Chapter 11 Hidden Scars
Su Wanqing shook off the blue blood on her tactical boots, and the metal cabinet door creaked behind her.
Lin Che, on the other hand, huddled in the corner, chewing on compressed biscuits. The water dripping from his silver hair formed a small puddle on the cement floor, and the tear in his vest revealed the gauze oozing blood.
"Take it off."
She threw a gray sweatshirt at the boy's head, and then opened the mineral water to rinse the Tang sword.
Lin Che held the corner of his clothes without moving, until the tip of the knife lifted his chin, and then he slowly tore open the Velcro on his vest.
The cloth stuck to the scabby wound and tore apart with a sizzling sound. Su Wanqing paused while wiping the knife - the inner side of the boy's forearm was covered with coin-sized round burns, and the new and old scars overlapped like a honeycomb.
"After-dinner entertainment at the research institute?" The back of the knife tapped the bruise on his elbow.
Lin Che rolled up the torn vest into a ball and threw it at his feet. There were two stitches across his chest with protruding ribs.
When he reached out to grab the new sweatshirt, the skin on his shoulder blades suddenly twitched, as if something alive was wriggling under his skin.
"Turn around."
Su Wanqing suddenly grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, causing the young man to stagger and bump into the metal cabinet.
The yellowed wall paint fell off, revealing a distress sign drawn in blood on the back.
The moment Lin Che's back tensed, she saw three intersecting whip marks running across her entire back, with a hard crust of blue blood forming around the edges of the wounds.
"Don't"
The boy suddenly curled up, his sutures burst and blue blood oozed out. Su Wanqing poked his coccyx with a mineral water bottle: "Does the research institute use chains to raise dogs?"
The holographic screen popped up on the wrist at the right time: [High-frequency electric shock scars detected, consistent with the characteristics of an X-type interrogation device].
At the same time, a red light swept across the pinholes below Lin Che’s collarbone, marking seventeen traces of subcutaneous implant removal.
Lin Che grabbed the sweatshirt and put it on his head, the fabric got stuck in his wet silver hair and became a tangled mess.
Su Wanqing raised her foot and kicked him in the knee: "What's the hurry?" When the boy fell to his knees, a fluorescent code appeared on his lower back - under the number 0927 there was a line of small French words: Scent Tracking Type.
"How many toys did they give you?" The cold tip of the knife slid down his spine and stopped at the third lumbar vertebra, where there was a hard lump.
Lin Che's body trembled uncontrollably.
Su Wanqing grabbed his hair and pulled it back. The boy was forced to raise his head, his sexy Adam's apple protruding. A string of Braille codes appeared behind the boy's ear, and the holographic screen translated the content: [Feeding of high-risk experimental subjects is prohibited].
"Sit down."
Su Wanqing threw a dry towel over and opened the iron cabinet to look for the medical kit.
Lin Che wiped her hair mechanically, but her eyes followed her every movement. Her wet hair left dark water marks on the collar of her sweatshirt.
"Stretch out your hand."
When she pressed the alcohol cotton pad on the burn on his forearm, the boy let out a half-whimper from his throat, like a little animal.
An analysis chart pops up on the holographic screen: [Excessive salt intake leads to electrolyte imbalance, glucose supplementation is recommended].
"Did you eat salt secretly?" Su Wanqing suddenly pinched his chin, "Are all the dogs in the research institute so greedy?"
Lin Che's pupils suddenly shrank, and the towel he used to wipe his hair fell into the puddle. The dark red lines on the back of his neck suddenly glowed, and the suppression of the master-servant contract forced him to open his mouth - there were still salt grains on the tip of his tongue that had not been licked clean.
"The third cabinet in the kitchen." Su Wanqing slapped the glucose powder on the iron cabinet, "Remember to wipe your mouth next time you eat it secretly."
As he tore open the package, he suddenly looked up: "It's not stealing"
"Um?"
"They said." Lin Che suddenly muttered a string of words in French, scratching the burn on his arm with his nails, "We need to maintain the osmotic pressure."
A real-time translation popped up on the holographic screen. Su Wanqing squinted at the last line: [Consume at least 50 grams of sodium chloride daily to prevent cell lysis].
She suddenly pulled open the collar of the boy's sweatshirt, and sure enough, there was a suture below his collarbone that was leaking fluid.
"Did they give you a blood transfusion?"
The tip of the knife opened the suture, revealing the pale blue blood vessels inside. Lin Che was as stiff as if he was nailed to the wall, feeling a little embarrassed, and even his breathing rate suddenly increased a lot.
The holographic screen sounded an alarm: [Subject 0927 showed rejection reaction].
Without saying a word, Su Wanqing took out half a bag of saline solution bread from the space and threw it in front of him: "Eat."
Lin Che stared at the bread in his arms, his Adam's apple rolling twice without moving.
It was not until Su Wanqing glanced at him coldly that he hesitated and began to move.
"What does the institute teach?" She squatted down and grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck. "How to be a stray dog?"
Lin Che raised his head with bread crumbs on the corner of his mouth, his pupils misty, "They said that qualified test subjects have to...find salt themselves."
Su Wanqing inexplicably saw a sense of pity in these eyes.
A surveillance video popped up on the holographic screen: people in protective clothing threw salt blocks into the cage, and Lin Che in his youth form and the other three test subjects fought and struggled for the salt blocks.
The electronic clock in the corner of the screen shows the date is three months before the end of the world.
Su Wanqing poured the whole box of salt bread into his arms: "No need to fight now."
Lin Che suddenly grabbed the corner of her clothes, and the salt on his fingertips left white marks on the fabric: "Why? Give it to me?"
"It's troublesome if a pet starves to death." Su Wanqing brushed away his hand that was pulling at the corner of his clothes, "Especially if it explodes."
The boy groaned and curled up, blue blood seeping out of the whip marks on his back again. When the hem of his sweatshirt was rolled up, the festering wound on his waist was exposed, and the holographic screen marked [Continuous Self-Healing Failure].
Su Wanqing suddenly pulled open the waistband of his pants, revealing the skin on the inside of his thighs covered with old scratches from her fingernails.
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"Did you scratch yourself?"
"The lab is too narrow." Lin Che pulled at his waistband in vain. "When I was dreaming."
Su Wanqing slapped the anti-inflammatory ointment on his abdominal muscles: "Wipe it clean."
The boy's hands were shaking violently when he opened the tin tube, and the ointment was squeezed everywhere.
He glanced at Su Wanqing who was counting the weapons, and suddenly put his finger covered with ointment into his mouth.
"Spit it out."
The back of the knife hit his wrist, and the ointment splashed onto the bloody words on the wall.
Lin Che covered his red wrists. The collar of his sweatshirt was torn open during the struggle, revealing the teeth marks on his carotid artery. Judging from the teeth marks, they were caused by a human bite.
"Stealing food?" Su Wanqing suddenly poked the scar with the barrel of a gun in a vicious manner.
"0926" Lin Che said in confusion, "He said my blood is salty."
The holographic screen called up the file of subject 0926, who was a young man with blond hair and blue eyes.
Su Wanqing thought of the military badge in the pile of rotting corpses in the stairwell, and slid the barrel of the gun to Lin Che's chest: "Are you not hungry now?"
The young man suddenly grabbed the barrel of the gun and pressed it against his forehead: "There is something here."
The red light scan showed metal reflections inside his skull, and the holographic screen popped up another warning: [The remaining validity period of the micro bomb is 23 days].
Su Wanqing pulled the trigger of the empty gun, and the sound of the firing pin made Lin Che flinch.
"Can it be dug out?"
“It will explode.” Lin Che made an explosion gesture, “Bang——”
Su Wanqing suddenly stuffed the gun into his mouth: "Then don't rub it."
The iron cabinet was suddenly shaken by a collision, and the mutant's scratching sound came from outside the door.
Lin Che held the gun barrel in his mouth without moving, until Su Wanqing pulled out the gun and threw it into the corner, then he lowered his head and continued to apply the ointment.
"Turn around."
She tore open the boy's sweatshirt, revealing scraps of fabric stuck to his whip-marked back.
When the alcohol cotton swab was wiping the festering wound, Lin Che's spine suddenly bulged and squirmed, as if something was struggling under the skin.
The holographic screen alarm flashed wildly: [Abnormal bioelectric signals detected].
Su Wanqing took out a high-voltage electric shock device and pressed it against his thoracic vertebrae. Blue blood flowed from the corner of the boy's mouth to his collarbone.
"Hold it."
As the electric sparks crackled, encrypted runes appeared on the back of Lin Che's neck.
Su Wanqing recognized the same inverted cross totem as the one in the red light cocoon. The muzzle of the gun suddenly pierced through the skin and pressed on the center of the rune: "What did they install for you?"
"Key." The boy coughed up blue blood, "The key to open the door"
(End of this chapter)
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