Bonus Chap
Thanks for the ko-fi ✨ ✨ ✨ Nix✨✨✨
Xi Han entered the room.
It was still the same room as before, except for replacing the carpet that had been trampled on by Lu Wen and the furniture that had been touched; everything else was pretty much the same as before.
It wasn’t that Xi Han didn’t want to change to a safer room; it was just that Jiu Shu seemed to like it here.
Facing the clear eyes of Jiu Shu, Xi Han couldn’t say any words of refusal.
It was clear that he wanted to keep 301 completely imprisoned.
In fact, until now, he still believed that only by doing that could he truly protect fragile No. 301.
So that no one would ever want to snatch it away and hurt it again.
But when he came face-to–to-face with 301, he realized that he couldn’t say those words at all.
Perhaps it was because he was too afraid to see those disgusted eyes again, so when facing any request from 301, he only wanted to agree.
Inside the room, Jiu Shu hadn’t woken up yet.
It was still morning, and there was no light in his room.
This had caused him to have a disturbed routine lately, not being able to distinguish between day and night.
It was easy to oversleep.
However, Xi Han quite enjoyed watching Jiu Shu’s slumber.
Quietly sleeping on the pillow, its cheeks were also softly pressed against it.
As long as he moved gently, he would occasionally get a response when he stroked Jiu Shu’s cheek.
Xi Han was sure this was the intimate demeanor that couples had.
It gave him the illusion that they truly loved each other.
Though he realized that it was only his fantasy.
The distance between humans and monsters was like a gap in the sky.
Just as he had always thought that it was impossible for him to fall in love with a monster, it was equally impossible for a monster to fall in love with humans.
As a senior scholar who had studied monsters for many years, he knew this better than anyone else.
In particular, the change in Jiu Shu was just too sudden.
In the chaos of the other day, Xi Han passed out after discovering that Jiu Shu wasn’t dead.
He thought that he would wake up to an ending where he would be devoured by the 301.
But to his surprise, he was lying in the container where 301 was previously held, with 301 sitting next to him.
While wringing his somehow wet sleeves, he looked at him with a serious expression.
He hadn’t been eaten, nor had he been harmed.
At that time, Xi Han almost suspected that he was dreaming.
But then, after he gathered the courage to confess, No. 301 smiled and agreed.
He didn’t even refuse his hug.
He realized that this wasn’t a dream, but a reality that was even better than a dream.
In the days that followed, Xi Han lived happily every day.
Every day he could see Jiu Shu’s beautiful smile, which no longer contained disgust; there was only a lover-like intimacy.
But just like what Duan An had rebuked with righteous indignation earlier, No. 301’s distaste for him as a ruthless scientist should have been hard to dissipate.
The initial loathing to the acceptance of his embrace and willingness to be close to him was only a few days apart.
It simply couldn’t be that it really liked him.
Xi Han knew that 301 was probably just being wishy-washy with him because it didn’t want to be punished.
As a shelter that was suspected of escaping, the base side’s way of dealing with it was generally to dispose of it as much as possible so as not to cause a bigger mess in the future.
And No. 301, after escaping the shelter area,area, obviously realized this.
That was why it showed a gentle and beautiful smile to him, a researcher who had been compelled by it and then thrown away in disgust.
It was as if it really liked him.
Xi Han had seen too many things where monsters with a soft appearance tricked humans into dropping their guard and then opening their blo*ody mouths.
The monsters would chew through every inch of bone, growing more and more excited at the humans’s screams.
Xi Han didn’t think that he would one day become one of those people who were deceived by beautiful appearances.
No, an existence even more pathetic than that of than that of those people.
Even though he knew that all these feelings were nothing more than a disguise, he was still willing to step into the monster’s trap voluntarily.
Xi Han only wished that this kind of warmth could last longer.
That was why he never exposed 301’s lies, maintaining such an unspoken falsehood.
Because Xi Han knew that as long as he still had it, it would never leave again.
For him, this was already a good ending.
Xi Han sat on the edge of the bed and saw Jiu Shu’s long eyelashes flutter, and it opened his eyes.
After taking in Xi Han’s face, 301’s eyes curled as he smiled and said softly, “Good morning.”
Perhaps it was because it had only just woken up from sleep that that Jiu Shu’s voice was slightly hoarse.
Each word, however, was as soft and ambiguous as a cloud.
It made one’s ears tingle.
Xi Han was stunned; the tips of his ears flushed scarlet.
It took a while before he came back to his senses and hurriedly revealed a smile he had practiced many times.
“Good morning.”
He hoped his smile would please his beloved 301.
Jiu Shu did smile back.
The light that filled its eyes was as if he was its most beloved lover sitting in front of him.
Not a disgusting human who had tried to dissect it.
How nice it would be if this were all true.
“……”
“You seem to be upset again.”
Jiu Shu looked at Xi Han for a moment, then suddenly got up and moved closer to him.
Xi Han’s thoughts stalled.
Looking at Jiu Shu, who was close to him, a slight red color flushed on his pale cheeks at a speed visible to the eye.
His heart was also beating rapidly.
He completely lost the calmness he had when facing others.
“Are you suspecting that I don’t really like you?”
When Jiu Shu’s words fell, Xi Han’s pupils narrowed slightly.
After a pause, he avoided Jiu Shu’s gaze and replied seemingly naturally, “Of course I know that you love me.”
“I love you too, very much.”
Xi Han said, breaking into a smile.
The love in his eyes couldn’t be hidden.
The smile on his pale face was more genuine than the fake one when facing outsiders.
The depths of the smile, however, hid low self-esteem and uneasiness.
He didn’t believe that he would really be loved by 301.
He only wanted to maintain such a beautiful day like now for a longer period of time, even if it was just an illusion.
“I don’t seem to believe you.”
Jiu Shu poked at the false calm that Xi Han was barely maintaining.
Somewhat flustered, Xi Han tried to put on the smile that Jiu Shu liked, wanting to prove that he wasn’t lying.
The next moment, there was more softness in his arms.
Xi Han was much taller than Jiu Shu, and although his body wasn’t exactly lanky, it was still quite a bit more robust than Jiu Shu’s soft and lean physique and was considered to be fluidly muscled.
Therefore, from Xi Han’s perspective, he himself completely wrapped Jiu Shu in his arms.
It was tight and intimate.
Jiu Shu hugged Xi Han, his voice gentle. “Then I’ll just tell you one more time, I love you.”
Xi Han froze for a while before reaching out his hand, slowly hugging Jiu Shu tightly.
A sickly fascination and contentment appeared on his face, which Jiu Shu couldn’t see.
“I love you too.”
Whether it was true or not, just being able to hear that Jiu Shu loved him made Xi Han feel incredibly happy.
For him, that was enough.
“I’m guessing that you’re skeptical because you don’t believe that a monster could love a human, but what if I was once a human?”
“I’ve told you my name;; how come you never thought of that?”
Jiu Shu’s voice made Xi Han’s eyes widen slightly.
“Go check it out; you’ll understand then.”
Jiu Shu gently caressed Xi Han’s cheek, his almond-shaped eyes slightly curved.
The clear eyes were beautiful to the extreme.
Jiu Shu understood that only by letting the object of discipline personally check would he truly believe it.
Otherwise, it would be useless to say words of love to Xi Han so many times.
It was human.
301 was human.
Xi Han’s mind was filled with this heavenly-sounding thought.
In fact, there had been have been many similar rumors in society recently.
All of them were saying that the current monsters were just the products of government experiments; all of them were humans who had been forcibly transformed.
They were their poor compatriots who should be protected.
Instead of being locked up in a dark base and tortured.
As a scientist who loathed monsters and was convinced that humans and monsters couldn’t coexist, Xi Han felt very amused about this conspiracy theory circulating in society.
He even scoffed at it.
Now it had suddenly become clear that he, more than anyone else, wished those rumors were true.
Then it was entirely possible that he and Jiu Shu could fall in love.
Not just his wishful thinking, but two lovers.
But was it really possible?
Xi Han still felt a little gloomy.
“You don’t believe me?” Jiu Shu’s expression got a little frustrated.
He seemed to be saddened by Xi Han’s distrust.
Xi Han immediately tightened his embrace heartily and said, “I believe you.”
“As long as you say it, I will believe it.”
As long as Jiu Shu gave an excuse for why he fell in love with him, Xi Han would believe it, whether it was true or not.
Like a tyrant who was lost in desire, Xi Han was enchanted by the love of his life in his arms.
The hesitation in his mind just now seemed to dissipate immediately.
No matter what his lover wanted him to do, he would honestly do it.
The tyranny that was once there was completely gone.
At the same time, there was even some heartache.
After all, if it was true that he was transformed into a monster, then it also meant that Jiu Shu had suffered a lot of inhumane torture.
Although torturing monsters was commonplace for Xi Han, just thinking about what it would be like to put those tortures on Jiu Shu made Xi Han feel like his heart was exploding.
“I’ll look into it and find out everything.”
Xi Han heartbrokenly hugged Jiu Shu tightly.
Jiu Shu smiled at his words and kissed Xi Han’s cheek lightly.
Xi Han froze, and his ears became redder.
He blushed a little and didn’t dare to look at Jiu Shu again.
His eyes descended to the wrist that Jiu Shu placed on his shoulder.
On it still hung the black identity plaque unique to the shelter, symbolizing his fate as an experiment to be slaughtered in the base.
However, it also made his slim wrist appear and white and jade-like.
It was warm and slightly cool to the touch, making it hard to let go.
Jiu Shu let him knead his wrist without the slightest resistance, only a gentle smile on his beautiful cheeks.
It seemed that there was no other answer besides the fact that he really liked him.
Bewitched, Xi Han’s lips involuntarily curled up, and the deep unease in his eyes dissipated.
Instead, there was an increasingly thick and captivating love.
Actually, for Xi Han, even if he was deceived, it didn’t matter.
At least in this moment, in his arms was his lover, a shelter who only belonged to him.
This was enough.
Recently, the social debate over the protection of shelters had become more and more intense.
Although the base had put the issue on hold due to the previous accident, the outside world had not.
Even the number of related marches had increased geometrically.
The government was already having a headache to the point of no return.
They blamed it on the fact that the populace was now seeing fewer and fewer monsters with a high level of danger.
Even because of the strength of the human camp, many people had never actually faced a monster since they were born, so they naturally felt sympathy for those monsters with perfect disguises.
The upper echelons of the base became burned out as a result and had foul expressions on their faces all day long, causing the entire base to become very tense.
There was only one exception.
The assistant looked at Xi Han, who was sitting next to his desk, and a moment later he averted his eyes in trepidation.
Dr. Xi Han was really getting creepier and creepier lately.
The smile on his face was so wide that it always gave the assistant the illusion that a young girl was in hot love and couldn’t help herself.
Moreover, lately, Xi Han had rarely dissected the shelters anymore and even stopped accepting them, just staying in his office and burying his head in documents.
He didn’t know what he really wanted to do.
The assistant didn’t dare to explore either.
Because he once curiously stole a glance when he passed by Xi Han’s desktop.
He saw an unfamiliar name——Jiu Shu——densely written on the draft paper all over the table.
It seemed that when Xi Han was tired of checking the information, he would write for a while when he got distracted.
By the end of the pile of draft papers, the name was written all over.
When the paper was full, he would even draw a red heart on each name.
Then he would look at the paper and stare blankly, and from time to time he would cross his arms and rest his chin on a hand, laughing out loud.
The smile could even be called shy and sweet compared to the previous false and weird smile.
However, when faced with outsiders, Xi Han remained the same, smiling all day long, but his smile was barely visible.
Especially when facing Duan An, who had been notified and criticized by the base, his smile bordered on creepy.
In the mass exodus of shelters a few days ago, the base had already found out that the culprit was a researcher named Lu Wen.
However, since Lu Wen had already been scared out of his wits by the ferocious man-eating shelters when he was caught, the base side had only dismissed him and transferred him to the court for processing.
Duan An, as the researcher who had blocked the supervisor Xi Han’s work dealing with the shelters, and the recommender who recommended Lu Wen, was also scolded by the base.
He was also given a suspension and told to go back and rest for a few days before coming back.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that too many people had died in the base at one time and it wasn’t good to have any less manpower, the base would have wanted to resign him directly.
But he didn’t expect Duan An’s temper to be a bad one, and his first reaction after hearing the punishment was to shake off the hands holding him and angrily curse the base’s inhumanity.
He also ran to the conference room to rebuke Xi Han’s inhumanity.
“If you still have a conscience, please be nicer to those humanoid shelters!”
Duana pointedly accused, his eyes filled with concern for the No. 301.
Although it appeared that Xi Han hadn’t handed over No. 301 to the base for disposal, just falling into Xi Han’s hands was an equally tragic end.
Duan An only hated his own powerlessness.
Although he had protected the organization and not exposed the existence of the Monster Protection Organization, he was sorry for Lu Wen and that fragile and beautiful shelter No. 301.
The assistant happened to be sitting at a nearby table taking notes at the time and could only see Xi Han’s amber eyes staring at Duan An, the corners of his mouth pulled back in a smile that couldn’t be more frightening.
Like he was looking at a clown, he waved his hand and let the guards throw Duan An out.
Everyone felt that Xi Han didn’t give this guy a second thought.
Only the assistant saw the gloom that condensed underneath Xi Han’s eyes.
The assistant felt that if Duan An wasn’t more or less a human, Dr.Dr. Xi Han would have meticulously cut him into neatly sized pieces.
He might have even given his broken pieces to his family to savor, just like he did with the monster family.
After that, Duan An left the base, and the base returned to its usual atmosphere.
Xi Han was getting weirder and weirder.
Visits to No. 301 became more frequent.
His hair was carefully combed every day.
Even the white coat, which used to be rarely changed, would be changed every day.
Although it wasn’t nice to say so, the assistant did feel that Dr.Dr. Xi Han was becoming more and more pretentious.
Why would a man need to dress up so flirtatiously?
Unlike him, he changed his white coat once a week; it was just a coat over his clothes anyway, and anyway, and changing it so diligently was almost like going on a date with his sweetheart every day.
“……”
At that moment, the assistant who thought of it froze and gulped thinly at the thought of number 301.
Shaking his head, he denied the thought once again.
It wasn’t something he should explore.
However, as Xi Han’s assistant, this kind of thing wasn’t something he could avoid if he wanted to.
Every time he delivered documents to Xi Han after that, he could see Xi Han walking out of No. 301’s room.
The smile on his face also became happier and happier, with an obvious fascination.
There was no trace of his previous sensible and brutal boss.
Instead, it was like he was being compelled by No. 301 more and more deeply.
Occasionally, the assistant would also see the various information searched on Xi Han’s computer.
In the past, they were all academic papers, but now, for the first time, there was a small news page that was once despised by Xi Han.
About the possibility of humans and monsters being together, the possibility of humans being turned into monsters, and other alarmist articles.
As well as all sorts of strange and bizarre experimental documents, spanning from before the Cataclysm to the present.
It was densely packed with words and numbers.
The assistant felt dizzy when he glanced at them, but Xi Han was still able to read them with great interest.
In the face of such a terrible status quo, the assistant could no longer deceive himself that he was overthinking it all, and every day he was more fearful than the day before.
Fearing that one day the Doctor would be completely compelled by No. 301 and there’d be another shelter escape incident, something even more horrific wasn’t out of the question.
The assistant thought about reporting it to the base, but he didn’t have full proof.
At the same time, he also worried that he would be dismissed by Xi Han, so he could only live like this with his heart frantically beating every day.
Watching as Xi Han was increasingly bewitched by the shelter named 301.
No.301 was really a very scary shelter; even Dr. Xi Han couldn’t resist its power.
Now, except for Xi Han, no one else could see No. 301 anymore.
Xi Han had completely isolated No. 301 from the others, and it had become his personal and exclusive shelter.
No one else could even take a look at it.
With such a level of obsession, compared to the previous Dr. Xi Han, who loathed monsters to the point of being able to eat their flesh, anyone could tell that something was wrong.
But perhaps it was because Xi Han usually had less contact with other people; not many people had really noticed that something was wrong.
The assistant could only hold it in until he was about to suffer internal injuries.
He didn’t dare to tell outsiders at all.
“……”
Inside the office, Xi Han finally got up to leave, holding a folded paper rose in his hand.
Furrowing his eyebrows and looking at the rose’s delicate simulated petals, his pursed lips subconsciously hooked up.
Although, for the time being, there was no way to let his beloved Jiu Shu get free and breathe the outside air, he could at least give him a small gift every day.
It was only recently that Xi Han discovered that Jiu Shu loved roses.
He inexplicably felt that Jiu Shu would love the paper roses he made with his own hands, so he had been practicing for a long time.
Now that he had finally achieved something, he was finally able to give it to Jiu Shu with his own hands.
He couldn’t wait to see Jiu Shu’s surprise.
The assistant’s tense nerves finally relaxed a little when he saw Xi Han leave
He sighed deeply, his face wrinkled into a bitter melon, not really knowing what to do.
When faced with difficulties that were difficult to cope with, the human instinct was to run away.
The assistant was no exception.
After thinking about it, he still began to do other things.
Opening the tablet, he started watching a video casually, and in the next moment, he suddenly saw a familiar face.
It was Duan An.
The assistant watched in shock as the screen showed Duan An standing on a towering lectern located in the enter of the city.
Below the stage was a dense crowd and a steady stream of flashbulbs.
Duan An, on the other hand, was full of determination, his voice resounding as he told the crowd everything that had happened to him in the Third Experimental Base.
Those innocent shelters——the mother and child who had been brutally murdered——the skinny shelters with their chests and bellies cut open——the couple who were still hugging each other tightly after being burned to a crisp.
“They are all victims of the oppression of this dark age, and I, who used to work in them, would constantly question in my mind every day as I looked at my bloo*d-stained hands, am I really doing this right?”
“What kind of civilization needs to make another intelligent race pay the price of blo*od to develop itself?”
“Brutal, blo*odthirsty, greedy——I can only use such words to describe myself, and shame made me stand up in the hope of awakening sympathy for another race!”
“They are beings——beings that live on the planet just like us!”
Thunderous applause rang out from the stage.
Duan An’s voice was choked as he cried hot tears and continued to speak about his sympathy for the shelters.
And at the end of his speech, he dropped a video onto the large screen behind him.
“This is the evidence I brought out from the base, both of those pitiful shelters and the brutal, cold-hearted faces of humans!”
As the frames of blo*ody images played, there were even some people on stage who cried until they fainted, sympathy and anger making it so that they could only vent it out by crying.
Especially at the end of the frame, the arrogant and cold words of those seemingly glamorous base supervisors in the conference room pushed the crowd’s anger to its peak.
The long-haired man in the picture had a handsome, pale face and a smile that appeared hypocritical.
He spoke his mind about monsters.
Narrow phoenix eyes curled up, and the smile was vaguely blo*ody. “I would only want to dissect them out in more detail and study how they differ from humans.”
The sickness in his amber eyes was undisguised.
With the paper rose in hand, Xi Han arrived at the door of Jiu Shu’s room.
Although he had been here countless times, he still got nervous every time.
His heart also beat uncontrollably.
Looking down at the rose in his hand, Xi Han’s eyes curled in anticipation of his lover’s happy face when he saw the rose.
Although he still hadn’t found out any information about the transformed monster recently, as he spent more and more time with his lover, the uneasiness in Xi Han’s heart was close to non-existent.
He was becoming more and more convinced that he and Jiu Shu loved each other.
Only if he loved him would he have been so gentle with him.
Otherwise, during this period of time when he was defenseless, there were too many opportunities for Jiu Shu to leave this place, but he still stayed here and stayed by his side.
Because he loved him too.
Perhaps it was because he hadn’t really put Jiu Shu on the operating table to dissect it before that Xi Han could feel that Jiu Shu had no fear of him.
Or that kind of emotion.
Perhaps all the so-called loathing in the past was just a misunderstanding on his part.
After all, he still looked gentle and approachable on the surface.
Xi Han touched his face, which he had purposely washed several times, and thought somewhat haughtily.
As long as he kept this gentle look from now on and stopped showing the ferocity he had when facing the shelters, Jiu Shu would surely love him more and more.
Thinking so, Xi Han pushed open the door.
The sound of a TV came from inside the door.
In order to prevent Jiu Shu from being too lonely, Xi Han had purchased many pieces of furniture for Jiu Shu.
This television was one of them.
“I would only want to dissect them more meticulously and study how they differ from humans.”
Xi Han’s body froze violently, and he raised his eyes to the TV.
It was already showing footage from his dissection of the monster.
The cutouts even showed the humanoid spider #275 from the first experiment with Jiu Shu earlier.
He was grinning excitedly, his blo*odstained face especially clear in the picture.
Showing a hideous face that had never been exposed in front of his lover.
“!!!”
Xi Han’s pupils dilated, it felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.