MLV Ch 47

Jiang Ye opened his eyes to find himself back in Jiang Ran’s laboratory. This time, the lab looked different. The lights in the corridor were half-lit, flickering constantly. The end of the hallway was pitch black, as if dark, heavy clouds had gathered there. Jiang Ran was still in his black trench coat, hands in his pockets, walking leisurely. Jiang Ye followed him through the corridor, seeing the once-clean lab now littered with corpses. Blood flowed everywhere, gurgling down the drains. Several mercenaries in black masks, armed to the teeth, guarded the entrances and exits. When Jiang Ran passed them, they would lower their heads and say, “Brother Jiang.”

Jiang Ran strolled into the last laboratory as if taking a walk in a garden. Dr. Shi was standing in front of a cultivation pod with her hands up, a mercenary pointing a gun at her temple. Kneeling against the wall were many researchers in white lab coats, all with their hands on their heads, trembling. There were many more cultivation pods in the lab now, each containing a fully developed infant floating inside. Jiang Ran walked a full circle. The labels in front of the pods showed their numbers, from 25A all the way to 25F.

“Which one is the best?” Jiang Ran asked.

Dr. Shi looked at him coldly. 

“Jiang Ran, what on earth are you doing?”

“My apologies,” Jiang Ran bowed slightly, speaking with perfect courtesy. 

“This child’s existence is a secret. And the best way to keep a secret is to make sure everyone who knows it is dead.”

Dr. Shi protested, “You and your men know he exists.”

Jiang Ran smiled. 

“We are already dead men, Dr. Shi. You are different from us.”

Dr. Shi’s eyes reddened. 

“Jiang Ran, I’m pregnant.”

“I know.” Jiang Ran’s gaze fell on her swollen abdomen. 

“Killing even a pregnant woman… I truly am a bastard destined for hell. It’s alright, I’ll be in hell soon enough. Dr. Shi, feel free to curse me. Everything you curse me with will come true.”

Dr. Shi clutched her stomach, shaking her head in vain. 

“I can’t die. Jiang Ran, I can’t die.”

Jiang Ran sighed. 

“It seems you don’t intend to tell me which infant is the best. Fine, I’ll test them myself.”

He made a gesture, and several mercenaries carrying silver aluminum briefcases stepped forward. They opened the cases and took out several black syringes. They each walked to a cultivation pod and injected the black substance into the nutrient fluid tubes.

“What are you doing?” Dr. Shi demanded sharply. 

“What did you just inject?”

Jiang Ran said flatly, “Inactivated Taisui flesh.”

“Are you insane? How can you feed him that stuff?”

“I need to test his rejection response to Taisui flesh. The reason I had you activate his junk DNA sequences before was because I need a child who can fully accept Taisui flesh.”

“What do you mean?” Disbelief was written all over Dr. Shi’s face. 

“You don’t mean to implant Taisui limbs into this child, do you? What are you trying to do?”

Jiang Ran folded his arms, observing the infants in the cultivation pods.

“Since ancient times, our war with abnormal creatures has never ceased. The people of the past were too weak to fight them, so they regarded them as lofty gods, avoiding disaster through begging and prayer. The god of heaven with no statue in the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the black Old Taisui in western Yunnan, the Mahakala in Tibet… they are everywhere. Even now, some people are deluded by them, calling themselves the ‘God Dream Society,’ willingly offering themselves as their nutrients, even attempting to have an audience with the true Him behind them. But I am different. I will kill them, at any cost. Unfortunately, Dr. Shi, mortals can never defeat gods.” Jiang Ran’s expression was solemn. 

“I abandoned everything—my identity, status, family, friends, comrades… and I still couldn’t defeat Him.”

“So you…” Dr. Shi gradually understood what he was planning, a look of shock on her face.

“Only a god can kill a god,” Jiang Ran said, word by word. 

“Therefore, I will create a god.”

The black substance from the syringes entered the nutrient fluid in the pods. A faint black mist rose in the tanks, seeming to have a life of its own as it condensed into thin, earthworm-like threads that swiftly entered the infants’ eyes, ears, mouths, and noses. Several infants began to cough violently, their short, lotus-root-like limbs flailing and grasping weakly, their small faces contorted in pain. The life monitors on several pods started beeping, the previously regular, fluctuating lines flatlining.

Jiang Ran clicked his tongue, a cold, mocking expression in his eyes. 

“Dr. Shi, I overestimated you. Your technique is subpar. You people in this field are all undeserving of your reputations. I pay you millions a year, and this is the garbage you give me. Forget it. If all the 25s die, I won’t kill you. You can continue to work for me.”

“Go to hell! I wouldn’t be human if I ever did this kind of depraved work for you again!” Dr. Shi cursed, her eyes red.

Almost all the life monitors began to alarm, red lines jumping across the screens. The infants in the pods took on a deathly ashen color. Jiang Ran walked another round and stopped in front of the last cultivation pod.

Jiang Ran stroked his chin, slightly surprised. 

“This little piece of trash isn’t dead.”

“Brother Jiang,” a mercenary came in to report, “The God Dream Society has found us. We must retreat as soon as possible.”

Jiang Ran gestured with his chin towards the pod in front of him. 

“Get this little thing out, we’re taking it with us. Shoot the rest.”

Immediately, two mercenaries stepped forward, drained the nutrient fluid from the pod, opened it, and placed the curled-up infant inside their portable incubator. At the same time, several gunshots rang out in the laboratory. Splatters of bright, glaring red blood splashed across the clean white walls. The researchers who had been kneeling on the floor, trembling, all fell.

Hearing the deafening gunshots, Dr. Shi shuddered violently. She forced herself to remain calm and said, “My due date is next month. Let me go.”

“It’s not that I won’t let you go,” Jiang Ran raised his gun. 

“I’ve walked too far down this path. Those ugly, evil things want me dead even in their dreams. If they find out you once worked for me, they will capture you and try every means possible to get information about me from you. I don’t care about myself, because they can never catch me, but 25 will be in danger. Believe me, you’ll be in agony then. You’d be better off dying here now.”

Dr. Shi gritted her teeth. 

“You’re just afraid I’ll leak your secrets. I have a way, Jiang Ran, I have a way!”

A mercenary reminded him, “Brother Jiang, they’re getting closer. This area is collapsing into a forbidden zone.”

Jiang Ran stared at Dr. Shi’s pale face. 

“You have one minute to convince me.”

Dr. Shi took a jar of white powder from the lab bench. 

“Last time, you asked me if I had any biological weapons. Look, this is highly concentrated amphetamine. After taking it, the patient’s nervous system will develop lesions, causing severe psychosis, paranoia, and hallucinations. The symptoms are similar to severe schizophrenia. I’ll take this, you let me go. No one will ever believe the words of a madwoman. I will never be able to leak your secrets.”

“Allow me to remind you, you’re still pregnant. There’s a chance your child will be born with deformities,” Jiang Ran warned her.

Gritting her teeth, she asked, trembling all over, “Do I have a choice? Even if there’s only a one percent chance of him being healthy, I have to try!”

Jiang Ran was silent for a long moment, then nodded at a mercenary.

Dr. Shi clenched her fists as she watched the mercenary step forward, pick up the powder jar, and sniff it.

“It’s indeed amphetamine.”

Jiang Ran said, “Dr. Shi, please.”

Dr. Shi picked up the glass jar, took a deep breath, and asked, “Jiang Ran, aren’t you afraid of retribution?”

Jiang Ran let out a low sigh. 

“I owe you one. If your child ever runs into any life-threatening trouble in the future, I will help him once.”

The glass wall reflected Dr. Shi’s beautiful, tear-streaked face. She tilted her neck back and consumed all the amphetamine powder in the jar. A few seconds later, she bent over in agony, foaming at the mouth, her body convulsing uncontrollably. It was a reaction to the overdose; her nervous system would collapse within the next few hours. From this day forward, she would lose the life of a normal person. She twitched on the floor, her eyes fixed stubbornly on Jiang Ran.

Jiang Ran looked down at her. Her pained and sorrowful eyes reflected his own indifferent face. She watched as he slowly raised his pistol and aimed it at the center of her forehead.

“Sorry, I still can’t rest easy,” he said.

Just as Jiang Ran was about to fire, he suddenly saw a slender mercenary in a black mask aiming at his temple from the other side of the glass wall.

“You son of a bitch, Jiang,” the woman said. 

“A piece of advice: tricking women never ends well.”

“…” Jiang Ran glanced at her, then lowered his gun. 

“Prepare a stretcher.”

Two mercenaries stepped forward and placed Dr. Shi on the stretcher. Everyone retreated in an orderly fashion. As the last person left, they destroyed the electrical panel on the wall, and the vast laboratory was instantly plunged into darkness.

Li Miaomiao bought several JK-style schoolgirl outfits and spent her days playing and taking pictures everywhere. The Jin family had arranged a training ground and an instructor for Jiang Ye, training him in target practice and weighted running. To improve his stability in holding a gun, the instructor stacked four bullet casings on top of the barrel every day and made him hold the gun steady for two hours, rain or shine. In addition, he had to do two hundred push-ups every morning. Jin Feize caused trouble every day, sitting on his tire during his weighted runs and squatting on his back during his push-ups. Even the instructor couldn’t stop Jin Feize, because he was paid by the Jin family. Jiang Ye had no choice but to grit his teeth and run, dragging the large tire and Jin Feize along with it, and to complete two hundred push-ups while carrying Jin Feize, who sat on his back eating a popsicle.

That wasn’t enough; Jin Feize would also taunt him during his target practice.

“Guess what score you’ll get?” Jin Feize said with a smile. 

“Maybe your bullet will fly into outer space and hit an alien passing through the solar system.”

Jiang Ye glanced at him but said nothing, raising the assault rifle and aiming at the target 500 meters away. The target was already riddled with holes. Jiang Ye aimed for its ten-point center.

Jin Feize comforted him gently, “Don’t be nervous. It’s normal to miss the target the first time you shoot. At worst, it just proves you’re a talentless idiot.”

Jiang Ye took a deep breath. With headphones covering his ears, Jin Feize’s voice was a muffled hum, as if coming from another world. In truth, he didn’t expect to do well. It was the first time in his life he had ever held a gun; it was normal to miss. But he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity. From the trigger to the sights, he seemed to naturally know every part of the gun’s structure. A SAR-21 assault rifle, weighing nearly 4kg when fully loaded. He knew that although the gun had little recoil, it acted in a straight line on the shooter’s shoulder. The shooter’s posture had to be standard and correct, or it was easy to get injured.

He raised the gun slightly, stared through the scope with his goggles on, and his entire skeleton began to operate like a precision machine. His finger pulled the trigger.

Bullseye. A perfect ten.

Jin Feize’s mockery came to an abrupt halt.

Jiang Ye was also secretly surprised for a moment. He looked down at his own hand. The feeling of pulling the trigger just now was strange, not like himself, but more like another person was inside his body. Firearms were not his talent, but Jiang Ran’s specialty. Could it be Jiang Ran influencing him?

The recoil of the gun made his shoulder numb. He glanced at Jin Feize, who seemed a little unhappy, probably because Jiang Ye had just shown him up. Jin Feize had the arrogant temper of a young master who looked down on everyone; he must be angry about having his face slapped.

Jiang Ye randomly fired a few more shots, all of them missing the target. The screen above their heads showed a wild distribution of bullet holes around the target.

“Looks like the first shot was just an accident.” Jin Feize cheered up again.

Jiang Ye continued to practice. This time he aimed for the 9-ring and the 8-ring, and hit them once more.

Jin Feize smugly rebooted his mockery mode: “Xiao Ye, you’re such a little failure. Instead of wasting time here training to go from a third-rate failure to a second-rate one, you’d be better off taking off your clothes and seducing me so I can protect you.”

No matter what Jin Feize said, Jiang Ye never argued with him. When he was done with his gun practice, he turned to his weighted runs.

After playing alone for two days, Li Miaomiao got bored and came over to watch Jiang Ye’s training. Jin Feize was sitting on Jiang Ye’s tire eating a hawthorn popsicle. He waved at Li Miaomiao, patted the other tire, and said with a grin, “To cheer on our tenacious Xiao Ye, let’s sit together.”

Li Miaomiao glanced at the sweat-drenched Jiang Ye. 

“Uh, I’m fifty kilos. My brother probably can’t handle it.”

The words had barely left her mouth when Jiang Ye collapsed. He had run 400 meters today dragging Jin Feize and simply couldn’t go on. Under the scorching sun, he lay on the ground panting heavily, drenched in sweat as if he’d just been pulled out of water. Li Miaomiao ran over and took the tire straps off his shoulders.

“Bro, go back and rest. Don’t get heatstroke,” Li Miaomiao said.

Jiang Ye waved his hand, signaling that he couldn’t walk.

“I’ll drag you back.” Li Miaomiao had him sit on the other empty tire and slung the straps over her own shoulders.

The off-road training ground was huge. In the morning, he did light-load cross-country running, and only started the weighted runs in the afternoon. He had covered a considerable distance, and it was at least a kilometer back to the rest area. Jiang Ye had originally planned to ask the instructor to drive over, but instead, Li Miaomiao tightened the shoulder straps, let out a loud shout of “Let’s go!”, and took off at a full sprint, dragging the two large tires and the people on them. In an instant, she was moving like lightning, the scenery blurring past them. Sitting on the tire, Jiang Ye, his hair a mess in the wind, hadn’t even realized what was happening. Dragging Jin Feize had been a struggle for him, but Li Miaomiao was running like she was on fire wheels.

He asked Jin Feize next to him, “Are you sure it’s Li Miaomiao dragging us?”

And not some strange xiong sui!

Jin Feize, biting his popsicle, was uncharacteristically silent.

At a sharp turn, Li Miaomiao was running so fast that she flung both of them off the tires and into the bushes by the side of the mountain road. She didn’t even notice and sped off like the wind. That idiot Li Miaomiao, Jiang Ye thought as he climbed up from the ground and then pulled Jin Feize up.

“My clothes are dirty.” Jin Feize’s expression was a bit gloomy.

They had been at the training ground for the past few days, and their clothes were always dusty. Jin Feize had to change his clothes every day. The key was that his clothes were all very expensive and couldn’t be machine-washed, only hand-washed. Expecting Young Master Jin to do laundry was impossible. Fortunately, the Jin family’s five-star hotel had a laundry service; otherwise, Jin Feize would be running around naked in a couple of days.

Jiang Ye asked, as if casually, “Jin Feize, how did your mother pass away?”

“She didn’t die,” Jin Feize said.

“Didn’t die?” Jiang Ye was stunned. 

“You said before that she died in the forbidden zone.”

“That was the Academy’s final verdict. Jin Ruohai wanted her dead, so she had to be dead.”

Jiang Ye pressed on, “Then where is she?”

Jin Feize clamped his chin, narrowing his eyes to study him. 

“Why are you asking this? You seem very interested in her.”

“She’s connected to the person who doesn’t exist. Did you know your mother was involved in an artificial womb project? The investor for that project was him.”

Jin Feize smiled gently. 

“You want to know? Sure. Take off my collar, say ‘Brother Ah Zhe, please forgive me,’ and I’ll tell you.”

Jiang Ye: “…”

Even if this guy knew about the project, he probably didn’t know it was connected to Jiang Ran. If he had known, he wouldn’t have been so surprised to see Jiang Ran in the wedding video. But he should know Dr. Shi’s current whereabouts. If Jin Feize knew, the Jin family must also know. Jiang Ye didn’t understand why the Jin family would publicly declare that Dr. Shi was dead.

This madman Jin Feize was impossible to reason with, but Jiang Ye was even less likely to bow his head to him.

“You’re betting that I won’t just shock you for no reason.”

Jin Feize beamed. 

“And why is that? Because our little Ye is a good person.”

“But you forgot, your grandfather gave me full authority over you,” Jiang Ye said coldly. 

“Jin Feize, starting today, I will have the hotel stop your laundry service. Also, I will freeze your cards, so you won’t be able to buy new clothes either.”

Jin Feize’s smile stiffened for a moment. 

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll wash your own clothes.”

“And what if I don’t?”

Jiang Ye was ruthless. 

“Then you can run around naked.”