Fang Xiu said, “I feel…a little sick.” 

Behind him, a member of the armed team simply vomited. Su Qing crossed his arms in front of his chest and drew slightly closer. He said to Chang Dou, “Can the probe change its angle? A little closer. This person looks a little familiar to me.” 

Chang Dou felt acid rising up to his throat, so he was profoundly worshipful towards these field personnel who could trek through garbage and brains, feeling that they were standing firm and upright on the very front line as though facing an army of zombies, unblinking like a Wall-nut¹. He slowly altered the angle of the probe. 

This time Su Qing saw clearly. The half-dead, half-naked man was someone he knew—it was Shi Huizhang’s eternal footman from the grey house, Gui Song. 

Qin Luo quietly asked, “Has this blue seal been abandoned?” 

“This isn’t the first.” Su Qing frowned. “When Zhao Yifei died, the blue seal you captured in the coffee shop had also been abandoned—there was a Utopia member sitting in the corner watching.” 

Qin Luo looked at him, suddenly seeing the light. “So it was you who sent us that information!” 

Su Qing glanced at her and didn’t speak. He sighed inwardly—this young lady was truly extremely nimble, but her reactions were extremely slow.

Hu Bugui asked, “How about it, can we destroy the heart of the vortex?” 

“Well…” Chang Dou gave a long, drawn-out response, then fell silent. The sound of quiet discussion came over the communicator. After a good while, Chang Dou extremely cautiously said, “We’ve assessed it. There are about a hundred fifty human brains inside, directly linked to the energy crystal of the blue seal in the center, forming a field. It’s that field that’s absorbing all the energy around for all it’s worth.” 

Fang Xiu chipped in: “Can’t we kill the person in the middle, or break off the wires…” 

“You can’t do that,” Chang Dou quickly interrupted. “The scale of the energy vortex outside has already grown enormous, and all of it is drawn by the center. If you break the central field by force, the energy will immediately rapidly leak out. In other words, it’ll explode on the spot.” 

Fang Xiu stared. In his impressions, Chang Dou always spoke carefully and fearfully to them. This person was like a steamed bun, a little easily bullied, without any self-confidence. This was his first time rudely interrupting him. 

Hu Bugui made a prompt decision: “Tech department, make preparations to isolate, and hurry it up. Can we detonate it before it explodes on its own?” 

“Yes,” Chang Dou answered. 

This young man wearing big glasses was like a king who had at last returned to his own territory. When he solemnly answered the question, even his bird’s nest-like head and uneven pant legs didn’t seem so ridiculous. 

Just then, the probe slowly changed its angle. Xue Xiaolu, who was staring at the screen, suddenly said, “Slow down, what’s that?” 

Everyone’s eyes once again focused on the screen. They saw that the probe had gone behind Gui Song and discovered that there was an enormous “chrysalis” stuck to his back. Su Qing had seen this thing. Outside Dong Jianguo’s door, the mysterious Utopia watcher had also been wearing such a thing on his back. 

“Is that…the supposed ‘life chrysalis’?” Lu Qingbai pushed up his glasses, practically sticking to the screen. “Some years ago, someone put out an article that made a great disturbance in the world of medical science. It discussed the origin of life. That article mentioned the possible existence of the ‘life chrysalis,’ but the author later disappeared from public view. I didn’t expect them to have made it.” 

Looking closely, this chrysalis wasn’t the same as the one Su Qing had seen. It was considerably larger, and it didn’t stand alone. There was a half-transparent tube the thickness of a thumb attached to it, and something seemed to be flowing through it. The tube passed through the floor, attached to something underground. 

Hu Bugui said, “Chang Dou.” 

Without waiting for him to speak, Chang Dou immediately responded: “I know, there’s something under the floor, the probe is using infrared. The data and image will be completed within three minutes. I’ll convert it to projection mode and send it to you.” 

Hu Bugui nodded and looked at Chang Dou over the communicator—strictly speaking, this was the first time since Xu Ruchong’s death that Chang Dou was taking charge of leading the high-speed operating tech department in backing up the field personnel’s operation. Hu Bugui paused, then, treasuring words like gold, said, “Your work ability is good.” 

Chang Dou gave a start. His eyes opened wide. He subconsciously straightened his spine, his doll’s face tensing. In his agitation, he actually gave a salute, and cried out towards the communicator: “Serve the People!” 

Though there was an extremely nauseating image next to them, Su Qing still couldn’t keep a straight face. He lowered his head in amusement. Xue Xiaolu and Lu Qingbai exchanged a look. Lu Qingbai sighed, feeling that this new technician could make even more of a fool of himself than the previous one. 

But Fang Xiu lowered his eyes slightly. He recalled Xu Ruchong. Each time he encountered a field assignment, he had also stood on the screen as if galvanized, ready to use inhuman language to explain all kinds of phenomena. 

He had originally thought that there was no replacing this person, but now he found that he had been wrong. Time was pushing everyone forward at all costs, and in the blink of an eye, another person was standing in that empty space, each of his movements so alike, yet also so unlike. 

For a time, Fang Xiu couldn’t say what he was feeling. It was as though someone had stabbed the pit of his stomach with a fine needle. It couldn’t be called very painful, but after it was pulled out, it stung for a long time. 

The probe shot an infrared image, and it was indeed handled with utmost speed on headquarters’ main computer, then converted to projection mode and conveyed in front of the field personnel—they had thought that the pile of brains already tested human psychology to the limit; they hadn’t expected that the limit would soon once again be surpassed. 

The thumb-thick tube passed through the floor and attached to a big, clear globe—you couldn’t actually call it a globe, since its shape was irregular—it was expanding and contracting extremely slowly, like a human heart. From the bottom of the big globe, about ten very thin tubes extended, each tube attached to a person. 

These people were lying there entirely unconscious inside covers, drawn out long and slender, wrapped around in clear threads like the feathery leaves of asparagus. The ends of the threads pierced the space between their brows, showing a faint fluorescence at the place where they met the skin. It made the expressions on the faces of these people with their closed eyes look almost serene. 

Hu Bugui immediately stood up. “Are they alive or dead?” 

“They must be alive.” Lu Qingbai came closer. “Looking closely, their chests are still moving up and down.—After death, a person weighs twenty-one grams less than when alive, have you heard that?” 

“I’ve heard that twenty-one grams is the weight of the soul,” said Xue Xiaolu. 

Lu Qingbai slapped her forehead. “Be more professional.

“The author of that article proposed that the ‘twenty-one grams’ that disappeared for no reason was the fundamental difference between the living and the dead. A sort of substance, and the origin of life. He called it the ‘life substance.’ He proposed a plan for this ‘life chrysalis.’ If you could use some means to obtain this ‘life substance,’ wouldn’t it really be able to be used to bring back the dead? Could it restore vigor to a person on the verge of death?” 

“You’re saying that what those tubes are conveying is those people’s ‘life substance.’” Hu Bugui’s expression became grim. He quietly asked, “Dr. Lu, can you be sure?” 

Lu Qingbai hesitated, then nodded confidently. “The blue seal’s energy crystal is still active, but as for the blue seal himself, in the middle of such a large-scale energy field, he couldn’t hold out so long. I suspect that the blue seal in that chair is already dead, and the energy crystal’s life force is being entirely supported by the ‘twenty-one grams of life substance’ of those people in the basement.” 

“Captain Hu, what do we do?” Chang Dou asked. 

Hu Bugui was silent for two seconds. “Urgently transfer me a vehicle with a large-scale isolation device, protective clothing, and energy detectors. I’m going in.” 

“I’m going, too,” Su Qing said immediately. 

Hu Bugui looked at him and frowned. Before he could say anything, Qin Luo and Fang Xiu said simultaneously, “Captain Hu, I’m going, too.” 

Though Lu Qingbai knew that, as non-field staff, he would be in the way if he went in, looking at the picture of the “life chrysalis” on the screen, it was as though a cat was scratching his heart, itching enough to make him feel unwell. His eyes spun. “How about…you simply add me in, too. After all, I’m a specialist, I can help you deal with the technological problems of that life chrysalis.” 

Xue Xiaolu looked from one to the next and felt that it wouldn’t be very good not to follow along with this style, so she followed suit: “Well…how about you add me in, too?” 

Chang Dou was driven mad. “Comrades, that thing is about to explode, going in there isn’t taking an outing to the suburbs!” 

Someone had already sent over what Hu Bugui wanted at top speed. He muttered silently to himself for a moment. “Su Qing and Dr. Lu will go in with me. Xiaolu, you’ll be responsible for following the installations for isolating the explosion, as well as getting in contact with the nearby city. You know what to reveal and what not to reveal. Just in case. Qin Luo and Fang Xiu, take a special police team and spread out to guard the perimeter.” 

The three of them jumped into the car equipped with a large-scale isolation device. Hu Bugui slammed on the gas pedal and charged right into the energy vortex. While they had an isolation device equipped, when they passed through the ionosphere, the people in the car could still hear the crackling of static. 

Hu Bugui glanced at Su Qing—taking Su Qing in was primarily because he felt unsteady if he wasn’t in his line of sight. Su Qing had a considerable record; gambling with his life was second nature for him. 

But Su Qing was leaning against the car window, frowning faintly, as though concentrating on listening to something. 

Hu Bugui asked, “What is it?” 

“I can’t hear it anymore,” Su Qing whispered. “As soon as we went in, the voices of the fellow feeling were gone.” 

Lu Qingbai suddenly marveled. He crawled forward from the backseat and asked, “Su Qing, when we get back, let us get a projection of your brainwaves. The double core’s ‘fellow feeling’ really is magical.” 

“All right.” 

“No.” 

The generous “All right” was Su Qing’s, and the flat refusal was Hu Bugui’s. Hu Bugui glanced coldly at Lu Qingbai in the rearview mirror. “Don’t you know that brainwave projections are private? He isn’t a mental patient, why should he let you take one just like that?” 

“Tsk.” Lu Qingbai awkwardly rubbed his nose. “The family doesn’t agree.” 

Su Qing shrugged and pulled a face at Lu Qingbai, indicating that he would comply with the organization’s arrangements, rather with the look of a henpecked husband. 

Just then, the car stopped at the center of the energy vortex. Chang Dou’s somewhat unclear voice came: “You must put on your protective clothing. As soon as the energy indicator nears critical values, withdraw at once!” 

The three of them got out of the car armed to the teeth, and the energy indicators inside their protective clothing began to beep-beep at once. The indicator needles moved. Hu Bugui made a gesture, telling Lu Qingbai to walk in the middle and Su Qing to bring up the rear. They entered the building. 

Carefully avoiding the floor covered in brains and wires, Lu Qingbai walked over to Gui Song—the blue seal on his shoulder was still moving, but as soon as he pulled up Gui Song’s eyelid, he found that he had already been dead for an unknown length of time. Lu Qingbai looked back and shook his head towards Su Qing and Hu Bugui. By this time, Su Qing had already pried up several floor tiles surrounding Gui Song. He jumped down into a passage so narrow that only one person could pass through it.