dressing

Lorraine didn't give much information, but the meaning was clear -

There is a problem with the blood sample and the DNA test report, so she probably has a problem.

He didn't say it, but Ivy guessed it.

According to the current information, the real "Ivy" has died in the acid rain, and her body has been left in the wasteland forever. She probably "impersonated" the real Ivy and arrived at the first area seamlessly with a legal identity and obtained an identity.

Lorraine didn't even mention Ivy's parents.

Because they are most likely unaware or have had that part of their memory erased.

There is no provision of "collective responsibility" in modern laws. Until now, Lorraine has not brought her parents to prove that her affairs will not affect the two elderly people who are about to retire.

Now Ivy, tired after the argument, realized many problems. At this moment, she sincerely apologized for getting married.

From the very beginning, this marriage was a bargain between her and her parents; as Lorraine asked, she didn't even care who she married.

Lorraine is different.

His position was very sensitive, and holding an important position in the government meant that he would inevitably have political enemies. Ivy thought of the thick stack of pre-marriage review documents, and of Xin Lan's casual mention that, in order to ensure safety, she was being monitored before and for a period of time afterwards.

There is always a loophole.

Lorraine must be very worried now.

"Can you secretly abuse your authority?" Ivy sincerely suggested to him, "Divorce me as soon as possible and end our relationship - I don't want to drag you down."

She saw that Lorraine was silent.

He frowned slightly, his curly black hair fell down, and his lips, which had been tightly pursed in indifference just now, slowly relaxed.

Ivy said: "It should still be in time. It won't affect your political career..."

Lorraine said, “No.”

The tone of these two words was much softer, no longer so cold, and even sounded like an elder brother stopping his younger sister from saying something bad.

"...There is also the case of Beiman," Ivy changed the subject and said, "If the dead person is 'Beiman', then the 'android Beiman' reported by the neighbors must still be at large...Should we go to the Dark Zone again and catch him? But to enforce the law in the Dark Zone, do we need to apply for a special-"

She thought hard.

Lorraine threw the cheap T-shirt stained with strong perfume into the trash can. The torn sports vest and pants were hung in a mess on the bathroom rack. He was currently only wrapped in his bath towel, with his hands and feet exposed pitifully and shabbily.

She had nothing and might soon die, yet she was still worried about the people around her.

"...and my parents," Ivy finally said her most worried request, "If you really want to execute me, can you do it in secret and don't tell them? They gave birth to me--"

Stop.

She wrapped the towel tightly around her and continued talking.

"--Can you help me make up a 'martyrdom' lie? They're already discriminated against because of their immigrant status, and I have my genetic report--"

"The matter is still undecided," Lorraine interrupted her, "and I am not the lawyer in charge of the will."

Ivy looked at him.

Long-term physical training has left her with only a thin layer of fat, making her look thinner than many people of her age. When she was naked and taking samples, Lorraine calmly monitored her every move; now she was sitting on the bed in a bath towel, he only took a look and then looked away.

"Rest first," Lorraine said, "I'll wake you up when the results come out."

"Teacher," Ivy finally used the name again, "If I'm not 'Ivy', then who am I?"

Lorraine took the glass test tubes: "This is our next target."

--we.

Ivy noticed his address keenly and wanted to say something else, but Lorraine had already walked away.

The military dormitory was very quiet. The patrolling soldiers stood up straight and saluted Lorraine in unison. Lorraine returned the greeting. Xin Lan sent a message at the right time, asking him when he would send the suspected clone or conscious bionic man for memory erasure...

Lorraine replied: "Pause"

Xin Lan: "Are you sure, Master?"

Xin Lan: "You should know the current government's attitude towards self-aware bionic people"

Xin Lan: "To be honest, if I were you, I would erase that person's memory and format his consciousness."

Xin Lan: "At present, with my ability, I can help you find other androids with autonomous consciousness."

Xin Lan: "Having more android slaves will only make you more vulnerable to exposure."

Lorraine: "You just have to follow orders"

Xin Lan: "Okay, Master."

Taking the internal high-speed aircraft, Lorraine arrived at the private laboratory smoothly. He called Dongdong, and a tall woman with a purple long ponytail came over like a whirlwind, holding data.

One of her eyes is exactly the same as Xin Lan's, with a chip implanted in it, and the eye is the same blue as tropical water.

"I'm here," Dong Dong said, "Master, what experiment do you need to do today——"

Lorraine gave her the extracted glass test tubes.

"I need to know if these are real human secretions," Lorraine said. "Remember, we will re-compare the DNA with the five-year-old girl's corpse that was delivered an hour ago, and also compare it with all the data in the current gene bank, and re-list the highly suspected ones in a table and detailed information - what was the result of the medication report for the blood sample this morning?"

"It's basically consistent with your initial guess," Dong Dong reported. "The owner of this blood sample did undergo an organ transplant and had a severe physiological rejection reaction. She also used a large amount of drugs that suppress the immune system. The residual components of these drugs caused problems with her immune system. This incident also caused her genetic grade to drop from B to D."

Lorraine asked, "What's the problem?"

"The immune system may collapse at any time, triggering a series of diseases, such as cardiac arrest and sudden death..."

"Can you find out which organ she had transplanted?"

Dong Dong shook his head in embarrassment: "It was possible before, but now... if the person has undergone surgery to remove scars and actively cooperates with the hospital's treatment, there will be no traces of surgery on her body; if the source of the transplanted organ is the same age as her, it is even more difficult to distinguish."

Lorraine nodded.

He paused, turned sideways, and suddenly thought of the crooked heart-shaped scar on Ivy's head. She said it was a birthmark and she had it since she was a child.

"In the month when acid rain fell," Lorraine said, "check all the data of brain donations received by the medical systems in all safe zones that month. I need detailed information on the inflow and outflow."

Dong Dong stood at attention, his blue eyes sparkling: "Okay, Master."

She left quickly with the glass test tube, and came back after a while to remind Lorraine.

"Master," Dong Dong said, "the system detects that your heart rate is faster than usual... Are you worried about something?"

Lorraine stood up and gave an order: "After the test, perform a self-clear of the emotional module; Dongdong, you don't need human emotions."

Dongdong's tropical blue eyes flashed, then returned to normal.

She smiled a standard, polite and courteous smile: "Yes, Master."

…

Ivy is having another nightmare.

She dreamed of Berman's torn body twisting and running towards her, like pieces of medium-rare steak running, rushing towards her in strange postures, the stench of blood, the eyes that were everywhere in her dreams, and the strangely lit screen in the wasteland -

Welcome home, my daughter.

Welcome home, my daughter.

Welcome home, my daughter.

…

In her dream, she fell off a cliff and her feet stepped on empty air. The feeling of weightlessness made Ivy wake up in a sweat. She was gasping for breath and her ears were buzzing.

Sitting up quickly, Ivy was surprised to find that the pants she had thrown into the bathroom in a mess had been washed, dried, and neatly folded into a small square and placed next to the pillow.

And a brand new, clean shirt.

She picked up the sports bra and saw that it was also new, looked very similar to the old one and was the same size.

Everything exuded a soft and clean smell. Ivy turned around and saw Lorraine next to her.

He was sitting in a chair, reading a newspaper printed internally by the army; the light shone obliquely on the newspaper from the side, and most of his face was hidden in the darkness, revealing only his high nose and cold, thin lips.

Ivy suspected that he couldn't actually read the newspaper and was just posing because the light was so dim that it hurt his eyes.

She called: "Teacher."

"Now there is good news and bad news," Lorraine put down the newspaper, and the handsome face appeared in front of her, "Which one do you want to hear first?"

Ivy said, "I have difficulty making choices."

"Then let me tell you the good news first," Lorraine folded the newspaper and said slowly, "The test results of the body fluid test are out. You are a clone."

Ivy was frustrated: "How can this be considered good news?"

When Lorraine said "highly similar DNA," she expected this result.

"Is there a possibility," Ivy struggled hopelessly, "that is, I am actually the original Ivy, and the one buried in the wasteland is the clone..."

"Today's instruments can distinguish which is the mother," Lorraine said. "And here's the bad news."

Ivy felt like nothing could be worse than "you're a clone."

Lorraine continued: "You are not the only clone."

"And there are guys who were cloned at the same time as you," Lorraine said, "who are exactly like you and exist as human beings at the same time."

Ivy's head went numb for a moment.

"When Robert applied for the arrest warrant, there was another piece of evidence. The hair he detected on Behman's body matched your DNA. At first, we all thought you accidentally dropped it when you found it," Lorraine said. "In fact, there is another clone like you living in the dark area of ​​Area 1. It is very likely that she is the real murderer who killed Behman."

Ivy's lips were particularly dry: "Wait a minute, my brain can't keep up..."

"You have to keep up even if you can't," Lorraine said sternly, "If you want to keep this secret, you have to get ahead of the police, go into the dark area, and find another 'you' - the same DNA, the same appearance - if the police catch her first, you know what the consequences will be."

Ivy's vision went dark as she listened.

She asked, "...same meaning, if I died, she could perfectly pretend to be me?"

"What are you focusing on?" Lorraine said, "It's just that the DNA is the same, you can think of them as identical twins."

Ivy hesitated. She felt that time was running out. She hurriedly put on her bra and was nervous. "You...are not going to deal with me?"

"It does need to be dealt with," Lorraine said coldly, "but your suggestion is not unreasonable. Having a cloned wife will seriously affect my political future, so I have changed my mind now - wait, my clothes are on the wrong way around."

Ivy was pulling down the new dress Lorraine had bought her, the collar slicing hotly over her ears—

His big hand grasped her exposed arm accurately, his hand was warm and strong, and he held it too tightly. She groaned and immediately felt him loosen his grip.

All of this seemed so familiar in a trance.

The pair of warm hands carefully guided her to raise her arms, methodically lifted up the lower half of her shirt, adjusted the direction, changed the position, and pressed down again.

Stuffed in her clothes and unable to see Lorraine's face, Ivy's face and ears were warmed by her own breath.

Lorraine put her clothes back on, smoothed the wrinkles on her hem with her fingers, and frowned: "I shouldn't have filled in the "idiot who needs my help to dress" as a partner intention."

"Thank you very much, teacher," Ivy said gratefully, "When the time comes, I will immediately cooperate with you to get a divorce and will definitely not hinder your political career."

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but after saying this, Lorraine’s face darkened again.

He threw the pants he had just picked up to her very coldly: "I'll give you one minute, put them on quickly and come out to see me."