Chapter 5: This Is the Highest Praise

Cold water poured down like a torrent.

This wasn’t a bathroom at all—it was straight out of a slaughterhouse assembly line.

White tiles glaringly bright, stainless steel troughs with a bloody smell, and rows of iron hooks on the wall that made one think of hanging pork.

Gu Chen was tossed onto the huge stainless steel autopsy table, his limbs firmly strapped down with special restraints, unable to move.

“Uh…”

With this injection, Gu Chen didn’t even have the strength left to curse Qin Hongyi’s ancestors for eighteen generations.

The moment that so-called nutrient agent’s blue ghostly substance was pushed into his vein, it wasn’t an infusion at all—it was like pouring lava into his veins.

Fire.

Wildfire raging madly along his blood vessels, wherever it passed, his organs turned to ashes.

“Dosage, double.”

Qin Hongyi stood two meters away in the safe zone, a slim lady’s cigarette between her fingertips.

Smoke curled, blurring her cold, glamorous, cruel face.

“Since Young Master Gu has so much energy, let him get a good charge.”

The white coat in the gas mask’s hand shook, voice wavering: “Miss, this base body just woke up—double T-9 agent might directly explode…”

“Inject.” Qin Hongyi blew a perfect smoke ring. “If it breaks, it’s on me—out with the old, in with the new.”

The second needle was pushed all the way without mercy.

Gu Chen felt like his skull was being forcibly pried open.

Pain nerves instantly overloaded—that kind of agony directly broke through human physiological limits, every cell being torn apart and reassembled.

“Uh!”

He bit his lower lip hard, trying to hold onto his last shred of a man’s dignity in front of this crazy bitch.

But his body was still too disappointing.

The roar he wanted to let out turned into sweet, broken whimpers by the time it reached his mouth.

He thrashed violently on the stainless steel table, the restraints digging into his snow-white flesh, grinding out shocking blood marks.

“Heh.”

Qin Hongyi approached in her high heels, looking down to appreciate Gu Chen’s body flushed pink from pain, her eyes flickering with morbid pleasure. “Does it hurt? It should. This is the price for a canary dreaming of flying out of its cage.”

She reached out, wanting to pat Gu Chen’s face like teasing a cat.

However, the moment her fingertip touched his skin, Qin Hongyi’s expression changed drastically.

Hot.

Shockingly hot, even scalding to the touch.

Not like a fever—more like touching a branding iron.

“What’s going on?” Qin Hongyi’s brows instantly furrowed into a Sichuan character.

Beep—beep—beep—!!

The heart rate monitor beside suddenly screamed like mad.

The waveform on the screen instantly tangled into a ball of yarn, the heart rate value shooting from 120 straight to 200, and still climbing wildly, about to max out.

“Warning! Core temperature 42 degrees! Still rising!”

“Blood pressure maxed! Veins can’t hold!”

“Rejection reaction! It’s top-grade rejection! Miss, the T-9 agent is clashing with her gene chain!”

The originally dead silent room instantly descended into chaos.

By now, Gu Chen couldn’t hear what the surroundings were shouting about.

His vision was a sea of blood red.

He felt something awakening in his body, cracking sounds coming from deep in his bones, countless worms seeming to crawl under his skin.

What the hell is this new torture?

This crazy bitch Qin Hongyi—what the fuck did she stuff into my body?

Rip!

With a crisp tearing sound, the priceless haute couture gown on Gu Chen was ripped open by Qin Hongyi in one go.

The sight before her made even the battle-hardened Qin Hongyi’s pupils shrink sharply.

On Gu Chen’s originally snow-white, flawless skin, eerie dark red patterns were now emerging.

Those patterns seemed alive, spreading from his chest, along his collarbone, abdomen, all the way to his limbs.

With every difficult breath Gu Chen took, those patterns flashed red light.

Beautiful to the point of heart-stopping, and eerie enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

“This… what the hell is this?” Qin Hongyi grabbed the doctor’s collar. “I spent three hundred million on cosmetic surgery—not to have you make me a red lotus Godzilla!”

The doctor’s legs went weak, nearly kneeling: “I don’t know! Data… data’s all garbled! This body’s cell activity is devouring the agent—she’s burning life force for forced iteration!”

“Cardiac arrest warning!”

Beeep————

The piercing long tone sliced through the air.

Gu Chen arched his chest sharply, then slammed back onto the table, eyes rolling back—that pair of soul-stealing peach-blossom eyes completely losing focus.

Dead?

Qin Hongyi’s mind went blank.

Gu Chen dead?

That scourge she had fought for ten years, mutually wishing violent death on each other, yet somehow never dying—just like that, expiring right before her eyes?

An unprecedented panic gripped her heart, a hundred times stronger than that night she learned of Gu Chen’s car crash death.

That was her prey, her toy—besides her, even the King of Hell had no right to take him!

“Useless! Get out!”

Qin Hongyi kicked away the doctor fumbling with the defibrillator.

She yanked off her obstructing suit jacket, disregarding any decorum, flipping straight onto the autopsy table, kneeling beside Gu Chen.

“Gu Qingcheng! I won’t allow you to die!”

“You haven’t paid back what you owe me! The game’s not over—who gave you permission to log off!”

Qin Hongyi interlaced her hands, pressing hard on Gu Chen’s scalding chest, starting CPR.

One, two, three.

The skin under her palms was hot enough to fry an egg—those eerie patterns even burned her palms, sizzling.

But no response at all.

“Wake up for me!”

Qin Hongyi’s eyes were bloodshot, long hair disheveled—the usually scheming female tycoon now like a madwoman.

She bent down, pinched Gu Chen’s nose, her red lips sealing tightly, desperately blowing air into his mouth regardless.

Cold fragrance intertwined with the smell of blood.

No heartbeat.

Still no heartbeat.

“Go get ice! Empty the whole ice storage! Hurry!” Qin Hongyi roared hysterically, her voice cracking.

Several bodyguards tumbled out, moments later pushing back a cart full of industrial ice blocks.

Splash—

All the ice was dumped into the huge reservoir beside in one go.

Qin Hongyi couldn’t wait for the water to cool—directly hugging Gu Chen up, clothes and all, plopping into the ice-filled pool.

Sizzle—

The instant Gu Chen’s scalding body touched the ice water, it made a sound like quenching red-hot iron.

White steam instantly rose, enveloping the two in mist.

Ice and fire extremes.

Qin Hongyi was soaked through, her shirt clinging to her body, lips turning purple from the cold—yet she held Gu Chen tightly in her arms, not letting him slip down.

“Gu Chen… you bastard…”

Qin Hongyi’s voice trembled. “You said you’d kill me—what’s this now? Playing dead? Want to die in my hands to make me guilty for life? Dream on!”

She even called him by the wrong name now.

Perhaps the ice water’s physical cooling worked, or maybe Qin Hongyi’s resentful curses really scolded him awake.

That stopped-beating heart suddenly throbbed extremely weakly once.

Thump.

Then a second.

“Cough cough—!!”

Gu Chen suddenly coughed up a mouthful of water, his originally scattered pupils beginning to focus.

What met his eyes was Qin Hongyi’s enlarged, dripping wet face.

Even in such a disheveled moment, this woman was still aggressively beautiful—only those fox eyes always scheming now were full of unsettled panic.

“Cough cough…”

Gu Chen felt like he had swallowed charcoal in his throat, his organs all aching.

But he had survived.

This body’s will to live was ridiculous—rivaling a cockroach.

Seeing Qin Hongyi’s soul-lost appearance, Gu Chen wanted to laugh, but it tugged at his wounds.

He wanted to say something ruthless, like “My life’s tough enough to kill you,” or “Your CPR technique sucks.”

But with his current vocal cords’ condition, plus his body’s extreme weakness, the sound he could make was minimal.

Gu Chen mustered all his strength, lifting one finger weakly, placing it on the back of Qin Hongyi’s hand.

Qin Hongyi held her breath, thinking he had some last words—hurriedly lowering her head to his mouth, ear practically pressed against it.

“Young Master Gu? What do you want to say? Beg me to let you go? Or last words?”

Gu Chen took a deep breath, airflow scraping his burned throat, squeezing two words from his swollen lips.

Clear and proper, even with the soft sweet voice, carrying a pure man’s stubbornness:

“… Stupid… idiot.”