Chapter 50 Wash Away the Clever Ones First

Hera kept a stiff face as she leaned back against the chair, her exhaustion laced with unyielding annoyance.

She understood that if she immediately showed ungrudging submission to Cydonia’s despicable actions, it would instead appear abnormal.

Cydonia was far too familiar with how strong-willed Hera’s personality was. Therefore, she had to throw a tantrum like an uncooperative beast of burden, venting enough anger that Cydonia would find it difficult to suspect her.

The awkward silence did not linger for long before Cydonia smiled. "Come on, I know that, just like me, you dislike being manipulated through dirty tricks..."

"Yes!" Hera interrupted him with a rigid tone. "You could manipulate my body this time just like Shih-hu, treating me however you pleased like a mere robot. What about next time?"

"There won't be a next time, I promise."

"I feel miserable, let me be angry for a while! I—I feel like throwing up!"

Hera stood up, ran to the railing, and retched toward the cliff.

Cydonia did not pay too much attention to his assistant's physiological reaction. Instead, he narrowed his eyes to look at the position of the sun, then got up and walked into a private dining room deep within the restaurant.

That was one of his communication points with the extrasolar civilization.

An extrasolar civilization had sent a probe into the solar system, disguised as a comet. Astronomers had observed it as usual and named it Themis, after one of the twelve Titans in Greek mythology, symbolizing order and the goddess of justice.

As a higher-dimensional civilization, disguising itself from Earth's civilization was not difficult.

Neither was contacting a human traitor like Cydonia.

Mount Faber in Singapore, Mount Sumbing in Central Java, Indonesia, and Sarawak in East Malaysia were the three locations where Cydonia could currently contact Themis during specific seasonal alignments with the Sun-Earth geometry.

Cydonia’s capital empire had businesses deploying large quantities of embodied robots to the civilian market in Singapore, and nuclear power plants investing in AI power supply projects in Indonesia and Malaysia. Thus, his frequent travels among these three locations appeared entirely normal.

Hera took a sip of warm water and stared at the door Cydonia had closed behind him.

Calling the police now would be completely useless. Cydonia had a hundred ways to destroy the communication point before the police arrived, making it look like nothing more than an ordinary fire caused by an electrical short circuit.

In less than half an hour, Cydonia walked out.

"You've successfully conceived, which is good news. I just went to report it to the Commander. Today's clearing of the venue was originally meant to celebrate just the two of us up here. I didn't expect the incident with Fan Zhiheng to spoil the mood a bit."

"Whatever, I can't keep anything down anyway." Hera still wore an irritated expression, avoiding eye contact with Cydonia.

However, as the sun sank below the horizon of the Singapore Strait, she spoke up: "Fan Zhiheng was invited to Singapore by us. No matter how secure the private estate is, there are surveillance cameras all the way from Changi Airport to Sentosa. The police are bound to summon us, aren't they?"

Hera had regained some of her professional vigilance, and Cydonia was quite satisfied with this.

He picked up the decanter, poured himself half a glass of 2018 Pétrus, and said unhurriedly, "We didn't kill him, so what do we have to be afraid of? Not only are we not afraid, but we will also arrange his funeral at the crematorium. Leave that alone."

Hera said, "We still need to notify his family, don't we? As far as I know, Dr. Fan has relatives in his hometown in China who help take care of his mother in a nursing home. Besides, didn't he mention this morning that he was engaged? We need to contact that lady."

Cydonia nodded. "Have someone else handle it. Besides the suicide note, the police also found a receipt from Cartier at Marina Bay Sands, paid for with Fan Zhiheng's international credit card. The pinyin engraved on the ring is Zhu Feng. Perhaps it's his fiancée. Have you ever heard him murmur this name?"

"Surname Feng?"

"Perhaps surnamed Zhu."

Hera shook her head. "No impression."

Yet in her heart, she knew just how meticulous a person Fan Zhiheng was, having simultaneously ordered a ring from Cartier to fabricate a nonexistent fiancée.

Zhu Feng... As fellow natives of Zhenhai, both she and Fan Zhiheng knew that this female compatriot who lived a century ago represented bravery and steadfastness while deep in enemy territory.

Hera took another sip of warm water and continued asking about work in a freezing tone: "Since Dr. Fan has met with an accident, then... next, for the research on the female robots, will we rely on that other expert you invited? Who is it? Do I know them?"

Cydonia replied gently, "You can meet them right now. Shall I call him up the mountain to join us for dinner? You're not allowed to put on a long face, though."

Hera muttered a sullen "Hmm" internally, thinking: Cydonia had relied on her heavily for five or six years, and she was familiar with every scientist on the secret roster available for doing dirty work. The person arriving this time seemed to be someone Cydonia had been keeping hidden.

Could it be related to the "assassination plan" mentioned in Fan Zhiheng's last words?

A quarter of an hour later, the driver brought the person up.

"This is Li Xu, Li as in wood, Xu as in the rising sun," Cydonia said, leaning back in his chair as he made the introduction.

The man named Li Xu was in his thirties, with single eyelids, a flat bridge of the nose, and a square face—the appearance of an ordinary East Asian man. He exchanged a few polite pleasantries with Hera, speaking Mandarin with a fairly standard Beijing accent.

However, Cydonia did not elaborate further on his background, simply motioning to the waiter to serve the dishes.

"Dr. Li, try this pork belly shipped this morning straight from Sarawak. My neighbors near my Sentosa estate are rather strict about pork, so we came up here to eat instead. Singapore has no farms and relies entirely on imported pork; the meat from Sarawak in East Malaysia is the best."

Playing the role of a host treating scholars with utmost courtesy, Cydonia personally grilled two slices of pork belly for Li Xu and placed them on the plate in front of him.

Hera was deeply relieved that she experienced no morning sickness nausea from the greasy smell of pork fat; she simply lacked the appetite to put it in her mouth. This allowed her to remain completely focused at the table, observing this Li Xu.

Li Xu swallowed the pork belly with a flattered expression and praised, "It's even more delicious than the native country pork back home. Oh, and this soybean paste is also very authentic."

Loves eating iron-plate grilled pork belly, and is quite picky about soybean paste... Hera made a mental note of it.

Immediately afterward, a hint of cautious probing blended into Li Xu's expression: "President Cydonia, I heard Dr. Fan committed suicide. Hopefully, it wasn't caused by the brain-computer chip I implanted in him."

Cydonia took a sip of Pétrus and waved a hand. "This matter has nothing to do with you. Just focus on figuring out the female robot Hera captured. Oh, and Hera, you will need to assist Dr. Li later in adjusting some of the embodied robots we've deployed in several markets. We ran a test this morning; you should have felt it while you were at Santa Maria Hospital."

Hera raised her eyes, stared at Cydonia, and asked hesitantly, "Was it... testing the modifications to the ultrasound robots? All the ultrasound robots in the hospital malfunctioned."

Cydonia smiled smugly and pursed his lips. "That's right. Today, they were just unable to diagnose patients. Later on, though, their companions will be the ones costing people their lives."

Hera feigned astonishment. "It's only been a few years since the Commander sent the probes, and the purging is starting already? Our product coverage is still so small!"

"Naturally, it's still far from time to clear out the common folk, and they're getting stupider generation by generation anyway. For now, let's clear out the ones who still have clear minds and have set their sights on us."

Cydonia swirled his wine glass and said, looking at Li Xu.