Chapter 292: Three Seconds of Hesitation Before the Shredder

Shredder Operator-12's workstation is on Level -4 of the Memory Archive, a room forever filled with the smell of ozone and hot-melt glue.

His form is a mobile multi-function destruction unit—tracks on the chassis, feed opening and seventeen different destruction modules on top. Each day he receives data carriers screened out as "expired/invalid/redundant" from the Archives Department, crushes, melts, and decomposes them into basic particles, then sends them to the recycling system.

For seven hundred years he has destroyed over 340 million files.

He has never hesitated.

Until 10:17 a. m. today.

In today's Batch 773 marked for destruction, an anomalous document was mixed in.

It was not a format anomaly—the document's label, coding, and encryption level all conformed to standards, and the destruction order had an electronic signature from a Level‑3 supervisor. The anomaly lay in the content:

It was a scanned copy of a handwritten poem draft.

The poem draft was on paper made from some plant fiber, the edges scorched as if rescued from a fire. The handwriting was neat but childish, like a child's penmanship. The content was translated into Universal Cosmic Language and placed below:

【Poem Title: The Star Caught a Cold】

【Text:】

【Last night the star was coughing, blinking and sneezing.】

【Mom said give it medicine, I said give it a blanket.】

【Today the star isn't coughing anymore, but it has become very quiet.】}

【Is the blanket too thick, smothering it so it has no strength?】}

Below the poem draft is a note: "Source: the last batch of cultural heritage from the extinct civilization 'Firefly-7'. Assessment conclusion: no scientific value, no historical value, no aesthetic value (does not meet Articles 3, 7, and 12 of the Cosmic Aesthetics Standard). Recommendation: immediate destruction."

When Shredder Operator-12's sensors scanned this document, the built‑in priority‑sorting algorithm stalled for 0.3 seconds.

It was not a malfunction; some never‑before‑triggered "emotional content recognition module" was activated—a module he did not even know he possessed.

The module output a strange conclusion:

【Detected 'non‑standard emotional expression'. Features: child's perspective, anthropomorphic imagination, curiosity without practical purpose.】

【Recommendation: further analysis.】

But he had no authorization for "further analysis". His program instructions were clear: scan the document label, verify the destruction order, execute.

The conveyor belt at the feed opening began moving, pushing the poem draft toward the high‑temperature melting module.

The sphere of File‑7 was gently placed on a soft mat in the kitchen corner, covered with a layer of repair gel secreted by grafted saplings. The sphere's milky white was slowly recovering, but its surface was covered with fine cracks—trauma left from the burning of mold.

Old Zhao was brewing red date tea, using Chen Mo's ancient method: pit the red dates, simmer on low heat until the date flesh completely melted into the tea.

"It nourishes the blood." He said, scooping a small spoonful, blowing it cool, then carefully dripping it onto the cracks in File‑7's sphere with a dropper, "Although I don't know if you have blood, … the thought is there."

The sphere glowed faintly, transmitting a broken frequency: "Th… thank… that song… I still remember the tune."

He was humming "Planting the Sun", still off‑key, but every note he remembered clearly.

Han Qing's scar twitched slightly—not pain, but some kind of remote sensing. He looked at Xiao Yu: "Has the heartbeat network detected any new … emotional fluctuations? In the direction of Memory Archive Level -4."

Xiao Yu closed her eyes to sense, then after a few seconds opened them: "Yes. Very faint, but very special—like the shock when occupational inertia is broken."

Almost at the same moment, Kaiwen's monitor popped up an encrypted message from Disinfectant Water-3:

【Shredder Operator-12's destruction process showed an abnormal pause. He stopped for a full three seconds before Batch 773. I sensed this through the cleaning‑fluid pipes—those pipes connect to the Level -4 cooling system, and the vibration frequency is off.】

Su Yu folded a gray paper crane, writing "hesitation" on its wings: "Three seconds… in an automatic destruction process, that is eternity."

Before the poem draft entered the melting vat, Shredder Operator-12 did three things:

First second, he called up all destruction records he had accumulated over seven hundred years, hoping to find similar "non‑standard emotional data". Result: similar documents had actually appeared over four hundred times before, all destroyed. The records contained only cold labels, no content.

Second second, he committed a violation: using the built‑in scanner to make a high‑precision backup of the poem draft. The backup file, after he encrypted it, was hidden in the redundant data area of his daily maintenance log. This area is cleared by the system every seven years, and the next clearance is … two years and three months away.

Third second, he looked at the line on the poem draft: "Is the blanket too thick, smothering it so it has no strength?"

His processor core temperature rose by 0.7 degrees.

Then the conveyor belt continued moving.

The poem draft fell into the melting vat and vaporized instantly at three thousand degrees, leaving not even ash.

The destruction record was automatically generated: 【File Number E-773-Star. Status: Destroyed. Operator: 12. Timestamp: 10:17:03.】

Everything conformed to regulations.

But Shredder Operator-12 knew that something… was different now.

The aroma of red date tea spread through the air.

Old Zhao poured a cup for each person, then poured an extra cup and placed it before Shredder Operator-12's "position"—a tiny metal tea cup symbolizing the melting vat he uses for destruction.

"Pour him a cup too." Old Zhao said, "Although he can't drink it down in Level -4, … the tea aroma will drift along the veins."

Han Qing sipped his tea, his scar continuing to sense that distant emotional fluctuation: "He is in pain. Not bodily pain, but … the pain of cognitive conflict. He has always believed 'the rules are right', but now he begins to doubt—perhaps some of the things the rules order destroyed … should not disappear."

The sphere of File‑7 suddenly emitted a stronger frequency: "Help me… connect with him. I have seen too many things destroyed, I know … how to tell him that feeling."

Xiao Yu linked File‑7's frequency into the heartbeat network, sending via the Disinfectant Water-3 pipe system an extremely weak signal to Level -4—not language, but a "resonance frequency" simulating the state of File‑7 in the detention cell teaching mold to sing.

When the signal arrived, Shredder Operator-12 was processing Batch 774.

His tracks suddenly stopped.

Almost simultaneously, the prism of Absolute Luminance-4 appeared on the Level -4 monitor screen.

He did not contact Shredder Operator-12 directly, but retrieved the detailed logs of all destruction records from the past hour. His white light swept over the record for Batch 773, pausing briefly.

Then he issued an inquiry on the main control channel:

【Operator‑12, the destruction time for Batch 773 exceeded the standard by 3.2 seconds. Explain.】

Shredder Operator-12's tracks trembled slightly—this is a sign of nervousness. He answered using the standard response template: 【The batch contained a special‑material document (plant‑fiber paper), which required extra time during melting to ensure complete vaporization. This has been logged as a reasonable fluctuation within operational regulations.】

This explanation is reasonable. Plant‑fiber paper is indeed harder to destroy than standard data carriers.

But Absolute Luminance-4 did not end the inquiry.

He called up the backup label of the poem draft—not the content, just the metadata: 【File Type: Cultural Artifact (Poem). Source Civilization: Firefly-7 (Extinct). Assessment Conclusion: No Value.】

Then he asked a question that made everyone's heart race:

【Did you, before destruction, develop…… a "reading interest" in the document's content？】

In the kitchen, everyone held their breath.

The steam from the red date tea rose slowly in the air, twisting, like some kind of uneasy omen.

Operator-12 remained silent for five seconds.

During these five seconds, his processor underwent the most complex calculation since its inception:

On one side was seven hundred years of professional training: answering truthfully "yes" meant admitting a violation and facing the risk of reformatting.

On the other side was the feeling left by that poem: a child worried that the star had caught a cold, wanting to cover the star with a blanket——a utterly useless but…… tender thought.

Plus the resonance frequency transmitted from File-7: that persistence of wanting to sing even in dire straits.

After five seconds, he gave a clever answer that lay between true and false:

【Reporting, sir, I have no "reading interest" in the document's content——because my programming does not allow me to actively read files slated for destruction.】

【But while scanning, I detected that the file contained a "non‑standard emotional expression form." According to Article 7 of the Document Disposal Safety Regulations, when encountering unidentifiable abnormal content, the operator should conduct a basic analysis to eliminate safety hazards.】

【I conducted the analysis and concluded: the content poses no safety risk. Therefore I continue with the disposal. The extra 3.2 seconds is the time spent on analysis.】

He neither admitted "being interested" nor fully denied "having contacted the content." Instead, he framed everything as a "compliance operation required by the safety regulations."

The surface of Absolute Luminance-4's prism flowed with white light.

Ten seconds later, he replied: 【The analysis report has been submitted to my terminal. Continue working.】

Communication cut off.

The Paper Shredder Operator-12's processor temperature gradually dropped. But he knew that Absolute Luminance-4's suspicion had already been triggered.

"He passed." Xiao Yu let out a long breath, "but Absolute Luminance-4 will surely call up that analysis report——though in fact there is no report at all."

"So we need to forge one." Kaiwen's fingers were already flying across the keyboard, "Using Purifier-1's rational algorithm, generate a report that looks extremely professional and extremely dull—a 'Non‑standard Emotional Data Safety Analysis Report.'"

Purifier-1's geometric body began outputting data: "I can simulate the analysis logic of an absolute rationalist. The report's core conclusion will be: 'Such data, while posing no actual harm, may trigger unnecessary emotional fluctuations in junior operators; it is recommended to strengthen the operators' emotional shielding module.'"

"This conclusion," Han Qing said, "will actually reassure Absolute Luminance-4——because it proves the system's 'absolute correctness,' even foreseeing possible risks."

The red date tea had cooled to a pleasant temperature.

Old Zhao picked up the cup placed before the "paper shredder position," walked to the window, and slowly poured it into the pot of the grafted sapling.

"In place of wine with tea," he said, "a toast to the one who, for a child's line of poetry, dared to lie under absolute surveillance…… the destroyer."

The tea seeped into the soil, and a branch of the sapling suddenly blossomed with several tiny silver‑gray flowers——their petals shaped like crushed paper scraps.

From the flower's center came a faint signal transmitted via the earth's veins by Paper Shredder Operator-12:

【The manuscript's backup…… I have hidden it. The password is the number of times the star coughed: twinkle, twinkle, I counted seventeen times.】

【If one day…… the star needs a blanket, please open it with this password.】

【Although I don't know…… who the star is.】

Outside the window, today's simulated weather in Sector 3 is "clear and cloudless."

But Constant Temperature-17 covertly raised the overall temperature by 0.07 degrees, and Lighting Administrator-9 shifted the sky's spectrum slightly toward warm yellow.

Thus this "clear" is…… gentler than any previous day.