Inside the Bamboo House, Ruan Mei easily entered the folded space left behind by Qi Zhimu.
The automaton operated using his memories as its power source, which meant there had to be relevant records.
Unless her student had operated against regulations at the risk of losing his memories, there had to be a backup for the transmission of memory data.
The automaton's database didn't have the relevant memories, so she would search for them herself.
"Was it formatted..."
It didn't matter; it wouldn't stop her.
Ruan Mei forcefully suppressed the chaotic thoughts in her heart, focused her mind, and placed her slender fingers over the central console.
Time passed second by second as a flood of data constantly flashed across the screen.
After an unknown amount of time, Ruan Mei lightly tapped the final key, successfully recovering all the deleted data.
Among them was Qi Zhimu's digitized memory backup.
For her, this only required time; there was no difficulty involved.
Ultimately, almost all the knowledge in Qi Zhimu's head originated from her teachings.
Selecting the period one year before Qi Zhimu's death, she immediately began to review it.
Then, she discovered an unavoidable problem.
Digitized memories could only be used for viewing; aside from the process itself, everything was silent.
There was no voice of his, no thoughts of his.
It was like watching a long movie of a person's life without any dubbing or subtitles for character dialogue.
To give these memories sound and thought, one had to go through the original owner or find a carrier medium.
Although Ruan Mei could use these memories to find the process of Qi Zhimu creating the automaton before his death, she still couldn't read why he had done so.
He didn't owe her anything. All emotional ties should have been severed with his death. Why leave behind an automaton to maintain the rope connecting their relationship?
Simply because she was his teacher, the person who had pulled him back from the brink of death?
Ruan Mei couldn't understand it.
Was it respect and love for a teacher?
She couldn't even remember the names, let alone the faces, of the teachers who had taught her knowledge when she was a child.
All respect and love became completely frozen in the past once there was no more interaction.
The love a student has for a teacher is fundamentally incomparable to the love between family members.
Ruan Mei believed she had long since understood love.
Her life from childhood to adulthood was inseparable from love, so she could detect the subtle differences in love, as well as its different scents.
She wasn't AMu's family. AMu's love for her should be the same as her own love for her teachers.
Ruan Mei gradually fell into a state of confusion.
Qi Zhimu's behavior was once again unexpected and difficult to understand.
It was exactly the same as when he was eighteen and had suddenly touched her foot.
She had no similar experience and could only attribute it to a living being's instinctive desire for the opposite sex, even though such behavior was wrong given their relationship.
Such a desire shouldn't exist between a student and a teacher.
So, after a brief consideration, she corrected it.
After being placed in solitary confinement for a few days, AMu didn't offend again, becoming a satisfactory and disciplined student.
Until that time when AMu took it upon himself to delete her data, advising her to stop her so-called forbidden research.
But ultimately, that was just the instinctive, cautious behavior of a living being toward something unknown.
It was concern, a type of love a student has for a teacher.
This didn't count as a mistake, so she didn't punish AMu.
Their philosophies were incompatible, and his comprehension and aptitude made it difficult for him to master more complex knowledge. Forcing AMu to stay would have been bad for both parties.
With the knowledge he currently possessed, he could live a colorful life in the vast majority of world civilizations.
In order to fully devote herself to her research, she allowed him to complete his apprenticeship.
Filled with confusion, Ruan Mei looked at the screen, then at the central console.
Since the original owner was dead, the only remaining option was to find a carrier medium.
Ruan Mei immediately thought of the automaton.
Implanting the memories into the automaton's core was equivalent to finding a carrier medium in a roundabout way, and then modifying some programs would allow them to be viewed.
There were drawbacks; it was very inefficient.
The Memokeepers of the Garden of Recollection might have highly efficient methods, or perhaps through some Curios.
The option of using the automaton as a carrier was unsatisfactory, so that only left—
Becoming the carrier herself.
Ruan Mei acted as soon as the thought occurred to her.
If one wasn't from the path of Remembrance, carrying another's memories was no child's play; the difficulty was high, and the risk factor was even higher.
If handled improperly, at best, it would lead to mental confusion, making it impossible to tell who one really was.
The Cremators of the Remembrance path had the ability to forge memories and implant them into a target's brain, making them become another person based on those false memories.
The concepts between the two were quite similar.
At worst, memory disorder could lead to the risk of brain nerve damage.
Fortunately, her research direction already involved memory; this was an indispensable link if she wanted to resurrect her parents.
Her fingers tapped rapidly on the central console keys as Ruan Mei quickly completed the compilation of the transplant program.
She then found the equipment and attached the electrodes to her temples.
Without any pause, she pressed the start button.
She didn't fall asleep but operated while in a conscious state.
An unbearable stinging pain came from her brain.
"Is the transmission speed too fast..."
Ruan Mei realized she was too impatient. It was basically impossible to receive a lifetime of Qi Zhimu's memories within five minutes.
She had to temporarily adjust the program, changing the time to twenty minutes... it still hurt.
One hour. The symptoms of discomfort lightened again, becoming bearable.
Next, she just had to wait.
Ruan Mei began to flip through Qi Zhimu's memories, starting from the year he became her student.
After all, even after everything was received, she still couldn't avoid this process. Like reading a new book, one couldn't get the content of the next page without turning the current one.
Skipping pages would mean missing key information from before; she had to proceed step by step... That year, Qi Zhimu was 11 years old, and the illness in his body had been mostly overcome.
At such a young age, his family was ruined, his home destroyed, and his hometown had turned into cosmic dust. He had nowhere to go.
"I can take you as my student. Are you willing?"
"I am."
Hearing this, Ruan Mei nodded slightly and took Qi Zhimu's hand.
"Then come with me."
"Where are we going, Big Sister?"
"To a world with only the two of us. This place isn't suitable for conducting research. Also, call me Teacher from now on."
"Oh. Then what about Teacher's home? If no one looks after it, it will be covered in dust."
"The migration Curio isn't on hand right now, so I can't move it for the time being. I'll just get it back and migrate it after a while."
"Xiao Mu understands... Then when the time comes, let me help Teacher bring our home to that world where it's just us."
The young boy looked up, revealing a clean and pure smile.
"Home is very important. Xiao Mu doesn't have a home anymore, so Teacher can't be like me."
Ruan Mei was slightly dazed, her heart feeling as if it were being scratched by something.
She had long since mostly forgotten this memory.
She couldn't even... remember clearly where her home was.
Combined with Qi Zhimu's memories, those forgotten scenes of the past became clear once again.
Later, Qi Zhimu didn't actually come back to migrate her home.
It wasn't that he didn't want to, but that she herself had said: There's no need.
The IPC has all kinds of goods, including portable mobile manors for people to live in.
As long as one has enough Credit Points, any scale is possible. Why have a student make several trips back and forth?
At that time, he had said this:
"When Xiao Mu graduates in the future, I'll go back and help Teacher look after the house."
And she had said this:
"As you wish."