The top floor of the Return to Zero team is a seldom-used venue. No one has been there for a long time. When you open the door, you can smell the dust inside. The vaulted ceiling hangs high, and the scarlet carpet under your feet feels soft when you step on it. , can walk quietly, surrounded by huge floor-to-ceiling windows, and some old pale golden curtains are blown by the wind blowing in from high above, making rattling noises.
When Hu Bugui walked in, General Xiong had his back to him, standing at an open window looking out, there were no guards.
"Close the door," General Xiong said.
Hu Bugui subconsciously looked up at the monitor in the corner of the hall. General Xiong didn't turn his head, but seemed to have seen his movement, and said in a low voice, "It's already turned off, don't worry."
"It's already closed." Hu Bugui didn't feel relieved, he thought that General Xiong had something to say that he couldn't say in the conference room or office, why did he have to come here
General Xiong turned around and waved to him: "Come and see."
What are you looking at
Hu Bugui followed his gaze - the headquarters of the Guiling team was some distance away from the urban area, the terrain was very high, and the place where they were standing was almost the tallest building nearby. Looking into the distance, the city, roads, and interchanges were almost at a glance. Nothing left.
It was almost dusk, the sun sank below the horizon, and the city lights began to light up bit by bit.
In the starry sky and the earth, all the colors are dimmed, leaving only artificial lights.
Hu Bugui glanced at General Xiong suspiciously: "General, what's wrong?"
"Sometimes, when you look at these things, you will find that there is nothing in this world that cannot happen." General Xiong said vaguely, "A person can at best lift an object weighing several hundred kilograms and run for tens of kilometers I can't live more than a hundred years and eat whole grains, even an ant seems bigger than a person when viewed from a distance from here."
The old general leaned on the railing, squinted his eyes, and pointed at the distant city: "But you see, they are all man-made. We live like this day after day. At first glance, we have lived the same life for hundreds of years. There are so many people in the world, and there are so many mysterious powers that you can't even imagine, I always feel that nothing can go wrong."
Hu Bugui didn't know why General Xiong suddenly looked up at the sky at forty-five degrees, wondering if it's easy to hurt the spring and the autumn when you get old
General Xiong was silent for a while, then lowered his head, as if he just came back to his senses, glanced at him, and asked, "How is it now?"
"Contacts have been established in all parts of the country, and all scientific research institutions that can be used have been transferred in urgently. At present, there is no place to continue to report the explosion, but there is still no clue about the 'sleep sickness'." Hu Bugui paused, "According to the internal According to the data, the number of confirmed cases in the world has risen to more than 500, and there are now more than 90 cases in our country. The patients are basically concentrated near City Z, with City Z as the center, and the radiation range has reached 120 kilometers. Expanding outward."
General Xiong refused to comment after listening, nodded, and after a while, asked again: "What about public opinion?"
Hu Bugui said: "It hasn't gotten out of control yet. City Z is temporarily under martial law. It is said to be a highly pathogenic influenza. The death toll and the real number of confirmed cases have not been leaked."
"What about rumors of new terrorism and war?"
"Fortunately, the mainstream media and the Internet have successively invited experts to refute the rumors. So far, we have not heard of any accidents caused by runs or panic buying in China."
General Xiong stretched out his hand to grab the railing, the veins on his old skin were slightly exposed, and he said softly: "That's good, that's good."
Hu Bugui raised his eyebrows: "Do you... have something to tell me?"
General Xiong glanced at him, remained silent for a while, and then slowly said: "Twenty-five years ago, I was a young man, not long after I joined the army. At that time, two scholars took the lead and started a research project. It is the 'Utopia Project', under the name of military industry, the funds are allocated by the state, when the first base was established, the person in charge of the security of the base was me."
Hu Bugui listened without saying a word. No one had systematically told him about the dark history of Utopia before.
"Those two scholars, I guess you already know it in your heart. One is Professor Cheng who lives on the sixth floor now, and the other is Zheng Qinghua, a top Ph.D. in anthropology. And this plan started , It’s about energy and the infinite possibilities of human evolution.” General Xiong paused, “But it’s ironic that Professor Cheng has a son like Cheng Ge, and Dr. Zheng himself has albinism.”
"Is it because they made the blue seal later?" Hu Bugui said.
General Xiong nodded: "This plan lasted for a full ten years, and the first successful blue seal in human history was born—it was Zheng Qinghua himself. The energy crystal system repaired his genetic defects, and the corresponding gray seal was his. It was at that time that Professor Cheng and Dr. Zheng had a disagreement over the unnatural product of 'Blue Seal'."
"Zheng Qinghua took his own sister..." Hu Bugui suddenly stopped talking when he said this. He remembered that Xu Ruchong was still Zheng Qinghua's adopted son in the legend, so he was abandoned just like that
"The Utopia project was stopped before they resolved this disagreement." General Xiong said, "Zheng Wan, that gray seal at the time, committed the crime of intentional homicide because of a mental breakdown, and then committed suicide in fear of crime."
"This research itself is too dangerous. An order was issued from above to destroy all research materials and seal the base, but Zheng Qinghua disappeared the day before the data was destroyed." General Xiong paused, and added, "He is the Yin, except for himself, no one knew how different Lan Yin was from ordinary people at that time. You will know later that Zheng Qinghua received help from someone, and he still did not give up his experiment while he was on the run. I received a secret Instructions to set up a return to zero team, which is responsible for cleaning up the blue seals. However, no one knows who Zheng Qinghua is cooperating with, who can make such a big noise, and where the armed forces come from. The current Utopia organization has How old is Zheng Qinghua, who has disappeared for many years, and where has his research reached... "
General Xiong shook his head: "There is only one thing I can understand. For more than ten years, this mysterious utopian organization has been hiding its head and showing its tail, but now it is tantamount to showing itself to the world in a high-profile way. This is declaring war, which means that they finally have Enough chips."
Hu Bugui frowned and looked at him.
"Don't talk about blue seals... They are many times stronger than ordinary people in terms of physical fitness and agility. They are skills that the other party has mastered that we don't have. They are a threat that cannot be ignored," General Xiong's voice paused. , Seriously: "Have you ever thought about what the world will be like when everyone bows to this so-called 'technological terrorism' one day?"
Hu Bugui blurted out, "There won't be that day", but the words were stuck in his throat, looking at General Xiong's face that rarely sank, he couldn't say anything.
"You are a regular soldier, a national elite, maintaining social security, and have the authority to sanction terrorists at any time." General Xiong smiled, "Little Hu, but if one day you and Lan Yin's positions are reversed, what will you do?" manage?"
"What happened?"
General Xiong didn't answer, but just stared straight into his eyes: "Tell me, if there is such a day, what will you do?"
"I believe that what's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong." Hu Bugui thought for a while before saying, "I'm not the kind of person who is particularly shrewd, who knows everything from what I've heard, and who is very calculating. Forget it, now that you know it, you won’t do what you don’t want to do against your will.”
General Xiong stared at him for a moment, then took out a bunch of keys and stuffed them into his hand.
Hu Bugui was taken aback: "This is..."
"Remember what you said today, one day, you will need this thing." General Xiong didn't plan to talk to him anymore, and waved his hand, "Go and do your work."
Hu Bugui felt that he might not be a very shrewd person. He had many questions in his mind, but he didn't know where to ask them. General Xiong turned around and only gave him a back view, as if he didn't want to reveal anything. Yes, Hu Bugui hesitated for a moment, but still said "yes", closed the door and left the lobby on the eighth floor.
About an hour after he left, a guard came up with General Xiong's phone. General Xiong took it, took a look at the "guard" who was obviously unfamiliar, took the phone, and whispered in his ear. Listen silently.
It was completely dark, and from a distance, the neon lights of the city were like a Milky Way falling to the ground. If you closed your eyes, you could hear the hustle and bustle of people.
Those flickering lights were reflected in General Xiong's old and cloudy eyes, as if coated with a layer of radiant film, he no longer smiled all over his face, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were deeply sunken, and his lips The mouth is tightly pursed, and the corners of the mouth are slightly pulled down, like a stone statue carved from marble.
Finally, General Xiong spoke, and he said in a low voice: "I know... yes, I have already prepared for this day."
His eyes narrowed slightly, as if a smile flashed across him, he hung up the phone and handed it over to the "guard" with an unfamiliar face.
"Let's go." After he finished speaking, he turned around calmly and strode ahead without looking back, like a hero who never looked back, like... a martyr.
That night, General Xiong suddenly left the headquarters of Guiling Team without even saying hello. Hu Bugui was holding the mysterious keys, and felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what went wrong.
Three days later, Fang Xiu suddenly took a newspaper and broke into Hu Bugui's office without even knocking on the door: "Captain Hu, take a look at this."
Hu Bugui glanced at the front page of the newspaper - "Start God-making Project".
He nodded, obviously he had seen it before, and didn't react too much. Fang Xiu lowered his voice: "Look here, 'Thirteen countries jointly launch the Utopia scientific research plan, and the world will enter the era of miracles'. Did the government jointly issue a statement recognizing the legitimacy of Utopia? I checked and found that our country did not sign it, but judging from the attitude of the media, not signing it is just an ambiguous attitude, not an objection.”
Hu Bugui pulled out a document from the drawer and pushed it in front of Fang Xiu: "I was just about to tell you that tomorrow someone from above will come down to conduct a political review of the headquarters. The political review is held every year, but usually at the end of the year or the beginning of the year , I've never come here at such an inappropriate time, so please let me know by the way, so that everyone knows."
Fang Xiu held his breath and looked at him: "This is... this is... what about General Xiong? Why didn't General Xiong stand up and say something? What's going on up there? Why did it suddenly..."
"I tried to contact General Xiong, and all the numbers became empty overnight." Hu Bugui typed a few times on the keyboard on the desk, and then turned the monitor at an angle so that he could see clearly.
He searched for "Xiong Maolin", which is General Xiong's real name. There was nothing under the search engine, and a line of small characters suggested "Is the panda Lin Lin you are looking for?"
Fang Xiu felt that a basin of cold water had been poured on his head in an instant, and was stunned. After a long time, he lowered his head slightly, just in time to meet Shang Hu Bugui's deep gaze, opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.
Hu Bugui said softly: "You go, don't worry, the sky won't fall, and I will still carry it when it does fall."
The darkest age has finally come.