Chen Lin had no further scruples about Su Qing’s condition. As though he had lived through a whole year’s famine and come to a New Year’s feast, he absorbed the energy he needed without any hesitation. By the time he came back to himself, Su Qing was entirely unconscious, lying on the ground showing no signs of life. 

Chen Lin pulled the line off himself, then leaned down and pressed his fingers to Su Qing’s neck. He felt a tiny throbbing there and knew that he had at any rate left this person a last breath. He slowly withdrew his hand and pushed aside the hair laying over the bridge of Su Qing’s nose. The young man’s almost perfectly exquisite face appeared before him in its entirety. 

This amply proved an old saying—“Looking good has no use, you’ll still be eaten in the end.”—If Su Qing was later aware in the underworld, he could go to the palace of the Kings of Hell to bring his grievance before them. With his looks, he could still be carelessly tormented into such a state by a perfectly good gay man. From this, it can be seen that all kinds of light reading misleads; among all the possible schemes and stratagems, the “honey trap” is the least reliable. 

Chen Lin tenderly rubbed his icy cheek with the back of his hand and sighed. In that moment, the expression on his face was actually a little sad, just as if he still had a conscience. 

He took off his coat and wrapped it around Su Qing, easily lifting his skinny body. He quietly said, “How long it’s been since we last met, my friends from the RZ Unit. I know you have some means to hear what I’m saying.” 

He was looking into the uncertain light, holding the fruits of his destruction, but his face, like a saint’s, wore a compassionate and profound expression. Neither fast nor slow, he said, “In the past, we blue seals have always been the ones to have direct confrontations with you. Perhaps you have faintly perceived the organization behind us with its vast military and scientific power, but you don’t understand them well. I can undertake to tell you, Utopia doesn’t only have one blue seal base, and they aren’t only in our country. They’re hidden all over the world by various means. For them, nothing in the base is important, including the blue seals… Oh, of course, we precious experimental articles have a certain value, so perhaps we won’t be so quickly abandoned.” 

Chen Lin laughed softly. “For Utopia, the only trouble may be that they can’t let core personnel who have the full inside story or their research apparatus fall into your hands. I can approximately guess how they will deal with your sudden sneak attack.” 

Hu Bugui listened to him without making a sound. As a professional military man who regularly did battle with undesirable elements harming the people’s lives and property, anything Chen Lin could think of, he could naturally think of as well—Utopia would decide to abandon the base the moment it was discovered. The RZ Unit would encounter the resistance of powerful firepower when it invaded, in order to provide time for crucial personnel to withdraw. Then they would activate the simplest means of dealing with the situation—blow up the base. 

Hu Bugui had absolutely no doubt that from the day the base was constructed, sufficient bombs to level the place had been buried. So the RZ Unit’s battle plan was to first infiltrate on foot, manually confirm the locations of the hostages, bring in a probe, cooperate with the technical staff, do everything possible to break through the other side’s mechanical shield, bring in helicopters to support, and use direct fire to buy time, placing the emphasis of the battle on rescuing the hostages. 

Chen Lin said, “Jackal, if you come see me, I’ll help you.” 

When Hu Bugui heard this, he didn’t hesitate for an instant. He immediately took off his glasses. He stuck up an antenna like a lightning rod from the glasses, then got out a little box, opened a controller, and familiarly switched to the “counter-projection” function of the communicator of Su Qing. His image was projected in front of Chen Lin from Su Qing’s false earring. 

Half-sincere, half-false, Chen Lin said, “The celebrated Captain Hu. I’ve looked forward to meeting you.” 

Hu Bugui looked him over, his gaze unavoidably falling on Su Qing in his arms. Su Qing was tightly wrapped in Chen Lin’s coat, only half of his face and a sharp chin showing. There didn’t seem to be a drop of blood in his face. He looked as pale as a lifeless dummy. Hu Bugui’s expression fell. “Tell me your conditions and reasons, and what you can do to help us. I have no time to listen to your nonsense.” 

Chen Lin understood at a glance that Su Qing’s earring had been swapped out. For the sake of convenience, he took it off and stuck it right into the flesh of his own ear. The action was precise and ruthless, as though he wasn’t pricking through his own ear. The communicator was quickly dyed red with blood. He seemed not to feel pain. Carrying Su Qing, he began to move rapidly. 

“Blue seals have latent abilities stimulated by energy, but each person has a different particular ability. Some people have extremely strong attack capabilities, some are extremely fast, and some can control the minds of living beings within a certain radius. My ability is comparatively trifling. My senses are very strong. I’m very sensitive towards everything in the outside world.” 

Chen Lin’s voice was torn by the wind, indistinct. Hu Bugui didn’t interrupt him. Next to him, Fang Xiu was doing his best to filter out the noise from the instrument. 

“When my energy crystal is full, I can hear tiny sounds, sense electrical currents as subtle as the bioelectricity in the human body, letting me completely sense their emotions—if I concentrate my energy, I can even sense what happened before in a certain place.” 

This sounded unbelievable. The person speaking seemed to be a swindling “barefooted immortal.” But from a certain point of view, the blue seals no longer belonged to humanity. They had become incomplete yet almighty new creatures; even the government didn’t have complete data about them. 

“There’s a forbidden area in the base. Never mind the little greys, even we can’t easily enter it. That is the control center and headquarters for the whole base. For certain reasons, my glasses have now been taken in there. The glasses are my personal property and haven’t been away from me all these years, so I have a sharper perception of them.” 

Hu Bugui understood at once—Chen Lin was providing them a “periscope” that had already infiltrated the enemy’s interior. “To establish a clear and precise perception, what distance do you need to maintain from your item?” 

“I need to return to the base.” 

“Understood. We can let you go. You won’t be set upon.” Hu Bugui nodded. “What are your conditions for sharing the information?” 

Chen Lin laughed softly. After a long time, he said, “When this is over, let me free.” 

Hu Bugui laughed coldly. “What, you want to make up for all your previous crimes with a single act of knowing which way the wind is blowing? How are you planning to justify yourself to that person you’re holding?” 

Chen Lin lowered his head to look at Su Qing. In that moment, no one knew what he was thinking. He was silent for a while. “I have nothing to justify to him. Even if he wakes up, I’m afraid he won’t be able to understand my justifications…” 

Then he said with incomparable callousness: “To each his own destiny.” 

“What grounds do I have to trust you?” Hu Bugui practically forced the words out between his teeth. 

“I have no need to lie to you. Sharing information with you is first to fulfill my duty, and then to obtain my freedom. My combat abilities are middling among the blue seals. If the blue seals are truly abandoned by the base, I won’t escape the RZ Unit’s pursuit on my own.” 

Hu Bugui was silent. 

But Chen Lin wasn’t worried. He knew that Hu Bugui would agree—just as long as the jackal was the ideal commander he was reputed to be. 

Fang Xiu couldn’t resist cutting in: “If you use your blue seal ability to violate the law in the future…” 

Chen Lin said, “I swear to perform the fundamental duties of a citizen and strictly abide by the nation’s laws. Otherwise, our agreement becomes invalid, and you can arrest me any time.” 

Fang Xiu turned to look at Hu Bugui, waiting for him to speak. 

After a long time, when Chen Lin’s telescope-like vision could already see the car sent by Utopia to pick him up, Hu Bugui quietly said, “Tell me how you plan to supply the information.” 

Meanwhile, in the grey house within the base, Tu Tutu was carelessly folding origami in their room. Cheng Weizhi’s eyelid twitched. He felt that something was about to happen. 

Why would Chen Lin suddenly take Su Qing away? Did he regret letting him return, or had something else happened? 

He recalled that Chen Lin hadn’t been wearing his glasses just now—Cheng Weizhi had considered this problem before. Reasonably speaking, a blue seal couldn’t need glasses, so why was he always wearing them? 

Cheng Weizhi thought that this blue seal was very special. Chen Lin was the first person to investigate the origins of the blue seals, and about the first person to realize that they had a problem. He had also deliberately “condescended” to pay a visit to this place and discuss the problem with him… Of course, none of that could efface Professor Cheng’s deep-seated understanding of him—a shameless blackguard. 

As his thoughts roamed, a sharp alarm sounded. Tu Tutu was startled. He didn’t even bother to cry, only looked up foolishly at Cheng Weizhi. Cheng Weizhi quickly picked the kid up. Patting his back, he carefully opened the door a crack. The alarm echoed in the corridor. After a moment, a team of gun-carrying security guards in Utopia uniforms marched in on the double. Someone said in a monotonous voice like China Mobile: “All personnel take note, all personnel take note, the base is entering an emergency situation. All grey seals must leave the grey house within ten minutes and assemble outside. All personnel are asked to cooperate. All personnel take note, all personnel take note—” 

The door to Cheng Weizhi’s room was roughly pushed open from outside at once. A white coat wearing a mask was standing there with some ice-cold gun-holding security guards behind him. They were herding everyone out one by one. They looked at Cheng Weizhi, determined that his IQ was normal, and briefly ordered: “Come out.” 

Cheng Weizhi didn’t know what had happened. He held Tu Tutu tightly and carefully squeezed into the crowd, guarding him, following a crowd of excited or blank grey seals outside.

The sky had already darkened, and there was illumination everywhere, just as if they didn’t have to pay an electric bill. It was dazzling to the eyes. 

Just then, a helicopter landed not far from them. Cheng Weizhi narrowed his eyes and saw Chen Lin get out from it, holding a person who might have been alive or dead. Cheng Weizhi’s heart tightened. 

Chen Lin walked right up in front of him and lightly put Su Qing on the ground. To the dumbfounded old professor, he said, “I wish you all good luck.” 

Then, like a genuine asshole, he turned and strode away.