Nono gently stroked the edge of the table, and mechanical sounds emanated from the wall. The wall opened, and a bronze automaton moved along a track, kneeling by the table. In its hands was a tray filled with dried and nearly unrecognizable grapes.
“So high-tech? The Dragon King was a techie!” Lu Mingfei said, dumbfounded.
Nono reached into the bronze tray, delicately picking up a bunch of what she imagined were fresh grapes and offered them to Lu Mingfei.
Now that things had gotten to this point, Lu Mingfei had no choice but to play along. He took the “grapes” and whispered, “Thank you.”
“Brother.” A voice seemed to echo behind them.
Lu Mingfei stiffened, jerking his head around. There was nothing—just the flickering of the lamp.
“Two people, both boys… lived here,” Nono said softly. “One was taller than the other… so his robe was longer. They were probably brothers. The younger one was quiet, had trouble moving… so the older brother created things to make life easier for him,” Nono closed her eyes and thought for a long time. “They spent a lot of time in this room. The younger brother wrote while the older brother sat across the table watching him… In spring, the sunlight would have been beautiful since the window faced the sun… In winter, they would light a brazier and sit around it to stay warm… The older brother loved his younger brother, but he was also very strict… very lonely… often falling into long silences at sunset.”
Nono slowly opened her eyes. “This is Dragon King Norton’s bedroom. I’m sure of it.”
“You’re guessing, aren’t you?”
“No, it’s profiling. It’s a method used in criminal psychology—by collecting evidence, you understand the psychology behind the crime, replicating the information about it. There are a lot of details left behind in this room: the two identical robes, the automated mechanisms, the stack of paper, the low table… If you put yourself in the shoes of the original occupants, you’ll slowly start to understand their thoughts. It’s called profiling. For some reason, I’ve always been good at it. No one taught me—I just naturally figured out, when I was little, if I stayed in a room for a few hours, I could tell what kind of person lived there.” Nono said, “Do you remember the first time we met?”
Lu Mingfei was stunned, then nodded.
“Have you ever wondered why I helped you? I’m not the type to meddle in others’ business. Even Caesar says I’m a cold person.”
“Yeah, I was curious,” Lu Mingfei admitted.
“Because when I first saw you, you felt familiar to me. Before I walked over, I stood far away and watched you cry for a long time. I could imagine what kind of person you were—facing an interview, but you didn’t dress up, and your hair was barely combed, which showed that you didn’t really care about it. There was dust on your butt, meaning you were used to sitting on the ground, either in the street or… maybe on a rooftop?”
Lu Mingfei’s eyes widened. She was right. It had been a rooftop—he’d spent hours there the night before the interview.
“You always keep your head down, you must always be looking at a screen,” Nono said, closing her eyes slightly. “You use a laptop… You like someone, but she’s not your girlfriend—that’s something I could tell from your eyes. That’s how I knew what kind of person you are. Just like now, I can imagine what it was like when those two people lived here—it was warm and gentle, but also lonely.”
“But you said something about sunlight—how could you tell there was sunlight?” Lu Mingfei was bewildered.
“I can smell the sunlight here,” Nono whispered.
“So it’s fine if we just leave the bomb here, right?” Lu Mingfei said. “We’re running out of oxygen—wandering around isn’t going to help.”
“Yeah!” Nono nodded. “Let’s do that! This used to be where the Dragon King lived, and he probably valued it… maybe even returned here…”
“Hey! Stop scaring me! ‘Returned here’—what if the Dragon comes down right now? What do we say? ‘Hello, how are you, have you eaten?’ We’re here to blow things up, so let’s get moving!” Lu Mingfei hastily stopped her from pursuing such a terrible thought.
“You’re right, we’re here to do damage.”
Nono placed the black box she was carrying on the low table and opened the lid. The inside looked like a 19th-century radio device, with red liquid bubbling inside a blown glass tube, and a mess of tangled wires. Lu Mingfei was sure that whoever built this would definitely fail “Electrical Principles.”
“Don’t underestimate it. The equipment department usually makes reliable stuff, though sometimes the power can be a bit extreme. Since we can’t get Schneider’s approval, let’s set it for 45 minutes?” Nono turned the brass dial on the device, and a small red bulb began to flash.
“Hey! Don’t just press it like that, give people some time to prepare!” Lu Mingfei jumped up and started running out.
“We have enough time. The communication line got cut off, but it’s still outside. We just need to follow the line to get out. It only took 15 minutes to get in, plus 10 minutes to ascend—we’ll have 20 minutes left to play a round of Starcraft when we’re back on board.” As she walked past the small lamp on the table, she pulled out a diving knife from her waist. “Let’s take this as a souvenir.”
“What kind of weird taste do you have? Are you an irresponsible tourist?” Lu Mingfei asked.
“This place is about to disappear. All these traces of life, this house, everything will vanish. Even the smells that lingered here will be gone. Thinking about it that way, it feels right to keep a memento.” Nono grabbed the bronze maiden statue with one hand and froze.
The palace lamp came away easily—it wasn’t, as she had imagined, fused to the table below.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Mingfei asked.
Nono looked at him with a strange expression. “Use your brain…”
“Big brain or little brain?” Lu Mingfei said. “I always use my little brain—it helps me run faster.”
“This is just an ordinary lamp…” Nono said.
“So what if it’s an ordinary lamp?”
“Can an ordinary lamp burn for thousands of years? Who… refueled it?”
Lu Mingfei froze, his scalp tingling, like thousands of little bugs crawling all over it. His whole body shivered, and he suddenly looked up at the waterwheel they used as an elevator. The wheel was still spinning.