Wei Tianyang changed back into his surgical gown, just like the first time he received the injection, and lay face-down on the operating table.
Hans and three assistants gathered around the table, aligning the mechanical arm of the injection equipment with Wei Tianyang's back.
The injection machine's mechanical arm was a folding device, which fully unfolded to perfectly conform to the curve of a human back.
Six stainless steel needles slowly protruded from the black circular opening, each needle as thick as an adult's index finger and terrifyingly thick, almost as large as a 2-year-old child's pinky.
An assistant unfastened the buttons on the back of his surgical gown, revealing six injection wounds the size of green beans on his slender back, the areas around the wounds slightly swollen.
He waited quietly as the silver canister unloaded from the crane was placed by the wall, connected to the injection machine by several thumb-width transparent rigid tubes.
Although it was his second injection, Wei Tianyang was still very nervous, having experienced some changes in his body after the first injection over a week ago, but no apparent side effects like disability had occurred.
The second time? He could only pray inwardly to all the gods in mythology, hoping that nothing would go wrong.
He suddenly felt a chilly sensation on his back as Hans disinfected the wounds with medical alcohol.
Then, the assistant placed a breathing mask on him for anesthesia.
After all, those six injection needles were so large that it was less an injection and more like drilling into human flesh to pour in the medicine.
"Wei? Can you hear me?" Hans said to Wei Tianyang.
Wei Tianyang, with his eyes closed, tried to respond but couldn't open his mouth.
"Wei? Can you hear me?" Hans confirmed again.
He heard it clearly, yet he couldn't respond.
"Alright, anesthesia is complete, let's start the injection," Hans said.
No! I'm still awake!
Wei Tianyang wanted to scream, but it was as if his throat was sealed with cement. He tried to move his body, but he couldn't budge, like a corpse.
It felt like sleep paralysis. He was consciously awake, but he couldn't move at all.
His face expressionless, eyes closed, his heartbeat steady, his pulse normal, his body felt like an anchor sunk to the sea floor.
In reality, though, his mental world was like a small boat on the tumultuous sea in a storm, about to capsize.
The mechanical arm slowly descended, resting on his spine, and the injection needles slowly and resolutely pierced into Wei Tianyang's back.
His back first felt an intense pressure, followed by pain.
At the beginning, the pain was concentrated around the injection points, as if six small insects were biting.
Gradually, the pain spread, his entire back felt as if it were being severely branded by a red-hot iron.
When the injection needles pierced into his spine, the pain mix with an acidic sensation.
It was like biting into a sour and spicy radish with a decayed tooth in the summer.
And this sour pain was hundreds of times stronger.
Almost simultaneously, Wei Tianyang completely lost sensation in his lower body.
"Give him something to stop the bleeding. Have the needles reached their position?" Hans's voice echoed in his ear.
He desperately hoped Hans would realize he was still awake and promptly stop the injection.
But clearly, Hans hadn't realized it.
He heard several assistants call out a string of numbers, then Hans ordered them to proceed with the injection.
Wei Tianyang felt a scorching liquid pumping into his spinal cord, the medication like flowing magma trying to melt his spine.
He felt unbearably hot, his heartbeat began to slow, and at the same time, it seemed like thousands were stomping and roaring in his head.
He started trying to discern these sounds, yet they were in languages he didn't understand.
He also heard the wind, the fall of enormous objects, the loud thunder of the sky, horses whinnying and galloping, and indescribable sounds like thousands of thin metal sheets rubbing against each other.
In an instant, the cacophony ceased.
Hans's urgent shouting and the sound of surgical tools falling replaced the chaotic noises in his mind.
Wei Tianyang heard the EEG go from a rhythmic repetition of monosyllables to a monotonous long tone.
They had messed up.
Holding back tears, images of his mother appeared in Wei Tianyang's mind.
"I'm sorry... Mom..." he whispered to himself.
Death.
Everyone dies one day.
But when truly confronted with death, no one can say they are fully prepared.
Wei Tianyang didn't want to die.
But he was very aware that from the evening he agreed to become a Medicine Person for Ruan Yu, this outcome might have been possible.
Working odd jobs, he couldn't save up 1,000 Langke in twenty years, but with Ruan Yu, he could do it in two weeks.
The risk was death.
But he had always harbored the hope of getting lucky.
Tiantai Pharmaceutical was certainly not researching a medicine for neurological disorders.
The moment he got in the car, he knew that if it were just a regular medicine, they wouldn't offer so much money.
He had been playing the fool, deceiving himself, deliberately ignoring those details he deemed abnormal.
Only because he knew very well he had no other choice.
Wei Tianyang could feel them turning him over; Hans was cursing loudly in Federation language.
Were they trying to save him?
No, not at all...
Wei Tianyang heard Ruan Yu's voice.
She was very calm, as if she had seen such scenes many times before.
"Record the data, see at which stage the problem occurred, and compare it with the other test subjects," Ruan Yu said.
"How's the situation now? Is he dead?" Hans confirmed with the assistant beside him.
"Biologically speaking, he's already dead. But there's still a slight brainwave response," the assistant answered.
Save me...
Wei Tianyang screamed in the darkness.
"Inject him with potassium chloride," Hans ordered.
"His heart has stopped already," the assistant said.
"Stop talking nonsense and just inject him," Hans urged.
I'm still alive! Save me! Wei Tianyang lay on the operating table, his eyes closed, but he was screaming inside.
He felt a thin steel needle inserted into the artery of his arm, cold liquid rushing through his veins.
"Where's his backpack?" Ruan Yu asked at this moment.
"It's on the chair over there," Hans answered.
The sound of her signature high heels gradually faded.
"Damn, this poor sap; haven't I told him not to put leftovers in his backpack?" Ruan Yu's voice came from afar.
"Was he planning to take it back to eat with his mother?" Hans asked with a laugh.
"Disgusting... shit, the money I gave him earlier seems all spent?" Ruan Yu said.
"Isn't that normal? How much did you give him before?" Hans asked.
"Not much, but for him, it was a huge sum," Ruan Yu answered.
"Did you really give him 1,000 Langke just now? Didn't you say you weren't planning to give him any money at all?" Hans was a bit surprised.
"He came here today, and I never intended to let him leave. Either he would end up as a prototype in the factory or... just die here like now. So, the money wasn't going with him," Ruan Yu said.
"Oh... so that's it," Hans laughed.
"I thought he was a wolf, but it turns out he's just a dog, really a disappointment to my expectations," Ruan Yu's tone sounded somewhat scornful.
"So, he is now an inverted triangle?" Hans said.
"Let's do it that way, preserve the body well," Ruan Yu said.
An inverted triangle...
A defective product... waste...
He finally understood the meaning of this symbol.
A rage ignited within him.
Yet what use was the anger of a dead man?
Once again, deafening, overpowering reverberations echoed in his ears, the sound of thunder mixed with the noise of thousands stomping on the floor.
His consciousness too slowly faded with this noise.
In the last moments before sinking into darkness, one final thought surfaced in his mind.
"Kill them."