Hu Bugui seemed like a grim-faced Justice Bao, always making people nervous, but he was actually a very gentle person. Even when it meant making himself uncomfortable, he would still be considerate of another’s experience—especially in bed, his patience index was simply infuriating. 

Without warning, Su Qing bit the side of Hu Bugui’s neck. Hu Bugui groaned. In the dimness, Su Qing laughed softly and licked the toothmarks he had made, groping down along the side of Hu Bugui’s waist. As he lit fires, he quietly asked, “Hey, are you up for it? What are you waiting for?” 

Hu Bugui clenched his teeth and smacked him. “Bastard. What am I going to do if I hurt you?” 

Su Qing took absolutely no notice, doing everything in his power to provoke him, expending all his efforts to burn up Hu Bugui’s intellect. If it didn’t come to tears, it wouldn’t scratch the itch. 

Hu Bugui was angered to the point that the roots of his teeth itched. At last, he fiercely pressed his two groping paws to the pillow and raised a hand to turn off the lights. 

The next day, Su Qing once again got out of bed at a time that broke his personal record. 

Only when Hu Bugui quietly got up to dress was he disturbed. Su Qing opened his eyes in slight bewilderment and stared blankly at the hem of Hu Bugui’s shirt. Hu Bugui found that his cheeks were a little flushed and was concerned that he was running a fever, so he reached out to feel his forehead to check. Then he held his face, pressing his hand to the warm skin. “Are you feeling unwell today?” 

Su Qing stared blankly for a long time, then sluggishly shook his head. In a slightly hoarse voice, he said, “I’m fine.” 

“Lie down a little longer,” Hu Bugui said. After a moment, he added, “In the future, don’t be so wild. You should…treasure yourself a little more.” 

Su Qing looked at him in stupefaction, reached out a hand from the under the covers, seized the pillow he had been lying on, covered his face, then sorrowfully cried, “Uncle Hu, Lord Hu…” 

A trace of exasperation appeared on Hu Bugui’s face. He pulled up the quilt that he had messed up by rolling here and there, then smacked him through the quilt. “There’s nothing to do today. We’ll just have a review meeting after noon. Go back to sleep. I’ll bring some things up, you can get up and eat in a while.” 

Su Qing said: “Grandpa Hu.” 

Then he nimbly bounced out of bed and picked up the clothes Hu Bugui had folded for him at the head of the bed, dressing efficiently. “I’m not going back to sleep, I arranged to have special training with Qin Luo.” 

When he jumped out of bed, his movements paused. His posture was a little awkward. He frowned, pulled up the hem of his shirt, and took a glance. He found that last night in the dark, Hu Bugui had left some very clear fingerprints on his waist. Hu Bugui caught sight of them and immediately became nervous. “Come here and let me take a look—did I do that?” 

Su Qing raised his arms and allowed him to carefully rub the bruised places with his fingertips. Leering, he said, “I sure didn’t do it myself…” 

At this point, his words stopped, and he shivered. Hu Bugui had lowered his head and gently licked the skin where he had left bruised fingerprints. There was nothing sexual about it. It was as if he was carefully touching a precious treasure. Su Qing, who had just been completely unashamed, suddenly felt ill at ease. He couldn’t resist dodging backwards. Quietly, he said, “It doesn’t hurt.” 

Then he slightly turned his head away, jumped into the bathroom, hastily cleaned up, said goodbye, and made himself scarce. 

He didn’t care whom he went to bed with, didn’t care about the position. His face was thicker than a city wall. An awl wouldn’t have drawn blood. Only he wasn’t used to people being too good to him. He was used to being left to his own devices to grow up malnourished among the weeds. Suddenly receiving too much sunlight and too much love, he wasn’t used to it. 

Of course, compared to his special training with Qin Luo, Hu Bugui getting excited and leaving a few handprints on him didn’t amount to anything. Su Qing had gone directly to General Xiong to request the space. Hu Bugui was busy listening to the tech department’s report and didn’t have time to inquire about the contents of the training. When he didn’t see Su Qing at dinner, he finally learned that a very violent and very inharmonious bloody business had occurred.

He hurriedly rushed to the treatment center and saw Su Qing with his upper body bare, a pile of bandages tied from his shoulders to his underbelly, and Lu Qingbai swearing as he picked out a bullet embedded in his arm. 

Su Qing listened indifferently to Dr. Lu’s creative scolding. Though he was in so much pain that his head was covered in cold sweat, he was still holding a cigarette with his other hand, puffing away in carefree contentment. When Hu Bugui kicked open the treatment center’s door, Su Qing subconsciously crushed the cigarette end against the basin Xue Xiaolu was holding. Then he also received a slap in the head from Dr. Lu. “Where are you tossing that?!” 

Xue Xiaolu looked at Hu Bugui and rotated her eyes, her gaze circling some no longer very obvious marks on Su Qing. Then, as though she had seen nothing, very properly, like a well-bred lady, she calmly averted her gaze and looked with admiration directly at a corner of the treatment center. 

Lu Qingbai wrapped up the last wound and had Hu Bugui, who was ready to eat someone, take this wretch of theirs away. That night Imperial Uncle Su received a scolding. He attempted a seduction midway, which failed due to General Hu’s formidable willpower. 

Su Qing, having endured mental torment, hugged the Garfield pillow, his head drooping from the lecture, feeling that Chief Hu truly was unthreatened by might and incorruptible by riches or rank. 

So the next day, his training partner for the “special training” changed, and for the next month, Su Qing really didn’t make another appearance at the treatment center. 

Also during this month, all over the world, other countries and other regions separately discovered planned explosions at seventeen blue seal bases. Ten of them were successfully isolated by technical personnel in the other countries. The remaining explosions that couldn’t be protected against in time caused at least several thousand immediate deaths. 

As soon as you turned on the morning news, there was simply nothing else. It was all explosions or explosions. The explanation given to the public was that these large-scale explosions all over the world had been plotted by a secret terrorist organization that had yet to step forward to take responsibility. Overnight, countless front page headlines began to read: “New Terrorists’ Political Position”, “How Far Are We From World War III?”, “Has Humanity Entered a New Anti-Terrorist Era?”, “The Creation of Scientific Terrorism.” 

General Xiong was so busy his feet didn’t touch the ground. As soon as you walked into his office, you would be knocked flat by the cigarette smoke inside. 

Several countries’ governments joined together to issue a statement, swearing up and down that they would fight the war against terror to the end. Whether it was coincidence or not, after the joint statement was issued, the constant explosions suddenly disappeared. 

Heated discussion began in the mass media. Fear of the unknown and the temporary calm that seemed to be concealing something were even more frightening than the explosions. Rumors flew everywhere. All over the world people rushed to stock up on food. In some areas, there were even runs on banks. 

Today, General Xiong came alone to Cheng Weizhi’s room, using a backup key to open the door. 

Cheng Ge was immersed in his own world as before, entirely unmoved by the current political situation. Cheng Weizhi was watching TV. His expression was very grave. When he looked up and saw General Xiong, he stared, but there was no look of surprise on his face. He didn’t even stand up. 

General Xiong walked right in and sat next to him, loosening his body and leaning back against the couch. He let out a long breath. 

Cheng Weizhi quietly said, “What’s happening now?” 

General Xiong shook his head. “It was you people who brought the demonic box into the human world in the first place. Now pestilence and calamity have erupted at last, and you’re asking me?” 

Cheng Weizhi lowered his head, making no comment. 

General Xiong looked at Cheng Ge’s silhouette and felt that this old friend whom he hadn’t spoken to in years had a very bitter life. Seeing the life he and his son had led over the last few years, you knew he had received retribution. 

General Xiong said, “Professor Cheng, when the Utopia Project was just starting and I was dispatched to work security, I couldn’t understand what you people were thinking—of course, I’m not very cultured. I can’t match up to you with all your learning. But couldn’t you have developed medical science and learned how to cure illness and save the dying, researched some new crops and let everyone eat better, or made some practical technology to make people’s lives more convenient? What did you mean by doing this? If people in the future can all jump three meters high, what benefit does it have for ordinary daily life? I thought then that the project would be stopped by the government sooner or later, and then, as expected, well!” 

Cheng Weizhi shook his head. “You don’t understand.” 

“Yes, I don’t understand.” General Xiong lit a cigarette. “I can’t work out what you were all trying to do with your lives. Didn’t Zheng Qinghua go off the rails?” 

A group of “experts” on TV were just voicing differing opinions on the explosions. Cheng Weizhi was silent for a while. He said, “That’s not important. The important thing is, what do we do now?” 

General Xiong sighed. “This Dr. Zheng, we all understand it—he’s a science nut. He would do deranged things for research. I believe that. But I don’t believe that he alone could kick up such a big fuss. The people or organization behind the Utopia Project supporting its operations are the truly frightening ones.” 

Cheng Weizhi raised his head and looked at him. 

General Xiong stared blankly with his eyes fixed on the TV screen. After a long while, he quietly said, “I have a very bad feeling. The explosions have suddenly stopped for no reason and I can only think of one explanation. That the truly horrifying things are yet to come.” 

His words were a prophecy. 

Some days after the explosions stopped, in China’s Z City, located near the earliest explosion, a peculiar infectious disease began to spread. The first patient, after being dazed for some days, suddenly fainted by the side of the road and was taken to a hospital. Some days later, his reactions became slower and slower, and his wakeful periods became shorter and shorter. Then he just “fell asleep.” The hospital acted as though it was facing a great enemy, but no matter what, they couldn’t find what was actually wrong with the patient. A week after being taken to the hospital, this patient no longer had any wakeful periods. His mental activity became weaker and weaker, and all his organs began to fail. Eighteen days later, he died “in his sleep.” 

In Z City people were taken to the hospital in quick succession. Within a brief half a month, there were over twenty examples of suspected cases in a row. There was no medicine that had proved effective against this sickness. The mortality rate approached 100%. The most horrifying thing was that the medical world couldn’t find this illness’s means of propagation or onset mechanism. 

Meanwhile, the same circumstances began to erupt all over the world. Within a brief couple of weeks, the number of suspected patients had risen to the triple digits.