“This is what you call science?”
Gu Chen pointed at the massive ten-meter-tall titanium gate before him, the corner of his mouth curling up. “What fucking science? This is pure mysticism—the sleazy kind at that.”
The center of the gate was completely bare. There was no keyboard, no iris scanner. Only a recessed groove.
The shape of the groove was eerie.
It was the imprint of two clasped hands.
One was a man’s left hand, the other a woman’s right hand.
The size, the length of the finger joints, even the direction of the palm lines were an exact copy-paste match for Gu Chen and Qin Hongyi.
“Stop wasting words.” Qin Hongyi hadn’t expected the old man to go this far either, but she had no choice.
On the host computer screen behind them, the red countdown was ticking down frantically.
Warning: Illegal intrusion. Purification program will initiate in 60 seconds.
The current area will be injected with fluoroantimonic acid toxic mist.
Fluoroantimonic acid.
Once it sprayed out, not even Gu Chen’s enhanced body would survive. It would melt into a puddle of pus. Even Wolverine would be reduced to nothing.
Qin Hongyi grabbed Gu Chen’s hand, interlocking their ten fingers tightly, and slammed them hard into the groove.
Click.
It fit perfectly, without a single gap.
Gu Chen could feel the sweat in Qin Hongyi’s palm and the slightly hurried pulse transmitting through her skin.
Biological signature verification in progress… Subject 001 confirmed. Key confirmed.
Synchrony rate testing in progress…
The red warning light overhead flashed brightly as the electronic synthetic voice announced:
Current synchrony rate: 82%.
Insufficient authority. Core area access requires a synchrony rate of 100%.
Purification protocol countdown: 45 seconds.
“Fuck!” Gu Chen cursed out loud. “I’ve already bared my heart to you with interlocked fingers. What more do you want? Do we really have to set up a wedding banquet right here at the door and enter the bridal chamber?”
Qin Hongyi’s brows furrowed tightly. “The synchrony rate is insufficient because your subconscious is resisting. Gu Chen, you’re still on guard against me.”
“No shit!”
Gu Chen looked at the nozzles slowly protruding from the surrounding walls. Green mist was already seeping out from them. “I just learned that I’m a custom-made large-scale figurine tailored for you. Can’t I have some psychological trauma?”
“There’s no time to give you psychological counseling.”
Qin Hongyi suddenly stepped forward, pressing her entire body against Gu Chen’s back.
Without the slightest hesitation, her other hand wrapped around his waist, gripping his lower abdomen tightly and squeezing their bodies together until there was no space left between them.
“Heat source sharing. Forced heart rate synchronization.” Qin Hongyi’s voice was domineering. “Relax! Don’t tense your muscles up like stone!”
Gu Chen took a deep breath, forcing himself not to dwell on the soft sensation behind him.
Synchrony rate rising: 88%… 91%…
Warning: Synchrony rate has stalled.
Countdown: 30 seconds.
The sickly green toxic mist had already begun to spray out.
Just the slightest whiff of that corrosive acidic smell drifting over caused a stinging pain to spread across the skin of Gu Chen’s arm.
“No good.” Cold sweat broke out on Gu Chen’s forehead. “This broken system isn’t judging by surface area of contact. It’s judging mental acceptance level. As long as I still consider you my mortal enemy in my head, this door is staying welded shut.”
“Then stop treating me as your mortal enemy,” Qin Hongyi said through gritted teeth.
“That’s a little difficult. After all, you nearly broke my legs before.” Even at death’s door, Gu Chen was still running his mouth.
Qin Hongyi’s gaze turned fierce.
“Then let’s switch perspectives.”
She forcefully turned Gu Chen’s face toward her.
There was no foreplay. No warning whatsoever.
In the instant before the toxic mist swallowed them both, Qin Hongyi kissed him.
This was not the pitying kiss meant to feed him blood.
It was a kiss carrying a plea.
Gu Chen’s pupils shrank abruptly.
His brain crashed for a split second. Then, a violent torrent of information surged into his mind through their joined lips and teeth.
Eden Project subject trait: High-level synesthesia.
When the key and the subject merged deeply, memories and emotions would have no defenses left.
Boom!
The world before Gu Chen’s eyes shattered.
The titanium gate disappeared. The toxic mist vanished.
What appeared now was a pristine white operating room.
The perspective was very low—it belonged to a five-year-old child.
“It hurts… Uncle, Hongyi hurts…”
Gu Chen heard a childish voice crying out.
It was little Qin Hongyi.
She was strapped to the cold operating table, tubes inserted all over her body.
Several people in protective suits were holding large syringes, injecting an unknown liquid into her slender spine.
“Endure it a little, Hongyi.”
A cold voice rang out. “You are the key selected by the Gu family. Only if your genes are successfully modified will Subject 001 be able to survive in the future.”
“But it hurts so much…” The little girl sobbed heartbreakingly. “I don’t want to be the key. I want to go home…”
“This is your fate.”
The person mercilessly pushed the medicine in. “For that perfect creation, you must become a container capable of holding all his ferocity. Even if it turns you into a monster that can only perceive pain.”
The scenes flashed by rapidly.
At seven years old, Qin Hongyi endured the agonizing pain of gene modification alone in a pouring rain, clutching a photo of Gu Chen in her hand. It was her painkiller and the source of her hatred.
At twelve years old, the first time she met Gu Chen.
The youth was spirited and high-spirited, standing in the sunlight like a prince.
She hid in the gutter, her body covered in needle marks, jealousy burning in her eyes as she watched him.
At eighteen, twenty…
It turned out that in all those years of sharp confrontations, every time she looked at Gu Chen, her gaze held not only hatred but also a pathological longing buried deep in her marrow, born from genetic attraction.
She wanted to destroy him because he was the root of her suffering.
She wanted to protect him because he was her only reason for living.
“…”
In the real world, Gu Chen’s body shuddered violently.
So that’s how it is.
It turned out he was not the only monster that had been created. Qin Hongyi was also a victim whose fate had been forcibly twisted.
Moreover, the pain she had endured was far greater than his, who had been sleeping in the nutrient tank all this time.
At this moment, the wall in Gu Chen’s heart called self-respect collapsed in one corner.
Fuck mortal enemies.
Fuck grudges.
In front of this damned fate, they were nothing more than two grasshoppers tied to the same rope, two wild beasts in the darkness licking each other’s wounds.
“Hah.”
Gu Chen’s previously stiff and resisting hand suddenly went soft.
He reached back and gripped the back of Qin Hongyi’s head, turning from passive to active as he kissed her back fiercely.
In that moment, he released all his mental defenses.
He no longer resisted the sense of submission coming from his genes, nor did he reject the idea of becoming one with this woman.
Come on then.
Since we’re both monsters, we might as well go to hell together.
Warning lifted.
Synchrony rate skyrocketing: 120%… 150%… 200%!
Determination achieved: Perfect symbiosis.
Welcome back, Adam. Eve.
Hum.
A visible blue light wave exploded outward from the two of them as its center.
The approaching toxic mist was instantly pushed away by the force field.
The flashing red lights overhead instantly changed to a soft green.
Clank clank clank clank.
The heavy titanium gate slowly opened to both sides amid rumbling sounds.
Qin Hongyi let go of Gu Chen.
Both of them were breathing heavily, blood staining the corners of their mouths. It was impossible to tell whose it was.
The air was filled with an extremely ambiguous yet extremely dangerous atmosphere.
It was not only hormones but also the static electricity left behind after two powerful mental forces had just merged.
Qin Hongyi looked at Gu Chen with a complicated gaze.
In that instant just now, she had seen it as well.
She had seen Gu Chen’s despair when facing that wall full of clones. She had seen the lonely soul deep in his heart.
“Seen enough?”
Gu Chen raised his hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb.
His voice was hoarse, but those eyes of his shone with a frightening brightness. The vertical pupils had completely faded, replaced by a profound depth.
“Not enough.” Qin Hongyi didn’t put on airs either. She straightened her collar that Gu Chen had grabbed and messed up, resuming her queenly posture. “But I do have a new understanding of your body right now.”
“Mutual.”
Gu Chen let out a scornful laugh but didn’t point out the memories he had seen.
Some things lost their flavor once spoken. He would remember them and settle the accounts slowly later.
He turned around and looked at the world behind the gate.
It was a circular domed hall, even more precise than the exhibition room outside.
In the center of the hall, a massive double-helix holographic projection floated.
Below the projection, a silver metal platform sat quietly.
On the platform stood a single test tube.
The liquid inside the test tube glowed with a dreamy pale golden color, flowing with liquid starlight.
“Perfect Agent.”
Gu Chen’s breathing halted.
This was the thing Old Master Gu had sacrificed countless lives for—even Qin Hongyi’s childhood—to create.
Drinking it would repair his genetic defects. He would no longer need to suck blood to continue living, nor be controlled by others.
He walked toward it step by step. With every step he took, the instruments around him automatically lit up in salute.