When Qiu Shi and Xing Bi returned to the warehouse, Deng Yeye pushed her grandfather and prepared to leave.
Grandpa leaned back in his wheelchair as if in a trance, his eyes fixed on some unknown place behind everyone.
"Is it still like that?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Yeah." Deng Yeye nodded.
Xing Bi gently placed his fingertips on Grandpa's wrist.
"I don't think he'll wake up," the old man said in the corner. "He may just stay like this until he completely collapses."
"Where are you planning to take him?" Qiu Shi asked Deng Yeye.
"He's hiding in an abandoned vegetable cellar in a village outside the town," Deng Yeye said. "He told me to wait until he dies, destroy the central nervous system, and then blow up the vegetable cellar."
"Did he... choose the vegetable cellar himself?" Qiu Shi said, "I can talk to someone and arrange a more comfortable place for him."
"Don't bother," Deng Yeye said, "Everyone is busy now. I picked the vegetable cellar. He told me a long time ago that I could just throw it away. Destroy the system, and he will no longer exist. That body is no longer him, and everything has nothing to do with him."
"I understand." Qiu Shi nodded.
Deng Yeye took out her pet and touched it with Qiu Shi's pet on his leg: "Contact me if you have anything. You will leave Yuncheng sooner or later. If you need me, I won't be too far away from you."
"What do you mean?" Qiu Shi looked at her, "Are you representing my fellow tribesmen to monitor me?"
"Well," Deng Yeye said with a smile, "I have nowhere to go anyway."
After watching her push her grandfather away, Qiu Shi leaned against the wall and sighed.
"Will Grandpa really stay like this until he dies?" he asked the old man.
"He died a long time ago," the old man said. "He died when his love became a person. In the following years, he was just waiting for himself to disappear completely."
Qiu Shi didn't say anything.
"Aren't you two leaving yet?" The old man had slipped from the chair to the mat on the ground and was lying there, looking like he was going to sleep.
"You don't have any suggestions? You don't have any ideas?" Qiu Shi looked at him.
"I think your mind is a little confused," the old man said, "and you can't receive any new information. Go to bed, corpse collector."
"Let's go." Xing Bi held Qiu Shi's shoulder and took a step back.
Qiu Shi turned around and walked out of the hut with him, closing the door.
Xima Town is now peaceful, but you can still see searchlights sweeping across the town from time to time, hear the untidy but steady footsteps of patrolling soldiers in the distance, and occasionally a few unclear conversations coming from walkie-talkies.
Qiu Shi looked up. The weather was actually quite good at the moment. It wasn't snowing and the wind wasn't blowing. However, the clouds were a bit thick and the moon couldn't be seen.
"Going back to the dormitory?" Xing Bi asked.
"I can't sleep," Qiu Shi said, "The old man is right, my mind is really confused. I have used my brain all my life, but not as much as I have in the past few days. It feels like there is not much to do. Why is it so..."
“This is what a brand new brain looks like when it’s first put into use,” Xing Bi said.
"What do you mean?" Qiu Shi turned his head and looked at him.
"Are you going to sleep?" Xing Bi asked, "We have to go back to Yuncheng tomorrow."
"Then I can't sleep anymore," Qiu Shi looked up at the second floor, "If I sleep now, I probably won't wake up tomorrow and will sleep all day..."
"Then sleep for a day," Xing Bi said, "You need to rest for your nerve damage. You haven't slept much since the lab opened, and you've also been doing... physical labor."
Qiu Shi didn't say anything. He was stunned for a while before he reacted. He smiled and lowered his voice: "Are all of you biochemicals like this? You don't seem to have much shame."
"Maybe they are indeed different from humans in these matters," said Xing Bi.
After walking around the deserted streets twice, it was still cold, so Qiu Shi decided to go back to the dormitory on the second floor of the supermarket to rest for a while. He was still very sleepy, even to the point of being unable to hold on.
The people from Team 2 were still on the first floor, but after they came back, they went directly to the old man. The people from Team 2 didn’t even know they were back.
I tiptoed up to the second floor and found that someone immediately came out from the biochemical dormitory.
"Xing Bi and I." Qiu Shi said in a low voice.
"Yeah." Someone responded and went back to the dormitory.
These biological organisms were the ones that came over when we attacked the symbiote camp before. They are now temporarily staying in Xima Town. In the next two days, they will be distributed to various points on the defense line between Shidi and Zhuyuan.
Qiu Shi’s name has not been figured out yet.
However, as all the biochemical bodies are finally activated, they are no longer a rare minority, and may eventually become the same as those ordinary soldiers. Among the soldiers who fought together in Xima Town, Qiu Shi could no longer remember the names of anyone except the Second Team and their group of corpse collectors. He only remembered their faces.
In his memory, behind each door, how many faces have he passed through in his life over the past twenty years
Back in the house, knowing that the next floor was full of biochemical beings with keen hearing, Qiu Shi was very cautious when throwing his clothes on the ground and did not dare to throw them too casually.
Xing Bi took off his coat, threw it on the ground beside him, and then turned on the heating ball.
"You..." Qiu Shi looked at him.
"This is normal," Xing Bi said, "Why are you feeling guilty?"
"Just tell me, can they hear us talking?" Qiu Shi said.
"I can hear some, but not all," said Xing Bi.
"So," Qiu Shi opened the closet and took a look. He probably knew they were coming back today and had some clothes ready for changing. "Shouldn't we be more careful?"
"Are you going to be careful about anything shameful?" Xing Bi stood behind him, holding the closet door, and leaned lightly behind him.
He could feel his body temperature through his clothes. Qiu Shihui put his hand on his waist and felt warm and smooth skin.
"You..." Qiu Shi pulled at the corner of his clothes and raised his hand to take off his shirt.
There was actually a pack of cigarettes in the closet. He took it out and looked at it. He thought that the service in Xima Town was quite considerate, and they even gave him a pack of cigarettes. It was not considerate either. The cigarettes had been opened, but when he saw a small pinch mark on the opening of the cigarette box, he laughed: "Fuck."
"What's wrong?" Xing Bi hugged him and asked with his chin on his shoulder.
"Zhao Lu brought it here," Qiu Shi showed him the pinch mark, "He's used to pinching it here after he takes it apart."
"Why do you want to pinch it?" Xing Bi asked.
"It's hard to get all kinds of supplies in the outer city. If you have any good stuff, you have to mark it," Qiu Shi smiled, "It's just like writing your own name..."
"Then why don't you just write your name?" Xing Bi asked.
"What you said is true," Qiu Shi said, "If you ask me to write my own name now, I still have to think about it. It's much easier to just make a seal."
As soon as Qiu Shi finished speaking, Xing Bi reached out and pinched his earlobe.
"Your ancestors!" Qiu Shi cursed. The pinch was quite severe. The next second he felt his earlobe getting hot. He raised his hand to touch it and found that it had begun to swell.
"Pinch a mark." Xing Bi said.
"You're pretty fucking stupid," Qiu Shi said helplessly, "Pinching fingernails is Zhao Lu's fucking habit!"
Xing Bi smiled without saying anything, lowered his head and bit his shoulder.
It was very severe, as if it was really going to leave an indelible scar as a mark.
"Ah..." Qiu Shi gritted his teeth and shouted, "It hurts, it hurts..."
Xing Bi relaxed and traced the tooth mark with his fingertips: "It's very round. I have good teeth."
"Are you short-circuited?" Qiu Shi turned his head to look at him, "Did Director Wu pry open your brain and pour wine into it while I was unaware?"
Xing Bi laughed: "Does it hurt?"
"Nonsense!" Qiu Shi said, "I am a human being. What you are biting is called fucking meat. When meat is bitten, it hurts!"
Xing Bi didn't say anything. He lowered his head and kissed him lightly on the shoulder, then touched the tooth mark with the tip of his tongue.
Qiu Shi fell silent and just tilted his head to look at him.
The skin at the location of the teeth marks becomes very sensitive because of the pain, and when the tip of the tongue circles along the teeth marks, the gentle touch can be clearly felt.
Qiu Shi felt that his nerves were probably not damaged and were very sensitive, able to even detect the slightest bit of warmth and moisture.
"Does it still hurt?" Xing Bi turned his head and looked at him.
"It just has to stop hurting." said Qiu Shi.
Xing Bi smiled.
"Am I..." Qiu Shi asked hesitantly, "Are you..."
"Hmm?" Xing Bi responded.
Qiu Shi turned around, hugged him, and gently stroked his waist: "Would you like to answer one?"
"That kind of answer is unacceptable," Xing Bi said, "I really don't know what you are going to say."
"Did I..." Qiu Shi was amused by his own grunting and laughed, "Fuck, did I hurt you?"
"No." Xing Bi said.
"Have you blocked your sense of pain?" Qiu Shi pressed his chin with his fingers and lifted it up.
"How is that possible?" Xing Bi said, "It's impossible to block this kind of thing even if you get stabbed in the back."
"This is the effect of a stab," Qiu Shi laughed, "I didn't chop you dry!"
"With your volume," Xing Bi said, "they can really hear you."
"Fuck." Qiu Shi was stunned.
Xing Bi smiled and took him back, then fell on the bed.
Qiu Shi was knocked down by him and threw himself on him, not caring about anything else and kissed him hard twice.
Xing Bi turned over and pressed him down, reaching his hand down.
Qiu Shi paused for two seconds: "Now?"
"Hmm?" Xing Bi responded with his face buried in his neck.
"I mean you are now..." Before Qiu Shi could finish his words, Xing Bi raised his hand and covered his mouth.
"I find that you can't speak softly anymore." Xing Bi looked at him with a smile.
"Is my voice loud?" Qiu Shi asked in his palm.
"Yeah." Xing Bi smiled and nodded.
"Your ancestors," Qiu Shi said through his fingers, "what should I do? Why don't you just kill me?"
Xing Bi did not loosen his hand that was covering his mouth, nor did he stop his hand from moving down.
Qiu Shi's breath slipped out from between his fingers and swept past his ears, carrying a hot and rapid breath.
The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, casting a star-like silver light on the tops of the woods below. As the clouds gathered and dispersed, the silver light flickered.
"Still can't sleep?" Xing Bi asked softly in Qiu Shi's ear.
"I'm very sleepy." Qiu Shi looked at the night view outside the window. Because it was a supermarket, the windows were all floor-to-ceiling windows. He could see the entire scenery by lying on the bed and turning his head.
"Massage? Human?" Xing Bi asked.
"Professional massage for biochemical bodies?" Qiu Shi turned over and looked at him.
"Yeah." Xing Bi nodded.
"Okay." Qiu Shi said.
"Lie down." Xing Bi sat up.
Qiu Shi lay down on the bed, Xing Bi's warm hand brushed across his back, he felt a soothing warmth, and he closed his eyes.
Xing Bi's fingers grabbed his head again and again. The force was not strong, but the position was very accurate. Each time he felt his head tighten first, and then extremely relaxed.
"Comfortable." said Qiu Shi.
"Go to sleep when you feel comfortable." Xing Bi said.
"Well," Qiu Shi closed his eyes and asked again after a while, "I have been wondering, in Grandpa's current state, can he still think? His body is failing, and his biochemical reactions are gone, but the little cube is alive, right?"
"Yes," Xing Bi responded, "so he needs Deng Yeye to destroy his system."
"In fact, if he didn't have a lover, he wouldn't have to endure the loneliness for so many years." Qiu Shi put his hand on Xing Bi's leg and touched it gently, "right?"
"You slept with me yesterday and now you want to break up with me?" Xing Bi asked.
"Fuck, keep your voice down," Qiu Shi opened his eyes and glared at him, "Why don't you go to the corridor and shout."
Xing Bi lowered his voice: "You slept with me yesterday..."
"I didn't say that!" Qiu Shi interrupted him, then laughed again, "I find that you are sometimes like a child, throwing things away at any time like an ancestor."
"Whether he has a lover or not is not something he can decide," Xing Bi said, "By the time you find out, it will have been a long time."
"Are you the same?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Yeah." Xing Bi's fingers traced down his spine. "That day when you were in the electric chair," Qiu Shi turned his head, "did you confess your love to me?"
"Yes." Xing Bi said.
"I want to listen to it," Qiu Shi said, "Turn it up and let me listen to it when we get back to Yuncheng."
"Wait a moment." Xing Bi said, then got out of bed.
"What's wrong?" Qiu Shi looked at him.
Xing Bi picked up his coat from the ground, reached out and touched it, took out the silver metal stick, plugged in the earphones and handed it over: "Listen."
"Did you save it here?" Qiu Shi sat up immediately.
"Well," Xing Bi said, "How about storing it in the group's files and then you go to the archives room to listen to it?"
"I thought it would be deleted." said Qiu Shi.
"This is related to the mission content," Xing Bi said, "and cannot be deleted."
"Is this still mission-related?" Qiu Shi put on his headphones and lay back on the bed. "Won't it be stored forever?"
"As long as the equipment is not destroyed, it will remain in storage," Xing Bi said. "It can still be listened to after a hundred years."
"Then I can't hear it." said Qiu Shi.
"Qiu Shi," Xing Bi's voice came from the headset, "Listen to my voice, you can hear it, you have to listen..."
The sound quality of the transferred recording was quite good. Xing Bi's voice seemed to be coming from behind his ear. He subconsciously turned his head to look at Xing Bi.
Xing Bi lay down beside him, turned his head and rested his arm on it to look at him, one hand still pressing on his back.
"What do you want to hear? How exciting is exciting..."
Qiu Shi could hear the uneasiness in Xing Bi's calm voice. He turned his head and looked at Xing Bi: "Can you hear me?"
"Yes." Xing Bi said.
"My teacher once took me to a wedding. When I was still 'Xingbi', I heard a human say 'I love you' for the first time, but I couldn't understand it..."
When hearing these three words, Qiu Shi's heart trembled violently. Although Xing Bi only said these three words in a simple way, he still felt that he had temporarily lost his breath.
Xing Bi's fingers slid from his back to his shoulders, then went around his neck and gently hooked his face.
"The teacher said that there are many kinds of love. Love can be thrilling, or it can be long-lasting. If you are unlucky, it can even turn into a reunion. There are many endings to love, but the beginnings are all similar. Once you feel it, you will know..."
Qiu Shi stared at Xing Bi and felt his eyes getting hot. He hardly dared to blink.
Xing Bi spoke, in sync with the voice in the headset: "I don't know when it started, but when I felt it, it seemed like it had been a long time. This is the only emotion I don't have a human sample for, but it's very clear and definite..."
Qiu Shi still looked at him, not daring to blink.
"Qiu Shi," Xing Bi took off his right earphone and whispered, "I love you."
Qiu Shi blinked, and the tears in his eyes flowed out from the corners of his eyes, over the bridge of his nose and into the other eye, then mixed with more tears, leaving a large area on the pillow.
"I love you," Xing Bi approached him and kissed him gently at the corner of his eye, "Human."
Qiu Shi closed his eyes, grabbed Xing Bi's hand, and squeezed it hard, his voice trembling uncontrollably: "I love you."
Xing Bi smiled.
Qiu Shi turned over, stretched out his arms to hug him tightly, and whispered in his ear: "Xing Bi, I love you, I love you... Xing Bi..."
"Are you still crying?" Xing Bi whispered in his ear.
"That's all," Qiu Shi sniffed, and could hear his own voice still nasal, "I don't know why I'm crying. Normally, this should make people laugh, right?"
"Crying and laughing are not relative," Xing Bi said, "Many emotions can be expressed by crying and laughing at the same time. As a human being, don't you know this?"
“Then I might not be a human being,” Qiu Shi said. “I haven’t cried many times.”
"Since I've known you," Xing Bi said, "including this time, it's been three times in total."
"Do you remember it so clearly?" Qiu Shi said.
"Because there are really few," Xing Bi said, "it's easy to remember. I don't know the ones before I knew them."
"I can't remember clearly myself," Qiu Shi rested his head on his arm, "maybe there wasn't anything that made me happy enough to cry. I usually cried when I was upset. But what's the point of crying when I'm upset? I don't even know who I'm crying for."
"Cry in front of me next time," Xing Bi said.
"Yeah." Qiu Shi laughed.
"Hmm?" Xing Bi looked at him.
"I feel like a fool," said Qiu Shi.
"No," Xing Bi said, "Do I look like a fool when I cry in front of you?"
"No," Qiu Shi touched his face, "I just feel sorry for this child."
"I am your ancestor." Xing Bi said.
"Just chat," Qiu Shi glared at him, "don't curse!"
Xing Bi laughed and hugged him tightly: "Can you fall asleep now?"
"This makes it even more difficult to sleep..." Qiu Shi sighed.
Li Feng was holding a can in his hand, with the buttons of his jacket unbuttoned. When he rushed into the laboratory with Ji Sui and Xu Jie, Director Wu came up to him anxiously.
Li Feng smashed the can in his hand towards his head: "Thank you so much for waiting until I got up before causing trouble!"
The can hit Director Wu's forehead accurately and firmly, and bounced to the ground with a "bang".
Director Wu covered his forehead and yelled, "This is a normal experiment! This is not a problem!"
"Then why did you ask me to bring two secret guards here so early in the morning?" Li Feng pushed him away and walked towards the experimental cabin.
As soon as I turned into the corridor, I heard the sound of glass hitting.
"They activated Zheng Ting's super-communism." Ji Sui heard it immediately.
"It's in shielding mode now," Director Wu followed with his head covered. "It can't be controlled. We need to calculate the formation time of the supercommunist, so that we can know in advance before their next attack..."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Li Feng walked into the experimental cabin and saw the black fungus body trapped in a special glass cover, as well as Wang Hong and Zhang Tan standing next to the cover.
"This is within the normal scope of research and does not require reporting," said Wang Hong.
"Open it." Li Feng said.
Wang Hong looked at him.
"Open it." Li Feng took out a gun and pointed it at him.
Wang Hong pressed a button next to him, and a narrow door appeared on the glass cover.
Ji Sui and Xu Jie rushed in at a very fast speed at the same time, and Wang Hong quickly closed the door.
Chao Gong's movements were slow, but his strength and resistance were amazing. Ji Sui and Xu Jie jumped up from the left and right at the same time, and hit Chao Gong's shoulders with their knees from the air, and while he was swaying, they used the force to press him to the ground.
Then Xu Jie took out a large injection from a small bag on his waist and stabbed it hard into the wound on Chao Gong's chest that was smashed open by Xing Bi and had not yet healed.
When the two came out of the experimental cabin, Director Wu said, "Did you take this from the laboratory before?"
"Yeah." Li Feng responded.
"This needs to be made into a gas, an aerosol," Zhang Tan said. "Injection is too dangerous."
"I'm warning you two," Li Feng put the gun to Wang Hong's nose, "Don't conduct any experiments beyond the current needs without my permission under my nose."
Wang Hong and Zhang Tan subconsciously raised their hands, their lips trembling and unable to speak.
"Speak out if you understand." Li Feng said.
"Yeah." Wang Hong responded.
"Any research on Zheng Ting has been suspended," said Li Feng.
"But..." Wang Hong looked at Director Wu over there.
"Let's decide after Xing Bi comes back." Li Feng turned and walked out of the experimental cabin. "Has Xing Bi contacted you? When will they come back?"
"No contact." Ji Sui said.
"Aren't you up yet?" Li Feng glanced at the time.
"Not many people get up at this time. It's too early." Xu Jie said.
"Is it too early?" Li Feng said, "The three crazy humans inside are all up, and I, a poor human, am also up."
"Qiu Shi is not crazy after all," Xu Jie said, "nor is he unlucky."
Li Feng glanced at him, smiled, and raised his hand to answer Qiu Shi’s call.
"Are you crazy, Director Li?" Qiu Shi's voice came out.
The author has something to say:
To be continued tomorrow⊙▽⊙.