Chapter 412: Bird in a Cage (asking for monthly ticket)
Iceland, at the bottom of Hofsjokull glacier, 2 a.m. local time on August 29th.
"Restricted-level psychic, number 1002—Ji…Ji…Ming…Ming…"
A hoarse voice came from the penguin-shaped broadcasting device, as if a TV had lost its signal. The voice was intermittent and twitchy, and it was creepy.
Ji Minghuan woke up from his bed. He opened his eyes and stared at the Penguin Broadcast on the ceiling in the darkness. After a long while, the strange movement finally stopped.
For a moment, the prison cell became as quiet as the deep sea, so quiet that people could hear ringing in their ears.
"What happened just now? Are the equipment of the Salvation Society so shoddy..."
Ji Minghuan muttered, slowly got up, sat on the bed and looked around in confusion.
Normally, when the instructor gave his report, the light in the cell would light up first, waking him up from his sleep, but at this moment the room was pitch black, without a single light.
Just as he was thinking this, the door in his sight suddenly slowly opened. The rumbling sound drowned out the tinnitus in his ears, and now, all he saw was an empty corridor.
Ji Minghuan looked in confusion, only to see the corridor filled with blinding light and empty without a single person in sight.
"Old man, what are you doing again?" He tilted his eyebrows, looked at the aisle, and asked the broadcasting equipment above his head.
However, the mentor did not answer his question this time.
The prison cell was quiet, and the corridor was also quiet. Ji Minghuan narrowed his eyes and sat silently on the bed waiting for a while. No researcher came from outside the door.
After a while, seeing that his wait was fruitless, Ji Minghuan got out of bed and walked barefoot step by step to the outside of the prison room.
He walked into the endless curtain of light.
A halo of light washed over his face like a tidal wave. He closed his eyes, reached out his hand, and touched the wall, continuing along its edge. A moment later, his right hand suddenly felt empty. Although he couldn't see clearly with his eyes closed, he could tell it was a room.
The door was open. Ji Minghuan raised his eyebrows, stopped, turned around and walked into the room.
With his back to the light curtain, he slowly opened his eyes and saw a skinny boy huddled in a corner, hugging his knees, his head lowered, his hair covering his eyes, mumbling something softly.
Ji Minghuan knew this boy. They had met once before. He was the owner of the mythical wonder "Zeus" - Wu Qingjie.
After a while, Wu Qingjie raised her head awkwardly and looked at Ji Minghuan's face.
"What's wrong with you?" Ji Minghuan stared into his eyes and asked curiously, "You look like you're in pain."
"I thought you wouldn't come to see me. I've always wanted to play with you." Wu Qingjie murmured, forcing a smile on her pale face, "But you never come to see me, not even once..."
Ji Minghuan lowered his eyes and explained, "The instructor said you need to be alone, so we never looked for you."
"I need friends, I don't need to be alone... I've been alone enough, for long enough."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm not feeling well... I feel like my head is about to explode," Wu Qingjie murmured. "That person covered in lightning kept talking to me, but I couldn't hear clearly. He seemed to be reminding me of something, but I couldn't hear anything clearly... I didn't want to listen either. I was so tired."
Hearing this, Ji Minghuan suddenly thought of Yan Molin, but she deserved it. Wu Qingjie was innocent. He was just forced to implant Zeus fragments into his body, which led to this end.
Wu Qingjie paused, then suddenly lowered her head. "Thank you for coming to see me... No one has ever come to see me before."
Ji Minghuan was silent for a while, then sat down beside him, leaning against the wall.
"Your name is 'Wu Qingjie', right?"
"right."
"If you left here, is there anything you would like to do?"
"Make friends, friends who are not afraid of me." Wu Qingjie whispered, "I know you won't be friends with me, but don't tell others that I am a dangerous person, otherwise they will not be willing to be friends with me..."
Ji Minghuan was silent.
After a long moment, he lowered his voice and said, "I'm sorry. I always thought you were a psychopath...so I listened to my mentor and ignored you."
Wu Qingjie shook her head. "I'm a psychopath... He keeps talking to me, and I can't concentrate on anything. The thunder is so loud, his voice is so loud, and sometimes the tinnitus is so loud that I can't even hear what you're saying."
He said hoarsely, "Why is the mentor so nice to you guys, but so terrible to me? Because I'm unstable and not a good kid, right? But I'm also trying to listen to him... I want to be like you, but I just can't."
"In the eyes of our mentors, we are all the same."
"Really?"
"Yes." Ji Minghuan nodded. "In his eyes, we are just..." He paused, knowing that he couldn't say what he should say, otherwise Wu Qingjie would either be knocked unconscious or controlled by the brand in his brain.
So he turned to look at Wu Qingjie and changed his tone, "Anyway, it's okay. It will be over in a few days... Whether it's good or bad, it will all be over in a few days. Then you will be free and won't be as painful as you are now."
"Really?"
"Well," Ji Minghuan nodded, "then you won't hear thunder anymore, your ears won't ring, and you won't have hallucinations. Maybe you'll be able to make some really good friends."
"Can't you be my friend?"
"You deserve better friends."
"Although I know you are just trying to fool me...but thank you."
"You're welcome. I have to go now."
"goodbye."
"goodbye."
After Ji Minghuan said goodbye to Wu Qingjie, he stood up from the wall and returned to the prison cell along the same route.
He knew that his mentor suddenly opened the door in the middle of the night because he wanted him to meet Wu Qingjie to comfort Wu Qingjie's mental state which was about to get out of control.
But in fact, these are all unnecessary and are just condescending pity.
Once the androids were complete, these mythical children would become discarded victims for the mentor to use up. There was no way the mentor would let them go. The androids were his tools for cleaning up the world, blades that were completely obedient to him.
After a while, Ji Minghuan walked back to the prison cell.
His cell was very close to Wu Qingjie's, not far away from her. This was information worth mentioning, and it might be useful when they invaded the Salvation Society.
Ji Minghuan had just returned to the bedroom when suddenly, a figure walked into the prison room.
He looked up curiously and saw that the other person was wearing a white coat, with black hair tied into a bun, dark circles under his eyes as heavy as ever, and his expression as lazy as ever.
Koojena is here.
This was an unexpected guest for Ji Minghuan. He had thought that after Ke Aojiena left the Salvation Society a few days ago, she would not come back in the short term.
"Working girl, why are you back? Isn't it vacation time?" Ji Minghuan was stunned for a moment, then got out of bed and very consciously pulled a chair to sit at the table.
"I'm free." Ke Ojiena walked over with her hands in the pockets of her white coat and said.
"ha?"
Keojiena pulled up a chair and sat down casually at the table.
"What do you mean you are free?" Ji Minghuan tilted his head and stared at her in confusion.
"Literally, from today on, I don't have to come to the Salvation Society to work anymore." Ke Ojiena held her chin with her hand, rested her elbow on the table, and yawned with her eyes downcast.
"You resigned?"
"Rather, I was fired. I was just fired by my instructor."
"Oh, then congratulations. But be careful that they might kill you." Ji Minghuan thought for a moment and then said.
"Just kill them, it's better than working in this godforsaken place every day." Ke Ojiena tilted her head. "The Whale's Garden is more interesting than here, even though the people there are pretty crazy, kneeling in front of me at every turn, making me want to kowtow to them."
"Let's not complain about the box garden people for now. Did the instructor really let you go? Why don't I believe it?"
Ji Minghuan held his chin and looked up at her.
"The mentor has already killed all the top leaders of the Salvation Society. What do you think?" Ke Ojiena said slowly, "It was those leaders who wouldn't let me leave in the first place, and now they're all dead." She paused, "The mentor just came to me and told me that starting tomorrow, I don't have to come here anymore..."
She was silent for a while, lowered her eyes, stretched lazily, and added casually:
“Actually, I used to be just like you.”
"Same as us?" Ji Minghuan asked.
"More than ten years ago, I was also a child who was imprisoned and raised in the Salvation Society. But later, I grew up and was sent to the Whale Garden as an undercover agent."
"I guessed it..." Ji Minghuan shrugged. "They must have used some tricks to keep you from getting rid of the Salvation Society and make you willingly work for them, right?"
"They kidnapped my grandmother. When I was here, I could see her every six months."
"Now, how is your grandma?"
"you guess?"
Ke Ojiena spoke softly, untying the bun on her head, and her black hair fell down.
"Will the Salvation Society release her?"
"No." Ke Ojiena shook her head.
"What's the reason?"
"Just yesterday, my grandmother died of illness," Ke Ojiena said, shrugging her shoulders. "So, there's no reason for me to stay here anymore. My instructor just gave me permission, so I can leave here with a clear conscience."
"How ironic." Ji Minghuan said nonchalantly.
He lowered his eyes and tapped his fingers lightly on the table.
"Actually, I sympathize with you," Ke Ojiena said calmly. "I'm leaving, but you probably can't leave... Well, it's not a secret."
"It's really not a secret." Ji Ming said happily, the instructors were starting to go crazy after knowing the secret.
"Anyway, this is the last time you'll see me," Ke Ojiena said lazily. "Next, I guess I'll go home and lie down for ten days or half a month, and then I'll find a random city with lots of delicious food to travel to. Are you envious? Are you jealous?"
"I'm not envious. It's good that you can leave here."
"Why?"
"I'm afraid I'll kill you too." Ji Minghuan looked away. "Happy resignation, working girl, but don't come back in the future. This isn't a place worth reminiscing about."
"You're quite arrogant, worthy of being our restricted-level kid brother." Ke Aojiena sneered barely perceptibly.
Then she reached out and touched Ji Minghuan's head, "Goodbye, little brat."
"Goodbye." Ji Minghuan paused. "But could you please not make it sound like I'm doomed? That's really unlucky."
"Who knows? I only know that no one here wants you to leave alive, not even one person."
After saying this, Ke Ojiena stood up from the table and turned to walk towards the exit of the prison cell.
After a while, she stopped in front of the open metal gate, tilted her head slightly, and her face was shrouded in a trance-like bright light.
Turning her head to look at the boy in the hospital gown sitting quietly at the table, Ke Ojiena seemed to see herself wearing the same hospital gown ten years ago. Like a bird in a cage, she opened her eyes in the white ward day after day, looking at the white ceiling, the white table, and the white chairs. Everything was so pale, as if making people forget the original color of the world.
The world should be as colorful and beautiful as a kaleidoscope.
Sadly, she was freed after ten years, but the other children imprisoned here could never be freed again.
Ke Aojiena was lost in thought. She glanced at Ji Minghuan for the last time and then looked away.
Her lips moved slightly, as if she was whispering to the boy left behind, or as if she was saying goodbye to her past. Once again, she whispered:
"goodbye."
After saying that, Keojiena left without looking back.
Ji Minghuan silently watched her back until she walked out of the prison cell. He thought to himself that the working girl was really stupid. She had the opportunity to leave, but she insisted on coming back to see how her grandmother died. What if her tutor didn't let her go?
The door of the monitoring room had not yet closed when he suddenly heard a burst of gunfire, a deafening burst of gunfire that suddenly rang out from the corridor, like lightning across the calm sea, tearing apart the long silence.
“Bang!!!!”
In an instant, the entire corridor was shrouded in deafening gunfire.
Ji Minghuan was stunned for a moment, then slowly raised his eyes and saw that the metal door was about to close. In the gap that was about to disappear, he could still see Ke Aojiena's back.
Her figure swayed, and she stood stiffly for a while, then slowly fell to the ground. She tilted her head and saw a bullet wound on the top of her head. A large amount of blood was flowing out and streaking across her cheek.
Ke Ojiena stared at the prison cell for a while, then met Ji Minghuan's gaze. There was no expression on her face and her eyes were empty.
After a long while, the heavy eyelids on her face slowly closed, and she lay quietly on the ground. Her white coat was stained with blood, and the hem of her coat drooped in the pool of blood like a broken bird's wing. There was no movement for a long time.
Ji Minghuan was stunned for a moment, and then he saw a figure, a man wearing a white coat and rimless glasses.
The mentor adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose with his left hand. In his right hand he was holding a strange revolver, which looked like it had been modified by the technology of the Salvation Society.
At this time, the gap in the metal door was completely closed, and Ji Minghuan could no longer see the scene outside the prison room through the gap.
The prison cell was dark. Ji Minghuan leaned back in his chair and chuckled softly.
"That's true. The instructor's goal is to kill all the superhumans. How could he let you go?... How foolish, working girl! Do you regret coming back?"
When his thoughts reached this point, Ji Minghuan suddenly let out a long sigh, then slowly raised his head and stared blankly at the ceiling that was so familiar that it couldn't be more familiar.
Ke Ojiena died at 4:00 a.m. on August 29th.
There are only 68 hours left before the start of the Battle of Iceland.
(End of this chapter)
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