Pale Silence

In the base far away in the suburbs, Yan Ruoming started a new research.

Professor Shen was tied to the laboratory table, and Su Zeyu took a blood sample from the old zombie tremblingly, and carefully injected it into the test tube.

Yan Ruoming took a deep breath, and looked helplessly at the trembling Su Zeyu: "Why are you shaking?"

Su Zeyu said: "It...it keeps staring at me...I'm afraid..."

Yan Ruoming said: "Zombies will instinctively chase their prey, Zeyu, this is not the first day you have seen a zombie."

Su Zeyu said: "But...but I feel something is wrong, it doesn't look right to me..."

Yan Ruoming was keenly aware of the abnormality.

Su Zeyu has been in the research institute for three years, and he has seen [-] samples of zombies, and he has even carried half of the corpses by himself, so he wouldn't be so frightened.

Yan Ruoming came to Su Zeyu's side, and together with Su Zeyu, they looked at the zombies tightly tied to the bed.

His doctoral supervisor, Professor Shen.

Yan Ruoming slowly stretched out his hand and brushed it in front of Professor Shen.

Professor Shen's bloodshot eyes slowly followed him, and the old facial muscles moved slightly, as if pulling out a mocking smile.

Yan Ruoming also started to feel cold.

It's different, Professor Shen's eyes are completely different from how other zombies look at him.

Zombies have no thinking, their eyes are full of primitive desires, thirst for flesh and blood.

But the way Professor Shen looked at him was the same as before.

It was as if he was still a student and Professor Shen was still his teacher.

The teacher looked at his best student, a little appreciative, but more of a condescending arrogance.

Su Zeyu said tremblingly, "Dr. Yan, this person...not...this corpse...so strange..."

Yan Ruoming said, "Check his eardrums."

Su Zeyu didn't know why, but he still turned Professor Shen's head carefully while wearing rubber gloves, and checked Professor Shen's eardrums with a flashlight.

After checking for a while, Su Zeyu said, "Dr. Yan, I don't see any problem."

Yan Ruoming was silent for a while, then said, "That's good."

As he spoke, he took a medical awl and pierced Professor Shen's two eardrums expressionlessly.

He had an ominous premonition in his heart.

His teacher, this Professor Shen, may still maintain a human mind...

Yan Ruoming looked at the stunned Su Zeyu, and asked, "Where did you put the blood sample?"

Su Zeyu hurriedly said, "It's... in the box."

Yan Ruoming walked out of the room carrying the box, and said to Brother Li who was guarding outside: "Send someone to watch this zombie 24 hours a day, but no one is allowed to approach, let alone have any communication with him."

Brother Li sneered: "What are you communicating with a zombie..."

Before he finished speaking, Brother Li suddenly thought of something and looked at Yan Ruoming in disbelief.

Yan Ruoming didn't speak any more, and hurried back to the laboratory with Professor Shen's blood sample.

He had to analyze and compare the blood samples as soon as possible to find out the difference between Professor Shen and ordinary zombies.

Who could it be that locked Professor Shen in that hut, broke his limbs so cruelly, knocked out his teeth, cut off his vocal cords, but never killed him?

Yan Ruoming had a headache.

Five years ago... Before Professor Shen was expelled from the school, Yan Ruoming participated in all his projects, except for that one, the "New World" project.

Although he didn't participate, it doesn't mean that Yan Ruoming didn't know about it.

It was a technical project on fixed-point regeneration of cells. The Medical Foundation under the Yan Group allocated [-] million yuan for Professor Shen to research it with all his strength.

Professor Shen named this project "New World".

Cell-specific regeneration technology is mainly used in the recovery of major injuries and the treatment of symptoms such as organ failure.

The funding application for this technology was handed over to his father by Yan Ruoming himself. He had read all the materials and there was no problem.

But later, it happened that something went wrong with this project.

Professor Shen was suspected of tricking unsuspecting patients into receiving targeted cell regeneration therapy during the project development stage. As a result, the treatment got out of control, and the patient suffered severe bone and joint necrosis and was forced to amputate his limbs.

With such a big incident, the project was naturally shelved.

When Yan Ruoming went to Professor Shen's laboratory to deliver the termination contract, he saw some documents by accident.

Another study on the technique of cell site-specific regeneration.

Whole body cell eternal regeneration technology.

And photos of several experimental subjects.

Yan Ruoming will never forget those black and rotten corpses.He's a doctor, and doctors shouldn't be afraid of corpses.

But that scene made his back feel cold, and he didn't recover for a long time.

For a while, he was afraid of his gentle and kind professor, and he didn't even personally send Professor Shen away.

Yan Ruoming looked at the viruses and blood cells in the petri dish, and yawned sleepily.

He wanted Su Zeyu to stare at the petri dish so that he could go to sleep for a while.

Just as Yan Ruoming was about to speak, a hoarse voice suddenly sounded behind him: "What's the matter, Dr. Yan, didn't you catch the person you want?"

When Yan Ruoming saw Zhao Yan's severely burned face, he almost knocked over the test tube on the test bench with a shudder.

He looked at Zhao Yan angrily: "What are you doing here? Did I tell you that your current condition is very easy to be infected!"

Zhao Yan shrugged indifferently: "I look like this, what's the difference between being a human and being a zombie?"

Yan Ruoming looked at Zhao Yan quietly, a little sadly: "In this world, those who are alive are the lucky ones."

Zhao Yan said: "I don't feel lucky. I look uglier than a zombie now. Who would want to get close to me? Dr. Yan, didn't you also startled by my face just now?"

Yan Ruoming said, "Do you want to be a zombie more?"

Zhao Yan said, "I thought, can Dr. Yan satisfy me?"

Yan Ruoming was silent for a long time.

He looked at Zhao Yan's ferocious face and the hollow eye socket, and saw burning pain and despair in the remaining eye.

Yan Ruoming is not a lunatic, his bottom line is that he will never conduct virus immunity experiments on healthy people.

But what about Zhao Yan?

Yan Ruoming saw Professor Shen's serum, Chen Mo's blood sample, and the immune catalyst in the petri dish.

Yan Ruoming raised his head, looked at Zhao Yan's ferocious face solemnly, and said softly, "Since you don't want to be human so much, do you want to be my experimental subject? After you die, you can be your zombie as you wish. If If you survive, you will be the hero of the new world."

The night wind howled, blowing from the coast to the mountains.

The whole world is silent in the dark, withered and yellow leaves are piled up on the streets that have not been cleaned for many years.

Chen Mo couldn't sleep, lying on the window on the second floor and looking at the dark world in the distance.

Song Jian sat on the bed and smoked, second-hand smoke wafted all over the room.

He is very addicted to smoking, especially in these days when he is escaping from death every day, he is afraid that he will not be able to survive without smoking.

Chen Mo looked into the distance in a daze.

Song Jian looked at Chen Mo ecstatically.

This boy is not like him.

It's different from everyone.

This thin and small person seems to have not grown up from the life before the end of the world. He is innocent and obedient like a child. He is never tired of his thoughts. Every day his soul lives incomparably comfortable and peaceful.

Song Jian was attached to Chen Mo's unique tranquility.

People are dying every day in this world, and he will die too. As long as he is lightly scratched by a zombie, he will die of virus infection very quickly.

So Song Jian would also be afraid, afraid of such a sudden death, afraid of such a life with no end in sight.

So he looked at Chen Mo, and only when the skinny boy was obediently nestled in his arms, could he briefly let his soul find a place of peace of mind, where he could rest temporarily again.

Song Jian said: "Momo, it's late, are you still awake?"

Chen Mo leaned on the window and whispered: "Song Jian, can we still see the sun rising? It's not so gray, it's a real sunrise, a big and red sun will slowly rise from the east , even the leaves are golden yellow.”

Song Jian took a deep breath, hugged Chen Mo's thin body from behind with a cigarette in his mouth, and murmured vaguely: "There will be, that day will come."

Chen Mo actually had a lot of things on his mind.

He longs for a future where he can wake up to the golden sunrise every day, and longs for the person he loves to love him as deeply as he does.

Like all teenagers, he is full of possessiveness in the second grade, and when he is selfish, he even thinks, it's a good thing he escaped, and it's a good thing Song Jian left there with him.They only belong to each other, and will never let Song Jian do new multiple-choice questions.

Chen Mo raised his face and rubbed against Song Jian's stubble-covered chin like a coquettish kitten.

Song Jian was so amused that he kissed Chen Mo's soft lips.

Here is a house and a bed.

The world was very quiet, he and Chen Mo were walking together on the way to escape.

Chen Mo whispered, "I'm thirsty."

Song Jian said: "I saw milk in the snack cabinet, I'll heat a bag for you."

There is no difference between here and life.

They are leaving tomorrow, and they can even waste the gas tanks that are not easy to take away.

The old man felt little, and he was still doing Tai Chi in the living room.

Song Jian came down shirtless to heat the milk, beads of sweat trickled down his broad back, and ran across the hideous scars all over his back.Song Jian turned on the gas tank and began to heat the milk, saying, "Old man, we will leave here early tomorrow, you should go and rest."

The old man sighed, closed his Tai Chi posture, stood firmly in the middle of the living room, and said quietly: "I'm getting old, I can't sleep."

Song Jian silently took out another bag of milk: "I'll give you a hot pack of milk to help you sleep."

The old man looked at Song Jian with relief: "The young man looks fierce, but he is careful enough."

Song Jian smiled and waited for the water in the pot to boil together with the old man.

The old man said: "When I look at Momo, it's like looking at my own grandson. That child is so good. Alas, in this world, how can there be such a good child?"

Song Jian said: "It's just because of nature, Momo has always been like this, sometimes I feel a little worried, I don't know what to do with him."

The old man raised his eyebrows: "What do you still want to do with my grandson? Doesn't he listen to you now? Don't think that I'm old and deaf. Your small movements..."

Song Jian hurriedly begged the old man to stop talking.

Chen Mo was as thin-skinned as a grape skin, how could he hear such words.

Seeing Song Jianji's pale face, the old man didn't hold back, he chuckled and said, "The water has been boiling for a long time, is your milk still hot?"

Song Jian turned off the fire helplessly, put the milk into hot water to heat up, then poured it into a clean quilt, and took it upstairs for Chen Mo to drink.

But Chen Mo was already lying on the bed and fell asleep.

The thin body was wrapped in pajamas in a mess, fingers gently grasped the bed sheet under the body, a small section of slender waist was exposed under the pajamas.

Song Jian breathed a sigh of relief, put down the freshly warmed milk, and covered Chen Mo with a quilt.

Tomorrow morning, the child will drive, so he can watch the night with peace of mind.

In the dream, Chen Mo shrunk into a small ball, and murmured softly: "Song Jian...um...Song Jian..."

Song Jian approached curiously, wanting to hear what Chen Mo said about him in his dream.

But I heard Chen Mo mumbling softly: "My dad...my dad doesn't like men with tattoos...you cover it up...can you cover it up..."

Song Jian looked at the tattoo on his arm dumbfounded.

He got the tattoo when he was 16 years old. He was a middle school boy who always liked to torture his body and mind when he had nothing to do. So he went to get a tattoo of a wolf head full of breath in the middle school. It didn't make any sense. Thinking about it in a dream.

But gradually, Song Jian couldn't laugh anymore.

He gently stroked Chen Mo's hair, brushing all the messy hair on the child's face behind the ears.

Chen Mo no longer has a father.

This child doesn't like to remember his past in front of others. Even in his dream, he doesn't cry out in pain, but yells stupidly, what if my dad doesn't like you?

This is a messy world, and everyone is a wanderer among the ruins.

But Chen Mo was always longing for a home.

This silly boy was foolishly hoping that Song Jian could give him forever.

But Song Jian himself didn't know where his eternity was.

He kept the walkie-talkie brought out from the base with him all the time, and the ten-kilometer public channel was always on.

If... if...

In the worst case, if the base is captured and the former brother flees and comes to him and asks him for help, will he go?

What if the person calling for help...is Yan Ruoming?

Song Jian took a deep breath, threw the walkie-talkie into the travel bag, and found some clothes in the closet to wear on the road.

There are also batteries and alcohol stored in this home, all of which are packed and taken away.

They will continue to set off early tomorrow morning, heading to further places.