Qingmu has disappeared, along with Professor Su and Mr. Situ. Whatever happened, this is a significant loss for us. I have to reassess the strength of all parties and admit that we are the weakest."
You lurk in the shadows, your numbers may be small, but you control immense wealth and power in this world. If you were to instigate a rebellion, it would be enough to devastate the world. Fortunately, neither the Dream Society nor Ronald Cohen has done so yet.
In the past, I thought you were just a Ghost race that survived in the universe by parasitizing others, and that your arrival on Earth was unconscious; Earth was just unlucky that you stumbled upon it. But based on recent signs, I believe you have a purpose."
"What is the purpose?" This was also a question Huang Liang was concerned about.
"Even you don't know, how could I possibly know! But that's what's truly terrifying!"