under hope

After the meeting was announced to be over, everyone sitting together stood up and left. The doctor wanted to leave with his senior sister, but he could no longer find her.

"So urgent? Is there something important?"

The doctor scratched his head and had to leave the conference room alone. As soon as the ministers left the house, they hurried to their work stations. The people around them looked busy, which made the doctor who was leisurely heading to the exit of the building a little worried. Out of place.

A group of heavily armed android guards passed by the doctor. Everyone else was used to it, but the doctor was shocked.

"Is it 'Silver Star'?

It was an idea he conceived together with Hongchang when he was in college. The focus was on concealment and high efficiency, and he was responsible for dealing with internal personnel.

The appearance of Silver Star guards is exactly the same as that of ordinary guards. They are only distinguished by the logo behind their earlobes, and the AI ​​keys are also different.

"Where is the traitor?"

Even though the guards have gone away, the doctor is still sifting through the list in his mind.

"It won't be for me."

Recalling what he did in the conference room, the doctor laughed at himself in a joking tone.

"No, if you have any questions, Hongchang will contact me directly."

The doctor thought this while opening his email as if to comfort himself.

There was indeed an email, which was sent by Hongchang.

——"I heard that you have been living in the research institute recently. Thank you for your hard work. I wish you good luck in your work."

The doctor breathed a sigh of relief. That is to say, it is impossible for Hongchang to send Yinxing. No matter what, he would not treat his old friend like this.

The content of the email made the doctor feel at ease, which made his mood change. Happy.

When he walked into the bar where he last met his senior sister, the familiar fragrance of flowers hit his face, but he didn't find the person he wanted to meet in the same place.

"Are you Dr. Zheng?"

Just when he was looking for his senior sister, the young waiter at the bar spoke to him.

"Yes, what's wrong?"

He turned around and replied

"Oh, that's right, one lady said, 'If you see an old man in a white coat, bring him over.’"

The receptionist looked at the doctor up and down, then turned to look aside.

"………"

The doctor was speechless for a moment. He followed the receptionist's eyes and looked in the same direction, and found that his senior sister was standing by the handrail upstairs waving to him.

"It seems you are the one, please come with me."

The receptionist made a gesture of invitation to one side, and then walked away on his own.

"Is there still such a business here?"

The doctor who quickly followed the waiter was very puzzled by this.

The decoration inside the bar was really eye-opening to the doctor. Who would have thought that there was another staircase hidden under the stairs?

"Come to such a secluded place?"

The doctor, who had gone around for several times, complained to his senior sister in a complaining tone.

"More importantly, the Academy of Sciences is afraid that the walls have ears."

There was no smile on the senior sister's face. After the receptionist left, she pulled the doctor into a small cubicle on the side. There were four sofas inside, with a small table in the middle, with a bottle of red wine and a few coins on it. A cup, but unfortunately the senior moved very quickly and he did not have the chance to check the room. He threw the doctor on the sofa in the room, and the senior closed the door hard and locked it.

"What happened?"

Seeing the senior sister suddenly making such a move, the doctor was also a little panicked.

"I'm talking about you! Why lie!"

The senior sister grabbed the doctor's ears, her eyes showing anger and worry.

"ah? What...what lies?"

This may be the first time that the doctor reacted so quickly. He immediately thought of what he said in the conference room.

"Stop pretending, you guy, don’t you know what’s wrong with you?"

The senior sister let go of the doctor's ears, but she still didn't calm down. She kept pacing back and forth in front of the doctor anxiously.

"Senior sister, what are you talking about?"

The doctor was still trying hard to pretend he didn't know anything, and his poor acting skills made the seniors laugh in anger.

"Ha...you, don't you know? You have a problem. Whenever you tell a lie, you will unconsciously grit your teeth."

The senior sister sat opposite him, holding her frowning brows with her hands.

"Is there...is there any?…？"

The doctor looked in disbelief

"Yes, I don't know if it's a problem since childhood, but you were often like this in college."

The senior sister glared at the doctor and said angrily.

"Na Hongchang……"

If this is true, then Lin Hongchang, who has been friends with him since childhood... knew that he was lying from the moment he spoke.

"From the moment he became the dean of the Academy of Sciences and became one of the bureaucrats who could interfere in national policies, he was no longer the Hongchang he was before."

The senior sister said with a serious expression. This is the first time the doctor has seen that serious expression.

"But...Hongchang...has undergone human body modification."

The doctor said excitedly

"I don't know what your job is, and I don't want to know now, but it's time for you to discover that Hongchang has changed."

After saying this, the senior raised her head and looked at the ceiling, as if recalling the past, with a regretful look in her eyes.

"I must correct Hongchang as before, he cannot continue to make mistakes like this."

The doctor shook his head repeatedly. He was still willing to give everything to Hongchang, his only friend, even if the method was to lie to Hongchang.

"well……"

The senior sister sighed, her beautiful eyes dimmed, and she said slowly:

"Zheng..., now we... and Hongchang are no longer in the same world, and we are no longer qualified to correct him."

The senior sister stood up and sat next to the doctor, her eyes seemed to be shining with tears.

"No, Hongchang is not that kind of person. Although he has entered taboo research, as long as I……"

Before he finished speaking, the doctor's mouth was covered by his senior sister, and his excitement calmed down a lot after seeing the tears on her face.

The senior sister wiped away her tears, took another deep breath, and then said calmly:

"Lao Zheng, I am the minister, he is the dean, and you...have no position."

The senior sister's calm words made the doctor freeze.

After adjusting his mentality, the senior sister regained her serious expression and told many things that he had never heard before.

"Recently, Hongchang has become obsessed with theology. Not long ago, he transferred Shu Tong, who was working outside, to dig for relics in the East China Sea."

"The last daughter of the Kalai family from neighboring countries visited the Academy of Sciences last week, but now there is no news."

"Shu Tong, who came back from the East China Sea, was also in a trance. I discovered this from Hongchang's office."

The senior sister took out a wad of tinfoil from her pocket and unfolded it to find a small photo inside.

A humanoid snake tail, three pairs of eyes and a huge dorsal fin. These elements together formed the weird image in the photo.

It looked very much like Little Orange. The mutated monster, is this the so-called sea god?

Somehow, just looking at this photo, the doctor felt physically uncomfortable. The sound of turbulent waves sounded in his mind, and the dull murmur was like thousands of insects. Biting his ear the same way

"It's very evil, he must have recruited something unclean."

Seeing the doctor's painful expression, the senior sister quickly wrapped up the photo again.

"Why don't you get out of here today and avoid the limelight."

Senior sister suggested

"Hongchang must be deceived by this, I have to help him."

The strangeness has eased a little. The doctor rubbed his temples, but still put Lin Hongchang first in his heart.

"I'm telling you, you didn't listen to what I just said..."

The senior sister gave the doctor a helpless look.

"Hongchang is my best friend, and I still don’t want to just watch him go astray."

After a brief thought, the doctor decided to stop Lin Hongchang.

"What about those mermaids you take care of? I see you are quite fond of them."

The senior sister poured herself a glass of red wine, looking forward to the doctor's reaction.

"I will take care of it, if something goes wrong..."

The doctor looked at the senior sister with pleading eyes.

"Why! Don't look for me. I'm doing a pretty good job as minister. If you really insist on stopping him, I won't be able to help you much."

The senior sister avoided the doctor's eyes and drank the red wine in her glass.

"Yes, after all, I don't have a position, so I can't bring you down... I still have a way."

The doctor scratched his head and smiled at the senior sister.

The room fell into silence. Neither of them spoke anymore. The senior sister was also very quiet when drinking.

"That...senpai, I'm leaving first."

After a long time, the doctor stood up and prepared to go back to the institute.

"Why! Wait a minute, let me ask again, did you really never get a love letter when you were in college?"

The senior sister raised her head and looked at the doctor who was getting up and about to leave.

"ah? When you said that, I seemed to remember it. I did have one when I was a sophomore, but I remembered that I had misplaced it."

Opening the memory bank in his mind that had been dusty for a long time, the doctor found some parts about love.

"Misplaced? What went wrong?"

The senior asked in surprise. This reaction still surprised the doctor.

"Because Hongchang was more attractive to girls at that time, and the love letter was so exquisite, it must have been misplaced."

The doctor said seriously.

"That's it... Okay, I got it, go ahead, it's okay."

The senior sister waved her hands and poured herself another glass of wine.

"Goodbye then, senior sister, please drink less."

The doctor left a word of concern, and then left without looking back.

Now the senior sister was the only one left in the room. She drank red wine depressedly and said with a self-deprecating smile:

"So that’s what happened, I thought it was because I wasn’t attractive enough."

"Having said that, if someone falls in love with a fool, does that mean she is also a fool?"