Chapter 53

Even though the bread in his hand was knocked away, Noang was not angry.

He just continued to look at Lan Yexing with that tender and nostalgic look. Before his self was completely deprived, he looked with a complicated expression at the blond young man behind Lan Yexing, whose expression was so scary as if he wanted to eat someone. A strange light slowly appeared in his red eyes.

Not knowing what he did, Qiao You looked at him even colder and more arrogantly, but he finally suppressed his murderous rage. He didn't say anything, but just grabbed Lan Yexing's wrist forcefully and domineeringly and took him away.

Yan Min held Nuoang, who was about to deliver bread to Qiao You after losing himself. He stared blankly at the back of Lan Yexing, who was being forcefully held in the arms of the young man, getting farther and farther away. After a while, he looked at Nuoang, who was in a daze, with a sad smile on his face. He seemed to be talking to him, but also seemed to be talking to himself: "You did a good job. This is good, really good..."

The cold wind from the lake blew in late autumn, and the last gentle words of the omega disappeared in the lake waves: "No matter what the final result is, Qiao You will never let him remember us, which is good..."

…

In the dormitory, Qiao You pressed Lan Yexing against the wall and kissed him forcefully, and his big hands tightly grasped his waist, as if he wanted to rub him into his bones.

Lan Yexing was kissed to the point of being suffocated, but she still put her arms around the young man's neck, gently comforting the young man who was troubled by violence.

After a while, when the kiss ended, Lan Yexing panted lightly, reached out and touched Qiao You's slightly cold face, and asked softly, "What's wrong with you?"

Qiao You looked at him deeply, with a flawless smile on his face. His emerald eyes flickered like an illusion. He stretched out his big hand and stroked the hideous teeth marks on the back of the boy's neck. He did not answer the boy's question, but asked another question: "Baby, what do you think of those two people just now?"

Lan Yexing was startled, bit her lower lip, and answered honestly: "Although I don't know them, but if something happens later..."

As long as the king does not get the next [Precognizer], this campus will not be peaceful and safe. Yan Min and Nuoang are both involved in this. Yan Min and Nuoang's brothers have helped him, so as long as he has the spare energy...

Lan Yexing looked directly at the young man and said, "As long as I have the energy to spare, I will help them."

There was a terrifying possessiveness and hostility in Qiao You's emerald eyes, but contrary to his usual behavior, he did not directly object, but simply hugged Lan Yexing into his arms again.

Lan Yexing always felt that he was weird, so he hugged him back and asked worriedly, "Are you really okay?"

Qiao You hugged him and said "hmm" casually.

In the young man's arms, Lan Yexing blinked, seemingly believing it and did not continue to ask. He lowered his eyes, smiled softly, and said, "Oh."

In Lan Yexing's blind spot, Qiao You's green eyes were surging with a dark and terrifying cold red light, but he did not let the boy notice it at all. He just stretched out his big hand to cover the top of the other's head, rubbing it gently and forcefully.

…

In the afternoon, Qiao You hugged him tenderly for a long time, said he was going to class, and left the dormitory.

Lan Yexing sat alone on the bed, staring at the door in a daze: he knew that Qiao You was hiding something from him.

But I can't get the answer by asking, so I can only find out slowly later.

Besides, he has his own things to do...

So, after quietly looking at the door for a while, he looked up at the ceiling, blinked, and said firmly: "I will not accept this mission."

He had no interest in spiritual power in the first place, and no amount of spiritual power would have any appeal to him.

Now he just wanted to help Qiao You get his revenge and be free, and rescue Xiao Song. Also, the obsession that had been hidden deep in his heart since he was a child...

The dial on his right wrist lit up quietly at this time. The system naturally supported any choice made by Lan Yexing. It said: [Okay.]

Lan Yexing nodded, then looked at it gently, raised his eyebrows and said: "The previous 5 points are enough, right? We have unlocked the spiritual power of [Tracing Source Analysis]. At the same time, Xiaosong, you should also unlock some memories, but you didn't tell me."

The system was silent for a long time before it said guiltily: [I also have the right to privacy.]

Lan Yexing was stunned, a helpless and gentle smile appeared on his face: "I don't disrespect your privacy, but--" But if he wants to find out the truth about Xiaosong's life experience, he must know this information.

But the system refused to say anything no matter what. For the first time, it used silence to resist Lan Yexing.

Lan Yexing sighed softly and gently reached out to cover the dial, as if comforting a child.

He did not question the system again, but was just waiting for the host's follow-up action - if it was really as he guessed, the king's core target was Qiao You, and the host's core target was him, then after he refused this mission, the host would definitely find a way -

Before Lan Yexing could finish his thoughts, his phone rang. The host did not contact him, but Yang Qing sent him a message:

Yang Qing said that he was about to leave Xingdu University and wanted to have a meal with him before leaving.

Lan Yexing stared at the message for a long while: from the first day he stepped into this campus and began to build ties with the people in this world, he knew that sooner or later, he would face separation - he was indeed brought to this world by the people behind the scenes, but to be honest, subjectively, he did not have much resistance.

Before completing those tasks for Xiao Song, he actually had his own goals and motives.

So he always felt that even if he couldn't return to his original world, he would leave Xingdu University when everything was over one day. Although he later carefully included Qiao You in his future life plan, he still chose to leave Xingdu University and Central County in the future.

He didn't like this kind of place at all. It was so oppressive for ordinary people, as if they were cursed.

And now, before he could leave, his friend was leaving.

Even though the atmosphere of separation was sad, he was still very happy for him.

Lan Yexing slowly smiled and replied with "OK".

…

Yang Qing invited people to his office as usual, but since the school was still relatively chaotic, he simply went to a good restaurant outside the campus and packed up a sumptuous meal and brought it back.

In the office, Yang Qing carefully arranged the lunch and smiled gently but helplessly at Lan Yexing: "The school cafeteria is too noisy, and it's not convenient to chat. If you want to eat outside, the school still maintains closed management on the surface, and it will be troublesome for you to go out. So, I just asked you to come here, don't mind."

Lan Yexing smiled, pulled out a chair and sat down opposite the young man, picked up the chopsticks and picked up a piece of fish without any hesitation, and said, "I think this is good."

Yang Qing was startled, then smiled brightly.

He poured the juice for Lan Yexing and pretended to say some farewell words, but his eyes were full of reluctance and he suddenly didn't know how to start.

Lan Yexing, however, ate his food quietly while asking calmly, "Why do you suddenly want to leave?"

Yang Qing smiled and said, "Senior Xi Jing resigned from that noble hospital. She joined the volunteer doctor team to provide voluntary medical services to people in underdeveloped areas. I suddenly thought, what's the point of me staying here?"

Their team was recruited from other university laboratories by the Medical School of Xingdu University with high salaries. After arriving here, they were forced by the Yuan family to change their research direction, and their research results were snatched away by Yuan Ping.

Later, Yuan Ping met with an accident for unknown reasons and has remained in a coma in the hospital ever since. The Yuan family's arrogance was suppressed a little, and their team was able to win the lawsuit and take back the copyright of their achievements.

It is the Jian family that now controls the university's medical school. To be honest, even though they still cannot decide the research direction themselves, their team's situation is much better than before.

But he suddenly felt that it was boring, really boring.

Yang Qing looked at Lan Yexing gently and said with a smile: "Do you know what my original research direction was?"

Lan Yexing blinked: "What is it?"

Yang Qing: "I am trying to extract a substance from a special plant and use it to synthesize another substance. If I succeed, I can make an inhibitor that is better and more affordable than the ones made by Jian and Yuan."

Lan Yexing was stunned: No wonder the Yuan family treated Yang Qing like that...

His heart moved: Leon said that the royal family would use the ability of [precognition] to interfere with the development process of many fields by interfering with the life courses of many important people.

Perhaps, Yang Qing is one of the people whose life they have interfered with.

Yang Qing shrugged and said, "Do you remember? Zhou Yanqiu said that he was determined to become a mechanical engineer when he was young, but in the process, he was stopped by countless people in various ways. I was very touched at that time, because my experience was similar to his. From childhood to adulthood, I was also stopped by various external forces from studying medicine. It was just that by chance, I still sadly embarked on the bitter road of biomedicine."

Yang Qing: "When I was a graduate student, I accidentally extracted that substance in a failed experiment, and I immediately had the idea of making an affordable inhibitor."

"Xiao Xing, even though you are a beta who doesn't need inhibitors, you should also understand that for most people in this world, whether they are poor or rich, inhibitors are a lifelong necessity in their lives, just like food and water."

"The current inhibitor market is almost monopolized by the Jian family and the Yuan family. They are the only two families that can produce inhibitors. There are rumors in the industry that their inhibitor production is related to their pheromone-based mental power. If this rumor is true, then it means that they can firmly control this huge market in their hands for generations just by relying on blood ties."

As he said this, Yang Qing, who was always carefree, showed a rare hint of irony in his eyes: "Although it is not uncommon for wealth and power to be passed down through blood in this country, what I care about most is that whether that substance is discovered or extracted, it is definitely not a very difficult task. There is definitely no shortage of true geniuses in the biomedical field, and the development process is definitely not backward. But why has no one made such an affordable inhibitor so far?"

Yang Qing looked down at the food on the table, a helpless smile appeared on his face: "To be honest, from childhood to adulthood, I have felt that the lives of ordinary people like us are firmly controlled by an invisible big hand. I used to think that the hand was those high and mighty nobles, but now that I think about it, it may not be the case. They are more like just a part of that hand."

"Ordinary people like us can barely survive under the palm of that hand, but when I wake up in my dreams at midnight, I still feel unwilling to accept it."

"So, when my senior really resigned, I wondered if I could resist once? Even just once."

He still wanted to make that inhibitor, open up a public patent, and change the world a little bit - even if it was only a little bit in the end.

If he remained in school, he would not be able to freely decide the direction of his research, and even if the school allowed it, the ownership of the patent would still belong to the school and the Jian family after he achieved results, and he would not have the right to open the patent.

So, he could only do it secretly.

He didn't know if he could really succeed, nor did he know if he would encounter the same fatal disaster as before. It was just that at this moment, he really wanted to be willful for once in his life, and no matter what happened, he would not regret it.

Lan Yexing looked at him gently and attentively, with some vague thoughts of distant sadness in his light-colored eyes, as if he was thinking about someone through the person in front of him. However, he quickly came to his senses, and a beautiful and clean smile appeared on his face. He did not dissuade him, but raised the juice glass to him and said, "I wish you all the best."

Even if countless causes and effects weave this world into a cage, there are always brave people who persevere in trying to break free of that bondage.

Yang Qing also smiled, raised his glass and clinked it with his: "I'll give you my good wishes." He looked at the boy in front of him seriously and said: "Xiaoxing, you too."

He felt for no reason that if he and Zhou Yanqiu had their lives manipulated by that invisible hand, then Lan Yexing was trapped even deeper than them.

Perhaps it was precisely because he had already sensed this for no reason that he had always hoped that Lan Yexing would stay as far away from that group of psychics as possible.

But he knew that Lan Yexing was actually very brave.

Lan Yexing, who knew nothing about this at the moment, tilted her head and smiled at him, the light in her light-colored eyes shining like stars: "Yes. I'll lend you my good wishes as well."

…

After having the farewell dinner with Yang Qing, Lan Yexing was on his way back when he finally received a response from the host regarding his refusal of the mission.

He received an anonymous text message: [Lan Yexing, come to the administration building and I will tell you the truth. I'll be waiting for you in that office.]

The other party did not say which office it was, but Lan Yexing knew that it was the one where he had gone to get the [Extraction Needle] before.

Lan Yexing looked at the dial on his right wrist: it didn't light up, and Xiaosong remained silent. This meant that in Xiaosong's opinion, the people in that office were not in danger for the time being.

But he would go regardless of danger.

A bit of determination slowly emerged on Lan Yexing's face. He stood up, left Qiao You's dormitory and went to the office.

…

Just after knocking on the door of that office, an unexpected person appeared in front of Lan Yexing.

"Teacher Song" looked at him with a smile. Even though Lan Yexing's expression turned cold and his whole body was tense with vigilance, "Song Wen" still politely asked him to sit down.

Lan Yexing looked at him coldly: I never thought that even though the original Song Wen is dead, there are still his clones alive in this world.

As if knowing what he was thinking, Song Wen shrugged: "Don't worry, I'm the last one."

He stared at the boy in front of him, a nostalgic and strange smile appeared on his face: "Also, unlike the main body and the other guys who are loyal to the king, I am loyal to that adult."

Lan Yexing's eyes were cold, and a rare sneer appeared on the corner of his lips: "I don't think there is any difference between them."

The supreme god in his heart was only offended, but Song Wen was not angry. He almost respectfully invited him and said, "Student Lan, please listen to what the adult wants me to tell you first, and then it won't be too late to make a decision."

Lan Yexing pursed her lips and walked in expressionlessly.

After taking his seat, "Song Wen" sat opposite him, still looking at the alert boy with that nostalgic expression. He stared at the boy closely, tilted his head to the left as if he was used to it, narrowed his left eye, and said: "Perhaps, we should start with your parents."

Lan Yexing's breathing stagnated and he suddenly opened his eyes wide. He slowly clenched his fists, his nails piercing into the palms of his hands, and his expression was unusually cold and terrifying.

"Song Wen" didn't care either. He just pointed at his current posture and said, "You should have seen this ridiculous posture on other clones. This is the most common habit of the original."

"Song Wen": "His Majesty the King needs a healthy body, so he created clones of himself to serve as his substitute and provide organs. His Majesty also needs someone to do his dirty work for him every moment, and he cares most about his reputation and will never allow those dirty things to be exposed, so he created many clones of Song Wen to serve as the knives in his hands."

"His standard for us 'Song Wen' clones is that whoever imitates the original most closely is the most perfect product and the most trustworthy. So, in order to survive, each of us is desperately trying to imitate the original. And I should be the clone who is most similar to the original. Therefore, I survived to the end, lived longer than the original, and gained His Majesty's trust more than the original."

He was also the only clone who betrayed the king.

At this point, a strange and stiff smile appeared on "Song Wen"'s face: "Other clones can only foolishly imitate the appearance and habits of the original body, but in addition to these, I have also grasped the reason why the king trusts Song Wen. That is, Song Wen knows how to be grateful. He is an illegitimate child despised by everyone in the Song family. The king pulled him out of that situation and gave him dignity. From then on, he only lived for the king's kindness. The king is superstitious about the super-value loyalty brought by this kind of gratitude, so he also hopes that we clones can be grateful to him."

"As for me, in order to survive, I took the high risk of being purged and deliberately disobeyed the king's order. I repaid the kindness of your parents and showed your majesty that I could overcome my fear of death and repay kindness. I received a huge reward. Your majesty believed that as long as he gave me enough favors, he would be able to gain my loyalty from the bottom of my heart and overcome any physical fears."

He looked directly at Lan Yexing, his face revealing a stiff malice and a hint of nostalgia. He said, "Student Lan, you probably don't know that I once had an encounter with your parents. Your father is an astrophysicist, and your mother is a power engineer. After they were purged by the main body because they were determined to conduct illegal research, I used my spatial mental power to send you to another world, saving you from being killed together."

Most of the clones are numb and blank after being created, but there are some like him who are naturally smart and therefore very unwilling to live their lives. Once when he was on a mission, he fled in a hurry because of his extreme fear of death, and a scholar couple kindly took him in for three days.

During those three days, he experienced for the first time what normal people's warmth and life were like.

But he also recognized that the couple and their five-year-old child were also on the purge list in more than a month, because, in the future predicted by the [Precognant], the couple would successfully develop a space engine, which would allow mankind to take a crucial step in the exploration of the sky and the universe.

This is something the royal family would never allow to happen.

Until now, he still doesn't understand why the couple would rather die than give up their research direction, but at that time he excitedly and meanly saw in them the possibility of escaping death for himself.

Therefore, he did not warn the couple of the impending purge at that time. He simply returned to the cage, watched the purge happen with his own eyes, and then sent the child, who was firmly protected by the couple's bodies, to another world.

When interrogated by the king, he imitated the extremely sincere expressions that the couple had once shown to him, and fabricated the reasons why he saved the child and his obsession with repaying his gratitude.

He won the bet. The king did not hold him accountable for letting the child go, and began to treat him differently, no longer sending him to do exhausting work that could cost him his life, but slowly began to train him as his confidant.

"Song Wen" stared straight at Lan Yexing, and a blank look even appeared on his ugly face: when he casually left that child, who had suffered from traumatic stress and bitten his own hands until they bled but could not cry out, on the street in another world, he had never thought that thirteen years later, he would have the chance to see him again.

He recalled that when the car accident, which was not actually fatal, happened, the host briefly paused time and gave the boy a choice. He asked the boy if he wanted to leave.

The boy's eyes were frighteningly cold and bright at that time, and he chose to leave with extraordinary calmness and determination.

He understood then that the child who didn't know the whole story or who the murderer was had never forgotten his innocent parents who died - he might have forgotten who sent him to that world due to traumatic stress, but he definitely didn't forget his parents.

Therefore, he resolutely gave up the normal world that was not affected by cause and effect, and resolutely chose to move towards the unknown.

However, it was different from what Lan Yexing thought in his mind now, that he had only been in this world for a few months. In fact, when he woke up in that villa, he had already been in this world for a year.

He went through a lot of tests from the host that year before being chosen by the host to come to this university to perform the so-called missions - these missions were important to the king, but not important at all to the host.

The host only wanted to reward his cute child, the only one who passed the test, in this way - that is, to slowly grant him all his mental power.

His task now is to remind Lan Yexing of how many difficult tests and terrible pains he had gone through to get such a precious opportunity, and he should not give up for the so-called love.

"Song Wen" looked at the boy opposite him, who was looking down slightly and hiding his expression in his hair. He could only see the lower half of his extremely pale face. He saw that he was biting his lips, and even biting blood. He had the illusion that Lan Yexing was trying his best to suppress his body from shaking.

Even though he was considered by the king to be the most human and "noble" clone, "Song Wen" still couldn't understand the boy's appearance at this moment. A determined smile emerged on his ugly face, and he was faintly jealous of the boy's selection: "Student Lan, let me tell you, what a precious opportunity you are giving up for a man - do you know, when you first came to the laboratory a year ago -"

Before he finished speaking, the dial on Lan Yexing's right wrist, which had been silent all this time, emitted a cold light. For the first time, it sent a high-voltage electric current to the other side without Lan Yexing's consent. "Song Wen" looked at the dial in surprise and murmured, "How surprising..."

This guy who had been transformed to be even less human than him had actually regained his self-awareness to this extent, and he didn't want Lan Yexing to remember that time or know those things...

"Song Wen" was about to teach it a lesson, but he saw Lan Yexing covering the dial protectively, raising his head and looking at him with a cold and expressionless face, with more terrifying electric currents surging from his right wrist, as if he would fight him to the end if he touched the dial.

"Song Wen" showed more confusion on his face: He didn't understand, even if they had been friends during that year, Lan Yexing should have forgotten it.

But he still stood by it and was determined to protect it at all costs.

Is this the reason why the host chose Lan Yexing?

Song Wen tilted his head strangely again: "Student Lan, is this how you treat your lifesaver?"

Lan Yexing's voice was extremely cold and calm. He said firmly as if he was narrating: "I don't think you are my benefactor. You are just a monster, just like the monster behind you. An out-and-out monster."

"Song Wen" seemed to be hit, his face suddenly darkened as if his defense was broken - but he couldn't kill Lan Yexing. That master would never allow him to kill Lan Yexing...

He could only do the second thing the adult asked him to do.

Thinking of something, Song Wen's face revealed a blatant and terrifying jealousy. He stared at Lan Yexing and said in a deep voice: "Since you refuse to listen to the rest of the story, we have no choice but to move on to the next step."

Song Wen stood up, stamped the ground, and said, "That adult wants to see you. He is... in the basement of this school."

He expected Lan Yexing to show a fearful and withdrawn expression, but unfortunately, there was none at all.

Lan Yexing was still protecting the dial on his right wrist. He stood up and looked at him coldly and fearlessly: "Then, let's go."