Chapter 6

"Xiaomin, go and wake your brother up for breakfast." Wang Yue'e came out of the kitchen and shouted at Liu Min, who was watching TV in the living room.

"Just now, I went to check, and my brother was still sleeping. Let's eat first!" As soon as Liu Min heard it was time for breakfast, he quickly jumped off the sofa and walked briskly to the dining table. He picked up a piece of stir-fried cured meat and threw it into his mouth, mumbling while eating.

"Go wash your hands. You're about to start high school, and you still act like a child!" Wang Yue'e lightly patted Liu Min's head in annoyance, then looked at Liu Daxing, who was sitting at the dining table, with concern. "Daxing, where did you take Xiaojie yesterday? Why did he come back last night and go straight to bed? It's already noon, and he still hasn't gotten up. Could he be sick?"

"I just took him to the mine for a tour, nowhere else! He likes crystals, right? I happened to have a very beautiful crystal, so I gave it to him. When we came back last night, he was fine, and I didn't see any signs of illness!" Liu Daxing drank the wine in his glass in one gulp and replied nonchalantly.

"Mom, don't worry. Just now, I saw my brother sleeping soundly, so I didn't wake him up." Liu Min washed his hands, sat down, and picked up his chopsticks, saying while eating, "It's not easy for my brother to finally graduate from university. He deserves a good rest and relaxation! If I had graduated, I would have slept for seven days and seven nights at home!"

"Xiaomin is right. Yangjie has been sensible since he was young. Now that he has graduated from university and been assigned to work in the county, it's good for him to rest before he starts his job. Don't worry, just enjoy your meal!"

"According to my sister, her husband has already mentioned Yangjie's job to Secretary Zhou, but it's been almost a week, and the county hasn't notified Yangjie about his start date. I wonder if something has gone wrong!" After serving Yangjie a large bowl of food, Wang Yue'e sat down and looked at Liu Daxing seriously. "If the county can't arrange it, you should go to Manager Li and get Yangjie a job at the mine."

"Alright, alright, alright! We're still waiting for news. Secretary Zhou and my brother-in-law are old comrades-in-arms, and my brother-in-law only has one son. Secretary Zhou will take care of it. If the county really doesn't give Yangjie a good position, I'll go to Manager Li and transfer Yangjie to the mine. Is that okay?"

Liu Daxing's sister, Liu Cuilian, married Yangjie's father, Yang Xinhua, when Yang Xinhua had just been promoted to platoon leader in the army. It was during the ten-year turmoil period. Yang Xinhua's parents had passed away early, and his family in the countryside was poor. Therefore, after Liu Cuilian gave birth to Yangjie, she entrusted him to her brother, Liu Daxing, who worked at the Fuxin Tungsten Mine.

Liu Cuilian and Liu Daxing, like Yang Xinhua, lost their parents at a young age. Liu Daxing was raised by his sister Liu Cuilian, so the two of them had a very close relationship. Liu Daxing always treated his nephew Yangjie as his own child.

Yangjie attended primary and middle school at the Fuxin Tungsten Mine School, living with Liu Daxing until he was admitted to the county high school and moved to the county to study. Even then, every winter and summer vacation, Liu Daxing and Wang Yue'e would have Yangjie come to stay at the Fuxin Tungsten Mine. This continued even after Yang Xinhua was injured in combat and transferred back to civilian life.

Although Wang Yue'e was only Yangjie's aunt, over the years, she had come to treat Yangjie as her own child. She was more anxious about Yangjie's affairs than his own mother, Liu Cuilian.

Liu Daxing's family lived in the new employee building of the Fuxin Tungsten Mine's First Work Area. The apartment was eighty square meters, with three bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen, and one bathroom. Although they had moved in just two years ago, and Yangjie had moved out of Liu Daxing's home five years earlier, Wang Yue'e still prepared a bedroom for Yangjie.

While the Liu Daxing family was having breakfast, Yangjie, who was lying in bed, was in a state of extreme excitement.

People say that a hero's son is a hero. Yangjie's father, Yang Xinhua, was a war hero, a brave soldier who had fought through countless battles. As Yang Xinhua's son, Yangjie had an independent personality, was generous and bold, and was meticulous and intelligent. He was smart and studious, and after passing the college entrance exam, he was admitted to the Economics Department of Yanjing University, where he received a modern higher education. Living in the capital for four years, he had a much stronger understanding and acceptance of the world than the average person.

However, what happened to him last night still left him in disbelief, as if he were in a dream.

Yangjie had been fascinated by crystals since he was five years old, when he first saw a piece of amethyst that Liu Daxing brought back from the mine. In Yangjie's bedroom, there were all kinds of crystals: colorless, gray, purple, yellow, pink, and smoky.

Liu Daxing knew that Yangjie liked crystals, so whenever he found a beautiful one at the mine, he would save it for Yangjie. Yesterday, when Yangjie went to the mine with Liu Daxing, Liu Daxing gave him a thumb-sized, crystal-clear, natural hexagonal transparent crystal.

Yangjie was captivated by the crystal's extreme clarity and transparency, which was like the finest glass. It felt cool and smooth to the touch, with sharp, well-defined edges, as if it had been polished by a laser. The six sides were equal in size and weight, making it almost perfect.

He played with the crystal all the way home, and after dinner, he returned to his bedroom and lay on the bed. He held the crystal between his thumb and index finger of his left hand, facing a light bulb, and placed it in front of his eyes to see through it.

However, while trying to check the crystal's transparency, he accidentally discovered that there was a faint light flowing inside it. Before he could react, he felt a sharp pain in his fingers, and then a beam of light shot out from the crystal and entered his eyes.

"Blood verification complete..."

"Meets system requirements."

"DNA verification complete..."

"Mongoloid race, Han Chinese lineage."

"Confirmed that this DNA is the ultimate control password for the system."

"Brainwave frequency scan complete..."

"Confirmed that this brainwave frequency is the control password for the system."

"Vocal system scan complete..."

"Confirmed that the host's voice is the backup control password for the system."

"Host program initiated..."

"Level one bio-energy supply mode activated."

...

A series of magnetic female voices suddenly echoed in Yangjie's mind. The voice was emotional, but the words it spoke left him in shock. He tried to throw away the crystal but found that his body was no longer under his control.

Lying in bed, Yangjie held the crystal, eyes wide open, and watched as the transparent crystal, which had already pierced his finger, slowly melted and entered his finger.

When the crystal was completely inside Yangjie's body, the wounds on his left thumb and index finger healed rapidly, and within moments, it was as if he had never been injured. What shocked Yangjie even more was that such a large crystal had entered his hand without any visible enlargement, as if it had vanished into his finger.

Sometimes, what you see is not always the truth. When the crystal completely disappeared, a bright light flashed in Yangjie's eyes. Then, his vision went black, and the familiar bedroom transformed into a series of data, with 0s and 1s filling his vision. If someone had been standing in front of Yangjie at that moment, they would have seen that his pupils were filled with binary computer data.

"Level one bio-energy supply established, system running normally, host program completed..."

The familiar female voice echoed in his mind again. Yangjie, now in complete darkness, was thoroughly panicked. He tried to shout for help, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make a sound. The intense hunger he felt made his head spin, and before he could react further, he tragically fainted.