Days without digital products

Lin Yuan, who was staring blankly at the iron bars, was very bored; he had no phone or computer, only a few uninteresting newspapers.

As a post-2000s kid, reading newspapers was clearly not part of his daily routine. But he had already read every article in the newspapers he had because he really didn't know what to do.

At this moment, Lin Yuan wished someone would come to interrogate him, even if it was just to chat with him. It was only his second day here, and he was already on the verge of breaking down.

His appetite also decreased, and he finally understood why animals kept in cages become depressed.

By the afternoon, the door to the detention room finally opened.

It was Zhang Yan.

Lin Yuan stood up to the railing like he had seen a savior.

"Are you here to interrogate me?"

Zhang Yan was stunned when he saw Lin Yuan asking expectantly if he was going to interrogate him.

"Bro... Brother, what's wrong with you?"

"I'm so bored, can you talk to me? I mean, why don't you interrogate me?"

"Ah~~ Okay, I just came to check on you because I was afraid you were too bored. Most people really can't stand being alone in a small space for a long time."

"Then hurry up, interrogate me quickly."

Zhang Yan then sniffed, "Brother, well, you should at least pretend a little, don't let people think we're too familiar. I'll have someone take you to the interrogation room right away."

This was the first time Lin Yuan had ever looked forward to sitting on that iron chair so much.

In the interrogation room.

Zhang Yan found a random excuse to replace his partner with Old Mo, and then Old Mo was too busy and just showed his face before disappearing.

Then she turned around and turned off the upright camera. "The camera on top doesn't record sound, so we can talk freely, but remember to manage your expressions well."

"I understand." Lin Yuan imagined what it would be like if the two of them burst into laughter during an interrogation in the interrogation room; even the surveillance cameras probably couldn't stand it.

Lin Yuan glanced at the camera on top. The system indeed hadn't marked it, and when Lin Yuan tried to summon the system, he found he couldn't mark it even if he wanted to.

From this perspective, the system still had some sense of propriety—it knew some places shouldn't be spied upon.

In this regard, the system exhibited the characteristics of a program—acting in a programmatic manner.

Simply put, the system's marking of cameras had a clear, predetermined logic: only mark cameras in dining establishments.

This was naturally for Lin Yuan's need to iterate the takeout algorithm.

At the same time, under this predetermined logic, the system often acted erratically—randomly and autonomously marking cameras in dining establishments, which led to Lin Yuan's current predicament.

These two points perfectly matched the expected behavior of a program—it would absolutely not execute anything outside the scope of its code settings, and within the scope of its code settings, bugs were always inevitable.

Therefore, Lin Yuan suddenly felt: This damn system is probably just a program beyond the current scope of human technology.

However, he had no time to think about these things now; this broken system wouldn't even get him VR movies or anything like that.

Lin Yuan believed this was a piece of cake for the system, for example, directly projecting images onto his retina, just like wearing Apple's latest Vision product. Then he could quietly lie in the corner of the detention room, staring blankly, occasionally chuckling because he was secretly watching movies played by the system.

However, this broken system did absolutely nothing. Even when its host was about to die of boredom, it didn't bother to create some fun.

Lin Yuan quickly collected his thoughts and looked at the camera standing in front of him. "Will it be okay if this thing is turned off?"

Zhang Yan raised an eyebrow. "I'll just say I accidentally turned it off."

Lin Yuan thought for a moment, "That's true, cameras occasionally malfunction anyway."

"Uh..." Zhang Yan was a bit speechless by him. "Brother, you shouldn't say that."

"So, when do you think I'll be able to get out?"

"In another two days, this case is almost finished. Oh, by the way, Brother, you can just call me by my given name privately."

Zhang Yan was very straightforward, and Lin Yuan was too lazy to be coy.

"Can I trouble you with something?"

"Brother, tell me. But giving you a cell phone or laptop is absolutely out of the question."

"I know. Can you please tell my girlfriend for me? She's timid, so please let her know I'm safe."

"Oh right, I was the one who sent Brother's girlfriend home. She was almost crying the whole way. I'll call her for you right now."

"Xia Ye's number is..."

"No need, I can look it up."

Zhang Yan said and walked out.

In a short while, she returned.

"Brother, um... your girlfriend, she..."

"What happened to Xia Ye?"

"I just called her, and the community police answered. Your girlfriend went to the original station to look for you, and when she couldn't find you, she cried there and refused to leave, so our people had to restrain her."

"Ah? What?" Lin Yuan immediately became worried. "What exactly happened?"

"Our people said she was like a child looking for her parents, sitting on the ground crying loudly, demanding that we return her boyfriend."

Lin Yuan hadn't expected Xia Ye to have the guts to do something like that. But then again, he couldn't expect too much from that girl when she encountered such things; crying and demanding her boyfriend was probably her limit.

Lin Yuan had been transferred to this specialized internet fraud handling facility the day before yesterday, so Xia Ye naturally found nothing when she went to the original place to look for him.

"Couldn't you have told her where I was?"

"I'm not very clear either. Maybe our people saw that she wasn't your family member and didn't pay much attention to her. Who knew she would just sit on the ground and cry. But don't worry, I've already made arrangements; it's not a big deal. I'll go over there in a bit and personally comfort her for you."

"Alright." Lin Yuan couldn't help but laugh. His wife had certainly given him a surprise.

"Then I'll trouble you later."

"Brother, you're welcome. If there are any books you want to read, I can bring them over for you. Reading books is allowed."

Aside from computer-related reference books, Lin Yuan didn't seem to have read any other physical books. Because of Xia Ye's interlude, he was reminiscing as he caressed the Bagua red string amulet she had given him on his wrist.

His fingers touched the exquisite small Bagua wooden plaque, and he thought of what Dean Li had mentioned to him—that there is Yin and Yang in the world, and there is Qian and Kun in handling affairs.

So Lin Yuan simply said, "Help me find a book about the book of changes. Anything, as long as it's related."

He figured that besides his current isolated state, he probably wouldn't have the leisure to read such books afterward. Moreover, he had a vague feeling—after witnessing the vague and real ways the three big figures handled things the night before last, he always felt that he might need to seek answers from ancient wisdom.

"Brother, you're so young, but you like reading those things?" Zhang Yan felt that the book of changes sounded very mysterious.

"It's not exactly 'liking to read'." Lin Yuan said profoundly, "As the saying goes, when one is imprisoned and isolated from the world, it is a good time to wholeheartedly seek the Dao." Of course, he was deliberately putting on this act.

But it completely confused Zhang Yan. 'Brother isn't much older than me, but he always seems so mysterious. I must consult him more.'

Since Xia Ye was still being restrained for causing trouble, Zhang Yan didn't stay long. She chatted with Lin Yuan for a bit and then rushed off to check on Lin Yuan's wife.