NSMS Headquarters, Southern Base
Awakened Medical Research Center
20:00
The on-duty doctor was sitting in front of a computer reviewing a patient’s case file when a child suddenly rushed in with a backpack.
“Sister Xiao Zhang!”
The doctor put down the file and stood up with a smile. “Aiya, Xiao Xing, the Colonel finally let you out?”
Ren Suixing responded with a soft “mm,” then smiled sweetly. “I came for a follow-up check to see if my forehead and right hand are still okay.”
The doctor said, “Go ahead. Director Jiang is in the lab right now.”
Ren Suixing hugged the doctor’s leg and looked up. “Got it, sister, you’ve gotten even prettier!”
His small hand casually brushed across the doctor’s white coat.
The doctor smiled shyly and patted his head. “Such a sweet talker. Go on.”
“I’m off!”
The child ran away, and the on-duty doctor returned to her seat, smiling as she resumed work.
Knock, knock—
“Come in.”
“Brother Jiang…” a small head peeked in.
Inside the lab, a doctor wearing rimless glasses was conducting an experiment with a child. Hearing the voice, he removed his mask, revealing a baby-faced appearance with fair skin and red lips.
“You again calling me ‘brother.’ I’ve told you to call me ‘uncle’—I’m already in my thirties, older than your dad.”
“But you look so young and handsome. That old, ugly man in his fifties can’t compare at all. I’m going to call you brother.”
“Old man in his fifties…”
That “old man”, the youngest top-ranking officer in the entire special military system, someone who had been ranked for ten consecutive years as the most sexually attractive pheromone alpha in the forums, the kind of man who could make any omega go into heat at a glance, even though he had married young and already had a child, was not even thirty yet, and had just been called “old and ugly” by his own son.
The director helplessly patted the child’s head. This kid could sweet-talk anyone except his own father. He constantly caused chaos throughout the military district. People always said daughters were their father’s past-life lovers, while sons were debts from a previous life, this one really seemed like he had come to collect a debt.
“Yanyan, later finish this cell sorting task, then do the phenotypic analysis,” the director said as he removed his gloves.
Bai Yanxuan nodded obediently.
Ren Suixing ran over with quick steps. “So you’re here again. No wonder I couldn’t find you after school.”
“I’ll be learning flow cytometry today.”
Ren Suixing patted him like a good buddy. “Tough life… still have to take extra classes after school…”
The three children had known each other since they were very young. They were very close, along with the Zuo family’s cold-faced little kid. They often visited each other’s homes, and at night the three of them would frequently sleep under the same blanket. Director Jiang didn’t suspect anything and continued preparing the materials.
“Then keep studying. I’m going for my follow-up check first.”
“Okay,” Bai Yanxuan replied.
Ren Suixing followed Director Jiang out, and before leaving, he blinked at Bai Yanxuan.
Bai Yanxuan quietly pressed his pocket.
Five minutes later, Bai Yanxuan opened the door. At this time, all departments were busy, nurses doing rounds, doctors seeing patients, everyone was rushing around. After sending a message, he looked toward the duty room. Not long after, the phone of the doctor inside suddenly rang.
The female doctor glanced at it and answered in surprise. “Eh? Why are you calling me now?”
…
“Haven’t eaten yet. I’ll order takeout later. Have you eaten?”
“No choice, it’s like this every day. Today’s actually not busy, I finally had a short break.”
Whatever the person on the other end said made the doctor suddenly blush. She lowered her voice and clutched her clothes. “What are you even saying… at night~~”
“Shh, keep your voice down! You really say anything, huh? You’re a military officer, aren’t you afraid of being monitored and getting charged for indecent behavior?”
The female doctor looked around, then blushing, she took her phone and walked out of the duty room to a distant empty window to continue the call.
“Then… then tonight I’ll wear that…”
“The one with black lace… the see-through one…”
Bai Yanxuan confirmed no one was paying attention to him, quietly closed the lab door, and while the center was still full of people rushing about, no one noticed that a small child barely taller than the counter had slipped past the duty room with an access card and sneaked into the identification lab.
At the same time—
“…Officer, I really don’t know! He only came a few months ago, an outsider. Old Yu fished him out with a fishing rod. You don’t know, on that night he came in for treatment with white hair and white clothes, in the middle of the night, he looked like a ghost. He nearly scared this old man to death! I gave him a few packs of herbal medicine and told him many villagers had gone missing recently, not to come at night anymore… Who knew, who knew he was a wanted criminal! I’m just a clinic doctor, I don’t earn much but I pay my taxes on time. I’ve never done anything illegal! Please, officer, please investigate clearly—I really have nothing to do with him, sob sob…”
On the other side, the old man was crying his heart out. The adjutant reached out and pressed the recorder button, and the old man’s sobbing abruptly stopped.
He turned to look at the man sitting in the chair. The officer was leaning back in a soft chair, and the computer on the desk was playing footage from the interrogation room. At that moment, the screen was frozen on the scene where Shen Yue was in severe pain after seeing the blueprint.
Ren Jinzhu lightly tapped the buttons on his wristwatch, clicking them one by one.
The adjutant reported, “Colonel, this is the testimony from the village clinic doctor and that Old Yu in Wenshan Village. This is the prescription the doctor gave him.”
Ren Jinzhu took the paper and looked at the messy scribbles on it. The most expensive identifiable item on the list was a box of 999 cold medicine. He let out a soft chuckle and placed the paper down on the desk.
The adjutant cleared his throat and continued, “According to the investigation, the owner of that farm was an elderly beta from the village who passed away ten years ago. He had no heirs, so the farm has been abandoned ever since. It was likely discovered by those mercenaries and temporarily used as a base. As for the mercenaries—”
He glanced at Ren Jinzhu and said softly, “All the bodies, along with the entire farm, were burned away by your ability. Not even a trace of flesh was left, so we cannot conduct any bloodline testing…”
Not to mention flesh, there wasn’t even a single strand of hair left. The “Night Vision” ability had swept in with a twenty-meter radius of blazing lunar fire, not only incinerating the Gu Diao alpha and all the mercenaries on the farm, but leaving nothing behind at all. When he arrived, all that remained was a bare patch of ground. Even now, whenever he walked past, he could still feel the lingering heat of the flames.
The more the adjutant spoke, the quieter his voice became. Ren Jinzhu glanced at him, and he immediately added, “However, Headquarters later wiped out their organization. It is suspected they were temporarily hired by Circus.”
Ren Jinzhu nodded. “What about the children?”
“Those with families have been returned to their parents. A few are orphans, and we’ve contacted the Yunzhou City welfare institution and sent them there. Six of the children were only frightened and not seriously injured. The most severely injured was Xiao Xing…”
The adjutant muttered under his breath.
Ren Jinzhu’s expression did not change. His tone was cold and merciless: “He deserved it.”
The adjutant shrank back slightly and then glanced toward another adjutant who had remained silent the whole time.
The other man had the exact same appearance as him, clearly a twin, but unlike his somewhat casual brother, he was much more composed. Noticing the pleading look, he spoke up.
“Chief Investigator Liao has already submitted a report to Headquarters. Headquarters has sent orders instructing us to escort Shen Yue to Bailu Prison as soon as possible to await judgment. All further interrogation will take place there.”
Ren Jinzhu tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, producing a steady “tap, tap—” sound. It was his habitual gesture when thinking, and it was best not to disturb him at such times.
After a moment, he asked, “Was this sent by the Commander?”
“Yes.”
“And what does the Medical Center say?”
“…Director Jiang said the prisoner’s experimental history is extremely extensive and complex, and requires a large amount of time for testing and analysis. At present, a preliminary assessment shows that his gland has suffered significant damage. The director does not recommend sending him to prison immediately, but Headquarters is still insisting on immediate execution.”
Ren Jinzhu suddenly let out a laugh. “So eager to take him away… are you afraid that if he falls into my hands, I’ll kill him?”
The two adjutants kept their eyes straight ahead, not daring to look around. They knew his temper too well.
When Shen Yue was first brought back by the Colonel himself, Staff Officer Liu had almost popped his eyes out in shock. He couldn’t believe the Colonel had actually turned in his own fugitive spouse to the state. Based on the Colonel’s personality, he should have directly grabbed him by the neck and vented his anger on the spot, whether the man lived or died wouldn’t have mattered.
After receiving the news, Staff Officer Liu immediately issued a commendation notice within the system praising the ideological work of the Southern Base’s political commissar. What did this prove? It proved that the base’s ideological education, patriotism education, and “positive and optimistic life philosophy” education had been extremely well implemented!
But later, when Shen Yue suddenly vomited blood in the interrogation room, Staff Officer Liu finally realized something was wrong.
This “big devil” was playing dirty.
He was still playing, but not the same way as before. He wasn’t killing outright anymore. He had changed. Like a cat slowly torturing a mouse to death, he intended to slowly destroy Shen Yue, physically and mentally, completely taking revenge on him. The betrayal seven years ago had twisted his already questionable personality into something even more sinister.
Staff Officer Liu was both shocked and enraged. Seven years, he thought this guy had long since moved on from the trauma, but the moment he returned, he dropped a bombshell.
Shen Yue was guilty beyond redemption, but he could not die yet. So Staff Officer Liu quickly reported to the Commander, trying to pull him out from under Ren Jinzhu’s control.
Ren Jinzhu nodded at the two of them. “In that case, Liang Zhao and Liang Qu, prepare yourselves. Tomorrow you will escort the prisoner Shen Yue to Bailu Prison.”
Liang Zhao and Liang Qu froze.
Liang Qu blurted out immediately, “Huh? We’re really sending him away?”
Ren Jinzhu looked at him with a half-smile. “Didn’t you see the communication order? Or… are you planning to disobey a military command?”
“N-no, of course not!” Liang Qu quickly waved his hands. He secretly glanced at Liang Zhao.
Liang Zhao looked back at him helplessly—”see, I told you you talk too fast.”
Still, even he didn’t expect this reaction from the Colonel. All of Staff Officer Liu’s carefully prepared arguments against the transfer had become useless.
Leaning back casually in his chair, Ren Jinzhu watched Shen Yue’s pale, beautiful face on the screen and said indifferently, “I got tired of him a long time ago. He’s just a traitor, and an alpha at that. I’m no longer interested in him.”
“After this, whether he lives or dies has nothing to do with me.”