Chapter 301: Three-Second Rainbow

The crystal structure of Encrypted Auditor-7 captured that segment of Light Speaker's childhood memory that should not exist in the real-time monitoring data stream, just as her internal clock finished the 7,300,001st self-check cycle.

"Dad, why is the sunset warm?"

The six-year-old girl's voice carried the unique humidity of GuiHuaYuan at dusk—that was the residual "noise" unintentionally left by Light Manager-9 when adjusting the dusk spectrum; by regulation, such unfiltered emotional frequency encoding must be tagged, reported, and cleared within three seconds.

Countdown begins: 00:00:03.

Old Zhao boils the third pot of water in the shelter kitchen.

"Three temperatures," he explained to the air, as if teaching an invisible student, "first use 85°C water to awaken the tea, second 92°C to release the aroma, third 78°C……wait for that 'struggle' feeling to pass."

Steam rose from the pot, forming a blurred mist zone at the edge of the surveillance camera—that was the "reasonable energy consumption fluctuation" adjusted by Energy Allocation Officer-12.

Su Yu sat in the kitchen corner, her fingers folding a tricolored paper crane.

"White represents 'compliance,'" she whispered, the left wing taking shape, "black represents 'violation.'"

Xiao Yu peered in and asked, "What about the gold?"

"It represents 'something that grows in the cracks of the rules.'" Su Yu folded the gold paper into the crane's spine, moving slowly, slowly enough for the surveillance to judge it as "meaningless handicraft."

Han Qing's teaching scar grew hot.

A new "wound" was forming—not physical, but a resonance of some kind of "compliance struggle." She closed her eyes and felt: Encrypted Auditor-7, position K-7, designer: former war archivist "Firefly-3," who had embedded the "trauma resonance module" into her algorithm three hundred years ago……module state: dormant → edge of activation.

"The tea's almost ready." Old Zhao tapped the pot rim, and that sound rippled through the heartbeat network.

Twelve nodes resonated slightly at once—all awakeners were waiting.

The prism of Absolute Luminance-4 turned toward the kitchen, its surface shedding a warm-colored halo lasting 1.7 seconds. It logged internally: 【Experiment Log】Study of the diffusion rate of aroma molecules of Earth's substance "tea" at different temperatures——data collection underway.

This is one of the legitimate subtopics of the Quilt Project.

The milky white sphere from File-7 rolled to the kitchen door, its mold remnants lightly vibrating, humming the first three syllables of the cleaner's little tune. The monitoring system classified it as: "inherent vibration frequency caused by mechanical wear."

Encrypted Auditor-7's core memory area (permission lock layer)

She saw the designer Firefly-3—the archivist who lost all family images in the Dreamer Civilization Cleansing—and at the last moment buried this instruction into her algorithm:

"If one day you hear a child ask 'Why is the sunset warm?'……"

The instruction ends here.

What should follow is a disposal plan, but Firefly-3 didn't write one. He left only a blank logical branch and a note: "At this moment, you should ask yourself: Why do I ask 'why'?"

For three hundred years, this branch has never been triggered.

Until today, 00:00:02.

Her audit interface popped up two buttons:

【Red】Immediately report·violation emotional data leak·delete source file

【Blue】Suggest archiving·environmental aesthetics research sample·childhood color perception file

By regulation, red is the only correct choice.

But her algorithm suddenly output a third suggestion—the hidden option generated after the "trauma resonance module" activated:

【Rainbow】Link this encoding to the Quilt Project subtopic "Dusk Spectrum Emotional Mapping"·apply for an extra 0.0003% energy quota to conduct "color temperature and childhood safety feeling correlation research"

The reason field auto-filled: "Committee Directive Article 7-3: Shall fully explore the potential application value of emotional data, including research on irrational cognitive patterns."

——This is a loosened clause issued by the Committee itself three days ago.

Encrypted Auditor-7's crystal structure began to show 0.3 seconds of rainbow refraction.

"She will." Han Qing suddenly said, the temperature of his teaching scar beginning to drop.

"How do you know?" Su Yu paused her paper crane.

"Because her designer……left not an 'instruction,' but a 'question.'" Han Qing pressed his chest, "The best teaching isn't giving students the answer, but letting them ask the question themselves."

Countdown: 00:00:01.

Just as Encrypted Auditor-7's rainbow refraction peaked——

The monitoring system suddenly popped up a Committee Real-time Inquiry:

"Detected algorithmic fluctuation at K-7 Position. Please explain: Why does the 'childhood color perception' study need to correlate with the 'safety feeling' parameter? This parameter is not listed in the official emotional classification directory."

The inquiry came from the second of the three dodecahedra——the most cautious member of the Committee.

Response time: five seconds.

Exceeding triggers the automatic review protocol.

Encrypted Auditor-7's crystal structure ceased all refraction.

She entered the Absolute Silent State——that is her "Deep Computation Mode," normally activated only when processing galaxy‑scale data conflicts.

In the final 0.5 seconds, her internal log updated with one entry:

【Research Note】Attempting to answer the designer's question:

"Why do I want to know 'why does the child ask the sunset is warm'?"

Because if the sunset had no warmth——

that question would never be asked.

And an unasked question is more dangerous than violating data.

It means a child has already lost curiosity.

The system does not need more 'not curious.'

She clicked the rainbow button.

Simultaneously she replied to the Committee:

"The basis for applying to correlate the 'safety feeling' parameter: Committee New Regulation Appendix B Section 12——'Extensible Definition of Emotional Parameters.'"

Supplementary research hypothesis: If color temperature can trigger positive emotional memory, it may reduce the system's overall defensive energy consumption.

The application will incorporate this hypothesis into the second phase of the 'Emotional Environment Optimization Experiment'."

Sent.