Chapter 99: The stench turns to filth (XI)
The moment Xie Mian's fingertips touched the cocoon, a biting coldness exploded along with a snow-white light.
The tent, Lin Heng, E Shifang... the whole world was drawn into a twisted vortex.
He fell into a cold silver-white—
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Mechanical sounds hummed regularly.
In a sterile laboratory, a cocoon is peeling off.
The cocoon shell split open, revealing the curled up baby.
He babbled and bit his chubby fingers. Six wings as thin as glass suddenly spread out from behind him, shining with rainbow light. Two lovely antennae on his head trembled gently.
"Dad!" the baby's voice was clear and crisp.
The man in the white coat leaned forward, his gaze behind his glasses gentle yet distant. "You can't call me Dad, you have to call me Doctor."
His badge was engraved with "Cui Zhixing".
The baby tilted its head, its antennae curling in confusion. "Huh?"
Dr. Cui tapped his forehead with his fingertips. "Let me think about it. What's the name? ... Since you're the first successful test subject, let's call you 0."
He turned and walked towards the control console. 0 immediately flapped his wings and tried to follow him, but fell to the ground with a "thud".
"Woo~"
"Hug~"
The man didn't hold him. The baby pouted his red lips, curled his tentacles, and climbed up from the ground.
Rubbing her cheek against his shirt hem: "Dad!"
Shadows wriggle outside the glass walls of the laboratory.
Xie Mian's perspective suddenly shifted—
Cui Zhixing received a phone call, and then the little 0 was placed in the nutrient solution. He kicked his little fat legs and ate his fingers.
"Aiya!"
The sharp scalpel cut open his chest and the red organs were taken out one by one.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch… ouch, ouch…”
No one paid attention to his cries, and he soaked in nutrient solution until new organs grew.
Then, it is soaked in nutrient solution again.
It repeats itself over and over again.
The laboratory base has incubation cabins, and every room is packed tightly together.
Each chamber was soaked with worm-shaped embryos, each labeled with a white label:
Black Ant-1
Mole Cricket No. 3
Planarian-7
…
In one of the cabins, a thin, black-haired boy pressed his face against the glass, staring intently at the flying 0, his cracked lips moving silently:
……Butterfly……
"boom--!"
Memory fragments suddenly exploded!
Xie Mian pulled his hand back abruptly, and the cocoon had turned into powder and flowed out from between his fingers.
Severe pain shot through his spine, and he stumbled to his knees, his shoulder blades making a teeth-grinding tearing sound.
"Swish!"
Two broken butterfly wings pierced through the fabric and suddenly unfolded with blood stains!
The wing membrane was covered with cracks, but one could still vaguely tell how beautiful and colorful it must be.
"Wife!"
A hoarse sound came from inside the eggshell.
The eggshell of Goose Shifang trembled wildly, and it rolled out of Lin Heng's arms and rolled to Xie Mian's side: "Don't think about it! Please don't think about it!"
He didn't know why he said that, his subconscious mind urged him to keep saying "Don't think about it."
Xie Mian held his head and never opened his eyes.
Pain continued to spread on his face, his body trembled, and he held the cocoon tightly.
"That's right! That's it! Remember everything, Butterfly Brother!"
He sniffed greedily at the scent of blood in the air. "Did you see that? Those incubators... those numbers... We are the same kind... I am your only one!"
Number Three burst into wild laughter, and his body, which was bleeding from being strangled by the rose vines, leaned forward desperately.
Lin Heng rushed forward to support Xie Mian, and the rose instantly wrapped around his bleeding shoulder blade: "Xiao Mian!"
Xie Mian's pupils were out of focus, and his fingertips dug deep into the soil.
Fragmented images collided in his mind: the cold light of the incubator, Cui Zhixing's blood-stained lab book, and the pair of paranoid eyes beyond the glass...
He suddenly opened his empty eyes, and his butterfly wings trembled violently due to the severe pain.
The world is spinning.
Everything is being torn apart.
White silk covered the entire campus. Some people fell to the ground, still spitting out silk from their mouths.
A magnificent underground palace rose from the ground, and someone was locked in the darkest place of the palace. His long tail was covered with dirt, and the flesh on his body was being peeled off piece by piece.
Some people even dug out their own worm stones...worm stones whiter than snow...
"What happened? Why is this happening?"
Blood continued to flow out of Xie Mian's mouth, in large gulps, but he just stared at the sky with his empty eyes.
Lin Heng held Xie Mian in his arms, looking anxious.
Xie Mian's body was becoming transparent little by little, white spots of light were constantly overflowing from his body, and his green hair turned back to black.
Number Three also struggled to crawl to Xie Mian's side, his eyes full of panic.
His severed insect limb had sprouted flesh and swung at his shoulder. He wanted to reach out and hold Xie Mian's hand, but Xie Mian's hand had completely vanished.
"What's going on? I just want my brother to have his memory back, why is he disappearing?"
The ground beneath Xie Mian swirled with dust and green grass grew again. The green grass turned yellow, and giant insect monsters began to appear in the air. The insect monsters' roars shook the air.
The collapsed buildings of the welfare home have risen again, and the cries of children can be heard from room after room.
The tent disappeared.
The children came over one by one, holding hands. They formed a circle, sang songs, and had clear eyes.
"Big brother, thank you for coming to help us again, but we don't want you to sacrifice yourself."
One child put his hand on Xie Mian, and another child put his hand on Xie Mian... the silvery-white time continuously poured into Xie Mian's body.
"Why does Big Brother keep disappearing?"
No one can answer this question.
Mole Cricket No. 3 roared, his body degenerating and disappearing like mud and sand, leaving only his head on the ground, stubbornly refusing to disappear.
Lin Heng's body continued to stretch, the rose fell, and a long tail appeared under him.
Twisting.
The round eggshell turned into a big goose, and the big goose continued to degenerate, and finally a tall man stood up.
"Ten directions?"
There was a hint of clarity in Xie Mian's eyes. He raised his non-existent hand tremblingly, and the void merged with the void.
"No need."
E Shifang stretched out his hand, grasped the void, and at the same time leaned down to kiss the eyes full of pain and despair.
"That's it, don't..."
Before Xie Mian could finish his words, E Shifang forcefully blocked his lips and invaded him.
He held Xie Mian's waist tightly with one hand, as if he wanted to crush Xie Mian against his chest, and stretched the other hand high into the air, opened his palm, and then slowly clenched it.
"boom--"
All existence stood still for a moment.
Growing grass, flowing wind, the new welfare home sign, the disappearing people...
The clothes on E Shifang's body burst open, and the gushing blood was swallowed by him just as it was about to climb into his mouth.
He opened his palm again and clenched it——
This time, the stopped time began to flow madly.
The welfare home that rose from the ground collapsed again, the disappeared tent reappeared, and the singing children retreated into the tent... The green grass turned yellow and disappeared again, a body grew under No. 3's head, Lin Heng's legs grew... Xie Mian's disappeared body also re-condensed.
Everything is recovering.
In a very far place, insect monsters screamed miserably and died one after another.
Handfuls of shining insect stones appeared in E Shifang's hands, and then instantly turned into powder.
He was constantly absorbing the energy from the insect stone at an extremely strange speed.
Because his body was disappearing.
Only with enough energy can he fight against the reversal of time.
Large numbers of insect monsters died.
A middle-aged man was being chased and bitten by a millipede. Just when he had no way to escape and was ready to wait for death, the insect monster chasing him suddenly exploded and turned into powder.
A team of insect followers were hunting insect monsters. Just when they had cornered a weak flea insect monster in the corner and were about to kill it and remove the insect stone, the insect monster turned into a pool of mud and the insect stone disappeared.
…
This happens all over the world.
Goose Shifang's gradually disappearing body regained its solid form. He glanced at Mole Cricket No. 3 who was about to approach, and directly used time to shatter its insect stone.
Mole Cricket No. 3 wanted to say something, but he died with his eyes wide open.
"Brother, if Mianmian wakes up, he won't remember what happened. Don't tell him."
"Don't let him recover his memory. If you do, he will disappear."
Lin Heng nodded, thoughtfully.
A tear fell from the corner of Xie Mian's eye, his eyelashes trembled, and his eyelids slowly closed.
E Shifang handed Xie Mian to Lin Heng's arms, stretched out his hand, and snapped his fingers at the numb child.
The wire of time covered the children, and he saw the root of the children's endless reincarnation of memories - the obsession of "wanting to survive" when they were initially abused has been distorted into the cognition that "one must go through pain to survive."
He slowly turned his palm, distorting time and modifying his obsession.
Change "survival = enduring pain" to "survival = accepting being rescued."
The children's cognition changed, the logic of their supernatural powers collapsed, and their numb eyes began to regain their spirit one by one.
"Finish!"
Goose Shifang showed a hint of pride.
Now he felt full of energy and could fight with his wife for three hundred rounds.
He put one hand in his pocket, ready to hug Xie Men when——
"Bang--"
Turned into a big fat goose.
"Huh?"
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