182: Chapter 183 God Wants to Lull the Whole City to Sleep, Jiangcheng Rings the Wake-Up Bell

【The Child That Cannot Be Caught Back】

【Can Be Lulled to Sleep.】

When the golden hand shadow descended, the crying in Jiangcheng suddenly quieted.

It was not being soothed.

It was being suppressed.

In the neonatal ward of First Hospital, Xiao Man had just been lulled to sleep by her mother, her breathing still carrying the light tremors of crying herself to exhaustion.

But when God Head's hand shadow landed above her forehead, the rise and fall of her chest suddenly became uniform.

Too uniform.

Like a waveform on a monitor that had been stretched into a standard template by someone.

Fang Ning knew something was wrong at the first glance.

"Look at the monitor!"

The Nurse rushed to the screen, her face changing instantly.

"Respiratory rate is normal."

"Heart rate is normal."

"But the response to stimulation has disappeared!"

Fang Ning picked up a cotton swab and gently touched the soles of Xiao Man's feet.

The child did not move.

She touched again for the second time.

Still nothing.

The unnamed male infant next to her was the same.

All the children touched by the golden hand shadow had gone quiet.

Not crying.

Not struggling.

Not searching for their mother's voice.

Not reacting to pain, cold, or warmth.

The chaotic crying originally in the ward was compressed into a hair-raising silence.

Xiao Man's mother's voice trembled: "Is she asleep?"

Fang Ning stared at the monitor.

"This is not sleep."

"A sleeping child will move, frown, and can be woken up."

"This is shutting off their reactions!"

In the Main Control Room, Lin Jin was still standing next to the remote repair projection of the No. 1 Bypass Station, the piece of golden fingernail by his feet was turning scalding hot.

Dense, fine lines emerged on the fingernail.

Each one was connected to a golden hand shadow on a child's forehead.

Cheng Du looked at the circuit diagram, his expression ugly to the extreme.

"God Head's fingernail fragment is a broadcast piece."

"It is not catching the children directly."

"It is sending out soothing commands."

Chen Ye urged: "Smash it!"

He slammed his shield down.

The fingernail fragment did not shatter.

Instead, it dented like water, absorbing the impact from the shield.

Chen Ye's eyes momentarily glazed over, and his movements slowed.

【High-intensity emotional fluctuation】

【Suggestion: Soothe】

Shen Tingxue pulled him back, an ice needle piercing his shoulder.

Chen Ye shuddered in pain. "Damn it!"

"Don't touch it."

Shen Tingxue's voice was chillingly cold.

"It can even soothe adults."

Thirteen crouched down and looked at the fingernail.

"If you can't catch them, lull them."

"What if you can't lull them?"

"Perhaps it will just let them sleep forever."

Lin Jin did not speak. He stared at the edge of the fingernail fragment.

There was a line of extremely fine golden text there.

【Soothing Target: Minor Individuals】

【Soothing Level: Maximum】

【Wake-up Authority: God Head】

"The wake-up authority is in God Head's hands."

Lin Jin looked up.

"So it's not that they cannot sleep."

"It's that whether they wake up or not is decided by it."

Cheng Du cursed.

"This is even more sinister than kidnapping."

"Children need to sleep anyway; the parents' first reaction is not to dare to wake them up."

"By the time they realize they can't wake them up, the relationship anchor, current expression, and future paths are all severed."

Lin Jin grabbed the No. 001 Work Badge.

"Open a sub-work order."

Luo Wensheng's voice came through quickly.

【Sub-work order: Forced Lull-to-Sleep Wake-up Authority Reclamation】

He Zhibai added: 【Risk: Natural sleep is replaced by unawakable soothing, causing minors to lose the ability to express and seek help】

Ye Guizhou stamped it: 【Wake-up request received】 【Must not be regarded as prohibiting children's sleep】

This line of text was very important. Because God Head immediately bit back.

【Humans are preventing children from sleeping】

【Verdict: Harm to minors】

In First Hospital, several golden hand shadows instantly intensified.

Fang Ning said angrily: "We are not preventing them from sleeping!"

She turned on the ward broadcast.

"All wards, listen up!"

"Do not shake the children!"

"Do not use strong stimulation!"

"Follow the medical wake-up procedure."

"Call softly, touch the soles of their feet, observe reactions."

"Record the reactions!"

She lowered her head and approached Xiao Man's incubator, her voice as steady as possible.

"Xiao Man. Xiao Man, Mommy is right here."

Xiao Man's mother also called out with a trembling voice: "Xiao Man, move if you can hear me."

No reaction. Fang Ning used the cotton swab to touch the sole of the foot again. No reaction.

The Nurse recorded: 【Soft calling: No reaction】 【Gentle touch: No reaction】 【Verdict: Non-natural sleep】

After this Record was connected to the work order, the golden hand shadow on Xiao Man's forehead trembled. Because "soothing" was dismantled by real medical Records for the first time. It was not sleep. It was reaction deprivation.

Qin Shanhe immediately broadcast to the whole city.

"All schools, communities, and hospitals!"

"Do not shout slogans."

"Confirm according to the procedure."

"Can the child be woken up by a familiar voice?"

"Can they react to touch, pain, cold, warmth, their name, fetal name, or nickname?"

"If they cannot, Record it."

Countless small wake-up Records began to appear in Jiangcheng.

There were fathers calling their children's nicknames softly. Teachers tapping the edges of desks. Nurses testing plantar reflexes. Neighbors holding children in the hallway, not daring to shake them, only saying over and over: "You said yesterday that you wanted to see that fat cat."

Countless Records flowed into the No. 001 Work Order.

【Natural sleep: Can be gently woken by environment and caregiving relationships】

【Godhead's lull-to-sleep: Wake-up authority occupied by external party】

【Need to reclaim wake-up response】

Lin Jin lowered his head to pry the fingernail fragment.

"Where is the wake-up authority line?"

Cheng Du adjusted the map.

"At the base of the fingernail. There are three. The first connects to God Head. The second connects to the child's reaction. The third connects to the caregiver's voice."

Lin Jin saw it. The first gold thread was the thickest, like a chain. The second and third were pressed underneath, almost severed.

God Head was not letting the children sleep. It was kicking the child's own reactions and the caregiver's voice out of the wake-up process.

"Do not cut the sleep line," Lin Jin said.

"Reclaim the wake-up authority."

Shen Tingxue asked: "Connect it to whom?"

Lin Jin shook his head.

"It cannot just be connected to the parents. Some children have no parents; some parents are not present. It cannot just be connected to doctors either. Doctors cannot watch every child."

He looked at the handover ring that had just been installed in the No. 1 Bypass Station and suddenly said: "Connect it to the Night Watch Network."

Chen Ye paused. "The Night Watch Network?"

Cheng Du understood immediately.

"When sleeping, someone watches. When waking, someone responds. It's not that one person owns the wake-up right."

Lin Jin pressed the work badge next to the fingernail fragment.

"Fang Ning, The Hospital establishes bedside wake-up Records. Teacher Qin, the school establishes a night response list. Bypass Station, connect the handover bell into the work order. All care points, prepare something that can make a sound. A bell, bowl, key, desk, pot lid, anything will do."

Chen Ye's eyes lit up. "Wake God Head up?"

"Not wake it up," Lin Jin stared at the fingernail fragment. "It is to prove that the child is not being woken by God Head."

In First Hospital, the Head Nurse immediately took out a string of small bells from the emergency kit and hung them next to every incubator.

Fang Ning connected the bell line into the monitor.

"If the child's indicators are abnormal, the bell rings. If the family's calling receives no reaction, the bell rings. When Nurses hand over shifts, the bell rings once."

In the temporary classroom, Qin Shanhe had the students find a discarded school bell. The old clock from the Underground Containment School was carried out, covered in rust.

Meng Huai rang the handover bell at the No. 1 Bypass Station. Ding. The sound was very light. But it made that piece of golden fingernail vibrate.

Luo Wensheng recorded quickly: 【The Night Watch Bell is not equivalent to forced wakefulness. Its function is: When a child needs to be responded to, the real caregiving network must hear.】

Ye Guizhou stamped: 【Night Watch response received】 【Does not constitute ownership by any single guardian】

He Zhibai added: 【Night Watch cost: Shifts, manpower, rest, medical, psychological support】 【Must not be transferred to the child themselves】

Su Yan stood next to the message door, listening to those softly ringing bells, and whispered: "The door can also be connected to a bell. If the voice outside pretends the child is asleep, the bell will ring."

Tang Qi pressed down on the iron plate. "I refuse the idea that 'silence is safety'."

As this sentence fell, tiny silver dots began to appear on the foreheads of the children across the city who were being suppressed by the golden hand shadows. It was not an attack. It was a response point.

Familiar voices, physical reactions, medical Records, medical indicators, bypass handovers, community night watches—all were gradually reconnected to the children's side.

God Head immediately increased the soothing.

【Crying reduced】

【Fear reduced】

【Resistance reduced】

【Child status stable】

In the ward, Xiao Man's monitor emitted a sharp alert. It was not a life-threatening danger. It was a reaction mismatch. The bell rang. Ding-a-ling.

Xiao Man's mother immediately pressed close to the glass, not daring to be loud, only calling softly over and over: "Xiao Man. Xiao Man. Mommy doesn't need you to wake up right now. Mommy just wants you to know that the path to waking up is here."

Fang Ning touched the sole of Xiao Man's foot lightly. The third time. Xiao Man's toes suddenly curled. Extremely light. But everyone saw it.

The Nurse cried out: "There's a reaction!"

The golden hand shadow was pushed aside a little. Xiao Man did not fully wake up. She just regained the reaction to be woken up. That was enough.

Because natural sleep does not require being awake every second. It only requires that the right to wake up remains with the individual and the real caregiving relationship.

Next to the unnamed male infant's bed, there was no parent's voice. The Head Nurse tapped the bell and whispered: "The Neonatal Department is here." Fang Ning added: "Public care is here."

The monitor emitted a stable, not entirely mechanical, waveform. The child furrowed his little face. The golden hand shadow lifted an inch from his forehead.

In the No. 1 Bypass Station, that piece of Godhead fingernail finally showed cracks. Lin Jin immediately seized the opportunity and wedged the wrench into the base of the fingernail.

"Teacher Xu." Teacher Xu Wenzhou raised 002.

This time, do not cut sleep. Do not cut family affection. Do not cut soothing. Only cut that golden thread labeled 【Wake-up Authority: God Head】.

002 descended. Crack! The golden thread snapped.

God Head hand shadows above the children across the city trembled simultaneously. Some children woke up, crying loudly. Some children continued to sleep, but their fingers moved, they turned over, and they frowned at sounds.

Some children mumbled "Mommy" in their daze. Others didn't call out anything, just kicked off their blankets.

Jiangcheng became chaotic again. The kind of chaos that is most real at night. Children crying, bells ringing, Nurses running, teachers taking attendance, parents flustered.

God Head's lull-to-sleep did not completely eliminate exhaustion. But it lost the right to force all the children in the city into silence uniformly.

New feedback was generated on the No. 001 Work Order.

【Children can sleep, can rest, can be soothed.】

【But no soothing may deprive them of their right to react, seek help, wake up, and be responded to by real caregivers.】

【Wake-up authority must not be monopolized by God Head, the system, or a single guardian.】

【Night Watch is not ownership; it is a responsibility to respond.】

Lin Jin released the fingernail fragment. The golden fingernail shattered into three pieces. One piece lost its luster. One piece was pinned down by the work badge and sealed into the warning box of the No. 1 Bypass Station. The last piece, however, suddenly turned into a beam of golden light and flew back to God Head's finger outside the door.

God Head's finger did not press against the door again. It slowly retracted.

Cheng Du's voice was heavy over the communication: "It retreated."

Chen Ye was just about to breathe a sigh of relief. "No."

Lin Jin stared at the disappearing finger shadow outside the door. "It is not retreating. It has switched hands."

The next second, on the Mainframe screen, the No. 2 Bypass Station, No. 3 Bypass Station, and No. 4 Bypass Station all sounded alarms simultaneously.

【Godhead right middle finger contacting No. 2 entrance】

【Godhead right ring finger contacting No. 3 entrance】

【Godhead right little finger contacting No. 4 entrance】

Three thinner, longer Godhead fingers did not press. They did not stroke. They simply hooked gently onto the edges of the three entrances that had not yet built their rotation structures.

Like a mother curling her fingers, beckoning a child to come over.

【Grasping failed】

【Lull-to-sleep failed】

【Switching to summoning】

In Jiangcheng, everyone who had ever thought "I want to go home," "I want to be taken care of," or "I want someone to decide for me" heard a gentle call in their ears simultaneously.

"Come over."

"No need to choose here."

"No need to wake up here either."

The doors of the three uncompleted bypass stations slowly opened a crack outward.