Lu Xinghe's words caught Luo Ning, who was admiring the scenery, completely off guard. She had not expected him to ask such a question.
Did he really know, or was he lying to her?
She looked up at him; in the setting sun, his eyes were as clear as amber, but those two amber beads trembled slightly, unlike the calm expression on his face.
This guy is really lying to her.
So she looked him straight in the eye and asked, feigning surprise, "Wen Xi is pregnant? How come I didn't know? How did you know?"
Lu Xinghe had asked her when she wasn't on guard, and seeing her shocked expression, he assumed she genuinely didn't know. Little did he know, Luo Ning had lived with him for three years, and she knew every single detail about him.
"It's nothing, I just asked casually." Lu Xinghe finished speaking and prepared to leave.
Luo Ning immediately followed up: "You definitely didn't ask casually, there must be a reason."
"No reason." Lu Xinghe continued walking forward.
Luo Ning was determined to get to the bottom of this, so she grabbed his hand and said, "Don't go, you have to explain yourself."
She gripped his hand tightly; she needed to know the answer, because it concerned her and Wenxi's future.
Lu Xinghe was stunned for a moment. He felt her small hand, which was slender, fair, warm and soft, but very strong. He couldn't help but stop in his tracks and said what he hadn't planned to say.
“I’m not sure either. I just saw her records in the lab before I came here. I think her current condition is very similar to when she was pregnant for the first time. She’s pale and weak. Xenomorphs don’t usually have this condition.”
"It could be something else, like hunger; she hasn't had a proper meal in a long time."
Lu Xinghe had also thought about this question, but the mutants he had seen only became more ferocious when they were hungry, while Wen Xi was too quiet. Although she did show a strong appetite today, it was still not as good as those truly hungry mutants.
Is it because Wenxi was born weak?
"I never would have guessed you cared about her so much," Luo Ning said softly, then let go of his hand. It turned out he didn't really know either; he was just making a deduction.
The warmth in his hand disappeared, and Lu Xinghe subconsciously clenched his fist. He sensed that she was angry because he had shown concern for Wen Xi.
“No, I’m not concerned about her; I just want to know about the experiment,” he explained.
"Then why do you want to know about the experiment?"
“Because…” he almost blurted out.
"Why?" Luo Ning asked, tilting her head.
"It's nothing," Lu Xinghe denied again, then quickly left and walked towards An Xiaoruo and the others.
Luo Ning looked at his tall, slender figure. His breeding experiment was canceled after she ran away, so why was he still interested? Could it be that the laboratory had rearranged the plan for him?
She stared blankly at his back for a while before slowly following him.
Meanwhile, several security officers were secretly watching them as they dealt with the wild boar.
"Subject number seventeen grasped Major Lu's hand."
"Major Lu didn't shake her off, and she even seemed a little shy. Something's up."
"Subject number seventeen has let go, but Major Lu seems reluctant to do so."
"Major Lu is gone. Subject Seventeen was staring at Major Lu's retreating figure with predatory eyes. Could she be planning to eat him?"
"Why do I feel it's not like they're eyeing me covetously, but rather like they're looking at me with tender affection?"
The four young people looked at each other in confusion, not quite understanding what was going on.
"Could it be that Major Lu has fallen for Subject Seventeen, just like Zhuang Yu? Don't you know that mutants can bewitch people? Subject Seventeen is beautiful, lively, and cute, and Major Lu is her breeder. I heard they kissed for a full ten minutes the first time they met," Yao Cheng said excitedly.
"Ten minutes? You saw it from under their bed?" Meng Ting retorted.
Yao Cheng scratched his head: "Hehe, although I didn't lie under the bed, that's what the people in the lab deduced. But whether it was ten minutes or not, it's true that they had physical contact. Don't you guys think about kissing girls after you kiss them?"
The boys looked a little awkward. At their age, they were just beginning to experience romantic feelings and were full of fantasies about girls. However, none of them had ever even held a girl's hand, let alone kissed her. Except for Yao Cheng, who was bold enough to secretly date a girl, but was eventually dumped.
"So we need to be careful. If Major Lu can't hold the line, we could all be food for him," Yao Cheng whispered.
Another boy seemed thoughtful: "That's not necessarily true. Our Major Lu's conditions aren't bad either. Why can't it be that Subject Seventeen couldn't uphold the bottom line?"
A single word awakened them from their reverie; the eight eyes looked at each other, and it seemed there was some truth to it.
After processing the wild boar, Luo Ning first rendered the wild boar fat, then stir-fried the meat, and finally braised it with ground shavings, making a pot of fragrant braised pork with ground shavings. The aroma made everyone's mouths water.
After the meal was served, everyone eagerly picked up the meat and put it in their mouths. There was no gamey smell of wild boar, only soft and tender meat with a rich meaty flavor. Then, they took a bite of the lichen soaked in meat juice. It was so delicious that their souls almost flew to the top of their heads. This was a delicacy that they could not get at the base.
"Sister, what you made is so delicious!" An Xiaoru praised without reservation.
Luo Ning smiled happily: "I'm glad you like it."
Meng Ting, Yao Cheng, and the others ate heartily. The delicious food made them less wary of Luo Ning. Yao Cheng even stood next to Luo Ning to make it easier to pick up meat. Who would have thought that this kid had dreamed last night of being chased by Luo Ning for his life?
Lu Xinghe, Du Lu, and Song Pei remained relatively calm, but they still ate one bite after another, and the large pot of meat was quickly emptied.
Wen Xi listened to the commotion outside from her room, curled up and lying quietly on the bed until the noise subsided. The security officers then ran to the riverbank, where they bathed and talked. She was left alone in the house; even Luo Ning was not there.
Her world was quiet, eerily quiet.
Hunger and desire crept out of the darkness, like thorny brambles climbing her body.
She clenched her fists tightly in resistance, but she didn't know how much longer she could hold out.
The next two days were mainly spent storing food and repairing the radio. During these two days, Luo Ning captured a lot of animals, but the radio was still not repaired and the transport plane did not return. This likely meant that the base thought they were dead, after all, they were surrounded by hundreds of alien species at the time.
"I remember there was a radio station in Mine No. 3 as well," Song Pei recalled.
"Are you sure?" Du Lu asked.
Song Pei recalled for a moment: "It should be, but the mine has collapsed now, otherwise we could go and confirm it."
Lu Xinghe took out his communicator and looked at the blueprints on it: "The main collapse is in Mine No. 1. Mine No. 3 may not have completely collapsed yet. Let's go take a look now."
The group arrived at the edge of the mine. It seemed that Mine No. 1 had collapsed several times in the past few days, and the pit was deeper than before. Mine No. 3 had also collapsed quite a bit, but after observing it, they found that people could still go in.
After discussing for a while, Lu Xinghe decided to leave two people at the entrance to keep out the wind in case of other situations, while the other eight people would split into four groups to search inside, since there are several branch passages inside the mine, and searching separately would be faster.
The groups were quickly divided. Two young security officers guarded the cave entrance, then Lu Xinghe and Yao Cheng were in one group, followed by Du Lu and Meng Ting, An Xiaoruo and Song Pei, and finally Luo Ning and Wen Xi were in another group.
"Wenxi, are all those aliens down there dead?" Luo Ning asked softly. Aliens are very resilient, and although no aliens have appeared in the past few days, she still felt she had to be careful.
Wenxi looked at the deep pit: "I can't sense that they are still alive, but the pit is too deep and it's underground, so I can't guarantee that my perception is completely accurate."
Luo Ning nodded, reminding everyone to be careful and to keep all bullets loaded in case of any unexpected situations.
After making these preparations, the four groups entered Cave No. 3. Cave No. 3 was a mine that had been mined a few days ago, so everyone was quite familiar with it. Moreover, the cave had been reinforced, so the damage was not too serious. After walking forward for a while, they saw a side cave, and each group chose a cave and went inside.
Luo Ning and Wen Xi were the fastest because they could see very clearly in the dark. They reached the bottom of the cave in about ten minutes, but did not see the radio station.
Wenxi leaned against the mountain wall to rest. She was hungry again. Although she had eaten animal flesh and blood yesterday, the taste of Du Lu's blood kept tantalizing her. She would feel unsatisfied if she didn't drink it. Although she tried her best to control herself, she still found it very difficult.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Luo Ning asked.
"It's alright, let's go," Wenxi said. Just as they were about to return, the mine suddenly trembled slightly, and soil and rocks on the walls kept falling down.
"The mine looks like it's about to collapse, let's hurry!" Luo Ning grabbed Wen Xi's hand and ran forward quickly, but the mine was shaking more and more, and more and more rocks were falling down.
Just as they were about to reach the fork in the road, the ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed. Luo Ning's first reaction was to push Wen Xi out of the fork, and then she herself fell down.
"Luo Ning!" Wen Xi cried out as she scrambled to her feet, but the hole had vanished, the ground had shifted, and she had fallen to a different spot.
After falling heavily a few times and rolling a distance, Luo Ning finally stopped falling. She endured the pain, got up from the ground, and looked around. She found that she was in a natural cave, surrounded by pale pink crystals that were emitting a soft light.
It turns out there was a large natural cave beneath the mine, but why did it suddenly collapse now when it hadn't before? The weight of the eight of them shouldn't have been enough to cause it to collapse. She wondered how Lu Xinghe and the others were doing now, as she couldn't contact them because she didn't have a communicator.
She began to climb up the cave wall and soon reached a flat level, but this was not where she had just fallen.
"Wenxi," she called out, but Wenxi did not answer. It seemed that the fall had made them far apart, and she could only move forward by feeling.
About twenty minutes later, she still hadn't seen the end of the cave and thought she might have gone the wrong way. Just as she was about to turn back, she suddenly sensed Lu Xinghe's presence, faintly, and it seemed to smell of blood.
"Lu Xinghe?" she called out nervously.
"It's me," Lu Xinghe's voice came from the other end.
Hearing that his voice was still quite strong, she breathed a sigh of relief and immediately walked over there. After crossing some large rocks, she finally saw a faint light. Lu Xinghe was also walking this way, with abrasions on his body, but fortunately, the injuries were not serious.
"Where's Yao Cheng? Why are you all alone?" she asked.
“He got separated from us, I’m looking for him too.” Lu Xinghe searched around, and Luo Ning also sniffed the air, but there was no trace of other humans here.
The two walked forward for a while, but the fallen rocks had blocked the passage, and they were now trapped here. They could not contact anyone else with their communicators, and Lu Xinghe's expression gradually became serious.
"Don't worry too much. It's probably because of a bad signal that we can't get in touch. Besides, I can't smell any other blood besides yours, so they should all be fine," Luo Ning said reassuringly.
Lu Xinghe nodded: "Let's figure out a way to get out first."
However, the two searched back and forth several times but could not find a way out. Luo Ning sat above the pink hole and looked down: "It seems we are trapped here."
Lu Xinghe sat down beside her, the soft, pale pink light shining on his face. If he couldn't get out, he might die here or become Luo Ning's food, but for some reason, he felt a sense of peace in the face of such an outcome.
But before death truly arrives, he must find a way to get out, otherwise even if he dies, Luo Ning will be trapped here forever. The alien species will not die from hunger, but prolonged hunger will weaken and dry them out, which is a very cruel thing for her who is conscious.
"Let's go down into the cave and see if there's an underground river so we can get out." After Lu Xinghe finished speaking, he climbed down the cave wall, and Luo Ning followed him. However, after searching for an hour, they still couldn't find any exit.
They had no food, only a flask of water that Lu Xinghe had brought with him. Fortunately, the cave was large and there was enough air.
Lu Xinghe walked to the boulder blocking the road, took out his dagger, and began to dig. This was the only way now.
“You want to dig this way out, but the rock is so big.” Luo Ning thought that if it were just a pile of dirt, she might be able to dig it out, but this was a huge rock.
"Hmm." Lu Xinghe thought for a moment and decided to start by working on the connection between the cave wall and the rock. If he widened the connection, the rock might loosen.
Luo Ning also found a sharp rock nearby, and the two of them worked together. About an hour later, a small crack was finally chiseled into the rock and the mountain wall, but Lu Xinghe's dagger had already chipped.
Just then, Luo Ning seemed to hear Wen Xi's voice. She pressed her ear tightly to the crack and heard Wen Xi calling her name.
"Did you hear that? Wen Xi is over there," Luo Ning said happily.
However, Lu Xinghe couldn't hear anything; human hearing is no match for that of the alien species.
"Wenxi, I'm here," Luo Ning shouted into the crack.
Upon hearing Luo Ning's voice, Wen Xi, who was on the other side of the stone, burst into tears of joy: "Luo Ning, are you alright?"
"What did you say?" Luo Ning couldn't hear her voice clearly.
Wen Xi had no choice but to raise her voice: "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, how about you?" Luo Ning finally heard him clearly, albeit vaguely.
"I'm fine too. Are you with Major Lu right now?" Wen Xi walked up to the pile of stones and sensed Lu Xinghe's presence.
"Yes, I'm with him. Do you have anyone else with you?" Luo Ning vaguely sensed that she had someone else with her.
Wen Xi hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at Du Lu standing not far behind her. Instead of answering directly, she asked, "Do you have an exit over there?"
Luo Ning was a little stunned. Shouldn't the exit be on her side?
After a difficult exchange, the two realized they were both trapped here. Wenxi had come looking for her after sensing her presence.
Although the result wasn't good, Luo Ning was still quite happy because at least three people were still alive. She told Wen Xi to dig away the rocks together first, and then they would figure out a solution together.
Wen Xi turned to look at Du Lu. There were only the two of them here, and his arm was injured. Her nose was filled with the sweet smell of blood.
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