Mother of Insects

Chapter 6

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"Oh, shit—"

Lin Xi's brows were tightly locked.

He grabbed the jumpsuit and carefully inspected the glove area of the thing, and he quickly found the problem.

That stinky one-piece airtight suit should have completely isolated him from the outside world, but now, there was an obvious tear at the fingertips and palms.

Well, damn Slavic light mecha, damn antique. Considering that the sealed suit that comes with the light mecha is probably older than Lin Xi himself, it doesn’t seem too strange that there are cracks in the gloves, which are the most exercised part.

In addition, Lin Xi had done a lot of heavy physical work in the dark warehouse area all day today. Perhaps when he was moving something, the aging colloid outer membrane broke. However, he was sweating a lot at the time and didn't find anything wrong. And the strange liquid seemed to have seeped into the interior through this crack.

At this moment, Lin Xi didn't even know who to curse.

"Oh my god, I just promised Bryce that I was fine..."

He whispered in pain.

The immediate task was to determine the composition of those liquids.

The liquid stuck on Lin Xi's hand is thinner than glue, but very viscous. At first glance, it looks like just an ordinary translucent milky white, but if you look closely, you can see some faint reflections similar to opal on the surface of the liquid.

Judging from the texture alone, Lin Xi strongly suspected that the mucus was the earth milk that earthlings dreamed of.

He can also give the source of the underground milk and the strange fossil sculpture.

Lin Xi squeezed the thing quite a bit when he stuffed it into the petri dish.

However, everyone knows that the Sunu people's earth milk smells like a product of hell. Its strange stench can even make people with weak tolerance faint. Only after an extremely complicated extraction and deodorization process can this thing become a priceless "elixir of life" acceptable to earthlings. Even the transport spacecraft used to transport the earth milk has to be specially customized, otherwise the terrible smell is enough for the crew to file a work injury claim with the union...

But the mucus on Linxi's hands smelled completely different from the stench rumored.

They actually smelled pretty good... rich, sweet, and voluptuous, almost like a diluted men's cologne.

Although the scent was quite light, Lin Xi felt that he would buy it if there was a similar perfume.

There is a very advanced component analyzer in Bryce's medical room, but at this time Lin Xi didn't dare to provoke the overly worried brother.

Fortunately, as the only botanist on the ship, Lin Xi has an analyzer in his room - its main purpose is to analyze the fertilizer liquid used to fertilize plants. It is very basic in function, but it is enough to determine the composition of these strange mucus.

Lin Xi scraped the mucus off his hands and stuffed it into the analyzer.

He had originally intended to stand in front of the analysis and wait until the components came out, but he only stood there for a while before he could no longer stand there.

Maybe it was an illusion or maybe he was allergic to the sealed suit that was so old and had been worn by countless people.

He felt his skin was itchy, and it felt like there were invisible bugs crawling on his back.

Lin Xi only endured for a short while before he couldn't stand it anymore and rushed into the bathroom.

As the hot water splashed on his body under the wonderful artificial gravity, Lin Xi breathed a long sigh of relief. Ever since he was forcibly dragged out of the sleeping cabin by Bryce, shitty things had happened one after another. Even though Lin Xi had never been the type to be mentally delicate, he couldn't help feeling mentally and physically exhausted.

However, with the impact of the water flow, the accumulated pressure seemed to be slowly washed away.

Those smells that Lin Xi had found pleasant before became much stronger in the completely enclosed space. The scents were almost tangible and seeped into his hair and skin.

But the smell was not annoying. On the contrary, the pleasant aroma combined with the flushing of hot water made Lin Xi feel very comfortable.

Unconsciously, Lin Xi's consciousness became relaxed and scattered, and his body felt heavy and soft, as if he was sinking.

This feeling is a bit like being tipsy, or like the half-asleep and half-awake chaos in the interval of a beautiful dream.

Lin Xi yawned. He felt very sleepy, so sleepy that he didn't even have the energy to pay attention to the vague gaze behind him.

However, there was no way he could safely ignore that sticky gaze.

What a gaze that was.

Burning, scalding, focused, without a trace of rationality, only intense desire.

That sight was almost like an extremely sharp and thick weapon that directly pierced his skin, flesh, bones, and internal organs—

Then, there was that strange rustling sound.

Is it a friction sound? Or is it a high-frequency hissing sound of something

Hiss…

Hiss… Hiss…

"who?!"

Lin Xi suddenly woke up, he yelled, pressed the button to stop the water flow, then turned around and stuck himself in the corner of the bathroom.

In this position he doesn't have to worry about his back and sides, he just needs to be alert in front of him.

In that brief moment just now, he almost lost consciousness.

But he wouldn't ignore the horrible feeling of being spied on.

Lin Xi glanced at his arms, which were covered with goose bumps.

However, no one was in his room.

There were no unnecessary or strange movements.

Lin Xi listened carefully to everything around him.

The analyzer was still working in his room, making a buzzing sound. The exhaust system of the spacecraft was as noisy as usual, but Lin Xi had long been accustomed to the sound that was almost like white noise.

“Tick…Tick…”

All that was left was the sound of water dripping from his body that had not been wiped clean.

Of course, there was also the sound of his breathing which had become a little heavy without him noticing.

Lin Xi remained in that alert posture for quite a while, but no matter how he sensed, everything was so normal.

Strictly speaking, the strangest person in the whole room at this moment was probably the suspicious Lin Xi himself.

Lin Xi didn't know how long it took him to calm down.

Maybe it was the stress or the aftereffects of the so-called failed jump. Besides, arriving on a completely new planet, changes in air pressure and gravity could easily lead to subtle hallucinations and anxiety.

Lin Xi listed all the possibilities in his mind, and then found the reason why he was so uneasy at this moment.

He finished his bath hastily and left the bathroom.

… When he returned to the room, an extremely pale man was standing in the corner of the room, staring at him intently.

The man was so white that he was almost transparent, except for his eyes, which were a deep dark blue, just like the sky at the moment when night was about to fall. He was handsome to the point of being evil, but his expression was as gentle as the spring breeze that brushed against the flower buds and could not take away even a dewdrop.

Lin Xi almost cried out. The moment he saw the man's face, he was completely unable to move.

"Forest… "

The man smiled, then spoke.

Lin Xi rushed over and quickly turned off the holographic projector on the table. As the power switch on the small cube dimmed, the man instantly disappeared into thin air.

Yes, that man was just a projection.

The old holographic projector should have stayed obediently deep in the bookshelf, but, probably due to the turbulence during the forced landing, it fell off the bookshelf, and then somehow the switch was triggered and started up.

Lin Xi stood at the place where the man disappeared and panted for a long time before calming down. Then he rubbed his temple dejectedly.

His heart was still pounding wildly. Seeing that person's face again in such an unexpected situation, even if it was just a projection, made Lin Mao extremely emotional.

"Well, mom is right, next time I should pack all my luggage before I lie down in the sleeping cabin."

He said somewhat dryly.

However, no one knew whether he was talking to himself or to someone who had left his side a long time ago.

This little episode made Lin Xi's already bad mood even worse, but it must be said that it was not completely without benefits. At least... the panic and feeling of being spied on that had been bothering Lin Xi just now disappeared after the shock.

Lin Mao opened the medicine box and gnawed off a sedative gel stick that he had hidden away before, and then he finally returned to normal.

Bryce would probably nag him about this if he knew, but who cared.

Not long after, the analyzer, which had been working diligently for a while, beeped to indicate the end of the program.

Lin Xi grabbed a bath towel and wiped his hair, then casually opened the electronic screen to check the results.

"Wow, it really is this stuff. If the girls on Earth knew that I wiped my hands with its original liquid, they would probably be jealous..."

It can be said that it is not surprising—

Judging from its ingredients, the sticky liquid on Lin Xi's hand is indeed earth milk.

Although he didn't know why the thing in Lin Xi's hand smelled so good (maybe it was just related to its freshness?), since he was sure that it was not the mucus secreted by some deadly-looking creature, Lin Xi quickly put it behind his mind.

However, even Lin Xi himself did not realize that before forgetting the ground milk on his hand, he subconsciously put the hand that was stained with ground milk under his nose and took a deep breath.

The taste of ground milk is very light.

Very light.

Under the cover of shower gel, the smell should be so faint that it cannot be detected by humans.

But Lin Xi felt that the smell was indeed very pleasant.