Chapter 4 - “Tell her that collar is your lover’s kink”

“Cheers”

3 glasses of water clinked together. They all gathered at the center of the room, sitting on the floor with a small table at the center. A bittersweet feeling blanketed the atmosphere in C10 room. The tournament had concluded that evening, and Xiaohui came out as the winner.

“As expected from our Xiaohui!” Jianwen exclaimed. He patted Xiaohui’s shoulder a bit too roughly.

Too happy to be pissed off, Xiaohui puffed up his chest with pride. “Call me Laozi (master) from now on”

“You’re 1.000 years too young to be my laozi!” Jianwen jokingly kicked Xiaohui, and soon they both got into a wrestle fight until the younger managed to hold him in a cradle position. With his neck and arms locked, Jianwen could only squeaked “Let me go! Ok Ok I Give up”.

Xiaohui smirked and released him, “Now, what you should call me from now?”

“Cocky brat with gorilla strength” Jianwen mumbled, Yisheng chuckled but Xiaohui unfortunately didn’t hear anything.

“What did you say?”

“I said.. even if he lost to that bear, we should congratulate Yisheng too for his newfound ability!”

“Oh yeah, congrats Yisheng!” they raised their glasses for a toast, truly happy for the youngest.

“Thank you, Xiaohui-ge, Jianwen-ge. It was all thanks to your guidance” Yisheng said as he politely bowed in respect.

“Then, what’s your ability? Was it time pause? Hypnosis? Have you give it a go again?”

Yisheng’s mood dampened, he sighed dejectedly. “I can’t feel it anymore. Ge, was it only my delusion?”

“No way, that grizzly did stop his attack because of your ability” Xiaohui hesitantly added, since he only heard it from Jianwen when he got back from the toilet, he wasn’t sure.

“But.. maybe he was startled because I yelled at him, not because of my ability..”

The bear indeed stopped, but only for a fraction of a minute, so he could avoid Yisheng’s attack then launched an un-anticipated upper cut that made Yisheng’s eyes rolled back.

Seeing Yisheng getting gloomier, Jianwen tried to change the subject “A-anyway, you’ll meet your little sis right? How old is she?”

Xiaohui had won the tournament, his wish was to meet his sister. She was the only family member he had left. With no way to communicate with her for months, he was afraid she would think that her brother had abandoned her.

Fortunately, the authorities allowed him to get outside and meet her but with 3 conditions: 1) Finish the med check and get clearance from the doctor; 2) He must get back in 24 hours; 3) Four guards will follow him wherever he goes. He agreed to all the conditions right away.

“She’s 14, middle school senior”

“How’s she? Does she know your status now?”

“No, she must’ve thought I’ve abandoned her. I don’t know what should I tell her, moreover what she would think when she saw me having so many guards following me tomorrow” Xiaohui sighed.

“Say that they are your bodyguards!”

“Eyy, impossible. I can’t afford one, don’t need one either”

“You’re not the one who hire them, your over protective lover did!”

“Isn’t that too much?”

“Not if your lover is an important person in high position”

“How high?”

“Let’s say.. a chairman of a multinational group or a politician with enough power and influence”

Xiaohui squinted, he didn’t know that many women leader figures recently, well maybe he didn’t as well informed as Jianwen-the-lecturer? “There’s such a person?”

“Of course! Lei Jun, Liang Hua, Wang Yang there are many of them. Oh and you can tell her that collar is your lover’s kink”

“Those are men! Damn old man I’m gonna kill you!” And then they get to round 2 of wrestling.

Watching their banter always made him amused. In this seemingly bleak time, at least he had Jianwen and Xiaohui’s company as his support.

——

The next day was the monthly scheduled medical check up for the residents of The Den, and as usual the orders were made by block, from A-D. At 11.30 AM, Warden Huang ushered block C residents to the medical examination waiting room since the B block residents had not finished yet.

The TV was on, broadcasting a news report on another homicide case. The victim was a newlywed couple who was on their honeymoon, both died in a brutal way, bruises, signs of strangling on their necks, and some part of their body severed. None of the body parts went missing, but the strange thing was the minimum blood stains on the crime scene, the corpse also seemed to be drained to some extent.

The general public started to question the police’s capability in maintaining security. The high number of murder cases, the almost similar strangeness between the cases: blood drained, inhuman way of killing. Heaps of assumptions were made by netizens.

That this was some kind of demonic sect teachings/dark arts of magic, that there was an unknown virus which made people gone mad and kill each other, and many other made up reasonings showed up.

“What if this case is linked with the cases of missing people? From these past months, there are 138 persons reported to have been missing. What if, we don’t assume them as the victim who had not been found but rather the perpretrators? That something happened to them, they went mad, kill people then they got detained and hidden by the authorities?” The now-retired professional crime analyst said.

“I ever heard a rumor, saying that this has something to do with ‘Dangerous Entities’. They are a bunch of ruthless creatures ruled by their own aggression and blood lust, they were once human, but at some point they changed” he added.

The waiting room went silent instantly. The C block residents looked at each other nervously. Their minds running at full speed. The youngest one, Yisheng in particular. Panicked. Confused. Agitated.

What if the public know their existence?

What will happen to them?

Will they be viewed as a threat to humanity? Will they be executed?

Will they be viewed as victims of different parties’ clash of interests?

“Hmm, interesting concept. Sounds like the background of a sci-fi novel” the news anchor joked.

“It may seem too far fetched, but nobody knows”

“But why the authorities cover them? Detain them is understandable but why hide them?” The news anchor countered.

“To prevent social unrest? Or maybe because they have an important part on changing them? I don’t really know, since there wasn’t much data in the first place.”

“Are you implying the Federation is involved in changing them? What could be their purpose?”

“No, we can’t quite say that now for certain. They’re likely the least profitted party from this cases. We should map out of who will gain the most benefit from the chaos in the Federation and start from there”

“Rival countries? Neighboring countries who has deep grudge history with us, like The Magna Empire?” The news anchor guessed.

They didn’t get to hear the answer since Warden Huang turned the TV off. “Let’s get inside, it’s our turn now”

The medical check up consisted of drawing blood sample and standard physical exam. If needed, the residents got IV drips, injections, as well as common medication.

Yisheng got ointments for the scratches and bruises he got from the tournament, the doctor also claimed that he had malnutrition so he had to have an IV drip.

Jianwen got a clear sign from the doctor, while Xiaohui received medications for chronic sleeping disorder but despite so, he got a clearance to meet his sister tomorrow.

—

By the time Feng Jinyao knew that Jingyi was sent by Grandma Yihua, he ordered his henchmen to treat him as a guest. Jingyi told the tiny bit information he had. How a madman killed grandma Yihua and hurt Yisheng and him. How Yisheng was said to be dangerous by the people at the hospital, got arrested by the authorities but no one knew where they brought him to.

Feng Jinyao slammed the table. “How dare they!”

Jingyi blinked, not quite understanding.

“In Yisheng’s body, lies a secret that they’ve been trying to search for decades. Yihua and I intentionally hid ourselves and Yisheng just to protect him from them. Who would’ve thought they finally managed to track him.. it was an error of us”

A decades old secret? But Yisheng is only 18 years old tho? And who was he referring to as ‘them’? Jingyi’s questions could only grow more and more.

“Investigate this. No matter where he is, in a remote island, a bunker or even any high security prisons, we must get him! We must not let them reach their goal!” Jinyao exclaimed to his right hand man, a woman who looks like in her twenties with a dark skin tone and wavy hair.

“Affirmative sir. Mr. Bai, please come with me” the woman gestured for Jingyi to follow her.

Jingyi followed her without any question. They arrived at a dark room, the only lights came from the 8 monitors stacked up neatly. Someone covered in blanket all over his head was sitting in front of the screens.

“Lev, I got a job for you” the woman said coldly.

The blanket man, Lev instantly turned around. His glasses shone, he was grinning from ear to ear “Ms. Zhang! I know you’ll come back to me! I miss you so much!”

The man stood up, left his blanket and rushed to the woman with his arms open wide. This 180 cm+ tall man with long platinum colored hair and stubbles seemed to wag his tail in joy, just like a giant husky dog.

“Get a hold of yourself!” her clipboard landed on his face.

With droopy imaginary dog ears and tail, Lev scurried back to his chair.

“What you want me to do?” Lev asked.

“Tell him the place and approximate time/date Yisheng was taken”

Jingyi proceed to gave them the needed information.

The husky’s fingers flew over the keyboards, each monitors flickering so quick as he mumbled some words in between the displays. Jingyi was at a lost on how on earth this guy could see all informations at once. He went from hacking the street CCTV up to the Federation’s military satelite system just in a blink of an eye.

“Target acquired. He’s at the edge of Cirrus Village, 126 kilometers from here. An old building, huh I think I ever see this building before”

He went on another frenzy keyboard typing, bypassing firewalls after firewalls like strolling leisurely at the park.

Then he opened a file buried deep in the database.

“Nova Lab Compound Area, 2231 - 2241. Right after their most successful project: Metamorphose concluded, the lab went on fire. No one survived the fire, no records of the project was found.

After some renovation, Nova Lab Compound is renamed as The Den, where Dangerous Entities are contained and undergo continous experiment in order to re-create and enhance Metamorphose result. This is called Project M2.

Dangerous Entities are first wave test subjects, chosen based on compatibility percentage with the construct and has certain underlying superiority traits.”

Beneath the description text lies hyperlinks to the weekly, monthly progress reports of the project.

“Fuck! They’re still at it?!?!” Lev cursed.

“No wonder boss is so upset” Ms. Zhang nodded her head.

“And.. mind telling me why he’s upset? Who are you guys really?” Jingyi asked curiously. To be able to hack into high security systems wasn’t an easy task, they were really secretive, they didn’t reveal anything to him, but come on? He told them everything, so it’s only normal for him to know everything too so he could truly trust them.

“We are working under Mr. Feng Jinyao. Mr. Feng is one of the Daemon who became a victim of the Metamorphose Project”

—-

Xiaohui was once again couldn’t fall asleep, maybe because he was too excited to meet his sister the next day, or maybe it’s just his insomnia being stubborn and kept clinging on him. The sky was starless, moonless, the C10 room was nearly pitch black. The only light came to their room was from the lamp in front of their door.

Everything seemed so quite when suddenly Xiaohui heard loud gasping sound from the corner, it was Yisheng.

The youth sat on his bed. His opened wide eyes moved wildly. Xiaohui saw the youngest abruptly stood and went to the barred door.

Sensing something wasn’t right with Yisheng, Xiaohui slowly approached him.

The youth was touching the iron bars, a look of helpless, desperation on him. He bowed his head, knees fell on the floor. Hands covering his face, Yisheng cried full of sorrow.

Just as Xiaohui decided to comfort him, Yisheng suddenly gripped the iron bars. He pushed, pulled and pounded the bars with his hands. When he felt like it wasn’t enough, Yisheng tried to bang his head to the bars.

Xiaohui tried to stop him, he held his shoulders from the back, trying to pull him away from the iron bars. But Yisheng wasn’t like himself. He struggled to be free off him, his legs flailing as he continuously tried to reach out for the bars.

“OLD MAN WAKE UP!” Xiaohui yelled.

Jianwen the old man startled to wake. Finding the commotion source, he rushed to help Xiaohui on handling Yisheng.

“Yisheng! Yisheng snap out of it!” Jianwen held Yisheng’s face, his eyes was unfocused, he was still gasping for breath. Even with the youngest still rebelling at them, Jianwen tried to hug him.

“It’s ok, I’m here. It’s ok...” Jianwen whispered in Yisheng’s ears as he stroke his back. Yisheng’s resistance toned down. The youth finally slumped against Jianwen’s body, and soon his shoulder felt damp from Yisheng’s tears.

They stayed like that until the youth’s breathing calmed. They led Yisheng back to his bed, and laid him down to sleep.

“It’s the first time seeing him like this” Xiaohui commented.

DEs sometimes had episodes, something came out of their own traumas, fear or even paranoia. Their mental stability was also constantly teetering on the edge of sanity, so it wasn’t a complete surprise to see Yisheng had one.

“Something must have triggered it. Poor kid”

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