Chapter 55: 谢礼把嘴合上了，委屈巴巴地看着靳照野

Xie Li closed her mouth, looking at Jin Zhaoye with a pitiful, aggrieved expression.

Jin Zhaoye set down the empty syringe, braced her hands against the edge of the laboratory bench, and lowered her head to stare at her wristwatch, waiting in silence.

The second hand ticked forward, one beat at a time.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

Five full minutes passed, and Jin Zhaoye felt no changes in her body whatsoever.

Her heartbeat remained steady, her breathing even, her body temperature normal.

It was as if that tube of blue liquid she had just injected — the very key capable of rewriting the human genetic sequence — was nothing more than a harmless dose of glucose solution.

Jin Zhaoye lifted her head, the disappointment in her eyes impossible to mask.

'Did it fail...?' Had her entire team spent all this time working without sleep or rest, only to produce a useless liquid in the end?

The feeling of disappointment lasted less than a second before Jin Zhaoye quickly adjusted her mindset.

If one path was blocked, she would find another.

There had to be other ways.

Xie Li was still waiting; how could she be the one to give up first?

Jin Zhaoye turned and began to walk toward the door.

She had barely taken a single step when an indescribable surge of heat suddenly erupted from the base of her spine.

'Ugh...' Jin Zhaoye let out a muffled groan, her back arching violently.

A layer of cold sweat instantly broke out across her forehead, and it felt as if a fire were burning inside her body.

Every cell was radiating heat; the fluid within them was boiling, and her mitochondria were working at a frenzied pace.

She could even hear the sound of her own blood rushing through her vessels — a roaring, surging tide — while her heart hammered against her ribs like a war drum, pounding against her eardrums.

The impact of the heat wave inside her was too ferocious.

Jin Zhaoye could no longer maintain her footing; her knees gave way, and she collapsed to the floor, her palms pressing against the cold ground.

With her head bowed and her mouth wide open, she gasped for air with every ounce of strength she possessed, desperate to draw in enough oxygen to douse the inferno raging within her.

Before she could even adapt to the heat, another sensation surged from the depths of her body: icy, bone-chilling cold.

Her limbs felt as if they had been plunged into an ice cellar.

Her fingers and toes lost all sensation within seconds, as if they no longer belonged to her.

Meanwhile, the heat continued to flow through her internal organs.

These two forces — cold and heat — clashed violently within her.

Every point of intersection became a battlefield; two diametrically opposed energies flooded into the same cell, threatening to burst it open and tear her entire being into fragments.

Jin Zhaoye curled up on the floor, her hands gripping the fabric over her chest so tightly that her knuckles protruded beneath her thin skin.

Her heart was beating so fast it felt ready to explode, yet her breathing grew shallower and slower.

Her rapid gasping turned into tiny, labored breaths.

Her vision blurred from the excruciating pain, and cold sweat poured from every pore of her body.

Her body temperature swung wildly between extremes, and every pore in her skin seemed to be opening and closing in rhythm.

The pain was so intense that she no longer knew where it hurt, for her entire body was in agony — every inch of skin, without exception.

Jin Zhaoye's consciousness flickered between darkness and clarity amidst the waves of pain.

Every time she was about to be dragged into the abyss, she would clench her back teeth with her remaining willpower, desperately telling herself that she could not pass out — if she did, she might never wake up again.

Xie Li had not yet been saved; she could not fall here because of a single unperfected serum.

The heat waves and the icy chill accumulated, climbing higher and higher, pushing toward the maximum threshold until, finally, they reached their peak simultaneously.

The two energies collided on the largest scale yet within Jin Zhaoye's body, like a nuclear bomb detonating in a confined space.

A flash of white light exploded in her field of vision, a roar filled her ears, and then — calm.

Everything ended.

All the scorching heat, the freezing cold, and the agony vanished instantly.

Jin Zhaoye lay curled on the cold floor, panting, her chest heaving.

Her damp hair clung to her cheeks; she looked pale and fragile, her lips a deep, vivid red, beautiful in a heart-stopping way.

She slowly opened her eyes.

The light from the fluorescent lamps pierced through her pupils, appearing more than ten times brighter than before.

She could see the frequency of the current flowing through the tubes and hear the rhythm of every piston moving inside the freezer's compressor.

Her brain felt like an engine with its speed limiter removed.

Every second, it processed orders of magnitude more information than before, yet she felt no discomfort — only a sense of clarity, an unprecedented, razor-sharp clarity.

Jin Zhaoye slowly sat up and looked down at her hands.

Her fingers were still trembling slightly.

She tried to clench her fist, and a strange power flowed through her palm.

It was like an invisible force field, centered on her, spreading throughout the entire laboratory.

Without even turning her head, she could sense the position of every object in the room.

Jin Zhaoye looked up, her gaze landing on the syringe, and focused her mind.

The syringe rose from the tray, hovering in mid-air, swaying slightly like a toddler learning to walk.

'Come here.' Her hoarse voice echoed in the laboratory.

The next second, the syringe zipped through the air and landed in Jin Zhaoye's outstretched palm.

Jin Zhaoye held the empty syringe, looking down at it for two seconds.

She felt no wild ecstasy over the Telekinesis she had just acquired.

The ratio of the Gene Serum was incorrect; the potency was too fierce.

That clash of cold and heat just now was not so much unlocking her genes as it was a violent, uncontrollable dismantling.

If those two energies had not happened to reach a balance at the critical threshold of that collision, she would not be sitting here holding a syringe right now — she would have suffered a total genetic collapse.

Every cell in her body would have exploded simultaneously; in short, she would have been reduced to a puddle of rotten flesh.

But there was no time to adjust the ratio now.

Xie Li could not wait that long.

Jin Zhaoye stood up and took a step, intending to retrieve another Gene Serum.

As she took that single step, her figure flashed, and with a dull thud, the entire refrigerator shook.

She had slammed face-first into the metal door of the refrigerator.

The speed was too great.

Jin Zhaoye had not yet adapted to the sudden, explosive increase in her strength and speed.

She had only taken a step as she normally would, but ended up being launched forward uncontrollably.

Jin Zhaoye braced herself against the door with one hand and peeled her face off the metal.

She rubbed her nose, stared at the dent she had left in the stainless steel door, paused for half a second, and then decided, with an expressionless face, that this secret must be sealed away forever.

She closed her eyes and mobilized her Telekinesis to perceive her own body.

Her muscle fibers had been rewoven, their density increased significantly.

The changes in her nervous system were even more striking; the time it took for signals to travel from her cerebral cortex to the rest of her body was almost instantaneous.

This feeling was like someone used to driving a tractor suddenly sitting in a supercar that could accelerate to a hundred kilometers per hour in a single second.

Her brain and body had become faster, but she, as the owner of this body, had not adapted yet — and thus, she had crashed into the door.

The changes at the cellular level were even more profound.

She observed that her cell division rate had stabilized at an extremely high level.

The rate of telomere shortening had been suppressed to near zero, her DNA repair mechanisms were fully reinforced, mitochondrial energy output was greatly enhanced, and the threshold for apoptosis had been reset.

According to the data she observed, her telomere length would show no signs of shortening for decades.

In other words, her body would remain in its current physiological state, and she would show no signs of aging for decades to come.

Jin Zhaoye opened her eyes, her eyelashes fluttering.

The X Virus was far more terrifying than she had imagined.

If a human could achieve a comprehensive upgrade after breaking their genetic shackles, then those Mutant Zombie creatures could do the same.

These thoughts flashed through Jin Zhaoye's mind in less than a thousandth of a millisecond.

She softened her movements, slowly opened the refrigerator, and took out the remaining Gene Serum.

There were only two vials in the initial batch.

She had used one, and this was the last one.

Jin Zhaoye was so afraid she might accidentally crush the glass tube that she moved with extreme caution. ...

In the Quarantine Room, the researchers were busy around Xie Li's hospital bed, comparing data and monitoring her vital signs.

Xiaotao remained by the centrifuge, continuing her attempts to isolate the green light particles in their entirety.

Hearing the door open, she looked up.

The 'Dr.

Jin' she had been about to call out died on her lips, and she suddenly froze.

She stared at Jin Zhaoye at the door for several seconds, her eyes dazed.

The person before her looked like her doctor — the white lab coat, the cold expression, the slightly furrowed brow; every detail was familiar.

And yet, there were differences.

The exhaustion from staying up late to compare data was gone, and the woman seemed to be glowing with vitality.

Her skin was no longer the pale, sallow complexion of someone who had pulled too many all-nighters, but had turned into a cold, porcelain-like white, so fine that not a single pore could be seen.

Her pupils had become incredibly bright, clear as those of a newborn baby.

Her appearance had not changed much; the contours of her brows and eyes, the bridge of her nose — it was still the same Dr.

Jin.

Yet these familiar features, when combined, presented a beauty entirely different from before: cold, piercing, and soul-stirring.

'Dr.

Jin... you...' Xiaotao stuttered, so struck by this intense beauty that she forgot what she had wanted to ask.

Jin Zhaoye nodded at her without a word.

Her gaze swept across the room, and she walked straight to the bedside, looking down at Xie Li.

Xie Li's breathing was shallower than before.

Perhaps the researchers had administered sedatives, as she lay quietly on the bed, sleeping somewhat peacefully.

The black veins had already climbed all over her cheeks, and the heart rate curve on the monitor was becoming increasingly flat.

The Zombie virus was frantically eroding her life.

Jin Zhaoye did not hesitate.

She leaned over, took Xie Li's wrist, and took the Gene Serum from her pocket.

She aimed the needle at a vein and injected it.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the pale blue liquid slowly entered Xie Li's bloodstream.

'Dr.

Jin?' Xiaotao finally reacted.

She instinctively took a step forward, wanting to stop her.

This was an unverified, semi-finished serum.

How could she use it directly on a patient?

'I have tested it.' Jin Zhaoye did not look back.

'I already experimented with it just now.

The ratio is not perfect, but it is barely usable.

It might help with Xie Li's current condition.' Xiaotao's brain stalled for a moment as she tried to re-interpret Jin Zhaoye's words.

'Dr.

Jin, are you saying... during the time you were out just now, you... on yourself...' 'Yes.' Jin Zhaoye cut off her unfinished question, placed the empty syringe on the bedside table, and straightened up to look at the researchers in the room.

'All of you, get out.

She may experience violent spasms in the next few minutes.

I will undo her restraints; you all need to leave.' The researchers looked at each other in hesitation for a few seconds before ultimately obeying and walking out.

Ning Meng stood guard at the door of the Quarantine Room and said to Jin Zhaoye, 'Dr.

Jin, you should come out too.

She could turn into a Zombie at any moment.

It is not safe for you to stay inside alone.' 'No need.

I can protect myself.' Jin Zhaoye walked to the door, locked it from the inside, and returned to the bed to undo the restraints on Xie Li's wrists and ankles.

Having been bound for too long, Xie Li's wrists were marked with faint red welts.

Jin Zhaoye's fingertips lightly brushed over those marks.

According to her own reaction, symptoms appeared about five minutes after the serum entered her system.

Xie Li's reaction was much faster; barely a hundred seconds after the injection, she began to stir.

Xie Li's eyeballs moved violently beneath her closed eyelids, and her lashes fluttered in a struggle, as if she were trying to wake from a nightmare she could not escape.

The black veins crawling across her cheeks began to twist and contract, as if they had come to life.

On the ECG monitor, Xie Li's heart rate surged from the fifties to over three hundred within seconds, only to plummet in the next instant, dropping straight down to the forties.

The intervals between each beat became erratic, completely irregular.

Xie Li's body temperature also fluctuated wildly, rising and falling.

Her muscles were spasming all over, and the hospital bed shook from her struggles.

Jin Zhaoye did not panic.

She pressed one hand onto Xie Li's uninjured shoulder, pinning her firmly to the bed, while her other hand quickly pulled away the pillow and held it over Xie Li's cheek.

To those outside the room, it looked as if she were smothering Xie Li's face with the pillow, as if she were trying to suffocate the patient.

Jin Zhaoye leaned down, using the pillow as cover, and pressed her lips close to Xie Li's ear, whispering softly.

Her voice was kept very low, too quiet even for the surveillance camera overhead to record.

Only she and Xie Li could hear it.

Whether it was because she heard Jin Zhaoye's voice or not, Xie Li's violently trembling body slowly relaxed.

She stopped spasming, her breathing became even and long, and she fell into a deep sleep.

Jin Zhaoye released her hand from Xie Li's shoulder and brushed aside the sweat-dampened hair at her neck, revealing the skin beneath.

The black veins had temporarily retreated from her cheeks, all of them now coiled around her neck.

They had not faded completely, looking like a black collar wrapped around Xie Li's throat.

She lifted the gauze to check the wound.

The debrided wound had not worsened, but the flesh around the edges, which should have been bright red, had taken on an abnormal grayish-blue hue.

It was not the color of healthy tissue, but fortunately, it was not necrotic, blackened, or rotting either.

Replacing the gauze, Jin Zhaoye brought a basin of clean water from the sink, dipped a piece of gauze into it, and gave Xie Li a simple sponge bath.

She did not dare do too much; Ning Meng was watching her from outside the door, and Fu Yunsheng was perhaps watching from behind the surveillance lens as well.

After cleaning Xie Li up, Jin Zhaoye restrained her again and turned to walk out of the room.

In the corridor outside, Ning Meng, the soldiers she had brought, and the researchers had not left; everyone was watching her with eager eyes.

'Dr.

Jin, how is Xie Li?' Ning Meng asked first.

'She is temporarily stabilized.

The virus is still in her system and has not been cleared, so do not go in and disturb her,' Jin Zhaoye answered briefly, not stopping her pace.

'Xiaotao, I am going back to the lab.

You all keep watch here; if there are any abnormalities, notify me immediately.' 'Understood, Dr.

Jin,' Xiaotao replied immediately.

Jin Zhaoye walked with quick strides, her figure soon disappearing at the end of the corridor.

Back in the laboratory, Jin Zhaoye stood before the workbench, closed her eyes, and reviewed the previous experimental data in her mind.

Perhaps because she had unlocked her genetic shackles, the problems that had once stumped her now became incredibly clear as she reviewed them.

She already understood the issue with the first batch of Gene Serum: the ratio was wrong, the potency was too fierce, and the physiological shock generated when the genetic lock was pried open exceeded the limits of what the human body could withstand.

That she had managed to successfully unlock her genes and survive was, ultimately, a matter of luck.

Xie Li's situation was not entirely the same as hers.

Judging by her reaction after the injection, the serum had bypassed the unlocking phase and concentrated all its potency into the battle against the Mutant Zombie virus.

The result was merely a stalemate; the virus was suppressed but not eradicated.

She needed to adjust the ratio, lower the carrier concentration, and change the release curve of the edited fragments from a single peak to a gradual multi-band release, allowing the serum to erupt in stages once it entered the body.

Before starting the experiment, Jin Zhaoye turned on her computer, pulled up all the experimental data related to the Gene Serum on the hard drive, and wiped it all clean.

Even the printed documents in the filing cabinet were all taken out and fed into the shredder.

This data was already etched into her mind.

The Gene Serum was her only trump card, and naturally, the fewer people who saw it, the better.

Even for the data on the semi-finished product, she would leave no traces behind.

From this moment on, apart from her, no one else possessed the complete formula for the Gene Serum.

Having cleared away all traces, Jin Zhaoye threw herself back into work.

Time flew by in her busyness.

The night faded, the sun rose from the horizon and slowly climbed into the sky.

Jin Zhaoye walked to the sink, turned on the faucet, and splashed cold water on her face.

Icy, clear droplets rolled down her cheeks, dripping back into the sink one by one along her jawline.

She straightened up and looked into the mirror above the sink.

The person in the mirror had clear, bright eyes, showing not a hint of the fatigue one would expect after working all night.

Her pupils were pitch black, like ink jade washed clean by water, and her skin was fair and translucent.

After unlocking her genetic shackles, the high-intensity experiments of the entire night consumed only energy and stamina that she could replenish just by breathing; she basically did not need to rest.

Wiping the water from her face, Jin Zhaoye returned to the laboratory bench, packed the reformulated serum into portable cryogenic boxes one by one, closed the lids, and carried them in her hand as she walked toward Xie Li's Quarantine Room.

The researchers were no longer in sight outside the Quarantine Room.

After keeping watch all night, everyone was tired.

Only Ning Meng and two soldiers remained in the corridor, standing guard dutifully.

Seeing Jin Zhaoye approach, Ning Meng greeted her with a nod.

'Dr.

Jin.' 'Mm, have you had breakfast?' Jin Zhaoye's tone was much softer than the night before, and there was even a hint of a smile on her lips.

'If not, go get something to eat and rest for a while.

I will go in and check on her.' Ning Meng stared at her face, dazed for a moment.

The current Jin Zhaoye possessed a beauty so striking that one could not help but lose focus upon seeing her.

By the time Ning Meng regained her senses, the person was already gone.

Jin Zhaoye stood by the hospital bed.

Xie Li was still in a deep sleep, her eyes closed.

The vital signs on the monitor were much more stable than yesterday; her heart rate was maintained between sixty and eighty, and her oxygen saturation had also stabilized in the normal range.

Setting down the cryogenic box, Jin Zhaoye pulled up the overnight monitoring records and scanned Xie Li's data, item by item.

A dynamic chart formed in her mind: the efficacy of the Gene Serum was waning, and the virus showed signs of a counterattack.

She could not wait any longer.

She opened the lid of the cryogenic box, took out a vial of serum, and with her other hand picked up an alcohol-soaked cotton ball.

She wiped Xie Li's arm, inserted the needle into the vein, and slowly pushed the blue liquid in.

After the serum entered her body, the black veins on Xie Li's neck showed a clear fluctuation, and they began to move slowly toward the wound.

Xie Li, in her sleep, furrowed her brows, her lips parted slightly, and she let out a faint, gasping breath.

Jin Zhaoye's fingertips twitched slightly, suppressing the urge to stroke that face.

She tucked her hand into the pocket of her lab coat, clenched it, and stood by the bed, watching over Xie Li.

Throughout the morning, Jin Zhaoye gave Xie Li three injections of the Gene Serum, one hour apart each time.

The black veins faded significantly, but Xie Li still did not wake up.

In the afternoon, Jin Zhaoye administered the remaining three vials of Gene Serum to Xie Li at intervals.

After the serum took effect, the black veins that had been coiled on Xie Li's body finally receded.

They turned into a thick, black liquid that slowly oozed out from the wound on her shoulder, staining the gauze with a dark patch.

Jin Zhaoye cleaned the wound for Xie Li again — debriding, disinfecting, applying medicine, and re-bandaging.

Finally, she stripped off the stained bedsheets and replaced them with new ones.

After finishing all this, she sat down by the hospital bed, monitoring Xie Li's vital signs at every moment, never leaving the room again.

Xie Li felt as if she had had an incredibly long dream.

In the dream, she walked a very long road, walking and walking, until she lost all concept of time, and finally, a white light appeared before her.

She walked toward the white light.

Her vision cleared, and she regained her sight.

It was blurry for a moment, but soon focused, allowing her to see the surrounding scene.

Everything before her looked like scenes from movies she had seen before: a fully transparent glass ward, various instruments with unknown functions flashing indicator lights, and people in white lab coats walking outside the room, occasionally whispering to each other.

Xie Li almost thought she had transmigrated again, until a familiar voice sounded in her ear.

'Xie Li.' Xie Li turned her head, her unfocused gaze settling on this face.

Seeing the woman's face clearly, Xie Li's lips moved, and she squeezed out a smile.

'Jin...

Zhao... ye.' Xie Li called her name in a low voice, her palm moving slowly across the bedsheet.

Her pinky finger reached out and hooked onto Jin Zhaoye's hand, which was hanging by the side of the bed.

As their skin touched, warm body heat transferred from her fingertips.

Jin Zhaoye's heart trembled, and she fought desperately to suppress the urge to hold her hand back.

In her perception, Ning Meng, standing outside the room, was staring at them through the transparent glass wall.

Not yet.

She could not let Fu Yunsheng realize the relationship between Xie Li and her, or Xie Li would be in great danger.

Jin Zhaoye moved her hand back slightly, avoiding Xie Li's touch in a way that looked perfectly natural.

At the very least, Ning Meng did not notice anything unusual, assuming she had just shifted her posture after standing for so long.

Xie Li's finger missed its mark.

She paused, moving her gaze from her own fingertips to Jin Zhaoye's face, a hint of confusion flashing in her eyes.

Why was Jin Zhaoye avoiding her?

Was she angry that she had gotten hurt?

Angry that she was hurt?

She opened her mouth to explain, but Jin Zhaoye spoke first.

'Xiaotao, give the patient some water.' Xie Li closed her mouth, looking at Jin Zhaoye with a pitiful, aggrieved expression.

If you are angry, just be angry — why call me 'the patient' again?