After stocking up at the maximum level, all the handsome men in the apocalypse are looking for suppo

Chapter 12 Abnormal behavior
Moonlight leaked in through the gaps in the exhaust fan, condensing into a small spot of light on the edge of the salt tank.

Lin Che squatted in the shadow of the kitchen counter. When he circled his fingers along the edge of the glass jar for the third time, he suddenly held his breath.

The moment Su Wanqing opened her eyes in the bedroom, she felt the gun under her pillow.

The metal cabinet door creaked barely audibly, followed by the rustling of crumpled plastic packaging.

She stepped barefoot onto the cold concrete floor, and as she buckled her tactical belt into the last notch, the crisp sound of ceramic colliding came from the kitchen.

Lin Che was stuffing his entire hand into the salt shaker.

The boy curled up in the corner between the refrigerator and the wall, his back pressed against the tiles still damp from the day's heavy rain.

When he put his index finger covered with salt into his mouth, the sound of his Adam's apple rolling was particularly clear in the silence.

"hungry?"

Su Wanqing's voice nearly tipped the salt shaker over. Lin Che clamped the shaker between her knees and hid it behind her, leaving red marks on the back of her hand as she rubbed against the edge of the counter.

The collar of his sweatshirt was askew, revealing his collarbone, and his skin was an abnormally pale blue in the moonlight.

When the switch clicked, the boy subconsciously raised his hand to block the glaring light.

Small clusters of salt crystals were scattered on the ground, forming crooked hills.

"Salt-baked rat?" Su Wanqing laughed in anger. She crushed a pinch of salt with the tip of her shoe. "Is this a new trick?"

Lin Che looked at her innocently, swallowing unconsciously. His lips were white with salt, and his fingers were still grasping, with salt crystals dripping from the cracks between his nails.

A warning popped up on the holographic screen: [The sodium ion concentration in subject 0927 has reached a dangerous level].

"Just...hungry." The boy stared down at his trembling fingers, "Really."

Su Wanqing kicked the folding chair out of the way. When the chair leg brushed Lin Che's calf, he instinctively hugged the salt shaker and shrank back, his head hitting the refrigerator with a dull thud.

"Have all the dogs at the research institute switched to eating salt?"

The gun barrel lifted the boy's chin. Su Wanqing saw the salt grains on his long eyelashes and couldn't help but reach out to brush them off for him.

The boy's eyelashes brushed against his fingertips. When Su Wanqing reacted, she abruptly withdrew her hand and pretended to cough a few times.

Lin Che didn't understand what was going on. He tried to swallow but ended up coughing. Salt powder dripped from the corners of his mouth, leaving white marks on the front of his dark grey sweatshirt.

The holographic screen popped up a surveillance replay: Two hours ago, Lin Che curled up in a camp blanket and pretended to be asleep. When Su Wanqing's breathing became heavy, he rolled over and off the bed.

He moved along the wall to the kitchen in seven minutes and twelve seconds, stopping three times to check his wrist inhibitor.

"You're good at pretending to sleep." Su Wanqing's eyes fell on the suture line under his collarbone. "It's a pity you snore."

Lin Che suddenly hooked her finger: "We need to maintain the osmotic pressure."

"Didn't you eat enough bread during the day?"

"Not enough." The boy suddenly scratched his burnt arm with his fingernails. "They said 50 grams a day."

This time, Su Wanqing did not brush his hand away. Instead, she used her other hand to tear open the collar of his sweatshirt, and blue blood oozed out from under his collarbone again.

The holographic screen showed that there were undigested salt lumps accumulated in Lin Che's stomach, and the intestinal villi were bleeding due to the stimulation of high concentrations of sodium ions.

"Stole half a can?"

"Thirty-seven grams." Lin Che stammered, "Thirteen grams more."

The fingertips rolled heavily across the boy's lips, and Su Wanqing smelled the smell of blood mixed with salty air.

Lin Che's eyes were filled with panic, his fingers scratching the ground, leaving white marks, but he didn't dare to break free from the suppression of the master-servant contract.

"Open your mouth."

The boy shivered, his teeth covered in salt dust showing. Su Wanqing suddenly pinched his cheeks and inserted her fingers into his mouth to dig.

Lin Che struggled and retched, blue blood and saliva dripping down his chin onto his sweatshirt, and a puppy-like whimpering came from his throat.

"How much did you swallow?"

"Seventeen grams," Lin Che coughed up salt. "The system... The system says..." Su Wanqing shook off her saliva-stained hand, pulled out a digital scale from the space and smashed it on the ground. "Weigh it yourself."

When the salt shaker was swept onto the scale pan by the gun barrel, Lin Che's shoulders shook violently.

The way he knelt on the floor and pieced together the broken salt grains looked very much like the scene in the laboratory food-snatching video.

The red light on the electronic screen showed 243 grams - the original 280-gram can was a full 37 grams less.

"The error is two grams." Su Wanqing stopped him from hiding his left foot. "Where did it go?"

Lin Che suddenly ripped open his trouser legs. The skin on his ankles was caked with salt, as if someone had rubbed salt powder mixed with sweat into a hard crust.

The sound he made when he picked up the salt block with his fingernails and put it on the scale was so terrifying.

"Thirty-nine grams." Su Wanqing kicked over the scale. "That's too much."

The boy's frozen fingers still hung in mid-air. Salt grains rustled in the puddle, and he stared at his reflection in the water before suddenly retching, only to vomit blood-tinged mucus.

"Why do you eat secretly?"

"I'll die." Lin Che grabbed his twitching calf. "If the concentration of blue blood isn't high enough, the cells will rupture."

The holographic screen popped up a cross-section of his spine, blue blood eroding the nerve bundles.

Su Wanqing remembered the surveillance footage of the white-coated men throwing salt blocks, and kicked the salt shaker in front of the boy: "Continue."

Lin Che's salt-covered fingers dangled over the jar's edge. He looked up at Su Wanqing's expression, as if trying to confirm whether this was a new punishment game.

"Clean it up." Su Wanqing opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water. "If you dare to dirty the floor, I'll tie you to the toilet."

The boy's sudden lunge for the salt shaker knocked over the knife on the counter.

The dinner knife brushed the tip of his ear as it bounced off the ground, and blood splattered on the edge of the salt shaker, which he quickly swept away with the tip of his tongue.

The holographic screen alarm started flashing, but Su Wanqing unscrewed the water bottle and drank slowly.

The rustling sound of Lin Che licking the salt grains mixed with the electronic alarm, weaving an eerie lullaby in the kitchen at three in the morning.

"Starting tomorrow, you'll get extra food." She grabbed the boy's left hand as he tried to hide the salt. "If you steal again, I'll replace it with chili powder."

Lin Che curled up beside the salt shaker like a cat drenched in rain.

As his tongue swept across the salt grains in the lines of his palms, he suddenly uttered something incoherent in French.

A line of words popped up in the holographic screen translation bar: [Thank you, sister].

Su Wanqing loosened her foot, and Lin Che immediately pulled her left hand to her chest, covering it tightly.

He curled up on the ground, stopped licking, and stared at the ground, as if waiting for Su Wanqing's next order.

"Go wash your hands and rinse your mouth." She stood up and turned on the faucet. "The smell of blood is too strong."

Lin Che clenched his fists and refused to get up. His obedience just now seemed to be just a temporary measure.

He still had a few salt crystals hidden between his fingers, ready to swallow them when the opportunity arose.

Su Wanqing pulled the boy up and pushed him to the edge of the pool.

"Open your mouth."

Lin Che pursed his lips. Su Wanqing pinched his chin and pushed her index finger between his teeth.

The boy groaned, a streak of blood squeezing out from the corner of his mouth. The water washed away the salt grains on his hands, and the white crystals swirled in the pool before disappearing into the sewer.

"I'll just give you the salt tomorrow." She released her hand and watched Lin Che shrink back, covering his mouth. "No need to steal."

Lin Che licked the wound at the corner of his mouth. Blue blood mixed with salt dripped down his chin into the pool, spreading a light blue color.

He looked up tentatively, but Su Wanqing had already walked away.

(End of this chapter)