Luo Ning was hit hard on the ground by the falling woman. Although she had gathered her strength to catch her, the force of an adult jumping from a height of thirty meters was still terrifying. Several of her ribs were broken immediately, and she was in so much pain that she could hardly breathe.
But when she saw the face of the woman who had hit her, she was so shocked that she forgot her pain and jumped down. It was Wen Xi who jumped down. Although she was wearing a soldier's uniform and her face and body were covered in bloodstains, she recognized her at a glance.
"Wenxi." She struggled to sit up and held the unconscious Wenxi in her arms. Wenxi was motionless, with only the slight rise and fall of her chest indicating that she was still alive.
Voices came from the steel wall. It must have been Wenxi who was discovered when she jumped down and was chasing after her. Without thinking, she picked Wenxi up and quickly left. After reaching a dirt slope away from the steel wall, she carefully put Wenxi down.
Wen Xi's face was pale, and blood was flowing from her mouth, nose, and neck. The wound on her neck was probably left when she broke the collar. She also had a gunshot wound on her shoulder. She was also seriously injured from the fall just now, with multiple bones broken. Despite such serious injuries and from such a high place, she still wanted to jump down. Luo Ning could see that she was determined to do it. If she hadn't instinctively caught her, she didn't want to imagine the consequences.
"Wen Xi, wake up." She gently patted Wen Xi's face, and Wen Xi finally opened her eyes weakly. After seeing her, she softly called out, "Luo Ning?"
Her voice was as light as a feather, and her body temperature was so low that Luo Ning felt that a gust of wind could take her life.
"It's me." Luo Ning took off her coat and wrapped it around Wen Xi, then hugged her tightly to keep her warm. After a while, Wen Xi's breathing became stronger.
"Wenxi, don't sleep. I'll go find you something to eat." After she finished speaking, she covered Wenxi's body with weeds, then grabbed a small alien animal nearby, tore open its throat, and fed it to Wenxi's mouth.
However, Wenxi had lost the ability to swallow, so Luo Ning had to pry open her mouth and let her drink some blood. After a while, Wenxi regained some strength, and her desire for fresh flesh and blood made her hug the alien and devour it. After the flesh and blood were replenished, her face gradually regained some color, and the wounds on her body slowly healed.
After finishing his meal, Wenxi looked towards the high wall. The steel wall gleamed in the morning sun. The corpses of giant arthropods were piled on the gate. Shadows flickered on the wall. The embers of white phosphorus bombs were still burning below the wall. Drones searched through the thick smoke before finally flying back inside the wall.
After a long silence, she whispered, "We really escaped."
"Yes, we escaped." Luo Ning responded, as if she had just woken up from a dream: "But we have to leave here immediately. The people who wanted to kill us three years ago are here."
"But where else can we go?" Wen Xi was a little confused. Although she wanted to escape, she didn't know where to go after she actually got out.
Luo Ning stood up and, after confirming the south direction by looking at the sun, said, "Let's go south. The weather there is warm, and it's far from the base. We should be able to live peacefully for a while."
"Okay." Wen Xi stood up unsteadily from the ground: "Let's go south."
Although winter is cold, there are still warm places under the sun.
Luo Ning led Wen Xi through the forest. The mutants had not been killed, and she did not know where they were now, but she knew that once they were discovered, they would definitely not be let go.
Wenxi's body had not yet recovered, so they walked slowly. Their clothes were tattered and covered in bloodstains, attracting mosquitoes along the way. However, they dared not stop, as the further they got from this place, the safer they would be.
For three days in a row, the two walked quietly through the forest, eating the animals in the forest when they were hungry, and resting in any sheltered place when they were tired. Neither of them mentioned what had happened at their respective bases. By the fourth day, the two were already three or four hundred miles away from the human base.
Luo Ning decided to stop and rest. She closed her eyes and sensed her surroundings. She didn't see the presence of those mutants, but she couldn't be completely sure, as she wasn't as perceptive as Wen Xiqiang.
“They’re not here,” Wen Xi said. She had recovered a lot, but her face was still pale and delicate, making her look heartbreaking.
Luo Ning felt relieved. She found a small cave, gathered some firewood, and started a fire by rubbing sticks together. She then stuck some sharp wooden stakes into the soil at the cave entrance before returning to the fire and sitting down.
She took out the book from her arms; it was soaked in blood, but thankfully the writing was still legible. She opened the book and placed the still-wet pages in front of the fire to warm them, while Wen Xi stood quietly beside her, hugging her knees.
“You smell of blood on you. Did you kill someone?” Wen Xi suddenly asked.
Luo Ning was stunned for a moment. She hadn't killed anyone, but she immediately realized it must be Lu Xinghe's blood: "No, it must have been accidentally spilled."
Wen Xi was silent for a moment: "I know you came to see me that day, you saw everything, right?"
Luo Ning hesitated for a moment: "Are you talking about the warden and your affair?"
"Um."
Luo Ning nodded: "I saw it, but I didn't mean to look. I didn't expect... I didn't expect that person to do such a thing to you."
Wen Xi reached out and poked the fire to make it burn brighter: "I was the one who lured him in. As long as he relaxed his guard even a little, I would have a chance to escape. And look, I really did escape."
Seeing that she was willing to bring these things up, Luo Ning knew that she must have recovered, which was for the best.
"Did you know that warden before?" Luo Ning asked, seizing the opportunity.
“Hmm.” Wen Xi recalled for a moment: “Shortly after we separated, I was captured by the base once. That person was one of the team members. After I was captured, I was supposed to be sent back to the base immediately, but a sandstorm suddenly came, and the team was scattered. He and I were blown to another place. He was fierce and strong, and I was in shackles. I couldn’t beat him, so I could only live with him for a while. Later…”
Wen Xi hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.
"What happened next?"
"Later, he led me back to the group, and I was put back in the cage. So I lied to him that I was feeling unwell, and to my surprise, he actually believed me and opened the cage, so I escaped."
Luo Ning roughly understood what had happened. No wonder Du Lu retaliated against Wen Xi in this way, but the method of retaliation was somewhat incomprehensible to Luo Ning.
Now that Wen Xi has told her the whole story, Luo Ning feels that as long as they don't meet again, there won't be any problems. However, she has another worry now.
According to the records, Wen Xi became pregnant after only one intimate encounter with Zhuang Yu. Since she also had a relationship with Du Lu, could she have become pregnant as well?
After careful consideration, it might not be possible. After all, breeding is based on genetic compatibility, which might be the fundamental reason for conception on the first try. Wen Xi and Du Lu might have a low genetic compatibility, but having more attempts could increase the chances...
After thinking for a moment, she decided to ask: "How often did you have intimate relations with that warden?"
Wen Xi's body trembled slightly, and her fingers unconsciously clenched together: "It's been more than ten times, maybe more than twenty, I can't remember exactly. What's wrong?"
At first, she remembered the number of times he would give her suppressants, but later he stopped. He would just put a gag on her and put his gloves on her hands so that she couldn't bite or scratch him. Besides, he could easily make her weak.
Luo Ning was shocked to hear the number. It had only been half a month since she left the prison that day until she escaped from the base, yet there had been so many incidents.
"It's nothing, I... I was just curious." Luo Ning didn't tell her her worries. She wasn't sure if Wen Xi was pregnant, so why should she tell her and make her worry?
Wen Xi smiled gently, then sniffed Luo Ning.
Luo Ning thought it was because she smelled bad, since she hadn't showered for several days and had been sweating the whole way. So she said somewhat embarrassedly, "The smell is a bit unpleasant. Let's find a place to shower tomorrow."
However, Wenxi said, "No, I smelled fertility hormones on you."
Luo Ning asked with some confusion, "Fertility stimulant? What's that? Does it promote fertility?"
Wenxi replied, "It's a drug that makes you fall in love with your mate. It's said that after the injection, you'll develop desires for your mate and be unable to control yourself from getting close to them."
"I couldn't control my desires." Luo Ning murmured, recalling her kisses and teasing of Lu Xinghe. She thought it was just her own lust surging, and looked at Wen Xi with disbelief: "Is what you're saying true?"
Wen Xi nodded: "That's what the people in the lab said. They also injected me with it before, so I also liked Zhuang Yu. But even after the injection stopped, I still liked him, so the drug probably didn't work."
Luo Ning calmed down. No wonder she hadn't had any strong desires over the years, but had taken the initiative with Lu Xinghe several times in just one month. She laughed self-deprecatingly, thinking that she had fallen in love with Lu Xinghe. Even when she saw his back, she would have all sorts of fantasies. It turned out that it was all because of the drug.
Lu Xinghe probably already knew, so why didn't he tell her? Was it to avoid embarrassing her, or because he was on the side of humanity and there were some things he had to follow?
But whatever the reason, he probably didn't like her, otherwise he wouldn't have pushed her into the cold water when she was feeling emotional.
His feelings for her were simply gratitude.
How embarrassing! She touched her face; it was burning hot. Luckily, she wouldn't see it again.
But the thought of never seeing each other again made her feel sad, as if she had lost something.
She gently stroked the scarf he had used to cover her face that day, recalling the events of that time, and a sadness she herself was unaware of gradually appeared in her eyes.
Confused, Wenxi assumed she was worried about the medicine: "The smell of medicine on you has faded a lot, so don't worry. Even if it has an effect, it will disappear after a few days. You should go to sleep first. I'll keep watch for the rest of the night."
"Okay." After saying that, she added some firewood to the fire, leaned against the mountain wall, and closed her eyes. She was so tired from the past few days that she fell asleep quickly, but she had many dreams about Lu Xinghe.
One moment she dreamt of the past, the next she dreamt of the night the drone patrolled. But this time, when he kissed her, she didn't push him away; instead, she hugged his back. But he pushed her into the cold water and looked down at her, saying, "I treated you like a sister, but you treated me like a toy."
She suddenly snapped out of her dream, feeling really cold. She glanced around and realized the fire was about to go out. Wen Xi, who had promised to keep watch for the first half of the night, was fast asleep, but she wasn't sleeping soundly. Her brows were furrowed, and tears were streaming down her face. She wondered what sad things she had been dreaming about.
She woke Wenxi from her nightmare, and Wenxi fell back asleep peacefully after seeing that it was her. She then stoked the fire and stayed up until dawn.
Human base.
Lu Xinghe looked at the clothes and notes Luo Ning had left behind in the room. Her fragrance still lingered on the clothes, and her faint presence remained in the room, as if she had never left.
In his twenty-three years of life, he had experienced countless life-and-death separations. When his mother left, he was heartbroken; when his comrades died, he was filled with a mixture of grief and hatred. But now that she was gone, even though they had only spent a short month together, he felt as if a huge piece of his heart was empty.
He told himself that he was used to her presence, so he couldn't adjust after she left. But now, four days have passed, and he has unknowingly found himself back here.
Footsteps sounded in the courtyard; someone was coming, but he didn't even look up, because he knew who it was.
After entering the room, Lu Zheng glanced around and then walked over to Lu Xinghe and slapped him hard across the face.
Lu Xinghe did not dodge. Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. He knew that his father already knew everything.
"You actually kept a mutant around you. How can you do this to your mother?" Lu Zheng asked sternly.
Lu Xinghe wiped the blood from his mouth, remained silent for a while, and then replied, "That mutant saved me and An Xiaoruo, and she also helped guard the melting bridge. She didn't hurt anyone."
“But she is a different species; cunning and cruelty are in her nature.” Lu Zheng was furious.
"What about Mom? Didn't Mom also become a mutant? Didn't you keep her by your side and imprison her in this room too?" Lu Xinghe asked, word by word.
Lu Zheng sneered: "Your abnormal feelings for the alien species are not worthy of being compared to my relationship with your mother. Your mother and I have been married for twenty years, and we've been through all kinds of hardships together. How long have you been with that alien species? Only three years. And during those three years, who knows what unspeakable things she did to you that caused your distorted mentality. You think she won't harm humanity, but that's just what she made you think. In the month she appeared, tens of thousands of people died in the base. Do you dare say that none of this had anything to do with her?"
Lu Xinghe said with certainty, "I believe that if she really wanted to harm humans, she wouldn't have blocked the sluice gate that day. She could have let all the alien species in."
Lu Zheng was somewhat exasperated: "You're still stubbornly clinging to your delusions. Do you know why I killed your mother?"
Lu Xinghe was stunned; this was the first time his father had brought up this matter on his own initiative.
Lu Zheng continued, "Because even your mother, who loved you so much, almost treated you as food after you became a mutant, so I had no choice but to kill her. If the person who gave you life and raised you can treat their own child as food, how could a mutant who has nothing to do with you really care about you? It's all just about having a bite to eat."
The world seemed to fall silent instantly. Lu Xinghe's body trembled uncontrollably, his eyes filled with pain as he looked around at everything. So this was the reason his mother had been killed by his father.
“You are no longer suitable to work outside the base. I have reason to suspect that you are still in a distorted state of mind due to being raised by alien species. Starting today, you will be confined for a month, and we will see how you behave afterward.” After Lu Zheng finished speaking, he had someone come in and take Lu Xinghe away.
People around him were already suspicious, so he had no choice but to deal with it this way for now, using the excuse of poor defense of the base to put his last child in solitary confinement.
Lu Xinghe was sent to the military headquarters' solitary confinement room. He didn't expect that Du Lu would also be locked up there.
Du Lu was also somewhat surprised when he saw him. He asked through the railing, "It's one thing that I lost the experimental subject and was locked up here, but you guarded the melting bridge and were also locked up. It doesn't make sense."
Lu Xinghe was in a low mood and couldn't hear what Du Lu was saying at all. It took him a while to realize that Du Lu was talking about the missing experimental subject.
"The test subject is missing? Was it test subject number eleven?" he asked.
Du Lu sat down against the railing and nodded: "Hmm, you didn't know?"
"When and how did she go missing?" Lu Xinghe asked anxiously.
“Just four days ago, Lingqiao failed to defend herself, and a large number of mutants stormed into the prison. She took advantage of the chaos, injured a prison guard, and escaped. She even jumped off the steel wall and hasn’t been found yet.” After Du Lu finished speaking, he looked at him suspiciously and asked in a cold voice, “What does Subject Eleven have to do with you? Why are you so concerned?”
Lu Xinghe ignored his words and chuckled softly. Luo Ning was not the cunning and sinister monster her father described at all. She was a wonderful being. She not only saved him and An Xiaoruo, but she also rescued her friend.
Her only flaw in his eyes was that she didn't like him and only treated him as a younger brother.
But he never wanted to be her brother; he only wanted to be her man.
Seeing that he was actually smiling, and in such an ambiguous and fanciful way, Du Lu reached over the fence and grabbed Lu Xinghe by the collar: "I treated you like a brother, and you actually dared to have designs on me..."
Lu Xinghe grabbed Du Lu's hand and interrupted him, then pointed to the camera: "Watch your words."
Du Lu released his grip aggressively, while Lu Xinghe calmly straightened his rumpled clothes: "I'm not interested in your woman. I have someone I like."
"Hmph." Du Lu sneered, "Do you even know what 'liking' means? Have you ever even touched a woman?"
Lu Xinghe replied dismissively, "Trust me, I'm more experienced than you."
Du Lu sneered, "Keep bragging."
Outside the base.
After walking for another week, Luo Ning and Wen Xi finally saw an abandoned city. She immediately decided to go into the city to find some clothes that could be worn, as their clothes were tattered and smelled bad.
“Wenxi, can you sense those mutants?” she asked.
Wenxi closed his eyes and sensed the flow of energy in the air: "They're not here, but there are other alien species and humans."
Luo Ning admired Wen Xi's perception ability. At this distance, she couldn't sense anything. However, when aliens and humans appeared at the same time, it was generally the aliens who were raising humans.
She was a little worried because the alien species in this situation would be very aggressive in order to monopolize their pets. Although Wenxi had recovered a lot, she was not very strong even if she was not injured. If the other side had a large number of people, they would definitely suffer.
But Wenxi had already walked forward.
"Maybe we shouldn't go," she said, pulling Wenxi along.
But Wenxi looked at the ruined city and said, "This seems to be my hometown. I want to go and see it."
Luo Ning didn't stop them. Who doesn't miss their hometown? As for those alien species, they should be fine as long as they're careful and don't provoke them.
The two walked into the city. The city roads were full of dirt and garbage, but judging from the height and size of the buildings, it must have been a prosperous place. The words "Linghai City" could still be seen on the rusty billboards.
“Linghai City, I was born in Linghai City.” Wen Xi slowly looked around: “It turns out my home is so close to the base, but I’ve been looking for it for a long, long time.”
Wen Xi continued walking forward based on her memory, and Luo Ning immediately followed. She was now somewhat envious of Wen Xi, who still had a hometown to look back on, while she herself would never be able to go home again.
She followed Wenxi through long streets and several alleys, finally stopping at a building that looked like a former luxury residence. Although the building looked old from the wind and sun, a mansion is a mansion; the main structure was still intact, and even some of the windows in the rooms were not broken.
“I think I used to live here,” Wenxi said.
Luo Ning was somewhat impressed with herself. When she first met Wen Xi, she thought Wen Xi was a lady from a well-to-do family, and she didn't expect that she would guess correctly.
Just as they were about to go inside, Wen Xi suddenly stopped and looked behind her. Luo Ning also sensed that aliens and humans were rapidly approaching. Just as she was about to pull Wen Xi away first, a female mutant appeared at the street corner, pulling a lame man along.
Luo Ning breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that there was only one person on the other side. She had two mutants on her side, so she wasn't afraid of a fight.
Just as she was on high alert, Wen Xi suddenly called out tentatively to the female mutant, "Sister."
The female mutant paused for a moment, then responded, "Xiao Xi?"
"Sister." Wen Xi ran quickly towards the female mutant and threw herself into her arms. The female mutant glanced at the man beside her before responding to Wen Xi's embrace.
Luo Ning was shocked to see this scene. This was the only pair of blood-related mutants she had encountered in all these years who had both awakened. Wen Xi's family must have some skills.
She walked toward them and noticed that the lame man was unlike any of the domesticated humans she had ever seen before.
Previously, the humans who were kept as livestock were all emaciated, but this man looked very healthy, had a good complexion, and showed no fear towards these mutants.
Luo Ning walked to Wen Xi's side and gently squeezed her hand, signaling her to be careful.
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