Chapter 270: The Hunt of the Ouroboros

"Dad's safe house... in a place like this?" Xu Xiaochuan looked at the tightly closed iron doors on both sides and the mottled walls covered in small advertisements, feeling skeptical.

Lin Yu unfolded the letter that was about to fall apart, carefully checking the address and symbols on it with the faint light of his phone screen. "Given his personality, the more inconspicuous the place, the safer."

The three of them walked along the alley, the bluestone slabs under their feet slippery. Passing through several rusted iron fence gates, they finally stopped in front of an inconspicuous small courtyard gate.

The lock on the gate had long since rusted away, but Lin Yu had sharp eyes, discovering a scratch the size of a fingernail near the ground on the door frame—a crooked little stove pattern, exactly the same as the one on the letter.

"This is it."

Pushing open that broken door, a smell of rust mixed with rotting wood rushed toward them, the door hinge emitting a long, mournful "creak," making their teeth ache.

The courtyard wasn't big, but the weeds grew taller than a person, and damp vines covered the base of the walls.

The old well in the very center was particularly eye-catching, the little stove pattern on the well cover exactly the same as the one on the letter, as if carved not long ago.

Lin Yu walked half a circle around the well rim, his fingers groping on the rough stone, finally stopping at one spot.

"There's a slot here."

Xu Xiaochuan's heart moved, his hand reaching into the inner pocket of his tattered school uniform, pulling out the half-piece of the silver bell.

The thing Dad left behind.

He tried inserting the silver bell fragment into the slot; it wasn't too big or too small, fitting perfectly.

With a light "click," the sound of gears turning came from beneath the well cover, a bit stiff, but smooth enough.

The well cover slid to one side, revealing dark stairs, a smell of old earth mixed with cold air rising up.

"Fuck... the old man is really a ruthless character..." Xu Xiaochuan couldn't help but curse, looking at the bottomless entrance.

The stairs were narrow and steep, with no end in sight. The walls were cold and damp.

They had just taken two steps down when a small LED light lit up overhead with a "pop," followed by the next, lighting the way down.

"This cellar is dug deep enough; looking at this structure, it's at least thirty years old." Lin Yu touched the wall. "Your dad built this to the standard of an air-raid shelter, right?"

At the end of the stairs was a heavy metal door.

There was a complex scanning panel on the door, glowing with faint blue light.

Xu Xiaochuan pressed his hand onto it, the panel "beeped," green light flashed, and the heavy metal door slid open silently.

An old synthesized voice sounded, the tone surprisingly gentle: "Welcome home, descendant of the Xu family."

The scene behind the door made all three of them pause.

The place wasn't big, maybe forty or fifty square meters, but it was tidy and clean, completely different from the messy donkey meat burger shop his dad ran.

One side had a bed, a small stove, and a bathroom, while the other side had several computers, their screens black, but looking like high-end equipment.

There was also a small medical station against the wall, with bottles and jars that looked quite professional.

"Damn... the old man was hiding a base here?" Xu Xiaochuan blurted out.

Xuanyuan Qing leaned against the door frame, her face paler, her eyes finally showing a bit of life as she looked toward the medical station.

Xu Xiaochuan didn't care about anything else, stumbling toward the workstation, his fingers brushing over the cold keyboard; the equipment looked old, but the interfaces and lines were maintained extremely well.

Xu Xiaochuan pressed the startup key of the workstation.

The old computer system emitted a series of low hums, and several screens lit up slowly one by one, the ghostly blue light hitting his face mixed with exhaustion, mud, and bloodstains.

"System self-check, please wait..."

The old synthesized voice echoed in the small basement, carrying an empty resonance.

Xuanyuan Qing had already moved to the medical station, sweating from the pain. Lin Yu was standing with his back to the computer, using the medical equipment in the safe house that looked very professional, carefully treating her twisted broken arm, his movements more steady than usual.

"This damn place is more advanced than I thought." Lin Yu's hands didn't stop, the metal syringe and tray emitting a slight collision sound, his tactical boots thumping against the floor. "How many years has your dad been tinkering with this?"

Xu Xiaochuan didn't turn back, his fingers typing rapidly on the dusty keyboard, icons of encrypted folders popping up on the screen. "The old man's mouth was tight as a clam, didn't say a damn thing." His voice was dry like sandpaper, "Looking at the production dates of these things, at least fifteen years."

An encryption prompt box popped up, blocking the way. Xu Xiaochuan frowned, tentatively typing "Donkey Meat Burger."

"Password incorrect," the cold synthesized voice responded.

"Fuck!" he cursed in a low voice, trying several of his dad's common catchphrases, even trying his mom's name, but none were right.

"Try 'Xiao Ya'." Lin Yu threw out a line without turning his head.

Xu Xiaochuan's fingers paused on the keyboard, and after a moment, he entered those two words.

The screen flickered, the encryption prompt disappeared, revealing a dense list of files underneath.

"... How come?" Xu Xiaochuan was a bit stunned.

"Your dad, Zhou Weihong, and I," Lin Yu's voice was very low, his bandaging fast and steady, "were all involved in that project back then. He didn't say it, but he never let it go in his heart."

The files on the screen were dazzling, all named with complex numerical codes. Xu Xiaochuan clicked on one at random, and technical documents and screenshots of experimental records immediately flooded the screen, most of the content revolving around something called "Zero Machine Early Prototype."

"Damn... these things, they must be top secret in the official archives, right?" Xu Xiaochuan felt a chill on his back. "Where did Dad steal... get these from?"

Lin Yu didn't answer, just asking: "Where's the chip?"

Xuanyuan Qing endured the pain, taking the chip with scorched edges from her pocket with her remaining usable hand and handing it to Xu Xiaochuan. Her lips were bloodless, but her spirit was a bit better than just now. "Be careful, this damn thing might have a self-destruct program."

Xu Xiaochuan pinched the tiny chip, feeling it a bit hot. He found a corresponding interface device on the workstation and, holding his breath, carefully inserted the chip.

The system began reading immediately. A long string of garbled code rolled across the screen, mixed with a large number of corrupted data block error prompts.

"Mostly burned out." Xu Xiaochuan stared fixedly at the screen, his fingers switching between several function keys rapidly. "But there's still some residue that can be recovered."

He clicked on a decoding program with a strange icon, and the garbled code on the screen began to twitch and reorganize, slowly piecing together some intermittent text and blurry images.

"This is... experimental record?" Xuanyuan Qing struggled to prop up her upper body, leaning closer to the screen.

A photo flashed in the center of the screen, blurry as it was, but one could still barely recognize the silhouette of a little girl in a white dress, with a man standing beside her, whose figure and hairline looked very much like a young Zhou Weihong. Below the photo was a line of small text, barely recognizable: "Project codename: Xiao Ya-001, biological electronic fusion experiment, first stage complete." ===== CHAPTER 271 =====