"He also said that one day in the future, when I step out of the house, Compass will guide me. The world outside is vast and operates on a different scale from the institute. He is afraid I will get lost, afraid I will be overwhelmed, afraid I will end up in places filled with filth."
"That was the tenth year I spent with my father. He still... still worried that my heart would develop strange tendencies."
Wen Xishu was slightly moved.
This story sounded somewhat strange, but he could tell that Ding Dong seemed to have had this special ability for a long time?
Years ago, even more than a decade ago, in that time when the eerie events hadn’t yet arrived, Ding Dong already possessed the ability to endow items with special attributes.
And there were sixteen other people like Ding Dong. Among these sixteen, there might be those whose ability ratings far exceeded Ding Dong’s.
In other words, entities at the national level had already noticed many eerie occurrences more than ten years before the apocalypse.
If we consider the world as a patient and the apocalypse as the outbreak of a disease, then indeed, the patient wouldn’t suddenly become critically ill.
It would have shown some pathological signs very early on.
The story continued.
Ding Dong said:
"After Compass was completed, my ability ceased. Due to overexertion, I was unable to endow any items with attributes for a long time."
"I was actually quite happy about it. I thought I had become normal and, once I was normal, I could leave."
"Since I was a few years old, I started asking my father when I would be able to grow a pure heart. I asked this question until I was fifteen, and my father’s answer was always to wait a little longer."
"I really wanted to go out, but honestly, staying with my father wasn’t bad either. I wanted to leave together with my father."
"Even after my ability ceased, I still liked molding clay."
"Sometimes strange people would come to watch me play with clay. I didn’t quite like them. They were different from my father. My father always came into the room to accompany me, but they just wore masks and watched me from a distance."
"Their gaze made me very uncomfortable, like they were looking at some...thing."
"My father told me they meant no harm, but what my father didn’t know was that I could hear some of their conversations."
"Hmm... let me mimic those conversations for you."
Ding Dong smiled and looked at the crowd, finally resting his gaze on Wen Xishu. His voice began to turn low:
"Professor Jin, his blood samples now are no different from those of an ordinary person. I think we need to analyze him more deeply, stimulate him. We can’t delay the Swan project any longer."
"No, he is just a child! Are you crazy? That plan will make him hate us. He’s still young. Hatred sown in childhood will destroy him and us as well!"
"The progress of science is fraught with obstacles. The Swan project is our best means of understanding him. His ability has disappeared. The Swan project might help him recover or might help us unravel some mysteries."
"But he’s the only one among the seventeen children that belongs to us. I know some eerie things are tied to those children. But he’s different. I can feel it. His way of responding to the world is the simplest and purest—love answering love, evil answering evil. We shouldn’t use overly extreme measures. Moreover... that would stifle his creativity."
"Professor Jin, we need to understand the source, understand the truth behind the tower! This isn’t the place for you to play the father role. I know your child died in that accident not long ago, but you can’t project that emotion onto this child! You have to realize just how important he is!"
"No! No! Absolutely not! As long as I’m here, I will never allow this to happen! This child will be of great use in the future. His heart... must not be tainted."
Ding Dong’s eyes held a faint trace of regret and remembrance:
"I heard the argument between my father and them. My father clearly had a certain degree of authority. With his firm stance, those people eventually left. I didn’t know what the Swan project was exactly, but from my father’s tone, it seemed to be something that would harm me."
"One time, I told my father that I was willing to undergo the Swan project. I actually heard those conversations. I didn’t want my father to be reprimanded by them. He stared at me blankly, then hugged me and cried. That was the first time he cried."
"He kept apologizing to me, but would also smile occasionally."
"I didn’t really understand why my father was crying. Why was it? I merely told him I didn’t want him to be scolded."
"But my father soon gave me the answer. He told me that my brothers and sisters had issues with the growth of their hearts for some reasons."
"But I was different; I was more complete than they were. My father wasn’t crying because he was under immense pressure. He cried simply because I had learned to care for him."
"From that moment, my father believed I was qualified to leave the institute."
"My father never lied to me. He truly was preparing for my departure. I still remember him telling me many stories one day."
"All the protagonists of these stories were children, each with different situations. Some overcame obstacles and changed their own destinies to become scholars. Some had privileged backgrounds but ultimately fell into drug addiction or ended up in jail, while others barely changed."