Hui Tian

“The surrounding area is blocked off at the first level, and all the evidence is sealed!”

“The hospital bed is moved away, be careful not to touch the cell residue on it, preserve the remaining DNA as much as possible!” “Be careful…”

“Senior,” Chen Miao asked worriedly in a low voice, “Are you all right?”

The car lights flickered in the wilderness, and the cars from the Shenhai City Supervision Office and the nearby supervision offices all came. The staff in white uniforms walked hurriedly, and the scene was full of people’s voices.

Grade A medicine can maintain the physical state for up to 40 minutes, and the effect of the medicine has completely faded now. Shen Zhuo’s face was slightly pale, and his face became more and more obvious. His eyebrows and eyes were dark, and he shook his head to indicate that he was fine.

“Senior, I say you should stop fighting in the future.” Chen Miao saw that no one was paying attention, and couldn’t help rushing forward eagerly, “The research and development of this project has not been completed in time, maybe one day the side effects will suddenly erupt, just in case…”

Shen Zhuo interrupted Chen Miao with a wave of his hand, motioning him to stop talking, and got into the command vehicle without saying a word.

The car door was closed heavily, isolating all noise and prying eyes from the outside world, and the interior of the car was dark and quiet.

Shen Zhuo let out a hoarse breath, and unfastened the buttons on his shirt one by one.

On his thin and flat abdomen, the hideous unhealed knife wound from the viaduct a few days ago oozed blood, and even breathing felt like the tearing of internal organs, with a dull pain.

This is normal. After all, the effect of medicine cannot make people really evolve. After the effect of medicine disappears, the pain will naturally come back with profit.

Shen Zhuo covered his abdomen with one hand, half lying on the seat, and turned sideways to adjust a slightly less painful position, suddenly a strong hand stretched out from behind, and the palm directly covered the back of his hand.

Immediately afterwards, the warm and soothing healing power passed through his hand, covering the abdominal injury.

When Shen Zhuo turned around, his lips almost brushed Bai Sheng’s chin.

“I said, why are you hiding in the car by yourself? You took off your clothes as soon as you came in.” Bai Sheng half-kneeled beside the seat, looking down at Shen Zhuo from a close distance in the dark, his voice was low and magnetic, but he had a familiar frivolous smile as soon as he spoke: “We are so close, it is really sad that you don’t come to me immediately if you need to.”

The two of them put their hands on his stomach, and Shen Zhuo wanted to pull the back of his hand out from under Bai Sheng’s palm, but he couldn’t move at all, so he could only tilt his head back slightly: “I have a question.”

Bai Sheng immediately said, “Yes?.”

“…Since you have medical abilities, why don’t you heal yourself.”

Bai Sheng’s fingers are extremely slender, and his palms can almost cover Shen Zhuo’s waist when fully extended – even under such dim viewing conditions, he can see the dried blood on his fingertips, and the nails had been cracked, which was caused when the space coffin was torn apart with his bare hands.

Spatial ability is a rare and strong A-level that is sure to be nailed to the ground. In other words, Bai Sheng’s ability to break coffins with bare hands is quite powerful. If replaced by those non-combat-type weak S-ranks from abroad they probably won’t be able to eat and walk around. 1

“Oh, that’s right.” Bai Sheng looked at his hands and explained politely: “Because I am a noble person, a pure person, and a person with pure moral character; my medical powers are exclusively beneficial to others, not self-interested, in short, it is relatively weak and can only be used for others, and it has never been effective on myself, which fully proves my nature of benefiting the people.”

The people,  named Shen Zhuo, was silent for a moment, “…next time, just say that your medical ability has not fully evolved.”

“I’m not a special nurse.” Bai Sheng laughed and asked, “Then what about you supervisor?”

“What?”

“How did you get your abilities?”

The two could hear each other’s breathing clearly, and in the dim light they could see the reflection of distant car lights in each other’s eyes.

This posture of kneeling and lying down made half of Bai Sheng’s body weakly press on Shen Zhuo’s body. Although he had a smile on his face, Shen Zhuo knew that if a S-rank wanted to make a move, it would only be a flash of thought from the moment of exertion to the end.

“…A kind of drug from the Central Research Institute back then. By injecting the active extract of the meteorite and combining it with human cells, it gave birth to different levels of abilities. Even ordinary people can temporarily use it for a few minutes.” Shen Zhuo turned his gaze away and said coldly, “But the side effects are a great burden on the human body, so the research and development was stopped soon, and I only have a few in my hand, as a means of self-rescue in an emergency.”

“Wait, wait.” Bai Sheng heard the irrationality in these words: “The genes of ordinary human beings will not evolve even if they come into contact with meteorites. How can they inject meteorite extract to use their abilities, the logic does not make sense at all, right?”

Shen Zhuo said casually: “This involves the combination of evolutionary interferon and chromosomes and the issue of genetic epigenetic modification, which is very complicated. I can’t explain it to you clearly for a while.”

“…”

The last time Bai Sheng opened his biology textbook was before the college entrance examination. He was a little dubious for a while, and narrowed his eyes suspiciously: “…Is this drug really a meteorite extract?”

“Why, do you want me to dig through the confidential files in the office drawer to show you?” Shen Zhuo mocked, “Yes, you can see it, as long as you can understand it. Go back and find me to help you with tutoring for biology in the third year of high school. Optimistically, you can understand the first page of the pharmaceutical research and development project book before you are forty years old. One page, come on. I’m optimistic about you.”

Bai Sheng: “…”

This person, Shen Zhuo, you can’t tell when you first meet him, but after a few more meetings, you will find that he has an unscrupulous poisonous tongue and meanness. One thing about him is very wonderful, that is, ordinary people are mean only to their subordinates but not their superiors, but he implements dimensionality reduction attacks on everyone equally, regardless of whether the other party is rich or powerful, they are completely equal in his eyes.

If he hadn’t been used to being sought after by countless people flattering and even admiring him since he was a child, he wouldn’t have developed such a defiant attitude.

Bai Sheng gritted his teeth a little, and he looked at Shen Zhuo’s indifferent face from top to bottom. The lights in the distance reflected the corners of his meticulously drawn eyes, from thick to light like ink, like an arc drawn by a crow’s wing on the snow.

In an instant, Su Jiqiao’s words of emotion rang in Bai Sheng’s ears: “If it wasn’t because of luck that we evolved, people like us would not even be qualified to say a word to Senior Shen in this life…”

It was as if something lightly bumped into Bai Sheng’s heart, causing an indescribable feeling, slightly itchy and sour.

I really owe it, he thought.

Everyone likes gentle, considerate, and understanding little green tea2 , but I find that this person who refuses to pay attention to me is good-looking to death, and he even eagerly goes out of his way to approach others. Could it be that I am truly lacking something in my character?

“…Okay, you agreed to show me the file later.” Bai Sheng snorted, with no abnormality on his face, and patted Shen Zhuo’s side: “Speaking of which, I advise you not to hide things. Why does that person surnamed Rong get people to arrest you over and over again, maybe it has something to do with this medicine, please explain it to me clearly as soon as possible—”

The phone rang suddenly, it was Yue Yang.

A subtle look flashed across Shen Zhuo’s eyes, and he gestured to Bai Sheng to keep silent, but he didn’t pick up the phone.

The call was hung up naturally, and then it rang again, but he still didn’t answer.

“Why do you…”

Shen Zhuo raised an index finger, signaling to leave it alone.

It wasn’t until the third time the bell rang in a hurry, and kept playing the message while ringing, until it was about to hang up, that Shen Zhuo pressed the answer button unhurriedly and said a word: “Hello?”

On the other side of the call, Yue Yang questioned like a cannonball: “Why didn’t you answer the phone just now? I read that the system said that Shenhai Suburbs are on first level alert? How is your injury? Where are you now? Is it safe?”

“…” Bai Sheng was amazed, thinking that his eyes were really opened.

Director Yue hasn’t gone crazy after so many years of mental torture, this endurance is really comparable to others, I don’t know if he dug the ancestral grave of the Shen family in the central area back then.

Shen Zhuo stood up, waved his hands to Bai Sheng, expressed his thanks perfunctorily, then opened the door and strode out of the car, Bai Sheng could still hear Yue Yang’s heavy and anxious voice from the opposite side of the phone:

“I just called Chen Miao, and he said that you could solve it yourself, why didn’t you just notify the central area to ask for foreign aid…”

“It’s been resolved.” Shen Zhuo stepped on the grass and mud, walked not far away from the crowd, and stood in the wilderness in the middle of the night, the corners of his mouth clearly ticked off: “Thanks to Mr. Bai’s help, the solution went very smoothly.”

The other side of the phone fell into silence, and Shen Zhuo almost waited for the other party’s reaction with great interest.

“…” It took a while to hear Yue Yang open his mouth. Apart from being a little dry, he had covered up all his emotions with calmness and self-restraint: “That’s good, thank you Mr. Bai for your righteous deed.” Shen Zhuo didn’t seem to understand the complicated taste in the other party’s words at all, and changed the subject nonchalantly: “I have something to ask you.”

“What?”

“Have you ever heard of the name Rong Qi?”

Yue Yang frowned and said, “Not at all, why?”

Shen Zhuo said: “Three years ago, on May 10, the night before the explosion at the Qinghai Test Site, Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao left the central area and went to the Quanshan County Health Center to see a patient named Rong Qi. You don’t know about this?”

With Fu Chen’s status back then, leaving the central area would definitely leave a record. Yue Yang recalled for a few seconds, and hesitated: “I really don’t remember, maybe on official business? I suppose that I need to retrieve the task file from three years ago.”

“Then you go and find out the identity information and kinship of this Rong Qi.” Shen Zhuo paused, and said lightly: “This matter is important to me.”

He lowered his head and was about to hang up the phone, Yue Yang must have noticed it, and blurted out hastily: “—Shen Zhuo!”

Shen Zhuo stopped.

The person on the other end of the conversation quieted down, only Yue Yang’s deep and shallow breathing could be heard, he seemed to want to say something a few times, but he hesitated to speak, and after a while he finally said impulsively:

“Shen Zhuo, I’ve actually been—”

The noise of people at the scene in the distance disappeared with the night wind and turned into a faint background.

Only after a short while did Yue Yang spoke again, and it could be heard that he changed the subject temporarily: “…I want to ask you something. Didn’t you say last time that you wanted to expel that Bai Sheng from Shenhai…”

“What?” Shen Zhuo laughed, the warm breath from his lips almost brushing Yue Yang’s ear: “Do you want to care about me for your deceased brother again, Director Yue?”

In an instant Yue Yang froze, unable to speak a word for a long time.

“Bai Sheng belongs to Shenhai now. As long as I don’t drive him away, he will stay in Shenhai. As for when to drive him out, or whether to drive him out…” Shen Zhuo glanced back at the command vehicle in the distance, and lazily said: “I have the final say alone.”

“…I see.” Yue Yang’s hoarse voice came from the other end of the phone after a long time, “I’ll check the record of Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao’s outing on May 10th three years ago.”

Shen Zhuo directly cut off the call.

The wilderness at night is vast, the starry sky above is vast, and the Milky Way flows across the sky to the unknown universe.

Shen Zhuo stood there quietly without moving, with his back to the dimly lit scene in the distance, looking at the endless darkness ahead like a long river. There was no one around in the wilderness, and no one could see the expression of the Shenhai City Supervisor at this moment, and it took a long time to hear him take a long breath and close his eyes silently.

The wind swept across a large area of ​​wild grass, and the rustling sound was like the rising tide in the middle of the night, sweeping away scattered and long-term memories, flooding every inch of the senses.

——Qinghai Test Site Explosion.

No one knew the various signs before the upheaval, and all sinister clues were wiped out with the explosion, only occasionally a strange glimmer of light flashes from the depths of time.

…

“Brother Fu is too considerate to Director Shen, isn’t he, he’s on the saddle 3 every day, and he draws blood when you ask?”

“No way, if the HRG plan doesn’t have the serum of those high-level evolutionaries, I’m afraid that the first stage of data simulation will not be completed…”

The whispers came with the wind, and then whizzed away.

The laboratory was in order, and the researchers came and went in a hurry. Fu Chen lay on his back in the chair, showing his strong arms, and blood from his arteries flowed down the hose to the centrifuge.

“Director Shen,” the assistant walked over quickly, with a soft and nervous voice: “I can’t draw anymore, it’s already 1000cc. If you draw any more, something will happen!”

26-year-old Shen Zhuo put his hands in the pockets of his white coat, with eyebrows as beautiful as ink splashed on snow paper, and there is an inherent indifference and irrelevance in his demeanor.

Fu Chen’s face was already pale, as if he felt something, he turned his head from the recliner to look.

——At the same moment, a smile suddenly appeared on Shen Zhuo’s indifferent face, and he looked at Fu Chen encouragingly, the corners of his lips were perfectly curved, his eyes were full of warmth, and the assistants around were stunned.

“S-class, it’s not that easy to die.” Just looking at his expression, he couldn’t imagine how cold Shen Zhuo’s tone was, “Keep pumping.”

Beep beep——

The blood pressure alarm sounded quickly, and there was a sudden commotion in the laboratory, and the researchers got up one after another: “No, no more pumping!” “Stop! Stop!”

Someone trotted to deliver glucose: “Thank you Director Fu, thank you Director Fu, it’s really hard work…”

Shen Zhuo seemed to be a little regretful, but he didn’t show it. He quickly stepped forward to support Fu Chen, and asked with a concerned frown, “Are you okay?”

Fu Chen’s whole arm was cold, he let out a hoarse breath, and suddenly stretched out his hand to grab Shen Zhuo!

In an instant, the world spun, and Shen Zhuo was pressed on the reclining chair. Fu Chen asked with a smile: “What good will it do you if you pump me to death, huh?”

Shen Zhuo put one hand against him, and stood up staggeringly.

“Drink this bottle of glucose and rest for a while.” Shen Zhuo seemed to have heard nothing, with his clothes straightened, and his face as usual: “I’ll send you out.”

“…No, Director Shen’s methods are just too ruthless.” “1000cc…”

It wasn’t until Shen Zhuo personally sent Fu Chen out of the laboratory, and the two of them walked away, that the researchers dared to discuss with emotion.

In early summer, the sky is full of stars, and the sound of insects at night. The fragrance of Sophora japonica in the distance comes down the wind, passes through the tree-lined path, and disappears into the depths of the night.

The figures of the two were elongated under the streetlight, Fu Chen smiled and asked, “How are you doing?”

Shen Zhuo is obviously a person who discards things once they’ve been used, once he gets the serum in hand he doesn’t bother to make expressions, and he doesn’t even waste a moment to exchange pleasantries: “The first stage of theoretical simulation calculations has been successfully completed, and the next step is to start small-scale research and development of finished products. But at present this agent still can’t get rid of the large demand for evolutionary serum, so the most important thing is to keep it secret, and tell people on both sides of the United Nations Security Council and the General International Inspectorate we’re still battling it out, and we don’t have much hope.”

Fu Chen nodded, frowned, hesitated to speak, and couldn’t help but ask after a while:

“But how did I hear that the progress of the project had been secretly leaked out recently?”

Shen Zhuo exhaled without saying a word.

Fu Chen already got the answer from his silence: “The secrets have been leaked repeatedly, is it possible that there are moles in the research institute?”

“The intelligence department has conducted a blanket search three times, but they can’t find out who the mole is.” Shen Zhuo said lightly, “There are too many people staring at the HRG project. The Security Council wants it to succeed, the International Inspectorate wants it to fail, and the eyes of all parties are intertwined, all staring at this laboratory…”

“Shen Zhuo.” Fu Chen stopped suddenly, looked at him and emphasized every word: “If you continue like this, you will die!”

Shen Zhuo didn’t answer.

“No one wants to have the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Once the secret of the success of the potion theory is revealed, they will do everything they can to prevent the HRG plan from continuing, even at the expense of killing people, you will live under the threat of being assassinated every second, understand?”

“…”

“Have you ever thought that the genetic regeneration of all human beings will one day be realized, but you may not live to see that day?”

The Milky Way in the night sky stretches as far as the eye can see, and the distant stars rotate in their ancient orbits. Shen Zhuo looked up, with his hands in the pockets of his white coat and suddenly asked after a long time: “Do you think there can be peace between human beings and evolutionaries?”

Fu Chen was startled.

“No.” Shen Zhuo gave his own answer, “There is peace only under nuclear deterrence, and there is no peace without atomic bombs.”

“There are seven billion ordinary people on this earth, in the eyes of evolutionists, they are no different from seven billion ants. There must be one ant who stands up as a deterrent, this is the most critical meaning of the HRG plan.”

Shen Zhuo’s natural volume is not high, and his speech speed is not fast. His stature is not strong, on the contrary a bit thin, but when he stands there, he often gives people a feeling of strength that he can swim against the current alone even if the wind and waves are blowing.

“……I see.”

Fu Chen stared at him, sighed for a long time, and said in a low voice: “Since you have made a decision, no matter what happens, I will  do everything in my power to protect you and never let you die.”

Shen Zhuo glanced at him, without giving any response, and walked forward.

Walking out of the school gate along the path full of flowers at night, under the streetlamp not far away, the special car of the Central Supervision Office has been waiting for a long time.

“That’s right.” Fu Chen didn’t walk towards his special car immediately, but stopped, watched Shen Zhuo hesitate to speak, and then laughed after a while: “Next week we will leave for the Qinghai Test Site. This is the first time we will go out to perform a mission. Have you prepared everything you need?”

Shen Zhuo was silent for a while, “What is it?”

“…” Fu Chen didn’t seem to know where to start, but after a moment he couldn’t help it any longer and coughed: “Well, there is one thing.”

Shen Zhuo raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

Fu Chen took a deep breath, and finally made up his mind: “Look, we’ve known each other for so long, and you know what the higher-ups mean. After returning from Qinghai this time, could you just be with me and…”

Beep!

Not far away, the car suddenly honked its horn, then the window was lowered, and inside was the face of Su Jiqiao with crooked eyebrows, pointing at his watch and laughing loudly: “——It’s ten o’clock! Has the institute closed yet?”

Fu Chen froze.

He didn’t seem to expect that the person sitting in the car was Su Jiqiao, and a trace of unnaturalness passed through his eyes, but it was only a momentary detail.

Shen Zhuo took half a step back calmly: “Go, Director Fu. I’m going back to the laboratory.”

“…Ah, are you going back?” Fu Chen hesitated for a moment, obviously a little hesitant, walked two steps and couldn’t help turning his head back and telling him: “Then I will tell you after we return from Qinghai, remember that.”

Shen Zhuo didn’t answer, but glanced lightly behind Fu Chen. Su Jiqiao, the one who has always been gentle and kind, has an amiable smile, and has been widely loved by everyone since he was in school was staring at him motionlessly at the moment, his gaze was gloomy and straightforward, and there seemed to be something indescribable in the depth of his eyes.

But Shen Zhuo has always turned a blind eye to Su Jiqiao, turned around and walked back along the way he came from.

Until he walked far away, he could feel the other party’s gaze was still concentrated behind him, cold and like a shadow.

…

That was the last little episode before a twist of fate.

A few days later, Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao mysteriously appeared in a remote township health center. They saw Rong Qi, who was still lying unconscious on the hospital bed, and no one knew what they were doing at that time;

Only 24 hours later, an explosion occurred at the Qinghai test site, Fu Chen’s body was gone, and Su Jiqiao suffered serious pontine injuries and became a vegetative person.

Shen Zhuo was lynched and tortured but survived, and was expelled from the Central Research Institute, and the regeneration plan of all mankind was forced to run aground.

When Shen Zhuo, the newly appointed top ten inspector in the world, came to Shenhai City, the evolutionists dreaded him, feared him, and hated him with gnashing teeth;

They maliciously talked about that rare and beautiful face and all kinds of bloody and dirty speculations, but no one knew the details of what happened that early summer night, before the drastic change of fate.

Shen Zhuo let out a hoarse breath, pressed tightly on the knife mark on the back of his left hand, and opened his eyes.

“Inspector,” at this moment there was a rustling voice behind him, it was an inspector walking quickly on dry grass, asking for instructions in a low voice: “The scene has been cordoned off, and the wire hospital bed that may have residual DNA has also been moved to the car according to the standard of biological and chemical weapons. Do you have any other instructions?”

“…”

The inspector of Shenhai City stood in the vast night and his expression could not be seen from behind. It took a long time for the inspector to hear him ask: “Where’s Liu Sanji?”

“He’s still breathing, and we escorted him to the ambulance. Brother Bai asked if we could depart and return now?”

Shen Zhuo repeated: “Brother Bai?”

The inspector almost bit his tongue in an instant: “Yes, it’s Mr. Bai…Bai…”

Shen Zhuo smiled, finally turned around, and walked towards the brightly lit scene in the distance.

“Go back to Witch Italdo and ask her to use her medical ability.” He said calmly, “Your Brother Bai’s hand was injured a bit.”

– end of chapter sixteen –

_____________________________

1  吃不了兜着走: lit. if you can’t eat it all, you’ll have to take it home (idiom) / fig. you’ll have to take the consequences

2 Green tea : (slang) (of a girl) seemingly innocent and charming but actually calculating and manipulative / a girl who has these qualities

3 Saddle: a saying meaning like he followed him and served him