In the early hours of the morning, Hesta tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.
She turned on the light and stood up and sat in front of the mirror, looking at herself in the mirror without saying a word.
Thinking back to the bits and pieces of a year ago, Hestad felt a little dazed. Although a year was not a long time on the time scale, when she looked back carefully, it seemed difficult for her to connect the hunter who appeared in the middle of the night with the slightly tired herself in front of her.
Those days and nights that seem to be running on the cliff wire are as distant as a story that happened to another person.
Hesta stretched out her left hand towards the mirror and lightly tapped the person in the mirror between the eyebrows.
The wrinkles she had observed on Liz's forehead now appeared on her own.
…when did it appear?
Suddenly, the phone next to him vibrated.
Hesta picked it up and took a look. It was Ding Yuqing's reply. There are only two words on it: OK.
After a while, Ding Yuqing sent another message: But I have something to do tomorrow morning and won't be home for lunch. What time do you go to the Hope Center in the afternoon? We can meet directly there.
Hesta quickly replied: OK, let’s meet at half past two. There is one more thing I want to trouble you with. Before you go out tomorrow, can you show me the newspaper clippings you made before? Just put it on my desk.
After a while, Ding Yuqing replied: I've let it go, see you tomorrow.
…
At noon the next day, Hesta returned to her home in Orange Town.
Ding Guisheng invited some friends to his home for dinner. The men sat around the table, and the whole living room was filled with smoke. Hesta didn't stay too long, just said a cursory hello to everyone, and immediately returned to his room.
On the desk, she saw the newspaper clippings about Shengminghao left by Ding Yuqing.
After parting ways with Si Lei last night, an idea quickly took root and sprouted in her heart like a magic seed:
If Orange Town is indeed a larger passenger ship, can the rules once implemented on the Shengming also correspond to this place?
With Xu Ruyi's help, Hesta copied the rules from the newspaper clippings into his notebook one by one.
These published rules are not complete. Not only are some items missing, but there are only suggestions for daytime activities and nighttime activities, and there is no mention of various protocols that risk passengers must abide by. At the same time, the three "iron laws" that were placed above all rules also disappeared. Hestad tried his best to complete it from memory.
After everything was sorted, she changed to a red pen, and first turned to "Daytime Activities (8:00-17:00) Suggestions" and started annotating them one by one.
"1. The cabin is absolutely safe, but don't stay in the cabin all day."
The cabin... is it a home?
As soon as this idea came to mind, Hesta immediately recalled a detail: when she met Yu Xuekun before, Yu Xuekun had asked her the reason for being late for Thursday evening class. Not only that, Yu also complained about her wandering around the family building for forty minutes that night. He also knew things very well... Apparently, after Hesta entered Orange Town, there was indeed a pair of eyes that was always following her actions.
However, Yu Xuekun did not know why she was late that night. This means that in the information Yu Xuekun received, the fierce quarrel between Ding Xueyang and Ding Guisheng did not exist that day... This may mean that either those staring eyes His eyes are usually not allowed to enter this private house; or, when reporting his whereabouts, the stalker must filter out all civilian information to avoid moral and ethical risks.
But no matter which one it is, they both point to the same result: most of her behavior at home will not be recorded and reported by the stalker.
Thinking of this, Hesta recalled another detail Yu Xuekun once mentioned: the adult family members living in this home have the ability to affect her rating - perhaps her rating within the family is determined by Ding Guisheng and others. It even includes outside members like Shi Pingchuan.
"The cabin is absolutely safe."
Hesta glanced at the sentence again.
Perhaps living at home is equally safe, but there is one problem: she cannot stay at home all day, especially between eight and seventeen o'clock.
She picked up a pen and circled the word "cabin" and drew two horizontal lines under the word "all day".
This one seems to be saying:
Activities at home are safe, but daily social interactions must be maintained.
This rule is the same as the second one:
"2. Each deck of the Shengming is equipped with gyms, swimming pools, restaurants, bars, clubs... and other entertainment facilities. Passengers can enjoy free services with their ship cards. A few services require additional charges. Please pay attention to the free/paid signs. , to avoid disputes."
And Article 4:
"4. Most daytime activities are good for your physical and mental health. We encourage you to explore more places and meet more friends."
…It’s almost a mutually reciprocal relationship.
But at the same time, the seventh activity suggestion:
"7. Please do not go to the fourth deck before becoming a guardian"
A clear restricted area is drawn for social interaction.
Hesta remembered that the fourth deck of the Ascension was a place for personality backup for risky passengers. Once backed up, the risky passengers were reduced to toys on the shelves on the second deck for all guardians to enjoy - but it seemed It was only open at night. She, Li Ge and Si Lei had been there together during the day. During the day, the fourth deck was an empty deck with nothing.
In Orange Town... what is the fourth deck?
There are a total of 11 guidelines in the entire daytime activity, and almost 1/3 emphasizes socializing out. The unified purpose is to encourage "passengers" to leave the "cabin" during the day. Although the rules themselves do not specify what exactly they are encouraged to do when going out, judging from the experience on the Shengming, it is nothing more than getting familiar with each other and even forming alliances - especially, moving closer to their guardians.
For example, Article 5 specifically states: "Please try your best to help the guardians around you without harming your own rights and interests."
When a potential guardian does this, he will learn from the other person how to speak and behave as a guardian... and the proactive approach of potential risk passengers saves the guardian and potential guardian the trouble of looking for prey.
6, 9, 10, and 11 are suggestions for guardians rather than ordinary passengers, so you may want to ignore them for the time being.
Finally, Hestad's eye fell on rule number three: Elevators remain operational during the day.
On the ship, the elevator connects different decks during the day and can take ordinary passengers to different areas of the passenger ship; at night, from time to time, a group of scary passengers from the second floor will also pass through it and flock to Bishop's Restaurant...
I don’t know what the elevator here refers to... transportation.
There is also the distinction between "day" and "night", which seems to contain more than just time.
