Polly Jong's voice rang in the communication channel.

"Stable frequency has covered the entire world." He said, "Please do not worry about material distortion."

"The message from the Lower City Base has been received," the Lower City Base operator said in a suppressed voice, "Although I don't know what you have done - thank God, thank you."

Messages kept coming.

"The Northern Base is still on defense." It seemed that someone else had taken over Dr. Ji's phone port, and a young voice said.

Then the message from the Lower City Base rang.

"The transport fleet has landed."

"Northern base survivors, please mark your location."

"Start the breakout."

-- They also picked up the full moon in the water.

The sun gradually rose, and in the howling cold wind, the winter sun was dazzling, without a trace of warmth. On the test tube rack, the glass shone. The silent air seemed to echo with heartbeats.

The natives, the latecomers, the aliens, the officers -- they stood in front of the communication channel, waiting, waiting for the rescue news from the lower city base, waiting for the situation of the northern base, and even the vine that had been guarding the research institute stretched a branch through the window.

They occasionally whispered to each other.

"How many of us died?"

"Uncle Shu died, and the body is downstairs."

"Where's Tang Lan?"

"——I haven't seen him."

The breakout and counterattack began. No one reported the situation on the communication channel, and everyone waited with bated breath.

In this silent and tense situation, Polly Jones stood up from the computer.

His steps were a little staggering due to his age or emotions. With a creaking sound, he pushed open the door and first looked at the Simpson cage that had been extinguished. The surface was covered with blood and corpses, but the area within the Simpson cage was clean. Then, he turned his gaze to the front.

The black figure who had been half-leaning against the wall at the laboratory door slowly raised his head.

——The pair of eyes that seemed to be empty, tens of thousands of years of ice covered the green ocean.

Just by looking at each other, they knew each other's identity.

Polly Jones's gray-blue eyes were full of sorrow.

"Child." He said softly.

Lu Xun did not answer, but looked down at the white paper that Polly Jones had been holding in his hand.

Polly's fingers trembled slightly, and he handed the paper forward horizontally, on which a few lines of handwriting were hastily written. Anzhe's handwriting is not beautiful, the strokes are simple, and as clear as a spring lake.

"Polly, thank you for your care. I have the inert sample from the North Base. I may be able to help you. If not, I'm sorry.

Also: please remember our agreement."

"Are you really going to the inert sample?" Polly Jones asked.

"A part of the sample." Lu Xun took the white paper with his fingers, and said in a slightly hoarse voice: "What did you agree on?"

"If one day, the judges from the North come here," Polly said, "... and say that Anzhe is free."

Lu Xun's eyes were bloodshot.

There were heavy footsteps behind him, and a dark-skinned Indian man.

——Rum held Anzhe's back in his hands and silently handed it to Lu Xun.

On the back, there were some things neatly arranged.

A copy of "Radical Monthly", a silver cross star badge, and a black pistol.

Lu Xun's fingers grasped the edge of his back, and he lowered his head, staring at the things inside, unable to see his expression clearly.

"You were picked up from the abyss by our people... You are a good kid, living well here." Looking at you, Polly whispered, "I know that radicals can't tolerate you. Did you always know you were here?"

Lu Xun's eyes finally moved from his back to Polly Jones.

"I didn't know." He said.

Polly Jones' eyes trembled violently, and he closed his eyes in pain.

"I'm sorry." He said.

As expected, the reunion was also the last farewell. It turns out that there is such a cold and cruel torture in the world.

The cold wind blew to the top of the mountain.

After a long silence, Lu Xun said, "Where are you?"

"The Simpson cage has a high-energy field and collider. Any matter that enters it will be bombarded by the high-energy particle flow and disintegrated into fragments." Polly said hoarsely, "I think you saw it." There

was a sound of a fall from the back, and the barrel of the gun was against Polly's temple.

Lu Xun stared at Polly with cold eyes.

"Where are you?" He repeated the question word by word, all his emotions bursting out at that moment, his cold eyes were vaguely crazy, like a prisoner who had been sentenced to death but had to confirm the sentence over and over again.

Polly Jong had a sad smile on his lips, and his loving eyes looked toward the infinitely high sky through the window, knowing that the man in front of him only needed a white lie, even though they both knew it.

"The frequency is being sent to the world, and it will save everything in the distortion." Polly Jones said, "It is by your side... everywhere."

Lu Xun just looked at him like that, and they were deadlocked until there was a clang, Lu Xun's fingers trembled and loosened, the pistol fell, and hit the iron railing in the corridor with a "bang", causing a long and endless metal buzzing.

"Sorry." Lu Xun said hoarsely: "I..."

He closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and said nothing more.

"You don't have to do this." Polly looked at me with pity and said, "You can shoot me and vent your emotions as you like, kid."

"Thank you," Lu Qiong said hoarsely, "If you were still here, I would."

This was the calmest and most desperate sentence Polly Jones had ever heard.

They stood side by side in the deep winter corridor until the blood-red sunset dyed the abyss of the crowd and until cheers of victory rang out in the laboratory. There were bits and pieces of information mixed in with the words celebrating the victory, such as the airborne troops in the lower city base who had sacrificed more than 600 people, the real number of survivors in the northern base was more than 100, and people were eager to ask why the distortion no longer occurred and what the Institute of Advanced Research had discovered.

Sorrow and joy overlapped slowly, despair and hope coexisted. Everything was lucky, and everything had a price. Countless people sacrificed, and one person sacrificed.

A line of tears slowly flowed from the corner of Polly Jones's eyes.

Suddenly, a ball of white floated down from Lu Qian's shoulder, landed on Polly's clothes with the wind, and stretched out its soft mycelium to touch him.

"What is this?" Polly asked, picking it up.

"Inert sample." Lu Qian said, "The most important thing."

Polly Jones naturally knew who Lu Qian was referring to. There was only one "between" between the two of them.

He stared at the ball of mycelium.

"This asexual spore is a reproductive body of a fungus," he said in a startled look, "You never told us which species it belongs to, so, this -"

Looking at the spores, Lu Xun said softly, "This is just a mushroom."

His voice was hoarse, but it seemed to be filled with endless sympathy and tenderness: "This is just... a mushroom."