Lily said in a small voice, "I'm sorry, Madam, I'm just a bit worried about Si Nan."
"What is there that you can't talk to me about?" Madam Lu held out a hand to Lily, who obediently left An Zhe and allowed Madam Lu to hold her by the hand.
When they met last time at the Lighthouse, Madam Lu was wearing a mask, so An Zhe could only see her eyes. This time, he finally saw all of the Madam's facial features with all of their soft lines. Her eyebrows were curved, but when she was not smiling, her slightly thin lips were pursed a little, adding a trace of steadfast heroism to this gentle appearance. Lu Feng didn't look like her.
But inexplicably, An Zhe felt that her facial features bore some similarities to Lily's. If all of the base's people grew from the Garden of Eden's embryos and all the embryos came from the Garden of Eden's women, then Lily may indeed be Madam Lu's daughter by blood. From this viewpoint, Lily decisively leaving him after seeing Madam Lu and holding her hand was understandable—after all, she was the Madam's youngling rather than his. In this world, only his spore would never voluntarily leave him.
An Zhe looked at Madam Lu. He didn't know what measures Madam Lu would take regarding him.
He only heard Madam Lu ask, "Is he your friend? Did you come to this passageway to find him?"
Lily and An Zhe locked eyes. Her crafty gaze shifted, and she said to Madam Lu, "He doesn't want to go back. Can I invite him to be my guest?"
"We can invite An Zhe to dinner. What they have is very yucky," Lily said.
An Zhe understood that this little girl wanted to help him hide from the people searching below, but he didn't think that Madam Lu would agree to it. After all, his abrupt appearance here was too strange.
But to his surprise, Madam Lu said, "All right."
"Wow, Madam, you're so nice today," Lily said.
Madam Lu bowed her head and stroked Lily's hair. "I have always loved you very much."
Lily affectionately rubbed against her palm. "I like you too."
So this was how An Zhe was taken to the twenty-second floor of the Garden of Eden, where the atmosphere there was peaceful. Speakers in the corridors were playing soft music, and the snow-white walls were covered with pictures of things like flowers, butterflies, bees, clouds, or the Virgin Mary. Compared to the outside, this place seemed like another world.
In the spacious corridor and main hall, An Zhe encountered other women. They were all dressed in pure white long dresses, wore their jet-black or chestnut brown
hair loose, and had tranquil expressions on their faces. Upon seeing Madam Lu, they amicably nodded toward her and gave their greetings.
In a small annex of the communal dining hall, An Zhe ate the twenty-second floor's dinner. It was sweetened milk,
half of a roast chicken, and a bowl of vegetable and corn soup.
After eating, the Madam said, "You should send your friend away now."
Lily wheedled, "Let him stay a while longer."
The Madam indulged her request, saying, "Then let's go water the flowers together."
Thus, holding An Zhe by the hand, Lily passed through the snow-white main hall and came to a round room somewhere else. An Zhe saw at a glance the luxuriant red and green within the room. The center of it was built into aflower bed several square meters in size, inside of which deep red roses were profusely blooming.
"My lover used to bring back seeds from the wilderness for me," Madam Lu said to An Zhe. "Later, Lu Feng would do so as well. I remember you were together with him that day."
An Zhe nodded.
"He's very rarely willing to get close to others." Madam Lu picked up the silver watering can that was on the flower stand.
Right at that moment, something suddenly flashed in An Zhe's field of vision, and he unconsciously turned his head—it was the room's TV screen. Nobody pressed the remote; it had turned on automatically.
"News from the Emergency Response Department." The rate at which the announcer spoke was much faster than usual. At the same time, a photo of An Zhe appeared on the screen. "It is critical that this suspect be arrested. If there are any witnesses, please immediately provide information on his whereabouts."
An Zhe's body tensed up slightly. The one-hour-long peace earlier seemed to be just an illusion; to him, this world was still full of dangers at every turn. He looked at Madam Lu.
But he heard Madam Lu say softly, "Don't be afraid."
Madam Lu's actions were always outside An Zhe's expectations. At first, he thought the Madam was a staunch advocate of the base's rules, but now it looked like that wasn't the case.
"You…"
"I will not help you escape, but for the time being I won't hand you over either." Madam Lu smiled.
An Zhe asked her, "How come?"
"They always have many reasons to arrest a person." Madam Lu's gaze moved away from the screen. Bowing her head, she watered her rosebushes. A crystalline drop of water rolled down the edge of a crimson petal, then fell from the dark green leaves and into the soil. "For example, forty years ago, they arrested my mother."
An Zhe didn't know what she wished to say, but she seemed to strongly want to tell a story. He had met many people who all wanted to tell him stories, as though hidden inside every single person's heart were pasts worth looking back upon.
So he said nothing and only listened quietly. The roses' fragrance surrounded them, and Lily plucked one. She peeled the petals away from the sepals, held them in her palm, and then tossed them into the air. Just like a shower of rain, the drifting petals fell, landing on her hair and body. One petal landed on the tips of Madam Lu's hair.
"The 23,371 women of the four human bases passed thefollowing manifesto with zero rejection votes: I'm willing to devote myself to the destiny of humanity, accepting genetic experiments and all forms of assisted reproduction, to strive for my entire lifetime for the continuation of the human race." In a very soft voice, Madam Lu repeated the Rose Manifesto that An Zhe had once heard from Lily's mouth, but compared to the little girl's crisp and lively voice, her tone seemed somber.
"Deleted from this manifesto was one phrase, a prerequisite," Madam Lu said. "Under the premise of having fundamental human rights, I accept genetic experiments and all forms of assisted reproduction. Furthermore, the ones who initiated the manifesto also reached an accord with the base to have women manage women."
Her finger touched the soft edges of the roses. "However, that was something from nearly seventy years ago. At that time, it seemed that there was still hope for everything. The fate of humankind was laid out before us. So long as we could last, things would improve… If I were one of the twenty-three thousand women from that time, I would have also agreed without the slightest hesitation. Everyone is making sacrifices, so I'm willing to contribute my utmost for humankind's interests."
"Back then, the technology for in vitro culturing of embryos had not yet matured, so children had to stay within the mother's body for at least seven months. The base hoped that, for the sake of increasing the population, the rest time of their wombs would not exceed fifteen days." Madam Lu tilted her head back to look at the steelhued ceiling. "The duty of childbirth was excessively heavy. Their entire lifestyles were devastated, and their lives were also ebbing. They had hoped for the base to loosen the requirements, but nobody agreed."
"For the women who voluntarily enacted the Rose Manifesto and all the girls who were born since then, dedicating themselves to this manifesto was a matter of course—moreover, our need for people was too great. The Lighthouse and military thought so, most of the people of the Main City and Outer City thought so, and even the women managing the women thought so."
Her tone of voice contained a gentleness that seemed capable of eliciting emotional resonance. As An Zhe silently listened, he saw Lily also quietly sitting at the edge of the flower bed.
"To fight for the protection of fundamental human rights, they initiated a protest movement. That was forty years ago, and my mother was among those who initiated the protest movement—she seemed to also be one of the earliest initiators of the Rose Manifesto." Madam Lu smiled. "But all of the pictures and written materials were destroyed. At that time, I was too young, so I don't remember much. I can only recall that one night, the soldiers of the United Front Center broke into our home. She locked me in my room, and then there was a gunshot… I saw blood flow from under the door into my room. And after that, I was sent to the Garden of Eden."
"They had finally discovered that having an iron grip on the control of reproductive resources themselves was the most effective method, so they deleted that phrase from the manifesto. When a new generation of girls was gathered, they grew up with the teachings of the Garden of Eden, so they learned their duty by heart from a young age and received no other education. This way, the base did not have to worry about the decline of the birth rate, and no girl would feel the pain of losing her human rights because of the ceaseless childbirths."
She looked at the surrounding walls, but it was like she was looking at the entire human base through the walls. "I feel pain because of this, but I also know that my pain is just a trivial portion. In this place, people die every single second. In this age, the only way for humans to survive is to turn themselves into an aggregated creature. People withdifferent duties are this creature's different organs. The Lighthouse is the brain, the military is the claws and fangs, the people of the Outer City are the flesh and blood, the buildings and city walls are the skin, and the Garden of Eden is the womb."
An Zhe looked at her. Seeming to understand his gaze, she said, "I've never resented this place."
She leaned over and picked up Lily, who buried her head on her shoulder.
"I'm just often perplexed about one thing," she said as she gently stroked Lily's hair with her fingers. "We resist monsters and xenogenics along with the contamination of human genes by foreign genes for the sake of preserving the will that is specific to humans and avoid being ruled by animal natures… But to achieve this goal, all of our actionsrun counter to the norms of human nature. And the community we collectively form—all of the things it does, such as obtaining resources, strengthening itself, and producing offspring—can only embody the nature of animals. In fact, humans are no different from the monsters of the outside world. It's just that because of the brain's flexibility, they give their various actions self-deluding meanings. Humans are just one kind of ordinary animal. They are born like all other lives, and they are also on the cusp of extinction just like all other lives."
Madam Lu's eyes had a dead look. "Humankind's culture and technology are both all but worthless."
Saying nothing more, she lifted her head to gaze for a long time at the ceiling. An Zhe saw that her palm was resting against a dark-colored knob—and then she gently twisted it.
The metal plates on the ceiling that guarded against radiation noisily opened. This was the Garden of Eden's top floor, so outside the glass was the boundless light from the skies. Nighttime was when the solar winds temporarily ceased, so the silent twilight and the Milky Way poured in together.
An Zhe murmured, "There will be a day when it gets better."
Perhaps there truly would come a day when the Arbiter did not need to kill their fellow citizens, soldiers did not need to sacrifice themselves in the wilderness, and the girls of the Garden of Eden regained their freedom.
"No, there won't," Madam Lu said. "The time when this world is going to be utterly ruined is almost upon us."
"Lily," she said, turning to the little girl in her arms, "do you wish to fly?"
As An Zhe looked at her gentle profile and heard this sentence, a chill shot up his spine.
He heard Lily ask in a crisp voice as she hugged Madam Lu's neck, "Can I? Just like Si Nan?"
"Yes, you can."
Right at that moment, An Zhe finally understood Si Nan's purpose in having Lily return to the Garden of Eden.
It was the polar opposite of their earlier conjectures.
To return to the Garden of Eden was by no means because the place was safe.
Lily lifted her head from Madam Lu's shoulder and looked at An Zhe with those jet-black eyes. In her eyes, there had always been a peculiar cloudy-looking luster that reminded An Zhe of the creatures within the Abyss. In fact, every single woman and girl on the twenty-second floor had this sort of innocent demeanor. If a Judge were here, perhaps he would conclude that they were not real humans. If a person stayed within the Garden of Eden from birth and could not leave for the duration of their life, this person would definitely be different from the humans outside.
An Zhe felt a sudden slight pain in his head, for that wave occurred in his mind again, but it was far from the immensity and terror he felt in the late night. It was much more specific and much closer, as if the source was right at his side.
As he was watching Madam Lu, the lighting changed, and he saw within the Madam's eyes a hint of an illusory rainbow. "You…"
An Zhe took a few steps back. Behind him was the red alarm bell each room was equipped with. "You don't want to be human anymore?"
Madam Lu looked at him blankly, and a single tear rolled down from the rims of her eyes.
"There is no longer any hope for humankind," she said.
An Zhe said, "When Lu Feng returns…"
Before he finished speaking, Madam Lu suddenly began to laugh. At the same time, tears continually fell from her
eyes, and her entire body was trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind. She covered her mouth firmly with her right hand, only letting out broken laughter.
"Humankind… has brought too much pain to my children and me." An Zhe finally heard her speak. Perhaps she was feeling tender affection for Lu Feng, but in the following moment, Madam Lu's voice turned frighteningly hoarse.
"Lu Feng… He is more steadfast than me. He is just like this base, able to sacrifice everything for the interests of humankind, but he will never be able to get what he wants." The Madam reached out and crushed a bright red rose. The thorn pricked her hand, but the pain made her voice calmer. "All of the things he wishes to protect will be destroyed. His beliefs are like castles in the air, and he will die a miserable death. Being unable to personally see the day when he goes mad and being unable to see the day when this base meets is doom are my only regrets."
The despondent and sorrowful emotions concealed within this voice made An Zhe open his eyes wide. With no idea what had happened, he looked at her in disbelief.
The rose petals slipped out of Madam Lu's hand, and her voice became softer. "What I wish to do is leave this place. For what purpose did you come to the human base and come to his side, little xenogenic?"
An Zhe looked at her, unable to say anything.
But it seemed that Madam Lu did not necessarily wish to hear his response. Her neck lengthened, and her entire body changed, stretching out and bending into a strange arc, then swelling and expanding—
Brown and jet-black lines appeared upon her. Her body became an oval pupa, her arms became the slender limbs of an arthropod, and two pairs of transparent wings tore through the pure white dress as they emerged from her back. Within a scant minute, she had become a monster that was half-human and half-bee.
That strange wave became even more fierce, but it simply enveloped Lily. Within this wave, Lily's body was undergoing the same changes.
"It's almost time. Humans' genes are too weak, so they are unable to perceive the changes currently happening in the world, and they are also incapable of enduring mutation and selection. But other organisms are not necessarily strong either," she murmured. "We will all die. I don't hate humans. I have worked for the base for thirty-five years, alleviating much pain for women and increasing thenumber of newborns born in the base each year."
She smiled. "But in the face of this calamity, all work was futile. It only proves the insignificance and powerlessness of humankind. I merely wish to experience those things I've never received before in this final peaceful age."
Her forewings shimmered beneath the moonlight. The queen bee's body was huge, slim, and beautiful.
Lily's transformation completed before hers did. She had already turned into a smaller bee and was darting around Madam Lu. The way she flew was so skillful that it seemed innate. From this bee, An Zhe could not find the slightest similarity to humankind.
As An Zhe looked at Madam Lu, he saw her frown slightly and close her eyes.
There was a somewhat pained expression on her tranquil face, but then her head underwent indescribable changes. Iridescent compound eyes bulged out, antennae burst forth, and the human bones twisted and transformed into hard, honey-colored chitin. This creature's size and beauty far surpassed all the other insect-class monsters An Zhe had seen before. Within this hexagonal beehive, she was like a queen bee.
A rustling started up, which was the sound of wings vibrating. Like flowing white gauze, the transparent insect wings shook a few times, then began to vibrate. Her body took flight, slowly rising toward the dome before abruptly accelerating once she had almost reached it!
With a dramatic shuddering noise, spiderwebbing cracks appeared in the solid glass dome. An Zhe felt that the dome's materials ought to be very strong, but with the second and third impacts, there was a bang, and countless tiny fragments of glass went flying. They landed on the ground and in the rose petals, seeming just like dewdrops.
The alarm was triggered. The entire room lit up with red, and the sound of the alarm was deafening. Numerous footsteps could be heard as staff members in white shirts broke in, but upon witnessing the scene before them, they were all stunned.
A huge hole had been created from the impacts. The bee Lily had transformed into flew out, soaring upward, and her figure swiftly disappeared in the boundless night.
The queen bee was somewhat slower. As she stood atop the dome, her head rotated, and she looked downward. Perhaps she still harbored fondness for this place. Then she slowly turned around, her wings twitching as though she had decided to fly upward.
But right in the following moment, the vibration of her wings stopped, and there was a deathly silence. The stilled wings were like an ominous rest in a piece of music. Bathed in the moonlight, the massive queen bee unexpectedly made a gradual turn, and a pair of golden compound eyes looked straight down, at An Zhe below—along with the entire Garden of Eden.
The queen bee's right forelimb poked in, the tip of itsclaw suffused with a cold and sharp silver light. This claw tip gradually increased in size, and a whole pair of forelimbs entered, followed by the massive head.
A feeling of strangeness suddenly arose in An Zhe's heart. This movement was too strange. Madam Lu, who had decided to leave this place and obtain freedom, would not come back again unless the one in control of this queen bee was no longer Madam Lu. Unless the monster's instinctual consciousness predictably and easily overcame the human mind.
When facing the humans of the Garden of Eden, what would a perfect xenogenic do?
All of this happened in just a few short seconds. As An Zhe looked at the staff members who were rooted in place, he said in a hoarse voice, "Hurry and go."
But in the very next second after he finished speaking, the queen bee lifted her head. A wave unparalleled in strength and difficult to describe, with the queen bee as the center, came rolling toward all of the people present!
A violent pain shot through An Zhe's head, and some blurry images unfolded before his eyes.
Prior to An Ze's death, when An Zhe absorbed all the blood and tissues from his body, An Ze's past memories had appeared in his mind like a series of pictures.
In the Outer City, on the day the insect swarms arrived, a bug had bitten his finger. When he dreamed that night, he had also seen what the insect had seen while flying in the wilderness.
Right now, facing the fragments of chaotic memories gushing forth before his eyes, An Zhe realized what was happening.
The queen bee was performing contactless infection.