In his eyes, it wasn't the hundreds or thousands of apologies, but a few stubborn idiots! He had been battling these idiots for three days and three nights, and was still afraid that Wen Zheng would be unhappy if he saw it.
Wen Zheng wasn't unhappy, but he found it amusing to see Bei Sining unhappy.
Sometimes he wondered if he was too bad...
The night the reporters left, Deng Puyue also appeared at the door of his hospital room.
Deng Puyue burst into tears and rushed over to hug her brother Zheng, but Bei Sining grabbed her collar with a dark face and performed a two-minute aerial dance.
"I thought I'd never see you all again!!" Deng Puyue cried like a bitter gourd. "Do you know how I felt when I saw the news that day!? I was heartbroken! Like a dream! Completely mesmerized!"
Wen Zheng suddenly wanted to burn paper money for Deng Puyue's Chinese teacher.
"Is Bai Shuang feeling better?" Wen Zheng asked.
"Hmm...it's alright." Deng Puyue was only allowed to enter the hospital today and spent half a day with Bai Shuang. Then she came to Wen Zheng's place and said listlessly, "Now look what's happened. This one-clawed shrimp still says he looks handsome like this. Handsome my ass."
Deng Puyue had calmed down for several days and regained most of her rationality: "If I had known that this was your job, I would have done what Brother Ning did and found someone to pull strings to get me in to do odd jobs. Otherwise, I would have been kept in the dark all this time, and I was still happily laughing like an idiot on New Year's Day. I hate myself for it now."
He was still shaken: "If you hadn't survived, I really don't know how I would have lived... Oh right, let's all die together, forget it."
Wen Zheng listened to his rambling without interrupting. Deng Puyue spoke slower and slower, finally sighing, "Sometimes it's really hard. You have your sadness, and ordinary people have theirs. When I heard the news that day, I really hated myself for not being able to do anything... Never mind, let's not talk about this. How are you feeling? I heard from the doctor that he stabbed himself in the stomach. Did he puncture his kidney?"
Wen Zheng ignored his joke, an apology stuck in his throat.
However, Deng Puyue's gaze remained clear, without the slightest resentment.
Bai Shuang lost her hand while saving him.
Wen Zheng even knew that his decision to retire and then insist on returning was likely because he had initially decided to protect him and Chen Xiaochen.
Wen Zheng didn't feel he had wronged Bai Shuang, because there was no need for them to say such things, but he couldn't help feeling a little guilty in front of Deng Puyue.
Seeing that he didn't speak, Deng Puyue suddenly exclaimed in horror, "No way? He really stabbed the kidney?! What about Brother Ning?!"
Wen Zheng: "..." His guilty conscience suddenly disappeared.
Deng Puyue stuffed a bunch of snacks into Wen Zheng's bedside table and said before leaving, "My dear Zheng-ge, I met you before I met Bai Shuang."
The rest is left unsaid.
***
The Rongcheng underground research institute was deserted. The researchers were on long vacation, and apart from a lonely old man guarding the gate, there was hardly anyone to be seen.
Only Xu Ji, with his disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes, stared intently at the mainframe screen, where calculation results flashed by. However, these results were essentially no different from the garbled code he had previously obtained without any results; he could not correlate them with the screening mechanism of the subspace membrane.
He has been repeating this process of disappointment for twenty years.
All their efforts were in vain.
Why did the warp suddenly disappear?
Who became the hero?
Xu Ji watched the Arctic data from that night of disaster that he had obtained through cheating privileges, playing it over and over again, his jaw clenched so tightly that it bled.
How could someone possess such supernatural abilities? If he truly does, why didn't he speak up sooner? Are there other people in the world with superpowers?
On the screen, Bei Sining stands gracefully in the wind, her long sleeves fluttering wildly, exuding an ancient charm.
He raised his hand and summoned light patterns, which lined up in mid-air. His posture was truly like a god descending to earth to save humanity from fire and water.
Xu Ji couldn't understand why the government didn't control someone with such power. He possessed such destructive power that he could easily solve major problems that had plagued humanity for centuries; if he got out of control, he would cause a disaster far more terrible than a space explosion.
He didn't think that the leaders of other countries wouldn't have considered this possibility, which even he could easily come up with.
Xu Ji was filled with an almost explosive curiosity. He desperately wanted to know what had happened that day and how Bei Sining had managed to solidify space with those golden rays.
The day after the disaster, he obtained a pass for researchers and went to see the chaotic scene.
The subspace magically solidified, leaving an entrance/exit spanning approximately twenty square meters.
The black and white light clusters had disappeared, and the other landforms, affected by Earth's gravity, were piled up haphazardly, like a ruin without dignity.
The energy fluctuations have clearly ceased completely, and there is no longer any danger in this space or its surroundings. Only the broken shell remains, allowing researchers to explore its true mysteries.
That's what Bei Sining did that day.
Standing beside the ruins, Xu Ji had only four words in his mind: "comprehensive understanding." Only by thoroughly understanding the level above can one fully control the level below.
While they were still struggling to figure out how to send another ordinary person into the space, Bei Sining had already conquered it, which meant that he knew far more than the existing knowledge system on Earth.
Therefore, Xu Ji found it even more unbelievable that this superpowered individual with countless secrets had been released so easily.
He's active at the base, active online, and today he was even filmed and posted online.
Countless people don't understand his true value, they just praise his appearance... It's both laughable and pathetic!
Xu Ji self-destructively set the video to loop again, and with trembling hands pulled a pack of compressed biscuits from the drawer. He watched the video while stuffing it into his mouth to fill his empty stomach.
The video was taken by Wen Zheng while he was recuperating at the base hospital.
Judging from the angle of the light, it must be noon. Bei Sining was asleep, leaning against the headboard of the hospital bed. His hair was originally tied in a ponytail, but two strands had come loose, covering half of his face.
That was porcelain-white skin that no ordinary person should have, smooth and healthy, with black eyelashes set off by the lower eyelids, making it strikingly beautiful, and the mouth was slightly open as the person slept.
The camera zooms out, revealing him holding his phone with both hands, his thumbs resting on the screen, suggesting he was typing.
“Your Mingzhu is asleep.” Wen Zheng’s voice was soft, with a hint of a smile. “Let me demonstrate how to wake him up.”
The camera shakiened for a moment, and then a foxtail grass appeared right in front of the lens.
Wen Zheng: "First, try this."
He swept the mischievous foxtail grass under Bei Sining's nose. The cat spirit felt an itch in her nose, frowned uncomfortably, suddenly raised her hand, and slapped the grass away with a "smack." She then tilted her head further to the side, pressing one eye tightly against the pillow.
"Ah, it failed."
Wen Zheng: "Try another one, try this one."
A syringe with the needle removed appeared in the frame, and he explained, "Saline solution."
Childish pranks are usually quite effective. But Bei Sining clearly has an extraordinary level of perseverance when it comes to "I must sleep when I want to sleep."
Although Wen Zheng dripped two drops of water on his forehead, he still did not wake up. He let out a deep throat sound, frowned, rolled over again, and pulled the quilt over his head.
"Phew..." Wen Zheng accidentally chuckled. Because he was close to the phone, it was heard very clearly. The rising tone of his voice pierced through the screen without any hesitation, and anyone watching the video would involuntarily smile along.
"The last resort, the right way."
As the camera zoomed in, Wen Zheng reached out and poked the wrong quilt, saying in a low, indifferent voice, "Someone is insulting you."
"Who!" Bei Sining abruptly threw off the covers and sat up, her eyes still blank. She fumbled for her phone on the bed: "Which idiot insulted me again, you moron? I insulted him. Where's my book..."
Wen Zheng finally couldn't help but laugh out loud, and the video abruptly ended.
Wen Zheng did not make this video without a purpose.
Xu Ji knew that he had always been a very smart child.
He posted this Weibo post using his own account, firstly to let everyone know he was safe, and secondly, his video description didn't explicitly state that he hoped everyone would cherish Mingzhu, maintain online civility, and stop making Mingzhu wake up in the middle of the night in anger.
He then added, half-jokingly, that he had already contacted some big shots and told them that if they were reported and the allegations were verified, they would first ban his account and then send him to jail. He asked everyone what they thought of this idea.
Wen Zheng, having already made contributions and possessing a certain online influence, should have been promoted as a typical example of this disaster.
For such a small matter, as long as he wants to do it, with a little bit of speaking skill, there is absolutely no possibility of failure.
Why doesn't such a smart child follow the path that a normal person should take?
His parents are both heterosexual, and he was a wild and mischievous kid who didn't show any obvious homosexual tendencies. Why did things turn out this way?
Xu Ji turned off the video, looked up at the snow-white ceiling, and after a while, reopened the video footage from that day in the Arctic.
There must be something here that deserves further investigation.
He can still do it, he can continue...
***
In the middle of the night, Wen Zheng was awakened by rustling sounds.
His wounds had mostly healed and he could move around without much difficulty, but the medical center ordered him to stay there for further treatment until he was fully recovered.
Wen Zheng didn't have anything urgent to do. Bei Sining was with him, and Bai Shuang and Deng Puyue were next door. He treated it like a long vacation, a group getaway to the mountain resort, and wasn't in a hurry to be discharged. During this time, he could also make some plans for the future. He heard that the cat spirit had even started a cat food company.
Bei Sining has been sleeping with him in cat form every night, but these past few days, Wen Zheng has felt uneasy at night.
He only fully woke up today.
A faint light emanated from around him, and Wen Zheng squinted slightly, pretending to breathe deeply.
As expected, Bei Sining, who had just turned into a human, did not notice anything and quietly walked outside.
Once he disappeared through the door, Wen Zheng jumped out of bed and quietly followed.
...
A sharp pain shot through her lower abdomen. Bei Sining braced herself against the wall with one hand and walked toward the small terrace at the end of the corridor.
Cold sweat slid down his forehead, quickly soaking his clothes. He found a spot where he could be bathed in moonlight and sat down cross-legged.
The demon core truly lives up to its reputation as the most important core of the demon race; once shattered, the pain is excruciating. Bei Sining had never suffered much physical pain before. Although she felt pain during her self-destruction, it was only for a brief moment. Afterward, the demon core remained in a semi-dormant state, with weakness outweighing the pain.
This time, he overdrawn his power, risking most of it when Wen Zheng was in danger. After sending Wen Zheng to the medical point, he could barely maintain his human form. He couldn't even condense his demon core, which dissipated into a pool of liquid.
But Bei Sining thought it was pretty good.
As long as the demon core remains, he won't die, and given time, he'll recover. He can't say for sure how long that will take. He just didn't expect it to hurt so much.
Moonlight can aid in cultivation for demons, though the effect isn't great—better than nothing, but requires consistent practice. Bei Sining never expected she'd one day be praying for it not to rain.
Just as he closed his eyes, a voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
"Where does it hurt?" Wen Zheng squatted down and touched his abdomen from behind. "Here?"
Author's Note: Zhengzheng: Could it be... our child?
Mingzhu: Shut up?
Chapter 98
The sensation of touch through the fabric shot straight to my brain.