I don't understand what you're talking about.
Bryce said to Solian.
His voice sounded very calm.
This is good... he encouraged himself in his heart.
Bryce desperately wanted to avoid giving himself away to that damned man, knowing the guy was scrutinizing him, trying to find something in his face. And whatever Solian found, it would be the weapon he used to stab Lin Xi.
Bryce wouldn't let a bastard like Solian get his way.
"Please move aside, I have a lot of work to do."
Bryce could feel his lips moving, and the sound floated out of his throat.
Beside him, his fist was clenching silently as he gripped the metal storage box containing all the specimens until his fingers went numb.
He didn't even know how he calmly dealt with that troublesome man and made his way back to his medical room—his memory seemed to have stopped abruptly after Solian uttered those words, only returning to normal functioning once he was back in his enclosed space, alone.
Even back in the medical room, Bryce couldn't calm down. Perhaps even Solian himself hadn't imagined that his words would have such a profound impact on Bryce. Bryce sat there blankly at his desk, staring at the box containing the fragments of John Bronson's body. It took him a very long time to relax his overly tense and unresponsive fingers.
But he was still trembling slightly.
Bryce had thought that nightmare had long been buried beneath thick layers of documents and the relentless passage of time, but it had returned, returned to Lin Xi and his life. Bryce could almost see a monster, invisible, enormous, and invincible—slowly emerging from the depths of the past, then slowly approaching him and Lin Xi.
"That exhibition..."
Sorian's devilish whisper only mentioned this one sentence; he didn't say what kind of exhibition it was, but in that instant, Bryce understood everything.
Bryce suddenly shivered, his breathing becoming increasingly rapid.
"Honey?"
Just as Bryce felt he was about to be completely overwhelmed by that immense panic, a warm and husky female voice pulled him back to reality from his nightmarish past.
“Elisa…”
Bryce turned around and stared blankly at his lover.
Elisa was standing at the door of the medical room, looking at Bryce with a puzzled and worried expression.
Seeing that Bryce had finally responded to her, she seemed relieved. Then she walked towards Bryce, stretched out her arms, and hugged the man tightly.
"I want to ask you, are you alright? But I already know your answer. You'll say you're fine, and then bury everything deep inside your heart."
Elisa kissed Bryce on the forehead, then said with a wry smile.
Of course, she tried her best to hide it, but Bryce could still easily hear the deep worry in Elisa's tone—which made Bryce's mood even heavier. He knew that he must be in a very bad state to make Elisa care so much.
He even felt a pang of guilt towards the woman in front of him because of this.
Did you get it?
He forced himself to ignore the urge to tell her everything, and then completely ignored Elisa's question, instead asking directly what he cared about most.
Elisa's eyes dimmed as a result. She sighed, took something out of her pocket, and placed it in Bryce's hand.
"It took me a little time to get this thing, but... yes, I got it."
"Have all backups been processed?"
"certainly."
After receiving a positive reply from Elisa, Bryce seemed more relaxed than before.
He looked around, then used his access privileges to lock the entire medical room at the highest level. Only then did he put the storage device that Alyssa had given him into the reader.
Bryce glanced at Elisa, and for a moment he seemed hesitant, but in the end, he pressed the play button in front of Elisa.
"The Mother of Insects will turn us all into incubators for Her children..."
"Lin Xi—you must kill Lin Xi—he is that mutant—look at what he's done! He hasn't woken up yet, you still have time! Look at what he's done! He summoned the insects! Because those are his kin! Once the King Insect appears, it will be too late, his children… His children… will kill us all!"
...
John Bronson's sharp, urgent scream immediately came from the player.
With his face appearing particularly grotesque and distorted from the monitor's angle, the old man, whose death was incredibly tragic, seemed to still be alive in some corner of the world, shouting madly at them.
Even though it was just data recording, the madness he displayed... or rather, something even more frightening than madness, still made Bryce and Elisa involuntarily tense up.
"Oh my God."
Elisa frowned and sighed softly, making the sign of the cross on her chest.
Thank goodness, the video didn't last long; soon, the frenzied cursing and swearing came to an abrupt end.
"...The technicians said that the cables transmitting audio and video had inexplicably broken."
Inside the medical room, Alyssa paused for a moment before snapping out of her daze. She looked at Bryce and said...
"This is the last video we collected that night. That's why we still don't know how John died or what killed him. Damn it, when we took over the Sun God, I suggested replacing these outdated systems, but nobody was willing. They preferred to spend time and effort expanding the warehouse rather than spending more budget on other facilities, and now... look at this mess."
Elisa became a bit more talkative than before, probably because what she did today made her nervous.
She paused for a moment, then continued, "I overwrote this part with the previous recording, so no one should notice anything amiss..."
"Thank you, Alyssa... I really don't know what I would do without you?"
Bryce said gratefully.
However, Elisa just looked at him, a faint bitterness in her smile.
"I don't know if I did the right thing."
She murmured softly.
Before meeting Bryce, Alyssa would never have believed she would do such a thing—she used her highest level of authority to steal the surveillance footage of John Bronson before his death from the monitoring facility and then replaced it with the previous footage.
As a result, apart from Bryce and Elisa, no one knew the words John shouted before he died.
All of Elisa did this because of Bryce's pleas.
“You saw their attitude, especially Solian,” Bryce sighed, turning off the reader and speaking somberly. “John and Solian have always been hostile towards Linxi, that strange… hostility. Yet, the rumors they’ve spread are affecting the exploration team, and the mercenaries… I’m terrified. We’ve been stranded for too long, and these people stuck on the ship are getting increasingly erratic. Under this immense pressure, if they really push Linxi forward and assume he’s the root of all this tragedy… you know what will happen. It’s not uncommon for this to happen in the past.”
"Things won't be that bad."
Elisa offered a weak word of comfort.
“I hope things won’t get any worse,” Bryce said in a low voice, sounding unusually worried, “but to avoid trouble, I mean, it’s best if this kind of thing, John’s ramblings, doesn’t get out. We already have enough trouble, and the most important thing right now is to keep things stable on board.”
After saying that, Bryce manipulated the buttons and destroyed the storage device.
"Bryce?"
Elisa pursed her lips, watching Bryce finish what he was doing, and then she suddenly spoke.
"What?"
“Lin Xi…” Elisa’s lips trembled slightly as she carefully chose her words. “What exactly happened to him?”
"he--"
“Oh, don’t lie to me, you know my ‘special ability’,” Alyssa said, standing up from Bryce and slowly taking a few steps back. “I’ve always been able to sense that something… something makes you completely unable to control your overprotective behavior. And this time, your behavior has been especially strange. I’ve already violated my professional ethics for you; I destroyed and falsified surveillance footage to protect Lin Xi. I have the right to know what really happened back then… for example, the exhibition?”
"What are you talking about?!"
Upon hearing the last word, Bryce jumped up from his seat, nearly knocking over the box on the table.
"You know...you know what?"
He asked in shock.
Alyssa's eyes flickered. "Not much, but... but... Sorian came to see me before, and he said some things that made me very uneasy..."
"Everything he said was just nonsense."
Bryce said it with absolute certainty.
"But……"
"Oh no, I don't want to continue this topic, darling. There are no 'buts.' Just know that whatever those people said was just nonsense."
Elisa stopped talking and just looked at him silently, a look in her eyes that pained Bryce.
“I have a feeling that those rumors… might not just be nonsense, that something is actually happening, and that they all revolve around Lin Xi. Bryce, you know what? I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time because I wake up from nightmares every night, and I don’t even know if it’s because of the stress I’m under or if I’ve actually seen something.”
Bryce's lips parted slightly. He should have continued to deny it, but faced with Elisa's demeanor, his reason ultimately gave in.
He had originally planned to carry that heavy secret for the rest of his life, but now he could no longer bear it.
“We swore we wouldn’t tell anyone about this. Yes, it was Lin Xi. When we were children, something terrible happened to him…”
Twenty years ago—
Pinelake, Arizona
The weather was exceptionally sunny; it was the best weekend in months.
The temperature was pleasant, and a gentle breeze was blowing. The area near the newly built science exhibition hall in Songhu Town was bustling with people, and the air was filled with music, the aroma of popcorn, and the noisy laughter of people.
It wasn't a festival celebration, but the atmosphere was pretty much the same.
On ordinary days, this area wouldn't be as lively as it is now. After all, ever since the science museum was built, the gleaming building usually only houses some shabby astronomy exhibits or dinosaur fossil exhibits. Bryce's father once said with certainty that the planets suspended above the exhibition hall by thin steel wires were made of foam, and the dinosaur fossils were just fakes made of plaster.
This is not the fault of the curators of the science museum. After all, Songhu Town is just a small place, and the museum, which is all show and no substance, is the product of a bribery scandal involving the previous mayor and a member of the Songhu Town Public Utilities Foundation.
But in any case, having such an exhibition hall isn't always a bad thing. After all, since its completion, the extracurricular activities of the Songhu Town Public Middle School finally have a place to go... and occasionally, a big pie will fall into the laps of the residents of Songhu Town. For example, the exceptionally famous and high-end Sunu-Earth Civilization Exchange Exhibition will actually tour Songhu Town for half a month for the first time.
This is a big deal for the townspeople who don't have much fun besides rugby and weekend outdoor barbecues.
Bryce had been looking forward to the exhibition almost from the day he saw the poster. Like all boys his age, he was full of curiosity and love about aliens.
After his repeated pleas, his mother finally relented and agreed to his request, but they made a serious agreement: in public with so many people around, Bryce had to keep an eye on their newly adopted boy to prevent him from getting lost or having a panic attack.
“Xiao Xi has been through a lot… He needs some time to adjust to his new life, but you know I have to take care of Jessica, she's still a baby, so I need to focus my attention on her. So, promise me you'll take good care of Xiao Xi instead of Mommy, okay?”
Bryce could still hear his mother's words, but now, he almost cried whenever he thought of the promise he made with his mother.
The reason is simple: Lin Xi, who was previously by his side, is no longer there.
If we must say something, it wasn't entirely Bryce's fault. There were just too many people at the Sunu Civilization Exchange Exhibition, and he, his parents, and his other new siblings were quickly separated by the surging crowd.
Bryce had made sure to hold Lin Xi's hand tightly, but he accidentally let go of her, and his unusually quiet and shy Asian brother was instantly swept away by the crowd and carried into the exhibition hall.
“Bryce…Bryce…”
From afar, Bryce could even hear Lin Xi's slightly fearful calls.
Bryce wiped the sweat from his forehead. Perhaps he could wait for his parents in the same spot, and they might come back to look for him. But Lin Xi—Lin Xi was the one Bryce had lost—so after a brief hesitation, Bryce ran wildly toward the direction from which Lin Xi's voice came.
Bryce was still a child, and it was difficult for him to move quickly through the crowd. By the time Bryce could finally make out Lin Xi's back, he realized that he and Lin Xi had squeezed into the interior of the exhibition hall.
There were fewer people inside the exhibition hall than outside, so at least Bryce could now clearly see Lin Xi's appearance.
"Lin...Xi...Lin Xi! Wait for me, I'm here! Hey, I'm here—"
Bryce raised his voice and shouted at his younger brother.
Bryce was certain that his voice was loud enough for Lin Xi to hear clearly, but what surprised him was that the other party showed no intention of stopping.
Lin Xi didn't even turn around to look at Bryce.
He looked like... like he was terrified, or rather, like he was having a nightmare.
From Bryce's angle, it was clear that Lin Xi's face was covered in cold sweat, and even his lips were pale. The thin boy's eyes were wide open, and his pupils were dilated, making his eyes look completely black, without any light or focus.
Lin Xi was originally the thinnest boy in the Dres family, but at this moment, he seemed to have become even thinner and more frail than before, as if anyone else could crush him if they touched him.
Then, right under Bryce's gaze, Lin Xi turned around and walked straight toward the deepest part of the exhibition hall. The crowd was so dense, but seemingly unconsciously, when Lin Xi passed by them, they would turn around or move aside to make way for him in a narrow passage.
It seemed like only a few seconds or less had passed when Lin Xi's voice was about to disappear behind the crowd again.
"Lin Xi—"
Bryce yelled and struggled to run toward Lin Xi.
He felt his heart suddenly become heavy, and his breathing became difficult.
It was a very strange feeling; in the words of the woman he loved deeply much later, it was an "ominous premonition."
Perhaps we should thank God that my Bryce was still a small, thin child, which allowed him to easily slip through the gaps in the crowd.
He didn't lose Lin Xi, but followed him to the deepest part of the exhibition hall.
The exhibition hall was set up in a very hidden way. Looking back, the setup was actually quite strange—it was so inconspicuous, and the entrance was covered with signs that misled other people. It would be hard for a normal person to imagine that it was actually an exhibition hall open to visitors.
The exhibit displayed in that hall was the most revered sacred object of the Suru people... or rather, their god.
And that thing... is called the Star Butterfly.
The exhibition hall where Star Butterfly was located had very few visitors. Compared to the bustling crowds outside, it appeared even darker, colder, and quieter.
The few visitors crowded around the cage, craning their necks to stare curiously at what was inside.
The creature remained motionless in the cage, at the furthest point from the humans, with only two small red dots flickering faintly in the shadows.
Bryce only glanced at it for a fleeting moment as he rushed into the exhibition hall, then he couldn't help but shiver and quickly looked away.
He was already a big boy, and his age and pride did not allow him to act like a child and show fear or timidity in front of others.
Moreover, he had no time to be afraid.
His brother was walking toward the visitors who were crowding in front of the cage.
"Lin Xi—"
Bryce shouted.
Lin Xi still didn't turn around.
Bryce took a few steps, then hesitated and stopped.
He stood about ten meters away from those people, looking at them with a puzzled expression.
The air conditioning in the exhibition hall was very cold. Yes, that must be the reason, otherwise he would never be shivering with cold like this.
There was no communication between those people, not even a turn of their heads, but when Lin Xi approached them, they naturally moved aside, making way for Lin Xi.
Their movements were so perfectly synchronized that the few normal visitors scattered among them seemed somewhat at a loss.
They looked at the people around them and Lin Xi with surprise, then somewhat bewilderedly made way for them.
When Lin Xi stood silently at the front of everyone, the Sunu man standing in front of the cage also revealed his appearance through the gaps in the crowd.
That person should be a tour guide, but they certainly weren't a qualified one.
"*&%……￥#￥3……"
Its speech was incredibly indistinct; at first glance it seemed to be English, but upon closer listening, it sounded more like meaningless muttering.
Like all Sunu people, it has a rather strange appearance—its face is pale, its limbs are uncomfortably long, its features are unusually flat, like a poorly made handicraft pasted on its face, but it has a pair of striking and intimidating red eyes.
Those red eyes kept darting around, scanning the exhibition hall.
However, when Lin Xi appeared, its eyes immediately fixed on Lin Xi.
"Lin...Lin Xi..."
Sunu's guide suddenly stopped his meaningless muttering, and a strange call came from its throat... no, that wasn't a sound it made.
That was the sound coming from the thing behind it, the giant star butterfly.
At that very moment, the alien insect suddenly fell from the top of the cage.
Some people screamed in surprise, but Lin Xi remained unmoved. He stood quietly in front of the metal cage, his dark eyes fixed on the star butterfly as it slowly unfurled its awe-inspiring wings toward him.
"Perhaps you'd like to touch the Star Butterfly? Oh, that's a rare opportunity; it really likes you."
The Sunu guide suddenly broke into a strange smile, bent down, and reached out his hand to Lin Xi.
"He likes you very, very much."
Then, right before Bryce's eyes, countless fleshy tentacles, changing vibrant colors, stretched out from behind the cage. They were more terrifying than the most horrific monsters described in horror novels, and then...
They wrapped themselves around Lin Xi's body.
Years later, Bryce can hardly remember whether he screamed, but he is certain that he was almost driven mad by the scene before him.
Immediately afterwards, the star butterfly easily tore open the metal cage, and two thin, fleshy wings stretched out from its strange body. It wrapped Lin Xi in the wings and then took flight.
...
"later--"
Inside the medical room of the Sun God, Bryce suddenly stopped talking, his face turning pale.
His breathing was unusually heavy.
Over the years, he only recalled the details of that accident in such detail in his nightmares.
Each recollection brought him intense fear—the doctors said it was a form of stress, a traumatic event, since many people had died when the science museum in Pinelake Town collapsed, and Bryce was one of the few lucky survivors.
What happened next?
When Bryce heard Elisa ask, his lover was right beside him, but for a moment, Bryce felt that she was so far away, as if she were in another dimension.
Suddenly, Bryce felt a soft and warm embrace. He turned his head and saw that Elisa had given him a hug.
"Hey, honey, whatever happened, it's all in the past, you know that."
She said to Bryce.
Bryce nodded, then reached out and wrapped his arms tightly around Elisa's waist, as if that gave him the courage to continue.
"The star butterfly carried Lin Xi away—our buildings looked like they were made of cardboard in front of them. The structure of the exhibition hall was destroyed, so the whole building collapsed. Everything was in chaos, many people died, the National Guard arrived to maintain order, but it still took them almost a month to find the star butterfly—they found Lin Xi."
Bryce controlled his emotions, trying to detach his thoughts from the memory and simply recount what happened afterward in a straightforward manner.
"Wait, you mean, a month? You only found Lin Xi after a month?"
Elisa asked in shock.
Bryce nodded.
He took a deep breath before continuing.
"Yes, there's a camping park about 100 kilometers from Songhu Town. Business there isn't great; the park manager only really patrols it before it closes for the winter each year. He smelled a terrible stench near a natural cave..."
Twenty years ago—
Huishan Camping Park
Robinson Willie led his officers on a brisk walk along the rugged mountain path.
In the past, he was a chubby, even somewhat foolish, little old man, and few people saw a sad expression on his face. But now, his face, red from the smell of alcohol, was wrinkled, and he looked worried and anxious.
“I swear… when I patrolled there before, there was nothing there.”
He said in a high-pitched voice.
“But now, it stinks so badly that even dogs won’t go near it. Oh, and I’m not exaggerating. You just saw what Anne and Mary looked like, didn’t you, Sheriff?”
The sheriff nodded to him, panting, but his exhaustion prevented him from saying a word.
The Anne and Mary that Robinson mentioned were his two dogs, two quite good hunting dogs, who were Robinson's good helpers when hunting every spring. They almost never made a mistake, but ever since they discovered the strange thing near the cave, they refused to go any closer to the mountain. Even when they were still several kilometers away from the cave, they would howl in unison, bracing themselves on all fours, and refusing to go any further.
“Maybe they’re just scared,” a middle-aged police officer guessed from behind the sheriff. “After all, you found so many Sunu corpses.”
Robinson couldn't help but shudder at the mention of this.
A few days ago, while he was patrolling the mountain, he discovered something unusual next to the "Rabbit Hole" (his affectionate nickname for the cave).
The area around the opening was covered in murky liquid and emitted a suffocating stench.
Robinson had never smelled anything so foul in his life. He initially thought it was a dead bear, but as he got closer, he realized it wasn't a bear at all, it was... a huge pile of corpses...
Those were all Sunu corpses, not rotten, but worse than rotten corpses; they had all turned into a strange, viscous, syrup-like substance.
Beneath the melted skin and muscles, only the bones could still be vaguely discerned.
As Robinson stared at the corpses, paralyzed with fear, he sensed something moving around inside the cave.
He dared not linger there and immediately fled with his equally trembling dog. He felt that this matter was "very strange" and would definitely bring a lot of trouble. He almost wanted to run away from it. However, a few days later, he still called the police station to report the matter.
"Perhaps it was suicide."
Some people speculated this way just before they reached the cave entrance.
“I heard… those Sunu people have been obsessed with suicide lately… they’ve all gone mad. Congress is having a major headache over this.”
"Yes, the Sunu people are all crazy, and so are the things they raise—"
Another officer said, trying to sound casual.
Their chatter stopped immediately upon reaching the "rabbit hole".
For a second or two, everyone stared at the scene inside the rabbit hole, unable to move or utter a sound.
The foul-smelling slime had long since dried, but the bones had been carefully gathered up and piled inside the shallow cave by something.
The bones were piled up into a shape resembling a nest, and inside that nest, a pupa as tall as a person stood, slowly and gently wriggling as if it were breathing.
"What the hell is this...?"
"A police officer murmured."
He turned on his flashlight and shone it into the dim cave where the pupa was.
His original intention was simply to see things more clearly, but after the lights were turned on, something else that surprised everyone was revealed.
"My God, that, that's..."
"Do you think that's a person? Or am I seeing things... God, I think it's a person..."
The pupa's shell is translucent, and when the light shines through it, the outline of the boy inside becomes visible.
After a period of panic and disbelief, the police finally gritted their teeth and cut open the pupa. Then, the young Asian boy, covered in a lot of slime, fell to the ground from the nest made of Sunu bones.
"Oh my god, that boy!"
It wasn't until this point that someone finally recognized Lin Xi.
"The boy they've been searching for—"
He cried out in fear.
...
“They found Lin Xi and gave him a very thorough physical examination. For the next few months, he was kept in a secret national laboratory for investigation, which those guys usually called ‘treatment,’” Bryce said to Alyssa, his face ashen. “But they couldn’t find anything on him; he was just a little malnourished. After he was deemed no longer worth further research, Lin Xi was sent home. He seemed fine, except that he would occasionally have nightmares at night… Eventually, we saw a psychologist, tried hypnosis, and some other things, but in the end, Lin Xi remembered nothing. He only knew that he had a rather pleasant exhibition when he was a child, and that was all.”
Bryce ended his recollection of the past as calmly as possible.
Author's Note: Suddenly I feel...
In this story, the main characters are all genuine villains.
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