Chapter 68 Making Ice from Boiled Water (6)
Seeing Shu Changyan and Zhao walk out of the room at the same time and close the door behind them, the researchers waiting at the door and Ge Wende all looked over.
Both of them have come out, so who's left inside?
Ge Wende frowned, and after thinking carefully, he remembered the girl standing behind Shu Changyan.
Because she was quiet and didn't say anything, his memory of her is now vague, and he can't even remember what her face looked like.
He had initially thought the girl was also an agent, but now that he thought about it, she seemed a bit too young.
"Who is that girl you brought?" Gawande asked, lowering his brow.
Yu Lu and the other person answered first: "They are students of Cornunos, but they have signed a confidentiality agreement."
"What!" As expected, Gawande's chest heaved as he flew into a rage: "You dare bring a student here?"
“Didn’t I already say that she signed the agreement?” Zhao said slowly. “This was also Senior Yelü’s own idea.”
"Who will be responsible if something goes wrong?" Gawande asked, still with a skeptical look in his eyes. "What do you take the National Research Center for?"
Shu Changyan looked away from inside the door: "I will take responsibility."
Yu Lu maintained his indifferent expression: "I can vouch for her."
The two spoke one after the other, their eyes meeting briefly before quickly looking away without a trace of emotion. Shu Changyan frowned in displeasure.
"But……"
“Since you’re already here, there’s no point in saying anything now.” Zhao cut off Gavin’s next words, walked to his side, and suddenly lowered his voice: “By the way, you’ve gone to great lengths to squeeze out Weston, but so far, you haven’t achieved anything. What’s the council saying?”
Gawande's face flushed red as he glared at him.
Zhao smiled and circled around him once, then suddenly raised her hand and patted his shoulder.
His elaborate robes enveloped his body, giving him an elegant air. He turned slightly to the side, smiling at him: "Keep it up, who knows, maybe one day they'll come back to fight again."
——
Yelü Qi held the glass bottle but didn't open it; he just sighed deeply.
After a moment, he shoved the bottle back into Shu Ningmiao's hand, his tone becoming lighter again: "Thank him for me."
Shu Ningmiao instinctively grabbed the bottle, a puzzled look on her face: "...Don't you need to?"
“It’s useless now,” Yelü Qi laughed. “Don’t you want to know what’s inside? You can open it and take a look.”
Since he had said that, Shu Ningmiao was indeed very curious. She lowered her head and opened the seal of the glass bottle. Inside were only two pills, each no bigger than a fingernail, completely black with a rough surface.
Shu Ningmiao poured it into her palm and wondered if this was some kind of folk remedy that Weston had made himself.
"This is Pandora after processing; it seems some dung beetle powder has been added."
Yelüqi propped himself up on his leg and pointed at the thing in her hand: "Weston made this based on my body before. It has some pain-relieving and stabilizing effects, stronger than the anesthetics in the medical clinic. He's pretty smart, isn't he?"
However, it only has some analgesic and stabilizing effects.
His body no longer needs stabilization, and a small amount of pain relief would be useless to him now.
The research center had to give him two or three times the usual dose of painkillers every day just to get him to sleep. They completely disregarded dosage restrictions because Yelüqi no longer cared about the toxicity of the drugs.
Dung beetles...aren't they the scarabs that Wei Shengqianheng mentioned?
It seems there's a reason this recipe has survived; at least it's not just a placebo or a self-deceptive trick.
"Although he always has that mean, debt-collecting look on his face—I can actually understand it."
Yelü Qi put his hands behind his neck, lay down and looked at the ceiling: "He has always wanted to enter the School of Life Sciences since he was in school. It seems he wanted to study genetics, but he was never able to get in. Then that incident happened... Sigh, he must be a little resentful."
Shu Ningmiao put the medicine back into the glass bottle: "Was he framed for being dismissed?"
"No, not really. I heard he lost something." Yelü Qi rubbed his nose. "I just don't think it's that serious. He's so smart, why would they throw him out of the research institute?"
Yelü Qi could think of no other reason than that he had offended someone.
Normally, Shu Ningmiao wouldn't mind listening to Weston's gossip, but now she had something else she wanted to ask: "Is there really no way at all?"
She also felt that her question was stupid.
If there were a way, Pigne wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to cover it up.
But faced with Yelü Qi, all she could ask was this one question.
Yelü Qi silently looked up at the ceiling, then grinned: "This is fate."
Shu Ningmiao disagreed with his words somewhat, and kept her head down, remaining silent.
“No, it should be called retribution. It should have come long ago.” Yelü Qi pressed his palm against his forehead, a gentleness that seemed out of place on his rugged face.
He unconsciously clenched his fists, as if looking for his terminal. Shu Ningmiao didn't see his terminal in the room; it was probably taken away by the researchers.
Shu Ningmiao thought he wanted to make a phone call, so she took out her terminal and handed it to him: "You can use mine."
Yelü Qi was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled and said, "It's nothing, I just wanted to see their photos."
Shu Ningmiao had heard him mention his daughter before. The "they" Yelü Qi was referring to should be his wife and children.
"Can't the National Research Center let them in?" Shu Ningmiao asked softly. "They...don't they know yet?"
Yelü Qi remained silent, his arm covering his eyes. It took him a long time to open them, and Shu Ningmiao had never seen him show such an expression before.
Yelü Qi usually gave her the impression of a rough and magnanimous elder, but she noticed that his arm, which was pressed against his face, was trembling slightly.
The man's eyes looked like those of a snake pinned to a metal plate in agony, with dark red blood dripping from a punctured abscess.
“They don’t know.” Yelü Qi paused after each word, as if something was blocking his memory. “The child I showed you, my little Ayan, she left me many years ago because of the same thing I had… Manla disease. I’ve seen many people, and they all call this thing Manla disease.”
He smiled wryly and said, "But you mustn't mention that word in front of anyone."
Shu Ningmiao looked at him in astonishment.
Previously, when Yelü Qi talked to her about his daughter, his tone was perfectly normal, as if his daughter was still waiting for him to recover and come home.
Yelü Qi slowly lowered his head, unwilling for the child in front of him to see his expression: "At that time, I believed that my choice was correct."
"What choice?"
“My wife wants to take the child and leave to look for a treatment.” Yelü Qi couldn’t even finish the sentence smoothly: “But my boss told me that for the sake of stability, it would be best to let her receive treatment at the research center.”
“I know… I know they can’t save her, and I know they’re just trying to avoid causing a riot.” Yelü Qi’s voice was choked with emotion. “But I still agreed. I think… since that’s the case, we shouldn’t let more people panic.”
“I’ve been watching over her in this hospital bed for three months… She was just too young; she could only last three months.” He covered his eyes tightly with his arm. “Every day she stayed here, I couldn’t help but think about her. When she was healthy, she was always so restless, but she was so well-behaved when she was lying in the hospital bed. Her body started to rot, and no matter how I cleaned it, it didn’t help. I didn’t dare close my eyes. For more than seventy hours, I didn’t dare take my eyes off her. When she talked to me, she didn’t cry out in pain. She said, ‘Daddy, I’m watching you. Can you sleep for a while?’”
“I didn’t want to sleep. She was looking at me, so I pretended to lie down next to her and close my eyes. I… I was so tired that as soon as I closed my eyes, I really fell asleep.” Yelü Qi’s increasingly heavy breathing was accompanied by almost tearing sobs: “I only slept for an hour. When I woke up, she was still holding my hand, but she didn’t open her eyes and never opened them again.”
"The doctor said she stopped breathing 30 minutes before I woke up and didn't make any sound. I was wondering what she was thinking during those 30 minutes? She was watching me so obediently, letting me sleep for a while."
"My wife left the next day."
“I am neither a father nor a husband.” There seemed to be something hard stuck in his throat: “I have dedicated most of my life to this role, which I am proud of, but in reality, I am nothing.”
“Now I’m going to die, and I don’t even know what I am anymore. I only know I was wrong.” With a violent cough, black liquid flowed from Yelüqi’s nostrils. Shu Ningmiao saw his head swelling more and more. He kept repeating, “This is my retribution.”
“I thought I could accept death calmly, but I was too cowardly.” Yelü Qi’s voice softened: “I only felt fear.”
"You've seen this, haven't you?"
He pulled out the booklet, rolled up and pressed under his pillow, and said self-deprecatingly, "I can't face that version of myself. I don't want to see my rotting body anymore. I've become a deserter."
A powerful sense of shame, pain, and longing burst forth from his voice.
Shu Ningmiao could sense his fear of death.
She watched her teacher's pain with detachment, but at that moment, her heart couldn't help but tighten slightly with that fear: "Isn't this normal?"
Yelü Qi smiled and asked in a hoarse voice, "Why?"
Shu Ningmiao said in a low voice, "I'm scared too. It's abnormal for someone not to be afraid of death."
Because she was genuinely afraid of the death ending in the game, she almost abandoned everything else and ran forward without daring to relax for a moment.
She didn't see it as cowardice.
"I see." Yelü Qi looked at her gently, suddenly realizing that this girl, who had always seemed calmer than her peers, was just a teenager: "You're still young."
"I'm so sorry for taking up half a semester of your time." Yelüqi looked away. "Maybe I shouldn't have come to Kornunos in the first place. My lover used to be a teacher at Kornunos. I... never mind, I don't even know what I'm thinking."
He shouldn't have come. If he hadn't come, he wouldn't have become part of Prometheus's plan, and he could have lived two more years.
She raised her head again, composed herself, and spoke once more: "Before you fell ill at the training ground that day, did you encounter anything strange?"
"Something strange?" Yelü Qi frowned. He wasn't a meticulous person to begin with. "It doesn't seem like there is."
Time was running out, so Shu Ningmiao simply opened her terminal and pulled out the photos she had taken when she cornered Lian Nagi in the storeroom last time: "What about this person?"
Although the lighting was poor, you could still make out Rennagi's face.
Yelü Qi squinted and stared at the photo for a while with an unreadable expression: "I have some impression of him... He seems to be in poor health, and he's a bit thin. I bumped into him in front of the training field. He was carrying a lot of things, and his arms were too weak to carry them all, so I helped him pick them up."
Shu Ningmiao immediately followed up with, "What is it?"
"No, I don't quite remember." When asked, Yelü Qi couldn't recall anything for a moment. His condition had worsened, and the side effects of the medication often left his mind feeling foggy. It took him a long time to try and recall the outline: "It seemed to be a round thing."
Saying it is the same as not saying it at all.
Shu Ningmiao knew she couldn't force him; someone was already knocking on the door outside, urging him to hurry.
Shu Ningmiao stood up, but Yeluqi called her back, his expression somewhat unnatural: "Help me turn on the projector. It's too noisy; I don't want it to be so quiet."
The noisy comedy filled the space again. Shu Ningmiao opened the door and was met with Ge Wende's scrutinizing gaze, the meaning of which was subtle.
She stepped aside to let him and the researchers go in first, and saw Shu Changyan and Zhao standing and squatting, looking at her, while Yu Lu stood far away from the two of them.
The atmosphere between these three people was too strange.
Zhao smiled at her: "Little sister, what did the senior say to you?"
She shouldn't be recounting Yelü Qi's private affairs, so she vaguely said, "Things at school."
"Is that so?" Zhao stroked his chin.
Seeing her listless expression, Yu Lu offered to take her back to school.
Shu Changyan's scrutinizing gaze fell on Yu Lu: "I've asked for a day off for her, no need to trouble you, Director Yu Lu."
"No trouble at all," Yu Lu said calmly. "It's not the first time anyway."
Seeing Shu Changyan's eyes flicker slightly, Shu Ningmiao glared at Yu Lu, signaling him to stop talking. She didn't want Shu Changyan to know about her private contact with Yu Lu: "Last time at home, it was Director Yu Lu who took me back to school."
“That’s quite a coincidence,” Zhao said to Yu Lu. “I didn’t expect you to be so enthusiastic. But I won’t take up any more of your time. The Public Security Bureau is overwhelmed. You’ve been keeping an eye on us for so long, you must have gotten yourself into a lot of trouble.”
Yu Lu rubbed his temples: "You guys are part of the trouble too."
Even someone as good-natured as Yu Lu becomes harsh when facing Zhao.
"No need to see me out." Zhao waved to him, then turned to look at Shu Changyan, only to find that Shu Changyan had already grabbed Shu Ningmiao's wrist and left: "Wait, aren't you going to see me out?"
The Union Building was not far away. The two walked to the Union Building and Shu Changyan drove her home.
Because of the atmosphere in the ward, Shu Ningmiao thought about many things. The restrictions of the agreement prevented her from saying anything. When she got home, she just sat on the sofa in a daze.
Shu Changyan knelt on one knee in front of her, touched her hair with his fingertips, and suddenly said, "Don't you find me a little annoying?"
Shu Ningmiao looked up at him, her expression bewildered: "Why?"
"I shouldn't have managed you like that and made you angry." Shu Changyan smoothed the stray hairs by her ear. Even though he had already apologized before, he repeated it to her again with utmost formality: "You have your own thoughts, I'm sorry."
“No…” Shu Ningmiao turned her head away, her eyes reflecting half of his image: “I just think you’re being a little too protective.”
Shu Changyan wasn't usually this nervous, which made her feel a little uncomfortable.
Thinking of this, she suddenly turned her head and looked directly into Shu Changyan's eyes.
Yes, she often had conflicts and fought with Su Ni when they were young, but Shu Changyan had never been like this before.
—I felt uneasy, even anxiously worried about her.
Because Shu Changyan believed she could win.
She whispered, "Why are you so worried about me?"
Is it just because of Prometheus?
Shu Changyan covered her head with his palm, pressed her head against his shoulder, and put his arm around her, his voice tinged with weakness: "You're not allowed to laugh when I tell you this."
Shu Ningmiao was held down by him and couldn't lift her head, so she couldn't see his expression: "You speak first."
"I had a dream." Shu Changyan looked down at the whorl of her hair, gently stroked her soft, long hair, and after a long while, he revealed a bitter smile.
He himself found it ironic that it was just a dream, and he could already guess how speechless Shu Ningmiao would be if she heard it and pinched his hand.
After a long while, Shu Ningmiao still hadn't heard his follow-up question: "What dream?"
Shu Changyan had already recalled every detail of the dream because of the words that had slipped out, but he didn't want to say them aloud.
A complete nightmare.
There was no sound in the deathly silence of the nightmare. She quietly closed her eyes, and drops of blood from her fingertips dripped into his palm.
He remembers the feeling of dampness.
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Author's Note: Thank you everyone for the Moonstones!!! Finally, I don't have to watch ads every day anymore!
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