Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Truth

Chapter Ninety-Nine

"Major Lingfeng hired us for a secret mission. On the way, due to some accidents, we got separated. So I'd like to inform them of our whereabouts and agree upon a meeting point. Is that possible?"

The old commander thought it over briefly and agreed to Mei's request.

Since Lingfeng and the others hadn't returned yet, the message had to be relayed as a recording. Mei took the paper and pen handed over by the commander and wrote a single simple line: "Safe. Tell Ah Chen: meet at Longsheng!"

The old commander glanced at it, then handed it to the communications officer to send. Only then did he turn to Mei and ask, "Is there anything else? Your trip to Longsheng is no short distance. Would you like to hire some extra hands?"

Mei immediately shook her head at the suggestion.

Was he joking? She still planned to take out her own energy vehicle later on the road. With outsiders around, how could she possibly bring it out?

"No need. A'ye and I can manage. Too many people would slow us down!" Mei said in a tone that suggested she wanted to avoid trouble.

When the old commander heard her address the man beside her as "A'ye," the first thing that surfaced in his mind was the Ye family, the number one underworld clan. Then he thought he might be overthinking it. After all, leaving aside whether "Ye" was the man's surname or given name, and whether it was even that particular "Ye," so what if he was from the Ye family? In this day and age, what distinction was there between the underworld and the legitimate world? To survive, who hadn't stained their hands with the blood of their own kind? Everyone was the same; no one was any better than anyone else.

The message was quickly relayed to Longsheng Base, and a reply came back. After reading it, Mei felt a weight lift from her mind.

However, at the same time the message was conveyed from Qingsheng Base to Longsheng, there were others who also received this information.

"Doctor, we've located the target!" The man who had intercepted the message opened his communicator and immediately reported up.

"Oh? Where?" A crisp, cool voice came through the intercom.

"The target is now at Qingsheng Base and is preparing to head to Longsheng Base!"

Qingsheng? Longsheng?

"I see. Keep working." The voice paused for a moment before speaking again.

"Yes, Doctor!"

In a room containing seven or eight computers, a man in a white lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses wore a contemplative expression while staring at a mass of data and a gene map on the computer screen.

According to the research data, this gene map had very notable differences from the gene map of an ordinary human. Although the genetic structure appeared unstable, when compared to the samples he had obtained earlier, it was clear to see that the other party's genes were continuously changing.

What exactly was causing the target's genes to keep mutating?

A perplexed light flickered in the man's narrow eyes behind his glasses. But more than that, what burned in them was the fervor of research.

Such an interesting specimen. Truly rare to come by!

Should he make contact with it personally?

Mei and Ye Jingxuan only stayed at Qingsheng Base for one night. The next morning, after paying their utilities, they drove off.

The car was driven by Ye Jingxuan. After two hours on the road, Mei called for him to stop.

"What's wrong, Mei'er? Are you feeling unwell?" Ye Jingxuan immediately asked with concern as she indicated she wanted to stop, easing off the accelerator and pulling the car over to the side of the road.

"A'ye, get out! We're not taking this car anymore!" Mei urged impatiently.

Hearing this, Ye Jingxuan assumed she meant to switch to one of the vehicles they'd collected at the port earlier. Thinking those cars hadn't been tuned yet and might not be safe to drive, he was about to dissuade her—but then he saw Mei take out of her spatial storage a silver-white, shuttle-shaped object three meters long, engraved with beautiful golden patterns.

"A'ye, isn't my energy vehicle beautiful?" Mei said to Ye Jingxuan in a somewhat boastful tone.

This was a specially customized limited edition, unique in any world. It had cost her a considerable sum to acquire. Out of affection, she had even given it a name: Moonlight.

"Energy vehicle?" Ye Jingxuan stared in surprise at the thing that didn't even have wheels. How was this supposed to move?

Mei stored the old car away, then slid her fingers along the silver body. Soon a door slid open to the left.

"A'ye, hurry up and get in. My Moonlight is far more comfortable than this... car!" Mei opened the door and immediately turned back to beckon Ye Jingxuan.

Seeing her wave to him, Ye Jingxuan walked over and, ducking his head slightly, stepped through the door. Once inside, he froze. From the outside, this so-called energy vehicle was no more than 1.75 meters high, no more than three meters long, and at its widest point barely a meter across. Yet inside, the ceiling was at least two and a half meters high, and the floor area exceeded sixty square meters.

How was this possible?

"Surprised, aren't you? There's more to come that will surprise you even more." Mei entered, closed the door, and walked to the very front of the vehicle, where an operating console controlled the car.

Ye Jingxuan followed her and watched as she took two fist-sized transparent stones from her spatial storage and placed them into a recess on the console. The bottom of the recess opened and swallowed the two stones. Three seconds later, the entire console lit up, and silver-blue light traced out symbols he had never seen before.

Mei tapped the third symbol from the left, and the interior suddenly lit up. At a height of about one meter above the floor, windows about a meter tall appeared, allowing those inside a 360-degree, unobstructed view of the outside.

Mei then pressed two buttons on the console, and Ye Jingxuan saw a planar map of everything within two thousand kilometers appear before his eyes. Mei's finger traced across the roads on the map, and everywhere her finger passed, the routes turned red.

"There, now the vehicle can drive itself!" Having set the route, Mei withdrew her hand and tapped the console twice more.

Were it not for the reference points outside the vehicle for comparison, Ye Jingxuan wouldn't have felt the vehicle rise at all, nor that it had begun speeding forward.

Inside, it was so steady it felt like being in a room that wasn't moving at all.

In truth, the interior of the energy vehicle was nothing less than an exquisite bedroom. Pale green walls, a deep-green plush carpet, a soft, comfortable princess bed spread with powder-blue silk sheets, and light pink gauze curtains hanging around it. Suddenly Ye Jingxuan felt as if he'd stepped into a girl's private boudoir.

Feeling somewhat ill at ease, he turned his head away and continued his survey. There was a low tea table, surrounded by three sofas—one large, two small—in a tender yellow color. In the corner was a bar, its shelves lined with bottles of exquisite shapes.

"There's wine here. Would A'ye like a drink?" Seeing him looking at the bar, Mei walked over, picked up a bottle at random, and held it up to him.

Ye Jingxuan hesitated, then nodded.

Mei took out two crystal glasses, opened the bottle, and poured about a third of a glass into each before stopping.

"Here. These were all put here by someone else. I haven't tried this one. Keep me company and let's see if it's any good." Mei pressed one of the glasses into Ye Jingxuan's hand.

Ye Jingxuan looked at the pale blue liquid in his hand, brought it close to his nose, and inhaled. A surge of cool, refreshing air rushed over him. He took a sip. At first it tasted purely sweet and light, something like juice. But soon the chill dissipated in his mouth, the temperature gradually rose, and the flavor became bolder. When the wine reached his stomach, he felt a stream of heat flow down his throat into his belly, spreading slowly through his body before the warmth finally subsided.

"Not bad. A bit like a volcano buried beneath ice and snow," Ye Jingxuan commented after drinking it.

Mei took a sip herself, savoring it, then nodded in agreement.

"A'ye, that's a vivid description. This wine really does feel like a volcano under ice and snow. At first it tastes like snow—cool, with just a hint of sweetness. Then the temperature rises, and the flavor suddenly turns sharp, like a volcanic eruption. Finally, when the heat fades, the taste returns, as if the magma had been cooled by ice. It suits its name well."

Jifeikarite—that was what it was called in her world's language. Translated into the language of this world, it meant "flame beneath an iceberg."

"A'ye, aren't you curious as to why I have something like this?" Mei said suddenly, taking small sips of the wine.

Ye Jingxuan hadn't expected her to bring this up out of nowhere. After a pause, he said, "I am genuinely curious."

The longer he spent with her, the more she felt like a collection of riddles, carrying countless secrets. Those strange medicines, the miraculous formations, the peculiar script, and the scrolls and the energy vehicle—he had no idea where she had gotten any of these things. More than curiosity, it was concern that weighed on him. Because all of these things inexplicably made him feel as though she were very, very far away from him.

Mei wore a troubled expression at his words.

She wanted to explain but didn't know how.

"A'ye, I don't know how to put it. If... if I said I wasn't human, would you be afraid?" Mei probed tentatively after thinking for a long while.

"No." Ye Jingxuan answered without the slightest hesitation the moment she finished speaking.

Mei was stunned. She had expected him to think it over, to at least hesitate before answering. Yet he hadn't hesitated in the least, and he had spoken with such conviction.

Seeing that she remained silent, Ye Jingxuan assumed she didn't believe him, so he said firmly once more, "What does it matter whether you're human or not? Everything we've experienced since we met has taught me to know your character, your thoughts, your soul—not your identity. I believe you would never hurt me, so why should I be afraid? What does it matter to me whether you're human?"

"But isn't there a saying: 'Those not of my kind must have different hearts'? Isn't that phrase humanity's wariness toward beings that aren't their own kind?" Mei tilted her head, looking at him with confusion.

"Hmph, that's just an excuse invented by people with paranoid minds to eliminate those who differ from them. You don't need to care about it at all," Ye Jingxuan said with a look of disdain.

What truly defined "one's own kind"?

That saying had been passed down through the ages. "One's own kind" had expanded from a single ethnicity to a single nation, and now to all of humanity. Who knew whether, in a few more years, it might extend to all humanoid beings? It was, after all, nothing more than a ruler's decree—why should anyone care?

Mei fell silent. Although she still couldn't tell him where she came from, she couldn't deny that Ye Jingxuan's words put her mind at ease.

As for the rest—she would think about it later. (To be continued.)