Chapter 381 Part Five
Not many people are willing to stay and work in the sanatorium, and not many people can bear this kind of psychological pressure. Not to mention the aliens, many Xiyiqi volunteers often leave in great pain after only working here for a short week. Alien tourist Liu Xingquan and his chicken are willing to stay here to help, and Li Wen is really grateful to them.
Of course there are exceptions. In addition to the nursing area, there are also scientific researchers who volunteer to stay here. Among them, the one who is most familiar with Li Wen is a scientific researcher named Qisina. She used to teach at Xiyiqi Higher Education Institution and now devotes all her energy to the study of crimson mutations.
Li Wen brought Liu Xingquan and the chicken to Qisina's laboratory. When they arrived at the door of the laboratory, two Yas robots were transporting corpses. When the robots passed , several black objects fell from the cart. They were mutated and corrupted tissue blocks of the corpse. Li Wen silently pushed Liu Xingquan to the side, and a robot silently picked up the tissue blocks on the ground and opened the hose to spray out pungent sterilization gas.
Soon, the car parked at the door of the laboratory was filled with piles of corpses. Each body bag had a code on it, which represented a Xiyiqi person who had lived. A red light on the door of the car indicated that it had reached its maximum load. After a roar of the engine, the corpse transporter drove away.
A Xiyiqi woman came out, "Li Wen, who is this Homo sapiens?"
"Qisina, he is the alien Liu Xingquan I mentioned earlier. He said he can help."
"Okay." Qisina nodded, "It just so happens that the pile of samples over there needs someone to help sort them."
"Where's A-Xia? I remember it was originally her..."
She said: "Axia is dead, and now Ganli is the only assistant I have left."
"Oh." Li Wen said he understood. He took out a small medicine bottle and said, "Here."
There were two capsules in the small medicine bottle, which were the last remaining rejuvenation agent. Qisina took the medicine bottle. Her eyes stayed on the chicken, and she looked puzzled as to why there was a chicken here.
"Have you made any progress in your research?"
"Same as the previous week." Qisina exuded a bitter smell.
After settling Liu Xingquan and the chicken, Li Wen returned to his office. A new song of the dead floated in the distant mountains outside the window. Li Wen stood by the window and watched for a long time. He returned to his desk and wrote a letter requesting an increase in drug rations due to drug shortages.
After the letter was sent, a hexagonal icon indicating progress appeared on the holographic screen, indicating a temporary congestion in the network.
It was probably the network congestion caused by countless similar application letters from various districts. Li Wen thought to himself that the letter he sent was just a drop in the ocean. What if he was successfully selected as a Bazalu at that time... Could he save more compatriots? As soon as he thought of this, he smiled bitterly and stopped thinking. Doesn't the queen want to save her billions of people? His delusion was really presumptuous.
That night, Li Wen was preparing to tell Xiao Wei a bedtime story as usual. When he pushed the door open, he saw Xiao Wei fiddling with something at the table.
"What are you doing?"
"Divide equally." Xiao Wei said seriously. On the table were the three capsules, all of which had been twisted open. Xiao Wei carefully divided the powder particles in each capsule into four equal parts, and wrapped each part in a small paper bag.
It smiled innocently and said, "This way my medicine goes from three pills to 12! I can take it for a few more days!"
Childish self-deception, Li Wen thought. But he would not expose Xiao Wei's cleverness, because there was only so much rejuvenation agent, and he could not make more medicine.
After Xiao Wei carefully licked the grains on the paper, he sat beside Xiao Wei and told him a story. Most of the stories that the Xiyiqi people told their children were old stories, and the most mentioned one was the advent of the first Holy Queen. The Queen's voyage in the vast starry sky, the route and coordinates full of praise, and the beautiful arc she drew when she came.
She eventually landed on Nocturne Mountain.
["The stars flowed under her feet,
[Across the sea of thunder and fire,]
[Flying through the gravel corridor,]
[The roses and stars adorn her wings.]
Sing, sing,
[This is where the queen descends. ]
[Praise, praise,]
【Then, the God of White Light appeared,】
【Offer a blessing to the Queen. 】
[Like a drizzle, the dead are resurrected,]
[Like a raging fire, it dispels suffering. ”]
Xiao Wei propped up his head and listened. He suddenly asked, "Mr. Li Wen, does the White Mango God really exist?"
"That's a legend in ballads," Li Wen said. "I think it's the natural wonder that the first Queen saw when she descended." The rest is probably fabricated by later generations.
"The White Mang God should exist." Xiao Wei said, "The people of the Happiness Society said that if the White Mang God came, we would no longer have to worry about the Crimson Mutation."
The Happiness Society, the full name is the Common Happiness Mutual Aid Society. Li Wen has heard this term from many patients. It is a psychological treatment institution that often appears in various sanatoriums. In their psychological treatment process, the term Baimang God often appears. Li Wen does not like this kind of escaping the pain of reality by relying on a virtual idol, but now these mutants have no way forward, and he can't say anything to force them to face the bleak reality.
Before going to bed, Xiao Wei picked up one of his limbs and stared at it for a while. "I think the red spot on my arm seems to be a little smaller."
"Is it smaller?"
"Too small! Right?"
"Well, it's small, go to sleep."
Days like this passed one after another, and every day Nocturne Mountain ignited a new song of the dead.
After dealing with and caring for the mutants, Li Wen would count all the patients again every day, carefully update and submit a new drug ration application letter, but all the applications continued to fall into oblivion.
The words of comfort he said to the mutants now seemed more and more like ridiculous lies. The powder packets that Xiao Wei had carefully divided had long been eaten up. Although Xiao Wei would not blame him, some other mutants were dissatisfied and often accused him of being incompetent. Some people joined the Common Happiness Mutual Aid Society. They often gathered together, ignored everything else, and were only immersed in the words of the Happiness Society.
Then one day, there was a commotion in the sanatorium park, and everyone said that a large batch of medicine was about to arrive. Everyone was excited for the whole night, eagerly waiting for the arrival of the transport plane.
At noon the next day, the transport plane that everyone had been talking about finally arrived. This time, it was indeed medicine, but it was an imitation of the rejuvenating agent synthesized locally in Xiyiqi. The Queen's scientists studied the Crimson Mutation day and night and synthesized a batch of imitation drugs based on the molecular formula of the rejuvenating agent. However, due to the scarcity of key elements and the insufficient purity of the synthesis, the efficacy of this imitation drug was far inferior to the authentic rejuvenating agent of the Saidi people.
"It's better than nothing." Qisina said while looking at the screen. She threw the generic medicine bottle in her hand back to Li Wen, "I don't want it anymore."
"Although it's a generic drug, it's still somewhat useful." Li Wen said, "I know the Queen will never give up on us."
"Li Wen, even generic drugs are limited in quantity." Qisina said, "Give them all to Xiao Wei."
"but……"
"Gan Li is dead too," Qisina said. "My only assistant left is the Homo sapiens Liu Xingquan." She added hesitantly, "and the chicken."
“…”
"It will be my turn soon."
"What nonsense! Although they are not as good as the rejuvenation agents, the generic drugs are still more or less useful!"
"Looking at me now, can you still say this?"
Qisina turned her chair around, and Li Wen was so shocked that she couldn't speak for a moment.
Qisina's legs had been completely mutated, pus dripping from the discolored chitin , and some strangely curved calcified corners distorted the original shape. She was suffering from this terrible mutation.
"Li Wen, I can't leave the lab now." Qisina's tone was filled with regret, "Even if I take the medicine, I don't have much time left."
“…”
"Fortunately, I still have some discoveries." Qisina said thoughtfully.
"Discover?"
"Yes. But I'm not sure yet." Qisina said, "Also, I have a friend I met when I was studying abroad. Her ability is as trustworthy as her character. She is a Sadie."
"Saidi?"
"She is the top genetic expert in the galaxy. Her name is Noa." Qisina smiled and said, "After I am gone, you can go find her."
"good."
"My assistant Liu Xingquan will go to Nocturne Mountain to collect some samples for the experiment. You can take him with you."
"OK."
When Li Wen walked out of the laboratory, Qisina suddenly called him.
"Li Wen?"
"Um?"
"Be careful of the Mutual Happiness Society."
…
…
Li Wen found a car in the park and took Liu Xingquan and the chicken with him. When Xiao Wei saw them going out, he also shouted that he wanted to go with them. He remembered that Xiao Wei had not been out for a long time, so he took Xiao Wei with him.
The car drove to the foot of Nocturne Mountain. The closer they got to Nocturne Mountain, the louder the song of the dead floating in the mist became, like a bright beacon for navigation. Li Wen and Xiao Wei were both intoxicated by the chanting of this hymn, while Liu Xingquan and the chicken seemed oblivious.
The road leading to Nocturne Mountain was filled with corpse transporters, and no one else could be seen. Apart from the crematorium that roared and burned day and night in the mountain and a monument to the landing of the first queen, there were no other facilities on Nocturne Mountain.
The road to Nocturne Mountain is rugged and there is no grass on the road. This place is the holy land of the first queen, and the final destination of all the strange people of Xiyi. Few people go here.
Liu Xingquan and Ji got out of the car, holding a collector that kept flashing. The young Homo sapiens boy walked with a serious look on his face, collecting the samples that Qisina had asked him to collect.
As soon as Xiao Wei got off the car, he ran around excitedly. There was a small lake with clear water at the foot of the mountain. When he saw it, he jumped into the lake excitedly and swam back and forth.
"Mr. Li Wen, do you want to go swimming?"
Li Wen, who was sitting on the shore and watching Liu Xingquan and the chickens working not far away, replied, "No. Just have fun." Seeing no one answered, he turned around and found Xiao Wei swimming in the middle of the lake more than ten meters away.
"Xiao Wei, be careful."
After a while, Xiao Wei swam to the shore with his head above the water. "Mr. Li Wen, do you want to swim in the water?"
Exactly the same question. Li Wen was in a trance for a moment.
After swimming enough, Xiao Wei finally jumped onto the shore. He turned his back to shake off the water droplets on his body. Li Wen lowered her eyes. The horrible red spots had already stained Xiao Wei's originally smooth back. This child was no longer a mild patient.
After drying the child, Li Wen took out some fruits from the car. He handed one to Xiao Wei, then looked up and called Liu Xingquan, but saw that the boy and the chicken were staring motionlessly at somewhere below the mountain.
"What are you looking at?" Li Wen came to Liu Xingquan and asked.
Liu Xingquan and Ji saw vague carvings on the broken stone in front of their eyes, and vaguely they could make out several geometric combination patterns.
"What's wrong?"
"This pattern is very similar to the one we saw in Hope Township." Liu Xingquan said in a low voice.
"Hope Township?"
Liu Xingquan turned his head and looked at him without saying anything.
…
…
That night, they returned to the park.
The robot carried out Qisina's body.
Her slender body was wrapped in a body bag, and a piece of intact limbs hung listlessly on one side. Xiao Wei wanted to take a look at Qisina's face, but was stopped by Li Wen. There is no backbone of scientific research who voluntarily stayed in the laboratory in this park. Li Wen thought, I have to sort out all the information she left behind.
"Qisina shouldn't have walked so fast." Liu Xingquan questioned, "Otherwise she wouldn't have let Captain Ban and I go out to collect samples today."
"The executioner has been here," the only remaining staff member in the laboratory replied, "Qisina's symptoms have reached the point where she must be executed."
The staff member was right. But Li Wen remembered Qisina's last words: "Be careful of the Common Happiness Mutual Aid Association."
Could it be that Qisina’s death has something to do with that psychological treatment institution?
But more than half of the people here have joined the Common Happiness Society. They are just looking for psychological comfort in the face of fear and despair of death.
The body truck drove away.
Qisina's body, like everyone else's, turned into a note in this long and lingering song of the dead.
Li Wen stood at the window and watched the smoke rising from Nocturne Mountain. Before she was infected with the Crimson Mutation, Qisina was one of the best scholars in Xiyiqi. She should have had a bright future. But in front of the Crimson Mutation, people of all classes are equal.
This means that no matter which tribe or upper class, or prince or queen, they may...
Li Wen quickly retracted his rebellious thoughts . Just thinking about the queen made his heart ache. Queen, Queen, he called her in his heart. She was the sacred mother of the Xiyiqi people. She was the eternal star of the Xiyiqi people. Just thinking about her would make him feel warm and sad.
Will we become genocide if this continues?
The song of the dead continued to hum.
…
…
Li Wen and Liu Xingquan sorted out the notes left by Qisina. With experience as Qisina's assistant, Liu Xingquan was very skilled in processing the data on Qisina's computer.
Even the missing Qisina file was told to him by Liu Xingquan: "This file must have been deleted."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I remember that all the documents Qisina created in this directory are gone."
"I see."
Li Wen checked the surveillance footage, but it showed that all surveillance records had been interrupted since the enforcement officer entered the laboratory that day.
He made several copies of the computer's storage disk and asked someone to secretly mail one of them out.
Xiao Wei's body became weaker day by day. The red spots on his body that could be ignored before turned into dense lumps of different sizes. It was extremely itchy. Xiao Wei couldn't help scratching, and the result was that it turned into ulcers that kept oozing pus. Li Wen helped him apply medicine carefully every day, but it didn't relieve his pain. He knew that it wouldn't be long before his body would be penetrated by the calcium-mutated chitin, and he would no longer be able to jump around.
He sent out letter after letter requesting drug rations, but none of them came to fruition.
People are saying that the Queen is in talks with the Sadis, but the situation in the Sadis has changed, and I'm afraid the ration of rejuvenation agents will become less and less.
Li Wen would sometimes go online to check out new news, but most of the time the Xiyiqi authorities were controlling public opinion about the Crimson Mutants. The Internet was peaceful and everyone was cursing the Sadis in a nonchalant way. Occasionally someone would mention their fellow countrymen who were suffering, and then someone would jump out and curse that the entire Xiyiqi was bearing the high medical expenses for these mutants. Why didn't these people think about the sacrifices that the race and the queen had made for them?
This is true, but in the eyes of some healthy people, all the suffering mutants seem to be just insignificant existences, and they can pretend not to see them by just glancing away.
In order to avoid the discipline officers who were searching for seriously ill patients for execution every day , Li Wen took Xiao Wei to the warehouse behind the laboratory in the park.
Xiao Wei was too weak to walk on his own, but he seemed to be in good spirits.
Liu Xingquan and the chicken often brought little things from outside for Xiao Wei, such as a bunch of flowers, a bag of snacks, or dried fruits. Although they looked scary, Xiao Wei would still talk to them with a smile.
When Li Wen walked into the warehouse that day, Xiao Wei was holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand and said that it was given to him by Liu Xingquan.
"Yeah. Just keep it around if you like."
"This is the white silvergrass flower." Xiao Wei said, "This is the flower that represents the White Silvergrass God."
"Um."
"Mr. Li Wen, I am not afraid of death at all. Because I know that everyone will live a good life in another world."
"Um."
"Everyone will be together, and there will be no more pain."
"Um."
Xiao Wei's voice became softer and softer, "I feel a little sleepy."
"Then go to sleep."
"Good night."
"……Good night."
That night, Xiao Wei stopped breathing.
Li Wen hugged it tightly, the temperature of the body gradually dropped, and the smell became more pungent. But he didn't feel anything real, he always felt that the child would giggle and open his eyes the next day.
The next day, the body truck took Xiao Wei away.
Li Wen stood by the window, watching the smoke of Nocturne Mountain rising again. The orange, red and white lights flickered in the mist like a child blinking.
The shuttle drew thin white lines in the sky, and a new batch of mutants were sent over.
If I had not been eliminated and successfully become a prince, could they have been saved? Li Wen thought in a trance.
"How many times do you plan to repeat this?" a voice sounded behind him.
Li Wen turned around.
Liu Xingquan and the chicken were standing behind him, but it was the chicken who spoke, "We are trapped in your memory. How long do you plan to keep looping?"
