After Luo Ning was pulled back to the bookshelf, she turned around and saw An Xiaoruo's familiar face. She was both surprised and delighted. As expected of her little darling who had been raised for five years, she had helped her a lot at a crucial moment.

But how did An Xiaoruo know she was behind the bookshelf?

An Xiaoruo nervously gestured for her to be quiet, indicating that she should not make a sound.

Luo Ning was naturally unable to make a sound. She didn't know that An Xiaoruo hadn't really recognized her, but had seen her once in the lab and felt a sense of familiarity and warmth, which was why she couldn't help but help her. She had broken her oath as a safety officer, but she couldn't let Song Pei discover this experimental subject.

But why does this test subject smell of orchids that I smelled in my uncle's room?

"An Xiaoruo, why are you at the very back?" Song Pei asked as he walked over.

An Xiaoruo immediately stepped in front of Song Pei to block him, her voice trembling slightly: "I remember that the earliest appearance of human-animal gene interaction was fifty years ago, and the data here is arranged with the most recent dates at the beginning and the oldest dates at the end, so I wanted to look for it from the back."

Her words were reasonable and well-founded, and Song Pei couldn't detect any problems: "Okay, search carefully, and find all the information within two hours."

“Yes,” An Xiaoruo replied, then focused intently on her work.

Song Pei walked ahead, and An Xiaoruo and Luo Ning both breathed a sigh of relief. An Xiaoruo continued searching for information, occasionally looking up at Luo Ning, who would return her a warm smile.

An Xiaoruo liked her more and more the more she looked at her, but unfortunately she couldn't go over and talk to this older sister right now, so she had to keep busy with what she was doing.

Luo Ning felt content with this. Although she couldn't communicate with An Xiaoruo, she was happy and grateful to be able to watch the girl like this.

"What are you doing here?" Lu Xinghe's voice suddenly came. After finishing his business today, he discovered that Luo Ning's location was in the Gene Department, so he came looking for her.

Upon hearing his voice, Luo Ning and An Xiaoruo both looked towards the door. Seeing him arrive, Luo Ning felt inexplicably at ease. An Xiaoruo noticed her reaction and vaguely guessed that the reason she couldn't find Luo Ning these past few days might be related to her uncle.

“Find some old files; the genetics department needs them,” Song Pei replied.

Seeing that he hadn't noticed Luo Ning's presence, Lu Xinghe glanced around the room and asked, "Is it urgent for you to find the files at this time? Do you need to send more people?"

Just as Song Pei was about to answer no, the light went out again, and the backup power supply also failed. Luo Ning found it strange, because the backup power supply should not have any problems, since the backup power supply room is usually located in the basement, which is safer than the outside.

Just as she was wondering, she smelled a sulfurous odor, as if it were coming from underground, and her feet were shaking slightly, as if an earthquake had occurred.

A piercing alarm ripped through the air above the base, and a female voice came through the base's communicator: "Magma layer fracture, everyone evacuate to the nearest safe location. Magma layer fracture, everyone evacuate to the nearest safe location."

Luo Ning finally realized that the sulfurous smell she had been smelling was actually lava. Everyone in the room ran out, clearly they were already familiar with the evacuation methods, but Luo Ning was unaware of that.

An Xiaoruo originally wanted to take advantage of the darkness to pull Luo Ning away together, but Song Pei grabbed her arm and dragged her out.

"Follow me."

Luo Ning heard Lu Xinghe's voice in her ear, and she immediately followed him outside. The corridor was already full of people, and the experimental subjects had been moved out. No one noticed that there was an extra mutant in the crowd.

The smell of sulfur grew stronger, and Luo Ning could see dark red liquid churning on the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't as violent as a volcanic eruption, but rather a slow, creeping movement.

She knew that the temperature of magma was extremely high, and anything that fell in, whether it was a different species or anything else, would instantly turn to ashes. Without thinking, she grabbed Lu Xinghe's sleeve.

Lu Xinghe sensed her nervousness: "Don't be afraid, it's just a small crack, and it's not fast. It will stop soon."

The helicopter had already flown to the rooftop to lift the container containing the alien species away. Luo Ning saw that they were saving the experimental subject first instead of saving people, and realized the importance of this experiment to the base.

"There is no fracture layer on Hill 3, so you can go there to take refuge."

"There is no fracture layer at Hill 7, so you can go there to take refuge."

"There is no fracture layer at Hill 8, so you can go there to take refuge."

...

The base's loudspeakers continuously announced safe shelter locations. Under the vast snowstorm, people helped each other as they struggled toward the shelter. No one spoke; everyone was silent, not even the children cried. Only the howling of the wind and snow could be heard.

This is the end of the world.

While attacks from alien species can be resisted, people can only retreat in the face of natural disasters.

Lu Xinghe took off his coat and gave it to Luo Ning, not only to keep her warm, but also to prevent her face from being seen by others.

They arrived at the nearest Hill 8, where soldiers had already set up several large tents. Luo Ning saw An Xiaoruo and Song Pei standing in front of a tent talking to each other. Then they went into the tent together. However, there were many people in the tent, and Luo Ning would definitely be worried if it were just the two of them.

According to the novel, An Xiaoruo will soon marry Song Pei. Although ethics and morality cannot be defined in the post-apocalyptic world as in the real world, Luo Ning still feels that An Xiaoruo is too young to get married.

She can fall in love, she can wholeheartedly love someone and let her genes awaken, instead of getting married while she's still a child.

The snowstorm intensified, and the refugees had already entered their tents. Luo Ning and Lu Xinghe remained at the entrance. Lu Xinghe kept checking the messages on his communicator. Command had ordered all security officers to stand by on the high ground, where a large number of people were concentrated. If an infected person appeared at this time, it would have extremely serious consequences.

His sharp eyes scanned the crowd. The tent was large, packed with one or two hundred people. He didn't see any blue eyes, and everything seemed normal.

He had just dealt with two mutants tonight. The mutant invasion a few days ago had infected more than 3,000 people. He thought they had all been eliminated, but unexpectedly, a mother had hidden her infected son. Fortunately, they found him during their second round of screening. Otherwise, with such a large gathering of people tonight, it would have caused a massive infection.

He just didn't know if there were similar situations in the base, so he couldn't let his guard down at all, especially in this snowy weather when people's senses can easily become dulled.

Suddenly, Luo Ning grabbed his hand and wrote the words "No alien species" stroke by stroke in his palm. She could see Lu Xinghe's worry.

"Are you sure?" Lu Xinghe asked.

Luo Ning nodded affirmatively and patted her chest responsibly.

Looking at her gentle face in the dim light, Lu Xinghe suddenly had an idea: "Let's go check other places. If you find any alien species, tell me."

She is a mutant, and can directly sense the aura of other species much faster than they can detect them.

Luo Ning gave an OK sign, and the two of them checked tent by tent against the wind and snow. After checking more than a dozen tents, they found nothing. When they reached the last tent, Luo Ning sensed the presence of a fellow human, but it was very faint.

She glanced at Lu Xinghe, who calmly gripped his gun and walked into the tent, where some people were already asleep with their eyes closed.

Luo Ning followed the scent and led him to a woman holding a baby. The woman looked up at them, but her eyes were normal brown.

Lu Xinghe looked at Luo Ning with a puzzled expression. Luo Ning pointed to the baby who was wrapped up tightly. Only the baby's face was visible in the swaddling clothes. The baby's eyes were closed and the baby was sleeping soundly.

Even such a small baby was already infected, which is why Luo Ning could feel that the baby's breathing was weak.

The woman knew she had been discovered when she saw the security officer's uniform on Lu Xinghe, but she didn't cry or shout. She just gently patted the baby's body and said to the two of them, "He's only three months old and hasn't hurt anyone. Can I hold him a little longer?"

Lu Xinghe half-squatted down. Luo Ning thought he would kill the baby directly, but he did nothing. He just protected the woman to prevent the baby from waking up and biting people.

Luo Ning stared at him blankly, realizing that he also had such a tender side.