At 10 p.m., Luo Ning's stomach started growling with hunger, and she quickly covered her stomach to make sure the sound wasn't heard.
As it turned out, her worries were unnecessary; Han Ling's group of alien sensory abilities were ineffective.
If it were Wen Xi, she would have noticed her presence long ago, but Wen Xi's body is also weakening, and her perception has become much worse.
Luo Ning touched her stomach, feeling that she seemed to get hungry a little faster lately, probably because she had been running too fast all the way.
There was nothing happening at the hospital, so she caught a small animal to satisfy her hunger. This time, the animal's blood didn't have the mountain taste she disliked; instead, it was somewhat sweet, which made her appetite even better.
After eating two or three, her communicator started vibrating continuously. It was Lu Xinghe and the others approaching. To prevent them from getting too close and being discovered, she stopped them halfway.
The moment she saw Lu Xinghe, she wanted to hug him, but there were quite a few people there this time, and a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses was looking at her strangely.
Lu Xinghe was the first to get out of the car. He walked quickly to her. She didn't look injured or tired as he had worried. Her face was flushed, her eyes were bright, and she looked very energetic. There was also a faint trace of blood at the corner of her mouth, so she must have just eaten.
He reached out and gently wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, as if polishing a precious gem: "How are you now?"
"Wen Xidu and the others are up ahead, along with Han Ling and Wen Rong. There are about seven or eight of them. There are also some in the hospital, but I don't know how many," Luo Ning said softly.
Lu Xinghe nodded, then organized his equipment and went inside.
Luo Ning stopped him: "It's too dangerous to go in like this. Why don't you ambush them outside, and I'll lure them out?"
"No need." An Yuan got out of the car carrying his suitcase. "Let's rest tonight and go over after dawn."
“But my friend is still there,” Luo Ning said anxiously.
“She won’t die,” An Yuan replied calmly.
Luo Ning wanted to say something more, but Lu Xinghe stopped her: "Let's listen to him first."
Who is he?
“Xiao Ruo’s uncle, Han Ling’s classmate, the proposer and practitioner of the theory of restoring alien species to human form,” Lu Xinghe replied.
Luo Ning's eyes widened. Xiao Ru actually had relatives still alive. She wanted to go over and say something to this man, but he seemed to have a bad temper.
She thought for a moment and shook her head: "No."
"What's wrong?"
“The practitioners are not him, but you and me, Wen Xi and Du Lu.”
Lu Xinghe thought for a moment, then looked at her intently and said, "You're absolutely right. We're putting it into practice."
Luo Ning blushed slightly. She couldn't let him look at her like that. It was springtime, and springtime makes little rabbits tremble.
"How is the base doing now?" she changed the subject.
Lu Xinghe's expression was solemn: "The beast tide will arrive the day after tomorrow, but the situation is better than expected. According to monitoring, the beast tide has changed direction, and only about half of them may eventually reach the base."
"Changed direction? Why did it change direction?" Luo Ning was a little confused. Once a beast tide is formed, it is very difficult to change direction. They will only desperately move forward, otherwise they will be trampled to death by the alien species behind them if they slow down.
"It's unclear what's going on yet; it's possible that something happened somewhere in the beast tide that caused a butterfly effect."
Luo Ning breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the result; perhaps heaven had finally begun to show mercy to humanity.
An Yuan was very particular; he insisted on sleeping in a tent rather than in the car and eating hot meals, so Lu Xinghe had no choice but to arrange for people to set up tents and cook.
Soon the aroma of food wafted over, and Luo Ning looked at Lu Xinghe. She wanted to eat too, she wanted to eat him.
His blood, hot and fragrant, made her mouth water just thinking about it.
She covered her mouth, thinking about how hungry she had been these past two days, and wondered if she was pregnant. Based on Wenxi's experience, pregnant women often become picky eaters and only like the father of the child.
"What's wrong?" Lu Xinghe asked worriedly.
Luo Ning swallowed hard: "I...I think I'm pregnant."
Lu Xinghe paused for a moment, his eyes sparkling, and immediately took her to find Qi Xiaowei.
Qi Xiaowei took out a box of reagents and said to Luo Ning, "Drip a drop of blood in."
Luo Ning pricked her finger and nervously dripped blood into the reagent, but a minute passed and the reagent did not react.
Qi Xiaowei glanced at Lu Xinghe, sighed deeply, and then shook her head, looking as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.
Luo Ning felt a little embarrassed, realizing that she had been overthinking things.
"Could it be that the reagents expired?" Lu Xinghe asked as an excuse. Although he and Luo Ning had been separated for more than ten days, they had been doing this seriously for a week before they separated.
"Major Lu, the equipment isn't broken, and the reagents aren't expired, so maybe..." Qi Xiaowei frowned.
"What could it be?"
"Maybe the timing isn't right yet." Qi Xiaowei wanted to say that maybe he and Luo Ning were really not suitable, but Lu Xinghe's gaze was too oppressive, so she didn't dare to say it.
After Qi Xiaowei left, Lu Xinghe looked at himself in the car mirror and fell into deep thought.
The reagent that Qi Xiaowei casually tossed into the grass slowly turned from transparent to blue.
Luo Ning eventually drank his blood. Even if she wasn't pregnant, he would still grant her whatever she wanted.
But she hoped this situation would end soon, because he was a human, not her food.
As night deepened, the humans who had traveled all day fell asleep, leaving only a few patrolling and guarding personnel.
Luo Ning hadn't had a proper rest these past two days. She fell asleep leaning against Lu Xinghe in the car. As Lu Xinghe watched her sleep, he thought about the regulations of the Gene Department.
For the survival of humanity, the Department of Genetics is a place where time does not stand still; once a mission stagnates, the individual will be replaced.
He and Luo Ning are currently at a standstill.
Although Qi Xiwei didn't say anything just now, he knew from her subtle expressions that she was calculating something, especially since Wen Xi and Du Lu had succeeded despite their low genetic compatibility, making the genetic department even more eager to make a move.
Morality is low in the post-apocalyptic world, but in the Gene Center, there is no morality, and they can act without any constraints. The base currently provides them with unconditional support.
Therefore, his and Luo Ning's situation is not optimistic.
Abandoned hospital.
Wen Xi was pushed by Wen Rong to a dimly lit room. When the door opened, she saw dozens of alien beings standing inside, all expressionless, like dolls in a department store.
She was afraid, even though they were different species.
"Go inside." Wen Rong gave her a push.
There was another small room inside the main room, made of cast iron pipes. It was empty except for a chair, and Wenxi was locked inside.
Wen Xi stared blankly at everything, which reminded her of the day she and Zhuang Yu were taken back. Zhuang Yu was imprisoned in a place like this, and that was their last meeting.
"Sister, let me out, I don't want to stay here," she said incoherently.
Wen Rong made a shushing gesture: "Don't make a sound. Daddy doesn't like noise. He'll pull out your teeth, cut off your vocal cords, and sew your mouth back up."
Wenxi stretched her hand out over the railing, tears of fear streaming down her face like pearls: "Sister, please."
Wen Rong left, and Wen Xi hid in a corner, burying her head in her hands and trembling uncontrollably.
Wen Rong ran to Han Ling's side and said ingratiatingly, "Dad, she's been locked up."
"Hmm." Han Ling handed her a bottle of medicine, which Wen Rong immediately drank in one gulp, then lay down on the bed and fell asleep contentedly.
Han Ling then handed the medicine to Du Lu, who took it and drank it.
"You should go and rest too. You can continue to enjoy that woman as well." Han Ling looked at Du Lu with satisfaction. This was his best work to date, even more satisfying than Wen Rong.
Although Wen Rong regained consciousness, her mind was incomplete. Du Lu, on the other hand, was different. The obedience of a security officer was ingrained in his bones, so he could obey orders without question. Although he had regained consciousness, he was emotionally detached and had no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. He was a very handy human weapon.
Du Lu opened the door and went out. In the dimly lit corridor, he heard faint sobbing. It had nothing to do with him. She was always prone to crying. She would cry when he kissed her, and she would cry when he scolded her. Even though she was the one who willingly submitted to him, she would still cry in the end.
He didn't like her crying.
But involuntarily, his legs still moved toward that room.
Wen Xi heard footsteps approaching, turned around and saw Du Lu appear. She desperately reached out and grabbed his sleeve, like a drowning person finally grabbing a piece of driftwood.
"Lord Du, please don't lock me up here. Anywhere else will do, just don't lock me up here," she pleaded.
Du Lu did not agree to her request. He sat down by the iron cage and scrutinized the woman who was prone to crying.
With his presence, Wenxi's trembling body finally calmed down. She gripped his clothes tightly and asked, "Don't you... remember me?"
She asked him the question he used to ask her, the question he would always ask her in that small prison cell, as she wept and endured her pain time and time again.
"Remember."
"Then... what is my name?"
"Wen Xi."
Upon hearing his reply, Wenxi's tears gradually stopped, and she closed her eyes drowsily, eventually falling asleep.
In the darkness, Du Lu looked at the small hand clutching the hem of his clothes, and gently reached out to touch it. It was soft but cold. He opened his hand and took the soft mass into his palm.
His soft hands gradually warmed, and the sleeping, delicate woman murmured softly. He listened quietly and heard her say: "Don't leave me."
Luo Ning had many bizarre dreams, and when she woke up again, it was already dawn.
Lu Xinghe was no longer in the car. The security officers were all gathered outside. An Yuan was distributing reagents to them: "This is an isolation agent. If you are bitten within half an hour after the injection, you will not be infected. So you must get the person out within half an hour."
The safety officers looked at each other in bewilderment; they had never heard of any isolation agent before.
Qi Xiaowei explained from the side, "Don't worry, everyone. This has already been tested. As long as the time is controlled, there won't be any problems."
The security officers didn't have much faith in the reagent, and they would have carried out the mission even without it.
An Yuan felt questioned, so he asked Qi Xiwei to get blood from Luo Ning. After injecting himself with the isolation agent, he smeared Luo Ning's blood on the injection site in front of everyone.
Luo Ning's eyes widened in surprise, but at the same time she admired him. It was because of courageous people like him that humanity had survived until now.
Lu Xinghe also pulled Qi Xiwei, who was closest to An Yuan, aside in case of any unforeseen circumstances. Fortunately, An Yuan was not actually infected.
"It's alright, this reagent is cultured using Wen Xi's genes, but unfortunately, we can only maintain it for half an hour at the moment," Qi Xiaowei said softly.
Lu Xinghe replied, "Perhaps it would be better to wait a little longer for the embryo to develop."
Qi Xiaowei frowned: "It could also be a genetic defect. There's no reference point yet, so we can only take it one step at a time."
Lu Xinghe took the reagents back to the car, and they would set off in ten minutes.
"I never expected Dr. An to go to such lengths to save Wen Xi," Luo Ning said to him, moved.
Lu Xinghe replied, "He didn't do it to save Wen Xi."
"Huh? But he just tried to snatch her away," Luo Ning asked, puzzled.
"The person he wants to take is Han Ling, so you'll take over Wen Xi's side."
"Rob Han Ling?" Luo Ning blinked, starting to imagine the love-hate relationship between An Yuan and Han Ling.
"Don't overthink it." Lu Xinghe flicked her forehead. "Dr. An probably just wants revenge. Old Master Feng is also Dr. An's teacher."
"Oh." Luo Ning rubbed her forehead, but how did Lu Xinghe know what she was thinking?
Upon arriving at the hospital, Lu Xinghe and his group went straight in from the front. At such close range, the aliens must have sensed the arrival of humans, so there was no need to hide anything.
Amidst the intense gunfire, Luo Ning entered through another entrance. Following Wen Xi's scent, she quickly arrived at a place resembling an operating room. Upon pushing open the door, she was shocked by what she saw.
Dozens of mutants, all young men and women, stood densely packed together here. Their eyes were closed, and IV tubes were attached to their necks, from which red liquid was slowly dripping.
They are all asleep, waiting to be awakened.
She quickly passed by them and soon saw Wenxi in the iron cage inside, fast asleep.
"Wenxi, I'm here." She forcefully turned the lock on the door.
Wen Xi slowly opened her eyes. Seeing Wen Xi standing in front of her, she looked around, but there was no sign of Du Lu, not even his presence. So, was last night just a dream she had?
"How are you feeling? Can you walk?" Luo Ning asked.
“Yes.” Wen Xi stood up from the ground. She had also heard the gunshots outside and said nervously to Luo Ning, “Make them leave quickly. There are many mutants here, and Du Lu is also here. He's not the same person he used to be.”
“We know, don’t worry, we didn’t come unprepared.” Luo Ning said, pulling Wen Xi outside.
But at this moment, all the alien species that had been keeping their eyes closed opened them and stared at the two of them.
Wen Xi fearfully grasped Luo Ning's hand, and Luo Ning's heart was also pounding wildly. The two tiptoed out and arrived at the room safely.
Luo Ning took out her communicator and filmed the bizarre scene. Then she and Wen Xi prepared to leave, but for some reason, a large number of humanoid and animal-type mutants suddenly gathered outside the hospital, completely surrounding it.
It seems that the presence of humans has attracted all the alien species from the vicinity.
By then, the gunfire had stopped, and the hospital was filled with the smell of blood; someone had been injured.
Luo Ning immediately ran over there and saw Lu Xinghe holding a gun to Han Ling's head, Du Lu choking An Yuan, Wen Rong was nowhere to be found, and some security officers were also injured.
"Your people will soon become mutants and be used by me, An Yuan. You couldn't beat me before, and you can't beat me now," Han Ling said mockingly.
An Yuan looked at him calmly: "What did you win against me?"
Han Ling pointed at Du Lu and Wen Rong: "These are my works. I restored their consciousness. I did something that neither you nor the teacher could do."
"Hahaha." An Yuan pushed up his glasses, which had a broken lens, then pointed at Luo Ning and said proudly, "This is my work, five years earlier than yours, and it's even better than yours."
Han Ling was stunned.
Luo Ning and Lu Xinghe were also stunned, but she quickly realized that An Yuan was going up against Han Ling. She had been aware of it from the beginning, so what did it have to do with An Yuan?
"Don't try to fool me. Do you think I don't know what you're capable of?" Han Ling didn't believe it at all.
However, An Yuan sneered: "I not only did that, I also made it impossible for humans to be infected by the alien species. Now, twenty minutes have passed, do you see any signs of these security officers being infected?"
This time, Han Ling's eyes showed some hesitation. He looked at the injured humans around him, and they indeed showed no signs of mutation.
Luo Ning really wanted to applaud this man. He was really good at psychological warfare. The isolation agent's effects were only going to last for less than ten minutes, yet he was still able to remain calm and compete with Han Ling.
"Stop arguing! We're surrounded by alien species now. Let's think about how to get out of here," Luo Ning said loudly. She didn't care about winning or losing; she cared about Lu Xinghe and the others' lives.
"Subject Seventeen, open my box," An Yuan calmly instructed.
When Luo Ning heard him call her that, she knew that this person had a deep prejudice against different races, and it seemed that she could not be regarded as a like-minded person.
She opened the specially made alley as instructed, and there was only one iron rod inside.
An ordinary iron rod.
"It's open." She looked at An Yuan, puzzled.
“Alright, pick up this iron rod and whack him on the back of the head,” An Yuan said coldly.
Not only were Luo Ning and the others stunned, but even Du Lu frowned.
Han Ling stared at the iron rod for a moment, then burst into laughter: "An Yuan, An Yuan, you really are vindictive! I only knocked you unconscious back then, and you're already going to retaliate?"
An Yuan stared straight at Han Ling: "You knocked me unconscious and stole the only sample from the lab at the time. The teachers and those of us who stayed behind were questioned and interrogated because of this. If we hadn't later developed an inhibitor to atone for our sins, the Department of Genetics would not exist today. So when I heard that you were here, I brought this iron rod that changed the fate of all of us."
Luo Ning listened with emotion, recalling what Old Feng had once said about reverence for life, and the old photograph in the bookcase frame.
But none of that mattered now. She had always thought the box contained some secret weapon, but it turned out to be a murder weapon.
This is not the time to argue. She looked at Lu Xinghe and said, "We have seven minutes left. Let's rush out."
But Lu Xinghe felt that An Yuan wouldn't be so casual.
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