Chapter Ninety-Six: Heart-Piercing Brother Lu

“Is this for me?!”

Lu Shangbai was sprawled on the cushion laid over the hollow ground, but the shock made him curl up from his broad, spread-eagle pose until he looked like a cooked shrimp.

Not far away stood Yao Lun, his face already dark as a pot bottom.

Ji Cheng stood before him with a faint, amused smile, boots planted in black combat gear from head to toe: black knee guards, black trousers, a tactical belt, a slim-patterned long-handled Kun steel dagger at his side, and a sleek headset extending from his ear to his jaw. In Lu Shangbai’s eyes, he looked impossibly cool.

“Yes.”

Between his clean, well-defined fingers, Ji Cheng idly flipped a metal-cased injector fitted with a valve.

Lu Shangbai stared blankly, his head tracking the injector back and forth.

Through the oval window in its casing, he could see the yellow serum inside rising and settling in constant motion, sometimes scattering into a spray of stars, sometimes gathering into a thick, viscous mass.

A genuine second-stage gene progenitor!

“Where did you even find this? You’re really giving it to me? No—what I mean is, shouldn’t things like this be allocated within the team first?” Lu Shangbai blurted out, too excited to speak properly.

“It’s already been allocated. Only three of our team made it out alive, and each of us got one. The rest are my personal property.”

Ji Cheng was not the least surprised by the question.

From previous expeditions into the Hive laboratory, they usually found at most two or three gene progenitors in total. The most recent time, they had come away empty-handed.

“Even if everyone searched the central zone this time, there’s no way you could have found this many second-stage gene progenitors!” Lu Shangbai’s eyes went round and his mouth fell open so wide his face seemed to lengthen by several inches. “Those two twins, plus you, and this one—that makes four in all!”

He truly could not understand it. The central zone was so dangerous that even his own team, after merely skirting its edge, had been reduced to two survivors and found nothing at all.

Why had Ji Cheng’s team managed to get four second-stage gene progenitors?

Was this just fate?

“In one sentence: if you want it, take it. If you don’t, forget it.” Seeing him sit there in a daze, Ji Cheng simply lowered his tactical goggles and checked the surrounding radiation level.

In truth, this second-stage gene progenitor had originally been intended for Hu Xian. But later, after learning that Zhou Ze’s team had come away with nothing, he thought it over and decided to give it to Lu Shangbai instead.

After all, with Hu Xian’s talent and the current situation on White Mountain Star, being an ordinary person might actually be better for him.

“Of course I want it!” Lu Shangbai shot upright at once, but then quickly wilted again. “No, forget it. Things like this are impossible to come by; they’re too precious. You should keep it and give it to your sister in the future.”

He did desperately want a second-stage gene progenitor, but he also truly regarded Ji Cheng as a brother. Ji Cheng thinking of him when he had something good was a kindness, but he could not really force himself to accept it shamelessly.

Ji Cheng chuckled in mockery. “That’s not a problem. I’ve already set one aside for my sister. This one’s too yellow, like it’s expired or something. I wouldn’t trust her with it.”

“And among all the people I know, you’re the only one who still doesn’t have a second-stage progenitor. If you’re not embarrassed, I’d be ashamed to be dragged down by you.”

“What do you mean, among the people you know, I’m the only one who doesn’t have one? Didn’t I just see you coming out with people from Councilman Huang’s team, laughing and chatting away? Don’t they count as people you know?”

“They do.”

Ji Cheng said calmly, “But Centipede, Fu Ting, and the others already have second-stage gene progenitors.”

“……”

Lu Shangbai felt as though his heart had been stabbed to pieces. What did that mean?

Had they really found that many second-stage progenitors?

He did not quite dare believe it, but disbelief was useless. The injector spinning in Ji Cheng’s hand looked utterly genuine.

Lu Shangbai looked at him with wounded resentment. Was the gap between people really this enormous?

“Accept your fate. Life is just this cutthroat.” Ji Cheng did not bother arguing further. He tossed the injector straight onto Lu Shangbai.

“This gene progenitor is yours. But... even brothers settle accounts clearly. Treat it as if you’re buying it from me. I’ll give you a discount.”

“Ah—”

Lu Shangbai hurriedly clamped the injector under his arm, terrified it would slip to the ground.

“I can’t afford it, bro.”

“Calling me bro won’t help. If you can’t afford it, then use that Osprey of yours to cover part of the price.”

Ji Cheng was still thinking about that handsome single-person aircraft.

“But I only have the right to use it!”

Lu Shangbai looked pitiful. That Osprey had been obtained by Zhou Ze and was only lent to him for the time being.

“Then go into debt as a family and pay it back slowly. A second-stage gene progenitor is hard to value, so I’ll take the loss and count it as five hundred billion. I’ll split it into twenty-four installments. With interest and flexible repayment service fees included, just pay two point three billion a month.”

After saying that, Ji Cheng smiled and turned away.

He did not truly expect Lu Shangbai to pay him anything. During his leanest days, he had received plenty of kindness from others; as the saying went, a drop of water received in need should be repaid with a gushing spring. Giving him one gene progenitor was hardly too much.

…

Inside the base vehicle, in the living compartment.

Steam rose thickly within the single room. Though the space was not large, the careful design of the South Harbor Research Institute made it seem quite spacious to the eye.

There was a genuine camel-hair carpet, handcrafted table and chairs, all expensive-looking. A bouquet of calla lilies stood in a vase on the table, filling the air with a faint floral scent.

The door to the onboard bathroom stood open.

After enduring so much radiation in the Hive, the weak intensity outside no longer mattered to him.

It was like a newly bought phone, with tempered glass and a protective case, handled with utmost care at first, but after using it for a while, you just tossed it onto the table when you got home.

So he had not only taken off his combat suit, he had even showered.

Luo Rao, meanwhile, held a towel and was concentrating on wiping his body for him.

“Ah Cheng, how many times do you need this place wiped?”

A pale arm came around from behind to encircle his neck, and Luo Rao sat on his lap with no attempt at restraint.

Her pink soft-soled sandals hooked playfully on her toes, bobbing up and down with adorable charm.

“You don’t know the phrase ‘a spark setting off a fire’?” Ji Cheng sighed and turned his head away.

“I’ve never heard of it.”

Luo Rao pouted with a look of puzzlement, though the smile in her eyes made her meaning perfectly clear.

She leaned in closer.

“Ah Cheng, show it to your sister, will you?”

Her fingers brushed his cheek and gently tipped up his chin.

“Uh...”

“All right, I won’t tease you anymore. Go handle your proper business.”

She smiled sweetly, then nimbly hopped down from him like a little bird. Her dark hair spilled loose, carrying the fresh scent of a bath.

Ji Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, though there was also a faint, frustrating sense that he was somehow failing as a man.

Admittedly, because of the influence of the original owner’s memories, Luo Rao seemed to him more like a beloved elder sister with whom he had grown up. But he was, after all, a normal man.

That little trace of hardness was all too easily softened by her fairy-like allure.

He believed that if Su Daji had possessed charm like Luo Rao’s back then, King Zhou’s death and the fall of his kingdom would not have been the slightest loss.

Shaking his head and setting aside the inner conflict for the moment, Ji Cheng looked at the gene progenitor laid in the box beside him.

“Now this is practical.”

The metal casing bore vine-like patterns resembling serpent scales, while the oval window held a liquid so dark and mysterious it seemed almost capable of stealing one’s soul.

“Sister, bring me the alcohol from the medical kit over there.”

“Aren’t you physically strong enough to ignore bacteria? Or should I use my saliva to disinfect it for you?” Luo Rao breathed softly at his ear.

Smack.

“I’m not afraid, really.”

Ji Cheng gave her a light swat and smiled. “But this is a second-stage gene progenitor injection, so we should at least make a bit of a ceremony out of it.”