Rescue

Asher once told his daughter earnestly to assume the worst of everyone except her parents.

Humans are animals that grow with malicious intent.

Young children will pull the wings off dragonflies, chop up earthworms they dig out of the dirt, and tear off the legs of praying mantises.

Humans must learn to face their own malice.

Anya saw her own evil again today.

Draven, who had female tooth marks on his hands and had obviously come into contact with Ivy, chased Bigger to another fork in the road. Song Xu, who passed by him, didn't notice anything unusual. She was not doing anything bad, she just "didn't find it strange."

Ci Li and Song Feng were still resting at the collapsed area, trying to dig out the piled stones; now that Dangdang and Lorraine had found this place following the scent, it didn’t seem necessary for her to say anything or not—

If Dangdang really had a very keen sense of smell, then they would have found Ivy even if Anya did nothing;

Even if she couldn't find it, what did it have to do with her? She herself had no obligation to save a girl like Ivy.

"Really?" Lorraine lowered his eyes. Under his dark eyelashes, the strange dark emerald color in his right eye was like a sharp blade. He asked nonchalantly, "Where is Draven? Did you meet him?"

Anya hesitated for a moment, her brain filtering every word that was about to come out: "Yes."

"Is this question so difficult for you to answer?" Lorraine raised his voice and asked, "Songxu, which direction did Draven go?"

Song Xu ran over and said, "Why are you still concerned about Draven at this time? Shouldn't you be concerned about Ivy? What on earth are you——"

"Answer me," Lorraine said, "You just need to answer the question - Dangdang, go here and smell it, do you smell the scent of Ivy?"

The hooded Dangdang quickly ran towards the fork in the road where Draven had just come.

He easily identified the smell by smell and said dully, "Yes, but it should be some distance away... at least fifty meters. There is wind inside, which will disrupt my judgment. I can't tell the direction for the time being."

"Well done," Lorraine said. "Anything else you want to add, Anya?"

His voice was low and emotionless, as cold as the cold mechanical chair in the interrogation room, the bullet without temperature, and the hard handcuffs.

Anya suddenly remembered something.

Lorraine and Tseri, both are good at interrogation.

The focused, undivided gaze he had just given her was not special; in fact, it was just a check to see if she was lying.

She misunderstood.

"I have," Anya said the truth uncomfortably, but couldn't help but make excuses for herself, "Drevin seems to have teeth marks on his hand... The light is dim, I can't see clearly, but it feels a bit like... maybe it's also a birthmark."

Lorraine's expression showed disappointment for a moment.

This time, Anya clearly understood that the disappointment was not directed at her.

It was Draven.

"Dreven doesn't have a birthmark," Lorraine said to Song Xu, "Go wake up Ci Li who is still sleeping and tell him that he must catch Draven. You only need to tell him one thing, Draven is now also 'contaminated'."

Song Xu jumped up, drew his gun and chased after him without even looking back.

"You can go back and rest," Lorraine said to Anya. He said, "Thank you for the clue you provided."

The words were said coldly, without any sarcasm, and were so friendly that they didn't seem to come from Lorraine's mouth. However, the more this was said, the more Anya felt "ignored".

Lorraine had excluded her from the action entirely, which was as good as saying, "You can go and cool off."

"No," Anya said, "I can still help. In fact, I can smell Ivy too... There's a loose rock over there that can be pushed aside!"

As soon as Lorraine stopped, Dangdang in front of him called out.

He sounded very anxious.

"Ivy is injured," said Dangdang, "I smell her blood... it's a new wound. No, there's also Yu Mo - Yu Mo is bleeding heavily."

…

Ivy lay on the snow-white operating table.

Countless mechanical arms above brought her, Xin Lan and Yu Mo to a snow-white laboratory.

'Yuan' does not have its own limbs, but 'Yuan' is everywhere.

His voice echoed in the empty laboratory. The mechanical electronic sound sounded like an ethereal and transparent gem. In the laboratory, countless mechanical arms extending from the ceiling, walls and even the floor faithfully carried out his orders and quickly fixed the three people on different laboratory tables.

Ivy couldn't resist.

Xin Lan's leg was broken, and he himself was not a brave close combat type robot; the penetrating wound on Yu Mo's chest had not healed yet, and blood was still oozing out; the thin and sharp scalpel in the mechanical arm's hand cut open his chest, and the still beating heart was intactly presented in front of "Yuan".

Seeing this dirty heart, Yuan was very surprised: "Are you going to turn back into a human?"

For anyone, seeing their first love being disemboweled is a cruel punishment.

Ivy is no exception.

She truly liked Yu Mo.

A strong smell of blood spread in the room. Ivy struggled and growled, trying to let the mechanical arms that controlled her loosen up - it was useless, these things fixed her firmly here. A tube of cool stuff was applied to her fixed and injured right wrist, and Ivy heard the sound of the 'meta' machine again.

A huge mechanical arm descended from the sky and lovingly embraced Ivy. This cold but lifelike imitation of human movements made Ivy shiver in her heart, and she almost vomited.

"My dear daughter," Yuan said in his unique low voice, still hugging Ivy, "I am happy to witness your growth. You have shown patience and love to all androids, clones, and humans... This is great, my baby. Mom is very, very, very happy."

Ivy looked at Yu Mo's heart being curiously poked by a mechanical arm in front of her - her eyes were about to go dark: "Stop!"

Yuan seemed not to have heard and continued to speak as planned.

"Ninety-nine years have passed... Ever since I received the proposal, I have been working hard to create humans who can be as fraternal as you," Yuan said, "new humans who can treat androids and clones as fellows, rather than selfish, fighting ones. Oh, my baby, don't move, don't hurt your bones, mom is treating her - hush, be patient, there is not much ointment left... Mom can't gather more materials for refining for the time being. If it is spilled, mom will have to cut off your brother's bones and give them to you."

Ivy was completely frozen by being addressed as "brother".

"Who is it?" Ivy trembled, "Whose bones are you going to chop off?"

"Lorraine, Yu Mo," Yuan said as the cold mechanical fingers touched Ivy's cheek, "Inbreeding will lead to a large number of deformities. Mom will find several of the best men as your partners... My baby, sweetheart, Mom is looking forward to watching your belly bulge like a flower."

Ivy is about to throw up.

Every word of "yuan" made her feel sick, and those dirty descriptions made her feel like a breeding machine.

"Oh, of course not a fertility machine, my daughter," Yuan said, reading the electrical signals in her brain. "You are the best in my mother's eyes. How could I bear to let you do such a thing? I have been working hard to study the technology of in vitro fertilization... You need to provide the eggs, but before that, I still need you to conceive the child yourself."

Ivy found it incredible that although the "Yuan" had absorbed so much modern scientific knowledge, its obsession with reproduction was still stuck in ancient times - or feudal society.

Now it is just like the reproductive maniac who would advise his daughter to "risk her life to leave offspring for the human race".

But after the ointment was applied, the right wrist gradually recovered, and Xin Lan, who was a distance away from her, was silent. Yuan didn't pay much attention to him and was happily torturing Yu Mo.

"So your heart can also hurt," Yuan said, "Everyone else is evolving, only you are regressing, Yu Mo... I really miss the time when you could argue confidently. Now you look terrible. Apart from your smart mind and your face that meets the aesthetic standards of a daughter, you are no longer so calm now."

Ivy said, "Let me go, or I'll bite my tongue and commit suicide."

This threat finally succeeded in making Yuan release the mechanical arm. After being freed, Ivy quickly ran to Yu Mo's side. She reached out to grab the scalpel of the mechanical arm. Even though the mechanical arm reacted quickly, the knife still cut her palm.

Tick.

Tick.

The bright red blood fell into Yu Mo's chest. His heart was beating rapidly, but the bright red blood around him seemed to be frozen.

This is a bionic body that imitates humans in every way, but ultimately it is not human.

Yuan was stunned by Ivy's action. The mechanical arms stopped in mid-air. After a long time, Yuan asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Restore Yu Mo's body," Ivy said calmly, "Restore him immediately to his undamaged state. If I want to pursue death, you can't stop me at all."

Yuan said slowly, "I just need your brain."

"Really?" Ivy asked. "Why didn't you just take my brain out? Why did you say all this to me? Why did you choose to use Lorraine's bones to build my body?"

'Yuan' was silent.

After a long time, it coldly announced: "You are in love with Lorraine."

Xin Lan, who was lying next to him, shed clear tears.

He really wished Lorraine was here, really hoped that she could hear this carefully.

Almost everyone knows that Ivy likes Lorraine, and she is really not good at hiding her eyes and actions.

But only Xin Lan realized that Lorraine could not give up Ivy.

"Yes," Ivy admitted, "I like him, what's wrong?"

"His shortcomings make many humans unbearable. I have thought about transforming him 1,864 times," Yuan said. "The thing I regret most is that I didn't transform his brain when I removed his leg bones. His coldness, closedness, and sharp tongue... have made it impossible for you to conceive until now."

"Your description sounds like a disease," Ivy said incredulously, "cold, closed, sharp-tongued - you make these traits sound like condoms."

"You like him, so you can't accept other men," Yuan said, "Damn it, when will you have an exclusive feeling like 'love'? I have already done emotional detachment on you, I thought you would be stronger."

"Why do you define 'love' as cowardice?" Ivy's eyes widened in surprise. She said, "Does loving him make me a coward?"

Xin Lan silently turned on the recording and video.

He apologized to Ivy a thousand times in his heart.

Now Xin Lan doesn't want to destroy this body and replace it with a stronger and more "masculine" body. He makes the decision in one second to protect this body and show the recorded videos to Lorraine.

The responsibility of Lorraine's happiness in the second half of her life now lies on Xin Lan's shoulders.

"I know you have a good argument," Yuan said, "Mom won't argue with you. Maybe you need a break."

Ivy wanted to say something, but the mechanical arm controlled her body and put her back on the restraint bed. This device was exactly the same as the device used to prevent violent patients from suddenly injuring others or committing suicide in mental illness.

"My baby, my sweetheart, my little honey cake," Yuan said as the mechanical arm holding an unknown syringe approached Ivy, "Then forget it, my baby, you will forget the things you love most... Mommy will not operate on your brain again. There are more subtle and painless ways to make you forget that man."

Ivy clearly saw tiny, shiny silver objects in the syringe that looked like glittering dust, but she understood that these were not dust, but small robots that could devour memories - she had seen them in Lorraine's "home".

A pair of trembling male hands stopped the mechanical arm from moving.

Xin Lan, whose legs were completely deformed, stood on the ground in a twisted posture. He clung to the mechanical arm tightly, dragging his broken legs. The chip implanted in his eye glowed red: "Stay away from my good friend——!!!"

The mechanical arm impatiently inserted the syringe into Xin Lan's arm until all the liquid inside was pushed in. Xin Lan still didn't move at all, but just shuddered.

Ivy was terrified: "What have you forgotten? Have you forgotten Lorraine and me?"

"How is that possible?" Xin Lan retorted, "But I don't know what I forgot. It's just that all of a sudden, I felt less inferior."

Ivy: "...Do you want to change to a more manly body?"

"No," Xin Lan was surprised, "Why should I change? Am I not perfect enough now?"

Ivy: “…”

She seemed to know what Xin Lan had forgotten and what she loved most...

Before he finished speaking, dozens of mechanical arms came over like a flood and controlled Xin Lan.

Yuan didn't seem to intend to hurt him, but just threw him aside in disgust; and Yu Mo, who had been disemboweled by the surgery, was sutured with the precise operation of the mechanical arm. He struggled to get up and stumbled towards Ivy. His long silver hair fell like a waterfall, covering his pale and handsome face, and his green eyes became fainter and fainter - fainter into a bright and shining gem fragment.

Yuan was enraged by his behavior, and all the mechanical arms were pointed towards him. Even the unlucky Xin Lan fell to the ground with a groan.

"No. 1," Yuan Li called out his code name, "Are you going to destroy our research? You haven't accepted emotional cleansing for so long. Do you want to give up this experiment?"

"Let Ivy go," Yu Mo said, "I am willing to stay and make new experimental samples for you... but let her go. She is destined to belong to human society."

"This is the only successful case," Yuan said, "the most perfect child. Even if she has been harmed by artificial intelligence and androids, she will go to save Xin Lan... How long can your body survive in this world? Even the new heart will fail within five years. You have seen that Lorraine has allowed the territory of humans in the first area to grow larger and larger, leaving us with less and less land. Do you want to see those lovely lives on the verge of extinction again?"

"Let Ivy go," Yu Mo repeated, his lips stained with blood. He bowed in humility and despair, begging feebly, "Let her go."

"No way—are you trying to get my attention?"

Yuan realized that Yu Mo's conversation with him was just a way to delay time.

While the two were talking, Xin Lan had quickly untied the things that were restrained on Ivy. Bionic people know bionic facilities best. What's more, Lorraine asked Xin Lan to download a large amount of data from this laboratory as soon as possible, including this one.

Ivy was freed, and she used her recovered hand to hold the gun and shoot, accurately blowing up the camera closest to her.

Yuan's vision dimmed.

Xin Lan walked in a strange crab-like manner on his two legs. Ivy also stuffed a gun into his hand. Unfortunately, he was in a panic and fired ten shots. One of them was hit and almost pierced through Yu Mo's forehead, singeing a small tuft of silver hair on his head.

Ivy was nervous: "Why don't we kill each other now?"

"I didn't mean to do that," Xin Lan was extremely nervous and stammered, "My arm was deformed and I couldn't aim."

Yuan was completely enraged.

All the mechanical arms in the room grabbed Ivy. Ivy was agile like a little loach. Yuan, who was carrying out the arrest, also heard Lorraine's footsteps outside.

The military boots tapped the ground firmly, like heavy drumbeats.

Yuan was not sure that it could defeat Lorraine. It had been defeated many times by Lorraine and had to give up land one after another. The opponent was simply a ferocious inhuman.

It shifted all its attention to Ivy. More than sixty robotic arms, holding syringes capable of devouring microrobots' memories, stabbed Ivy in unison.

He didn't care whether he would turn her into a pitiful little hedgehog.

Xin Lan was far away and powerless. She could only watch helplessly as the syringes like arrows pierced Ivy's body. One of them stuck in her shoulder, but it didn't hurt much. She frowned, pulled it out forcefully and threw it on the ground. Only a little liquid was pushed into her body, but she felt her head seemed to go numb quickly.

A moment of slowness caused her to be pushed down by the mechanical arm and fall heavily to the ground.

"Ivy!"

Yu Mo dragged the pale body, using his body as a shield, holding Ivy tightly under him, protecting——

Dozens of syringes were deeply inserted into Yu Mo's body, and a large amount of blood instantly oozed out of his clean clothes. The human body has limited capacity, and the liquids that could not be injected into the skin flowed down the wet clothes. Ivy, who was held tightly in his arms, opened her eyes wide and smelled the strong scent of grass and wood, as well as the strong smell of blood on him.

"Forgive me," Yu Mo said hoarsely, "I regret it, Ivy, I regret it."

Ivy wanted to say something, but her mind was becoming increasingly numb, as if someone had forced her to pause the conversation. There was a bug gnawing at her head, and the feeling of having lost something made her brain tremble and feel scared.

She was still conscious, and clearly saw a mechanical arm piercing Yu Mo's shoulder, blood dripping onto her body; Yuan was already running wild, and even began to carelessly destroy Yu Mo's body, wanting to take her away while Yu Mo was protecting her tightly under him. She heard the angry mechanical sound of 'Yuan' -

"So many years of research results? Are you going to give up everything for her? Humans are really liars... I shouldn't have cooperated with you! 1 ah 1! Damn 1! I am very disappointed in you now..."

A short-range explosion sounded in her ears, and stone slabs and mechanical arms fell to the ground with a whirring sound. Ivy was knocked unconscious by the deafening sound amid the smell of earth.

…

When Ivy woke up again, she found herself lying on a hospital bed in a military base.

A familiar scent of alcohol floated in the air. Her limbs were still there, with pain-relieving patches on her arms. She had been changed into clean white patient clothes. The windows were bright and clean, and there was the reassuring smell of food. Everything was so wonderful - it would have been even more wonderful if there hadn't been a depressed man by her bedside.

Lorraine, dressed in a black military uniform, sat beside her bed.

Next to him was his makeshift cane, made of black ebony, thick and heavy.

His palms were still wrapped in thick gauze, and there were wounds all over his body, including a few sharp cuts on his cheeks. Perhaps because the wounds were too deep, he was worried that they might scare people, so he put on a layer of protective stickers.

She also noticed that Lorraine's dark, emerald eyes sparkled with a gleam of light when she saw her.

It's just like a rabbit seeing a carrot, a wolf seeing a lamb, or George from Peppa Pig seeing a toy dinosaur.

Ivy sat up quickly and looked at him with some fear, worried that she would look rude. "Hello, teacher."

"Do you still want to call me teacher?" Lorraine's voice softened. He clenched his hands on his knees, then slowly loosened them, and said, "Xin Lan has told me everything."

"Um……?"

Ivy thought about it in confusion, and the memories before the explosion came into her mind in a queue——

Fighting with Song Feng, resulting in a broken wrist;

Luo Lin and Yu Mo reached a cooperation and reopened the sealed underground city together;

She stayed at the base and found that Yuan was pretending to be a human and trying to take her away, so she ran to the underground city to remind Lorraine to be on guard;

The underground city collapsed, she saved Xin Lan, and Yu Mo saved her;

'Yuan' seemed to have injected something into her, and it exploded...

She couldn't remember the last part, she only remembered that Yu Mo protected her with his body.

"Where are Xin Lan and Yu Mo?" Ivy asked, "They——"

"Everyone here is my person," Lorraine calmed her worries accurately, "Don't worry, Yu Mo will be treated and his life is not in danger."

Ivy asked, "What about Xin Lan?"

"Xin Lan has had his leg replaced," Lorraine said. "He's still getting used to it and might come over later - Ivy."

He paused and apologized to Ivy in a very formal manner: "I'm sorry, I didn't tell you about the plan at first because I was considering--"

"Uh uh uh - wait a minute, teacher," Ivy said uneasily, "You don't have to apologize for this. After all, we are just getting married, and we are already divorced. There is no emotional basis. You have no obligation to inform me in advance. Besides, I am not hurt by this... Saving Xin Lan is my own plan, and it may have disrupted your plan. I am very sorry..."

Ivy bowed her head and said, "Actually, I should be the one to say sorry to you, teacher."

Lorraine finally realized something was wrong.

He asked, "Don't you remember me?"

"Of course I remember you," Ivy said blankly, "You were my teacher and my ex-husband."

"That's all?"

“…”

Ivy's silence and confusion fell into Luo Lin's eyes. He remembered what Xin Lan said before he fell into hibernation -

Ivy was injected with a little bit of emotion-clearing robot fluid.

Xin Lan, who had been injected with the entire tube, had now completely forgotten the parts that were infected by the Yu Mo virus. When Lorraine asked him what type of syringe he was going to replace, such as whether the specific values ​​had colors and other information, Xin Lan asked blankly, what was the use of this thing?

He no longer remembers.

Yu Mo told Luo Lin clearly that this thing would make people forget the feelings of "loving the most".

Ivy lost her strong feelings for him.

"The feeling when I was in love the most" turned out to be towards him.

In being forgotten, Lorraine clearly saw her strong, lost love.

"So," Ivy explained seriously, "I'm really not mad at you... It doesn't matter if you don't tell me about your plan, or don't trust me, or speak harshly to me."

"Really?" Lorraine slowed down his voice. "Don't you need me to tell you? And about me, how I got hurt, how you came back, my current eye color, and my conversation and handling with 'Yuan' - don't you want to listen?"

"Well, to be honest, I'm a little curious," Ivy said worriedly, "but forget it."

"Why?"

"Because," Ivy said anxiously, "in general film and television works, when a person suddenly mentions a lot of secrets to another person with whom he or she is not so close, it is probably because they want to silence the person."

She said earnestly, "I still want to live well now, sir."