Yu Zhengze turned his head and stared fixedly at Yu Xian. After a long moment, he asked for confirmation, "When you say ’stay inside the Dream Net’... do you mean we need to arrange for twenty people to sleep in shifts?"
Yu Xian nodded.
"You’re serious," Yu Zhengze said slowly.
"I’m serious," Yu Xian replied earnestly.
Looking away, Yu Zhengze gave a slight shake of his head. "I can’t make that call, and the municipal bureau probably can’t either. We can only wait for the specialized departments to take over and coordinate the arrangements. Until then, the police have neither the authority nor the legal basis to execute this kind of operation."
Yu Xian remained silent. He leaned back against the passenger seat. In the distance, the glow of streetlamps pierced through the sheet of rain, casting a blurry, swaying wash of warm yellow light into the car.
He knew everything Yu Zhengze said made perfect sense. Under the current system, there was no existing regulatory body for this, making it impossible to establish an administrative presence. A whale takes time to turn around.
However, those four frequencies wouldn’t wait for anyone’s bureaucratic processes to finish. Since this route was a dead end, he had to find another way.
After a long silence, Yu Zhengze suddenly turned to him. "Xiaoxian."
"Hmm?" Yu Xian snapped back to reality.
"You’re an adult now. No matter what you plan to do, or what decisions you want to make," Yu Zhengze said, enunciating every word, "first, don’t break the law." He shifted his gaze back to the road ahead, his hand gripping the ignition key. "Second... protect yourself."
The engine rumbled to life, and the car slowly pulled out of the alley.
They remained silent for the entire drive until the black SUV came to a slow stop outside the JCU South Gate. Yu Xian pushed the car door open and popped his umbrella. He watched the SUV turn around and disappear into the curtain of rain before turning toward the campus gates.
Upon returning to the South District Dormitory, Yu Xian pushed open his room’s door. The main lights were on. Naturally, Shi Zuozhou hadn’t returned from the apartments yet, but Zhang Yang and Li Boxue were both present, their heads bowed as they fiddled with whatever they were holding.
"You’re back, Yu Xian? Didn’t go to class?" Zhang Yang looked up in surprise. "Didn’t you and Old Shi have Chinese Lit tonight? How come you’re back so early?"
"I wasn’t feeling well, so I came back early," Yu Xian replied simply, leaning his umbrella against the wall near the door and taking off his jacket.
He walked over to his desk. Just as he was about to pull out his chair, he caught a glimpse of what Zhang Yang was holding out of the corner of his eye.
It was a black bracelet with a curved screen.
It was the very same health-monitoring device that the company named Yinuo Biotechnology had been handing out for free in the lobby of the Second Main Building.
Li Boxue had one in his hands too. He was turning it over and over, occasionally swiping his finger across the tiny screen.
Zhang Yang must have noticed Yu Xian’s gaze, because he raised his wrist and shook it. "Did you grab one?"
"Yeah," Yu Xian said, pulling out his chair and sitting down. "But I just tossed it in my cabinet when I got back. I haven’t unboxed it yet."
"Might as well open it and use it, unless you’re planning to sell it secondhand," Zhang Yang said, leaning over to show him the bracelet’s screen. "If you’re going to use it yourself, you should install this."
Yu Xian followed his gesture, already forming a guess in his mind. Sure enough, on the curved screen, right next to the heart rate and step counter icons, sat a minimalist white pixelated rabbit icon.
"Is that Rabbit Hole?" Yu Xian asked, despite already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, you know about it, right? It’s super popular right now. Everyone’s leaving it idle to farm carrots. This is the exclusive version for the bracelet."
Yu Xian blanked for a second. An exclusive version for the bracelet? Since when did Rabbit Hole have an exclusive version for a smart bracelet?
On Wednesday, at the North District Apartments, Wen Xiao had indeed promised to develop a version of Rabbit Hole compatible with the bracelet. Over the past few days, however, they had been so busy with the Dream Net testing that Yu Xian had completely forgotten about it.
When did this exclusive bracelet version suddenly appear?
"I only know about the original Rabbit Hole," Yu Xian said, leaning in closer. "Yours is an exclusive bracelet version?"
"Yep." Zhang Yang tapped the icon. The interface opened flawlessly without any lag, though its features seemed scaled back. "Some tech god optimized it specifically for idle farming. It uses way less battery, runs stably in the background, and it’s supposed to be an installation package perfectly tailored for the Enoch Bracelet."
As he spoke, Zhang Yang opened WeChat and scrolled to a file. "Let me send you the APK file. Boxue just installed it today too."
"Sure, thanks."
Yu Xian took out his phone and received the APK file from Zhang Yang. It wasn’t large—only a few megabytes. The icon was still the pixelated rabbit, but now it had a tiny bracelet symbol in the bottom right corner.
He didn’t install it right away. Instead, he stood up, walked out of the dorm room, and shut the fire door behind him before quickly initiating a group voice call in the chat named "Dream Net Testing Team."
Wen Xiao’s profile picture lit up, and the voices of Shi Zuozhou and Yang Yiyi soon followed. Clearly, they were still at the apartment and hadn’t left yet.
"Old Yu!" Shi Zuozhou’s voice was urgent. "How did it go? What did Captain Yu say? We were just thinking..."
"We’ll talk about that later," Yu Xian interrupted him directly, lowering his voice. "Put me on speaker. I need to ask Wen Xiao a question. Can she hear me?"
"I can hear you," Wen Xiao hurried to answer.
"Over the past few days, have you developed an exclusive bracelet version of ’Rabbit Hole’?" Yu Xian asked.
"An exclusive bracelet version? No..." Wen Xiao answered truthfully, a hint of confusion in her voice. "Because the mobile version still works on it, I wasn’t in a rush... Why? If it’s urgent, I can work on it when I get back tonight."
Yu Xian cursed inwardly. It really hadn’t been her.
"No need," Yu Xian said slowly. "Someone has already done it for you."