The night was deep.
All the men had found their places to go. Even the vice-captain had left for a hotel with a glamorous young woman in his arms.
After staging the farce of vying for a woman with the director of public security in public, Ling Zheng still managed to coax the daughter of a certain minister to leave with him, without even casting a glance at Su Mi from start to finish.
Su Mi was sitting in a military police vehicle, silently gazing at the magnificent and sacred nocturnal scene of the city. Heavy snow blanketed the suburban mountains, and the lights on the mountainside looked even more chilly and serene. Through the car window, one could vaguely make out at the foot of the mountain that the frozen river was like a cold and hard jade belt, winding its way through the night.
Having been away for more than half a year, she finally returned to Shang Zheng's mansion once again.
She had probably figured out the motive behind Shang Zheng's kiss that night.
Perhaps it was out of anger. A man as domineering as he was, how could he tolerate the provocations from Ling Zheng and the vice-captain? Or perhaps some changes had taken place in Shang Zheng himself. These unknown changes made him a lot more flamboyant compared to half a year ago. Keeping company with a powerful man was like living with a tiger. Now she could only take one step and see how things went.
The villa was still desolate and quiet. The room where she had once lived seemed to have remained the same, with her clothes and belongings all in their original places. It gave her the illusion of having lived two lives.
After leaving Shang Zheng, she had breathed the air of freedom for the first time and accomplished things she had never even dared to think about before. But all of these were given by Shang Zheng. Even the little bit of talent she had was discovered by him.
The clock was ticking towards midnight, yet there was still no sign of Shang Zheng or Mu Xiting. Was he not coming back tonight? This speculation made her breathe a sigh of relief. She hadn't slept well the previous night due to a hangover, so she simply went to sleep.
She slept until the sky was just beginning to brighten. The slight chill in the air woke her up. She got up and walked to the window, only to find that goose-feather-like snow was falling outside, and the world was a vast expanse of white.
Shang Zheng hadn't come back. What could have made a man like him break his promise?
After putting on her coat, she left without saying goodbye to anyone, hailed a taxi, and quickly left the Shang mansion.
There was still a long time before the appointed gathering time. Su Mi was standing on the street in the center of Hope City. She realized that it was the first time she had the mood to appreciate the prosperous and beautiful scenery of Hope City. At the same time, she also realized that apart from the Shang mansion, she had nowhere else to go. She couldn't help but think of her parents, relatives, and friends, and felt a bit sad.
What Su Mi didn't know was that the seemingly calm city had been turned upside down overnight.
An hour after she left the Shang mansion, the military police almost immediately surrounded the mansion and searched each room one by one. After losing her trail, they had to call Shang Zheng to report.
In the office of the director of public security, Shang Zheng, who had been up all night, silently put down the phone and looked at the military police waiting for orders in front of him.
"Search the whole city."
The military police hesitated for a moment. "She has a weapon. If she resists..."
Shang Zheng's icy gaze swept over them, making the military police's hearts sink. They vaguely felt that they had asked a question they shouldn't have.
"Shoot her on the spot." He gave the answer calmly.
In the western suburbs of Hope City, on the Tufei Mountains.
On Hope Planet, only a small area of land had rich resources and was suitable for human habitation. The other areas were either covered by vast ice sheets or were endless oceans.
The Tufei Mountains were the place where Hope City bordered the ocean.
Su Mi, wrapped in a thermostatic suit, was trudging along the snow-covered mountain path with difficulty. After walking for about two hours, she finally decided to give up and rest on a thick tree trunk by the roadside.
She couldn't find it anymore. That cave, that coffin – the place where she had awakened.
This was already deep in the mountains, a place rarely visited by people. Su Mi didn't understand. The scene of her attending the university graduation ceremony was still vivid in her mind. How could she have woken up in a nearly rotten coffin in a cave after just one sleep?
Who on earth had brought her here?
Just as she was lost in thought, she heard a faint sound – the crisp sound of someone stepping on the snow. She looked up and saw a team of military police appearing on the mountain path.
She stood up and then saw the military police walking steadily towards her.
"Second Lieutenant Su Mi?" A military police officer confirmed.
"Yes."
They immediately pulled out their guns and surrounded her expressionlessly.
"What's going on?" She took a step forward. The military police almost immediately took a step back, but the surrounding formation remained unchanged.
"Hand over your weapon." The head of the military police barked. "Don't come any closer. Get down on the ground right where you are."
"What happened?" She crouched down with her hands on her head as instructed and looked up. "I want to see the director."
The military police didn't answer. Two military police officers put on gas masks and thick gloves, and then handcuffed her hands, legs, and neck.
Was she poisonous?
Su Mi was pushed forward by the military police with long metal poles from behind, staggering along, and a heavy sense of gloom loomed over her heart.
The Public Security Bureau of Hope Planet.
The lights were bright in the biochemical isolation room on the underground floor. Seven corpses were lying on the autopsy tables.
Shang Zheng was standing outside the isolation room with his hands behind his back, silent. You Mo-nian walked out of the elevator and said to him, "The Zerg queen has already sent an apology statement and said she would pay a huge compensation."
Shang Zheng let out a light chuckle but didn't say anything. You Mo-nian felt a bit embarrassed.
"I also think that the pilots getting infected with the virus this time was not a simple accident." You Mo-nian looked at the corpses. "But without conclusive evidence, no one dares to believe that there's a conspiracy behind it. Because that would mean that the twenty-year peace is about to end."
Shang Zheng glanced at him. "It's not a virus. It's parasitism."
You Mo-nian paused for a moment. "The entire crew of the War Phoenix has been controlled. The screening has been completed, and there's no infection." After a short pause, he continued, "Of the four pilots who had a hand-to-hand fight with the Zerg that day, two are already lying here. Including the woman who was with them yesterday, and the innocent civilians who were bitten by them. Ling Zheng and Su Mi are left. I heard that Su Mi was the least injured that day, and Ling Zheng was the most."
"So Ling Zheng must have already had an outbreak, while Su Mi may not have." Shang Zheng looked at him. "Is that what you want to say?"
"She's your woman." You Mo-nian couldn't bear it in his heart. "Will you kill her?"
Before Shang Zheng could answer, the communicator on his wrist rang.
"Director, Su Mi has been captured. She'll be sent to the bureau in an hour."
"How is she?" You Mo-nian asked.
The military police on the other end replied, "She seems quite normal. She doesn't know what's going on."
You Mo-nian was glad. Did this mean that there were no parasitic eggs in Su Mi's body? He looked at Shang Zheng but saw that his face was as calm as water, making it hard to tell his emotions.
Su Mi didn't expect to see Shang Zheng and You Mo-nian again so soon. What's more, she didn't expect it to be under such circumstances.
She grabbed the bars of the iron cage, looking at the corpses lying flat not far away, her horror beyond words.
Yesterday they had received awards with her. How could they be lying dead here overnight? There were fist-sized holes all over their heads, torsos, and limbs. In the dried, dark brown bloodstains, there were gray larvae crawling on some of the wounds. Their faces were all extremely hideous, as if they had suffered great pain before dying.
"The test results are out." You Mo-nian was standing outside the glass door, and his voice came through the loudspeaker. "Su Mi... There are fifteen parasitic eggs in your body, and they've already started to hatch."
Su Mi felt her brain go blank and stammered, "How could it be? We were tested when we returned to the ship, and there was no problem..."
"These parasitic eggs are extremely small. When they haven't hatched, they can't be detected." You Mo-nian said slowly.
"Then..." There was a strange calm in Su Mi's voice. "What do I need to do to cooperate next? Will the doctor remove the larvae?"
You Mo-nian stared at her for a while, and his gaze was actually one of pity. Then he turned his head to look at Shang Zheng beside him: "According to your suggestion, I'll arrange for a screening of all the city's residents one by one."
Watching You Mo-nian's figure disappear into the elevator, Su Mi felt almost all her strength draining away. She grabbed the iron cage tightly with both hands and stared blankly at Shang Zheng, who had been silent all along.
"Director..." Her tone was soft.
Shang Zheng looked at her, still as cold as ever, only with a tinge of sarcasm in his coldness. Without saying a word, he actually opened the door of the isolation room and walked in calmly.
Seeing his figure approaching the iron cage, Su Mi took a half step back.
"Where's Ling Zheng?" His voice was ice-cold, as if he were talking to a corpse.
"I don't know..."
"The outermost corpse is the only daughter of the director of the finance bureau." He said calmly. "Someone saw Ling Zheng leave with her last night. She was bitten to death alive."
So Ling Zheng had already had an outbreak? Su Mi's heart sank. Thinking of the once lively Ling Zheng about to turn into a hideous corpse, she felt extremely sad.
But how could she have the leisure to sympathize with others? There were fifteen hatched parasitic eggs in her body! Thinking of this, she felt that something was wrong all over her body, as if something was really crawling slowly in her veins and muscles.
"I don't know where he went." A huge sense of sadness welled up in her heart, and her voice became lifeless. But she still wasn't giving up. She stared wide-eyed at Shang Zheng. "Director, is there really no way at all?"
Shang Zheng folded his arms and looked at her, his tone casual: "The entire Human Alliance doesn't have a way to eliminate the infection source in a human body. You're doomed to die."
Tears blurred Su Mi's vision, and Shang Zheng's figure became a swaying double image in her tears.
Although Su Mi had repeatedly said that she wasn't afraid of death, she had come to this world in her real body. If her body was eaten up by the bugs from the inside, she definitely wouldn't be able to go back.
Moreover, this way of dying was truly terrifying.
She couldn't help but recall that since she had come to this world for no reason, she had suffered a lot at the bottom of society. In order to survive, she had to lose her virginity and freedom. After finally becoming a second lieutenant in the Alliance, she had overnight become an infection source, falling from heaven to hell. And the final outcome was to be eaten into a shell by the bugs and finally be eliminated as a pollutant, leaving nothing behind.
She slowly crouched down and began to laugh, a soft laugh, but with tears streaming down her face.
After an unknown amount of time, the familiar cold voice came from above: "What? Have you broken down?"
She stretched out her slender fingers and carefully wiped away her tears, then looked up at the tall man. Because of the backlight, she couldn't make out his expression, but it didn't matter anymore.
"Thank you, Director." Her voice was calm. "Although I hated you, and until yesterday, I was still bent on running away. I've always been reluctant to admit in my heart that actually you are my greatest benefactor, but I can't repay you anymore. I'm sorry, Director. I've wasted your careful cultivation."
Shang Zheng gave a low "Mm".
She continued, "My name is Su Mi, from Earth. I'm just an ordinary college student. I don't know why I came to this strange planet. Director, if you discover Earth in the future, please tell me. Maybe I won't even leave a speck of ashes, but my comrades on the War Phoenix will surely give me a spirit tablet. Please do tell me, tell me that Earth really exists."
She stood up, her face flushed, but her voice was calm: "Director, please kill me now. I don't want to... die so horribly."
Shang Zheng was silent for a moment, then turned around and picked up a gun from the table, aiming it at the center of her forehead.
"Shut up." His tone was cold and without a shred of pity, as if his patience had been exhausted.
With a soft "Bang", Su Mi felt a sharp pain on her forehead, and instantly the world spun around her. She couldn't open her eyes anymore and plunged into endless darkness.