MLV Ch 34

Shen Duo turned off the radio and took out a satellite phone. 

“Ah Zhe and Little Ye have survived.”

On the other end of the line, Jin Ruohai said, “What about Ruochu?”

“She has already left Taisui Village. Her whereabouts are unknown,” Shen Duo replied.

Jin Ruohai said, “For Jiang Ye to survive a place like that, the boy is exceptionally gifted. How is his mental state? Is it stable?”

“I don’t know. The rescue team said he fainted and is running a fever now. I’ll observe his condition when he wakes up.”

“I hear he’s in his final year of high school. Find a chance to ask him if he’s interested in coming to the capital.”

Shen Duo hesitated for a moment before saying, “He’s just an ordinary person, with no master or family tutelage. Even if he escaped the Taisui Village forbidden zone safely, it might have just been a fluke.”

“I know,” Jin Ruohai explained, “but the Old Master specifically asked for him.”

“Why?”

The other end of the line went silent. Realizing this was a question he shouldn’t be asking, Shen Duo said, “The samples have been collected.”

He glanced beside him. On a simple trestle table were many test tubes containing mold he had scraped from various places in Taisui Village. Professor Bai’s campsite had been taken over and expanded by the Special Biological Research Institute. Rescue personnel bustled among the tents as a squad of armed soldiers walked over, carrying a humanoid restraint bag. The head of the bag was caved in, and the body inside twitched continuously, as if trying to escape. A heavily fortified, bulletproof vehicle was ready. They placed the restraint bag inside, closed the door, and secured it with three mechanical locks.

Bai Nianci was sitting in a medical tent, undergoing a physical examination by medical staff. He opened his mouth, and a doctor shone a flashlight into his oral cavity. It was clean, with no traces of mold.

“You have not been infected. Rest well for the next few days,” a nurse said.

Bai Nianci thanked them repeatedly.

Shen Duo spoke into the phone, “The samples will arrive in the capital in three days.”

“Your mission is complete. Leave that place, erect boundary markers, and prohibit anyone from approaching Taisui Village.”

Shen Duo waited a moment. Jin Ruohai asked, “Is there anything else you need to report?”

“Director,” Shen Duo reminded him, “you haven’t asked me about Ah Zhe’s condition yet.”

Jin Ruohai was silent for a moment before asking, “How is Ah Zhe?”

“He’s seriously injured. His leg is fractured.”

“Mmm,” Jin Ruohai’s voice betrayed no emotion. 

“As long as he’s safe.”

Shen Duo: “…”

He had clearly said Jin Feize’s leg was broken.

Jin Ruohai hung up the phone and moved his gAh Zhe to the computer screen. The abnormal biological sequence had been updated to include “Taisui,” number 103, with a danger level of B. Below was its description: “Fungus-type abnormal organism, parasitic on living tissue. First discovered in Taisui Village, Xinu Mountain, western Yunnan. Has caused over a hundred deaths. Secondary organism is the headless corpse, a deceased human body controlled by a special mold.”

Jin Ruohai moved the mouse, returning to the previous interface. A dense catalog of abnormal biological information appeared on the screen, each with a photo, a written description, and a level classification.

On the last row, the very last entry was a photo of a young man. Jin Ruohai’s gaze lingered there.

Abnormal Organism: Jin Feize

Number: 101

Danger Level: Not Displayed

Description: Formerly human, current biological classification cannot be determined. Known to not require sleep and can survive on minimal food intake. Has experienced multiple mental breakdowns, exhibiting strong tendencies for aggression and self-harm. Severe psychiatric patient with clinical symptoms including hallucinations, thought insertion, and extreme impulsive behavior. Currently on regular medication, condition is stable.

Related Experiments: 240 days of intense light exposure, condition normal. 30 days of fasting, weakened. Electric shock (current passed through heart), survived.

Genetic Test Report: Not Displayed.

Jiang Ye opened his eyes and found himself standing in a laboratory corridor. Both sides of the corridor were made of transparent glass. Behind it, many doctors in white coats were walking back and forth. Tables were filled with test tubes and various experimental equipment. The light from computer screens flickered constantly; both people and machines seemed incredibly busy.

Where was this? Just as Jiang Ye was wondering, his body suddenly began to move on its own. He was horrified to discover that he had no control over this body; his soul felt like it was trapped in a sheath, unable to move. He walked down the pristine white corridor and entered the laboratory at the end. This lab was different from the others. Inside, there was only a single, massive, cylindrical, transparent cultivation tank. Floating inside was an undeveloped embryo. Connected to its navel was not an umbilical cord, but a nutrient tube. The tiny, pale fetus floated without awareness, like a fragile feather.

In front of the tank stood a female doctor in a white coat. Under the bright lights, her skin was dazzlingly white. Her face was bare of makeup, a clean and simple canvas, yet it held its own against the intense light, like a blue-and-white porcelain vase under a spotlight, silently revealing a calm and reserved beauty.

“You’re here.” She caressed her abdomen, which had a slight, rounded curve, clearly pregnant.

“It must be hard, working overtime while pregnant,” Jiang Ye heard himself speak. 

“I’ll give you a raise.”

The doctor shot him a cold glance and began her report. 

“Embryo No. 24 has survived for 22 weeks. Its vital signs are normal, and all organ development indicators have reached acceptable levels.”

“Acceptable?” He shook his head. 

“No, he must not just be acceptable, he must be excellent.”

“To have achieved such results with No. 24 at this stage of the experiment is already quite difficult.”

“Dr. Shi, you are the top biologist in the country. I trust you can do your best.”

The doctor was silent for a moment, then said, “Fine, No. 24 will be terminated. I will continue to create No. 25. He will be the most outstanding embryo. In the artificial external womb, his growth period will be shorter than that of a normal embryo. After he is born, he will need a mother.”

“Can’t you do it?”

“I can’t,” the doctor refused sternly. 

“I am bound by a confidentiality agreement. My husband still doesn’t know that I work for you. The child carries your blood. If I raise him, how can I explain it to my husband? As you can see, I am pregnant. I have my own child to raise. I am only responsible for ensuring your artificial fetus is born safely from the external womb. You’ll have to figure out the rest yourself.”

“Ha,” he let out a short laugh. 

“That incompetent fool. To be honest, your taste in men is really not very good.”

The doctor looked at him, her face expressionless.

He waved a hand, stuffed both hands into his black trench coat, and prepared to leave. Jiang Ye tried to control the body, but his limbs wouldn’t obey, moving of their own accord toward the door. Jiang Ye was extremely troubled. What was this place? Why was he here? He didn’t know anyone here. Was it a dream? Or a hallucination? Had he been infected by the Taisui’s mold? Did everyone who got infected fall into such a strange illusion?

The doctor suddenly called out to him from behind. Just that one word sent a chill down Jiang Ye’s spine.

She called, “Jiang Ran.”

Jiang Ye turned his head along with the man.

The doctor took a deep breath and said, “We’ve been cooperating for over three years, and to this day, my knowledge of you is a complete blank. A person like you, who has wiped their information so cleanly, must be someone with immense power and connections. I know my place and never ask about anything outside of the experiment. My husband wishes for me to focus on our family and has never supported my research. Without your funding, I couldn’t complete my project. Based on this, I shouldn’t ask too many questions. However…” She glanced at the cultivation tank. 

“This child is my life’s work. You haven’t lost the ability to procreate, yet you’ve gone to such great lengths to cultivate him. It’s impossible that you just want an heir of your own. I want to know, in the future… will he be safe?”

The man didn’t speak.

“Alright, I understand,” the doctor nodded and turned her back.

The dream was so realistic that Jiang Ye found it incredible. Was the person he was currently possessing Jiang Ran? The man turned to leave, and Jiang Ye, unable to control himself, walked with him. Jiang Ye tried to find a mirror or a piece of glass to see what this Jiang Ran looked like. But Jiang Ran stared straight ahead, making it difficult for Jiang Ye to even catch a glimpse of a reflection in his peripheral vision.

Jiang Ye tried to break free from the body again, but it felt like he was stuck in a sticky mire, his limbs glued down. As he struggled fiercely, he suddenly heard Jin Feize’s voice from behind him.

“Jiang Ye.”

Jiang Ye whipped his head around. His body felt as if it had broken free from the mud, floating up lightly. His vision shattered like glass. He woke with a start from the dream. Before him was a sterile white hospital room. He was sitting on a hospital bed. A TV mounted on the wall was broadcasting the news, saying that the mirage of a city in the aurora over Antarctica was becoming clearer. His phone was in a transparent plastic bag on his bedside table. Leaning against the bed was his soaking wet backpack. He unzipped it and looked inside; Liu Bei’s head was still safely inside.

Was everything just now a dream?

He turned his head. Jin Feize was lying in the adjacent bed, his right hand wrapped in bandages like a dumpling, an IV drip in his left, and his right leg in a cast, suspended high in the air. The guy’s face was pale, like a paper doll. His long fingers rested on the edge of the bed, a fine needle inserted into a blue vein, possessing a certain fragile beauty. He always seemed like a porcelain doll, one that could be shattered with a single careless touch.

He lazily lifted his eyes to meet Jiang Ye’s, his expression listless, as if he thoroughly detested this place.

“What?” Jiang Ye’s tone was bland, distant and cold.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Jin Feize said.

“Go by yourself.”

“You come with me.”

“I refuse.”

Jin Feize stared at him hauntingly.

The guy was rich; he could obviously hire a caregiver, but he stubbornly refused, deliberately tormenting Jiang Ye. Jiang Ye lay down and turned his back to him, thinking about the dream. After the trip to Taisui Village, some things could be inferred. The bullet holes from years ago in the village, the soldiers’ skeletons, the missing villagers—they all pointed to a terrifying fact: Taisui Village had very likely been the site of a massacre.

Combining this with his mother’s memoir, he made a bold conjecture. Back then, Jiang Ran had led a fully-armed team and set up a camp near Taisui Village under the guise of archaeology. This group didn’t belong to the military, nor to the Special Biological Research Institute; their origins were unknown. They were studying the red coffin but lacked the relevant expertise, so they found a way to trick his mother into coming.

Taisui Village had the mold and the Taisui. Jiang Ran’s team conducted an armed cleansing. His mother had been warned not to leave the camp because their hunt was carried out at night. And night was when the Taisui mold was most active; his mother could have been in danger if she wandered off. To protect her from the mold’s influence, Jiang Ran had even made her drink ayahuasca, but his terrified mother didn’t understand and thought it was something meant to harm her.

They tried to eradicate the mold, but it seemed things didn’t go as planned. The team suffered heavy losses, and the mold wasn’t completely wiped out. Later, when the Gasa rescue team came looking for his mother, the so-called villagers they encountered were probably members of that team in disguise. The real villagers had already been massacred and absorbed by the Taisui, becoming the mold on the walls. After the Gasa rescue team left, they also packed up camp, which is how the rumor started that Taisui Village had vanished without a trace overnight.

Many details were still unclear. This was only a rough inference for now, and he didn’t know how accurate it was. Jiang Ye frowned, constantly replaying the strange dream in his mind, trying to find any useful information. He opened his phone and searched for a female biologist with the surname Shi, but found no results.

When did they cultivate Embryo No. 25? Was it grown up now? Who could it be?

There was a prickly feeling on his back. Jiang Ye could feel someone’s gaze stabbing into his back like needles.

“Little Ye, how can you be so cruel? I’ve been so good to you, breaking my arm and leg for you, almost dying, and this is how you treat me?” Jin Feize’s voice was pitiful. 

“My hand hurts, my leg hurts too, and my heart hurts even more. It hurts so much, am I going to die?”

He whined for as long as Jiang Ye could endure it.

The other patients in the room cast sympathetic glances at Jin Feize.

“Forget it, young man,” an old man said. 

“I’ll go with you.”

“No,” Jin Feize said. 

“I only want Little Ye.”

“Oh, you…” The old man wanted to persuade him further.

But Jin Feize just stared at Jiang Ye’s back and said, “You used to call me your little treasure, buy me shoes, clothes, and hawthorn cakes. How have you changed? Have you fallen in love with someone else?”

Jiang Ye: “…”

The ward fell silent. The old man said no more.

Jiang Ye sat up abruptly, got out of bed, pulled over the wheelchair that was leaning against the foot of the bed, and threw back Jin Feize’s blanket, lifting him into the chair.

He beamed. 

“I knew you wouldn’t ignore me.”

“Shut up,” Jiang Ye said coldly.

Jiang Ye pushed him into the bathroom and helped him hang the IV bag on the stand. He looked at the filthy squat toilet with utter disgust on his face.

“It’s so dirty.”

Jiang Ye looked at him in silence, his expression icy.

He stood up from the wheelchair, looking wronged. His right leg couldn’t bear any weight, and he nearly fell. Jiang Ye didn’t want to help him, but his hand moved faster than his brain, and he caught his arm.

He leaned against Jiang Ye and said, “Help me take off my pants.”

Jiang Ye took a deep breath, telling himself that Jin Feize was injured like this because he had saved him. If he didn’t satisfy his demands, there was no telling what kind of outrageous things this shameless idiot would say. Jiang Ye looked down, unzipped his fly, and helped pull his pants down to his knees. His straight, pale thighs appeared before Jiang Ye’s eyes. Jiang Ye quickly shut his eyes and turned his head, refusing to look at what he shouldn’t.

“Help me hold it,” Jin Feize said again.

“Hold what?” Jiang Ye frowned.

Jin Feize smiled and nuzzled his neck, whispering ambiguously, “What do you think? Hold what?”

Jiang Ye: “…”

Maybe it would be better to just push Jin Feize into the squat toilet, he thought.