Chapter 154

Chapter 154

In the basement, Jie Lin Yuan saw Professor Jie's genuine handwriting, sloppy and brief, with formulas abbreviated to the point where even a princess would struggle to identify them. The notebook even contained a couple of doodles and notes about what was eaten for dinner, on paper yellowed with age, documenting a living person.

Surprisingly, the initial idea of the parasitic experiment originated from Jie Zai. His wife, the mother of Jie Yicheng, suffered from cancer for many years, in unbearable pain, leading Jie Zai to consider transferring his wife's consciousness to a healthy body through certain means.

Unfortunately, his wife's condition worsened, and she passed away in the mid-stage of the parasitic experiment. Grief-stricken and demoralized by the stalled progress of the experiment, Jie Zai lost the motivation to continue his research, and the experiment was taken over by his son, Jie Yicheng.

Jie Zai was fully aware of his son's actions, including the experiments on the island, providing uninterrupted technical support to Jie Yicheng over more than a decade.

The encrypted files on the computer repeatedly mentioned Jie Zai's conflicted attitude. He knew his son's experiments involved illegal activities but understood and pitied him for lacking maternal love and being bullied for his appearance.

As a father, he couldn't bring himself to make the ultimate sacrifice of justice over familial ties, hoping instead that all retribution would fall upon him.

Thus, when the calamity of pollution descended, having observed the condition of the affected, he immediately linked it to Jie Yicheng's parasitic experiments. He tried to contact the island, but Jie Yicheng had disappeared.

Until one day, a year ago, 'Jie Yicheng' returned.

Jie Zai wrote in his diary: Jie Yicheng got his wish, parasitizing a young and handsome man's body, which he greatly liked. It was the first time I saw him so happy.

It was evident that Professor Jie was also happy for his son at that moment.

Two months later, the diary entries became tense: Yicheng hid many things from me; the core he parasitized was damaged, causing dysfunction, making him uncontrollably parasitize others. All hosts he parasitized showed signs of contamination and then quickly died.

The body he liked was also ruined.

The military hasn't suspected us... but it might only be a matter of time. A thorough search would reveal the difference between these corpses and the contaminated.

Yicheng explained to me that the core's condition is stabilizing, and soon he will be able to parasitize the same person for longer periods. But I feel he is still hiding something from me.

Another month later, the diary update: Yicheng's current core won't last a year; he must find the next core to parasitize before this one completely dies.

The last diary entry was half a year ago, very brief, starting with a woman's name, Jie Zai's wife, followed by a row of ellipses.

Beneath the cold, silent characters, Jie Lin Yuan could imagine that six months ago, Jie Zai might have sat desolately at his desk all afternoon. Through various clues, he deduced a conclusion that left him speechless, thus leaving nothing in the diary.

His Highness bit open a safe like opening a can of meat, from which several file bags rustled out. A mutant pothos quickly unwound the cords, pulling out the documents, with a root stem supporting a stack of papers clipped together, spreading them out like a mismatched large electronic screen in front of a princess, every leaf screaming: look at me, look at me.

As the sole intellectual in a group of robust individuals, the princess wished she could grow extra heads like her son and husband. Everyone crowded around her with every discovery, not daring to discard even old newspapers used as table shims. With a tongue out, she analyzed with all her might until His Highness brought another stack of documents, "...is this ultrasound?"

The keyword made Jie Lin Yuan instantly lift his head. His left eye was still in scanning mode, sifting through all the text in the basement to pick out place names and deduce whether Jie Zai's documents contained the exact coordinates of the experimental island.

Xue Hongyi leaned in: "Is it the special frequency ultrasound from the ferryman? It left Gui You still dazed, and Huang Jin vomited upon returning."

"I'm not sure," the princess said seriously, word by word, as she flipped through the data on the documents. "What frequency is the ferryman's ultrasound?"

"I'll ask around and see if we can get a sensor over here," Xue Hongyi said, pulling out his phone. Just then, Jie Lin Yuan suddenly spoke up to stop him.

His crimson left eye transformed from a human pupil to a blank window, with a long line that pulsated with his heartbeat in the center. Soon, the regular pulsating line changed, causing no significant reaction from the mutants, but both the prince and the princess covered their ears in unison. Outside, the golden-winged bird, Huang Jin Yue, vomited once again.

The princess painfully clutched the ultrasound documents, typing out a translation: "This is likely very important. Wu Yin was affected, but Yi Er was not, which surely indicates a problem. I've taken it; you continue."

……

"Didn't you say someone was outside, surely coming to rescue you?" Gui Si couldn't help but bring up the sensitive subject. "Where are they? Why haven't they arrived? Drag on a bit longer, and Yi Er will be on the island."

"I don't know why no one has come. Maybe they thought I was dead and remarried in haste," Wu Yin said.

This was the second time they had heard voices from the outside world, indicating another 24 hours had passed, bringing them to the night of the next day.

From the intermittent exchanges between Yi Er and Wu Chen, it was inferred that their mode of transportation was an intelligently piloted mini submarine. Without daylight under the sea, they would surface during the day to confirm their route and eat, spending the rest of the time traveling underwater.

Additionally, they acquired valuable information: during Wu Yin and Yi Er's standoff at Tong Jia Islands, Wu Chen was absent because he was trading with the immune rebels, exchanging the existence and specific location of Room 5 for the mini submarine they were currently aboard.

The rebels lived up to expectations, efficiently sneaking onto the ferryman's experimental ship to cut off Room 5 subject's supply, destroy the nutrition pods, and inadvertently rescue the mutants—all before Yi Er could parasitize Wu Yin, and the mutants were still bewildered on the fourth deck of the cabin.

Today at noon, Wu Chen received news that the Room 5 subject had completely died, along with the demise of 'Jie Zai', bringing the disaster pollution vaccine development project to a premature end.

For Wu Yin, this news, crucial to the survival of the entire world, was less important than a deck of playing cards. He was so bored he almost wished for death, dearly missing his nearly worn-out game console. Of course, what Wu Yin couldn't understand the most was how Gui Si managed to stay in such an environment for a year without going mad.

From yesterday's conversation, Gui Si learned that Wu Yin had started dating someone outside the island, reportedly a tall, cool, and spicy "bad boy". Hearing the word "remarried", he instantly became very curious and sat up: "Tell me more about your boyfriend?"

"What's there to talk about if the person has remarried?"

"Go on, tell me. I bet you're the only one among the thirty of us who's had a romance," Gui Si teased with malicious glee. "I'd love to see the look on Yi Hai and Ji Mao's faces if they found out you were in love."

Yi Hai, Ji Mao... Wu Yin remembered Yi Hai had been terminated, as for Ji Mao...

"How many of us managed to escape?" Wu Yin suddenly asked. "Did Ji Mao get out?"

Gui Si's smile stiffened momentarily, but he quickly relapsed into self-mockery: "Escape, you say? Just you, an unplanned anomaly. No one knew you existed, including Yi. It was Wu Hu who kept you a secret from us all, and after you were recaptured, except for me and Wu Hu, the rest were eliminated."

"..." Wu Yin fell silent for a moment, then added, "Geng Wu and Gui You are still alive."

"Oh, those two," Gui Si was unsurprised. "They're exceptions. Gui You's mother was one of the researchers who fled early with him. As for Geng Wu... always hanging around a researcher surnamed Wu, quite smart, found himself a backer, probably why he was spared."

"Surname Wu?"

"Surname Wu."

Wu Yin repeated loudly, "Surname Wu??"

"Surname Wu," Gui Si didn't even bat an eyelid.

...Wu Zhe?

The researcher surnamed Wu, Wu Zhe, Geng Wu's symbiont, the subject of Pollution Experiment Room No. 5, the source of the calamity pollution...

Why he was drawn to the subject of Experiment Room No. 5, why, besides being attracted to Room No. 5, mutants were also drawn to us, the subjects of the Sixty Jiazi experiment...

Unless, there's a connection between the Sixty Jiazi and the Wu-surnamed researcher...

Wu Yin asked, "What's the story with this Wu-surnamed guy?"

Geng Wu's symbiosis with a six-year-old child, Wu Zhe, must have its reasons.

After pondering for a moment, Gui Si abruptly dismissed it with a wave, "Ah, what does it matter to you? Even if you knew, what could you do? You think you can send the information out?"

Wu Yin: "..."

"Instead of getting caught up in these endless questions, why not tell me about your boyfriend?" Gui Si leaned in closer. "Have you two kissed?"

Wu Yin: "..."

Wu Yin closed his eyes: "The personality you and Wu Hu described to me differs greatly. In my memories, you were righteous and deeply burdened, but the you before me now is gossipy, frivolous, and unreliable."

"People change," Gui Si waved off nonchalantly, pressing on, "Come on, have you kissed?"

Wu Yin pressed his lips together, "...Yes."

Gui Si sat up excitedly: "How did it feel?"

"Not bad," Wu Yin suddenly opened his eyes, turned to face Gui Si, and sat cross-legged, also excitedly starting to share, "The first time we kissed, he tricked me by saying..."

……

"Wu Zhe is a clone of the subject from Experiment Room No. 5, the source of the calamity pollution," Geng Wu said.

Xue Hongyi, listening on the side, felt dizzy, "Give him a name, or just call him Number 5."

"He is indeed called Number 5," Geng Wu lowered his eyes, "He named himself Wu Hao, which is just a play on the number 5. The Sixty Jiazi, including Wu Yin's group, are the tenth generation of parasitic subjects. As for Number 5, he's from the ninth batch, the only survivor from that batch. The genes of the Sixty Jiazi were all modified based on his."

"From a subject to a researcher?" Xue Hongyi found it hard to believe.

Geng Wu pointed to his head, "A genius. And it's precisely because he was a genius that he was arrogant enough to challenge Yi, which led to his downfall."

"No wonder Number 5 looked familiar to me," Xue Hongyi looked at Geng Wu's face, the man soaked in nutrient fluid and full of tubes looked just like an enlarged version of Wu Zhe.

"Then why is Wu Zhe's attraction to mutants only average?" he asked again, "Even less than Wu Yin and Gui You."

"That's because I've been suppressing him," Geng Wu explained, "It was Number 5 who discovered this. His initial choice to symbiotically coexist with me long-term was for this purpose, needing me to suppress the allure of his bloodline."

"...So, Wu Zhe's bloodline attraction, the same as Number 5's, is beguiling, and this works on Yi as well, right?"

"If Yi truly hosted the core of Number 30, Gui Si, then yes," Geng Wu said, "Or we could test it out, have Gui You come over to try for the parasites, and for the mutants, Captain Xue, you're up? But we'll need Jie Linyuan to keep an eye on you, otherwise, I'm afraid you might end up eating Wu Zhe."

“……”

An hour later.

The princess, with a stack of documents in her mouth, pushed open the office door to see Xue Hongyi, his face marred by black, spiderweb-like veins, gasping ferociously, completely pinned into the floor tiles by Jie Linyuan—literally 'into', as the cement was indented by their struggle.

Wu Zhe, trembling in a corner, looked innocent and bewildered, comforted by a corpse that was half-blown away next to him.

"Is it over?" Lu Ba cautiously peeked out from behind the princess.

"It's over." Jie Linyuan retrieved a screwdriver and welding tool from the inside of his arm, beginning to repair his fingers, broken in two.

The princess pulled out a keyboard to type and translate: "I've completed testing all the ultrasonic waves recorded in the Jie data. There are a few specific frequencies I'm particularly concerned about... As for why Yi is unaffected, I have a theory, but since there's no other dual parasite to test it on, I can't prove my hypothesis... However, if you trust me, I can try to combine those frequencies to create a new ultrasonic wave."

Everyone expressed unconditional faith in the intelligence of the princess, the mutated Border Collie.

"Now it's up to you," Xue Hongyi looked at Jie Linyuan, "Any leads on the location of the experimental island?"

Under the unified gaze of everyone, Jie Linyuan, with downcast eyes, flexed the dexterous mechanical fingers of his left hand, "I'm currently cracking the satellite signal. In half an hour, the satellite will transmit real-time photos of that remote island in the ocean into my system."

He lifted his gaze: "I really wonder where he gets the courage to steal what's mine right in front of me."

……

"And then? What was his reaction?"

"Then Jie Linyuan hugged me and said: 'I like you too, I really like you!'"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Gui Si listened with animated excitement. "And then what? Don’t pause now, keep going."

"Then he kissed me."

"Wow, wow, wow..."