Where exactly did things go wrong? Xu Ji was still puzzled and filled with anxiety.
He had just confirmed Wen Zheng's presence underground, then immediately returned to his room, copied all the valuable information so far, and left silently.
With the Xia Kingdom, devoid of any spirit of exploration, standing behind Wen Zheng, and that powerful monster, he knew that this small research institute was doomed.
Xu Ji was in pain, but in that instant he made a decision—if he could no longer conduct research in this life, he would leave behind a spark to spread throughout the world.
He believes that there are many more people like him who share an infinite pursuit of truth and understand the importance of being prepared for potential dangers even in times of peace.
Who can guarantee that a second apocalypse won't come soon?
People will understand, agree with, and inherit his research, unlike those power holders who prioritize stability and treat the people like livestock kept at home.
Xu Ji grew increasingly enthusiastic as he thought about it, and his pace quickened.
He was going to a place with a large-scale network to upload the data and reveal the secret.
Wen Zheng will understand him, as long as he speaks politely and gets rid of the monster. After all, that child has always been very well-behaved.
With a thud, Xu Ji tripped and fell, only realizing he had fallen when he felt a burning pain in his nose and lips.
Then a tremendous force pressed down from behind, causing a sharp, intense pain in her internal organs. A scream was forced out of her throat, so horrible that it startled Bei Sining.
"...Tsk." He released his foot, grabbed Xu Ji by the back of his collar, lifted him up, swung him from side to side, and asked in confusion, "Why did you run away?"
"..." Xu Ji was speechless.
"Do you really think you can escape?" Bei Sining was genuinely puzzled. "What kind of research institute did you build? Wasn't it specifically to study how powerful I am? How come, after all this research, you don't even know that I can capture you at any time? What kind of research is this..."
Xu Ji was about to vomit blood.
Bei Sining grabbed him by the back of his collar, and he was inevitably choked by the front of the shirt. The feeling of suffocation made him see stars, and his legs kicked involuntarily.
"Ah," Bei Sining finally noticed, and quickly threw the person on the ground, saying without any sense of accomplishment, "How come you're going to die just from being lifted up like that!?"
Humans are so fragile. Compared to Xu Ji, Wen Zheng is practically made of steel...
He found his way here by following the scent and shrinking the earth; Wen Zheng would be arriving in a while.
Bei Sining looked at this piece of trash for a while, and the more she looked, the more disgusted she became. She couldn't hit him, for fear that if she slapped him, his head would be blown off.
He asked irritably, "Wen Zheng must have had the worst luck to meet you."
These words struck a nerve with Xu Ji, and he suddenly jumped up, roaring, "He should thank me! Without me, how could he be so perfect! It was me! It was my teaching that made him who he is today! He respects me! He loves me! I am his father!"
"...If you like teaching children so much, why don't you have one yourself? Don't you humans value blood ties a lot? Wen Zheng can't be considered yours at all, can he?" Bei Sining felt a little disgusted and took a step back.
Wen Zheng walked out of the alley, his chest heaving violently.
"Xiao Zheng!" Xu Ji's face suddenly turned red when he saw Wen Zheng. He twisted on the ground, his eyes filled with fanaticism: "Tell me quickly, am I your father? You lost your parents when you were young, and I raised you. I gave you family, I gave you a home, I gave you love, didn't I?"
“I don’t need love anymore.” Wen Zheng cursed at him, “Go to hell.”
Chapter 113
Xu Ji was stunned for a few seconds, as if he didn't recognize the child anymore.
His expression gradually became ferocious, but after a series of changes, it returned to a smile.
“You won’t succeed.” He clutched his backpack to his chest, sitting there disheveled. “I’ve already uploaded the data online and scheduled it to be sent out. If you arrest me, tonight, the whole world will know you’re a shapeshifter! Guess how many people will think you’re an anomaly and support sending you to the testing ground?”
Xu Ji was very confident and seemed to have a plan in mind.
This secret is protected at the highest level worldwide, but he now holds the switch to release it.
What a satisfying fact!
Wen Zheng: "..."
Bei Sining: "…………"
"Is he crazy?" Bei Sining turned to Wen Zheng and asked, "Am I afraid of that?"
Wen Zheng thought for a moment: "It's best not to. But compared to letting him go, I think..."
"Let's release it," Bei Sining replied.
Xu Ji was dumbfounded. Weren't they afraid?
At this moment, the entire block had been evacuated, and various forces had surrounded it. More and more footsteps gathered, and armed men aimed their guns at the center of the standoff.
All the important figures rushed over, looking completely overwhelmed. What on earth was going on?!
The promised sweep was incomplete, yet some escaped. The Allied Commissioner has completely lost face!
"What are you all standing there for?! Arrest him!" The man roared, panting heavily, after finally stopping. "What? A Xia citizen? Xia citizens too! Send them back to Xia!"
Before he could speak, Xu Ji shouted, "Don't move! I have information!"
Having failed to threaten Wen Zheng and his group earlier, he sat there in frustration for a long time. Now, finally snapping out of it, he loudly repeated the message he had set for the scheduled send. This time, he received a positive response. The Allied Commissioner was horrified, his eyes rolling back as if he were about to faint.
"How can this be allowed!?" The commissioner's head throbbed at the thought of the agreement, and seeing Bei Sining, the person in question, standing right in front of him made him even more dizzy.
Xu Ji finally regained his composure and chuckled, "Why not? I'm fed up with these secretive experiments... Humanity is meant to coexist and perish together, so why should we keep it from a select few? Take the subspace, for example. If we had made it public earlier, we might not have needed external help; we could have solved it ourselves. Many people would have dedicated themselves to research and driven technological advancement..."
The Allied envoy was speechless for a moment, pointing at Xu Ji, hesitant to actually order his arrest due to the accusation, he was in a real dilemma.
At this moment, Bei Sining snapped her fingers.
With a pop, a transparent, thin, multicolored sphere emerged from above his finger, like a soap bubble blown out of thin air.
The bubble swayed and rose into the air, growing bigger and bigger...
"Subspace! Subspace! Subspace!" The commissioner nearly fainted, screaming loudly on the spot, "Subspace! Ahhhhh!"
"What!? This is warp space—" "Run!" "Make phone calls! Quarantine! Evacuate the crowd!" "The warp space is back again—"
Some scattered like birds and beasts, while those who remained, their faces pale, stared at the sky. This was the source of the apocalypse! Wasn't it supposed to be wiped out? Why was it here?!
The soap bubble drifted slowly toward a two-story building, brushing past its eaves. Visibly, that section of the eaves vanished completely, as if licked by a tongue coated with strong acid!
"Hiss—" The remaining people were also stunned, and several of them fell to the ground in fright, silently making the sign of the cross.
"Do you recognize this?" Bei Sining smiled and said to Xu Ji, "Subspace, the subject of your life's research."
Xu Ji: "…………"
"Don't you like doing research? Go in and do some research. I'll let you in, so reach out and touch it."
Several helicopters slowly surrounded the area, and the highest alert had been sounded. But Bei Sining, at the very center, paid no attention, while Xu Ji's eyes were filled with fear.
"The warp has reappeared!!!" The commissioner shouted desperately into the phone, "Forget the rules!? Hurry! Immediately!! Send people with weapons!!! This is within the territory of our Allied Nations! If you're going to bomb, bomb us first!" The commissioner's voice cracked, his legs blurring as he cried out, "Help—"
In the blink of an eye, the people around had retreated two hundred meters away. The helicopter circled in panic in the sky. Bei Sining squatted down and said to Xu Ji, "Say it again? Who am I afraid of?"
Xu Ji was covered in sweat. The terrifying soap bubble was hanging above his head, making his mind go blank. All he could hear were howls and the screams of the comrades fading into the distance. The string of fear in his mind snapped.
His pupils constricted, and he scrambled backward, trying to escape the area of the soap bubble, muttering, "Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer! I haven't sent the data yet! Please, don't come any closer!"
Bei Sining stood up with a cold face, snapped her fingers, and the terrifying bubble vanished without a trace.
He glanced down at Xu Ji, then turned and walked toward Wen Zheng.
"Truth, my foot! How boring."
***
Many people are unwilling to admit that humans are just another kind of animal. We feel fear when faced with danger, and joy when we eat; we have all the same emotions and desires.
On the return flight, Bei Sining yawned and said to Wen Zheng, "There are plenty of people like this where I'm from. They seem very noble, looking down on tigers and foxes, but in reality, they're just as beastly as anyone else. They've eaten plenty of food and taken plenty of benefits, and not only that, they insist on earning a good reputation. In the end, they bring about their own destruction."
Wen Zheng took the yogurt from the flight attendant, inserted the straw, and handed it to Bei Sining.
"That's why I hate people like that the most. It's good that you didn't learn that kind of thing from Xu Ji." Bei Sining took a sip of yogurt. It was sweet and delicious, so she took another sip.
The rolling clouds outside the window looked like a white sea. Wen Zheng listened to Bei Sining bragging and thought to himself, "You're good at making yourself look good. Anyway, having a bad temper is just your true nature."
But he did like Bei Sining like this. Occasionally, when he looked back, the cat spirit's face was full of smugness, as if it were shining, firmly holding his gaze.
Wen Zheng thought, the cat spirit must have bewitched him, otherwise why would she like him so much?
I like him so much that I want to pet him from head to toe.
This must be love.
Xu Ji underwent a month-long interrogation, during which all the information he knew was extracted. After that, Old Liu made a copy of the report and sent it to Wen Zheng.
Surprisingly, Xu Ji did not lose his fertility; he could have had his own children.
Wen Zheng and Bei Sining discussed this point, wondering if his psychological abnormality and controlling nature stemmed from his inability to have children. The cat spirit swore he was definitely a eunuch, but the truth remained puzzling.
In his email, Mr. Liu said that the psychologist believed that he might have felt inferior about a certain physical defect during his adolescence, and because he could not change it, he longed for perfection.
Wen Zheng really didn't think he was anything special when he was a child; he was just an ordinary kid.
"Then he's impotent." The cat spirit didn't care about any of that and didn't want Wen Zheng to think about this unfortunate thing anymore, so she tried to delete the email. Wen Zheng pounced on her to grab the phone, and the two rolled around on the bed twice. Wen Zheng scratched Bei Sining until her ears and tail popped out, before finally grabbing the phone back, panting.
"Stop messing around." Wen Zheng used a joint lock to twist Bei Sining's posture and press her onto the bed, then quickly scanned the emails.
Unfortunately, he didn't see what he most wanted to know.
Xu Ji admitted that he was responsible for the fire several years ago, but he genuinely did not know the clues to the chip's password.
After he finished reading, he put down his phone, and Bei Sining also behaved herself.
“It doesn’t really matter.” Wen Zheng sat up. “My parents just want me to have a good life. They wouldn’t actually find a treasure map. Yu Jin, Jian Ming, and I will investigate some more. Maybe we’ll figure it out soon.”
He paused and then said, "Even if the test doesn't work, it's okay. I'm doing very well now."
Bei Sining looked rather unwilling. She took off the chain from her chest and looked at the chip against the light.
"They want you to be clear-headed, carefree, and independent?" Bei Sining asked. "What else would parents want from their children?"
Wen Zheng thought for a moment: "Isn't it just about settling down and starting a family?"
He didn't know if his business was established yet, but he had certainly made a name for himself.
Wen Zheng chuckled to himself, glancing at Bei Sining with a smile. Bei Sining looked back at him, her ears suddenly turning pink, before turning back to look at the chain: "Are there any poems about settling down and starting a family?"
Wen Zheng: "...I'm still guessing the password. Do you want to guess the answer directly?...Wait."
A sudden inspiration flashed through his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt he had seen it somewhere before. He hurriedly put on his clothes, found Rongda's library card, and rushed out of the house. Bei Sining followed him, and with a flick of her sleeve, she closed the door.
"What's the rush?!" he complained, but he put his arm around Wen Zheng's waist. Without even hailing a taxi, they arrived at the school in a few blurry scenes.