Chapter 79 (1/2)
”I am not sure what they do either. They are well-fed, and their only duty is body training,” Mingyi said, throwing his hands in the air. ”I really don't get what the military is thinking. A lot of the researchers only get two meals per day, since the genetically modified crops are still in research. The shortage of food is a serious problem, and yet they ensure that these soldiers' meals are well-balanced and nutritious.”
”Perhaps they have their own plans.”
Jing woke up while they were talking, Chang waved for her to come over. ”Have some breakfast here, you should get some nutrition as you lost too much blood in the previous days.”
Jing jumped off the bed and walked over to the coffee table bare footed. She quietly drank the white sticky juice and chewed a few leaves from the plate. Finished eating, she sat beside Chang without uttering a single word.
In fact, Jing had not spoken since she found out Pangzi went missing. But she didn't ask where Pangzi had left, and Chang never found a good chance to tell the prepared explanation.
The atmosphere in the room becaming almost depressing once Jing woke up.
Chang glanced at Jing's face, while the latter remained silent. He reached out for the gla.s.s that Jing just drank from and finished the rest of the mixture. He stood up and changed his tone when addressing Mingyi.
”Let's go, man. Show me the training room.”
Mingyi also stood up from the couch.
”Take me with you!” Jing's words broke the awkward silence as her almost hoa.r.s.e voice asked Chang to bring her along.
”You want to come with me?” Chang asked, hunkering down beside her.
”I want to go with you,” Jing said, making her intention more clear by nodding.
”Alright.” Chang picked her thin body up like he always did. The corridor was bright compared to the red fog outside the windows. The inst.i.tute was sealed and there were gas filters installed at the ceiling, making the building free of red fog.
On their way, they pa.s.sed numerous windows and doors. The illumination in labs projected shadows on their body, though they quickly slipped away from them as they continued to walk. Soon, the three of them arrived at a rather big gym. The guards didn't give them any trouble as Mingyi was a familiar face that had visited this place multiple times.
When they entered the gym, Chang realized that it was larger than it'd looked from the outside. But surprisingly, it was as ordinary as any gym he would have seen before the apocalypse. The training place provided all sorts of training equipment which were modified specially for those soldiers. Chang lifted one of the dumbbells and immediately realized that there was extra weight on it. Other than that, the gym was nothing like Chang imagined. He'd thought it would be futuristic and fascinating, but it was almost too unexceptional. Never would he have thought the super soldiers trained in here.
Their arrival didn't garner too much attention, the soldiers just kept on training.
”Jing, what is their danger index in your mind?” Chang whispered to Jing habitually, and Jing was about to answe like she did every time, but she closed her mouth alertly this time.
As if he discerned something unusual, Chang turned his head and looked at Mingyi's concerned face. It looked good-natured, but curiosity filled the man's eyes.
Chang paused as he recalled he had exhorted Mingyi again and again to take good care of Jing; now that he gazed at Mingyi's smiley face, he perceived a sense of delicacy of Mingyi's mind. Apparently, Mingyi hadn't forgetten Chang's extra unsettlement for having to leave Jing, and he seemed to develop a genuine interest in their secret.
Fortunately, Chang and Jing always whispered in each other's ears, so it would have been impossible for Mingyi to hear the content of their words. But the feeling of being monitored was unpleasant none the less.
”What were you guys talking about?” Mingyi questioned after the absurdly long pause between Jing and Chang, his ingenious smile concealing his purpose. ”Are you guys speaking something that even a comrade like me shouldn't hear?”
”Nothing that you should be concerned about, she just likes to tell me her girly secrets,” Chang answered, curving his mouth to make a smile. He was already on guard against Mingyi.
Although Mingyi's impression was always positive, Chang could never put trust in him. Nor anyone else in this inst.i.tute. This moment of realization was brutal; Chang understood that he could no longer just casually ask Jing for the danger index when living in this place. It was unsafe, and they might have been watched from the moment they stepped in.
For the first time, Chang became aware of the fact that EMs were extremely rare among humans. The research inst.i.tute didn't seem to be conscious about the presence of psychic EMs. Both Qing Shui and Zhuo were in the cognitive category… But Jing was completely different from them.
In some sense, Jing would not be an ideal subject for scientific research but instead very powerful in military planning. Chang could even imagine how the military would turn her into a living radar; the help she could provide to the military was immeasurable.
Thinking of the possible consequences, Chang was soaked in cold sweat.
He avoided talking to Jing but started chatting with Mingyi, who soon left for his duty of animal training. Chang began to train with his mouth shut tight while Jing quietly gazed into the red fog outside the window.
It was a day as plain as water with a surging undercurrent of disquiet.
When the sun disappeared behind the horizon, the lights in the inst.i.tute flickered on one by one. Chang and Jing returned to their suite. He only drank a gla.s.s of the same sticky mixture sent from the military and brushed his teeth before lying on the bed with a troubled heart. Eyes closed, he didn't want to speak to Qing Shui nor did he want to move. All he wanted was to have a quiet rest.
Jing was the same as two days ago, she laid down peacefully beside Chang.