179: Chapter 180 Children can be loved, but not used as a means to soothe pain.

"Since the adults refuse to forget."

"Then let the children who love them—"

"Bear the pain for them."

God Head's voice was as gentle as a hand, softly covering the top of the entire Jiangcheng.

But where that hand fell, it was all golden threads.

In First Hospital, Xiao Man suddenly cried until she had no voice.

Her small chest heaved rapidly, her complexion turning from flushed to purple.

The [Wound Receipt] on her mother's wrist was turning into fine golden threads, drilling into her chest.

Fang Ning lunged over and immediately pressed the emergency button.

"Risk of newborn asphyxia!"

"Oxygen!"

The Nurse rushed in. Just as the oxygen mask was applied, Xiao Man's mother broke down and reached for the thread.

"Don't touch my daughter!"

Her fingers passed through the golden thread, and she shuddered in pain.

The golden thread did not break.

Instead, it extracted more things from her.

The fear of almost losing her child just now.

The pain of childbirth.

Family pressure.

The fear of how to raise the child in the future.

Those were all packed by the golden thread and sent toward the infant's chest.

[Kinship Love Established]

[Pain Transfer Object: Children]

[Intergenerational Pain Relief in Progress]

Fang Ning grabbed her hand.

"Don't grab it!"

"The more you grab it, the more it determines that you want the child to bear it for you!"

Xiao Man's mother froze.

"I didn't..."

"I know!"

Fang Ning's eyes were also red.

"But it doesn't care whether you did or not!"

Outside the ward, a seven-year-old boy suddenly clutched his head and knelt down.

The fear of "not being able to raise his daughter well" from his father was transferred by the golden thread.

The boy cried and shouted:

"Dad, I'll definitely be obedient in the future!"

"I won't spend money anymore!"

The father's face was pale; he rushed over but didn't dare to touch him.

Because as soon as he got close, the golden thread shone brighter.

On the street, a student suddenly felt the twenty years of regret from a teacher looking at the Underground Containment School, and curled up on the ground in pain.

In the temporary classroom, Gu Xinghe clutched his chest, as if pinned down by countless adults' "I didn't protect you well back then."

All the children in the city were being forced to provide pain relief for adults.

This was not sympathy.

This was robbery.

In the Main Control Room, Lin Jin watched the lines of pain transmission, his fingers almost digging into the wrench.

"The source."

Cheng Du had already pulled up the circuit diagram, his face ashen.

"Intergenerational pain relief pump."

"It didn't enter the memory bank."

"It entered the relationship network."

On the screen, the golden threads bypassed the Career System and drilled directly into kinship, teacher-student, guardianship, caretaking, and rescue relationships.

God Head didn't say "children should be sacrificed."

It said—

Children love you.

You also love children.

Then isn't it reasonable for the child to share a little pain for you?

Shen Tingxue said coldly:

"This is polluting love."

Lin Jin stared at the circuit diagram.

At the thickest part of the golden thread, there was a golden valve.

On the valve was written:

[Protection Relationships Can Be Converted into Pain Transfer Channels]

"That's it."

Cheng Du said:

"Don't forcefully break the relationship lines."

"If they break, the caregiving connection between child and adult will collapse together."

"Then don't cut the relationships."

Lin Jin pressed his No. 001 badge onto the console.

"Cut the transfer."

Luo Wensheng immediately opened a new page.

[Sub-work order: Intergenerational Pain Transfer Block]

He Zhibai added:

[Risk: Adult pain is offloaded to minors, forming implicit repayment]

Ye Guizhou stamped it:

[Block request received]

[Must not be regarded as severing kinship, teacher-student, and caregiving relationships]

Lin Jin connected to First Hospital.

"Fang Ning, save Xiao Man first."

"How to save her?"

Fang Ning's voice trembled with urgency.

"She isn't just experiencing normal asphyxia, it's excessive pain load!"

"Tell the mother not to grab the thread."

Lin Jin stared at the golden valve.

"Tell her to press her own Wound Receipt."

"Make it clear who this pain belongs to."

Fang Ning immediately turned to Xiao Man's mother.

"Press your wristband!"

"Look at the child and say it!"

The woman was shaking all over from crying, but she still pressed hard on the Wound Receipt on her wrist.

"This is my pain."

"It's not yours."

The golden thread paused.

She continued, her voice so broken it was almost inaudible:

"Mom is afraid of losing you."

"Mom is afraid she won't do a good job."

"But these are not things you need to carry for me."

"You just need to breathe."

"You just need to grow up."

"You don't have to make me not hurt."

The golden thread on Xiao Man's chest retreated an inch.

Fang Ning immediately administered oxygen.

"Continue!"

The woman knelt outside the incubator, her forehead against the glass.

"Mom will ask for help."

"Will learn."

"Will cry."

"And will hurt."

"But I won't give the pain to you."

Oxygen saturation slowly recovered.

Xiao Man finally let out a weak cry.

Not crying for anyone else.

Just crying for herself.

Fang Ning's tears almost fell, but she immediately broadcasted to the whole hospital:

"All family members, all teachers, all caregivers!"

"Don't grab the threads on the children!"

"Press your own Wound Receipt!"

"Say: This pain belongs to me, it is not given to the child!"

Qin Shanhe's broadcast connected to the whole city.

"Adults, listen up."

"Don't say 'It's all for your own good'."

"Don't say 'If you were more sensible, I wouldn't hurt'."

"Don't say 'I'm suffering so much all because of you'."

"Now, say only one thing."

"This is my pain."

"I will find adults to deal with it together."

"It is not for the child to pay it back for me."

This sentence, like an uneven order, spread throughout Jiangcheng.

On the street, that father knelt in front of his seven-year-old son, not hugging him, just pressing the Wound Receipt on his own chest.

"Dad is afraid of having no money."

"Afraid of not being able to give you a good life."

"But this is not something you should hurt for."

"You can spend money to buy notebooks."

"You can also want candy."

"Dad's fear, Dad will go and figure it out with other adults."

The golden thread on the boy slowly receded.

He looked up, crying so hard his nose was running.

"Then can I be afraid?"

The father froze, tears falling instantly.

"You can."

"Your fear is yours."

"Dad will accompany you, not use mine to suppress you."

In the temporary classroom, Qin Shanhe stood in front of all the old students.

He didn't say "I'm sorry to you all" to pressure them again.

Instead, he pressed his own Wound Receipt.

"My regret belongs to me."

"You can question me."

"You can choose not to forgive."

"But you don't have to feel pain for me to prove how much I love my students."

The golden thread on Gu Xinghe's chest loosened.

The old students caught their breath one by one.

Some cried.

Some cursed.

Some said "I don't want to listen for now."

Luo Wensheng recorded all of this.

[Children may know adults' pain, but must not bear adults' pain.]

[Adults may express a need for help, but must not package pain as a debt of love.]

[Companionship is not substituting for injury.]

God Head's intergenerational pain relief pump began to vibrate.

Because it could no longer directly convert "love" into "bearing pain for you."

But many children still couldn't speak out.

Newborns couldn't respond.

The severely injured couldn't express themselves.

Children without guardians couldn't be protected by parents.

The golden thread turned and surged toward the nameless baby boy in First Hospital.

He had no parents to press a Wound Receipt.

So God Head determined:

[No clear adult pain ownership]

[Can bear public pain overflow]

Fang Ning was so angry her voice changed.

"Why!"

Lin Jin looked toward the console.

"Public pain overflow?"

He Zhibai's face was pale.

"It throws the pain that no one claims onto the children who have the least relationship protection."

"Then find an adult container for the public pain."

Chen Ye immediately patted his chest.

"Throw it on me!"

Lin Jin looked at him sharply.

"Don't play the hero."

Chen Ye was anxious.

"Then what do we do?"

"It's not for one person to carry."

Lin Jin pushed his badge toward the center of the Mainframe.

"Make a public pain buffer station."

Cheng Du gritted his teeth:

"Materials?"

"Rest periods, medical Records, public ledgers, original sound recordings, bypass shift rosters." Lin Jin said.

"Let the pain stop in the adults' joint help-seeking system first."

"Not stop on the children."

Shen Tingxue's Ice Line constructed a temporary low-temperature ring.

Zhou Heng used the lightning needle to maintain the pulse.

Chen Ye removed the second pressure-bearing plate from the inside of his shield.

"Record this as a debt too."

He Zhibai wrote rapidly:

[Public pain buffer cost: psychological support, rest time, caregiving manpower, medical resources]

[Must not designate minors to repay]

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[Public help-seeking received]

[Does not constitute minor liability]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[Pain buffer station only temporarily stores help-seeking signals, does not possess the person's memories.]

[The person can retrieve, can be silent, can request companionship.]

Qin Shanhe broadcasted:

"All adult volunteer groups, report available caregiving time."

"It's not to bear pain for the child."

"It's to accompany the adult to keep the pain with the adult."

"I can take the night shift on the hotline."

"I can listen for ten minutes."

"I can do psychological first aid."

"I won't give advice, but I can sit there."

"I have a car, I can take people to The Hospital."

Records of adult support poured into the buffer station one by one.

The golden thread finally stopped in front of the nameless baby boy's chest and turned toward the temporary low-temperature ring.

The low-temperature ring vibrated violently.

It wasn't memories inside.

It was countless unspoken fears, regrets, guilt, and anger.

They were very heavy.

So heavy that Chen Ye's shield made a cracking sound.

So heavy that Shen Tingxue's face turned pale.

So heavy that the costs on He Zhibai's ledger climbed crazily.

But it didn't fall on the children.

Lin Jin gritted his teeth and inserted the wrench into the valve of the intergenerational pain relief pump.

"Teacher Xu!"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou raised 002.

"Cut which sentence?"

Lin Jin knocked on the valve.

Clang!

"Protection relationships."

Clang!

"Do not equal."

Clang!

"Pain transfer channels!"

002 fell.

Crack!

The golden valve cracked.

The golden threads on all the children in the city retreated at the same time.

The intergenerational pain relief pump burst with a piercing alarm.

[Pain cannot be transmitted down]

[Adult pain remains]

[Child bearing failed]

[Protection relationship transfer failed]

Lin Jin was covered in cold sweat, but he didn't stop.

He forcefully twisted the valve gear from [Transfer] to [Companionship].

New write-back generated.

[Adults can request help, companionship, treatment, and rest.]

[Minors can be informed of age-appropriate facts, can express feelings, can be protected.]

[Any kinship, teacher-student, guardianship, or rescue relationship must not be automatically converted into pain repayment.]

[Children can be loved, but not used for pain relief.]

In First Hospital, Xiao Man was tired of crying and finally fell asleep in her mother's hoarse soothing voice.

Next to the nameless baby boy's bedside card, a new line of text appeared.

[Under public care]

[Not bearing public pain]

Fang Ning leaned against the wall, her hands still shaking.

But she knew, this round was blocked.

In the Main Control Room, Lin Jin just released the valve when the screen suddenly went black for a moment.

God Head's counter-measure work order didn't continue to flip pages.

It stopped.

As if it finally realized that stealing names, stealing parents, stealing futures, and stealing pain all failed to press Jiangcheng back into the shape it wanted.

A long time later, a sentence slowly appeared on the golden screen.

[Humanity refuses optimization]

[Humanity refuses pain relief]

[Humanity refuses substitute naming]

[Determination: System core education failed]

Cheng Du's face changed.

"This sentence is wrong."

The next second, all the career badges above Jiangcheng extinguished for a moment.

It wasn't a shutdown.

It was God Head's core cutting off teaching-style repair and entering a more fundamental processing mode.

[Switching to final maintenance plan]

[Fault source: Human autonomous will continues to generate deviations]

[Maintenance plan: Remove autonomous will]

[Execution object: All professionals, non-professionals, children, return applicants, abyss contractors]

[Execution method: Retain body, retain career, retain life functions]

[Delete: Choice impulse]

Throughout Jiangcheng, a tiny golden needle lit up behind everyone's head.

God Head said gently:

"Since you choose to let you be in so much pain."

"Then there is no need to choose anymore."