C93 — [4.6 —- The Shelter]
by UntamedSNo, that wasn’t true.
No. 301 was just a shelter.
It would be dissected eventually, and there was no way it would stay with him forever.
Xi Han’s brow was furrowed, and his expression was gloomy.
No. 301’s destiny was only death.
The appearance that No. 301 would have when it died appeared before Xi Han’s eyes.
Miserably white and cold.
Especially when the scalpel cut through No. 301’s white chest, the line of blo*od would slowly spread until the last of the blo*od in its body was drained.
The dead pupils would no longer have any emotions.
Nor would it ever show the smile it had at the beginning again.
“……”
Inside the room, Xi Han lowered his eyes and looked at his trembling fingers.
The fingers that had never trembled while holding the surgical knife—just imagining the scene of 301 dying under his surgical knife—made them tremble uncontrollably.
He felt even more sad than in his dream when he was confronted with the fact that 301 was leaving him.
As a human being, this kind of behavior was undoubtedly a sign of submission to the shelter.
It was something that should have never happened to him.
Slowly tightening his trembling fingers until they finally closed into a fist, Xi Han didn’t speak for a long time.
In the darkness of the room, one could only see the uncertainty in his eyes.
At least he couldn’t continue to sink.
But maybe he could take a look at it through the surveillance footage.
It wasn’t because of anything else.
He just wanted to confirm if 301 had really left.
Perhaps because the panic in his dream hadn’t dissipated yet; Xi Han’s heart was still beating frantically, making him instinctively pick up the tablet next to him.
After hesitating for a moment, he turned on the surveillance screen.
Then he saw No.301 curled up in a ball in the pure white room.
Its black and silky hair was scattered like satin, making it look more and more thin and beautiful.
Its eyes were tightly closed.
Every scene was impeccably beautiful.
In that bizarre dream just now, he also saw No. 301’s smile, gentle and moving.
It was smiling at him alone.
He could feel No. 301’s warm fingertips and soft skin as they embraced intimately.
Just like a normal couple.
Staring blankly at the monitor, the corners of Xi Han’s mouth rose slightly, as if he wanted to smile, but it passed in an instant.
His expression quickly darkened.
As a scientist who had dissected countless monsters, he had been fighting for the interests of all mankind since he was conscious.
To Xi Han, the meaning of his existence was to wipe out all monsters.
But now he was so obsessed with a shelter.
He couldn’t even accept its death.
Even if he denied it, Xi Han understood that his current situation was extremely abnormal.
Xi Han already didn’t recognize himself; the person he was now was a different person from the one who was once indifferent to the monsters.
But he couldn’t help it.
According to his past character, when faced with a shelter that could affect him to this point, he should have immediately dissected it and disposed of it.
Because that meant that it could always threaten more humans whose spiritual energy was inferior to his, bringing even greater disasters to humanity.
But right now, Xi Han simply couldn’t make up his mind.
He became indecisive and hesitant.
A rare struggle showed in his amber-colored eyes, and in the end, he just turned off the surveillance screen.
The room returned to the initial silence.
Only Xi Han’s straight back bent slightly, as if feeling dejected. His palms covered his pale face, concealing the emotions that had lingered to the point of almost confusion.
The guilt of betraying the human race and the hot emotions suppressed in his heart were intertwined, and it was difficult to separate them.
And in the base.
The assistant, who was already preparing to go to bed, soon received a communication request from Xi Han.
The assistant looked at the current time, one o’clock in the morning.
He got up from the bed in pain and realized that Xi Han was asking him to change the room for 301.
The reason was that the current room wasn’t convenient for experiments.
“Change it to a fully furnished room, where 199 lived before.”
Xi Han’s voice carried his unique whim; like a sudden idea, one was completely unable to hear that he was still immersed in his complex psychological struggle.
199 was a humanoid-type shelter with great research value, and it preferred to live in a comfortable room.
In order to facilitate research, the base had specially created a room for it that was exquisitely comparable to a five-star hotel.
“But 199 is still in the room?” The assistant was a bit confused.
He nearly suspected that he had misremembered, but after adjusting the records, he found that 199 was indeed still alive.
“It’ll be dead tomorrow.”
Through the mobile phone’s microphone, Xi Han’s voice was tinged with carelessness.
The assistant heard what Xi Han meant, and his face instantly wrinkled into a bitter melon.
And Xi Han didn’t care; he just slowly asked, “How long will it take to finish changing rooms?”
He just suddenly remembered that the 301 on the monitor just now wasn’t sleeping too comfortably.
This wasn’t him submitting to the shelter.
It was just a way for him to conduct better experiments in the future.
He had always been a dedicated researcher, and it was only natural for him to make every experiment as good as it could be.
As well, if it slept better, 301 wouldn’t try to escape.
Apparently, the dream just now had left Xi Han a little uneasy.
“It’ll be about two more hours.” The assistant was sleepy as hell, but he braced himself as he reply.
Few people in the base were still on duty at this moment.
Adding to the fact that 301 was a high-danger level shelter, the process of transferring the room required an injection of the inhibior, which was rather troublesome, and there was a serious shortage of manpower.
“There is no need to inject it with the inhibitor.” Xi Han’s voice was a little cold.
“In the future, without my permission, don’t inject 301 with the inhibitor.”
The inhibitor was able to inhibit the ability of the shelter, but for the shelter, the feeling was unpleasant.
“It’s still sleeping; don’t disturb it when you change rooms later.”
Xi Han continued to add.
The assistant was completely at a loss.
Without injecting the inhibiting factor and not being able to disturb it, then how could they change the rooms?
Xi Han also seemed to think that the assistant couldn’t do such a difficult thing, and after a pause, he said, “Forget it; I’ll be in charge of bringing No. 301 there, and you go and take care of 199.”
The assistant nodded his head sorrowfully in response, feeling that he probably wouldn’t be able to hold this job for long.
Having disposed of shelters that still had research value three times in a row, Dr. Xi Han was completely letting himself go.
After hanging up the phone, the assistant hurriedly went to room number 199 to prepare for the change of rooms.
And at this time, Xi Han was also ready to go to No. 301’s room to bring it out.
As a human researcher under the compulsion of No. 301, he should have kept his distance from it.
He shouldn’t consider approaching it until the ability’s effect had subsided.
Otherwise, the mentally deranged Dr. Claire in the second experimental base would be his future.
But now it was a special situation, and he couldn’t find anyone to help 301 change rooms.
Only he could.
Thinking like this, Xi Han got up and walked to the washroom to wash up.
Looking up, he looked at the water droplets sliding down his pale face and the long black hair scattered around his shoulders and neck.
He paused and raised his hand to brush his long, loose hair together, making it look much cleaner.
It was rare for him to tie his hair up, and he usually did so only to prevent his hair from being soiled by bloo*d when doing experiments.
After tidying up his hair, Xi Han changed into a white uniform specially made for senior researchers, and the waist-cinching belt was also buckled to look as gentle and decent as possible.
Finally looking at his well-dressed self in the mirror, he froze, and his expression, which was still slightly expectant, converged with a hint of melancholy.
This was almost like a teenager who didn’t know what to do before going to meet his sweetheart.
Instead of a serious scientific researcher.
Xi Han’s palm was pinched until it got bloo*dy again.
It was only after a few moments that he reached out his hand and tried to remove the hair rope.
But after struggling for a long time, he ultimately didn’t remove it.
He left the room and headed to the holding area, where 301 was located.
He wasn’t dressed this way because of No. 301; he just wanted to dress up a little.
He didn’t expect No. 301 to be impressed by his outfit; after all, he didn’t intend to disturb No. 301’s rest at all.
Walking in the corridor, Xi Han listened to the sound of his own footsteps, hiding the complex emotions in his eyes.
Soon arriving outside of No. 301’s room, Xi Han entered the room after passing the identification.
The footsteps were placed as lightly as possible.
Inside the room, Jiu Shu was still asleep.
He had his hands on his knees, his snow-white wrists hidden between his black hair.
This was the first time that Xi Han had come face-to-face with No. 301.
Unlike that previous meeting across the petri dish jar, this time there was no longer any barrier between the two.
All the mental preparations that had been made and all the excuses that had been found were suddenly forgotten the moment he saw Jiu Shu.
His amber-colored eyes looked unblinkingly at the half side of Jiu Shu’s exposed face.
The sound of Jiu Shu’s steady breathing was faintly audible in the room, and it wasn’t until the sound of his heartbeat in his chest completely overpowered it that he retracted his gaze as if he had woken up from a dream and stopped looking at Jiu Shu.
His job this time was just to send Jiu Shu to the other room; it had nothing to do with other emotions.
Xi Han walked over to Jiu Shu and knelt down on one knee, his palm touching his warm skin.
When he picked up Jiu Shu, his movements were gentle—so gentle that even he himself was a bit surprised.
Once upon a time, Xi Han treated monsters with no mercy; even with his restrained strength, he would torture those monsters to death.
Even he didn’t anticipate that he would have a day when he would hold a monster gently.
If someone had said that to Xi Han yesterday, he would have only sarcastically commented that the person was daydreaming.
Because he would never forgive monsters.
But now, it seemed that everything had changed.
Xi Han looked at the shelter in his arms, still sleeping. The sleeping face was so calm and beautiful that he couldn’t take his eyes off it.
No. 301 was light; it obviously had a tall male body, but its waist was incredibly thin, and the collarbone exposed with the movement of being picked up was also well structured.
All of its body was so soft that he couldn’t let go.
Every inch of its muscle texture seemed to emit a scent that was intoxicating.
No wonder it was a dangerous shelter that was labeled as a class A.
Even the way he quietly slept was full of compelling power.
Xi Han lowered his eyes and walked towards the outside of the room.
No. 199’s room wasn’t far from the side, so it was reasonable to say that they would be there soon.
Xi Han, however, walked somewhat slowly.
Every now and then, he would look down at Jiu Shu and wouldn’t continue to walk forward until he confirmed that he hadn’t woken up.
Jiu Shu’s body was completely cradled in Xi Han’s arms, his slender ankles swaying slightly as he walked.
The traces of veins snaking through the porcelain-white skin could be made out.
Everything was no different for humans.
Xi Han remembered the guess that the stupid new researcher, Duan An, had made during the day.
The monsters were human-turned.
That idea, which he had scoffed at, now suddenly made him want to keep probing.
Even though he knew it was simply impossible.
The physiology between humans and monsters was so different that the outward resemblance didn’t mean anything at all.
“Doctor, the room has been arranged!” The assistant, tired and panting, respectfully gestured at Xi Han to have a look in the room.
Even the bedsheets were changed to ensure that Xi Han was satisfied.
But instead of showing a smile, Xi Han gave him a cold look.
The assistant was so stunned that he was scared out of drowsiness.
“Keep your voice down.”
Xi Han’s voice was very soft, but the eyes that looked at the assistant seemed to carry ice.
The assistant wiped his cold sweat, squeezed out a smile, and nodded.
He felt that Xi Han was really getting harder and harder to serve.
Then, looking at Xi Han’s back as he entered the room, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But then his expression turned odd.
If he hadn’t seen it wrong, just now, Dr. Xi Han had entered the room holding number 301, right?
Was this really not a dream?
The assistant hadn’t dared to look in the direction of 301 just now; after all, 301 hadn’t been injected with the inhibiting factor, and he would be finished if he accidentally got distracted.
But even without looking at 301, the assistant could still tell that Xi Han was holding 301.
It was shocking.
Was this the same Dr. Xi Han who used to be ruthless in his treatment of shelters?
The assistant was a bit skeptical.
After all, before he suspected that Xi Han would directly pull No. 301’s hair and drag it all the way here, that would be in line with the doctor’s usual character.
Inside the room, Xi Han carefully placed Jiu Shu on the soft bed.
This specially constructed room was fully furnished, and even the floor was covered with soft carpet, which would no longer make Jiu Shu feel cold.
Xi Han touched Jiu Shu’s cold fingers and was a little lost in thought as he watched Jiu Shu’s slumbering form.
The current No. 301 looked fragile, so fragile that as long as it was cut through its neck with a scalpel, blo*od would instantly gush out, like countless dissected monsters that couldn’t even let out a scream.
If No. 301 was dissected, then all of his previous worries—the guilt of betraying humanity—would all disappear.
But number 301 would also disappear, never to exist again.
Xi Han looked down at the scalpel he had brought with him and slowly gripped it tightly, but his fingers were involuntarily trembling.
Cowardly hesitation.
It was the look he used to spurn the most.
He had witnessed humans on the battlefield sniveling, breaking down, and begging before monsters.
He had felt that he would never be as cowardly as they were, that he would only slaughter the monsters to the ground, even at the cost of his own life, without the slightest fear.
Even the most brutal torture wouldn’t make him falter in the slightest.
But now he realized that he was no different from them—cowardly to the extreme in the face of monsters.
He couldn’t even use the scalpel.
It took great courage to even aim the blade at No. 301.
Xi Han raised his head, wanting to take one last look at Jiu Shu before leaving.
He knew that he was too deeply affected to make a move.
It would be better to just leave, lest he reveal an even more unpleasant side.
But the moment he raised his eyes, he met a pair of dark and deep eyes.
Just like the countless times he had seen in the surveillance video, it was the calm eyes of 301.
The features between its black hair were exquisite, and his beautiful almond eyes reflected him, as well as the scalpel in his hand that was stained with countless amounts of blo*od.
He now looked like an eerie and terrifying mad scientist who was about to ki-ll No. 301 while it was sleeping.
No. 301, who had shown him a look of disgust before, would only loathe him even more now.
“!!!”
The always-obedient scalpel in Xi Han’s hand cut him for the first time.
The formerly nimble fingers were skinned for the first time, revealing wounds deep enough to see through to the bone.
Jiu Shu gently furrowed his brows, looking at Xi Han’s blo*od-soaked finger, and reached out his hand to touch it.
But it was avoided by Xi Han.
Compared to his previous self, who was always calm and unruffled, the current Xi Han looked panicked and helpless.
His amber eyes were wide open, and his pupils were constantly trembling, not daring to look at Jiu Shu at all.
Xi Han stumbled and almost fell on the plush carpet, and the ponytail tied up at the back of his head came apart, but he didn’t care about it and fled as if…
there was a beast behind him.
Jiu Shu watched Xi Han’s back for a long time before withdrawing his hand somewhat helplessly.
This world’s object of discipline was a bit too shy.
On the other hand, Xi Han, who escaped from the room, leaned against the door of the room after closing it, his shoulder-length black hair covering his pale face.
It made it impossible to see the emotions on his face.
“Doctor?”
The assistant was a bit flustered, not knowing what had happened and why, in just a moment’s time, it was as if Xi Han had lost his soul.
Xi Han didn’t respond to him.
He just lowered his head and looked at his bleeding finger, then slowly clenched his fingers into a fist as if he couldn’t feel the pain.
The eyes under his black hair widened, looking incredibly forlorn.
He struggled between duty and love, yet in the end, nothing was gained.
Whether from a human standpoint or the love he felt for No. 301.
“Doctor, do we need to call the medical team for you?”
The assistant was still concerned about the superior who paid his salary, but the superior wasn’t impressed by his concern.
He just spat out a few words in an icy tone: “Shut up.”
Xi Han shouldn’t be angry at a fellow human being.
But wasn’t that heart that made Jiu Shu angry sent by the assistant?
Xi Han didn’t want to see him for the time being.
The assistant withdrew his voice and cowered after meeting Xi Han’s gaze. He shrank back and watched as Xi Han walked away, but his back seemed somewhat desolate and lonely.
Only God knew what kind of madness this Dr. Xi Han was having again.
The assistant calmed down and hurriedly left here.
He hoped that he wouldn’t have nightmares after being chastised by Xi Han countless times today.
Xi Han walked in the dimly lit corridor, looking at the dissected remains of a monster behind the transparent glass, his gaze fixed.
He walked aimlessly for a long time, not even knowing where he was going.
It wasn’t until he came back to his senses that he realized he had returned to No. 301’s new room.
Looking at the tightly closed room, Xi Han stopped and lowered his head in loss.
Not daring to approach at all.
His finger was still bleeding, and the pain was spreading.
As a researcher who did precision surgeries, a wound like this should never be there, and once there is a wound, it should be treated immediately.
So as not to affect his career afterwards.
But at this moment, Xi Han couldn’t bring himself to do so.
He took out his scalpel, and the blade made of special material was still sharp, and even though his fingers were bleeding, there wasn’t the slightest tremor when he held it in his hand.
It was completely different from when he was facing No. 301, and his self-deception seemed to have been revealed at this point.
Bloo*d continued to flow down the blade—not a monster’s bloo*d this time, but his.
Xi Han watched the crimson liquid drip onto the floor, his amber pupils hollow and lifeless.
He admitted that he was in love with No. 301.
But what if No. 301 didn’t love him?
Number 301 even hated him.
Maybe it could never love him.
The next day, the assistant woke up with extreme mental exhaustion; he had indeed had nightmares all night.
All of them were nightmares about being chastised and dismissed by Xi Han.
The assistant felt bitter, but he had to continue to work hard in order to make amends.
As soon as he got to work in the morning, he attentively went to Xi Han and waited for orders.
But today’s Xi Han’s looked a bit gloomy.
The response given to him when he asked if he was going to continue working on 301 today also seemed cold.
“No.”
He seemed to have lost interest in No. 301.
Not at all like the doctor yesterday, who was so excited that he could carry 301 and change rooms.
“I have other things to be busy with these days.”
But despite saying that, after a moment’s pause, Xi Han asked about No. 301 as if it were nothing.
“What’s its status?”
Was there any shock, or did it show an expression of hatred?
“It’s in good condition.”
The assistant knew that Xi Han didn’t like reports that were too complicated, so he was brief and concise.
“…” Xi Han glanced at him, his eyebrows having a gloomy look in the light.
He didn’t say anything and continued walking towards the lab.
The assistant fumbled for words, but the whole day that followed was spent being made to run around, which really tired him out.
The next day, the assistant was asked the question again.
This time he grew some self-preservation and answered tentatively.
“Are you going to see how the recent intake is doing?”
“No.”
Xi Han’s answer was still a refusal.
The smile on his face, however, was extraordinarily perfunctory, bordering on grim.
The assistant was simply about to collapse.
Saying no while not having a good facial expression—who could tell what he really wanted?
And so this day, the assistant was again exhausted.
No matter how foolish he was, he could tell that Xi Han was doing it deliberately.
But he didn’t know what Xi Han was trying to do.
He could only see Xi Han’s gloomy face day by day.
On the third day, the assistant learned to be smart.
He guessed Xi Han had been lazy lately and didn’t want to go see the surveillance footage in person, so he edited the footage.
It was edited so that the main and secondary scenes were suitable for viewing.
He handed over the tablet with both hands when Xi Han once again motionlessly asked about the status of the shelter.
“These are the conditions of the shelter over the past two days.”
Xi Han wanted to refuse.
But his eyes paused on the tablet for a long time.
He dreaded seeing 301’s hateful eyes, yet he longed to see him.
He longed for him to the point of going crazy.
In the next moment, Xi Han finally saw No. 301, who his heart longed for, and the strange researcher standing beside him.
Unlike the disgust he felt when confronted with him, No. 301 wore a gentle and beautiful smile on his face.
“……!!!”
The assistant looked at Xi Han’s focused gaze and finally breathed a sigh of relief, but before he could completely relax, the sound of a pen being snapped was heard in the next second.
The assistant raised his eyes warily and saw that Xi Han’s face was so gloomy that it was as if it had turned green.
TN:
It’s really late, I’ll come back and check for mistakes, I wanna sleep.
Thank you for the update~