To the very end, General Xiong hadn’t mentioned what was actually in this abandoned, never opened basement, nor why, after so many years, there had never been an order to thoroughly destroy it or force it open. Su Qing figured that he himself likely hadn’t known. 

When he walked into the basement, the very first thing he saw was a hall. In the center of the hall was a woman. She seemed very young, wearing only a wide white nightgown that revealed half of a grey seal stamped on her collarbone. 

This was Zheng Wan. 

Su Qing frowned, but he didn’t immediately go over. He cautiously took out the pocket watch Chang Dou had made for them. Before he could bring out the energy detector inside it, Su Qing went blank—he had found that in this place, the watch’s hands ran backwards. 

In that instant, Su Qing suspected that he had picked up the pocket watch the wrong way around. Considering that the pocket watch Chang Dou had given him was truly too round, he carefully checked the markings and rubbed his eyes. There was no mistake. The watch hands were running backwards. 

Had Chang Dou messed something up? Su Qing quickly got out his phone. The phone had a digital clock on it. When he opened it up, he found that the phone’s screen had gone black. It didn’t show anything. 

Suddenly, Su Qing couldn’t keep his composure. A horrifying feeling climbed up his spine. This fear was hard to describe. He abruptly had the impression that he was no longer in the world but alone in some bizarre crevice. Time and space seemed to have abandoned him. All people and all time had gone away from him. 

Standing outside the time pool, everything was moving forward, while the place he was in was lying in waste… That kind of feeling. 

This hall was too tranquil. There was only a monotonous tick-tock sound. Su Qing suddenly raised his head and saw an enormous clock suspended from the ceiling. Even the most slender second hand was a foot wide. Each of its movements seemed extremely heavy, with an aged odor of decay—the strangest thing was that this big clock was also running backwards. 

Su Qing took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He gently bit the tip of his tongue and pulled out the energy detector from the pocket watch. But an even stranger thing happened. As he looked on, the needle on the indicator slowly began to move—in the negative direction. 

Negative energy—what was that? 

Next to the platform was a thick stack of research materials. Su Qing flipped through them, then stared. He found that they were full of equations he didn’t understand, densely packed. There were also occasional annotations in a mixture of some language he didn’t know and Chinese, as well as numbers and letters. The things in this hall had already completely surpassed the scope of his personal knowledge. 

There’s no time to sigh about not having applied myself more. I can’t stay here long—this was the only thought that came up in his brain. In reality, his instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm was already urging him outwards. Zheng Wan’s body was laid out flat on a platform. The body was unbelievably well-preserved. Not even the flush in her face had receded. Looking at her, Su Qing practically had the impression that she was about to sit up.

There were four indicator lights near the platform, lighting up in turn. The antiquated little signs under them were numbered one through four. Su Qing cautiously went around the bed, holding the energy detector. The energy detector still gave him no reaction. The indicator needle frustratingly and cheerfully turned backwards at a uniform speed, circle after circle. 

In complete exasperation, Su Qing closed the pocket watch. He stood there for a moment and thought. Then he clenched his teeth and extended a hand. Through his gloves, he extremely cautiously touched Zheng Wan. Nothing happened. Then he got up his nerve and pushed her by the shoulder, turning her over. Only then did Su Qing see that Zheng Wan’s back was entirely bare. There was an enormous grey tattoo on it, an incomprehensible design that made all the hair on the back of his neck stand up. This grey tattoo was like a living person’s grey seal—it was moving! 

The instant that part of Zheng Wan’s body left the platform, two lights suddenly went out. Su Qing was alarmed, but it was already too late. A mechanical female voice sounded: “Time link has been forcefully severed—time link has been forcefully severed—”

At the same time, the main door he had opened began to close slowly. 

Su Qing decisively snapped a few pictures, stuffed the thick stack of research materials into his clothes, took a look at Zheng Wan’s body, then yanked, breaking off the link between two of the lights by the bed and tying it onto Zheng Wan. 

Zheng Wan wasn’t short. Though she was a woman, she still weighed over a hundred pounds. Luckily the double core energy crystal system didn’t let him down at the critical moment. Su Qing put her over his shoulder as though lifting a sack. Carrying this woman’s corpse that seemed like a living person, he had no time to be cautious or panicked. Before the main door could close, he ran over in a scramble, nearly getting a foot pinched off on the way. The sheet-like gown on Zheng Wan’s body ripped, a length of it tearing. From a female corpse she turned into an exposed female corpse. 

Hurried footsteps sounded at once. Su Qing was just standing at an intersection. Focusing, he clung to the wall, sweat slowly coming up on his temples. Zheng Wan’s body’s hands and feet were constantly hitting him as he moved, the sharp chin knocking against his shoulder like an awl. The poking was actually pretty painful. 

Not good, he thought. The footsteps were coming from two directions, catching him between them. 

Just then, a skylight opened over his head. Jiang Lan reached down a hand from above. “Hurry, get up!” 

Without any hesitation, Su Qing launched off the opposite wall, jumped up high, caught her hand, and hung in the air three or four meters up. He was also carrying a person on his back, but the woman still yanked him up with one hand. The moment Jiang Lan lowered the little window, the first patrolman reached the place where Su Qing had been standing. 

The space above was very narrow. The two people and one corpse were crowded together. Zheng Wan’s body unavoidably brushed against Jiang Lan. Jiang Lan’s eyes opened wide. She was almost face to face with this rosy, blushing corpse. Her fingers rather nervily clutched Su Qing’s sleeve. She laboriously raised her hand and pointed at Zheng Wan, then pointed at Su Qing. There was shock on her face. 

Su Qing was tense. He slapped away her fingers. 

After a moment, the crisis passed, and Jiang Lan gently opened the cover of the skylight. Softly, she said, “Come with me. Be careful, don’t make a sound.” 

With a traitor like this helping him, Su Qing’s journey out was frightening but not dangerous. Jiang Lan took him all the way to the place where he had arranged to meet with Hu Bugui. There was a hidden car waiting there. 

First Su Qing let out a sigh of relief. Just then, a human figure came hurtling over. He pulled Su Qing behind himself. Then came the sound of a bullet entering the chamber. It was as if Hu Bugui had suddenly come charging out having yet to shed his murderous aura. This made something of a difference from his usual appearance, which was severe but always made people feel that he was harmless. At the same time, the muzzle of his gun was already pointing at Jiang Lan’s chest. 

Jiang Lan didn’t move, only slowly raised her empty hands. 

Hu Bugui coldly asked, “What is she doing here?” 

Su Qing gave a dry cough, put down the body he was carrying and got a better grip on it, then tugged at Hu Bugui. “She brought me out. I made a bit too much of a fuss. It isn’t safe here. Let’s go. I’ll explain in the car.” 

Hu Bugui’s gaze swept over Jiang Lan’s face like a knife. He still had his back to Su Qing, but his voice was no longer as stiff. He quietly said, “You drive.” 

Su Qing put Zheng Wan’s body away and drove the car over. Only then did Hu Bugui raise his chin towards Jiang Lan and briefly order, “Get in.” 

Then, as though strictly watching her every move, he got into the car after her. Though he lowered the muzzle of his gun, his finger remained on the trigger. 

Su Qing quickly drove out along their pre-planned route of retreat. Only when they figured that they were pretty much safe did Hu Bugui quietly question Jiang Lan: “What’s your goal? Talk.” 

Su Qing looked in the rearview mirror and saw Jiang Lan press her hands to her underbelly. But she didn’t look at Hu Bugui. Her gaze met his in the rearview mirror. “You promised me that if I helped you get that thing, you would let me get what I wanted.” 

Su Qing smiled slyly. “Well, now, that will depend on what you want.” 

Once out of the trap, his scoundrel’s aura once again showed its head. 

Jiang Lan bit her lip. “Don’t worry, I don’t have any excessive requests. I just wanted to borrow your strength to…escape from there, so I could give birth to this child. After, I don’t care whether I live or die.” 

“Child?” Hu Bugui stared, glancing at Su Qing. 

“Does the child’s father agree?” Su Qing asked. 

Jiang Lan’s voice was a little sharp. “This child has no relationship to anyone else.” 

Hu Bugui suddenly frowned. “This child…was it of your own free will?” 

Red suddenly emerged on the rims of Jiang Lan’s eyes, but she was silent. Hu Bugui understood. But Su Qing couldn’t resist asking, “This child of yours…when it’s born, will it be an ordinary person, or a blue seal?” 

Jiang Lan laughed grimly. “That’s what Zheng Qinghua wants to know, too.” 

Perhaps to this Dr. Zheng, the whole world—including himself—could be experiments. Hu Bugui’s fingers holding the machine gun slowly relaxed. After a moment, he asked, “The kid’s father is also a blue seal?” 

Jiang Lan nodded slowly. She suddenly leaned forward, put her elbows on her knees, and covered her face with her hands. After a long moment, when the redness around her eyes had receded a little, Jiang Lan took a deep breath and raised her head again. “Blue seals have a flaw. I think you must already know that. But apart from that, we also have another problem. It’s especially hard for blue seals to become pregnant.” 

Neither Hu Bugui nor Su Qing interrupted her. They listened without saying a word. 

Jiang Lan continued: “Chen Lin was right. Blue seals aren’t natural. We have to pay for all the power we use. This might be one price. Zheng Qinghua’s research came to a point where all the females of the right age among the blue seals were forced by him to…go through the process, but up to this point, I’ve been the only successful case.” 

“How long?” Hu Bugui asked quietly. 

“A little more than three months,” Jiang Lan said. Her own figure was very thin, and the clothes she was wearing were wide. It wasn’t very obvious. “Scans already show that the child is different from an ordinary embryo. I heard them say that it seems that…there’s an eighty-percent chance the child will be born a blue seal.” 

“So you’re an endangered species now?” Su Qing glanced at her. 

Jiang Lan laughed grimly. “That’s right. So Zheng Qinghua has to take me along wherever he goes. You could say you’ve had good luck. He’s been hanging around the old base lately. Today he went out for an interview.” 

Su Qing couldn’t resist asking, “That woman… What is she?” 

Jiang Lan shook her head. “I don’t know, either. I didn’t even know that there was a woman’s body in the basement. Aside from a few mysterious technicians who are always on the third underground floor, no one knew what was inside.” 

Su Qing was silent for a moment. Then he briefly described what he had seen in that enormous basement room. Hu Bugui brought over Zheng Wan’s body. “Are you certain that the thing on her back was moving?” 

Su Qing stared. He heard Hu Bugui say, “It’s stopped now.” 

That night, Lu Qingbai became the first of the RZ Unit’s core members to be contacted. 

The person who contacted him was Su Qing. After understanding his precise location, he very meticulously told him step by step what to do, where to get in a car, where to change cars, even where to jump out of the car, and how to get in contact at each point. 

Lu Qingbai had never in his life experienced such a stimulating journey. For some reason, he heard a particular caution in Su Qing’s voice. It was different from Hu Bugui’s confident “the authorities don’t want to touch the RZ Unit.” 

He didn’t dare to put a foot out of place. He followed the itinerary almost precisely to the second. He had only walked a few steps on his own, but he was still soaked in cold sweat. 

When he walked behind a run-down little hotel, he finally reached the designated place. Lu Qingbai turned his collar up a little. He crouched down by the side of the road, pretending to tie his shoelaces, while carefully looking all around. 

Then a car suddenly drove out of the little alley behind him. Su Qing’s face appeared in the driver’s seat. He briefly raised his chin at him. A car door immediately opened on one side, and Hu Bugui reached out a hand, pulling him in. Lu Qingbai nearly cried from happiness. “Oh, my goodness, I’ve finally found the organization…” 

Before he had finished talking, he saw Jiang Lan curled up in a corner and stopped. Lu Qingbai pointed at Jiang Lan in some astonishment. “She… Isn’t she that…that…” 

Jiang Lan responded to his fussing with a cold laugh. Hu Bugui shushed him. “Shut up. Su Qing, drive to the place I told you about.” 

Su Qing’s eyes flashed. “Are you sure that person is trustworthy?” 

Hu Bugui didn’t answer him at once. He hesitated for a moment, then said, “Do you think that General Xiong is trustworthy? If you trust him, then drive where I said.” 

Su Qing was silent for a moment, then turned the steering wheel and drove away. 

Lu Qingbai looked from one to the next. Then his eyes were drawn by the “fifth person” in the car. Hu Bugui pointed at Zheng Wan’s body and briefly explained the whole story. Lu Qingbai’s eyes simply glowed with a faint green light. Like a lecher, he deftly tore away the remaining few scraps barely covering Zheng Wan. He wanted nothing better than to take a microscope and observe each one of her cells. 

Hu Bugui asked, “What do you think about that thing on her back?” 

Lu Qingbai’s fingers stroked inch by inch over the tattoo that seemed to have grown on her body, turning a deaf ear. Hu Bugui was silent. He passed Lu Qingbai the research materials Su Qing had brought. Lu Qingbai devoted himself whole-heartedly to the body and the equations, instantly becoming deaf to the outside world.

A long time later, Su Qing braked sharply, making Lu Qingbai’s forehead bump right into the seat in front of him. He gave a yelp and covered his forehead. “Su…” 

Su Qing shushed him, then looked up at a sign—this place turned out to be an orphanage. 

“It’s here,” Hu Bugui said. 

Su Qing backed up the car and drove to the orphanage’s back gate. He stopped in a little alley and turned to say to Hu Bugui, “I’ll go in and take a look first to see what’s going on. We’ll talk when I come out.” 

Hu Bugui held down his shoulder. “You stay. I’ll go in.” 

Then he uncompromisingly opened the door and went inside. 

Su Qing’s gaze was a little heavy. He opened the driver’s side window and lit a cigarette. His brows drew tightly together. He seemed a little gloomy. Lu Qingbai looked at Hu Bugui’s retreating figure, looked at Su Qing’s grave expression, and opened his mouth to ask something. But when he remembered that there was still such a personage as Jiang Lan next to them, he managed to hold back. 

He had a faint ominous premonition. 

After about twenty minutes, the orphanage’s back gate was opened from inside. It seemed that people rarely went in by this gate. It was rusted, and creaked when pushed open. Su Qing’s gaze turned fierce at once. He raised a hand from his side. Lu Qingbai saw that he was gripping a pocket-sized handgun. He couldn’t resist swallowing. 

Only when he saw clearly that the person who had opened the gate was Hu Bugui, and that he was standing there completely intact beckoning to them, did Su Qing relax and start the car. Directed by Hu Bugui and a strange man, he slowly drove the car into the orphanage’s backyard. 

The strange man circled the gate, locking it up again. Then he knocked on the car window, nodded to Su Qing, and said, “You can get out.” 

Su Qing jumped out of the car. Behind him, Hu Bugui helped Lu Qingbai unload Zheng Wan’s body. Just then, Su Qing casually raised his head and saw a person sitting on a stone bench in the backyard, calmly looking at them and smiling. 

He froze—he knew this person. It was the old swindler, Ji Pengcheng.