Chapter 10: Zhao Mingyuan Got There First
The patrol car shot onto the expressway before dawn.
No one spoke inside the car.
Old Zhou was driving.
Cai Mingzhe sat in the passenger seat.
Wang Zhihao and Chen Yaoting sat in the second row.
R23-B lay in the back row, its right leg completely useless. The wound just below its collarbone had been covered with nothing more than a piece of gauze.
Chen Yaoting kept staring at his phone.
Countdown:
00:53:18.
The address above hadn't changed.
Hsinchu Rehabilitation Medical Center.
Building B underground parking garage.
"Zhao Mingyuan got there first."
That was the most troublesome part right now.
Wang Zhihao finally couldn't hold it in.
"How the hell did he know?"
No one answered.
"I mean, how did Zhao Mingyuan know He Chenghan was in Hsinchu?"
Cai Mingzhe kept his eyes on the road.
"He may have always known."
"Known he wasn't dead?"
"Not necessarily that he was still alive."
"Then he at least knew where they'd taken him."
"Right."
Chen Yaoting asked, "After the 2019 accident, did Zhao Mingyuan ever go to Shengwei?"
Cai Mingzhe thought for a few seconds.
"There's nothing in the system."
"What about in reality?"
"I don't know."
From the back, Wang Zhihao kicked the passenger seat.
"Weren't you the one who deleted the records back then?"
"Deleting records doesn't mean I followed the executives around."
"Weren't you in information security?"
"I was just a systems engineer at the time."
"Then you sure talk like you know everything now."
Cai Mingzhe turned around.
"I've told you everything I know."
"You'd better have."
Chen Yaoting didn't join in.
At this point, he didn't particularly care how much Cai Mingzhe was still hiding.
Because something else mattered more.
If Zhao Mingyuan really had arrived first, then Building B in Hsinchu was probably not just a place they could visit to look for answers.
That man had been involved in the accident seven years ago.
He hadn't just shut off the safety lock.
After He Chenghan was trapped, he'd let the machinery keep running for forty-seven seconds to prevent the complete data from uploading automatically.
If those statements were true, Zhao Mingyuan bore at least the most direct responsibility for He Chenghan's death.
Now He Chenghan might be awake.
And Zhao Mingyuan had gotten there first.
There was no way he had gone there to apologize.
"Yaoting."
R23-B suddenly called out to him.
Chen Yaoting turned around.
"What?"
"Give me your phone."
"Why?"
"I want to check the message timestamps."
Chen Yaoting handed it over.
R23-B skimmed several messages.
"These messages don't have the same source pattern."
Cai Mingzhe immediately turned around.
"What does that mean?"
"The earlier messages telling us not to take me to Hsinchu came at very short intervals."
"And?"
"The last one—'Zhao Mingyuan got there first'—was four minutes late."
Wang Zhihao frowned.
"What's four minutes supposed to mean?"
R23-B said, "If one person had been monitoring us continuously, there'd be no reason to stop for that long."
"Maybe he was busy."
"Or maybe they didn't come from the same source."
Chen Yaoting took his phone back.
"Then how many sides are there?"
R23-B didn't answer directly.
Cai Mingzhe spoke first.
"At least three."
"Which three?"
"The R17 core."
"Yeah."
"He Chenghan himself, or someone at Building B."
"And?"
Cai Mingzhe turned to look toward the back.
"The recovery system controlling the other R23 vessels."
Wang Zhihao said, "Wasn't R17 doing the recovery?"
"That's what we thought at first."
"Not anymore?"
"Those vessels just now said the command source was H-001, but B said the format was wrong."
"So someone can impersonate H-001."
"Right."
Old Zhou suddenly said, "Could it be Zhao Mingyuan?"
The car fell silent for a second.
Chen Yaoting looked toward the road.
"Does he have that kind of authorization?"
Cai Mingzhe shook his head.
"He shouldn't have it now."
"What about before?"
"He used to be part of R17's on-site management."
"So he might have had access to the vessel system?"
"R23 wasn't under his control."
"But he knew Gao Mingde."
That made Cai Mingzhe stop short of giving a definite answer.
Zhao Mingyuan might know far more than they'd originally imagined.
The car continued toward Hsinchu.
A little over forty minutes remained on the countdown.
R23-B suddenly asked, "Has anyone here seen He Chenghan's complete death certificate?"
Cai Mingzhe said, "I've seen the scanned copy in the system."
"Any body-identification records?"
"No."
"Dental records?"
"No."
"DNA?"
"No."
"Photos?"
"Only an employee photo from before the accident."
Wang Zhihao couldn't help saying, "So when your company announced he was dead back then, they hadn't even performed an autopsy?"
"It wasn't the company that announced it. There was an official death certificate."
"But the certificate was issued by Shengwei's own doctor."
"Yes."
"Then couldn't they just make up whatever they wanted?"
Cai Mingzhe didn't argue.
R23-B asked again, "What about his family?"
Chen Yaoting suddenly looked up.
This was one thing that had barely come up until now.
"Did He Chenghan have family?"
Cai Mingzhe thought for a moment.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"His parents."
"Was he married?"
"No."
"Did his parents know where the body was?"
"I don't know."
Wang Zhihao couldn't hold back.
"How does nobody know anything about anything?"
Old Zhou said quietly, "I remember his father came to the company."
Everyone looked at him.
"When?"
"A few days after the accident."
"Why did he come?"
"To find someone."
"He Chenghan?"
"Yes."
Chen Yaoting immediately asked, "Didn't the company say he was dead?"
"By then, everyone inside the company was already saying he was dead."
"So his father didn't know?"
Old Zhou shook his head.
"I only remember him making a scene in the lobby on the first floor for a long time."
"What did he say?"
"That the company was lying."
Cai Mingzhe's expression changed.
"Why?"
"He said his son had called him the day before."
"Isn't that normal?"
"Not the day before the accident."
Old Zhou paused.
"The second day after the accident."
The car went instantly quiet.
Wang Zhihao cursed first.
"Wait."
"Are you sure?"
"I was just passing through the lobby at the time."
"You heard his father say it himself?"
"Yes."
"He said He Chenghan called after he died?"
"He said that the night after the accident, his son called and spoke to him for a few minutes."
Chen Yaoting immediately asked, "What did he say?"
"I don't know."
"How did the company respond?"
"They said the old man had been traumatized and might have remembered wrong."
"And afterward?"
"Security escorted him out."
Cai Mingzhe said quietly, "I had no idea about this."
"Of course you didn't. After that, the company told everyone not to talk about it anymore."
Chen Yaoting looked at R23-B.
"If He Chenghan really could make a phone call after the accident, then he was conscious at least at that point."
R23-B nodded.
"And capable of communicating."
"Then he wasn't simply in a coma for seven years."
"Right."
"So when did he become unresponsive?"
"That's the question."
No one knew.
Old Zhou sped up.
They were getting closer and closer to Hsinchu.
Chen Yaoting suddenly thought of something.
"Look into his father."
Cai Mingzhe turned around.
"Who?"
"He Chenghan's father."
"Now?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"If He Chenghan really contacted him after the accident, he might know something."
Cai Mingzhe took out his phone and searched the company's old employee emergency-contact records.
He Chenghan.
Emergency contact:
He Zhicheng.
Relationship: Father.
Phone number inactive.
The address was in Taoyuan.
He searched public records next.
A few minutes later, he said, "His father died in 2023."
Chen Yaoting frowned.
"His mother?"
"Still alive."
"Any contact information?"
"The company records are outdated."
"Search public records."
"Give me a second."
Wang Zhihao suddenly said, "Don't search yet."
Everyone looked at him.
"Are we really going to drag his mother into this too?"
That made Chen Yaoting pause.
He was right.
They had no proof that contacting the family was safe.
If someone had been monitoring everyone connected to He Chenghan, suddenly calling an elderly woman in her seventies might put her in danger instead.
"Don't contact her yet," Chen Yaoting said.
"Just see if there's any public record left behind."
Cai Mingzhe nodded.
It didn't take long for him to find a cached local community post from 2019.
It wasn't a news article.
It was the remnant of a personal post that had long since been deleted.
The author's name was He Zhicheng.
Only fragments of the text remained.
"My son didn't die in the factory."
"The company won't let me see him."
"He called me."
"He told me not to call the police."
The final sentence was cut off in the search cache.
Cai Mingzhe searched further down.
There was nothing else.
Chen Yaoting stared at the words "don't call the police."
"Why would he tell his father not to call the police?"
Wang Zhihao said, "He was threatened?"
R23-B shook its head.
"Or he knew something himself."
"Like what?"
"What if He Chenghan had already suspected R23 before the accident?"
Cai Mingzhe looked up.
"You mean he might have cooperated on purpose?"
"It's possible."
"Why?"
"To preserve evidence."
Chen Yaoting suddenly thought of that industrial-control laptop.
He Chenghan had backed up the complete R17 control records the day before the accident.
That meant he'd felt something was wrong long before that.
In other words, he wasn't simply an accidental victim.
He might have been investigating the company before the accident.
"If that's true," Chen Yaoting said, "then being sent to Shengwei after the accident might not have been entirely spontaneous."
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe he already knew what Shengwei was doing."
Cai Mingzhe immediately objected.
"But no one would deliberately put themselves in that condition."
"I didn't say the accident was deliberate."
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm saying he might have known before the accident that he was being used as a test subject."
The car fell silent again.
This theory was more plausible than the idea that the company had secretly singled him out, at least in part.
He Chenghan had been scheduled for high-frequency medical checkups for years.
They'd built up a massive amount of biological data on him.
And he'd backed up R17 himself.
Maybe he'd suspected for a long time that the company was using him for something beyond workplace-safety monitoring.
He just hadn't known that an accident would actually happen.
Countdown:
00:31:42.
The car exited the highway.
Hsinchu's urban district began appearing outside the windows.
The sky had already begun to lighten.
R23-B suddenly looked up.
"Stop."
Old Zhou checked the rearview mirror.
"What is it?"
"Stop."
Its voice was urgent.
Old Zhou pulled over.
Before the car had fully stopped, R23-B braced itself with its left leg and sat up.
"There's a signal."
Cai Mingzhe immediately asked, "Wasn't your recovery module cut off?"
"This isn't external tracking."
"Then what is it?"
R23-B pressed a hand to the back of its neck.
"Low-level synchronization."
"From where?"
"Building B."
"He Chenghan?"
"I don't know."
"What does it say?"
It closed its eyes.
A few seconds later, it said, "R23 branch count updated."
Wang Zhihao asked, "How many?"
R23-B opened its eyes.
"Not six."
"Then how many?"
"Seventeen existing vessels."
No one spoke.
"Seventeen?"
"Yes."
"Do they all have He Chenghan's face?"
"Not necessarily."
That answer made Chen Yaoting frown.
"What does that mean?"
"The early branches used He Chenghan's appearance."
"The later vessels may have changed shells."
"What about their personalities?"
"Still based on He Chenghan's model."
In other words, they couldn't identify them by their faces at all.
There might be seventeen people with completely different appearances, each carrying a different version of He Chenghan's personality.
"Where are they now?" Cai Mingzhe asked.
R23-B paused.
"Nine are in Hsinchu."
Everyone in the car looked forward at once.
"Building B?"
"Seven."
"The other two?"
"Moving."
"Where to?"
R23-B looked at Chen Yaoting.
"Here."
Wang Zhihao cursed immediately.
Old Zhou stepped on the gas again.
"How much farther?"
Cai Mingzhe checked the navigation.
"Twelve minutes."
Thirty minutes remained on the countdown.
"We'll make it," Old Zhou said.
R23-B immediately replied, "Don't take the main road."
"Why not?"
"The two moving vessels are crossing ahead of us."
"You know where they are?"
"I only know their synchronization nodes."
"Take a detour."
Cai Mingzhe immediately changed the route.
The patrol car turned onto a side road.
About five minutes later, a new text arrived on Chen Yaoting's phone.
"You have deviated from the route."
Everyone stared at the screen.
Wang Zhihao said flatly, "It's watching us."
A second message arrived immediately.
"Don't take the detour."
A third followed.
"Zhao Mingyuan is entering the H-001 area."
Chen Yaoting looked up.
"He really made it there."
Cai Mingzhe asked, "Should we believe it?"
No one could answer.
But the next text appeared quickly.
This time, it wasn't text.
It was a surveillance-camera screenshot.
The image showed a white medical corridor.
The timestamp said five minutes ago.
Zhao Mingyuan was wearing a mask and walking toward the elevator with two people in white coats.
The upper-right corner was marked:
Building B, B2.
Wang Zhihao clenched his teeth.
"At least this isn't made-up bullshit."
R23-B stared at the photo.
"He didn't break in."
"How do you know?"
"Look at the door."
There was an access-control panel beside the elevator in the photo.
Zhao Mingyuan had a card hanging from his chest.
Green light.
He'd been authorized to enter.
Cai Mingzhe enlarged the image.
The company logo on the ID card wasn't Shinrui's.
It was Shengwei Biomedicine's.
"How does he have a Shengwei access card?" Old Zhou asked.
No one knew.
But Cai Mingzhe suddenly said, "Look up Zhao Mingyuan's investment disclosures."
"What?"
"Company managers have to disclose their interests in affiliated companies every year."
He began searching.
A few minutes later, he found an insignificant-looking historical record.
2018.
Zhao Mingyuan had been temporarily assigned to Shengwei Biomedicine as a "technical collaboration representative."
Duration:
Six months.
Everyone stared at the line.
"So he was connected to R23 from the beginning," Chen Yaoting said.
Cai Mingzhe's face looked grim.
"A year before the accident."
That changed everything again.
Zhao Mingyuan hadn't been brought in by the executives to clean up the mess after the accident.
He'd already been connected to Shengwei before the accident.
So when he shut down the R17 safety system, had it really just been to rush the shipment out?
Or was there another reason?
"He Chenghan being trapped," Chen Yaoting said slowly, "might not have been the beginning of the whole thing."
R23-B looked at him.
"It was R23's opportunity to acquire him."
"Someone might even have been waiting for that opportunity."
Wang Zhihao's face went pale.
"Are you saying the accident might not have been an accident?"
Chen Yaoting didn't answer.
He didn't want to jump to that conclusion so quickly.
There was still no evidence.
But Zhao Mingyuan had been at Shengwei before the accident.
He'd personally shut down the safety system that day.
And after He Chenghan was injured, he'd been sent directly to Shengwei.
Put those three facts together, and they could no longer be dismissed as coincidence.
The patrol car finally neared Hsinchu Rehabilitation Medical Center.
It wasn't an ordinary large hospital.
From the outside, it looked more like a private recovery facility.
Three understated gray-and-white buildings were enclosed by walls and trees.
Building B was in the very back.
There were guards at the main entrance.
Chen Yaoting's phone vibrated again.
"Don't use the main entrance."
Just like before.
The next second, a new location pin suddenly appeared on the navigation.
An alley behind the facility.
"Underground parking entrance."
Old Zhou followed the directions.
The entrance was easy to miss.
There was no sign.
Only a gray metal gate.
The car stopped in front of it.
Everyone stared.
There was no button.
No guard.
Chen Yaoting's phone displayed the countdown:
00:18:06.
He picked up his phone.
No new message.
"How do we get in?" Wang Zhihao asked.
The moment he finished speaking, the metal gate opened by itself.
No one thought that was a good sign.
Old Zhou slowly drove inside.
The underground ramp descended all the way down.
B1.
Then farther.
B2.
The parking garage was larger than expected.
But it was mostly empty.
Only a dozen or so cars were parked inside.
Chen Yaoting recognized one of them: a black sedan.
Zhao Mingyuan's car.
"He's really here."
The mood inside the car tightened instantly.
Old Zhou found a corner and parked.
R23-B said, "I can't go in."
Chen Yaoting looked at it.
"Because He Chenghan told you not to get close?"
"Not just that."
"Then what?"
"There's a suppression signal in B2."
"For you?"
"For all R23s."
"What happens if you go in?"
"I may lose the ability to move immediately."
Cai Mingzhe said, "Then stay in the car."
R23-B shook its head.
"Don't stay in B2 either."
"Why not?"
"There are seven vessels in this building."
"Aren't you one of them?"
"Their current status is unknown."
"Then where will you go?"
"Near the B1 exit."
"Can you move on your own?"
Its right leg was still useless.
Old Zhou said, "I'll get him upstairs first."
Chen Yaoting shook his head.
"We don't have time."
Seventeen minutes remained on the countdown.
Cai Mingzhe looked at the floor plan on the navigation.
"Yaoting and I will go down."
Wang Zhihao immediately said, "I'm going too."
"You won't be any help."
"One of you was targeted by seventy-three applicants, and the other helped delete records seven years ago. I'd be the weird one if I stayed outside."
Chen Yaoting didn't try to stop him again.
Old Zhou stayed behind to look after R23-B.
The three of them got out and walked toward the underground entrance to Building B.
The access-control panel was right ahead.
Cai Mingzhe used his company card.
Red light.
Wang Zhihao tried his.
Red light.
Chen Yaoting glanced at his chest.
The employee ID card had already been snapped in half by a vessel.
He had no card.
Just as they were wondering what to do, the access-control screen lit up by itself.
"Identity verification in progress."
The camera above turned toward Chen Yaoting.
A few seconds later, the light turned green.
"A21749."
The door opened.
Wang Zhihao cursed under his breath.
"You don't even have a card, and it still recognizes you."
But Cai Mingzhe's expression was grave.
"It's not the card."
"Then what is it?"
"It's using his face and biological markers directly."
"Recognizing him as who?"
No one knew.
The three of them entered.
It didn't look like an ordinary hospital basement.
It was extremely clean.
The walls were completely white.
There were no ward signs, only numbers.
B2-01.
B2-02.
They continued down the corridor.
There were no nurses.
No patients either.
Only the low hum of machinery.
Chen Yaoting's phone displayed the countdown:
00:14:31.
Suddenly, voices came from around the corner ahead.
The three of them stopped at once.
It was Zhao Mingyuan.
"I don't care how the system is judging it right now."
"H-001 cannot wake up."
Another man answered, "Neural activity has exceeded the suppression range."
"Then increase the dosage."
"Any more will cause permanent damage."
Zhao Mingyuan's voice was cold.
"You said that seven years ago too."
"And he survived until now."
The three of them hid behind the wall.
No one made a sound.
The second man said, "The situation is different now."
"How is it different?"
"A21749 has reconnected."
"Then deal with the person currently carrying it."
Chen Yaoting's expression changed instantly.
Wang Zhihao looked at him too.
Cai Mingzhe held them both back, signaling them to stay quiet.
The man inside asked, "You mean Chen Yaoting?"
"Yes."
"The Special Execution Authorization has been approved."
"I know."
"Then wait until September 4."
"We can't wait."
Zhao Mingyuan said, "Once He Chenghan fully awakens, R17 will reopen the accident determination."
"Where will the data go?"
"Automatic upload."
"Where?"
Zhao Mingyuan paused.
"The government judicial cloud."
All three of them froze.
This was the first time anyone had clearly explained the true purpose of He Chenghan's final accident determination.
The data wasn't hidden on some computer, waiting for someone to dig it out.
As long as He Chenghan woke up, it would automatically be sent out.
That also explained why someone was in such a hurry.
They weren't afraid Chen Yaoting would find the evidence.
They were afraid He Chenghan would wake up.
The second man said, "Then why not terminate H-001 directly?"
The corridor fell silent for several seconds.
Only then did Zhao Mingyuan answer.
"Because we can't."
"Why not?"
"Every R23 vessel still in operation relies on him to maintain its core calibration."
"If H-001 dies—"
"The seventeen vessels will begin irreversible personality disintegration."
"Including the ones that have already infiltrated the outside world."
The second man fell silent.
Zhao Mingyuan continued.
"That's why Gao Mingde didn't dare let him die back then."
At that moment, Chen Yaoting suddenly understood.
He Chenghan had survived until now not because someone had found their conscience.
It was because he still had value to them.
For seven years, he had been a living core that couldn't be removed.
Then another voice came from deeper inside.
It was extremely weak.
Hoarse.
But everyone heard it clearly.
"Zhao Mingyuan."
The conversation in the corridor stopped instantly.
Wang Zhihao's eyes widened.
Cai Mingzhe went completely rigid.
That wasn't the voice of any R23 vessel.
It was weaker.
More like someone who hadn't spoken normally in years.
Zhao Mingyuan's hurried footsteps came from inside.
"Who let him speak?"
The medical staff panicked.
"It wasn't us!"
"Sedate him!"
"The dosage is already—"
"I said sedate him!"
The next second, an alarm blared.
Red lights illuminated the entire B2 corridor.
Chen Yaoting's phone vibrated.
The countdown instantly hit zero.
It wasn't a failure.
A new line of text appeared instead.
"Original identity connection complete."
"H-001 autonomous consciousness restored."
Then every lock in Building B began unlocking in rapid succession.
Click.
Click.
Click.
At the very end of the corridor, a door originally marked "H-001" slowly opened.
Zhao Mingyuan stood outside.
Inside the room, a man so thin he was almost nothing but bones lay on a medical bed.
His hair was half gray.
His chest, neck, and arms were connected to a mass of tubes.
His face was no longer exactly the same as those of the R23 vessels.
Seven years had left clear marks on it.
But Chen Yaoting recognized him at a glance.
He Chenghan.
The real one.
He Chenghan struggled to turn his head.
He saw Zhao Mingyuan first.
Then he looked past his shoulder toward Chen Yaoting at the end of the corridor.
His lips moved for a long time.
Finally, he forced out a single phrase.
"A21749."
Chen Yaoting stood frozen in place.
But He Chenghan shook his head.
"Not you."
Then he looked at Cai Mingzhe.
"Bring me the laptop."
Cai Mingzhe's expression changed.
He Chenghan closed his eyes, then opened them again.
His voice was weak, but perfectly clear.
"The complete backup from seven years ago."
"I've had it all along."