Tu Tutu blinked his big eyes, looking at Su Qing. He tugged at Cheng Weizhi. “Grandpa, is Uncle Annoying also going to get shut up in a little box?” 

Zhao Yifei, who had been drawn over by the sound, was startled by the child’s words. She looked in a panic at the helpless Professor Cheng, took a deep breath, slowly leaned down, and carefully felt under Su Qing’s nose. Then she let out a light breath and quietly said, “Oh, good, he…he’s still alive.” 

Cheng Weizhi focused and gave Tu Tutu to Zhao Yifei. “Young lady, hold this child for me.” 

Then he squatted down, pulled up Su Qing’s arm, and put it around his own neck. The weak old scholar exerted all his strength to prop up the entirely unconscious Su Qing, making him lean against him. 

Around them was a mess. Many grey seals were insane or stupid to start with, and when they got out, they absolutely couldn’t tell north from south. While the others on the base seemed orderly enough, there was a faint hint in the air of great events to come. Apart from Chen Lin, who had just returned, none of the blue seals had shown themselves. No one knew where they had gone. 

Leading a girl and a child and supporting Su Qing, who wouldn’t wake up no matter what, Cheng Weizhi struggled through the screaming and braying disorder of the crowd, so stressed that sweat was pouring off him. 

Just then, a man dressed in Picasso style suddenly leapt up in front of Zhao Yifei and exchanged a look with Tu Tutu. Zhao Yifei was startled and backed up, protecting the child. This person did a ditty and began to sing an absurdly off-key rendition of “The Internationale.” 

Tu Tutu didn’t know what fear was. He watched with enjoyment and even clapped along. But Zhao Yifei frowned. For some reason, she thought that this fanatical man who seemed ready to go out and liberate humanity at any moment didn’t seem as insane as everyone thought he was. 

The man finished singing and became quiet. He looked at her, then took Tu Tutu’s little hand. Zhao Yifei trembled, wanting to raise a hand to throw him off, but she hesitated and didn’t act. 

The man lightly squeezed Tu Tutu’s pudgy little paw and took a step back. He put a hand on his shoulder, made an elegant shallow bow, blew a kiss, pressed his fingertips to Tu Tutu’s forehead, then turned effortlessly and left. 

Tu Tutu, confused, rubbed his forehead and stared at his receding figure along with Zhao Yifei. 

They saw the man open his arms wide. His rags hung from him like a piece of performance art. He raised his head to the sky and laughed loudly. The laughter was like an infectious disease, quickly spreading through the crowd of grey seals. Many people couldn’t resist following along. 

A row of firearms simultaneously rose before a row of chests, aiming at the man’s chest. 

He seemed entirely unaware, and he seemed like a courageously advancing martyr. 

When the first gunshot sounded, the man’s smile froze on his face. He took two more laborious steps forward, then fell with a crash. 

The big crowd of grey seals began to scatter in a panic. The scene was extremely chaotic. Smoke and din rose. The sound of crying and laughter flooded people’s eardrums. Countless lives came to an abrupt end in the bloodbath. 

Cheng Weizhi gave Zhao Yifei a hard shove, pulling the girl who was standing there stupidly behind a few idiots who were drooling but still standing where they were. He indicated for Zhao Yifei to cover the child’s eyes. He gasped for breath, looked all around, and gave himself a strong pinch to force himself to calm down. He said loudly to Zhao Yifei, “We can’t go on like this. We have to think of something!” 

Only then did Zhao Yifei feel the ice-cold tears covering her face. She quickly rubbed them with her sleeve. Cheng Weizhi at last recovered from his system error, pulled up Su Qing, who kept slipping down, and swallowed. “Young lady, listen to me, I may know what’s happening… Under ordinary circumstances, they wouldn’t slaughter grey seals on such a large scale. It seems that the base has encountered a sudden sneak attack. They have other things to attend to, so they’re taking care of us.” 

Zhao Yifei blankly repeated the critical term: “Sneak…attack?” 

Cheng Weizhi nodded. “It’s likely to be people from the government. When they hear gunshots coming from here, they will probably move quickly. This place will soon turn into a battlefield. It’s too dangerous.” 

“So…so what do we do?” 

Cheng Weizhi took a deep breath and raised his head to look at the grey sky. There was a dampness in the air that chilled your marrow, like a precursor to snow. The tip of Professor Cheng’s nose was bright red from the cold, but his temples were sweating. His arms holding up Su Qing trembled a little. His eyes swept over the whole base, and he decided: “Listen, child, this place has a lot of equipment and materials, the base’s people can’t let these things fall into their enemy’s hands. When there’s no way out, they’re certain to get rid of them. It isn’t safe for us anywhere now, except…except for the grey house.” 

Zhao Yifei opened her eyes wide at him. “We…we’re going to run back to the grey house?” 

Cheng Weizhi said, “Yes. It’s too easy to get shot outdoors, and none of us can dodge. We need to hide somewhere no one will notice. The grey house is where little greys are normally locked up. There’s nothing there but the basic necessities of daily life. The base’s people won’t have attention to spare for it. While they’re all heading forward, we’ll retreat.” 

Zhao Yifei had no ideas of her own. She followed Cheng Weizhi to the letter without a word of protest. 

When Cheng Weizhi yelled “Run!” she desperately went against the crowd, holding Tu Tutu, running towards the grey house behind them. 

Cheng Weizhi had guessed right. When the first Utopia gunshot sounded, the RZ Unit’s advance troops and technical staff had already torn through the blue seal base’s mechanical shielding net, and the two sides rapidly engaged in close combat, quickly exchanging fire, adding to the chaos. 

Hu Bugui knew that Chen Lin had handed Su Qing over to a few grey seals, but Chen Lin had the communicator, and he had no idea what that unlucky child Su Qing’s current condition was. 

“Squad 2, come with me to penetrate. Lao Liao, get into a helicopter and provide cover from above. Fang Xiu will be responsible for conducting the face-to-face battle. Qin Luo, stay in contact with Chen Lin to keep track of their movements.” 

Meanwhile, the blue seals had been assembled as the second group to be moved after the core researchers. 

Gui Song was pressed to the window, trembling with fear. When the gunfire became slightly louder, he gave a shudder as though sound-activated. Jiang Lan stood in a corner, not making a sound and holding a machine gun in her arms. Luo Xiaofeng was smoking furiously. Shi Huizhang, meanwhile, was pacing the room like a trapped beast. 

Only Chen Lin sat relaxed on the couch, arms folded in front of his chest, thinking of something unknown. 

After a long time, Luo Xiaofeng asked a Utopia staff member standing at the door, “Where will we be taken?” 

The uniformed Utopia staff member responded, “To another base.” 

Luo Xiaofeng’s forehead furrowed. He raised his head to meet Shi Huizhang’s eyes, paused, then asked, “A newly built base, or…a base where there are already people? Will there be other blue seals there?” 

“Yes.” 

Shi Huizhang had never thought that other blue seals would exist. He gave Luo Xiaofeng a look, and his eyes fell on Chen Lin—Shi Huizhang had always been the blue seals’ tacitly acknowledged invisible head. While Jiang Lan didn’t get along with anyone, she wasn’t very likely to challenge others’ authority if she wasn’t provoked. But this Chen Lin always seemed to be everywhere, mocking him. 

Shi Huizhang had wanted to get rid of Chen Lin for a long time. There was never an opportunity on the base. During the feasts, he had tried repeatedly to make trouble for him, but somehow, he always had the good fortune to avoid it. 

The new base would have other blue seals—a whisper rose in Shi Huizhang’s heart—he thought, I have to think of a way to get rid of Chen in the commotion before we see others like us, or else there’ll be more trouble ahead.

He settled on this idea and pulled over the Utopia staff member standing at the door, dragging him away. “It’s too disorderly outside. Let’s discuss how we’re going to move.” 

Chen Lin, sitting there, suddenly gave an inscrutable laugh. He leaned his head against the couch and closed his eyes, focusing all of his senses on his glasses, which had infiltrated Utopia’s headquarters.

Cheng Weizhi and Zhao Yifei had decent luck. They weren’t killed by a stray bullet in the commotion. But at the door of the grey house, Zhao Yifei was shot in the leg and fell to the ground along with Tu Tutu. Tu Tutu seemed to have understood something. Though his little hand was scraped raw, he only pursed his lips and held back his cries. 

Cheng Weizhi quickly put Su Qing down and bent over as much as possible, as though planning to pass through a firing line. He ran back out of the grey house, picked up Tu Tutu in one arm and hauled Zhao Yifei with the other, and scrambled back with the two of them. 

Zhao Yifei was in so much pain she was trembling all over. Her lips were white. As soon as Cheng Weizhi opened his mouth to speak, a pane of glass above his head was broken by a bullet. The old professor didn’t dare to move. He could only tear a strip of cloth from his own clothing and tie Zhao Yifei’s bleeding leg, ignoring everything else while he stopped her bleeding. Then he plopped down exhausted on the ground and leaned heavily against the wall. 

Tu Tutu looked from one to the next. He saw that neither had attention to spare for him, so he shuffled over to Su Qing and squatted down. He reached out a pudgy finger and poked him in the face, whispering, “Uncle Annoying, hurry and wake up, don’t sleep anymore. If you keep sleeping, they’re going to shut you up in a little box.” 

Cheng Weizhi’s eyes stung, but hearing Zhao Yifei’s sobs, he desperately forced back his tears and sighed. “Young lady, don’t cry. Heaven always finds a way. If we hold on a while, perhaps…” 

He turned to look at Su Qing and swallowed his words with another sigh. 

Hu Bugui and the others encountered unexpectedly fierce resistance. From his earphones came Qin Luo’s voice: “Captain Hu, news from Chen Lin. They’re planning to gather and obliterate all the grey seals, not let a single living being fall into our hands.” 

Hu Bugui laughed grimly. “Tell the personnel on the ground to keep an eye on the whole base. Shoot down anything that goes up in the air, intercept anything that runs on the ground. Don’t let anyone get away. If they have the guts to blow up the base, then let their people and the blue seals all die here.” 

The intense firefight lasted over two hours. Hidden in the grey house, Zhao Yifei had fallen asleep from exhaustion. Tu Tutu sat next to Su Qing, persistently tugging his hair in an attempt to wake him up. Cheng Weizhi, meanwhile, was tensely guarding this group of the young and injured, the least stirring keeping him nervous for a long time. 

Just then, Cheng Weizhi sensed the earth shake beneath his feet. He gave a start and hurriedly turned his head. To Tu Tutu he said, “Tutu, quick, quickly come to grandpa…” 

Before the words were out of his mouth, a huge explosion sounded. Zhao Yifei, startled awake, shrieked. Cheng Weizhi covered his head and was about to stand up when he was tripped by the buckling floor. The old fellow tumbled and nearly broke his back. He had a frightening thought—were they really going to blow this place up? 

He desperately reached for Tu Tutu, but Tu Tutu was scared silly. He sat on the ground, looking at him with his big, innocent eyes wide open. Cheng Weizhi looked on as an enormous stone fell, hurtling towards the kid’s head. 

Just then, an arm suddenly reached out, pulling Tu Tutu into an embrace. The two people rolled backwards. With a rumble, the whole corridor collapsed, and Cheng Weizhi knew nothing more.