"Pei... Pei Du..." Her voice was so hoarse that it was almost inaudible, and she was trembling violently, "Your... hand..."
"Dead." Pei Du's voice was colder than the air around him, devoid of any emotion, as if he were stating a fact that had nothing to do with him. He leaned forward slightly, his only remaining left hand suddenly reaching out and grabbing Xu Shuangyao's slender wrist! The force was so great that it almost crushed her bones!
"Ah!" Xu Shuangyao screamed in pain, her body suddenly tensed up due to severe pain and fear. She tried to break free, but it was like an ant trying to shake a tree.
Pei Du ignored her struggles, his bloodshot eyes fixed on her terrified pupils. Every word he said was like a shard of ice, hammering down fiercely:
"Now, tell me."
"That 'thing'."
"The 'me' in that incubator."
"What on earth is it?"
"What the hell did your damn 'Mirror Image Project' do to me?"
"Not a single word was missed."
"explain!"
A final growl, filled with suppressed fury and icy threat, was like a physical cold current, instantly freezing Xu Shuangyao's struggles. The excruciating pain in her wrist, the cold, murderous intent in Pei Du's eyes, which seemed to tear her apart at any moment, and the sickening aura of mutated tissue emanating from the severed part of his right shoulder, completely overwhelmed her already fragile mental defenses.
Tears instantly burst forth, mingling with the dust and blood on her face. Intense pain, boundless guilt, and near-collapsed fear mingled in her eyes. She looked at Pei Du's lone remaining left hand, gripping her wrist like an iron clamp, at his neck and chest covered in strange lines, at the severed arm that represented the horrific price he had paid for her... She knew that concealment and deception would only bring about more complete destruction. Before Pei Du's icy eyes, any excuse paled in comparison.
"I... I said..." Xu Shuangyao's voice was broken, with a thick sob and desperate gasps, "Code name... 'Mirror'... Project Mirror..."
She closed her eyes, as if to isolate herself from the cruel reality before her, and as if to gather her last bit of strength to turn over the dusty, sin-stained memory file.
"Originally... it was to... deal with the threat of the Fungus Master... and find the 'perfect carrier'..." Her voice was intermittent, and each word was filled with great pain. "The Fungus Master... is too strong... too strange... conventional methods... are ineffective... I need a 'container'... that can communicate with it... and even... control it..."
"Your genes... Pei Du..." She opened her eyes, tears blurred as she looked at Pei Du's cold face, "It is... the most compatible native sample we have found... unique... You are... a protozoan... the only... living protozoan..."
Pei Du's pupils shrank slightly, but he didn't relax his grip on her wrist at all.
"But..." Xu Shuangyao's breathing became more rapid, as if the next words were suffocating her. "Deep within your genetic sequence... there exists... an extremely rare... recessive... rejection factor... unstable... and extremely dangerous..." Her eyes were filled with pain and the helplessness of a scientist. "Early experiments directly injecting low-concentration bacterial samples... triggered... a terrible... genetic collapse... and almost... killed you..."
Pei Du's body suddenly stiffened! A horrifying scene, deliberately forgotten and buried deep in his memory, flashed through his mind: the cold restraints... the needle inserted into his vein... the excruciating pain that felt like every cell in his body was ignited after the injection... the bulging and twisting of blood vessels beneath his skin... the feeling of near-death suffocation... and Xu Shuangyao's pale face, filled with shock and fear, as he watched from the window!
It turns out... it wasn't an accident... it was an experiment! It was his own flaws as a "protozoan" that led to his failure!
Xu Shuangyao saw the pain and deeper coldness flashing across Pei Du's eyes. She continued with difficulty, as if making a final defense for herself and the entire plan:
"'Mirror Image'... is designed to address this flaw... It's... theoretically... an 'optimized version'..." Her voice trailed off, a hint of self-loathing. "Using your native genes... through the most advanced gene editing technology... to eliminate... or rather... attempt to 'stabilize' that rejection factor... to create... theoretically... an 'optimized container' that can perfectly adapt to the power of the host bacteria... and won't collapse..."
"So..." Pei Du's voice was as cold as if it came from the Netherworld, piercingly cold, and every word was like a knife. "The one in that incubator... is the 'perfect container' you want? And I... this flawed protozoan... is just a... defective test subject... that may explode at any time?" The hand that was holding her wrist was shaking violently with extreme anger, and his knuckles made a crackling sound.
"No! That's not the case!" Xu Shuangyao shook her head in horror, tears welling up in her eyes. "'Mirror Image'... it... it failed!" She almost shouted, with a fear that she was eager to dispel. "Theory is theory! We... the clone we created... its genetic sequence may be 'perfect'... and as stable as a cold machine... but it... it lacks the most crucial... 'activity'! Or should I say... a 'soul'? It cannot carry consciousness! It cannot truly resonate with the power of the host! It's just... an empty shell! A 'perfect' specimen on the genetic map! An... inactivated... failure!"
She gasped, her eyes filled with despair on the verge of collapse: "I... I realized the seriousness of the problem... the ethical abyss... the loss of control of technology... and... and..." Her voice suddenly became extremely weak, with a hint of unspeakable fear, "... the abnormal interference of the early plant network... scared me... I completely sealed the 'mirror'... along with all the core data... physically isolated it... I thought... it would always... always be a sealed 'specimen'... a forgotten mistake..."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com