" The City of Sin?" Mei Ziqing looked at Mei Yiqiu, at that familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar face. "I thought you came into contact with the Alliance through Selina, but now it seems I was wrong. You are a member of the Alliance yourself. Yet, all these years, you haven't shown a single trace of it."
Mei Yiqiu did not deny it.
"So, did you already know my identity?" Mei Ziqing asked.
Mei Yiqiu still did not deny it.
"When did you find out?" she asked again.
"I knew it from the beginning," the professor said.
Mei Ziqing should have been shocked, but strangely, she felt very calm. Many past events surfaced in her mind, one after another, like a movie playing, and she was just an audience member.
"So, your lecture at Donghe Tushu in Beijing, revealing your research on dreams and the collective unconscious, was deliberately meant for me? You orchestrated that lecture and the subsequent encounter just to get me to come to Wuzhong with you. From that moment on, I've been a part of your plan. What exactly is your plan?"
"No, I didn't design it that way; I was just asked to do it," Mei Yiqiu said.
"Who?"
"Your father."
My father?
"He once begged me to imprison him in the City of Sin, to atone for his past sins."
Mei Ziqing was shocked and turned to look at the dimly lit little door on the castle tower behind her.
You mean my father is in here?
Mei Yiqiu shook his head and said, "No, he's not here. He's dead."
The sudden glimmer of hope, shattered just as quickly, left Mei Ziqing deeply frustrated and even somewhat angry. Her father's death was a knot in her heart that could never be untied. That father who had been so gentle and loving in her childhood, that father with extraordinary abilities and seemingly omnipotent powers! No one knew the devastation her father's passing had brought her. She watched helplessly as her mother grew thinner and thinner on her sickbed until she died. She watched helplessly as everything in the house was sold off, leaving only a notebook left by her father.
"How did he die?" she asked.
"That's not important. What's important is that he has atoneed," Mei Yiqiu said. "He also asked me to take care of you, saying you're a genius and he didn't want you to repeat the path he took."
"But you didn't come looking for me," Mei Ziqing said.
"Yes, it's my fault," Mei Yiqiu said. "I thought you would grow up like an ordinary person. You are beautiful and kind-hearted. The hardships of your childhood will make you stronger, and you will find happiness in these short but precious years of peace. Until one day, I discovered that you had followed in your father's footsteps and were going further and further down that path."
So everything that followed was actually your meticulously planned scheme.
I want to salvage the relationship.
"No, you don't want to," Mei Ziqing said. "If you did, you wouldn't have abandoned me in the first place. Don't spout nonsense about how hardship is the best training; I'm not a child anymore. Do you hate my father? What did he do to make you hate him so much?"
"Everyone is guilty, including me. It's all in the past now, and we still have a lot to do."
"Is that so?" Mei Ziqing looked at him with resentment. "You are dead. I personally prepared your remains, personally placed your ashes in the grave, and personally covered you with soil. But I didn't get to see my father one last time, and my mother died right in front of me. They dragged her body away, and I don't even know where she was buried. They died and disappeared forever, but you are dead, yet you are still standing here."
Mei Yiqiu fell silent, taking deep drags on his cigarette.
"I want to be like them, but I still have unfinished business."
"Career? Who doesn't have unfinished business?" Mei Ziqing pointed to the bizarre and endless dreamscape in the distance and said, "Look, the small world has already reached this scale. As long as you are willing to hand over the key and open all the passages, this will be a new world, a new universe, where everyone can live a happy life forever under the new rules."
Mei Yiqiu shook his head and said, "It's useless. Your method, or rather your father's past ambition, even if realized, would only be a repetition of the original world. Humanity will eventually follow the same old path, and the utopian world in your heart will never appear."
How will you know if you don't try?
"Who says no one has tried it?"
Mei Ziqing was startled. "What did you say?"
Mei Yiqiu did not answer, but only took a deep drag on his cigarette.
After a long pause, he said, "Hiding in dreams cannot stop Gaia from descending."
"Do you have a solution?"
Selina's speech made Gaia known to the whole world, and Mei Ziqing was also shocked. After verifying the information from various sources, especially the inside story she learned from her recent collaboration with Saladin, and combining it with many clues in her father's notes, she has roughly pieced together the truth of the matter.
Gaia is a being so powerful that it inspires despair.
To humankind, it is the creator, it is God.
Mei Yiqiu pointed to the castle at his feet and said, "Do you know what this place is used for?"
Mei Ziqing said, "I've heard that the City of Sin is used by the Alliance to imprison the consciousnesses of Awakened who violate the rules. The original sin induced by countless sinful souls creates a sinful gravitational pull that makes it impossible for consciousnesses to escape. Do you intend to use this place to imprison Parasites?"
"No, the City of Sin is not for imprisonment."
"What is it used for?"
"Humanity can never prevent Gaia's arrival; this was known as early as the time of Itza. Closing the Ramla Passage and sealing the Holy Land can only delay her arrival and buy time for human civilization. Humanity cannot use something created by God to stop God."
Mei Yiqiu paused for a moment, "Do you know what Mental Black Hole is?"
Mei Ziqing said, "I've heard some speculations, but they're just speculations. Even we Awakened don't know anything about the nature of the spirit."
"Yes, that's true for the civilizations of this era. But in the previous era, spirit was something everyone knew," Mei Yiqiu said. "If we consider spirit and matter as two sides of the universe, they are symmetrical. There are black holes in the material universe, and there are also black holes in the spiritual universe. In the black holes of matter, spirit is not bound by its gravity. The early civilization created by Gaia used this to establish Ramla and send its spirit to distant planets."
The City of Sin is actually just a Dream Core created by Itza. Its essence is an internal gravitational pull. When dream spaces approach it, the space collapses due to the gravitational pull, further strengthening the pull. Once enough dream spaces are attracted and collapse, it becomes Mental Black Hole, drawing in any approaching spirit, from which there is no escape.
Mei Ziqing suddenly realized, "You mean, Itza knew that Gaia would inevitably descend, so he used Mental Black Hole to trap her?"
Mei Yiqiu nodded. "Yes, killing God is the only way for mortals to get rid of God."
Mei Ziqing pointed to the vast Dream Guide game world outside, puzzled, and asked, "Shouldn't we be opening up everyone's dreams? Why are you stopping us? If you had said so earlier, we could have cooperated happily."
"Once you're sucked into the Dream Core and become a black hole, you'll face an inescapable darkness." Mei Yiqiu looked at her and said, "If I had told you earlier, would you have been willing to do this? Perhaps you would have agreed, but would those people outside have agreed? Would Saladin have agreed?"
Mei Ziqing lowered her head, recalling her recent ordeal. Only those who have experienced it can truly understand that kind of fear.
Mei Yiqiu sighed, "Forming a black hole isn't easy. Just as sufficient mass is needed in the material world, the spiritual world also needs sufficient 'mass,' or rather, a large enough number of the Group Dream Realm. Itza delayed Gaia's arrival, buying humanity enough time. We now have a large enough population to engage in Group Dream. Compared to a single dream, the power of Group Dream increases exponentially, but it's still not enough to form a black hole, and we can't sacrifice the lives of all humanity. Earth is too small; it can only accommodate a limited number of life forms, especially advanced life."
"So you've been waiting for the birth of artificial intelligence?" Mei Ziqing said suddenly, " The Internet generating consciousness was designed by you, it was part of your plan?"
"Some were planned, some were unexpected," Mei Yiqiu said. "Like Saladin."
"So you're the real owner of Laboratory No. 19!" Mei Ziqing suddenly felt a chill. "You're the one conducting human chip experiments too. Saladin is just a pawn! Poor pawn, used by you, and you even think you're God!"
Human chip, Internet Consciousness, Space Box, Dream Guide —it was all part of your plan! You are indeed guilty; you are a demon! Why did you do this? Why did you do all this behind everyone's back?
"To keep this from Gaia," Mei Yiqiu said, "This secret is known only to the leaders of the Awakeners' Alliance throughout history. Every leader comes here after death. We are indeed guilty, heinous sins, so we atone for them with eternal damnation after death."
Mei Ziqing grew increasingly astonished as she listened. "Who exactly are you?"
Do you know the meaning behind the name Mei Yiqiu?
"Isn't it a homophone for 'dreaming of something'? The ancients said, 'The perfect man has no dreams.' Removing the word 'dream' would perfectly represent the perfect state of being that you are so diligently pursuing, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, that's one thing."
"And the second one?"
"The plum tree, a tree of the south, alone endures the cold and ice, in order to welcome the spring."
"You are... Nanke?!"
Mei Yiqiu took off his pipe, gazed at the countless dreamlike scenes in the distance, exhaled a long puff of white smoke, and said, "It's been so long, so long that I've almost forgotten this name."