Chapter 277: The Price of Remembering Too Clearly

When the Supervisor's black geometric object appeared over the garden, the three hundred seventy‑two memory flowers happened to be in full bloom.

He didn't start scanning directly as usual, but hovered three meters above the first flower—the "Sound Amplifier" modified from a memory interference wave emitter—with fine silver patterns appearing on the geometric object's surface, as if taking a deep breath.

"Data density exceeds standards." The Supervisor's voice remained calm, but a rare hesitation slipped into the frequency, "Each flower's sealed memory unit reaches 17.4 TB, including weapon manufacturing logs, tactical records of each use, operator biometric fluctuations, and even… the operator's hesitation duration one second before firing."

Han Qing stepped forward, the Teaching Scar on his chest warming slightly: "This is proof of 'Never Forget History.'"

"Does proof need to be this detailed?" the Supervisor descended slowly, a corner of the geometric object lightly touching the flower, "This flower recalls that Serenity‑22, when launching the seventh interference wave, saw the Light Sphere's color shift from pale blue to gray‑white over 3.27 seconds. She also remembers thinking at the time, 'There may be new recruits like me aboard the target vessel.'"

He turned to the second flower—a "Forgiveness Vine" flower pot modified from battleship armor.

"This one records the precise laser‑burn temperature: 4,783 °C. It records the burn lasted 0.8 seconds. It records that the transport ship that was burned carried medical supplies, including three crates of children's analgesics."

The silver patterns on the Supervisor's geometric surface began to flicker irregularly: "Are you creating 'memory sealing' or building a 'museum of evidence'?"

Lao Zhao counted seeds.

"Three hundred seventy‑two flowers require three hundred seventy‑two new seeds as a return gift." He placed the seeds one by one into a small cloth bag, "When the other side apologizes, we must say 'Received.' The seeds are our receipt."

Xiao Yu was helping Su Yu fold paper cranes—this time bicolor paper cranes, the left wing folded from black paper into a weapon shape, the right wing from white paper into a flower shape. Each crane's wing bore the name of an original operator.

"Will the Supervisor deem the garden a Violation?" Xiao Yu folded absent‑mindedly.

"Depends on whether he's here to 'record' or to 'judge'." Su Yu gave the folded crane a gentle push; the crane flew toward the grafted sapling, "If it's a judgment, the sapling will react."

As soon as the words ended, the grafted sapling's seven braid‑like branches snapped straight, pointing toward the space garden—each tiny flower at the branch tips turned a warning orange.

The kitchen fell silent instantly.

Lao Zhao continued counting seeds: "Forty‑eight, forty‑nine… what's the panic? The worst outcome is just that the garden gets labeled an 'over‑memory‑risk item' and we're asked to prune the data."

【7】 "But those memories are…" Xiao Yu halted her folding.

"But those memories are …" Xiao Yu stopped her hand.

"It's a wound." Han Qing entered the kitchen, the metal pattern of the Teaching Scar faintly glowing beneath his collar, "And the Supervisor fears—that a wound remembered too clearly will never heal."

The Supervisor had already inspected the one hundredth flower.

In this flower pot, modified from an Emotional Frequency interference projectile shell, grew a semi‑transparent vine plant, bearing a small Light Sphere every ten centimeters, each sphere looping the same memory segment:

Before launching the interference projectile, the radical soldier received a surrender signal from the target vessel. He hesitated for 2.4 seconds, then pressed the fire button. After the projectile took effect, he wrote in his log: "Target silent. Mission complete." But the log's final line had been deleted; restored, it read: "I heard a cry. Very soft, like my sister as a child crying for sugar water."

The Supervisor's geometric object remained still for a full five seconds.

"This memory," he finally spoke, "according to Article 7.3 of the Cosmic Memory Archive Management Guidelines, falls under 'high‑risk memory that may cause persistent psychological trauma to the holder,' and is recommended for blurring or selective forgetting."

"Whose suggestion?" Juechen-9's voice came through the comm channel. He had arrived at the garden himself, standing before that flower, "Is it the suggestion of the one who has never heard a sister crying for sugar water?"

The Supervisor's silver pattern surged violently once.

"My duty is to ensure the 'safety' and 'sustainability' of memory preservation," he replied mechanically, "Overly detailed guilt memories can create memory spirals, potentially leading—"

"Leading to what?" Chenxi-3 also arrived, his Light Sphere now steady at a pale gold, "Leading us to forever remember what we have done? Isn't that what should happen?"

The grafted sapling's warning orange deepened, turning dark red.

The monitoring screen before Xiao Yu popped up a real‑time analysis: "The Supervisor's data stream shows a 17 % anomalous fluctuation. Fluctuation type: logical conflict. Conflict point: the Guidelines require moderate forgetting to ensure mental health, yet the garden's very existence questions—if forgetting is for 'health,' who holds the right to define 'health'?"

Han Qing's Teaching Scar suddenly emitted a sharp sting—not receiving information, but actively outputting a query. The Scar forcibly encoded a memory segment and sent it to the Supervisor via the heartbeat network:

That was Chen Mo's memory of his final three hours before sacrifice. At that moment, Han Qing asked, "Teacher, you taught us to remember every pain; aren't you afraid we can't bear it?"

Chen Mo replied: "Forgetting is the beginning of being unable to endure. Because if you forget the pain, next time you encounter fire you'll reach out again. But if you clearly remember how long you were burned, how painful it was, how ugly the scar left, you'll learn—not to avoid fire, but to use fire to warm rather than to burn."

Memory transmission complete.

The Supervisor's geometric object swayed noticeably in the air.

The Supervisor inspected the two hundredth flower.

This flower is unique—it was co‑crafted from both sides' battleship communication system components; when planted, a former operator from the conservative side and one from the radical side each recited an apology simultaneously. The bloom shaped like a pair of clasped hands.

The memory sealed in the flower's core is dual‑perspective:

Left‑hand perspective: The conservative communications soldier, while jamming enemy signals, intercepted a private message—"Mother, I may not return tonight, but I dreamed you made me ginger tea." He did not report the message, pretending he hadn't intercepted it.

Right‑hand perspective: The radical communications soldier, knowing the private message might be intercepted, sent it anyway. After sending, he said to the screen, "Let them intercept it; let the other side know—we too are people who miss our mothers."

Cracks began to spider across the silver pattern on the Supervisor's geometric surface.

"This violates Article 9.1 of the Guidelines," his voice showed a fluctuation that could be called "emotion" for the first time, "Memory sealing should not contain details that may trigger excessive empathy. That can cause observers to waver in stance, affecting rational judgment."

"So," Chuncui-1's Light Sphere drifted closer, "in your Rules, is empathy a… risk that needs guarding against?"

The Supervisor gave no answer.

But its geometric object trembled slightly—every silver pattern converged on that "Handshake Flower," as if…

Lao Zhao finished counting three hundred seventy‑two seeds.

He tied the cloth bag, placed it on the kitchen table at the center, and began brewing today's first pot of tea—not sugar water, not ginger tea, just plain green tea.

"The Supervisor is scared," he said while rinsing the tea leaves, "not because the garden might violate, but because after seeing so many memories… he might begin to doubt his own 'moderate forgetting' theory."

"What if he rules the garden a Violation?" Xiao Yu asked.

"Then it's just a Violation," Lao Zhao poured hot water into the kettle, "A Violation won't make the flowers wilt. The worst outcome is the Cosmic Memory Archive not giving these flowers 'official certification.' But do flowers need certification? As long as they bloom, they are proof."

Han Qing's Teaching Scar suddenly calmed.

A clear line of text appeared on the scar's surface—not a teaching record, but a sentence spoken directly to the Supervisor:

"You aren't afraid of memories being too clear; you're afraid that once you see clearly, you can never return to that safe world where 'everything follows the rules.' But Teacher, true safety isn't blindfolding oneself; it's choosing gentleness after seeing everything."

The sentence traveled via the heartbeat network, synchronously reaching the heart of every being in the garden.

The Supervisor's geometric object came to a complete halt.

Three seconds later, all the silver patterns on its surface extinguished, the geometric object turning pure black. Then, from its deepest core, a faint, almost invisible…

…warm yellow.