Chapter 43

Chapter 43

For some reason, Xue Hongyi always felt a familiar aura from Yang Mo, despite this being their first meeting. The way he spoke and acted seemed oddly familiar. After pondering, Xue Hongyi attributed it to like attracts like, reasoning that since Yang Mo was a friend willing to risk his life for Wang Sui, he must possess similar traits.

Moreover, inheriting Wang Sui's will and desperately saving the Black Knight indicated that Yang Mo was a person of deep loyalty and commitment.

Xue Hongyi, a sucker for such character, immediately agreed and left the hospital room to Wu Yin and Jie Linyuan.

As soon as the door closed, Jie Linyuan immediately pointed at the man on the bed and asked, "Who is this person?"

Maybe it was his urgent tone, Wu Yin glanced over in confusion, "You're asking about him...?"

"Yes," Jie Linyuan frowned deeply.

His expression was very serious, eager to know the answer. But the more Jie Linyuan showed his curiosity, the less likely Wu Yin was to satisfy it. His black eyes glanced at Jie Linyuan with interest, a frivolous smile curling his lips, countering, "Who do you think he is?"

"..." This utterly bad-tempered parasite! Jie Linyuan knew that the more curious and eager he appeared, the more Wu Yin would hold onto this "desire" and toy with him, playing him, indulging in his own malicious amusement.

Jie Linyuan had to suppress his burning curiosity for the time being, shifting his crimson gaze to focus on the peacefully sleeping man in the bed. His gaze was not simply tracing the man's delicate eyebrows and facial contours, but also ambiguously lingering on the pale lips.

This was an exceptionally handsome young man, with features like a painting, tall and slender. Despite looking overly thin and sickly from lying in bed for over a month, and his skin lacking color, his appearance was flawless.

One could imagine the nurses caring for him in the ward must have discussed privately, with such outstanding looks, it's no wonder someone would go to great lengths to save him, even at the cost of life itself.

In fact, even Jie Linyuan himself, after resolving the issue of absolute freedom, might be willing to spend more time with this man who fits his aesthetic preferences.

However, if this man truly is Wu Yin's friend, he certainly wouldn't want to follow him alone if Wu Yin "left."

...That might not be so bad? Jie Linyuan's eyes darkened, uncontrollably breeding some sinister thoughts. By then, shackles, chains, and a sunless dungeon seemed quite fitting for this pale and fragile sleeping beauty. If obedient, he would patiently coax him, but if not, he would meet with "punishment"...

As these thoughts wandered, Jie Linyuan's left pupil rapidly scanned and collected data, performing three rounds of big data facial recognition. Strangely, he found no information about the man in any population database.

It only proved that this man, being Wu Yin's friend, was no ordinary individual.

Seeing Jie Linyuan not responding, Wu Yin grew somewhat uninterested, and the way Jie Linyuan stared at the hospital bed made him uncomfortable, like a carnivore fixating on its prey with a fierce and sharp gaze.

"What are you looking at?" He frowned.

"Looking at your friend." Jie Linyuan lowered his gaze and withdrew his stare, not wanting even his unspoken thoughts to be known to Wu Yin.

Wu Yin asked teasingly, "You don't really think he's my friend, do you?"

"..." Jie Linyuan didn't respond, just silently watched Wu Yin.

Watching him nonchalantly pull up a chair beside the bed, sitting down and closing his eyes.

What is he doing? Jie Linyuan didn't immediately understand the meaning behind Wu Yin's actions. Only after ten seconds, when "Wu Yin" lifted his head and opened his eyes again, looking around bewilderedly, he then stood up in a panic and called out, "Jie, where are we?"

"I was in the kitchen making breakfast, and I saw that mutated dog carrying a saline bag. I took a closer look and saw a breathing piece of flesh this big in the saline, and then I fainted!"

Yang Mo vividly described the scene, gesturing with his hands, but Jie Linyuan’s attention was not on him at all.

With Wu Yin gone from Yang Mo’s body, there was only one possibility... Jie Linyuan turned his head and saw the man who had been comatose for over a month on the bed, his eyelashes fluttering slightly like black butterfly wings shimmering with radiant sunlight, sensitively fluttering in the warm light, revealing the emerald gems beneath.

The man slowly opened his eyes, propping up his sore and limp body in an attempt to sit up. His Adam's apple involuntarily bobbed as he swallowed, his throat as parched as a desert, making even swallowing saliva feel like gulping down blades.

Pain filled his green eyes with impatience. Looking up, he found it infuriating that the two people by his bed were just staring blankly at him. Wu Yin furrowed his brows and commanded, "Go get me a glass of water."

Yang Mo looked around, puzzled. The unfamiliar man on the bed spoke with such an authoritative tone. Jie Ge, rooted to the spot, didn't move an inch. Hesitating for a few seconds, Yang Mo still went to fetch the water, full of questions.

"Did you possess him?" Jie Linyuan questioned, unsure why he even asked this pointless question. Similarly, he couldn't fathom why he felt particularly disgusted and annoyed by Wu Yin's act of possession this time.

Perhaps it was because the image of the Sleeping Beauty in the crystal coffin, from his imagination, had been shattered. Instead of emerging from the coffin, it was a venom-spewing dragon that crawled out.

Wu Yin always had a strong ability to sense emotions. He accurately detected Jie Linyuan's unhappiness but couldn't understand the reason behind it. "What are you questioning me about? Why can't I possess 'him'?... Don't you want me to possess 'him'?... Why?"

"...” Jie Linyuan pursed his lips and awkwardly changed the subject, "You misunderstand. My point is, Yang Mo is still alive. You suddenly changed hosts and used his body to do many bad things. How are you going to explain it to him later?"

"What bad things did I do?" Wu Yin retorted, then without hesitation, pulled out a ready-made excuse, "Just say it was all his doing. He just suffers from intermittent amnesia and has forgotten everything."

"...” Why does this guy know about intermittent amnesia but not what it means to accompany/sleep? Could he be pretending? Jie Linyuan looked at Wu Yin suspiciously, just as Wu Yin turned his gaze towards him at the same time.

His crystal-clear green eyes, unblinking, stared at him. The body beneath the patient's gown was slightly thin but revealed a well-proportioned skeleton and long legs. His lips, lacking any color, parted slightly with each breath, occasionally revealing the crimson tip of his tongue between his teeth.

In his mind, the vague image of Wu Yin instantly became vivid and clear, every joy and anger now had a definite face.

"What are you staring at?" Wu Yin grew increasingly irritated, "You've been looking at me strangely since just now. And aren't you going to help me sit up? Go hurry Yang Mo up, I'm very thirsty."

"...” Such a waste of a handsome face. Jie Linyuan rubbed his temples in agony. Or perhaps, Wu Yin's damned personality deserved such a face... otherwise, he would have been beaten to death a long time ago.

Thinking this, Jie Linyuan bluntly voiced his thoughts, "Wu Yin, you sure know how to pick a body. The person you're possessing now is really good-looking. With that face, even if you cause more trouble or force others against their will, you're more likely to be forgiven."

"Really?" Wu Yin was highly skeptical about the truthfulness of the statement.

"Of course," Jie Linyuan adjusted Wu Yin to sit upright, leaning towards him with a mocking smile, "Isn't the reason you didn't just use and discard his body like others, but instead went to great lengths to save this body at the Southern Camp, and then hurriedly re-inhabited it, because you too understand the importance of beauty and ugliness?"

Wu Yin finally managed to sit up, leaning against a soft pillow, and glanced at Jie Linyuan with a light, sidelong look. They were so close they could easily count each other's eyelashes, and their breath was audible, yet neither showed any intention of retreating.

"What are you talking about?" Wu Yin's voice was light, feather-like as it brushed past Jie Linyuan's ear, "This has always been my body; of course, I can't just abandon it."

Jie Linyuan was taken aback, his disdainful mindset instantly vanishing, unbelievingly bracing his hands on either side of Wu Yin, a knee also on the bed, "Your body?!"

"Yes, my body," Wu Yin explained calmly.

"Wasn’t your body lost?" Jie Linyuan asked in astonishment.

"What was lost was the original entity that gave birth to my consciousness and core," Wu Yin said, "This is my bioengineered body, cloned from my original body’s genes. A shell. I vaguely remember creating many such shells in the past, stored in transparent nourishment tanks, replacing them when worn out. But right now, this is the only one I have, so I need to take extra care of it. Even if it gets damaged, I can't just discard it; I have to repair it and continue using it."

Jie Linyuan: "..." What kind of absurd statement is this?

He knew that he should be focusing on extracting more background information about this monster while Wu Yin was still willing to talk, to prepare for their inevitable confrontation. However, after a moment of cold, rational thought, Jie Linyuan couldn't help but ask a seemingly irrelevant question first, "So, your current body is an exact replica of your original one?"

"Yes, a one-to-one restoration," Wu Yin nodded without doubt, lifting his neck to reveal a small mole on his side neck, "Even this small detail is the same."

"..." Jie Linyuan looked down, indeed seeing a small black spot beside Wu Yin's Adam's apple.

He was silent for a long time, closing his eyes, starting to think about the serious matters.

From their interactions over the past few days, Jie Linyuan knew that Wu Yin's host body didn't need to be changed regularly. Therefore, the creation of multiple unconscious bioengineered bodies must have a purpose beyond just providing Wu Yin with replacements. He suspected that a more crucial factor was to train Wu Yin's parasitic abilities.

This parasite was definitely not natural, but artificially created.

"Subject WuYin, the fifteenth in the cycle of heavenly stems and earthly branches. Perhaps there are indeed fifty-nine other parasitic test subjects, training day after day in sterile laboratories. WuYin might be the one who ultimately succeeded, or possibly one among them."

"Xie Linyuan suddenly recalls the incoherent ramblings of Yang Mo when he first awoke, resembling the delusions of a mentally disturbed patient. He hadn't paid much attention then, but now, thinking back, what about the saline and... the breathing chunks of flesh?"

"The original body that gave birth to consciousness and core..."

"With his astute intellect, Xie Linyuan immediately realizes that the fingernail-sized flesh piece Yang Mo gestured about is the strange keyword WuYin inadvertently mentioned – the [Core]."

"Even though he doesn't know what exactly the 'Core' is, there's no doubt it must be WuYin's fatal weakness, the heart of his parasitic abilities!"

"Being cautious, Xie Linyuan activates the real-time monitoring and recording of the Mechanical War God system, swiftly replaying the footage in his left eye. Shortly, he confirms everything and lifts his gaze, smiling a pure and warm smile: 'Not bad.'"

WuYin, puzzled: "What's not bad?"

"Everything is quite splendid," Xie Linyuan decides to play the enigma, straightening up and sitting on a chair by the bed.

"Whenever Xie Linyuan smiles like that, he's usually up to no good, WuYin thinks to himself. Recalling their previous conversation, which revolved around his body... It seems Xie Linyuan has a strong reaction to his synthetic body?"

"Why?"

"For the first time apart from topics related to companionship/sleep, WuYin encounters a situation that completely baffles him."

"Just then, Yang Mo finally returns to the ward with hot water and cups, his slow efficiency making one seriously wonder if he had just dug a well to fetch water for WuYin."

"Before pouring the water, Xie Linyuan turns his left eye into an ultraviolet light to sterilize the glass again, then pours half a cup of hot water, cooling it in his palm until it reaches a drinkable temperature of 45°C, before respectfully handing it to WuYin."

"During this time, Yang Mo can't help but sneak peeks at WuYin. He doesn't dare to look directly at this stranger's face, but driven by curiosity, he glances, lowers his head, glances again, and thinks to himself: 'This man is so handsome, and Xie Ge is treating him with such care. Could he be Xie Ge's lover?'"

"Suddenly, he notices something and exclaims in surprise, 'Xie Ge, why do you have only four fingers now!'"

"'You've forgotten again?' Xie Linyuan sighs, 'My little finger was bitten off by a wild wolf while gathering food. The hardships and sufferings we endured from the Wolf Smoke Shelter to the Southern Survivor Camp... they're not pleasant memories. It's just as well you've forgotten them.'"

"My God, Xie Ge, you got bitten? Must have been a terrifyingly mutated wolf, right?" Yang Mo gasped in horror. "This is the Southern Camp? How did we end up so far? I really don't remember anything... Do I have a brain problem?"

"Still easy to deceive." Xie Linyuan and Wu Yin exchanged glances, silently labeling Yang Mo as gullible.

"Calm down," Xie Linyuan began his act, "You see, you've developed intermittent selective amnesia and a mild case of dissociative identity disorder due to the trauma of that incident."

Mentioning 'that incident', Yang Mo glanced guiltily at Wu Yin, but as Xie Linyuan elaborated on the complex psychological conditions, Yang Mo's focus shifted, anxiously asking, "What should I do?"

"Don't worry, now that your reason has returned, the symptoms are largely under control and there's only a minimal chance of recurrence," Xie Linyuan said earnestly, "However, during your amnesiac period, you did many things out of character, so brace yourself."

Yang Mo listened, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, "I, what did I do?..." His eyes suddenly widened in horror, "I didn’t, by any chance, sh—"

Xie Linyuan quickly raised his finger to his lips, signaling him to be silent, mysteriously saying, "No... but almost."

Wu Yin: "?"

"Anyway, since you're back to normal, for your own safety, be cautious with your words and actions. If someone says something strange to you, just nod and agree."

Yang Mo responded, utterly bewildered.

At that moment, familiar footsteps approached from the hallway. The grandson of the Marshal of the Southern Camp, Xue Hongyi, burst in excitedly, "Really awake? I couldn’t believe it when the nurse told me. Yang Mo, the moment you arrived, he woke up. It's a miracle! It must be Wang Sui's spirit in you, awakening his friend with an indomitable will!"

Yang Mo: "..."

Yang Mo, learning on the spot, nodded frantically: "Oh, oh, oh."