Chapter Eleven: Purification? (Seeking Votes~)

Chapter Eleven [Purification?]

The diary continues...

“January 24th. Today, Professor Musa left. They say he was dismissed for violating regulations. Professor Musa was a good friend, a meticulous and earnest scientist. I can’t believe someone who recites the rules before entering the lab could make such a mistake. But nobody knows what truly happened.

In fact, Professor Musa had been acting strangely these past days, seeming despondent for many days.”

“February 2nd. I have been officially appointed as the leader of Observation and Research Group Sixteen. From today, I am directly responsible for observing and studying Yaya… Yaya has become my child!”

“April 6th. Jack was also dismissed. This shocked me deeply! Jack was my best assistant, the most gifted young man I have ever met. I cannot accept such a decision from above, but my protest was rejected, and Jack had to leave…”

“May 5th, my son’s birthday. Yet I am not happy today. Another member of my team was transferred to another group by order from above. The four new replacements… I do not like them. When they look at Yaya, their eyes see a lab rat, not a person.”

An entire diary was filled with the record of years my mother spent at that research facility. She wrote of her joys and worries, and her longing for Chen Xiao.

And Yaya grew up, little by little, in her diary.

Yet, as the entries went on, my mother’s tone grew ever darker, as if something weighed heavily on her soul.

Mom was an exceptionally busy scientist. Her workload made daily diaries impossible; she could only write sporadically, and the entries grew fewer toward the end.

Chen Xiao quickly flipped to the later pages, and finally...

“June 5th. Numbers Three and Six finally completed their trials… I locked myself in my room, alone all day. Three and Six, as early test subjects, did not display much ability. But they are still human, still lives like ours! Today, I witnessed this crime unfold… Is it permissible to do such things in the pursuit of so-called truth, the mysteries of life?

Number Three, a healthy boy. Number Six, a healthy girl. Today, they forced the two test subjects to mate in a test tube experiment!”

“October 4th… I haven’t written in a long time, lately I feel panic, my heart full of fear and unease. The embryo from Three and Six’s coupling died, the experiment declared a failure. Number Six was quickly sent to another sector; I never saw her again… Where did they send her?”

“November 1st. Today, those people rudely searched my room! I consider it an affront to my dignity! They didn’t find this diary, but I was still warned. The authorities ordered me to undergo an internal evaluation, suspecting my mental state was unstable.”

“November 30th. Today I received news that terrified me. I just passed the internal evaluation, allowed back in the lab, but I don’t feel joy— I wish to leave, yet that seems impossible now! Today my husband returned from outside and told me: Professor Musa, dismissed earlier, and my assistant Jack, after leaving here, both soon died in car accidents. Furthermore, their families also perished in separate accidents.

Can that really be just coincidence?”

Chen Xiao clenched his fists as he read.

Between the lines, his mother’s anxiety and despair were palpable. She and his father seemed trapped in an inescapable shadow.

The entries dwindled further, as if his mother had no energy left to write. What remained was saturated with anger and terror.

The records described how that “research institute” experimented on living humans and made other mad decisions. For example, forcing test subjects to mate to produce new hybrid offspring. Or injecting them with certain pathogens to observe their immune responses…

Shocking!

Toward the end, his mother’s mental state seemed to verge on collapse. From her words, it appeared the institute had threatened her and his father’s lives more than once! The organization even seemed to subtly suggest that their lives would be used as leverage to force them to continue their research.

It seemed the entire family was under surveillance. Even their infrequent trips home to see him were under the institute’s supervision.

Looking back, Chen Xiao realized he’d never noticed—now, thinking about it, whenever his parents returned home in recent years, their mood was always poor, cold, withdrawn. In his youthful rebellion, he only resented their coldness, never noticing the fear and worry in his mother’s eyes.

Finally, he reached the diary’s last page. There was no date.

“We have decided! We cannot let this evil continue! We cannot wait any longer! Yaya is the last one, the last surviving new life from the experiments. She is a precious gift to the world! Those bastards are about to subject Yaya to terrible trials, we cannot allow this!

I do not fear death, but I must protect my child!! Just now, I destroyed all the stored ‘Purification,’ leaving only one vial in Yaya’s biocapsule.

That is our final legacy to the world, the fruit of many years of research. I do not know where this thing will lead the future of life… But I trust you, my friend.

My friend, Black Three, I give this diary to you. If you are still the best friend I once had, please keep it safe. Unless absolutely necessary, do not give these things to my son.

I only hope he can live beneath a blue, free sky!”

This was surely my mother’s last entry—her handwriting was ragged, written in haste. At the end of the passage, a single line appeared, and Chen Xiao recognized his father’s script:

“The direction of life should not be controlled by a handful of people.”

Seeing those familiar strokes, Chen Xiao was already in tears.

“Hope he lives beneath a blue, free sky…”

A blue, free sky…

With trembling hands, Chen Xiao hugged the diary to his chest, not bothering to wipe away his tears.

He gently took out the last item inside—the round metal tube. Pressing at the edge, a hiss of air sounded; Chen Xiao realized something inside was preserved by vacuum.

“Purification? What a strange name…” Chen Xiao slowly opened the metal tube. Inside, several slender metal rails held a glass vial about as thick as his finger. Within the vial, pale blue liquid shimmered with an unsettling glow…

Blue, as pure as the sky after a summer storm when sunlight returns.

“Purification”… Is that the name of the liquid in this vial?

Chen Xiao touched the metal tube gently and found a line scratched onto its surface with a sharp instrument:

(Purification: This is our final relic for the world.)

•

Across the street, on the rooftop, Black Seven frowned as she watched Chen Xiao’s window. Although the curtains were drawn, her finger pressed to her earpiece, and the lens over her left eye instantly displayed a transparent schematic—walls and curtains posed no obstacle to her vision!

She watched Chen Xiao retrieve the items from beneath the freezer. Black Seven’s gaze showed surprise and suspicion as she watched him read the letter and diary. When Chen Xiao opened the metal tube and revealed the blue vial…

Black Seven, clad in leather, actually shuddered!

She sprang to her feet: “Damn it! How does he have that?!”

Her expression was resolute—damn it! Something so important, yet the organization had no clue? How could such a thing end up in the hands of an ordinary person!

Without hesitation, Black Seven stepped back, took a deep breath, her eyes locked on Chen Xiao’s window. On her left lens, a cursor instantly locked onto the window’s position. Black Seven then stomped her left foot hard—

Crack! A faint sound of stone breaking as the rooftop tile fractured under her kick. Immediately, Black Seven launched herself forward, her slender figure drawing a graceful arc through the air, effortlessly clearing the twenty-meter gap between buildings. The window grew larger, closer…

•

Bang!!!

The window glass shattered with a deafening crash. Chen Xiao still clutched the blue vial in his hand as the living room window exploded, shards flying everywhere. A black figure burst in, smashing through the window, landing on the floor, rolling, and springing up. Before her feet had even settled, she twisted in midair, and—swish—Black Seven drew a strange-looking pistol from behind her. The gun was slightly oversized, with a heavy scope attached, and from the scope a faint blue light quickly gathered, glowing eerily…

“Put down what’s in your hand!” Black Seven’s face was grim, her tone chilling: “It’s dangerous!”

• (Asking for recommendation votes! Another chapter tonight~) •