Chapter 12 Abnormal Behavior
The moonlight leaked in through the gap of the exhaust fan and condensed into a small spot of light on the edge of the salt tank.
Lin Che squatted in the shadow of the cooking table. When he was circling the edge of the glass jar for the third time, he suddenly held his breath.
The moment Su Wanqing opened her eyes in the bedroom, she felt the gun under the pillow.
The metal cabinet door made an inaudible creaking sound, followed by the rustling sound of the plastic packaging being crumpled.
She stepped barefoot on the cold concrete floor and when she buckled her tactical belt into the last notch, the crisp sound of ceramics colliding came from the kitchen.
Lin Che was stuffing his entire hand into the salt shaker.
The boy curled up in the angle between the refrigerator and the wall, his back pressed against the tiles still damp from the day's heavy rain.
When he dipped his index finger full of salt and put it into his mouth, the sound of his Adam's apple rolling was particularly clear in the silence.
"Hungry?"
Su Wanqing's voice nearly knocked the salt shaker over. Lin Che held the shaker between his knees and hid it behind his back, leaving red marks on the back of his hand as he rubbed it against the edge of the counter.
The collar of his sweatshirt was askew, revealing his collarbone, and his skin was an abnormally pale blue in the moonlight.
When the switch clicked, the boy subconsciously raised his hand to block the glaring light.
Small clusters of salt crystals were scattered on the ground, forming crooked hills.
"Salt-baked rat?" Su Wanqing laughed out of anger. She crushed a pinch of salt with the tip of her shoe. "Is it a new trick?"
Lin Che looked at her innocently and swallowed unconsciously. His lips were white with salt grains, his fingers were still grasping, and the salt crystals in the nails were falling down.
A warning popped up on the holographic screen: [The sodium ion concentration in subject 0927 has reached a dangerous level].
"I'm just hungry." The boy looked down at his shaking fingers, "Really."
Su Wanqing kicked the folding chair that was blocking her way. When the chair leg brushed past Lin Che's calf, he hugged the salt shaker and shrank back reflexively, his head hitting the refrigerator with a dull thud.
"Have all the dogs at the institute switched to eating salt?"
The gun barrel lifted the boy's chin. Su Wanqing saw the salt grains on his long eyelashes and couldn't help but reach out to brush them off for him.
The boy's eyelashes brushed lightly against his fingertips. When Su Wanqing reacted, she abruptly withdrew her hand and pretended to cough a few times.
Lin Che didn't understand what was going on. He tried to swallow his saliva but choked and coughed. Salt powder fell from the corners of his mouth, leaving white marks on the front of his dark grey sweatshirt.
The holographic screen popped up a surveillance replay: Two hours ago, Lin Che curled up in the camp blanket and pretended to be asleep. When Su Wanqing's breathing became heavy, he turned over and rolled off the bed.
It took him seven minutes and twelve seconds to get to the kitchen, hugging the wall, and he stopped three times to check his wrist inhibitor.
"You're good at pretending to sleep." Su Wanqing's eyes fell on the suture line under his collarbone, "It's a pity that he snores."
Lin Che suddenly hooked her finger: "We need to maintain the osmotic pressure."
"Didn't you eat enough bread given during the day?"
"Not enough." The boy suddenly scratched his arm with his fingernails and burned it. "They said 50 grams a day."
This time, Su Wanqing did not brush his hand away. Instead, she used her other hand to tear open the collar of his sweatshirt, and blue blood oozed out from under his collarbone again.
The holographic screen showed that there were undigested salt blocks accumulated in Lin Che's stomach, and the intestinal villi were bleeding due to the stimulation of high concentrations of sodium ions.
"Stole half a can?"
“Thirty-seven grams.” Lin Che stammered, “Thirteen grams left.”
Su Wanqing rolled her fingertips heavily over the boy's lips, and smelled the smell of blood mixed with salty air.
Lin Che's eyes were in a panic, and his fingers left white marks on the ground, but he did not dare to break free from the suppression of the master-servant contract.
"Open your mouth."
The boy shivered and showed his teeth covered with salt. Su Wanqing suddenly pinched his cheeks and inserted her fingers into his mouth to dig.
Lin Che struggled and retched, blue blood and saliva dripping down his chin onto his sweatshirt, and a puppy-like whimper came from his throat.
"How much did you swallow?"
“Seventeen grams.” Lin Che coughed up salt grains. “The system. The system says it wants…”
Su Wanqing shook off her saliva-stained hand, took out an electronic scale from the space and smashed it on the ground: "Weigh it yourself."
When the salt shaker was swept onto the scale pan by the gun barrel, Lin Che’s shoulders shook violently.
The way he knelt on the floor and pieced together the broken salt grains looked very much like the scene in the video of the food-snatching in the laboratory.
The red light on the electronic screen showed 243 grams - the original 280-gram can was 37 grams less.
"The error is two grams." Su Wanqing stopped his left foot from hiding and asked, "Where did it go?"
Lin Che suddenly pulled open his trouser legs. The skin on his ankles was clotted with salt particles, as if someone had rubbed salt powder mixed with sweat into a hard crust.
The sound when he picked off the salt block with his fingernails and put it on the scale was chilling.
"Thirty-nine grams." Su Wanqing kicked over the scale, "That's too much."
The boy's frozen fingers were still hanging in the air. The salt grains sprinkled in the puddle made a tiny sound. He stared at his reflection in the water and suddenly began to retch, but only vomited some bloody mucus.
"Why do you eat secretly?"
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“You’ll die.” Lin Che grabbed his twitching calf. “If the concentration of blue blood is not enough, the cells will rupture.”
The holographic screen popped up a cross-section of his spine, blue blood eating away at the nerve bundles.
Su Wanqing remembered the surveillance footage of the white coats throwing salt blocks, and kicked the salt shaker in front of the boy: "Continue."
Lin Che's fingers, covered with salt, were hanging on the mouth of the jar. He looked up at Su Wanqing's expression, as if to confirm whether this was a new punishment game.
"Clean it up." Su Wanqing opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water. "If you dare to dirty the floor, I'll tie you to the toilet."
The boy's sudden move to the salt shaker knocked over the knife on the counter.
The dinner knife brushed the tip of his ear as it bounced off the ground, and blood splattered on the edge of the salt shaker, which he quickly swept away with the tip of his tongue.
The holographic screen alarm began to flash, but Su Wanqing unscrewed the water bottle and drank it slowly.
The rustling sound of Lin Che licking the salt grains mixed with the electronic alarm formed an eerie lullaby in the kitchen at three in the morning.
"Starting tomorrow, you'll get extra food." She grabbed the boy's left hand, which was trying to hide the salt. "If you steal again, I'll replace it with chili powder."
Lin Che curled up beside the salt shaker like a cat drenched in rain.
As his tongue swept across the salt grains in the lines of his palms, he suddenly uttered something indistinctly in French.
A line of words popped up in the holographic screen translation bar: [Thank you, sister].
Su Wanqing loosened her legs, and Lin Che immediately pulled her left hand to her chest, covering it tightly.
He curled up on the ground, stopped licking, and stared at the ground, as if waiting for Su Wanqing's next order.
"Go wash your hands and rinse your mouth." She stood up and turned on the faucet. "The smell of blood is too strong."
Lin Che clenched his fists and refused to get up. It seemed that his obedience just now was just a temporary measure.
He still had a few salt crystals hidden between his fingers, ready to swallow them when the opportunity arose.
Su Wanqing pulled the boy up and pushed him to the edge of the pool.
"Open your mouth."
Lin Che pursed his lips. Su Wanqing pinched his chin and pushed her index finger between his teeth.
The boy groaned, and a streak of blood squeezed out of the corner of his mouth. The water washed away the salt grains on his hands, and the white crystals swirled in the pool and disappeared into the sewer.
“I’ll give you the salt tomorrow.” She let go of her hand and watched Lin Che shrink back with his hands covering his mouth. “No need to steal.”
Lin Che licked the wound at the corner of his mouth, and blue blood mixed with salt dripped down his chin into the pool, spreading a light blue color.
He looked up tentatively, but Su Wanqing had already walked away.
(End of this chapter)
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