Because they were concerned about alerting the enemy and didn’t dare to put the grey seals and hostages at risk, the RZ Unit they could only put themselves at risk. 

For the tech nerds, any risks that could be avoided would be avoided, technological solutions would be used as far as possible, and it was best if there was no blood and no sacrifice. But for the field personnel, efficiency was king; going in guns blazing was king. 

So Xu Ruchong became hopping mad, indicating that he could win this technological war. Sadly, Hu Bugui acted like he didn’t exist at all. He autocratically held a brief meeting and promptly settled on a new course of action. 

Xu Ruchong protested: “There will definitely be emergency shielding methods around the blue seals’ base. As soon as you get close, you’ll be discovered…” 

Hu Bugui was silent for a moment. “Go find me a uniform and bicycle for the China Post.” 

Xu Ruchong: “…” 

Fang Xiu efficiently found the items, and Hu Bugui changed rapidly. He put on a cap and turned into the gloomiest, most imposing deliveryman in the Chinese postal system—he looked more like he was going to deliver a bomb than the mail. 

Liao Chenyuan was silent for a moment, then at last couldn’t resist speaking: “Captain Hu, I think this is a little risky.” 

Xu Ruchong saw his opening. “Exactly. This definitely won’t get you anywhere. If you do get into the blue seals’ base, then those armed and dangerous…those…what are those people called?” 

“Utopia,” Lu Qingbai put in. 

“Right, those people. Each one has a gun, and they’ll shoot you full of holes like a sieve!” 

Hu Bugui looked at Xu Ruchong and didn’t speak, continuing to act like he didn’t exist. As though there was no such person present, he turned and ordered: “Let me off a kilometer away from the potential areas and take care not to attract suspicion. Qin Luo and Fang Xiu, cooperate with the special police unit. Stay in contact. Chenyuan, conceal yourself and provide long-range cover.” 

Qin Luo hesitated a little. “Captain…” 

Hu Bugui looked at her. “Do you have any objections?” 

Qin Luo was silent for a moment, then clicked her heels together. “Yes, sir.” 

Hu Bugui accepted a pair of plain glass spectacles from Lu Qingbai and covered up his eyes. It was as if he had also covered up all his spleen. His presence seemed a little more kindly and less oppressive; he actually did look a little convincing.  

There was a switch on the glasses. By pressing it, Hu Bugui could flip between three channels on the left lens. One was connected to the other field personnel going with the special police unit, one was connected to headquarters, and the last was connected to Su Qing. 

He changed the channel over to Su Qing, then turned to Lu Qingbai and said, “I’ll keep an eye on him, but there will be times I won’t be able to attend. You look after him a little from headquarters.” 

Xu Ruchong saw that no one was paying attention to him. In pursuit of a sense of presence, he began to make noise: “Captain Hu, you can’t insist on having it your way. You’ll definitely be caught, and after you’re caught…” 

Hu Bugui glanced at him and dully said, “I’m not making you go.” 

Xu Ruchong was struck dumb for a moment, then realized the meaning behind these words and felt deeply looked down upon. He withdrew into a corner in heartbroken silence. 

Hu Bugui briskly said, “Plan 2, move out.” 

At his order, the RZ Unit moved with extreme efficiency. Fang Xiu put a gun on his back and glanced at Xu Ruchong. He patted him on the head and consoled: “It’s all right, you’re a technician, just do your technical work.” 

Xu Ruchong raised his head and said darkly to him, “Do you believe this? One day I’ll become a superhuman. I have a premonition!” 

Fang Xiu raised his head towards the ceiling, paused, then nodded against his own convictions. Xu Ruchong sighed and enthusiastically continued his daydream: “There will definitely be a turning point in between. What do you think it’ll be? Struck by a meteorite, or…” 

Fang Xiu stuck up a finger towards him and with unusual gravity said, “I know.” 

Xu Ruchong looked at him, full of expectation. Fang Xiu said, “All you need is a sleeping pill.” Then, holding back laughter, he quickly followed after Qin Luo and the others. 

Three seconds later, Xu Ruchong got what he meant. He kicked over a chair and yelled angrily: “You…you prehistoric beings who haven’t had time to evolve brains, you can’t understand the mental landscape of a higher life form!” 

When Su Qing saw Professor Cheng again, he understood the feelings of the Second Red Army joining the Fourth Red Army in Yan’an. Chen Lin took him back to the grey house, right past the guards, to the room he had shared with Cheng Weizhi before. 

Cheng Weizhi was wearing reading glasses, reading by the window. He looked up when he heard movement and immediately opened his eyes wide. After a long moment, he tottered to his feet—it was three days after the feast. The others who had returned had all looked dizzy and confused, while Su Qing simply hadn’t come back. Cheng Weizhi knew the death rate for Type 2s was high, so he had thought he had already…

Such a good child. He had kept him company for over a month. 

“Su…Su Qing?” 

Su Qing really wanted to cry out “I, Hu Hansan, have returned once again¹,” but when he saw Chen Lin next to him refusing to clear out, he held himself back and only smiled widely. “Uncle Cheng!” 

“Oh…oh, good, you’re back, that’s good, that’s…” Cheng Weizhi pulled Su Qing over, then finally noticed Chen Lin and changed instantly from excited to guarded. “You?” 

Chen Lin raised a hand, turned, and closed the door. He leaned back against the door and said to Cheng Weizhi, “I only have a few questions to ask you. Relax, I’ll leave as soon as I’ve asked them.” 

Like a hen protecting her chick, Cheng Weizhi pulled Su Qing behind himself and frowned as he looked at Chen Lin. “What do you want to ask?” 

“Are the blues seals, like the grey seals, from a certain standpoint a kind of…half-finished product? What kind of energy system do you think would be natural?” 

Cheng Weizhi stared. He hadn’t expected him to ask this question. When Su Qing had been in school, he had loathed biochemistry the most. He had just managed to pass the university entrance exam because some private tutors had been hired for him. But at some point, he had begun to be interested in these dialogues of theirs. He listened with his ears pricked up. Now, he couldn’t resist mentioning to Cheng Weizhi, “He says that the blue seals are also artificially stimulated, not naturally occurring.” 

Cheng Weizhi gave an “ah!” and pushed up his glasses. “That makes senes. You can use the human body’s eight major systems as reference. A genuine naturally occurring thing ought to have a complete mechanism. When it uses a thing, it should have complementary means for how to supplement that thing, how to conduct biochemical processes within the body, how to deal with the material after the reaction and how to eliminate it. This way it can maintain a stable condition over a long period of time.” 

When he said “a stable condition over a long period of time,” Su Qing noticed that the corner of Chen Lin’s eye gave a slight twitch. 

But Cheng Weizhi continued: “You have to answer one of my questions, too. I’ve thought about it for a long time—why do the blue seals need to use grey seals with corresponding types? The explanation I received at first was that if only one aspect of a person’s emotions is absorbed, the opposing emotion will be limitlessly amplified, leading to a danger of that person losing control. But that’s a far-fetched explanation. Blue seals are much fitter and stronger than ordinary people. Even if they lost control, what could they do?” 

Chen Lin said, “You can’t say that. A blue seal’s so-called ‘strengthening’ is itself the latent potential of the human body being activated by a great volume of energy. An ordinary person in a crisis or a lunatic can also break through into the same level of power.” 

Cheng Weizhi shook his head. “No, that can’t be right. For example, if the group of people whose emotions are absorbed is very large, the impact on each individual isn’t so serious. Lunatics whose emotions are out of control may be able to activate latent power due to stimulation, but they couldn’t be a match for you people, in your right minds and knowing how to use the power…also, even if it is difficult for blue seals to collaborate with each other because they don’t passively absorb emotions, at least they would have the ability to stop a lunatic whose emotions were out of control.” 

Chen Lin was silent. 

Cheng Weizhi said sharply, “I have a guess. The grey seals need to exist because opposing emotions adhere to each other. You are unable to extract pure emotions from people. They’re like the double helix of a strand of DNA, appearing in pairs, right?” 

The only sound left in the room was the three people’s suppressed breathing. After a long time, Chen Lin laughed almost inaudibly, took off his glasses, and lightly rubbed the bridge of his nose. Cheng Weizhi’s eyes fell on his glasses. As if he had thought of something, he looked at Chen Lin thoughtfully. 

“Yes, your guess is correct.” Chen Lin nodded and put his glasses back on. He looked at Cheng Weizhi. “You deduced that much based on a few clues in this cut-off place. You’re a genius.” 

Cheng Weizhi paid no attention to his compliment. He continued: “You need external assistance while absorbing the ‘material,’ and then you can’t eliminate the ‘material.’ Blue seals can only convert and use energy. Never mind a living organism, even a machine is more precise than you.” 

Su Qing instantly became nervous, afraid that this “machine missing a part” might be unstable and abruptly flip out. He turned slightly and aimed at Chen Lin with the side wearing the shock ring. 

But Chen Lin only lightly shook his head and sighed. “You’re right. Blue seals are another experiment, and the funny thing is, they don’t know it themselves.” 

But Cheng Weizhi hesitated, then suddenly said, “Unless…” 

“What?” Chen Lin looked up at once, the look in his eyes so blazing it was as if they were about to throw out sparks. “Unless what?” 

Cheng Weizhi paused. “Unless one person can have a pair of energy crystals. They could act as levers for each other, and use the individual’s own emotions. The relationship between opposing emotions is very mysterious. The lower one aspect is, the higher the other aspect becomes. They enhance and inhibit each other, depending on each other for existence. Two energy crystals would be like creating a living perpetual motion machine…” 

The more he spoke, the more excited he became, and his speech became more and more rapid. He seemed to have forgotten who Chen Lin was, clearly entering into lecture mode. “No, don’t tell me that’s wrong. Perpetual motion machines don’t exist. I ought to say that such an energy system’s origin is in the organism’s own nervous and endocrine systems. Fundamentally, it comes from the chemical energy of the food the organism ingests. Organs strengthened by this new energy system can absorb more food in order to support the new system’s operation. This link would create a greater, purer energy that would be easier for the human body to use. That would be a complete thing!” 

Su Qing and Chen Lin were both stunned. Though Su Qing couldn’t entirely understand it, he still knew that Professor Cheng was talking about something amazing. He thought that those Utopia researchers must all be fatheads if they couldn’t think up as much as an old geezer working without access to any of the materials. 

But Chen Lin’s reaction was a little faster. Softly, as though it took all his strength, he said, “But…one person can’t have two energy crystals, or else it would violate the Law of Emotional Attraction that the blue seals’ energy system is based on…” 

The light in Cheng Weizhi’s eyes dimmed, as though a beautiful dream had been destroyed. Then he nodded silently—his conception had been built upon an “impossible conjecture.” 

The corners of Chen Lin’s mouth suddenly turned upwards a bit, and then another bit. Then he laughed, louder and louder, until the laughter was almost hysterical—the tentative plan that could make a blue seal complete could only be built upon an impossible premise—their whole existence turned out to be a paradox. 

For so long he had struggled alone between humanity and desire, like a clear-headed and suffering explorer, amid the suspicion, hatred, and blind ignorance of his companions, fumbling towards the end of the darkness—but when he finally staggered to the point where he could see the light of dawn and threw himself forward, disregarding everything, he found that he was trapped inside a glass cover. 

Chen Lin laughed until tears came to his eyes. Then he abruptly pulled open the door and left as though taking flight.