Chapter 6: The Mystery of Grandma’s Identity

Chapter 6: The Mystery of Grandma’s Identity

Huh?

What?

What was Grandma playing at?

If she had something to tell me, why not just say it directly? Why make Ye Pingsheng give it to me a month later?

Was she trying to kill me with suspense?

But from Ye Pingsheng’s expression, I really wasn’t getting that letter for a month. And Grandma and Ye Pingsheng didn’t even seem that close.

Just then, Ye Ziping came in.

When he saw me at his place, he looked surprised too.

I’d originally wanted to ask him a lot of things. Whether the person in the metaverse had been him. Whether he was working with Gao Minjun. Things like that.

But right now, the most important thing was Grandma. I had no idea what would happen next. Since she wouldn’t let me go over, she must have expected something to happen at home today.

If I couldn’t go, I’d send Ye Ziping.

I pulled him into the back room and quickly explained the situation. I told him to go keep watch near Grandma’s place right away, see if she was in danger, and call me immediately if anything happened.

Only after Ye Ziping left did I wander back to Ye Pingsheng and make small talk.

I knew Ye Ziping. Stubborn as a mule.

But when it came to getting things done, he was reliable. We’d played together since we were kids and never treated each other like outsiders. With him watching, it should be fine.

Ye Ziping had a secret: he had a crush on Zhu Zhaojie.

A chubby slacker secretly in love with the top student and prettiest girl in school. What kind of outcome could that possibly have?

Ever since puberty, he’d been coming to my house all the time. I knew why. He wanted to “run into” Zhu Zhaojie.

To catch more glimpses of her, he’d often go to the roof of the building across from mine and pretend to hang laundry. From there, he could see both my place and Zhu Zhaojie’s.

If I asked him to keep watch, I could guarantee he’d go there.

It was the perfect observation point.

A little over an hour later, Ye Ziping called. From his voice, he was clearly excited. “Holy crap, Chenzi. What’s going on with your Grandma? She’s a total hidden master! I was up on the roof just now and saw her talking with three black-clad men. The conversation must’ve gone south, because they started fighting. I thought those guys were all young and strong, and grabbing a ninety-something old lady would be easy. But your Grandma sent one flying with one punch, then used a sweeping kick and dropped two more. Those moves were fast. Absolutely not normal! Now your Grandma’s gone. You want to come look?”

“What? Grandma ran off?”

“She ran off. But there’s a crowd downstairs at your place. Are you coming to the roof, or going straight home? Or do you want to hide at my place for a while?” Ye Ziping said over the phone.

“Hide, my ass. I’m going home right now. Don’t get mixed up in this. Go back to your place and stay there. If something comes up later, I’ll call you.”

I really didn’t want Ye Ziping involved in my family’s business. I had a feeling that if something was going to happen, it would be big.

After saying goodbye to Ye Pingsheng, I ran straight home.

It was my own home. Who was I afraid of? I hadn’t broken any laws.

Grandma ran?

Why would she run? Where could she even go?

I was really worried about Grandma.

When I got downstairs, sure enough, there were onlookers pointing and whispering. I ignored them and went straight up.

My door was wide open. Two black-clad men were inside, apparently searching for something. Gao Minjun was nowhere to be seen.

I rushed over, grabbed one of them, and demanded, “Who are you? What did you do to my Grandma?”

The man brushed me aside with one hand, pushing me away easily. He was clearly much stronger than me.

With that kind of strength, could Grandma really beat them? I didn’t quite believe it.

“You’re Gu Beichen?”

The man who’d pushed me had cold features, and his sharp, predatory eyes carried a vicious edge. He pulled an ID from his pocket, showed it to me, and said, “We’re investigators from the UN CWP organization. I’m Liu Biao. This is Hu Zhenqing. There was one more, but your grandmother injured him. He was sent to the hospital. You came at the right time. We need to investigate some things with you. Come with us.”

Honestly, I didn’t have Grandma’s moves that Ye Ziping had described. I definitely couldn’t beat them. Otherwise, I would’ve tried. So if you couldn’t win by fighting, you had to reason.

“What’s CWP? Never heard of it. What gives you the right to search people’s homes? What gives you the right to take me anywhere?”

“They have that right.”

A voice answered as a police officer walked in, followed by Gao Minjun. After entering, the officer gave Liu Biao a police salute, then turned to me. “I’m Zhu Shaohua, chief of the Liutan Public Security Sub-Bureau. Let me explain. CWP is a special purge organization authorized by the United Nations. Anywhere in the world, if a case involves artificial intelligence, they have the highest authority to handle it, and they do not need to go through judicial procedures. This authority comes from the agreement reached by the UN after the Human–Machine War. Gu Beichen, you must cooperate.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll go.”

I didn’t know CWP, but I knew police. I had to back down.

Psychologically, I wasn’t afraid. I hadn’t broken the law. At worst, I’d cheated on an exam, and that wasn’t criminal. I was only worried about Grandma. Going with them was also a way to learn more about Grandma’s situation.

We arrived at an interrogation room at the Liutan Public Security Sub-Bureau.

The police helped the CWP people haul in a pile of equipment.

I sat calmly in a chair and let them test me with all kinds of instruments and devices.

Gao Minjun and the police bustled back and forth, while the black-clad men only performed simple technical actions. Clearly, their status was far higher than the police or Gao Minjun.

Go ahead and test me.

This sensing ability, I felt, wasn’t material. It was a special ability. I couldn’t explain exactly what it was, but it definitely wasn’t something physical in the ordinary sense. And it had absolutely nothing to do with AI.

The police and CWP worked for almost two hours. I rested for almost two hours. I could tell they’d found nothing.

I stretched. “Where to now? What’s next?”

Zhu Shaohua said irritably, “Sit properly. Wait in the interrogation room. We still have questions.”

So I went to the interrogation room.

First, the police conducted a normal interrogation and took notes. They asked about school, who I knew, whether I had relatives outside town or in town. They also asked whether I’d cheated on the gaokao. I answered normally and admitted what needed admitting.

When CWP took over, they shifted focus to Grandma. What did she usually do? What books did she read? What had she said to me? How did we make a living?

Whenever they asked about Grandma, I said I didn’t care, didn’t know, had never paid attention. Who spent all day watching an old lady?

Come to think of it, Grandma was so old, and I really had never noticed where our money came from. My family wasn’t wealthy, but we’d never lacked food, clothes, or daily necessities.

Besides questioning me, they also dropped leading comments.

From what they said, it seemed Grandma herself had admitted that my cheating was because she’d activated an intelligent device without my knowledge.

That, I truly didn’t know. But I felt it was impossible.

If an intelligent device had been activated, it would be useless without my cooperation, wouldn’t it? Of course, I wasn’t going to say that. If I did, there’d be no way to explain my high score.

If you’re so capable, go ask Grandma.

It seemed Grandma wanted to take all the responsibility and cover up my sensing ability. She’d chosen to disappear so none of it could be verified.

Sigh. I’d oversimplified things at the start and caused Grandma enormous trouble.

As the questioning wound down, the police’s attitude softened considerably.

Zhu Shaohua even had someone bring me hot water.

Soon after, an officer said, “The investigation’s over. Sign here, and you can go home.”

But I didn’t want to leave.

I still hadn’t figured out what was going on with Grandma.

Now, even if I wanted to find her, I didn’t know where to look.

I really wanted to know what exactly was going on with my Grandma.

When Zhu Shaohua saw me dawdling, and Liu Biao and the others said nothing, they all just ignored me.

Probably thinking, leave or don’t, whatever.

I saw the police and CWP—those black-clad men—head into the conference room one by one. I quietly followed.

The police and black-clad men didn’t stop me.

I found a spot off to the side.

A police officer turned on the projector. Page after page of Grandma’s photos and file records appeared on the screen.

I didn’t even know when they’d secretly photographed her. I’d never seen any of these photos.

Liu Biao pointed at the images as he spoke. “Wang Chunyan, born February 1962, died of illness May 2034, buried at Xisai Mountain in Gucheng. In other words, she was already dead one year before the global Human–Machine War. So who is this current Wang Chunyan? Why has she been hiding in Liutan Town for so long? And why did she raise Gu Beichen on behalf of the couple Gu Chenxing and Wang Rongyue…”

My head went blank with a loud buzz. I couldn’t hear anything after that.

Wang Chunyan was my Grandma.

Gu Chenxing and Wang Rongyue were the names of my parents who’d died in the war.

What did this mean?

How could Grandma have died back in 2034? Then who was the Grandma who raised me?

They had to be wrong.

I stared at page after page of Grandma’s files on the screen, unable to believe anything he’d said.

Fake.

All of this was fake.

I even wondered if I was still in the metaverse and had never come out at all.