Chapter 179 The Nameless Corpse (4)
The fisherman had no name; he was an orphan.
He was all alone by the sea, and when he reached an age he wasn't even sure of, he met Lanxi.
Lanxi was a very strange person. In Pingyi, a place that was hot and humid all year round and where the sea breeze carried a salty and pungent smell, he always wore a white coat that was out of place with his surroundings and never took it off.
He looked like someone of high status and wealth, with clean fingers and bright eyes, but he showed no intention of entering Pingyi city.
Lanxi built a small house along the coastline and took in the homeless man, letting him stay and teaching him to fish, identify tides, hunt pollutants, draw on paper with charcoal, and also teaching him to speak Pinhín.
The first Pinhian phrase he learned was "Lansi," which he practiced repeatedly.
Lanxi knows a great deal.
Sitting under the night sky, he can accurately name every star and its trajectory. Looking up at the sky, he can judge the storm that will occur several hours later by looking at the clouds. He can also assemble a toy that can walk and move using broken parts salvaged from the sea.
Shu Ningmiao listened to him quietly. She noticed that when he recalled the past, his voice would strangely lose its usual violence and become unusually calm.
After he stopped and fell silent, Shu Ningmiao asked him, "Where is Lanxi now?"
"He's gone mad." A numb look appeared on the fisherman's aged face, and his voice was dry.
He described that memory.
For a period of time, Lanxi would suddenly disappear and then reappear without warning.
Until the last time he saw Lanxi, Lanxi was slumped on the beach, soaking wet, his face covered in tears, looking up at the sky, making a sobbing sound that was neither a smile nor a laugh.
Lanxi looked at him, at the familiar coastline around them, her eyes so unfamiliar, as if she were seeing this world for the first time.
"After that day, he disappeared, and I never saw him again."
After that, he married and had children, but he stubbornly stayed here, guarding this place and waiting for him.
When he was young, he also had aspirations and wanted to give his family a better life.
So, based on the fragmented descriptions of the outside world that he had heard from Lanxi when he was a child, and combined with his own imagination, he created a story full of heroes and adventures.
But when the story reached Pinie, there was no response. In a place like Pingyi, painting couldn't fill his stomach, so he gave up completely and never picked up a paintbrush again, instead starting to work diligently.
“But…” Rennagi couldn’t help but speak, his tone complicated. He was clearly earning money for his family, but when his son knelt down and begged him, he was unwilling to give up a single penny to save his child.
“I won’t give him money to treat Manla’s disease.” The fisherman’s eyes were cloudy but held a strange certainty, as if stating a fact: “Manla’s disease is a hoax, there is no possibility of a cure, you will find out sooner or later.”
When Rennagi pressed him for more information, he turned his head away, reverting to his stubborn, uncommunicative self, and became indifferent.
Shu Ningmiao's gaze returned to the portrait of Lan Xi.
The person in the portrait smiled and looked at her, but unfortunately, the charcoal lines could not bring the person to life.
We finally found a clue, but it seems we've run out of steam here again.
Is Lanxi still alive? If so, what happened back then that caused him to disappear completely?
Unwilling to give up, she asked him again, "When was the last time you saw Lanxi?"
The fisherman said, "I don't know, I don't remember, it was probably when I was in my twenties."
In his early twenties, minus his current age, Lanxi has been missing for almost thirty years.
She told the old man, "When I get back to Pinne, I will help you contact a professional legal team."
The fishermen seemed to have no expectations or concern for this matter. They simply walked silently to the doorway, sat down, and sat by the fire while gazing at the portrait, without saying a word.
Shu Ningmiao had completely given up on the idea of entering the city and lingered near the house at a distance, seemingly still not giving up on him—she always felt that the old man wasn't telling the whole truth.
As darkness fell, the sea and the night sky merged into one color, and the water emitted a faint blue fluorescence.
Shu Ningmiao gazed at the glowing sea, her memory drawn back to the time when she practiced her supernatural abilities—Wei Shengqianheng had pointed to the same scene and told her that this was the color of Pandora.
Pandora's color is so similar to the Founding Stone, but their natures are completely opposite. Pandora's appearance brought about Manra disease, and the destruction of the Founding Stone caused the outbreak of Manra disease...
In this light, the stone may also have a suppressive effect on Manla disease. Could it be that Shu Changyan's parents used the stone to change his genes because they didn't want him to get Manla disease?
She subconsciously turned her head and looked at Shu Changyan.
Shu Changyan rubbed her head: "What's wrong?"
As an insulating crystal, the Foundry Stone can completely isolate the existence of Pandora. Does its presence on a planet suppress the Pandora inside the planet?
The idea lingered in her mind, but she couldn't confirm it for the time being.
"Something's coming up." Shu Changyan's warm fingers ran through her long hair, but his gaze swept over the surging waves.
The creatures that climbed up were a group of crabs magnified several times, their compound eyes flashing red in the darkness.
The fisherman sitting at the door immediately stood up nimbly, quickly retreated back into the house, slammed the door shut, and locked it.
"Can this be eaten?" Xiao Jiang wondered if this was what she had just eaten. She felt a little nauseous, but the taste was really good. She called into the house, "Do you want some? I can catch some. I'll sell them to you for 100 cin each."
"Get out of here!" the fisherman yelled back angrily from inside the house. "Get as far away as possible!"
Xiao Jiang scoffed, casually patted his chest, and then suddenly pushed his palm outward.
A violent whirlwind rose from the ground, whipping up sand and gravel, and violently sending three or four pollutants that tried to approach flying, crashing heavily onto the distant reefs.
The battle was over before it even began.
Xiao Jiang shook his hand, dispelling the swirling wind around him, and stared at the bizarre corpses as if he had merely swatted a few insects: "What kind of pollution could turn ordinary things like this... Speaking of which, if we keep drinking Pine's water, will people also be contaminated..."
She says whatever comes to mind, completely disregarding how others feel.
"Won't."
In the seemingly stagnant air, only Shu Ningmiao answered her: "The contaminants should not have been caused by the explosion at the research center, but rather by the products of Lanxi Laboratory. These contaminants were his test subjects."
The explosion at the research center in Pingyi diverted everyone's attention, leading everyone to believe that the contaminants in Pingyi were caused by pollution.
However, based on experimental data she obtained from other bases, the key was a certain drug he injected into the test subjects, and the source of the contamination should be the forbidden Lanxi experiment.
"Wow." Xiao Jiang exclaimed with mixed feelings, "This Lan Xi is quite a character."
"What nonsense are you spouting?" The window of the house was suddenly pushed open from the inside, and the old fisherman glared angrily, veins bulging on his forehead. "You don't understand him at all! You know nothing!"
He knew that Shu Ningmiao was probably saying this to him on purpose, but he still couldn't help but retort: "He's not doing this for himself, but to find a cure for Manla disease! It's to save people."
“Of course I know he did it to solve the Manla disease.” Shu Ningmiao stood with her arms crossed, her voice calm: “But his actions resulted in the contamination of the entire Pingyi. All the suffering of your compatriots comes from him. Moreover, he also used human experimentation.”
She felt that Lan Xi shouldn't be someone like Wei Sheng Qian Heng, but judging from the results, the damage he caused wasn't much better than Wei Sheng Qian Heng's.
The fisherman murmured, his eyes dimming as if all his strength had been drained away: "If you knew him... you wouldn't blame him like this."
He slammed the window shut and stopped arguing with her. Shu Ningmiao keenly sensed that he was hiding some crucial information, but he refused to reveal it no matter what, and there was nothing she could do.
Shu Changyan, who had been silently gazing at the portrait, suddenly spoke, his voice low: "Is it possible that Lanxi... has become a polluted entity?"
Shu Ningmiao's heart skipped a beat, and she and he thought of the same thing at the same time: "You mean... that pure white pollutant?"
That pure white, humanoid pollutant left a very deep impression on them.
It is indeed possible that it is Lanxi.
But the one who started all this tragedy ended up being one of his own experimental subjects, an ending that is both ironic and tragic.
Shu Changyan's conjecture is not solely based on this: "Because when I encountered it last time, it gave me the feeling... that it wasn't an unconscious attack, but rather that it deliberately sought me out."
He frowned slightly, recalling the details of the incident: "Of the three people who went on the mission, it only followed me. There might be something about me that attracted it..."
Shu Changyan doesn't make conclusions easily; the fact that he can express his feelings so clearly usually means that he is quite certain.
The most unusual thing about him is undoubtedly the foundational gene that was implanted at birth.
Their eyes met, and they understood each other's thoughts. Shu Ningmiao took out the terminal from her clothes. She didn't usually use it, but it still had power: "When did Pigne first discover and record the Founding Stone?"
She quickly swiped across the screen and soon found the answer: the discovery of the Foundry Stone was not long ago, less than thirty years ago.
The time when the foundation stone was discovered almost perfectly matched the time of Lanxi's message! Upon obtaining this crucial clue, Shu Ningmiao felt her fingertips getting slightly warm, as if a crack had been suddenly torn open in the thick fog, and the whole truth was right in front of her.
Since Lanxi once disagreed with Weisheng Qianheng, and Weisheng Qianheng merged with Pandora after his death, whose side does Lanxi stand on?
Did he ever think about treating Manla disease, or about stopping the microbial hymen from going to extremes?
A warm, large hand gently covered her hand, which was trembling slightly with excitement. It was Shu Changyan. He didn't speak, but his fingertips enveloped her hand and swayed it gently, carrying a reassuring strength.
He said in a low voice, "Since it approached me on its own last time, it should do the same this time."
The premise is that the white contaminant is not dead.
"It can accurately detect your presence... This is too passive."
Shu Changyan gave a barely perceptible smile: "It would be even better if it could sense it. Let's try it, right here."
They had already gone to great lengths to get to Pingyi, and Shu Changyan didn't want to waste any more time.
As soon as he finished speaking, he drew his heavy sword with a backhand and, without hesitation, slashed a wound about an inch long on his arm. Blood flowed from the wound, but Shu Ning quickly pressed it down with her skillful hands.
Warm blood quickly soaked between her fingers, dripping onto the black sand and spreading a small patch of dark color.
Almost simultaneously, a rustling sound came from the shore where there had only been the sound of waves, as pollutants in the sea were attracted by the smell of blood.
The sea was silent; before anyone knew it, fog had begun to rise again.
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