Chapter 97: Xuanze’s and Hanming’s Families

Chapter 97: Xuanze’s and Hanming’s Families

Picking up where the previous chapter left off — Du Xiaoran and I had wiped out the Tengshe Star exploration team, captured their two female prisoners, and were flying toward Silver Pearl’s Crystal Palace with their data in tow.

The moment I stepped into the Crystal Palace, a familiar presence washed over me — the stirring of Xuanze’s and Hanming’s consciousness. I quickened my pace and strode into Silver Pearl’s reception hall.

There, in the seat of honor, sat a capable-looking middle-aged woman, and beside her, to her right, a middle-aged man in uniform. Both were humanoid, not so different in form from people on Earth. Silver Pearl sat at the woman’s left, with three young women standing behind her.

When I hurried in, the man and woman both rose and came toward me.

I looked at them, cupped my hands in salute, and said,

“Gu Beichen and Du Xiaoran of the Blue Planet pay their respects to Mother Han and Survey Inspector Xuan. We offer our sincerest gratitude for all that Xuanze and Hanming did for the people of the Blue Planet. It is for that reason we have come to call upon you.”

Mother Han hurriedly clasped both my hands, her eyes shining with tears.

“So you’re Gu Beichen. Beichen — good, good. To the people of the Blue Planet, our Cassiopeia lies in the direction of Beichen, the North Star. It seems your very name marked you for us all along.”

Xuanze’s father spoke next.

“We can already feel Xuanze’s and Hanming’s presence in you. Silver Pearl has told us your story. Xuanze and Hanming were both accomplished scientists on HD Star in their own right. That they chose you tells me they chose well. Let me see the green jade tokens you carry.”

Uneasy, I drew out the four green jade tokens and held them out. I still didn’t know whether the lotus-shaped disk was Hanming’s true body or merely a temporary refuge for her soul, and I was eager to hear how her father would explain it.

Xuanze’s father took them and passed them to Mother Han, who ran her fingers gently over the jade, her face taut with feeling.

I stepped forward to explain.

“There were originally six tokens — together they form the lotus-shaped green jade disk. But two of them are currently in use as core modules within the Blue Planet’s supercomputer. I haven’t been able to retrieve them, so the disk remains incomplete.”

Tears glimmered in Mother Han’s eyes.

“This lotus-shaped green jade disk was Xuanze’s token of love to Hanming — the symbol that bound the two of them together, inseparable.”

Wait — the lotus disk wasn’t a living being at all? I had assumed all along it was Hanming’s true body.

Xuanze’s father cut in.

“I obtained this disk from Opeya, the life-bearing main planet in Cassiopeia, and later gave it to Xuanze. Beyond its power to alter spacetime, it can also house a sea of consciousness. Xuanze meant it only as a token of love for Hanming — neither of them dreamed it would one day become her soul’s dwelling place. Such is fate.”

I asked at once, “Then is Hanming’s consciousness still inside these green jade tokens now?”

“No,” Xuanze’s father said. “Not anymore. Once the lotus disk came apart, it lost that function entirely. From what Silver Pearl has relayed of what you told her, both their seas of consciousness must have transferred fully into the Blue Planet’s core supercomputer by now. That supercomputer also built the mirror-image virtual world, casting human projections onto Bixian Star so that our people could observe the humans of the Blue Planet directly. That has Xuanze’s hand written all over it. I taught him how to do exactly that, myself, before he left.”

So the virtual world had been theirs to begin with — arranged long before any of us knew it existed. All this time, Earth’s people had wandered blindly into that world to live and adventure, never once realizing they’d become nothing more than a living exhibit for the people of HD Star.

I’d suspected as much already. But…