Chapter 34: The Past
The boy is still very young with a hint of innocence that is different from an adult.
He wiped away his tears in a panic and shrank into the corner.
The boy did not expect the other party to react like this.
“What’s the matter with you? Last time I said hello to you, you bit me fiercely. Why are you crying so sadly today?”
The boy saw the spots on his hands again.
He thought for a while, then stretched out his arms and rolled up the upper sleeves.
“Does it hurt? I’m also afraid of pain. You see, like you, I also get injections every day.”
He felt that he stopped crying, choked up and looked up. Sure enough, he saw the same pinhole and black green on the boy’s hand.
There is also a row of tooth marks with scars on the back of the boy’s hand.
He didn’t mind who was responsible for the tooth marks but he laughed out loud: “It seems that we share the same disease! My name is Mu Yechen, how about you?”
Mu Yechen.
He is as bright as the smile in the photo.
Lin Xi’s lips twitched.
“Lin Xi.” He replied softly.
“Lin Xi? Is it the hope of hope?”
“What’s wrong with you? Why are you here?”
“It’s not good to cry with such a beautiful face. If you have experienced anything sad, you can tell me. Listen, maybe I can help you?”
Lin Xi didn’t speak, he knew that this was a laboratory and no one could help him.
But Mu Yechen poked the glass window with his hand again, as if he was poking the white face of the person inside through the glass window.
“I know…Lin Xi, you are in room 01. I will come here to see you often in the future.”
There was a call from the monitoring room and the boy walked away.
When the footsteps left, Lin Xi’s body hiding in the shadows moved. He walked to the window, leaned on the protective wall made of glass and stared at the boy’s back without blinking.
He didn’t speak and certainly didn’t tell the boy that he wasn’t sick.
He and Mu Yechen are completely different individuals.
–He is the only survivor of the human being in the Tinder Project and the spots on his hands are left by the people in the laboratory collecting his blood samples.
His blood will be genetically sequenced, fused with blood samples from other animals and made into tubes after tubes of old human modification project samples.
People in the lab not only collect his own blood but each time, they do it with disgust and hatred.
“The DL18 reagent failed again. This time, more than a hundred II mutant soldiers died and none of them survived.”
“Damn, he is obviously a human Xenogeneic, why does his blood react with humans? Could it be that he don’t want to help us humans?”
“He’s just a child.”
“He’s also a Xenogeneic species and some Xenogeneic species can evolve the infectious ability to feed back the same kind in three months. Why can’t he evolve?”
“Don’t be discouraged, maybe we just have one less opportunity. Experiments are 99% failures, we are waiting for 1% success.”
“But our time is too late, if we don’t think about it…”
Probably because the number of experiments failed, he felt the collection of blood samples more and more frequently.
His arm could almost see the veins along the pinhole. In order to prevent the blood source from being depleted, he had to drink a lot of nutrient solution every day and was driven into the exercise field to do physical fitness and combat training with various captive Xenogeneic species.
One day after the battle, his left foot was bitten off by a lion and was carried back to the monitoring room on a stretcher.
“Are you hurt?” He heard the boy’s voice again.
He turned around and saw the innocent child reappearing outside the surveillance room.
He didn’t want to look at him, so he laid on the stretcher with his back to Mu Yechen.
But the boy looked outside for a while, then turned and ran away. After a short while, he ran back again and swiped the door lock of the monitoring room with a “beep”.
“You’re injured, I’ll help you bandage the wound,” he repeated again.
This time Lin Xi was shocked.
He hurriedly got up and stared at the door in shock.
“How…how can you come in?”
“My father is Dr. Mu, he has the keys to all the monitoring rooms. I found your number and came in naturally.”
“Will no one be found?” Lin Xi finally asked a little more.
“I’m Dr. Mu’s son, so it shouldn’t be a problem if they find out?”
Lin Xi was stunned, he started to look at the open door.
As long as he escaped from that door…
He felt his heart beating wildly, bewitching, and longing.
But Mu Yechen didn’t notice it, he lifted his quilt and saw his broken foot, as if stunned.
Looking at his expression, Lin Xi estimated that he had never seen such a bloody scene in his life.
But Mu Yechen held back his nausea and wrapped his incision with a bandage.
He also instructed him not to move, saying that because of the disability of his left foot, he would intercede with his father and improve his accommodation.
Lin Xi didn’t believe it at first but the next day, his monitoring room was really replaced with brand new bedding and mattresses.
His feet also grew out and they were white and tender.
Mu Yechen ran to room number 01 again. He put Lin Xi’s feet on his back, pinched it in disbelief and scratched him until his whole body was itchy.
“Lin Xi, can you be reborn?”
“Yes.”
“Then you won’t die?”
“No… Your father researched that my power comes from the heteroblast in my heart, if the heart is damaged now, I will die like a human.”
Mu Yechen touched Lin Xi’s chest again in surprise.
“If I protect this heart, will you be able to live forever?”
“Probably.”
“That’s great, Lin Xi, if you can survive, I will definitely protect you and your heart.”
Mu Yechen’s hands were soft, rubbing his skin to generate warmth and Lin Xi suddenly found that his heartbeat became fast.
Feeling a little helpless, he quickly turned his back to Mu Yechen.
How could a human being be able to protect him.
Lin Xi thought secretly.
For the next three years, Mu Yechen would often visit him.
In addition to bringing some human gadgets to Lin Xi, Mu Yechen as a child also liked to pull Lin Xi to compare his height.
In the first year, Lin Xi grew faster than him and Mu Yechen stared at two centimeters of the centimeter line for a long time.
The next year, Mu Yechen grew taller and the height of the two began to be the same.
In the third year, when the two boys grew into teenagers at the same time, Mu Yechen leaned against Lin Xi and found that he were one centimeter taller than the beautiful boy in front of him.
This made him very happy, holding Lin Xi proudly for a long time.
The other person has grown taller but his face has become paler than before. It is clear that he has a handsome appearance but there is a sickness between his eyebrows that cannot be dissipated.
He also often had angina pectoris.
When the pain came, Lin Xi saw Mu Ye fell to the ground and soon he would be taken away by a group of people in protective suits to rescue him in an unknown room.
By the end of the year, Mu Yechen came to his monitoring room less frequently.
This year, the laboratory also had a rough time.
The old human transformation program caused the death of a large number of army volunteers and some commanders set up a rebel junta, advocating a boycott of laboratory human experiments.
They assembled armed forces outside the experimental tower in an attempt to get the other side to terminate the Tinder Project.
The voice of the army’s resistance came from outside the tower into the monitoring room. Lin Xi walked through the training corridor every day and could hear their demonstrations demanding the surrender of the I-generation mutants.
They want to eliminate them, the original mutant, the root of endless experimentation.
At the beginning of the fourth year, Mu Yechen came again and he was measuring Lin Xi’s height as usual.
At this time, he was already two centimeters taller than Lin Xi.
He paused at the height ruler for a while, slowly moving his eyes and looked at the young man in front of him.
“Lin Xi, do you want to go outside?”
“Ah?”
“When you and I are playing, you always like to look out the door with your eyes… Lin Xi, you must be yearning for the outside world, right?” Mu Ye Chen said again, “I can help you escape from the laboratory.”
Lin Xi felt his heart beat faster.
“Why did you suddenly talk about this topic?”
“Two days ago, my father told me that the laboratory could not stand the pressure of the military, they planned to hand you over to the commander of the resistance army.”
“…”
Lin Xi’s smile disappeared. In the past few days, he has also heard a lot of such rumors.
But Mu Yechen was against it.
“Lin Xi, I want to protect you, I don’t want you to be executed by them.”
The boy’s tone faded and Lin Xi’s heart trembled.
No one in the lab would care what he thought.
… Except for Mu Yechen, who often came to see him.
He didn’t believe that Mu Yechen could protect him.
But in a strange way, he responded softly to Mu Yechen’s proposal.
Mu Yechen’s eyes brightened slightly, and his eyes became firm.
The next night, as usual, he gently swiped the door of the monitoring room, carrying a pile of access control identification cards and passed through the heavily blocked protective doors one by one with Lin Xi.
He was familiar with every route of the experimental tower. After a while, he safely helped Lin Xi avoid the camera in the laboratory and came to the vent of the experimental tower.
Outside the vent is the camp where the resistance army guards the experimental tower.
In the middle of winter, the camp is covered in snow and the night is illuminated by torches, glowing with a cold white red light. Soldiers carry guns and patrol it again and again.
“I’ll take you off.”
“But…”
“When you escape, we won’t have the chance to meet again.” Mu Yechen whispered, “I want to take you to a safe place.”
“Yes.” Lin Xi hesitated for a while, and finally agreed.
Holding hands, they began to explore the outside world.
However, they sneaked into the barracks for 100 meters and the germ layer detection equipment in the camp detected their traces and sounded the alarm.
Nearby soldiers began to circle up with guns.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
They raised their guns and aimed at the two teenagers who were running desperately outside the camp.
Some of them also had machine guns.
“Tatata-” The bullets behind him were strafing, Lin Xi felt the wind behind him and turned around in panic.
Mu Yechen blocked him.
“Lin Xi, run!” In the dark night, his figure was blurred, urging behind him.
Lin Xi had no scruples and rushed forward with great strides.
But there was another gunshot behind him.
Mu Yechen’s running pace slowed down.
“What’s wrong?” In the dark night, Lin Xi couldn’t see Mu Yechen’s condition.
He asked anxiously and after a while, he heard Mu Yechen’s heavy breathing.
“Lin Xi, I’m sorry… I’m sick and can’t run anymore.” Mu Yechen held his hand tightly, he said with difficulty, “Lin Xi… I don’t want to be left here… you… can you carry me behind your back?”
The stray bullet slid past him quickly.
“Wha..what?” Lin Xi stopped. He finally realized that the situation was wrong, his voice trembled when he heard it.
Mu Yechen leaned on his back and pressed his body against Lin Xi’s vest.
“Lin Xi, I can’t do it, you can take me with you.”
Lin Xi’s hands and feet froze and felt the wetness of Mu Yechen’s body, slowly seeping into the skin of his back.
“But you…”
“There’s nothing wrong with it, Lin Xi, I wouldn’t even have survived this year.”
Mu Yechen urged again.
“Lin Xi, hurry up and carry me on your back, they have too many bullets… I-I said I wanted to protect you.”
Lin Xi closed his eyes and finally lifted Mu Yechen on his back with gritted teeth.
He started running as fast as he could.
Mu Yechen put his arms around his neck and began to laugh.
“Lin Xi, do you remember the first time we met? You wanted to escape from the laboratory that time. I said you ran in the wrong direction, you didn’t believe me and you bit me.”
Lin Xi trembled and found that he doesn’t have this memory.
However, Mu Yechen remembered it, he coughed and said with a smile, “Lin Xi, this time I’m pointing in the direction, I’m sure it can’t be wrong… Just run in this direction, as long as you don’t stop, the people in the laboratory will chase after you. If you go straight, you will be free.”
Lin Xi didn’t stop but he felt Mu Yechen’s body trembling twice again.
A painful gasping sound came from the boy.
But he started talking in his ear again.
“Lin Xi… I actually have a congenital disease, I couldn’t live for long. Before I met you, I thought my life was just injections and medicines in the laboratory.”
“You were able to be reborn that day. I am so pleasantly surprised.”
“Lin Xi, you are the miracle of life. I felt your heartbeat that day. I swear… I swear I must… I must…”
His voice was slowly lowering go down.
“Mu Yechen!” Lin Xi called quickly.
“…Lin…” The boy raised his voice in a flash of light.
“Bang–“
However, before he could finish it, Lin Xi’s ear was replaced by a gunshot.
~~~~~~~
Edited: 7/22/22
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