Chapter 95

Words : 895 Updated : Oct 1st, 2025

Ji Nian fell and, though it wasn’t serious, her bottom hurt a bit. “Did something explode?” Dust from the explosion clouded her vision, and Ji Nian turned her head to cough a few times. Several lights in the laboratory went out, leaving the room dimly lit. Holding someone in her arms, Ji Nian moved carefully, crawling under a sturdy-looking table in the corner, pressing her body against the wall. She straightened her back and surveyed her surroundings, waiting quietly for a moment. After the initial explosion, there were no further blasts. Ji Nian finally relaxed a little and looked down to check on the person in her arms. The child, dressed in a lab coat, lay unconscious in Ji Nian’s embrace. His limbs were pale, and he had shoulder-length, light golden hair. However, his face was horrifying, completely covered, obscuring his features. Up ‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍close, it was even more terrifying than when she had seen him from a distance earlier. [You said he’s going to die?] The system responded: [His condition is extremely critical. He’ll either die from weakness, starvation, or thirst.] Ji Nian took out her secret weapon, unscrewed the cap, and turned it to the universal antidote side. She sighed. She had already used most of it on the affected students earlier, and there wasn’t much left. She wasn’t sure if she could squeeze out even a drop. Shaking the small bottle, Ji Nian aimed it at the child’s face and pressed hard, hoping to get at least a little out. Perhaps even fate took pity on them. Ji Nian managed to squeeze out a few drops, which landed on the child’s cheek. She let out a sigh of relief. At least his life could be saved. “Can you hear me?” Ji Nian called out to him. But there was no response. He lay still in her arms, barely breathing, almost like a corpse. Ji Nian glanced around. Where could she find water in this godforsaken place? She had some food, but he needed to open his eyes first. The collapsed ceiling and a massive boulder blocked their path, trapping them in this small space. The system said: [Just leave him. You don’t even know him.] [The princess might come to rescue you soon, and he might be saved too. Leave it to fate.] Lu Jinghuai had secretly come to China. His beloved grandmother had passed away when he was five. Lu Zhi, following her final wish, had brought her ashes back to China for burial. That day, there was an important violin competition. Lu Jinghuai stood on stage, and while the audience marveled at his face and music, none of the faces in the crowd were the ones he wanted to see. All the other children received bouquets from their families, but he got nothing. In that moment, surrounded by lights and applause as the champion, Lu Jinghuai felt an overwhelming loneliness. He thought of his grandmother, the old woman who had always clapped for him during his performances. So, Lu Jinghuai decided to go to his grandmother’s homeland, to find her and tell her how much he missed her. Though he had grown up abroad, Lu Jinghuai’s Chinese was excellent. He could even recite entire passages from “The Epang Palace,” “The Preface to the Orchid Pavilion,” “The Free and Easy Wandering,” and “The First Ode to the Red Cliff.” But despite this, even with bodyguards watching over him, Lu Jinghuai was ambushed. A sweet, cloying scent filled the air, and in that instant, Lu Jinghuai thought he saw his grandmother, beckoning to him with a loving, aged voice: “Ah Huai, my dear child.” At the time, Lu Jinghuai hadn’t actually lost consciousness. He had been trained rigorously from a young age and had a strong resistance to toxins. But because of his grandmother, the child instinctively froze. After that, he was taken away. They locked him in a cage, treating him like an animal, subjecting him to random experiments and abuse. Lu Jinghuai had lost count of how many times he had lain on that cold operating table. Every time the long needle pierced his flesh, the intense pain made him want to end his life, to escape the unbearable suffering. Later, when his captors saw that he was on the brink of death, they stopped experimenting on him. Hatred grew like weeds in his heart. He didn’t want to die... He wanted to live and make these people pay tenfold for the pain they had caused him. But as days passed, despair grew. The raging hatred was overshadowed by the shadow of death, and gradually, Lu Jinghuai became numb. In the end, he could only curl up in the cage, enduring the pain, waiting for death to take him, waiting for his grandmother to come for him. But just as his fate seemed sealed, a turning point came one day. As he sank into the familiar darkness, Lu Jinghuai felt something touch him. It pulled him back from the void, back to reality. For a moment, he felt hatred. He had been so close to freedom, so why was he being dragged back to endure this inhuman suffering? But that fleeting touch soon faded, and he was plunged back into the darkness. This time, he could feel it—true peace was drawing closer...

Chapter 95

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