Chapter 50 "Doctor, the person..."

"Doctor, the person has arrived."

"Okay, take them directly to Room Number Two."

Pei Qing followed the researchers in the elevator to the eighth basement level. She had a bellyful of questions but hadn't had a chance to ask them. She was just about to try to get some information out of them when the other person turned away coldly and told her to wait there by herself before leaving.

Strange, her experiment should have ended today, and she should have received the medicine she was supposed to receive.

She thought Linka had called her here to draw blood, but instead she ended up in this godforsaken place.

Pei Qian thought the seventh underground floor was deserted enough, but she didn't expect there to be an eighth floor. The seventh floor still had some life, but why was there no one on the eighth floor?

Why is it so cold? Where is the air conditioning coming from? Fortunately, no one is looking for her right now, so Pei Qing decided to wander around by herself for a bit.

It was just too cold, and she wanted to move around to warm up. Pei Qing pulled her thin coat tighter around herself and hugged her small, pitiful self.

It was pitch black all around, except for a faint, yellowish light shining from the end of the corridor.

The doors were all locked, lined up closely together, their cold metallic sheen giving off a chilling vibe that made one wonder if something eerie and bloody might be inside, such as a corpse or some kind of organ.

The door on the left suddenly moved, and a hoarse, old sound came from the crack in the door panel. Pei Qing was startled and quickly walked close to the right. She secretly glanced to the left, but the door didn't move anymore. She breathed a sigh of relief and hurried forward.

Suddenly, a faint green light flickered around the corner ahead, looking quite eerie. Pei Qing was both afraid and curious. She was torn between her fear and curiosity, but in the end, curiosity prevailed over fear.

She moved forward little by little, her back pressed against the wall, afraid that something unexpected might suddenly appear in front of her.

Fortunately, there was nothing there.

Pei Qing arrived in front of an unfamiliar building.

In front of her was a huge signboard with characters she couldn't understand, seemingly ancient Han Chinese. She only recognized two characters: "Chenlie" (陈列).

It seems there are benefits to surfing the internet when you have nothing to do; at least you don't recognize a single word. Pei Qian comforted herself.

Behind the sign was the building's main entrance, which was ajar, and the eerie green light emanated from within.

Pei Qian hesitated for three seconds before finally succumbing to her curiosity and choosing to go in and take a look.

She comforted herself, thinking, "Since I'm already here, wouldn't it be a waste not to go in and take a look? I'm not going to do anything that doesn't benefit me."

"Let's go in and take a look. It won't hurt to see what's going on." After mentally preparing herself, Pei Qing pushed open the door and stood there dumbfounded. It turned out to be an exhibition hall.

The building's large dome is made of a giant piece of luminous glass, shimmering with a brilliant green light, resembling a vast and magnificent cosmic galaxy, which is incredibly awe-inspiring.

As far as the eye can see, there are thick crystal pillars, which contain all kinds of ancient species from thousands or tens of thousands of years ago. Their scientific names and descriptions are engraved on the surface of the silver-white base below.

These were pictures that Pei Qing had only seen in popular science books before. Seeing them with her own eyes today, at this very moment, the shock she felt was indescribable.

In fact, the welfare center has a holographic experience room donated by a wealthy businessman, but because it consumes a huge amount of energy to operate, the welfare center's management keeps it locked and does not allow anyone to sneak in.

Pei Qing had never been obedient since childhood. One day, she secretly cracked the lock on the door and slipped inside while the teacher wasn't looking. In her panic, she accidentally triggered an unknown device, activating a holographic paleontology educational program.

That was the first time she had ever seen the largest mammal on Earth—the blue whale. Due to long-term neglect, the holographic image was incomplete and could only be played in part. She couldn't even see what the blue whale actually looked like.

This is the second time.

Unlike the rigid illustrations in the book, or the incomplete holographic images, this time, she truly saw a complete blue whale.

It turns out that blue whales really are this big and this long. She had to strain her eyes to see the shadow of its head while standing at its tail.

Pei Qing continued walking forward. Among the animals, there were large ones like wolves, tigers, lions, and elephants, and small ones like mosquitoes, flies, ants, and butterflies. In addition to animals, there were also plants, flowers, grasses, and trees.

It's worth mentioning that the entire exhibition hall was arranged according to some unknown rule. Pei Qing initially thought it was based on the degree of evolution, but later realized that wasn't the case. After all, how could the evolutionary levels of a bear and a Venus flytrap be the same? Yet they were placed in the same row.

She walked along, stopping frequently to watch with great interest.

It wasn't until the green light overhead turned purple that Pei Qian realized she had already walked through an entire exhibition hall.

This exhibition hall has a completely different style from the previous one, which had a fresh and educational feel. As soon as you enter, you are greeted by a bloody human model, half of it cut open, which is incredibly realistic. You can clearly see the capillaries under the skin and the internal organs in the abdominal cavity.

Pei Qing leaned closer to examine it carefully, and she could even smell the blood.

A chill ran down her spine, and she could no longer bear to look, so she turned and went elsewhere.

The first half of the exhibition hall was almost entirely filled with all sorts of bloody human tissues. She even saw undeveloped infants, detached placentas, and various healthy or diseased organs...

Pei Qing was about to leave when she turned around and found that the exhibition hall doors had been closed at some point. Helpless, she could only endure her nausea and continue walking forward.

Upon seeing the next exhibit, Pei Qing couldn't help but lean against the wall and gag.

It was a mutant, its head seemingly a combination of human and wolf, with a protruding muzzle and long, sharp fangs. It was completely naked, kneeling and crouching like a wolf, with human-like hands and feet, but covered in gray wolf-like fur. There was also a fleshy lump at its tailbone, which appeared to be an incompletely evolved tail.

Such a mutated organism could never have appeared in natural evolution; it could only be the result of artificial grafting.

As she walked further, more and more aberrations appeared before her eyes: animals with animals, animals with plants, some predominantly animal-based, others predominantly plant-based...

The further they went, the more sophisticated the experimental techniques became, and the more human-like the experimental subjects became, with their features blending more and more harmoniously with animal characteristics. Pei Qing saw both fish-headed human-bodied and human-headed fish-human hybrids, and even some with a fish-like midsection.

She also saw snake-men, frog-men, and lizard-men with abnormally distorted bodies and scales covering their bodies and faces. Pei Qing didn't know when her tolerance had improved so much that she didn't vomit.

Finally, her gaze settled on the huge glass tube at the far end of the exhibition hall, inside which sat a handsome, long-haired man.

Calling him a man isn't quite accurate. To be precise, this man was also an experimental subject. His lower body was a thick, long, jet-black snake tail with shimmering dark gold patterns on its scales—it was quite beautiful.

Pei Qing approached without realizing it. Compared to other test subjects, the snake man was the most successful one she had ever seen. Apart from his snake tail below the abdomen, the man only had a few scales on his upper body, and his appearance was completely human.

Mainly, he was very handsome, with a sharp, angular face, tanned skin, and smooth lines. If you ignored that snake tail, he was a real muscle man with large pectoral muscles and a slim waist (of course, no snake would have a thick waist). Most importantly... his color was a lovely pink, which was very visually striking.

In short, his outstanding looks and physique even made Pei Qing overlook his inhuman features.

"How is it? Not bad, right? This is my most satisfying work." A soft, low voice sounded from behind.

The sudden sound startled Pei Qing, almost making her jump. A woman with red hair and gray eyes appeared behind her without her noticing.

With a few crackling sounds, the previously dimly lit exhibition hall suddenly became brightly lit, almost blinding her.

Pei Qian's tears streamed down her face. She wiped them away, her hands were wet. There was nothing to it but the contrast of light and dark, which was quite stimulating.

Linka considerately handed her a handkerchief, but Pei Qing snatched it away impatiently. "What exactly do you want? Are you just waiting here to scare me?"

"How could that be? I just waited for you here." Linka looked innocent, her expression normal, but she had dark circles under her eyes and looked very tired.

"Who would believe that? You academics are the most ruthless..." Pei Qing muttered to herself.

"What did you say? I didn't hear you."

"He didn't say anything!" Pei Qing was too cowardly to stand still. With the escape imminent, she decided to just endure it.

Linka ignored her and stepped forward, pushing Pei Qing's shoulder. Her warm breath brushed against Pei Qing's earlobe. "This is my most satisfying work. It's beautiful and powerful, except for a few minor flaws."

Pei Qing's ears were tickled by her teasing, so she dodged to the side, but still couldn't resist asking cheekily, "What flaw?"

Linka smiled slightly and pressed the button.

Pei Qing rubbed her eyes. If she wasn't mistaken, hadn't that black snake tail moved just now?

She was still bewildered in the wind when, in the next second, the snake's tail suddenly trembled violently, as if it were about to shatter the glass tube. Pei Qing felt as if there were already cracks on it and instinctively dodged backward.

Looking again, the man had opened his eyes, his wild, dark yellow vertical pupils were constricted, his lips were opening and closing, and the corners of his mouth stretched all the way to his ears, a degree that is difficult for humans to achieve.

Pei Qian then noticed a crack that was barely visible to the naked eye where the corner of his mouth met his ear.

The man's thin, fleshy lips bulged, his long, forked, scarlet tongue extended and retracted, and he stared fiercely at the two people in front of him. His back was arched in an attacking posture, and he slammed the glass dome violently again and again!

The force was so great that even the ground beneath their feet trembled.

Pei Qing's legs trembled, and her mouth trembled as well. "No, no, weren't they supposed to be specimens? How...how can they be alive?!"

“Of course they’re alive! Who told you these are specimens? They’re just temporarily frozen to conserve energy, you know. They have a few minor flaws,” Linka said, winking playfully at Pei Qing.

She, she, she knows absolutely nothing! And is this even a minor flaw? This thing has absolutely no sense!

Pei Qian was practically in tears. "Hurry up and keep him sealed up!!! When he comes out later!" She swore she really saw the cracks in the glass this time!

"I'm sorry, we can't seal it away." Linka shrugged, looking like there was nothing she could do.

"No, no, you have to think of something!! Do you want to die here?" Pei Qing doesn't want to die here, as they'll be out in a few days!

"I really can't do it, but you can."

As the sound of the glass shattering grew louder, Linka frowned almost imperceptibly and pressed another button. Countless mechanical chains extended from both sides of the tube, tightly binding the man. He struggled desperately, but the chains kept moving.

“It’s finally quiet. Yes, you heard me right, you have a way.” Linka repeated.

"Me? What can I do? Can you be a little more reliable when you talk?"

Linka ignored her and continued, "The reason it has lost its mind is because its mental sea has been severely damaged. In its current state, it is not far from its mental sea exploding."

“And you, you can restore the spiritual sea,” Linka said, emphasizing each word.

"Are you kidding me? Even if I could, what would I do?" Pei Qing compromised. If she couldn't beat her, she would join in. She would try to calm her down first.

"Just like what you did to Luo Yu, you can do it a few more times."

Pei Qing's expression gradually froze. What she did to Luo Yu was...

"Are you crazy? You want me to go with such a... monster... Have you been in the lab for too long and completely gone crazy?"

Pei Qing stared at Lin Ka in disbelief, but what she didn't see was that, at some point, the man behind her gradually stopped struggling, his dim, vertical pupils fixed on her.

“I’m not kidding, why don’t you give it a try?” Linka took a step back, putting her left hand behind her back.

Pei Qian suddenly had a bad feeling. "You—!"

Just as she was about to chase after him to ask what was going on, her footing suddenly gave way, and she plummeted straight into the darkness.

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Author's Note: Attention! All scientific and biological knowledge in this story serves only the plot!

This is not a reliable source at all!

The non-human storyline I've been waiting for is finally here! So happy! [cheering emojis]